keep on running

I've never posted when I'm crabby because usually I just force myself to back away from the computer and do something more productive than whine on the internet, but seeing as I have to wake up early and will have no time to write one, here I am! Well, it's less that I'm crabby and more that I'm really, really tired. Apparently, my brain wanted to wake itself up really early this weekend but not get tired early at night. Hum. That means two horrible sleepless nights of an already reduced amount of it. Tomorrow, though, I have a date with the yoga mat and elliptical so those endorphins will provide some necessary happiness and rest, I hope!

School is killing me already and I'm barely three weeks in! However, I spent my Friday and Saturday night doing homework trying to get ahead before I can fall behind, and I'm just counting down the days until I get to go home on the 18th! By that time, it will have been a month since I've been home! It seems like last semester, I went home every single weekend, and this semester, I definitely can't afford that. So these little weekends will be my treat! I'm so excited!

flannel-Niklaas cardigan-Niklaas tights-Urban Outfitters socks-F21 shoes-Steve Madden shorts-Old Navy bow- c/o Jasmine

I know this is a very, very boring post. So, I'm just going to say that the entire top half of this outfit is Niklaas'. He has the cutest flannel and comfiest cardigans...I couldn't help myself! He has a gift for finding soft plaid! I've always wanted to try the knee high sock thing, and while I"m not a convert, I think I need to explore the idea more thoroughly. Jasmine sent me this adorable bow and it made my day when she sent it! I feel like her when I wear it:) We were so cold taking these pictures. The snow was the light, fluffy, tiny kind that takes forever to melt and it was at least 15 degrees outside. Yuck!!!



Looking at these pictures makes me so, so sad because I wore these tights yesterday on a little bit of an adventure and tore them on a fence. Not fence hopping either, would would have been kind of a lot of B.A. , I just fell down a hill and tore them on the fence. Wah! They are my perfect little gems and I always feel like I'm getting my heart broken by runs in my opaque tights! I've probably had to replace opaque patterned tights at least five times. Womp womp womp.

Well, anyways, I'm going to go to bed and wake up to a new, better day! Yay! I hope you all have a good Monday. It's snowing outside so I'm really hoping it melts by the time we wake up. Which is highly unlikely. I'm sick of the snow and cold!


I keep on running, keep on running and nothing works. I can't stop missing you.

housekeeping!

I know I've posted today, but I just wanted to make an *official* post announcing a few tidbits of news!

1) I now have a button for you to put on your blogs if you so wish! Here's the link to my button and a picture of what it looks like below! (Also, if you look on the right in the little text box, the link for the picture is also there) There are more in my pages here including one Niklaas made!

2) I changed my labels to make navigating my blog easier and added my twitter feed! Wooohoo! Look on the left!
3) In addition to getting my own button, I've added buttons from my blogging crushes! Yay!
4) I am officially linking my "writing" blog to this blog. It's possibly the most scary thing, ever. I have 170 hidden drafts and I've never pushed "post" until this week. Yikes. So far, it's just my unfortunate happenings but maybe one day I'll excavate those dark posts ;)

5) My giveaway is *almost* done! It was originally a '250 follower' giveaway, but now it's at 300, and that was just a couple weeks ago. So, it'll be up this week!:)

That's all for now. Have a lovely Saturday!

mom's cookies

I told you all I was going to post more DYI's and crafty things! During my forty hours a week of free time over winter break, I decided it was as good as time as any to try to "refine" myself. I learned to crochet, cleaned the house, and worked out almost daily. And what refined woman doesn't know how to cook? I'm not a cook, but, honestly, who doesn't want to be the mom someday who makes the best cookies ever? I've never made cookies on my own, so I dug through my mom's recipe book and found her favorite recipe that has been my favorite for years! I can vividly still remember the day we found it. Her and I were watching tv one day when I was about six and a cooking channel came on. Some random generic brand TV host of a cooking show was displaying her cookie recipe to the world and I screamed at my mom to write it down. She reluctantly did it, shaking her head at my squealing six year old self. However, after she made them, we sat down across the table from each other trying our first cookie with our eye brows scrunched and at the same time, our eyes lit up and without saying it, we just knew we'd found our gem!


Recipe:
1/2 butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup sugar
4 cups of flour
4 eggs
1/2 TB baking powder
1 TB baking soda
1 TS vanilla
dash of salt
1 bag of choc chips (Nestle)


I really don't know what's so special about these cookies. Mind you, I definitely didn't make them as well as my mom does, but Niklaas enjoyed them and they were gone pretty quickly! I still aspire to make those perfectly chewy thick pretty ones instead of my flat, thin, chewy ones. But, these are pretty yummy!

play it again

I have an exciting tid-bit of news. I was notified early in the week that I was accepted as a Teen-Vogue blogger (!!!!). I applied in the summer, but didn't get in, and for the heck of it, decided to try again a couple weeks ago, and viola! Don't ever be discouraged if you fail a first time is really the whole motto of the story. I even get a cute little button to put on my blog! Wooohooo! Celebratory internal clap! Kind of nifty.

