a m a n d a

Oh Happy Day.

2012-02-02T09:45:00.000-08:00

It's groundhog day.

This holds absolutely zero significance to me since I have no idea what it means. Is it still winter if he sees is shadow? does it turn to summer if he doesn't? And what are we doing leaving this decision up to a poor groundhog? Let's call in the 'experts' whoever they are.

Anyways, this blog is NOT about groundhog day, since I'm very clearly uninformed about what it exactly means.

This is about YOU voting for which Pampered Chef party you'd like to attend!! I'm not a salesperson, couldn't really care less about having these at home parties but I was convinced to have one again. Since I do like the products I conceded. Here are a few of the party ideas, I've gotten a couple FB votes but not enough to make the decision. So even if you're not going to attend, what sounds like the most informative/fun party out of these options?

POWER COOKING
Tips, recipes, and real life advice for women who have to feed their
families, but have no time and little money. We teach you and your friends how to make 15—20+ meals in under 3 hours in their own kitchen. If you’d like, at your show, we can even make 5 meals for your family in about 10 minutes during the presentation!

ARTISAN BREAD BAKING
Bake those crusty, specialty loaves of bread for dipping and serving with those special meals - NO kneading! Takes about 4 minutes & costs about 50 cents!

DEATH BY CHOCOLATE
An old favorite for those who can never have too much chocolate! Great recipes like Banana Split Brownie Pizza, Chocolate Ganache, and some great Chocolate garnishing ideas, will indulge anyone’s chocoholism! Make it a Girls’ Night out pajama party!

COOKING LIGHT
Learn techniques for the health and diet conscious. See a demonstration with great tools and taste delicious low-fat recipes even children will love!

SOUP AND SLIPPERS
Soup is an easy, nutritious comfort food, fast to prepare. Learn how to make wonderful soups in 15 to 30 minutes that taste like they took all day! Baked potato soup, Thai Chicken soup, Tortilla soup, to name a few!

We've gotten votes for Chocolate, Cooking Light, and Artisan Bread. Cooking light is my vote just because I've been to the other types of parties already, and I don't/can't eat most of the stuff she prepares :).

So vote now, or forever hold your peace. (I've always wanted to say that)

If you can't make the actual party:

Friday Feb. 10th at 7pm, My house

and still want to order something, I can drop by a catalog or you can go to the site and order here.

As party guests in Feb. here is your discount.

That's one of the big reasons I decided to have my party in Feb. Their stoneware is my favorite and they're offering a good discount for the month.

I do need to have an estimated number of guests so I make sure I get enough food stuffs so you can email me or leave a comment and let me know.

Thank YOU!!

Things I Don't Believe In Part 2

2012-01-30T20:33:00.000-08:00

A little over a year ago I complied a list. This was a list of things I don't believe in. I have since added to this list. I will now write Part 2 of Things I Don't Believe In.

(Disclaimer, if you happen to believe in any of these things, I will not judge you,

however our friendship might be reconsidered...depending)

I don't believe in repetitive high fives. Once is enough...even once is pushing it for some.
I don't believe in guys wearing sleeveless shirts.
I don't believe in opaque white tights. I'm guilty but I'm not to be blamed, I couldn't yet dress myself.
I don't believe in guys who have long fingernails.
I don't believe in boring white socks. Snooze.
I don't believe in banana laffy taffy...unless it's the only flavor available in an emergency situation.
I don't believe in fruit pie.
I don't believe in peeling an orange. Cutting them is best.
I don't believe in raking leaves.
I don't believe in paying for parking.
I don't believe in big hair poofs.
I don't believe in drinking warm water.
I don't believe in 1 ply toilet paper.
I don't believe in multiple ticking clocks in the same room.
I don't believe in body piercings in places other than the ear, and/or larger than a regular earring size.
I don't believe in belly buttons. Gross. I don't care who you are.
I don't believe in healthy Mexican food. Bring on the lard.
I don't believe in lace up shoes. Hi-tops=only exception.
I don't believe in the phrase, 'get 'er done'.
I don't believe in slow drivers.
I don't believe in black licorice.
I don't believe in round-a-bouts. We live in America, not Europe.
I don't believe in 70's wood paneling.
I don't believe in styrofoam cups/plates.
I don't believe in twitter.
I don't believe in guys (or girls) who take and post ridiculous pics of themselves. (sour apple face, high camera mirror pose, flexing, not looking at camera but we all know you took the picture because we see your arm, etc.)
I don't believe in the word 'Hubby'.
I don't believe in the saying, "I didn't come here to lose." REALLY?! Weird. Cuz the rest of us did....
I don't believe in cream filled donuts.
I don't believe in maraschino cherries.
I don't believe in white sunglasses. (insert rude comment here)
I don't believe in violent x box games.
I don't believe in toddlers and tiaras. No, you're 2 yr old does not need to go tanning, have huge fake teeth, and wear that awful fake hair.
I don't believe in canned fruit melody.
I don't believe in Elvis impersonators.
I don't believe in saying "I'll give110%" impossible.
I don't believe in cantaloupe.
I don't believe in abbreviated words. Like I'm totes def gonna B there B4 U. We speak English, not Bingo.
I don't believe in reality shows about "famous" people, who nobody knows WHY they're even famous. I'll give you two guesses...
I don't believe in Charleston chews.
I don't believe in eating takeout with metal silverware.

Thank you for tuning in, to this installment of, Things I Don't Believe In!!

A special thank you to our corporate sponsors, Soggy Bottom Diapers, Mormon Disco Ball Inc., and Todd's Premade Toast.

Please note, all companies listed above, if real, had NOTHING to do with this message. That is all.

Pampered Chef

2012-01-27T14:43:00.000-08:00

Three of my favorite products. See below for description.

Yep, I'm going there again...another pampered chef party. I said two years ago that I wouldn't have another one but I just love their products and discounts for hosts so here I am :). My aunt had one last night and I just can't avoid it, I had to book myself a party. You are ALL invited. Even if I don't know you....weird. You can order from my site here. Sorry if you're a stranger you can't come to my house ;).

I don't know what the 'theme' of the evening will be yet but I'm going to have a vote sort of. I'm going to choose a few options I like and leave it up to my attending guests to decide what they want to make/eat.

Details:

When: Friday, Feb. 10th @ 7pm

Where: My house (comment or email for directions)

Who: You and any friends/family you'd like to invite

If you've never used a Pampered Chef product, this would be a great time. I LOVE all my P.C. products. I posted a picture of some of my favorites.

Their stone is so great. We have many stone products and they just get better with age. They cook evenly and things just taste better when baked/cooked in/on their stone.

Their garlic press is amazing!! If you love garlic but don't like your hands smelling like garlic for days, this is such a great product. You put a whole clove (with skin) in the press and squeeze, it peels and minces the garlic in one easy step.

Last night I got to try a potato chip that was made in the microwave...with that black thing that's pictured in the middle. I was very skeptical because the microwave makes thing soggy. These chips were actually really good, they had no added oil or other additives and they were just as good as the chips you buy. You can also use sweet potatoes or apples on this thing. I'm going to be ordering this for sure!!

Let me know if you'd like to come, remember you can invite friends/family too!! I'm really excited.

Pinterest Crafting #4

2012-01-26T12:30:00.000-08:00

For this week's pinterest craft, I made a really neat holder for my small church books. I found the link last night and pinned it, then just made it in about an hour.

It's meant to hold the YW Personal Progress book, Journal, pen, and strength of youth pamphlet. However, I don't have the journal so I just put my YW camp for leaders pamphlet in there for now.

Then it folds over itself to make this cute little package:

I love it. I have a hard time keeping all my little books in one place and this is the perfect solution for me. It's not a big bulky case, it's just barely bigger than the books themselves.

Here are a few links if you'd like to make your own!!

Direct link to the directions/tutorial

My Church Board

My Sewing Board

On another note, on Monday I got to take one of the residents at my work on a fun overnight trip to Semiahmoo Resort. If you want to getaway, I highly recommend this place. Right now is their off season so we were given a free upgrade to a waterview room (which is another $80 value). It's so pretty up there I could have spent the entire time on the beach but it was pretttty cold.

All pictures were taken with my point and shoot, which I was pretty impressed with, much better quality than my old one, hurray!!

Next Week's Pinterest day....might be about New Beginnings we're planning for church..maybe. I spent an entire day last week paper macheing balloons to go with our theme. We'll see.

Oh ya!! This was originally going to be my Pinterest Craft for the week:

CAKE POPS!! Prolly not the cutest you've ever seen but nobody seemed to mind :). The half covered ones were for my family...the chocolate started hardening and I didn't have enough left anyways so they got the gross looking ones, they didn't care.

Littlest Warrior

2012-01-26T09:55:00.000-08:00

While browsing a favorite blog this morning I was reading about a craft project this lady was participating in. I decided that it would be a really good idea to get in on the 'action'. I haven't read much about the program but I did check out their site. Every year they get donations of a certain crafty variety to give to kids of all ages who are battling cancer.
This year they are looking for beanies of all sizes and all types-knit, crochet, fabric. As well as homemade tote bags to use in the hospitals. What a fun way to help the younger people who are going through such a tough time. All the info is on their site if you'd like to participate.

I am going to try to make several hats and maybe a tote to donate, I have enough yarn to make hats for the entire country so half the work is already done ;). I figure if I can do one hat every evening by the end of the week, I'll have lots to donate...that is if my poor fingers cooperate.

Here are a few links to patterns if you'd like to participate...although ANY pattern can be made in any color.

very easy, very basic beginner knit pattern

20 minute sewed tote bag. Such a fun/easy pattern

sewed fleece hats for those who sew

There are so so so so many patterns online, the options are endless for these tough kids. I'll post an update when I get some of my stuff done.

OH YA this is Pinterest Thursday...I'll post later about that...I have some pinterest plans for today...

Pinterest Crafting #3

2012-01-19T14:19:00.000-08:00

please note that my kayak (seen in blue) does NOT make a good sled...

This Thursday has snuck up on me big time!! I'm going to be honest, I haven't left the house except on Sunday (when I went to a meeting--in between snow falls) it's now Thursday. It takes me about 15-20 minutes to drive to work on a regular, no snow day. There is also one significant hill, and one smaller hill between me and work. I don't drive in the snow so everyone who lives just a few minutes from work have been covering my shifts...I hate being that person who is a 'driving through snow baby' but I am. So I've been cooped up all week along with the rest of my family --except my dad who knows how to drive in the snow and has a bigger vehicle. I've made snow ice cream multiple times, had snowball fights when the snow was packable (now it's lame-o powder), made a small snowman, blogged a lot, listened to spotify pretty much constantly, watching season 1 of Prison Break (Michael cough Linc cough).

I've also done a few Pinterest things that I'll post now.

this is the beginning of a hat that I started last night. I don't think I really should be knitting/crocheting with my messed up hands (they keep 'freezing' in a curled position when any pressure is put on them) but it's SNOWING for crying out loud, snow is made for knitting and drinking hot cocoa don'tcha know.
I've made this hat before but I just pinned the pattern this week. See my knitting board here.

This is kind of a cheat post since I haven't completed this hat yet, but I also have made these cookies 2 times. I was trying to find something for Shelley to do this week so we baked. Our first batch did not work and went in the trash. I tried to tweak the recipe and added half a teaspoon of peppermint to the batter (in theory, good. in real life, bad). So today we remade them how they're supposed to be made. They are flour-less and pretty chocolaty. They are like a brownie but flatter and less calories. This recipe makes 24 cookies so I did 12 regular and the other 12 I added half a crushed up candy cane which turned out a little minty and much better than using the extract.

The recipe was found on King Arthur Flour site here's the recipe:

2 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon espresso powder- I did NOT use this FYI it's optional
1 cup cocoa powder, Dutch-process (European-style) preferred*
3 large egg whites
2 teaspoons gluten-free vanilla extract
*For darker, richer-looking cookies, substitute 1/4 cup black cocoa for 1/4 cup of the Dutch-process cocoa

I have no idea what the heck dutch process cocoa powder is, all I know is it's way expensive so I just used the cheaper hershey stuff and it worked just fine.

Mix everything together in a bowl and bake at 350 for 8-12 minutes-- mine baked for about 12 min and were still a little soft which I like.

They are good, definitely a richer treat but moderation is good, or so I've been told ;).

Hope everyone is enjoying the snow, or whatever weather you happen to be experiencing, it doesn't snow here that often so when it does I love to hunker down and do my own thing, can you pick up what I'm throwing down? (Sorry wayyy too much Prison Break , I've been working on my street cred.)

41,128

2012-01-18T19:18:00.000-08:00

That's how many words I have written for my book. It's 90 pages long so far (8.5x11). I remember in school I always had to write long papers and I remember being so stressed out about not being able to write enough words but I always had more than I needed...usually. I'll be honest, some papers were bulked up with excessive use of the word "that" :). I just love to write. I'm not a great speaker (not saying I'm a great writer either :p) but I do enjoy writing much more than speaking.

About two years ago I woke up from a really intense dream. Usually I have dreams but can't remember them or they were just silly dreams. This one was different. I woke up in a panic and felt very much in distress, weird. It took me a few minutes to really remember what I had been dreaming about but when I remembered I thought, 'hey, this would be a really good book'. It may have been the sleep talking but a few weeks later I decided to write it down. I couldn't get it out of my mind, I would carry around a little notebook to write down ideas and plot twists as I thought of them. Then I started typing it up. I made up characters' names and just started typing.

I'm sure many authors use a much different method and write an outline of events, but I'm too ADD for that, I just wrote whatever I felt like writing. Then I'd reread and rewrite parts. I have a general idea of where this is going but sometimes I start typing and I can't stop so I have to go through and check the continuity. One mistake I made was one of the girls didn't like mustard, then a few chapters later she ordered extra mustard...no bueno. Now she likes mustard in case you were wondering :).

I always thought they should hire me as a continuity person on TV and movies, I always hone in on the silly mistakes and can't stop thinking about them throughout the show...

I like that I get to decide what happens. In some books or movies I am mentally yelling at the characters to chose another option, to change their 'path' and live a happy life. Sometimes I don't want a dramatic plot twist, I want everyone to sit on clouds, eating rainbow lollypops, and singing covers of Elton John songs....granted I wouldn't really want to read boring books so I guess plot twists are good, unless they involve a certain red headed twin dying at the end of a certain series of books...good one J.K. good one.
I'm still bitter but I'm in counseling and will pull through somehow.

I digress. Again. ADD. Sorry.

My book doesn't have a title, you could call it title-less. Eventually it will have a title. There's a large probability I'll change character names and 'destiny's' but I reserve that right.

Would you like to read an expert? Of COURSE you would. OK I'll find a part to share.

Please be warned, you can click back on your browser at this point and save yourself from more random words. BTDUBS, this is copyrighted so I don't want to see no tomfoolery :) In honor of SOPA ;)

...My last obstacle was getting around the 8-foot high trees that lined the border between our two yards. I couldn’t go in the front the officer would see me. My only choice was to try to crawl under the dense bushes. I got down on my hands and knees and pushed my way through the thick trees. The branches snapped across my face and I could feel the knees of my jeans getting soaked through. It took a little maneuvering but I made it to the other side. I could see where the sliding glass door had once been; it was now sealed with thick plastic and bright blue tape. As I got closer to the door I reached into my backpack and pulled out the pocketknife I had stolen from Kyle’s room before I left. This knife had duel purposes; first I was hoping the broken door would still be broken and covered exactly how it was so I could cut through and be in no problem. The second reason was a little more nerve-wracking; I had to have a weapon to protect myself if anything went wrong. Someone could be here just like last night and I had to give myself a fighting chance. As I made my way across the yard I snapped the knife open, my hands were trembling so bad the knife fell to the grass. I picked it up and continued to the door. There were several layers of heavy plastic covering the door so it took a few minutes to cut a big enough slit for me to fit through. As I stepped through the plastic a terror ripped through my body, the last time I had been in this house was when I found the bodies of my dead parents. The fear gripped my whole body and I stopped just inside the kitchen. I couldn’t go upstairs where her body had been, couldn’t see the red stained carpet. Taylor, the mental image of my sister flashed through my head, I had to do it for Taylor. If we were going to stay together, I needed to do this. After steadying my breath I crossed the kitchen into the hallway, I rushed past the office door that, thankfully, was closed. I started climbing the stairs, each step I took brought me closer to the horror, the awful images crashing like waves through my thoughts...

This book is about two sisters who have to deal with finding their parents murdered and finding a way to stay together amidst turmoil and heartache. PS-the formatting didn't transfer over from Word so it's all one big paragraph.

Only one person (hollla Michelle) has read this partially written book and she only read it when it was like 40 pages long but she said she liked it. It might be a situation like that ugly sweater your grandma gets you for Christmas that you just 'love' and wear the next time you see her then it goes in the donation pile....it's highly possible.

Pinterest Party

2012-01-16T21:25:00.000-08:00

Take 2...

haha The plans for the last party didn't quite pan out. It was just far too busy to get together at the end of December. It will be better this way anyways, we will plan a date and time that will work for most everyone. We'll also find a good location with enough space.

I've been thinking about what the best way to have this get together would be. After reading a few other ideas from successful pinterest parties, I've decided how I think it would work best.

I have made a new Pinterest Board if you haven't already been invited to join it, let me know and I'll invite you so you can contribute to the board. If everyone pins a few of their favorite crafts/recipes then we can get an idea of what people want to make. Then, each person will pick one item that they want to bring to share. If we each pick a project we want to do and bring supplies for three additional people (4 total) to make, then we could have a variety of projects to choose from. Not everyone will get to do everything but I think that's ok, we all have different tastes so it should be ok. If you choose a simpler project that would be cheap for everyone to make that's fine too. Then everyone (or whoever wants to) could bring a refreshment they've pinned to share. We could all bring extra crafts we want to personally work on too if we wanted.

What do you think? Good, bad? I'm not married to this idea so if it seems difficult to pull off, we can make it simpler, it's OUR party, we can craft what we want to, craft what we want to....ok sorry.

If you want to participate, let me know!! We'll work it out. If you have friends/coworkers/neighbors who want to join us, they are more than welcome too!! It would be important to know how many people to expect though for space and craft supply reasons. If they are on Pinterest they can also be added to our board if they'd like to be, just let me know!!

I think a Saturday would work best, I have a fun coworker friend who really wanted to participate last time but she works pretty much every evening. If a Saturday doesn't work, we can change it to a Friday too.

Get Pinning Party People!!

p.s. who else LOOOOVES this snow?! I love having snow days even though I'm old. =)

Divergent

2012-01-14T18:57:00.000-08:00

On Wednesday I spent the day at the hospital with my grandma. She called me in the morning and asked me to drive her to the ER so off I went to Ferndale to pick my grandparents up and drove them to the hospital. We sat around and waited, ate a realllly good lunch, waited some more, changed rooms again, etc....This might make me crazy but I really don't mind going to the hospital, so if you ever need a ride and someone to wait around let me know! I find hospitals so intriguing. I make up stories about the patients/nurses/doctors in my mind and try to imagine what their lives are like..weird? Yes. Oh well. This has nothing to do with this blog but it happened to be Wednesday that THIS book came from the library:

if only it had been there six hours before so I could have been reading it while waiting. I digress.
This was one of those books that I literally could not put down. I carried it around with me everywhere. When I couldn't sleep at work (up at 1:30 ugh), I got it out and started reading it, while I blow dried my hair in the morning, I read it, while I ate lunch, I read it....you get the idea. There was something so interesting about this book, the choices that the main Character (Beatrice) Tris has to make had me on edge the entire book. It's kind of intense. It reminded me of the Hunger Games series in a way, but I didn't find it as intense, although it had it's parts. It's teen fiction so it's fairly easy to read and I ended up finishing it in about 24 hours. I would highly recommend this book, the next book comes out in May. I think there will be three books total.

Am I the only one who gets extremely bummed when a book series end?! I get so engrossed and I have the 'movie' playing in my mind and when it's over, it's so so sad. Maybe that's just me?!

The main plot of this book is the choice the 16 year old's have to make. Their world has five Factions. Five ways of life. At age 16 is when they chose what faction they will live in for the rest of their lives. There are those who live factionless but that is worse than death to most. These are the factions:

ABNEGATION: 1. to refuse or deny oneself (some rights, conveniences, etc.); reject; renounce.
2. to relinquish; give up

The people in Abnegation never think of themselves, they always think of others first, they don't even use mirrors because it's considered selfish. This is the faction the main character, Tris was born into, will she choose to stay with her family? Or not? Hmmmm read the book.

AMITY: 1. friendship; peaceful harmony.
2. mutual understanding and a peaceful relationship, especially between nations; peace; accord.
3. cordiality

I took a faction test online and was told this would be my faction if I lived in the Divergent world. I would have said it's a toss up between this and Abnegation for myself.

CANDOR: 1. the state or quality of being frank, open, and sincere in speech or expression; candidness.
2. freedom from bias; fairness; impartiality.

The Candor never lie. They see things in black and white, and only wear those two colors. They are honest never even telling a white lie.

DAUNTLESS: fearless, undaunted.
Undaunted: courageously resolute, especially in the face of danger or difficulty; not discouraged.

The Dauntless are reckless in my opinion, they jump off buildings and trains. They are there to 'protect' the people. They should be brave and without fear.

