Best of 2014

Happy New Year!

I was so relieved to see 2013 end. 2014 was better, but not by much....I'm starting to think that my climb out of the hole that was 2013 is just really, really gradual.

2014 was filled with interesting experiences. The first one that comes to mind is of course my double jaw surgery. I'll do another update on that since it's almost another entire blog worth of experiences.

Best Book

This book. Blew. My. Mind.  Joseph Boyden had been on my radar for a while, especially since he won Canada Reads in 2014 with The Orenda. The characters were so powerful, the story completely engrossing, the subject matter was difficult but handled well. Highly, highly recommended.

I avoided him after this because a) it would be way too emotionally intense to tackle another one after this masterpiece and b) I was afraid one of this other books would compete with this one for my best book of the year*.

(Honourable mentions: Neuromancer - William Gibson, Rendezvous with Rama - Arthur C. Clarke, Tess of the D'urbervilles - Thomas Hardy)

Best Album

I'm surprised I bought an album that was actually released in 2014, I'm normally so behind in the times. This was a shot in the dark and I've been enjoying it a lot since I bought it. A little bit like Empire of the Sun but with these guys the entire album is fantastic**.

(Honourable mention: SOHN - Tremors.)

Best Movie

Honestly, I can't remember what we watched this year other than Interstellar - which sucked. So I'm going with a movie we saw recently. 

After this movie ended, we tried to figure some stuff out and ended up Googling it to see if we were right. In a way this makes me crazy because it could have been presented better but on the other hand it was interesting dissecting it with Brad and trying to figure it out. I love time travel stuff.

Oh and I think Bruce Willis is still kick ass.
 
Best Instagram

I took this on Pender Island. It's pretty fantastic because I had come across a similar photo online and it inspired me so much that we ended up booking a cabin for a weekend. It turned out to be one of the highlights of the year.

I'm super lucky to live in this part of the world for a zillion reasons.

Best Blog Post

Overall, there were major hijinks this year at The Book Sale. It's such a different experience every year and such a highlight for us, I'm going with it for my best post from 2014.

Since this blog was taken over by my jaw surgery for a while, I'm going to choose a post from this category too. The IV Sedation Incident was classic Jabba material: completely mental and we still laugh about it.

Best Completed Craft Project

This project has been completed for a few months but I haven't blogged about it - yet. I actually made a quilt for us which has been unheard of in my sewing room until now. We use this thing every day and it is so worth every stitch - even though I started groaning as I sewed near the end.

Honourable mentions for 2014: my introduction to whiskey, a reminder of my love of camping and nature, our trip up island and all the book stores, a Seattle trip that didn't make it on the blog, serious bonding with my Mom and I read 43 books!***


* I am fully aware of how ridiculous point b) is.
** I can only get into 3 or 4 songs on the Empire of the Sun album that I own.
*** A new record.