knitting

I've been knitting at work this semester.

I started this project last Spring and I'm probably not even half way finished. It will be a scarf for one of my friends when I'm all done with it. The plan is to make it super long. Like Dr. Seuss long! I'm very excited. It has a few holes but I don't mind. It's my first project and I didn't feel like undoing it to fix it.

I have found that knitting can be very meditative for me. It's a great way to keep myself doing something while watching a movie or listening to music or chatting with friends. 

Enjoy!

New Years Resolutions

I usually don't like when people talk about holidays and plan for them/decorate etc. when there is still another holiday to celebrate before that one arrives! (Example: when Christmas music is playing and stores are decorating for Christmas BEFORE Thanksgiving!) But today I'm going to write about New Years resolutions and what I plan to do for next year.

A few years ago I had a friend that told me she was challenging herself to work on a new resolution every month of the year. Instead of working for a few weeks and then giving up...this would be a way to keep things fresh and to keep motivation. Also, I think it is a great way to incorporate multiple things into your life without overwhelming yourself. And then, if you like what you did that month you can keep it up and if you didn't...well, at least you tried something new!

So this is my plan as of now:

January: Go to at least 1 yoga class a week and start meditating

February: Work out every day for at least 30 minutes (to get myself looking good for my birthday in March!)

March: Wear makeup/do my hair/dress nice every day (maybe I'll do the 30 for 30 challenge!)

April: Learn to cook basic meals

May: Hoop for 30 minutes a day

June: Plan accordingly and ride my bike as much as possible.

July: Explore 4 new places in Missouri that I have never been to

August: Finish all projects that I have started. Sewing or art.

September: Eat nothing but whole foods 4 days a week

October: Do random acts of kindness

November: Sew something new each week

December: Bake and bake and bake and give and give and give

All year long:

*Post at the start of each month what my goal for that month is, then check in and write a few sentences each day or few about if I did it or not*

*Keep trying new foods as often as possible. Start to incorporate them into my daily menu*

*Make at least one new craft a month and blog about it*

*Save money for the first half of the year so I can visit my sister in California!*

*Read often*

*Knit often*

*Learn to embroidery*

*Learn to crochet*
*Be more active in supporting and participating in my local the theatre/music/dance/art community*

I'll probably add more later! This is a great start though, I think :)

Enjoy!

Boston

I'm not sure why, all of a sudden, I feel the need to blog again. But here I am so here we go.

The summer break was interesting. Enjoyable, stressful, challenging and short are a few words I can think of to describe it. But one of the best things was going to Boston to visit my sister and nephew. 

Picture time:

Somehow I ended up leaving without getting a picture of all of us together.

I had a wonderful time. I've never been to a city as large as Boston before. I think my favorite thing was all the walking and riding the T. And all the beautiful old buildings too!

Enjoy!

Final Picture

Here is the final picture of my clay/plaster project of Founders Park:

Have a beautiful day :)

Enjoy!

Photo Update

Hello hello hello!!!

I have pictures of recent happenings that I would like to share!

First:

Remember the cabinate that my mom and I started working on a while ago. Well that was probably the only day I worked on it. She did the rest of the sanding, staining and decorating the inside. I feel bad that I didn't help more but she did a wonderful job!! I love it so much :)

Here is the inside:

The cherry color from the wood bled through onto the paper but I'm okay with it. I kind of like it like that! Gives it more character. 

We used tissue paper and mod-podge for the inside. 

Next is pictures of my clay/plaster project that I told you I was working on. 

This is the picture that inspired the design:

Founders Park just behind where I work and go to school. I love this park.

This is the clay before I poured the plaster:

I had to carve the oposite of what I wanted the plaster to look like. It was kind of hard to work backwards. 

This is the plaster after it was poured, dried and taken off the clay:

All that's left is to clean off the rest of the clay and patch the cracks. It is currently in 5 pieces but my teacher said that it was an easy fix. I will post another picture of what it looks like this Friday when it is being displayed at Art Walk! 

