The Beach and a Jewelry Thief.

This past weekend was Memorial Day weekend (aka- 3 days with no school!) so Adam and I took a trip home. We got to see a good chunk of Adam's family including visiting siblings- Kevin, Shalee (Hi, Shalee!!), and Kristi with her family. I sped home to hang out with my mom before she left for a church retreat with my sister. This left me with my dad and four year old dog, Kona, for the weekend. We kept busy by planting flowers and tomatoes, grilling pizzas and burgers, and we even took Kona to the beach!

Remember the Mother's Day planters I made? Look how much they've grown! The "flowers" in that lower pot were actually weeds- ha! They've been replaced with much prettier flowers since then.  

Kona loves the beach. He's about to pull my arm off!

Eyeballing me.

I never understand why people swim/surf here. Soooo cold, windy, dreary, and miserable!

He got a little too brave. That little speck is him!

I didn't catch a picture of it, but the stinker decided to root around a dead, rotting seagull and later found a nice pile of dog poo to sniff at. Later, we took him to walk around the shops in Westport and one of the owners came out to say hi to my cute pup. She proceeded to let him french kiss her. Dad and I were both holding back fits of laughter/gagging because she was doing this not 10 minutes after he licked everything dead on the beach. YUCK.

One benefit of Mom and Morgan both leaving for the weekend is that I had full access to Morgan's closet and makeup stash.

Sidebar- I got to right here in writing this post when our lovely toilet overflowed for no apparent reason (this is the SECOND time this has happened. Grrrr). Looks like I get to do multiple loads of toilet-water towels tomorrow. Yay. 

Anyway, back to my point.  I scavenged through old boxes and came up with a ton of old jewelry (which may or may not have been my sister's...):

Exhibit A

I also found an awesome Ikea rack I bought years ago with good intentions but never used. It is now holding pens and misc. crafty goodness next to my desk. I got so excited after finding a stash of my old cds. Unfortunately, I could only find all the burnt mixed cds which were okay but not what I was looking for. Adam and I skipped through them all the way home... until he couldn't take anymore early 2000s R&B ;)

Adam thoroughly enjoying my rediscovered Savage Garden. 

I'd better get to bed so I can go to the laundry mat early in the morning. Oh, the joys of living in an apartment with horrible plumbing and no washer. :)

Pop or Soda?

I say soda. Everybody else I know (except my Aunt Susie, I believe?) uses "pop". Either way, I hardly ever drink the stuff except when I'm crafting. I blame my mom, there is just something about crafting that makes me yearn for a soda. Lucky for me the 7-11 closest to my apartment has the absolute best soda machine! You can choose your poison (for me, diet coke) and add in cherry, vanilla, or lemon flavoring. Addictive, I tell you!

PS- I am never again using Blogger from my phone. Wonky formatting and the picture refuses to turn upright.

A Space to Create

At long last I have a desk to blog from! The last two years I have had a housing-provided desk and never had a reason to buy my own. When I moved into my first unfurnished apartment I have slowly added furniture when I found a piece I loved (mostly from Goodwill). The last item I was in desperate need for was a desk! Having two bookshelves, a bed, night stand, and dresser in one 12X10 room was getting a little tight so I didn't think I would have the space for a worthwhile desk. I also had a very specific criteria (which a store-bought desk could hardly meet in my student's price range). I wanted a ton of storage, enough space to store both my crafting supplies and books, and I was tossing around the idea of a standing-height desk. I was not feeling optimistic about finding all of these details until I saw a Pinterest-ing idea of making a desk out of two bookshelves with a large piece of wood on top. Since I had two bookshelves in my room already, re-purposing one into a desk was the perfect solution to making more space. Luckily I bought that bookshelf at Fred Meyer originally two years ago and not only did they still carry the exact make/color, it was on sale. Destiny, I tell you!

See my farmer's market cat picture on the wall??

