New blog title?
So I’ve decided to change my website a bit, bringing my blog center stage, in order to improve my blogging skills. Of course, I’ll continue to keep my portfolio as part of my website and update it when I can.
In the mean time, I need your help deciding on what I should call my blog. Let me know what you think of them, or if you have your own ideas, in the comments below.
- Julia the Child
- Loving at my Worst
- Say what you mean to say
- Today is where my book begins…
I’ll keep working on it… 
Crafty things…
Today I felt in the mood to make some stuff. Here’s what I’ve made so far:
A thank you card for the parents of a friend who let me stay at their house. Better than driving up 95 every day!
Something I've wanted to do for a while. Plus, I love these papers, particularly together.
5 “Friday” Faves FAIL
Ep. 2
Well, as you can see, I’m not posting this on Friday, as I usually mean to. This is only because of item numero uno:
1) The Hunger Games
After visiting the library to pick up some books (most likely to be featured in next week’s post) and finding out this couldn’t be renewed, I decided to read it. I was so hooked on this book from page one, I finished it within the day. I’ve always been a fan of realistic-style science fiction, and this definitely fits the bill. I absolutely loved EVERYTHING about this book and can’t wait to get my hands on the other two in the series.
Also now that I’ve actually read this book, this video from WinterSpringPro makes A WHOLE LOT MORE SENSE:
2) Carl’s Chocolate Malt
As you can see, no matter what time of the year it is, I can always go for a large chocolate malt from Carl’s, a local favorite. I hadn’t had one for a while, so after stopping by the library I decided to indulge. It was TOTALLY WORTH IT!
3) The Help
Since it came out on my birthday, my mother and I went to see one of the first showings of The Help. I have only heard about the book from my mom, but after seeing the film, it’s another book that I’ll have to get my hands on.
4) Steak
After ordering a salad recently, a woman asked if I were a vegeterian. 1) The salad had bacon on it and 2) She has never seen me make/eat a steak. AKA I <3 steak. I would eat it every day if I could stand it. FOR REALZ!!
This is really how much a love steak... though I do prefer it cooked over raw...
5) My new red shoes!!
I have been looking EVERYWHERE for a nice pair of red shoes and finally found them at Target! And they were so cheap. I recommend ordering a pair, as every target I have gone to so far has the shelves cleared of these awesome shoes.
New WEEKLY Feature: 5 Friday Faves
THE FIRST 5 Friday Faves
(Ep. 1)
As you can see, I’ve decided to create a new weekly feature called: 5 Friday Faves (feel free to use more alliteration as you see fit). Every Friday (hopefully) I will list 5 of my favorite things from that past week (or so) AND my YT clip of the week. Yes, I know this is more than 5 things, but I know at least one YT clip will be part of the list each week anyway, so why not give that space to something more deserving?
1) Carpe Geekdom
One of my good friends from high school: Grace Kendall (she is also the same Grace that took all my professional looking shots for this website) is a musician who sings mainly wizard rock songs (AKA All songs inspired by the Harry Potter series) but also creates songs about other things she loves. She, and a bunch of her wizard rock friends are part of a group called Carpe Geekdom! This summer, they’re going on tour and used Kickstarter to raise money. As of today:
They are officially funded!! YAY! I’ve seen a few of them perform in my hometown with Grace, but from the video alone they seem like fun, awesome, creative people I’d love to hang out with outside of their performance personas. Check out their kickstarter, facebook, or twitter accounts to keep up with their activities!
2) Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows Pt. 2 (or HP 7.2)
If you couldn’t tell by my first fave, I’m a nerd. Especially when it comes to Harry Potter. I have read all the books, multiple times (something I RARELY do) and have seen the movies. Of course, no matter how hard they try, the movies will never come close to the richness author JK Rowling has provided in her coming-of-age series of a young orphaned wizard boy, his adventures at school, and having to deal with being “The Boy Who Lived”.
While I was quite surprised that they split the last book into two parts (seriously, they were just camping around England for most of it!), after seeing the results, I feel it was a wise decision because it allowed them to stay truer to the books then the film series has done in the past. Overall, I was pleased with the results. While I still have an super-duper extra special place in my heart for Hermione (more on that in a post to come), a special place for Ron and Harry, I now have a greater respect and have found new favorites in the characters of Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood. They really step-it-up, character-wise, in the books, becoming more than just Harry’s classmates; they become just as important as Harry, Ron, and Hermione. The film really highlighted this fact, something I had never realized before and allowed me to see them as stronger characters. Director David Yates, and the rest of the production team, as well as Matthew Lewis and Evanna Lynch (Neville & Luna), did an excellent job making them not just lonely, bumbling cohorts, but strong and beautifully deep characters. Of course, I don’t want to give TOO much away if you haven’t already seen the movie, but I would love to leave you with this fut, re-cut trailer of HP & Half-Blood Prince:
3) SYTYCD S.8
It was one of my friends in college who got me hooked on So You Think You Can Dance. Unlike other reality shows where people compete and dance, this one has people WHO CAN ACTUALLY DANCE WELL!! Shocker, I know! Every season there are fabulous dancers, and it’s wonderful to watch them grow throughout the competition, because while they may come in specializing in a particular style, they are expected to perform (and perform well) any style the judges throw at them. As I said in my last post, I am a HUGE fan of Melanie. While I do think all the dancers are AMAZING, I really hope she wins next week! Just google the show and you’ll find amazing clips!