I also made Easter cookies:

They look a bit strange but they were wonderful!!

This is where I found the recipe.

After I explained that they were green because of food coloring and that they were supposed to look like Easter eggs hidden in the grass people warmed up to the idea of having one and didn't regret it! :)

This is a picture of some of the arms that I told you about:

 There are a lot more that we are putting up today. I'll take more pictures :)

This one is mine:

It is braided hemp wrapped around the arm. I love it!

I have a few more that will be put up today. I'm so excited!!! I love having my artwork displayed.

That's all for now.

Enjoy!

Update

Everything went well for the first weekend of the show. One more show next Saturday then we are done! I have a raincoat to make this week and only one arm left to paint. But it is gonna be the hardest one to do. (Thankfully I have a great teacher who's gonna help me!!)

I'm working on art walk stuff this week during work so I should get all that done no problem.

I've been eating way too much candy and junk and soda food lately. Being at school for the play for 6 or more hours at a time makes it hard to eat anything of true substance. I'm gonna really try to get better about that this week. I also wish it would stop raining so I could be outside some! I wanna ride my bike and go for long walks and lately (not only have I not had the time) the weather hasn't been doing what I want it to do :(

On Friday I helped the Fine Arts Department at the school picnic and got a funky sunburn. My nose started pealing this morning. That's the one thing I really don't like about the sun. You can get so unexpectedly burnt.

I have plans to make this dress once summer starts:

Source

We used this pattern during the play for the wedding dress. It was so beautiful that I had to get the pattern for myself! I can't wait to make it and wear it :)

Enjoy!

AAAHHHHHHHHH!!!

Haha! The next three weeks are gonna get crazy up in here.

"Why's that?" you may be asking. Well this is why:

I have an art project that needs to be finished (needed to be finished a few weeks ago. woops!) this week. And by this week I mean today. Wednesday by 3pm at the VERY latest. Also in my art class we are plaster casting our arms and hands and we each have to make about 6 of them. I have 5, some of which need to be patched up, and I need to do the 6th. Then they need to dry for at least 24 hours, be sanded down to be smooth, then each one has to be painted after different artists. Every arm that is made and painted needs to be different. This all has to be done by April 30th. We only meet in class 3 more times before then.

Okay, that doesn't sound so horrible.

But I'm not done!!

I really need to practice some for my piano class. We are getting to the point in music theory where I always get lost and can never figure out what the teacher is saying. It becomes gibrish to me. So I gotta figure that out.

Then there is my costume design class. I have three weeks to make the most adorable rain coat I will have ever seen (if it all works out right!). Again, not so bad except for when you take into account that EVERY NIGHT next week will be taken up doing stuff for the costumes with the school play. Opening night is April 29th. We still don't have everything we need yet, more shopping is to be done. Organizing and labeling too. Then the next week will be spent getting ready for the Student Showcase for First Friday Art Walk here at OTC. It is the most stressful Art Walk of the semester.

Recap:

This week - 2 art projects, sewing my rain coat, doing some last minute costume stuff for the play

Next week - Play rehearsal/run through every night, opening night on Friday and shows on Saturday and Sunday too

First week of May - more painting for art, more sewing my rain coat, setting up Art Walk.

After that week I will have one week of normal classes then a week of finals.

THEN IT'S SUMMER TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No me gusta on the next three weeks!

Me gusta on the whole summer thing :)

Wish me luck as I take on mucho work-o.

(Don't worry, it will all be done with a smile on my face because these are all things I love!)

Pictures that make me happy:

Something for me to remember for the next few weeks:

Enjoy!

Trying To Think Happy Thoughts

It bothers me that my attempt at things always seems to never happen. I say I want to do something and it never comes about. I know that I am the only one to blame for any of this but I can't seem to figure out what part of me keeps me from doing the things I say I want to do. I'll say I want to start exercising, trying new foods, waking up earlier, being more crafty etc, but for some reason there is a part of me that seems to be stronger than the rest that makes me not do the things I say I want to do. 

