Whoa thereee!

I have been SO busy. I have been living and breathing Wentworth, ah! I have been working 12 hour days for orientation, then classes started, then my financial aid went crazy. I just have been settling one thing after another and have been so overwhelmed.

I'm starting to get a grasp of my new schedule. I've been getting into a good routine too!

This weekend I get to craft. YES! I can't decide what I want to do. Scrapbook, sew, play with mod podge... I could barely make up my mind. I'm just so happy to have time to myself to make things and just unwind and do me.

So for an update.....

• My Co-Op ended, now I'm back in classes! I'm taking 6 classes which is 23 credits. I'm a crazy woman
• This month is me and Benjamin's ONE YEAR!!! yay!!
• I saw my sister and Dan since they've come back from Hawaii
• She showed me how to make wire wrap jewelry
• I've done a lot of thrifting
• Ben and I bought a vacuum cleaner (seriously it sounds lame but I feel like we're officially married now. we bought a vacuum cleaner together!)
• Jack, our old roommate, is officially moved out and Alex, our new roommate, is all moved in!
• I came up with lots and lots of ideas.........

I'm so glad to get back into the blog game. I feel like its my year! I feel like I'm gonna do great in classes, plan a great Alternative Spring Break trip, and make lots of things and even make a few garments I can wear. I get to start Project Life!!!!!!!!!!!! (I was going to start it a couple weeks ago, actually, but all the kits are backed up in stocking and plus, I love the new Heather Bailey designed Olive Edition and will be getting this core kit when it's finally out :)

Ben thinks that the PL thing is silly. He understands the idea but is just like "why.." Honestly.. I love the idea of scrapbooking. I love decorating photos and having them as a keepsake but the typical layout with one or two pictures with inspiring words around them just isn't me. My scrapbook pages are so much more boxy and geometric I guess. I like having a lot of photos on one page with stickers to accent and emphasize.. Not the whole thing to revolve around the stickers and just stuff on and around the pictures. I feel that PL keeps the main idea of scrapbooking there and keeps the simplicity of just a life in photos. I want to just take pictures, print them out, and slide them in their place. For me, I almost see it as a journal with lots and lots of pictures. I'm excited to think of things to fill it week to week. I'm excited for the weeks that just fill themselves. I'm excited to pick one or two things to revisit every week to see its change and progression (like a picture of Ben and I week, or our favorite munchies of the week) I want to capture this journey of Ben and I in our college life with no real obligations and just the beginning of our relationship. This month is a year we've been together and when I look back on the year... we have no freaking pictures or anything! There are a couple.. from Thanksgiving... and then a handful of just pictures of us. Literally like 5. A year together and all I can show for it is 5 pictures?! Not this year! This summer we did a couple awesome things and got great pictures (trips to the farm, our fishing trip on the Cape) but those big trips don't make our relationship fun. The every day does. I'm excited for this and I hope that Ben starts to love it when he sees the pages come together.

Taking advantage of this fresh start :)

a little update

Wow it's been a week since I've posted!

I think that's the longest it's been. I've been super busy and wrapped up in a bunch of things, I just haven't had the time.

Last week at work was busy and went fast. I do most of my blogging during my free time at work so that's mostly why it suffered.

I've also been such a baby about the heat and not much. I did some scrapbooking though! I did a two page spread for my mom's book and did one page for me and Ben's. I also bought this date Smash Stamp from K&Company at Blick this weekend and some Mod Podge gloss from Blick art stores.

I also bought this Canon photo printer on Amazon! I figured it'd be a good investment. It's wireless, I could download an App to sync and print pictures from my iPhone. Ben has a really good camera and we could finally print photos from it. It got good reviews and it was pretty cheap! And I got free shipping on it. I think it's worth it. Plus, if I really want to scrapbook and document and Project Life, a photo printer was necessary.

Ben and I have been going out to eat a lot lately! We went to Fire and Ice with some friends Thursday night.

Hahaha FAIL.

Fire and Ice with Chris, Mike, and Ben

My food before it was cooked

On the grill!

Ben and I went to the Franklin Park Zoo on Saturday

Ben entering the butterfly house!

