Busy weekend and upcoming crafty week (Amanda's old blog)

My graduation weekend was busy busy busy! But I don't have any photos back from my parents yet, so I'm gonna go ahead and save that for another entry. I do have one photo, however. And that is of the lovely roses my mom brought me:


When I was in high school, I composed a string duet, then we played it at an orchestra concert at school. My mom bought me some of the most lovely salmon-colored roses. Ever since it has been her goal to find a similar color. These are really really close. And anyway, they're lovely in their own right.

Alright. So. What crafts am I up to this week? A lot. Most of them have to do with Val's wedding or bridal shower. Today I'm going to show you the button crafts. I'm reserving paper crafts for later in the week.

Firstly I want to show you a project I've been working on for a while. A few months ago, Val and I were talking about bouquet options, and we decided it might be fun if we make a button bouquet (a la Princess Lasertron) for the rehearsal. Shortly thereafter, my mom started collecting buttons en masse, and she set aside a baggy full of green and blue buttons for Val's bouquet (green and blue are Val's wedding colors). Well, I've been working on it for a while - it still needs to be cleaned up a bit, and I still might add a few more flowers, but here are some photos of what I have so far:


Most of them are pretty quirky looking


There are a lot lower down on the stems, as well. Sort of like leaves.


Trying to show you as many as I can at once. Not really working that well. That one on the left with four layers is my absolute favorite.


Everyone who sees the bouquet is immediately drawn to this rose button. Unfortunately, it flops over. I need to fix that somehow.


It's a fun little project. We still don't know if Val is going to make white felt flowers to put them in with, or if I'll just buy some white fresh flowers and arrange them that way. We'll see. We've got a month to figure it out, and it's sort of a tiny detail... since it's just for the rehearsal. It's mostly a fun project to keep me busy.

I have another button craft that's a bit more urgent. Val has her outfit for the bridal shower this weekend all worked out, but she's missing a necklace. She said she needs a bright red necklace with big, chunky beads. I suggested buttons instead. So I went to the antique shop and bought some! This weekend I'll grab some more from my mom's stash and mix them in. Val found a Martha Stewart pattern for button necklaces, I'm going to use it as a reference.

I went to the craft store and got some red thread on clearance. I'll double or triple it up for the necklace so it's strong. I forgot to check the website before I left for the store, and now I see that there is such a thing as 'beading string.' I'll look into it. In the meantime, I have some very pretty red thread that I got super cheap! The antique shop was having a sale, too. I'm such a good little shopper!


Everything all lined up.


Some of the buttons have some very cool patterns. I'm pretty excited for how this necklace will turn out.

So, those are my button crafts this week. I'm also working on a block print for Val, but I didn't get any pictures of it today. I'll take some pictures when it's farther along and do a paper crafts entry. Unfortunately, since some of my crafts have to do with Val's bridal shower, and Val reads this blog, I kind of have to wait until next week to show them to you.

But for now, I'll tease Val a bit by posting a teaser photo:


Ooooh, what could it be? Curiosity!


See you in a few days with a graduation update. I hope you're having a lovely week!

A Quick Project (Amanda's old blog)

I had a long day on campus today - I had my hardest exam at 8AM (genetics!) and then my neuro exam in the afternoon, which had enough content to count as 2 exams on its own. I spent the time in between on campus, studying.

So, this evening I had a bit of a studying break. My last exam is on Thursday at 8AM. So I did some cleaning, trimmed the rats' claws, and took a much-needed nap. And I also did one quick craft!

I don't remember where I got the idea. I just remember that at my mom's graduation, people decorated the tops of their caps with their initials so their parents could find them, or they put something pertaining to their area of study. So I thought it would be fun to put a brain on my cap. I decided a white-out pen was probably the best material.

It took probably less than an hour to do. I just jumped online, did a google image search for 'brain' and found the least complicated image (no shadows or labels). I used some trace paper and a soft pencil to transfer the image onto my graduation cap, and then went over it with the white-out pen and VOILA!


Now my parents will be able to find me in the crowd!

Obviously, there will be a tassel over it, but it still looks pretty cool, even with the tassel.


Just a few more days, and then I'll have a bachelor's degree! After that, I've got a long to-do list for this blog. Lots of crafts coming up. I'm really excited to share them with you guys. I hope you're pumped!

Back to studying so I can rock the socks off my last ever final exam in undergrad!

Hair Trial (Amanda's old blog)

Ok so I lied. It turns out that blogging is a really nice way to take a break from studying. So is playing with my hair, apparently.

