Adventuring

I don't want to say "travelling" because to me that sounds really stressful and exhausting. So, due to my lovely dad, who never got lost on any trip, we like to go "adventuring".

Often times, whenever we have a break, we like to venture south and have fun with friends. This time, we actually got to spend time with family too! Sisters, nieces and nephew all came in and we had a little family reunion together. I think we all had a good time exploring the area and having fun in the museums around the local campus with the kids.

Look at them cute siblings!

Watch out Abigail! Hippos are one of the deadliest animals!

There was a camp going on at the campus during the time we were there. It was kinda funny to watch these teens all run around the college campus with their groups and bags and lanyards. Since Boy and I met at one of these camps, we eventually came to this campus and had to re-live the picture that was taken almost 11 years ago? Something like that....

Before (sitting on the ground eating lunch)

After (the ground was wet...)

After walking around, we of course had to stop by See's Candies. It's a treat since we can't get See's down south or really anywhere else we are. Haha. 20 scotchmellows please!

After family left, we made our way with some friends to Zion's National Park to hike the narrows. We didn't really get to hike the full Narrows due to rain and threatening flash floods, but we did hike from the bottom about 5 miles in to Big Springs and back down. 

By the time we got to Big Springs, it started to hail and rain a little. The water level started rising and by the time we got to the end of the trail, there was a sign posted...

Oh deer! (Haha!) It was totally worth the hike. AND! The best part was I wasn't sore the next day! Usually after doing that hike, you are completely wiped out. (Granted we only did 11 miles, not the whole 18 miles...) Still! I'd been working out and training myself to do this hike, and I did it! Now if I can only stay in shape and keep working out.... Motivation? 

The next day, we decided to take it easy and work on our Junior Ranger badges. I want to try and go to as many National Parks as I can and get all the Junior Ranger badges. Make a scrapbook out of it all. I think that would be pretty fun to do. It's always fun doing the easy little booklets and going on adventures, learning with the rangers, etc. Now I have two so far that Boy and I have done together to add to our family "Adventure Book".

Until the next big adventure! (Comic Con) 

Blue Hair

Hey! It's been a while.
Things have been going okay here. We've been dealing a lot with the allergies for the season, trying out different allergy medication, etc. I swear one day I'm just going to sneeze and my head it just going to explode. At least that's what it feels like. Heh. At least it's warmer than 60 degrees. I'm so ready for swimming, tanning and watermelon. YUM!

So in case anyone else was wondering, yes, I did dye my hair blue. I've always been a colorful person and since a teen, have experimented in dying hair. I've always wanted to do something bright and colorful, but wasn't sure what color. Blue it is! Not completely blue though... Being I am a teaching assistant for archery classes at BYU-Idaho and will be taking classes come September, I couldn't make it too bold due to school standards. (yeah, I know...)

 

So I just did streaks that were neatly hidden on the underside of my hair. I scared the hubby and sent him a picture of the blonde with a text saying "what if I went blonde instead?". Haha. With my skin tone, I don't think it would look right. It was a good laugh though. 

After sitting under the dryer for what seemed like forever, we finally washed out my hair again, making it look like we killed some smurfs. My salon girl had a blue tint on her hands by the time we were done. I couldn't even see the blue with my hair all wet, but when we dried and curled it, it was VERY noticeable.

Like I said before, it's all underneath my hair, so you can't really tell in the second picture, but it is there! It makes me happy every time I see it when I put my hair up in cute buns and curls. I think my favorite is to curl it though I need a thicker curling iron than just my 1/2 inch. Maybe it's a 1/4 inch thick? Either way, it's little.

I've noticed that when I wear certain colors, the shade changes slightly. For example, green makes it look more like an aqua than the bright blue it is. I try to wear blue and make it stand out more when I'm not at school to make it stand out more. Latest fashion? Bandanas. Especially as seen here in this picture where the knot is on top of my head and my hair is in a pony. I also like to drape the bandana on my head and tie my hair in pigtail braids which include the bandana, securing it into my hairstyle. It is fun. 

So even 2? 3? weeks later, my blue hair makes me almost as happy as this man. It's been a whole year! Can you believe that? I can't. It makes me so proud to be married to him. The best for me. I've already decided that if we end up moving next month, I'll most definitely make my blue streaks a little more bolder for the fall. Have you ever died your hair fun colors? or wanted to?

Gardening and Flowers

I haven't written in a while because I've been busy getting the contract and legal things out of the way for this book I'm illustrating. Then I'm also going to start school in the fall and I've been trying to figure out what classes I need to/want to take, when registration is, etc. It's been busy for sure.