ERUDITE: characterized by great knowledge; learned or scholarly

The Erudite devote their lives to learning and knowledge. They are too smart for their own good.

So why is the book called Divergent? What if someone was a mix of two of these factions, would that be a good thing or a bad thing? Someone who is a mixture of two factions is called a Divergent, which is a very dangerous word and it should be kept secret.

Just read it. Seriously it is good.

What faction would you belong in? dun, dun, dun.

Pinterest Crafting #2

2012-01-12T19:48:00.000-08:00

P.S. Please don't judge my horrible picture. I just can't bring myself to take out my big camera to take a good picture, besides she has good pics of the same thing on her blog.

Today is Pinterest Thursday!! I almost forgot it was Thursday after a rather unusual Wednesday. But I remembered just in time. This week I am posting a handout I made for my Visiting Teaching ladies for January. There's a blog that I pinned on Pinterest a few weeks ago and I've gone back to it several times since pinning. She has some really cute church related ideas and free handout ideas. Her site is called Inkablinka. If you'd like to follow my Church Pinterest board click here! Here is the direct link to the instructions to make these wheels.

I really love handouts, making, giving, and receiving them. It's not a waste of time to me, even if it gets looked at for a day or two then gets thrown out, I still like making them. I hope that this site will help me be a better visiting teacher. I'm more likely to go if I have a cute handout or treat for them :D.

here are a few very random pins from my funny board. They have nothing to do with anything but I thought they were funny...duh

Test Blog

2012-01-10T11:37:00.000-08:00

Blogger is being wack. I'm trying to upload a new header but it says I have exceeded my photo storage....what?! Looks like I'll be looking for a new blog hosting site if I can't figure this out soon. I never even knew my pictures were being sent to some random picasa album I knew nothing about. So enjoy some random quotes!!

DTE

2012-01-09T21:54:00.000-08:00

Distance to empty. Woops. Second time in a row that I've been sweating my cars gas level. I made myself a rule when I bought my very own car when I was 18/19ish. That rule was I'd never let my gas tank get below half full, you just get better gas milage and you don't have to worry about running out of gas blah blah. Well our Costco is basically another territory of Canada if you didn't know...if I wanted to go to a Costco with less canadians, I'd go to canada. It's ridiculous. so i avoid the Costco gas line as much as possible. I will go if it's before 8am (when the line to get into Costco starts) or after 9pm. Lately I just go after I get off work at 6 in the morning and I never have to wait in line!! So that will be my plan tomorrow after I get off work. Be jealous.

Music of the week:
Worst: call me maybe -- Carly Rae jepsen
Best: holding on and letting go -- Ross copperman

P.S. I can call it the worst because even though I can't stand it, I know the chorus and find myself humming it :/

This has been a public service announcement.

Pinterest Crafting #1

2012-01-05T11:23:00.000-08:00

If you saw my subway art of 2012 goals yesterday, it might be a little confusing but I know exactly what each thing means and I guess that's what matters since they're my goals!! One of the more mysterious words was Pinterest. My goal isn't to pin more (we all know I DON'T need to do that) but my goal is to make something that I find on Pinterest every week. It could be a new recipe, a craft, knitting, crocheting, sewing, photo idea, etc... I've decided that I am going to try to use Thurdsday's as my Pinterest idea day.

The big idea is that I'll go through my boards and kind of clean up a bit. I have pinned A LOT and in the beginning I pinned without abandon so I need to go through and reorganize and unpin some things. I'm also trying to be really good at pinning the PermaLinks, not just the blog where the idea was found. That is one of my BIGGEST pet peeves about Pinterest is people don't know how to pin properly. So often I click on one of my pins and am taken to some blog where I have to scroll through two years of blogs to find the ONE. So I've started just going to the pin's link and pinning it for myself so I know it's right.

ANYWAYS.....sorry for the tangent.

Today's project is from a pin I pinned a few days ago. I made myself a pair of "15 minute PJ pants". Truth be told, just folding the fabric right took 15 minutes but once that was done, they were pretty simple.

I had purchased a whole bolt of this crazy pink houndstooth flannel the day after Thanksgiving for $6.99, when it's usually $50-60 bucks for the bolt. That's a good deal to me!! The next day they were all on sale for $25 which is still a 'good deal' but not a 'great deal'!!

Since our YW activity yesterday was to make PJ's I thought I'd make a quick pair. Here is a horrible iPad pic:

They are super bell-bottom-ey because I didn't use the best pair of PJ's to trace...oh well.

Here is the direct link to the blog with the instructions and here is a link to my sewing board if you're interested.

Happy Pinning/Crafting/Creating

2012 Goals

2012-01-04T13:03:00.001-08:00

in the form of Subway Art. (to see the whole image, click on it, you know you want to.)

Out with the Old and in with the New

2011-12-31T23:54:00.000-08:00

One last post before 2011 is officially over for us on the West Coast? Sure. It will be quick because I need to watch the ball drop and work on a few things before tomorrow. Just got home from dancing to this:

for four straight hours...well not literally but it was on for a loooong time. I let myself stop after I got 4 stars on the Bollywood song :D.

I've never danced in 'public' but we were at the Pratt's house and the peer pressure just got to me/I just realllllly secretly wanted to do it. Emily and I danced the most, we were in high competition, not even the babies could get in our way ;). I hide my dancing ~~queen~~ fool side most of the time but tonight it just had to be set free. I think 2012 will be a good year to work on my moves.

Be ready world. \\

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Daughter of God YW Lesson

2011-12-29T11:11:00.000-08:00

Being in the YW Presidency for my third time in a row means that I get to keep teaching the girls ages 12-18 at church once or twice a month. When I first started this calling, it made me SICK to my stomach and I was nervous and shaky but now after four plus years, it's gotten 'easier'. Easier in the fact that I know all the girls and am more comfortable speaking in front of them, but sometimes it's difficult for me to know exactly what they need to hear...

With this new presidency, I believe I'm teaching every 2nd week now but since it's the new year, the schedule is a little wonky so I get to teach the first lesson of the year. This is usually my favorite because it's usually a basic principle. Sometimes I do best with the basics.

This year it's, A Daughter of God.

We say these words every week with our theme but how can they know it, beyond any doubt?

While preparing, I found this quote card that I really liked, but the resolution was too low to print, so I made my own. If you'd like to see /download it, you can click here (side note, I LOVE when I'm on Pinterest and I see people who aren't LDS pin LDS quotes & Scriptures, it happens alllll the time):

Daughter of God Handout

This is my very first time using Google Docs so hopefully this will work. It doesn't look right when you open it online, but when you open it with word it should work well...if not let me know and I'll fix it.

I have several other things we are going to do during this lesson but this will be my handout at the end of my lesson, so they all have that reminder.

Handouts are always my favorite part of a lesson, I still have many from when I was a youth. I'm close friends with many of the girls in our YW and I've been over to many of their houses and I LOVE when I see their bathroom mirrors, many have my handouts lining their mirrors or in their rooms hanging on the walls. It just reminds me why it is OK for me to spend a little more time/effort on these handouts. Sometimes I wonder if all the time is worth it, but seeing that tells me that it is. I don't always have to go so extravagant but I know for me personally, they will keep them if they are cute/fun.

This one was really simple but calm at the same time.

Enjoy the handout and if you have problems let me know!!

Edit:
I forgot I was going to post this poster too (found via Pinterest). This is the mutual 2012 theme

Christmas, Unwrapped

2011-12-26T22:03:00.000-08:00

Get it? My goodness I'm so punny...get it? OK I'm done, promise :).

I got prettttttty spoiled this Christmas. I think the older you get, the more you buy for others, you start to get really good gifts yourself...maybe? I know it's not about the gifts but I don't hate it =).

Here are a few of my favorite things!

A zebra pillow pet, every 24 year old needs a pillow pet, come on!! I seriously love it, it might seem childish but I've used it a lot.

So practical, a car emergency kit. It's about time I got this kind of thing. I think I want to put together a whole 72 hr kit in my car too just in case. I love preparedness.

Ummmm a whole Costco sized pack of hand warmers because my hands and feet are always so cold. I actually didn't know these were for me, I saw them in the back of the car a week or so ago. I was driving through a parking lot and saw a homeless person's cot set up under the eves of an abandoned store. That person probably needs this more than me. Maybe I'll go back and see if they're still there.

KB socks, represent!! These are my favorite socks ever. Thanks Costco & Mom for getting them for me while I was shopping with you. Your efforts to hide them from me didn't go unnoticed.

Random box of stuff, mostly stocking stuffers, scrapbooking stuff, HARRY POTTER, a smash book which I'm excited to start and various other items.

A NEW CANON LENS!!.....

.....that doubles as a drink holder..... :) wah wah....

Some new TOMS. Favorite shoes ever. I got another pair in an army green color from my aunt as well. So two kids who need shoes now have them.

This might be one of my favorite favorites. Roald Dahl was/is my favorite author. I have been wanting to buy all of his books for several years now but it was going to be very expensive. Well at Costco one day I saw his entire collection for 25 bucks. I was with my mom and she bought them as an early gift for me. See I'm way too spoiled.

My dad got me this book--that will remain sideways--just flipping through it quickly I've seen some really neat projects I can't wait to try. Perhaps they will be blog worthy?

A gypsy machine for my cricut. This is actually kind of for me and my mom. It's a handy dandy device that lets you plan what you want your cricut to cut...trust me it's neat. Not pictured: I also got a cricut case to use while transporting my cricut.


Super excited for my new soft box to go over my flash. I took Christmas party pics a few weekends ago and used a SOCK to get the same effect, but this looks more professional :). I also got a cord that makes my flash 'portable'.

My brother also got me a handy carrying case for all my paints as well as some new brushes and saaweeeet paints.
Santa heard that I needed a new external hard drive to back up all my photos and the big guy pulled through.

But the best part/s of Christmas?

the gift that keeps on giving!!

I bought us all animal print snuggies (a WOOT special). Not pictured: My father wearing his cheetah snuggie....except that he never even took it out of the package...rude.

But really the funnest part was skyping with my brother Ty. He's serving a two year mission in Santiago, Chile. This was his last Christmas in the mission field!!

So one more skype until he's home...well in Aug/Sept. So he's still got some time.

I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas. What a wonderful time of year. It's my favorite time of year, fo sho.

Really Last Minute

2011-12-23T21:47:00.000-08:00

Two blogs in one day...wahhhhhh? WEIRD. Someone better take my temperature. Like I mentioned in my last post, I wanted to very quickly, post about a few very last minute Christmas gifts I'm working on. All my gifts from my previous post are wrapped and ready to go, if I didn't have a splitting headache I'd go deliver them now :(.

The first is a gift I'm making for my grandma, I should be working on it now.
It's going to be a birthday calendar eventually.

So I had a bunch of these poker chips...why we have them when none of us play poker, I dunno, but we did. So I started by spray painting all the ones that weren't black, black.

Then I picked out 6 pieces of slightly patterned paper and printed the first name of each member of my family along with the day they were born ex: Mariah 8th.

Cut out each name with a circle punch and glued it onto the now dry poker chip.

This is a horrrrrible picture of the basic idea behind this bday calendar:

It will be a wooden piece that says, Peck Family Birthday's. Underneath that, I'll have the months written across the bottom of the board. Each month will have an eye hook beneath it where I will daisy chain the poker chips.
Still with me?
No?
OK.

This tool above is called, a Crop-a-dile. It cuts through just about anything. I'm able to cut through the paper and plastic poker chip. Once the holes are made, I'll use jewelry jump rings to connect the chips, in order under their corresponding month

I apologize deeply if you're still reading. I don't think I'm making ANY sense but it's been a long day!!

These are all the poker chips, basically done, I still have a few more that I need to redo do to glue mishaps. Tomorrow I'm going to punch holes in each of these and place them in order by month.
I guess this might be a gift that gets delivered a little after Christmas because I don't have any wood to make the sign. So that's a bummer. I think I also need to find some eye hooks.

SOOOO if you're still reading here is another last minute gift I've been working on:

Headband Earwarmers!! They are so hip right now and I can make them in about an hour so they are the ultimate last minute DIY gift!!

I've made three in the last day and a half, one was already gifted so just two are shown. These two will have homes soon. If you know how to do basic crochet stitches, you can make this so super easily.
If you want to make your own, watch this video.
I didn't make mine as thick as hers and I added a flower. She's very wordy and kind of slow getting to the point so once I watched enough to know what I needed to do on the ends, I just made up my own directions as I went but it's pretty simple.

I'm thankful for my knowledge on how to knit and crochet, I'm able to make gifts for people that I wouldn't otherwise be able to make. It's pretty fun to watch a piece of 'string' as my dad calls it (yarn) turn into something else like a hat, blanket, scarf, earwarmers etc...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Breaking My Rules

2011-12-23T18:48:00.000-08:00

Rules are made to be broken right?

In this case, RIGHT.

One of my most favorite and essential Holiday rules is that I do not shop after about the 15th. Usually I have all my shopping done way before that anyways so it's not a hard rule to follow.

This year I made an exception. Seeing all the gifts under my tree grow over the last few days made me feel reallllly spoiled (even though about half of the gifts under the tree are FROM me to my family). But we are pretty lucky to have good jobs and to be able to afford nice Christmas's every year.

This year I decided to grow up. I have picked a name off a giving tree pretty much every year for about five years by myself. So I shopped for an 8 year old girl this year. I hope she likes the items I got her, I hope she knows someone was/is thinking of her.

The other part of this 'growing up' was deciding last night that I needed to get a few gifts for a particular family. I'm not sure why, but I couldn't stop thinking about it all night while I should have been sleeping.

Today I broke my rule, I braved the crowds/traffic and last minute shoppers to get a few things for this family. I'm only writing this because I know she doesn't read my blog, I don't want them to know it was me.

It feels really good to do something for someone else. No matter how big or small the impact might be. They only have three people in their family so it wasn't very hard to find gifts, but I did want them to be useful gifts.

Now I'm listening to music and packaging up their gifts to deliver under the cover of night :). I sound so CIA I know....psh.

I wish I could buy something for everyone who needs a little extra this year, but I know that's unrealistic but I'm happy to help one small family.

I think this will be my new tradition. Since I don't have my own own family, I can 'adopt' one. I have the means to do so, so what's stopping me?!

Should have been doing it all along.

Even if there are times we are struggling financially, there are other ways we can give. We can use our talents and time to bless others around us. It is Christmas after all.

Stay tuned, maybe tonight or tomorrow I'll update with a few reallllly last minute Christmas gifts I've been making. I know you have nothing better to do these last few days before Christmas than read my blog :) just kidding.

2011 favorites

2011-12-19T21:58:00.000-08:00

This year hasn't been too different from past years but on my way to work tonight I was thinking of my favorites of 2011 so here's a mishmash list...with no pics because of my iPad:

1.going to see two movies in one day new years day, Gulivers travels and tangled. Loved both of them.

2. Buying a kayak and trying something new. I love it...I'm not great at it but I love it.

3. Using said kayak to explore the sound, San Juan's, nooksack, etc...

4. Getting a letter from my parents company telling us we were headed to disneyworld in September...all expenses paid. The day we got the letter was incredible!!

5. Sticking to my project 356 and taking a photo EVERY day this year...more on that soon?

6. Being the busiest I've ever been with my photography

7. Being called back into young women's after being released....again!!

8. Getting a new position at work that gave me more hours (overnight) that works with my otherwise nutso schedule

9. Buying myself an iPad...using my new work shift as an excuse ;$ hey it's paid for itself by now, I don't regret it at all!!

10. Redoing my room, finally. It also meant I purged crap like I've never done before...let's not talk about the fact that it needs to be done again ;) but at least I cleaned it last week and mt. Vesuvius of clothing is GONE!

11. Going to girls camp with some of the best people I know and getting to know them better.

12. Going to Disneyworld!! I'm convinced it is the happiest place in earth jkjk kinda.

13. Going to some fun concerts and taking a few fun road trips.

14. My Harry potter themed birthday was pretty spectacular, the movie opened the weekend of my bday so a few of us from the scrapbook retreat went. The whole day was HP themed.

15. Helping my grandparents redo their house.

16. Videotaping my grandpa tell his stories...need to finish though.

17. Making things, crafting in whatever form I wanted

18. Making a few new friends.

19. Sharing/talking about my church with a friend at work a lot.

20. Finding pinterest and addicting all my friends to it

This isn't all that happened this year, just a few things I can remember. It was a good year and I have some big goals for next year hopefully next years list will be even better. Hopefully it will include skydiving with Emily!? I reallllllly want to skydive. You can check out my new board on pinterest it's called, what do you want to do before you die. It's my bucket list maybe a few things will be crossed off next year!!

Nacho Libre and Me

2011-12-15T14:07:00.000-08:00

I've had some very strange posts in the past, but this one might just take the cake on strange and possibly disturbing?

I know you are all wanting to see more of my painted figures...hehehahahahohoho ya right but here they are anyway:

one of the star wars guys with Nacho Libre. Ty is getting the Nacho Libre guy in his next package and the hairy star wars guy is going to be added to my star wars set for my uncle:

I do find it a little funny that I've never been into Star Wars and the only names I know are, Darth Vader, Luke, and there's a princess. OH MAN I forgot I was going to make them glowing swords. Perhaps I'll make a few out of toothpicks after I post this...

This is quite possibly the weirdest thing that's ever been on my blog:

They're for my dad for Christmas so shhhhhhhhh. It's Kiss, one of his favorite bands when he was younger. Don't ask me WHY that is. These officially take the cake as being the hardest figures I have painted on yet.

Soon I should be getting another box in the mail full of more wooden pieces and I have some plans for those to turn into nativities, random people, and Ghost Busters. Right now I'm working on painting more princesses, heroes, and a set of Harry Potter characters. This has turned into a really fun activity for me, albeit time consuming and a little frustrating when I accidentally mess up...So far I've only really messed up bad on one, Harry Potter. His glasses weren't exactly round so I tried to fix it and my hand spasmed in the middle of it and so he has reallllly thick glasses now. OH well.

Today I made this snowflake for my uncle, another Star Wars thing. I believe they are called Storm Troopers (I totally looked it up). I might get brave and make a few more but don't count on it.

When (if) I Grow Up...

2011-12-13T20:35:00.000-08:00

I am going to own and operate a Christmas tree farm, not only will I sell Christmas trees, I will have pumpkins, apple cider, whole wheat apple cider donuts, apple trees, race car track, inside snow park, and so much more!!

It will be next to Disneyland.

There will also be a rock wall.

Did I mention Christmas trees? Each person will get a full size candy cane with the purchase of a tree.

It will be really fun.

I will try to have an elephant, lion cubs, giraffes, and koala bears. No promises though.

This was my dream.

I wish this was reality.

Not lying I've actually really wanted to own a Stoney Ridge type farm since the first time I went there. Maybe one day!!

"Forget Not...

2011-12-09T14:40:00.000-08:00

...the difference between a good sacrifice and a foolish sacrifice."
-"Forget Me Not" talk given by Dieter F. Uchtdorf

How can I use this council in my life, right now? If you've read or heard this talk, you'll know that he uses the example of staying up all night to embroider names on pot holders to use in a church lesson, versus staying up all night to help a child who is having a nightmare. Foolish vs. Good sacrifices.

I am SO guilty of this, not embroidering names on pot holders but close enough. I've sacrificed lots of time/supplies/energy for my various church callings and other events. I'm happy to do it, but I need to find the balance between doing too much and wearing myself down and still taking the time but not going as crazy as I usually do.

Today I was stressing out and trying to finish various projects for Christmas gifts and our ward Christmas Party when I blew a fuse. In the middle of sewing gifts, hot gluing, ironing, etc. Great. After having no success in trying to fix it, I decided instead of stressing out and throwing my unfinished pillowcases to the ground, I would leave it for later. If I don't get those pillowcases done, it doesn't mean I'm a bad person, it doesn't mean my friends (who they're for) are going to like me any less. I can always finish it later and give it to them when they're done.

I'm going to try to be more relaxed and 'go with the flow'. I stress out far too much and I've realized this week as my eye has been twitching for over a week, a friend said it was due to emotional distress...I'm not sure I'm emotionally distressed but I am stressed. I also get this weird scaly skin on my eyelid when I'm stressed and it's baaaack. ugh. So I'm going to let go. Whatever happens, happens. If we don't have enough decorations for the party, well that's just going to be how it is.

A friend posted this list on Pinterest today after I blew the fuse:

instead of immediately starting another project I printed this list and went through each reference and highlighted my favorites in my scriptures. I especially read the "When you are stressed out" reference it's D&C 10:4, "Do not run faster or labor more than you have strength and means provided to enable you to translate; but be diligent unto the end."

I feel superficial and ridiculous for allowing myself to get worked up over such silly things, there are real problems and real people suffering, I don't need to freak out about sewing a pillowcase.

On another note--

A friend on FB posting this as his status today:

I was also thinking of this today. Last night on my way to work I realized that I was in desperate need of gas. I've never had the blinking DTE screen show up and my gas gauge was below E. I apparently had zero miles before running out of gas.

Well, I was driving thru Ferndale and realllly didn't want to stop at 7-11 because there are some hooligans and ruffians (Tangled :)) who hang out there. So I didn't get gas. All night I was worried I'd become stranded in the early morning on my drive home. I had visions of calling my mom and making her bring me a filled gas tank on the side of the road. I said a quick prayer.

