well hello there

Four months it's been? Jeez I almost feel like it's been longer than that. Basically finishing up my master's is consuming my life a little, but I guess that's to be expected. I'll be done in two short months so if I have to sacrifice some personal things I guess that's okay! I do miss this though. I miss reading blogs, writing blogs, twittering.. the computer just tends to be the last place I want to go at the end of the day after a full day of teaching, some lesson planning, and a reflection paper or two for my university supervisor. I've been writing so many papers lately. Holy crap. Where I have been however, is Pinterest. There are SO many amazing teaching resources on there and I've used tons of them already. It's been pretty awesome trying such amazing ideas out and watching them work beautifully.

Anyway, I write to you today because I have today and tomorrow off for good ol' Sandy. I'm pretty caught up on work and it's been bothering me as of late that this blog has gone to the wayside. Fall is my favorite time of year and all I can do is think about the Halloween crafts and baking I did last year, and wish that I had the time to do more this year. Student teaching has been amazing so far and I think I'm falling into a really good rhythm with it. I want to make a resolution to myself to try to start posting again.. maybe two times a week. Even though that's nothing, it sounds scary huge to me. I want to get back into the swing of bloglife though. I miss it! Also, to my sponsors over there, sorry I crapped out big time on that whole thing. I will most likely be getting rid of that section soon because I clearly don't have the time needed to get it all together. It's gotten stressful and I never wanted blogging to feel that way. So it goes. For now.

So here's to hoping I can wiggle my way back in here and find some time for Tenpenny Splendid once again. Till then..

 

And stay safe if you're on the east coast! Get some hot chocolate, crappy food, a good movie, and hunker down for a few days. :)

june so far

Snapshots from June

Hey, remember that one time when I used to blog? Yea me too. Well I have officially entered my last week of this crazy crazy class and I don't have any presentations left so I am feeling a huge weight off my shoulders. The reason I've been so absent has a lot to do with last Thursday. When I had three presentations due at once. One was the most important part of my grade and was accompanied by what ended up being a 34 page lesson plan (don't ask). Then there was a project I had to do with a partner, and a silly current event thrown in for good measure. Oh and I was the only one who had three presentations due. Just the luck of the draw really. Another girl had two due. The rest only had one. So as much as that sucked, I'm basically done! And I can hardly believe it.

Some interesting things have been happening lately that I'd like to share, cause things, they are a-changin'. Well the first thing has a lot to due with the second thing. The first thing is that I finally (after waiting 5 months) found out where I'll be student teaching in the fall. I'm excited to report that I got into my second choice district (first choice wasn't taking anyone on in the fall) and it's an amazing district! I can't wait to see what the school is like. I'll be in a second grade classroom full time starting in September.

This has got me looking at a TON of teaching resources, and well, blogs. I get all my best info from blogs anyway, so why not? There are actually some really amazing teachers out there with blogs full of great ideas and resources. This brings me to the second thing.. I think once I actually start teaching, I want to make a teacher blog. It's a great place to share ideas and offer downloads of things you've created for your classroom. I'd also love to start talking to other teachers and see what they are doing! I'll hopefully run the two together and keep life-life stuff here, and work-life stuff there. Well, I'm excited about the idea and even though I may not use it soon, I'm dying to start designing it. :)

The third thing I've been looking into recently is Passion Fruit ads. I've considered suspending my ad swappage indefinitely, but I love being able to feature talented bloggers and friends each month. I've just gotten entirely too busy to keep up with it lately, as many bloggers who have joined Passion Fruit have. And with camp and student teaching coming up, I know the load isn't going to lighten anytime soon. So I'm hoping that by July, I will have my ads set up through Passion Fruit so that I can still keep offering free/affordable ad spaces without adding anything extra to my plate!

How has your life been this month? I really need to go catch up on my favorite reads. I'm sooo behind!

currently

Stopping in before I'm off to meet my partner to finish up our presentation for tonight. If all goes according to plan I'll have an interesting how-to for you tomorrow. Well I think it's interesting anyway. ;) So for now, I'm borrowing this meme I've seen on Lariats and Lavender and Sometimes Sweet just for funzies.

fruity fruity fish and glowing hair at a recent video shoot

 Currently.. 

Obsessing over..
Homemade iced coffee. It's that time of year again! It's oh so refreshing in the morning.