I've been working on growing my hair out for a while now. I try to do this about once a year, and I usually give up after a certain point and get it cut again. But this time I had a good reason: weddings. I'm going to three weddings this summer, and they're all weddings that I feel pretty close to. One is my stepsister, so obviously that's a big deal. Another is my roommates - so I've been around for a fair bit of the planning process for that. And the last one is my best friend, and I'm the maid of honor. So I want to look nice for all of them. Which means a couple of things, mainly I've been trying to work out, and like I said, I've been growing out my hair.

But there's a problem. I haven't had long hair since I was a kid. And I was a bit of a tomboy growing up. So I don't really know anything about doing hair. So, it's time to experiment.

Now that my hair is reaching shoulder length, I'm noticing it has a bit of a curl to it. So I thought it would be fun to experiment with a curling iron. I kept putting off buying one for myself - for fear that it wouldn't work out. Then, it turned out that my roommate Stacy has one! Enter, the hair trial:

Brandon looked up an instructional video online explaining how to use curling irons. It turns out, if you want the curls to stay for more than five minutes, you have to use hair gel and hairspray. I have neither of those things. So this was a temporary trial.

Before pictures:


So, this is my hair after I slept on it. To be honest, this isn't really a bad hair day. I would consider this 'viable.'



From the side. See how it has some natural curl to it?


And then silly faces started. It's inevitable.


The funniest part of all did not end up on camera, unfortunately. The online tutorial said to section my hair and use clips to hold the sections in place. Well... I don't own hair clips. So we went to the kitchen and used chip clips. We have a ton of them, so it worked nicely. But looked HILARIOUS. Sorry we didn't get any pictures.

But we did get action shots of the actual curling, thanks to Brandon and his wonderful photography skills. My new nickname for him is my 'blogtographer.'


Action shot!


Check out those luxurious curls.

I really have to give some credit to Stacy. She came in halfway through and showed me what I was doing wrong. It helped a LOT.


This is a really good picture of me. Even if the majority of it is bathroom wall.


A view of the back. I had a hard time with the back, it turned out pretty flat. I'm gonna have to work on that.


I really like this picture of me. I might use it for my Facebook profile.


Ok, the finished product:




For some reason, the left side of my head has curlier hair than the right side. Even in the before photos.


The back was sort of a failure. I definitely need to work on that.


So this was more or less a success. My hair looks much better this way than if I just blowdry it and brush it. The nice part was, Even when I brushed the curls out, it still had body and a bit of wave to it.

So I think I'm going to do this for my graduation next week. I went to the drug store when I dropped Brandon off at work and got some gel and hairspray. I'm pretty pumped about it!



Okay, back to studying. This was just a quick break.

Overview of this week (Amanda's old blog)

It's been crazy, guys. Absolutely crazy.

Next week is finals. So, this week I was getting in all my last papers and presentations and assignments. It's all over now - all that's left is studying for finals. Just one more week. I can make it... I hope.

But schoolwork isn't what made this week crazy. I'll spare you the details and just give you the list in bullet-point form:
-I got a flat tire, wasted about an hour trying to change it myself before realizing the car jack we were using was too short, and had to call AAA.
-My computer crashed in the middle of writing a paper. Good thing I'm a compulsive saver.
-My rat Kashyyyk had an issue with his eye and I had to take him to the vet. He has a prescription now - it's actually quite adorable.
-I busted my back somehow. Don't ask me how, I have no idea. But I've been sitting on my roommate's heating pad for about two days now, and it's still bothering me.

On top of it all, I've been having strangely insatiable ice cream cravings all week. Brandon and I have gone out for ice cream three times this week. That's excessive. I think it's stress. I'm cutting myself off. I mean, I might just go on ice cream probation for about a month. Three times in a week is too much. The worst part? It's a SPECIFIC craving, for an ice cream shop all the way out on Gull road. So it's been a time consuming endeavor every time. I get like this during finals, though. I give into cravings more easily.


Anyway, that was this week. No crafting, whatsoever. And definitely none next week. But! It's my last finals week of undergrad, ever. A week from tomorrow, I will be accepting my degree. Get pumped, people. This is the good stuff.


I promise I'll be back after next week! And hopefully my back will be fixed.

A short break (Amanda's old blog)

I'm coming up on finals week. It's definitely crunch time, and it's my last finals week in undergrad ever! After next week, I will have a Bachelor's degree. I'm pretty pumped for it.