I realize that I can be fairly lazy sometimes. But I enjoy staying busy and doing different things through out the day/week. I don't know why I can't have enough self discipline to make things happen. I'm trying though. And I think that because I'm aware of it now, I'll be able to change it sooner. Hopefully.

I've been making button necklaces trying to find the best thing to string them on and the best thing to use for a closure in the back. I want this blog/store thing to start soon but again...no motivation = no results. I feel like so much of my time is consumed by other things that I have to do (work, school, the costumes for the play, spending time with friends to keep those relationships going strong, spending time with family) that all the things I want to do for myself (making necklaces, sewing, bike rides, hooping) just don't happen.

You know, I think all of this is coming out because the weekend was so absolutely amazingly wonderful and beautiful and today it is cold, cloudy, rainy, and the start of a new week. Seasonal depression. That's what is wrong with me. I can't wait for summer. I hope it is just as memorable as last summer. I know it will be because I'll make sure of it :)

I'm going to be happy today! I won't let silly things get me down! The rain is beautiful and needed. I'm going to embrase it! 

I will leave you with a beautiful picture:

Enjoy!

One Day Without Shoes 2011

Tomorrow is the official "One Day Without Shoes" event hosted by Toms Shoes.

http://www.onedaywithoutshoes.com/

I challenge you to go all (or as much as you can) of April 5, 2011 without shoes. 

30 for 30 (Take Two)

So it is very clear that I didn't finish the last attempt at the 30 for 30 challenge. 

It was an assignment for my costume design class that we had to do before the end of the semester. Well there is just over a month left before the semester is over so I need to get started. 

The weather has been very fickle as of late (example: this weekend it was in the 70's and 80's with lots of sunshine and today it is 44* and is supposed to rain later) making it hard to know what to include in my 30 items. 

I plan to check the weather out tonight for the next couple of weeks and pick my items then post them by tomorrow. I'll either start tomorrow or Wednesday...depending on how I feel. 

Have you heard of seasonal depression? Yeah well with the sunshine and warmth with the perfect amount of a cool breeze the past two days and the cold, rainy, dark, gloomy day today that is exactly what I'm experiencing. I hope Mother Nature gets happy soon so I can get happy too! :)

In other news:

*The school play is going well. I'm starting to stress just a little about the costumes but I haven't talked to my teacher yet so I'm holding off on freaking out until it has been approved to do so. 

*I've started working on designing a blog to use to sell some of my creations! I'm looking forward to it being opened to the public I just have to get some more things made, pictures taken, pictures posted and then I'll be ready! 

Hope you have a lovely, non-gloomy day!

Enjoy!

More B-Day Pictures

To go along with my obsession of trees I got this cool tree/bird glass thing. I'm going to put all my buttons in it and hopefully fill it up!

The teachers I work with made me some yummy brownies! 

I got this amazing DVD from my mom! It is such an awesome movie!!

One of the teachers, Kat, got me a really cool necklace. It can be worn three different ways! 

Very cool in my book :)

Enjoy!

:)

Just wanted to let you know I'm feeling a bit better.

Though not great yet, I'm still very happy with my life and very thankful for all I have. 

Both people and possessions.

It's so easy to forget how lucky I am. 

Working hard to stay positive and do my best at everything I can is my goal for the week.

Enjoy!

I'm sorry to report that I've just not been feeling the whole blog thing lately.

I've not been feeling much of much lately.

I'm not sure where this funk came from and honestly, I don't like it much.

But here it is. 

I can't change with a snap of my fingers but I'm doing my best to stay positive and work through this.

I've been on spring break from school and work this week. (no school no work!)

I celebrated my birthday last Friday and my friend Sully's birthday Saturday and Sunday.

I spent time with my dad on Sunday.

