I Have an Intense Love of Mason Jars

I have been slowly gearing up for my new apartment in the Fall! Lots of Home Goods trips and fun DIY!

Apartment DIY's: I just finished painting 3 little mason jars to have as mini fake flower vases to brighten up my room. I love mason jars so much. I love drinking out of them, I love having them around, and I just plan love them. Not sure why, I just really do. I found the tutorial on Pintrest. Here is the tutorial if you want to do that same thing!! I loved it and the finished product is great and this tutorial is really great and easy to follow.

http://somethingturquoise.com/2014/01/17/distressed-chalkboard-mason-jars/

Watching Law and Order SVU while crafting. With the amount of Netflix I watch, they should pay me! Not the other way around! 

Face-timing with my cutie while putting the finishing touches on

The blue jar looks way more purple than it really is, actual color is better represented in the picture below

What I need to do now is to go out to Michaels and buy florist foam for the bottom of the jars, and then make some little fake flower arrangements to finish the project off! The vases are in the same colors as my quilt. I am excited to have these fun little bright things to brighten everything up during the cold days in Flag.

Another thing I did was DIY an old lamp base that was previously spray painted red and give it a little makeover! I re-spraypainted it a gray color, and after a trip to Target did not produce the perfect lampshade, my mom and I went to Tuesday Morning and found the perfect one! So now I have an old/new lamp for the price of just a shade! Awesome! 

It still has the plastic wrapping on to protect it, but the shade is light blue with cream accent details

My next DIY project for my apartment room is a little key holder. I used to have a command hook stuck on the wall near my door. Functional? Yes. Cute? Not really. Also the problem with that is when Mike came over he had no place to put his keys, and of course when it came time to leave, could never find where he left them. (Usually my fault because he would put them down somewhere and I would move them to a location I thought would be easier to find hahaha) So now I want to make a little key hook thing with 2 hooks in it so Mike and I both do not lose our keys.

I am going to take a little wooden plaque board, paint it to be pretty, then screw hooks into it. It will be a cute and cheap little project I am sure I will get a lot of use out of. I haven't gotten anything material wise yet, but as usual I'll show you pictures as I make progress!

The quilt: I am starting to get a little anxious I won't finish it before I leave for summer, even though I am making pretty good progress. I think it is going to be okay though because 13 more squares then I am done with the squares!!!!! Yay! Then I will be sewing on the border and going on to the next step in this awesome process. 

My amazing sweater has sadly taken a back burner to work and quilt and apartment and life. I hope to pick it up soon as Mike's family reunion is nearing. (Even though it will be too hot to wear the sweater, even at night). I am considering recinding my self imposed deadline... still haven't decided yet though.

I want to ask you, internet people for help with something. This next year I will not have a meal plan with which to get Starbucks or Einsteins coffee. I have a Keurig, which I love, but I have not had any real success with making fun yummy drinks with it. I usually have the Cafe Escapes Cafe Mocha Kcup because it tastes good, and I do not really like my coffee black, but I know that will get old over the next year. If you have a Keurig, how do you make yummy Starbucks-y-ish drinks with Kcups? If you have any answers or recipes, let me know in the comments! Thanks!

All is well in my crafty world. More hauling butt on the quilt and in my next post I will include some pictures of my progress. :)

I'll Love You Forever and Always

Yesterday was my one year anniversary with Mike! ONE YEAR. It is quite crazy, but awesome. I am so happy to have had him in my life for a whole year, and I know that this is just the first of many many years to come. He is amazing and perfect and I will stop now, but not before I flood you with pictures!

He is just the cutest thing in the world! 

The Cliff in Laguna Beach 

My beautiful necklace!!

1 year anniversary gift from Mike. Isn't it amazing and perfect and beautiful???!!!!

It was such an amazing day, and a beautiful dinner. I am so blessed to have been able to spend a year with this wonderful man. I gave him a very nice watch, and he gave me a beautiful opal necklace. Opal is my birthstone, and it could not have been a better gift. Yay, love my man!

As usual, updates on my crafty crafts. 

Look at my sweater! I am still working on the back, but the plan is to have it be as long as my white shirt is in this picture. After the back all I have left is the sleeves, then the collar! Ahh!!

Quilt... its coming along. Way more slowly than I would like, so I need to start hauling butt or I won't have it finished by the time I go to school.

I had a great scrapbook day with my mom at our Creative Memories consultants house. I basically finished a little 8x8 album of last summer! I had completed albums of my 4 years of high school, and I have 2 blank albums with matching pages set aside for my 4 years of college. I had trouble figuring out where my summer between high school and college fit in, so I made a special little summer album! Next scrapbook day I am going to start on my college album and scrapbook my pictures from my first year of school.

