Stef-Bo: The Life of a Princess

My creations!!!

2009-01-05T22:09:00.004-06:00

So the title sounds rather like I am a mad scientist or something. However, this is a post to show some of the projects I worked on in the previous semester. This last semester I took a costume construction class, and as part of that class I got to work on costumes for each show that we did and make a personal project. Granted, my personal project did not quite turn out as I had hoped, but I am pretty proud of myself for the process I went through to make it!

First off was the jacket I made for the play "The Front Page."

As you can see it was quite the polka dotted outfit! I made the jacket which was inspired by a picture of Coco Chanel in the 20s-30s. The jacket was surprisingly easy!

The next project was for the musical "Into the Woods" which was a combination of quite a few fairy tales. I made Snow White's dress!

I actually did not make the dress from scratch, I just kind of altered the original. Unfortunately I never got a photo of the original, but what I did was move the waist up about 5 inches, made and added the sleeves, moved the zipper, added the lace around the waist and secured the lace around the bottom. So it was not quite as much work as I had expected, but still a bit of a challenge to just alter an already existing dress.

My last project I do not have a picture of yet, however I will soon! For that project I had to alter the original pattern from a size 12 to a size 20, and this was from a vintage 60s pattern. I ended up actually making the pattern on the dress myself with the process of marbling the material. When I get to it I will post pictures of that process, because it was quite the process, so that everyone can see the hard work that went into that gosh darn dress!

So, until the update, I bid you adeu!

History

2008-11-05T15:33:00.001-06:00

Let me just say that last night was an amazing night! It was so thrilling to be able to watch it all happen. Yesterday you could just feel the energy in the air and then it just became electric!! Love it!! Both McCain and Obama gave excellent speeches and the best part, Obama's kids get a puppy! No better way to celebrate the presidency!

These next four years should be interesting, but I can't wait to see how this changes our country. Exciting things are in store. Here we go!!!

Happy Halloween!!

2008-10-31T09:53:00.002-05:00

Hello everyone out there in blogger land! And Happy Halloween to all of you! In case you did not know, Halloween is one of my absolute favorite holidays (it used to be my absolute favorite when I actually got to trick or treat). Now that I am older, instead of trick or treating I hand out the candy or just go to Halloween parties, which can be just as much fun ;-) You have to admit, walking around on Halloween you just never know what you are going to see. Apparently my roommates, who have class altogether too early for me, have already seen a wookie and a witch or two wandering around campus. Oh Halloween. In case you wanted to know, I am planning on dressing up as Supergirl for the regular Halloween parties and then for Come as Your Favorite Dead Person (the theatre party) I am planning on going as punk, because punk is pretty much dead.

Other than Halloween . . . voting! Rock the Vote everyone! I actually went home Wednesday night just to vote and them came back the next day making it just in time to get to my Econ class. So, vote! woo hoo!

Alrighty well that's all I got. Have a very Happy Halloween!! And please do not do this to your dogs, even though it is pretty precious:

Back to School

2008-08-26T14:19:00.002-05:00

So I have finally made the trek back to Evansville to return to school for my junior year. Ick. That just does not seem right. Last night our junior UET class "kidnapped" the freshmen theatre kids and took them back to a theatre house to meet them and try not to make things quite as awkward for awkward party later that night. Let me tell you right now it is strange that I am an upperclassman. Introducing myself to the freshmen was so weird. It just seemed like not so long ago I was in their situation, all nervous and telling everyone where I was from and what my emphasis was. Ah, the old days *sigh.* I'm just getting soooo old. Not really, but it's starting to seem like it.

Enough with the reminiscing, let's talk about my apartment! So yes I have moved in to my very first apartment with three other ladies. I share a room with my dear friend Courtney. I think we are going to be pretty good roommates. Living with three other girls is going to be very interesting and most likely drama filled. Oh boy. The apartment is pretty nice for a university apartment that has probably been here for several decades. Maintenance just came to fix the non-draining sink, the hole under the sink that led to the outside, and the shelf that was collapsing in the back, so now that those are fixed it is a much better place. And we have a kitchen!!! I can't tell you how exciting it was to be able to wake up this morning and make myself a delicious cheese omelet and toasted english muffins. Wonderful!