Anyways, this week isn't turning out to be as wonderfully orderly and organized as my facebook fast was last week. I still haven't gone on facebook, but I find myself getting distracted by other things on the computer. I may have to de-toxify myself of tumblr, flickr, and texts from last night. But I'm hoping I can pull my head out of the gutter and get going again. Last week, I aced every single chemistry quiz. This week, I had a blunder on the first one and got a seventy percent, and the one yesterday was completely out of line. Why do professors like to trick us and throw in questions that we didn't talk about at all? I'm trying not to get discouraged and to cope with my grief, last night I did the chemistry homework for three and a half hours straight. I must not get my hopes down!!

Niklaas started Valentine's Day two weeks early being the little meany that he is. I brought the letter to class because I couldn't bear to leave it in my mailbox for another three hours but it turned out to be a major mistake. I'm already awkward enough talking to the archaeologist wannabe's in that class but considering they watched me giggle and smile about nothing for an entire hour probably means I'm done for. I've always had a love/hate relationship with Valentine's Day. Honestly, I never really cared if I had "someone" because I sent Valentine's to my friends and family anyways, which was more fun than giving them to a boy, anyway. But now, I do, and all my years of creating adorable Valentine's for my pals is completely useless to me now. How do I complete with two weeks worth of Valentine's Day cute things in the mail leading up to a package? Womp womp womp.

skirt-Forever 21 top-Forever21 boots-Delias tights-Nordstroms cardigan-AE bow-Forever21
This winter, I really started to try remixing more of my old clothes. I know this is months after the fact, but when Heather from Simply Sunstar guest posted on my blog, she challenged everyone to find a piece of clothing in their closet they wanted to throw out, and to style it. Guess what, Heather? I finally am! Haha. I came seconds away from throwing out this skirt because about four girls from my High School bought it after I did and I just didn't feel it anymore, but then I decided to give it one last chance. I threw on my bow shirt, solid leggings, a leather brown belt, and all of the sudden, I liked it again! If you ever have doubt, mix patterns!


These boots are my ultimate pride and joy. They were signed none other than by Taylor Swift. It's true. I remember when I met her thinking, What can I ask her to sign???, because I literally wasn't expecting to meet her and had brought nothing. Standing there in front of me with a big sharpie, the lightbulb went off in my head, and in two seconds flat she was on her knees signing my boots for me. She even took her time to make it "extra cute" as she said. I was going to take them off so she wouldn't have to bend down, but golly gee! She's quite the woman, Taylor is.

find me here!

Anyways, today is Thursday. Aka, the day of Hell. No, really. I have 9 hours of classes on Thursdays. Two labs. A workshop. And english. Kill me. My workload is so full this semester! It's actually proving to be good for me in balancing my time, but, still. So much work! Have a wonderful Thursday:)

Currently Listening: February

1) Can't Stand It- Never Shout Never
2) What The Hell- Avril Lavigne
3) Stuck Like Glue- Sugarland
4) Mushaboom- Feist
5) That Home- The Cinematic Orchestra
6) Grenade- Bruno Mars
7) The Curse- Josh Ritter
8) Go Together- Jillian Edwards
9) In Your Arms- The Last Goodnight
10) Don't You Wanna Stay- Jason Aldean (w/ Kelly Clarkson)
11) Haunted- Taylor Swift
12) Elephants As Big As Whales- Play Radio Play!
13) The Luckiest- Ben Folds
14) Bridge and Tunnel- The Honorary Title
15) Beautiful- Akon

Here is what's on my playlist for February! In reality, I have about 60 songs on it, but I picked and chose the ones I'm replaying most frequently. Again, there's a little bit of everything and songs put together that probably never should be (Ben Folds and Avril??). And a lot of songs that I shouldn't be allowed to like (Avril, I'm looking at you and your new pop-bubblegum-angry new song) But, that's the way it goes and I just dance and sing to what I dance and sing to, no matter what it is!

It's Tuesday, which is my favorite day ever. I get off at 10:30 and spend the rest of the day alone doing catch-up homework in my fuzzy socks in my big comfy chair! And blog. And crochet. And read. And anxiously await for Teen Mom 2 (My guilty pleasures list is a long one, all).

I'm hoping for an outfit post tomorrow, but that may arrive Thursday! I feel like Lifesize Paperdoll is in the works of an evolution. At first, it was a diary. Then, it was a diary with pictures. Then it was a "clothes" diary. I feel like it's about to take another turn along the lines of arts and crafts, lifey stories and events, writing, and whatever I like! That may not be initiated right away, but I'm definitely hoping in the summer, I can combine the clothes aspect of my blog and more of what I do day to day that I want  to show by posting every single day. Wooo! If you've ever read Becca's blog, it's the blog I wish mine were in addition to my clothes adventures. I love her blog and her daily artsy pictures and doodads. Again, I don't feel like anything will change soon, but, a few new segments might be on the radar pretttty soon :)

five restaurants, one night

I had the best weekend ever and there is no way I can't not document it here in the blogosphere.

