At A Loss for Words

A few weeks ago, I got to shoot my first proposal and it was awesome! I was so excited and so nervous at the same time. I was NOT supposed to be seen. I was on the beach, it was windy, my umbrella was broken, it was trying to turn inside out, I was trying to hold a camera. STRUGGLE. But it was so exciting to see two of my great friends walking hand-in-hand down the beach, totally and completely in love. My heart was melting the whole time! When they reached "the spot," I snapped about 100 photos and grabbed my stuff to scurry away as fast as I could to head to the surprise engagement party after. (I barely beat them there!) Here the some of my favorites:

The fun begins...

...actually not so much. Today was my first day of classes. I thought I would humor you (mainly myself) with a list of things that brought me joy and pain today.

1. I got out of my car and the first person I saw was my Econ professor from last semester whose final I failed and whose class I barely came out of with a C... Should I have been embarrassed? Probably not, but I turned as red as a tomato.

2. I saw my first trip of the semester within 30 seconds of walking out of the parking garage. I love the uneven sidewalks of downtown when I am not the one tripping...

3. I witnessed my first "rough night" conversation between two very hungover sorority girls.

4. I heard the usual "did you go out last night" and "where'd you end up last night" questions at least 5 times on my short walk from the parking garage to my first class.

5. I saw three girls, who had to be freshman (no one else would put themselves through this torture if they weren't freshmen who didn't know), wearing 5 inch heals and mini skirts to their classes.

6. My history teacher is French. He has an accent and pronounces 'renaissance' in a way that will melt your heart. He also cracks corny jokes, which is the best.

7. I couldn't tell if my Ethics teacher was a boy or a girl, due to the shave head and mohawk. It was a girl, and her name is Ornaith. I actually love her now.

8. The girl next to me threw her water bottle in the trash can when I wasn't expecting it. She startled the whole class, but of course, I was the only one who let out an embarrassing squeal. That surely was an icebreaker, as everyone got a good laugh out of it!

9. I didn't know a single person in any of my classes and it reminded me of how popular I am............

10. I found out my Public Health class is all presentations in front of the class. There isn't anything that gives me more anxiety than speaking in front of my class. GREAT.

Let the games begin! 

Big spendinnn

Not really big spending, but I like how legit that sounds when you sing it slowly. haha. Friday was a big day for me! I bought my first car. For the past 4 years I have been driving my moms car and she has been driving one of my grandmother's cars. This summer, my sister got her license and just screwed everything up- thanks sis! So we were short cars and then my grandmother's car that we were borrowing went into the shop for two weeks and I was stuck at home a lot without a car and it was just terrible. Needless to say, we needed a car. My parents and I had talked for a while about me saving up and buying a car, and the time finally came. We had been looking for a few weeks, but we kept coming back to the same car. So on Friday, I went on down to the dealership, slapped a down payment on that baby, signed a million papers, and now I own a car. Woop woop!

Meet Chiquita:

Yes, I did name her after a word we used all the time in Honduras. It means "little one." She can remind me of all my ninos chiquitos in Honduras.

Calendar Girl

Yesterday I made this great and easy calendar that works with a dry erase marker. I went with the girls I nanny and gathered all of the supplies. We made it all the way home before the inevitable happened- Kelsey stepped on my poster frame and put a large crack in it. Thus, my project was delayed a day and I had to go purchase a new frame! I saw this on Pinterest of course, and here's the pin. Here's how you can have one of your own:

What you need:
- a poster board frame from Target or Walmart
-35 paint sample chips from Lowes or Home Depot
- white card stock paper
-sharpie
-spray glue
-masking tape
-fabric of your choice (optional)

1. Remove the contents from the poster board frame so that you have the cardboard insert. Using spray glue, cover the cardboard with your fabric. (you may choose to use paper or even just a regular poster board)
2. Lay your paint chips into 5 rows with 7 in each row. Create a header for the name of the month (leave it blank) and the days of the week out of the white card stock. I also made a notes section because I had some extra space. (I used a paper cutter to remove the words from each or my paint chips so that the name and number weren't visible for the final product).
3. Tape all of the paint chips and paper into place. (You may also choose to use the fabric glue again).
4. Assemble the frame back together and there you have it!

There is a lot of freedom in this, so be creative!

halfway through trimming the words off of the paint chips

Sorry for the blurry pictures, I had to resort to using my phone!

Me encanta Honduras

I couldn't wait any longer, so this morning I woke up and finished my Honduras board like I talked about in this post. Here are the pics:

 

the finished product!

Nails and Nannying

I love when I get to spend 12 hours nannying with my two favorite little girls. We get to craft all day! They love crafting with me, and I get to test out some of the things I have been wanting to try out for myself. Today we took a stab at what I know everyone has seen on pinterest... THIS.  I asked the girls what they wanted to create: one said a flower (which I forgot to take pictures of) and the other chose the starfish shown below. It was so easy and we had a blast making them!

All you have to do is trace or draw the shape you want on a piece of wood (we chose to paint our wood a color first, which most people would, I'm sure). Then you place nails about a cm apart from each other along your drawing. Pick a figure with something in the middle of it, so you have a place to connect the string too. Tie one end of your string to a nail where you want to start, and begin wrapping! Tie it off at the end and you have your masterpiece!

These turned out so well, that I am ready to take on my creation of Honduras using this technique!

We did the starfish a little differently because of its odd shape. We ended up doing a zigzag pattern rather than straight lines of string from the outside nails to the inside nails like we did on the flower

Pillow Party

I went fabric store hopping on Thursday with a friend, and she didn't do a good job of not letting me buy a ton of fabric... So yesterday I made some pillows for my soon-to-be room using this tutorial. It was super easy and each pillow took me under 10 minutes to make!

What you need:
1/2 yard of fabric (for pillows smaller than 18 inches)
and a pillow form

What to do:
1. Cut the fabric. For my 15x15in pillow, I cut one piece measuring 15x34in. (Your fabric should measure 'pillow side' by 'pillow side x2 plus 4 inches')
2. Hem the two short sides of the fabric to make clean edges.
3. Fold the fabric in on both ends (right side of the fabric inside) so that there is a square the size of the pillow in the middle. (For mine this means that I folded each end in 9.5". There should be a couple of inches of overlap. 
4. Sew across the top and bottom.
5. Flip inside out and put your pillow in!

Here are some pics of the ones I made:

I had to stop myself from making any more! They are just too easy!

DIY: passport case

Before I left for Honduras, I was sewing like crazy. I made this awesome holder for my passport, credit cards, and boarding passes. It made traveling so much easier! I made it by modifying this journal cover tutorial. Here are some pics-

I ended up adding a fabric flower to the front after I was finished to add a little personality. Sorry I don't have a picture of that!

All you moms out there:

THANK YOU.

I have been nannying for two lovely little girls for the past year and couldn't be more in love with my job. I have learned more than I ever thought I would or could. There have been many laughs, tears, "because I said so's," and "we are leaving in 10 seconds with or without you's." Was I really so funny when I was 8? Was I so whiny? Was I so snuggly? Was I so (insert any word to describe a child at any moment). But I would say what I have gained most from this past year has been appreciation. Appreciation for all those Mom's out there who made the decision to raise their children, because man it is tough! Not only is it tough, but it is rewarding. To see a child's excitement when you compliment their tree climbing abilities or hear their laughter when they watch Ice Age 4. And it doesn't hurt that I am just as mature as my 8 and 11 year old... ha. That's my spiel for the momma's out there. You rock.