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.

This weekend

Wellllll. I didn't do everything I wanted. Surprise! Haha. I realllly didn't do anything I wanted.

Ben and I spent most of the day out together in Cambridge on Saturday. It was so hot inside the apartment when we got back, it totally sucked out any motivation I had to do any crafts. Mostly because Ben's room has the AC pumping. To sit in my room and do my little projects while his room is ice cold and mine is a sweat box is reallly hard. I'm a baby when it comes to being hot. The only time I could stand being deathly hot is when I am on the beach in a bathing suit. Haha

So we relaxed and watched a movie together and ordered in and bonded. We went to bed kinda early and slept in Sunday. We spent the day hanging at the house and cleaning because Alex was moving in. I rearrange the entire pantry and cleaned out the fridge. I mopped the entire house. Everything was all set for Alex to move in. Then Ben and I spent the evening with him.

So it's never like I don't do anything... I just had more important things to take care of. How embarrassing would it be if Alex moved in and he couldn't put one thing of his in the cabinets or refrigerator or if he had to move into a dirty room? I know he's a guy and doesn't think that way, but I really would of felt guilty if I didn't do those things for him.

I decided against the What I Wore posts. I just wasn't confident about them. I think that this is something I'll have to do with Ben and have him take my pictures. I think I may wait until classes start to do this also. We'll see. It's something I really really want to do, just don't know how to go about it yet.

My pictures from PostalPix came, yay! It's amazing to compare the photos taken with my iPhone 4 and the 4S. I printed some pictures that I took with my regular iPhone 4 and they just look so bad compared to the more recent ones I've taken with my 4S. It's crazy! The 4S is so great, I can't believe the 5 is coming out in the fall. What the hell is it gonna do that's different?!! We'll see I guess!

I didn't make dinner a second time or read any of Lolita. Ugh. fail.

Project Life core kits and binders still aren't up.

I'm waiting for my Umba Box to come this week.

Good news is, I got so much down time and relaxing in this weekend that I feel great. No going home all tired and lazy this week! Next Friday is my last day of Co-op so I'm gonna make it count :)

Well that's today!
Hopefully some project posts up soon :)

xx
Victoria

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

Monday Update!

Okay so maybe I should have considered how busy I'd be with my Mom's visit when I was making my schedule. I guess I should of just had planned to start it on an even day, like August 1st instead of... June 25th? Guess I was just anxious.

I got a few of my things done here and there. But mostly I was just so happy to be with my mom and the blog kind of went to the back of my mind.

But I had an amazing weekend.

We got some great food, went thrifting, shopping, flea markets, watched the Olympics, and just bonded and talked. I actually cried saying goodbye to Bernadette at the airport. And usually it's me yelling at her to stop crying and she's sobbing. Yesterday was the opposite. I guess that I've just grown up so much in the past couple of months that I just missed having my mom take care of me. Now instead of me telling her about stupid girl dramas, I'm talking about the bills and grocery shopping and cleaning and my work schedule and this and that. Instead of arguing about stupid things, we both fought over washing the dishes.

I didn't even take pictures! The weather wasn't the greatest so I wasn't too motivated to do that. But, like I said, I was just so into the moment and hanging with my mom.

I showed her the scrapbook I was making for her. She couldn't stop looking at the three pages I made and told her that made her night and she couldn't wait for me to finish it. She's going to mail up some baby pictures she loves, too. She wants a little of everything in her scrapbook and I think that's an awesome idea.

My mom was also so impressed and interested in my little craft life! She was asking me questions and really into it when I showed her some of my favorite blogs. She actually asked me to email her the links!! It was so great to have her behind me with all of this. Usually she's like "oh you won't do that" and now she's like "oh can you make me something like that?!" and I love it! I even showed her Project Life and she thought the idea was really cool. She doesn't think I'll be able to keep up week to week but also agrees it's pretty simple to document each week so she has some faith in me. I can't wait till the new products are available to buy! Ah!

My boss is so good to me. He let me have Monday off so I could spend the day with my mom. He even made sure I got a pay for it :) So thankful how lucky I've been. Except now my week is a day behind. My Tuesday feels like Monday. But that's okay, I can't complain :)

SO! For the UpDaTe!
Today, before I go home from work, I plan to....

• Rearrange the Calendar
• Create 2 goals for the month
• PostalPix order
• Finalize Financial Aid things for the Fall 2012 semester
• Insta update
• Work on some formatting of the blog

 For after work I plan to...

• Catch up on some at home projects 
• Work out "What I Wore" for the first post on Friday
• Clean
• BE PRODUCTIVE!