On my way home this morning, I prayed again. I REALLY didn't want to be 'stuck' without gas. It's cold and embarrassing.

I drove straight to Costco at 6:12am (NO CANADIANS!!) and was happily surprised that 1, I made it!! and 2 gas prices were much lower than they have been!!

As I was pulling out of the costco lot, I remembered that I had prayed several times to not run out of gas, amidst my internal celebrating I realized I needed to say another prayer. One where I didn't ask for anything but simply thanked Heavenly Father for letting me get to that silly gas station. I did.

I need to remember this more often.

A Very Homemade Christmas

2011-12-06T11:47:00.000-08:00

It seems like every year I end up making more and more gifts. I think they're more personal and fun that way? Maybe that's just me haha. I used to think it was just cheaper to make items but I've learned that's not always the case :D. It also takes a lot more time, which is running low. I'm watching the clock as I blog because I have lots to do and have to go back to work in just a few short hours. Here's an incomplete short list in pictures of what I've been working on for gifts this year:

Pillowcases!! Wowzers I've been making these things like crazy...well I've made like 6. I made this one two times for each of my brothers, I'm sure Ty REALLY likes his haha. I didn't know how great it would be for his mission, oh well!! I'm also making 'Cars' ones for two little boys and a zebra one for a cousin still.

I'm sure whoever has been to my FB is tired of seeing these pictures. But These are my favorite homemade items this year!! They are so fun to make, although they are time consuming, they are so relaxing to make (even though I'm very tense when I paint, esp. such small pieces.)

I decided the girls needed boys to play with too. I remember as a kid Ty and I would always play with our action figures and you NEED the heroes to rescue the princesses. DUH Ty. So they are now a set.

I'm going to make these ones today or tomorrow for my uncle who is obsesssssed with starwars. He has a WHOLE room dedicated to Star Wars/Star Trek. RIDICULOUS. He has glass cabinets he keeps his TOYS and 'real' light sabers. hahahaha good thing I like him, otherwise I would not make these. I've never been a big fan and have a hard time staying awake during these movies.

And here's a really bad pic of one of the blankets I'm working on. It's almost done just maybe four more rows and edging.

______________________________________________

For those interested in doing the craft night I think we decided to do it Friday, Dec 23rd. Hopefully this will work for you, let me know if it does/doesn't. I know it's pushing it pretty close to Christmas and people have lots going on. Would 6:30 work for everyone? Also I need to think of one craft we can all make together, I was thinking this might be fun:

Coconut oil lipgloss

It would be pretty cheap and we could make a lot with the ingredients. It would be a fun small last minute gift option. Or if you have any other ideas, let me know, I'm WIDE open for suggestions. I'm having a hard time coming up with ideas.

The rest of the night can be spent working on your own crafts/gifts/wrapping gifts etc...location TBD.

(PS Michelle, I KNOW you'll be home by the 23rd so looks like you'll have to participate in our CRAFT night!! :D)

Get Your Craft On

2011-12-02T11:03:00.000-08:00

YAY! It seems like there are several people who would like to do a craft day!! (and Doneva, you are NEVER too old to craft!!) So now that I think we have enough people I think what we'll do is pick one craft to all do together, I'll gather the items together. Then The rest of the time can be spent crafting on whatever you'd like to craft. Sound good? That would be way easier for me.

I'll find a few ideas for you to vote on which one you'd like to make as a group. Soon.

It's not too late either to sign up to come or bring a friend, obviously since nothing is even really planned.

We also need to figure out a date...that might be difficult. I'm not able Monday-Wednesday nights and there's already lots planned for the other nights. Here are three dates I've found that could work in the evening -- (too bad it's the 3rd tomorrow, that would be the perfect date!!)
Saturday 17th --anytime works
Thursday 22nd--anytime but I have to be done by 8:45pm to get to work
Friday 23rd--anytime.

I realize those last two dates might be pushing it close to Christmas...yikes. Maybe this isn't such a good idea, we could do it another month too if needed.

Hmmm just let me know. I'll also have to figure out a place to hold this shindig. I know the Lynden Library has a free community room any other ideas?

Anywhoooo here are a few crafts I'm working on currently:

snowflakes out of old book pages for our ward Christmas party. They might end up being just swirly's instead of snowflakes though, we'll see.

And my Princess in a Box project. Obviously they are not all done, cinderella is rather nakey right now and she along with mulan (and not pictured Tiana) need their bun's glued on. Several others need their jewels glued on to fancy them up a bit. I want to make several more sets for Christmas gifts but we'll see if that happens. I also have guy figures to make some superheroes and whathaveyou.

This set might go to someone who is partially blind because my painting skillllz aren't quite up to par. Yikes.

Well, let me know what dates work, if you have friends interested, and if you have any craft ideas we could make as a group!!

Craft Party RSVP?

2011-11-29T13:40:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking it would be fun to have a crafting party. I'm not sure if you are on Pinterest or not, if not, I'll send you an invite :D. Anyways...I was thinking it would be so fun to have a big pinterest craft party!! (Or ANY craft party). I know December is SUPER busy for lots of people but maybe there would be one night open to anyone who wanted to participate.

I was trying to decide how it could happen, I was thinking several different options here they are:

#1- Everyone bring one craft to share. You provide all the supplies for the craft you want everyone to make and everyone will go away with several (depending on # of people) different crafts/gifts. Only cost is supplies for your craft for everyone

#2- Everyone just brings random crafts they want to work on and we all just work on whatever crafts/gifts we want to work on. No pressure to bring lots of supplies for others' projects- No cost

#3- I could come up with several craft/gift ideas and buy all the supplies and each person could sign up for each craft they wanted to make. Each craft would have a price attached to it just for the cost of supplies

Hmmm #3 might be a lot of work for me but if anyone (tap tap anyone even there?!) would be interested in this, let me know. I think it would be really fun.

Here are some screen shots of parts of my pinterest boards:

There are SO many ideas on these boards.

If you (and a friend?) would be interested let me know either with a comment or email!! Also let me know which option # would work best for you. I guess if anyone actually signs up, majority would win in terms of which option we do--although anyone would be invited regardless, just bring your own crafts to work on!!

I'm thinking candy cane punch would be a must as well as cinnamon sugared almonds (or pecans).

I know I don't 'need' anymore sweets but everyone could also bring a favorite holiday treat to share...or not!!

It would take a little planning and we'd need to have an accurate number of guests to make sure everyone has enough supplies/room so let me know soon!! Let's say by December 5th. If there are enough people, we'll do it. Otherwise I'll just drown my 'sorrows' in egg nog and roasted garbanzo beans :). KIDDDDDING!!

Thankful Day 4

2011-11-23T15:08:00.000-08:00

Today I am thankful for friends and family. My good friend Michelle just came up for Thanksgiving and came over for a little bit today. It's fun to see friends you haven't seen in forever. The Wednesday night before Thanksgiving we've ALWAYS gotten together with the families we have Thanksgiving with and we have dinner, usually at Round Table pizza. Since people have moved/grown up, our group is shrinking but it's still fun to hang out with them. They have a really good salad bar there too :). I'm also thankful that my family puts up with my weirdness and how they try to hide their eye rolling from me.

Today I've made the turkey brine (which the turkey will be going into shortly...as soon as someone gets here to remove the crap from the inside of it, gag) and some ham rolls and cucumber boats for tomorrow. I'm pretty sure I'm cooking most of our thanksgiving meal again this year so I've been trying to get the prep work out of the way. The only things I refuse to make- stuffing (EEWWW) and sweet potato junk with marshmallows, grosssss. So since I've gone on about it, I guess I'm thankful for fooooood too :).

No progress made on either of my goals today. I got off work at 6am, took shelley to the bus at 9:30, grocery shopped right after then hung out with Michelle so I have some good excuses.

Thankful day 3

2011-11-22T21:10:00.000-08:00

This is just easier. I figure since its thanksgiving week I'll just finish off the week writing my thankful posts here then I'll start in my personal journal.

Today I am thankful for many things (as always) but particularly heaters and my coworkers and bosses. I'm thankful for the warmth I have access too. I complain a lot about how cold I am but that's just because I'm always cold but I know it could be a lot worse.
I'm thankful for my job, coworkers, and bosses. I work at a pretty cool place and although it can be pretty stressful and intense at times, it really is a great place to work. I feel like I'm actually doing something good and necessary when I go to work.

I was customer service for the mall for years and never once did I feel like I was really making a difference or truly helping someone. Sure I gave people directions to Macy's and trader joes all the time, I wrapped the gifts they were too lazy...I mean busy to wrap themselves, I was the central person in terms of communicating with security and the mall office. But I never did good. I never felt happy there.

At this job where I work in a home as a caretaker for developmentally disabled adults, I feel needed and I feel like I have the power the help people. It's also a lot of fun most of the time, we have some big personalities here and it's fun learning about them and spending time doing the things they like to do. I also have pretty great bosses, I've known them my whole life and when they took over running the GH they asked me to work for them. They are so nice and generous all the time. They can and will do anything for our clients and they always make sure everyone is happy and healthy (both employees and residents). They go above and beyond and provide a wonderful work environment.

So for my goals, last night I restarted working on my personal progress for YW since I'm in the presidency I get the chance to go through the program again. Im actually really excited to get another medallion, they've changed since the last time I got one :). No progress on the organization front, I slept a total of one broken up hour last night due to raging winds and lots of GH windows so I didn't accomplish much today...

Thankful Day 2

2011-11-21T15:33:00.000-08:00

I really don't plan on using this as my regular form of documenting my goal and what I'm thankful for but right now, it's working. I have no energy to find my journal. I do have a small book that I was going to write in but that's ALL the way downstairs...soooo.

Today I am thankful for technology. This is a very broad category so it's kind of cheating but I like being able to communicate with family in another state (not to mention play scrabble with cousins/uncle in UT ;))
I'm thankful that I'm able to listen to music/books and 'veg' after a loooong day at work.
I'm thankful for whoever told me about Spotify. It's life changing for my music listening.
Dramatic.
I'm thankful for email and how I get to write to my brother who's in Chile for two years and I get to hear from him once a week via email.
I'm thankful for skype and the fact that we get to SEE and talk to my 'Chilean' brother on Christmas day. I'm thankful for my iPad which allows me to do so much especially when I'm working at night. I can plan my lessons/email/watch movies/read books/pinterest :)
I'm thankful for my camera and how it allows me to take a thousand pictures with very little effort
I'm thankful for my phone that let's me text far away friends

My goal from yesterday was to be more organized...today I haven't done much to work towards that goal but I am going to clear my desk off after I'm done blogging so that will be progress. Maybe I'll get a bug in me to clean my room. That's a really hard one for me lately. I usually like to clean my room at night after everyone else is in bed and I can just throw on headphones and go to town but I'm rarely home at night now so my room is getting out of control! This is how I'm justifying it right now:

So far, it's not working for that purpose either but I do have to do some acrobatics to get to my closet...which is weird because all the clothes that should be in my closet are what's preventing me from getting to my closet easily...oh gosh. it's a vicious cycle.

Thankful Day 1

2011-11-20T22:20:00.000-08:00

Today our YW presidency was challenged to write in our journal everyday something we are thankful for and a goal we want to make or a goal we are working on. So since this is a journal of sorts I thought I'd start off with a bang on my blog...cuz I'm too lazy to get my real journal ;)

So today I am thankful for Chapstick. It might seem simple and silly but with the cold and dry weather my lips have been in bad need of moisture...my favorite, green apple Chapstick brand. Mmmm I could eat it. But I won't.

A goal I want to work on is being more organized with my stuff and my time. Phew that's a lofty goal but it's doable...maybe I guess time will tell.

Deseret Book

2011-11-17T11:26:00.000-08:00

So it's kind of a funny story...the other night at work, I had a weird shift because the lady I usually work with was sick so I didn't have my small "break" between my evening and night shifts. No biggie but I had planned on using that break to work on my lesson for YW on Sunday.

So once everyone was down for the evening I went back to my little room, got on my yoga pants and brushed my teeth. While I was brushing, for some reason I left the bathroom (I thought I heard something in the GH) but anyways I ended up over by one of the large book shelves that are in the room I sleep. All the books belong to the couple that live above the GH (ANYWAYS haha) they are all church books and I glanced up and saw one that was called, The Miracle of Forgiveness by Spencer W Kimball. Well, my lesson is on forgiveness this Sunday, so I started flipping through it (after I finished brushing) and it was such an excellent book, I was furiously writing down quotes and scriptures I could use.

Then I decided to get on my iPad and just order the book because I liked it so much. After looking for a copy, I ended up at Deseret Book's site. They had the best price but I didn't want to order it from my iPad so I was going to order it the next day. Well I happened to glance over to the side next to the book and they were advertising a free DB app...so I downloaded it. And guess what? The free app comes with several free books and one of them was the very book I wanted to use for my lesson!! WOOOHOOO. I read several pages and I love it. I don't think we understand just how hard it is to forgive ourselves but this book is written so plainly and it's actually a pretty fun book to read...if a book about something serious can be fun...? He's just a really good author/speaker/person.

I've already started marking my favorite parts of it using the app's highlighter/bookmark options. check it out:

It also comes with the standard works and several other books, it's so worth it if you have an apple product or an android, pretty sure you can download it to a computer too...?!

I just love when that kind of stuff works out. I was obviously meant to have access to this book..hint hint? probably. Just while I was sitting here blogging, I looked up at the shelf above me and found another book called, Standing for Something by Gordon B. Hinckley and I got it down because that's our Young Women in Excellence theme this year and found more written about the virtue of forgiveness and it's twin, mercy.

Guess I have lots of reading/planning to do. My list is just piling up!!

Funk

2011-11-15T15:08:00.000-08:00

I'm in a blogging (and let's be honest, life) funk.

It seems every year around this time I get really stressed out and scatterbrained. I've had like 14 photo shoots in the last few weeks so A LOT of my time has been spent editing on the computer.

I also got a 'new' calling at church. Really I've been in the YW for 4+ years but have gone through 3 presidencies but they always keep me :) I'm just lucky I guess. I love being in the YW. Now my official title is YW Specialist. My friend Nicole and I are now in charge of Wednesday activities and extra activities we have for the girls. It still feels pretty much like the same calling though. Just busier because we've had several meetings to get ourselves organized and whatnot.

A lot of my evenings are spent at work now too. Since I started doing sleepover I have lots of evenings where I can't really get stuff done, but I can read or knit or practice my karate skills on death moths that divebomb me (true story) So far, I've defeated a HUGE spider, two HUGE moths and this morning there was a dead mouse in the closet...so that's totally gross haha. Ewwww I just grossed myself out thinking about it. Good thing I'm there to defeat those vile creatures.

Anywho I just haven't felt like blogging or doing anything really. I've been really super tired lately, all I want to do is sleep but that doesn't happen as much as I'd like.

I think I have 2 more photo shoots scheduled for Christmas parties so I'm probably not scheduling anymore for awhile. It's way cold out (supposed to snow this week..yikes) and all the fall colors are fading so it's not a great time for pics anyways and I could use the break!!

I have some strange patch of skin on my eyelid that I get when I'm stressed/tired and it's baaaack. I think the weather doesn't help it either. I just want to hibernate until April, pretty please?

Oh well, here are a few pics from a few random photo shoots:

Several Seniors-

Several Families-

There's a lot more where that came from but I should get ready for work now =)

p.s. watch this trailer, sooooooo good. Cannnnot wait until March!!!! Then read the book, The Hunger Games if you haven't already, that is all.

Stocking

2011-11-05T21:18:00.000-07:00

It's almost Christmas. I know there's still almost two full months before but it always goes by super quick. With my brother being in Chile serving a mission, we have to get his Christmas package sent off WAY early too, we should probably send it next week so it gets there on time, last year it was a New Years package instead of a Christmas package :(.

I told him last year that instead of buying and sending him gifts for birthday's and Christmas I would just save the money that I would have spent and buy him an ipod when he gets home because the stuff I was sending was dumb little things and he won't have room to bring it all home anyways. Plus his ~~baby~~ ipod broke so he would be coming home to no music. Well for Christmas I decided to make him a few things. I bought fabric to make him a pillowcase (see last post :)) and tonight I made this stocking for him:

Last year my creative friend Taylor (I'd link her blog but it's private) posted pictures of two similar stockings she made for her brothers, one was getting ready to leave and one had one Christmas left before coming home. I loved them and I started thinking about them again the other day. After begging her for the 'recipe' she very nicely wrote me up a pattern and emailed it to me. Only problem is my printer won't print black ink right now...hmmmm. Well I just happened to find a stocking on my table downstairs so I traced it onto black canvas-like fabric and used a too small button down shirt for the top. I just made it up as I went and it ended up working for the most part. The top is a little crooked but he's a boy :D. I also used the skinny side of a real tie that was too short for anyone here. Then I found a gold button to sew on for the tie tack. And of course no missionary is complete without his/her tag.

It only took about 20 minutes and was fairly simple! Hopefully he'll like it!!

Also today, I took some senior pics for my friend:

Ya she's basically a pro. And a special thanks to the Chapins for letting us use their awesome green chair...that I pretended to loose so I could keep it, but I'm too honest for that :).

Pillowcase Fever

2011-11-01T12:22:00.000-07:00

Pillowcases are sewwww magnificent! If everyone gets a pillowcase from me for Christmas you can blame....well I don't know who or what you can blame. I love to sew but I'm not great at it. I taught myself how to sew when I was in middle school so I never learned how to sew 'correctly'. I say if it stay together after you're finished it's a success!! I've made lots of random sewed items, some have failed but that's how you learn. I made a toddler dress in High School for my Home EC project. That was my favorite class, pretty sure I got over 100% (hollla).

ANYWHO. Last Wednesday for activity we made pillowcases. I spent 45 minutes picking out fabric that I thought the girls would like and we were ready. I found some directions from the internet and though there were some new terms and techniques in there we went ahead anyways. I recruited a few good sewers from our ward to come help. I'm SO glad I did because even though I do know how to sew, I'm terrrrrible at cutting fabric so it was nice to learn and to have someone help do that part. Other than cutting (for me) it's a very simple pattern. Here's a link if you want to try it out. This blog I found after getting my original directions is much better at explaining and there's even a video if you need a visual.

Here are some pictures of the pillowcases I've made. I made two just now and one last week. We had 2 girls who didn't come to activity so I made them each one.

I made this one for myself because nobody picked this fabric haha. I like it though.

This one is bright and colorful. We have a new girl in our ward and I don't really know her style so hopefully she'll like it!

I made this one for a girl who loves purple. It makes me a little dizzy looking at it but it's a cute pattern.

This could be bad for my pocketbook. Do people even say things like that anymore? It'll be bad for my ATM card.

Happiness

2011-10-31T22:09:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween!! It doesn't even seems like Halloween even though I'm pretty sure all my blood was replaced with sugar tonight...hmmm anyways.

I'm at work and I'm reading a book I got (from work) called the happiness project. I mentioned it in my previous post (which I'm sure you ALL read with wild abandon) tonight as I was reading, I'm only six pages in btw, I read something that really struck a cord in me. Im going to quote it best I can from my iPad.

"Aristotle declared happiness to be the summum bonum, the chief good; people desire other things, such as power or wealth or losing ten pounds (if only!my personal note), because they believe they will lead to happiness, but their real goal is happiness. Blaise pascal argued, all men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. One study showed that, all over the world, when asked what they want most from life--and what they want most for their children--people answered that they want happiness. Even people who can't agree on what it means to be happy can agree that most people can be happier according to their own particular definition.

She goes on to explain that the opposite of happiness is unhappiness, not depression. There is a difference.

I'm trying to be happier but it's hard, especially when you don't have a firm grasp on what it is exactly that makes you happy. Some find comfort in food and mistake it for happiness, when in reality afterwards you often feel guilty and beat yourself up (personally). Others find happiness in running, or crafting, or spending time with family etc. the list goes on because we all find happiness in different ways.

I was asked a few weeks ago by one of the leaders in my church who I look up to a lot. He asked me what I was Up to, what I was living for. I answered my usual, I work a lot, I take a lot of pictures. He said that's not what I mean, what I want to know is what you live FOR. What gets you out of bed in the morning? The truth is, there's not much else in my life besides work, church, photography. Those things can and do bring happiness but there has to be more. I am on a quest to find my happiness.

What makes you happy?

October Crafting

2011-10-26T11:11:00.000-07:00

This is my FAVORRRRITE time of year, hands down. I don't mind the rain and the wind it's worth it! The colors are intense and it give me an excuse to drink hot apple cider (or this really good herbal/organic tea that I had last night at work, it's peppermint with red clove and it's called world peace or something..it's delicious). It also gives me an excuse to craft a little bit since the weather isn't great anymore. This month has been super crazy but I have had some time to get my craft on. Please forgive me for saying that. It won't happen again...

