The best way to spread Christmas Cheer, is singing loud for all to hear

Jovi the Elf is here! I embroidered/beaded a snowflake on my hat! Enjoy and Merry Christmas!







I found the snowflake outline on-line. However, I embroidered it with a chain stitch, normal thread and sparkle thread. I also used seed-beads to put some extra shimmer in it!


So with some inspiration from the movie Elf, my mom's sewing help! We made these elf hats completely by hand! I can't wait to take a picture with the whole family!

You look you're from the North Pole!.....That's exactly where I came from!

I was inspired by the movie Elf today. My mom and I went out, bought some yards of felt and started sewing. We finished one hat by the time my sister went to work. So she is my model!

Buddy the Elf, what's your favorite color?

Yum, cottonballs! OUCH that hurts!

Four main food groups, candy, candy canes, candy corns, and syrup!



I made my own pattern using newspaper. I fit it to everyone's head by just using the newpaper prototype. By christmas we will one for everyone in the family! I am making some girl ones with pink and red! YAY! Merry Christmas!

Sleigh bells ring, are you listening?

My first semester of graduate school is over. *sigh of relief* I made it. So far, 2 A's one in clinic and one in language disorders!! I awaiting the rest of my grades, they have to be official! Cross your fingers for me on Dec. 23rd when the rest of the grade come in.

Now that I have been done with school for a few days, let the crafting begin!!! My dad laughed at me and said, "School's only been out for a day and you already have the embroidery thread out!?" I said, "heck yes I do! It's vacation!" New pictures are here:
My stitching mess that has taken over my bedroom floor! Whoops!
pretty new threads....

my extremely organized thread...I have a slight OCD when it comes to my stitching..


the progress up close and personal


The final result, Santa in his sleigh!

I have a book of these Christmas patterns. I stitch them on plastic material, back them with felt, attach a string, and hang them on the tree! I made some two years ago (i can't believe it was that long ago) Anyways, I hope to make some every year until I have a whole collection!

My attempt at crafts this week...

I am ever so busy with finals. I met with my group this morning for 5 hours, and then spend another 5 hours on a final! However, I finished the final tonight, so I rewarded myself with a glass of wine, a movie and some crafting! :) I decorated our chalkboard at home for the holidays! Not super detailed but fun!!! Yay for chalk pens!

sugar coated....

My horoscope is totally spot on today! I need to sugar coat bad news. Ha! I have my parent conference tonight, and we have to discharge a patient. YUCK! I am nervous, it's my first conference. Whatever, it will be over before I know it, as long as I sugar coat what I say, then hopefully we won't have upset parents...but we all know how that goes.

Since I do not have time for fun crafts due to finals, I will show you the crafts that ARE my finals. haha yes, I got to craft for one of my classes! Hooray! Here they are in all their glory:
First, we have my MC squared, which stands for Multicultural Square! :) It has things on it that represent me! Notice I even got some cross stitching on there!

Second, I did a huge project on Down Syndrome. For our final we had to make parent/teacher friend brochure and 20 page manual. I had fun with them! The pictures are from Flickr and are not my own.

14 days

I should either be asleep, or working on an essay right now. I am longly staring at my crafts wishing I could dig in. However, due to present circumstances I must wait 14 days until finals are over!!!

Wish me luck I need it! A client of mine gave me a beautiful paper snowflake. I told her I would hang it in my room. She then promptly asked me, "where is your room and bed to sleep in at school?" :) Kids are cute. I told her I go home too, and she looked shocked! "well then," she said, "I guess you will have to turn off the lights, take it off the wall, bring it home, and hang it in your window." I told her that was a fine idea. I am going to miss my clients, only two days left.

I will post pictures of my latest craft project for school over the weekend when I am not soo exhausted. Good day!


Artista Muvek has the most adorable drawings...I look almost everyday.

Study Break!

Well, I really shouldn't need a break. Seeing as how I have only studied for two hours all weekend. ha! Regardless, I finished one study session, the girls just left and we got a lot done! I am taking a little break and then moving on to write my reports. Promise.

Thanksgiving weekend has been great! I am so sad it has to end and finals have to begin. At least it is officially Christmas Season! I will be listening to Christmas music non-stop from here on out. For now here are some pictures of my weekend. Enjoy!
The sister and I at thanksgiving dinner.