I can do this!
I know I've been slacking and not doing everything I've wanted, but it's not like I'm sitting around doing nothing. I've just been so busy with things I just need to take care of first. That's life. I know when classes start I'll have way more free time to do all the things I want.

As for home life, there's good news!!! Alex is moving in! So I'm so glad I sacrificed one of my days last week to spend the day with him and Ben and talk to him about moving in. I love Jack but I'm over living with him... I'm excited that the house is about to change up a little bit. Yay!

As much as I wanted to be productive this weekend...

I wasn't. Sigh.
It was more of a

• sleep
• relax
• be with friends
• prepare
• and clean

sort of weekend.

Friday - I worked while Ben went out catching butterflies with his friends. Luckily, I was able to leave at lunch time! So while Ben was out and I was home alone, I cleaned the bathroom, hallway, and tidied up the kitchen. I then rewarded myself with a much needed nap! I woke up around the time Ben came home. Then our friends came to visit! We all went out to the Cheesecake Factory. No one ever cares about the bill and we all just order whatever sounds good and share. It's the best time. We always plan on dessert after but everyone is always beyond stuffed. We got home pretty late and I crashed.

Saturday - Ben had lots of homework! He was in the last stretch of finishing up his portfolio (Ben studies Industrial Design at Wentworth. Last semester he had a Co-Op at Puma! He's so good, I'm so proud of him) but since no quality print places were open, so it was okay if he finished his work on Sunday, Ben and I hung out. We filled the day with Dexter, darts, and relaxing. I did a little shopping! I went to Utrecht Art Store to get some supplies. They had a big summer sale going on, and I really wanted to start making my own wall art and experimenting and getting crafty. I bought Utrecht's version of Mod Podge, a couple of different sized canvases on sale, and a brush! I started my first project that day, but got side tracked...That night we saw Savages. It was pretty good! We got home pretty late that night too and, of course, I passed out right after.

Sunday - Ben's Dad, Bruno, came to visit for lunch. We went to my favorite place to eat, Victoria's Diner. They seriously have the best breakfast, EVER! And, I have a big love for diners since New Jersey is filled with them and they were a common meeting place for my friends and I back in the day. Ben worked on his portfolio while I relaxed. I really wanted to clean my room and rearrange our pantry (that sounds so sad but seriously it's a mess and there are just boxes of food all over the shelves, in no order whatsoever... and it drives me crazy!) and sew and do one of my canvas projects, but I really have just felt so spent lately I just needed the weekend to relax. I thought about what I wanted to do with the canvases, though!!! That's good enough.. right????

So now, I left myself with a ton of things to do for this week. I feel overwhelmed, but as Ben as told me, "don't stress! these are personal projects, you're doing them for you. Take your time and do it how you want it and when you want it. Stop rushing and trying to get all of these things done." It was good advice. Obvious... but what I actually needed to hear. Ben has been slaving away on his portfolio, and he just kept telling me how he was jealous he couldn't work on any of his personal things because he he had so much work that he needed to do. That made me realize I'm very lucky to have an open as a schedule I have (despite my 38 hour work week). He was right! It made me take a breath and kind of put my projects into a different perspective.

My room is a mess, and each corner is evidence of a different project. Today I NEED to clean my room and organize all my little to-dos.. Then I need to finish all my half done projects. I don't have the space to work on multiple things at once and need to concentration on ONE until I'M DONE.

new motto? one until I'm done?
Hmm....

Cape Cod

Yesterday, Sunday, I spent the day in Cape Cod with my boyfriend and two of our other couple friends. Our friend Marie lives in Orleans, and her dad has a Charter boat. He took us out on the ocean and we went fishing for striper. I caught the biggest one!! All by myself!! It was 31 inches. I was so happy. After, we pulled up Marie's Dad's lobster pots and got 16 lobsters! After this, we took the boat to an island only accessible to people who have their own boats and grilled on the beach and walk around and explored.

I have some pictures from the trip, but Ben has the best ones from his camera. Whenever he gets those to me I'll update the post and add them, but for now, here are some of my pictures from our trip :)

My Benjamin

Brian fishing

Tony's fish

The line covered in baby clams

This is a pregnant lobster. Ew.

Sand dollar that got caught in the trap :)

Before the cooler was full

Found this lil baby crab on the beach :) It's dead though :(

Seriously had the best time yesterday. Can't wait till I get Ben's picture and I could post pictures of my holding my fish!!!!

Personal!

I feel like I haven't had time to myself in days! So I need a little venting time. This is a Victoria post :)

Since Ben and I spent the weekend away, it's been hard to get back into the swing of things. Monday and Tuesday I had little motivation to do anything because I was so behind on sleep and I actually had so much to do around the house that it just made me want to do nothing.

