White Christmas

I had my first white Christmas yesterday. It was absolutely beautiful and came out of a dream. I woke up and looked outside, then started running and screaming around the house with my sister like every sane person should do on Christmas morning :)

 

then of course we had to make a snowman!!

so now frosty lives in my front yard :)

paint!

Well it's almost Christmas and that means I'm scurrying around trying to get all of the gifts together. This year my family and I decided to make eachother gifts instead of buying them. That made me really happy because now my creative juices are gushing out of me! Yesterday I was painting anything and everything that I could get my hands on. I painted a picture frame, coasters, my teapot, two little cups, and a tiny cream cup. Today I'm finishing a frame for a friend, painting another teapot, working on my moms present (a mosaic breakfast tray), and hopefully will start my sister's present (which I can't say in case she reads this before Christmas).

Other projects that I will be working on before school is Kurt's NC State stool, a window pane, and a few more coasters!

I am seriously in love with this blog: prudentbaby.com it's full of so many amazing practical craft ideas!

Here are the finished projects that I have pictures for:

[The window pane]

[The coasters]

 

 

[The mosaic breakfast tray]

Blahdeefrickindah!!

It's exam time and in order to allow us students time to study for our exams, there are no classes. So of course I have a major urge to do anything that is not related to studying!

So in honor of icky yucky boring studying (which I was doing... I'm really just taking a break to complain about it), here are a few links to great project ideas that I would MUCH rather be doing:

I found this idea while dreaming up my dream house. Here is an awesome way to use wallpaper that you probably never thought of (at least I didn't):

The Terrier and Lobster blog

I really love coasters. I have a set that I brought back from Chile and I am so in love with them. I never thought about making my own, but I stumbled across this idea and now it's high on my to-do list:

Make your own coasters!

When I go downtown I always see the cutest hair pins in the world and they are always very overpriced. I thought to myself "I could definitely make that on my own." And so I did. I can't show them right now because they are presents (SHHHH) but I will show you another idea that I found for making a different style of cute hair pins:

Fabric Flowers

I LOVE mosaic things. I want to collect broken glass and stones and ceramics and anything that I find so that I can make my own. I found this how-to while browsing and I fell in love.

Mosaic Stepping Stone

I am in love with Moorish art, the way that tiles are used to decorate houses in Morocco and southern Spain are just beautiful. Take a gander at this site:

Mosaic houses and tiles

Those are the things that I'm obsessed with right now. Now back to studying...

Vuelos en mis Sueños

A veces, tengo algunos sueños en lo que puedo volar en el cielo con las nubes. Deseo que tendría las alas, como un pájaro bella, para ser libre de todos los preocupaciónes y simplemente volar entre el tierra y la luna. Me divertirme y haría lineas y diseños en el cielo como los aviones. Bailaría entre los nubes y seríamos libre de todo el mundo.

Es una cosa precioso ver el sol se siente en el horizante entre la tierra y las nubes. Los colores bailan con el uno al otro en una baile que está muy breve.

Wrightsville Beach, NC

Mystery Solved

I found a roll of film that had been sitting in my camera bag just waiting to be developed.

The film was almost a year old, think about all the mysterious memories that were hiding in that little canister!

So mainly it was me just playing with my camera and didn't take photos of anything really important, besides the one of Kurt and me.

Oh well. I still like them!

 

Se nota...

Highlights of this weekend:

• Watching The Caddy with my one and only. 
• Having my best friend visit!
• Buying a ukulele.
• Playing the ukulele.
• Setting off the fire alarm.
• Food.

A few friends, Kurt, and I found out the hard way that cooking chicken is not such a good idea in an on-campus apartment.

Our plan was to cook some amazing jerk chicken for dinner. It was going to be soaked in delicious pineapple salsa and a sauce. Mmm mm mm.


Well before it was even close to being finished, the chicken started to smoke a little bit.  It was fine for a while, but before we knew it the whole thing had gotten out of hand.  The smoke kept piling up on the ceiling and, despite my feeble attempts to get it flowing out of the windows, the fire alarm went off.
Now at home this would not have been a big deal, since you can probably turn the fire alarm off, but on campus it means that the police and the firetrucks are required to come

Blah.

I don't really work well under pressure, such as an unnecessarily loud fire alarm, so I could not find my student ID. I gave up and grabbed a jacket and my shoes and ran out the door.  Once we were all outside, we realized that none of us could get back in because I didn't have my ID.
The police were inside and we were outside unable to explain ourselves!

