Indoor Picnic

A few weeks ago I packed up a little lunch in my sewing basket, grabbed a blanket, and set up an indoor picnic!

I was, perhaps, a little too proud.


Too bad this isn't even enough for a snack for him :P

I'll pack way more food if we ever go on a real picnic!!

Thanks

Today is Thanksgiving.
Today is my birthday.

I'm thankful for my (healthy) family, my friends, and having all my basic needs met :)

Tomorrow I work 5am-1pm (eep!) and then plan to spend the rest of the day celebrating my birthday with my boyfriend.
I might even sneak in some shopping :3

Isn't this beautiful?

I am thankful for living in places with these sorts of views too :)
(Especially since most of the local scenery is deciduous forests)

December Crafting Goals

I want to dive back into the world of arts and crafts.
My quick construction paper crafts last week have me wanting to craft more!
Here are 2 things I'd like to make next month...

Christmas-Themed Paper Lollies
I found this tutorial for making patriotic ones. They are absolutely adorable and I would really like the try to give my friends' home a little holiday cheer. They're a bunch of guys and don't mind me decorating a bit!

Apron
I'm starting to cook a little more, and I'd like to make myself a cute apron! I found this list of free apron patterns/tutorials. None of them are exactly what I'm looking for, but with a little help from my sew-savvy mom I am sure I can create what I'm looking for!
I'd like an apron with full frontal cover because I can be a little messy. Pockets are a must. I'd like to add some frill too, if possible! And I should probably line it too, since I know just how messy I can be...

Old Halloween Photos

Finally! Almost 1 month ago I made a Halloween breakfast for my favorite guys-

In the making...


The complete meal!

There were bright orange corn muffins (inside they were bright) as well as pumpkin, ghost, and frankenpancakes.
Food coloring was used- I don't feel confident enough to use other foods to color what I cook yet!

Me as a 1940s gal serving our Halloween breakfast!

I loved wearing the red wig, but it was looking a bit frazzled after a few hours.

Thanksgivingish

My friends hosted a Thanksgiving party this past Wednesday!
I spend most of my days there, so I guess you could say I was a host of sorts too.

I made little construction paper napkin rings (free-hand!)



My friends made some delicious food!


Our modest feast featured turkey, mashed potatoes( +gravy), veggies, garlic bread, and pumpkin pie!

Circus!

My boyfriend took me to the circus at the end of October!
It was so fun much fun! We were totally immersed in it and took almost no pictures though >.<
I took 0 pictures. He took 4.

Asia the Elephant painting!

We were ~30 feet away from her and had a perfect view- it was the preshow, so we were right there on the floor!


Acrobat (in background) on long silky ropes

Again, we were super close! The acrobats' routines were beautiful; it's amazing how that raw strength and power can be displayed so fluidly.

frustrated

i have been frustrated lately. nanowrimo fell through, i'm having difficult keeping up with school (only one more week until the quarter ends though), i haven't been getting nearly enough sleep, and work seems to have consumed all my work/sleep time.

oh. and my little sister is in the hospital. luckily she made it through her 6 hour surgery just fine, but now she's working on recovering. she'll be in the hospital another 4-7 days and then she'll come home. she won't be able to move much though, I think she'll be out of school another 5-6 weeks after she gets home. yikes >.<

i need to keep my eyes on the big picture: it's not that bad and it will get better.
plans to make it better:
-visit my sister
-have an indoors picnic with the boyfriend
-buckle down & study
-write about my frustrations

i don't mind nanowrimo falling through, i needed to make time for other things (like schoolwork and my job). those two other things are way more important to me than a writing competition right now. maybe i'll add a page once a week!

school is just getting difficult because it's crunch time. after tomorrow (friday) at midnight i will feel a lot better. then it's onto final week, which is next week, and then i get a one-week break! and after that i start with a totally new set of classes :)

sleep will come. i'm sure i'll sleep a lot this weekend and in the next two weeks. in the hierarchy of importance it just falls kinda low at the moment.

i need a job to pay for my car insurance, my gas money, snow tires, engine oil change, food, etc. i don't enjoy giving up my work and sleep and play time to stand around folding clothes and ringing up purchases, but i really need the money. oh well! i enjoy childrens department more than jewelry- there is always something to do now! and that makes the time pass by much faster.

ten big november goals

-try partcipating in NaNoWriMo
-make colored pasta
-have an indoors picnic
-arrive at work on time or early every day
-keep my room clean
-car: put snow tires on, get washed, clean trunk, vacuum
-send out all thank you cards for birthday
-start paying my friend back
-vote
-

(there were 3 more- i'll add them when i find the notecard i wrote them down on)

pasta?

i want to make colored pasta
http://duhlicious.com/2010/10/so-many-pastabilities-colored-pasta/

i found the link above and fell in love-
i didn't even realize people regularly made their own pasta!
i am going to make pasta before the end of november
(or at least by the end of this year)

october accomplishments

i managed to accomplish 9/10 things on my "end of october" list.
pretty impressive, considering i made it with only a few days left in the month!

-the pineapple jello from a local indian store didn't turn out very well, all my fault. i added too much water, so the molds (hello kitty!) didn't hold very well. it didn't taste fantastic either...

-i was a woman from the 1940s! i'll have pictures soon- i wore a red wig and a gorgeous poppy-print dress.

-my boyfriend and i made orange corn muffins, pumpkin(shaped/colored) pancakes, ghost pancakes, &frankenpancakes! i also made some basil-scrambled eggs (eggs, milk, salt, pepper, basil- i don't measure anything but i'll try to get a recipe up in the future). my boyfriend and his roommates seemed to really enjoy the themed breakfast

-i am going in to jcp to fill out paperwork this afternoon! and it looks like i'll most likely be in childrens! i am super excited about this :)

-no windows 7 installation this weekend. this (for me) requires the help of my lovely tech-savvy friends; they told me they'd help me with it before the semester ends. yay!

-the circus was absolutely amazing! my boyfriend took me- we're still trying to figure out some of the magic tricks and laughing about some of the acts! i want to make a full entry about this some time this week- it deserved more than this 3sentence segment!

-i did get my chem3 lab in on time and i slept for 3 hours the night before it was due too! normally i'm up all night because i've procrastinated, but this week i started working on it a lot earlier.

-i did upload a video, but i didn't create an additional edited one (topic: jello-makin'). oh well- i was busy! working on my german group's minidrama was a much better use of my time!

-i did email my cell bio group :) we've begun organizing a meeting and it seems like it was exactly what we all needed!

-my family had a blast getting family portraits taken! it was training night at target, so we got to choose either a free additional 8x11 or half off. (it was already $9 with a coupon so we chose the additional photo) the girl was very nice and patient with our ultra-silly family! we wound up with one really nice picture, which is unusual for our family :) normally we have to compromise and pick one where 4 people look nice and 1 looks goofy.