This was a hat I made during my night shift hours. It took 2 nights and it was done. I love the gradation of colors in this noro yarn. There was enough yarn left over to make these:

The only trouble is, since the yarn is self striping, my 'gloves' are different colors...wooops. OH well I plan for them to be my car hand warmers for my cold early morning drives home. I don't necessarily like to have my fingers covered, even though they are the coldest part of me, it makes me feel confined so I made them easy. If you'd like to make a pair, just cast on 36 stitches (they are a little loose so you could do 32 as well, they stretch). Then work in knit 2 purl 2 ribbing throughout the whole piece until you reach your desired length. Then leave a long tail and stitch up the sides, leaving a hold where you want your thumb to go. Super easy, made both in less than 2 hours. The girl I babysit hinted heavily that she would like a pair for skiing so I have another pair almost done for her.

Again with the sideways pictures :( grrrr. oh well. I made this several weeks ago. I got a free baby pumpkin from Hovander and spray painted it with chalkboard paint. Then I used a chalk marker to countdown the days until halloween! I love Halloween!!

This isn't crafting at all but when I do have a few minutes, I've been enjoying some books. I don't really read during the summer (THAT much) so I'm reading when I can now. I've read the Host once or twice before and it's one of my favorites so slowly but surely I plan on reading this through the winter, library books take precedence since they need to be returned. The Power of Six is the sequel to I am Number Four (which was made into a movie). They are written for teens but I've been sucked in once again (Twilight, Hunger Games etc). I just finished this 2nd book last night, I think it's overdue...SORRY library. The last book is called, the Happiness Project. I just got it as a gift at my work's staff meeting Monday. Since I have an overdue book I've only read the first few pages but I reallllly like it so far. I'll have to finish it up and let people borrow it because even the first few pages made me open my eyes.

This last Monday for FHE the Pratt family and the Peck family met at the church again to update our Ward's Missionary board. We had 6 missionaries out at the beginning of the year, then 5 and we had clocks for all of them because they were all in different time zones. We also had each of their pictures and addresses with a string showing where they are serving. Now, there are only 2 missionaries out, Sister Pratt and Elder Peck. So we decided to update it again. We each printed several pictures from while they've been in the mission field and stuck the up there. We also got red push pins and started marking where ALL the missionaries from our ward have gone since 1980. It's pretty fun to see where members of our ward have served. We also bought blue pins to represent the members of our ward who have served missions but weren't always in F2 and started sticking those up there. It will always be a work in progress but it's fun to do.

Lastly, this is my project for today. We are making pillowcases for YW activity tonight. I'm not the best seamstress. I like to sew, I don't like patterns or instructions (it's that darn ADHD again) so we'll see how it goes. I've enlisted the help of several sewers in our ward to come help! It should be fun.
Now I just gotta see if I can make a sample between now and then.

Even though this month has been crazzzy busy I still find time to do some things that I want. I've been spending lots of time on the computer photo shopping which used to be a really fun thing for me, now it's feeling like a chore, but once I get the 12 photo shoots I have scheduled done and take a break, I will learn to enjoy it again.

PB2

2011-10-19T13:38:00.000-07:00

Is this the future?! I heard about this product a few months ago but was reminded of it yesterday when Dr. Oz had it on his diet show. It's a powdered peanut butter product. Here's a picture:

It seems weird, powdered peanut butter...? but I've heard it tastes just as good as regular PB except it is a lot healthier. Here's what Amazon has to say about it

"Through a unique process created by Bell Plantation that does not involve the use of any chemicals; over 90% of the fat is removed from the peanut. Essentially the oil is squeezed out of roasted peanuts and what remains is a peanut powder. The resulting all-natural product is unbelievable!The possibilities for PB2 are limited only by the users imagination and creativity! An outstanding natural protein source sprinkle on shakes, yogurts, smoothies, great for outdoor sports. Excellent for ice cream as it will not seize while processing, ganaches, frostings, truffles, soufflés, cakes, muffins, brownies. Dissolves easily for savory applications- Asian noodle sauces, breadings and crust especially for seafood. It is also wonderful for baking either reconstituted or as a powder"

2 Tablespoons of this stuff is 45 calories...compared to 188+ per 2 Tablespoons of the 'real' stuff. CRAZZZY. I tend to go skimpy on the PB because of the amount of fat and calories but if I get this stuff, I can indulge and use more than a tablespoon at a time. This will drastically cut down on my morning smoothie calorie wise. You just mix it with a T or two of water. excellent.

Here's a recipe if you're interested:
1 banana the riper the better
1 Cup of milk--about
a spoonful or two of cocoa powder
a small squeeze of agave nectar (or honey)
1-2 T peanut butter
1/2 cup ice

Blend it all together and you have a pretty healthy breakfast. I usually only drink half because it's packed with calories but now with this powder stuff it won't be as bad. Huzzzzah!

Please note, I've never tried this product but I think I'm going to order a container and see how it is. It's like 4 bucks so it's worth a shot.

A Time To Prepare

2011-10-15T20:23:00.000-07:00

2 times every year my church has what we call, General Conference. It's where the leaders of our church spend the weekend giving talks and teaching us. It happens every April and October.

It just happened 2 weeks ago now. This was one of my favorite talks. I still have some that I need to read/watch though :). This guy talks about how we need to prepare now, and not waste time. I'm an excellent time waster...I can prove it to you...right now...I'm blogging when I SHOULD be doing the dishes and finishing up my lesson for tomorrow. So I think I need this lesson/talk more than the young women I'll be teaching it to tomorrow :).

I printed out the talk and started highlighting all my favorite parts and pretty much the WHOLE talk was highlighted blue when I was done so.

This is the handout I made for all the YW.

Now I really gotta go do those things...after my small dance party :D Although NOW is really THE time to prepare...

Give A Chicken

2011-10-13T12:04:00.000-07:00

I have been thinking a lot lately about how lucky and blessed we are to live where we live. I'm not ignorant to the struggles our country has, the fact that many are homeless, hungry, jobless, etc...but personally, everybody I know has SO much compared to the rest of the world. I don't know any sports stars, actors, singers, or people who are just rich and famous because of their family, but I do know a lot of good every day people. People that try to make a difference no matter what their circumstances.

I want to be more like them. So often I say, I NEED this. No, I don't really NEED it. I have a nice house, nice clothes, nice food, nice 'stuff'. I need to get out of the habit of saying, I NEED this or that. I hope people know when I say that, I don't really mean it. My life will go on if I don't get it, it's of little consequence in the big scheme of things. My church teaches that all the temporal stuff doesn't matter when it comes down to it. What matters is charity, service, learning, growing. We give a tithe of 10% of all our income and that goes to help those in need, whatever that need might be. It provides food for the hungry, disaster relief, to help build up the Church and further the work of the Lord. I have always paid tithing without thinking much of it. When I was younger if I got a dollar, I'd give 10 cents. I remember one time I got a $20 bill and I was so excited, then I realized I needed to give $2 away. I thought I was beating the system so I got out my piggy bank and dumped out all my change and gathered $2 in coins (mostly pennies), I stuffed that into an envelope and handed it in on Sunday. The guy I handed it to joked and said he would be walking sideways all day because of all the change in his pocket. But my $20 bill was still in tact. I've always been a saver so I'm sure that went into my piggy bank until a later date anyways.

My point is, I have always had what I NEEDED, and much more. My parents one year didn't have much money around Christmas time (they've told us this story, I don't remember), so they went to the dollar store and bought us several $1 items and I think my mom made us a few gifts. Apparently, we were just as happy with our silly cheap toys than with anything else we could have got. The point is, I don't remember!! Christmas is magical as a kid and still as an adult I love the Christmas Season. More than Christmas morning, I love decorating, listening to music, making treats for people, buying/making gifts for those around me. I am often more excited for everyone to open what I got them than anything else. Don't get me wrong, presents are great, but I think as a society, we over do it. Christmas isn't about gifts, it's not even about music and eggnog. It's about the birth of Jesus, it's a time to celebrate his life.

I know a few people who are struggling this year and probably stressing out about the fact that Christmas will be tight this year, but I hope they remember there are many other ways to celebrate.

My point in this whole post wasn't to talk about all that, I'm not sure why I did but I often don't know why I say/do things.

A blog I frequently read posted about her family this year. They got this catalog in the mail the other day and her kids took it outside and started circling all the things they wanted to give. It's a catalog that let's you make donations to many different needs in anyway one can afford. When her kids were done, she totaled up their amount and she realized that if they donated all the items, her kids wouldn't have a full Christmas. She told them this and they all thought about it for a minute and her 3 boys and 1 daughter came to the conclusion that they would like to get one box of legos to share and the rest of the money could be spent on donations for other children. They were able to add a milk goat to their list as well since they were so unselfish. I think that is amazing. I think/know their Christmas will be just as full if not fuller as it would have otherwise been.

I thought the example that her 4 kids (all under 8 or 9 I think) choosing to forgo their personal WANTS to give another child something they NEED was/is incredible. I wish I could have been more like that as a kid, and I want to be more like that now as an adult.

This year for Christmas, I'll still give my 'regular' gifts but I might throw in a few surprises too. I ordered two catalogs from their site so they should be here soon, if anyone would like to see them, you can order online as well. I don't belong to their church or anything but I think humans helping humans should be everyone's goal. I know even the people I know who are struggling would be more touched with a gift for someone else than for themselves. I think those who have been in tough situations can sympathize much more others' who are in the same boat.

Here's a video about chickens. It costs $14 to provide a family with a dozen chickens (or other poultry) that will provide them with food and income. I could go buy the newest DVD release for $14 or I could provide a family with food for $14. It really puts things into perspective.

are you {Totally Rad}?

2011-10-06T10:19:00.000-07:00

Is there something that you love to do but get frustrated because it's so tedious and repetitive? Maybe you wish there was a way to cut the time it takes you to do that thing in half. Maybe if you could cut the time in half, you'd be able to do MORE of that thing, or you'd just have more time for whatever else you're little heart fancies.

I've been mysterious enough I'm here to tell you the secret of how to cut the time it takes you to make boxed macaroni in HALF...kiddddding. You probably just got really excited sorry for deceiving you. What I'm really here to share is much cooler than cooking a box of macaroni.

It's a program that has literally cut my photo editing time in HALF. Let me take you on a journey.

Maybe about 4 years ago I made my first big purchase (besides my cameras). I bought photo shop. HOLLLA I was so excited and started editing my photos right away. The only problem was it was so tedious, if I took 100 photos in a session (that's a lie I take way more) I would chose let's say 20 to edit. Well I would have to do the same process on almost each photo before getting it to a happy place. After a month or so I decided that photo shop wasn't my best friend anymore, until! I ran across this fancy website for photographers. I don't think I even thought about what I was doing, I just bought their Totally Rad Action sets...both of them. My heart hurt a little at the price but let me tell you what, they were worth every darrrrn penny. I saw an instant improvement and was able to cut my editing time in half. They had wrapped up all the tedious-ness in the little details into one, easy-to-use button. Perfect.

Fast forward a year or two later. I got an email telling me all about a new Totally Rad product, Dirty Pictures. At first I wasn't sure I wanted to click it because, I'm a good LDS girl and the name made me nervous. But upon further reading and seeing pictures I realized it was a way rad photo shop plug-in to put texture on my photos. Once again, I clicked the little Buy It button. Gulp. Once again, totally worth it. I had just started getting into textures and it was taking me awhile to put them on my photos but now, I could do it with just a few clicks. DONE.

Now we come to present day. Just a month or two ago I was checking out the Totally Rad Facebook page and they were giving away something called Rad Lab. Of course I needed to know what this was, so I was back on the fancy website watching the video on this new product. Can you guess what I did next?

Well let's not talk about it, I'm an impulse buyer.

BUT once again I was thoroughly impressed. After working with it for about 34 seconds I realized it's potential. I could open up my photos with this plug-in and in just a few clicks make my own action recipes and run it on 20 photos in 5 minutes. Umm helllllo!! Before TR I typically spent 4+ hours in front of the computer for just one photo session. Now (depending on number of photos) I can have a whole session done in 45 minutes or less. DOH. It's a no-brainier. once again worth every penny. I sound like I'm sucking up but there's just not much bad I can say about these products. The time I've saved by using them is growing exponentially and I'm able to book more sessions and get them out the door much quicker. That's worth it.

Now I can have afternoon tea (I don't, but the point is I COULD), I can spend more time putting my rubber band ball together, I can finally shave my whole leg, not just the front, but mostly I spend time NOT looking at the computer screen for hours on end. My eyes thank you Totally Rad.

Some quick examples and a screen shot! Try to contain your excitement and keep your hands and feet inside the vehicle at all times. (Sorry Disneyworld still on the brain)

This is what the screen looks like when you open Rad Lab. Instant reward, no more wondering what something will look like and spending 20 minutes figuring out just the right look. After you pick a look you like, you have the option to save the "recipe" for future use. That way next time you want to get the same look it just takes .4 seconds and one click.

Now here are some before and afters:

Edit took aprox. 34 seconds.

again took less time to edit than it probably takes you to clip 5 fingernails.

just a few extra photos. I have time to post them all because of all the time I save with all my Totally Rad products.

If you're a photographer, or if you think you're a photographer, or if you've seen a camera, or if you have heard of a camera, I recommend these products to YOU. Rad Lab has streamlined my whole work process and my social life thanks you. (Who am I kidding? I still practice hermit-like tendencies) The point is, I could be social if I wanted to now.

P.S.
RIP Steve Jobs. Thanks for inventing my computer and my iPad and my iPod. You were a genius.

Where for art thou?

2011-10-04T20:59:00.000-07:00

Have you ever seen someone wearing something really cute and you end up coveting it? Have you ever asked that person where they got said item? Have you ever kicked yourself for NOT asking? If you answered yes to any of hose questions, chances are you're a girl! Well I'll get to my point.

While in Florida I rode a bus with a girl who had the CUTEST shirt ever, it was modest, it was colorful/floral-ly, it was in my opinion, the perfect shirt. This might sound silly but I really wanted to ask her where she got it because I wanted one. In theory someone should be really flattered if someone asks you that question right?! Our whole trip to downtown Disney I debated asking her and since I'm the shyest person on planet earth, I chickened out. WHY?! It's not like I'll ever see her again!! I think I was just self conscience you see, due to my profuse sweating and my crazy person hair. I should have asked because I'll tell you what, when you google; modest, floral shirts....you could be looking for a long time.
And for all I know,she could have bought it for $100 in some fancy European boutique. But you better believe im going to keep my eyes out for it. I loved it. That sounds silly but I did. I should have taken a picture to show you but I'd prefer not to be arrested for stalking on my fabulous vacation, that might put a damper on things.

Anywho this is from my iPad so sorry For lack of pictures and any/all misspellings.

HPOE Day 4 & 5

2011-10-03T18:56:00.000-07:00

Day four of our wonderful trip found us, finally, at the Magic Kingdom!! Yahooooo. Let the Memories Begin.

Like all the other days, it was HOT. Probably one of the hotter days of the week.

We were sure to take advantage of the free cool down system they offer:

Splash Mountain. We got 2 fast passes for this ride. It feels really good to be splashed with cold water on a hot day. We did goofy faces for ty. This ride helped us cool off very well. It also camouflaged our sweaty-ness win win.
just a few more:

we're violent like that haha jkjk

this picture didn't turn out. But my dad and I ran over to this side of the park before they closed while they had the fireworks show and nobody was in line. They let us stay on the ride for 2 turns since there was no line. Even though it was like 11pm it was still hot and the water felt good...we were in the front and I got SOPPPPING wet. next time we go we are going to bring old books to 'read' on the ride. this time we pretended to be asleep. Man we are funny.

We accidentally got stuck on this reallllly boring ride called the carousal of progress. we almost missed our lunch reservation because of this dumb ride. but it's all about the AC remember so we weren't really that mad.

We also went on Space Mountain, thunder mountain, (basically all the mountains were covered), the hall of presidents (accidentally fell asleep, dont' judge, haunted mansion, etc...there are a lot of rides here. OH DUH my favorite, Pirates was CLOSED the first half of the day, luckily for them it reopened before we left. That's my favorite boat ride.

We also got ONE count it ONE bowl of Pineapple Dole whip to share between the four of us. LAME. I wanted to bathe in the stuff it's so good but perhaps it's better for everyone that I only got a few bites, it allowed me to still fit on the plane seat for the ride home.

here's jack sparrow....you're welcome

after a day at MK we traveled over to Downtown Disney where we decided to skip our dinner reservations and do a little shopping. We didn't do much though. We got some italian ice and walked back to the bus.

This is at the lego store. They had lots of things made out of legos, imagine that. legggo my lego.

After we decided that was a waste of time we headed back towards magic kingdom. We ended up getting dinner at some fancy hotel that had the monorail driving right through it. Then we took the monorail back to MK where we went on space mountain...awesoooome!! Then sam and my mom decided to go on that ride again then go over to it's a small world (gag me), so my dad and I booked it over to Splash Mountain again. I accidentally stepped on some kids hand because the whole park was sitting in front of the castle to watch the fireworks which meant, NO LINES!! we also got to watch the fireworks on the ride so booya.

After getting off the ride we tried to beat the mass exodus but the fireworks show got over at the same TIME dangiiiit. We ran as best we could through the crowd to get the heck outta dodge. We met up with my mom and sam at the front and fast walked it over to the monorail which had a HUUUUGE dang line. I'm sure the people who were stuck behind us had to wait an hour or longer to catch their ride. We made it on in about 10 minutes, YES.

At this point my foot was hurting something fierce from all my sweet maneuvering/running through the crowd. my foot was so swollen my shoe wouldn't fit on it YIKES and I couldn't move my toes. bad news bears. but I preservered.

We then monorail hopped to catch the one going to Epcot. Once there I shut down one of only 2 open lines because my pass was soaked from splash mountain and it jammed the machine. GRRREAT. but they fixed it and the guy was really nice and kept telling me not to worry about it.

Since Epcot was open late it was pretty busy so all the rides had long lines. We decided to shop at one more place. After that we got 'lost' although I knew where we were. I could hardly walk at this point so we decided to call it a night and headed back to a boat.

Since day 5 wasn't anything fun I'll combine it with this post:
Day 5 was our last day :( we woke up and ordered room service for breakfast then started packing. We had a shuttle bus waiting to take us to the airport. We were on the plane from 11:30pm (florida time) to 6pm (our time) with one brief layover in Atlanta again. I'm happy to report that my father did not receive a full body pat down at this airport--huzzzah!! It was a long day. I changed the language on Sam's personal TV on the flight to Dutch and thought it was the funniest thing in the world (could have been the Dramamine). Couldn't sleep at all on the flight again. looked at a skymall catalog, my favorite part of the airplane ride.

After landing in Seattle we gathered our belongings and headed to our car. We decided to stop for dinner since the last time we ate was at 8:30am Florida time so we were hungry. We found a Chipotles mmmm mmmm gooood I tell ya.

Then we got home a couple hours later and went right to sleep...after talking to my aunt and uncle for a bit.

It was such a fun trip and I can't wait to go again!!

One last picture from our Hollywood Studio day:

Tower of terrrrrro. I had just got done doing something really funny and I stopped right before it took our picture. DANGIT. look at the top row on the left, they were from austriala and one of the ladies was like peeing her pants she was so scared. The people in front of us were French and weird.

HPOE Day 3

2011-10-02T11:48:00.000-07:00

Beware: all these pictures are bad quality because they came from either my phone or my dad's point and shoot.

This day we went to Hollywood Studios. It was one of the funner parks of our stay. The only bad part was I had to rent a scooter because my foot hurt like a zebra to walk around on it. I felt like an old lady and it stressed me out really bad. Here is proof of my scooter-dom

ya I was super happy about it. Just like all the other days today was HOT, at least it wasn't raining though (although apparently it rained while we were on Aerosmith rollercoaster because my scooter was all wet after we got out but it stopped quickly.)

This was my favorite ride probably of the WHOLE week. Seriously if you ever go here, you HAVE to go on this ride. It has good music, it's in the dark, you go upside down several times but you don't really know it because it's in the dark. It's legit. The only bad part was when I almost shut the whole ride down because I dropped my huge scooter key down into the track in the beginning...ya awesome, NOT. They had to call maintenance in to get it out which caused a small delay but it was better than shutting the whole ride down...phew!!
Here is our picture while we were on the ride:

this is taken right at the beginning as it SHOOTS you super fast into the dark tunnel. we are so original. we rode this ride a few times because it was just that fun. it's a fast-passer for sure though because the line is always long.

we also went on the Hollywood Tower of Terror a few times in a row. This one is MUCH less scary than the one at California Adventures. It doesn't drop you as fast and the people aren't in character as well, they aren't scary at all but in Cali. they are all in character and scare the life out of you.

Like I said, it was HOT. so whenever we could take comfort in air conditioning we did!! This was kind of fun, I don't watch/like American Idol but it was a cool concept..mostly because of the AC. My person didn't win so I was bitter for 12 seconds then I got over it. Anyone can audition then they chose 3 to perform at each showtime at the park. Then the audience picks 1 winner from each show then all the winners go back to compete that night. The winner gets a golden AI pass which lets them cut in line at any of the real AI audition spots.

