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.