Blog Every Day in January Day 2: Things I Would Like to Do

Today I went to the movies and crossed off an item from my personal list of Things I Would Like to Do. The item being "Go to the movies by myself". It's a weird goal to have, but I've always wanted to go to the movies by myself because I'm always complaining to people that I never watch movies because I don't have anyone to watch movies with...which is stupid because watching a movie isn't really a social experience. It's just I get really self conscious when I go places by myself, and I know I'm not the only person that feels that way, but it really bothers me that I feel so awkward when I'm alone and I've been slowly trying to break out of that shell. Because I do actually enjoy doing some things on my own.

Anyways, the main point of me talking about going to the movies alone is that it was an item on my list of Things I Would Like to Do, which is not really an official list and is always a work in progress. It's kind of like a 30 by 30 list except the items on it aren't exciting or difficult to accomplish. Like "organize my makeup collection before February" isn't necessarily something that would make it onto a 30 by 30 list, but it is one of the more urgent items on my Things I Would Like to Do List. So here it is, the constantly changing and not-very-difficult-to-accomplish list of Things I Would Like to Do:

1.) Go to the movies by myself. 

2.) Organize my makeup collection before February

3.) Make croissants from scratch even though it will literally take three days.

4.) Try all of the products from my Birchboxes from the past 6 months.

5.) Perfect giving myself a blowout.

6.) Read the A Song of Fire and Ice series, preferably before I graduate.

7.) Live on my own without relying on my parents for financial support.

8.) Get over my fear of making caramel based sauces.

9.) Own more teacups.

10.) Take a trip to the West Coast. Or several trips. Who knows.

12.) Take a trip on the East Coast. Shouldn't be too tough.

13.) Chicago sounds cool too.

14.) If we're talking about traveling, then yes, I would very much like to see Paris/FranceTheCountry and London/EnglandTheCountry. And I also want to go back to Vienna and Germany and Hungary and okay just a big ol' trip to Europe whatever this is my list I get to decide what's on it.

15.) Travel to the Philippines again now that I'm old enough to remember the experience.

16.) Find a bread recipe that is not ridiculous to make but also doesn't taste like hot water in bread form.

17.) Paint the shelves on my TV stand coral.

18.) Buy a big candle from Bath and Body Works.

19.) Put up some wall art in my bedroom at home.

20.) Clean the shitshow that is my desk at school. And the rest of the room while I'm at it.

21.) Go shopping in Kennett Square, PA and eat duck flatbread at Byrsa Bistro again.

22.) Start a vlog with my sister.

23.) Bake and decorate a nice cake. You may be surprised to know that this is something I have never done.

24.) Finish reading the Divergent series even if it's going to make me super mad and hate everything and everyone.

25.) Listen to more music in general.

26.) Make risotto. 

27.) Find a better bronzer and blush. Like for my face.

28.) Perfect my Tortilla Española, which is currently a hot mess.

29.) Organize my wallet/receipts/cards. Yikes.

30.) Learn how to sew.

There is probably tons more where that came from, and things get crossed off and added all the time. I usually take winter break to accomplish some of the things on this list, but there are obviously a few things that will have to wait.

How about you? Do you have a 30 by 30 list or one like mine, or are you the type of person that just does things without putting them in list form? 

Transformation Tuesday: DIY Projects

From now on, Transformation Tuesdays don't have to happen on Tuesdays.  Transformation Sunday just doesn't roll off the tongue the same way.  Get over it.


I am OFFICIALLY FINISHED with all of my DIY projects!  It only took me like...the entire summer.

If you need to refresh your memory, I wrote a post back in July about all of the projects I took on.  You can read that here.

I finished a few simple projects to incorporate more of the coral color into my room.  I bought these metal desk organizers that were originally white, and decided to spray paint them coral since my lamp was turquoise.  I also bought this awesome rotating earring stand from amazon that was originally copper, but I primed and then spray painted coral as well.  In the process I managed to also paint the back porch coral, but such is life.  I also went to Home Depot and bought a sample size of coral wall paint, and used that to make those three stenciled canvases.  They're on display above my bed, and it filled the empty space above my bed that was desperate for some wall art.

