Kiki's Krazy World

Some Writing on a Wednesday

2012-02-01T21:45:00.000-08:00

Since I learned how to read at age 4, I have loved books. I've probably read almost every young adult book in that section of the library and I've read a lot of the children's chapter books and such too. Huge reader. I don't get to read as much now unfortunately, because life gets busy, but I have a lot of books on my ipod touch so whenever I get the chance, I'm most definitely reading something. That love of reading carried on and I developed a love of writing. For a while I wanted to be an author or an editor for a publishing company and that's why I was an English major. Then I realized that I loved fashion a lot more and that it would be a better path for me than English.

However, I still love to write (hence the blog) and I write little snippets of fiction and non-fiction that no one sees and are in word documents. I came across this piece of flash fiction that I wrote back in junior year of high school in Honors English. So I'm going to go out on a limb and share it on here...hope you like it and even if you don't, I was in high school....enough said. ;)

Today

He’s holding a rifle in his hands,this strange man. I thought I knew him, but I don’t, not anymore. He’smad because I didn’t take the eggs from the chicken coop like he asked me to. ButI didn’t want to and now he’s gone crazy. This happens to him a lot, with hisanger on fire; he can never control it. I’m running behind the barn as hecomes looking for me. I’m breathing hard but at the same time I’m not breathing atall.

“Come out, boy!” he snarls in hisgruff voice. “Come out where I can see you. Don’tbe a chicken.” He growls at the air around him, hoping I’m somewhere in it. Thisisn’t the same man I knew yesterday.Yesterday, when I came home from school andhe pulled me into a huge bear hug. Yesterday, when we would play in mudpuddles after the fresh rain had fallen. Yesterday, when he’d carry me on hisshoulders up high and carry me around the house like a cowboy on his horse.

But yesterday’s gone because todayhe is a different man.Today he punches me in the face if I’m late leaving forschool. Today he swears at me and says he wishes he’d never had ason like me.Today, he’s holding a rifle ready to kill me. I’mso young, but today I’m old. I can hear his footsteps coming closer and closer. Isneak around to the other side of the barn and run inside. Thechickens are in here, clucking away as they see me. Don’tthey know what’s going on?Chickens need to learn how to be quiet sometimes. SuddenlyI hear the gigantic barn door slam, and I realize I forgot to close it. Iturn around.

“Gotcha,” he says grinning. Yesterday,I was eating pancakes for breakfast; today, the last thing I see is his glaringface as I hear the shot fire and everything goes black.

What a Great Day

2012-01-31T23:09:00.000-08:00

Today was such a good day. It was such a good one that I just can't not blog about it. This will be a short post because I have to go to bed, but here's how the day went.

Woke up at 7:23 AM and had to leave for work by 7:35. Yes I did it! I threw on a hoodie, put my hair in a ponytail, had minimal amounts of makeup on, and then flew out that door. Made it to work on time.

Came home after work and really got ready. I showered, put on a cute outfit, and curled my hair. I haven't curled my hair in so long it feels like! I loved it!

Went to Marriage Prep class which I have with my great friend Emily. We talked about everything like always and then walked home together and it was just fun. Love that girl!

Met up with my friend Lauren at Starbucks for hot chocoate. I haven't seen her in a while, but she's one of my best friends so it just made my day to see her. It was full of smiles and laughter which is always happy. :)

Went to class. Boy mentioned in this post talked to me and struck up a conversation. :) :) :) We did measurements on each other and I left early because I was going to do my visiting teaching. I want to skip and run all the way home. I didn't, but I was smiling pretty big. Also I had 4 texts all from different awesome people when I got out of class (there's no service where class is) and it was happy.

Went with Olivia to visit teach Shannon, who is awesome. She's so cool! I always feel good leaving people who I've just loved being around.

Smiled some more about the boy. :) Had lasagna for dinner, did some homework and watched Glee. And now I'm going to go to bed.

Good day. :)

TV Tuesday: Once Upon A Time

2012-01-31T14:56:00.000-08:00

I think for a while...until I run out of stuff to talk about, on Tuesdays I'll be writing about my favorite tv shows/movies that I am currently watching. It's a good outlet for me because let's face it, when you watch television, you want to talk about it with people! So I'm talking about it to my blog peeps ;) Hope that's alright with you.

Today I'll be talking about my current favorite tv show, Once Upon a Time. Have you heard of this show? Are you watching this show? The answer should be a resounding YES to both of those, but if it's not, I'll help you out. Once Upon a Time is about all of our favorite fairy tale characters, Snow White, Prince Charming, the evil queen, Rumplestiltskin, Jiminy Cricket, Hansel and Gretel, etc. At Snow White and Prince Charming's wedding, the queen puts an evil curse on everyone that will send them all to an evil place, none of them will remember who they were before, and time won't move. However, Snow White and the Prince have a daugther soon after their marriage and just before the curse hits, she gets away. They are all sent to a town on earth called Storybrooke and their daughter, Emma has to come rescue them and stop the curse.

I like this show because it goes back and forth between fairytale and current times. You get to find out everyone's back story and how they came to be the character that they are. It's also really cool because a lot of curses and magic happens in the fairytale world and it continues into Storybrooke. There are a lot of interesting twists that happen and you come to fall in love with the characters very quickly, although the greatest thing about this is that we've already loved the characters before from beloved Disney movies and fairytale stories.

The biggest demographic for this show is women 18-24 (of course..princesses anyone?) but my family watches it and loves it so I think it's a great show for all ages. Also the best part about it is that it's clean. Some parts are a bit dark but every story has a villain, right? You should at least go watch the first episode on Hulu and see what you think. I got hooked from the first episode and I bet you will too! They're only in 11 episodes so far so you have plenty of time to catch up. It plays on Sunday nights at 8. Go watch it! You won't be disappointed. :)

Guess What?!

2012-01-30T21:33:00.000-08:00

Remember that one time when I sprained my wrist? :(

Well...it's healed! Mostly. I took off the wrap on Thursday and my wrist feels almost completely better. It still hurts a little if I bend it too far back or if I do something weird with it, but for the most part it's doing great. Hallelujah! I kept forgetting to mention it in a post, but I guess since I've never had a sprain or a broken bone or anything this deserved it's own post. :)

Life This Past Month

2012-01-30T15:26:00.000-08:00

I haven't been blogging week by week just because it hasn't been super exciting every week (though I would still like to do that in the future) but here are some highlights from the month.

It's been like a yearlong project from 2011 to decorate my room at home. It's not the same room I had when I was living at home and after all the switching around, everyone else's rooms looked pretty cute but mine was the guest room so it was kinda plain. One day when I was changing my bedspread (the one two pictures below) I liked how it matched the room and it inspired me to decorate the room into something cuter. It has light green and tan walls, so not the ideal colors I would have picked but I could work with them. It took me all year to do it because I'm poor and I only go home so much. But throughout the year I'd find things to decorate it with and I brought my barbies home to put up in the room as well. Over Christmas break I put up a lot of stuff and it is pretty finished now, although I'd like to put a mirror and a clock in it as well.

I didn't take any "before pictures" but here are some photos kind of from how it looked before:

And then after (the bed in the first picture isn't in the room anymore)!:

It supposed to be sort of a fashion/ballet/barbie/girly themed room. I like it :) Oh and the quote above the window says, "A girl should be two things--classy and fabulous." -Coco Chanel.

I've spent bunches of time with my roommates this month as well. We watched Katie run in the home cross-country meet and cheered her on to the finish line.

I was on a date the night they did this, but Kelsey, Katie, and Heidi made these cute hats. I think this picture is pretty great haha.

We went to a birthday party for our wonderful friend, Brooke (back row with the blue shirt and white cardigan). Brooke is from our same hometown, was in our ward last year, and is rooming with our old roommate Katherine (on the far right, brown hair with gray button-up) so we see her a lot and love her tons!

Order (top to bottom, left to right): Heidi, Brooke, Kelsey, Katherine, me, Talya

My wonderfully awesome parents got me a tripod for Christmas so I've been going out a few times a week again to take pictures at fun places like deserted railroad tracks and stuff like that.

I hang out weekly with my friends Sarah, Lauren, and Alyne, and two weeks ago we had a nail-painting party. I didn't paint my nails but I did feel like organizing them by color!

My brother Cee Ryle has gymnastics meets starting up again. A lot of them are usually more south here in Utah county so I can meet my family and watch him, it's pretty fun! This meet was last week in Springville and he got two ribbons and a silver medal, which is awesome! I love my brother, he's getting to look so old.

I went to a men's volleyball friends with Cara and Kristy (in the middle), some of my work friends. Super fun! We left the game a little early because I had to write a talk that night and we were tired of standing but it was good to get together. We always talk a ton at work and stuff but it's exciting when we can go hang out and not have to worry about getting in trouble for talking. ;)

Work has been....crazy. To say the least. Read about it here. My old boss got laid off, and the way I found out was from one of my coworkers texting me and I didn't even get to say goodbye. Really sad. :( It was weird going to work last Monday realizing I had no boss. It's turned out pretty well though, because the men's department supervisor is now ours as well. We already knew him before and he's really nice and a good boss, so it's working out nicely, thank goodness! It was an interesting adjustment though. We've been getting rid of a lot of stuff and trying to get ready for inventory. And when I have time, my favorite thing to do at work is chalk signs. I take pictures in case I ever need them for a portfolio one day..

Just on Saturday I got to go to Sundance film festival with my old roommate Chelsey, our friend Shirley from our freshman ward, and Chelsey's friend Whitney. It was super fun! Unfortunately, it was the second to last day so a lot of the Sundance stuff in Park City had closed down. We saw two films, Wuthering Heights and Price Check, in SLC, and they were definitely interesting. Maybe if I wasn't Mormon I'd like them more, but there was a lot of swearing in the movies so it wasn't ideal. Still fun though. I only got like one picture from the whole thing though..slacking!

So that has been the month of January! A crazy month with lots of exciting stuff. School is keeping me busy as well. My favorite class is probably Intermediate Sewing but I love my other ones too--Marriage Prep, Clothing History, and Statistics. It's off to class now so have a beautiful rest of your Monday everyone!

Tired on Monday

2012-01-30T12:18:00.000-08:00

As I write this right now, my eyes are droopy, even though it's the middle of the day! I suppose I need to get more sleep. Funny though, the reason I went to bed kinda late is because my roommates and I were indexing last night for the competition in our ward. I never thought I'd be staying up late just to index. ;)

Also another thing my roommates and I were randomly doing last night is the Color Code test. Have you taken it? Well I took it and found out I'm 37% white, with blue in 2nd place, then yellow, then red. If you want to take it or want to have some idea of what I'm talking about go here and you can take it for free. This is what it says about me:

Whites are motivated by Peace. They seek independence and require kindness. They resist confrontation at all costs. To them, feeling good is more important than being good. They are typically quiet by nature, process things very deeply and objectively with great clarity. Of all the colors, whites are the best listeners. They respect people who are direct but recoil from perceived hostility or verbal battle.

I definitely agree that this is me. It's obviously not all of me, but it's the most dominant. I also have some blue in me which means I like connecting to people and yellow which means I like to have carefree fun. I probably have tiny smidgen of red but I'm not a dominant person or power driven at all! It's not a bad thing, it's just not me. Anyways, you should take the test and tell me what color you are!

P.S. I wrote nothing about fashion in this post but I should mention that I love my white coat my mom got me for Christmas and also my boots I got from DI. I think they're fishing boots and possibly men's shoes, but they keep out any water and I like how they look. :)

Ok naptime, here I come.

Giddy-ness

2012-01-26T23:58:00.000-08:00

I love how sometimes the little things just make life so much happier. I've had a pretty normal week but it upped the scale a ton from things like...

-an announcement that Carrie Underwood is coming out with her new single, "Good Girl" on February 23rd! Eeee! I can't wait to hear it! The title sounds good, I wonder what the song will be about? Here's the picture for the single:

She looks gorgeous of course, but it's a little scandalous, no? Not very "good girl-esque"..

-I got a Barbie catalog in the mail today and it just made me so happy! Barbies are just as important to fashion as any couture designer and I love poring over the pictures and admiring the beautiful Barbie clothes. One of these days when I find time, I want to make more barbie clothes but design really pretty ones, kind of like the couture Barbie clothes. But unfortunately, the main ingredient to all of that is time, something I have very little of. :(

-I finally ordered this book on Amazon. I've wanted it for like a year ever since Jessica Quirk recommended it for anyone wanting to do fashion design. They apparently have it at the BYU library, but it turns out the book is lost and has been for about 4 months because that's when I requested it. I was just illustrating some clothes in my sketchbook and looking up some fashion illustration stuff online and decided that I really wanted to learn some good skills, and what better way from a Fashion Design textbook? It was like $50, but I think it will be well worth the $$.

-(This is quickly becoming a fashion obsessed post, but obviously that stuff makes me happy!) Fashionary. I'm so ordering one of these when I get money! It has everything you need for fashion design/illustration. Yes, please, and thank you! It really is pretty cool..I'd go look at the website if I were you.

-And..there's this boy. Before I tell the story, there's this blog called the Anti-Austen about a few girls in Provo who blog about their love life, just changing their own names and the names of the boys that are occupying their lives. So I want to be like them and just spill about my "love life" right now. I can't change my name obviously, but for the purpose of privacy, all other names have been changed.

So once again, there's this boy...who probably doesn't even know I exist. But I'm so smitten by him. We'll call him Nick (not his real name, his real name is just a great name, I wish I could tell it to you!) and he happens to be in one of my classes (not saying which one) and I think he is so cute and he dresses really well too. He is obviously interested in fashion but in the very attractive way (meaning he's not gay at all). Unfortunately, we now have assigned seats so it's going to be very difficult to talk to him, but today I was able to compliment him and once we saw each other across the room and smiled. :) I know, I know, I'm getting my hopes up a little too much. Nothing may come of this, but like I said, I'm smitten. I just want him to get my number and ask me on a date! And guys, here's the thing about me, is that I'm not bad at flirting and getting a guy to ask for my number when I don't care, but when I like the guy, I act ridiculous and get nervous around him. Problem. What do I do? Advice, people, advice!

-I'm going to Sundance Film Festival on Saturday! Can't wait, I hope I see some celebs (maybe even Taylor Swift, because I know she's been there...that would be SO cool).

-Also, I've just been loving this song currently:

There have been a few other songs that I keep playing on repeat lately, maybe I'll do a post to share my current favorite playlist. :)

Anyways, those are the little things that make me happy...what about you? We all love our own little things, so what makes you giddy with happiness?

Color Block

2012-01-23T19:48:00.000-08:00

Do you like the new layout? And the cool thing I did with that picture above? Yessiree I like it too. :)

Today has been a dizzy day, mostly because I've been sick. It took a lot of strength to get me to go to class and work today, but I'm glad I did. Then I came home and took a nap. It was nice. Honestly, I get sick ALL the time, and it's probably because I don't eat healthy enough or get enough sleep. Either way, it stinks! I'm kind of used to it, but that doesn't make it much more bearable every time I'm sick. Hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow. Tell me: what do you people who never get sick do that makes you so immune? Share your knowledge!

