December (before Christmas)

Before Christmas I was still stuck in Rexburg with 2 more weeks of school. Never fear I didn't make it a miserable 2 weeks even with all the final projects, commissions, and side projects I had going on. My friend Lara and I hung out lots, got ice cream, made delicious food, and took opportunities to enjoy the quiet moments of life.

The frozen yogurt I got at Kiwi Loco, I made it pretty!

I made "simple chicken" and parmesan couscous (from Mom). I was surprise how moist the chicken was, I need to try to find the recipe so I can make it again.

The last Monday of the school year, my ward had a Christmas party which included a "graham cracker house" building. I didn't want to just make a house though, I wanted more exciting. So entreated my inner nerd to come up with a little Doctor Who creation: THE TARDIS! And for those who are nerds with me (as my neighbors were who helped me come up with ideas) used quotes from the first season and little images of the Doctor's companions.

To end the semester right, I did what I can only call a "prank" but I suppose surprise works too. Throughout the semester, friends and I wrote down little things my Intro to Illustration teacher said and did and made illustrations for them. Then we collaged the illustrations and posted them on my teacher's door for him to find the final morning of school! It was really funny to make all the drawings, my teacher is such a character.

Mom and Dad came and picked me up Monday after school because we decided it'd be best if I brought my things home. The tahoe was PACKED but we all had enough space (though Mom and Dad both thought I looked cramped). We rushed home but were stopped a few times by an inability to see when snow storms blew over us. But we made it home safe and tired.

On the trip home we made a stop in Mesquite, NV for gas and found ourselves surrounds by ducks! Mom and I didn't get out of the truck and were amused while Dad filled up.

We made a second stop in Las Vegas to see Mom's old house where she grew up and made a side trip to see the temple.

 We got home Wednesday and Friday I had to chance to baby-sit while Kristi watched Kevin's graduation from ASU. Stephanie and I schemed together to take all the kids to the zoo accompanied by Amy and her kids. It was a crazy afternoon but worth it in my opinion. Any moment spent with family always is.

Overview of November

Invented Cinnamon Swirl Hotcakes for my class party.

Took a week off from school to see family and a new way to wear earrings with tape.

Celebrated a nephew turning 7.

A nephew being silly.

Joy.

November was full of school projects, arts and crafts for my mom with a Thanksgiving at our house and a Swedish Family Reunion (no pictures for those days sorry). Must say it was a good November!

I am a voter

 Since I was 17 in the last presidential election, I didn't vote for McCain vs Obama. And this year I probably wouldn't have voted since I'm away from home and "absentee ballots" sound messy. However, I have a good friend and awesome roommate who force me to register anyway and go vote. So I got my sticker and afterwards a Jamba Juice! Hmm, Egnog Jubliee flavor.

On Hallo's Eve

 Well, a happy late Halloween to everyone. This year was certainly different from the years before; for starters I didn't pass out candy or even come close to trick-or-treating myself. Instead, I dressed up for class, went to a Ward party, and just hung out with my buddy and a pizza. 

Can you tell what I am?

The Cheshire Cat! A couple years ago I found some fuzzy socks at Target for a dollar, $3 later and a night of sewing and I have a set of ears, tail, and gloves. Then to knock it out further I bought a pink tank top, eyeliner, nail polish, and used my roommates eye shadow and crimper to really spaz it up. I loved the result because it became so mysterious.

I only have one class on Mondays and Wednesdays so we had a costume contest between our class and the one next door. Our class didn't win (which didn't make sense, in my opinion) but it was still really fun to see everyone's costumes. I have 2 close friends in that class and I laughed to see how we had accidentally theme-dressed. Misty intentionally dressed up as Alice, but Crystal was a mobster, but with her hat we became the threesome Mad Hatter, Cheshire Cat, and Alice.

I had a couple hours between class and Ward party so my friends Lara, Shelley, and I went out to sorta-dinner. Well, Shelley got KFC, and then Lara and I got food at a local shop "The Cocoa Bean" (she ice cream, me hot chocolate and a cupcake). I love having friends up here it makes everything truly fun.

At 6:30p it was finally time for my ward's party. At first it was boring, of course, I arrived early, but then my visiting teacher, Ashleigh arrived and we were able to hang out all night. That really made it fun. And again an accidental match as she was dressed as Alice from the Tim Burton version. There was baked potatoe and chilli bar, apple carving, donuts on strings, photo booth, and a Thriller dance contest. It was all fun but until someone started playing "Gangham Style" and then everything really became fantastic as everyone joined in the dance.

I got home around 8:45p and took a shower and was shockered that it didn't take off my make-up, I had to use a make-up remover. It made me laugh seeing how much the eye-liner changed my appearance. 

My best friend and roommate Lara had to work that night (she's an RN at a Surgical Rehabilitation place in Idaho Falls), and after she got home she and I finished the night a a Jack-O-Lattern pizza we'd gotten earlier at Papa Murphy's, watched the new episode of Modern Family, and served Pinterst. It was the best way to end Halloween in my opinion. 

Silly Lara~

My roommate Stephanie didn't attend the ward party but dressed up the Friday before for a different party, her friend had these contacts that I just loved, I couldn't stop looking at her with those orange eyes. So cool!

The following are some characters I designed last semester.I had planned to do 13 images but didn't have the time. Still I got a few pieces done. Yay! I hope everyone had a HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

The Inovative Artist

Lately I've had a lot of projects, especially with my Illustration BFA application coming up too soon, so I've been working on campus as much as possible to get them done. Today I got to work around 2pm and planned on staying till about 9pm, so I brought some ramen noodles to eat. However I forgot a fork. Problem? Never! A couple paintbrushes and I have chopsticks, perfect for an Asain dinner!

