Music

Lately with so much time on my hands, I've taken the opportunity to brush up on my Ukulele playing until I get my piano up here. It's been fun re-teaching myself the old songs dad would sing and learning new songs. I found a great YouTube teacher to learn some new songs from too;
The Ukulele Teacher even has his own app! How cool is that?

So far, I've learned these songs:
"The FUN song" -Spongebob Squarepants (EASIEST SONG EVER)
"Jam Buddies" -Steven Universe
"Jingle Bell Rock"
and I'm learning
"Moon River" -Audrey Hepburn version

My fingers are happily getting calluses and I've memorized fingerings for cords. It's something I've wanted to do for a while, but never got around to it. Playing uke is nice right before bed or when I need a minute to just relax. It's easy going just like the Hawaiian life right?

Cha-cha-changes

Ho boy....
New home. New city. New state.
Never been up North East.

Guess I can start off this positive post by saying, I'm glad we are in a warm town house (aka glorified 2 story apartment) and safe neighborhood.
Also being up NorthEast, I can finally start to check off a few things on my bucket list within these next two years, such as;
-Eat New England Lobster
-Visit the Atlantic Coast
-Go to Mood Fabrics

Moving here has been.... interesting... needless to say.
The last year we spent so busy with 19-21 credits a semester with classes/work on the weekends on top of trying to find a job, summer internship in DC and other odds and ends, we honestly never had time for anything. However, we are FINALLY done with school. *Sing praises and rejoice!* Its' over! Yay!

For now it seems like this is going to become our home for a long while. At least 2 years if not more and for the first time ever, I have a drivers license from a different state! And although the people are very.... straight forward.... they are generally nice. This has also been a very dog friendly town as opposed to our last home which hated dogs. I can't wait to take Kate to the beach. It's not a total industrial gross town either. The area we are in is very pretty with lots of trees. "Garden state" for sure. There's also no snow and it's the end of November. So I'm very happy about that. It is cold and windy from the Ocean breeze, but it's bearable. Especially when the sun is up. We'll see what January brings.

Apparently, there's lots to do up here during the summer. We found a board game shop to hang out and make friends at. I've spent most of my time reading, cleaning, unpacking, cooking and brushing up on my Ukulele since I don't have a car while Boy is at work. It's been pretty relaxing to do so. I've gotten a lot of reading under my belt. I forgot how much I like to read. We've been too busy for me to do so otherwise. My second favorite holiday is coming up too; Thanksgiving! So I've gotten to bake and cook all my favorite foods and some nice church friends are letting us come spend it with them so we aren't alone. Mmmm sausage balls, Lime Ice Box pie, cranberry salad and lots of hot cocoa and apple cider! Yay!

It gets pretty boring while Boy is at work. Since we only have one car and I don't have access to the base yet, I mostly stay at home all day. By the time Boy gets home, it's dark and apparently in this town, people shut down early for the night. (Granted there are a LOT of 55 and older communities around.) Looking forward to getting more settled, exploring more things and spending the summer on the beach.

The Word of God

It's been raining a lot where we are now and it makes me depressed because it's not just rain, but it's cold rain and cold winds. I wish it was just sunny summer already. I can't wait until we live down south.

We have been so busy with Master's school, crafting and clubs... Haven't had much time to really do much of anything else. However, today I was touched by the word of God and that is something that has made me happy within my life, so I will write about it.

As I have stated before I am LDS. Also known as a Mormon. We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly and also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God. If you don't know what the The Book of Mormon is, it's another testament of Jesus Christ and I encourage you to find one.

I always believe that if you want to know more about something, don't go off of gossip, research it yourself.

Anywhoz, upon my daily study of the Book of Mormon this morning, I came across some verses that had me pondering. In Helaman chapter 12, the first few verses talk about how fickle the hearts of the children of men are. How, unless they are visited by famine and pestilence they forget their God and His blessings which had made them prosperous. I believe this is one of many answers to the never ending question of "why do bad things happen to good people".

Sometimes we are blessed with so much in our lives that we forget to read our scriptures, we forget to pray, to trust in the Lord with all our hearts. We think our life is great and become prideful in thinking we are better than others. It's those times, in which we are blessed with such wonderful things that we should be thanking the Lord the most. Do we remember Him only when things are bad and we feel at our worst? Or do we remember to call out to Him and give our thanks for all He has blessed us with?