Crafty cousins: Autumn and Winter..oh the things we do at family gatherings.

We went to Villa Montalvo and wandered around...

There are beautiful statues! Here is Zachary with the sphyinx


Communicative Disorders Tree: I helped my client's make an ornament for the tree! #342. It took a while to find it!

My boyfriend by the monsters inc tree! Such cute creative tree decorating ideas.

Zach and I went to the Santa Cruz beach boardwalk....

and the municipal wharf

there were a ton of sea lions! so cute, and loud!!

Bits and Pieces

Thanksgiving is coming! I have a few random pictures to share. First, I got this today at my clinic: It's a name tag! For some reason, this little name tag made everything more real. haha. I mean I have been in school for the past 15 weeks but this little tag has my name engraved it's real!! haha
Second: This is a picture of the decorations I put up in my bedroom. That big blue wall was boring, soo I added some snowflakes to liven it up! I also have some window stickers on my floor to ceiling mirrors! Winterwonderland! Complete with peppermint vanilla scent (yay for the candle warmer! safe and smells good)


Lastly: This little bugger has been totally making me procrastinate!! Watch him for yourself.
He runs back and forth across the street all day, everyday. He lives across the street. He comes bounding to our oak tree and gathers the acorns and then he bounds back across the street again. Only to repeat the pattern about every three minutes! It is soo amusing to watch, but keeps me from doing my homework! I need to give him a name....ideas?

And the lion fell in love with the lamb. Stupid Lamb.

My sister and I went to the midnight showing of Twilight last night. I have read all four books and loved every single one of them. The books are purely romantic, science fiction and action all in one. Due to the fact I loved the books so much I really did not get my hopes up for the movie. Books to me will never be the same as movies. People need to figure that out! They are two different mediums of art. (this is a whole different rant..) So, I went under the pretense that I would go and hopefully see something entertaining.

A nice guy gave us seats so we could sit together! Yay!


Regardless, I thought the movie was great! I want to see it over and over again. Talk about man candy, Robert Pattinson!! *fans self* Even if you think the stories and the movie were crap, you cannot deny the fact that Rob Pattinson is dreamy to say the very least.

Good things:
-Great cast! All the vampires were how I pictured them in the book!
-Rob Pattinson (duh, his face, his clothes, his voice etc.... *swoon*)
-The scenery was beautiful, rainy, moist, forest, beach and even the houses.
-The soundtrack, a mix of classical and alt. rock.
-I really didn't like Bella in the previews. However, after watching the movie I don't think they could have picked anyone else! She was great.
-The baseball scene was awesome and I hate baseball.
-It was entertaining. Even though I knew what happened I was still on the edge of my seat wanting more.
-It's a classic romantic movie!
-The ending alone beautiful.

Bad things:
-special effects were a bit weird. The running was fine, but some of it was cheesy and could have been done much better.
-it was a bit darker mood than the books, not as much back and forth between Bella and Edward, not as cutesy I guess.
-It was too short! They had to mush a lot of the book together, which kinda made the attraction seem less intense.
-Much of the movie felt a bit rushed. I guess I would have to ask someone who hasn't read the books for their opinion.


So bottom line, don't go into this movie expecting something crazy out of the ordinary. It's meant to be a beautiful love story that keeps you entertained. I loved the movie and had a ton of fun. Edward Cullen should be the model that every man follows, the world would be filled with chivalry and romance. ;) haha.

Here are some pictures of the evening:
My sister has the coolest ideas. Her twilight shirt front= "Team Edward" and the back "Bite me" she did it all herself! The lips are my favorite!


The cover of breaking dawn has chess pieces...we found some to play with!

King and Queen were made for each other *smooch*

Clair De Lune.....

Is a beautiful classical song that I cannot get enough of right now. Probably because it is in Twilight! I have pictures of my pumpkin and my finished Twilight shirt!
First up are the artsy shots of the finished t-shirt. (Yes, I made it, more detailed pictures are in previous posts.) I will take more at the actually midnight showing these were in my room! "Edward Cullen, sexier than you since 1901"

Back: Because real men sparkle"


And this my friends is my finished glow in the dark pumpkin cross stitch. Not sure what to do with it yet. Any suggestions? I will try to take a glowing picture later!

