merry christmas!

from me and the gang. I've spent my Christmas eating great food, receiving and giving gifts, and watching Love Actually with my mom. More Christmas movies to follow, currently The Muppets Christmas Carol, later the Doctor Who Christmas Special. And I can justify all of this television, because after all, Christmas is all around.

hope that your Christmas is warm and lovely. tell me all about it!

Happy Pi Day!

(And here you were, thinking that I forgot.)

like I could ever forget about PI day.

I've been too busy celebrating.
(and you know, drinking too much tea, watching the Goonies, packing for Paris, doing homework, cleaning my room, and everything else that I always seem to be doing.)

Have a slice of pie on me.
:)

not a creature was stirring...

except for David, the mouse. because he jumped out of his bucket last night and is now probably scurrying around under the floor somewhere.

Lets back up, shall we?

two days ago, a sad little squeaking was heard. a tiny little mouse (maybe it was average sized for a mouse, but I really wouldn't know.) got stuck on a glue trap. I guess the glue trap was doing its job, because that mouse was really stuck on there. :(

thank goodness for the internet. vegetable oil and a little bit of gentle pulling got the mouse of the glue trap, and then I put the mouse in a bucket with a dish towel and some bread and some cheerios and a hot water bottle. Couldn't let the poor little mouse out into the wild while he was covered in vegetable oil, now could I?

Well, that was my reasoning anyway. Keep him (as it was decidedly a he.) until he was dry, then put him into the garage. He was a smart mouse, and would be able to find his way in and out of there as he pleased. So a day passed. and he was still a little bit oily looking. and then it was Christmas Eve, and I couldn't really leave a tiny little mouse outside on Christmas Eve, right? So I kept him another night.

And so, this morning when I went to change his water bottle, he was gone. If he is strong enough to manage to find a way out of a bucket, I suppose that he has recovered well from his adventure with the glue trap. Hopefully he will scamper away and tell all of his friends that they really should avoid those things, because they are a terrible hassle. And then once you get stuck on one, you have a terrible encounter with a giant who will put you in a big plastic prison.

If you love something, you have to learn to let it go. But if it doesn't love you, it will crawl out of the bucket you put it into and run away as soon as it has strength enough to do so.

Merry Christmas!

Pretty happy things

The above is hanging on my front door. The above is also handmade. The directions for the above are listed below.

1. Get a wreath form.
2. Tie greens to wreath form.
3. Tie ornaments onto wreath.
4. Tie pine cones onto wreath.
5. Spraypaint an artichoke gold and tie that on too.
6. Get a big bow and put it on top.
7. Hang it, enjoy it, blog about it.

Get it? Got it? Good.
(Don't get it? I wouldn't have gotten that either.)

1.
Wreath forms are all over the place. Find one at a hardware store or craft store.

2.
Get greens! If you live near a park, go for a walk. (the fresh air will do you well.) take a pair of clippers. take pretty branches. (on second thought, you might want to check to see if you can do that. I don't want to be advocating deforestation.)
Wire the branches to the wreath form. (Thin green wire works best, as it blends into the leaves like a ninja.) make sure that there are plenty of branches, or the wreath will look wimpy.
The back of my wreath looks like this. Yours doesn't have to be neat, so long as it gets the job done.

Alternately, you could buy an undecorated wreath. (But that is not nearly as exciting.)

3.
Get ornaments!
Want to showcase a special ornament? Wire it on and the mail person and your neighbors will appreciate it every single day! Otherwise, just find some cheap ornaments. The ones used on this wreath came glittered, but you could glitter them yourself.

If you want to do this, I'd get a piece of floral foam, a skewer, an ornament, and a lot of glitter. (don't forget to put newspaper down first!) Shove your skewer into the floral foam, put the ornament onto the skewer, drown the ornament in glue, cover the ornament in glitter, wait for it to dry, and cover it in sealant.

But before going through all that trouble, I'd go the the dollar store and see what they have there. It will save you a lot of time.
Wire the ornaments to the wreath.

Try to vary the sizes of the ornaments that you use, and remember to use ornaments that will not break! :)


4.
Get some pine cones.

You can pick them up while you are on your deforestation walk, or you could pick them up at a craft store.
Paint them if you want. Brushing on a little bit of white paint will make them look like they are snow covered! (If you want to go all out with the snow covered idea, try sprinkling the wet paint with sugar crystals or glitter. When it dries, it should have a little bit of texture.)
Wire them to the wreath.