I work until 5 PM on Mondays and Tuesdays, so after I get home, I usually make something to eat for Ben and I, we watch an episode of whatever show we're watching (currently we're on Season 4 of Dexter, Ben has never seen it, ah!) and then I shower, get my things ready for the next day, and then it's 9:30ish and the last thing I want to do is start a project or start cleaning the apartment. When I work on things I like to spend as much time as I want on it, with room for breaks for regrouping and inspiration. I like to go to bed early, too.

That's the other problem, I'm the morning person and Ben is the night owl. So usually, we spend the time between chores and bed hanging out and bonding because he could stay up after I go to bed and have his time and do his homework and take care of his little projects. It's actually kind of nice, cause then on the weekends, I could get up before he's totally awake and clean and shower and relax and have my coffee at a more reasonable 10 AM instead of after noon.


Yesterday being Wednesday, I finally got to clean. Since our other roommate, Jack, was away for the entire week of 4th of July, and it was just Ben and I until the weekend, the apartment stayed pretty clean until we all came back on Sunday. And, since I spent my free time cleaning yesterday... I had no time to work on projects. Sigh. It's okay, I have tonight, tomorrow night, and Saturday night. But not Sunday!

Sunday Ben and I were invited out on a boat with friends. Our friend lives in Cape Cod, Mass and has a boat. She invited us with her boyfriend and another mutual couple out for a fishing trip and out to hang out on an island for the day. I'm only used to the Jersey Shore so I can't wait! Ben also loves to fish so he's excited. I'm also happy I could spend some time with some girls and catch up on my tan. Sunday should be so much fun.

Well hopefully I'll have some crafty news to share in the next coming days :)

xx V

P.S., On Monday, I got my first UMBA BOX!!!! Yes!! I got Ben's sister and I both subscriptions to Umba Box. Seriously best idea ever. We got homemade bracelets and stationary. I already sent my mom a little letter and have been wearing the bracelet. Can't wait for next month!!!
               Edit: Click here if you would like to see the July Umba Box reveal!

Monday again!

Happy Monday! I hope you all had a great 4th of July! I also hope you had a long break like I did! I was lucky enough to get Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday off and paid! But now it's back to the full work week and being productive (after I finish this blog post...) Which I can't lie, I missed the routine. Doing tons of nothing gets to me. But I'm glad to get back into the swing of things.

So I haven't updated since last Monday, ahh!! I've just been too busy.

Tuesday - My last day of work for the week. I was able to leave at lunch time. So I went home and ate with Benjamin. Then I just cleaned, hung around the house, and started on a pair of shorts from some fabric and a pattern I had! Benjamin and I were having a sort of rough patch the past weekend so it was nice to spend the extra time with him. He knew we were both being difficult and I was a little homesick, so my baby surprised me with some much needed delicious desserts. I'm so lucky :)

I got TWO!! of these little fruit tarts. Soooosososo good!

I also got two chocolate truffle mousse cake things. Which I think were more for Benjamin. We shared this but it was still so good! The fruit was my favorite, but I'll take either any day :)

Wednesday - 4th of July!!! Though, Ben and I will be doing our celebrating at his house the following Saturday. His sister flew in from Chicago the night before (Tuesday) and her boyfriend was flying in on Friday for the family party. So Ben and I kept cool in the house all day and then went to the movies to see Prometheus. It kept us entertained, to say the least. We don't feel it explained anything... just left you with more questions...

Thursday - Ben's parents drove his sister, Lauren, to our apartment in Boston to spend the night by us. We went out to eat at Victoria's Diner (my favorite! and not just because we share the same name) and then Ben's Mom, Laurie, Lauren, and I went thrifting at a giant Goodwill which Ben and his dad, Bruno, went to a card shop. I got a skirt (which I'm wearing currently at work!), a dress from H&M, and some vintage plates, saucers, and teacups! I decided I'm going to collect a mismatch dish set with teacups. I absolutely love old plates and all the floral and how it's decorated. I also love mismatch. Now I just need some girlfriends to have a tea party, yay! Then Laurie and Bruno headed back to their house while Lauren, Ben, and I hung out. Lauren had a few of her friends over from high school who live in the city now. I told them about sewing and fruit dehydrating and just chatted and we had dinner at Tasty Burger. Seriously, best burgers EVER. I got the Kahuna burger. Mmmmm :) Should of taken pictures. Oh well, it was dark. Then we headed back to our place and chatted some more before we called it a night.

