Craft Time

Did everyone have a great Christmas?!

I did.

It was so relaxing.

And now, the second best part of break: doing whatever I want.....within reason.

Which means making this masterpiece.

My excitement before going to the store was a little ridiculous.

Literally, woke up. Made pancakes. Declared loudly to my sister, "I AM GOING TO THE STORE AT 11 O'CLOCK." *cough* "Ok, Em..."

Went to the store, bought a canvas and a ton of crayons.

I went through and picked out all the good colors, and arranged them into a rainbow.

Rainbows are my favorite thing ever.

I was giggling the whole time, practically.

Also, my arm is sore from glue gunning. Ow.

It was slow going, but with Ingrid Michaelson on your side, boredom is not an option.

heheheh

I almost wanted to leave it like this.

It was so clean!! But it must be destroyed.

I don't think words can express how fun it is to melt crayons with a hair dryer and watch the wax drip down a pure, white canvas.

Watching how it makes little rivers and the colors meld together.

Beyond satisfying.

Hey look! A piece of art for my dorm room.

Home Sweet Home

I think people should keep cookie dough away from me...as a general rule.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

...

DONE DONE DONE

I love finals in that after they are done, I am done. For a whole three weeks.

Mahaha

Sweet freedom

And by that, I mean that I come home to a house filled with Christmas spirit with an underlying tang of OH GOSH WE HAVE A PARTY TO HOST IN TWO DAYS.

No biggie.

I just have to bake my life away.

We got our tree.  Which, of course, means the annual Christmas-tree-shopping family photo shoot.

Aren't we lovely?

Alright, in my defense, it was freezing, and my sister actually just has really cold blood. Yeah.
And I usually try to coordinate my clothes.  I know the light pink with the dark purple and beige and light blue is super cute.

Then it was a massive shopping trip with the mom for the party. Christmas=food.

And then I set out to bake.

Aaaaand I "forgot" to take pictures during the baking process....mostly because during the last four months at school, my constant use of nothing but pre-made cookie dough has greatly inhibited my ability to use an electric mixer.

*cough*

Let's just say that I may need to wash my sweater and pants.

Anyhoo.

This was the result.

*sniff* I'm so filled with the Christmas spirit.

Follow that up with some tree decorating and we have a day.

Falalalala

Hugo

Last night, two of my best friends and I went out on a date.

Super long trip (stupid Metro track maintenance) accompanied by a series of very weird conversations between my friend, Maddy, and I ensuing from the fact that it was 8:30pm and we still hadn't eaten dinner, and then a yummy in my tummy dinner of Chinese food.

Tangent:

I think that every restaurant in the world should give me a glass of water and a pot of tea when I sit down at a table without charging me a cent for it. 

In case you were wondering, this Chinese place did just that thing.

It's like they knew we were all singers.

Then, we went to see a movie.

We decided on seeing Hugo, and by we, I mean they, because I was not sold from seeing the trailer. I mean, a movie about a little boy who lives in a train station and goes on an adventure? Typical kid movie, right?

So, to say the least, my expectations were anything but high.

Oh, how wrong was I.

I can't believe my luck with movies lately/I'm just really overdramatic, but it is one of the best movies I have ever seen.

It was mesmerizing.  

Absolutely magical.

The fact that it takes place in Paris of all places AND in the 1930s just adds to the whimsical quality.  Whimsical, yet absolutely realistic.  I felt like I was IN Paris IN the train station going on this realistic adventure.

And isn't that usually the problem with "family" movies? The situation isn't real.

But this one felt real.

The characters were tangible. Positively tangible.

There was no magic or unrealistically evil-yet-at-the-same-time-not-really-evil villain (not that I have a problem with any of these things. I am a self-proclaimed Disney freak-a-zoid. I will kick yo butt at Disney Scene It).  Everything in this movie felt believable.  And, as my friend, Joey so aptly put it, there was no true bad guy.  You didn't hate anyone.  

You don't know how hard I am trying to not give away too much.