These are the finished bedside tables!  I'm really pleased with the way they turned out.  I bought a sample size of turquoise/aqua paint from Home Depot and used that for the turquoise drawer and the stenciling on the white drawer.  I didn't want either drawer to be too overwhelmed with their new colors, so I figured stenciling would diffuse the colors a bit.  I also got to use the stencil from the canvas.  To make the stencil fit the drawer, I just taped off a couple of sections.  Overall I think they balance out the white and the turquoise, and have a nice touch of symmetry.

Also, I think there is a lot to be said about what the simple change of a knob can do to the overall effect of a piece of furniture.  Seriously.  I can't stop changing the knobs on things.  I THINK I HAVE A PROBLEM.

The biggest pain-in-my-ass project that I took on was this chair that I got from Goodwill for $3.99.  I saw a lot of potential in this chair, and was really into the fact that it was a coat of paint away from vintage.  I just forgot about the fact that chairs don't magically go from crappy-thrift-store to vintage-makeover in one day.  This was a long and tedious process.

The first thing I did was remove the cushion, tighten up some of the screws to make the frame sturdier, and then sand it down.  I didn't get any of this process, but trust me...you're not missing anything glamorous.  I spent a couple of days priming, painting, and clear-coating the chair to get it to look like an intentional piece of furniture instead of just a makeshift desk chair.  I really love how the white turned out.  I think it suits the frame!

Counter-clocwise from the top right: Ew, ew, ew, FINALLY.

The next step was to prep the seat for some new upholstery.  This part was even less glamorous than the lest, yet somehow I managed to remember to take pictures.  As you can see, the yellow faux-crushed-velvet was quickly disposed of only to reveal...EVEN UGLIER FABRIC.  After I removed the final layer of dirty old upholstery (accompanied by a sad, flat, paper-thin layer of cushioning), I used the base of the seat to trace a new cushion out of this RANDOM FOAM LYING AROUND IN OUR ATTIC.  My dad somehow snagged this from some kind of furniture supply warehouse or something.  I don't know.  But it is super dense and supports my lil' tush and is much much MUCH better than the old cushion.

I'm sure my mom appreciated me using her very nice serrated knife to slice an inedible cushion for upholstery.

Since the block of foam was a little too thick and needed to be cut to size, I hacked away at it using a serrated bread knife.  I hear that carving knives work well, too.  

I probably could have skipped the step where I thinned out the cushion if I had bought a block of high-density foam that was the right size from Joann Fabrics, since it was only like $6.99  But $6.99 is still more expensive than free, so I went ahead and put in the extra effort.

Not pictured: my sweat and tears and anxiety.

The next thing I did was attempt to upholster the chair.  Unfortunately, I am a wimp and did not have the strength to use the staple gun while stretching the fabric out enough to tightly cover the chair.

My dad is a bit of a perfectionist.

So my dad stepped in and did the job waaaay better than I could.

`

I forgot to take a picture of the finished cushion all by itself, but here is a picture of it in the frame of the chair.  I think it looks awesome!  I am super in love with this coral damask fabric, which my mom ordered on fabric.com.  We're also going to use it for window treatments, but I'm not worrying about that right now!  I tried to use a part of the pattern that was less obvious, mostly because I couldn't cut too far into the fabric because we need it for curtains.  But I can't believe how good it looks!

It took me kind of a while to get the ball rolling, but the transformation is pretty amazing.  And I'm sitting on it right now as I'm writing this entry, and LET ME TELL YOU HOW HAPPY MY BUTT IS.  That old cushion was pretty sad.

Expect a room tour soon!  I'm FINALLY FINISHED with my room.  FINALLY.

Paint by Numbers

It's technically still Thursday on the West Coast!  I DON'T OWE YOU PEOPLE ANY EXPLANATIONS.

All summer my friends and I have been dying to go paint pottery and drink sangria.  This summer has been kind of weird and disjointed for all of us because we all had real things going on--jobs, internships, study abroad trips, and all that other good stuff.  So find a date when we could all get together and do these two things that everyone wanted to participate in was tough.  We never really found the perfect date, but we managed to fit the two events into one pottery-painting-sangria extravaganza.