One thing I noticed when I came home from my mission in Japan, is how spoiled America is. How many wonderful things people are blessed with, yet still hate their life. Hate the way they live and just seem to want to make miserable. Why? They seemed to be either wanting attention and pity from others, or they needed to do some soul searching because they weren't doing what they were supposed to be doing.

I challenge everyone to think about the little things in life. Take time to smell the roses and look away from your electronics towards the things that really matter. Not just when you are sad or down about something, but when you feel blessed. Instead of bragging about it on social media, how about getting down on your knees or singing praises at the top of your lungs, thanks to your creator who provided it for you.

"...the Lord in his great infinite goodness doth bless and prosper those who put their trust in him." -Helaman 12:1

Birthdays!

So this weekend was my birthday! YAY! For the longest time I didn't like my birthday because it was always the week of the first day of school. Not exactly how I would want to spend my birthday right? Ugh. At least this year it was on a Friday! AND (another good thing about being in Idaho) I had friends to celebrate with! Although it was hectic and a little stressful getting everyone together and making sure Boy got his homework done... I'm glad I got to see some friends. Not only that but I got some awesome presents!!

My friends from Utah came up, which was exciting. They are like my family away from family. When I first started school Jekka was my room mate and I soon after became her mom's first "adopted" daughter. So they came up, we made a bunch of noise late into the night and then went to The Snakebite which is THE best burger place EVER. If you want to contest that, be my guest! I have yet to find a place that is even remotely as good of a burger as The Snakebite. Not just the burgers, but the salads, fries, onion rings and even steak is delicious. Maybe because the meat literally lives down the street? I had the Cowboy Burger. It's probably my new favorite next to their signature burger. Oh and I got surprised with some chocolate cake! Oh my goodness!!! I haven't had chocolate cake that moist and delicious since The Big Daddy Chocolate Cake from Firebirds. Yum!

So my friends were all able to come and I finally was able to meet their new adorable babies. I got an awesome Eevee Pokemon evolution keychain and a handmade clay keychain of Kate a Bate! It's so stinkin cute!

Isn't it so cute?!

I also got some amazing things from family. Boy got me a Square device so that I can take cards when I set up a booth at a con or craft fair, and the parents bought me some awesome stuff I wanted from Amazon. I GOT A NESSIE LADLE! 

All in all, it wasn't a bad birthday. I think the best one was the surprise Harry Potter Birthday Boy did for me. It really was awesome being he is a muggle and all... That boy is the best when he actually plans. Haha. 

That's all I got today. It's been pretty busy as I try to motivate myself to finish unpacking and cleaning up the apartment. Hopefully I can get some sort of routine here soon. Until next week!

1 year and 8 months later...

Hi again. I started this blog a while ago as an idea to try to motivate myself to think positive. I only allowed myself to write positive posts about things I loved about the situations I was in even if I did not care for where I was and felt like I was having a difficult time. I can confidently say that I feel because of this blog, I think more positively all the time now! I mean sure I have my downs, but I try my best to make good of whatever situation I am in now.

 It took me a long time to get adjusted to life in Idaho... It's dry, it's a desert, there's not much green and there's A LOT of snow. Not exactly this tropical southern girl's ideal situation. However, I was able to focus on the positive, ended up taking some classes and eventually we moved! Yup! Boy graduated from BYU-Idaho and got a job in Texas! So we moved to Austin. Our apartment was small, still a 1 bedroom and man is traffic terrible there... However, if you are a foodie person, Austin is the place to be. Wow! Torchy's Tacos will forever have a place in my heart. Yum! It was a fun experience to be in Austin and I thoroughly enjoyed spending almost everyday at the pool in the sunlight. Loved it!

Well, another adventure has come our way and Boy has gotten accepted into a masters program at ISU. Yup. Back to Idaho in the most dinky little town called Pocatello. Locals here call it Pokey. I'm proud of him. I am. Boy is super smart and so we are all very happy for this opportunity... but back to Idaho?? They say you can't keep an Idahoan out of Idaho for long and though this Boy grew up in Tennessee... I think he's already spent so much of his time here that he's become... "one of them"... Haha.

I can't say I'm too happy about being back here... It's already too cold for me and it's only August. The berries and mangos are high-priced and our apartment is in some white trash part of town. *sigh* We've been trying to make the most of it, but it's tough being back. It's rough moving so much period! However, I've been trying to make the most of it and have been able to find a few positive things to keep me on the up and up.