Hung out at home and with friends Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Went to Eureka Springs, Arkansas with my friend Amanda Thursday.

And here we are today, Friday. 

It's not been a very productive week like I wanted it to be. 

School starts again on Monday.

No me gusta.

I'm ready for summer to be here. I don't really have a reason other than this semester will be over. I don't know what is going to happen once this semester is over. I don't know if I'll get a full time job or stay in school. I really wanted to take a break from school but the more I think about it the more I realize that doing that will not be such a good idea if I want to come back and get my bachelors, which I do. But as each week passes I feel less and less motivated to do the work for my classes that I am required to do. 

I want to be productive and busy and work hard but I can't seem to make myself do those things. Not just with school but with other things in my life too. It is very frustrating and making getting anything accomplished impossible.

Sorry for the vent. Thanks for listening :)

Enjoy!

Happy Birthday To Me!!

I am officially 21 today! 

A real adult as some would say.

You know how usually when it's your birthday and people ask you, "Do you feel a year older?" most of the time you respond with "No..not really" and usually you don't (I never really have) because it is just another day in a series of days that make up your life. Just because we give a specific day a certain title it doesn't change that day. Not usually.

But today as I was walking to my car in the drive way to load my things and go to work I noticed that I did feel different. I did feel older. I was walking a bit taller - shoulders back, chin high.

This was a strange feeling. 

To actually be into my twenties. 

I don't feel like I have been alive this long but I'm happy with the life I have lived so far!

Anywho. 

This is what I saw when I walked into work:

How sweet is that?!

Now I'm sitting at the desk and every time a student walks in (I usually turn to great them) but today I feel like turning to great them is just me asking for them to say "Happy Birthday" to me. haha! I probably sound ridiculous right now. But almost everyone has said something to me with a smile. I like smiles :)

I will be posting more as the day goes on so check back! 

Hats!

So for my 3-D Design art class we were given the assignment to make a hat. We can use one material for a base, one material for a binder (to hold it together) and one material for the skin or decorations. A lot of people are using paper and glue but I'm gonna go with the fashion side of me and use fabric and thread and decorate with buttons!! 
It's gonna be sooo cute!
(I'll post pictures when I'm finished with it)


This is the tutorial I found..I'm gonna try it out and see how it works. If it doesn't work then I'll figure something else out and let you know how I end up doing it. 
I might even take pictures and post them to show you how I do it!!


I'm SOOO excited!!!

Source

This is my inspiration. Plus buttons!

The big birthday is in two days :) I'm excited. 

Have a wonderful day!!!

Enjoy!

13 of 30 ~ 14 of 30

Why hello there! 

It's strange to say this but...I've missed my blog. 

Friday I helped my costume design teacher's daughter out with a science project so no 30 for 30 that day...as usual it didn't happen on Saturday or Sunday either. And Monday I had to re-wear Friday's outfit so they could take a picture of me to put on her display board thingy so no 30 for 30 there either.

Here is Tuesdays outfit:

Belt: Thrifted

Orange Heart Necklace: Old Navy

Door Hinge Necklace: Made by me!

This is one of my favorite dresses! AND it has pockets :)

Me gusta.

Today's outfit:

Tights: ???

Belt: Thrifted

Pearl Necklace: Belonged to my great grandmother

Wow. The more I look at pictures of me the more I realize I need to open my eyes. Or wear make up. Or contacts. Or get a tan! haha. 

Anywho. The big birthday is next week! I've been making plans and all that fun stuff! I think I might go shopping on Saturday for a bit with the mother and have lunch on Sunday with some of the fam. And it's gonna be an aaallllll weeek pppaaaaarrrrtttaaayyy.

Not really. I'm not the partying type. Plus I have work and class every morning at 8am. So partying isn't really an option. Neither is parrrrttaayying. 

Well before I make too much of a fool of myself (probably already have) I'm gonna go get 40 winks..whatever that means!

Night ya'll. 

Enjoy! 

