A Pinteresting Piece You've Got There

One of these days I'm going to run out of Pinterest puns, and then where will we be.

Doesn't this wall look super empty? Well I've been wanting to fill it for a while. I've had several ideas but they're all waiting on other things to happen first. And I got tired of waiting.

I picked up a bunch of pieces of this super thick cardboard from the scene shop at the school before I graduated. They were just going to throw them away! Steven has been bugging me to use them up, and I'd seen this idea on Pinterest, and I had to stay home from church today with a sore throat, so I got started.

I used masking tape to make a sort of freestyle chevron pattern. I didn't want it to be perfect. Then I found some awesome ugly* blue paint and went to town. I experimented a little bit with whether I was going to paint where the masking tape had been or not, and whether to paint one stripe different, and I ended up with this.

I'm no photographer, so it looks better in real life. Also I like the bottom edge raggedy like it is. It's really just a filler until I make something even cooler. Our apartment is really cool in that you can kinda do whatever you want to the walls, so I put two nails in and then kinda just smacked the cardboard onto the nail heads.

*I have this weird fascination/obsession with colors I think are ugly. One might argue that I must not actually think that they're ugly. But I think you can find something ugly and cute at the same time. Pug dogs for example. Baby monkeys. This strange vintage fetish that everyone seems to have caught like a plague. Well I caught it too, but I can still say most of it is as ugly as heck. Yet awesome.

There is No Fear, Only Excitement in Disguise

So there's this little thing that I'm keeping a secret from my husband. Why am I blogging about it? Because it's safe here. My husband never reads my blog! Anyway I did something a little crazy today. I donated plasma! And everything went just fine! My mouth felt a little cold, and my lips tingled, but I made my way home fine. Why is this such a big deal?

The first time I donated plasma I felt fine. They told me I should sit down for a minute, so I did, but then I felt fine to walk the six or so blocks home. I had to run a little to get across a street, and then I had to walk up a hill. Still feeling fine. I was still a decent distance from my dorm when someone stopped me and asked me what my last name was. I turned around and saw a missionary that had served in my area back home! He was off his mission and going to school. We caught up for a little bit, and then he said he had to leave. That's when I noticed I was feeling a little funny, so I asked him if he would just make sure I made it home all right. I hit the ground two steps later. He had to half carry half drag me the rest of the way to my dorm. Uphill. Leaving his bike where we had stopped to talk. It sucked. Looking back I'm really surprised that no one else stopped to help us. 

 

Anyway almost every time after that I've gotten a little lightheaded after donating, and twice I've gotten really sick. I've been deferred a few times because of bruising. I can only donate with my right arm so there's always the risk that they won't be able to return my blood to me. Why would I go back? Well Steven has been feeling a little bad because he has a full time job that he LOATHES, while it seems like I just sit around. I haven't been able to find a full time job, but I do have a part time job that's kinda cushy. And then there's my problem with wanting to buy lots of clothes and expensive food. So I wanted to bring a little more money in. But I didn't want to make a big deal about it in case it didn't work out.

BUT IT DID WORK OUT!!! I super prepped. I drank TONS of water, worked out and ate a high protein meal, took Arnica 200c to help ease the trauma to the venipuncture site, Pod and Poc-ed my way through all of the scary memories that came up, and ran Reiki the whole time. 

Yet this is what really stunned me. Instead of being afraid, I found that I was really excited. Like smiley excited. Like pulling faces in the bathroom mirror after... ahem... preparing my urine sample. Like practically bouncing onto the donor floor. And that's when it hit me. It's really true what they say, that fear doesn't exist. That what we call fear is actually EXCITEMENT in disguise. Think about it! It makes so much sense! It's what keeps us from following our dreams. We think we're scared, but we're really just so excited that we can't even contain it and our brains cross wires and it presents itself as fear. So do you think you're scared of, but you're actually ecstatically excited for?