Rose Colored lenses?

Well, it looks as if I am wearing red contacts or something anyway. I have a wonderful case of pink eye to go along with my sinus infection. I am patiently waiting for the pharmacy to call me so I can pick up my medication. Which is taking forever. *sigh* I just want to get better. I am getting bored. I shouldn't be bored. The laundry list of things I have to finish before finals is quite scary looking.

Yet, I somehow managed to read the last Twilight book- Breaking Dawn in less than 3 days. It's around 760 pages and amazing. I also finished my Halloween pumpkin cross-stitch. I was so excited that my project is glow in the dark, I had to show everyone. In the process he got lost somewhere in my house. ha. I also began working on my long lost table runner from two years ago! :) It's almost done. I will post pictures soon!

I need to study for my Reserach exam tomorrow! I am having trouble though, it is the last exam of the semester. I have also heard it is impossible to study for and to just not worry about it. All that is left after this are projects, which is good and bad for various reasons. So I need to find some motivation today to get some studying done. I don't want to be totally clueless, however I am finding that not feeling very good makes focusing difficult. Oh well!

Taste of Freedom

Having a taste of what life used to be like before graduate school was not a good idea. Who decided having a Tuesday off was smart? I took the whole day and devoted it to shopping, crafting and watching childish movies. Now I am back in the real world and hating it! Finals are coming up, this is the last push before my break! It is starting to be very laboring to get anything done. I just need to get through this week, and then worry about my homework plans for the weekend. My poor little printer needs a rest....

I am going ice skating tomorrow!! :) Yipee. *does a twirl* which is something I can't do on the ice...ha! It will be fun, and a much needed break from this scholastic stuff.

In crafty news, I finished my halloween pumpkin cross-stitch. He is outlined in glow-in-the-dark! Pictures up tonight after this nasty research class, that is sucking the life out of me.

Little Puppies!!

A friend of mine had this link on his facebook. When you are having a bad day, talk about making it all better! How cute are these little puppies! I could watch them all day!
Check out this ustream Show: Shiba Inu Puppy Cam

click on link or go here: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/shiba-inu-puppy-cam

Red Delicious

Reasons why I crafted today:
-I stayed out late last night dancing with my friends, thus I am tired
-It's rather nasty outside, in fact it just started to rain.
- I do not feel like doing any homework or studying
-I have 8 more episodes of gossip girl to watch.
Thus here is an update of my Twilight shirt. My sister and I bought tickets for the midnight showing!! Woo hoo!

Again, I did this all with puff-paint and a paint brush. I love the apple!!!!

All that is left is the back of the shirt! Which I think will be my favorite part.

Making History

I voted. I helped change history, and this country. I think country wide there is just postive engery in the air. It's electric, can you feel it?

Now to wait and see what changes are coming our way. It should be an interesting next four years.

Let the countdowns begin!

1st countdown= 20 days until Twilight premires in theaters. I love the Twilight series. I have not yet read the 4th book. *shh don't tell me what happens!* In celebration and in regards to stealing my sister's awesome ideas, here is my latest project: My sister is amazing at coming up with t-shirt designs, painting etc. I am not to slogan savvy and needed an easier way out!
1. I found a saying I enjoyed on the internet
2. Typed it into Microsoft Word and font I thought was cool!
3. I printed out my saying and cut it up.
4. I put graphite the back of the paper by rubbing a pencil across, hard.
5. Place your print with the graphite side touching the t-shirt and printed side up and trace over the letters with a pen.
6. Lift the picture and your design should be transferred onto the t-shirt! (works better with white or grey, black is hard to see!)
7. I then used puffy-paints and painted (with a brush) onto the t-shirt. Takes a couple of layers for it to stand out!(i used a brush because the puffy-paint bottles are hard to control!)
8. Let dry over night and then wear your awesome, new, one-of-a-kind t-shirt!

It is not nearly done yet, but I liked the look of "Edward Cullen" all alone, looks ominous, doesn't it? I have a ton of school projects this week. After thursday I will hopefully have more time to spend on finishing this shirt and my cross-stitching!

2nd countdown= 46 days until my first semester of graduate school is over and my 5 week winter break begins!

3rd countdown= 59 days until New Year's Eve and 11 days in beautiful San Diego!