4) Kids React
Seriously, if you haven’t seen this show by The Fine Bros you should check it out RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW! These kids are honest about the videos the guys make them watch, which turns out to be cute and hilarious. Morgan is the cutest (come on, she’s a little 6 year-old girl!), but I have to say my favorite has to be William, hands down! I felt if we met in real life, we would get a long wonderfully. It’s so great to see him get so excited about YouTube, I know where he’s coming from. While I don’t always agree with him on everything, I’m sure we could have interesting conversations. Plus, he’s be a great person to watch YT videos with (as I do… ALL THE TIME).
YouTube Video of the Week
For example, I’d like to see how he’d react to this little diddy that gets stuck in my head for days afterwards!
5) New Shirts & Purse
While I do enjoy shopping, I don’t get to do it very often. I love this bright pink shirt, as it is both professional yet fun at the same time. Not many people would be able to pull of such a bright color, but I love it! Fortunately it was on sale! Unfortunately the tank top and the pink top ended up being around the same price… WHOMP WHOMP!
My two new shirts! Which one should I wear!?!?!
The purse is my unexpected buy. I was looking for a cross-body bag, as it is in style and I’m tired of lugging my other purses around. I normally go for a classic look (think Coach, Dooney&Bourke etc), but this purse by Carlos (as in Carlos Santana… don’t laugh, it’s a real brand) caught my eye. It still has a very plain, yet classic look, but with a few unexpected touches, like the metal details, that make it funky and different. Plus it was down from $60 to $20. Not bad, if I do say so myself!
Fancy, no?
Check out that metal detail. I'm so hardcore!
So, there you have it: My VERY FIRST 5 Friday Faves. I hope you like it, and if you want to join in on the trend, or have something you’d like me to check out (and maybe it will make the list) leave a comment below!
Thanks all!
Long-Haired Girl… NO MORE!
When I was a baby, my mother always worried about two things: A) That I wouldn’t be able to feed myself, B) That I wouldn’t grow any hair.
Seriously, why do I have a brush?! It's not like it will help the few strands I have up there!
But fortunately, my hair did grow in and I was no longer a bald baby! When it was still acceptable to have super-long hair, mine would reach past my hips. I had to keep it long; how else would I be able to put it up into a bun if there wasn’t anything to hold on to?
See, I did do dance!
Each time I went to the hair dresser, I always requested a trim/cut with the caveat: “I have to be able to put it into a bun.” This lasted all throughout my high schools years.
Don't let the curls fool you, I still had pretty long hair.
Then came college… Here I wanted to branch out, try something different. So I decided to go shorter.
Woo my hair got "short"!
As you can tell from the picture, I still couldn’t let go of my hair. This time the caveat was: “I still have to be able to put it in a ponytail!”
My hair really defined my identity, without me even knowing it. I loved having so many choices of how to do my hair. I could even put up with the length in the summer, when I shorter do would have been better. But I stubbornly kept it as long as I could.
That all changed when I got sick. At first the medicine that I was taking made my hair look great! Long and luxurious: I LOVED IT!! However, this medicine, while it did wonders for my hair, did nothing for my illness. So I switched to something that would work. The problem with this, while it made my illness run for the hills, so did my great hair. I’d always had thin hair (thanks genes!) but now the length just made it look awful. I was constantly throwing it into a ponytail, since it didn’t look better any other way… and even the ponytail looked pitiful. So, knowing it would grow back… I cut it! Like really cut it:
Even in the dark light you can see that my hair is PRETTY SHORT!
The damage was done, there’s no going back now. It took a while to get used to. I didn’t hate it, but it didn’t feel like me either. Of course, I always tell myself that it’s what’s on the inside that truly makes me special and unique.
Now that I’ve had it for a while, it’s grown on me… but now I just think it looks blah.
Here's my short hair in Charleston. It's getting to that blah length.
So now, in order to even it out and (hopefully) help it grow back to a favorable length, I’ve decided to go shorter. All because I’ve been inspired by two lovely women:
Melanie Moore, contestant of SYTYCD
Emma Watson, actress
Both of these women allow their beauty, talent, and just plain awesomeness to show through without the hindrance of longer locks. They really are great role models.