Working on..
My presentation for class tonight. I finished the first one yesterday and now I'm trying to wrap up the second one but I have to meet with my partner to do that. Yea, two presentations in one night. That is exactly why blogging is sparse at the moment. :/ This is the toughest class I've had all of grad school. And it's really just because of a project overload honestly. Some nights I have three things due at once. But I knew it was coming because I heard about this somewhat infamous class from everyone who had it before me so I'm trying really hard to remain calm and just push through it.

Thinking about..
All the things I want to do this summer! I want to have picnics, go to the beach, see my brother, dust off the ol' beach cruiser and go for bike rides, make more ice cream, read for enjoyment again, try new juicing combinations with summer fruit, go for walks, plant more herbs and veggies..

Anticipating..
The start of camp! I don't think I've mentioned this yet but I got a job this summer teaching classes at an art and design camp for girls! I couldn't be more excited. I've been planning projects like crazy and digging through my inspiration folders for ideas. I'll do a post sometime on the projects I'm planning on doing. They're pretty fun!

Listening to..
Supernatural on the telly. :)

Eating..
Leftovers from dinner last night. Broccoli and ziti with garlic and olive oil. Yum!

Wishing..
My allergies would go away. Far, far away! They've had me miserable for a month!


What are your currently's? :) Hope your week is going well!

ps A big thanks to everyone who wished my piggy well and sent some good thoughts. It made me feel a lot better to hear that other people have been through similar things and they turned out okay. Also glad to hear about other piggy mamas out there! I don't think some people truly understand just how awesome those little guys are. :) Also, Walnut's eye is looking AMAZING. I keep up with the meds and it's gone down to almost normal size!

six weeks

Check out my post over at Silly Grrl today! Sarah, who put together this whole shindig, asked me to give some tips on how I take food photos for recipe posts. I'm no photographer or anything, but through trial and error, and quite a bit of help from a certain photographer boyfriend, I've managed to find a few things that help improve my photos. Check it out if you're interested! Also click through the other posts! Some really talented ladies gave a lot of great advice over there!

Oh yea, by the way, remember me? The girl who used to blog here? Talk about life going from sitting in a rocker to fast paced in five seconds or less. I was enjoying my break from classes and planning on doing a ton of things for the blog that I could bank for later (aka now) when I got busier.

Then suddenly I'm a live-in vet for poor Walnut, I think because I put the meds on her eye the day we got them so it was like "well you're good at it, this is your job now". Not that I mind at all, I just think it's funny. A little update on that.. we're pretty sure she has glaucoma, which isn't the worst thing in the world for a guinea pig. She still has sight in one eye and her bad eye looks like it may be improving. She may not be able to see out of it again, but we just hope the swelling goes down and it's less.. well I don't want to be too graphic so let's just say less infected looking. She's still acting 100% normal though so we think she may be okay!

Besides all the piggy care, I was subbing at two different schools this week, had a quick emergency design project, and started the summer class from hell. Yea this semester is going to be interesting to say the least. It's six weeks long so I may be a little reclusive during it but I'll try to keep this ol' blog running. Just know that if posting is sparse, that's why. And six weeks isn't really that long. I mean look how fast these first five months flew by!

Well, I hope your Memorial Day weekend is great. Go barbecue, be outside, and have fun!

piggies

I've been meaning to introduce you to some very important furry babies in my life, but being the perfectionist that I am, I was always going to take "better" photos. I took these just playing around once so they're occasionally out of focus or have a bit of motion blur. They get so curious when you bring something foreign into their world (like a camera) and never stop moving, smelling, running..

Anyway, the reason I finally organized these photos into a post is because one of our poor little babies, Walnut, is having some trouble. We ran around to a couple vets yesterday because, seemingly overnight, one of her eyes swelled up and got all infected. This could either be from a deeper problem or just be an infection. She got a few shots - which was terrible to witness :( - and some goopy stuff to put on her eye.

Now we just wait to see if the antibiotics work and what the next step will be. Sadly, if she needs surgery, we may not be able to afford it. And surgery for guinea pig is really risky to begin with because of how tiny they are. So we're really praying that she'll rally and any further care she'll need will be affordable.  For now though, she's totally happy, eating, and acting normal. Besides her eye, you wouldn't think anything was wrong.

So today I wanted to honor my favorite little furries and ask for some prayers and positive thoughts for our little Walnut.

That's Walnut! She was actually quite the surprise piggy. We didn't know when we got her that she was pregnant. So we added two more little piggies to our family a few months after bringing her home. :) If you've never seen a baby guinea pig, you're missing out. I mean like weeks old baby. I swear, they are just little heads with giant kangaroo feet. I die.