In any case, I certainly do not have time for crafting right now. So I'm apologizing ahead of time. There probably won't be any posts until after next week. My graduation day is the 25th. So, after that weekend, I will be back in the crafting groove!

Here's a little nostalgia to tide you over. This is me a little over a year ago, when I had short hair:

... Rolling around on the carpet, laughing. At what? Not sure.



I'll see you in two weeks.

An emotionally charged day (Amanda's old blog)

So, Giselle came back. Right when we started to be proactive about finding her, she just trots right back up to the porch.

Eric and Hal were standing on the driveway, talking, when they heard a mewing across the street. Giselle just kinda came back home. We have no idea where she was. Stacy and I promptly drove to the pet store and got her a tag.


Sooooo that's over. How strange... Why would a cat just go on a 3-day vacation?

Giselle is Missing (Amanda's old blog)

Remember that photo I posted a while ago of my roommate's cat, Giselle? Well, I let her out around 11AM on Friday, and she hasn't come back. Stacy and I spent the morning driving to animal shelters and filling out missing pet forms. I'm going to give Stacy the photo. Maybe she'll make up posters.

It's really sad. I've never had pets before. It's such a strange feeling, wondering where Giselle is and if she's okay. When we went to the shelter and walked through the cat room to look for her, I started to cry. It was a little embarrassing. It's a really sad place; the animals are in tiny cages. Some of them have injuries. I've never seen anything like it.

Anyway, if you live in the Kalamazoo area, will you please keep an eye out for her? She's all grey and has green eyes. She has a bright green collar with a bell, but it's a breakaway collar, so it may not be there anymore. I'll post the photo one more time.



She's very friendly, and very VERY talkative. Say her name a few times and she should start answering. She also answers to Kitty- that's my fault, I just started calling her Kitty when Stacy first brought her home.


*sigh* it makes me so sad. I hope she comes home soon.

Passover (Amanda's old blog)

I have lived in Kalamazoo for four years now. Most schools - especially universities - do not have breaks for Jewish holidays. This is true for Western, which means that for the past three years, I've been away from my family on Passover. This is usually a difficult time of year for me. Passover is my very favorite holiday, and it's really important to me to be with my family and celebrate.

But this year we did things a little differently. I decided to hold my own seder at my house in Kalamazoo and invite all my friends. Everyone was really excited - everyone brought a dish and we had a lovely seder. And of course, I want to share it all with you!

I've never cooked a big meal before, so there was a lot of coordinating and planning ahead of time. I emailed back and forth with my mom for weeks, getting recipes and instructions and compiling my grocery list. Last weekend, I did the grocery shopping and as much of the cooking as I could get done ahead of time.

Then I cleaned the house on Wednesday, attended my lab section a day early so I could have Thursday off, and I spent the whole day Thursday cooking, cleaning and getting ready. I got out my beautiful Menorah-pattern table runner and matzo cover that my aunt made for me for my Bat Mitzvah. I borrowed my brother's cup of Elijah (thank you, Max!) and my mom's haggudahs (thank you, mom!). The table looked lovely:


I got that plate at Pier 1 years ago. It makes a lovely seder plate - look how well it goes with the table runner!
I love Stacy's tiny purple wine glasses. I'm very jealous.

Check out the table runner:

It's so hard to find Jewish-themed prints that aren't tacky. My aunt has such a good eye, I'll really cherish that table runner forever. I was so excited to finally use it, it's the first time!

Most people sat on the couches - you're supposed to relax on Passover, so it worked out nicely! So I just stacked the plates and let people get food cafeteria-style from the kitchen.


Plates and silverware, ready to go. And my cloth "napkins." Look how clean that couch is! I've never seen it look so good!


You don't even WANT to know what it looks like the rest of the time.
You can probably just barely tell, but that red bit behind it is another couch. We have stadium-style seating in our house, the couch behind is on a big wooden platform. It's pretty much the best living room setup I've ever seen. And it's GREAT for throwing parties! ^_^

And I got out all my favorite serving dishes. If you didn't know this about me yet, I'm a huge Fiestaware enthusiast. I also have many other non-fiesta dishes that I absolutely love. So, having people over gives me a chance to use some of my nicer serving platters that spend most of their time packed away.


That green disk pitcher is the crowning glory of my Fiesta collection. I LOVE having an opportunity to use it. And the little black bowl with the geometric designs inside. Everything was lovely.