After that we walked (rode) over to the Indiana Jones stunt show

That was pretty cool. They are really good stunt persons.
We went on a few other rides. We FORGOT to go to the otherside of the dang park so we missed all the cool areas with the fake towns which sucks but i guess we'll be going again. If it wasn't so hot I think we would have had more time/patience to explore more.
After this we tried to find a place for lunch since it was like 3 and we didn't hardly have breakfast. No air conditioned places were open/had an opening so we decided to leave the park and grab lunch at a bakery at our hotel. They had really good sandwiches.
We rested a bit again and showered/swam to cool off. This night we had dinner plans made by DIS. It was all kept a surprise so we had no idea what/where we would be doing/going. We all met at big shuttle buses which drove us back to Hollywood Studios. We got to go behind the scenes and skip all the crowds/lines (holllla). We were taken into a big room where they keep all the extra park props. We saw lots of lion king lifesized puppet things, finding nemo, beauty and the beast props etc...We had snacks here and stood around and talked for about 45 minutes.

They also brought in the two people you see on the right who are dressed up. They are CRAAAZY. They stayed in character the whole time. The lady kissed my dad on the cheek and forehead which made him embarrassed. Here they were talking to Sam about how understated he was acting and how he would be perfect for the part of a little orphan boy who wears lederhosen, and begs for the last cup of porridge while dancing. It was for a new movie they were developing. They were pretty funny but they followed us around ALLLLLL night long and never once got out of their weird characters.

After this ew were led across the whole park to a special VIP section that was blocked off for the Fantasmic water/light show. We were served dinner while we waited for the show to start. Then we watched the show...which was kind of scary for little kids. I held Reagan during this show and she kept her ears plugged the whole time and at one point, quickly grabbed my hand and covered her eyes with it then placed them back over her ears. I just kept telling her Mickey would save the day and he did. It was a fun show and it was nice that we didn't have to deal with the HUGE crowd. We got to have dessert while all the people filed out and watched us with envy.

Once we were done with that part they had us walk back across the park even though it was now closed...and we stopped in the Pixar area of the park. That's when the announced they had rented the Toy Story Mania ride for us to ride on for 2 hours. They had prizes for who got the best score, 1st place was an iPad, 2nd was Bose headphones (which was what I was going for) and 3rd was a kindle. I guess that ride always has an hour or longer wait time and it's hard to get on it so it was cool that we got to have free reign over it.

At one point they told us to get off and go meet Buzz and Woody and some army men who were waiting to have their pictures with us. Then we could go back on the ride for however long we wanted.

I didn't win anything...boooo I was actually pretty terrible at this game. It was really hard and we all had carpal tunnel afterwards it seemed like. We were all sweating like crazy because it was such an intense game. hahahaha

After our time was over it was around 12pm so we got back on our shuttle buses and went back to our hotel for the night. It took awhile to unwind after that crazy game. It was really fun though.

Stay tuned for Day 4, the Magic Kindgom!!

HPOE Day 2

2011-10-01T10:46:00.000-07:00

(HPOE stands for Happiest Place on Earth from here on out :))

Day two started out a lot earlier than we all would have liked...we had to be down in the lobby at 7:30am. Once all the DIS people were gathered we walked out to wait for the boat to take us over to breakfast at Epcot. They opened the park early for us and we walked over to the aquarium room place and had breakfast. They also honored the people who have worked there for 20 years at breakfast. Afterward, we decided to catch a bus and head over to Animal Kingdom.

This park was probably our least favorite of all the parks because air conditioning was scarce here. But it was still fun. We only went on one side of the park though. It was more for younger kids in my opinion.

We went on a fun safari ride through Africa here. It was realllly cool. You sit in this big truck jeep thing and drive through 'Africa'. They have all these animals that roam free (roaming free might have been an illusion, I'm sure they have a way to keep them separate) around this part of the park, hippos, lions, cheetahs, ostrich, giraffes etc...

Giraffes and Elephants are my favorite...although that's not a good picture, I have a bettter one but blogger is buggin'.

Next we went on the Everest ride which was the funnest one there. It has a yeti theme and you get in this roller coaster thing and you go backwards, frontwards, in the dark, up, down, all around. It was fun. We went on it two times in a row.

these sideways pictures are driving me nuts but blogger doesn't give me the option to change it. Some people got really freaked out on this ride but I thought it was a blast.
We ate dinner at some fancy restaurant...the only one we could find with AC so we stretched out or experience there :). Did I mention that Florida is HOT? cuz it is, and it's humid. Next time we go were are all bringing 4 outfits per day geeeesh.

After lunch we wandered around. Sam lost his wallet by the river raft fast pass booth, more on that later. We made our way over to the river raft thing that promised to get us soaking wet, which is exactly what we wanted. That was the other fun ride here. My dad and I sat on the side of the raft that didn't hardly get wet AT ALL, the ones who didn't want to get wet (Tiana, Stephanie, my mom) got sopppping wet. Lucky doggggs.

After that someone had the brillant idea to go to the stupid 4D bugs life show. I have said it before and I will say it again, I HATE 3D and 4D is just much worse. I knew what to expect so I propped my feet on the seat in front of me and used my legs to hold my bottom off the seat where I knew 'bugs' would be crawling. I honestly get so much more scared at the little kid rides than the upside down roller coasters, I swear. You shoulda seen me on Finding Nemo, forgetaboutit. I hid my head behind Sam that whole ride...

After that terrible experience we decide it was really hot and we were tired so we made our way to the front of the park where we asked the customer service section if someone had turned Sam's wallet in, they had (!!) so he got that back with everything still in it!! Only in Disneyworld.

We took a bus back with the Pratt's...well half of the Pratt's. Then Sam and my dad went swimming while I took a cold shower and got changed. It started pouring down rain while they were out so we waited for it to stop.

After resting for a little bit we decided to go to Hollywood Studios. The rain had stopped and we made dinner plans. After being told wrong directions we decided to walk 15 minutes to H.Studios since it was just going to be faster. After about 10 minutes of walking, the park was in site and it DUMPED on us. I mean we were soaked to the skin after only a few minutes. We were stuck. There was no cover, no way to get out of the rain. So we decided we needed to go back to the hotel because it looked like we just went swimming in our clothes:

sooooooo..............

we decided to check the park and see if we could catch a bus back but buses don't run from their to our hotel, only the boats. So we were told to go to the boat dock...once there they said they were shut down because of the thunder and lightening, so we ran to the bus station he told us too...it was the wrong one and by now there is a line that was too long so we started walking back to our hotel. We figured we were already sopping wet and it was actually a very comfortable temperature for the first time our whole trip.

While running and puddle jumping in the rain I got a stress fracture in my foot which made it just lovely to walk on the rest of the week. My $300 camera I had just bought 3 days before FOR THIS TRIP was completely ruined from the rain (Amazon is the best though they are sending me a new one free of charge!!). So that left me without a camera for the last several days of our trip so I had to use my phone.

Once back at the hotel, we made a huge wet mess getting to our room and getting changed. Then we decided to wait until the rain stopped and go back to the park since it was opened late. We ordered room service and got under the covers for warmth. Well the rain didn't stop, and most of the rides were shut down anyways. My dad and I walked on the boardwalk to a small store to get some treats but that was it for the night. LAME.

Stay tuned for Day 3 at HPOE!!

P.S. It's FREEEEZING HERE!! I have 2 photoshoots today so I'd better layer up, and figure out how to walk normally on my bum foot.

Happiest Place on Earth Day 1

2011-09-30T16:44:00.000-07:00

I'm baaaaaaack!! And oh boy what a week it has been!! Let me ~~bore~~ tell you about it:

We left Saturday night for Seattle around 6pm. We got to security and like usual my father had some...issues going thru security...he always 'forgets' to empty his pockets, take off his belt, etc...so he and my mom got chosen to go through the xray body scan machine and afterward my dad had to have a full body search because he forgot to take his contact case out of his pocket. He made a new friend that night.

Anywho our flight to Atlanta left at 11pm and not one seat was empty on that plane. who would have thunk that many people would fly there in the night?! We landed around 3:45am our time or 6:45 their time. We slept very little. We had about a 20 minute wait until our Orlando flight. Once in Orlando, we found our driver who took us to the Boardwalk Resort in a stretch SUV limo...holllla. It's how we do. (I should mention that this was paid 100% for by my parents company who honors all their 20yr staff with a big trip to DisneyWorld. They paid for flights, food, hotel, limo, and a special after hours park rental for the employee and his/her family. We kept joking that if it was a trip we were paying for we would be staying at a budget hotel 30 miles south of the park and we would be eating whatever we could find for cheap at the grocery store...)

So we decided that even though we all got minimal sleep the night before that we would check into our hotel, shower then go over to Epcot for the day. Epcot was pretty fun. Our hotel has a boat launch right outside on the boardwalk and it's about a five minute ride to that park.

We spent the day there and walked around to lots of different countries. My favorite rides were Soarin', and the Scandinavian boat ride. That day we ate lunch at some big place that had lots of different options for people and for dinner we went on over to Japan for some delicious food. They had the best salad dressing I've ever eaten in my liiife there.

Then we were SUPER hot and super tired so we went back to our hotel. I took a small nap and when I woke up my mom said my dad had left to go to Magic Kingdom to walk around without us since we were all sleeping. I was soooo bummed but oh well.

Next we will talk about day 2. But I can't sit here at the computer anymore, I'm too ADD.

Whaddddya Doing?

2011-09-21T13:28:00.000-07:00

There seems to be a lot going on lately, which is good... I have lots of photoshoots set up and scheduled (which is the same thing?) so I'm excited for that. Here are a few random peeks into my life the last week or so. In no particular order:

Shelley thinks Ty's coming home September 20th..which was yesterday. He didn't, he hit his one year mark a few weeks ago but she doesn't understand the meaning of 2 years. So she made him a cardboard sign, homeless person style, and sat with it all afternoon waiting for Ty to come home. Sad but kind of funny too. I explained to her several times that he would be home in a year so she's saved her sign for then.

I've been knitting a lot again which I love. It's not really a summer activity but now that's it's cooled down and there's no more sun :( I started up again. These are just a few real simple baby cocoons from the pattern I made up a few years ago. They are super simple which is good because I can knit it and not have to concentrate on what I'm doing. They only take an hour or two to make if I put my mind to it. I'm trying to build my collection for baby photography and I might start selling them...? I dunno that ANYONE would ever buy one but maybe they would?! I guess since I offered my 'pattern' for free they can make their own :D.

I couldn't put off packing any longer. So yesterday I got some of my toiletries ready for our trip to here:

we leave on SATURDAY!! We'll be flying all night and land early Sunday morning (well Florida time it won't be that early). Seriously cannnnnot wait. I'm most excited for Tower of terror and Splash mountain...and lets not kid ourselves, Pineapple Dole whip is the MAIN attraction for me :D. KIDDING. Kind of. If i can figure out a way to transport gallons of that stuff home, you better believe I will. It would make excellent food storage.

Monday night I went with my friend Nicole to a FHE with her ward. I'm not a social person and I'm just way too awkward to hang out with strangers but I managed to Lamaze breath my way through...not literally but internally I was heeee-heee-hoooing the whole time. I'm so dramatic. It wasn't that bad.

well just turn your head cuz I'm too lazy to change this picture. I've also been busy with Church stuff. I make it more difficult than it needs/should be. This was my handout for my lesson on Sunday, our lesson was on scripture study and our activity tonight relates too. I gotta get stuff for tonight ready too...shoot I need to stop blogging and get started on that.

I've also been working lots Mondays and Tuesdays are my crazy 2 shift days (3 if you count shelley which technically is my other job). But I don't mind it very much, it's actually nice to have an excuse to knit/read in the evenings since there's not much else to do.

Anywho, I doubt I'll blog before I leave or while I'm gone because duh, I'll be busy. But fear not (ha) I will be back with a vengeance and boat load of pictures when I return from my travels.

P.S. Watch this, it will make you strong.

Just do it.

Art thou fither thither?

2011-09-15T20:05:00.000-07:00

I am obessssssed. With what you ask? Oh well let me tell you...Jane Freaking Eyre. It's a book by Charlotte Bronte and it's one of the best books I've ever read in my whole ding dong life. I don't fancy myself a very fancy person ... ignore that sentence...but there is something so transforming and transfixing about how people talked back in 'the day'. I oft think I was born into the wrong century but that's besides the point. While reading this book, sometimes I have to reread sentences and slow my brain down to try to understand what they are saying but that's ok.

I have been speaking with my '1800's' words for the last several days and everyone is rather perturbed with me at the present. I thinkit not fair to criticize whilst I'm acting on whim and impulse betterfore my nature...

I have no idea what I just typed there but it happened. Sorry.

You can stop reading now because believe, me, I AM going to continue this blog whether thou likest or not.

One of my favorite parts of the whoooole book is when Mr. Rochester disguises himself as a gypsy woman and tricks Jane and his house guests. Here is a quote direct from the book:

"You did not act the character of a gipsy with me."
"What character did I act? My own?"
"No; some unaccountable one. In short, I believe you have been trying to draw me out-or in; you have been talking nonsense to make me talk nonsense. It is scarcely fair, sir."
"Do you forgive me, Jane?"
"I cannot tell till I have thought it all over. If, on reflection, I find I have fallen into no great absurdity, I shall try to forgive you; but it was not right.'
"Oh you have been very correct-very careful, very sensible."

There are many more favorite parts but I won't bog you down with them at the present. Perhaps at a latter date.

I read the book (700 some odd pages) in a few days and afterforth I've watched the new 2011 movie,

It was weiiird and I think I could make a better version but it satisfied my need to see the movie...well I guess it didn't because today I watched this version:

from 1996---I apologize for the photos and their poses, there weren't many to chose from.

Now I have plans to watch 2 other versions over the course of a fortenight.
Ideally, I wish there was a way to switch the actors around, use the Jane from 1996 with the Mr. Rochester from 2011...that would be well with me. Also I wish they would just stick to the book and NOT veer off into events/sequences that didn't happen. Oy vey.

I've been casting my own version in my head...so watch for it coming to a theater near YOU. It might involve either:

jason bateman or

pat monahan from Train fame (he just seems a little cookoo like I picture Mr. R as being) as Mr. Rochester. Although the guy who was in the 2011 version was really good...they just need another girl maybe. We're in talks with them to see who will be up for the part :D

I will admit, I read the book on my kindle because it was FREE...ya I didn't think I'd like it bahaha scorn thee my insolent brain, I now knowest better of my faults.

oh gosh I'm annoying myself.

and talking to myself.

I will also make Bertha Mason muuuuch scarier and involve Mrs. Poole more.

I need to buy the actual book and a highlighter so I can mark up all my favorite parts. I am seriously going to reread it soon even though I just finished. I can't get it out of my miiiind. I'm a lunatic. wink wink.

I also don't hate the clothes. I love the big dresses and what the guys' used to wear. Why can't we revert back to that instead of the too short shorts and barely there clothes so prevalent now days?!

Alas, I must be off. I shall be leaving for work in an hours time and I must prepare for my passage and travels. If you've never read Jane Eyre, read it. You can download it for free from anywhere and read it, or there's something called a library...just do it. you won't regret it.

And just as a side note, my new life dream is to become a governess so Emily, if you're reading this, I'm totes down for it. Although i just used the word totes so I might be a bad influence on your kids ;). I shall put out an ad-vert-iz-ement posthaste to start my new lifes work.

Moving like Jagger on Jupiter

2011-09-13T13:38:00.000-07:00

Last night I went to Abbotsford, BC to see these bands:

Matt Nathanson,

he sings songs like "Come on Get Higher", "Modern Love", "Faster". He's a really good singer, I like him but he wasn't the reason we were there. I always feel bad for the openers because they KNOW that everyone isn't there to see THEM. That would be sad. But everyone seemed to enjoy him. Unfortunately he suffers from what I've named, "Jello Leg, noodle leg syndrome" he couldn't seem to keep his legs from doing weird things.

These guys were one of the main reasons I went:

Train, featuring Howie Mandel...just kidding. But seriously the lead guitarist from Train looks just like him right?! I've seen Train in concert before and I love them. They are so personable and funny. Plus, they sound just as good (if not better) live. He brought a bunch of girls from the audience up and he was signing items and throwing them into the crowd the whole night. At one point during "Marry Me" he went out into the audience and walked through us...he was RIGHT NEXT TO US. my mom reached out and touched him but I refrained...plus I was taping it. Here's a video clip:

It was pretty legit. We were sitting in a back section but the arena was pretty small so it wasn't too far away at all, but it was still cool that he came back so we could see him closer.
He's a little flamboyant but I guess that's what famous people are. I loved the fact that they played from their old albums, those are the songs I grew up listening too, Meet Virginia, Drops of Jupiter, Calling all Angels etc... They also played some of my favorites from their newest album, Words, Marry Me, If It's Love etc...I don't like their 'popular' current songs as much as I used to because they are much overplayed.

I digress. The other band that was there:

Hecccck yes. I was a big fan of their first 2 albums. Now days I'm not a huge fan but I still think they are very talented and they have some catchy songs. All three of these bands/singers were so good live and that made the whole concert wonderful. I would go see them all again. I took lots of videos of their songs but it's too weird to figure out how to upload them so I'll spare you.

Just thought I'd share my night with ya'll, I'm sure you care a lot :D

Crazy for Pantyhose!!

2011-09-02T21:36:00.000-07:00

(or as sam called it, panty ho's...I corrected him)

Whaddya do with a tube of 20 cent panty hose (that you initially bought to make baby headbands), a couple pounds of fresh orchard (free!) apples, a blender, and a vase?

Well the question should be what CAN'T you do with those things, but I digress...

I got a wild hair tonight after being home sick all day and pinning 5 different apple cider recipes on Pinterest. I youtubed how to make your own apple cider without an apple press because not everyone has one of those. This kinda crazy guy that I almost wrote off and wanted to stop his video caught my interest. Luckily he did. He gave me the tools and knowledge that would satisfy my apple cider craving in a jiffy (well or maybe an hour).

If you'd like to partake in the pantyhose apple cider phenomenon you've come to the right place. Now maybe this is an old tradition and has been around for many years but I'd never heard of it.
Here's the video I got the idea from:

it's a 7+ minute video but once I saw where he was going, I fast forwarded to the end :D I'm just ADD like that. I'll show you in pictures the steps I used. I apologize for the phone pictures in advance.

Gather your supplies: GOOD blender, vase...preferably your mothers favorite china :D I kidd, washed apples (note I used more than are pictured), knife, cutting board, and 20 cent knee high pantyhose. I happened to have white on hand for another project.

Core and chop yer apples...don't peel them, but cut out any bad spots. I cut them into quarters then into thirds but I didn't need too. this part goes quickly if you have a 15 year old brother who wants to help.

fill up your blender to the top and add a few inches of water. the more water you add, the farther your apples will go and the more cider you'll make, but it will also make the final product watery. But honestly now that's it's done I think I'm gonna add more water too it, it's very apple-y.

blend those suckers in your fancy blendtec or whatever blender you happen to have.

mine has a whole juice option that I used. It blends it for 50 seconds but I stopped mine with 20 seconds left because it was done.

put your pantyhose around the vase and pour half of the (white) cider into it. It will turn brown quickly because that's what apples do but it's ok.

this part is kinda nasty and I almost lost my lunch..oh wait I didn't eat lunch..oh gosh I am related to my grandmother...pull the pantyhose up and use your fingers to squish all the juice down. At this point I decided I needed a larger vessel.

It will make weird sucking noises and it will totally gross you out but, march on.

now squeeeeze all that juice out of that nylon. How is it that when one makes apple cider and abuses that poor piece of nylon that it doesn't BREAK or RIP? but as soon as I try to put them on on Sunday, there are instant holes?! Will wonders never cease? You should get quite a bit of liquid out of each squeezing, keep going until it's dry and no longer juicy.

Warning, the following image is disturbing and disgusting, the faint of heart/stomach should look away now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is what the pulp of the juice looks like after squeezing....sick right? I said it looked like refried beans, sam had other options as to what it looked like...but I'll spare you. Throw that away or put it in your compost bucket. Once it's all out, rinse the hose well and wring out, flip right side out and you're ready for batch 2. I made ALL the cider with ONE leg of panty hose so guess who still has one for baby headbands? HOLLLLA

Repeat this process until you have used up all your apples. The beauty of this is you can make as little or as much as you want without being swarmed by bees outside. Once you get a system down it goes quickly. We have an apple orchard down the road from my house that NOBODY picks so we picked a bunch the other day and I made applesauce with most of them and cider with the rest. I went back yesterday and 'gleaned' with a friend from work, we gathered A LOT more apples/pears/plums/blueberries etc...and a lot of it will be donated to the food bank. So no more rotten going to waste apples around here!!

at the end, you'll have some delicious, fresh, free, healthy apple cider that you can then drink, make into hot cider (YUM) or make into apple cider vinegar by leaving it out. You can freeze this, refrigerate it, can it, drink it, bathe in it...whatever you fancy, I won't judge. I don't know exactly how many apples we used prolly 20-30ish medium apples so we got about the same amount (or more?) than you would using an apple press!!

Now go, gather your pantyhose and apples!!

On the plus side, you'll have some lovely now tan colored knee highs to wear to church sunday :D Kiddddding!!

Bury me in Satin.

2011-08-29T20:17:00.000-07:00

I love this song called, If I Die Young. It's originally by The Band Perry...however I'm not a huge fan of them...I think I've said this before. I'm not sure why I'm so obsessed with it but I am.
Here are the lyrics.