Friday - Lauren and I woke up early to go on a coffee date. A local coffee shop I have never been to that Lauren and I were planning to try was closed, so we just walked to Starbucks. It was so hot! I couldn't wait to have my iced coffee and petite vanilla scone. We were there from 9:30 AM -12:30 PM!  We just hung out and talked. I don't have a lot of girlfriends, and the ones I do don't know Benjamin very well so it was nice to be able to talk about my relationship to another female who actually knows Benjamin. That might be the most difficult part of being away. Having almost two different lives filled with completely different people. The people from home just don't know the people in Boston or even think similarly, and vise versa. Slowly my Boston life has taken over my New Jersey one, but that's life.  I'm so grateful for my new life and am so glad I followed the path I did that got me where I am today. After we got back, we hung around the house until Ben's Mom picked us up and brought us back to their house. Ben and I hung out with friends while Lauren and Bruno got her boyfriend, Josh, from the airport.

Saturday - Ben's family party! It was so nice to see all his family, and spent time with his sister. She went to school in Savannah and now lives in Chicago so no one gets to see that much of her. His family is truly my my family as well so I felt comfortable and welcomed. Lauren and I felt we needed sun hats for the party and being out on the boat, so we got some at T.J. Maxx's the day before. Best decision ever. I only have a few photos, but here they are :)

My colorful and huge hat and my Benjmain

Captain Ben on the boat!

Lauren and I and our hats :)

and I was lucky enough to go on a romantic canoe ride with my love, and I didn't have to paddle

Sunday - We woke up early and went to a giant flea market a couple towns over from Ben. All I got was some natural raw wildflower honey from Maine. My life goal is to have my own beehive on my property when I have a house. I want to be a beekeeper! And make my own honey, chapstick, beeswax, and whatever else. After we got back, we just slowly headed back to Boston. Ben and I watched Machete and I went to bed early.

It was such a perfect weekend!

the past weekend and the week ahead...

So it's been a couple days since I've updated this, but it's only because I've been so busy! With work, home chores, AND sewing! So exciting!

Friday I got to leave work early and be with Benjamin for the weekend. Nothing better. Quality time with my man is always my favorite. A few friends came by to visit which is always nice. I also made a bunch of bows and practiced sewing and reorganized my room and work space.

Saturday I cleaned, cleaned, and cleaned some more. Living with two guys has it's benefits... as well as set backs. I do better with the male population so living with Jack and Ben is easy. No cat fights, no missing girl products, guys are also willing to take out the garbage... but cleaning is not on their benefit list. I always try to dedicate a day or a solid couple of hours to cleaning so I could do a decent job. Jack is also gone on vacation to his house in Maine so he's gone until the 13th, so that left room to clean and for the apartment to stay clean, at least for a little longer than usual. After my cleaning spree, I rewarded myself with some quality sewing time and made even more bows and my sister's wrap skirt!! Yayayay!! I have a how-to post all ready to go, I just need to fill in some final details when I get home. Ben and I also made pizza together for dinner :) I love when we make things together, my favorite!

I put some meatballs on my half :)

Sunday Ben and I spent some time with his parents and then finished out the weekend at home. I sewed and started a new lesson from the E-Course. I'm really loving my new hobby. Ben's mom also bought me more patterns! I'm nervous to try them out and make something like a pair of shorts, but she assured me it's not too difficult and if I mess up, I have a seem ripper. And she's right. So I'll be taking that on this week.

and....

MY PHOTOS CAME FROM POSTALPIX!!! Sooo so happy with this purchase! They came at some point over the weekend. I can't wait to get on my scrap booking game. Hopefully I could make two scrap books before the summer ends. Well, COMPLETE one, and have one in the works by the end of the summer. One being for my mother, and one for Benjamin and I. But then at the end of the summer I want to start Project Life. I debated on waiting until the new year or not, but so far, because of school, my years have begin in September and ended on August. When the new year comes around, it's just winter break for me. So since this is a week to week project about me and my life, I think it's appropriate for it to start at the end of August. It'll be the start of my Junior year and beginning of the better part of my life. I can't wait.

As for this week...

Only two days of work! Then time to celebrate the 4th of July. I'll be going to Ben's parents house. His sister is flying in from Chicago with her boyfriend for the long weekend and a party. I haven't met her boyfriend yet so I'm excited. I also can't wait to spend the weekend on the boat in the lake! Since I've been working full time, I barely feel like it's summer, so I'm itching to be in a bathing suit and soak up the sun. Hopefully I'll have lots of photos to share with you as well as enough to make a 4th of July scrap book page!! I just keep thinking about a year from now, five years from now, and even longer. I can't wait to look back at all this stuff. I'm constantly thinking of what can be a good page or concept and just love this new part of my brain opening up.

Check back for the wrap skirt post soon! Hope someone tries :)

OOOO!! and yesterday was the 1st, which means, my Umba Box should be coming soon! I really can't wait to open that up and get my goodies. I'll be sharing that too, of course!