Tuesday Top Ten

The New Year is two days away. And lemmie tell ya', I'm totally pumped. Bring it on 2009! I get this feeling that 09' is going to be a fantastic year. As relieved I am to be letting go of 2008, I'll be kind of sad too. I experienced so many great things, and I made so many amazing memories.

Top Ten Memories/Experiences of 2008!

10. Seeing my boyfriend, Marty, wear something other than the color black. He's notorious for wearing black, band t-shirt-- black, band t-shirts with holes in the armpits. But, he's thrown some variety in his wardrobe; he's worn a brown Thundercats t-shirt, a blue long sleeved shirt, and a navy and tan striped sweater. I said some variety.

9. Going to my first WMU hockey game! During Spring semester, my two friends, Matt and Aaron invited me to go with them to the hockey game. We should have arrived earlier because the stands were packed, and we had to stand on the steps. WMU did end up losing to Notre Dame that night, but it was still a super fun experience!

8. Over the Summer, I went to Wisconsin for my friend's wedding. I've known her since I was born, so I couldn't miss her wedding. Unfortunately, she was a huge brat (I'm talkin', like Bridezilla), but her wedding was still lovely. And, when we weren't doing wedding related things, my mother and I explored downtown Madison, WI.

My friend, Shannon, and her husband, Matt, smoochin' at the end of the ceremony

7. Buying an Xbox 360 on the 4th of July on a whim with Marty. I hardly spend money, so the fact that I split the cost of an Xbox 360 absolutely baffles my parents and even myself. But, I'm glad I spent the money, the Xbox 360 is loads of fun =]

6. All thanks to my Practical Writing professor from Spring of 2008, I had the opportunity to go to Michigan State University and photograph the Bright Ideas Convention, a convention for grade school English teachers. The photos were supposed to go in a newsletter, but the person in charge of the newsletter suffered some devastating, personal losses, so I don't think the photographs were ever published. Oh well, I got to meet a really great young adult lit. author, Chris Crutcher; many of his books are banned because they're about controversial issues like drug use and abuse. I'd never read any of his books until that day. I bought a copy of Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, and he signed the copy!

To the right, the man in the blue shirt is Christ Crutcher; he's signing books.

Christ Crutcher, reading and excerpt from one of his new books, Deadline.

5. Joining WMU's Womyn's Equality Club. It's opened up a whole universe of ideas and questions.

4. Living in my own apartments! With my roommate, of course! It's been a lot of fun "living on my own". I love cooking for myself. I love all the space. I love living with someone I actually like. I even love...cleaning...

3. Celebrating my one year anniversary with my boyfriend. We ate at Mongolian BBQ in Ann Arbor. We were going to walk around the city, but I was wearing heels that were murdering my feet. Once we got to his house, he picked me up and carried my inside!

This wasn't taken on the anniversary. It was maybe six months before. It's kind of a hideous picture of me, but oh well. I had the scarf tied around my neck like that so I could wash dishes without the scarf getting in food.

2. I voted! And my candidate won. I was so excited; I called my mom just moments after I walked out of the voting place.

1. I've never traveled alone until this summer. I hopped on a greyhound in Michigan and took it to Chicago. Then, I hopped on a train and took it to North Dakota to visit my brother and sister-in-law. It was literally one day of travel, but well worth it. North Dakota was such a beautiful, middle-of-nowhere state. We even made a trip to our northern neighbors!

Endless Empty Roads

Vast fields of sunflowers everywhere

Because the land is so flat, the sky seemed so endless.

What are some of your favorite oh-eight memories?

Fashion Inspiration: Children's Lit.

So, it's no secret that I'm pretty fashion inept. BUT, I've been playing around with Polyvore anyway. The inspiration came from the books I read as a little kid. Yes, I dragged all of my children's book from the basement, and I read them before bedtime yesterday. The little jog down memory lane was quite fun.


Pig William



Barn Dance!



The Mitten: A Ukrainian Folktale




The Wind in the Willow

Have a look inspired by your favorite childhood book? Share with me!
Hope you're having a magnificent Monday.

What I Wore: Christmas Day

I'm pretty inept at shopping for clothes. Everything I pick out is rather dull. As I've mentioned before, I'm incapable of creating color combinations, and I can't even fathom mixing different patterns. I much prefer my mother to shop for my clothes, which is why I look forward to what she buys me for Christmas. Also, apparently my boyfriend has a more style savvy eye than myself because he always manages to pick me out really nice clothes. Marty bought me the sweater, and my mom bought me the shirt under the sweater.

Sweater and undershirt (and brown tank top, not seen): Buckle
Jeans: the Gap

Buttons on the sweater-- this fabric also lines the inside of the hood. I thought it was cute!