All Fired Up in Collingswood has these things called "Diva Night" which is basically like a wine and cheese hour with pottery painting.  Since none of us could go to the actual scheduled Diva Night this summer, we opted to go tonight and make our own Diva Night and bring a bottle of sangria and some cheese and crackers with us.

Ahhh yess.  Pre-made sangria, ritz crackers, and sliced colby.
A feast fit for true queens.

They set us up in the party room, since we had called ahead.

Party room, indeed,

We picked out our pieces and got to work!

My friends are pretty focused painters.

I opted to paint a mug, since the last mug I painted with my friends got knocked over while I was dying of strep throat.  I also picked this cute little bowl, because I like bowls.  I don't know why...I just...I just love bowls, OKAY??

Yummyyyy

My friend Brooke always uses really cool techniques when we go to paint pottery.  This time she did this technique where you blow into some watered down paint with a straw, and it creates bubbles.  You place your item on top of the bubbles to transfer, and after they pop this is what it looks like:

Isn't that so cool??

HOOT HOOT.  Cute cute!

Naomi was skeptical about her artistic abilities, but she managed to make this adorable owl plate using a stamp!

Meredith, Amanda, and Naomi were all pleased with their finished products.  Meredith went with stamps and sponges, and Amanda got creative and did some fun color blending.

Meredith clearly has no sympathies for Tori.

Tori agonized for a really long time over what to do with hers.  She worked down to the wire!  In the end she wound up with a really awesome bowl...

Definitely worth the stress!  I think this was one of my favorite pieces from the night.

For the mug, I made it pretty similar to the one that broke.  It's not my best work, but it definitely represents my usual level of artistic talents.

I tried to do something a little more ambitious with the bowl....

I mean, I wouldn't sell it at a craft fair or anything, but I'm pretty proud of it!

After we finished up at All Fired Up, we headed back to Amanda's house for sangria night.

I made this white peach and berry sangria that was so so so delicious.  I am a sucker for white wine.  And white sangria is basically just juice.  Delish!

Amanda and her mom made some red sangria.
Very strong, and very delicious!

Tori wanted to improve my picture.

Fun squiggly wine glasses!!

h0tt1eZ

Those apple slices were deadly!!

We asked Amanda's dad to take a picture of us, and he left us with this hilariously bad photo.  Before we could even ask him to retake it, he was out the door!

He even told us that "it looked great"

We asked Amanda's mom to take another picture for us later in the night.  This one turned out much better!

Except for Meredith.

I'm at the tail end of summer, and I feel pretty good about it.  I was really productive all summer, and I spent time with friends from home and family.  I still have a few more things to look forward to, but if I had to end my summer here I would have no regrets!

PINTERSESSION!!

Soooo interesting fact about my school: my spring semester does not start until FEBRUARY.  I've been off for about 6 weeks.  The reason why we have such a long break is because my school has a winter session for all of January, and a lot of students use that time to take classes they don't have time for in the regular semester or to study abroad.  My freshman year of college I stayed home for all 6 weeks of break, and I almost died of boredom.  DIED, I TELL YOU.

 So I wound up taking a class last winter session because I was required to be on campus as an RA and I figured I should do something with my life.  This year I did no such thing.  Instead, I've been living at my apartment during the week and going home on the weekends becauuuuse I can.  THAT'S RIGHT.  I DON'T TAKE ORDERS FROM ANYBODY.

...sorry......

Anyways, my roommate and I decided that since neither of us are taking classes and both of us had a ton of things pinned on Pinterest that we wanted to make, we would use our free time to try out some pins.  Hence PINTERSESSION!

Do you see?  Winter session....Pintersession...like...winter but with pin.....
Okay you get it.


I've made a ton of fun things, so I figured I would share them here.

The first things Lizzy (my roommate) and I made were these scrapbook paper flowers on canvas, inspired by this pin.  We decided to make them blue and yellow, because they are our school colors (well...blue and gold).  I thought they turned out really nice!  Although I had forgotten how much I hate using modge podge.  Don't worry, I remember now.

