"Wander a whole summer if you can. Thousands of God's blessings will search you and soak you as if you were a sponge, and the big days will go by uncounted. If you are business-tangled and so burdened by duty that only weeks can be got out of the heavy laden year, give a month at least. The time will not be taken from the sum of life. Instead of shortening, it will indefinitely lengthen it and make you truly immortal." - John Muir

Posting this everywhere, cause I love it that much.

Weekend Projects!

As I said last weekend, I wanted to do a lot of crafts since I finally had time to relax, and didn't have any homework or major studying to do. So, I just wanted to share my final products, cause I'm actually quite proud of them! 

I made my niece's communion veil all while watching a TON of How I Met Your Mother. Honestly, when I started working on it, I just had a super vague idea of what I wanted to do. But I'm really happy with how it turned out. My detailed picture kinda sucks, but I made little fabric flowers out of the same material as the veil and sewed on rhinestone centers.

I think as a kid, I was a little deprived cause all of the cool kids made friendship bracelets except me. So now I'm just making up for lost time. Already made one for my niece and 2 friends! (They take forever.) I found the awesome tutorial here.

So that's it. Haha, I feel like this post was pretty anti-climatic cause I was super excited to show off my finished products. I'm still proud of them though.. :)

Sometimes all you need is for someone, without any coercion, to say, "Hey, how are you doing?" in order to know that you're not alone.




And by "you" and mean me.

Necessary

After being at school for over 12 hours and only going through the day on a cup of coffee, one Cup of Noodles, and some goldfish crackers, going home and making myself a grilled cheese sandwich was all I could think about. Finding the strawberries in my fridge that I had bought earlier this week for only 99 cents was a nice bonus and made for a perfect dessert!

Yup, good food de-stresses me.

Last night, or rather this morning...

You were in my dream,
and smiled a smile I hadn't seen in years.
Or maybe ever?

We tried to help your sister escape.
And there were characters from my past,
and my present,
and Game of Thrones,
and the police in Hunger Games.

It was nice.
Trippy, but nice.

Crafty cubed

Apparently the only time I like to blog is when I don't want to study for my exams... I cannot wait for this weekend! Mostly cause it will mean that I will be done with my midterm and won't have to study anymore. HUGE plan for this weekend: Crafty hermit.

Projects include:
-Communion veil
-Camera strap
-Chevron bracelets


This weekend may also include, but is not limited to:
-Pj's all day
-Baking cookies that I've been craving
-Star Wars Trilogy?
-Finally finishing the second Hunger Games??

Pictures to come! (..if I remember to or don't get lazy..)

Being sick

My excuse to splurge on orange juice. Some pulp. 

Finals Week pt. 2!

Random things:

-I literally sat in the same chair for 10 hours straight yesterday, minus maybe10 minutes for one bathroom break.
-My library diet: Cheez it party mix, red bull, kettle chips, bugles, dried mangoes, 2 crushed thin mints, and leftover rice.
-Yesterday while I had to walk up a giant hill in the pouring rain I realized that both of my rain boots are torn. This is not okay. I don't remember what I did before I had rain boots.
-It's been so cold lately, and I remember thinking in the shower yesterday that it is perfect pho weather. But I was bummed cause 1. I didn't think I'd have time to go 2. I had no one to go with. But today, I told myself to get out of bed 5 minutes before I had planned to, so I could say goodbye to my landlords. And they invited me out to eat pho! It was great. I have the most awesome landlords evaa. (haha.. "evaaa")
-There was the most freaking cute hipster couple that sat next to me at the library yesterday. It would've been disgusting of they weren't so endearing.
-Sundays Pandora playlists so far: The Beatles & The Shins
-Point estimation and hypothesis testing are gonna kick my butt.
-I realized the more I study, the more I simultaneously procrastinate on Pinterest.

I really, really like this cover by Ben Folds.

Observations

So I consider myself a rather observant person.. I suppose more than the average person. After going to large schools in recent years and not having that many friends to interact with, I've found myself just staring at people around me, taking in unique characteristics and such. Yeah, it's kinda weird. But there were 2 particular observations that stood out today. And I just feel like sharing just because.

1. It always kinda surprises me how many hipsters go to my school. Today I noticed one in particular with a familiar face.. long, shaggy hair tied in a ponytail, fake Raybans, fitted pants rolled up above the ankle.  It would not surprise me if I saw this guy wearing a green vest tomorrow and ask me to save some whales. But when he turned around, dangling from his burlap knapsack was a freaking solar charger. Coolest guy ever.