 Thirsty Walnut.

This is Suzi. She's the first pig we got, a little bit before Walnut. And she won't let anyone forget it. She's half old lady, half puppy. She hates being touched unless you pick her up and hold her. Then she'll practically roll over like a puppy and let you pet her. She can be a pretty big grump though and is definitely the alpha lady.

Suzi is trying to determine if the camera is something she can eat. After realizing it's not, she's over it.

Here's my little Pete! He is one of Walnut's babies, and since we couldn't have him staying with the girls and impregnating them all, I took him to college with me and we were best friends. It was my first time living alone and he was good company. Now he resides right next to the girls and purrs at them when they walk up to his cage.

Checking out what the girls are doing next door.

And finally, Peach, Walnut's other baby. This photo pretty much sums up Peach. Always looking over her shoulder, a little dodgey eyed. She hasn't gotten the idea yet that we don't want to eat her. However, she has the best butt-shake when you give her scratches. She loves her butt scratches.

Suzi photobomb.


I'm glad I finally got it together and showed you my babies. They all have such personalities and are big sweethearts. Even the grump. ;)

What furballs do you hold near and dear?

happenings lately

May is off to a pretty good start I'd say! We've been busy little bees around these parts, and I've been taking full advantage of my time off from classes. I'm trying to get outside as much as possible while the weather is warm enough for light sweaters but not so hot that it renders you a sweaty puddle the moment after stepping out the door.

Lately, I've been making tons of juice, going for walks in the gorgeous weather, making "rummy bears", and dipping soft pretzels in homemade ice cream.

This past weekend we went to a wedding at a sweet little inn on the river. It was a lot of fun! You can see a lil peek of what I wore up there in the photo of the floral dress and yellow tights. I want to do a full outfit post at some point because I'm infatuated with that dress!

Last week was spring cleaning week. I made my favorite green juice, turned up the Frank Sinatra radio on Pandora, and finally put away two laundry baskets that were overflowing with clean clothes. I don't know why I let it get so backed up.. it could have something to do with the fact that I loathe putting away laundry. Anyway, I decided to be a real adult and put into place a laundry day once a week so I have to deal with a lot less at a time and hopefully I'll be a lot less whiny about it. ;)
 

The moon has been pretty interesting to look at lately.. usually photos of the moon don't turn out too well but I was pleased with this one since it looked nice shining through the clouds. I also murdered some basil and attempted to bring it back to life to no avail. But! After this tragedy, we bought two basil seedlings for the backyard so now I have some hanging out in a pot back there! Hopefully I can keep them alive. If not, I can always drown my sorrows in black and white milkshakes. Or maybe celebrate with one!


What have you been up to lately?

little december update

Exciting things have been happening lately! Sadly, that means little to no internet presence but sometimes that's a good thing I think. Like I said before, I had my first subbing experience on Monday with third grade which was great even though I was completely terrified. That day I was asked to come back Tuesday for first grade which was.. ahem.. interesting. I've come to realize that first graders are really kindergartners that you are trying to put in a uniform and a desk and sometimes that doesn't go so well.. add to that the fact that it was two days before their Christmas break and you get a whole new world of bouncing off the walls. They were really generally well behaved for having a sub and it being the week before Christmas, but I will say that I had two boys in tears before recess. -_-

I also came in on Thursday (yesterday) and had 4th grade. They were great even though they were definitely hyped about it being the last day before break. Overall it's been a great experience for me personally, and also in the sense of putting it on my resume. It was also some good spending money for the holidays! And I finally got my practicum assignment today which is actually 1st grade. It'll be good to see them during the regular school year and see how an experienced teacher handles it.

I'm actually pretty excited about tonight too. Charlie and I have been keeping up with some traditions these past few years where we go to his parents' house on Christmas Eve and open gifts there. His family has been doing gifts on Christmas Eve probably since Charlie stopped believing in Mr. C. since he is the youngest. My family is still strictly Christmas morning gift-giving because, hello, Santa comes overnight. ;) So with his family on the 24th and mine the 25th, we decided to do our gifts to each other tonight so we can sort of be alone and start our own traditions. I can't wait!