Excitement and Fun Pictures

I just sat down and looked through all my pictures I took of my 30 items and figured out my outfits for the rest of the 30 days!! 

I WILL FINISH THIS.

I'm not going to give up. Although believe me, the thought has crossed my mind more than a few times!

I think that now, because I have ideas picked out, it will be much easier for me to want to do this than feel like I have to do this. 

I have a new wave of motivation for this endeavor that I have taken on. 

So you are probably asking "where are these fun pictures I was promised?" 

Here they are:

So...Mario is pretty much the coolest thing ever :)

How cute! I love pinguins. 

Me gusta :)

I don't really do this. 

Really.

I want to bake again soon! I LOVE to bake.

The moment I have my own place to live there will be a fort. There's no question about that.

Pink isn't my favorite but ruffles and poofy-ness are pretty amazing :)

I want to live in a forest. In a log cabin. For some period of my life.

Enjoy!

12 of 30 ~ Branson and Birthdays

I wore this outfit last Thursday. I haven't worn any more 30 for 30 outfits since then though. 

Brown necklace: gift from my grandma belonged to her mother

Door hinge necklace: found and crafted by me

Today I'm exhausted and I'm not really sure why. I think I'm going to go to bed at like 8pm tonight though :)

Yesterday was so much fun. I went and hung out with my dad and I showed him the songs I've learned in my Piano 1 class. He was really proud of me :) Then we drove down to Branson and walked up and down The Landing for about an hour and just talked and enjoyed ourselves. We didn't go in any of the stores..just walked and sat outside by the water for a bit. As I was driving down to see my dad and driving to Branson I remembered how much I LOVE driving on the highway. I miss it a lot. I think I'm gonna have to figure out somewhere to go over Spring Break...even if it's just for a day. 

I realized something last night....MY BIRTHDAY IS NEXT WEEK!!!!! 9 days away to be exact! I'm gonna be 21..weird.

And then Spring Break is the week after that! 

Enjoy!

11 of 30 ~ Play and Crafts

Button Necklace: Handmade by me

Yesterday was a really relaxed day. I didn't feel like looking nice (I woke up at 5am when I'm used to getting up at 7am because my back hurt so bad and didn't really ever go back to sleep) but I want to do this 30 for 30 (and I kind of have to since it is now a class assignment) so I did my best. As the day went on I got to feeling much better :)

We had the first night of play rehearsal for the Spring play! They read through the first act and got to know each other better. There are 29 people in the cast so this should be an interesting show! I'm not in the play (have never really wanted to be) but I am kinda like the costume designers assistant. I'm really excited about it too!!!!

Last night and this morning at work I have been looking at craft blogs! I'm getting so excited for Spring because of the beautiful weather and for Spring break so I can do some fun sewing projects! My mom asked me what I wanted for my birthday (coming up in March!!) and I told her that I mainly wanted some fabric so I can make some stuff for the summer.

I want to make this skirt:

Circle Skirt

and something similar to these pants:

Basic Pants

Now I know the pants are for kids but I think I'm just gonna take apart a pair of better fitting-not so baggy sweats that fit but I don't wear and trace the pattern from them. I think I want to make them have a drawstring too. And some pockets! :)

I also was inspired by the first floral dress from here:

Handmade Vintage Dress

I have an old vintage sheet that I've been wanting to make a skirt from but I think I wanna make a dress instead now :) I'm SOO excited!!! 

Once I get these projects done I will post pictures. Promise :)

Enjoy!

10 of 30 ~ Day Dreams

This was my outfit for Monday. I wore my brown leather jacket (because it was much cooler than I thought it would be) and my red shoes. Sorry you can't see them..I had to be my own photographer :)

I liked the random colors together..purple (belt), navy, green and red!

I also took time to do my hair and makeup. And I wore contacts instead of my glasses!! I feel much more put together this way :)

I'm starting to feel like I'm running out of outfits. I know this isn't true because there are still pieces I haven't worn yet but they are dresses and I haven't felt like wearing tights lately. Guess I'm just gonna have to get over that soon!

