From Far Away Points

I have been missing the East Coast terribly this past week.  I want to be there.  I want to live there.  I want to experience the thunderstorms, see the leaves turn, feel the air chill, see the snow....  I don't belong here.  I feel like we're in limbo... waiting until we can start doing what we want with our lives.  But I wouldn't give up Matt's education for anything.  It will all be worth the wait.  We will get there.  There is so much that we want to do.  I'm looking forward to all that we have planned for our future, but I'm also doing my best to enjoy what we have now.  I have so much to be thankful for.  I love my life with Matt.  And I am so grateful that we were able to go to the East Coast for our honeymoon.  Never have I fallen so in love with a place.  That's all for now.  Just reminiscing...

Central Park, NYC

Princeton Campus, NJ

Princeton Campus, NJ

Sunset, Doyelstown, PA

love.nu

Nine of Seven

Here is a little something that has been going around lately.  I thought it looked fun!!

1: Japan (of course!!  Matt & I would love to go there.)
2: Canada (Ottawa/Burlington to visit my friends!!)
3: England
4: France
5: Italy
6: Greece
7: Australia

(Edit: I would rather go back to the east coast again before visiting any of these places.  I miss it like you wouldn't believe.)

1: I would love to finish my wedding scrapbook.  Reaaaally lagging on that.
2: Plugs that look like pearl earrings to wear for special occasions, like this.
3: A little herb garden.
4: Flower shoe clips, similar to these.
5: Cup cozies & other crafts with felted wool.
6: Weddings invitations & special event announcements for friends.
7: A baby!!  (not yet though.... I have a "cradle list" to get through first.)

1: Joss Whedon
2: Alyson Hannigan
3: Jason Segel
4: Jeri Ryan
5: Patrick Stewart
6: Nicholas Brendon
7: Neil Patrick Harris

1: A house in Princeton, NJ.
2: The Harry Potter book set.
3: A domestic fox. (yeah, I'm totally serious!!)
4: A new dress & shoes to wear for special occasions.
5: Apple Pumpkin scented candles from Yankee. (too bad they discontinued my favorite scent.)
6: A new car.
7: A pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks!!  Yes!  It's time!!

1: Poor grammar, poor spelling or both.
2: People who don't teach their children manners.
3: People who don't train their dogs.
4: Calling customer service for anything.
5: Small talk.
6: Most girls.
7: Spiders.

1: Fight Club
2: The Wizard of Oz
3: Pan's Labyrinth
4: Serenity
5: Death Proof
6: I Heart Huckabees
7: My Neighbor Totoro

1: Spending time with my husband.
2: Being greeted and followed around by my cat when I come home.
3: Good food.
4: Trying new things.
5: Everything about Fall.. colorful leaves, cold weather, wonderful smells, hot drinks, baking...... & the best holidays.
6: Photography & artsy crafting.
7: Snow!!

1: Snowbirds & Townies -Further Seems Forever
2: Gold & Silver -Stavesacre
3: Neutron Star Collision -Muse
4: Living In Twilight -The Weepies
5: Indie Rock 'n' Roll -The Killers
6: The Way You Look Tonight -Frank Sinatra
7: Pearl Of The Stars -Coheed & Cambria

1: yips
2: poppycock
3: hippocampus
4: doodle
5: morass
6: hogwash
7: phalange

Make A Battle Plan

The past couple weeks have been strange.  Life is strange.  Sometimes things change so suddenly.  It's hard to keep up.

Last week my mother-in-law wound up in the hospital.  It was stressful last week worrying about whether or not she was alright and waiting to hear back on test results.  I felt so bad for her being stuck in that hospital for several days.  It turns out that she is alright, and she is home now.  Hopefully she won't ever have to experience that again.  I'm not going to go into detail out of respect for her privacy.

On Saturday, I found out that my friend of 10+ years is moving to New York.  Next month!!  I still can't believe it.  It's like the end of an era.  I'm happy for her though because it's such a cool opportunity!  I would  love to be able to live in the city too.  I know that was always a dream that we both shared.  At least I can look forward to going to visit her on our next trip out to the east coast!!

Weekend before last, Matt & I went out to a couple of places to shoot some photos and get practice for taking Jared & Cat's engagement photos.  Matt taught me a few things to help me control my settings better.  He took a bunch of photos of me for my 25th Birthday.  I think they turned out really great!!  Yesterday, I had Ally over to go shoot some photos with me as well.  I thought it would be a good chance to get some more practice.  We got a few good ones, but I think we're going to go out again soon to get some more.  It went well, but I learned a couple things that I want to change so that my photos come out better next time.

A lot going on!!  Matt is starting classes next week already!  And Ally is going to be leaving for England in less than a month!  Holy crap.  Everyone's leaving!!  It will be really nice when we can get out of Escondido too.  For now, I'm just happy that Matt is able to go to school.  Let's keep moving... onto Fall!!!

love.nu

Howl

Hello, August!!  What a week... another busy one!  I think we've had people at the house every day this week except for last night.  I'm so glad we've gotten to hang out with our friends, especially Bud while he's in town.  I've gotten to spend a lot of time with Cat lately too, and we're having a great time talking about wedding plans!!  Matt & I had a nice time on our date night alone last night though.  We went to see Cowboys & Aliens with the movie tickets we had forgotten that we bought on Fandango.  The movie was excellent.  I loved it, and I can't wait until we can buy it and watch it again on bluray.  Way to go, Favreau!!  I definitely recommend that one, and I'm thrilled that we got to see it in the theatre!