So I may or may not have posted about flower before, but oh well, you're going to hear it again. :P I've never really been any good at gardening and planting things. I always tended to kill them or they just don't grow because of my lack of knowledge in such subject. My dad's favorite story to tell is when I was little, I had a greenhouse from like McDonald's Happy Meal or something and we watered it for like two weeks and nothing grew. He finally asked me jokingly, "Are you sure there's a seed in there?" and my innocent little toddler self asked, "What's a seed?"

Yeah, embarrassing. Anywhoz, I've tried to grow things, flowers and stuff in our family garden, but if it wasn't for mom or dad (I'm sure the humidity of the area helped too) my plants probably wouldn't have gone far. Since then, on my own if I tried to grow things, I would try and do what the instructions told me, but I always thought plants were those kinda things you just do once, let it be, check on it every so often and it'll just do it's thing. No maintenance required. Haha... I've at least learned since then that they don't require at least as much attention as Kate does. It's not like I have to take it on a walk everyday. So far, I've been able to grow green onions...

So I planted tulips in the fall, which never sprouted this spring. So I had a friend come over and teach me how to grow things. She's a horticulture major and definitely not afraid of dirt. Even in a skirt. Awesome. So, we found my tulip bulbs about a foot under dirt (they are only supposed to be about 2-3 inches under...) and I'll try to plant them again next fall maybe. I bought some dahlia bulbs and we planted those in the pots instead. Later that week, I found some cute little lavender type flower bulbs to plant at K-Mart. They are supposed to bloom in the late spring, so it was a little late, but looking at the bulbs, they seemed to already be blooming. Now they are all so cute with their little blossoms!

The other Dahlia's in the pots haven't bloomed like the one on the right, so I'm a little nervous, but we will see. I've been trying to give them sun as much as I can, but the tree's are in the way. We'll see. Dahlia's aren't supposed to bloom until summer anyway, so maybe I have some late bloomers?

I even took some of the lavender type flower bulbs and decided to try something from Pintrest. So far it seems to be working! It should be rather pretty for our window when they bloom.

Cool huh? I haven't watered them yet today. I've been trying to be good about remembering to water them. It's so dry out here, I have to water them everyday! I can't even remember to drink water myself, let alone give some to my plants. lol I can't wait for them to bloom though. It'll be exciting. In other good news, I have also managed to keep my clover plant alive since March!

Isn't it pretty?! :) I'm excited that it's still alive. I was afraid it wouldn't last long at all, but it's still goin' strong and it's getting so big! I might have to put it in a bigger pot, but I'm nervous about that. Every time I change pots, things die at that point due to the shock... So we will see. I'll have to ask my friend about it again and maybe she can help. Hehe.

Well, that's my happy point for today. Just watching them grow and waiting for the blooms. Course a watched pot never boils... lol If you have any suggestions or tips from me, let me know! Please!!

Crafting

I've been really in a crafty mood lately, which is great! It's gotten me to get out my art things, get started on finishing some projects and organizing my crafty crap.

OK so it's not completely organized, but at least one night stand drawer is cleaned out! I bought a plastic case for my Copic markers to go in. Until I have my own craft room, a plastic box is as good as it gets. Maybe one day I can have an awesome marker organizer compartment thing. Then I can organize them by color and name. :) RAINBOWS!

I did, however, get around to finally organizing my fabric so it's not just piled up in the closet! Now I have room for the vacuum to fit in the closet! Yay! Thanks to Sister Stott for the cute bag tutorial/fabric/pattern...

Maybe now I will get around to getting those patterns out and making something...

Or maybe I should work on trying to fix my sewing machine foot first. It worked okay for the small project I did recently. But of course, I don't have to make straight lines for an A with these...

Cute ne?! I made one for my iron too so that the cords aren't always all over the place. Let me tell you though, making a button hole on my machine... I was about to throw the machine out the window. Goal for when I or my husband are able to make money: Buy a Bernina!! The school machines have spoiled me rotten for one of those. I'm tempted to take another sewing class just so I can use their machines instead!

Other things I've done lately? Well, for one, I bought this headboard from someone in our complex for $3. They got it from the thrift shop and it was an UGLY brown and teal silk that had been washed out and bleached from the sun, etc. I took out the pins, painted them silver instead of copper, got some fabric and ribbon that would match our semi-black and white bedroom and glued it on.

