Once a Pirate Wench...

Always a pirate wench. Or so I hear!

My friends and I are going to the King Richard's Renaissance Faire this weekend.


I'm thinking it's going to be a total blast.
To really get into the spirit, we're dressing up.
So I'm breaking out the Pirate Wench costume!
I'm sure I'll take a ton of photos of the weirdos nerds cool people we see.
I guess after this you can count me among them!

Whoa... sorry there.

I'm finally back!... from being a slacker! Man, I'm so bad. It's really been a while, huh? I think I've started a couple posts, but I think I just haven't had much interesting to share or say. Which is totally not true as evidenced by my sisters blog, I went to visit her and her cute little family just a few short weeks ago. You can see some of those pictures here.

Nope, I think it's probably all to blame on my laziness! I keep wanting to be better, but a combination of a super slow computer, a broken camera and freezing temperatures that just make me want to sleep all the time, like a hibernating bear, really get the better of those noble aspirations! It's cold, I'm boring, there you go!

Well, so what is there really to tell? Not much, except we finally took down all the Christmas decorations, and I'm wishing I had some fun Valentine's decorations to put up. I did do something fun last week and finally went to the "Open Press Night" at the letterpress studio that Harvard has. I wasn't expecting to be able to print anything, maybe just set some type, but I was able to complete a whole project in just one night! It was so fun, I might even be going back tomorrow night, the creative juices are starting to flow again (despite the temperatures, or maybe because of, since I'm starting to go stir-crazy). I have lots of ideas about other projects I want to do.

Anyway, here's a not very good picture taken by Edwin (my iPhone) which of course is the only camera of the three I own that works right now... he's such a good BF like that (in the working department, not the picture quality department, unfortunately).

(those are drawings of molecules, I know it's kinda hard to tell...)

I thought it was pretty clever, and so far so do most people. Also, pretty appropriate since I just finished my Chemistry class at Harvard! Now if only I had someone to give it to. Of course I'll probably end up giving them to all my roommates, friends and coworkers anyway, even though they might start to get the wrong idea about me... but what can I say? I love Valentines Day!

Oh and P.S. Guess what's coming up at the end of this month? Only the most Awesome Event Ever! We're having a 1920's Theme party to celebrate the end of my "Roaring '20s"! I'm super excited and am busily planning away with my roommies. It's been a long time since I've had an actual birthday party. Should be fun!

Oh and just to close it out with a fun picture... here's one from I think my 7th Birthday Party when we lived in Bakersfield California. Pretty hot huh? I think the ring, the tiara and glasses just give the outfit a little something... extra, don't you?



My Dad gave me one of the coolest Christmas Presents ever, an external hard drive filled with pictures, movies and audio books. It's been fun going through all the pictures. So much fun that I might just have to start "Flashback Fridays" or something cheesy like that.

Handmade Recycled Christmas!

Since Halloween is my favorite holiday of the year and I usually go all out, I kinda run out of steam by the time it gets to Christmas. Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas, but I'm not usually at my house for the holiday and so I don't decorate very much for it. I love the buying presents part, but I kinda of slack on the rest of it (compared with the Halloween celebrations, anyway).

But not this year! There have been so many good ideas for cute holiday decorations that this year, I'm going all out on a Handmade Recycled Christmas! I've been even more inspired to use things I have around the house, rather than going and out and buying new ornaments. We're having a special Holiday Party that I'll be posting about soon, so I'm trying to get the house festive in time. Here's a few of the things I've started making and plan to finish asap:

Paper Bag Ornaments:

So easy and fun to make! I'm going to hang them over the table in our bay window. I made a few different sizes and may also make smaller ones to hang from the wreath on our front door to tie everything together. I used Trader Joe's paper bags like she used as well and I love the way they look, although I might make some smaller ones out of festive scrapbooking paper I have lying around.

Circular Ornaments:

I plan on making these a little more simple by just using my craft punch and then instead of alternating gluing sides, I'm just going to use a scrapbooking adhesive square to attach each one. Kind of like the ones here, only with more circles!

More fun handmade ornament ideas to try:
String Snowballs
Lots of ornaments to make


Shimmering Stacked Trees:

These are made from newspaper, but I'm also recycling my old magazines that I'm going to throw away.

Paper Evergreens:

I'm also making paper trees like these out of the same Trader Joe paper bags to match the ornaments!

Plastic Bag Pom-Poms:

I think these would be fun attached together to make a garland, I guess I'd just need a *lot* of plastic bags... Target here I come!

Cardboard wreath:

Now I wish I hadn't thrown out my Piperlime box! And here's another fun idea if I only had some fun bottle caps in festive colors.

Other great ideas:
Card Display
Advent Calendar
Fabric Garland


So, I'll be sure to post pics after our party and when everything's all done! Happy Holidays!

Halloween in progress

Chemistry and Halloween.

That's what's been on my mind (if not always my life) for the past month or so now. And let me just say they are both pretty awesome. Well, Halloween is at least. Chemistry and I have more of a love/hate relationship. Who knows, it may swing either direction tonight depending on the grade I got on my test last week... *think good thoughts*.

Anyway, I won't bore you with the Chemistry, but get right into the good stuff. This year, Halloween is going to be awesome. Because my roommates and I have come up with the best "group costume" idea ever. I don't want to give too much away, cause it's kinda going to be a surprise, but I will have to give you something when I tell you what I've been up to.

I've been having a Halloween party pretty much since I turned 12 and my parents decided that was too old to go trick-or-treating anymore. Or was it 14? Can't remember. Anyway, except for a couple years at college and one where I was moving to Utah at the time, I've pretty much had an awesome party. Since moving to Boston I've had two, and I think they keep getting better. This year will surely be the best yet. We've got a whole theme going on.

Happily Never After

Yep, that's the theme. And it's gong to be awesome. If you can't tell from that what we're dressing up as, let me help you:

That's right, Disney Princesses. With a little bit of a twist. That's the part I'm not going to tell you, but I'm sure you'll put it together with the "theme". Anyway it's going to be awesome. We're turning the house into "The Haunted Enchanted Kingdom". Basically a Haunted Castle. I'm even mixing in touches from the movies... Take part of our centerpiece here:

See anything familiar? Like maybe a magic rose? Humm....

And here's a preview of the hall... ok just imagine it without the pretty flowers... those are coming down.

Here's a close up of the picture. I found this picture and printed it in segments, cut it up and pasted it together. Still to come is a spooky black frame around it.

These are the decorations on either side of the pic. I got these mini skulls at Wal-Mart for a buck each and made the little shelves from cardboard boxes (thanks USPS) and painted them black. Also still to come are more torches and brackets, black chandeliers (similar to these but way cheaper, since they too will be made of cardboard by me), a "drawbridge" (unfortunately non-functioning), a moat (aka fog machine outside near the bushes), tons of cobwebs, and lots of scary cheese cloth and white sheets on stuff. Oh, and a special treatment for the stairs that I won't give away quite yet. Let's just say, our house is going to be pretty spooky!

I can't wait! So much to do though before it's all done... I've taken on the responsibility of making all the princess costumes too. Huge list of to-do things for that. I'm pretty sure it will all get done though. I will be recruiting roommates to help with the rest of the decorating (although considering how anal retentive I am about things, I'm not sure how much of it they'll do).

So that added to Chemistry makes for a busy me! Man, there's a reason I only do parties once a year!

More pics to come so stay tuned!