currently

// first shot on my new camera [taken by accident]

loving: my new Canon EOS M [and of course my husband that bought her for me]. imagine the lovechild of a 3-way between an SLR, powershot, and and iPhone...and that's the M. I'm still getting used to having all the controls through the rear touchscreen [hence the accidental photos via touch shutter release] but it's a pretty incredible piece of machinery. Husband actually knew about the EOS M before I did, and was plotting to get it for my birthday. I discovered it a few weeks ago and have been doing research and was planning for it to be my next big camera purchase, eventually. so the other day we were in an electronics store and I wanted to check out the camera case, and it turns out to be on sale. and in one of those moments, Husband turns to me and says "well, I was going to wait until your birthday, but if I can save $200 by buying it now..." did I mention I love him?

sweating: I've been trying to get back into a routine post-vacation. mondays are for circuits. and I'm trying to spend 1 or 2 days on the elliptical, and 1 or 2 days walking around outside. [that way I get some fresh air and to explore]. but saturday I went for my first real run since the scooter crash. I ran a mile. a mile! and I had no knee pain while running. I'm also super excited because I can finally start using the running watch I bought last fall [but never had the chance to use.]

cooking up: crock pot black beans, fish + chips, home made peanut butter, egg muffins. figuring out how to make these things in my teeny tiny kitchen with nothing but a toaster oven and a magic bullet blender makes me feel like a domestic goddess. not that any of the recipes are overly complicated. but the victory comes in finding a way to make it work with what we have, even if the result is a little unexpected. [the egg muffins I made today puffed up like souffles... and then deflated.]

watching: less. that's right, Husband and I are trying to cut back on the amount of tv + movies we watch. we may or may not be those people who will buy a tv season on iTunes and sit down and watch the whole thing in one afternoon. so we've started limiting the days of the week that we turn on the tv. and also limiting the number of episodes we watch in one sitting- most recently, Game of Thrones and X Files. this means we've been reading more, and getting outside more. both very good things.

planning: a weekend trip to Hong Kong at the end of March. which is... in 3 weeks. how did that happen? we are also working on travel plans for this summer. trying to coordinate schedules. for both visitors and visits. I swear I've spent 6 hours scouring the internet for flight options for one trip. which means I run away from my computer in frustration when I get a chance instead of blogging or editing vacation photos... you get the point. but I'm hoping things will get wrapped up soon, so once summer hits we can just sit back and enjoy. it's going to be a good one.

["currently" post inspired by Danielle at Sometimes Sweet] 

taiwan lantern festival

// lantern festival // happy accidents

I still have plenty of vacation photos to share, don't worry. but on sunday two things happened: the Taiwan lantern festival opened, and I got a new camera. everything you see in this post I took with my Canon EOS M. [we'll talk more about her later] I'm still learning how to work with the different settings, but in an effort not to be editing until the 4th of July, all I did was resize these photos. and maybe crop one or two.

// festival sign // a few of the many lanterns

the festival covers a huge amount of ground. we were there for maybe 2 hours and barely saw any of it. the crowds were insane, since it was opening night and apparently the president and several pop stars were making appearances. the festival runs for another 2 weeks, so hopefully we'll have a chance to go back and see more. I'm not sure it will be less crowded though - they expect 10 million visitors before the end.

// before + after

most of the crowd seemed to be around the stage area, where there was a giant statue in the shape of the water snake [the animal of the new Chinese year]. we passed through but didn't think much of it at the time. a few hours later they turned suddenly turned all the lights off, so we decided to head out and grab some food. but then the sky lit up with spotlights, we recognized numbers counting down in Chinese, and they turned the snake on. turns out it's not a statue, but a giant lantern. go figure. I was way too far away for a good shot, but it was flashing all kinds of rainbow colors. they followed it up by blasting music and flashing all the lanterns off + on while [of course] shooting off an impressive fireworks show.

// red lanterns // new year's wishes // us + the crew

sometimes, I forget I live in Asia. I know, I know. but we've been here for 6 months now and it feels... normal. sometimes I forget that we live in Asia, but seeing red lanterns always reminds me. somehow they have become the quintessential icon to me. I've been seeing them all over lately for new year's, and at the festival they had hundreds and thousands of them hung on scaffolding. my camera was a little overwhelmed with the lighting situation, but this area was my favorite out of all we visited. it was something straight out of a movie, or maybe a dream...