So, I got the turkey in the oven that morning, made stuffing, heated up the soup, boiled some carrots.... And then people started arriving!

I didn't get any photos of the seder itself, I took 2 breaks while we were eating to get photos of everyone sitting around the room. And they ALL turned out fuzzy! I was in such a rush to get back to the party, I didn't even hold the camera still. Well, I suppose it's the mark of a good party, right?


On the right is my good friend Josh, who was the only other Jewish person there. Next to him is Todd and Todd's beau Rogan.
Can you see the seder plate? Shank bone and everything!


Todd and Rogan again. I love Rogan's quirky fashion sense. The bow tie! The horn-rimmed glasses! So fifties. I love it.


Val and Mike drove out all the way from East Lansing. You can barely make out Eric through the glare.


Om nom nom! I'm totally digging on Mike's hat. It's kind of hard to see here. Shaky camera hand. I should've put Brandon in charge of pictures.

Eric was a huge help. The timing of the meal and the seder were perfect - because he helped me serve people and manage the food. I couldn't have done it without him. What a great friend.


Stacy looking lovely!

I told people it was casual, but Stacy loves an excuse to dress up. I wish you could see the whole dress, it's adorable. I'm so jealous. She got it in Japan!


Apparently Hal didn't want it on record that he attended. Or something. He was on his laptop during the whole seder. Silly man. ^_^




Gini and Will sat on the loveseat in the corner. Gini wasn't feeling too well, so I gave her EXTRA matzo ball soup. She's trying to go vegetarian, but she ate the soup because she knows chicken soup made by a Jewish woman is a miracle cure. ^_^



I'm not really sure what's going on here. Someone off to the right must have said something awfully strange.


We played musical chairs a lot - people kept changing seats. Here, brandon is getting some boxed wine.

We had 3 kinds of wine: Manischewitz because I thought everyone should try it at least once - most people ended up liking it! I also bought a bottle of Mogen David, and I wanted a white wine. This seemed like a good opportunity to try boxed wine. I've never tried it before, and it's supposed to be a good way of keeping the wine. Most people won't switch over, though, because boxed wine has a reputation for being bad. Anyway, we had one box of white and 3 bottles of red.


And then, there was the aftermath:

All in all, not that bad. We were really responsible and put everything straight in the dishwasher right away. All that's left are wine glasses and serving platters.


See? Mostly wine glasses. No biggie.


OH! And I almost forgot! We didn't get ANY pictures of it ,which I'm very upset about because it was gorgeous, but I ordered a flourless chocolate cake from Waterstreet, a wonderful coffee shop in Kalamazoo. They have their own kitchen and they make delicious foods using local ingredients. They have lots of gluten-free options, which means their cakes are Kosher-for-Passover! Todd and Rogan picked it up. It was gorgeous. It was so fudgy and delicious, everyone enjoyed it.

While we ate dessert, Eric thought it would be fun if we watched the Passover episode of Rugrats. We were all laughing and reminiscing about old cartoons. And scarfing down cake - there was none left!

It was a fantastic evening. Honestly, the best Passover ever. I'm so happy to know that my friends take an interest in my religion and heritage - plus, most of them are history geeks or religion geeks, so they all really enjoyed the seder for intrinsic reasons. We sang Diaynu, we did the ten plagues, we dipped parsley in salt water. They were all fascinated by every tradition and they all read from the haggudah. It was so much fun. I feel so loved - truly, this is the way to spend Passover, surrounded by your best friends.

Chag Sameach! Next year in Jerusalem!

And I hope you all have a lovely Easter this weekend, as well. ^_^

Actual Crafts? On a craft blog? (Amanda's old blog)

My dad commented today that this so-called craft blog has sort of degraded into a rat blog. And he's right. Things have been hectic lately, and I haven't had much time for crafting. But I managed to fit in a small project today, despite the fact that this week is pretty jam-packed for me. I think it's a definite example of 'if you want something done, give it to a busy man.'

My roommates Stacy and Eric are getting married in a couple months, so Stacy has got her plate full with lots of wedding projects and planning. Yesterday, she was looking at designs for their guestbook. She found a graphic of a calla lilly that she really liked. She showed it to me and asked if I could do a block print of it for her! We also discussed the possibility of me actually making their guestbook for her, which would be really fun.

I happened to have some linoleum lying around, so i took one of my smaller pieces, cut it in two and made 2 prints. The first print was a bit too heavy, also it was facing the wrong way. I still like it. I think I can clean it up and make it a bit more delicate. The stamen in the flower turned out beautifully.