TAKEN STRAIGHT FROM MY INSTAGRAM.
I have no shame.

I meant to make a post about these raspberry and mascarpone macarons that I made at the beginning of January.  But I forgot to take pictures of the process and they didn't turn out quite how I wanted.  So maybe I will make a post about the next batch of macarons I make, probably next week.  I will say that I didn't like these macarons as much as others that I have eaten/made/looked at.  I just...I don't like raspberries.  Or mascarpone cheese.  I'm not really sure what made me think I would enjoy them more if I put them together...
The green concoction in the cup is the smoothie that I talked about in my last blog post about cauliflower nuggets. I've been making those suckas all month.  I've started making a version that uses frozen berries instead of an apple, which tastes better in my opinion...but it doesn't turn green, which is half the fun of this smoothie!

I MADE MY OWN SOY CANDLES.  How cool is that??  Except I am literally never ever ever doing this ever again because it was a big mess, it cost more than just buying a candle, and I didn't even like the scent that I wound up with.  Plus, they look pretty sloppy in real life.  Thankfully the camera on my phone doesn't portray these things true to life.  I will most likely end up giving these away as gifts.  Probably to people that enjoy the combination of lavender and vanilla...heavy on the lavender.  Womp womp.

Ooooh instagrammed again.  You just love those filters,
don't you?

I didn't actually make this one, but it's my new favorite game!  I'm not sure if Lizzy got the idea from Pinterest, or just from someone's suggestion, but it was pretty ingenious.  In case you're not sure what this is (...did you have a childhood??), this is a guess who board with the faces of our friends instead of the weird cartoon faces that you would usually play with.  Karen Kavett made this awesome Doctor Who version, and she managed to get her hands on one of the older guess who board games that I grew up with.  We just used whatever they were selling at target!

INSTAGRAMMED AGAIN.  I'll neva stop.

Remember this blog post, when I said that I needed to update my dry erase calendar?  Welll I went ahead and did that...by making a brand new one!  This was made using scrapbook paper (for the background), a glass frame (to make it dry erase), and PAINT CHIPS (MY FAVE)!  There are actually a bunch of pins that inspired this one, but the first one I ever saw was the one Lizzy's friend Mallory made...which I don't have a link to, but it looked pretty freakin' cool.  I really just love the gradient look of the paint chips.  I did my best to make the colors match my bedspread (which is what the frame is sitting on top of...nice, right?).  It was kind of a pain in the ass to make, because I had to cut every color to size in order to make it fit the frame.  But I'm really happy with the way it turned out.

I'm beginning to think that maybe I have
an instagramming problem.

Cauliflower pizza!  I said I would try it in my last entry, and I ALWAYS follow through.  Okay, that's not necessarily true about like...school work, but it certainly is true about food.

This recipe was very successful!  I will say, much like the dipping sauce and breading being the main event of the cauliflower nuggets, the tomato sauce and cheese are the main event of this pizza.  The cauliflower doesn't have quite the same hearty texture as regular pizza crust, and it was a little softer than regular pizza crust.  But I still have reason to believe that there is more to this recipe than meets the eye, I just have to find it.  So there will definitely be a Cauliflower Pizza: the Sequel in the near future.

This is so far my favorite craft from Pintersession.  Lizzy and I gathered up some branches outside, and made these season canvases, inspired by this pin.  We made each season out of a different material.  Lizzy worked on summer, made with craft foam, and autumn, which was made with buttons.  I made spring, which was made with scrapbook paper, and winter, made with glittery scrapbook stickers and cotton balls.  Lizzy and I both had nervous breakdowns while making these.  Everything you see in that picture was individually glued down...except for the glitter stickers.  But glitter has its own special place in hell.  Despite the fact that making these induced several minor panic attacks, I am totally in love with them and can't wait to hang them up.

I still have about a week left of winter session, and next week is going to be a straight up spree.  There's a lot I still want to get done, including some crafts and last minute organizing.  But I'm on a roll!  I'M ROLLING DOWN A STEEP HILL AND I CAN'T STOP.

Sorry.  I'm done.