It might not look like much- but I LOVE it. Each "leg" has 9 cubbies- perfect. The desk is 36" tall and deep, and 45" wide. The table top is just plywood covered in a cheap vinyl table cloth for now. Someday I'll paint the wood underneath and actually secure it to the shelves (right now there's just grippy shelf liners to hold everything in place, which seems to be going well). This was my first time ordering something from a real, live lumber store. I even gave them dimensions and they cut the giant piece down to size for me. As you can tell, I'm extremely excited about this whole thing! :)

This is what happens to my bed when I break out the Silhouette.

If only you could see the other half of my bedroom. It does not look this clean.

Here is my new space in all it's glory! I love having the option of either standing or sitting on the stool. It makes me feel like I'm burning calories while blogging/pinteresting. :)

Bonus- my Silhouette has a home! I no longer have to balance it on my dresser. I hope this means I will have a reason to use it even more than I already do.

The project I'm hard at work on in these pictures is for a class presentation. We're presenting to a group of "first time mommies" (i.e. good-humored classmates) and those are going to be the table centerpieces. More on that later. I'm off to fully organize my new desk (and, you know, do homework and things of that nature!) I'll upload prettier pictures when I get everything perfectly organized! :)

P.S.- Shout out to Mom for surprising me with a new Silhouette blade. I forgot how that machine is actually supposed to perform! :)

Mother's Day Extravaganza!

After all the gift/card making and post office visits, Mother's Day has finally come and gone. I am crashed on the couch with a big mug of D&M coffee recovering from this weekend. Shopping and eating is hard work! Mom drove over to spend the weekend with her favorite daughter (the other one was left at home and ended up suffering from a golf ball to the head- ouch!). Mom got in late Friday afternoon and we started out our weekend by seeing The Five Year Engagement. The next day we got up at the crack of dawn (HA!) and made our way to the Ellensburg Farmer's Market. Before we could even make it to the market, I experienced massive trauma:

My worst fear came true!!

I always have a huge fear that I'm going to be pooped on by a passing bird- and it finally happened! I was innocently walking along when I felt a huge SPLAT. I am actually glad it hit my hand instead of the intended target- the inside of my purse! I forgot to put my watch on that morning, so this poop-bombing went about as smoothly as possible.

After washing up, we finally made it to the market! 

A beautiful day at the market. Cowboy hats, babies, and dogs were abundant. 

GORGEOUS tomatoes.

The farmer said sometimes smaller tomatoes grow together which makes for some strange looking tomatoes.

Mom looking at these awesome benches. I have a feeling these will make an appearance  in her backyard soon. 

So many gorgeous flowers.

A funky monster mug. 

We bought this awesome cat picture.
It was wrapped in plastic so it was a little hard to see, but the cat is out-of-focus staring at the birds.

We picked up some of those delicious tomatoes for dad.

 After the market, we made our way to Yakima for some shopping and lunch. I had been wanting to try this restaurant out- and it did not disappoint.

Creekside West Bar & Grille

We both had the Cranberry and Pear Turkey sandwich, and I had smoked tomato bisque.

And mom had sweet potato tots with hers- YUM. 

 After lunch, I may or may not have gotten us extremely lost. I missed a turn and we ended up in the middle of farm country. Eventually, I maneuvered us back into civilization and we went to The Garden Girl. I found this cute little shop a few years ago and have been meaning to take mom there for ages.

This is the outside- the picture really does not do it justice. Everything is so fresh, green, and stunning. 

Lillies!

This flower was wrapped around a tall trellis.

A giant gondola filled with flowers.

Mom poking around the flowers!

These were the most unique little vines I have ever seen. They're called  Angel Vines (or something like that??) 

Agh, the store has huge old windows that do not mesh well with picture taking. This table had a killer terrarium filled with lilies and ferns. In front of the terrarium are rusty miniature bikes- so cute! 

The rest of our trip consisted of Craft Warehouse, Target, Big Lots, and WalMart so there was nothing exciting to take pictures of. I do have a full pantry now, which is very nice! Mom bought a Chocolate Mint plant and accidentally left it behind, so now it's mine. :) My tasks for this week are planting a few random herbs and flowers I have accumulated over the past week or so and to figure out what the heck to do with garlic scrapes. I hope everyone had a great Mother's Day!