I really like the undershirt, but I never would have picked it out. The colors and patterns are bold; I would have been afraid of it on the rack!

This was my favorite outfit I received for Christmas, so of course I put it on as soon as I finished my shower.

What was your favorite outfit you received for Christmas?

Christmas

New Specs

For the past two years I've complained about poor vision, so finally I went for an eye exam. I used to be far-sighted, now I'm near-sighted. Apparently I messed up my vision myself. When I read or write, I lay my head right next to the piece of paper. Apparently, I'm supposed to keep myself an arms length away from whatever I'm working on. Regardless, I got some new sweet specs! And, they're putting my new prescription in my old specs too, so I've got two pairs of glasses-- these new, red ones, and my old, purple ones.

Pretty snazzy huh?! I think they make me look older.

They also make me wanna make kissy faces at my cat. He ran away as soon as this photo was captured.

Tomorrow is my family's Christmas Party. I'm getting pretty excited! But, I still have several presents to wrap, egad!

Winter Wonderland

Michigan has been pummeled by snow. And, while the icy roads make driving difficult, and the -11 degree windchill make standing outside unbearable, the snow has made everything look absolutely beautiful.

Captured from my parents' bedroom window overlooking the backyard. The photograph doesn't do it justice. My parents don't let anyone play in the backyard when snow has fallen. They like waking up to perfect snow every morning.

Things I Love

Real Food
Ever since I've had my darn Wisdom teeth pulled, I can't keep the channel off the Food Network, which is constantly flashing images of heaping sammiches, the biggest pancakes known to man, and atomic chicken wings-- I don't even like chicken wings! As much as I LOVE soup, I cannot wait to start eating solid food again!

Photo by Food Trails

Phase Ten
A way awesome card game my family is helplessly addicted to. It's a Wednesday night tradition My parents and a family friend (and occasionally me) get together to play. My dad always loses, and the rest of us rub it in how badly he sucks at the game. It's so fun!

Sailor Moon
Am I twelve? Quite possibly, yes. I've been playing the Sailor Moon RPG on my SNES Emulator, and I had the sudden urge to start watching episodes of Sailor Moon on youtube. Now, I'm being sucked in again just like back in my middle school days. Gosh, I can't believe I just admitted that.

Photo by Averit

Downloadable Fonts
To be honest, I'm pretty computer inept. I like to peruse font sites and ogle at the delicious typefaces. I only figured out last night how to download and install fonts. I didn't realize it was so easy. *headdesk*

Honorable Mentions: Clean Clothes, Feminism, My friend Bianca, baking, video games on sale, my family and family friends, White Cranberry and Strawberry juice!

Now, pardon me while I shamelessly watch Sailor Moon.
What has made your week lovely?

Tuesday Top Ten

I had my Wisdom teeth pulled today! So, naturally, I have cravings for pizza, cheese burgers, potato chips, and waffles.
I had my teeth pulled around 8:00 this morning; it's shortly after 2:00, and I'm assuming the Novocaine is finally wearing off. I can finally feel my bottom lip and tongue. My mom got a kick out of watching me try to drink and eat soup.

I could think of ten near-equally sucky things I would have preferred to do today.

Photo by tomorrowbroadway

10. Clean the Cat's litter box

9. Go shopping for jeans

8. Consume a bowl of too-hot-soup that burned my tongue, so everything would taste like rubber for the next week

7. Eat brussel sprouts and asparagus

6. Break every single one of my 96 crayola crayons

5. Go for a three mile run (because I'm pretty sure I would poop out after a quarter mile)

4. Make snow angels in just my underoos

3. Listened to Death Metal for 10 hours straight

2. Suffer from really chapped lips

1. Watch Soap Operas all day.

All joking aside, I've already had to pop some pain killers, but so far, the extraction hasn't caused too much discomfort. Have you ever had your Wisdom teeth pulled?

Baking up a storm

Sunday was Cookie Baking Day at home. My mother, a family friend, and I baked cookies from 9:00am until about 5:00pm. I tuckered out at 3:00 and called my boyfriend to come and get me.

Last year, I only helped bake cookies and make candies because I didn't have a recipe to try out by myself. But, I did my research this year.

This year, I made Red Velvet Cookie Sammiches!
You can find the recipe here

Unfortunately, I don't know the recipes for the rest of the cookies. They've been altered and perfected ever since the Cookie Baking Day tradition first started, four years ago. But, also baked:

Scrumptious, toffee, cranberry oatmeal cookies

Lemon melt-aways with lemon, powdered sugar icing. They're the perfect bite size cookie.