We've also been seriously behind on cookie making this year. I was planning on baking all week but then I ended up subbing three days and was exhausted when I came home. So we've been slowly but surely getting them done. Last night I cut out sugar cookies and and my mom mixed chocolate chip cookie dough while we drank wine and listened to Christmas music. It was quite lovely actually. :) We got mani/pedis together after school yesterday which was wonderful after being on my feet all day. I wanted something crazy fun so I got Twinkle Lights by China Glaze. I couldn't be more excited by how festive they turned out! :)

Are you all ready for the holidays? What have you been doing to get it all together? :)

family things

That's why I have been a little absent lately. My brother leaves for boot camp in about two weeks and we had his going away party last night. I haven't ever mentioned it on here before pretty much because I felt like if I didn't think about it, it wasn't going to happen. Around the same time I was deciding to go to grad school, he was researching the Navy's special forces. He finally got his SWCC contract a few months ago and can't wait to get started.

I'm excited for him since he is excited and it's what he really wants to do, but I'm obviously a little sad too. It only started hitting me this past month as we started preparing for the party and talking about our early Christmas since he leaves two weeks before the 25th. I think if I wasn't living at home right now it would seem a little easier because right now I see him pretty much everyday.

He's four years younger than me and we definitely fought a lot growing up. But when I want away to college something changed. I think it was a combination of us both getting a little older and having time apart that suddenly made us closer than ever. I feel like we're finally on the same team and get along really well and now he's leaving. It just sucks a little.

But anyway, enough sad stuff. The party was a lot of fun and we had sooo much food. I got to pulverize cookies in my food robot for dirt and sand - my brother's very specific dessert requests. :) We capped off the night with Christmas movies and wine.


Today we put up the Christmas tree and we'll decorate later. Unfortunately, because of all the prepping and thinking and spending time, I didn't reach my goal of finishing Christmas cards when I wanted to. There's definitely not enough time to get everything together now and make it worthwhile but I do have one design done for our own cards so I'll share that one with you later!


So that's a little update on my life and a quick instagram dump. ;) Hope your Christmas season is starting off well! What have you been doing to kick it off?

catch you on the flip side

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Just wanted to pop in real quick and let you know I'll be in the sky in the a.m. tomorrow, headed to Florida for The Fest. What fest? THE Fest. Nobody believes me when I tell them that's what it's called. Anywho, Charlie and I went last year and this year is the big 10th anniversary show and quite possibly that last time that all situations will align correctly to allow us to go. So we go.

Just wanted to fill you in since I'm in the middle of a giveaway here on the blog. And because while I do have an iphone now, lord knows if I'll be savvy enough to use the social media properly and stay in touch with the world. I'm still doing things like accidentally favoriting random tweets about nothing when using Twitter on my phone cause I swipe and hit random things like a toddler with no dexterity. I get really paranoid I'll accidentally retweet something totally inappropriate and then I'll have to get rid of my Twitter and die. And now you know what goes on in my brain.

So since I'll be gone for the weekend I decided I might as well keep the giveaway open until Sunday at midnight EST. I'll come back Monday night and post the winner. So that's what's happening there. Now I need to sleep because morning comes waaaaaaaaaayy early tomorrow and I'm clearly in ramble mode from all the tired I'm feeling.

Have a great weekend, keep entering the giveaway, and I'll see you Monday. :)

apple picking

 A couple weekends ago, Charlie and I went apple picking. I was so excited to find a farm near us that let you pick your own apples! When I was little, my family and I always went to this one farm that had big hay mazes, crazy Halloween characters sculpted with hay and chicken wire, and rows upon rows of apple trees, ready for the picking. In more recent years, that place's apple crop has become slimmer and slimmer, not entirely sure why, until they stopped letting you pick your own altogether. No fun. So after a little research, I was able to find several places where we could go to pick our own. Thankfully, the area where Charlie grew up is lousy with farms so we didn't have to go too far to find one. :)

It was a beautiful day and an awesome place. You can pick all sorts of things there throughout the year. I want to go back in the summer and get some berries.

You can pick wildflowers too!

There's nothing like knowing exactly where your produce came from. And by doing the middle man work yourself, they are infinitely cheaper than in the supermarket.

Charlie insisted that the best ones were high up so he scaled a ladder to grab some. We weren't sure if we were supposed to use the ladders, but hey, they were just sitting there and didn't have any "do not climb" signs, so fair game!

 
I'm pretty sure this is his photo debut on my blog. He wanted to make a grand entrance but I think our apple date is pretty grand. I'm glad I got him on here too before he cuts those curly locks. :)

 Now hopefully we'll have time to grab some pumpkins soon because Halloween is just a week away!

