Why #2 is Necessary

#2 on my resolutions list, of course (#2. Clean my room and keep it clean!). I think that everyone who actually reads this is aware of the condition of my room. But in case someone happens to find this, I'll post some evidence!

Lisa kindly helped me go through most of my drawers last week, but there is so much more in my room than clothes. The pictures below were taken the day after christmas, I think. Some of the things on the floor were in my brother's room (I sometimes use it as a"holding cell" for my junk) and some were taken from the floor of my closet. Anyway, here you go!

"the scrapbooking corner" (note: I actually organized this a teeny bit
before I took the picture....usually it looks so much worse!)

On the side of my bed....by the TV

aerial view from my bed, towards the front of my room

Eeek...here it is! I'm standing in the doorway right now. Yikes!

Now, I have spent the last few days going through my stuff, and getting rid of a lot of things. I'm hoping to create room in my closet for all of my shoes!! They are currently in a door-hanging shoe holder, but this is not the best solution since I can't close my door while it is on there. Ugh. Oh, and in case anyone was wondering, my bed always looks like that. Yes, even when I'm sleeping. Usually it's piled a bit higher, but I think some of the stuff slid off, haha.

Stay tuned for updated pictures of my room....I think you will all be pleasantly surprised (okay, I'm not quite done yet....give me another week!).

My Resolutions for the New Year!

I know it's a couple of days early, but just in case I don't have time to do it before Tahoe!

I don't think I've made an official list of New Year's Resolutions in a LONG time. And really, I think that's why the stuff on my unofficial list never happens. To make it real, it's got to be written down. So here goes...my official list, in no particular order:

1. stop biting my nails
2. clean my room, and keep it clean!
3. blog more often (avg every other day)
4. travel outside of the country
5. learn (or start to learn) another language
6. finish grad school
7. take another oil painting class
8. get fit!
9. and get back down to my pre college weight (minus 20 lbs)
10. scrapbook more
11. hike half dome
12. cook more often (aim for once a week)
13. find a good credit card and close some of my accounts

So my first two resolutions always make the list, but I never keep them. Hopefully next year I can do a little better!

Anyway, does anyone else share some of my resolutions? What are some of yours, and are there any biggies that I completely forgot about??

Are you engaged?

Nope, are you?

So I meant to write about this a couple of weeks ago, but just like Alex, I've been horrible at updating!! I am also going to "blame" Lisa's arrival in America.

Anyway, for my anniversary present this year, Ryan got me a really pretty ring that I picked out! I had been wanting an aquamarine (my birthstone) ring for a while, and so I got one! The only problem is that for our anniversary two years ago, he also got me a ring! And it's also really pretty. Here's a picture:

So, I don't really want to replace my other ring, with my new ring. My first solution was to trade off each day, and wear a different ring. Oh, I should point out that both are "sized" to fit my ring finger, on my right hand (ok, so the ring I just got was supposed to be sized, but I kind of think they didn't do it, because it's pretty big on my finger still. Even still, I can barely slide it on my middle finger, and if I do, it looks bad because my "finger fat" squeezes out, haha). My mom suggested that I just wear one of them on my left hand...hmm, ok, I guess I could do that! So I now wear my new ring on my right hand, and my other ring on my left hand, on the ring finger. Since I have misplaced my camera, I don't have a picture of my actual ring, but I found one on the internet that looks very similar. Except for some reason, the stone looks a little greenish, but they say it's an aquamarine...

The aquamarine is large, and to me, it kind of looks like an engagement ring. Even though the aquamarine is light, it still doesn't look like a diamond (it's no where near as sparkly), but not everyone wants or has an engagement ring with a diamond as the center stone! I was kind of expecting people (at work, at school, etc) to ask if I was engaged! I mean, at first glance, it kind of looks like I am (I think)! I was actually complaining how no one has asked me -- while we were having our first weekly "girls night out" (when's the next one??) -- and the bartender became the first person to ask, but only because I prompted her!

Anyway, I had someone at work ask me today, and I had to explain that I wasn't, and how I wanted to wear both rings. I'm pretty sure she thought I was being silly, and that I shouldn't be wearing both...at least not if one is going to be on my left hand. What do you all think? Have you ever worn a ring on your left ring finger when you weren't engaged or married? Am I crazy to want to wear both of these beautiful rings? I sure hope not...

Malia's Board and a question!

I was just thinking to myself today at work, and thought of some colors that Malia used to (and probably still does!) love!!! These colors are so much fun together!

I believe she had black music notes on her wall, in her pepto bismol-pink room. Oooo, and this could totally double as Tam's board as well! 