I really do want to write more and I will probably tomorrow but right now I can barely think so I'm gonna sign off and go to bed. Hope that's okay...have a great night!

P.S. Something I will be discussing at a later time, but is anyone watching the series Once Upon a Time? AH! It's soooo good! Man I'm hooked and you should be too! Go watch the first episode on hulu and become addicted to my new favorite show. :)

Beautiful Day

2012-01-22T20:34:00.000-08:00

Today I felt beautiful. Maybe it was my cute outfit, with my purple tights and simple black heels.
Possibly it was the fact that I loved my hair.
Maybe it was because I gave a talk today and after that I just felt giddy with confidence.
Or that I did a whole lot of nothing today and gave myself a "me" day.
It could have been because I watched a Barbie movie about dancing and traveled around my apartment dancing ballet just like I always used to do.

Somehow, the fact that I'm sick and that there's now snow outside doesn't change the fact that I feel happy.

It was one of those days that I just wished it could go a little longer, that I could stay in my outfit forever and feel like a princess always. Don't you just love these kind of days? They're a little bit of magic on earth :)

Post-Christmas 2011

2012-01-12T11:37:00.000-08:00

The week afterChristmas was a fun and exciting one. I spent every day with my family and hadsuch a blast being able to spend time with the people I love the most.

Gracie took a fewnaps (with her hard pink nutcracker…not the most comfortable sleepingcompanion) and it was just too cute not to take a picture.

We went to templesquare on the 26^th for family home evening to look at the lights andwalk around. It was super busy and cold but it was temple square so it was fun.

Tuesday morning Iwent to “Waffle Wednesday” with my friends Jackie, Merry, and Tiffany. We usedto do it in high school on an actual Wednesday, but Tuesday was the day thatworked for everyone that week so that’s why we did it then. Right after that asI was walking outside to my car, I slipped on ice and tried to catch myself,but my wrist bent back too far and that’s how I sprained it.

Later on Tuesday Iwent with my mom and sisters to the mall to return some stuff (Carina had someshoes to return and it took foreverto find some she liked) and entered to win this awesome cardboard cutout ofDavid Archuleta (he’s going on a mission!!!), though I don’t think we won,sadly. And then that night we celebrated Gracie’s birthday.

Wednesday we wentto the zoo. I guess in the wintertime Hogle Zoo does this thing where the lastWednesday of every month is free. Since it was the break with no school, wetook advantage of it and went, along with Zildy and her family (Jonas had towork so he couldn’t come).

This is a really awkward picture but it's of all the kids so I put it in

Carina and I did some "grabbing" pictures...

And of course took pictures by the gorilla shadow thing.

Bahahaha.

After the zoo weheaded down to Park City to go shopping and such. I got some good deals, like abunch of headbands for $1 each at Claire’s and a few cute shirts. Park City isone of my favorite places to go, because one, there’s lots of shopping, andalso just because it’s a cool place to go. Utah’s always know for all theMormon stuff, which is fine, but when I go to Park City, Utah is all about thesnow and it’s just a nice change.

Thursday and Friday weren't anything too exciting, they were spent mostly at home being bored and just relaxing. I watched a lot of Friends episodes :)

Happy 5th Birthday Gracie!

2012-01-10T08:08:00.000-08:00

Gracie’s birthdayis on December 27^th and she turned 5 this year! It’s hard, and alittle sad, that she’s already getting so big. She was definitely a late comerin our family, but she’s the biggest blessing ever and I can’t imagine my lifewithout her little happy self.

For her birthdaythis year, she desperately wanted to go to Boondocks, which is like a nicearcade place near our house, also with laser tag, bowling, and some outsideactivities. You get a free pass on your birthday, so she got that and had somuch fun playing all the games and going on the playground. She thought lasertag would be too scary so she didn’t do that one. Unfortunately, that was theday I sprained my wrist and it was hurting a ton, so my dad was nice enough totake me to Urgent Care that night to figure out what was wrong with it. Soneither of us got to do a huge amount of stuff but we had fun being there andplaying a few games with everyone. I even ran into my friend Lindsay and herfamily which was awesome.

Haha these pictures are really weird but they turned out funny.

It was a fun dayand we all loved it because we love the cutie patootie (that’s what I call herha). Love you lots Gracie and happy 5^th birthday!!!

Christmas Day 2011

2012-01-10T07:43:00.000-08:00

This year,Christmas was on Sunday, which made for a different turn of events. We hadchurch at 9 am, so there was really just no possible way we’d be able to get upearly enough (we were already lacking on sleep) to see what Santa brought usand actually enjoy it and then get ready for church all before 9. So “Santa”conveniently brought us our presents in Christmas bags so that we wouldn’t seewhat was inside until after church. We went to church that morning and my mom,dad, Cee Ryle, and Carina sang in the choir while Sidney, Gracie, and Ilistened and watched the program (and also doodled, because it’s so hard for meto pay attention without doodling), which was really nice, because they’d havea mini speaking part in between each of the choir’s songs.

Church was onlysacrament meeting so after that we went home, put our pajamas back on and gotto see what Santa brought us.

And what did yourstruly get? A serger (and a Tiana barbie and makeup)!!! This is probably thebest present ever after my sewing machine I got last year. Now I can finish allmy edges neatly and do a lot of my extra sewing at home for my class. I’vereally been wanting and needing a serger for a while so it was an excitingthing to get one.

I love Gracie! Shewas definitely the most excited for her present—every time she saw somethingshe loved, she’d give a high pitched scream. She got a pink nutcracker and abunch of Littlest Pet Shop stuff. Cee Ryle got a nook, Sidney got a new flute, Carinagot a movie popcorn making machine, and my parents got tablets. Everyone lovedtheir Santa gifts.

After that we wentdownstairs and opened family presents: from each other, from our parents, andfrom our grandparents in Wyoming. It’s become a tradition for the longest timefor my mom to replace our names on the gifts with made up names. When we werelittle it was mainly so that we wouldn’t peek at our gifts but now she does itbecause we like it and to maintain the tradition. The names this year wereDumbledore’s Army names in Harry Potter, like Luna Lovegood, Ernie MacMillan,Neville Longbottom, Dean Thomas, etc. I was Hannah Abbott (my mom just pickedthe names by random). Some fun presents I got during that were two new barbies,a fashionista one and a collector’s one called the Rose Splendor barbie, somecute brown boots, lots of clothes, a super cute pink and purple sewing box, anda few other random stuff. I loved all my gifts, they were wonderful!

At around 3ish wewent to Zildy and Jonas’s house to enjoy some Shrimp Etouffee, which is whatthey make every year. Jonas is from Louisiana and he makes the best cajun food! I love his gumbo too.

Every year we grandkidsthrow on a Christmas program for everyone. Usually we try to plan it out alittle more but this time we just kind of threw it together the day of. Itstill turned out great though, we had some talents from everyone and we showedthe premiere of our video (which everyone loved btw).

Then after that wehad our usual white elephant exchanges. We did one for just the grandkids thatwas a candy exchange (last year we did gifts but then some kids were crying becausethey didn’t get what they wanted, so we figured candy was a hard one not toplease) using this story. Then the older kids and adults got to participate inthe actual white elephant exchange. I ended up with a huge red filing thinghaha.

By the end of thenight we were all tired and then we drove home, our hearts happily filled froma wonderful, merry Christmas. J

(Marriage) Stuff

2012-01-09T21:33:00.000-08:00

There are two types of girls out there...one group wants to get married, and the other group is lying. I heard that quote a while ago and just smile to think how true it is.

Recently, I've become obsessed with the show Friends. I'm sure you've heard of it--the main characters are Rachel, Ross, Monica, Phoebe, Chandler, and Joey. Well today I just finished the episode where Chandler proposes to Monica after they've been dating for a long time. Their relationship was by no means perfect. They had a bunch of fights and they have so many differences that they have to work out. But the point is that they do work it out. That's what relationships are, that's what love it. It's not perfect, but it's a progression to a better both of you. And it's happy. It's not supposed to be a game or something that hurts us all the time.

Anyways, when Chandler was proposing to Monica, it made me cry, because I'm a girl, and because it was so cute. This is what he said (watch here):

"I thought it mattered what I said and where I said it. Then I realized that the only thing that matters is that you...you make me happier than I ever thought I could be. And if you let me, I will spend the rest of my life trying to make you feel the same way."

Lately, or maybe for just my whole life, I have really bad luck with boys. I find another one I like, make the mistake of getting my hopes up, and then get my heart broken again. Time and time again. Watching that though, let me realize that what I go through with these boys is not love. When it is love, when it's the right guy at the right time, it's going to work out. It's not going to be perfect and we're going to have a lot of differences and probably fight a lot. But that guy will also treat me like a princess and treat me the way I deserve to be treated.

All I have to say is that I cannot wait when that guy I love so much, kneels down and shows me a ring. I'll probably cry and I'll probably say yes. And at that moment, I'll realize and be so entirely grateful that it didn't work out with anyone else. :)

via

(Until then? Well I'll probably keep getting my heart broken and I'll keep trying to be the best me I can be. And keeping a lookout for the right one of course! ...jk ;))

Christmas Eve 2011

2012-01-07T22:34:00.000-08:00

This year Christmas was just spent at my house, with my family and also our close by relatives--my grandparents and my aunt and uncle, Zildy and Jonas, and their kids (all on my mom's side). It was really weird because it didn't feel a ton like Christmas this year! For one thing, there was no snow, and in Utah that is just unheard of around Christmas-time. Also, we didn't have an out of state relatives visiting us, which also felt weird, because for the past two years we've had extra relatives with us on Christmas. Since all the family that we celebrated with live close, we see them for Sunday dinner every other week anyways, so it almost just felt like another Sunday dinner. But we managed to make it special in our own little ways.

Every year at Christmas-time, my family makes these things from Guatemala called Paches. They are made with potatoes, soggy bread, some sauce that my grandma always makes, masa, and either chicken or pork. They take a very long process but are pretty inexpensive to make. So instead of having a turkey or a roast for Christmas like other families, we do this because it is more special, as my mom and her family are from Guatemala, and more humble, because it's a cheap food. My mom decided to make the dinner a little more special this year as well by putting everything in baskets and serving simple foods like nuts and grapes, so that it felt a little more like Bethlehem. Then we lit candles and turned off the lights. We've never done it that way before, but it was a cool thing to do and I think it made the situation more spiritual and more humble (and I think the kids were better behaved believe it or not!).

We always have fun just spending time with each other. This is my brother reading to some of the cousins. The littlest one, Tayevion (sitting right next to Cee Ryle who is in the green shirt), just adores Cee Ryle, so this picture is just pretty cute.

Most of the group, only missing my parents

As we were sitting waiting to read the nativity story and open presents, I was sitting by Tayevion and said, "Hey let's take a picture!" So this is what he did:

Haha I'd meant for us to take a picture together, but he absolutely loves to break dance and pull out new moves so he thought I wanted to take a picture of him doing that. This one of him, me, and his sister Jasmine was a little more successful:

We do a present exchange with everyone on my mom's side of the family, so that you draw someone's name and get them a present. It's a lot easier than having to get a present for every single person in every single family, and I think it means more too because you can put more thought into the presents. So on Christmas eve, we opened those, as well as presents from our grandparents and our pajama presents.

The two little girls had a blast jumping on the bubble wrap that came with one of the presents haha

And of course we took family pictures by the fireplace. I wouldn't say they were all completely successful though....

Sometimes, my grandparents like to do wacky poses like this one...

...and this one :P

Aren't the new pajama pants we go so cute?! Turquoise cheetah print (I may or may not have been with my mom when she was picking them out and strongly suggested these), I love them!

Sibs :D

And then we went to bed, ready for Santa to come in the night...

Goals that I will KEEP for 2012

2012-01-04T12:15:00.000-08:00

So in my family, we got together and made goals for the new year. I feel like I always make goals and then never do anything about them because they are just in my head or I'm not really committed to them. But doing it with my family helps me to stick to my resolutions more so maybe it'll work. We have 5 goals to make, each in a different type of category--physical, spiritual, service, mental, and family. Since I live away from home, I decided to change my family goal to a social goal, because that's more applicable to me right now. And now a drumroll for my goals for 2012:

Physical: Eat at least 1 fruit every day and have something for breakfast every morning. This must seem like such a simple goal to some people but one thing that I really need to work on is eating healthy. I work in the mornings so often times I skip breakfast so I'm going to try really hard to just have something, even if it's on the go, like a granola bar. And I am really bad at having my fruits and vegetables and usually don't have any. So for a start, it's just one fruit, and eventually I'll move it up to more. Slow and steady. Oh, and you're probably wondering why I didn't put fruit or vegetable as the goal, but one thing about me is that I hate vegetables. They all taste gross to me and make me gag. So for now I'll just work on eating the fruit and maybe next year's goal will incorporate vegetables into my diet. ;)

Spiritual: Read one chapter in the scriptures every day. This is also kind of a simple goal but something I need to work on. Sometimes I feel too tired and I only read a few verses and don't even remember what I've read or I make excuses, so I really want to work on reading a chapter and fully reading it by studying and marking stuff that I read.

Service: Join a service club/group at BYU. This one's pretty self-explanatory, I'd say.

Mental/Intellectual: Turn in all my assignments on time and only miss each of my classes one time. I am the queen of procrastination and I have gotten into a bad habit thinking it's okay to skip class. Therefore a goal must be made in this area.

Social: Put myself out there at least one time every day. As a college student, I think too often I get caught up in my own little world and I really don't make an effort to try to talk to people or just be more open with friends. And for some reason it makes me kind of anxious to strike up a conversation with a stranger or something and so I never do it. This is something I need huge work on, I think. Some examples of this goal would be like talking to the person in the elevator, making a conversation with someone I don't usually talk to in one of my classes, flirting with a cute boy, or going over to a friend's apartment and just visiting with them. Stuff like that. This will be a hard one for me, but that's why it's a goal, right?

A few other goals I've made:

Blog at least three times a week.

Go to the temple once a month. I really should go more than this but I struggle making time to go at all, so this goal is a little small, but achievable for me.

Only one new clothing/accessory item each month. One thing about me is that I spend my money a lot and it's usually on clothes. My closet is bulging with clothing! And often times when I buy things I don't really need it, I just think it's cute. This buying thing also includes thrift stores. The exceptions are that people can buy things for me (like I can have clothes as a birthday present) or I can buy something if I really need it (like if I'm a bridesmaid and I need certain shoes to go with the dress or if I need something like new tennis shoes). This will get me to really think about my shopping when I'm doing so I can think, "Is this the item I want to spend on for this month?" I'll buy a lot less with a limit. Also in the rules are that if I don't buy an item that month, then I can't have an extra for the next month. And the item must be $20. I don't want to suddenly be buying a $100 dress because I haven't spent the money anywhere else! This is going to make me a smarter shopper and also it will cause me to just sew something if I want more clothes. (I got the idea from Meredith, who didn't shop for herself at all during 2011--she talks about it here--haha I'm not as amazing as she is at, I had to reward myself!)

So yep yep, those are my goals for the year of 2012! Writing them down is the first step so hopefully now I'll be able to keep them. :D Everyone's saying that 2012 is going to be a magical and wonderful year and you know what, I think that's true! Bring on the new and best year my life will have ever seen!