Olivia, Olivia, Olivia!

First off- Adam's mom loves Olivia the Pig. She even has a cute little nook of a guestroom completely dedicated to Olivia that I frequently stay in! When I ran across the entire Olivia line in the Silhouette store, I knew I had to make her an Olivia themed Mother's Day card! Plus, breaking out all my crafting supplies is an excellent way to get over my homework-induced headache. Without further adieu...

I used my sketch pen and Silhouette's free shape of the week. The pen is about to start sketching Olivia. 

I get too excited and in the "crafting zone", so that's the only picture of the process. Sorry if you were looking forward to seeing my room covered in scrap paper and little glue balls! ;) 

The finished product!! The colors are much more vivid in person, but per usual the card wasn't finished until late at night with awful lighting. 

This card is totally her style. A bit eclectic with crazy patterns, bold colors, a little sparkle, and a pig for good measure. When asking Adam what he was contributing to his mom's gift, he responded with something along the lines of "my gift to her is YOU because you make her cute things". I'll take that as half a compliment. :) 

Mother's Day, Part Two

Disclaimer: if I know you as "Mom" or "Grandma", look no further! You'll see soon enough. :) 

Mother's Day, Part One

I love Saturdays even more now that spring is in full bloom. Today was the first Farmer's Market in Ellensburg and we took full advantage! My friend Kaitlin bought some yummy feta cheese, a loaf of sourdough bread, and a 5# bag of gala apples (all locally made!) and I scored a giant mint plant for $3! I see lots and lots of mint iced tea in my future. :) Side note- there was a CUTE little guy selling handmade flower pens trying to raise money for a trampoline. What a hard worker!

After the market, we wandered around a few shops in town. We heard rumors of adorable Corgi puppies at the pet shop, but they had all been adopted by the time we got there. I had to really get out of there before I took home a lizard or turtle!

Anywho... I have been keeping an eye out for a cute mother's day gift for Adam's mom. In the past, I have always tried to give her something creative and handmade. Two years ago I made  tea cup candles  and last year I sent a Spa Kit made from those glass Starbucks bottles. She loved both of those and still mentions the tea cup candles, but my creative juices were just not flowing this year. All I could think of was chocolate or flowers (boring!). Luckily, we wandered into "Me & The Girls" gift shop and I spotted a huge selection of handmade cake stands (and bird baths, and redneck wine glasses made from mason jars..). Some were way too huge to ship, but I found this ADORABLE little apple shaped cupcake stand/candle holder.

Eeek! I could not pass it up. This will perfectly match her kitchen (that is, if she hasn't painted it since I was there last, which could be very likely). I will probably find an apple scented candle to send with it to complete the picture.

Here is my cute (WILD) mint plant. It ended up being way bigger than I thought it was. Also, two smaller basil plants.  

I'm going to attempt to plant some mother's day flowers for my mom and grandma but I'm afraid I might get blown off my porch! Darn that Ellensburg wind. Wish me luck! :)

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog and my first ever blog post! I'm not sure if I'm even sharing this with anybody yet, or if it will just become a mussing of my daily life. In case you are reading this and happen not to know me, I am a twenty-something college student working towards a degree in nutrition!

I definitely consider myself to be an old soul trapped in a young  body. In between studying and homework, I thoroughly enjoy crafting, gardening, cooking, thrifting, and pretty much anything grandma-esque. I am the first to admit that 90% of my craftiness comes straight from Pinterest inspiration, and another 10% must be genetic (thanks, Mom!).

I am constantly working on at least 3 projects at a time. My current projects are:

• Planting flowers for Mother's Day for my Mom and Grandma (this will hopefully be my next post!)
• Making cards with my beloved Silhouette machine to go with those Mother's Day flowers. 
• Conjuring up a Mother's Day card and gift for the boyfriend's mom (because that woman deserves it!!). 
• Midterms, homework, reading, bleh. Can't wait for summer break!

I am an avid blog follower, and I hope I will provide you with as much inspiration as other bloggers have given me! See you soon! :)