If I die young, bury me in satin
Lay me down on a, bed of roses
Sink me in the river, at dawn
Send me away with the words of a love song

Uh oh, uh oh

Lord make me a rainbow, I'll shine down on my mother
She'll know I'm safe with you when she stands under my colors, oh and
Life ain't always what you think it ought to be, no
Ain't even grey, but she buries her baby

The sharp knife of a short life, well
I've had just enough time

If I die young, bury me in satin
Lay me down on a bed of roses
Sink me in the river at dawn
Send me away with the words of a love song

The sharp knife of a short life, well
I've had just enough time

And I'll be wearing white, when I come into your kingdom
I'm as green as the ring on my little cold finger,
I've never known the lovin' of a man
But it sure felt nice when he was holding my hand,
There's a boy here in town who says he'll love me forever,
Who would have thought forever could be severed by

The sharp knife of a short life, well,
I've had just enough time

So put on your best boys and I'll wear my pearls
What I never did is done

A penny for my thoughts, oh no, I'll sell them for a dollar
They're worth so much more after I'm a goner
And maybe then you'll hear the words I been singin'
Funny when you're dead how people start listenin'

If I die young, bury me in satin
Lay me down on a bed of roses
Sink me in the river at dawn
Send me away with the words of a love song

Uh oh (uh, oh)
The ballad of a dove (uh, oh)
Go with peace and love
Gather up your tears, keep 'em in your pocket
Save them for a time when you're really gonna need them, oh

The sharp knife of a short life, well
I've had just enough time

So put on your best boys and I'll wear my pearls

It's a little forlorn type song but I can't get enough of it. Anyways here's a video of the real band's version:

and the other day I posted a video of my favorite youtube cover of this song so you can scroll down if you wanna listen to that too. While I'm at it here are a few more songs I enjoy very much

Adele gives me the goosebumps. It's almost like she's holding her heart in. This whole album was made after breaking up with her boyfriend.

Man I'm so dramatic :D

I also like these guys and this song.

So listen to good music, even if it does sound a little 'deep'.

Photo Deal

2011-08-26T21:56:00.000-07:00

So I really ~~need~~ want to buy a new camera body so I can have a backup just in case. I've been getting more weddings and events that can't be redone if I happen to have a camera malfunction. Hence the ~~want~~ need of a new camera. Lemme tell you what, I don't think I could have picked a more expensive 'hobby' if I tried. Do you need pictures taken?

Maybe you have a newborn baby who's just begging for their own photoshoot?

Maybe you have a beyond adorable 1 year old who needs to celebrate his/her birthday in style?

(disclaimer: any age will do, it's not just the 1 year old's who are adorable)

Maybe you have a family that really likes their pictures taken? Oh you don't? Well just bribe them with promises of chocolate and apple juice.

(Disclaimer: please note, this family did not need bribes, it's possible we needed hand warmers and hot chocolate when we were done but that had more to do with the freezing temperature)

Maybe you're about to have a baby? Maybe you've been debating if you want to document this time in your life, trust me, you do. And guess what? I can help!!

Maybe you have a family who actually beg to have their pictures taken? I can do those types of families too!!

(Disclaimer: these kids were dying to pose in front of the camera and were excellent posers)

Maybe you or your son/daughter will be graduating this year? Cuz I can take their picture too!! It's a good time to get it done because next Spring, they are going to be way more interested in their final days as a senior...and let's be honest, who knows what this crazy weather will do, we could have snow next June for all we know.

So if you can dig having your picture taken, lemme know!! You can comment or email: amandapeckphotography at gmail dot com and we can get an appt. set up!!

The deal:

1.5 hrs. for $100

1 hr. for $75

One location (or add $15 for another location)

You will get ALL your pictures on a CD that you will have full rights to print however you wish. I will also select my favorites from the day and custom edit them, you will receive full rights to these pictures as well.

(Disclaimer: Prices are subject to change but I'll leave 'em this way for awhile...)

It's a small price to pay to capture your family as it is in the year 2011. When we reach 2045 you'll be glad you did, trust me, I just hopped in my time machine and asked you...sorry if I just lost all credibility by referencing a time machine which I assure you, I do not own...

I Be Youtubing (when will they make that a verb?)

2011-08-22T20:23:00.000-07:00

Umm I LOVE this song. I'm not a huge fan of The Band Perry...at least I wasn't when I saw them on TV that one time but I love this cover. These guys are legit even if they have unfortunate facial hair...

I just like all his covers.

I don't discriminate, I don't just watch/listen to singers... I also watch as much kid history as I think I can get away with and still seem 'normal' haha little does anyone know....or wait, maybe EVERYone knows and I'm just in denial. (Just keeping it real, it took me a good 30 seconds to figure out how to spell the word denial...dunno why that was so hard for me.)

I also like watching the great Animal Kingdom on youtube. Contrary to popular belief, watching this kind of thing on youtube is much better than in real life....ya...I'll keep telling myself that.

Raspberry Lemonaid Slush

2011-08-19T11:04:00.000-07:00

Are you on a restrictive diet that doesn't allow pleasures such as slurpees, sugared smoothies, or other frozen beverages? Do you gnash your teeth and wail from rooftops when denied such yummyness? If you are, or do, read on my friend, read on.

Today I kept seeing pins for strawberry lemonaid allll over pinterest and I was a little jealous that I couldn't have them cuz of all the sugar required to make them delightful. Then I started craving one but I held strong. My water just wasn't cutting it so I came up with my own version of a healthy Raspberry lemonaid slushy!! huzzzzah!!

All you need is one single serving size packet of crystal lite lemonaid, 10 ounces of water, a handful of frozen raspberries (or strawberries), and a handful of ice, ice baby.

we just happened to have 2 flats of frozen raspberries in the freezer, cuz I put them there 2 days ago and a large container of crystal lite packets...cuz I'm addicted to it's flavored goodness.
After blending all ingredients in a blender, pour into a glass and drink with a straw. I put a little too much ice in mine so towards the end I had to use a spoon, so moral of the story, don't be like me and put less ice in yours.

mmmm mmmm mmmm good. I'm sure I'm not the first to come up with this idea but I like to think I was so just let me live in my delusional world, after all I don't get to eat sugar so I need some sort of fulfillment.

Enjoy!!

oh ya, calorie-wise there's like 20< in this smoothie, for the WHOLE blender and there is enough for 2 drinks...unless you're me...then it's all mine :D. It just depends on how raspberry-ie you make yours, but raspberries are like 1 calorie each...or so I tell myself. Plus the 5 calories for the lemonaid packet.

Shred

2011-08-14T20:28:00.000-07:00

This video will be my bff for the next 30 days...i've ~~done~~ tried this video before and it, kicked. my. butt. but that's the point right?! So since I seem to be better at middle of the year resolutions, I'm gonna start fresh tomorrow. It's always so easy to say that, I can't even count the number of times I've said those words but tomorrow, it must be true. I am sick and tired of being a fatty fat fatterson and they only way to fix that is to restart Prism and start working out. I gotta get outta this FUNK and I know this is a surefire way to do that. It got me out of my funk over a year ago and I lost 60 pounds. Since december I haven't been doing my diet AT ALL and I'm not happy with myself at all. I hate what I've become haha. I have a sugar tooth the size of Montana so I gotta get over that again. I did it once, I CAN do it again.

So for tonight, I'm going to enjoy one last sweet...a popcorn ball...then wake up in the morning and enjoy my nice egg white scramble or maybe hard boiled egg? Make myself a lettuce tuna wrap for work and get on with my life. Be jealous. The first phase of this diet is super restrictive and some people can't make it far but I made it last time and lost 25 pounds in 5 weeks (without working out ONCE) so I have 6 weeks before DISNEY WORLD and it would be awfully nice to loose 25 pounds by then, cuz it's gonna be hot. Hopefully diet combined with the Shred will work in my favor. Wish me luck. If you happen to see me and I seem delirious from my sugar deprivation just slap me. haha jk jk it won't be bad.

Just a Spurt

2011-08-13T11:25:00.000-07:00

I've had a blog sitting in my 'draft' section for a week now. I have no desire to blog or anything lately. I love blogging and reading others' blog but mine just feels like a waste of time. I usually blog about nothing important anyways. But just a quick update and maybe someday I'll get around to posting my other blog about last weekend, we'll see.

I have been super busy lately. I started working the night shift at work so that's part of the reason I haven't been blogging. Prime blogging hours for me is anywhere from 9pm-11pm but now I'm at work then so I just don't blog. I did once from my ipad but that was just a fluke :D.

I actually really like doing the sleepover shift, besides the uncomfortable bed and random noises that may or may not freak me out, I have time that I normally wouldn't take to read, write, relax etc...I've always loved to write, even as a kid I would write stories or very detailed book reports (the one thing I always got good grades on). My imagination is pretty nuts and sometimes it gets me in trouble..like when I'm supposed to be paying attention but my mind is anywhere but where it should be. I've diagnosed myself with ADD possibly ADHD. I realized that I have never paid attention well and I had a really hard time in school because of it. It wasn't until I was in the 10th grade that I started getting good grades (graduated with a 3.8 thankyouverymuch) but it was really hard for me. I'm always off in some other place even if it looks like I'm paying attention. I often get called on for questions and panic trying to figure out what the question was..woops. That's prolly why I didn't fare too well in my college classes. Nobody should take it personally if I ask you to repeat a question though because it doesn't matter who it is my mind tends to drift...like it is now...

That's not the point of this blog haha. SEE told you!! WebMD does work.

I've started writing again. I have a pretty sweet setup with my ipad, bluetooth keyboard, and a writing app. my stories just start coming. They might be pretty lame to some people but I don't do it for anyone. i do it for me, I think it's an acceptable time to 'get away' and take time to do something I love. I have 2 books that are almost written and two more books that are in the process of being written. Part of having a crazy imagination is the fact that I typically have very vivid dreams and they feel so real sometimes it's hard to wake up. All 4 of the book ideas are from my dreams which sounds totally kooky but whatevs.

Anyways that's all for now, it's the middle of Saturday and I have lots I should do. Here's a picture from yesterday because blogs are just funner with pictures.

pretty sure I'm thinking, OH CRAP right about now. but we didn't fall off...that was just a few minutes later and it didn't feel good.

Birthday Weekend

2011-07-26T21:29:00.000-07:00

Alright I said I was gonna post this several days ago and never did...not that anyone is really anxious about this fact but still, "I must not tell lies". My birthday was on the 16th and that weekend I happened to be in Monroe, at a scrapbooking house. The women in charge did a great job, making everyone feel welcome and comfortable. We each had a 'glamping' kit on our tables when we got there:

these girls know how to do themes (more on that soon). We also got a smore kabob (not pictured) on the last day. It was so themed and fun. I felt a little bad because I brought my computer which is a little large and I hid behind it for some of the time. I had a lot of wedding pictures to edit that HAD to be done that weekend and I was feeling very behind. So I settled into a photo editing mode and didn't surface for awhile. I'm just anti-social like that :D

Anyways back to themes...Saturday was my birthday!! holllla. Everyone knows I love love love Harry Potter and Nicole made the whole day Harry Potter themed for me!! I haven't had a fun birthday for a long time and I appreciated all the work and effort she put into it. When I woke up, this was on my table:

It's like the deluminator that Dumbledore left Ron which in the 7th book helps him find Harry and Hermione after he leaves them...anyways. Everyone got one of these keychain lights on their table.
A little while later I was sitting, editing and another lady comes up and hands me a single sock (it was way cute, pink polka dots). I had no idea why but I thanked her then read the little card which said this:

way cute right?! Well I wasn't quite sure what I'd do with one sock but I had made up a few plans for a stuffed animal (an idea I found online awhile back). Throughout the rest of Saturday people would randomly come up and give me single socks. I knew what was coming at this point but I was still confused because I had like 8 Different mismatched socks--but again I had plans-- then I started receiving their matches and I got really excited because I love socks. Actually I have an unnatural and perhaps unhealthy obsession with them? "I must not tell lies."

Here are some of the socks I had procured by the end of the day. I'm actually wearing a pair right now :) the black ones with the little polka dots right up there...see them?

That day I had decided I was going to find a movie theater to go see Harry Potter. I didn't think anyone else would want to go since it was a scrapbooking weekend and people get into a groove and don't want to be disrupted but Nicole and Tracy both wanted to go to. So we bought tickets for our 'brunch' showing of HP. Now, Monroe is basically in the middle of nowhere it seems, yet their movie theater, is the best I've ever been too, it's very similar to the Colossus in Vancouver. Stadium seating, plush, wide chairs that leaned back, a HUGE screen. Man it was a good theater to see HP in.

To document the HP day I took a photo of my ticket and it's possible I took a picture of the opening screen...is that legal? I think it is...the movie was much to short but I guess combined with the 1st half it's ok. I really loved this movie. It was my favorite and I think it's probably the best out of them all (although I do have a hidden love for movies 4 & 5). Overall I was pretty impressed and sure there are things I wish they would have kept in the movie, or left out...or lengthened (Mrs. Weasley vs. Belatrix and Fred's untimely death, I also wish they would have included Lupin and Tonks story a little more...) anyways, I digress...I could go on and on but overall I was satisfied.

The rest of that weekend was spent editing, pinning (when I had an internet connection), and working on my 365 Instagram Project!! Yahoooo. I finally came up with an idea to organize all my pictures for this year.

I bought blank 3x5 note cards, printed my explanation and the date on the bottom half of the card, then printed my pictures and glued them to random paper then attached that to the top of the card. Now I'm going to laminate all of them and either punch a hole in the corner and put them on a binder ring or find a card book to put them in. I just bought 44 dollars worth of laminating pockets...soooo ya... but I was glad to have made some progress with that, I'll have to finish them up at the next retreats :D

Overall it was a wonderful weekend, and even though I allow myself to get anxious and stressed out over dumb little things I had a great time. Thanks for everyone who participated in making the weekend super!!

Up next:
Cross stitching projects?! WHAT?! who does that?!

Day in the Life

2011-07-20T22:41:00.000-07:00

The other day my brother made a comment that made me laugh. He said we should make a TV show out of our lives...uh...anyone who knows us knows we are the lamest people in the history of lame people. It gave me a good blog idea though. So lucky you guys (whoever you really are?!) get to go with me on a tour of my life for the last 40ish hours!! That means, you should just click the back button now and go back to whatever site you came from... :) Don't say I didn't warn you, because I did.

So, we will start this little adventure starting on Tuesday around 2:30pm. I gotta do a little 'back history' so the rest of my day makes sense ok!

1. My lunch consisted of wheat ritz crackers and apple cider- straight from the bottle, I know, SO legit right...pish.
2. Packed up my overnight items, my purse, clothes, book, iPad.
3. Looked at the clock, realized I had to be leaving soon.
4. Threw on my new tshirt before heading out the door.
5. The weather finally got better driving into work. It was fogggggy Tuesday morning.

Not Pictured:
6. Went to work, worked, ate a delicious dinner outside then worked some more.

7. Remembered I forgot my toothbrush at home. So I drove to the dollar tree in between my shifts to buy one. I donated a dollar at the store to military families and was embarrassed when the checked announced it to the WHOLE store...
8. Back to work, doing overnight shift. So while waiting to go to bed, I might have pinned a little bit. It's a nice quiet activity that allows me to hear what's going on in the GH before bed.
9. Read in bed with a flashlight until kind of late.
10. Set my alarm for far too early. If I didn't have to be home for Shelley, I would probably just sleep in at work but unfortunately that doesn't work for me.

11. Woops...my alarm was turned down so I have just a few minutes to get all my stuff together and make the bed.

Not pictured:
12. Drive home, it's not so foggy today.
13. Climb right into bed and take a 'nap' for about 2 hours.

14. make myself some raspberry toast with daves bread, which is amazing.
15. check facebook
16. check pinterest...really this is just an excuse to put off getting ready for the day.

17. Drive to the store. Pick out clothes to try on. Buy lots of stuff for Shelley's bday, run into a few friends.
18. Walk down the freezer aisle and hear a lady screech into an open freezer door, I ask her if she needs help, she says (in her fake? british accent) no-tin-the-least, I know how to spell sexist...alrighty then. sorry I asked, it's just not everyday you witness someone yelling at the frozen food...

19. Look at my car, get disgusted, drive to car wash. Usually I love to wash the car but the weather has not been car wash worthy lately so I caved.
20. Had a mild panic attack in the car wash which almost caused me to open my door and run out. I seriously got so claustrophobic and I started panicking so I had to close my eyes (which doesn't help BTW)
21. My glorious clean car!!

22. Tried to open my door with my borders rewards card...hmmm

23. Ate my 'lunch' while pinning.
24. Check my email
25. Painted my nails--which sometimes happens 2 times a day :) it's an OCD thang

26. Tried to cut my swim noodle in half using 3 different tools. The last one worked it's called Fat Max...poor Max. I thought the yellow make him look rather slim...

27. This is what I was doing with that noodle. Sometimes I like to kayak with my legs resting above on the top and it hurts to do that for long so I had this idea to use the lip where the skirt goes (cuz I don't like using the skirt) to put the foam for some nice leg padding. Don't worry, i will adjust it so it's even...

Not Pictured:
28. Made dinner-rice, soy and garlic chicken, with a side of sauteed pineapple, avacado mixed with a little chocolate...sounds weird? it is, but it's pretty good.

29. Drove to my grandma's house to meet her cousin. My cousin showed me how to use a conch shell. we made up a new conch band. check us out on itunes coming 3214

ADHD:
What do you think the year 3214 will be like? if the world lasts that long, that is...WEIRD. I can barely picture 2014...

30. Went to activity where we had a marshmallow gun 'fight' half the time we ended up just throwing them at each other. It was pretty fun.
31. Started blogging this very blog, hi there.
In my near future I'll:
32. Post this blog
33. Shut down my computer
34. Brush my teeth
35. Go to my room
36. Read or watch a little TV before SLEEEEEPING.

There ya go. A very long, drawn out look into my last 40ish hours.

What's the difference?

2011-07-18T22:17:00.000-07:00

So I'm typing this on my kind of new iPad! So no pictures I dunno how to upload any. The first thing I wanted to talk about is polygamy. Totally weird I know...so I'm LDS and everyne always asks me if we are polygamists...we are not. There are other versions, for lack of a better word, that do practice plural marriages but they have nothing to do with us. Anyways tonight I'm at work doing the night shift and I decided to watch this extreme weight loss show to try to get motivated to restart my own healthy lifestyle. the show that happened to be on before it was the bachelorette...I've never watched that show, never have any desire to but it confuses me why they are allowed to date sooo many people at the same time and its acceptable!! Isnt that like polygamy?! I don't see any difference. Ya they're not married (legally the poloys aren't either) but it's the same concept basically. I'll admit I watch sister wives...I'm fascinated by different cultures and customs and so naturally the Brown family intrigued me. I don't agree with their lifestyle but there's is almost better than this bachelor show to me. I dunno I think it's a pretty immoral show from just the few previews I've seen...theres lots of those out there.

Well that was random but I'm tired so that's my excuse...this weekend wAs fun. I went to Monroe for a scrapbooking retreat and my bday!! I was gonna blog about it now but decided I want to include what little pictures I took so maybe I'll blog about it tomorrow...?

Mischief Managed.

2011-07-14T22:22:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure why but I felt inclined to write a blog about Harry Potter at 10:14pm on the eve of the final movie, The Deathly Hallows part 2. It might sound silly to some and positively ridiculous to others but it's kind of sad to see this day. I have been reading Harry Potter since...FOREVER. Well at least since I was 10-ish. I did book reports on several of the books while in elementary/middle school. For one of them I actually made ~~Voldemort's~~ He Who Must Not Be Named's snake, Nagini out of fabric and little filler beads. It was huge. Arry Pottah ~~was~~ is a huge part of my childhood and ever since the movies came out 10 years ago I've watched them and loved them. Although everyone will always say, I could have done it better, there is no way to fit every little detail from the books into the movies, there's no way. So we all have our favorite parts and maybe we're upset they didn't make the movies but the main parts of the story are there for the most part.

I can't wait to see this movie. I was gonna go to the midnight showing tonight but tickets for my local theater were sold out quickly. I also decided I wanted to really enjoy it and be able to stay awake for it. I've been really tired lately so it's prolly better if I wait. I'm going to a scrapbooking thing this weekend but I might sneak away for 2 hours and 5 minutes to see it. but surprisingly I'm not in a huge hurry, the sooner I see it, the sooner the suspense and series will be over for me.

Anyways that's all. I gotta get packed and go to sleep soon otherwise I could go on and on, and on, and on, annnnnnd onnnnn.

Birfday

2011-07-11T20:38:00.000-07:00

It's almost my day of birth. I'm not sure how I feel about this..actually I DO know how I feel about it. I'm not thrilled to be another year older but I have to admit I DO like birthdays. I don't just like my own birthday, I like all birthdays. I've always wanted to celebrate half birthdays too like in Alice in Wonderland when they sing that Happy unBirthday song....maybe I just made that up, I never really liked Alice in Wonderland until they introduced it to JDepp and TBurton, just saying.

ANYWAYS. I've been madly pinning birthday wish list items for a few months now because I usually have zero ideas when asked so I've been able to compile a small-ish list. I was gonna share my pinterest birdday board with you but it seems even pinterest needs a break cuz their site is down. But I can guarantee it's a legit list. I might have focused a little too heavily on all things Harry Potter but I can live with that :)

This is one thing I REALLLY want. It's a bag for my ipad. so cute. I've actally made two for myself this last week and neither turned out, such a huge waste. I knew I should have just bought one instead of wasting the money on fabric for a homemade one.
There are several other items on this list, if yer {p}interested here's the link :)

Welp I'm gonna go get ready for my first night of my new fun overnight shift at work!! Be jealous.