Pssst...what are your goals, if you made any? And if you didn't make any, why didn't you? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Pre-Christmas 2011

2012-01-01T23:07:00.000-08:00

I got a little behind on posting what when on last week because of all the craziness of Christmas! It's kind of late tonight but I figured I better do a post. So this is documenting the week before Christmas, the 19-23.

Monday, December 19: I went to work from 7:45-2 and then I went home and chilled and sewed some barbie clothes. Thankfully my roommate Heidi was there all 3 days that I worked so I didn't feel scared or like an insane person all alone haha. We went over to a guy named Ben's apartment in our ward that night for our own little "Family Home Evening." It was just me, Heidi, Ben, and then two other people in our ward named Stephanie and Parker. Heidi left a little early to go with a friend to see the lights at the Riverwoods. Anyways, every year, Ben makes an awesome gingerbread house and so that's what we worked on that whole night. He'd baked the gingerbread the day before and then spent Monday just putting it together. It was soooo fun and way cool! I took a ton of pictures but here are just a few. We put it on a huge square of wood and then made icing with powdered sugar and sutff and Ben had other little things to stick on there. We made a river and waterfall by melting sugar (kind of like a rocky candy type thing) to a way high temperature and then pouring it onto the surface and watching it harden super fast. We did that for a few hours and it was a lot of fun :)

Tuesday, December 20: I went to work at the same time and then sewed a little more and chilled a little more. I could have gone to the men's basketball game that night but didn't really feel like it. Instead I just had some me time and stayed home watching episodes of Hannah Montana, packing for home, and sewing more. That night after the basketball game, Heidi got back from it and then a few other people in our ward came over and we watched Tarzan (I had it from Netflix--I know, random).

Wednesday, December 21: Work, same time. Then I got to go to my apartment to finish up packing and go home! YAY! It made me so happy to see my family, as I hadn't seen them in about over a month. I played with Gracie right away when I got home and we just had a blast. It's so cute because she loves having me home, and I promise I'm not trying to brag or anything when saying that. It just makes me happy because I love her a ton so when I'm back she wants to do everything with me and sit by me and have lots of fun. And without much convincing I got the idea into her head that she should move to college with me and be my roommate...haha oops! It was kind of sad to try to convince her out of that one.. Anyways, I just love that little girl to pieces. I'm dreading leaving her on Tuesday. I secretly wish she could be my roommate! The rest of the day was just spent at home relaxing and watching episodes of Friends (my sister has all 10 seasons and she got me addicted by lending me Season 1....needless to say, I'm on Season 4 now).

Thursday, December 22: I slept in super late and was lazy and got ready late. Yes, bad me for being lazy but it felt so amazing! For Christmas I was giving Gracie barbie clothes I made for her barbies so I decorated the little box that I got her and worked on organizing that. All of it turned out SO cute! I also might have gone shopping with my mom this day but I can't remember. It wasn't a super eventful day though.

I'll show more barbie fashion and some of the clothes I made in a later post :)

Friday, December 23: This day my siblings and I planned to go to SLC to shoot a Christmas music video. We had a lot of fun. We filmed in the Salt Palace, Temple Square, the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, and the state Capitol building. By the end we were pretty tired and glad to be done.We got home and just spent the rest of the night with our family having dinner and I think we watched a movie, though I can't remember. (Oh and we got some planking pictures in the Salt Palace haha, escalator planking!!)

And here is the video! Hopefully tomorrow or one of these next days I'll be able to post about Christmas Eve, Christmas day, and all the rest of my break! There is much to tell, but for now enjoy!

Just A Little Sprain?

2011-12-27T23:00:00.000-08:00

This is what i get if I try to type normally with both hands right now:

Hi may a asf;kja kaileree

(an attempt to write, "Hi my name is Kailee")

Yep. I sprained my wrist so it's in a sprint and a sling. I slipped on some ice earlier and as I caught myself on the ground my wrist bent back too far. It still hurts pretty bad so I can't just move it around as I please. It hurts to type with both hands so i'm using the old pointer finger typing technique.

I was trying to change into my pajamas and it took forever so when i was done I started crying. Because it hurts, because I feel bad that my parents had to pay more at the doctor's so that we could go to Urgent Care tonight for something that wasn't broken, because everything is ten times harder to do, and because I feel so pathetic that I'm being so wussy about just a sprain.

But the thing is that all that stuff is legitimate, at least to me. Maybe a sprain is no big deal to someone else but for me it's a lot of pain. I'm glad that my parents love me enough to take me to the doctor sooner even if it means paying a little more. Because this isn't the funnest thing in the world and maybe one of my biggest concerns is how I am going to be able to try on clothes at the Park City outlet tomorrow with this big splint, but it's still a concern to me. And I know there are starving children in Africa that have things much worse than this. But I still think it's okay for me to cry about it and I'm gonna.

Also, it took me twenty minutes to write this little post and that is ridiculous. I will be soooo very grateful when my wrist heals. Never again will I take a wrist for granted. :/

P.S. Happy 5th birthday to my best friend and sister Gracie today! (don't worry I will blog more about this later)

Pinterest Friday: 12/16/11

2011-12-16T08:00:00.000-08:00

Man I love fashion. It can be so beautiful. Maybe this will sound cheesy, but sometimes I feel like so much can be said in a shoe, in a dress, an outfit, or a purse. Fashion might just be how people dress, but I feel like how people dress shows a lot of who they are. Just somethin to think about...have a great weekend. 9 days to Christmas :)

Finals Week Recap

2011-12-14T13:58:00.000-08:00

Wow it was a super busy week! Why? Because it was finals week! Talk about crazy. Usually I really love finals week because there are no classes so all your time can be devoted to studying and you can still have extra time to relax. But I was so excited for the week to be done. It was a busy week and I feel like I was studying so much. Thank goodness it's over, seriously. I had three finals and I think I did pretty well on them (though two had essays so I don't know the grade I got) and on my very last final I hadn't even studied for it that much and I got a 90%! Boo ya! ;)

Last Sunday was a lot of fun and I feel like I got to bond with my roommates a lot. We mostly just spent the day at home talking and such. We had a lot of clothes that all of us wanted to get rid of but we decided to have a clothing swap with it all and then get rid of it! It was fun, and we each walked away with a few cute things. Haha and we have yet to take the rest of the pile in our corner to DI.

After we had cleaned most of the clothes up

While we were going through the stuff, my roommate Olivia found this red hair semi-permanent dye stuff so we decided to all dye pieces of our hair that night. It was kind of crazy but a lot of fun. Unfortunately, mine didn't show up but everyone else's looked pretty cool. I'd have to bleach my hair if I ever wanted to really dye my hair I'd have to bleach it and I will never do that. Plus I love my hair anyways! (though some red in it would have looked sweet!)

haha I love this picture!

Never fear, I did not actually wear that dress to church or anything. I got it a while ago from DI with the intention to refashion it but it just didn't work out, so I put it on because I didn't care if it got dirty.

On Monday we still had FHE and made our semesterly "lucky testing center shirts." The only people in our group that showed up was our apartment, probably because everyone else was studying, but we did it anyways. We buy men's v-neck shirts from walmart (in a package) and then put tape on them for whatever design we want and then spray paint them in the campus parking lot across the street! We've left our mark on BYU because if you go look you can see spray paint marks in this one spot in the parking lot. I didn't get a picture of everyone's shirt, but here's mine:

Here's a picture from last year in winter semester when we started the tradition:

The rest of the week was spent at home doing whatever or studying (mostly studying, don't worry!). However, I did get to make some yummy treats , because I had to give myself some nice breaks somehow! On Monday I made a Peanut Butter cheeseball (both recipes came from pinterest of course) that was sooo good! You eat it with graham crackers or apples and you have to keep it in the freezer or it'll get too soft. It's very rich too so it's a nice thing to have when I'm craving something sweet because I'll just have a little and then feel like it's enough. The recipe is here if you want to make it! Pictures below taken by me. :)

On Wednesday I made some "reindeer" to give to my work friends for Christmas. They're nutter butters covered in chocolate with chocolate chips for eyes, a pretzel for the antlers, and a red hot for the nose. They were so cute and even more delicious! Man they need to come out with some chocolate covered Nutter Butters so that I can buy them all the time! Because they were yummy in my tummy. :) Recipe here, and once again, pictures by me.

Friday night I finished my last final and then watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 with some people in our ward (one of my friends had never seen it before! We changed that right away). I love that movie so much, I get emotional every time I watch. Huge Harry Potter fan right here...but you knew that :)

Saturday I was planning on going home, but due to some turn of events I stayed in Provo instead. I went to work from 10-2 and then went to the mall to hang out with my aunt Zildy while she face painted at the Princess Festival store (I did it for the last two weeks because she couldn't). I did some shopping and got a very warm hat from American Eagle because I had a $10 off card and also some cute boots from Rue 21. Then I left the mall and did some shopping for my friend who's on a mission--I was putting together a Christmas package for her--and then came home. All of my roommates were gone so it was just me, so I just watched some tv, sketched some designs, and pretty much had a me day. I could have gone out and been social but it felt nice to just be with myself all day. Heidi came home that night so then I didn't have to sleep in the apartment alone.

Sunday we went to church, where there were like 3 wards combined and there were probably only about 30 people there (and then a bunch left after sacrament so there were less). There were only like 8-10 people left in our apartment complex because everyone else had gone home for the break so we all decided to have dinner. One guy had a pre-made lasagna that he just had to heat, Heidi and I made delicious peanut butter truffle brownies, and there was also an assortment of drinks, garlic bread, spaghetti squash, and apples. Yum, it was very good and it was a lot of fun!

Then I sketched some more designs after that and watched the Grinch later that night with my friend Sergio. And that was my week! I'm still in Provo because I have to work but I get to go home Wednesday and can't wait! Christmas is in 6 DAYS!! EEE! Soooo excited :)

It's that Time...

2011-12-14T08:00:00.000-08:00

It's finals week..AH! It's all everyone can talk, facebook, and blog about. And since that's so...I don't really want to write about that. I just want to say how grateful I am for my life. It's really an amazing one. I'm in a place that I never thought I'd be at and I'm friends with people that I never could have planned on being friends with. My life is so wonderful and I'm really happy. There are some hard times, but I wouldn't trade those for anything, because they bring me the good.

And besides it being finals time, it's also the Christmas season. Yesterday I had a great chance to volunteer with one of my friends at Barnes & Noble to provide free gift-wrap and collect donations for charity. And then I watched the Glee Christmas show later and basically, it just really reminded me that Christmas is all about serving others. It's not about getting gifts and it's not even really about giving all the best gifts either. It is about giving, but it's about giving love and spreading joy. My goal this Christmas season is to serve someone who I wouldn't have normally served and someone who really needs it. It's not much, but it's something. I wanna challenge you to do it with me too! Find someone to help or someone to love. And if you do it, please email me your stories, I'd love to hear about it and maybe even share them on here. Also more than that, I want to give back and I want to serve all year round, because it's not like homeless people are only around on Christmas or people in third world countries only starve on Christmas. It happens all year round, and I hope to be able to help in some way for that.

Happy finals week, and merry Christmas in 12 days! Remember why we celebrate Christmas and remember how we should be celebrating it. That's the stuff that really matters :) This song they sang in Glee warms my heart and made me get all choked up while watching it...hope you like it too!

Pinterest Friday: Nutella No-Bake Cookies

2011-12-09T11:54:00.000-08:00

I believe there are two types of people in this world: those who use pinterest and those who don't. And then, you can divide the people who use pinterest into two more groups: those who apply pinterest to their lives and those who use it as a hobby. I think a lot of us fall into the "hobby" category of this, but every once in a while, I try doing something cool and actually do something on one of my boards. Well yesterday, I used this pin to make these delicious cookies.

Mmm! They turned out SO darn good! They look exactly like regular no-bake cookies but they are so much better because of the nutella! It's not like an overpowering flavor of nutella, but it's enough to make you know its there and say, "Wow."

We're having a work Christmas party today so I needed something to bring and share. I wanted to make something incredible, but with finals and everything it just wasn't going to happen. But I luckily found this recipe on my pinterest board and realized I already had all the ingredients! Of course I'm pretty much out of all the ingredients I used for this now...but that doesn't matter, right? At least I have some delicious cookies :)

So here's the recipe I used as follows:

No-Bake Nutella Peanut Butter CookiesYields approximately 2 dozen cookies (recipe can be doubled for a crowd)

3 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup peanut or hazelnut butter
3/4 cup Nutella hazelnut spread (or 1 cup chocolate chips)
2 cups rolled oats

In a medium to large saucepan, melt the butter over medium to medium-low heat. Add the sugar, milk, and cocoa powder and mix until combined. Stir in the peanut butter and Nutella until melted, followed by the oats. Continue mixing until all of the ingredients are incorporated. Reduce heat to lowest setting.

Working quickly, use a spring-form ice cream scoop to shape balls of dough and place them on a parchment-lined sheet pan. Refrigerate for thirty minutes until firm. Store in an airtight container.

(Sidenote: I doubled my recipe, didn't use the hazelnut liqueur from the original, and I didn't have to refridgerate mine--they harden pretty fast once you remove them from the heat)

first bite out of the cookie...yummy!

So all I have to say about these is that...you should make them! They probably won't change your life, but I don't think they're really gonna hinder it at either. They'll just make an okay day that much better. I like that they are easy to make and they also use ingredients that most people already have lying around. So what are you sitting around reading this?! Go make some cookies!

P.S. Can I just have a here-here! for the fact that my little kodak easy share took these sweet pictures? Here-here!! (thanks :))

Life, the Future, and Other Adult-ish Things :)

2011-12-08T12:45:00.000-08:00

Guess I’m posting today! These pictures were actually taken back in October and upon finding them today I thought, why not do a post? I haven’t been wearing anything super cute for the past week or so—it’s been sweaters and t-shirts for me! Not to mention unwashed hair and less makeup on my face. :P Eh, but enough about that!

I’ve been thinking a lot about what I want to do in life after I graduate. People are always asking, “So what are you going to do once you finish school?” And my answer is “Umm…I don’t really know. Ha ha… but maybe something with fashion because I’m super interested in that? We’ll see.” Watch, just ask me and this is the answer I’ll tell you. People ask college students this type of question ALL the time! It’s kind of annoying but we all do it. I mean, it’s a legitimate question. The thing is, one of the reasons I don’t have any plans for my future is because it’s almost always impossible to make plans. Life is always changing, and we are always changing. There’s so much out there? I don’t want to decide one thing I want to do in my life after I graduate and then realize later that I missed out on so much!

Here’s the other thing. At BYU, marriage is a huge thing. Yep. There’s almost this stigma here that if you graduate and you’re not married, welp, then you better either serve a mission, go to grad school, or find a job in Provo so that you can get married. If you don’t do any of those things, then you’re a

failure because you’re not married. Ridiculous. Maybe my description of that is a little extreme, but for the most part it’s very accurate and realistic. I’m not dissing marriage, not at all! I want to get married and I can’t wait to meet the guy and spend the rest of my eternity with the one of love (I know it’s not as easy as that but you get the point). I just don’t know when it’s going to happen and I don’t want to wait around for it. For so long, I’ve just really hoped that I’d get married before I graduated because otherwise I just
wouldn’t know what to do with my life.

