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!

England!

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!

(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

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!

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