OOHHH SPOOKY GHOSTS

My mom got in a bad car accident this morning. A girl came around a corner, fish tailed, went across the median, (a concrete median with plants in it!) and hit my mom! Then fished tailed again and hit my mom again! Both cars ended up in the opposite direction of traffic due to spinning around like a top!!!! Soo my mom's car has a ton of damage and the other girls car is totalled. Lord. At least they are both safe. My cousin also totaled his car up in the mountains today. Not such a grand Halloween!

Anyways, I needed to do some baking. I found a recipe for these:

Little preztel sticks with a fruit roll up on the bottom and covered in white chocolate! They are yummy and oh soo festive! I made lots of them for hanging out this evening!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Drive safe!!!

Happy Halloween!

I have yet to finish my pumpkin cross-stitch. School has been my priority! Today we are having Halloween activities in therapy with our clients! I felt the need to do something fun!


yay for being a devil! After all next week is hell week for me! ;)

I am reading some cute halloween stories, making tootsie-pop ghosts and trick-or-treating with my clients! YAY!

Have a safe and super fun Halloween!!

Forks

So the good grades streak has continued! I got a 97 out of 100 on my research exam! I was shocked to say the least!! In celebration, (and the fact that Fitzwilliam died, may he R.I.P.)I decided it was time to get a new Betta Fish. For all who know me well, they understand that I cannot go without a fish in my life! I always have a Betta, no matter how often they may die on me! I tend to get good luck sometimes. Thus, here is my new lil swimmer: Forks


I named him after the town in the Twilight books. I thought it was random and cute! :) Just like my fishy!

may he live a long and healthy life!

Have a great weekend!

Halloween

I am slowly working on my pumpkin cross-stitch. It will get done, it just might be a while. I forgot about something crafty I did last week as a study break! My mom reminded me to post this:
It is a chalkboard in my house! We decorate it for the holidays. I used chalk pens I bought for my mom at Michael's craft store. They are pretty awesome!

I also had time to do some other fun stuff:
haha I decided to be craft with my finger nails. It's black polish, purple dots with glow in the dark on the dots! It was fun and looks cool at night! the kids at work like it too! haha. I think it looks witchy, so I had to make a slighty witchy picture.

Singing a-long

I used to dread my midterms. Well, I take that back, I still do. I just am not as concerned about my grades because I am actually prepared for these tests. If I don't do well, I truly feel that there was not much more I could physically or metally do! :) And that makes me feel good. So far I have three grades back, A, A and a B+ (that came with a great comment, I am extremely close to an A and will have one soon!)Sweet!

I turned in a 20 page essay this morning. I have a presentation tonight. And another test Thursday. Next week I have another presentation and another test. Days go by fast these days, and I finally getting a hang of things. I am content.

It might also be the music I just bought! Keane's New Album-Perfect Symmetry:

It makes me relaxed, happy, and loving life. Crazy what can music do. It's proven by numerous studies that music can change your mood. Think about a movie with sad music, it makes you sad. A movie with intense music like in James Bond gets your blood rushing. Right now I am listening to relaxing, nice, happy music...thus I feel that way. Bring it on world.

Snails

I adore them. This is cute, a bit long for a movie clip but worth it! :)

X marks the spot!

Yay! I finally took a break from school work to start a project! My mom got these great Halloween patterns in Solvang. I have been dying to make them! I took a nice trip to the craft store, picked up some new thread and began!


I can't wait to find more time to finish it. Then start on the cute spider! happy fall everyone!

10 days ago?

Wow. Time is seriously flewing by! (yeah i said flewing, it's something called morphological sophistication. little kids do it and it's on my test on Tuesday!) Can you tell I have completely immersed myself in books?

It is (almost) Sept 15th! What happened to the last 10 days of my life? Where did they go? My days have become weeks have become months. I don't have a break until Oct. 2nd! And even then it won't be the kind of break I want because I have a test the day I get back! YIKES!

In some respects I hate that I don't have a chance to breathe. My "weekend" consisted of an hour out last night with my sister. I am not used to this much reading, or not having any time to relax. Like exercise, craft and have drink out with some friends. Let alone time to watch TV.

