1.... 23.

Kristofor got me a new camera for my birthday..  I am so. excited!

This picture was one of the first I took last night - in bad lighting, and after a 12 hour day at the hospital. 

I had the best birthday ever. I finished up with all the clinical hours I need for the Rad Tech program I'm in - people brought cake, ice cream and lunch for me to celebrate and everyone was so nice to me all day. It was great. I got home to discover that Kristofor had planned a treasure hunt for me to find my birthday present. All of the clues were 'written by' my birthday present, and they were pretty funny and cute. It was funny because Kristofor thought they would all be too easy, but I had such a hard time with some of them! Haha. The last clue lead me to the trunk of our car, which was filled with streamers, confetti, and of course - my new camera. I'm going to have to take some pictures of the clues and trunk, and post them. 


Today we're going to go out to eat and then go shopping, kind of like last year, which I loved. 


Kristofor is so thoughtful and fun - he knows me so well, he knows what makes me tick, and I'm so blessed to have him. He is good for me.






P.S. Kristofor also gave me a 'coupon' that I can use whenever I want, to get him to watch a chick flick with me! He's a stinker about watching girly (or as he says, cheesy) movies with me, so I'm excited to get to use it. 


P.P.S. And now you won't have to suffer through my crappy iTouch pictures!

skirt -> nap -> date

Like I said 2 months ago, I made another skirt! And am just now getting around to posting it.. yikes! I ended up being a bit short on fabric, so my skirt's a bit tighter than what I wanted. It's all bunchy at the waist, and tight around my hips. Ah well, it was a good experience and even - dare I say - fun? 

And now for some random Instagram pictures!

Sunday nap... I was just waking up when Kelso decided it was cuddle time. Apparently my upper body makes a good pillow. This is good information to have for the future.. right? 

In the car before we went and saw TinTin. We really liked it, it was fun. And that Snowy - so cute! Not as cute as my puppy though.. right? I had someone tell me the other day that they didn't think Corgi's are very cute dogs and I was shocked! Haha. Before we got Kelso, I didn't think they were the cutest either, but you know how it goes - every parent thinks their kid is the cutest and smartest. 

I have tons more pictures that I need to upload, but Kristofor has the Touch at work today so it will have to wait. 

candy corn

So, I had this skirt:

I thrifted it, and then only wore it once because it was long (I had already hemmed it in this picture) and too too bright! 

So, getting some fun inspiration from - where else - Pinterest, I decided to bleach it.

But, still not being over my love of all things ombre, I decided to somewhat dip-bleach it. I'm not sure what to officially call my method, but basically, I dipped half of the skirt in the bleach, let it sit for a while, pulled it out a little, let it sit for a while, etc. 

(While all this bleaching business was happening, I watched this movie, A Day in the Life.. Basically, people around the world filmed what their life was like in one day and it was compiled into this movie - pretty unremarkable, except one scene which made my cry my eyes out. Seriously, I was caught off guard and found myself nearly sobbing. Kristofor even came upstairs to see what was wrong. The scene showed a cow being killed in a slaughterhouse - it was pretty graphic and I wasn't expecting it at all. I've seen Food Inc. and other shows, showing animals in horrible living conditions, etc. But nothing has ever made me consider swearing off meat, as much as seeing that. Did it keep me from going to Texas Roadhouse the next day? No. But, I didn't eat cow meat, because somehow it's easier to justify eating a chicken. Pretty silly.)




I didn't take any pictures of what I did next, but the bleach hadn't done quite as much as I wanted, so I thought I would try to dye the bottom of my skirt a bit darker. I wanted it to be pink, but...

 It's orange! Really orange.

My puppy is getting so big!

 Which is okay...

But it does remind me a bit of a certain Halloween candy..

Hahaha! Not quite what I was going for, but oh well, it was worth a shot. I could try hemming it even more, but not sure I want to.

I'll still wear it. Probably.

getting organized

Using my bad-quality iPhone pictures, I'm going to show a little before and after of my sewing area. (Did I mention I lost my camera?)

 I was using an old shoebox to store all my sewing materials, and the whole desk was a mess because I had nowhere to put things. So I took this 3-drawer organizer we'd been keeping all of our old shoes in and decided to re-purpose it. 

Inspired by this post, I decided to put some colored paper on the inside of the front of the drawers to add a little pop of color, and to hide what was inside them.

Inspiration

Ta - da!

Instead of mod-podging the paper to the inside of the drawers like she did on MadiganMade, I just taped them with good old scotch tape. I figured that would be easier to switch out in case I get bored of the colors, and I think it looks just as good. I have some semi-permanent vinyl letters that I used to number the drawers.. not that they need it, but I like the look and they come off easily.


It was super easy, and now my sewing area is really organized - we'll just see if I can keep it that way.  =)

sew sew

Kristofor got me a sewing machine for Christmas. I'm so excited - I've been wanting one forever! I've already hemmed two skirts that I didn't like to wear because they were too long, and have lots more ideas forming. 

The next project on my list is this skirt:

via Freshly Picked

It looks super easy (I'm going to be omitting the pockets), and you can never have too many skirts! I wanted to work on it tonight, but then I realized I forgot to pre-wash the fabric... Arg. 

I'll post a picture when it's done. 

=)

dill emma

Whoever said that blonde hair is hard to maintain was a liar. 

A few months ago I dyed my hair brown and I LOVE it. Except the upkeep part. My blonde roots grow in and it makes me look like I'm balding. In order to stay on top of my regrowth, I have to get my hair dyed every month.. except I'm too lazy to actually do that. 

I like being brunette because it makes me look more like my mom. 

But I want to settle down with my hair. I feel like a teenager, still experimenting and trying to "find" myself - or at least, my best hair color. I've spent the past 45 minutes looking through old pictures, trying to decide if I look better blonde or brunette. Hmmm..

I'll probably decide 5 minutes before my appointment. 

 

Any input? 

ce ne me derange pas

I miss my little brother, Joseph. I know he probably doesn't miss me very much, considering he's in Thailand having the adventure of a lifetime. 

But he was always someone I could talk to about anything, and he'd give me his honest opinion about what was going on - even if it was "Aariel, you're crazy."

I have plenty of close friends and family members I can talk to, but it's not the same as talking to Joe.

And right now, I really wish he was here to tell me what to do. Or to tell me to stop worrying about things.  Or to be my ally and help me feel a little less alone. 

 I made him pose for this picture by my car before we went to the store together. 

This, on the other hand, was totally unposed - you can tell, he's in mid-sentence. Awesome.