And Jude Law was in it.

*swoon*

Also, it was hilarious.  Joey and I were literally cracking up for 5 minutes straight at one point, clutching each other's arms trying to contain our laughter as everyone else in the theater had already finished the customary two second chuckle that is socially acceptable.

But who needs to be socially acceptable?

And Howard Shore wrote the score.

Alright.

AND IT WAS BASED OFF A BOOK, which I will read post haste. 

And Johnny Depp produced it.

Are you ready to jump off your chair to go see it?

WHO'S WITH ME?!

Smells

I am a smells person.

If something smells bad, it must be thrown out, burned, washed, or Febreezed to death.

Some wise guy decided it would be funny to leave three rotting, smushed bananas in on of the elevators in my building. And it smelled like a smoothie gone horribly horribly wrong. My roommate and I tried to get another one to come, but them gosh darn elevators.  They won't come when you need them and won't go away when you want them to.

But I digress...as usual.

I was thinking about my relationship with scents as I walked into my room just now.  I have a wreath on my door made of real fir branches with a pretty red bow on it (so festive). And since I got it last Sunday, I have leaned in and smelled it every time I walk in or past my door. I'm sure my roommates think I'm crazy.

But it smells so good.

And honestly, for me, smells always remind me of my childhood.

Like the Christmas tree scent.  Whenever I breathe in the sweet, sappy scent, I'm transported back to when I was a little girl.  And how I would visit our Christmas tree in the living room when I was supposed to be getting ready for bed. And I would just look all at the ornaments and imagine what they did when I was asleep, with that scent of Christmas tickling my nose.

And peppermint? I'm back Christmas tree shopping. We just picked out of tree, and I'm unwrapping the mini candy cane I got from the little wicker bowl by the cash register.

Salt water, I'm at the beach on the Fourth of July, boogie boarding with my cousins, playing cards on the floor of the beach house, sitting on slightly damp towels, eating chips and salsa (the smell of which, incidentally, also reminds me of the beach).

I step into a car with leather seats and I'm my grandpa's car, driving to dinner with the family.

Isn't that funny? I should thank God for my nose. So many things we take for granted.

To Do To Do

You guys want some links?

...

Christmas links?

Christmas yummy links?

Yes?

...

Well. I'm gonna give you some anyway. If only as a solid to do/super high hopes list for myself. We're having a Christmas party when I get home from school and I put myself in charge of baking. Aren't I the ambitious little bugger?

But really, there is nothing more Christmasy than baking till the cows come home with some Bing Crosby crooning in the background. Or the foreground. Who am I kidding, music is always in the foreground with me.

And I just get all fluttered when I see pictures of sugar-dusted cookies and other sweet morsels with blurry lights and/or greenery and/or tinsel in the background.

How cute are these? Guaranteed that the icing and decorating on mine will not look like that: Gingerbread Heads

I'm a sucker for sugar cookies at any holiday: Colorful Swirl Cookies

SO FESTIVE: Cookies Cutter Fudge

I have always wanted to try to make bark. And I will! It shall happen! Oreo Bark

These are just begging to be made: Reeses Stuffed Oreos

Chocolate Sugar Cookies ? Please tell me how this could possibly get any better.

Ok, so I don't like eggnog. But this looks so ridiculously good. Maybe a Christmas Eve breakfast, I'm thinking? Eggnog Breakfast Crumble Cake

And here's a last kiss goodnight from the Merry Christmas dorm of the perpetually self-inflicted sleep deprived. But, I couldn't resist.

Mah Na Mah Na

Soooooo guess what movie I saw twice in the course of 3 days?

I'm not kidding when I say it is literally one of the best movies ever made. And it is now my favorite movie. And I do NOT do favorites. I am the poster child for indecisiveness. 

I  went to see the movie with my family on Friday night, and the audience was mostly adults, who are we kidding.  I was bursting with excitement as soon as Cinderella's castle appeared.

THE MUSIC IS SO GOOD. It's on repeat on Spotify right now...