My mother says that once I have short hair, I’ll never want to go back. While it is easier, I don’t think I can completely agree with her just yet. I’m beginning to find out who I am without long hair, I still like the flexibility it gives me to amp up my personality.
Side view of the NEWEST cut!
A front view of the haircut. Brought in pics of Emma Watson for comparison.
Cut the cake
One of the best traditions I gained while living in college was what I will now refer to as, “The Cake Scream”.
My housemate, a sweet, quiet, intellectual lass told us of this tradition. It’s pretty simple. When you are cutting a cake… everyone screams. It is as if you are personifying the emotions of the cake as you slide that knife through it’s moist delicious center.
Not too many people enjoy this tradition… but it’s one I intend to carry and use for the rest of my life. Though I don’t know how well it will go over at my wedding…
OMG Shoes!
I don’t know how obvious it is, not only to outsiders but to those I lived with, I LOVE SHOES. For serious! Every time we walked past the shoe department, I’d always slow down to see the latest trends and what had come in since the last time.
What I love most about shoes is that pretty much no matter what size you are up-top, your shoe size stays the same. And for me, at a petite size 7, I loved all the styles my little tootsies afforded. That is until I got nephrotic syndrome.
Unfortunately, this “nephrotic syndrome” was first realized when my ankles swelled up so much that I no longer had discernable/separate ankles & calfs, but rather they blended together to become a cankle:
As my nephrologist and doctor struggled to figure out what was wrong w/ my kidneys, through the beast that is gravity my feet/ankles continued to swell up. Eventually I got to a point where I could no longer wear regular shoes. Instead I was forced to cover my feet with slippers… size 11 MENS! Of course, I could only joke that I could always go to Clown School since my shoes looked like clown shoes in proportion to the rest of my body:
While I laughed it off, it was humiliating. I longed to be back in my ballet flats, my cowgirl boots; even my chunky sneakers would suffice! But alas, no matter how much I squeezed and loosened various fasteners, my feet just would not fit.
Now of course, this isn’t a sad story. It took a while, but as my weight went down, my fee slowly shrank as well! Now, nearly two months after being let out of the hospital, and four since beginning this cankle-drama, I can finally get back into boots AND zip them up all the way!
My nurses, doctors, med students, and everyone that encountered me thought I was crazy when I mentioned my goal was to get back into my Coach heels. But after describing my love affair with shoes, you can see why I wanted to get back into a pair that I’d “invested” a good amount of money in order to own them. These were a pair I knew I could wear for anything, and that eventually they would be worth the money I paid (not to mention I’d gotten a discount!!). Now that I’m finally back to my normal size, I can’t wait for the first opportunity to wear them!! Not that my swollen feet/legs haven’t left me some challenges; like how do I handle the stretch marks that cover my legs in the summer months? I guess I’ll have to make tights fashionable? ;D
Pro-Life 2011
The March for Life 2011 in Washington DC happened this past Monday. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend (so many people out in the cold… yeah not right now). But that and the combination of doing a LifeNight on the Pro-Life movement where David Bereit, the national campaign leader for 40 Days for Life, came and spoke to the teens. It really made me think about how much I’m actually involved in the pro-life movement.
In high school, I was pro-life, being Catholic, but never really thought about what it meant. I really had to defend my decision logically the summer before my senior year when I participated in Presidential Classroom and my group had to present both sides of abortion (a topic we suggested but NEVER thought we’d actually get!!). We ended up saying it was a “matter of perspective”…
In college, I ended up living in a Catholic community so while I wasn’t actually a part of the official pro-life club, I did end up participating in pro-life events. Namely my second or third year I ended up participating in the Charlottesville 40 Days for Life Campaign. One of my favorite memories was going out with my housemates during the clock change, so our one hour was physically two hours. It was a time when I made the decision myself to support this movement, by going out by myself at around 6am (was already up… don’t ask, I was a college student!).
Now I feel confident enough to teach about the pro-life movement, keep track of it etc.
I never really thought about it until that LifeNight, when I already knew everything Mr. Bereit was talking about, even the book unPlanned, by a former Planned Parenthood worker.
So, while I may not have been at the March for Life, please enjoy this video:
Man w/ Pistachio Ice Cream in Snow
So it all started out with this picture:
Click on the picture for the full story of how it went viral (not surprising eh?). Anyway, I liked it. What did I do with it? I took it into Colourlovers and created a color palette with it.
I came up with this:
Then I decided to take this palette and make a pattern from it. The results:
So I officially am a nerd. For reals. Hope you enjoyed my nerdiness.
These Four Walls
I love the newest video by Wong Fu. I just thought to share. Might blog on it later… ENJOY!