But now I realize how completely and utterly wrong that is. Marriage is such an adventure in and of itself and I’m so excited to live that adventure when it comes. But until that time, there are so many other adventures to do! I can do anything! Life has so many possibilities and I don’t want to let them

pass up.

So what am I going to do? Well what I’m definitely going to stop doing is waiting around to get married. I’m going to stop going to places thinking, “Oh maybe my eternal companion will be here!” I’m going to live my life, because marriage will happen when it’s going to happen and I’m not going to sit around and wait for it. So what am I going to do with my life? What am I going to do after I graduate?

Well, this summer I don’t want to stay in Utah. I’m going to find a lot of fashion internships and apply to them all. I’m also going to look into nanny jobs because I adore kids and would love to nanny if an internship doesn’t work out. If neither of those work out then I may go live with some relatives in Boston and experience a life in the eastern US.

And after I graduate? The opportunities are endless. I want to join the Americorps for a year. Maybe I’ll work for an airline so that I can fly places for free. Maybe I’ll go find another fashion internship or nanny. I don’t completely know. And guess what? That’s really okay. I don’t have to know everything, I just have to keep going on the right path. Oh yeah, and along the way if I get married…well, that would be pretty okay too. J

Update

2011-12-07T09:30:00.000-08:00

Grr..I'm so MAD my other camera broke! My dad is trying to fix it (he's wonderful and can seriously fix anything so I hope this camera doesn't break his record!) so I hope it works out. If he can't fix it though, then I will most likely buy a new one. These pictures are terrible not necessarily because they were taken with my point shoot, but more on account of the fact that it was at night, I had to use the flash, it was too dark and late to find any other good place to shoot, etc. So I'm sorry.

Also, I'm sorry I've been MIA. School is stressing me out! Only two more days of classes, then its finals, and then I'm done with Fall semester! Hallelujah!!! It has been a great semester and I love my classes, but the stress is getting to me. It always does...one of the reasons I haven't been blogging. When I get really stressed, I always get super sick and really nauseous. It's really awful and I dislike it very much. So you'll understand why I want the semester to be done and why blogging time has been turning to homework time instead? :)

I'm feeling super sick as I write this, so I'm gonna go. I feel bad saying this, but please keep me in your prayers, you have no idea how much I need it. I will be blogging more regularly probably next week so just stay with me, you guys are the best! I promise better pictures and happier posts and more stories of what I've done while I've been gone with my return....maybe even a giveaway..? (oooh!)

<3/Kailee

Let Youtube Do the Talking

2011-11-17T09:30:00.000-08:00

Um....hi! Life is busy...full of tests, papers, sewing, socializing, and barbie clothes making! It's all lots of fun but it all means I have little time to spare. However, I have had time this week to watch these two AH-mazing youtube videos.

The first is a song from Glee. Yes, I watch the show, but I guarantee that even if you don't watch the show, you will LOVE this song. It's a mash-up of two Adele songs, Someone Like You and Rumour Has It. If you do anything in your life today, just watch and listen to this song. I can't even count how many times I've heard it in the past week...it's incredible!

The second is a movie trailer for the Hunger Games movie! Man oh man, sometime you worry about books being made into movies, especially really good books. But I have a lot of hope and faith for this one. The trailer looks incredible and the casting is awesome! Whether you've read the books or not (which, btw, you should read the books), just watch this trailer and be excited for March!

Enjoy the videos! Let me know what you think! :)

Man Day

2011-11-10T09:30:00.000-08:00

I felt such like a man the day I wore this outfit. Why? Well, the sweater used to be my dad's, I found the boots in the men's shoes section at DI, and I wore almost no makeup this day (except a teeny bit of mascara). So that is about as "manly" as I get. But don't get me wrong, I felt awesome this day. I love the sweater, considering it's from Guatemala and I'm half Guatemala. I love the boots...it rained this day and they completely kept the water out--it was wonderful! And wearing no makeup felt pretty stress free and amazing. Oh yes. It was actually the first time I haven't worn makeup all day in public for like 5 years. Crazy huh? I need to do this more often!

On a more girly note, I've been sewing a lot! I'm in the middle of making a super cute navy and white dress (without a pattern, like usual) and I've just been designing it and coming up with it as I go. I'm thinking it'll look pretty great when it's all done and I of course will post it on here! I also sewed a purple ball gown for a very special friend...perhaps I will show you a picture or two of her wearing the dress? Stay tuned for that. Oh and don't worry, I haven't forgotten that I promised to tell you the story of why I am so annoyed with DownEast Basics these days (back in this post) so stay tuned for that as well! It's a story you do NOT want to miss.

Anywho, as I write this, my eyes droop more and more. So I'll bid you adieu until tomorrow :)

P.S. Just one last thought. It's 11/11/11 TOMORROW! I'm seriously freaking out and so excited over this! What are you guys gonna do for it, anything exciting? I definitely want to do something fun for this most momentous occasion!!

Grieving

2011-11-08T09:30:00.000-08:00

I'm just kind of sad right now and looking at these pictures makes me sad. I took them in the mirror because I was in my pajamas and totally forgot I hadn't taken pictures of this outfit. Usually I'll just go to bed, but I really loved the outfit so I put it back on and took some quick photos in the mirror...with my wonderful camera. I love my new camera, and guess what.

It broke.

It fell while I was taking outfit pictures (even though I was trying so so hard to make sure it was stable) and now it can't zoom or focus on anything, so when you look through the viewfinder it looks like a big blurry mess.

I'm SO sad. I couldn't blog yesterday because I was just sad and it still makes me wanna cry just writing this. I'm hoping it will get fixed but otherwise somehow I'll get another one (the same kind of camera). I seriously just feel like I lost my best friend and my most prized possession. I didn't know we could have feelings for such items as a camera, but it's how I feel.

So I'm sorry for crappy outfit photos (although I have to be honest that I do love mirror pictures) and I'm sorry for not blogging yesterday. But mostly I'm just really sad and sorry that my best friend is currently broken. :(

Funny Pinterest Friday

2011-11-04T17:21:00.000-07:00

So when things are funny, I tend to laugh out loud super hard to them. And then when I'm done laughing, I go and tell/show these funny things to my roommate Heidi, who proceeds to laugh and then I laugh again, even harder, because it's so much more fun to laugh with people right? I just love laughing. Who doesn't?! Anyways, these are just some funny pins I found on pinterest this week.

That cookie monster one gets me every.single.time. It is too sad and too true for probably most of us! hahaha...Have a great friday and weekend everyone! I hope you got some laughs from these. :)

A Dress...and Choices

2011-11-03T09:30:00.000-07:00

Is it just me or do I look super awkward in these pictures?! Except the last one, I like that one. This is the dress that I made a while ago. I made it without a pattern and still, almost 6 months later, I love it so much. Obviously it isn't perfect or perfectly made, and I do not want to brag, but this dress makes me happy. :)

Ya know, it's funny. Well not funny. My life is...crazy. I have so much going on right now and life is so hard and struggles come my way every single day. It's also good too, I love my job, roommates, school, and I feel so blessed. Life right now, is just...life, at it's best. And I am pretty darn happy living it right now. I think I am realizing these days that we choose happiness in our lives, nothing that happens in it, good or bad--although it can influence our choice--can make or break the fact of how happy or unhappy we are. So maybe instead of me saying life's good, because it isn't always good, I should just say that I'm good. I'm doing well in the life that was given to me and that I'm living.

We always hear so much about how attitude influences everything and it tends to go over our heads. But it's true. Listen to those true words, because I'm realizing that it does. I am happy in my crazy life and that is all pretty much my choice. You can choose too. :)

Simple Joys

2011-11-02T09:30:00.000-07:00

You know what is happy in life?
-spending time with best friends
-thrifting trips
-getting letters in the mail
-playing the guitar
-roommates
-dessert
-cute places to eat dessert such as The Chocolate
-amazing classes with teachers that really teach you not only about the subject of class but also teach you things that are applicable in your life--my human development teacher has this great quality
-the prophet coming to give a devotional at my school!
-finding Sperry shoes at DI (a thrift store)
-not wearing any makeup but still feeling okay about it
-writing meaningful posts

These are some of the simple joys in my life that I experienced yesterday. I didn't even look at yesterday as an awesome day, just a day, but now looking back on it, it was an incredible day! I think if we look for that every day we will find that every single day we live is truly incredible and something worth living for. :)

Happy.Halloween. :)

2011-11-01T09:30:00.000-07:00

How was Halloween for you all? Mine was pretty much fabulous. Want to know what I went as?....

Wonder Woman!!!

I think this became my new favorite costume of all the costumes I've done. And that's saying something, considering I've been a 50's girl for like 5 years of my life (one of them being last year). I loved it. Want to hear how it all came together? I found the dress part (the pink top with the pink skirt with the stars on it) at DI for $3. Total score! It's actually a little girl's costume, size 10. But it fit me and I loved it, I couldn't turn it away! But me being the procrastinator I am, I didn't really do anything else with the costume. So then yesterday finally, on Halloween day, I was about to succumb and be lumberjacks with some of my roommates (which was pretty funny, I have to say) and then decided that no, Wonder Woman was sweet and I was going to do it!

So with my inspiration as this (I looked up "pink wonder woman costume" in google images and about a gazillion pictures like this one showed up...it may be a little girl but it was the perfect go-to!) I set out to find something to go with the costume. And after going to DI again for a quick look around, I decided there was no way I was going to find anything too great to go with my costume from there, it was just too specific. So then I thought, you know, I can sew, so why don't I just make the rest of the stuff? So I did! I went to the fabric store and got some white, silver, and hot pink pleather to make the boots, the arm things, the belt, and the headband. I wanted some hot pink tights so I headed over to Target for those and found some great glittery pink tights in the girls section (they fit perfectly yes, and also they were the only hot pink tights left in the store!

When I got home it all surprisingly only took about 2 hours to sew it all, which is pretty good. The costume came together very nicely and I think one of the reasons I loved it so much is because I made a lot of it myself!

Anyways, I went to a trunk or treat my ward did and then went trick or treating to a few houses with other people in my ward. I am falling asleep because I'm writing this the night before you'll read it, so here's are
some more pictures from the night.

Roomies :)

What did you guys go as? I really do love seeing what everyone wore for Halloween so please leave me a link to see your Halloween costume. :D

Ahh, guess what? It's November! Which means Thanksgiving is here! And Christmas is TWO MONTHS away! Wow. Time seriously just flies in this world!

Beautiful Heartbreaks

2011-10-31T09:30:00.000-07:00

Hm. I'm just at a loss of what to write for this post. Actually maybe not. I have been watching or listening to this video multiple times every day this week. It is absolutely beautiful and comforting. Watch it. :)

Really, that song is amazing. With things I struggle with, or have struggled with, lately I've been so mad that I have them. It's not my fault that I struggle with certain things or have different trials, and it is not my fault that some of those things I have to choose to overcome and that they are so difficult to handle. Life is just so hard. But watching this video has been incredibly helpful because it let me realize that when these things happen, the view absolutely wonderful when you overcome them. The harder the challenge, the better the view...And it can become such a beautiful heartbreak to overcome these things. Because no, it's not my fault that I have different trials. But how wonderful if I can overcome them and turn them into something beautiful.

I think about Stephanie Nielson (in the video) and how she was burned by a fire, but no one looks at her as a problem or a trial. She is just seen as beautiful. Beautiful because she overcame something incredibly hard. I want to be like Stephanie and others like her one day. Anyways..those are just my thoughts of the day..

On a completely different sidenote, I really love this outfit. Red and yellow look just lovely together. And they are fall colors that can never go out of season! Plus the glasses just add something else altogether..something awesome haha. And one more sidenote....HAPPY HALLOWEEN! I will be sure to spill all the deets on my costume and Halloween events and such tomorrow!

I Want to be This Cool...

2011-10-29T09:30:00.000-07:00

These women are awesome! They are still expressing their style even though they are older and people don't really expect them to dress the way they do. But they don't care what others think and do and dress how they want. This is how I want to be..seriously, these ladies are SO cool. :)

Pinterest Friday [Halloween Edition]

2011-10-28T16:18:00.000-07:00

There ya go! Happy Halloween everyone! What are you gonna be?! Better question...what am I gonna be? Haha ;) Just kidding, I have something planned. And don't worry, just like everyone else, I will most definitely be blogging about it. :)

If you haven't seen this video (or even if you have), you should totally watch it, it's sweet! It'll get you in the Halloween spookiness, dancing mood, and probably the Christmas spirit, because it's a lot of lights. Ha.

And one more thing..for some reason, some of the pins that I wanted to put on here weren't showing up, so feel free to check all the rest of them out here! Happy pinning...and Halloween!

Never Say Never!

2011-10-27T09:30:00.000-07:00

Black and brown...you know I really used to hate the color combination, but I love it now. I'm always wearing my brown bag (pictured above) with everything, especially my black dresses. And then I wore the belt on top of the black as well. I don't know how..but somehow it works, and I like it :)

Also this bun updo thing going on. Ever since I had stopped taking ballet classes I hadn't worn my hair in a bun in so long and I didn't want to. Maybe it was the fact that I missed dance but I was just trying to cut it out my life completely, because buns are really a ballerina's look...or it also could have been the fact that buns are uncomfortable and not necessarily attractive unless you're in a black leotard and pink tights. ;) But now here I am wearing these messy buns on top of my head at least once if not twice a week. And I love them. And they're not the typical tight ballerina bun, so I like it. These buns have popped up all over campus this fall! I like to call it the "blogger bun" considering it's popped up all over the blogosphere as well haha.

And then this dress...it's DownEast Basics and its actually the first clothing item I ever bought from work, even though I said I'd never buy a DownEast dress because they are so expensive (and now I have other reasons for disliking them as well...) and I said I'd probably never buy something from the bookstore. Yet here are these pictures, and here is the dress. And, well..I love it. :)

So lesson learned folks, you can never say never!

P.S. If you really want to hear my reason for why I dislike DownEast Basics so much these days, I might tell you...if enough people click the "like" button at the bottom of this post. It's a dramatic reason really, but a reason nonetheless.

Beautiful

2011-10-26T22:04:00.000-07:00

Isn't this such a great quote? I think so :)

via

Also, there's a great article the NY Times wrote about being Young, Hip, and Mormon. I figured I'd share it since it talks about fashion and Mormons, and that's kinda what I do and love :) Check it out here! It has a questionable take on some things and I don't know if I completely agree with it all (especially at the end when it talks about "how to get around it," but it is an interesting read and I'd recommend it. It's cool that they New York Times is writing about Mormons and fashion. It proves that people are noticing and not in a bad way :)

Signs

2011-10-26T09:30:00.000-07:00

I think that we have all have "signs." Some of them are hanging around our necks, and others are hiding under our bed. I think we all wish we could share the latter of the signs openly. But because we are too scared to do so, we just give little hints or small signs, hoping someone will notice. The signs hanging around our necks are true, but they don't tell our whole story, only the good parts. My sign says something like this:

I'm Kailee. I'm a girl who loves fashion, Carrie Underwood, Harry Potter, and the color purple. I wear cute outfits every day and then post them on my blog for everyone to see. I have so many great friends, I go on a lot of dates, and I live close to a family who I adore and who loves me. I go to BYU, am majoring in Family Studies, and I love it a lot. I have a great job where I get to do displays and change mannequins and work with super fun people. I love to listen to people and be there for my friends when they need someone. I am such a happy girl and I have a wonderful and lucky life.

