currently: march

enjoying the sunny, green walks to and from my apartment.

taking time to play games and eat cake with my roommates.

practicing the ukulele.

thinking about applying for jobs in Paraguay, Minnesota or Colorado.

planning a wedding.

looking forward to a Murder Mystery Party with friends.

eating honey from a farmer's market in Ohio.

feeling overwhelmed by the never ending school-related tasks.

appreciating my roommates.

learning how to be a better friend.

collecting sticks to do this project.

praying the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi.

missing life at the Good Earth Farm.

thankful for honesty, friendship and family.

adventures in knitting.

Right before Christmas my friends and I decided to take up knitting and currently it's the only crafty sort of thing I have time for. The great thing about knitting is that it's portable, which means I can knit during class or chapel.  A couple of my teachers really don't mind if I knit in class-- I'm a kinesthetic learner so it works out well for me.  I also find the process soothing and relaxing.  My first knitting project was a scarf for Joshua.  I'd call it successful despite a few holes/dropped stitches at the beginning of the scarf.  What do you think?

 

I've kind of always thought that I could teach myself to make anything within the realm of crafty things.  Now, after entering the world of knitting, I'm thinking I should revise said thought to "within the realm of paper crafts and sewing." Knitting has proven to be a bit more difficult than I expected.  With some lovely yarn I received for Christmas I knitted scarf number 2, which turned out to be too wide.  Much, much too wide.  I unraveled it and realized that to get good at knitting I must keep trying.  Here's the unraveling of the super wide scarf:

Scarf number three, knit with wool yarn, turned out pretty well, though.  This one is for my sister, but I will admit that I wore it for three days straight before giving it to her.

Currently I am knitting a scarf for myself from the unraveled yarn of failed scarf number 2.  I decided to challenge myself a bit and learn a new stitch.  Scarf number four is my attempt at moss stitch, which is basically just alternating every stitch between knit stitch and purl stitch.  So in the world of knitting it's not really a challenge.  All my knitting knowledge comes from this site and knitting inspiration comes from soulemama.  I hope someday to be knitting sweaters in an hour like she does.  But for now, I will stick to scarves.

 p.s. I have used those large-ish wooden needles shown above in all four of my knitting projects.  They're great.

i have seven bridesmaids!

Since I love paper and craft projects,  I figured I might as well do something with paper to make asking my bridesmaids a little more creative.  I saw this idea for making a paper doll chain of bridesmaid here.  I had a free afternoon one day in January, so I started cutting away.  I didn't actually have paper long enough for all seven of my bridesmaids, so I made a chain of five and a chain of two and glued them together.  It wasn't perfect, but it worked.  I went to town cutting seven of each girl's hair and dresses in purple, grey and green.  Those aren't quite exactly my wedding colors and as of now I have no idea what my bridesmaids will actually be wearing, but these are just paper dolls.  The hair was my favorite.  It made it more fun that each of my bridesmaids have kind of distinct hair.

All of my bridesmaids are in Greenville so I asked them all in person.  I also didn't include many details about what they will wear/do because they all live close and we will be talking about it a lot in person over the next few months.  My four roommates all screamed when I asked them and everyone was excited.  I'm excited.  It's going to be great to have them participating in my wedding ceremony in a special way.  Josh and I believe that the wedding ceremony is a sacrament of the church. These seven girls are a part of my church community, so it only seems right to have them by my side as I participate in this sacrament and marry Josh.  Community is important to us and while Josh and I are the two getting married, we can't do this all on our own.  We need our community to support and helps us, give us a different perspective when we disagree, make us laugh and encourage us.

Well this post got a little more deep than I expected.  Anyway, here are some pictures of the finished product.

 

 

best thing ever.

Three weeks ago, on a Monday night, Joshua asked me to be with him forever.  And it's pretty much the best thing ever.  So here's how it happened:
(Warning:  this is the detailed version of the story, so grab a cup of coffee and stay a while.)

On Sunday we planned to scrapbook and hang out at our favorite porch swing spot on Monday night. We've been frequenting this porch swing ever since our freshman year.  Monday night comes and we enjoy a nice time of eating and working on our scrapbook.  Before heading over to the porch swing, Josh suggested we bring the ukulele so we could play some songs and sing together.  (Josh is teaching me how to play and I know two songs!)  I kind of complained about that idea because my hands would get too cold, but he told me to bring some gloves and I complied.  As we approached the swing, Josh bent down and plugged in a lamp that was placed next to the swing.  A couple of blankets were neatly covering the swing, as well.  At this moment my mind was racing and I thought maybe this would be the night that he was going to propose.  But then I reminded myself that he didn't have a ring. (We had gone ring shopping earlier and picked out a ring that Josh and I planned to go pick up on Wednesday.  But it was Monday night, so he couldn't have gotten the ring yet.)  All that was running through my mind in the split second between when Josh plugged in the light and when he said "I just thought it would be fun to do something nice for us."  That brought me back down to reality and we sat down.  I played the two songs I knew, with Josh singing along.  It was really fun.  Little did I know that the evening would get even more fun!  Then I handed Josh the ukulele and asked him to play a song for me.  Josh said he'd play a song that he wrote for me.  He's written me a few songs in the past, so I was confused when I didn't recognize the song.  But it was all about us, about how we met and grew to love each other.  And then Josh got down on his knee, opened up a little box and asked me to marry him.  I was so giggly and excited, but confused about how he had the ring.  And then I looked and saw it was a little ring made from twine.  It was adorable.  I continued to giggle and smile and hug Josh and at some point I told him "yes."  I had told Josh when we went ring shopping that I still wanted the proposal to be a surprise.  Well, he definitely surprised me and it was perfect.  After playing the song for me once more and calling our families, we went back to celebrate with our friends.  On Wednesday we went to pick up the ring and that too was perfect.