Classes actually start tomorrow bright and early at 9am with Costume Construction, which I am very excited about. I will be making costumes for the plays this semester. I know the seam ripper will be my best friend, but I'm really looking forward to it. My other classes are Theatre History, which is an honors class and therefore will kick my bum; Cognitive Science which has a book called Mind Reading. . .get excited, kids I'm gonna be reading your minds!!; Health, bleh; Marketing, should be somewhat interesting but it's a night class so bleh; and Economics, major BLEH. So it should be a very . . .busy semester. 17 hours of classes, 10 hrs/wk of work study, then Children's Place on the side, plus volunteering, possibly mentoring, radio show every other saturday, and whatever the theatre decides to throw my way. Woo Hoo for college and being a junior!

Well I will post some pictures of my room and the apartment up once it all gets decorated and such. Til then . . .pray for me.

It's Tie Dye Time!

2008-08-16T00:04:00.005-05:00

I would like to give some mad props to Krista Lee Photography for posting the link to my etsy page on her blog! It is always nice to get my tie dye info out there now that I have an etsy page and all. Speaking of which, please do take note of the preview of my shop to the right. It has some lovely pictures of shirts that are for sale, including one for custom shirts.

I absolutely love to tie dye, and over the years I have discovered that I am pretty good at it! If you go to Krista's blog you can see a picture of my nephews and neice in the shirts that I did for them. If you or anyone you know is interested in purchasing some tie dye shirts then send em my way! I think my shirts are pretty great and the colors last for quite a while and since I do them myself each one is unique. I've even taken to experimenting with different designs and ways of dyeing the shirts to come up with fun new looks. Here is a picture of a skirt that I did for myself:

I had a white skirt that I knew I was never going to wear so I figured I would make it into something that I love to wear! Here is another example of something that I never would have worn that was changed into one of my favorite shirts (as anyone who knows me will recognize), my Mayfield Dairy shirt:

As you can see, I love to tie dye. I feel I am a very artistic person, I just can't draw or paint or play music; instead I tie dye. Like I said, if you are interested in a tie dye for yourself, a friend, or even the whole family just let me know and I can hook you up!

Crafty Crafting Time

2008-07-30T15:54:00.008-05:00

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!!

2008-07-30T15:28:00.007-05:00

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

2008-07-25T00:02:00.004-05:00

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!

England!

2008-01-13T13:34:00.000-06:00

I am over here! Sorry about the lack of an update, but with the combination of jet lag and homework and exploring I've been a bit busy. My flight was not too bad, although I was rather upset with the movie selection, Nancy Drew and an episode of the King of Queens on a jankety projector? Really, US Airways? Anywho, I arrived on a stereotypical English day: foggy and chilly. We couldn't even see the manor properly when we drove up. But, the manor is spectacular, I mean it is a castle. There's a long gallery, great hall, refectory, ante room, morning room, the state room (where I have my British Studies class), the conservatory, and many more castle-y things. Plenty of statues all over the place and creepy fireplaces and secret passageways that aren't so secret since they were just there to keep the servants hidden. British food is different, not bad, but different. First day there we had fish and chips for dinner and I had the fish. I really do love chips, though. They're tasty.

Now for a taste of where I am currently living:

This is the great hall. I have choir here and Harlaxton Players here as well. The chandelier was made to go to a Spanish castle, but they were afraid it wouldn't make the trip since it was during wartime so the owner of Harlaxton Manor at the time was just like, "Oh, okay, I guess I'll take it. I think it'd look nice in my long hall."

This is the view from my British Studies classroom/the State Room. That would be the front courtyard and the gates into the manor.

And this is where I actually live, the Carriage House.

About the rest of the pictures: I have a link here for my Snapfish account, but I do believe you will have to create an account to see them. If the link doesn't work for some reason then you should e-mail me or leave me a comment telling me to e-mail a link for you.
http://www2.snapfish.com/share/p=19161200511361400/l=347056588/g=118731805/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB
just copy and paste that link and hopefully it will work for you. Since you can't see the whole link, just highlight it that line down to the one below it, if that makes sense. If not, just send me your e-mail.

The Christmases of UET!

