Get your crafty on

Look at me! I got crafty this weekend :).

 My mom visited us this weekend and came with a great craft idea she saw at a friend's house.

frame: $ 0.75

paint: 2 for $1

brushes: $ 0.35 ea

letters: $ 1.30ish ea

not bad, eh?

Our front door

Oh and the ribbon is from a red throw that we bought earlier that day - it matched perfectly!!

Are you proud of me, or what?

more Harry Potter, please

Lately I've taken to listening to books on tape - er, cd - on my way to and from work. Imagine my delight when my mom offered to let me borrow some of her books on tape, including Harry Potter! Now I'm on  I end up listening to it wherever I am (especially at home).

I love Jim Dale, I think he's absolutely amazing. Of course, JK Rowling is genius. Reading the books when I'm older, I can appreciate how well-written they are too! It's just perfect. Life is perfect. Sadly, I'm more than halfway through book three and I feel like I just started yesterday! It doesn't matter that I've already read them 4 or 5 times. I'm just as hooked as ever. Thank goodness for a library that keeps me satisfied. I don't want it to end!

Blossoming

This weekend was Stake Conference (where all the members of my church in Durham gather for one meeting) and Elder Marlin K Jensen and his wife, Kathleen, came to visit. Both spoke Saturday evening and Sunday morning and I thorougly enjoyed their remarks. I'm writing today to share with you a beautiful analogy that Sister Kathleen Jensen spoke of this morning.

Sister Jensen bought a nice green plant, a goldfish plant actually, and put it on the coffee table in her living room. Perhaps it looked like this:


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She thought it looked really nice and was completely happy with how it looked in their home. A few weeks later she decided to rearrange the living room and consequently, the plant was moved to a different spot. Soon thereafter, Sister Jensen noticed small orange blossoms on her plant, "that looked remarkably like goldfish!" Something changed that allowed the goldfish plant to blossom.
 

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She suggested that we might be green and completely satisfied with our life, yet we have the potential to blossom. We are living but perhaps we're not thriving. She encouraged us to find ways to blossom, to thrive. Move out of your parents' house, make new friends, find a new hobby. If you hate your job, look for a new one. Maybe you need more sunshine, or more shade.

Both she and Elder Jensen are great speakers. If you ever get an opportunity to listen to them speak, take it! In particular, Sister Jensen's talks were inspirational to me. I sincerely wish all of you could have listened to her speak, as well! She is the kind of woman I would love to hang out with despite our age difference. Then again, who wouldn't want to hang out with inspirational people. Now I'm rambling. Anyway, I hope that you can appreciate her message via my interpretation.

I also want to add that Jesus Christ wants us to blossom. We may be content with our "greenness", but He has more in store for us. I want to blossom; I'd like to want to do what's necessary to get there. I am grateful for Jesus Christ, my savior who loves me unconditionally and will help me be the best that I can regardless of what I am now.

Comfort Food

Okay, don't laugh. My all time nostalgic comfort food is a thick cream of chicken soup over rice. Except, it's not really a soup, I only add in a few TBSP of milk instead of a whole can.

Anyway, within the first six months of experimental-dinner-making on my husband, I tried this one out. I thought I was being sweet - a super easy, comfort food dinner. Perfect. I'm sure Doug was nice about it and ate a bowl, but most likely filled up on pizza and/or cereal afterwards! What I do remember is him saying, "you like this??" I had not even considered that other people wouldn't like my comfort food. It's not a particularly tasty dish, I guess my mom made it when I was sick or something.

What's your comfort food? Have you ever made it for other people hoping they would like it as much as you do and were consequently heartbroken? Okay, I wasn't heartbroken. Well, maybe a little...

Twenty Two

Happy birthday to me! Yesterday I turned 22. Awesome. 

Can I just say that Saturday birthdays are the BEST?!

I'm not going to list of all the things I have or wish I had accomplished because I'm not the kind of person to write it all out. But still, birthdays have always been days of reflection for me. So shall we pretend that life is perfect, that I used a sweet camera to take that picture (manual setting of course), and the background is blurry, and the brick isn't really holding up a sewer pipe?

Friday night, Doug and I went out for dessert and stayed up late watching Netflix until I turned 22 at midnight. Okay, I wasn't born at midnight really, but who cares? Then on my birthday we went on a walk in Duke Forest and took some pictures.

It's like we did a photo shoot. saweet.

So lovely!

Later we went to the mall and bought stuff - we were allowed to 'cuz it's my birthday, duh. I bought chocolate and Doug bought a statistics book (which was 5X more expensive than the chocolate might I just mention). We celebrated the rest of the day with Emily and Brad, went to bed late, then woke up late. Let's just say that it was a great day.

I should have TRIPLED this recipe

Yesterday I decided to try Doug's Aunt Heather's Carrot and Barley Soup recipe. Mostly because I already had most of the ingredients and I hadn't tried it yet. Little did I know that vegetables could taste so good! Okay, maybe I did know, but this soup was super delicious. Doug even liked it :). So much so that this small tupperware was all that was left for my lunch today:

ohhh so tasty!

 You want to try it, right? Below is the recipe, with my changes

Heather's Carrot and Barley Soup
2 large carrots, peeled and grated
1 TBSP butter
1/2 cup onion, finely chopped
some chopped green onions
1/2 tsp caraway seeds (I didn't have any, so I just ignored the caraway seeds)
1/4 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp pepper
1 TBSP flour
3 cups chicken stock
3 TBSP barley (I added 1/3 cup - it gave more substance to the soup)

Saute carrots in butter for 5 minutes. Add onion(s) and continue to saute for 3 more minutes. Add flour and spices and continue to cook for 3 minutes. Add chicken stock and barley. Stir well, bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes.

Mine turned out super thick - which I liked, but if you want it thinner, don't let it simmer for so long.

I'll definitely make this again, and soon!

I've been busy...

Hooray for a new skill and lots of time to practice! Below is my FINISHED cowl and some crochet projects I worked on this weekend.

I FINISHED!

A cute free baby hat pattern I found and wanted to try.
And, in case you're wondering, no.

Another free pattern
It was such a pain I didn't do the other bootie, haha

Um, this is supposed to be a washcloth
I don't know what I'll use it for, if I do..

Did you notice the color pattern? Essentially I picked out the colors for the cute hat, then I wanted to keep my hands busy during General Conference (and stay awake) (which by the way, was totally awesome) and so I ended up making other stuff with the same colors - because, duh, I don't have lots of yarn yet. That was a super long sentence, sorry if you had to read it twice! Anyway, are you proud of me yet?

Now I'm unstoppable, I can do anything.