I am overjoyed that I get to journey through this crazy life with you, Josh. 

*Engagement photos by my dear friend Allison of Allison Jean Photo.  More coming soon!

the 2011 list

this year I:

spent a semester living, studying and exploring in Latin America

gained three new, loving and wonderful host families (two in Costa Rica and one in Nicaragua)

ate SO much (almost always delicious) food

instantly made new friends

skyped Joshua a whole lot

wrote hundreds of emails to friends and family

visited an organic farm in Costa Rica

made it my goal to become a farmer

decided to write in my journal every single day

failed to write everyday (but, nevertheless, did a lot of journaling)

gave passage meditation a try

became familiar with the bus system in San Jose

developed an addiction to a love for black coffee

spoke Spanish daily

lost a fair amount of my Spanish speaking ability  (I hope to regain it again!)

saw a volcanoe

swam in a river and played on the muddy bank for five hours with my Nicaraguan friends

threw up on the side of the road in San Jose

ran sprints in my front yard

celebrated Chinese New Year with a huge feast, family and friends

studied the history, economics, culture, politics and literature of Latin America

dyed Easter eggs with my host mom

helped out in first grade class full of curious, sweet little Ticos

learned to be bold

ate a lot of meat

learned to be a non-snobby vegetarian

prayed

re-read Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

learned how to handle feeling lonely and to rely on the people around me for comfort

sucked the marrow out of life

felt bored

ran

drank fresh fruit smoothies made by my abuelita

sang "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" with my Costa Rican school kids.

blogged

sat on the porch

did a lot of homework

went to a art and culture festival

wrote a paper about sustainable agriculture

packed

unpacked

spent a week in Cuba

ate 5 ice cream cones in one night  dream come true

celebrated Easter in the ocean

reflected, processed and wrote in my journal

had a debriefing weekend in Miami

cherished my last moments with my LASP friends

expanded my understanding of what it means to be a Christian

came home

hugged my parents

watched my sister play soccer

painted many a dorm room

listened to Narnia and Harry Potter audiobooks with Wes

readjusted

wandered the streets of seven different Italian cities

developed deeper friendships

worked on my quilt

hiked, biked and ate good food in Crested Butte, Colorado with my family.

took a couple summer classes

hung out with Josh and his family  in Seattle

worked in various gardens (mine, Josh's and St. Paul's)

played soccer

ran at very early hours of the day with Jamie Hoag

reunited with my college friends

 struggled with my own negativity

experience reverse culture shock

walked in the gullies

hung out with Allison in Texas

longed to be in Costa Rica

loved being back at Greenville College with friends all about and family nearby

felt overwhelmed by classes

tutored a Chinese student in English

participated in Wednesday night community meal

enjoyed many "coffee dates" with a multitude of wonderful friends

spent hours talking with Kelly, Niqui, Caitlin and Erica in our cozy (sometimes messy) apartment

played the ritual Christmas Block Game with my cousins

celebrated Christ's birth at St. Paul's and with my family


*I got this idea from elise's blog. While this is not a complete list of everything I did in 2011, it was a nice, reflective process to write down many of the ways I spent my time this past year.  And I know it's a little bit late since we're a good month into 2012...oh well : )

holiday times.

 

Wow.  It's been a while since I've visited this good ol' blog of mine.  The semester flew by (I hope to recap a bit on that later) and now it is nearly Christmas.  The semester wound down with a wonderful Greek dinner and fun times with friends.  Being busy, busy seniors, most of our time together is spent with our heads in our textbooks and our fingers typing away on our laptops. It was nice to spend our last days together before break playing games, making food and watching movies.  Today, my first full day of break was spent painting, baking and celebrating the winter solstice.   It's been wonderful and I look forward to spending time with family over this holiday break.

p.s. more to come on handmade holiday things soon.

pumpkin nutella swirl bread

A couple weeks ago, Josh and I baked some delicious pumpkin nutella bread and muffins.  

I found this recipe on pinterest:

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour  (We used 1 cup white flour and 3/4 cup of wheat flour to make it a bit healthier.)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 tablespoon cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons nutmeg
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
1/3 cup water
1 cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
8 tablespoons Nutella (2 tablespoons per mini loaf) ***see note below

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray 4 mini loaf pans with cooking spray. Set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, oil, water, pumpkin, eggs, and extracts. Whisk until smooth and combined.
4. Slowly stir in the flour mixture. Mix until ingredients are combined.
5. Pour the batter into the mini loaf pans, making sure batter is evenly divided. Drop 2 heaping tablespoons of Nutella onto each loaf pan. Swirl the Nutella into the pumpkin batter with a knife. Place the loaf pans onto a baking sheet and place in the oven. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
6. Place the loaf pans on a wire rack. Cool for 15 minutes in the pan and then carefully remove the loaves. Cool completely before slicing.

*Note-You can make regular size loaves. This recipe should make 2 8×4 loaves. Adjust baking time to about 60 minutes.  You can also make muffins, but I am not sure how many you will get from a full recipe since I did some mini loaves and some muffins.  For muffins cook between 15-20 minutes.  I also recommend doing additional nutella in the middle of you muffins or loaves.  Just fill the pan half way and swirl in some nutella just like the recipe calls for on top.


Happy Fall!