All that is pretty much completely true. Yet I read that, and I know there is so much more to me than that paragraph. Those aren't the things I'm usually thinking in my head and they are not the only things that rule what is going on in my life. Wouldn't it be nice if we could walk around with signs on our neck that shared things that we were struggling with or going through? We'd probably stop being jealous of others and instead be kind to every person we meet. My sign like that would be something like this:

I'm Kailee. Today I came home and cried, because I cry a lot and because life can be really difficult sometimes. One of my best friends is leaving on a mission today. I'm trying so hard to not fall behind in school because last semester I really didn't get the best grades. I get so distracted sometimes and I'm trying to manage that and school and friend time. My job has been stressing me out lately and putting a lot of pressure on me. I've never been kissed and never had a boyfriend, and sometimes I wonder if anyone will ever love me, treat me like a princess, and want to marry me. I feel like I never dress cute enough. I feel like I'm competing with the blogging world to be successful in everything in life and I'm failing miserably. I'm so insecure and struggle with things that only my journal and close friends know about. Please be nice to me, because I just don't know if I can take anything else today without breaking down.

Both signs are true, but one is hidden inside.

Everyone has these signs, yet do we really think about it or realize it? Sometimes we get so annoyed when a person at a store is rude to us or we take offense when someone is acting more shy than usual towards us, but maybe that's one of their little signs that something is wrong. Do we ever think that maybe when someone is taking a nap or going to bed early, it's because they are exhausted from life? Or when they end up showing late for something, it's because they were trying to deal with other difficult, more important things? Do we realize that maybe a girl who won't talk to anyone isn't stuck up, but just scared of people and what they'll think of her?

We all have our own signs. What does yours read? Let's try and be understanding and kind to everyone we meet, because you never know what their sign might read. Remember, there are two signs, but we usually only see one.

Inspired by this post.

NO Fat Talk Allowed!

2011-10-25T09:30:00.000-07:00

"She is so fat."
"Oh my gosh, I can't eat that, it's bad."
"I just need to lose all of this extra baby weight!"
"Wow you are so skinny!"
"Once I lose 10 pounds, life will be so much better."
"Does this make me look fat?"
"Sometimes I wish I had an eating disorder because then it means I'd be skinny. Haha just kidding!"
"That girl must be less than a hundred pounds she's so skinny. Lucky!"
"I wish I were as thin as her."
"I need to lose weight. No Freshman 15 for me!"

Raise your hand if you've heard all of these phrases or something like them within the past month. We should probably all be raising our hands. Isn't our society crazy? There are girls and women left and right saying all sorts of stuff like this...and it's normal. Do we even notice it? I'm definitely guilty of saying some of the above things more than once and or hearing someone else say it and letting it slide as a passable comment. The above pictures are from forever ago and there's actually a reason for that. I never posted these because when I looked at them later, I didn't like how I looked in them and I felt insecure about them. I came upon these pictures again yesterday and wondered why in the world I didn't like them. They are fine pictures, the dress is cute, my hair is cute and I look cute! But yet, something about the way I was feeling affected how I felt about those pictures. We all do things like this all the time. Do we have to live this way, with everyone body bashing themselves and judging and comparing everyone around them? The answer is no, we don't need to live this way. We can change this.

This week is "Fat Talk Free Week." I hope that with me, you'll pay attention to yourself and others saying things that have to do with weight and putting a worth on weight. Start with an awareness of just noticing it happen. And then eventually we start to make a difference by stopping fat talk ourselves and calling out other people when they say it. Just for this week, let's make the world a better place and have no fat talk. There are better things to talk about than weight and we are worth so much more than what we look like.

And just to share, this is one of my new favorite quotes (from the November issue of O magazine):

"You cannot be a healthy person, let alone hope for healthy children, if you sigh and moan every time you encounter your own image, eat a cookie, or see an airbrushed model on a billboard. Even if it amounts to wholesale pretending, go pretend. Walk around pretending to be a woman who likes her body...because every step toward self-love you take, and every inch of confidence you give someone's daughter, makes the world a better place...
"You are imperfect, permanently and inevitably flawed. And you are beautiful." -Amy Bloom

And in case you want to learn more about this stuff, three of my favorite websites for it are:

Beauty Redefined

Healthy is the New Skinny

BYU Women's Services and Resources

I'd definitely recommend checking them out. :) Go no fat talk! We can do it and make a difference!

[Ultimate Harry Potter Party] It's Party Time!

2011-10-24T21:46:00.000-07:00

Sorry this post is late! I've been busy and tired and life is crazy. :) But I'm excited to tell you about the actual party!

First, the costumes. Below is a picture of Katie and I! We went to DI the day of the party in search for some awesome stuff to use for our costumes. Katie wanted to be a Gryffindor and I knew I had to be a Ravenclaw, considering that's what I got sorted as on Pottermore (trust me, it's official!). We found some perfect ties for our costumes--Katie and red and gold tie, and me a blue and silver one. It's like they were just waiting for us! Then we just used white button down shirt and black skirts. We got some awesome socks at the dollar store and wore black shoes. Katie's Gryffindor cardigan is actually mine that I let her borrow. I love that cardigan. :) I got it at Hot Topic in July for the midnight showing of the movie. And I just pinned one of our badges from the sorting hat to show my Ravenclaw-ness. For such last minute costumes, I think we did pretty great!

People actually started showing up for the party just a little bit after 8:30, which was awesome! We were so happy to see many dressed in their wizard/Harry Potter attire. :)

For my birthday, my aunt gave me a SWEET wand! In case you're interested, my official wand (as said in Pottermore) is 10 1/4 inches, Vine with a Unicorn core, and slightly yielding. Yes. Closer picture below. I definitely carried it around the whole party and (how nerdy and I for saying this) but it felt so natural to just carry around a wand! I say we all replace our cell phones with wands. SO much cooler.

Many of our wizarding friends were in attendance. You can see Ron and Bellatrix in the picture below and Luna Lovegood a few pictures down :)

We also spontaneously decided to play Harry Potter charades! We divided up whoever wanted to play into Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs against Ravenclaws and Slytherins. They acted out different things like characters, spells, creatures, and so forth. Lots of fun!!

Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs (Professor Trelawney is holding the "badger")!

Slytherins and Ravenclaws (you can see Narcissa Malfoy was also in attendance..)

This is the only picture I got of charades and I'm not sure what is being acted out here, but it's nonetheless proof of our party activities. :)

And then there were lots more friends...

Roomies! I love this picture :D

Haha this was so funny. These two boys randomly came in running in our apartment and they said that he stole the egg from the Hungarian Horntail. Too great!!

Lots of socks :)

And then after everyone left we got crazy. Katie had new plans for her tie. We were obviously a little delirious. Maybe there were gnargles in the air? ;)

And one last picture to end our awesome night!

So all in all, I have absolutely no regrets. The party turned out as awesome as we wanted it to be and it was SO fun. Seriously, it was probably one of the best nights of my life, because I just love Harry Potter so much! It took a lot of work, but it was all totally worth it because it was a really fun party. People kept telling us how impressed they were too and how it was one of their favorite parties they have ever been to. Success? Most definitely. :D

[Total Budget Spent] $85.85

[Party Worth] Priceless!

To read the other posts about the party, click on these links:

The Set-Up/Decorations

The Food

The Invitations

[Ultimate Harry Potter Party] The Set-Up/Decorations

2011-10-20T21:00:00.000-07:00

Ok this post is going to be a quickie because I'm tired. Sorry it's being posted so late!

So our set-up had to be fairly simple, considering we live in an apartment that isn't huge and is definitely more than 20 years old. Yes. So we did the best we could. We got tablecloths from the dollar store and covered the walls to make it look like the gryffindor common room. I printed out these cool posters and we put them on the wall to add a little more. We also got cobwebs and put them around the room and yellow and red crepe paper to put on the ceiling.

We were so exhausted after the party! This is the best picture I got of the whole set-up of the room.

Hogwarts house posters

I already showed pictures of the food but I figured I'd show these two again since they did have to do with the set-up of the party.

The Sorting Hat: We found this old black hat at DI (a thrift store--they're all over Utah) by "sheer dumb luck" (who said that in Harry Potter?! ;)). It didn't look exactly like the sorting hat in the movie or anything, but it definitely worked and served it's purpose. When people walked in, they reached into the hat, pulled out a house badge and then pinned it on themselves. Later on, the badges served a purpose when we played Harry Potter charades against houses (more on that next time).

Closer look at the sign

My roommate Kelsey is an art major (and in the BFA program!) and was awesome enough to draw a picture of the fat lady to put on the door! It turned out super sweet and she seriously got it done in like 15-20 minutes. Amazing, right??

Ha, we made a sign that said, "This Way to the Ministry of Magic" for the bathroom, since that's how people traveled to the Ministry in the books and movie. Clever! I found the idea from Pinterest and the original link is here. This is my friend Lauren pretending to travel to the Ministry of Magic!

And then...we have the animals... ;) So there's this museum on campus called the Bean Museum where they have TONS of dead taxidermy animals that have been stuffed and put on display. Like these were all real animals at one point in time. Crazy, right?! They let you rent out a few animals for free (it's just like renting a library book) and you can get up to 10 if you want. Our original plan was to get owls, but when we got to the museum, they were all checked out! :( So then we decided to get the different house animals--a snake, raven, badger (except I think it was a wolverine, we just called it a badger, and a lion. Ha and Kelsey got a penguin as you can see in the picture and they even had a toad so we got that too and named him Trevor. :)

Honestly, when we were first getting them and putting them in my car, I didn't even want to touch them because I was so grossed out. Real animals that were now dead! Um...no. But then we had to carry them inside so I had to get over my high-maintenance ways and do it. And now..the animals are practically family because they've been in our apartment for almost a week!

Getting the animals from the museum into my car!

House animals

My friend Lauren (picture above as Professor Trelawney) actually got two owls for us from the museum that morning (that's why there were no owls there!) and brought them with her when she came. They definitely completed the party! You can also see Trevor the Toad in the corner. We addressed an envelope to Albus Dumbledore and put it in the owl's beak.

Now we just have eight dead, stuffed animals around our apartment...no big deal, right??

Read tomorrow to hear about the actual party!! Last Harry Potter party post! :( I hope you are enjoying hearing about the party as much as I am loving writing about it!!

[Budget]
Decorations: about $15 (for the tablecloths, spiderwebs, sorting hat, and the cost to print out the badges and posters)
Food: $52.85
Invitations: $18
Total: $85.85

To read the other posts about the party, click on these links:

Party Time!

The Food

The Invitations

[Ultimate Harry Potter Party] The Food

2011-10-19T15:02:00.000-07:00

The food of this party was well, probably the best part of it all. You read about all the different foods in Harry Potter, but that's usually it. You're always wondering what Butterbeer tastes like or if all those sweets on the train are all they're made out to be. So Katie and I decided to bring those foods to life as best as we could, with our time, resources, and money (remember, we're poor college students!). We spent so much time on all the food, but it was all so very worth it. I don't take credit for any of the recipes because we found pretty much all of them online--just tweaked a little bit--so if you want to make any these foods, I'll link to them so you can bring the magic of Harry Potter to your home.

So first, the drinks:

Gillywater:

We knew we were going to need some kind of a drink besides the Butterbeer and Firewhiskey that people could have and that everyone would like. So we got some Invisible Kool-aid from the grocery store that looks like water but tastes like Kool-aid. I looked up "harry potter drinks" online and Gillywater was one of the things that came up because apparently it's mentioned in the books once or something. So all the Gillywater was was Invisible Kool-aid. Easy enough.

Cost: $0.30 (two kool-aid packages) + free (already had sugar and water) = $0.30

Firewhiskey:

We decided we wanted Firewhiskey mostly just so everyone could taste it and we could have some fun with it. All we did for this was mix Ginger Ale with some Tabasco sauce. I'll admit, I never tried it, but it was hilarious to see everyone's reactions when they did, because it obviously wasn't what they were expecting! It made your throat burn for about 10 minutes afterward so kind of funny. The drink fit the name perfectly!

Cost: $2 (two 2-liter bottles of ginger ale) + $0.69 (tabasco sauce) = $2.69

Butterbeer!:

Wow. Words cannot describe how delicious and perfect butterbeer was. It was everything that you wanted it to be from reading the books and such. Oh, it was soooo good! This one took a little bit longer to make but I think we used the best recipe on the internet we found. There were some recipes where you could just use a few ingredients to make something kind of like it, but we wanted the real thing! So we used this recipe to make it, and I would definitely recommend the recipe to anyone who wants to try Butterbeer. It was so legit and so good. Go home and make it and I promise you won't be disappointed. The only thing we left out of the recipe was the apple cider vinegar because we didn't know where it was in the store and it might have been a little pricey. Not a surprise to us, the Butterbeer was the first thing that we ran out of (we had two pots of it) and it was definitely the favorite of the drinks, if not of all the food. I'm telling you, it was great!

Trying Butterbeer for the first time. That smile on my face was because I was drinking heaven :)

Cost: $2 (two 2-liter bottles of cream soda) + $1 (margarine--in place of butter) + Free (already had salt) + $4 (brown sugar) + $3 (cream) = $10 (maybe a little much for a drink but totally worth it for Butterbeer!)

And now for the food! :)

Acid Pops:

I got the idea of these from here. A lot of our recipes came from The Pastry Affair, because her site kept popping up in searches for "harry potter food" and they were definitely the best quality recipes by far. I'd definitely recommend the site because she has a lot yummy and cute pastries, and the picture quality is great! The recipe said to use Pop Rocks, but they were a little bit more expensive and we thought we were going to need a lot. So instead we got those boxes of rainbow nerds that you can get for a dollar, crushed them up, dipped the suckers in water and then rolled it around in the crushed Nerds. These were sooo good. They were pretty sour, because you got the inside part of the nerd right away, but they were a nice treat for people to suck on while socializing or something. :)

Cost: $2 (two bags of lollipops) + $2 (two boxes of nerds) = $4

Chocolate Frogs:

All the recipes for chocolate frogs we found online were like making actual chocolate frogs with a mold and we did not have time or the resources to do that. So we got some of the Haribo gummy frogs and then dipped half of the them in chocolate (just from chocolate chips). You wouldn't think so, but gummy+chocolate=delish! This was probably one of my favorites of the food items!

Cost: $5.16 (4 bags of Haribo frogs @ $1.29/bag) + $1.50 (bag of chocolate chips) = $6.76

Licorice Wands:

We wanted to dip the wands in chocolate like done here, but we ran out of chocolate and time, so we just got Red Vines and put them out as is. Maybe another time we'll make these again and dip them in chocolate!

