diy: Christmas tree

A couple of weeks ago there was a big storm at my parents home in Mesa. It blew a ton of branches off of a huge tree they have in the backyard. Charlie Brown and my mom inspired me to make use of these branches and turn them into an apartment sized Christmas tree!


I simply stripped the branches of their leaves and then spray painted them. I only used two branches for my tree since they were both pretty large. I originally planned to do them both entirely white but then I ran out of white spray paint. So, I decided to do the last half of one of the branches in gold. After only about two hours of work, I now have a cute, little, free Christmas tree for my apartment!






I am also in the process of hanging the little snowflakes on my bookshelves for added charm.

Aside from the little bit of Christmas decorating I have been attempting, I have been working 70 hour weeks which has not been great for my health. (let alone that I work with a bunch of sick little kiddos) so this week I came down with the stomach flu. but lucky for me i have some of the best friends in the world! my friend Doni, brought me over some early get well/Christmas presents. isn't she the best?!

inside these packages were, homemade chicken noodle soup, pedialyte and some other remedies to get me feeling better.
and for my Christmas gift...she got me a Hogwarts beanie and scarf!! as well as an adorable coin purse from etsy! (did I mention that tomorrow Doni and I hop on a plane to Florida to visit the WIZARDING WORLD OF HARRY POTTER?!!?!?)not your typical vacation for two 22year old girls, BUT it is perfect for nerds like us. I realized that when we are together we either like to do things that would only attract the age group of 55 and older, or 5 and younger. along with HP world, we will also be visiting Universal Studios, Disney World, and Epcot! I have never been to Florida so I am so excited to see all these places. plenty of pictures and stories to come when we return!

sometimes we Fall

Doni and I decided to have another go at a festive autumn day. This time we drove out to Wilcox Arizona to visit Apple Annie's. The weather was unusually warm that day but it was perfect for harvesting. At Apple Annie's they have so much to choose from! We got to do the corn maze, pick sunflowers, pick fresh produce, and go down to the orchard where we saw a herd of deer run past!, and we picked Asian pears and apples! They have peaches as well but they were out of season. Since we went on a weekday the hay ride was not running but it also meant we had the whole place basically to ourselves.. including the fudge kitchen :)

This post is going to be complete overkill on the pictures, but the good thing about that is they are all self explanatory so you don't even need to read the text!



Half of the sunflower field had died but I loved how one seemed to flourish.


the bee's and I had the same taste in sunflowers, I eventually had to surrender and go for my second favorites.

can't get enough Gwyneth

from playing Wendy in Hook, to Margot Tenenbaum in the Royal Tenenbaums to Holly Holliday on Glee, Gwyneth has never failed to be my favorite character in everything she does. she has such a subtle natural beauty and can somehow make every character relatable. not to mention she is a mother of two, is married to the wonderful Chris Martin, and is successfully starting her own singing career.. what can't she do?





this is my all time favorite scene from The Royal Tenenbaums


i wish this video was better quality, but here is a clip from her recent Glee performance, but you should also watch the entire episode.

so excited

just two days away

last minute halloween

okay, so i feel a little silly posting about halloween this late in the game... but, lets just pretend i'm 11 months early? k great. so this year, i was actually ahead of myself and asked the kids at the shelter what they thought i should be well in advance! they all threw out some typical ideas, a princess, superman, buzz lightyear (they always want us to be what they are going to be) but then one little boy yelled above the rest "BE A GIANT HAIRY MONKEY BATMAN!!!" this was followed by the rest of the kids cheering in agreement. i found my potential costume. i knew my little brother (who is taller than me) was batman a couple years ago (when he was about my size) so i planned on borrowing that. i also knew my friend kevin is known for his gorilla suit and i figured i could ask him about that.

so halloween crept near and i was feeling confident about my costume. the friday before halloween i went to phoenix to get batman from my brother. and alas we could not find it anywhere. so i thought of buying batman.. turns out those costumes are not cheap.. $60 for a mask and cape?! then i settle for just being a giant hairy monkey.

i ask about the monkey suit the day before halloween. turns out he needs it to be gorilla santa claus! (see above photo)

this leaves me with about four hours before meeting with friends to pull together a costume. my costume has to be almost free, quick and easy to make, and recognizable by children. so i decide on princess tiger lily from peter pan.





everything to make the costume was purchased at JoAnn's or Michaels. I already owned moccasins from the arizona trading post, and the purse i used is from H&M. unfortunately i didn't take any great pictures of the final costume but here is fuzzy one from the med school gathering i attended.

its funny to me how much more observant children are than adults. or maybe they just care more about disney characters. every adult assumed i was pocahontas, but my kids knew i had to be tiger lily because pocahontas would never wear braids or a feather in her hair!

mountain picnic

in the beginning of October, my friend Doni and i thought it would be nice to welcome fall at the same time as the rest of the country. living in Arizona, this can be a tricky task. we decided the best place to feel a weather change and see a few changing leaves would be on Mount Lemmon.
i packed and dressed for a nice outdoor picnic. i thought boots, a sundress and a light over sized cardigan would be plenty comfy enough to sit outside. shows how much Arizonan's know about changing seasons. it was freeeezing!
so we canceled the picnic and settled for going to the general store to buy some fresh fudge, hot coco, and a hot chai latte. mmmmmm
regardless of the weather surprise it was very refreshing to breathe the crisp air, eat our warm goodies and end our journey with our typical, dance in empty streets to music in our heads parade. 'twas a joy!
next time we venture up the mountain i am sure we will come more prepared.



(fudges i chose were, classic chocolate fudge, raspberry swirl, and rocky road)

rainy day blues

i am aware, i suck at this. BUT good news! i finally got a memory card adapter for my canon 10D so coming soon will be all the pictures i have been taking. but not today. so don't be surprised if i post things that happened a month ago and pretend they were this week.

so anyway.. a couple weeks ago, i woke up and it was beautiful outside..overcast and rainy. which i love. and i had the day off which made it even better. as soon as i looked outside that morning i got a strong craving for blueberry muffins. i was fortunate enough to already have the ingredients and went to work so i could eat them while it was still considered breakfast. unfortunately, i only know how to make muffins in bulk so i pretty much only ate muffins for every meal, for well over a week. but here are some snap shots of my process and a sneak peak into my apartment!






and here was my throne for the day

Re-Start

I have decided to start blogging again. Yay!
A girl i lived with for a couple of years was always telling me that i needed to start a blog. little did she know that i had been neglecting one the entire time. now that i am done with college and working at the children's shelter.. more than full time, i am finding that i really need an activity to do that will produce a concrete result, other than a paycheck. and that will serve as a distractor from the kiddos while i'm not at work. so i figured re-starting the ol' blog was the perfect thing to keep me creatively thinking. i am also living by myself now and need some motivation to leave my adorable apartment, and i am thinking this might be enough. and lastly, i just miss taking photos so this will be the perfect excuse to start that up again.
stay tuned...