2007-12-16T22:58:00.000-06:00

(back row l-r: Michael, Matt, Sarah, Justin, Austin; middle: Lynn, Laredis, Siri, Joseph; front: Angela, Elissa, Steven, me; floor: Donny)

On Friday night our UET class of 2010 celebrated Christmas by doing secret santa! We started this little tradition last year by going to Justin's house (he lives in Evansville and has a very nice house for hosting get togethers) and eating lots of food and swapping presents. Well this year we did not have all of our class there since half of them have been gone for the semester abroad, alas the show went on! We had a good time and made several videos to Christmas songs. I would post them on here, but I'm not sure how to get videos from Facebook to blogger . . .Just trust me that they were hilarious! The videos started by singing along to Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is You." A couple of the girls decided to dance around and sing it to a bunch of people in the room. And the second video was to "Santa Baby" by the Pussycat Dolls. Well, at this point Michael, the guy filiming, decided he was going to be a great director and started off the video all artsy on a candle and panned up to all of the girls sitting on the couch singing along, and then Donny came down the stairs and we all proceeded to seduce him. What a Christmas! The best part of the night, other than the delicious food, was trading secret santa gifts.
Here is me giving my gift to Steven (I tie dyed him a shirt, a hat, and some socks):

And here is his reaction to getting the gift (i love this photo!!):

The next Christmas party was on Saturday. It is the annual UET Christmas party where everyone gets all prettied up and dances to Christmas music! It's a ton of fun!
I got all prettied up:

Before the party Sarah, Angela, Leslie and I went out to dinner at Olive Garden in our Semi-Formal gear. That was pretty awesome.
Here's a picture of me and Sarah:

We're pretty hot, we know. And we decided to make these faces all night really, or at least according to most of the pictures taken we did . . .
Here is a picture of Sarah, Leslie, Me, and Angela before the party:

Once we got there I had to have a picture with my theatre family (everyone in theatre is in a family where the parents are members of the theatre society and give us fun things for different occasions. It's fun). That's my brother, Daniel, and my sister, Sarah:

ANd I did dance a bit. Dancing to Christmas music is such fun!

That would be Elissa and I dancing the night away. We're so pretty! All in all, Christmas party is really the most fun party of the year because you get to see everyone in their fancy clothes and just having a good time. Oh, and there are tasty treats as well, such as Fererro rocher and chips and tasty dip! Anyway, that's all for now. Wish me luck on my last final and packing for home! ah!

Lady's Night, Oh What a Night

2007-12-09T02:51:00.001-06:00

Tonight was the UET (University of Evansville Theatre) 2010 Lady's night and man was it fun. No joke, we had a blast. I wasn't as excited about it since half of our class is gone to England, but it was really fun. L's, Siri and I went shopping earlier today to go get snacks and sparkling grape juice for our get together and that just started to get me excited about it! Last year we had such a good time and this year was definitely comparable. We basically got a bunch of junk food and sodas and pizza and sat around talking for a while, then we played Apples to Apples (if you haven't played it, you need to!) and then we read Glamour and Cosmo and then we watched the Holiday. I had forgotten how much fun it is to just sit around with friends and talk for a while. And it is really relaxing to know that soon it will be Christmas break. Granted that means that soon I will be on a plane flying to England (ahhh!) but we won't think of that for right now. And man is the Holiday a good movie. Jude Law. yes, please! That is definitely one fo those movies that you have to watch with a bunch of girl friends just so you can all sigh in unison. I'll post some pictures when they show up soon.
And here they are:
We ordered pizza. When the pizza came, 2/3 of them weren't cut, they were still pizza pies.

We played Apples to Apples and according to the only round I won, I am appetizing.

And then we toasted to us: the women of UET 2010! Don't worry, it's sparkling grape juice.

After our toast we proceeded to read Glamour and Cosmo, like the girls we are.

Other things to stay tuned for: Monday is ten night, our class's celebration of being a class . . .yeah it's just a time for all of our class to get together and have a good time and we are drawing names for secret santa! Yay! Oh man, I went shopping for our Adopt-A-Family (charity program where you buy christmas presents for a child in a needy family) on friday and it was just so much fun! I just love getting in the holiday spirit! And then there is UET Lady's Night on Tuesday, always a good time. And then finals start . . .And then I'll have a new niece!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *excitement!!!!!!!!!* And then there is 2010 Christmas (if you can't tell, our class likes to get together alot; we're tight like that). And then there is UET Christmas party, which I got a lovely new dress for :-D And then it's Rachel's birthday, and I come home! Whew. I've got quite the week ahead of me. Well, wish me luck, and I wish you Happy Holidays!

New Post, Finally!

2007-11-26T19:22:00.001-06:00

I got a new post! Yay!! Scroll down and you can see it. It has some pretty pictures. I think you'll like it.