I know most people look at my blog to see the pattern for the Basketweave Coaster pattern from Ravelry (which is totally awesome that people are making it!!) but for those of you that actually follow my blog or just like to creep on other peoples lives (if you are like me, because I do that all the time, in a non-stalker way of course) thanks, I appreciate when I see that people are actually viewing! 

Thanks everyone :)

When Things Come Crashing Down

Dramatic title right? Well sorry but its a little bit of a false hype. My life is pretty great right now, the only thing that has come crashing down is a cabinet. A 50 pound cabinet which a neighbor and I were moving out of my house onto the street for people to take for free. 50 pounds of cabinet, right on my big toe. Luckily it is not broken and it does not look like there is damage to the joint. It could have been a lot worse, but it feels like someone replaced my big toe with a sausage. And it is getting progressively more black and blue, so yeah it is icky. So that is what came crashing down. Literally. On my toe.

Sorry I have not been posting as much, but I am officially a member of the working adult public, so that means that I do not have as much time since I am working 3 days a week, 8 hours a day. Lots of secretary work, a far cry from my dreams, but I am so grateful to have good employment. What I want to do with my life is to be an elementary school teacher. Have I mentioned that before? Maybe not. Well I will now. I have wanted to be an elementary school teacher since I was 5 years old. I used to teach my dolls and play school with anyone who would play with me. The dream continued until high school when my dream became a passion. I worked in an elementary school for 2 years, one year in 3rd grade, one year in 2nd grade being a teaching assistant through a program at my school. That was when my dream of being a teacher was realized to its full potential. I am now at NAU to study and become the teacher I want to be. In 3 years I will have my bachelors in elementary education with a minor in Spanish and a concentration in Social Studies. I will also have my teaching credential in the state of Arizona, and after a few little things to transfer over, my teaching credential in California. Mike and I have talked a lot, and we know that we want to move back to California after we graduate and get married. It has always been my dream to teach at the elementary school that I went to and worked at and have good teacher friends at. Mike knows that dream and our plan has always been to try and do that if it works to find a job for him as well.

Well enough about hopes and passions and dreams. Lets talk about love!

After much hype up and excitement leading up to seeing him. (see: snapchat picture below), we got to see each other after a week or more of waiting. Mike came by and spent the weekend with me and the best thing was, he showed up at my door with a bouquet of red roses, for no reason at all. "Just because I love you" roses. Isn't that the best thing in the world? Isn't he the most amazing man? I feel like the luckiest woman in the world. I love that man so much.

Pathetic? Yes. Accurate? Yes. The life of a semi-long distance relationship.

The love of my life turned 19 this past weekend! Yay! We had a fun celebration with his family that included lots of time in the pool, 2 cakes and fun memories. We had a day where we went out to a nearby canyon and had a picnic on the bed of his truck overlooking the beautiful view we drove up a tiny dirt road to get to. So wonderful! All in all it was a great weekend full of family time, fun in the sun and a lot of stolen kisses.

Updates on my various crafts and such. 

Quilting: My quilt is really coming along! I have done 19 squares out of 42. 23 more to go! Here is it, except there will be one more column of 4 squares on the right side. Here are some pictures! It is set up on my couch, so you can imagine how he this quilt is going to be!! 

My sweater is also going really well. I have over half of the back! Lots of progress, and it is beautiful! 

I have been looking at lots of ideas for my apartment for next year. I am thinking about doing it in the same colors as the quilt. I am also planning on having candles, christmas lights and fairy lights strung around the room. I want it to be that when all the lights were off, it would still be warm and welcoming in my room, a contrast to the harsh fluorescent lights that are in the room. I have an old lamp from my moms office that I am going to spray paint the same dark grey color that is in the quilt. Then I am looking for a lamp shade with traces of gold in it, like how some of the squares are in the quilt. I am so excited to decorate my room! It is great to be able to have all these decorating ideas and bring them to life! I am also discovering that Pintrest is my new best friend. 

I am also excited because I am going to go scrapbooking at a family friends house this Saturday and begin my college scrapbook! Excited to scrapbook my first year!

Well I should be going to sleep because I have work in the morning. As usual, hope you enjoyed this post about a cabinet falling on my toe. 

Home Sweet Home

I am finally home! I just got back from a long weekend spent with Mike and his sister and Uncle. His parents are in Cancun for their 20th wedding anniversary, and last I heard having an amazing time. We are all very jealous of them, but as I continue to remind Mike when he complains that they didn't take him along, they are having a really great and romantic time without their spoiled (in only the best loving way) kids. I envy them their dream vacation, but admire them for their marriage. They really are great people as well as great parents.