This is what it looks like when it prints.


And here's the actual linoleum block after I inked it up.

I love the woody texture in the background of block prints. But stacy didn't want that, so I had to carve it deep so all that would print is the flower.

The second try was aimed at getting it facing the right direction, and also making it dantier and more detailed.


This is the print - sorry for the strange angle. Lighting in my living room was not very good today.


And here's the block print. This one is so pretty, I really like how it turned out.

I'm pretty impressed with myself. The second try turned out really nicely. I was very patient with it - I knew Stacy wanted something delicate, so I had to be careful. She didn't end up liking the second print because of the little spiral at the base of the flower. She also changed her plans for the guest book later today, but I was glad to have the inspiration. She gave me a design, specific instructions, and incentive to be very delicate with my work. Now I have 2 new prints for my etsy shop when it opens in July! I'm very excited about this.

I'm thinking my next few block print designs will be:
-A dagger or sword (or both)
-the Heroes symbol
-Some Star Wars symbols, like the rebel alliance and the galactic republic symbol.


I'm glad I finally have crafts to share with you! Sorry dad, about all the rat updates. They're just so cute. ^_^

Time for a hilarity break. (Amanda's old blog)

I have only just barely seen my rats' tongues before today. They are tiny. They are adorable. They like gravy.

Behold:

I could not stop giggling.

Oh I posted too early. I managed to get Kashyyyk in on the action, as well:
Hilarious.

Oh, about the cat (Amanda's old blog)

That photo I posted a while back was of my roommate's cat, Giselle, trying to figure out what to do with my rats in their running ball. I was worried she would chase them around the house - at least that way they would get some exercise. No such luck. She just stared at me confusedly.

See?



Silly cat.

Rat Stuff! (Amanda's old blog)

Finally! I cleaned out the rat cage and took photos. The rats weren't too happy with me. I put them in their running ball while I cleaned the cage, and they kept running it up to me and bumping me in the side.

So, I made their cage more or less from scratch.


Here's the whole cage. Their water bottle is hanging off the side on the right. There are 2 access panels, one at the front and one on the top. The running wheel is on the right at the middle, the hammock is at the top left. Their food bowl is at the bottom left, their litter box is at the top right. Their nesting box is hard to see here, it's on the left in the middle.


You can see the levels a bit more clearly here. There are some cardboard toys on the bottom right. A paper towel tube and a macaroni and cheese box. The wad of paper towel hanging on the bottom left is a 'ratty pinata.' The tube leading from the bottom shelf to the second shelf is 3-inch PVC pipe.


I used the panels from an old collapsible shelving unit for the sides. It was Brandon's idea to connect them using zip-ties. The only problems were the corners, which had big escape-able holes. So I took some heavy wire and covered them.


Not all the corners are quite this tidy. I plan to fix up the messy corners some time.

The floors are linoleum tiles cut to fit

Isn't he a cutie? See the rope in the background? it's a doggie rope - they crawl up it to get from level 3 to 4.


Here they are hanging out in the hammock and nesting box:

Their nesting box is just an old tissue box. I change them periodically, when it gets too messy or too chewed up.

The hammock is SUPER ghetto, it's just a washcloth hung up by oversized paper clips:

I change it every couple weeks. It gets pretty messy. I have a couple that I cycle through. They LOVE the hammock. It's where they spend most of their time.


When I want to play with them outside their cage, I put up the 'play pen.' It's made from some cardboard boxes I cut apart and taped back together in a line - one of the boxes is from the espresso machine Brandon got me for Channukah!

On the right side is the 'box game' as I call it. It's just a cardboard box filled with crinkled papers and tissues, with different treats hidden amongst the mess. There are 2 exit holes for them to crawl out. When I close the top, it's nice and dark. They really like it. I got the idea here. Unfortunately, the play pen is too short. They can jump to the top if they try hard enough. So I need to make a taller one some time soon.

They normally like the box game, but I think they were overwhelmed by all the commotion today. They immediately tried to jump out, even before I could close it!



Another really cheap toy is the little hideaway box.

I call it that because the rats always need a safe hideaway when they're playing and exploring on the floor. They need somewhere they can feel safe.


That's everything I have photos of for now. I forgot to get pictures of the closures on the doors. It's not too exciting, I just wound some wire around the edge of the panel, then bent the other end so I could clip it into the mesh on the other side.

I hope you enjoyed this entry! The rats are having fun running around inside my hoodie. ^_^