So now to my question. One of the ideas I have about my new calendar is regarding the titles of each page/month. The titles on the old one aren't all that creative, but they're okay. I thought it would be cute to make each title the title of a song! What do you think? But now I need help thinking of good song titles to use! I have about 7 or 8 that I think will be good, but I'm wondering if any of you have any ideas? Oh, and they have to be songs that both Ryan and I know!! This means rap slash r&b is probably out....think country and "oldies" like Billy Joel. Haha, thanks =)

Let's scrapbook...on the computer!

What?? That's what I said, when my good friend Michka introduced the world of digital scrapbooking (digi-scrap) to me! She's made some wonderful creations! Using pictures, digital paper and embellishments, and photoshop, you can make your 12" x 12" pages on the computer! What a concept. I'm still not completely sold on this, but I think it's mainly because I haven't had the time to really explore all of its wonderfulness. I did make one page, which I will share in a bit. Just note that I downloaded a bunch of junk from random sites, and I made this while on the 6-hour Amtrak train ride from Oakland to Bakersfield. So, I did not have the ability to download anything extra, and had to work with what I had!

As I see it, there are some pros and cons. The pros include the ability to change things very easily and there's no mess. But there is something I love about getting out all of my paper and tools and turning my room (or Michelle's living room slash family room) into scrapbooking heaven! Also, there's just something about the 3-D quality of the embellishments that gets lost when you use a computer. Oh yeah, and one of my favorite colors, sparkle (haha), doesn't exactly shine as brightly as it should when it's on the computer.

So, right now I prefer the old school way of scrapbooking, but I will definitely keep trying out digi-scrapping! Ok, so here's my first try:


Ok, so I guess it was kind of fun to make. But photoshop can be pretty frustrating, and it's really really time consuming!! I think once I re-teach myself how to use all of the cool tools on photoshop, digi-scraping will take less time, and I'll be able to make beautiful pages!

I think it reminds me of your room

But I'm not really sure. Anyway, here is Dannelle's board!! Didn't you have yellow and blue in your old room? Maybe I'm dreaming. Either way, it works out because it's UCLA colors!

I think it looks super pretty! Possibly the best picture in there is the blue rose. It reminds me of the time that boy (who shall remain nameless) gave you a blue rose after graduation practice. Haha, and it made you cry! Hope you like it! And as always, there will be more to come =)

House Hunters: First Time

So, today Ryan and I looked at houses in Bakersfield! We're not exactly in the market right now, but we decided to see what's out there. We started at Village Green, which is a neighborhood with brand new houses. In fact, they're still not done with construction, meaning that if one were to buy a house, one could pick the floor plan and add upgrades! The picture above is of one of the houses on the street, but not one of the ones we went inside.

All of the houses we looked at were at least 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, and they were so pretty! Also, the most expensive house available was $320k. Yep, $320,000. And that one had 5 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms and was huge. Let me show you some of the pictures of the first two houses we went into (they were the model houses....so they were all set up and stuff. The other ones we went into looked very nice, but I didn't take any pictures, oops).


The room was so nice and open! And the backyard was nice too! Oh, and the best part about all of the houses were the HUGE walk-in closets! They were absolutely amazing!

Here are a few pictures from the second house we looked at. Once again, it was a model home. We liked this one better than the first one.

The front of the second house....the fence is only
around it because it was a model home!

Here's Ryan in the pretty kitchen!

Just another pretty picture =)

eeeeeee! The two-sided fireplace!! This was just too cool!

And here's Ryan in the closet. I think he's crossing his arms
because he doesn't understand why a closet would be so big.
He actually said he would rather them make another room a
little bigger and make the closet smaller...ummmm no!

Anyway, there you have it, the second house! The master was nice and big, and the bathroom was also huge (all of the houses in the neighborhood had huge bathrooms and huge walk-in closets!). Another huge perk about the neighborhood is that it has a pool and hot tub and water park for little kids! And the whole area was very well landscaped.


Oh and did I mention that it's a gated community? Crazy, right? So what do you think....would you come visit me if I had a house like this in Bako??

Pretty please?

The rest of the calendar

I've already showed you the first 6 months of the calendar, so here is the rest! Oh, and I forgot to mention in my previous post that I did not take these pictures...so I'm sorry for the not-so-great quality.

7. July

Yet another themed page. I believe Mich and I were shopping, when we decided that I should go "all out" for this page. And that's exactly what I did! Haha, ok actually, I think I was considering buying a piece of paper with a huge flag on it. So I guess I didn't go ALL out, but it was still pretty out there! I was just thinking about it, and me and Ryan have never been together on the 4th of July. But even still, I felt the need to decorate the page as if we were watching fireworks. Very festive!