Matt has been working hard at posting videos to youtube, and this week he posted the Sanctum videos that we recorded on Sunday.  They were really fun to put together, and surprisingly simple!!  It's obvious that I'm a little uncomfortable in the first couple because I don't have much to say, but as we went on I relaxed more.  I think they ended up being pretty entertaining regardless, and I'm looking forward to doing more videos with Matt.  The next game that we have in mind to play together is Lead & Gold.

My birthday is only about a month away now...... seriously, where does the time go?!  I will be 25...  Can't believe it's almost been two years since Matt & I were married either.  Two years that have been the best years of my life.  We've changed and grown so much since then.  Makes me wonder what we'll be like in the next two years.  I'm sure that a future more wonderful than today is waiting.


love.nu

Steel Her Heart

Every year at about this time, I start to long for the cold, crisp fall weather desperately.  I don't think it's because it's so hot, although that could be reason enough in and of itself.  Autumn is my favorite time of year... the colors, the feel, warm sweaters, hot tea & coffee, the smell of cinnamon, apples & pumpkins, cozying up with a blanket & a kitty on my lap...... I could go on.  I love it.  And right now I miss it.  And I miss the east coast.  I'm dying to take a vacation back there again.  I can't believe it has already been almost two years.  Two years too long!!

This week was pretty nice.  We got to spend time with a lot of friends.  We went to get Thai food with my aunt & uncle while they were visiting from Colorado.  It was a really good time!!  Great food, and afterwards we went next door to the asian market to help them shop for a few things to make some tasty thai dishes.  I tried a lychee fruit for the first time.  It was good!!  It has sort of a sweet, melon taste to it, but it has a layered texture kind of like an onion.  We also found that the asian market has a lot more fresh produce than the other one that we'd been going to, so we will probably be shopping there from now on.

I started reading a book this week.... finally!!  It's been wayyyy too long since I've read, and guess what I found out... I really miss reading!!  Matt has been begging me to read Horus Rising, the first book in the Horus Heresy for years now.  I had started it and read a couple of chapters before we got married, but after that I gave up.  Until now.  So far I'm really into it!!  Very good writing.  I have a huge list of books that I would like to read, including the Harry Potter series, so I figured this was as good a place to start as any.

This weekend is pretty chill, which is good because I was feeling sick towards the end of the week, and I think I could really use some rest.  Tomorrow I think I may be recording a Sanctum video with Matt.  Sanctum is a tower defense/fps game that we've had a lot of fun with.  It should be fun to be part of what Matt has been up to on youtube.

Happy weekend to all!!  I can't believe it's already August on Monday!  Getting closer & closer to my birthday......

love.nu

You And Me

One of the many reasons I love my husband.  <3 xo

Living In Twilight

Yay for a new layout & a new outlook!!  Ahhh... I love the simplicity of it.  I get way too excited about making things look good.  Moving right along....

I have abandoned my blog for the past 5 or 6 weeks, and I decided that needed to change.  I was really enjoying it for a while, but I think that I was actually pressuring myself into updating it too much..... and then I unintentionally gave up.  So I'm back because I want to continue doing what I enjoy & motivating myself, but I'm going to try not to overdo it this time..  If ya know what I mean.

I have been in a very crafty mood lately... as in, I have a lot of ideas for things to make myself, and I've been in the mood to follow through and attempt to make them.  I have never really learned how to sew.  In fact, I first learned to sew a button in a multi-cultural fashion class at Palomar College.  And for awhile that was all I knew how to do.  I remember using the sewing machine a bit when I was younger, but I'm a little fuzzy on that now, and I don't own a sewing machine anyway.  For that reason, I set my mind to learning some basic hand stitches.  I found some videos on youtube, and I was surprised at the simplicity of the stitches.  I wanted to add some lining to the inside of the hood of one of my jackets, so went through some of my old clothes and chose the fabric that I wanted to use.  Not knowing quite the correct way to begin, I just kind of went for it and used common sense to figure out the best way to get it done.

It took longer than I expected (hand stitching is slow!!  .. at least for me...), but I was shocked when I finished and everything came out the way that I hoped it would.  I think it was totally worth the time and effort, especially since I have such a huge appreciation for things that are handmade, unique and personalized.  I really love how it turned out.  It's not perfect.... if you look closely enough at the stitches, they aren't really that even, but that makes it all the more special and personal to me.  Very wabi sabi.  Now the last test will be to see how it fairs in the wash!!

I have collected some ideas and tutorials for more little projects that I want to try, and I will try to post them on here as I go.

I love this article that I read today about daily habits to ignite your passion.  This was one of the reasons that I had the thought to come back to my blog again.  Matt & I were actually having a discussion about these things exactly last night, and I thought it was quite a coincidence that I discovered the article today.  Read it if you get a chance, and take what you can/will from it.  I think these habits are essential to achieving fulfillment and enjoyment in life.  Of course, there are several things there that I would like to work on myself.

Now it's time to relax for the night!!

love.nu