Busy Bee

2007-11-14T14:54:00.000-06:00

That has been me for the past couple of weeks which is why I have not updated anything for a while. You see, I am currently the head of wardrobe for the play "Grand Hotel: the Musical," which requires quite a bit of time and organization, which i am short on both currently. Yay! But at least i get to see my family this weekend and it is only 6 days until i leave for thanksgiving break! Whoopee! But until then, actually until Monday, my life will be chock full o stuff to do. but, c'est la vie, right? Anywho, for anyone intersted, i will be posting new pictures probably next week or something. Now all you devoted readers have something to live for, i know. To any and all reading this I hope that your week will be significantly less stressful than mine!

Stefanie

Fall Break in the Mountains!

2007-11-06T15:44:00.000-06:00

In the beginning of October we had our fall break. And what better way to spend your fall break than going to the Smoky Mountains. It was a much needed break from school!
I went on this fun little road trip with my friend Courtney. We drove from Evansville to Nashville and then over to Gatlinburg. Our first night out we had intended to spend camping in the Smokies, but we kind of got there a little late so we just ended up staying in a sketchy hotel in Pigeon Forge on our first night. Courtney had never been to Gatlinburg before so we had to go into Gatlinburg that night, and man did we have a good time! We had dinner, which wasn't so great but eh, and then we talked around and window shopped for a while. After shopping for a while we decided to stop into this nice massage place and get some lovely massages. They were the water massages like you see in the mall. It felt very nice. We got headphones with soothing music and there was even a little lamenated picture of a beach that was laying below you when you opened your eyes, not exactly soothing since it was so pixely but it was a nice effort! After the massages came cheesecake and coffee. What better way to end a night, right? Man we were roughing it.

The next day were were ready to get up in the mountains and hike!!! No joke, Pigeon Forge was crowded and we were both just ready to get away. But, one last little tid bit about the night before . . . .

Guess who got her belly button pierced on fall break? That's right ladies and gents, miss courtney. As anyone who has been to Pigeon Forge and/or Gatlinburg knows there are a ton of piercing and tattoo places along the way. Well, Courtney kept joking about getting her belly button pierced and I jokingly egged her on (although she will blame this whole thing on me). So we had been talking about it the whole day and as we were on our way to wal mart to get some groceries for the trip we passed a place and courtney said, "Alright, after we go to wal mart, I'm getting my belly button pierced at that place." Sure enough, after wal mart we went to the tatto/piercing place (American Rebel I belive was the name) and Courtney got herself a belly button piercing. The place was not very sketchy, it was very clean and the people were nice, little odd looking, but nice. So that was a fun way to end our first night of fall break!
Moving on:

After we ate breakfast we were off to the mountains! We decided to hike to Alum Cave Bluffs, part of the Mt LeCont hike. That was a beautiful hike and it was utterly refreshing. I can't tell you how wonderful it is to just get away to nature after you have been at school for two months. It may not seem like a long time, but stress builds up quickly. Yes, I did wear my "Where the Hell Is Bell Buckle" shirt on the trail and I did get one person who recognized it since he went to MTSU. The hike was a great success.
BTW: Pictures from the whole trip are below in a little slideshow type thing. If this doesn't work for you, just comment. I was just trying to try something new so I don't have to post every single picture from the trip on here.

