Crafty Crafting Time

You may or may not have noticed that on the side of my blog under the things I like, I have a link to The Cute Book by Aranzi Aronzo. Well, my friend Yuliya and I have become slightly obsessed with these adorable felt creatures ever since we discovered the book in DIY arts and crafts at Southern Girls Rock and Roll Camp (which also has a link on the side :-) At camp, Yuli made an adorable little monkey and I made a little pink hippo-ish creature. They are pretty easy to make, assuming you don't try and make them 3-D, we are still working on that one. Yuli and I even ended up crafting at the birthday bash over the weekend.

And here are some of our creations so far. This one is an elephant:

And this one is a precious little whale that Yuliya made:

And this is a blowfish I made for a certain someone who loves the colors it's made from (my dad. shh!) If you have not heard the blowfish story involving my father, well just ask. It's pretty hilarious, and I have teased him about it ever since I found out. so, furthering the teasing:

This next one was kind of a struggle to make and it turned out a little rough looking, but I think it's pretty cute anyway. And for this one we also get a model! Miss Heather and her sad cancer stick:


And this is just the beginning folks. Yuli and I are planning on making an Etsy page and selling some of these adorable little creatures. So, keep an eye out for that. In the meantime, if you are interested in these at all, just let me know and Yuli or or I can make a one of a kind cute creature for you!

Also, I have my own Etsy page, selling my tie dyes.
Right now I only have a couple of shirts up, but I will have plenty more up when I do my next round of tie dying. Until then, DIY or Die! woo hoo crafting!

P.S. my friend Kayley has a pretty cool blog called in the shadowplay. If you like music and random bands like The Cure, Nine Inch Nails, Menswear or Bright Eyes then this is the perfect music blog for you. The link is on the side of my blog. Check her out!

Birthday Birthday Party Party!!

For those of you who did not know, this past Monday marked the wonderfully magnificent day of my birth. It was a rather marvelous event marking the end of my teenage years and the beginning of my life as a twentysomething. Oh boy! So of course I had to have a splendid party that celebrated everything teenage, well kind of, the cake at least did. For my first birthday gathering I had a duel celebration with my friend Heather whose birthday was just a week or so before mine. The party began with some delicious food, prepared by us of course because who else should cook for your birthday party but yourself?

Yes, I made a delicious pasta bake with some breadsticks, while Yuliya made a wonderful Cucumber Tuna salad (well I assume it was wonderful, I'm not a fan of salads myself. or any other vegetable for that matter . . .)

Following our splendid dinner we went to Dairy Queen to pick up the ever so glorious birthday cake. Now, to preface this next bit I should tell you that ever since I started Webb and began hanging out with Heather and Kayley and my other vunderful friends, we have had ice cream cakes from Dairy Queen. And on every birthday cake has been a band of some sort (Incubus, Rooney, Incubus, Kings of Leon, etc). Well this year, since we were celebrating both of our birthdays, Heather and I had to agree upon one band to put on the cake. Now, I'm not sure how many of you out there have heard of the Jonas Brothers. They're kind of a big deal, especially in the Disney watching population of the world. The comparison I always make is that they are the Hanson of the next generation. Well, they are kind of a guilty pleasure of mine and Heather's so, that's who we decided to put on the cake. And they're pretty.

It was a pretty great cake and even the girl who worked at Dairy Queen was altogether too excited to see this cake (apparently it was infamous at the local DQ).

After the cake some crafting ensued, but I will save that for another post.

OH, but the celebrations did not end there folks. No, because my birth is such a big deal I had another party (on my actual birthday) with, and I did not think this was possible, an even more fabulous cake than the previous one. Now, to "get" the cake you will have to have watched Steel Magnolias. I swore off that gosh darn movie for the longest time after I was in the play in high school, but it does have it's pretty hilarious moments, one of which is at the reception where there is a "Bleedin Armadilla Groom's cake." Well, Momma was asking me what kind of cake I wanted and I mentioned red velvet, then I immediately thought of that darned cake and mentioned it to her. Well, I do believe that got her wheels to turnin since it was kind of a cake challenge. I mean, really, who wants to bake a plain ole rectangle cake year after year? So the product, my friends, is the following:

I know, I couldn't believe it either. I was pretty darn impressed. And it was delicious too. Here it is all cut up:


So, major props to Momma for an amazing job well done with the cake. I just can't wait to see what she tops it with next year. I'm thinking a marble giraffe . . .