Red Robin
I have a fear of all things furry and containing a human (or something else?) inside. Note: I am not in this picture.

iHop

Pizza

Perkins

Apple Bee's







So this is what went down. It was Katie's (the red headed gal) 19th birthday on Friday. It has been my dream birthday idea to hit up every restaurant in a single night that offers free dessert on birthday's and load up on as many as possible. So! We did it for HER birthday. All in all it cost $90 between the five of us to go to five places. We ate: 6 mozzarella sticks, cheese quesadillas, grilled cheese, pizza, pancakes, and five ice cream Sunday's split between us. It was insane and ridiculous and the most fun I've ever had. Our last stop was iHop and we were the only people in the restaurant and acted like complete loons. I repeat: complete loons. We asked for coloring books, crayons and more crayons, pictures to be taken, weird drink concoctions and left a 60% tip half of which was in quarters left on the table. When we left, the waiter told us to go home and sober up and to not get "too wasted" later. HA!!!!!!!!!!! Little did he know, we don't need any extra help to act the way we do ;)

love like woe

It is currently way, way too past my bedtime. Last year (and actually, now that I think about it, my previous twelve years in the public education system) I had this perpetual what I like to call "Late Night Thursday" pattern that, as you can probably assume, resulted in staying up later than usual on Thursday nights. Tonight, I'm not blessed with the excuse of having "a lot" to do either. I'm learning that in college, Thursday nights count essentially as the weekends, class the next day not included. If you're up late, well, does it really matter when at the end of a three hour school day you can nap and sleep for the next two fulll days?

This semester, I have a lot of mental goals to accomplish. Not resolutions, but things I want to work towards to better myself. Now, don't I sound like a Dr. Phil commercial? Ha! The first of which I actually and most surprsingly accomplished this week and that is: no facebook during the school week! That's right! No. Facebook. I never realized this week how toxic it was to my day. It made breakfast turn into an hour long event and my nighttime to-do list particularly unaccomplished. My next goal is to work out three to four times a week. I also have accomplished that this week and I owe all the credit to the blessing-in-disguise that is my yoga class! Seriously. At first, I was all in for the yoga pants that I have never had the blessing of slipping my buttocks into but now that I have, I never want to get out of them! The hardest part of working out is getting out the door. Now that I'm at the gym already for class, I just stay an extra twenty minutes at the end and in my new state of mind proceed to listen to my jams on the elliptical. Oh, second semester, I'm starting to love you. Also on my list that I won't delve too much into: wake up at a decent time (again, curable by yoga in that getting those precious three credits depends on my being at the gym by 8:45am) and keep my room clean and organized (thank the lord that we bunked our beds and what was my "own" half is now "our" whole floor space so I don't live guilt-free when I throw my clothes fro!)

Something I've discovered in my facebook cleanse. I feel so utterly and completely out of tune with the world. And, in my ponderings, I've come to realize how absolutely pathetic this is! How sad is it when you keep up with your friends by reading their facebook statuses? Not knowing what's going on in their life through actual communication, but looking at their pictures and reading about what they are up to??? I mean, seriously! How many of us wonder what our pals are up to and simply look at their profile instead of calling or texting them up? Sad! Tonight, in the revelation fury that was this finding, I texted three of my friends to be sure that they still existed and was genuinely interested to see what they had to say to me, not just to the world! It's a big one, this realization.

Well, I'm a talkaholic tonight so I'll just tell you that in editing and looking at these pictures and then going through my inspiration folder, I realized this is almost precisely Teika's post from a while back. OOPS! I'm so sorry, Tieka! Minus the white tights, pink scarf, and beanie, we basically have the same thing on. I got this dress in the summer and wore it once in the fall, but winterizing felt like such a necessity. Last time, I opted for dark tights, but I didn't like it. Going with white tights made me feel the "feminine" overly-girlie-dressed that I love to feel. White tights are my favorite. Oh, and I'm sad to say, these boots died yesterday. Officially. In walking back from class, I stepped in a puddle and the entire rubber sole came right off drenching my foot entirely. I am on the market for new ones!



Funny story about this cardigan: it's Niklaas' favorite. Seriously. Shhh! It's my precious sole cashmere item in my closet and I love wearing it because, well, he smiles all goofy-like and likes to (how do I put this without making him sound like a creep?) well, pet it! Sorry, there's just no other way to phrase that. But, it's cute anyways. Cashmere is also another one of those clothing-items-from-God along with yoga pants that I adore. This scarf has to be a favorite. It's so warm and cozy and makes me feel like I'm all wrapped up in a cozy sweater when I wear it!