Cost: $3 (two bags of redvines)

Cockroach Clusters:

This recipe also came from here and all we did with this was melt chocolate chips and then mix chow-mein noodles in the chocolate. Super easy! And the noodles were pretty tasteless so the clusters as a whole tasted delicious because it was like crunchy chocolate..yum :)

Cost: $3 (two bags of chow-mein noodles) + $1.50 (bag of chocolate chips) = $4.50

Sorting Hats:

These were our own invention. With the Cauldron Cakes below, you have to cut out a portion of the cupcake so we were left with all these pointy cake things that looked like hats! So we went to the grocery store to get some oreos, stuck the cake part on with melted chocolate and called them sorting hats. There is actually no food in the HP books called "Sorting Hats" but we can be creative, right? :)

Cost: Free (cake insides) + $3 (one package of regular Oreo cookies) = $3

Pumpkin Pasties:

Mmmm, these were good! They don't look super appetizing in the picture, but I promise they tasted delicious. We found the recipe searching online and used this one. It seemed like all the other recipes were copying it so we went back to the original source. The thing we changed was that we just got those cans that have 10 uncooked biscuits in them, rolled them out and used that for the dough. It was a lot cheaper and easier than making our own! The Pumpkin Pasties took a while to make so while these were in the oven or cooking we were working on something else. Oh and we doubled the recipe to have more for our party guests.

Cost: $4 (two cans of pumpkin) + $4 (two cans of evaporated milk) + Free (we had everything else at home) = $8

Cauldron Cakes:

Aren't they so cute? These might have been my favorites (and many other people's) just because they look exactly like their name! These also took a while, and a lot of chocolate, but were very yummy and fun. I especially like the 3 chocolate chip "feet" at the bottom of the cauldron. We got the recipe for these from here. The only thing we changed was that we filled them with whipped cream instead of the marshmallow filling because once again, it was easier and cheaper. Super fun! This recipe was also doubled.

Cost: $2.60 (two cake mixes) + $3 (two bags of chocolate chips) + $5 (two cans of whipped cream--we didn't use it all though) =$10.60

Atomic Popcorn:

I'm sorry, for some reason I didn't take a picture of the popcorn! I just made my family's yummy recipe of popcorn as another filler food just so people had something to eat. I thought I was going to have to make a lot of batches but I ended up only having to make one batch, which was great. I just called it Atomic Popcorn, because I saw that name somewhere online and figured it fit the Harry Potter-esque food name.

The recipe for the popcorn is super easy and as follows:
1 1/2 tablespoons of canola or vegetable oil
1 tablespoon of coconut oil (this is optional if you don't have any--its expensive!)
1/2 cup of popcorn kernals
A little more than 1/2 teaspoon of popcorn salt

Put it all in a popcorn popper (or you could try a pot and cover the lid when the popcorn starts popping) on the stove on about medium-high heat, and keep stirring until all the popcorn is about done being popped or you can't stir anymore. Super easy and really good. Popcorn is big in my family and I probably eat it a few times a week haha.

Cost: Free (I already had all the ingredients)

Most of the food was all gone at the end of the party:

Whew! That was a long post! And the food was definitely the thing that took the most time. But it was totally worth it because everyone was super impressed with it all and thought it was really good!

[Budget]
Invitations: $18
All the food: $52.85
Total so Far: $70.85

Tomorrow I'm going to be talking about our decorations and the set-up, so definitely come back to read...*hint* we had REAL animals there. Promise. Told ya you want to read about it!! ;)

To read the other posts about the party, click on these links:

Party Time!
The Set-Up/Decorations

The Invitations

Loss

2011-10-19T15:00:00.000-07:00

I just said goodbye to one of my very best friends for a year and a half, and dang it is so sad. :( Don't you wish you could sometimes just make life stop? Especially other people's lives, because then they could never leave you.

The thing about loss is that in a way, it's good. I mean say someone is leaving your life for a time, or even forever, and you don't really care that much. You never really got to love that person. But if you really miss them or if you truly feel pain and sadness over their being gone, then it means that you at least loved them and you got to experience times that made you happy while you were in them. It's hard but good. I feel like that's how most good things in life come--you have to experience the hard side of them if you really want to appreciate it.

So to Jessica, I'm gonna miss you so much but you are gonna be the best missionary ever. A year and a half isn't forever, right?? :)

[Ultimate Harry Potter Party] The Invitations

2011-10-18T09:00:00.000-07:00

Ok, so as I've told you, my roommate, Katie, and I threw a super fun Harry Potter party on Friday. And because I love Harry Potter so much and I want to tell everyone about this, I'm gonna write about a little part of the party every day this week. Be excited! Today you get to hear about how we handed out the invitations.

So technically in college, everyone skips handing out invites for things and just makes an event on facebook or something. Which is totally fine! But when I saw this idea on pinterest (btw, most of the ideas we got for our party, I pinned on my Harry Potter pinterest board so you can look at that if you want) I knew we had to hand out our invitations this way. There was just no other option! What is cooler than getting an invitation to Hogwarts by owl? Um..nothing!

So we set out to find about 25 helium balloons for a decent price. Turns out helium balloons are expensive! We went to about 4 stores before we finally checked BYU Campus Floral where we got them for $0.60 each. We planned to hand out the invitations Monday night but then it got late and the stores closed and we couldn't find cheap helium balloons, so then we handed them out Tuesday night, which turned out to be fine. We also made an event on facebook so that all our other friends who didn't get an awesome owl invitation could know when the party was as well.

Picking up 25 helium balloons and trying to fit them all in my car!

I made a microsoft word document of the invitation but didn't take pictures when we printed them out..but this is what it looked like (also with a border around it and a Hogwarts watermark in the background):

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore

(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock,

Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)

Dear Students,

We are pleased to announce that you have been accepted into the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Because of your acceptance, you are invited to a birthday celebration to be held on Friday, October 14^th from 8:30-11:30
P.M. and will be hosted by Hogwarts newly appointed Head Girls, Miss Katie ____ and Miss Kailee ____.

Transportation to Hogwarts can take place by portkey, apparation, the Hogwarts Express, or broomstick. Please make sure your arrival destination is correctly distinguished as: ________, in ______ apartments in Provo,Utah.

The surrounding area is well protected by Memory Charms and it will be safe to wear normal wizard attire. However if you prefer, you may come incognito and arrive dressed in the muggle manner. You will receive your school supply list and house sorting upon arrival. Students may bring an owl, a cat, or a toad. Parents are reminded that first years are not allowed their own broomsticks.

If you are unable to attend, please respond by owl. Thank you, and we look forward to your arrival at Hogwarts.

Sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall

Deputy Headmistress, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Haha we tried to make them pretty legit. I kind of got an idea of how I wrote the invitation from here. Funny/Awkward story: When we were printing out the invitations on campus, the printer was going sooo slow! Like printing a page every 30 seconds. It was ridiculous. And this poor boy was waiting to print his stuff so he had to wait for our 25 pages of invitations to print for like 15 minutes until his paper started printing. And of course once his pages started coming out they went fast! Go figure haha. Anyways, we rolled up the invitations all scroll-like and tied the balloons to them. The blank balloons looked pretty funny just floating around with rolled up papers attached to them.

And then the fun part! Katie and I, and our roommate Kelsey all drew owl faces on the balloons! They looked so funny and cute and it was fun to be creative with how the owls looked and such.

And then we went out to deliver them! We (me, Katie, Kelsey, and Heidi--another one of our roommates) put on our dark hoodies and set out. We delivered invitations to just people in our ward (for those who don't know what that is, a ward is how our church divides people, so in our ward, there are two Provo apartment complexes) cuz it could have gotten crazy otherwise. We took the "owls" to the doors and had to duct tape them down because otherwise they would have flown away! Ha ;) And then we all just doorbell ditched each floor. It was sooooo fun!

After we finished delivering the invitations

And that is the end of the invitation part of the party! Later on, we got feedback from our ward members that people looooved the invitations and it made their day to get an "owl." So invitations were definitely a success!! Be sure to check in tomorrow to read about the food (prob the best part)!

[Budget]

Helium Balloons: $16

Duct Tape: $2

Total so far: $18

To read the other posts about the party, click on these links:

Party Time!
The Set-Up/Decorations

The Food

Pinterest..Monday?

2011-10-17T11:38:00.000-07:00

I had such a busy weekend with not much free-time, let alone time to blog! So I'm sorry about that and today I'm posting my Pinterest favorites from last week since I didn't do it on Friday.

Also...my roommate and I threw a bomb-diggity Harry Potter party on Friday! Man, it was one of the happiest days of my life because it was so fun and I have to say that for our limited resources, space, and money, we did a pretty good job. :) I'll be posting pictures up throughout the week from it, so don't worry, you'll hear all about it. If you are my friend on facebook then I posted all the pictures on an album and you can look at them there. Enjoy my fav Pinterest finds! :)

Isn't that elephant purse above just fabulous? Love it! Which ones are your favorites?

Nothing.

2011-10-13T10:00:00.000-07:00

I really don't feel like writing anything today, so just make yourself laugh and watch these.. :)

Potter Fashion: a Bleached Pen Tee

2011-10-12T10:00:00.000-07:00

My sister Carina made me this shirt with a bleach pen! Isn't it sweet?!?!!

Yes. Yes, it is pretty sweet. What is not so sweet is the fact that I have messy hair, am wearing no makeup, and pajama pants (because I was getting ready for bed when i remembered to take pictures). So just ignore that fact. Oh and also, you can see a bracelet on my right wrist in the above picture that Carina also made for me! It has my name on it. :)

Isn't Harry Potter awesome? And also do-it-yourself projects? Even better are the two combined! I would strongly recommend making a shirt as cool as this one with something as simple as a bleach pen! I am most happy and grateful for this shirt, so thanks Carina!

Oh and happy Wizard Wednesday!!! Say hello to the biggest Harry Potter fan in the world...he is pretty cool too :)

Rain Boot Weather

2011-10-11T09:00:00.000-07:00

Here in Utah...winter weather has come a little early. The day I wore this get-up, it rained all day and even snowed a little. SNOWED! Yes. Welcome to my state. I only wish when I said my state that I meant California....ah, a girl can dream, right?

I got my rainboots from Target last year...and I love them. :) They keep my feet warm and dry. I learned freshman year of college after owning only one pair of boots that got water in them constantly that there was only one wait to walk around at school in the rain and snow with some sensible style. Rain boots. Aka life savers!

At least life is still fairly happy regardless of the rain. :)

P.S. I also looove my coat too! I got it for $7 at a DownEast/Modbe sale. It's warm and very cute. Although two of the buttons already came off. :( DownEast and their companies aren't always known for making the best quality stuff unfortunately. That's why if I buy something from them (not the basics, like the camisoles and tees--those are fine), it's on sale. I don't wanna spend $50 for a dress that is going to fall apart the first time I wear it! Don't get me wrong...DownEast great, but I do just have a few (a lot) of frustrations with them....frustrations that I'll save for a later date. ;)

What's the weather like where you live? Rainy? Snowy? Sunny? Just plain cold?

What do you think about DownEast Basics? Quality of clothing and their designs...yay or nay? I really am curious!

Oh and I decided to make this week Harry Potter week, because my roommate and I are throwing a Harry Potter birthday party (both our birthdays were last week) this Friday that is going to be awesome! So I'm in quite the Harry Potter mood more than usual. I'll give you a Harry Potter video or picture every day this week! And then after that I think I'm officially naming Wizard Wednesday on my blog to celebrate Harry Potter every week cuz I love it so much. :D

Here's today's video...I love this because it encompasses all the emotions of why so many love HP so much.

Tutorial: How To Take in a Frumpy/Too Big Cardigan

2011-10-10T09:00:00.000-07:00

So the cardigan I was wearing in the post yesterday and the one I'm wearing now is probably my new favorite cardigan! It's super cute and the perfect color, especially for fall. :) Buuut....I had to fix it first. I thrifted it, so it was a little big and didn't fit completely right and made me look baggy. I'm sure all of you have been able to relate to this at some point. Maybe you bought the cardigan and wore it because you liked the color and style but knew it really didn't look the best on you. Or maybe you saw it in the store, tried it on, and put it back because it just didn't look right. Or maybe you bought and never wore it. Either way, I feel like we all try on cardigans like these! So I've posted a tutorial on how to fix them and make them fit better!

Does your cardigan look like this and make you feel like this?

Then follow these easy instructions to fix your cardigan (and this can also work for t-shirts or dresses that are just a little too wide/big.

1. Take your cardigan and turn it inside-out, try it on and then either pin fit it (meaning you put pins on the spot where you want to take it in) or measure how many inches you will have to take it in to sew it on the side seams and arm seams

2. If you didn't pin fit it while on you, then take it off and measure how much is needed on each side and put the pins into place.

3. Get matching thread in your sewing machine and then sew along where you pinned the cardigan (it's still inside out at this point). See stitch lines below for an example of how I sewed it.

5. Turn it right side out and you're done! Easy right? And then you have a wonderful cardigan that fits great and looks like this and makes you feel like this:

I really do love my red cardigan so much more now after doing this and I wear it a lot more because it fits and looks a lot better! And it took me probably about 15 minutes. So go in your closet, pull out that too-big cardigan you never wear, and get sewing!! :)

Pinterest Friday!

2011-10-07T13:20:00.000-07:00

Yay! Pinterest Friday! Probably my favorite day of the week. Haha you know what's funny is when bloggers say stuff like that and as a reader, you're like, why is this your favorite day of the week? You'd rather have an outfit post (at least that's how I feel when other people do this)! But I love doing it! Because for one, I get to focus on stuff I love and I don't have to focus on me! (ha it's also a little easier and less time consuming than doing an outfit post, I'll be honest) So I truly am sorry if you don't like pinterest Friday, because I know how you feel! But bear with me and know that there will be another outfit post on Monday...most likely. If you're lucky maybe I'll post tomorrow or Sunday. But just so you know, weekends are my break days so I don't have to worry about the blog or scrutinize over wearing something cute if I don't want to. Anyways. Enjoy pinterest.

P.S. I think I better change yesterday's post name to "It's Beginning to Look Like Winter" because it SNOWED yesterday. Wow. I am sorry to all of my fellow Utahns for making you think Autumn was here and here for a while. I was wrong. Mean and cold old Winter pushed beautiful and nice Autumn out of the way. Not cool Mister Winter, not cool. :(

It's Beginning to Look Like Autumn

2011-10-06T09:30:00.000-07:00

it started to rain :)

Well, its definitely starting to feel like fall around here! Its been raining quite a bit the past few days and it's been getting cooler too. The leaves on the ground are getting crunchy and turning into lovely shades of yellow and orange. Midterms are in full swing, Homecoming is here, football games are at their peak, and Halloween decorations are covering store shelves like no other holiday has ever existed. Pumpkin flavored things are in almost every restaurant and every girl is pulling out her rainboots and cardigans for the cooler weather. I like it a lot. :) I feel like it's supposed to be fall and it's a time that I really enjoy. For one, my birthday. And then it means that lots of holidays are coming up: Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. And holidays mean family, breaks from school, fun, and happiness (and fun shopping too!).