I've been reading more and more crafty blogs and now all I want to do is live in a little old house and decorate it all cute and sew and bake all the time! The guy I end up with (hopefully) makes a good amount of money because I would much rather stay home and keep everything clean and picked up and cook and work from home making things :)

(I know I know...keep dreaming. But I will :) I'm gonna keep dreaming until it comes true!)

 (Not sure where I found this picture because it was a long time ago but it was on Google)

Hope you have a wonderful day. I'll try to post again tonight with todays outfit to get caught up.

Enjoy!

Mannequins and Sand Paper

For Christmas my mom got me an adjustable mannequin for my sewing. It looked cool but my mom had the idea of dressing it up. I had a cute blue dress on it that I made in high school and this week when I came home one evening she had changed her and I LOVED the outfit. So much so that I'm going to post a picture of it!

I think the reason I love this outfit so much is because since I bought the jacket, skirt and belt I haven't worn them more than two or three times. I think the other reason that I love this outfit is because my mom was the one who picked it out :)

Way to go mom!!!!!!!
Also, we gave her a name. Annie Marie. We were trying to think of famous women without heads. We thought of Marie Antoinette!
I like it :)

This evening my mom and I started a project that we plan to work on together. We were storing some old furniture at my uncles office and we got it all from him today and started sanding it down. 

It is just an old cabinet with a skeleton lock. That picture is before we cleaned it off.
These pictures are our start on it:

Hope you had a fabulous Saturday :)

Enjoy!

Day Nine ~ Duct Tape

Day nine was actually on Thursday. Friday and today (Saturday) have been relaxing days. It seems like I do that every weekend. Sorry about that. It's just that I don't really do much on the weekends and when I do I want to be comfortable. 

Thursdays outfit: 

Thursday in my costume design class we did a team building project and we were challenged to make a dress out of duct tape. This was our final project:

We found the go-go boots in a box with costumes from past plays that the school has done and thought they were perfect :) We kept saying that she looked like Daphne from Scooby-Doo but cuter! It was a fun project that was challenging and helped us grow closer to work better as a team.

Enjoy!

Day Eight ~ Good Morning Post

So last night while watching Harry Potter: Year Two I was looking back at my older posts and saw that when I tried to display my 30 (29) items it looked HORRIBLE! So I took my sisters advice and signed up for photobucket. I'm always afraid to use new sites, not sure why...maybe because I don't know how to use them haha! That's why I have never explored photobucket before. But it really was easy to use. I used the collage edit thing and now it looks so much better! I'm really glad I overcame my fear and tried it out :)

(you should go check it out!! right now. run. go!) (and then leave me sweet comments telling me how good it looks!)

Outfit Time:

So I knew that I wouldn't be home tonight right after class and that I wouldn't want to take pictures when I did get home so I made sure to get outside this morning before I left for work. YAY!!!

Ok. I love the outfit...don't love how I look today :)

The cardigan is wrinkled because it has been in the back of my car for a while and I finally cleaned it out last night! (and because I'm too lazy to throw it in the dryer to fluff for 5 minutes)

And my hair!!! Oh my what am I going to do with it?! I say that to myself every morning but then I just remind myself that I was the one who decided to cut it all off last summer and now I'm the one who has to deal with the "growing out" phase. No me gusta! 

I guess I could straighten it every day...or try to curl it. Yeah! Maybe I'll do that this weekend and you can tell me what you think! 

I've written a lot today..sorry :/ It's just because I'm at work...Alone at the front desk. And when I try to cheerfully say hi to the students that walk in who are still half asleep I just get glares so I have to take my energy out somewhere! (lucky you right!?) 

Have an absolutely wonderfully marvelous day! 

Enjoy!

P.S. I'm really happy right now so I want to leave you with a picture that makes me even more happy: