Hope Still Flies

An end to 2011, and a look ahead to 2012

6:48 PM

Holy cow. World's worst blogger right here. I was hoping once school let out for the semester (2 weeks ago) that I'd have more time to blog. But then I started doing 25 hours a week at the cafe and 15 hours a week at my internship plus Christmas shopping and traveling and... I could make excuses all day, but basically I've missed blogging. And now it's the very last day of 2011 and I'm not sure how it happened. The year flew by but I think about what happened in January and it seems like forever ago.

I'm not one for resolutions... I feel like every day should be spent trying to be the best person I can be. I always forget resolutions anyway. I thought that for this post I'd first go through the big things I learned this year, and then do a look ahead to what could maybe be happening in 2012. Let's see...

What I learned in 2011... (with the help of my facebook timeline)
* Junior year coursework is just as hard as senior year coursework
* Nieces and nephews grow way too fast (okay, I knew this. Still true.)
* Justin Bieber's teenage fans are nuts

* I'd still rather drive places than fly. But I would fly in a heartbeat to see my Pittsburgh family again.

* I will also drive long distances to watch musicals

* Harry Potter will always be a part of my life, even if the books and movies are over.

* I hope Twilight will eventually leave my life.

* The Hunger Games series is going to be big.

* Comedies (How I Met Your Mother, The Office...) are fully capable of making me cry.

* I am always capable of becoming obsessed with TV shows.

* Buying furniture (like couches) can be considered a big kid purchase.

* But buying a car is really a big kid purchase.

* When tv shows like "The Next Great Food Truck Race" come to town, people come out of the woodwork.

* I like watching women's soccer more than men's.

* P90X isn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be, and I can work out five days a week.

* I'm not nearly as artistic as I'd like to be.

* I will always, always, always love photography.
* Nothing can ever replace the feeling I get from being around my family.
* I can always be busier.

* If I can survive 4 1/2 years of college, I can do anything.

* I really have married an amazing man.

* I have what it takes to be a chemical engineer.

* There's always time to read.

Oof. 2011 was a great year. Now... 2012. 2012 has more unknowns than I'm comfortable with. But I suppose I should be pushing past my comfort zone. What I do know...
* In May I'll be graduating from K-State with two degrees.
*Sometime after May I'll be moving... somewhere.

* I'll have a big kid job at some point this year.

* Michael will be getting into a grad school somewhere in the country this year.

This year will be full of stuff. Finding a balance between everything will be key. I know things are going to play out just like they should and everything... but it's unsettling to me not knowing exactly how things will work. The past 4 1/2 years have been steady. School, work, etc. This year I'll be moving to a new city, starting a new (very real) job, Michael will be starting graduate school to become a psychologist, and that's just the surface. I know there will be challenges that arise, but I know I have the support system behind me to do anything I can dream of.

Okay. Enough rambling. I'll have to update with Thanksgiving and Christmas stuff soon. For tonight, I'm off to enjoy a very quiet New Year's Eve at home. I was thinking about going to the Little Apple Ball Drop... but I've been doing a lot of running around recently, and home is where I'll stay tonight.

So. Until next time.

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Another month

6:13 PM

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Oh geez...

11:43 AM

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One big whirlwind

7:34 PM

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A canvas DIY experience...

diy 8:09 PM

So the summer has gotten to me.

I am definitely not an artistic person. Never have been. I joke that I failed elementary school art. I'm better with writing and solving equations.

But joining Pinterest has made me wish I could be more artistic. So after seeing an awesome canvas print idea, I thought I'd try it. I'm really good at starting craft-like projects and leaving them halfway through, so I thought I'd spend my afternoon off doing it today. Then I decided I'd go ahead and write-up how I did it here. Not that it was difficult, but hey, why not.

So, along with pictures, here we go. These are the supplies I used.

* 4 10"x10" white canvases

* Small wooden letters to spell out whatever you'd like

* Acrylic paint in 2 different colors... one for the canvas, one for the letters

* Paintbrush

* Ruler

* Heavy duty glue

* Disposable plates

* Something to paint on, and to let the canvases dry on (I used old magazines)

So I had no idea what colors to use, so Michael suggested using our wedding colors, which I thought was a great idea (I knew I kept him around for some reason. :) ) So first thing's first... Paint all the canvases the right color... black in my case.

I had never used acrylic paint before, but I got my paintbrush a little wet and then mixed the paint around so it wasn't so thick.

Repeat for all 4 canvases.

After I got the canvases all painted, the letters came next. I only bought one paintbrush and it was a little thick. I ended up holding part of the letters and painting the rest of them. I did the front and as much as the sides as I could. After they dried, I went back and painted the rest... then after that I ended up going back and getting the little crevices on the sides with my fingers. Yup.