After the hike we drove up to Newfoundland Gap and enjoyed the view. Fall in the Smokies is truly beautiful, I highly suggest it for anyone and everyone. After Newfoundland Gap we drove down to Cherokee where we found a nice place to camp. We didn't camp in the park, but we did camp in this lovely little campground where we haad some very nice neighbors. When Courtney and I had issues building our fire and keeping it going they were kind enough to "make it easy" for us by giving us some quick light logs and lighter fluid! They knew how to camp. I still say there is nothing better than sitting around a campfire with a cup of hot chocolate and a friend.
But before we settled down at our campsite we went to dinner with a special guest: Daddy! That's right, he decided to come visit us and take us out to dinner and breakfast, it also gave him an excuse to get up in the mountains. Our first try at dinner was at Harrah's, the casino in Cherokee. Well, we knew that you had to be 21 to get into the casino, but Daddy insisted on trying to see if we could sneak in to eat at the buffet. Yeah well that didn't go over very well. Courtney and I walk in and immediately these two beefy guards stop us and ask for our IDs. I swear Daddy was already halfway to the buffet, he moves quick! After that attempt failed we ended up eating at the restaurants at the hotel at Harrah's. It was just as good, very tasty food.
The next morning Courtney and I pack up our stuff, thank our lovely neighbors, and go to meet Daddy at this mom and pop place called "Nana's Steak and Pancakes" (or something to that respect). It was a kind of sketchy looking place, but sometimes those are the best, Daddy hardly goes wrong with his breakfast selections. Turned out it was a great breakfast place, just don't try to use the bathroom there, go the Long John Silvers next door. We had a lovely breakfast with Daddy and parted ways. Daddy went off to hike the Chimneys, or at least one of them, and we went off to see the Native American art museum he kept talking about. When Courtney and I went to the art museum we were talking about how it would be funny if Daddy had already been to the museum that day, and what do ya know? We look in the guest registration book and there is my father's signature. Surprised? Not at all.
After the museum we went drove across the mountains, enjoying the lovely view and then decided to do one last "Quiet Walkway." The one we went on lead to the creek where there are tons of big rocks to hop around on. So that's exactly what we did once we got down there, just hopped around on rocks and explored for a while. Once again, very fun, very relaxing. After hopping around on the rocks for a while we headed back to the car and said our goodbyes to the Smokies. They treated us well.

One more little bit: On our way back to Nashville from the Smokies we stopped in to see Kat and Jennifer. We got to see Kat and Jen's lovely dorm room and Kat showed us some fun hippie-esque shop where I purchased my favorite magnetic poetry ever:Romance Novel. Oh it's great, let me tell ya. One word for you: Bratwurst ;-) We then ate at the place where Jennifer works of of the UT campus. It twas nice and tasty and I love the fact that Jennifer sat with us and ate our food while she was supposed to be hostessing. Gotta love my friends!

Overall, it was a very successful and fun fall break. One I won't be forgetting anytime soon!

The Underpants in Louisville!

2007-10-11T19:01:00.000-05:00

On Tuesday, Oct 9th UET took our semesterly (?) trip to go see a proffessional play. This is called the Simpson trip. Last year we went to Chicago and Louisville. This semester we went back to Louisville to see a play called The Underpants. It was an adaptation of a german play about a woman whose underpants fall down while watching a parade in Germany and chaos and hilarity insues. Let's just say there's an Italian and Jew who likes Wagner. Need I say more? Anywho, so we have some time before the show to go explore and eat dinner. Our little group of people decided to go off and eat at this lovely Persian place called Saffron's. DELICIOUS! Extremely tasty!

Please just take a look at our plates. So much delicious food that was soooo much better than our Dunigan Dining! Jared, the man at the head of the table at the opposite end, ordered rack of lamb. I had never had it before so he let me try it, and it was magnificent. Them there sheep ain't just good for wool! They're tasty too! Anywho . . . . For dessert Elissa and I split this extremely tasty ice cream!

It was a pistachio rosewater ice cream and it was heavenly! *drools* Granted I like the taste of flowery things for some reason. (the violet pastels for example that no one seems to like except for me and Heather . . .) But I just thought it had a very unique flavor and it was very refreshing (the food critic in me coming out).
Outside of Saffron's there were a couple of interesting things. First there was a horse statue (which are all over Louisville, btw) that was dressed Persian?

I dunno, but it had a garter, and that just made me happy! Other than the beautiful horse there was some pretty awesome wall art. Extremely pretty, so we decided to take senior pictures and then do a group shot.

We're such a pretty group of people. And do make note of the murse (man purse), it just makes the picture complete.
After eating at Saffron's we wandered around Louisville over to this park where there were fountains.

So, of course, we had a photo shoot. And no, we did not have a wind machine it was just rather windy. And while we were taking the picture, guess what the boys had to do?

Hold our purses of course! I just think this picture is pretty funny because Matt, with the green purse, looks pretty comfortable with the purse and Donny, the one in the very front, is actually holding Jared's murse (one on the right). Oh, good times.
The play was very funny and good times were had by all.
On another note, I downloaded the new Radiohead album "In Rainbows" and it's pretty amazing. I mean it's Radiohead, so how can it not be? And look for another post in a couple of weeks about my fall break, which starts this afternoon! I'm going camping!!!