5.
Get a dried artichoke. Get gold paint. (or spray paint)
use gold paint on dried artichoke.
wire it to your wreath.


6.
Get a long piece of thick ribbon and tie a fancy bow. If you don't know how to tie a bow, look on the internet. If you can't find a tutorial on the internet, you are not looking hard enough.

You could also just buy a premade bow.

Wire it to the wreath. If you have a spot on your wreath that doesn't have as much greenery as the others, I'd suggest this as a place for the bow to go.

7.
Make a loop out of sturdy wire and attach that to your wreath form.

Hang it. Enjoy it. :)

Phew! thats a lot of writing! Hope it all made sense, if you have any questions please post them in the comments section.

5 days

of break.
and now I am on my last one.

Its been a little too long. But not in a bad way. Just in the way that I have had absolutely nothing to do for the past three days. :-|

---

My mom spent a lot of time in the kitchen, cooking and listening to the De-Lovely soundtrack.
My dad spent a lot of time reading, napping, and going on walks.
My brother came home from college, but spent most of his time home hanging out with his friends.
And as for me: I spent a lot of time doing a lot of things.

---

I cleaned my room. I let my room get messy. I cleaned my room. I let it get messy. I cleaned it again.

I bought some new movies (The Princess Bride, Across the Universe, and The Patriot) some used books, and a very comfy flannel shirt.

I was trusted with electric hedge clippers and I managed to not cause grievous bodily harm to anybody. I took the opportunity to wear my flannel shirt, and I whistled the lumberjack song while I worked.

I watched the same couple of television stations and listened to the same sort of music as I always do. (National Geographic, Disney, Cartoon Network, etc., and Bob Dylan, Ludo, and more Bob Dylan.)

I tried to organize and alphabetize my Dad's CD collection. Then I remembered that I don't know my alphabet and I gave up.

I finally organized my camera. and loaded everything onto my computer. and deleted everything off of my camera.

I made some jewelry. And then I wore some of it.

In short, I just sat around the house and did nothing of great significance.

but I did remember to be thankful. and I hope that you did too.

In the past week:

I've walked a dog, went for a run, watched unnatural amounts of the Disney Channel, babysat, ate more cookies, made double layer jello, read some books, forgot to blog, attempted to clean my room, ate a box of popsicles, forgot to blog, bought things to put into fantastical care packages, slept.

So, why haven't I been blogging?
Answer: I forgot entirely. When I remembered, I felt bad about forgetting, and promptly forgot again.

Here's to hoping that I don't forget again.

What I'm up to now: preparing for the fourth of July party, blogging, feeling content, not really doing much of anything.

---

What I've done since I created this blog post, saved it as a draft, and went to explore the greater world around me: Went to Hoboken, did not see an emergency relating to an oversized chicken, bought lemonade from an adorable boy on the sidewalk, saw family, felt tall, saw more family, felt short, played with five year olds, watched the Disney Channel, ate some food, walked around Hoboken, saw the house my Grandpa was raised in, saw some fireworks, rode in a car, and multi-tasked and watched fireworks while riding in a car.

I've driven through Hoboken before, but I don't think I've ever actually been there. I was excited about expanding my horizons. Sometimes, I like to think about what life would be like for me if some details were changed. Today, I explored the idea of being raised in Hoboken. I can't say that I disliked the idea. But, I can (and will!) say, that I am entirely content with being raised where I was raised, and I wouldn't trade it for the world. :)

My fathers family always gets together for the Fourth. My Aunt and Uncle own a lakeside house, and we alway go to it. This year, we went to Hoboken instead. Half of my family is shortish. There are several outliers. These outliers could step on me.

The good thing about driving on the fourth of July is that you get to watch tiny pieces of firework shows. You get to see the smallest explosions, and the biggest explosions, and every color of the spectrum. At night, as you lie in bed, thinking about your day, you get to take the memories of fireworks, and mend them together. You get to create an entirely unique light show. You get personal fireworks.

Today was my Grandma's birthday. Because it fell on the fourth of July, we always had big parties. It has always been, and will always be, one of the high points of my summer. ♥