However some of my stuff for school this weekend was fun, like my seminar 9am-4pm on Saturday about Autism. I also went to the Mexican Independence Day festival today and interviewed a really nice guy from Guadalajara! I also like that since time is flying by that this program will be over faster than I know it! I don't have time to freak out over how the hell I am going to get everything done, it will just happen. I don't know how....but it will. When finals are over, I will look back and say, "What the heck!? It's December already? I made it!!! SWEET!"

I even attempted to craft tonight. I got out my cross-stitching supplies! However, I don't have the colors I need! How that is possible? I don't know. I swear I have so much thread but never the color I need! HA! I promise I will have something craft to show off soon! I desperately need to stitch at some point this week! Just to keep me sane. :)

Have a good week and hopefully I will be back before another week passes.

ashley you got creative and i thought it was cool

so i copied your idea of a header for your blog! :) it's a form of flattery! I was having a bad evening and I saw your page and wanted to do that too. I didn't even know you could do that! your handwriting is your own though, I traced mine. Not as crafty as you in that sense AT ALL! :( I am so jealous of your pretty writing. I need to work on mine. Anyways thanks for the idea and helping me destress via crafting.

i want to escape!

I dream of running to some far away place where all I ever do is craft. I have these awesome halloween cross-stitch patterns. They have been on my desk looking and me and just begging to be made.

however, I don't have the time. I have my first day of clinic today. I am nervous but bascially I just want to get it over with!! I want the awkwardness and the unknown to be out of the way so I can move on with my life. I hate stressing, but I feel like 50 minutes is a long time to keep a kid entertained. Normally I am totally fine being with kids, but not today! I bet they are going to be nice and it will be fine!

*sigh* wish me luck, I need it.

crafting withdrawals

Oh dear, where has the month gone!? It's already August 26th and I am turning into a person who rarely blogs anymore. Sad.

I had graduate school orientation, a wedding in San Diego and then school started this week. My life has not been this busy in a long time. I am completely worn out by the time I get home. And yet, I am still awake doing work at 11pm. Smart.

I am utterly stressed, and usually I have time for crafting to de-stress me. However, my craft box is lodged deep in my closet. It WILL NOT be coming out to tempt me from my studies. At least not for a little while, things need to get straightened out with school before craft-mania begins again. I need to work-out to de-stress!

Also, I have been spending a little time every night (before I get too busy) to read the Twilight books by, Stephanie Meyer. I am obsessed and don't have much time to read them!!!

So much to do, so little time. I hope I update again soon with something crafty...like the stuff I made for the wedding.

oh dear!

I haven't updated in a week. Feels weird to be neglecting this page. Anyways I am on my way out the door for an orientation for graduate school. I have finished the room make-over and will post pictures later on this evening! :) It looks cute!

And I made something very cute for a wedding I am going too....but pictures will come after the wedding! yay!

let the redecorating begin!

I got back home to San Jose on Monday. Tuesday I began the painting process! Picked out a paint: Ralph Lauren Eggshell paint in the color- Wisteria. I was a bit nervous that it would be too dark for me, however I have fell in love with it! Thus, today Wednesday the room is completely painted! I did it all by myself, which is kind of crazy because it's like 100 degrees here in San Jose!

Here are the before and after shots of one corner of my bedroom-
1. I painted this back in 1998 the color is fresh cut.

2. Painted today in 2008-wisteria! (havne't taken the bright blue tape off the walls yet still drying!)


Now that the painting part is done i have to go through my things, throw a bunch of stuff out, or give it to goodwill and redecorate my entire room! Yikes, and i have to get it done by next wednesday! What do you all think of the new color?

Glitz and Glamour?

My lil sis in the sorority is getting married! My duties as a bridesmaid means that I get to plan the bachelorette party! So naturally I had to make her something to wear when we went out! She loves the little mermaid so I got crafty and made a great veil! Tulle, sticky rhinestones, and a stapler!

Here is the rest of the fun stuff I picked up for her! I think we are going to have a blast!

I have been staying at my boyfriend's today and he had this plant in his backyard. It looks like a squash? Pumpkin perhaps? but we can't figure out what kind!? I have to look it up!


In other news, I am moving to San Jose on Monday. I will be re-decorating my room at home completely. I am going to try to get it done before school begins. We will see. haha. I will take before and after pictures!