Mocha Butternut Balls, the perfect bite size cookie for coffee lovers.

Chocolate, Sugar Cookie Cutouts. Ya' can't tell, but these are bell shaped. And, pecans were rolled into the dough.

Chocolate and Vanilla Shortbread swirls. I almost made these, but they were too labor intensive for my beginner baking skills.

Marble Gingerbread Men Cutouts (made from the extra dough of the Swirls).

What are your favorite holiday cookies? As much as I enjoy making different kinds of cookies, I'm a sucker for the simple Sugar Cookie Cutouts with Powdered Sugar Icing.

Early Christmas Present

When it comes to buying people gifts, I pretty much fail at life. For example, for my boyfriend's birthday, I meant to buy him loads of little goodies. But, I kept putting it off, and all he ended up with were two bags of gummy bears. Not even the good kind! They weren't all too soft...and I ate about half of them.

And, last Christmas, I meant to buy my roommate, Brooke, a gift card to Rocketstar Cafe (a coffee shop on campus), but their gift card machine wasn't working the day I went to get it, so I ended up stuffing a ten dollar bill into a coffee cup. I felt so lame for that.

So, this year, I'm being extra conscious about people's gifts this Christmas. Unfortunately, I'm way behind...as in, I haven't bought any gifts. I intended to send my roomie a gift since we are away for the holidays, but she suggested we could wait until after break. Sigh of relief.

But, Thursday afternoon, she surprised me with a totally sweet gift-- a handmade winter cap!


Poor lighting + a tired Jackie = bad photo. But, I can assure you, I'm in love with this cap. It's hardly left my head since it was given to me.

However, now I'm stumped because I can't think of a gift that will be anywhere as awesome as this cap!

What are some of the best hand-crafted gifts you've received? Or given?

Things I Love

It's been a while since I've had time to post. I just finished up a hectic exam week. So, there weren't a lot of things to love this week, but I certainly to feel 100% relieved that I'm finished with this semester!

This week, I love,

Pumpkin Pancakes!
My roommate brought home pumpkin pancake mix. The mix smelled absolutely delicious, but when I tasted the batter, I was less than impressed (the batter is no where as tasty as my blueberry pancake batter). So, I was skeptical of how to pancakes would taste. But, holy moley, when I took that very first bite, they tasted divine!

Photo by ballerinagirl

My New SNES Emulator
My friend Ian set up a Super Nintendo emulator right on my computer, so now I can play old school video games whenever I want, and I have hundreds of games to choose from.

That's right: Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego, Sailor Moon RPG, Animaniacs, and Mario's Time Machine!

4:3 x 14
My roommate (and a few of her other peers) have their 4:3 x 14 video installation featured in the student art gallery on campus. My friends, Ian and Brian, went with me to the gallery, and we were blown away! The installation was so fantastic! Several TVs were set up in groups on the floor, some played TV static, others played videos the students made, and, they were played to a really haunting sound clip. I felt like I was watching people going insane, or I was watching images that made me feel like I was going insane.



Winter Vacation
Um, it starts in T minus ZERO seconds! I'm so relieved this semester is over. My classes weren't as amazing as I thought they'd be, but I'm certain next semester's will. This vacation, I'm looking forward to:

• Cookie baking day
• Countless hours playing video games
• Spending quality time with my cat, Ed
• Christmas parties and Christmas eve and New Years Eve and New Years parties

Now, for you lovelies: What made your week? or, What are you looking forward to doing over the holiday break?

Link Love

While I did have an eventful weekend, I also spent some hours perusing the Internet and found these links worthy of sharing. Enjoy!

Take A tour of the Presidential holiday sweets, because even Presidents have a sweet tooth.

Check out these Decorated trains

We could all learn from these Green Gingerbread Houses about how to conserve water and utilize alternative energy sources.

The Pink and Blue Project examines the social obsession of giving baby girls pink toys and baby boys blue toys.

In case I am unable to pursue a career involving my English or Japanese degree, I just may decide to become a Hula Hoop Instructor!

And finally, check out this video of a penguin escaping a hungry whale.



And the link love doesn't end there!
I was tagged by the super cool Inside the Cabinet of Wonder to list six things that make me happy (and then, of course, tag six other people).

Photo by luv2photo20

1. Munching on 25 cent candy from the candy dispensers at the mall.
2. Receiving snail mail!
3. Photography and writing.
4. Eating blueberry pancakes for dinner.
5. The Itty Bitty Kitty Committee-- talk about cute overload.
6. It's exam week. And while exam week is the pits, the feeling I will have come Thursday when exams are finally over and Winter Break has begun will be utter happiness.