It was great to get to know Mike's sister more, she is finishing her 7th grade year, so that is very exciting for her! We got our nails done so that was really fun. I miss doing girly things, so it was fun to get away for a little bit and splurge on some girly-ness. One night we made waffles for dinner with chocolate pudding for dessert, breakfast for dinner is fun! Mike and I hit an exciting date, our 11th month together! Rapidly approaching is Mike's 19th birthday and our 1 year anniversary.

I cannot believe it has already been a year together. Time is passing so quickly, before I know it this summer will be over and I will be going back to Flag to start my sophomore year. Wow. For now though, I love being home and relaxing and spending time with my mom. Being in Flagstaff is great, but it is hard to be so far away from family. Now that I am back home, living in my room, and I am realizing that well... I think my room was attacked by a rouge tornado while I have been gone. That is simply the only explanation for how it looks like how it looks like.

I am convinced of this because there is stuff everywhere, not to mention that in my living room the contents of my dorm are still sitting in boxes. Through being on vacation, then going to Mikes for a few days, I haven't been home to work on it. After spending yesterday working to organize it and not even making a dent, today I decided that instead of embarking on that frustrating mess I am going to procrastinate and start my quilt! Yay!

The time has finally come. So I sat at my sewing machine and watched gossip girl (don't judge, it was on Netflix and I had never watched it before). And I have good progress! Well, I have 4 of the little 4 square quilt blocks done. I am a little worried because each one doesn't end up being exactly the same size, but I am sure at the end when I go to finish it I can even them all out. It is fun to see all the pieces of my quilt starting to come together! I have a lot of progress to be made, but it is lots of fun!

Layout of my squares

Progress of the first 4 square!

2 down, 40ish to go!

I am missing Mike. Being home is so wonderful, but it is very hard to go from seeing each other every single day for hours on end to being limited to texting, calling and FaceTime. Thank goodness for technology. I have decided that I do not like texting. It is annoying and things I say that are supposed to be funny just sound lame via text. And I hate that my heart jumps every single time I get a text message, and it falls when it is someone else texting me not him. Then I feel pathetic over having so many emotions over a stupid text. I hate that I can't just take the 2 minute walk across the quad to see him whenever the heck I want. I feel for those who have long distant relationships, I cannot imagine the suffering that must be to have that all the time. This distance certainly sucks, but absence does make the heart grow fonder. When I am with him, we make up for time lost by having as much fun as possible and enjoying our time together. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, but honestly, if my heart got any fonder I think it would just explode because there is no more room for any more love in there because it is totally full. Alas, I will continue to be distracted by my disaster of a room and my quilt which I really shouldn't work on until the room is done.

For now that is all I have for you. As usual, if you want to comment I would love to hear from you to know I am not just blogging to an empty internet, thinking I am making witty funny posts where in reality people from all over the world are laughing at me... so yeah, I would love to hear from you!

Countrywool and the Saving Grace

We have been traveling through the beautiful states of Connecticut and Massachusetts, basically choosing towns and then taking the scenic routes to get there, and wow it is beautiful.

I have been in the backseat steadily working away at my cardigan. Today, while analyzing and admiring my work, something seemed off… my raglan increases on the right side were in the wrong place!

I sat in the back feeling more and more depressed at the prospect of having to frog (rip out) everything… AGAIN. I decided I needed someone with more experience and expertise to tell me what to do. So I headed to Knitmap.com to look for a yarn shop in the direction of which we were headed for the day. After finding a few that were not open because it is a Sunday, we found one in Hudson, New York, which was on the way to the Catskills, which was the place we picked to go today.

Our GPS was leading us down several little country back roads, but onward we went in search of this little yarn shop. The drive there was absolutely beautiful, so much so that we just had to stop and take pictures! (See below).  Lady Luck was on our side because she was open 10-3 on Sundays, every other day by appointment only. Countrywool, run by Claudia Krisniski (aka my saving grace) is the epitome of a local yarn shop. Cozy and inviting with yarn and needles and pattern books arranged around the store, everywhere invites you to come in and sit awhile.

I went into the store, pulled out my project and explained the problem. (For those of you looking to make the Rocky Coast Cardigan, I will do a separate detailed post chronicling my mistakes, so you can learn from me and not make them!) She originally said that I would most likely have to rip out and I felt myself beginning to slip into an internal sadness but then she kept on looking at the work and she said she had a solution. Yay! Queue intense knitting surgery. 

Here is the complicated knitting surgery

She was great in explaining all the details, and letting me sit and do a few rows to get confident in this new confangled knitting surgery technique. 

