I am currently trying to decide on a dress for the wedding of a good friend from high school. Thanks to Ezibuy, I have managed to narrow it down to four possibilities, but now can’t choose between them!

Size wise, I am a 12 – 14, which is not slim, but not plus sized either. I am 5"5′ tall and haven’t decided whether I will wear heels or not yet.

These are the four I am considering. If I decided on the first one, it would be in a dark grey/blue colour rather than red.

To be honest, I am leaning quite heavily towards one, but figured I would ask for some more opinions just to see whether I’m crazy or not.

So, what say you, stylish and fashionable readers….?!

1. Where were you when 2011 began?
At home, because I was sick.

2. What did you do in 2011 that you’d never done before?
I was diagnosed with renal failure. It was a pretty big deal. I think this is one of those things you never think will happen to you. And yet, it did. Awesome.
I bought skinny jeans…and wore them…frequently…and looked normal!
I was in a huge earthquake! Oh. Wait. That was something I did last year too! Add this to the list of things that only ever happen to Other People!

3. Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I don’t think I made any for this year, and I’m not going to make any for this year either. I definitely have things I want to achieve in 2012, though.

4. Go to any concerts this year?
No. I was supposed to go to the More FM Winery Tour, but it was cancelled because of the earthquake.

5. Will you be looking for a new job in 2012?
Sure will! Teaching job!

6. Did you drink a lot of alcohol in 2011?
Not really.

7. Did you go on any vacations? If so, where?
Yep! To Franz Josef in May, to visit Brooke and to sneakily surprise Lindy. An amusing video of this incident can be seen HERE. I am so lucky that she (and her friend Emma, who I’d never met before I randomly knocked on their hotel door!) has a decent sense of humour.
I also went to Hanmer Springs for a weekend with a group of friends in September. That was awesome, even though it was way too short!

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Still managing to function at the end of it! Ha! Also graduating from TColl. Keeping aforementioned Secret Visit an actual SECRET (mostly?) for 2.5 months is a pretty EPIC achievement too, especially for me, since I’m usually very bad at this!

9. If you could go back in time to any moment of 2011 and change something, what would it be?
I would rewind to 12:50pm on February 22nd, and…I don’t know. Freeze time, or at least give people a few minutes of warning.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Illness yes (sort of), serious injury no.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Nothing really. I have so much Stuff that I’ve been spending this whole year trying to declutter and get rid of it, not buy more!

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
Nobody that I can think of off the top of my head.

13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
No one that I know personally, although the people who used the earthquakes as an excuse to go looting in town were pretty bad. Seriously. Who does that?

14. Where did most of your money go?
On things which weren’t very noteable.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Finally finishing TColl. For a few months I thought it really might drag on forever!

16. What song will always remind you of 2011?
Shake It Out – Florence + The Machine. Not sure why, it just will.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
happier or sadder?
Definitely not happier, though I wouldn’t say I’m sadder either. I’m just…TIRED. An entire year of earthquakes has been incredibly stressful. As has being diagnosed with this mysterious Health Thing. Having a good friend move (back) to the other side of the world was pretty crappy too. I hope next year is better. :(
ii. thinner or fatter?
Pretty much the same, or maybe a bit thinner.
iii. richer or poorer?
About the same…

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Job interviews. Good ones, lol.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Worrying. It really doesn’t help.

20. How did you spend Christmas?
At my house, with my parents, and my aunt, uncle and cousin.

22. Did you fall in love in 2011?
Nope.

23. What was the biggest change for you in 2011?
- I realised that you should make the most of being healthy while you are, because you might not be that way forever. Wondering, in complete seriousness, "Am I going to die?" is not something I will ever forget.
- I realised how much your entire life, and the lives of everybody around you, can change in 30 seconds.
- I realised that Skype and Facebook are amazing.

24. What were your favourite TV programmes?
I watch it more regularly online than I do on TV, but I’m going to have to say Ellen, because she is just completely fantastic.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
I wouldn’t say I hate this person, but I definitely dislike them a whole lot more than I did this time last year. Thus why I don’t see them anymore. I have zero time for people like that.

26. What was the best book you read?
I don’t think I have a "best book" of this year! Oh dear.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
I don’t think I’ve had one of these this year either!