The butterflies they had

Waiting to be beauuutiful butterflies

Tree kangaroo!

and we spent the day in his hometown yesterday!

Adam and the horses

Feeding the horse!!

Flowers I got from the farm :)

I had a really great weekend. Especially spending so much time outside.

a little (long) Friday update!

I was doing good with my posts and updates until yesterday!

Yesterday I was busy nonstop at work! I was able to fit in my shorts project only cause my boss was giving me a little break since he was on lunch and I was gonna have lunch right after him.

I also spent sometime with an old girlfriend yesterday! That was fun :) Then Ben's parents came in for a late dinner after Ben's night class and we went out to P.F. Chang's where I got this inspiring fortune:

I get the BEST fortunes from there! I am definitely passionate and determined about my vision :)

We got home late and I went straight to bed after. So here is my late update!

My calendar was rearranged! But of course I must rearrange it again. Today I'm gonna leave some days open, so if I miss a day then I don't have to completely change everything, every time. Also to plan to do something every day is a little much, considering I work full time and want a little bit of a life outside my craft room :P

I made two goals!! Make dinner twice a week and Read a Book. I made dinner once this week, so that's halfway done. I made broccoli cheddar soup, rice, and chicken. I prepared them all seperately and then layered the soup, rice, and chicken in a pan and baked it for 25 minutes. It was okkaayyy. The soup was from a packet and the rice was instant so I feel if I actually made it homemade, it would be really good! My standard for cooking dinner twice a week is to make something with meat, chicken, ground beef, ground turkey beef, anything with protein like that. Of course I make dinner for us every night, it's just that sometimes it's a pizza (frozen, ordered, or made), breakfast-for-dinner night, or we just make some mac and cheese. We just eat too much like college kids. We're getting older and the time to start making the food changes and good eating habits is now. And read a book is pretty loose... I just want to finish a book. I used to read sososoo much and always be in the book store picking out books. I need to get back into the reading habit again and will be happy with myself if I just get one book read!

My PostalPix order was shipped yesterday! That means I could do some scrap booking next week, yay! I will also be starting me and Ben's personal scrapbook :)

Which reminds me...  I have a shopping cart ready to be checked out for Project Life on Amazon. Except, I'm still waiting for the core kits to be available! I have my clear packets picked out (1, 2 and 3) and I already know what binder and set I want (I think I'm gonna go with the clementine :) buuuut maybe amber?! probably amber...) I really can't wait until I could check out on that order. Maybe I should order the clear packets just to be safe. We'll see. I really can't wait to start it!! I think I may have to invest in a photo printer for this... hmmmm

All my financial aid is set for the fall. Such a relief!

Since I majorly slacked in picture taking this weekend from Bernadette's visit, the same went for Instagram pictures. I only had a few, and just decided to skip the update this week and put the few pictures of last week's Instagram photos with next week's. Whatever haha.

I have done nothing to change the blog, whatsoever. I've really been meaning to! But, work comes first. Perhaps today! My Fridays are usually easy :)

Alex moves in this weekend which is super exciting. And we talked to our landlord yesterday and she told us she had no problem signing a lease for the next year! YAY!!! Now we don't have to worry about moving out until next summer, andddd I want to ask if we could get a kitten :) Awwww it'll be me and Ben's first run as parents :P

Wellll that's about it for this length update! More posts to come today, I'm sure :)

xx
V

DIY Shorts Project!

So I've been on the search for high waisted cuffed shorts ALL summer.

That even sounds like an understatement.. Every time Ben and I passed Levi's on Newbury, I would check for shorts. I searched and searched and searched websites who sold Wildfox, trying to find the Jane Fonda shorts discounted (seriously they're perfect ahhh but I couldn't bring myself to pay 139 bucks for shorts... I did find them cheaper on a site, but they didn't have my size! >.<) Every single clothing store we went to that MIGHT have these shorts, I double and triple checked, and no luck.

This meant DIY!!!!

We have a HUGE Good Will near our apartment, and it's a favorite spot of mine. There are racks and racks of jeans. I just had to find the perfect pair. I was on the hunt and I found a pair of white Lucky Brand capris! They were size zero and in perfect condition and $6.99!!!! I tried them on and they fit perfect. I couldn't wait to cut them up!