My aunt asked, “Would you like to look at yarn while we are here?” Claudia and I shared a look that most likely resembled how cats look when a bowl of milk is set before them and I answered, “What kind of question is that, OF COURSE I would like to look at yarn”

Knitting is an addiction, I swear. So Claudia and I talked about sock yarn, because as you all know I have conquered my irrational fear of socks! So now I am looking to try the technique of two at a time socks! That is a project for after I finish the cardigan. BUT that doesn’t mean I can’t buy some amazing yarn for said future socks!

Claudia set me up with some beautiful and scrumptiously soft Mini Mochi by Crystal Palace Yarns in the colorway Storm. It is so soft and pretty!!!! I will have to go waste hours looking for sock patterns now, but for now, I am perfectly content to fix my sweater thanks to my saving grace of the day, Claudia.

New sock yarn with one of our random destinations in the background

It felt really good to support a small local yarn shop that is the epitome of what a yarn shop should be. Claudia has an amazing online store with great yarn and needles and more, and I highly recommend going to her shop if you are in the Hudson, New York area! www.countrywool.com

I am now finished with my emergency knitting surgery and back on track with my sweater. I am doing the increases only on the sleeves and preparing to set them aside to work on the body.

This is amazing trip and a beautiful place, but I am also excited to head home to be with my handsome man soaking up the California sunshine. We have made plans to spend a whole week together divided between his parent’s house and mine. Traveling is fantastic, but there is something about the small pleasures of being with the person you love, doing the little everyday things.

In front of a beautiful view of the Catskills

After the Storm

I survived!

The past few weeks have been a blur of writing, studying, packing, driving, packing again, flying, driving, and craziness. 

I finished my finals with a 3.8 GPA! Now, as weird as it is to say, I am now a sophomore at Northern Arizona University. Where did the year go?? I feel as if I was just packing to go to college, and now I am completely moved out of my freshman dorm. After a long 8 hour drive back to Southern California, I slept in my own bed (which was so amazing!) and then packed up my suitcase to leave for a family vacation to the East Coast!

I am currently in East Hampton, New York with my mom and aunt on a wonderful vacation! We spent 2 days in New York City, looking at places my grandmother and her family once lived when they first came to America from Italy, and it was so amazing! I am going to be on the East Coast for 5 more days, then back to So Cal to enjoy a summer of sun!

As previously written about here, I will be working and making a quilt this summer. So very excited to start that! But right now my focus is on my beautiful cardigan. 

My new Addi Turbo tips in 10.5 came in the mail a few days after my last post. Yes I took a picture, because it was incredibly exciting for me.

I casted on, and started forward on my cardigan. It was so fun to work on!! I worked on it every chance I got. It was a lot of fun, and I got a pretty substantial amount done! See?! See?!

Here comes the part where my heart breaks and the inner tears begin... I had been a naughty knitter and had not been counting my stitches to make sure all my increases were even on both sides. So when it came time to move on in the pattern, I had a very wrong amount of stitches, because somewhere I made a mistake. After tinking back a few rows, and realizing that the problem was much farther down, I had an inner discussion and sob sesh, and that fateful night I frogged out my entire work. Wah!! It was awful to unravel that amazing work, but it was flawed and I could not just leave it be with all the mistakes in it! (Also, the fact it was 2 AM may have contributed to my rash but good decision to frog it all)

Now I have re-casted on and have been working on it all over again. I now count my stitches frequently. Lesson learned I guess. What helps is that I have a personal deadline for this sweater. I have until August 2nd, 2014. Why August 2nd you ask? Well, Mike's grandmother is arranging a family reunion with a lot of family I have not met before. It is a great opportunity to meet his extended family, as well as a chance to be presented as an important part of Mike's life to his family... no pressure or anything. I am quite nervous already, even though it is months away. Before leaving for New York, my mom and I went shopping for some things for summer, and I found the perfect dress to wear to the reunion. It is pretty and feminine but still modest and flattering. It is patterned with blue, green and white floral patterns. This sweater will go perfectly with it. So I really want to have it finished by the reunion. I hope to achieve this goal!

The frogging setback is no fun, but there is nobody to blame but myself! (Except maybe Law and Order SVU). I am back on track, and being much more careful.

I am having a wonderful time on vacation, but I am also excited to have Mike pick me up from the airport when we get back. I love seeing all the great things we are seeing and spending time with my mom and aunt, but I still miss him. I know this is only the beginning of being away from him and missing him, but I just have to look at it in a way that when we are together, it will be that much better.

Well, I think thats all I have for now, but here are some pictures from my trip.