Taste of Fall

 Yes, this post is all about food. Some may be tired of food but I have 2 reasons why I keep taking pictures of those things I cook. First, to show that I can. I feel like so many of my teen years were wasted because I did not take up the chance to learn to cook more, so now I am teaching myself. The second reason is for my own self-esteem. Taking pictures of my food, reminds me that I can make things that are tasty, healthy, beautiful, and--most important--edible. Besides, food is such an important part of life, why not have fun with it?

Yesterday was a big cooking day as I tried new things. First, spiced pancakes to start me off in that fall mood. (Thank goodness my friend Lara has cinnamon and nutmeg.) Topped with maple syrup, it really did taste like fall and made me very happy.

I have yet to make any main dishes from the 4 cookbooks I have. Determined to make something exciting from them I looked through each and found a recipe in my chicken cookbook: Chicken and Ham Croquettes. Now there were several problems for this to happen. 1) I don't have a frier. 2) I don't have ham. 3) It called for ground chicken, again I don't keep a storage of this. So nearly everything in the recipe was changed: ground chicken to fine chopped chicken, ham to diced potatoes and onions, basil and thyme for parsley. I also made home-made bread crumbs and roux. Thank goodness Mom taught me how to correctly pan-fry food this summer, it helped so that I didn't burn myself.

My roommate Jen was the only other person home so we had a little party of our croquettes and a movie. I will definitely be making this again.

This is Jen.

Since I only needed half a potato for the croquettes, I have half a potato to make something with. I've never made hash-browns so that was the winner.  I'm so glad they turned out because I wasn't sure they would. I made scrambled eggs to go with it. I attempted to make them lie the fluffy yellow ones you get at restaurants by my pan was on to high for the potatoes so my oil darkened and thus my eggs darkened as well. Note: turn heat down for eggs.

And finally a picture of myself this morning to show I'm alive. Note the gray sweater. It's a really warm sweater, because it is freezing! Heater's on.

When the Adventurer finds Adventure - September

We start the exciting month of September with homemade mashed potatoes! Never made it before, didn't have a recipe, just went and winged it and turns out I can fly in the kitchen. So delicious. (Funny thing though was that I was already having some potatoes going bad, surprising since I had bought them less than 2 weeks before making these potatoes. I'm not sure if that was because they were Betty Crocker or from Albertson's...)

One Saturday, my friend Shelley decided were needed to go to a popular, Rexburg student destination, the Civil Defense Caves about an hour outside of Rexburg. Her husband Eric, sister-in-law Celisse, and I had all never been, so she was our guide. Granted, we got lost on the way there, but it was just part of the adventure. The nick-name of the Defense Caves is the Ice Caves, because it generally has ice in it. Today there wasn't any ice, but it certainly felt cold enough. I'm glad Shelley told me to dress warmly before she picked me up or else I surely would have frozen.

(Note: a lot of these pictures are Shelley's since her camera had different pictures than what I got.)

Celisse, Shelley, and Eric.

It got cold almost immediately after descending down the path into the cave. About where Shelley is in her red shirt is when I stopped and put on my jacket.

 

The entrance. Cold.

The cave is about 1/4 to 1/2 mi long and there were a lot of places that were not kind to someone tall like me, but there were also a couple spots where everyone was bent over. At the end (or the point where we decided to turn back around), was a ledge that was perfect for a snack of some banana bread I made the Tuesday before.

 Half way through our journey we found some glow sticks on a rock from previous hikers. We decided it'd be a good idea if we all carried one in case a flash light went out and we couldn't see each other. Turned out we didn't need them but they made great mustaches.

 

I survived.

The caves were out in the middle of no where... Thought I should show that.

I love that we have technology today where I can be with my family even when I'm not. Celebrating JaNel's birthday was a special treat. Happy (very-late) birthday shout out to a wonderful sister-in-law!

 The next day I got to celebrate with another friend. My bestest friend Lara Boyle turned older than me and I was determined to make her birthday the best one yet. I started by making nutella crepes, which she requested. She was super excited last semester when I told her I'd learned how to make them, and so she asks me to make them from time to time. For dinner we went to Costa Vida with our other friend Shelley (seen above at the caves, not shown here), Lara had coupons so it was a cheaper, special night to those paying for it.

When Shelley went to the bathroom, Lara and I fooled around with her camera. The second one is one I took, but for some reason I forgot to look at the camera when I took the picture. Funny Lara liked making faces. 

For the whole month, Lara kept repeating that the only thing she wanted for her birthday was Reed's Dairy ice cream (a local farm up here). They apparently have the best ice cream, and I wouldn't disagree. There are several places in Rexburg that sell it, but our favorite is G's Dairy, an ice cream parlor that sells Reed's dairy food items. The photo was taken by our roommate Jen who tagged along for the ending of our celebration.

And finally I end this post with my biggest adventure in art in quite a while. I've never been much of a watercolor artist, though I've always wanted to be, and this semester I finally was able to get into a watercolor class. Last week our assignment was to paint an object. After debating on my owl statue, I finally decided to go with Lara's Scentzy, with my hair flower and a leaf for some extra color. I feel like it could use more work, but everyone in my class loved it, especially my teacher, so I won't touch it. Definitely expect more watercolor paintings from me, though!