Probably the one thing that makes me sad about fall though is the fact that winter is just around the corner. After Christmas, it's winter semester, snow everywhere, no breaks or holidays, cold, not a lot of fun events like sports or stuff, and more sickness. :( Winter in Utah is what makes me want to live in California. But at least for now, fall is one of the reasons that reminds me why I love Utah too. I just hope it stays for a long long time...we could postpone snow until Christmas and I wouldn't mind it one bit!!

And random movie talk now...I watched Titanic today (don't worry, I skipped that one part, if ya know what I mean--it's a lot easier to do when watching it on the computer) because I haven't seen it in a while and I was kind of wanting to. Now I'm just thinking, "Why did I want to watch it again?" Titanic is one of those movies that I think I really love and is a good movie to watch every once in a while, but then for a few days after watching it, I can't stop thinking about all the sad and scary parts. Man, it was so intense and sad to watch. Another bad reason for not having seen it in a while is that I can remember what happens but not enough to convince myself that it will still happen. Like I still get anxious when I'm waiting to see if Jack will survive not drowning in the little basement room and I still get nervous because I'm wanting Rose to just blow the whistle so she survives. Of course, the movie always follows it's plot the way it has before but it still makes me anxious every time. Titanic really is such a good movie. It's very gripping and very sad and it's definitely a nail-biter. It's also a wonderful love story. I can't help but watch it and think how grateful I am that I was not born in that time and that I was not on that ship. I also can't help but just feel for every person on that ship, because I know what's going to happen the whole time, but they don't know. I like it because it focuses on the story of Rose and Jack, but not the entire time. It also shows the other stuff going on the ship, with the captain, the band, all the people on the lifeboats, the people jumping in the water, the crew, etc. Ahh I think I've convinced myself of the amazing-ness of this movie again! haha.

I think the lesson I learn from the movie and story of it (and I don't mean this in an insulting way at all, it's just my observation) was just that the Titanic was a very worldly thing. It was a huge fancy ship and said by many to have been "unsinkable." When they received the warning for the icebergs at night, they didn't stop like other boats, they just kept on going. They were too prideful to have enough lifeboats for all the passengers because it would have cluttered the deck. There were so many rich people on deck that were actually annoyed when told to put on their life jackets and no one wanted to believe that their magnificent ship was sinking. I guess it kind of makes me think about the Second Coming (okay, I'm getting a little churchy here..) and how like the people on Titanic, we need to be prepared, or else we're not going to make it. There were so many people by the end just jumping off the huge boat or clambering into life boats trying to save themselves. Some people didn't even try because they knew they wouldn't succeed. It's so sad. But it teaches me that I need to be ready for that now so that when it does happen, I don't freak out over it because I'll be ready and know it's coming. Sorry was that too LDS missionary sharing/churchy for you? I don't really talk about that stuff on here very often but maybe it's good to, because it is a part of I am and what I think about. And just to clarify, I'm in no way saying the people on the Titanic were bad or that they deserved to die. Not at all! But I do think they could have been more prepared for the outcome of it or could have done so many things to prevent it, as I'm sure many people know. It was just an analogy in my head. Wow, but really, it's a good movie. If you've never seen it (its PG-13 fyi), I'd recommend watching it because I think it's one of those movies that every person should see.

Anyways, why do I write SO much? So much that probably no one reads. Oh well, sorry for all the words taking up space on your browser. I hope it didn't drive you crazy! Have a great Thursday, it's almost the weekend!!!

Best. Day. EVER! :)

2011-10-05T10:00:00.000-07:00

Sooo..it was my birthday yesterday! And can I just say that it was absolutely wonderful?! I couldn't have chosen a better way to transition into 20. I really had absolutely no plans for my birthday, except to go to work and school, which honestly was totally fine by me, but it turned out even better than I could have planned! I woke up to my roommates surprising me with breakfast (pancakes complete with nutella, strawberries, and bacon on the side..yum!) and a decorated apartment! It made me soooo happy!

After being happily filled with love and friendship and food ;), I went to work. Cara, one of my coworkers brought purple cupcakes and a card, which so nice of her! Also, I got my yearly free fudge that the bookstore always gives to its employees on their birthday. :D (sorry no pictures of the cupcakes, though I should have taken some because they were cute!). After that I went to the Homecoming Week kick off celebration thing and ran into my friends Amy and Kirsi there, which was awesome because I would have ended up sitting alone otherwise. After that, I had class (Human Development) and then was just walking around until my work meeting when I ran into Cara (from work) again! It turned out that they were serving free hamburgers on campus for Homecoming week so we waited in line for that and got a free lunch! I like to say they were doing it in honor of my birthday hehe. Then I went to a work meeting, came home and did some homework.

Haha this is the funny part. My roommate Heidi was going to the grocery store to get some cake stuff because she said her aunt needed it for like a young women activity. So I asked her if I could go too, totally oblivious. We went to the guitar class that we're taking together at 6 and then we got back and SURPRISE! there were a bunch of people in my ward in my apartment for a mini surprise party my roommates planned for me! I had no idea it was coming! The funny part is that Heidi went to the store to get stuff to make cupcakes for me! Yeah, I had no idea, which made it all the funnier that I was actually with her while she was getting it. But I was extremely surprised and so grateful that they did that for me.

After that, Katie, Heidi, and I went to the creamery on a search for their Graham Canyon flavored ice cream. Katie and I had never tried it and every time we went, it was always gone! And according to practically everyone else, it was delicious. So we decided that it was time to find it, especially since it was our birthdays (Katie's birthday is today!). We were going to go to all the creameries on campus, but we didn't have to because it was there! Happy day! Katie and I can now confirm to you that yes, Graham Canyon is indeed delicious. Mmmmm.

So you ask me now, after the long descriptions of my celebrations, did I have a good birthday? And between the weekend celebrations with my family and the day celebrations with my friends and roommates, I can definitely say that yes, I had an AMAZING birthday! Probably the best one ever. I'm sooo grateful for my family and how much they love me and show it to me. I'm sooo soooo very grateful for the best roommates ever. Seriously, if you think you have great roommates, you haven't met mine!

One year ago when I turned 19, I felt really lonely, unloved, and I even cried on my birthday (because I was sad). It was really hard. Well a year later, I'm 20, and I'm so grateful I went through all of that so that I could have the roommates I have now. This year, I'm surrounded by people that love me and truly care about me. And I'm crying. But this time...it's because I'm happy. :)

Thank you sooooo much to the best friends and family a girl could ever have!!! I love you!

Random Black and White

2011-10-04T21:07:00.000-07:00

Me and my camera :) Also, I'm wearing the best shirt ever! Minnie Mouse designing and "Fashion is my Passion" :)

So I got a new nice camera (well, it used to be my dad's so it's not brand new, but either way, I adore it) for my birthday so I took some random pictures today and yesterday! I edited them and put them in black and white because there's something about black and white that I love. These pictures are mostly just for fun because I'm still trying to figure out the whole photography thing..I'm definitely not a professional. But it is fun! :)

One Girl

2011-10-03T19:46:00.000-07:00

Have you heard of the Girl Effect? Watch this video first.

Did you know...

...that today, more than 600 million girls live in the developing world.
...that more than one-quarter of the population in Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, and sub-Saharan Africa are girls and young women ages 10 to 24.
...that approximately one-quarter of girls in developing countries are not in school.
...that one girl in seven in developing countries marries before age 15.
...that one-quarter to one-half of girls in developing countries become mothers before age 18; 14 million girls aged 15 to 19 give birth in developing countries each year.
...that a survey in India found that girls who married before age 18 were twice as likely to report being beaten, slapped, or threatened by their husbands as were girls who married later.
...and that 75 percent of 15- to 24-year-olds living with HIV in Africa are female, up from 62 percent in 2001. [source here]

Yeah.

So this is the girl effect. The first time I watched that video, I was first kind of shocked to realize what goes on in other countries and these places and how bad it is. And then I was even more shocked to realize that the solution really could be so simple. Just a 12 year-old girl.

I feel like I, as an American girl, as a student, as blogger, as a girl who is living a productive and healthy life, and as a girl with so many resources, need to make a difference. When I watch videos like these, I don't want to just sit around deciding my outfit for tomorrow. I don't want to look at magazines or runway shows or design clothes. Because as much as I love doing those things, I have a responsibility to make a difference and spread the word.

So I'm sharing this with you and I hope you'll blog about it too. We need the world to know about this because it's important! We can make a difference!

And how can we make a difference? You might be wondering. Well first, you can blog about this. You can share one of the videos from here on facebook or twitter. You can donate money, because even a little bit helps. Girls get less than 2 cents of every dollar! How much do you get paid at your job? You can talk about this with other people or give presentations as well. There is so much you can do!

I think the thing that really gets to me the most with this is the fact that the twelve year-old girl in the video could have been me. She is just like me, she was just born in a different situation. I'm so blessed to be where I am and I want to bless a twelve year-old girl's life as well. Who's with me? Let the Girl Effect run wild!!

Go to girleffect.org for more information. I'm linking up here, so if you want to join the Girl Effect blogging campaign, please write a blog post about it, link up, share, and read others' posts! :)

P.S. I Love My Coral Blazer

2011-10-03T15:04:00.000-07:00

I love this outfit! The blazer just makes it and I especially love the touch that the ballerina necklace (above) gives it. Plus I love the oxfords, the bag, the color scheme. And the blazer. Did you know I really love my coral blazer? Just so you know..I love my blazer :)

Wow, I look so happy in these pictures! I love it! I just love how happy I am these days because it's wonderful and it shows. A year ago was a different story...but I'm happy now!! Soooo happy!

One thing that makes me happy is that my birthday is tomorrow! What?! I'm gonna be 20 and it's still freaking me out. At least I have a year to get used to it, right? I got to go home for the weekend to watch General Conference and celebrate my birthday with my family! It was so fun. Saturday we watched conference and I also played with chalk with my sibs, Gracie and Cee Ryle. Oh and during conference they announced that they were going to rebuild Provo Tabernacle into another Provo temple! It was awesome news! Then in between conference sessions we went to the Cheesecake Factory, which was super delish. We'd never been there before but were definitely satisfied! And yes, they sang to me. ;) That night while my dad and brother were at priesthood session, all of us girls went thrifting with my aunt, grandma, and cousins, which was pretty fun. I got some good stuff including a purple blazer, a men's shirt in a pretty mustard yellow color (I'm gonna refashion it into something like this, this, or this), a skinny gray belt, some white Keds, and the book Deception Point by Dan Brown.

On Sunday we watched General Conference again and celebrated my birthday! My relatives came over and we had cake and ice cream and opened presents. Gracie and I picked raspberries from our raspberry bush too. :) Man I love that little girl soooo much! Oooh, but guess what I got? A new camera! EEEE! It's actually my dad's old one (not that it's old) that I use every time I go home and my parents gave it to me, so I'm pretty ecstatic! Its a Fujifilm Finepix S7000 and I can't wait to take lots of fun pictures with it!

Gracie got me a Dorothy barbie! :)

Happy as can be with my new camera!

The Minnie Mouse cake my mom made! She always makes ammaaazing cakes :D

best friends :)

All in all, it was a wonderful weekend and I wouldn't have wanted it spent any other way! My family made me feel so loved for my birthday, and honestly, that's all that I really want for my birthday--to be loved! (although I'm definitely not complaining about the camera..haha) As for my real birthday tomorrow, I truly have no idea what I'm doing besides the usual school stuff! Hopefully something lots of fun. Of course I do have two papers due and a test to take this week so who knows. ;)

Oh and this is random but does anyone have any ideas of what 5 girls can be for Halloween? We're trying to figure out a costume for our department at work and I would gladly take any ideas! Thanks!

P.S. I love my blazer!! haha, I had to ;)

100 Years of Fashion

2011-09-30T12:00:00.000-07:00

Oooh I just think this video is wonderful! In 100 seconds it goes through 100 years of fashion, as well as music and dancing. Way fun! :)

This Week On Pinterest

2011-09-30T09:30:00.000-07:00

Pinterest favorites of the week:

Just click on the picture to go to the Pinterest link! I think I'm gonna start doing this every Friday. I love pinterest!! :) Follow my board and give me the link to yours so I can follow you too!

Sleeping...Sleeping...ZZZZZ

2011-09-29T09:30:00.000-07:00

White tee: DownEast Basics; Yellow Tank: JC Penney; Necklace/Belt/Watch: F21; Skirt: Grocery Store (believe it or not!); Shoes: BYU Bookstore

Hmmm I'm tired. I have a story to tell but I think I'll save it for tomorrow because I just don't feel like writing it all right now. So stay tuned. :)

You will all be reading this in the morning but technically I'm writing it at night. And for the most part, I feel like I am a night person but I think I have been becoming a little more of a morning person every day considering I have work early in the morning. It's definitely good for me, but it also means that at night, when before I used to be wide awake and able to do stuff, now I find myself falling asleep at my computer or letting my fingers do things like this:

dddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd

(Yes, that did happen as I started drowsing off while writing this post)

Oh I'm a funny sleeper. At night right before I get to bed I just get all woozy and then while I sleep, I often sleep talk--every roommate I've ever had has found me multiple times talking in my sleep and I've also woken myself up doing it too. And then when I wake up in the morning, I lumber around like a gorilla and don't talk to anyone and don't think much either. It's pretty attractive. My poor future husband (if there ever is one..I've probably just ruined my chances with every boy telling these secrets haha).

What crazy/silly sleep habits do you have? I really would love to hear it. I'm always up for a good laugh!

Now then..I'll just go............to.......... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. ;) Good night. (except really good morning because that's when you're reading this ha)

On Days of Birth

2011-09-28T09:00:00.000-07:00

Blouse: Gap; Skirt: Target; Shoes: TJ Maxx

I wore this a while ago at home (parent's house) during Labor Day weekend I believe. That was the last time I went home and I'm going back this weekend! Yippee, I cannot wait. :) I'll be watching conference and also celebrating my birthday with my fam. Because guess what else: it's my birthday next week! I'm gonna be 20 years old in a week and it's freakin me out a little. To be honest, I'm a little scared for my birthday to come and here's why:

I don't want to have a sad birthday where no one remembers and it's just lame.
I'm not 20, nor do I want to be 20! I feel 19. I am 19. I will stay 19. I am NOT 20. My mom got married when she was 20 and I thought she was old. And now I will be 20. So as long as my birthday doesn't come I won't turn 20. (Too many 20s at one time, sorry, I will try to not burden you with that terrible number)
Once a birthday comes, it's over so fast and then you have to wait again until the next year. :( I like looking forward to it and looking forward to a happy day. And it's fun when it's here (unless it's not--see #1) but then it's gone and life is normal again.

But some good things about birthdays?

Well...I will be 20, which means people might consider me an adult. Might being the key word here. And being 20 means I will finally be the same age as all of the people in my grade, which will be nice.
Presents and cake and celebrations!
I really do love my birthday and it's such a happy day when it comes. A day that would have been completely normal becomes magical and special and a day of your own. I love the magic of birthdays and am grateful to live in a society that celebrates them.
My roommate (her birthday is the day after mine) and I will be throwing a Harry Potter party and it's gonna be the bomb. I mean it. :D

So..I'm torn. Either way though, it's going to come and I'll have to live with it, so I might as well be happy. :)

What's your favorite part about birthdays?