Have a great week!

P.S. Have you seen my blogiversary giveaway? I'm pretty pleased with the turnout so far so I'm going to close it on Friday at midnight EST. I'm going away this weekend so I'll announce the randomly chosen winner on Monday! Good luck and spread the word if you don't mind! (It'll gain you an extra entry!) :)

how to set up a shoebox

* I've been wanting to make my photos bigger for a while so I adjusted my layout to accommodate this. If anything looks wonky (ex. overlapping) on your browser/monitor please let me know so I can fix it asap! Thank ya much! :) *

Here's the thing. I love home design blogs. The ones that show you other people's apartments and houses and how they set them up, whether extravagantly or on a strict budget. I constantly file away ideas for when I have my own house or apartment, hopefully in the near future. But what drives me crazy, more than anything in the world, is when I see a post about how someone set up their "itty bitty teeny tiny apartment" and how great it looks. And then I look at the floorplan of their apartment and it shows a kitchen that is separate from the living room, at least one bedroom, and then a balcony, a breakfast nook, a mudroom, and five closets. THAT my dear, is not a small apartment. THIS.. is a small apartment.

Click image to view bigger

Yes. This is the space I lived in for the 2009-2010 school year. And I loved it. It's not my ideal space, but with my budget it was either live in a shoebox in a nice area of the city, or live in a mansion in a scary area. I chose nice. Now like I said, I only lived there for a year and I'm sure if it had to be longer than that I probably would've gone crazy. But I know people sometimes live in places that are way smaller than they'd like as either an in between while they search for a new home, or maybe while they're in school like I was. And millions of other reasons. So I thought I'd show you how I set up an actually small space.. a space with one room and one closet. Because if I could make this place livable, any place can be made livable. Maybe you'll get some ideas for blocking off areas and creating the illusion of rooms when there are none. :)

This is how I set up my little shoebox.. it may looked cramped, but there was actually plenty of room to move around. And it was either just me by myself doing homework, or my boyfriend and I hanging out so it's not like I had hoards of people coming in. I tended to visit people at outside locations a lot during this time. :)

Click image to view bigger

Dividing Your Space
The most important thing for me when setting this up, was that my bed was not in my living area. I didn't want to feel like I was back in a dorm. To achieve this, I pushed my bed against a wall and put two Billy Bookcases from Ikea along the outside. With those and my headboard blocking it off, you never knew it was there unless you were standing at the foot of the bed. This made a little entry way from the front door and provided storage in the "living room".

Living Room and Kitchen
There, I had a futon, coffee table, and little media center. Behind the futon is an old drafting table I had from my last room. I used it mostly for more kitchen counter space and prepped food there, but sometimes art projects spilled over to it and it was a desk again. I also moved the fridge to where the other kitchen-y things were because it was in a ridiculous place when I moved in. Next to the fridge I had another Billy Bookcase where I stored all dishes and kitchen appliances because I had just enough cabinet space for food.

Storage and Shelves
My favorite thing about the room was probably the fake fireplace. It had a beautiful tiled floor and I put dozens of different sized white candles inside. It was really awesome when it was all lit. On the mantel I had my jewelry box and necklace hanger and a bunch of art and knick-knacks. The shelves by my bed contained all my books and crafty supplies and the two big bins under my bed is where I kept all my art supplies for school, which I could easily slide out under the head board. My one closet contained all of my clothes which was tough, but with a combination of small storage containers and shelves I made it all work.

Tips for Small Spaces
To sum it up, I leave you with my final thoughts and tips for making a small space work.
1. Use furniture to create spaces and rooms.. with a few pieces you can change the appearance of a room drastically.
2. Make sure all storage is accessible.. there's no point in putting things under your bed if you can't get to them easily. You'll just get frustrated and probably never put anything away.
3. Put extra drawers and shelves in closets.. it makes the most out of the space and you won't see it once you close the door!
4. Use personal things as decorations.. I mixed my jewelry out with the art and knick-knacks on my fireplace so that it was easily accessible but still looked nice.
5. Keep it clean.. when classes got hectic my apartment felt the brunt of it. I would start to get really stressed out because I couldn't move in there with all the paper scraps and supplies hanging around. One quick clean up and my mood was instantly better and my head felt clear again. :)


Well if you made it this far, then you probably live in a small space ;). I hope this helped someone out there who was feeling the same frustration I felt when trying to figure out how to set up a shoebox.