9/11 Memorial Reflective Pool Panoramic

Beach by the Hamptons 

Over It

Hello all,

Today starts what I am going to call finals frenzy. A crazy thing that consists of stress, coffee, acne, yoga pants and a large amount of sleepless nights and nervous breakdowns. More on finals later, but first let me update you on some happy things, Stagecoach and my cardigan!

Stagecoach 2014
Stagecoach was an epic adventure of happiness and fun. It was so great to relax in the sun. The days were warm and the nights were cold. It was great desert weather. Everyone who preformed was amazing! We saw Eric Church from the standing area, with about 100 people squishing us to death, then the next night we saw Jason Aldean from one of the grassy areas where we laid down a blanket and was able to just relax and listen to him and so many others. My favorite day was the last day, Sunday where Luke Bryan gave a fantastic performance that blew us all away. We danced and had a fantastic time listening to our favorite artists. After a fun but exhausting weekend. We were able to have both of our families meet up at Mikes house for a day of hanging out before we had to go back to Flagstaff on the train. We had yummy burgers and it was a great day of family and fun. We then boarded a train to Flagstaff. 10 hours, 1 full book and no sleep later we arrived at 4:30 in the morning to 30 degree and windy weather. Boy did I miss California right then. It was a quick taxi ride and short walk (a very cod walk with a lot of cussing about the hating of the present weather) later that we were back in the dorms, like we had never been gone. Now we are back for a week and 2 days and then we are moving out! Back to California and done with our first year of college.

I cannot believe my first year of college is almost done. It seemed like we were just moving in. But I am almost a sophomore and that is just crazy to me.

Here are a collection of pictures from our Stagecoach trip.

My sweet In-N-Out and I reunited at last

The awesome Thomas Rhett

So Stagecoach was awesome and we had a really great time. Well worth the wait!

Now an update on my cardigan. The yarn came in the mail while I was gone so on Tuesday when we came back I picked it up from the campus post office and rushed to my room to open it. 

Beautiful! The color way was more of a cream color than a white color than I expected, but it is still a great color. The yarn is so soft! I have made my boyfriend, my roommate, my roommates friend, my TA and pretty much anyone I encounter with it in my possession feel its amazing softness. During my Tuesday night Intro to Education class I decided to cast on for my gauge swatch. 

Side note: Yes I do knit in class. I have a very distracted mind, and I have found over the years that if I knit in class, my hands are busy so it is easier to listen to the lecture being given without having my mind stray to more interesting topics. I have to choose which classes more carefully since it works great in some classes, but not so great in others. In high school my teachers either hated it or thought it was great, either way, they all said that as long as it doesn't affect my work, they did not have issue with it. In college, I tried it one day and my professor just wondered what I was doing, but didn't really have an issue with it. This year my philosophy class is the best one to knit in. I sit in the back with my boyfriend and our friends and just knit while he lectures. It is my most productive time. So if you love to knit and have a multitasking brain, then don't be afraid to whip out your knitting in class! I get some weird looks, but some people find it really cool and interesting. Knitters, be brave and do what you love, who cares about everyone else. 

Back to my gauge swatch. I started knitting it on my Addi Turbo Click interchangeable circular needles. That was a Christmas present from my mom this past year. I cast on and started knitting in a size 10. The pattern calls for a 10.5, but I only had a 10. After about 10 rows out of the 20 I realized that the swatch was going to be too small. So I went on Amazon, and ordered size 10.5 tips, and frogged my gauge swatch and put my yarn aside. So I am waiting for my needles to come so that I can start again and get this project going!

So finals are coming up, and it is crunch time. I am ready to go and I don't think my grades are going to change drastically. It is the worst feeling to be so close to the next grade up and have it be just out of reach. I only have a little bit of time left, but it still feels so long because of all I have to do. 3 final exams and a 15ish page paper and then I will be a sophomore. It still feels unreal to me. 

Mike and I went to see a movie today to say goodbye to fun for the next week or so. We saw The Other Woman with Cameron Diaz, Kate Upton and Leslie Mann. It was a complete crack up and I enjoyed it a lot. If you are considering seeing it, I highly recommend it! 

Well, no more fun for me. I have to say goodbye to Netflix, movies, and so much more. Only for a week I know, but just the idea of replacing fun with constant studying and paper writing is depressing. I have loved this year and all the things I have done and experienced, but as of right now, I am over it. Over college, over these classes and just over being here right now. I know after a summer I will be ready and happy again, but currently I am over it. 

See you all on the other side. I will leave you with my favorite quote by J.K Rowling.

"It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously  that you might as well not have lived at all- in which case, you fail by default."