Also, thank you for the helpful comments about helping me feel better! I really appreciate them so much! I'm still a little sick (almost two weeks later!!) but am feeling almost all better. My voice just has a tiny bit of rasp to it but I can finally sing to the music in my car! I have to admit that not being able to sing at the top of my lungs was killing me. Goodness.

Procrastinating, Poor Health, and Pinterest

2011-09-21T15:37:00.000-07:00

I took these pictures back during Labor Day weekend and they make me want a nice camera sooo bad! It's so fun to take pictures and I want to learn how to do better ones...someday. *sigh*

School and life are so busy! I really have not had time to blog and technically don't have time right now, but me and my best friend Procrastination are putting off a paper and blogging seemed like the perfect excuse. ;) But I really love my classes..when I'm healthy enough to go them! I've been sick since last Thursday which totally stinks! I think it's a cold. It started out with a sore throat and a runny nose, then a gained a cough and an achy body and just feeling sick overall, and then I also lost my voice. And I had two dates last week but I had to unfortunately postpone them because I just was not feeling up to it. My voice has been terribly croaky since Saturday (so imagine this post being read in a voice that sounds like a girl with a man voice..if that makes sense haha) and I was feeling better Monday and yesterday but I feel worse today with a sore throat and runny nose again. Ah! I'm ready to be healthy again!! Anyways, sorry for the vent.

In other news, I haven't sewn since school started (no time :( sooooo sad), last night I bakes some quick nutella cookies and parmesan knots (both found from pinterest) that both tasted delish and today I made some Nutella hot cocoa (also found on pinterest) that was alright but not as amazing as I hoped. Pinterest is pretty darn great I'd have to say. Want an invite? Comment and leave me your email address and I'll send you one. And then add me!!

Wish me luck on writing this paper! Any good tips on getting rid of a cold? Anyone want to write a paper..? (just kidding..well kind of...ok, really though, I'm kidding!) ;)

Not Cool

2011-08-31T22:00:00.000-07:00

Sooo today, I was at this ward party thing which was all lots of fun. Well I was talking to a bunch of guys in my ward and somehow this question from one of the guys came up that just made me incredibly mad. He asked, "If you had to choose between a wife who had cheated on you once but then repented and never did again and a wife who gained 100 pounds within the first year of marriage and could never lose it back, which one would you choose?"

Holy cow that question sent me into a fury. How could someone even ask that question (and if you are reading this, you know who you are and I don't care if you're reading this because it made me mad and I want you to know that)?! That is practically like saying cheating on your spouse and gaining 100 pounds are equal, which they are not equal at ALL. I just can't even put into words right now how angry this made me, and don't you worry, I told those boys how awful they were and I argued with them. I spoke up because I did not want to deal with that crap. And then I just walked away because it made me sooo angry. It especially made me mad when the guy who asked the question said his answer changed from day to day. Wow. It made me SO MAD.

So a message to every guy out there in the world: You have no idea how much your comments can sometimes hurt girls. We girls are very insecure and very body conscious. And it's partially because there are pigs like you out there. If you have the audacity to ask a question like that and even sit there and answer it, then I hope someone cheats on you because you deserve it. That sounds harsh, but if you love someone, you love them no matter what. Whether they weigh 120 pounds or 300, it shouldn't matter to you. And if it does, well then you definitely do not deserve that beautiful and special girl. Every single girl in this world is beautiful and they do not have to look like a model or stay looking like a model to achieve that. Some girls act like gaining weight is the end of the world sometimes (me included) but you cannot make fun of us for that if you are going to act like if it's the end of the world to you too. It's not all your fault, but girls think this way because they are trying to impress you, and if you care about something as utterly pointless as weight, then I hope you stay single for the rest of your life.

I don't care if this post offends anyone or makes someone mad, because I am furious. I HATE it when boys talk about caring about weight and compare it something as awful as cheating on your spouse. I refuse to marry a boy that cares about what I weigh. I will not take it and I hope other girls out there won't take it either. I know there are great guys out there who are wonderful about those things and I hope I meet one soon. Because wow. So mad and just seriously appalled.

[P.S. I did make the shirt and it's my favorite. That is completely irrelevant but I just had to point that out because it was a happy part of my day--in case you haven't guessed, the above story was NOT a happy part of my day. Just saying.]

Look Mom, I Made a Shirt!

2011-08-30T13:40:00.000-07:00

See that pretty purple flowery skirt in the above photos? Do you like it? Well, I hope so, because whether you like it or love it or hate it, I made it! Sooo great, huh? I guess it just feels great to me to make my own clothes. The wonderful thing is that my grandma gave me a ton of fabric that she wasn't going to use, so this shirt was also FREE! Life doesn't get much better than this.

Storytime: When I was younger (aka junior high/high school) I hated sewing. I really did not like it at all. I was just pretty darn terrible at it, or so I thought. Like for Personal Progress (a goal program thing for girls 12-18 in the LDS church) I sewed a skirt as one of my projects and I am pretty sure that I needed help on that thing every step of the way. My mom probably did more work on it than I did (sorry, Mami!). And it wasn't a super enjoyable process for me because I just did not like sewing and I thought I was awful at it. The most enjoyable part was wearing it. And in sophomore year of high school my friends Courtney and Laura and I decided to sew matching cute bags to take to school. Well, they probably did a lot of the work on that bag because I was so clueless. I didn't even know one bit how to use a sewing machine! The funny thing is that I still use that bag all the time today and when people say "Oh that's so cute, where did you get it?!" I say "I made it," and they say, "Oh of course you did," because a lot of people know how much I love to sew. But I just smile because that bag is a remnant of my sewing-hatred days.

I'm not really sure what changed inside of me, but I have always been very crafty. I used to make cards and stuff all the time, I made pen pals (see below), then I moved on to fabric flowers (also see below) and eventually I just wanted to sew clothes and my love of sewing has blossomed since.

Pen Pals! I still love these. I got the idea from an American Girl magazine forever ago!

Fabric flowers--I apologize, these aren't the best flowers I've made, but they work

The funny thing with me is that I am a very obsessive person, so I really love some things (sewing, Carrie Underwood, purple, wearing coral, etc.) and I really hate others (vegetables, spiders, heights, any talk of blood or gross bodily stuff, and back when I hated sewing). So I am like super obsessive with something (sometimes more than one thing) at a time. I used to be a very avid reader. I'd take a book everywhere. My parents would come downstairs and tell me to go to bed so I'd turn off my light, and then when they were gone I'd turn the light on again and finish the book that night. I'd read during school while teachers were lecturing (and still get a good grade in the class! ha!). I'd take my book in the car or I'd take a book into a restaurant and read while waiting for my food or while I was eating my food (my parents got annoyed by that one) and all the time I would read. I was reading at a college level by 8th grade.

And now...I sew. People will ask me to hang out, and if I'm the middle of a sewing project, I always decline. My motivation to get my homework done during the week is so that I can sew on the weekend. I have to keep going until I finish and I will lock myself up in my room until I'm done. Basically, I'll see people in my ward and they say, "Where have you been? I haven't seen you for a while, did you go on vacation?" And my answer is always, "I've been sewing." Gah, I am sooo pathetic! But I'm a sewing hermit and I don't mind at all.

So that's my super long schpeel about my process of sewing going from a hatred to an obsession. It just goes to show that we really could probably love anything if we just let ourselves. :) Have a fab Tuesday!!

What is Beautiful?

2011-08-29T20:17:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend I bought the September issue of Vogue (which btw, is amazing--go buy it!) and was inspired by this Fekkai ad. I really liked it a lot. It's cool because it shows the dress being made, then it shows it in the store window, and then it shows it on the girl wearing it.

The quotes in the pictures:

"Taking chances.

Grand gestures and acts of grace.

That is beautiful."

"The confidence of yes. The power of no.

The sense of adventure. The labors of love.

That is beautiful."

"When you enter a room and leave an impression.

When no one's watching and all eyes are upon you.

That is beautiful."

(the quote under the photo of Frederic Fekkai)

"Beautiful is how a woman lives. Beauty is in the mind, not the mirror. My question is not, 'What do you want to do with your hair?' but rather 'What do you want to do with your life?' That is beautiful. And that's where Fekkai begins"

I especially love that last quote. I like these sayings because for once, an ad isn't saying that beauty is how you look. Adventure. Love. Grace. Being able to say yes and no. Confidence. Taking chances. None of which depend on how you look. Granted, all the girls in the ad are all sultry-looking models, but still, I like the ad.

It got me to thinking that true beautiful women are not recognized enough in our society. At all. All the models are represented plenty in magazines and on tv, and I'm not saying they aren't beautiful. But I am saying that they are not the only ones who are. I don't know if I talk about it as much as I should, but I feel strongly about women's issues and I want to speak out about it more. I want to recognize women for what they've done, what they've overcome, who they have helped, and who they are. Every woman is beautiful and strong in some way. You might feel like you're not, but I promise that you are.

First Day of School!

2011-08-29T17:38:00.000-07:00

BYU is back in business ;)

New shoes!! So cute! Though I walked so much around campus and my feet kinda hurt now.

This was how I felt about the first day of school. :) yep.

It came! Everyone came! I had my first day of my 3rd year at BYU today and it was wonderful. Random thoughts about the day...

So this morning I curled my hair and I kid you not--like less than half an hour later the curls died! And they just died more the rest of the day! :( Hairspray and I are going to become best friends very soon...
EEEEE! I love school.
Today I had Intro to Family Processes, Strengthening Marriage and Family, and Costume Design! All of which have great teachers and all of which I LOVE!! (not to mention I unintentionally know 4 people in my Family Processes class..yay!)
I didn't wear my coral blazer most of the day because it was kind of hot. But I love it still and will be wearing it a lot during this year.
There are soooo many people on campus! I'm not used to it because there were a lot less during spring and summer.
I couldn't stop smiling at people today because I just wanted to smile and because I'm happy.
This doesn't have to do with classes, but the other day, my camera overheated and it went psycho! Like instead of looking like this...

They looked like this...

Weird, but cool.

Those were some of the things I thought about today as I walked from class to class or sat in class or just enjoyed the fact that I have class and that I. Am. So. Excited. I love school! The nerd in me is just bursting today. :)

How was everyone else's first day of school? Do you guys still get nervous, because I definitely do! And what cute outfits did you wear (I know you planned something cute..everyone does haha)? Let's hear about it!! I love talking about back to school stuff!

My First Maxi Dress

2011-08-25T14:23:00.000-07:00

Oh look! I decided to blog. Isn't that cool? Ha truth be told, I am so bored right now, which is actually a first for this summer. I feel like I've been sooo busy playing with friends every night, sewing (A LOT), working, reading, sleeping, and just doing fun stuff. I think it's been harder to blog this summer because I haven't worn a ton of "outfits" since it gets too hot to layer and it's so much easier to wear a t-shirt and shorts if no one is going to see you. Anyways, I really wasn't sure when I was going to pick up blogging again but I guess now is a good time to start and I'm gonna make it a habit again now that school's starting up.

I feel like saying "my first maxi dress" is like saying "my first doll" or "my first car" or something like that. It's kind of a momentous occasion considering maxi dresses are AMAZING! Holy cow I love this dress. And it's all thanks to the fact that I am shorter than my sister so something finally got handed up to me. :D

I'm currently sewing a maxi dress right now (it's kind of simple, but it's my own design!) and it is just going to be so gorgeous! I have been sewing a lot of stuff as of late. I just finished sewing a dress that I gave to my sister Carina for her birthday yesterday...

She loved it :) It made me so happy to see her happy!

....and I've also made two shirts and another dress and have done a few refashions. I really like sewing and designing very much. It just makes me happy and I could probably do it all day. Something I want to do so very badly is go to the Fashion District in LA and go shopping for fabric, because they sell it for like a $1 a yard!! Heaven! This is a very big dream of mine lately (and also while I'm there go to Disneyland, the beach, a broadway musical, and Hollywood). I'm going to try and save up, so I hope it happens soon.

I am glad to be back and I'm so excited for the new school year that starts on Monday! It went by so fast and it kind of freaks me out a little. AH! Can't wait for all the new things life throws at me though.. ;)

Oh...I am just so happy. Life is wonderful :)

The Best Shoes In the World

2011-08-03T08:00:00.000-07:00

Double french braid...easier than it looks! One of my new favorite hairstyle because it looks so pretty :)

You're probably pretty jealous of my heels (and my amazing Harry Potter toenails!). And you have good reason to be. And if you're not jealous of them, then you're either a guy or just plain crazy and I will tell you WHY they are the BEST.

1. They're wedges, so they are actually possible to walk in and not trip.
2. They're comfortable. What? Comfortable heels?! Yes.
3. They are the perfect color for summer and winter and literally go with every.thing.
4. They make me taller, something that is quite desirable for a girl who is only 5'2".
5. They make my skin not look white (I can't say they make my skin look tan..but better than nothing, right?)
6. They're classy
7. They are all MINE
8. Somehow, they add everything to an outfit. Off, the outfit is okay...On, the outfit suddenly turns fabulous! True story..I promise!
9. All of the above.

You're jealous now, huh? Ha, I knew it! Only too bad, you can't have them, because the only drawback to these shoes is that if I take them off, they take a few minutes to put on. Therefore, they are never coming off my feet. Good thing they're the best shoes in the world, right? :)

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2011-07-29T09:30:00.000-07:00

I wore this outfit a while ago and it's a pretty simple one..which brings me to another reason for why I didn't blog for a month. It sounds weird, but I kind of needed a break from trying to dress cute every day. Don't get me wrong, I still dressed very cute, but I didn't let myself care nearly as much. And summer's hard because it can get SO hot outside and who wants to try and dress fashionably when its so much easier to wear a t-shirt and shorts? Sometimes Utah just kills me!

On another completely random note, I seriously have such a problem biting my nails. It took me 19 years to admit it..but its true. :( Ok, well in truth I've always known I've had this problem but my nails are so gross sometimes! It really isn't always awful but lately I have to keep putting a band-aid on my right hang index finger because its way too short and yet I keep trying to bite it and it hurts. Putting a band-aid on is the only thing to stop me! Any advice so that I can at least minimize nail biting without band-aids on all of my fingers. Goodness gracious that would be awful. Worse than short, gross nails! Unfortunately, nail polish doesn't work and even if I put it on, I think my nails would just look worse. Do me a favor and next time you see me just don't look at my nails? hehe thanks. Now we know the real reason there are no close ups in these pictures.

Oh and hey, guess what? It's FRIDAY! Do a little dance, sing this song, and have a wonderful day and weekend! You deserve it! What are your weekend plans? I'm going home tonight to go to my aunt's wedding in Idaho tomorrow and then finally going to my Provo ward on Sunday! About time, considering I haven't been there for like 3 weeks. Oops..inactive anyone? (just kidding! promise!)

One more thing..this hairstyle has saved my life. Pull it up high into a messy bun after a day with curly hair. Messy, but cute! (and quick!)