28. What did you want and get?
Nothing I can think of off hand, actually, heheh.

29. What did you want and not get?
A teaching job for next year.

30. What was your favourite film of this year?
Tangled!! It was about the only movie I saw this year, and I almost forgot about it, thank you Jenny for reminding me! LOL!

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I was 24, and didn’t do very much on my actual birthday, but the weekend before it I went to Hanmer with some friends.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Finding a teaching job to start in Term 1 next year. Oh well…keep looking…

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2011?
Something along the lines of "OMG I have short hair now! It’s awesome and I wish I’d cut it off years ago!"

34. What kept you sane?
Coffee, Facebook, my iPod (also people, of course, but they’re "who", not "what")! :P

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Ellen DeGeneres and Ann Curry, because they are awesome. Especially together.

36. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
Oh I don’t know!! Ahhh!

37. Who did you miss?
Lindy, because she unhelpfully moved back to the UK at the end of September. :’( I miss her a lot. Boooooo. Thank goodness for Skype and Facebook.

38. Who was the best new person you met?
Quite a few people, some were nice, some were a bit looney!

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011.
That huge earthquakes really happen in reality, and not to just to "other people" either. They’re not just special effects in movies, or news stories online.

40. What are your plans for 2012?
Keep applying for teaching jobs, and try and be healthy! :D

Yep! Time for this AGAIN! For the third (fourth?) time!

1. Where were you when 2010 began?
At my house, with some family friends who had come over for dinner.

2. What did you do in 2010 that you’d never done before?
Decided to apply for TColl, something I was convinced I’d never do. It was a very last minute decision, so much so that I was surprised that my application and referee reports were even received in time, let alone that I was accepted, but everything fell into place and I’m now most of the way through it. Such is life, I suppose.
Oh! I was also in a major earthquake! Although I guess that’s kind of something that happened to me, as opposed to something I did! It was definitely memorable though! It happened in September and we’re still having aftershocks!

3. Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I didn’t really make any for this year, and I don’t think I’ll be making any for 2011, either. I have a few things I’d like to do, or finish, but overall, resolutions aren’t really my thing. My 101 in 1001 kind of takes the place of them, although those are mostly long-term things, not just things to do in the next year.

4. Go to any concerts this year?
Yes, I went to a big free one called Band Together, which was put on as a result of the earthquake. Looking forward to one in February too – Brooke Fraser YAY!!

5. Will you be looking for a new job in 2011?
Yes! I’ll be a qualified primary school teacher by the end of the year!

6. Did you drink a lot of alcohol in 2010?
As usual, no, not really. Although maybe a little more than last year.

7. Did you go on any vacations? If so, where?
Yup, to the West Coast for a few days in January, to visit Brooke.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Getting accepted into TColl, and also learning to how to actually teach! When I found out that my first placement would be with Year 8s (12/13 year olds), I was really nervous, but I ended up rather enjoying it…and, strangely enough, I kind of miss them! Perhaps once I have a bit of REAL experience I’d like to teach this age group! I like the thought of being able to have a really strong, positive influence on kids that age.

9. If you could go back in time to any moment of 2010 and change something, what would it be?
I wish I had taken more time to enjoy my first placement and not worried so much about about having to do everything exactly right and ticking all of college’s boxes. I think I wasted a lot of time stressing panicking about things that weren’t that important anyway, which made me miss out on practical skills I could have learned.
I also would have been a bit more sensitive to how stressed everyone in my “TColl Bubble” was at the end of last semester with 13 assignments in 4 weeks. I snapped at a few friends I wish I hadn’t snapped at, and did some things I wish I hadn’t done.
I also wish I’d been more attentive to friends NOT in the “TColl Bubble”, and managed my time better so I wasn’t effectively ignoring people who are really important to me in favour of frantically trying to do assignments! Argh! THREE things I’d go back and change. Oh dear.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
No, nothing major, and to be really honest, even if I had, I probably wouldn’t post about it here.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
I’m struggling to think of one specific Best Thing for this year. The Best Thing I GOT was an iPod Touch, but that was a birthday present, and not something I bought.

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
I have to mention K., from this post! I wish I could be a fly on the wall in his life in a few years.

13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
Quite a few people actually. My association with one particular theatre company came to a bit of an unfortunate end in the middle of the year. It’s kind of sad, I really miss teaching drama to kids who actually WANT to learn it, and the *friends* I made while I was there, but overall I’m glad to have left. The environment and “vibe” of the place was changing, and not for the better.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Things which are not exciting.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
The fact that I have the kind of friends who do THIS. Awesome. Love it. Also about teaching. Sometimes. Other times that was something I got really, really, really WORRIED about!