Life at UE . . .so far

2007-09-27T16:22:00.000-05:00

As you may know, here at UET we have a yearly event called White Trash Prom where underclassmen (freshmen and sophomores) bid on dates with upperclassmen to go to the White Trash Prom. Basically, the department gets dressed up in the worst looking outfits from Goodwill (although my shoes were from Wal-Mart, thank ya much), come up with crazy characters, and go around Evansville for the date. This is our group of underclassmen. My name was Trixie, in case you're interested. On our date we had a wonderful dinner of mac and cheese and hot dogs (which is actually pretty normal for me . . .)

and then we were off to Wal-Mart for a photo shoot at the photo place there. We got some nice pictures and were stared at and asked many questions by passers by. This is a picture of us with the nice picture lady, Roxie, who played along real well. The pictures turned out beautifully, by the way. I've got wallets.

After we got our pictures made we went out into the parking lot to have our NASCAR box races. I came in second. It was fun, even though there was a creepy pickup truck that kept driving by slowly . . . After all this we went back to the house and played Twister and had a good ole time. Then we were off to the Prom where we danced the night away and got all hot and sweaty because the AC wasn't working like it should have for having over 100 people in one smal space.

The next event was Principals and Schoolgirls, a frat party, what else? So a few of us decided to indulge and dress up like schoolgirls.

We had a fun time getting dressed and everything beforehand. Too bad the party kind of sucked so we just went back to the room and watched "The Longest Yard" (Good movie and it had Burt Reynolds, and his mustache, so that made it ten times better).

Back home:

My mom finally moved out of her place in Bell Buckle and into her new home in Nashville right next door to my sister and her wonderful children. Momma had been moving things gradually up to the new house with the van but last weekend she made the final haul up there.

My uncle Nooge and Cousin Johnny came up to help move the heavy things and I came down to help out as well. This was the trailer that went behind Nooge's truck all the way up to Nashville. How it all stayed on, I have no clue. And with everyone's help we were succesfully moved in by Sunday! Now there's just the matter of unpacking . . .

Summer with the Fam

2007-09-11T20:35:00.000-05:00

Here we have some pictures from the family trip to Pigeon Forge, including a trip to Dollywood, the Dinosaur Museum, and the Smokies. Then we have some lovely pictures from the family birthday celebration. Enjoy!

The boys packed up and ready to embark on the amazing day at Dollywood!

Rachel being absolutely thrilled to be going to Dollywood! No sarcasm, she was just really excited.

One of my favorite pics. Please just take a moment to let this sink in . . .

Jake and Will on the Bee ride. Will had a good time steering and pressing the buttons as Jake sat back and watched.

Another ride in the kids section of Dollywood. The duck ride was a fave, especially since Jake kept referring to the ducks as Donald Duck.

Will and Gramps, havin a good ole time in Dollywood!

Jacob had a good time playing in the water, fully clothed. Funny while we were up in the play place thing we just kind of wandered into the water section and next thing you know Jake and I are both soaking wet and having 5 year olds shoot at s with water guns. It got intense out there.

Will wasn't so sure about the whole water play park thing. I think he was a little baffled.

Right across from the kids playplace there was a store that sold fun hats, and since the Veggie Tales Vikings were pretty popular that day both Will and Jake got viking hats. And Daddy decided to wear the hat as well.

After purchasing the viking hats we saw several kids inthese hats that looked like dragons, so Jacob had to have one. He absolutely loved it and kept roaring like dragon.

Passed out after a long, hard day of playing at Dollywood.

On the way to our place in Pigeon Forge there was a Dinosaur Museum, almost right across from where we turned to get to our cabin. So, of course, Jacob really wanted to go. This would be him digging up fossils, more like playing in the sandbox, in the museum.

I love this picture because Daddy is like "Look up here Jacob," and Jacob is like "What the heck are you talking about?" Add your own captions if you so choose, I just found it amusing.

At the dinosaur museum most of the dinosaur replicas looked pretty cool. But this one dinosaur's teeth cracked me up. I just thought they were really . . .special.

This would be Jacob frolicking along the trail in the remains of a fireplace. He had a pretty fun time on that mini hike. Oh, and notably creepy fact: There was a creek alongside the trail so we went down to it to explore. Well, when we got down there, there were wet footprints on some of the rocks, and I mean like barefeet footprints. And there was no one around in barefeet. CREEPY! Moving on . . .

I just love this picture because James looks like he's taking orders from a drill seargent. Too funny . . .

This would be Jacob "climbing the mountain." He wanted to go to the mountains the whole time we were up there. I'm not quite sure he got the concept that we were actually in the mountains. But at least he had this little romp and afterwards he said he climbed the mountain.

