Craft is part of the creative process.

Last night my friends, Mollie and Sarah, and I had a sleepover at Sarah's house.  It was way fun :)  We did the traditional pizza, junk food, and movie thing, but we also decided to try some crafts.  I got the idea from Princess Lastertron, who makes beautiful felt and button flower bouquets for brides.  We used directions from Whipup.  And (drumroll please) here are our results!:

I'm On a Horse

As an Advertising major, I really admired this commercial by Old Spice. If you've been near a computer or television since the Super Bowl, you've probably seen it, laughed your head off, and decided to switch to Old Spice body wash in the process. In case you haven't seen it, here's a refresher:



BYU, the school I attend, just put out a brilliant spoof of this commercial, advertising good ol' Harold B. Lee Library. Enjoy!!

Mika and the Monster

My good friend, old roommate, and almost twin (we were born on the same day/year but to different parents), Mika, and I started a band together. We named it "Mika and the Monster" (she's Mika... I'm the monster :P). We've only done covers so far and random acoustic nights. We finally got around to recording one of those covers recently, though, so I decided to share it with you readers! We didn't record a music video so I put a quick one together just so it would be more interesting to watch (although I feel totally full of myself haha). When we get really famous, I'm sure we'll do a better/more professional one that shows more than my face x 4. Here is the first cover we ever did, of The Cranberries song "You and Me."

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

My family had so much fun today!  My dad decided he really wanted to go to a driving range and just hit golf balls; the family was to be included, of course.  Let me make this clear: none of us are golfers.  My 10-year old sister had golfing lessons one summer and that's about the extent of our skill.  However, we have some random sets of golf clubs that we got from who-knows-where and so we loaded those in the back of our van and set off for our local driving range/batting cage/mini-golf place.  We arrived, bought a couple of buckets of balls, and had at it.  I would like to tell you that I'm a natural golfer but I am HORRIBLE... so that would be a lie haha.  That's okay, though!  My dad told us that we were not allowed to criticize or show off.  We were just to hit as many golf balls as hard as we could.  I'm sure the middle-aged men already there gave us a few weird looks.  We were quite the collection of ages, outfits, and skill-levels.  We were noisy.  We stayed for awhile.  And we had so much fun!  I think I almost got it to the 100-yard mark once.  My brother, Adams, on the other hand, hit it so far it landed beyond the 200-yard and bounced further than that.  Yet, despite my lack of golfing skill, I found myself laughing and just attacking that ball with an enthusiasm and gusto that surprised me.

We decided that we needed to stay and try out some of the other fun activities, so my dad bought a few tickets for the batting cages.  I was actually pretty good at this!  My dad told me I might have missed my calling in life because I was whacking those fake baseballs all over the place.  (My theory?  It's all because of my tennis swing, which I wouldn't have developed if I tried softball instead.  And I love tennis about a kajillion times more than softball, so phooey.  But I still thought the batting cages great fun!)  After that, we had a family wide mini-golf tournament.  Favorite moment?  N'Krysta hit the last shot (the easy hole-in-one set up like a funnel) into the bar of the net surrounding the hole, by accident, thus popping the golf ball up and over and far far away.  You had to be there.  My dad creamed the competition, with 2-under par.  I think I came in second to last.  But again, it didn't matter!  I just had fun hanging out with my family and trying new things :)

Major Leagues?  I think so.

America the Beautiful

Jacob (my oldest brother), Suzie (his wife), and I (me/myself) drove from Provo, Utah to Connecticut.  Conclusion?  I love road trips!

It was such an amazing experience to drive across our diverse country.  We saw beautiful trees, plains, rivers, mountains, cities, people, etc. etc.  I highly recommend the experience to everyone who can stand hours and hours in a car.  I'm pretty fortunate; I don't suffer from car sickness, so I got to read books, listen to music, talk, drive, sleep, etc. without any problems except some leg cramping and butt sleeping haha :P  Driving across these states, though, helped forge a tie between me and our country.  It sounds cheesy, but I really do feel more connected to America. 

 The view from our Colorado resort.

Sunset from our Missouri resort.

King Jacob and Queen Suzie are so cute.

Princess McKenna and her new princess friend (Suzie's niece) had craft-y fun.

I'm home in Connecticut now and it has been just plain nice.  I love the sense of belonging that comes from being home.  I love the familiarity of the trees, the humidity, the house, the people, the customs, etc.  I have been changed from living in Provo for two years now; however, at my heart, I am still an East Coast girl.

More updates on my awesome summer to come!

Gooooooooal!!!

I love the World Cup. Seriously.



I've loved cheering the USA team on.  I'm so psyched that they came out first at the top of their division. Not so psyched that we got knocked out right after that.  But there is something special about sitting and cheering with family/friends for united cause.  And those players are just so darn good!  As a soccer girl, I basically watch every game in a permanent freak-out mode because even the bad players are really talented.  Oh, and the good players!  Sigh.... they basically cause me to melt into a little puddle on the floor.  And I'm not even talking about looks (though, as far as looks go, soccer boys are by FAR my favorite!  It has NOT been hard to watch World Cup haha :P)

My favorite player?  Kaká.  Read about him.  He's a Brazilian player, who is a pretty awesome guy on and off the field.

I found this quote and I thought it summed up my feelings pretty well: "Soccer is the ballet of the masses."  Passionate, beautiful, and powerful.  Done.

Hellllooooooooo!!!!

I'm back!  (Think that in an Arnold-Terminator voice, please and thank you!)

After months of blogging inactivity, I've decided to try again :)  I'm in the middle of updating my blog's look (which is not easy when you're.... well, ME haha!) and decided to take a break to reassure all of my avid readers (:P) that I am alive, kicking (it IS World Cup season after all), and itching to write about life!

Just FYI-- I'm still in Provo.  However, I'm going to drive (yes, you heard me right) back to Connecticut this Friday.

Stay tuned for updates :)

Nicole and I at BYU's Annual Hunger Banquet.

Roller-skating with some friends.

I'm basically a pro.

With some cute roommates at the annual Hare Krishna Color Festival.

It's called the Color Festival for a reason!

Easter egg hunt in our apartment!

Intramural soccer team :)

Going to a camo party.

They had a climbing wall there.  I climbed it.  No biggie :)

Going to the kick-off party for the new Suburbia exhibit at BYU's Museum of Art (aka the MOA).

I made cupcakes for David's 24th birthday.

Which we subsequently snuck into the movie theater (at the midnight premiere of Iron Man 2) to celebrate!  We know how to party :P

Nicole graduated!!

And we ran into some old friends.

Jefferson came to visit-- we went to karaoke, concerts, soccer games, had game nights, watched movies, and ate lots of food :D

Mika and I started a band!  Music to come soon :)