Lack of an update

Well hello there everyone/ myself, since I'm sure not a lot of people read this thing. Anywho, just wanted to make a quick apology for the lack of any sort of update. England kind of took over my life and I absolutely loved it. For those of you who have not spoken to me since I got back, it was absolutely amazing!! I stayed in a little town west of London in the East Midlands called Grantham, well technically Harlaxton but Grantham was 3 miles away and alot bigger. I studied British Studies (what a shocker!), Norse Mythology (which was pretty awesome actually, got to see where JRR Tolkein and JK Rowling got a lot of inspiration for quite a bit of their stories), Contemporary British Theatre (wonderful! went to see lots of plays including Equus with Lily Allen's little brother), and choir (not quite your typical choir, we learned songs in Swahili, French, Middle English, Latin, Japanese, and much much more!). Our school week only lasted until Thursday so we had Friday or Thursday afternoon to travel across Europe. Oh my goodness, people, it was spectacular. I went to Paris, London, Nottingham, Germany, Amsterdam, Ireland, Liverpool, and plenty of places in between.

Man, I miss it. I think alot of what I miss is just the freedom I had over there. I was free to travel wherever I wanted, within monetary boundaries, and do whatever I wanted, which was not the best thing all the time . . .but anyways. For instance, I drank in the oldest pub in England. It was underground next to Nottingham castle and it was probably the coolest place I have ever been. This pub had endless amounts of rooms. You turn a corner and there's another room with people just drinking and having a good time. Plus there was a really cute bartender there ;-)
Let's see, some other favorite times would be going to Camden market with my friend Kat who came to visit for her spring break. Camden market is in the top ten of coolest places I've been (racked up a lot of those while I was over there. go figure!). This place was a maze of spectacular little shops and booths that sold everything from doorstops to jewelry to delicious caribbean food to rave gear. I really wanted to buy everything I saw. If only the pound to dollar rate weren't so hideously disgusting I just might have. Parts of camden market were pretty punk too. I saw the only honest punks I have ever seen there wearing Doc Martens, leather vest with safety pins all over it and huge mohawks died bright colors. Kat got a picture of them. It was too funny. It was really an epicenter for counterculture and I just loved it!

Ah yes, Paris. Je t'aime Paris tres beacoup. I have wanted to go to Paris since I started taking the language in 8th grade and it really was everything I had hoped for. The coolest part is that I traveled there by myself. I got to visit one of my friends, Cassie, who was staying there, but I was on my own for the first day and I loved it! I got to just wander around Paris and do whatever I wanted to do, see whatever I wanted to see. I have to admit that when I met up with Cassie I was thrilled to be able to speak English to someone, but other than that it was tres fantastique! I saw Le Tour Eiffel, L'Arc de Triomphe, le Musee de Louvre, et Versaille. I was so excited to see Versaille and it was so amazing! I loved it ! It was just beautiful. The gardens. Oh! They were gorgeous and that was when they weren't even in bloom. I can't even imagine what they look like later in the spring and summer.

Amsterdam. What more can I say? Amsterdam and Paris were my two favorites. Amsterdam is so unique with its canals and little side streets, I loved wandering around there. And it really does have such a free feel to it, like there really are no holds barred and I love that! Oh, and sitting in the Red Light District people watching became quite a favorite past time of ours (me, Matt, and Steven). It really is funny to see how the ladies interact with all of the passersby.

Like I said before: I miss it. It's crazy because when I was over there, towards the end of the semester I was ready to come home (and get back to some warm weather), and now I would just love to go back and explore some more. And I will! I never got to see Italy and Greece and Austria and Spain. One day I will go back. But, until then, it is back to life in the good ole U S of A.

I hope that was a fairly sufficient summary of my travels. I might write more if I am feeling nostalgic again. And if anyone wants to see some pictures, leave me a comment and I can send you the link to my snapfish account. Tons of pictures from everything I did over there!

Have a lovely day, everyone!