Somewhat boring tales from Haggens

2011-07-08T21:53:00.000-07:00

Tonight on my way home from work, I stopped at Haggen to pick up some flowers for my lesson on Sunday (cross your fingers they last :)) I ended up buying two bunches so there would be enough for each girl to take one home. So anyways...after waiting in line for several minutes I observed a little boy helping his dad load the items onto the belt and after each item he'd proudly say (insert item name) CHECK! Then move on to the next item. It took the dad longer to unload the cart than it would have if he had just done it himself but he was patient, the line wasn't moving anyways, and that kid got to help his dad. That has nothing to do with why I'm writing this blog post but I just liked that. So often when I go into a grocery store (or any store for that matter) most of the kids I run into are considered more of a hinderence to their mom or dad than a help. It's always a nice change when I see parents who are praising their children and being patient and kind to them. Sometimes I have to stop myself from saying something when the parent is literally dragging their child by the shirt down each aisle. I know I can't judge what anyone does and I'm sure they don't always do that but I gotta think if they are more positive the child would react in kind...maybe?! Maybe not. I dunno because I don't have kids!! haha

So the real reason I'm writing this post is because like I said, I bought 2 bunches of flowers and a box of ice cream treats for the YW on Sunday. When it was my turn to check out the lady rang me up and told me my total but I noticed on the screen that she had only rung up one of my bunches of flowers. Without thinking anything of it I reminded her to scan the other bouquet (which was already in the bag at the end of the check out). She looked at me strangely, apologized then scanned the other. My price was now accurate. On my drive home I kept thinking that if I hadn't caught her mistake, I would have had to drive all the way back to Haggens to pay for it so I was grateful I was watching the screen. I was also grateful for my parents and church leaders/teachers who have taught me how to be honest over the years, then I was sad for all those out there who weren't taught that. I know what I feel like when I know I did something dishonest or whatever it might be and I can't imagine living my whole life like that!! yikes.

It's simple, it was just a few dollars but I'm still grateful for my unconscious immediate reaction to let her know she wasn't charging me enough. Maybe it was a good example to the others in line with me, maybe they didn't notice at all, maybe the checker didn't think anything of it but I noticed. And I can go to bed without that feeling of guilt.

Girls Camp 2011 Wrap Up

2011-07-05T11:42:00.000-07:00

So girls camp was last week. We got home Friday evening. It was such a fun week. I'll be honest, I hated girls camp when I was a youth. I remember only liking 2 of the years that I went, the others don't bring fond memories to mind. I don't know why that was, probably because of my anxiety and whatnot. But I'm happy to say this is my 2nd year as our wards leader and I LOVE camp now. Seriously I wish I had been able to have better experiences as a youth. It's like we're in this safe bubble, free from the world and all it's temptations. Even during free time when everyone is acting goofy, you can feel the spirit. It's so neat to be surrounded by good, wholesome, like-minded people.
Here is our week in a nutshell (beware, this might be a pretty big nut):

waiting for the ferry for 2 hours gave us time to explore nature...we were the starfish this year at camp so we gotta represent :)

On the windy ferry. I love ferry rides, I wish they would have lasted longer!!

Goofy girls, 'milking the cow'...some old guy thought that was hilarious for some reason :)
After we got to camp, we spent time setting up camp. Half of us had cabins, the other half stayed in tents. I was in a cabin with four of our younger girls. So we helped set up tents then unpacked in our cabin. After that they had certification time.

Later on that night we had the faith walk. That's always one of my favorite parts of camp--I had to miss it last year :(-- this year they had 3 ladies read part of a talk from Women's conference which was really good then we went on a walk down to the pretty lake. The sun was setting and it was perfect!! Every girl lit a luminary (white bag with sand and a candle) and put it on the dock. It was pretty cool- even if the dock did start to sink.

Finally a group picture of ALL our girls. We had 7 girls this year!! Last year we had 3 (plus 2 that were youth leaders) Seriously I'm pretty sure we have the best girls in the stake, if not the world. They are all such good examples and they are all amazing friends. We didn't have any problems or issues.

The next day was Wednesday. We woke up to RAIN RAIN RAIN RAIN. It was a bummer to see but actually it wasn't that bad, it was quite warm actually. This was also our hike day. Me, being the spaz that I am, forgot to bring shoes besides my crocks and slip-ons which are not hike friendly...so I got to drive a load of girls up to one of the trail heads on Mt. Constitution. After dropping them off, my assistant Hannah and I went into town to pick a few things up from the store. Then we decided to drive to the top of the mountain to see the view, this is what we saw:

Fog, and more fog. BUMMER. But it worked out. The girls got done with their hike early so on our way down I picked up a group of girls and brought them back down the Mt. Then went back up to get another group. That's when I found out two of the girls from my ward were LOST somewhere on this blasted mountain...
I don't remember panicking because I knew they would stay together and they wouldn't veer from the trail. So I never thought we wouldn't be able to find them I was just worried someone had fallen and broken their leg and they were stuck on a trail. But I knew we would find them, there wasn't another option. I volunteered to drive back up the mountain to the other trail heads to yell for them. No girls. I went all the way back to the top and grabbed two trail maps so we could start planning our rescue. In my mind I kept repeating please go to the road or stay put on the trail. If you go to the road, we'll see you if you stay put on the trail, we can find you faster. I didn't realize until I started driving down another group of girls back to the campsite to get a few other leaders that I was shaking uncontrollably and felt like I was gonna vomit. Prolly not the best to be driving down this crazy switch-backy mountain (For the record, I was up and down that thing 6 times in one day :))
So I loaded up the last girls and started driving down while the two other leaders stayed at the trail head just in case (PS NO cell service). After driving down almost the whole mountain, we saw two girls walking UP the road back towards the top. They had made it almost to the bottom of the mountain in about an hour and were going back up...crazy. I honked my horn so loud and they climbed in the car. We turned around, went back to tell the other leaders then back down to camp. The girls said they were fine but that would be totally scary. At least it wasn't longer than it was!!

After the hike, we had free time. I stayed close to the cabin to get my gitters out. We had the 'cool' hang out cabin. Last year our tent site was the hangout of choice for most the girls and it was the same this year. We made bracelets, ate, talked, laughed. It was a nice tension reliever.

Our two lost girls after their adventure. SO glad they are safe and not hurt!!

Tuesday was our skit night. It was good. Pearl was our 'pearl of great price' perfect.

Even JBeibs made an appearance at camp. Apparently it's tradition for our ward to use a cardboard cutout in our skit...last year we got Taylor Lautner, the girls went CRAZY. This year half the girls were excited, half can't stand him haha.

This night I ended up going home. We had a really sick leader so I drove home with them just in case. We got home around 2am. Then that next day I went to the airport to pick up my aunt and uncle from the airport (just got back from their mission to russia!)

Then I hopped in a car and drove back to the ferry to go back to camp. This was a funny story (now looking back, at the time it wasn't). The ferry left at 4 and we live about an hr away and we left at 3...we ended up parking at the top of this hill and had to run down to the ferry. I'm not a runner by any means especially with a heavy backpack and a pillow...luckily they held the ferry for us for about 5 minutes but we made it!! It was well worth it plus the dinner that was waiting for us was delicious!! As were all the meals!!

It was bishop's night that night which is always fun. We roasted marshmellows inside since all the other fire pits were being used. Then we walked down to the lake and played (laid) on the floating dock. We almost lost our YW pres. when people got a little excited on this dock..woops.

I wish we could have stayed out longer but 10pm was the curfew.

That night we stayed up a bit too late and painted nails and did hairs.

After packing up camp and testimony meeting, we headed back to the ferry. We had about a two hour wait. Bye bye Orcas Island!!

Overall it was a great week. And I'm grateful for the opportunity I had to go again this year. I'm not grateful for all the unpacking I STILL have to do but that's ok. It was fun!!

Like a Chicken...

2011-06-27T15:42:00.000-07:00

...with it's head cut off...

hmm perhaps that's a little dramatic, I've always had a flair for that ;). It must run in my genes or something. Anyways I have been a little crazy busy trying to get ready for Girls camp, going to the dentist (4 times in one month, going for a record!! Still got one more to go), photographing weddings, helping my grandparents remodel their house etc... So I have been absentee blogger.

Tomorrow I leave for GIRLS CAMP!! This is my 2nd year going as a Leader and I gotta say, going as a YW was not nearly as fun as it is going as a leader. Seriously. My least favorite part of camp was always the certification and as a leader, you don't have to do any of that stuff, yippppy!! I just get to hang out with awesome girls and eat awesome food and have an awesome time. This year is a little different since we aren't going to the same place we've been going to for years but I'm super excited still. we are staying on a fun island in cabins (and tents) and we get to hike up to see one of the top 5 water views in the United States!! Last year was a good experience but I am so much better prepared this year and know what to expect and what do to and stuff.

We have our activities planned and ready, badmittin, thread for bracelets, nail polish, volleyball, swimming etc...

we have our snacks ready. cuz who can go camping without snacks? I'm pretty sure that's WHY people go camping...just saying ;) Have you ever roasted starburst? If not, try it. It's pretty legit. Not sure why it's so good but it just is.

We have the girls' small gifts ready. This year I am taming it way down. I went a little overboard last year so I gotta be more realistic this year. So We are giving them sour apple suckers that have a little saying on them (that goes with one of our devotionals), a long piece of rope to make these bracelets together, then their 'big' gift this year is a necklace we made that has a starfish, a pear, and a heart on it. Our ward's theme is Pearl of Great Price and our animal is the starfish. The heart was supposed to be an anchor because the stake's theme is anchored in christ but nobody had anchor charms!! GRR. We are giving the necklace to them with a fun little story.

{A young girl was walking along a beach upon which thousands of starfish had been washed up during a terrible storm. When she came to each starfish, she would pick it up, and throw it back into the ocean. People watched her with amusement.

She had been doing this for some time when a man approached her and said, “Little girl, why are you doing this? Look at this beach! You can’t save all these starfish. You can’t begin to make a difference!”

The girl seemed crushed, suddenly deflated. But after a few moments, she bent down, picked up another starfish, and hurled it as far as she could into the ocean. Then she looked up at the man and replied,

“Well, I made a difference to that one!”

The old man looked at the girl inquisitively and thought about what she had done and said. Inspired, he joined the little girl in throwing starfish back into the sea. Soon others joined, and all the starfish were saved. - adapted from the Star Thrower by Loren C. Eiseley}

So hopefully everything will go well this week and we'll be able to enjoy each others' company and have a good/safe/fun time. I'm going to bring my big camera so I can take some good pictures (last year they were horrible from my P&S) then maybe I'll post them when I return.

My aunt and uncle are returning from their 2 year mission to Russia on Thursday (!!!!) so I might actually leave camp a day early to meet them at the airport, but we'll see.

Be jealous!!

Crafting in my Bed?

2011-06-17T09:33:00.000-07:00

Maybe that title sounds funny...hmm oh well. I'll explain myself in a few minutes.
First though I'll share a few random things that have been going on!

First we've had aprox. 4 days of sun this SUMMER. So when it's sunny, I try to spend the day in the great outdoors. Right now I want to turn the heater on in the house in the middle of JUNE. So ridic. This was the hottest day we've had so we went kayaking then we laid on anti gravity chairs and I read Harry Potter!

speaking of Harry Potter...This is a shirt I made with my friend Michelle Chapin yesterday. We got a Tshirt from Michaels for $2.50 and a bleach pen for $2.50. Then we picked out what designs we wanted (michelle did I <3 Batman ) I decided on HP because the movie comes out in 28 days, the day before my bday!! If you want to make a shirt too, just put a piece of cardboard between the shirt layers then you can outline in chalk your design, we didn't have chalk so we just used the internet to help us create stencils.
Then you leave the bleach on for 15-20 minutes, until you reach your desired effect then wash it off in the sink then wash/dry it and it's done!!

This was a project one day that turned out pretty delicious...it used to be a can of sweet and condensed milk (hahaha I almost said soup- that would be a miracle!). TO make your very own can, lightly boil the can for 2 hours (take label off first). Then wait for it to cool, or you can make an ice bath to help it along. Once it's cool, open it and enjoy!! I liked it better the next day after it had been in the fridge all night. It stayed soft and super good. I dipped apples in it (and my finger?) You could pour it over popcorn or brownies or ice cream or...you get the idea.

So this is where the crafting in my bed title comes from. Last night I was a little pin crazy and came across this fun idea. I've been looking for something to put over my bed to break up this obnoxious yellow wall. Luckily I have a canvas store downstairs in my house and had my pick of about 30 different canvas sized ;). I wanted to be warm in my bed though so I made them in my bed at 11:30pm last night. Here's how I made them:
I got embroidery thread and wrapped it around the canvas randomly lots of times. Then tied it in the back to finish it off.
Next I took half a sheet of black felt and cut out leaf shapes in different sizes. Then tucked them randomly into the string. I didn't use any type of glue or adhesive so they are a little vulnerable. If I had had glue dots in my room I prolly would have used a glue dot on each. Or if I had had a box cutter I would have made little slits into each 'leaf' and strung them on the string..but I didn't. So I made due.

It's soooo not perfect but that's ok with me. I was actually going to paint something similar on my wall so it would look like birds on a powerline but never got around to it.

Ugh this yellow looks so bad in this picture. Also I don't really like it in real life either and if it wasn't such a huge hassle I'd repaint it....with a lighter gray then do a quarter-foil stencil in white. But that might be too much gray...:( Also ignore all my random things that don't match anything, they were just thrown up on top of my bed for lack of space.

And that's it, you too can craft in your bed if you feel so inclined. But please don't make the caramel in your bed, that would get messy. Also I don't recommend using a bleach pen in your bed either.

Tom

2011-06-09T19:19:00.000-07:00

Meet my new friend/s

I suppose they're not really friends yet because they're still on their way here but I have a feeling we WILL be good friends. I'm sure everyone has heard of this company called Toms. Their motto:

I'd say that's a pretty legit motto. In fact, I'm fairly certain that's why I bought them. I was looking for some comfy, light-weight shoes and I hope I found that in these.
This company is pretty cool and they aren't out to make a buck, they are here to make a difference. Too many companies are just too greedy and don't do good with all their wealth. I know people who barely get by and live month to month but they still donate what they can and volunteer in the community. Those are the types of people we need and this is the type of company we need more of.

Now in addition to shoes, they are now selling sunglasses and this is the deal behind them:

If you buy one pair of Toms glasses you provide site for one person, in whatever capacity they need it. Ummm hello? Genius. The glasses are a little more expensive but for what they provide I'd say they are a good investment. I can't wear regular sunglasses due to my far-sightedness but if I did, I'd prolly save up for a pair.

They have factories to make these products in Argentina, China and Ethiopia and this is what they say about them,
"We require that the factories operate under sound labor conditions, pay fair wages and follow local labor standards. A code of conduct is signed by all factories. Our production staff routinely visits these factories to make sure they are maintaining these working standards. We also have third parties audit the factories at least once a year to ensure they adhere to proper labor regulations."

Since 2006 when they started they have donated over 1,000,000 pairs of shoes and I'm sure that number is growing daily. This company was started by a guy who was on Amazing Race, while on the show he ended up in Argentina and afterward went back there on vacation, he noticed many kids didn't have shoes. He was wearing authentic style shoes that farmers had been wearing for a loooong time and he had the idea to start a company that donated a pair of shoes for every pair that was purchased.

Anyways you can google it if you want more info. I just thought it was a really cool idea and what a great way to help the world. If you buy a pair right now they have a $5 off coupon (google it) you can put towards your order. I'm excited to get mine!!

The 3rd Day

2011-06-03T10:50:00.000-07:00

Hands are the subject for today's photo challenge. There are many types of pictures I could have taken, old hands, new baby hands, gloved hands, knitting hands, steering wheel hands etc....but I chose to take it literally and take pictures of my hands, as they are now, straight on, no fuss nothing special, just my hands.

I have to say I have small-ish hands compared to lots of people so maybe I'm a freak or something haha but I do like my hands. I don't think they are necessarily handsome hands (can hands be handsome?) but they are able hands. A few facts about my hands (try NOT to get too excited)

1. They are double jointed and can cause people to cringe in ~~horror~~ amazement. (Perhaps causing early on-set arthritis? Possibly)
2. My fingers are almost always capped with some sort of polish. Fingernail polish is kind of like the bowler hat but for fingers, not heads.
3. My ring finger requires a size 4 ring---meaning I get rings from the KIDS section...again freakishly small?
4. My other fingers are more accurately proportioned and I can get rings from the regular sections.
5. My fingers tend to bend backwards not on purpose, that's just how they are.
6. I can knit, crochet, roll out dough, take pictures, high five, smack ~~others~~ myself in the forehead, pick things up, write, play the violin (poorly), sanitize and open pill bottles with these hands.
7. I like the fact that I can craft with these hands, it gives me something to do instead of fidget. I can change a ball of string into a hat or blanket whatever I want with these hands.
8. My hands/fingers are mostly always cold. I guess I have poor circulation.
9. I have weird pokey outy veins or tendons? on my hands that freak me out
10. I have a few scars on my hands and fingers from various endeavors such as going to a cutco knife demonstration and slicing my thumb with their TABLE knife. Another large scar is on my right pinky from who knows what.
11. I write with my left hand.
12. But I do most other things with my right hand. It's what happens when your family refuses to acknowledge the fact that your left handed and are in denial about it so they don't buy you left handed scissors as a kid, then make you switch hands to throw a baseball or bat or brush your teeth...(longest run-on ever?)

And last but not least, I just typed out this WHOLE ~~pointless~~ blog about my HANDS with my HANDS.
I am thankful for my hands and what they can do!!

I apologize if you really just read a whole blog about my hands, it wasn't intentional.

Day número UNO

2011-06-02T10:43:00.000-07:00

Day one is a self portrait so this is my silly self portrait. I'm wearing Sam's 'awesome' sunglasses and waiting for Shelley to get off work.I'm prettttty gangster...hahaha OR NOT.

I probably won't post all my photos of my June photo challenge on the day they happen but perhaps thru the month I'll post a few here and there. This is also for my project 365 where I take a photo every day with Instagram. Killing 2 birds with 1 stone holllla!

30 Day Challenge!

2011-05-31T15:18:00.000-07:00

I started this Project 365 on January 1st, so I take a photo every day using Instagram on my ipod. Well I've done pretty good and haven't missed any days but I'm having a hard time coming up with things to take photos of. I've decided since June has 30 days I'm going to do this challenge in conjunction with my Instagram 365. The only problem is June is the month of CAMP YIKES remind me to stop procrastinating and get that stuff finished up. So I might not follow this exactly towards the end of the month but that's ok I guess. As long as I take one photo a day I'll feel good about it.

Here is the 'program' if you are interested in following along. Maybe I'll post some of my photos on this blog but who knows, next month might be prettttty busy. I'm also going to be helping my grandparents redo their living room, kitchen, dining room and hallway.

ALSO Laura, you win the baby subway art hahaha!! if you want to email (of facebook) me your info you want on the baby sign that would be great. Congratulations!!

25

2011-05-28T20:58:00.000-07:00

My parents celebrated their 25th anniversary this last week. They weren't able to go away like they had wanted to so I came up with an idea to get them out of the house a little bit.

I wrote up 5 clues and some rules to send them on a ~~wild goose chase~~ 'scavenger' hunt. Then I decided that when they got back from their adventure, we would have a lovely dinner waiting for them.

You can be apart of the adventure now too!! (luckkkky ducks)
They had to take a photo of each destination and text it to me before opening the next clue so I could verify they were in the right place.
This was what we hid in their car, their clues and their "field books":

Clue #1
The blue lit aisles scream sales but deep down this place is more than 25% off specials, it's a corporation specializing in the business of looooove.

(They both worked at K-Mart and that's kind of how they met- even though they'd gone to the same church for years)

CHECK! They also had to bring back an object from each place so they brought home a bunch of random rocks haha.

Clue #2:
Where ghosts rattled doors and vacuums swept across floors, the place where you snored with your firstborn.

This funeral home on James street was my first home. My parents cared for the building...NOT the bodies as my dad would have you believe ;). My mom was afraid so she'd hang cans from the door so she'd hear if anyone came in. Weird random story, my aunt met her prom date there when she was a senior and they took pictures in caskets...CREEEPY

Clue #3:
This place didn't moo as expected by it's name but it sure provided lots of fun for at least one more kid to play.

This was our next house in Fairhaven (on Cowgale, hence the moo clue). We ran a group home with 3 DD adults when I was growing up and Ty was born when we lived here.

Clue #4:
Where the family was completed, this is where we stayed for many years when the days were lazy and the summers were hazy.

This was our next house in Ferndale. We lived here from when I was in 2nd grade until 8th grade. I loved this house. It had a huge yard that my dad built a lot of things in. We moved to be in the Meridian school district and to get out of that 'hood. I want to go through it again but they haven't moved so no open houses :(

Clue #5:
Where you now reside, hidden in the deep, follow the pathway home where you will find the treasure you seek!!
No photo of our house now, they didn't think it was necessary ;)

My clues are a little cheesy but whatev's it got them out of the house for about an hour, enough time to do this:

Make dinner which was mashed potatoes, veggies, salmon (salad not pictured). I also made little menus for our 25 Cafe.
We also cleaned the kitchen/living room areas while they were gone and set up their special table.