8. August

I think this one is super cool. I'm not sure how easy it is to tell, but I ripped up a bunch of pieces of paper, and then glued them to make the design. Cool, huh? And I like the black and white photos. I'll probably do one of the new pages with black and white photos, but I haven't even thought about which one.

9. September

I also love this one!! It's simple, but that makes it look so clean. I think my favorite part about it is the title. The font fits this page so perfectly!! And these are pretty much the only cheerleading pictures I have of myself.

10. October

I really like this one!! I love the pictures, especially the sunset one! I love the ribbons, and the leaves, and the colors. But it's so autumn-y. Which I love! But it's another themed page. So I'll have to stay away from these colors in my Oct/Nov pages, even though I'll be so tempted!

11. November

I'm not too crazy about November. It's from our trip to Carmel, so I think the background paper is pretty cool because Carmel is actually on the map! I guess it's okay. The main thing is that these are really the only 3 pictures we took during the trip. I'm not really sure why. So, I just wasn't able to come up with anything super creative.

12. December

This one is...eh, it's okay. I don't hate it, but I don't particularly like it. It's kind of festive, so I'm thinking that for the new calendar, I won't have December be a Christmas-themed page. In fact, I'm going to stay away from all of the holidays this year.

So overall, I'm pretty satisfied with my work. Not the best ever, and it doesn't look super professional, but it was really fun to make! Now, stay tuned, because I am going to need some recommendations for the next calendar!

An Idea for All Those Leftovers!

This one is from Giada de Laurentiis. It's something I saw on her show a while ago, and I've been meaning to try it ever since. The day after Thanksgiving seemed like the perfect time, since it's Turkey and Cranberry raviolis!! I'm not really a huge fan of the Thanksgiving turkey, but figured I'd give this one a shot. If you're interested, you can find the recipe here.

Depending on how much you like cranberry sauce, I suggest putting more. I put in a little extra, but wish there had been a bit more. We used wonton wrappers, so they weren't as heavy as normal raviolis. A word of caution: be carful not to poke holes in them while boiling!! A couple of them split open, causing the water to become infested with turkey....kinda gross.

I didn't actually make the gravy in Giada's recipe, because my dad is pretty much the Gravy King. I went the easy route and used his leftovers from the day before (another way to save some time!!).

Overall, I did enjoy these. Definitely a unique way to enjoy all of those leftovers, instead of making sandwiches for the next few weeks. The only downside is that they take a while to make. It's a lot of hard work putting the turkey/cranberry mixture into each of the wonton wrappers!! However, it is something that can be done ahead of time. You can just put them in the fridge, and boil them whenever!! The last part is very fast...only takes about 3-5 minutes.

Sorry that I didn't take any pictures!! But honestly, they aren't the prettiest things ever....I was a little lazy when I was making them, because it was taking so long. OH! And she recommends using dark meat. My family only eats dark meat, so we had about 3/4 of a pound left, but had probably 5 or so pounds of white meat. I ended up mixing the two, which helped get rid of some of the unwanted white meat! Depending on your preferences, I'm sure either would taste great! Enjoy =)

I want to eat your board!

And here it is!! Finally!! So, Lisa requested that I make her a board with dark red, brown, and cream. It was surprisingly difficult to find pretty pictures with these colors! But, I managed. If I could use one word to describe her board, it would be "yummy"....

The chocolates and cakes and chocolate covered strawberries look so good!! I can't wait to make more of these boards....I already have another one started. I wish I had more time slash was a bit better with photoshop, because those boards look much better. I'm just not that creative yet....

Hope you like it, Leese!!

Christmas!!

My favorite time of the year!! It's officially December, and I can't wait until all of the Christmas decorations start going up! I walked into work this morning, and they have a huge tree set up down in the lobby =)

Anyway, I got to my desk, and there was an envelope waiting for me. I opened it up, and found that one of my coworkers had given me a Christmas card!! My very first one, EVER! But now I'm wondering....am I supposed to hand out Christmas/holiday cards? And if so, who gets one? My family hasn't exactly been the best example, since we've probably only sent Christmas cards 5 times, out of the 22 Christmases I've had.

So now I'm stuck. What's the etiquette here? And when should I hand them out? I just realized that some people probably don't celebrate Christmas, so should I make sure the cards are out before Hanukkah starts? I'm pretty sure it starts only a few days before Christmas this year, but what if it starts in the beginning of Decemeber? Oh, and what I would really love to do is make the cards! But I just don't think I'll have time for that. What is everyone else doing?