2. While at a stoplight close to home, I was stopped close to a once white van, now stained gray with age. It was the large windowless van that small bands might decide to do tours in. Mostly, it's known as the van girls tend to avoid because you can enter it and not come out alive. On the dashboard, I noticed a skull. Weird thing #1. As it speeds past me, I see the fish magnet that can be found on many cars. But instead of saying "Jesus," like most do, it said "Satan." I then proceeded to curse in my head (and maybe a little out loud). Weird thing #2. As I drove past, I inadvertently turned and saw a bearded man in his late twenties just staring at me. I never want to leave my house again.

Most useless post ever. :)

It's the times when I want to questions God's motives when I need to trust in Him the most.

So I took the train home for the first time this weekend.  And once we finally got off, you just saw people looking around for familiar faces while others shared their hugs and kisses.  The rough week had left me exhausted, but I still couldn't help but smile while looking around at all of the love around. The final scene from Love Actually popped up into my head. And even though we were at a train station and not an airport, I could still hear the Beach Boys singing "God Only Knows" in my head.

There is something incredibly comforting when seeing the familiar face of your best friend in his grandpa cardigan, ready to give you a hug that erase all of the stress you felt before.


I've come to the conclusion that I like train stations.

Getting butterflies, even after 3 years.

Rough Week

Holly: The mean reds are horrible. Suddenly you're afraid and you don't know what you're afraid of. Do you ever get that feeling?

Paul: Sure.

Holly: Well, when I get it the only thing that does any good is to jump in a cab and go to Tiffany's. Calms me down right away. 

I had a post planned earlier this week, but tiring stuff happened. I found myself browsing the Tiffany's website for fun just now, and I thought of this quote. So I'm sharing it on my sad, lonely blog that I have been neglecting. 

Life is hard, but life is good.

Reminder:

Sometimes the things you do, or don't do, hurt more than you realize.
I must practice kindness and love.

Thoughts of the day

1. Lah dah dee diddum 
   Lah dah dee doom doo ditto 
   Dum doo lah dee doh 
2. I have the cutest niece of all time. 
3. Reheated BJ's skinny fries aren't bad. 
4. Don't want to write this paper.  Don't want to write this paper. 
5. How does my room manage to go from 0 to complete mess in 15 seconds?
6. I miss my best friend already. 

Trapped like a groundhog in snow.

I feel like I have been waiting for this day for months.  I honestly don't remember the last time I felt this antsy. Going on a total of 5 hours of sleep (3 hours at night + 2 hours during my nap in the library's basement).  I've been at school since 730 this morning, and I am stuck here until about 930 at night. THAT IS 14 HOURS.

I might just run to my car after my midterm.  There's a good chance that I will be overwhelmed with exhaustion, but it's more likely that the adrenaline rush from finally being able to leave school will help me get through the drive. That and I'll be blasting my to and from SD playlist.

Things I'm looking forward to doing when I'm finally home (in no particular order):
-hug my mom like there's no tomorrow
-read my letter from University of Sussex
-catch up with old friends
-have dinner with some good company
-go to church (I miss St. I)
-celebrate life and love with my best friend in the whole freaking world.

Yeah. It's gonna be a good weekend. :)

I am flawed and broken.
But He makes me want to be better.
It's comforting to know that after a long, tiring day like this
and an even longer day tomorrow,
that with the Lord, anything is possible.


O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

Favorite

Yosemite HD from Project Yosemite on Vimeo.

This was definitely one of the most amazing time lapses that I've ever seen.  It wasn't until I watching it this might be the first summer in years that I'm not going to Yosemite to hike. I am hoping this will not be true. 

In case you didn't know.. giraffe.

I had way too much fun doing this.. Just call me another teenage girl who likes to play with light art.. cause it's freaking fun and I'm not ashamed of this. And let's ignore the fact that I haven't been a teenager for over a year.

Because..

(1) I just helped my friend redecorate her room, and it looked cute. So I wanted to redecorate mine. But I am too lazy/weak to move furniture around in my room, so this was the extent of my decorating.
(2) Looking at pictures of my favorite people helps with the homesickness and replaces it with a smiles.
(3) I printed approximately 100 pictures over break and needed a reason to justify getting so many.
(4) I had gotten relatively okay at posting almost every day and didn't want to skip my lazy Monday.