Voila! I plan on taking that and two picture frames with "Fly Me To The Moon" lyrics on them and making it the "headboard" for the bedroom. Excited!! I just need to get some frames and move some furniture around... heh, got some work to do that's for sure...

My latest big project has been scrap-booking recipes. I swear my life seems to revolve around trying to figure out a way to organize all these recipes! I finally got it. Went to the local craft store, there it was....

I said THIS is what I need. A cute little recipe book that will have all the recipes my family loves! I've already started on a few, but I need to find more food oriented paper, some stickers maybe, some nicer pens to write with... I'm sure the list could go on, but here's what I've gotten so far!

Cute ne? I figure all the recipes will be unique and different, so I'm not too concerned with matching the entire album. I'll just be happy they're all together. I hope to add pictures to the main course recipes and probably some desserts and cookies. Pictures are always so much better. Some of the pages are too small for pictures, but ya know, everyone knows what guacamole looks like right? Besides, I'll still keep my blog up with recipes and pictures on it too so that way if I'm travelling, they're still there! GENIUS!

Heh... Anyways...

That's been what I've been up to and I enjoy it. I've finally found something else to do other than clean the apartment 24/7. I still won't let it get too messy. I don't want to have to break my back cleaning when we move out 2 years or so from now.

Now if I could only learn the talent of planting and growing flowers!...

Pintrest

I know, I know!! Pintrest?!
Before you say anything though....

I really am glad that Pintrest is around. If you have ever seen my Pintrest or are friends/following  my Pintrest page, you know that I pin A LOT of things.... Here's the difference though; there's those people that pin things and go, 'that would be cool' and never go do it. Then there's me who are looking for ideas for dinner, cleaning, cooking etc. and actually put to use the things I pin. If it doesn't work or I don't like it, I delete it! Simple as that.

Not to say that I don't have those boards on Pintrest that I don't do anything with, like pictures of cute puppies and geeky cosplays, but those have their uses too for when I need something happy. Which is why my husband doesn't mind that I spend so much time on the website. :)

Now, I have over 3,500 pins on Pintrest and I haven't gone through all of them, but I'm working my way through them. It may seem like a crazy mess to those OCD organized people, but it's not. It's rather organized as best it can be.

I've got food organized by Breakfast, Dinner, Bread, Dessert, Drinks and Cookies. After that, it's holiday stuff which I use all the time to decorate with what I can around the house. Gardening, Kids stuff, Color Swatch ideas for art inspiration, Home decor page, dream home page for when we are rich (every girl has a dream home right?), Girly stuff like make up and clothes, then geeky things!

Well, I've done a lot of things, like make an awesome paint swatch dry-erase calendar for the house, organized the lids to my pots in the kitchen on the wall, made a family command center and even an archery case for my bow! My parents came to visit last month and with help from dad's handy stud finder, I put up a crate shelf in the bathroom for the towels. I also got a lot of birthday, Christmas, baby shower and wedding gifts from here. Made this for a friend:

Right now I'm cleaning my dishwasher and I found this awesome website where this girl tells you how to clean and organize your house. I used it yesterday to figure out Katniss hair, clothes and make up so I can look like an awesome TA in Archery class. :) I'm also using a recipe from Pintrest for dinner tonight! We'll see if it actually turns out yummy or not!

I've had a lot! Not as funny as the ones you see online, but I have had some that just haven't turned out. Especially when it comes to recipes! I post all my good recipes on my other blog. We've luckily only had to completely throw out one recipe due to some REALLY overpowering nutmeg that the recipe called for. I mean I like nutmeg, but that much on pasta?... YUCK! 

We ended up ordering pizza for the night.

So far, that dinner was the worst of it. Every once in a while I'll go through them and find that they just aren't worth the time and effort that the crafts and dinners actually take, so I end up deleting a lot and not even trying them out. A lot of the recipes and DIY stuff seem skeptical that I add it to a special "Blog It!" board because I just have to try it out and see if it actually works.

A lot of the time when it comes to "Pintrest Fail"s, people either don't follow the recipe/directions correctly, they don't take their time and can think they can skip a step, etc. So though funny, sometimes, people just need to be patient when it comes to crafting and I think anyone can do it. Also, if something looks impossible, (crazy ingredients, totally detailed, completely time and money consuming, etc.) don't do it! Know what you're capable of and anything is possible.

What do you find and create on Pintrest?