Happy fall weather finally! :)

finger knit necklace

Just a quick little crafty post to get the day started! I pulled out the yarn for a bigger project but I wanted to try something quick and easy that I've been seeing across the webs for a while now. It's a super easy way to make a necklace, some garland, or whatever else you could think to do with it. Make it as long or short as you want! I think it'd also be a good way to put some leftover yarn remnants to use.


I went with this tutorial because it was very easy to understand and I really liked the added button to make it something special. I don't think I could've done a better tute without pretty much copying it so I'll just send you over to Design Seedz and you can check it out yourself!

Just find some yarn you have laying around and get those fingers going! I delved into my collection of vintage buttons for this one and found a pretty flower button to add. Go to town!

I think I like wearing it with one of my big chain-y necklaces. There's a nice contrast between the wool and metal chains.


I'm trying really hard to fill this week with posts. I don't want to get busy and end up eating my words but I'm going away for a long weekend up the mountains from Friday to Sunday and then a short beach trip from Monday to Thursday. I start fall classes Thursday night! Eeek! So I really want to get some goodies up before I leave for almost a week.

On the plus side, I finished my online math class as of noon yesterday *major sigh of relief*. On the neg side, my "maybe it'll workout secret plan" I mentioned probably last post totally bombed. All I'd like to say about that is thank you college, from the bottom of my heart. I'm so glad I paid a bajillion dollars to attend you and you can't even do me a small favor now. Way to look out for your own. If I am ever in the position to donate large sums of money to a school, I will not be sending any to your dumb butt. I send you my good riddance from grad school.

Ahem.

Hope everyone's week is starting off beautifully! It feels like fall in Philly today! Loving every second of it. :)

frustration and inspiration

I have no idea where this post is going to go within the next 10+ minutes of writing so bear with me. My head feels like it's full of cotton and I think I need to get this out, even if just for myself, so that I don't feel so creatively constipated anymore. (I'm charming, I know, sorry.) ;)

After having a lunch date with a close friend from high school and discussing the handmade/homemade life, I think the time has come now more than ever to start making the products I've been dreaming of and filling sketchbooks with and create a small business for myself. A petite business at that. I don't have any lofty ambitions right now of fully supporting myself on my own art but I need to do something. I registered Tenpenny Splendid on Etsy months ago, probably around the time I started this blog, but I have yet to list a product. This is due to a laundry list of reasons that I am determined to resolve now.

vintage fabric waiting to be sewn..

One being my busted sewing machine. It's not really broken, it's just in a state of unbalanced tension that I apparently can't fix myself. Believe me, I've tried everything. That's first on the list to get remedied now that I've found some places I can take it to. Another reason was time, which I have more of now that I'm on a set path and about halfway done my Master's.

That's one of my two main frustrations right now. I have time. I just don't know what to do with it. June was crazy with my super compacted summer class but then I was released into the rest of summer and had no idea what to do with myself. Thus the reason that blogging has been so scarce. I've just been so stuck. I have so many ideas but something always stops me from putting them into motion. I want to sew but my sewing machine is apparently going through something personal right now. I want to get back into fabric printing and have all the necessary supplies, but not the facilities. I feel like I just always need one more thing which is why nothing gets started.

sad sewing machine collecting dust..

My second frustration, which pushed me to this new found determination is trying to find a job. I could go on for days about how infuriating this whole process has been but I'll keep it short and just say this.. The fact that everything is online now SUCKS. It's impersonal and impossible. Everyone ignores you, no one feels the need to get back to you, and everyone wants a million years of experience, but no one is willing to give any out. There is no way to stand out and no way to know if your resume has even been looked at. I'm frustrated, fed up, and tired. So tired of searching, and emailing, and writing a brand new bang up cover letter each time just to get NO response whatsoever. /rant

yarn waiting to be crocheted..

To sum it all up, I'm actively seeking ways to start this up now. I'm taking my sewing machine for repairs in the upcoming week and inquiring about local facilities where I can screen print. I need to do something for money and for me and I'm hoping things can just work out for once.

Speaking of printmaking facilities though, if anyone knows about places in the Philadelphia or Bucks County area where you can screen print on your own, any info would be greatly appreciated.