So after I finished up the letters, the canvases had already dried. (Acrylic dries quickly!) I started with my first batch of letters. To center them, I checked the size of the letters, divided the size in half, and subtracted it from five (half the size of the canvas). I went that many inches from the bottom of the canvas and marked it with a piece of string. I made sure it was the same length on both sides. This marked where the bottom of the letters should rest.

After arranging the letters where I wanted them, I used the ruler to mark where I had either the left side of the letter, or the right side of the letter.

Then I picked up each letter and used this glue on the back of it, and put it back where I found it. I pushed down a little bit, but if you push too hard, the other letters might come off. (Haha, ignore the paint all over my hand.)

Repeat the same sequence for all four (or however many) canvases. Just making sure to let the glue set. Here's how my four turned out...

They are by no means perfect. I'm no artist, after all, but they turned out all right. If I ever do it again, I'll search for a different font (not a huge fan of the letter style...) and definitely buy a different sized paintbrush for the letters. Or bigger letters.

Now, if I could only figure out where to hang them up...

-edit-...figured it out (if only I could hang things up straight)

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T-minus 3 weeks and 4 days...

8:43 PM

...until I'm thrown back into college.

I'm not sure how this summer has flown by so fast, especially because I haven't really been doing much except enjoying not doing anything. There's been a lot of P90X, hitting the pool with Sarah (I'm almost tan again...), hanging out with friends, working and hanging out with Michael.

I talked in my last blog post about being ready to get it over with, and that still holds true. I'm excited to see what the semester will bring.

I'm still working my way through lots of books. I'm on Mockingjay from The Hunger Games trilogy reread. I'm trying to read slower and really internalize everything. It's only sort of working. I didn't like Gale in my first read through, and I like him less now, I think. For reasons that probably deserve its own blog post. (In other news, I'm loving the stills coming out from the movie! I really hope it doesn't suck...) I've got a few more books I'd like to read before school starts, but we'll see...

Week 9 of P90X is almost complete. (For me. Mike's been sick, so he's a few days behind.) I'm still seeing progress, and I love feel stronger and more agile. I'm getting tired of some of the workouts, but I push through. I've recently started listening to my music and just following the cues on the DVDs. It's helping. Being able to focus on my music instead of, "Am I almost doooone? Didn't we just do thiiiis?".

I whine just like that, too.

In sad news, the So You Think You Can Dance tour isn't coming through KC this year. Sad face. Especially because there's so much talent on this season. It's probably God's way of telling me I need to save my money.

Anybody interested in a Spotify account? I just got started today, and I love it. Another music listening thingy. It seems to have every song imaginable, plus it can import your playlists from iTunes and Windows Media Player. Hooray! They even have music to listen to the week it comes out.

Tonight, I'll leave you with a picture of my baby-boyfriend, Eli. He's 2 months old and just plain adorable.

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In which I panic and then don't

anniversary 7:40 PM

I'm back... mainly to write a post of thoughts floating around in my head that I need to get out.

Plenty of thoughts about the trial today... but I can't get into that without getting upset at people. So I won't.

Mainly.. school starts in a month and a half. Which is all freaky by itself.. but it's going to be the start of my last two semesters. I know they're going to fly by, especially because I'll be starting the look for "big people" jobs, Michael will be applying for grad schools and doing auditions... just a lot going on.

I've gotten very comfortable with our schedules here. We've spent our whole married lives in this groove. We go to school, we go to work, we hang out at the apartment. This semester, that's going to start changing. Slowly, which is good. I'm not so great with change.

At the same time, I'm ready for next summer to happen. I'm ready to start the next chapter of our lives. Me working, him... well, still going to school, but doing grad work. Moving into a bigger place, getting a dog, saving money for a house, all that stuff. I'm ready to get started.

Moving also means... It's time for me to get rid of some crap. I'm not a hoarder by any means, but I definitely have too much stuff just sitting around. And I need to start going through it soon. I don't want May to come around next year and not have any packing done. Part of me wants to start packing up some stuff now, but that would just mean more clutter, and we need our second bedroom for a study this year.

Phew. Basically, it's crazy to me that this time next year I will probably be out of Manhattan, and onto other things. I'm ready to get that started.

This summer is more of the same boring. I'm working, hanging out with family and friends, travelling to Wichita and doing a lot of reading. Had a few photoshoots with babies, too. I love taking pictures of little ones. They're just so adorable.

And spending too much time on Pinterest.

Oh! And P90X is still going well. We're in to week 6, which means we're just about halfway done! That's pretty awesome. I can definitely tell a difference in my endurance, and I've gained some more muscle. Mike has lost weight (no matter what he says) and I'm feeling great. He still hates it pretty much all the time. I like it, though.

I'll leave you with a picture of me and Michael on our anniversary. I set a timer on the camera and ran out to smile. (I have since bought a remote for the camera, so the self-timer need is no more!)