Also, I really like cameos. Like, a lot. And there were a thousand. Every time a new celebrity popped up on screen, I gasped and started giggling (my poor cousin who was sitting next to me thinks I'm insane now).

I got goosebumps when they started singing the Muppet Show Theme.

And the end. Don't get me started. Because the surprise was the best part. 

So.

I'm in the car on the way back to school, and I'm texting my friend, Maddy. And we start talking about the Muppets (typical topic, right?) So Maddy says, 

"We should go see it!"

"LET'S SEE IT TONIGHT"

"Um. Ok..."

Just kidding, she was excited.

So we went, and it was great.  

It's the best feeling ever to be able to go to a movie with a good enough friend that they let you completely geek out and clutch their arm at multiple (*ahem* 15) points during the course of the movie.

True friendship.

The moral is: everyone needs to see this movie. And buy the soundtrack. Or get it for a loved one or five for Christmas.

You will not regret it.

If you'll excuse me, I'm just going to listen to this for the rest of the day.

Christmas Time is Here

Merrrrrrrryyyy Christmas!!!

Well, almost. How about Happy Advent?

All I know is that I am particularly in the Christmas spirit tonight.  I've got the Countdown to 25 Days of Christmas on ABC Family playing, a Christmas wreath made with real fir tree branches (courtesy of Home Depot) hanging on my door, wafting me with that sweet sweet smell every time I walk by, Christmas lights all over the place, candy canes, lalala.

I just got back from the best vacation ever, which I completely blame for my giddy, Elf-esque mood lately. I walk into the hotel on Tuesday night and am greeted by this:

It's a giant gingerbread pirate ship. Made with real gingerbread. And it suh-melled like the North Pole.

Then there was this:

So I'm prancing about the lobby in time to the Christmas carols playing, with my family inching their way away, grinning to placate me. God love 'em.

I got to see this on Thanksgiving morning:

I almost cried when we had to leave.

But now.......

I have so much to do. Christmas spirit time!!!!!

That means this and these and some of these and so much more.

I AM SO EXCITED.

And there's the whole finals thing....

Nope. I'm gonna make some snowflakes.

Thanksgiving Week

Hello there blogging world!

I did it.

I've been waiting and waiting for my brain to finally give in and let myself create a blog. And lo and behold, on this rainy Monday before Thanksgiving, as I sit here, in my dorm room, putting off my Humanities paper...

A little about myself.

I'm a student at The Catholic University of America. I am pursuing a Bachelor's of Music degree in Vocal Performance. Music, in a nutshell, is my life. When I was younger, the worst punishment possible for me to receive from my parents was for my boom box (yes, boom box) to be taken away. I love love love living in Washington, DC. All of the history, the opportunities, the beautiful sights and places. I could go on forever.

I love to read and write. I've been making up stories since I was a little girl. I would sit down at the kitchen table on a Saturday morning with ten pages of printer paper stapled together with a title page in my best elementary school scrawl reading, "The Adventures of Kathy Green," or "The Princess and the Bakery," and write diligently for half a page before seeking out a snack.

Oh, that's the other thing...

Food.

My love.

The hours I spend pouring over food blogs, scouring used books stores for cookbooks,  drooling over pictures on Pinterest . It's embarrassing. My one trial at the moment is that I only have a communal kitchen, one pot, a baking sheet, some measuring cups, and the fact that I am forced to be on a meal plan for another semester. My life is so hard.

Lastly, my faith. I was raised Catholic and always have been. But I never discovered my passion for the faith until I came to CUA. Being surrounded by wonderful teachers and peers who share in this has only made me grow and grow in my love for Catholicism. God has blessed me and I am so grateful to Him!

Well, there it is!

I suppose I should maybe work on my papers. But with a sunny Floridian Thanksgiving vacation calling to me from the other side of my Harmony test tomorrow morning, it's going to be rough.

Patron Saint of Get-My-Brain-to-Focus-Please, pray for us.