16. What song will always remind you of 2010?
Need You Now – Lady Antebellum
Stuck Like Glue – Sugarland
Bulletproof – La Roux

17. Compared to this time last year, are you happier or sadder?
Definitely happier. Also immeasurably more stressed, but still happier.
ii. thinner or fatter?
The same.
iii. richer or poorer?
Poorer. Boooo.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Things other than assignments!

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Procrastinating!

20. How did you spend Christmas?
With my family, and Merrilyn’s family!

22. Did you fall in love in 2010?
Nope.

23. What was the biggest change for you in 2010?
I can now see how I’m going to be spending some of the rest of my life! I also met some amazing people who I now can’t imagine NOT knowing! <3
Also, appearance-wise, in late November, I got an extremely drastic haircut, which I love. Going from waist-length hair to hair that’s not even shoulder length was a pretty big change. It SO was not one I intended to make, but since getting it done in November, I can honestly say that I can count the number of “bad hair days” I’ve had on one hand! I think my hair likes to be short. I don’t think I’ll grow it out again in the forseeable future.

24. What were your favourite TV programmes?
I hardly watched ANY TV this year!

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
I don’t hate them, but there are a few people who were in my life this time last year who are now out of it. This doesn’t happen to me very often, once I make friends I tend to keep them, at least in some capacity, for ages, until we drift apart naturally, so it feels very strange to “break things off”. I don’t miss them though.

26. What was the best book you read?
Um….I can’t think of one! Uh oh…

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Sugarland. Jenny, I hope you’re impressed! ;)

28. What did you want and get?
An iPod Touch 4G…and an awesome haircut!

29. What did you want and not get?
Slightly better grades.

30. What was your favourite film of this year?
The only one I can think of off the top of my head is Made In Dagenham, which is the last one I saw. I liked it, but IDK if it’s my FAVOURITE film.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I was 23, and one of my lovely friends from TColl hosted afternoon tea for me at her house. It was slightly strange, sitting in a room full of women who (with the exception of one who I went to primary school with, and rediscovered at the beginning of this year) I didn’t even KNOW on my last birthday! SO much has changed in a year. I mean, of course I have all my “old” friends too, I’m just surprised by how many new ones I’ve made since starting this course, and how I already feel like I know them so well that I can’t imagine not knowing them! Life is funny sometimes.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
GAAHHH I hate questions like this! I don’t KNOWWWWW!

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2010?
I am slowly discovering a personal fashion concept which is still *me*, but which is also appropriate for the classroom. It involves having to wear a lot of pants. Oh dear. That doesn’t sound so good. I’m not normally pants-less (!?), I just naturally gravitate towards skirts/dresses, which aren’t always suitable for junior classrooms, when you might be sitting on the floor or on very low chairs for quite a bit of the day.

34. What kept you sane?
Sane!?!??!! What’s SANE!!!?? I swear this this the LEAST sane year of my whole life! :O

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Clearly not in a sexual or romantic way, but Annie Lennox. She is an exceptional individual, IMO. I really admire people who do things simply because they are right, and not as a result of any outside or religious influences telling them they ought to.

36. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
Some believe in destiny, and some believe in fate
I believe that happiness is something we create
You best believe that I’m not gonna wait
‘Cause there’s gotta be something more
– Something More – Sugarland

37. Who did you miss?
Nobody I can think of, really. Brooke, a bit, but I talk to her nearly every day!

38. Who was the best new person you met?
SO many people!!! The people I met at TColl are part of the reason I’m so glad I applied! TColl friends, if any of you have stumbled upon this (Even though I know most of you have already seen this on FB, lol!), I’m so glad I met you.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2010.
Sometimes last minute decisions can be among the best you ever make.

40. What are your plans for 2011?
Finish this course, and then most likely try to find a REAL teaching job, although secretly, I’d STILL like to pursue something I was thinking about (privately, I never blogged about it) at the beginning of this year, before TColl came along and sidetracked my life. We shall see. It’s still on my mind.
Although. Having just said that TColl sidetracked this idea, I don’t know whether it really has or not. Indirectly, it might help me.