The firemen came all suited up to fight the oh so nasty non-existent fire, if only we could have served them a delicious chicken dinner instead :(

We have decided to only bake stuff from now on.
And my ears are still recovering from the terribly loud alarm.

Airlie Love

For my birthday Kurt and I explored the Airlie Gardens.

If I owned a house, I would want it to look just like this:

View from our front door

It's a little piece of my childhood!

In a constant state of smiling

In a glass bottle

Oh come on I didn't think I was THAT scary...

A happy ending :)

A New Meaning to a Rainy Day

Not my photo, found on google images.

      I woke up to the crash of thunder and the sound of pouring rain... this must be what a hurricane would sound like. It was only 6:45 in the morning so I rolled over and fell back asleep, but not before sending out a drowsy wish for classes to be canceled. It was not a hurricane, mind you, merely a rainy day in Wilmington. The rainy days in Wilmington are unlike any that I have experienced anywhere else.
      I put on my boots and suited up with a raincoat and my umbrella. You would think that I was prepared for the rain, and I thought so too. I met my boyfriend outside to walk to class together like the cute couple we are. It was not raining at this point, just a slight drizzle. Nonetheless I open my umbrella in an attempt to save my good hair-do (of course the only day that my hair looks good is on a rainy day, wonderful).

"Why are you using your umbrella now? It's not even raining!" exclaimed my friend.
"Well, I kind of want to keep my hair looking good," I replied knowing full well that it won't stay that way.

As soon as this exchange took place the clouds opened up and it began to pour down rain.
So you could say it was his fault for jinxing it. Or you could say it was mine for opening the umbrella.

Either way, we made it to Dunkin Donuts and by the time we left the streets were flooded.
Within about 2 minutes, we managed to have soaking socks.
Within about 2 hours the major intersections on campus were closed.
Within 4 hours the pond was about to overflow and the amphitheater was shin deep.
Have on a raincoat? Well, it just became a joke.
At this point rain boots are useless, the water is so high it will just make them into a nice homemade aquarium.
I hope you didn't carry anything of importance with you, such as laptops, books, or folders... because they are now thoroughly soaked.
Freshmen don't stand a chance.
I don't even stand a chance.

The sad thing about all of this? Classes go on as scheduled. The funny thing, they get canceled for 3 flakes of snow or a hurricane possibility (where it didn't rain a drop, maybe there was a slight breeze). But when a storm that manages to flood the campus comes along, the show must go on!

But despite all of this, I love Wilmington. Rain and all.

In Favor of Rachel

One of my best friends is an amazing singer/songwriter.  We started playing guitar together back in middle school and blossomed into music at the same time.  Although I love music just as much as her, I tend to play for fun and for myself (and not usually for an audience).  She, on the other had, has recently taken her playing to the next level.  What happens when you mix a talented person with a guitar and a beautiful voice?  

Well... you get Rachel Hall.

Just go to the iTunes store and type in Rachel Hall. The song is Patience.

Patience by Rachel Hall

 I'm taking an arabic class this semester

  

 ضمير وجدان

Submissions for an Exhibit

Flightless

I sent in three of my favorite photos to be considered for an exhibit.  This is the first time that I've actually tried to publish any of my work and it's super exciting!  Even if none of them are chosen I'm still happy that I finally did something with them.

I just can't resist a good close-up

Macro photography is my favorite, so when the opportunity presents itself I tend to run with it.  Then I end up with a billion photos of the exact same thing (from different angles and stuff... you know).

 

I'm linking up to:

I'm listening to:

Que te vaya bien!

simply, wow

This post is about a band I found, but first I have to explain how I found it.

Last night I had a horrible dream about a kitten killing a kitten. One of my cats is pregnant, that's probably where the dream came from. It woke me up and I was so horrified by it that I still haven't gone back to sleep, and that was about four hours ago.