1. Though our apartment is small, it's a 2-bedroom. This means.... CRAFT ROOM!!!! I finally have my own craft room! It's been interesting trying to find a space for everything we have with us, but I don't even care because I have a room dedicated to where I will let my creative juices flow! A place where fairies can model as I draw them, where I can sew cosplays and crafts and where I can paint from the light of a window! It has a window too! It's the little things...

2. Zoi yogurt. When we moved to Texas I realized that Zoi does not exist outside of Winco Foods in Idaho. (Not sure if it's anywhere else yet) Zoi is the best greek yogurt I have ever had. Thanks Syd for introducing me to it. I hate greek yogurt unless it's cooked into things, but dang! Zoi is freaking delicious! I stocked the fridge already. Can't wait for lunch tomorrow!

3. Friends. I think this is the best part that made this move a little easier. (I intentionally tried to delay packing because I did NOT want to come back...) On the drive up we saw many of our friends which was super nice. I've missed them! Texas was awesome, but I had... 2 friends. They were sweet and I will miss them though. I can't wait until next weekend when I'll get to see more friends for my birthday at the most awesome burger place ever, The Snakebite! I have yet to eat a burger as good as a Snakebite burger. Delish!

So I guess that's actually 4, but that's good right?! I hope that I can write here more often. Not just because I'm all sad and depressed and forcing happy thoughts, but because this is actually a blog where I can look back and read previous entries and not want to burn and destroy them! I have to figure out how to do pictures and everything again though since apparently Google has changed their outlook here...

Detox

I know I haven't written in a while. After I finally got into school last September officially, things were so busy. Aside from my music and textiles class, I ended up staying at school in the sewing lab until 10pm every Tuesday and Thursday for my advanced sewing class. Whew! It was exhausting, but I'm done with my sewing classes that I would like to take. I am tempted to take Pattern Making next semester though... as scary as that sounds. We will see. 

After the semester ended, we moved south! Boy got a paid internship with the church! We were pretty excited. Unfortunately his hours aren't the best (3 days of 12 hour midnights) but at least he has the rest of the week off. I ended up signing up for 6 credits online myself. I'm in 2 art classes, prerequisites for any other campus art classes. No matter what, these art classes are online which really bothers me. I don't learn well online and have a hard time with disciplining myself to sit at the computer and watch 5 videos of a teacher who sounds like he is bored out of his mind, then read:

Everything in red on the side.... Just for this week....

Yeah, it's a challenge. Even more so because I've already taken drawing 1, but they wouldn't transfer it over. *rolls eyes* Life of a transfer student. 

Anywhoz, so I got sick last week and I have no idea what I had. Sore throat, nausea, fever like symptoms, but no fever... It was weird. I had no energy and felt really weak. Finally I started to feel a little better and I decided to take a detox bath.

Best.

Idea.

Ever.

I decided to go all out with a bath, facial and hair scrub. These are things you can do at home too!

Facial:

So I decided to try out this pin someone had posted of taking a 1/2 a lemon with 3-4 drops of honey on it and rubbing it on my black heads. I also took some aloe gel and loaded up the dark circles under my eyes. Left that on for a few minutes or so and after washing my face, it felt so great. With a few drops of lotion on the dry areas, it looked like I wasn't even sick and my skin was nice and soft.

Hair Scrub:

My scalp was really itchy because of my eczema, the dry area we live in and cold winter air. I found this pin on Pintrest and decided, why not?

After following the image to the original website, I found all the ingredients and instructions on what I needed to do. I decided to blend it up in the mixer to make the oatmeal finer and it felt so good to scrub it on my scalp. It was a bit challenging, but my hair is finally back to being thick, soft and feeling so healthy. It no longer itches or feels brittle. Loved it!

Detox Bath:

I decided to do this one last. Now, if you've never done a detox bath before (which I hadn't) there's a few things to know. The website linked there goes into more detail, but your bath needs to be HOT. You probably shouldn't eat too much before or after. You will be dizzy if you get up too fast and you need to drink water! I went through about 4 cups of water right after I got out. However I felt fantastic for the rest of the day and energy to finally go out with Boy. For my bath, I did lemons and ginger, but here are some other ideas you can do with their benefits:

Like I said, you might feel dizzy, so get up slowly and rest a little bit before doing anything else for the day. You'll feel fantastic though. I loved it! It was so great! We decided to celebrate with me feeling better with some crepes. Found this awesome hole in the wall shop which was fantastic! They had Nutella shakes!! YUM!!!! It was a good day.