Complete with flame-less candles (we almost burned the house down when the salmon caught on fire so we decided to play it safe ;)) Cheesecake filling stuffed strawberries drizzled with chocolate and rolled in crushed graham crackers.

We had their anniversary gift which was a gift card to eat and a couple movie passes with roses.

Sam was the server and had on his church clothes and a fake mustache but didn't let me take a pic, jerk haha.

Other funny story. Everyone was gone this afternoon so after I got back from Costco, I started hulling out the strawberries to fill them with the cheesecake filling. Well half way through my dad pulled up so I grabbed everything off the counter and hid it behind my bed in my room (see above pic)... i finished filling them here then luckily Sam called to be picked up so I was able to cover them and sneak them to the fridge to await their chocolate drizzle.

So that's our day celebrating my parents 25 years of marriage. I also had them write down at least one memory from each location so we have a few stories of each place now.

1,000th PIN! (and Giveaway!!)

2011-05-24T10:55:00.000-07:00

It's true...I've been on Pinterest for, I dunno maybe 2 months and I've already hit 1,000 pins?! CRAZY. I'm fairly certain half of those were pinned the first 2 days I was on it, I had SO much stuff bookmarked. If you have yet to get on the pinterest bandwagon, lemme know and I'll hook you up. This picture illustrates what exactly my 1,000th pin was of....

It's directions on how to create your own bokeh, prettttty cool unless you don't know what that is then it means nothing to you. In short it's the fuzzy lights you see behind a subject in a photograph like this:

SO with the directions it shows you how to make shaped bokeh like hears and stars etc...

This is a screen shot of my "home screen" in Pinterest. It shows all my boards which are separated by categories that I like. I have a wide range here are the boards I currently have working:
Buy me, grad party, I want to go to there (travel), Health, sewing, gifts, church, random funny, crocheting, quotes, paper crafting, kids, part-E, clothes & accessories, Do's (hair), cooking, knitting, make me (crafts), decorating, baking, I shoot people with canons (photography), around the house.
So see you can pin ANYTHING you are interested in!! I follow 12 people which means I see what they pin and then I have the ability to pin anything they pin that I like to my boards. I didn't realize it but like 28 people follow me which is pretty crazy. I know several of the people but there are strangers who follow me to, I wonder why anyone would care what I pin but I guess they do! (You also have the option to have private boards that you can block from strangers if you're concerned about that kind of thing).

So in honor of my 1,000th pin I thought I'd have a little giveaway!! If you are interested in winning one of these:

(an idea I got from Pinterest) A custom baby subway art inspired 8.5x11 (or smaller your choice) print go here, Pinterest (if you are not a member you will just see the front screen) and look at some of the sample pins and tell me what your very first pin would be!! Then if you'd like an invite leave your email in the comments and I'll send you an invite so you can get started pinning away! I will choose a winner next Tuesday. If you win you can email me all the info you would like on your subway art and I'll get it printed. I'll just choose a random entry (haha that's assuming I even get ONE entry ;)) Your chances should be pretty good ;). If you don't have any kids yourself it would make a cute gift!! I have a few I'm going to be printing off for friends who've just had babies recently.

Happy Pinning!!

Totes vs. Sac's

2011-05-17T11:24:00.000-07:00

I have a dilemma. I have a really hard time spending money on myself...well for more expensive things that aren't TOTALLY necessary. I have been wanting to get a camera bag for myself for awhile now and I've had my eye on these:

Shootsac's by Jessica Claire. I love Jessica Claire's photography and her bags are so sleek and non-bulky. She also has some really cute covers...The bag itself is like $170 then you have to buy the cover which ranges in price from like $39-59. Of course my favorite cover is on the more expensive side. So do I go with the less bulky but more expensive bag or do I go with Jo's Totes:

Which are a lot cheaper, $89, but more bulky (it doesn't show it but it also has a cross body strap)? I have to admit, if it was just a purse, it is "tote-ally" my style. And it has a lot of room on the inside for extra lens', flash, cards, keys, wallet etc...so it would be like an all in one purse/camera bag (plus, the inside fabric is hounds-tooth my favorite). My other dilemma is, do I really NEED a camera bag? I don't have many lens' just two...and I basically only use one of them. So it would hold my flash and extra SD cards...so is a whole huge bag really necessary right now? I hope to expand in the future and buy more lens' so it would be something that would come in handy in the future...will this go out of style by the time I get around to buying more lens'? If I go with the other one, I can change the cover if it goes out of style...

I'm pretty busy with photos lately and I have a wedding coming up and would love to have an all-in-one purse/camera bag to carry around but I hate the feeling of being weighted down. But it would be super handy to have everything close to me. I could even bring my other camera with me just in case ya know, better to be prepared. UGH decisions decisions.

I had talked myself into getting a shoot sac but now I'm really not wanting to spend that much money so I might just go with the Jo's Totes...why is this so hard for me? In the long run it doesn't matter at all and it's just money and 'stuff' so who cares right? I just make things into a bigger deal than they are ;). Maybe I should just spend that money on a photo workshop with one of my favorite photographers like, Blue Lilly or Jessica Kettle. OH my heck. I think I'll go with Jo's Totes...ahhhh too bad they are out of stock of all the colors I like so who knows if I'd even get my bag by June when I need it!?

Magical

2011-05-13T10:05:00.000-07:00

This might sound rather juvenile but I truly believe that places like Disneyland and Disneyworld are MAGICAL. Despite hating crowds and long lines, I LOVE these places. Now I am speaking prematurely, because I've never been to Dinseyworld but I imagine it's just as magical as Disneyland. Here's one reason why:

Hello! Who wouldn't want to go there? Well yesterday was quite the exciting day at my house. My dad got a letter in the mail with two mickey mouse stickers on them, otherwise it was just a plain white envelope. My mom and I couldn't wait for him to get home so we ripped that sucker open and within 2 seconds we were jumping up and down and celebrating ;). The company my parents work for sends all their employees (and their families) who have been there for 20 + years to Disneyworld, all expenses paid for. In case you don't know what that means, they pay for flights, car service (limo?), rooms in one of the park resorts, entrance to all the parks, and food!!!!! My family has never taken a vacation quite that elaborate. We've never left the West Coast (except does Hawaii count? we did go there once). To be honest, we are just too ~~cheap~~ practical to spend that kind of money on a trip that lasts just a few days when there are so many other things to spend that money on. Not to sound cliche and whatnot but the memories are soooo great. I went to Disneyland when I was 1 yr old...I don't remember one minute of it but 2 years ago I went with my aunt and cousins to Dinsyland again and remember every minute of it, we had a BLAST. I always think back and smile. So I'm way excited for our family to take a fun trip and not have to worry about money! Only bummer is Ty is in Chile on his mission still so he can't go...BUT my mom will reach her 20 year mark in 2-3 years so he'll have another chance!

I have to say, my mind could barely process all this information so it took me 2 hours to realize exactly what going to Disneyworld meant...HARRY FREAKING POTTER LAND. Shut the front door! I seriously am so happy!! I have loved Harry Potter since the first book came out when I was like 10 no joke. I was just as excited when all the movies came out. Just hearing that music from the opening credits makes me smile like a friggin' dork.

This is the Three Broomsticks in the Village of Hogsmeade, where Harry and Co. hang out when they are allowed to leave Hogwarts. I GET TO GO HERE. Oh my heck. I might have an embolism or something. How geeky is it to be so excited for this?! Now this trip really WILL be magical with Harry Potter on the agenda! If I'm able to pull myself away from all the glory-ness that is Harry Potter we might do this:

heckkk yes. How fun would it be to swim with dolphins? TOTALLY fun. I like how I keep 'talking' in CAPS. that's how excited I am!!

obviously we'll be going to epcot. I'm so excited to see the different things they offer here. I'm not really sure what it involves but I think it's places from around the world. Anyways I'm excited.

Ok I still have a few months before going so I should stop daydreaming and get on with my day. I have some camp stuff to do for girls camp and I'm going to help a friend decorate a cake and several other items of business.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What does a Zebra say?

2011-05-07T12:23:00.000-07:00

I realized yesterday as I was picking a few things up in my room that I really like something. What I really like is zebra stripes...strange. Then I started going around and looking at everything I owned that had zebra stripes and I was rather ~~ashamed~~ impressed with my collection. I know you all are just dying to see so I took pictures! Lucky dogs

The first thing I noticed was my nails, which I had just painted (so please ignore the crappy white all over my fingers, I hadn't removed that part before the picture :)) Might be a little sassy but I enjoy it. Then I get embarrassed when I'm at the store and people ask me where I went to get them done or if they are nail stickers and I have to say I actually took the time to do them myself...that makes me embarrassed.

Next I saw my beloved Old Navy shoes in my closet. I wear them a lot, totally worth the money!

Since I was looking at my shoes, I saw these bad boys. My dad has a tradition of buying me Chuck Taylors for birthdays/christmas. He ordered these online and didn't realize they were actually fuzzy...hmm I did wear them once because he made me feel guilty but they are more of a collectors item...and shouldn't be worn too much...wouldn't want to wear down the soles...But they do have a place in my 14 pair collection.

Next I remembered the purse I got for Christmas a year or two ago (also from my dad haha) I think I might actually have two purses that are zebra print. I actually haven't used this one yet because I forgot I had it, it was on of the many purses I uncovered from my closet a few weeks ago.

Then of course, we have my lovely luggage. A lot of people don't like it, BUT I don't like it when I can't find my luggage in the carousal after an airplane ride..so HA jokes on you suckkkas standing there waiting for 20 minutes to sift through 60 other black/blue suitcases. I also have a matching laptop bag that I got with it cuz I'm cool like that.

Even my computer cannot escape Zebra feva!

Neither can my cellular device...

Or my ipod...

And you'd better believe if zebra stripes would match at all in my room, I would have a zebra rug or picture or something...but it doesn't so too bad for my room ;)

I don't discriminate either, I like all animals just some have better patterns than others, that's how I decide which animals to like...if they have to have a cool pattern or texture or be a cool color I can like them ie: Flamingos, giraffes, elephants, tigers, dalmatians...

What DOES a zebra say?

New Room!

2011-05-06T17:33:00.000-07:00

I have gotten several requests to show pictures of my "new" room! A little background, I've been trying to redo my room for prolly 6 years and just got around to it last week. I decided I'd had enough waiting around so I went to the store, bought 2 gallons of paint (way too much BTdubs...) and got to work. First I had to clear out my room. I decided to do it right this time and went through EVERYTHING. 2 Saturday's ago I was sitting literally on a pile of ~~junk~~ stuff ;). I think I took out 4 bags of garbage- like old gross clothes, broken stuff, etc...- probably took out 8 bags of giveaway stuff, seriously. it was absolutely ridiculous! I didn't realize I was living on the border of hoarder-ville ;) I just said to myself, if I haven't used it (or seen it) in the last year I didn't need it. I did good. Now all that stuff is sorted and donated to a garage sale we are having for camp!

About a month and a half ago I walked into Target, not really looking to buy anything other than a birthday gift and a bottle of water. Well I happened by the bedroom section and saw this comforter that just sccccreamed my name. I'd seen it before but walked away from it, I didn't need it. But this time I didn't walk away from it. I picked it up and carried it around the store, thinking to myself, I'd go put it back before checking out, because I don't NEED a new one... (maybe I just need to finally realize I always do that to myself and once I pick something up, that's the point of no return for me haha)

Well I bought it that night but kept the receipt because I WAS going to return it in a day or two...but it wouldn't hurt to unfold it and see how it looked on my bed right? The next day I went to the store and bought sheets to match...

OY. Then I decided it didn't go with my "denim blue" walls so I HAD to paint. It took a while to actually get my room done. But a week ago I kicked it into high gear and didn't leave my room for a few days. I did pretty much everything by myself, I did have some help putting together the bed for my own sanity. And there is still corner touch-up stuff to do, and a few other small things to get really organized but the bulk of the work is DONE.

Enough talking, here's the pictures!

I'm gonna need to get a new lamp, green doesn't really match :) Maybe I'll get some aqua spray paint and change it...I've seen so many samples of rooms that are yellow and gray with aqua accents. Or maybe I'll make it black?

another view of the room. I already had this cool bookcase but I like it against the gray A LOT better! Eventually the frames that are on the bookcase will get hung up or put on a shelf...?

My bed is pretty cool, although it was totally annoying to put together and HEAVY. It has cubes on the side of the headboard. The top isn't on the headboard yet because someone took the phillips and I can't find it but it will get done soon. Perfect place for my books, Kindle, remote, rice bag, knitting projects etc....

The whole reason I bought this bed was for the drawers on the bottom. There are FOUR huge drawers, I seriously have so much space now, it's wonderful. Now I just have to keep it that way and actually fold my laundry instead of pulling it out of the dryer when I need clothes :). The two drawers that are showing hold all my shirts, separated into piles- white, plain colored, tank tops, etc... the other drawer holds all my pants and PJ's separated into shorts, capris, pjs, jeans, yoga etc...it works.
On the other side I put all my purses and bags into one to get them out of the way and in the other I put a bunch of yarn also to get it out of the way. It makes it easy when I want to start a new project!! Now I just gotta get some matching pillow cases and finish up the last minute stuff. No pics of the closet because although I cleaned out all the cubbies, I want to finish emptying my dresser to get rid of it and rearrange in there a bit.

Phew that was a long post! Now I'm off to go see a movie!

DIY Bakers Twine

2011-04-28T14:09:00.000-07:00

I've decided to take a break from this:

to make some of this:

I've been seeing this twine everywhere, and I've been coveting it like mad. I want it all in every color! The only problem is, I'm not a millionaire. I'm being dramatic but this stuff is not that cheap, I've been seeing it for 2-4$ a yard which to me seems a little steep especially when you want more than one color.
So while on pinterest a friend of mind had pinned a DIY tutorial on how to make your own twine so I clicked the link then watched the video, then slammed my palm into my forehead and said, DUH. So if you are interested in making your own twine on the cheap then here ya go!

You'll need crocheting string (or bakers twine), a ruler, masking tape, permanent markers

Wrap the masking tape all around the ruler so you don't stain it then start wrapping your string around and around, tightly making sure not to overlap the string. This is the tedious part but it's something to do while you watch a movie or something. I found that if I used a little piece of masking tape on the top loose string, I get a much tighter wrap I also used a small piece on the end piece to help it stay put as well.

Then using your permanent marker, draw lines diagonally (or straight, either way works) on both sides of the ruler. Press hard with your marker but don't make it too thick. My gray was a little on the thick side but that's ok. Also be sure to drink your V8 fruit fusion while sitting on the painters canvas on the floor of your bedroom, it helps...

Then unravel your string and repeat process as many times as you want. As you can see I did it 4 times. But I have like 8 more colors I want to use so...Obvs, if you want/need more than a couple yards for a large project, it might make more sense, time wise, to just buy a roll but for small little projects or for wrapping small gifts, this is perfect, plus you don't have to pay for shipping and handling! ;)

Well I should probably go take a shower, clean up my painting mess a little even though I'm STILL not done. Then go outside in the sun for the first time this week! Happy twining!

Dear Myself,

2011-04-25T22:02:00.000-07:00

There are some things that annoy me, for example:

When people say "I'll give you 110% coach!" Well technically you CAN'T give more than 100%, so why open up that can of worms. If you're only going to give 110% out of infinity, then you're really not trying that hard. That's why, when telling someone in a percentage, how much you'll give them, cap it off at 100%. It's just easier that way.

When patrons at a grocery store, race you to a checkout stand and have a cart FULL of items and I have just 2 items, and they win. If I have a lot at a store and someone comes behind me with just one or two items, I let them go ahead, but that's just me.

In parking lots when you get into your car at the same time as the person parked in front of you and you both take y o u r t i m e getting into the car so YOU can be the one that pulls forward, then finally give up and admit defeat cuz who has time to sit in the car waiting?

Corn nuts. Just in general, are a HUGE pet peeve of mine. They are stinky and loud and nasty nasty nasty.

When people eat banana's around me, the sound makes me gag.

When someone drinks from a straw inside an empty cup and it makes that awful slurping noise. Just be done with it already!

Cleaning out the dryer lint. I hate doing that. Not sure why...it's NOT hard.

Wrapping the cord around the back of a vacuum cleaner.

So anyways I always tend to think of all the negatives and what I can't stand and things that drive me nuts. I've realized that no matter where I am or what I'm doing, my mind tends to harbor on the things that annoy me in whatever situation I happen to be in. I have to change that! I am on a quest to be a more positive and happy person. That means, when I hear someone say, I'll give you 190%, I will try not to cringe and question why they didn't make it a full 200%...I will be the first to back out so the person in front of me can have an easier time getting out of the parking lot.

Truth be told, we have NO idea what others are going through in their day/lives. Something as simple as holding the door open for someone can make their day. We have no way of know what people are battling so we need to be kind to everyone. We need to not be so quick to judge others and offer a helping hand even if it's out of our comfort zone. We are ALL children of our Heavenly Father and we should all strive to be like him. No matter what our politics are, we all want what's best for our country no matter what our religion, we want to be good people.

I can't even count the number of times I've seen someone and instantly labeled them as something. I have NO CLUE what their life holds. I don't know if they are straight A students, or high school dropouts, I don't know if they have a loving family or if they are abused at home, they could be CEO's of a company or collecting unemployment. We have no way of knowing unless you take the time to get to know them. That's obviously impossible to get to know everyone you see but just keep in mind that they might be having a rough time in life, and let them cut in front of you in the grocery store.

I'm not sure why this post turned in to what it turned in to, maybe it's because we just celebrated Easter, or maybe I'm finally growing up..(?!) Here are a fun quotes that I've found (of course on Pinterest!)

From,
ME!

Fancy Baked Potatoes

2011-04-20T17:05:00.000-07:00

I came across this recipe one time for these weird sliced baked potatoes so I kind of changed it up a bit and made it how I thought it should be. Here is the recipe for you if you'd like to have a fancy schmancy dinner sometime.

You need potatoes...however many you want/need. I made 5, obvs. Peel them and rinse them. Next, using your peeler, make the bottom of the potato flat. (You can use a knife but you waste more potato that way so I like my way better)

This next part is weird but just go with it. Place two chopsticks on each side of the potato, this will prevent the knife from going all the way through the potato. I've also made these with small red potatoes and just cut the potato while it was sitting on a wooden spoon. Thinly slice through the potato...not too thin but you don't want thick slices so it will cook fully.

it will look like this. you can fan it out. It helps if you have a way sharp knife. DUH. everything is easier with a sharp knife.

Place the potatoes in cold water after slicing, this does two things, keeps the potato from turning brown and gets out some of the starch so you can fan the potato easier.

Next mix the following into a bag:
Smoked paparika
garlic & onion powders
a little chili powder
a little oregano
red pepper flakes
salt and pepper
I don't do measurements so just throw in however much you want. I use the paprika the most.

brush each potato with olive oil. You can just pour it but it doesn't get into all the cracks...

sprinkle and rub the dry mixture onto each potato. Side note: after getting the rub on, clean off the cookie sheet so that mixture doesn't burn in the oven, it smells really bad if it burns ;)

after all potatoes are done, cover them with foil and put them in a preheated 450 degree oven. Bake for 30 minutes, remove the foil and bake for another 15 minutes until done. The edges will be crispy and the insides should be soft and tender. the burnt edge pieces are my favorite. At this point you can melt some butter and pour over each potato ;), top with sour cream, bacon bits, cheese, whatever. Or just eat them plain, prolly a little healthier...

Well mine just got out of the oven so I'm gonna go serve them up!

Zinc Letters DIY

2011-04-19T11:03:00.000-07:00

Have you ever seen these on the anthropology website? Well they are about $100 a piece...ridiculous right?
So while going through my favorite site, Pinterest (lemme know if you want an invite), I found an easy and CHEAP way to make them yourself for $99 less! Yahooo. All you need is the following:

regular ol' black craft paint

These kind of cardboard letters from the craft store

Silver paint (I had glaze on hand so that's what I used but it would be easier to use paint) Also this says fabric paint but don't use fabric paint, only pic I could find!

You also need a foam brush and a paper towel or another dry foam brush.

So first you paint a solid black coat over the whole letter and let it dry. Mine dried in like 5 minutes.
Next using the silver, dry brush (meaning don't use a lot of paint) the silver paint in ONE direction (up and down) then wipe away the excess with towel or dry brush. Just keep going around the whole letter until you get the look you like. At one point I got too much silver paint so I dipped the corner of my brush into the black to even it out again.

Once it's done is should look like this:

I didn't use a whole lot of silver, I could have used more to make it look more like the real letters but I decided I liked some of the black to show through. It looks better in real life and NOT in a cell phone picture. When it catches the light it looks really cool, here is another picture in the light,

It always looks different depending on what angle you see it from (please ignore the pink zebra stripe nails...a little wacky but I guess I'm a wacky person). Kind of cool. I want to get some of those BIIIG letters from JoAnn's and make a word for my room once it finally gets done.