So I read the Bible, finished another book of mine (called The Book of Hours, I definitely recommend it if you're into life tragedy, love, mystery, and happy endings).  After that I got up to make sure my cats were ok (no kitten killing please), made some tea to sooth my poor throat, and settled down to skim a magazine.  In that magazine I read a small excerpt about a band called Gungor.  It really got my attention so, with nothing better to do, I went to my computer and looked them up on youtube.

and wow. simply wow

This band is a mix of Sigur Ros, Sufjan Stevens, Muse, and God. What an amazing combo

Beautiful Things by Gungor

... very appropriate that I found this song after that horrid dream

Easy Watercolors DIY

      Lately I've been really into watercolors, hence the background of this blog (which has since changed).  I'm not good at making something look real, but that doesn't stop me from being creative.  I needed some inspiration for my most recent project so I made a small playlist that I can paint to.  It's amazing how music influences so much of my life

My Playlist:

1. Downtown Song by Anberlin
2. Life in Technicolor II by Coldplay
3. Rainy Day by Coldplay
4. Brightly Wound by Eisley (featured below)
5. Pin Your Wings by Copeland
6. Wouldn't It Be Nice by The Beach Boys
7. Winter Song by Ingrid Michaelson
8. Bien o Mal by Julieta Venegas
9. When You Were Young by The Killers
10. Angel de Amor by Maná
11. Beautiful Day by U2
12. Kids by MGMT
13. Everything is Alrighty by Motion City Soundtrack
14. The Outsiders by Needtobreathe
15. Coming Home by New Found Glory
16. Hallelujah  by Paramore
17. Sweet Honey by Slightly Stoopid
18. Hello Hurricane by Switchfoot

See the DIY after the jump!!
~*~*~
Ver el DIY despues de la conexión que sigue!!

Home again

Una parte de mi familia chilena y yo :)

 Well, Chile is officially over.  Leaving was hard, missing it was harder, but getting home felt pretty great.  My boyfriend picked me up at the airport and it was so good to be with him again!  He took me home and I spent a lovely, warm, weekend just relaxing and recuperating from my trip. 

Thank you for reading my blog and keeping up with my travels!  There will be more adventures to come, life is an adventure in itself.

Mi pololo y yo :)

When you can't sleep... blog

Well my original plan for tonight was to sleep... but my chilean sister is having a party downstairs.  Now I can't because the music from downstairs, which is not loud, somehow becomes loud on its way up into my room.  So the only thing I can really do is blog! 

My most recent excursion was to the Ocoa National Park.  Hiking into this park was like stepping right into Jurassic Park!  I half expected a T-rex to come charging out of the forest at any moment.  It was so awesome because there were palm trees, cactus, and snow covered mountains all in the same place. 

"There's more to living than being alive with downcast eyes"

The palm trees were not actually palms.  They are a type of grass, which is insane to think about.  I imagined that I was an ant walking through a patch of grass (it's basically what we are in comparison to the magnificence of this world and universe anyways).

The views were absolutely breath taking.  Hills behind hills behind hills, all covered in green and maybe snow.  It was so difficult to follow the group and enjoy the scenery at the same time because the path was pretty tricky, one misstep would mean tumbling down into mud or rocks.

It happened to be raining the morning we left and I did not buy a poncho because I was lazy and just wanted to get home the day before.  It was ok though because I had my kind-of-rainjacket and an umbrella.  When we got to the park and all suited up I was kind of glad not to have a poncho...

they look just a little silly :)

Never Forget

I only have a few days left in Chile.  This has been one of the most amazing experiences of my life.  I am constantly thanking God for blessing me so much!  I have made so many great friends, I have another family, and I have survived in a Spanish speaking country!  The moments that I am most proud of myself are when I am able to sit down with my family and have an intelligent conversation, all in spanish (I'm just as proud if and when I can carry on a conversation in the market with a complete stranger).  Chile is now a part of my heart and I will return one day to share more of life here.  One month seemed to fly by, and yet I have done more things than I would normally do in one year!

 As a recap, I arrived and watched the world cup games Chile vs Spain, and Chile vs Brazil (all on tv of course), visited Chillán and went snowboarding in the Andes, visited Valparaiso, and Santiago.  I went horseback riding through sand dunes and galloping along the beach, found my love for Alpacas, and experienced Jurassic park (minus the dinosaurs).  I lived with a Chilean family, danced the night away, and learned to speak spanish.  I ate my heart's content of bread, paltas, empanadas, and tasted fine Chilean wine.  I saw sealions, penguins, and alpacas.
I may have frozen every night in the house without heat, but wouldn't trade it for the world.  

 Leaving for Chile
[photo taken by my sister]

 Art in Valpo

 Sunset in Santiago

 Sunrise in the Andes

 Canopy tour in the Andes.
[photo taken by a friend]

 Horse show at Puro Caballo

 Cabalgata through sand dunes.
[photo taken by a friend]

 El gran asado despues

[not my photo] Wine tasting

 Sealions, lobos marinos

Amazing Alpacas

Palm tree and snow

Jurassic Park

Amor de la Luna