I guess I should do homework now... *sigh*

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. :)

Being Pampered

I've been fighting an on-coming cold these past few weeks and it looks like it has overcome me. I'm still trying hard to stay energetic and moving instead of being in the house all day mopey in bed. Disinfecting everything, wearing my little Japanese face masks all around the house (too embarrassed to wear it out...). It hurts when I sneeze and kills my throat every time I cough. I've been trying to take some medicine for it, but I'm scared to take sleepy pills because I have to wake up early in the mornings. :( I hope that maybe tonight or Saturday night I can take some and sleep in.

Through all this, Boy has been helping as much as he can between school work, finals and the stress/drama of the area right now. *rolls eyes about the drama* Anywhoz, I absolutely love it when he pampers me and does things for me knowing that I am sick. I mean who doesn't like to get pampered? Even just his hugs and a kiss on the forehead after I finish a round of sneezes or painful coughing makes me feel better. I guess that's where the whole "kiss it better" came from too. Knowing someone loves you, when they "kiss it better" as a kid, you know is the best medicine ever. I love it when he makes me drink water, knowing that I don't drink enough as I should... All the little things he does letting me know he cares about me and wants me to get better.

Now if it would just warm up again... but I guess now that it is December and it started snowing, that won't happen for a long time. =/ At least I'll be at home soon, where there may be ice and threats of "end of the world" cold, but it definitely won't be anywhere near the negatives.... maybe not even the 20s.... And the wind won't be as crazy piercing as it is here.

Baking

I've been saving this one, debating on if it really does brighten my day to bake and how I should write about this... Needless to say, I really do love to bake. Cookies, bread, even just cooking dinner. I love it. It's become something that is really important for me to do (maybe because I'm a newly-wed and that "house wife mode" is starting to kick in) and something that I have come to enjoy. I've found I love finding recipes to try and making them to see if Boy likes them or not.

In all honesty, before I went to Japan (2010), my cooking and baking skills were at a minimum. (No lie, I totally made the fire alarm go off at college while cooking macaroni and cheese...) It was boxed mixes all the time. Sure! I could cook! Little did I know that I would be going somewhere that did NOT have box mixes and did NOT have convection ovens. Uhm, so I guess you could say Japan taught me how to cook for reals and not just from a Macaroni and Cheese box. When I came home however, I had to re-teach myself again how to cook because of the different measurement systems and other things. But! Through trial and error, I did it!!! Last night, I finally made bread!

And doesn't it look yummy?!!

Ok ok ok, so I did have help. The first time I made this, it was with my friend Joanna who is minoring in culinary arts and wants to open her own bakery... So, she taught me what to do and what not to do and a few tips, because everytime I have ever made bread before, it's never risen, it's burnt, exploded in the oven, it's hard as a rock.... BUT this time I did it myself!!!

I've been on a baking/cooking spree while I've been out here. It started with desserts and sweet stuff, but now I'm learning how to really cook dinner and bake all sorts of things! It sometimes is frustrating, but it's so exciting when things turn out right and delicious! Right now I'm working on some English Muffins. Mmmm. Also, this week I had a whole bushel of apples and so I finally got the courage to use my crockpot for the first time and I made some Applesauce and Applebutter! (Which tastes delicious on the bread...)

(Isn't he cute? *twitter-patted*)

With this whole new baking spree, I decided to start up a new blog and got Joanna in on it too! It's a recipe blog! I know there are a TON of recipe's out there and a MILLION blogs on cooking, but it would be nice to have all my recipes that I'm gathering in one spot. Maybe one day I can make a cookbook! :D That would be exciting to have my very own cookbook. Maybe.

Halloween

It's over, but I love to dress up. I love carving Pumpkins and baking pumpkin goodies. I love the little kids dressing up and all going Trick or Treating. I love watching the traditional movies like, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Corpse Bride, It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and Coraline. It is fun! I don't understand those people who are so against the holiday as to say that it is "evil" and a "dark tradition that has no meaning"...research people... I mean, if you really dumb it down to what it's really become, all you have to do is dress up and go tell your neighbors "Trick or Treat!" and they give you free candy!! And don't forget to hit up the rich neighborhoods where they actually give away the HUGE candy bars and the good treats. :)