Me and Will during our little excursion in the Smokies.

Rachel and Jacob overlooking Cumberland Gap in the Smokies.

This would be me with Will and Jacob enjoying my delicious 19th birthday cake! Momma never lets me down with my birthday cake :-)

I think that Jacob firmly believes that any cake that he has should be eaten like it is at his birthday party and he can just rip into it and get it all over his face. But, hey, at least he has a good time doing it right?

Will found a new buddy at the b-day party. This picture was taken right after Stan pulled up in the driveway. Will saw that it was him and automatically reached for him. They enjoy the quiet moments of just observing the action.

I think Jacob enjoyed the whole chillin on a float thing better than actually swimming.

Post-swimming extravaganza. Good times were had by all, even if Jacob wouldn't jump into the pool.

A very awkward looking picture, but cute nonetheless. JP, Will, and Anna Grace at the summer birthday gathering.

This would be from a little swimming trip I took with Rachel and the boys. Fun times in the swimming pool. If only Jacob would let go of us and swim on his own . . .

Rooney!!

2007-09-10T22:28:00.001-05:00

Heather and I went to see Rooney play at Exit/In. It was quite an amazing show! Everyone was singing along the whole time and the band was looking quite nice as well :-)

Heather and Me before Rooney began. Gettin Excited!!

Ned's hair defies gravity.

This is an artsy little picture of Matt, the bass player. He's pretty cool. He wears his sunglasses at night.

Taylor is just so pretty. *le sigh* Heather and I ate next to him and Louie (the keyboard player) before the show. Needless to say we were in awe and could hardly manage to control ourselves as we ate our delicious sandwiches.

The boy can belt and look damn good while doing it!

The lead singer of one of the opening bands was very attractive. So, naturally, I got a picture with him. I think it's adorable, don't you?

And to make the night absolutely perfect, Heather and I got to meet Robert Carmine after the show. He was a real sweetheart. I can die a happy woman now :-)

Bonnaroo!!!

2007-09-10T21:47:00.001-05:00

For Bonnaroo, my friend Stacey, who is from Texas, came up with some of her friends. Hilarity ensued:

Artsy photo of Paul and Marcus as the train is whooshing by.

Just a nice little group photo of the Texans in front of the post office . . .

Zach after we got the wonderful tent up. It was cute, there was a "room" for the girls and a "room" for the boys.

"Oh what a lovely home for the next 4 days!"

Paul and Stacey were thrilled to chill in the tent! Notice all of the beautiful tie dye shirts :-)

An overly excited Stacey posing in front of the official Bonnaroo Ferris Wheel!

The tie dye crew entering Bonnaroo on Thursday evening.

Our neighbours were from Australia. They had BonnaROOS!

Stacey, me, and Heather getting ready for our first full day of heat, dust, and rock and roll!!

The Kings of Leon rockin out!

Franz Ferdinand: they're kind of a big deal.

Me, Heather, and Bob getting ready to enjoy the most amazing show ever: The Flaming Lips.

Heather, me, and Stacey on the last day of the Roo. Tuckered out, but still enjoying every minute of it.

As Stacey said, "This truly is the happiest place on Earth . . ."

" . . .And the trippiest place on Earth."

Summer

2007-09-10T20:40:00.000-05:00

To start this off, let's take a look back at the summer, shall we?

The summer began, as it usually does, with a trip to the Ren Faire!

We were all very excited to be there! Jennifer, Heather, Me, Kat, and Kayley

Kayley and me lookin all cute and Rennaissancy

There was a unicorn at the Ren Faire! Kayley and Kat love those unicorns!

At the end of the day, Heather and I decided to make our love permanent via a wax mold of us holding hands. It was a precious moment (even though it burned a little bit sticking my hand in hot wax . . .) and it is now being traded back and forth between Heather and myself.

As you may well know, I enjoy going to Bonnaroo. Well, this year I found out that if you are on the street team (basically if you post flyers and handouts all over the place) then you get a free ticket. This would be me giving a handout to Heather. Yes, I know her and she was going anyway, but it still counted!

There was an announcement made by the Kings of Leon (one of my favorite bands) that they are going on tour with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club in the Fall. This was a wonderful announcement, for could there be a more attractive group of people going on tour together? Maybe. But this was taken at that earthshattering moment when Kayley, Heather and myself found out the wonderful news.