Shout out to the sewing machine in the background :p

But they came out pretty good!!! I wanted them to be a bit longer because when you walk around a lot they ride up and they're just more comfortable a little longer.

Here's how I did it :

First I put them on. I didn't want to decide where to cut without seeing them on. Then I thought about how short (or long) I wanted them to be with the cuff. I was going to roll them up twice, So I added about two inches for each cuff. Then I drew a line with a pencil about half an inch longer than that.

Then I folded them in half (to make sure I cut each pant even) and cut across. Then I put them back on. The trick is, you could always keep cutting, but you can't make it longer. So then I cuffed them. I decided these were still too long and made a mark where to cut. I took them off, cut and put them back on. This time they were perfect! I had Ben make a line on the back of the shorts where the cuff ended so just incase they became unrolled, I still knew where to sew them.

I pinned them accordingly then went to sew!

The picture is a little difficult to see but it'll do. On the sides of the shorts, where the seem was showing, I decided is where I would sew. I flipped the seem the opposite way way and sewed right next to the factory stitching. I stitched and reverse stitched a few times. When I was done, I just flipped it back over! You couldn't even notice!

Next, I ironed them so they'd stay stiff and gain shape. I wasn't satisfied with how they were sewn, I felt that they wouldn't survive a wash. Then I decided to sew just a littttttle bit on the bottom of the cuff near the seem on the sizes and crotch of the shorts.

I stitched and reverse stitched from the seem to about an inch and a half out. This way it held the cuff where it'd get the most movement and since I sewed it on the bottom, you couldn't notice at all. It was perfect because the small stitch held the shape of the shorts and cuff and since it was sewn on the bottom, the top looked completely normal!

I love my new shorts! I can't wait to get a black pair and a light and dark wash jean. After I hair a pair of each, I'll probably do some fun stuff like adding fabrics and other things to my shorts :) yay!

DIY Flower Canvas Project

It's pretty awesome that I've been getting consistent page views the past few days. Usually I'd gain one or two when I made a new post... but now I feel like the number is different every time I log onto my dashboard. So exciting!! Thank you, thank you for visiting my space and seeing what I had to say.

I got all of the things I wanted to get done yesterday, and then some! So happy!

Yesterday I took on a little crafting project! Which I adapted from here.

I wanted to use my bigger canvas for some map transferring, so I used my medium sized canvas and made a simpler and smaller pattern.

Before I glued! I cut out some bigger sized petals and smaller sized petals out of some scrapbooking paper. I decided on a design and then put it on another piece of paper the exact way and started gluing!

And it's finished! Doesn't look too much different, ahaha. But it's okay. It may be upside down but what's awesome is that it could go any way you want! It'd even work if I held it landscape.

For this project, I used

• Utrecht Gloss Medium (instead of Mod Podge)
• Different kinds of scrapbooking paper
• Scissors
• Utrecht Foam Brush (disposable, use a size proportional to your canvas
• Utrecht Stretched Cotton Canvas (any size you'd like! I bought a few when they were on sale at the store so I had a couple to chose from. I can't remember it's exact size at the moment D: )
• Utrecht acrylic paint

First I painted the background to my canvas using Utrecht acrylic paint. You could use any color that you'd like! I used Ben's old paint, and this was the only color he had, which completely worked for me.  I liked the neutral background and it looked good with my darker scrapbooking paper.

Then I cut out my petals. I used four different papers, but all from the same packet of paper (it was a gift so I don't know where it was purchased or the name of the brand, sorry!) and cut different sized petals. I played with the positioning for awhile.

After I got everything where I wanted it to be, I took a piece of paper and placed my pieces one by one to the other paper so I could easily glue them on place on the canvas. I also took a picture of how everything was positioned (obviously) so if something got messed up, I still had my plan in handy.

Then I glued! I used the gloss medium like glue. It also works as a sealer. I placed all my petals in their spots and waited a few minutes for them to settle. After, I painted a layer of the gloss over the entire canvas to seal it in place. Then I let it dry!

That's it!

I can't wait to decorate my room with my own decor :p