And the six people I tag are:
Dolly Speaks
Life as Experiment
Yes and Yes
Lick My Cupcakes
The Not-So-Secret Life of Emilie White
Lightning-speed Liz
I know not everyone enjoys these lil' memes, but it could be fun, right?

Things I Love

Thursday, you sneaked up on me once again! But, I'm glad you're here. I'm almost done stressing for the day; I just need to get through Shakespeare Seminar first.

This week, I love:

To Do Lists
They have been getting me through this busy, busy week. When I think about all the things I have to complete within the next week, I start to panic. But, if I see a list of things I have to do (even though the list is quite lengthy) I feel like I'm more in control of things.

Towns lit up for Christmas
It's so delightful seeing cities and towns getting ready for the holidays. I love seeing Christmas lights hanging in trees in the downtowns. And, I love seeing wreaths hanging off the side of lamp posts while driving down city roads.

Photo by April_Walter_Haynes

Pen Pals
I only have one, but she is awesome. She is a friend I went to high school with for a year or two; then she moved away to Boston, though she is currently studying abroad in Spain. We've kept in touch over the years (nearly four years, now). I'm actually an atrocious pen pal (especially lately). I try to send her a letter within a month of receiving hers, but sometimes I go four months without sending her a letter. But, I plan to be a better pen pal starting now! In each letter, we ask each other 10 random questions so we can get to know each other even better, and we always decorate the outside of the envelopes =]

A letter from my pal, Stephanie!

The Weekend
Mine starts in T minus 3 hours. Although I plan to spend many hours studying kanji, Japanese grammar and vocabulary as well as finishing my World Ecological Problems study guide and my Shakespeare paper, I'm looking forward to a somewhat relaxing weekend with my family and my boyfriend. And, while I feel guilty about missing my friend's Christmas party here at college, I'm looking forward to Christmas Tree Hunting and decorating this weekend!

What's made you happy this week?

Wishlist

Christmas is right around the corner, hoorah hoorah! I feel a little guilty admitting Christmas is my favorite holiday, but who doesn't enjoy receiving gifties and goodies galore? Of course it's not all about gifts. I adore cities that dress up trees and lamp posts with holiday lights. And, I love the excessive baking my mother and I do. And I love the smell of the Christmas tree when I enter my home. I even love the blustering cold because curling up by the fireplace and drinking hot cocoa is absolutely splendid.

My family is cutting back on Christmas gifts this year, so I made sure I asked for rather practical gifts-- jeans, wool socks, sweaters, measuring spoons, stamps to mail letters to mi amiga en Spain, and dollars so I can print out my photographs.

But, if money weren't an issue, this is what I'd ask for:

1. A Typewriter. Perhaps every writer's dream?
2. A sleek tea kettle
3. A pair of black jeans
4. A pair of super cute mittens by Betsey Johnson
5. Nautical jewelry like this bracelet by LaNinja
6. A red beret like this one from Craftyoma
7. A new journal (brownie points if it's made from recycled paper)
8. Hair clips! Dahliasforme and Marymarsh

If you celebrate Christmas what do you hope to find under the Christmas tree this year?

The Week in Photographs

Actually, it's not a Week in photographs. It's more like Four Days in photographs, but the latter doesn't sound as exciting. I had an eventful week. But, the word "eventful" is kind of misleading. Nothing too exciting actually happened, but it was a week different from the rest these past few months. Come to think of it "different" is kind of misleading too, but I digress; here are the photos:

I went home for the holidays, and I spent some quality time with my cat, Ed. I'm really proud of myself for capturing this photograph. Ed never sits still, so he always comes out as a blur in all my photographs. It's as if he knows exactly when I'm going to press the button to take his picture.

Of course, my family celebrated Thanksgiving this past Thursday. I wish I would have thought to steal some of the left overs before I headed back to college. Usually, I only go to one Thanksgiving dinner, but this year I went to three. They were all delightful. I tried fried turkey for the first time-- delicious!

My dad buys Sassafras tea on holidays. I don't understand why he doesn't buy it more often because it is one of the best beverages in the world. It kind of reminds me of Root Beer except in hot tea form. You ought to try it if you already haven't.

I got my hair cut! The photograph doesn't show the length well, but it's now shoulder length as opposed to nearly-belly button length. I didn't mean to have so much cut off, but the lady kept snipping away.

My boyfriend drove me back to school. I drew faces on his fogged up windows.

It's been snowing a lot lately. I think Kalamazoo has a good three inches. I hoped it would snow more so some of my teachers would cancel class, but it didn't. Boo.

I hope your Monday is treating you well!
And, thanks to Holganizer for the photo effects.