If you've made it this far, thanks for listening to me rant and just get some things out of my head. I needed to. And hopefully some good and crafty things will come from it! :) Have a great weekend!

done and done

Last night was my last class for the six week summer semester. I did a quick count and figured out I wrote a whopping 25 papers for that class. That's around four a week. Crazy! I've never done anything like it. But you know what? I didn't mind it. I learned so much from that class and I kept telling myself "it's only 6 weeks and then it's done." And it is. And I am so happy. I finally have some time to myself. So you know what the first thing I did was? I'll give you a hint.


Time to dye my hair! This blog isn't the only thing that got neglected. My poor hair had about two inches of gnarly roots and *gulp* some silver strands. :( I think this year has just taken a toll on me. So much stress and anxiety. But everything has been progressively getting better and things are lookin up! So three boxes of bleach later and I'm halfway done my hair. This is where I'm at now. Don't laugh. It's a bit of a gradient at the moment.


The bottom is still wet so it looks darker than it is, which is probably a dark strawberry blonde. the top is pretty much white and there's streaks of orange here, there, and everywhere. If you recall back to this post on my ever changing hair color, my next step is to go that sort of natural orangey-red. I've done just about everything else. Check it.

Here's the back view. I have the linen closet door open which has a mirror on it so I can see the back of my head. That's how I color my hair myself.

Not far from the color I'm going for to begin with. I just wanted to lighten it up from the dark brown before doing the red. The bleach I used is Manic Panic Flash Lightning. It's the only kind I've ever used and it works really well. I left it on for a little under an hour and it got this light. I used three boxes which was perfect for my length. I remembered that when my hair was only shoulder length, it took two boxes to cover it. I would've gotten more than three this time but that's all they had in the store. Thankfully, it was just enough.

Obviously your roots will get a lot lighter than the ends so you want to make sure you leave it on long enough to lighten the ends as much as you need. But I wouldn't leave it on for more than the recommended time. That is if you could even make it that long because after a while it tends to feel like a bag of fire ants on your head. :)

I'll probably let this finish drying and then finish up with the dye. Hoping for the best since I've never tried this color before! Is it weird that I almost want to leave it like this? I have such an urge to grab my pinks and blues that are hiding in the back of my hair-things drawer. Someone stop me! Since I'm going to become a teacher and need a "respectable" hair color, I have this thought that I might do something crazy to my hair during the summers just to get it out of my system. :) Who knows.

memorial day eats

I think it was Sunday night after returning from Miami that I decided I wanted to make all the sides for our Memorial Day BBQ. I knew my parents were grilling steaks so I started going through my bookmarks and foodgawker favorites and came up with four winners. I decided on..

Pasta Salad with Homemade Italian Dressing
Baked Beans
Salsa Verde
Grilled Prosciutto Wrapped Asparagus

Sadly, only three of these were made because the asparagus I bought was no bueno. I guess I was so concerned with how many were in the bunch, I didn't notice there was something very wrong with them. I grabbed a bunch, flipped it to count the bottoms since that was easier, and went on my way. When I took them out at home to get them ready, I realized the tips were all slimy and smelled like fish. :C Do you see that face back there? That is the biggest sad face EVER. I love asparagus and am infatuated with prosciutto so I was probably most excited about this dish. Oh well, another time. I was not about to fight my way through the supermarket again just to score some non-creepy asparagus.

Things that worked out just lovely however..

..the salsa verde. I had it at the only Mexican restaurant I like and Charlie loves the stuff so I thought it was a good opportunity to try it. Note: I added about half a cucumber to the original recipe because the one we had at the restaurant tasted like it had some cuke in it. Delish.

The pasta salad was also a hit. Here is the pasta mixed with the homemade dressing..


..and here is the plate of accoutrements I had on the side because I'm the only who would eat all of this. My mom would've picked out the mushrooms, my dad would've chucked the peppers, my brother would get rid of the olives, and Charlie would ditch the olives and tomatoes. So this seemed like the most reasonable option. I also had pieces of fresh mozzarella to add but they were still in the fridge at this point.


The baked beans recipe is my new favorite. Everyone agreed that they taste just like the ones in the can. Why make them yourself then? Well, because now you know exactly whats in them and it's probably healthier that way. Also, it is incredibly easy.


Add a cold, summery beer to wash it all down..

..and you're good to go.

We capped off the night with some water ice and a rousing game of iPad Scrabble in the yard by candlelight.

Sorry if you can't make that out. I didn't have my tripod outside so long exposures weren't in the cards. I still like it though. :)

Perfect kickoff to summer. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Hope your start to summer was great too!