Kate

My dog. I love her.
She is visiting my place right now for about 2 weeks and I love it. I don't care if she barks at every move the neighbors upstairs make, or I have to pick up after her outside. She is my fluffy puppy and brings me lots of smiles. I just have to convince Bryan to let her sleep in the bed now. ;) Hehehe.
We have so much fun together.

Like making Kate burritos and taking naps together.

There's car rides to the park and long fun walks.

I mean, she is family...

Today it snowed, which normally after a beautiful week of snow free weather and hopes of spring right around the corner, would have bothered me. However, I came home from church to a puppy full of love and excitement to see me. We went outside and played in the snow, which I think she really enjoyed!! 

 I think she had more fun eating the snow...

No mom, the striped socks weren't visible during church. I had on taller boots...

Kate is so much fun and I'm so glad she got to be here with us, even if it is just for two weeks. She's a good dog. A pound dog. And she makes me happy. So that's my life's lemon-aide for today.

Bike Weather

Today is short and sweet because I'm feeling bleh from an art project going sour and my poor Japanese....
BUT... Lately the weather has been beautiful and no snow has been around, but once. I rode my bike to school today and was COMPLETELY EXHAUSTED because I haven't ridden since oh.... September? Maybe October.... Either way, I'm just glad it was warm and sunny enough for me to ride around on my bike. I also got to go to the sore today on my bike which means I used my baskets and filled them with groceries. Which made me happy because it wasn't a complete waste to get two baskets on my bike. :) Reminds me of my mission.

Tomorrow we are having an archery tournament which should be fun. I'm thinking we need to do this every other week or something in the class to keep things exciting. I also shot two arrows at once today to goof off and have fun. Sunny, warm days make everything better.

Getting My Art Out There!

I am SO excited!!

So, not only have I been contacted to do more art for someone and their DnD group again, but I have just officially gotten a potential job drawing the chapter headings and possibly the cover art for a children's first chapter book. YUP!

We are at a close family friend's house, celebrating the birth of their new baby girl, and as we are talking I bring up how I finally have Photoshop. So one of the grandmother's there, grabs my attention asking, "You're an artist?" She goes on to explain how she has written a children's first chapter book and needs someone to do the chapter heading art and possibly the cover art for her book. She sent me the story and I've read it and I'm totally working on a bunch of sketches for her right now. It's awesome! I'm really excited to finally be doing something that is actually kinda big and will be out there on shelves in a bookstore! I mean how cool is that?! Deadline is by the beginning of April. I hope she likes what I do. She looked at my art gallery online and there were a few pictures that she really enjoyed, so I'm working off those to make her characters. Yay!

Teaching

So I haven't written in a long time... hehe...

I went home for Christmas. It was stressful and busy and not quite the "vacation time" I was looking for, but it was nice to be back with family and the humidity and familiar places. Not to mention the humidity... my hair was marvelously luscious and thick and my skin cleared up and was smooth...
*sigh*

Upon being back, I cried a little... but it was nice to be back with my Boy in our nice small tiny apartment for 2. It was clean and kinda smelled funny, but it was OUR apartment. I decided it's time to make it more of OUR apartment and rearrange. So I did, and now I feel better and more at ease that there isn't this huge desk in the way of everything. It's much roomier (if that's even possible in these quarters...) for people to come over for Anime nights and whatnot. I like it. :)

I got back into archery at the school and became an "unofficial T.A." for the class. It's kinda fun to hear Redd tell the students, "See this girl here? She's the re-curve master. You need to talk to her if you want to know how to shoot right." For the first few weeks, I had a few groups of girls (2-4 at a time) gather together as I coached them as best I could on how to stand, form, shoot, aim and be good. I'm rather proud at my teaching because compared to last year watching the students when they  first shoot a re-curve bow... they always hit the curtain, the floor, no where NEAR where they wanted to be. Now, within the second round of shooting, they're hitting the paper target. Not bulls-eye, but it's not the curtain or floor... It's fun. I even get to shoot for free. :)

I am also now involved with the school's Japanese Association. It's nice to be able to FINALLY talk to people who know Japanese. No offence to Boy in any way, I just don't want to lose my language. I help out in the beginners class, teaching here and there when they want me to. It's been fun and Boy has been going to classes too which makes me so happy to see. I love it when he speaks to me in Japanese too. It always makes me smile because I know he is actually trying. We posted a bunch of Japanese symbols all over the house for him to read and remember. It's cute.

It's been great teaching. Keeping me busy. I may have to not be too involved once I start classes and possibly get a job, but I enjoy it. That's what it's all about isn't it? Doing what you love? I love to teach my hobbies and things I enjoy doing. :)