A Freedom Space

Steven has been working some interesting hours in Idaho Falls. Although he mostly works from 2-11, on Tuesdays and Wednesdays he's been working more in the middle of the day. So I decided to start going with him and working for my mom from the library. And I just have to say that the Idaho Falls library is BOSS. There's a flipping fish pond INSIDE. So I found a little nook that nobody's ever in (which is strange because it's really not that little, there's two big tables and seven chairs) and set up my little office. It's great because I don't have the temptation of the Xbox, or the temptation of my refrigerator. Unfortunately, with the car, I have the temptations of shopping and fast food, especially since I have to go move my car every two hours anyway. But during those two hours I often get a lot of work done! Next week I'm thinking that I'll visit the museums in town when I move my car.

So about work... GO CHECK OUT MY MOM'S WEBSITE! I uploaded a new and better video for the front page, I have all the links to Facebook and Twitter and the like working, and there's a section to show what is new!

Summer Bucket List

A while ago I realized that my husband can't be my end all. I still have to have friends to do stuff with, especially since he doesn't like doing lots of stuff with me. Unfortunately, despite all the things to do in Rexburg this time of year, I haven't really had the chance to do any of them, and everyone is either leaving town or having a baby, so I don't have anyone to go on adventures with me! So here's the list of things that I hope will show up in the next three months:

1. Swimming at Rigby Lake 

2. FLOATING (Please PLEASE someone take me floating!!!)

3. Spelunking in the ice caves

4. Going to a movie at the drive-in

5. Visit Yellowstone for the first time

6. Go to the sand dunes

7. Visit Mesa Falls again

8. Go to Big Jud's (at least this one is baby friendly)

So, you know, if anyone wants to help me with this, that would be, you know, great. ;) This list is subject to growth as I think of more things I really want to do...

Pinter-esque Magnet Board

Since my first day on Pinterest I've seen these cute magnet boards for all kind of different things like calendars, menus, etc. Well I need a lot more space on a calendar, and I don't really cook a lot, so I didn't think much of the magnet board fad until I saw an idea for a makeup magnet board. I didn't want to buy all the "ingredients" used by the tutorial, so the idea had to germinate for a while until I found these babies out in the hall.

Finally, the perfect magnet board! If you've talked to me for more than five minutes I've probably mentioned Dressing Your Truth and how I'm a T3. Well when you order things from the store, they come packed in tissue paper that's your type. Since I'm a little addicted to everything T3 and ordering things online, I have a nice little stack of these.

I'm not much of one for following directions on tutorials if I already know what I'm doing, so I just grabbed my tools and went to town.

 Decoupaging is super simple. You just paint the backside of your paper with watered down glue and attach it to your object. Then you paint over it to seal it.

I felt like my trays needed some definition so I painted the edges. Totally tacky-trashy chic right?

Although my original plan had been to use both boards, I decided to just use the square one for now. I hot glued a piece of braided jute to the back of the board to serve as a hanger. Then I hot glued magnets to the backs of most of my makeup and stuck 'em on. The only good place to hang it in my bathroom was right over the outlet, but I rarely use it anyway.

I'm super happy with it. It doesn't look super spectacular in this picture, but n real life it's pretty sweet. I keep my brushes and mascara and eyeliner in a little vase on the counter, where my compacts didn't fit. My limited counter and drawer space makes this a really optimal, and awesomely T3 solution!

Still Alive

I know I haven't blogged in a while, and there are a lot of good reasons for that.

First: I didn't really realize anyone would notice. Apparently more people read my blog than I knew... :D

Second: I'm really struggling with the whole purpose of this blog. And there's the part where everyone else's blogs have pictures, and I'm struggling to make photography more a part of my every day. It's hard for me to post this now knowing that I have no pictures for it.

Third: I'VE BEEN BUSY AS HECK. I was finishing up some work I had been doing for my senior project and still wanted to help with as a resume booster. Then almost the second that was done I was off to Texas for ten days for a family reunion and working for my mom. Where I didn't take any pictures.

So I promise to repent and blog more frequently. I actually have about 7 drafts for blogs that just need finished up with pictures that either I need to take or am waiting for from other people, or I need to finish a project and then photograph it.