Early Morning Study Break

 I wanted to share some finished scarf photos.                                                              





I absolutely love the pattern.  It was easy and quick ( I finished most of it while watching a movie Sunday night with Chris!).  Here is the pattern I used.  I also love how versatile it is!

Ok...back to studying! Have a Happy Tuesday!

Getting Crafty!

Time recently has not been on my side.  Every time I sit down to make a to do list I am discouraged when the things I need to do require more time than exists in a day (if I ever want to sleep!).  I recently decided that I needed a break.  SO what did I do?  CRAFT of course!

I loved my leaf wreath but was ready for a new Fall  wreath.  I was really excited when I found Hobby Lobby had flowers on sale!  There was a wreath on Pinterest that made me wanted to make my own version. I think it turned out really well!!!  It was really easy to make.  The hardest part was not burning myself with the hot glue gun and tiny flowers.  

My next project was to finish the hat that I promised Chris.  I was trying to crochet the hat with a stitch that was too small.  Once I finally accepted this fact (and undid all the work I had done), the hat took shape really quickly and looked a million times better.  Here are some pics of the hat (thanks to my favorite model :)

                                      

For Halloween I wanted to make my nephew, Noah, a present.  I loved the monster hat so I decided to try my hand at it.  I think it looks pretty scary!  The funny thing is the stupid little tooth by far took me the longest!!!                                          The dogs also wanted to wish everyone a Happy Halloween so we dressed them up!  I'd like to tell you that they loved it but Chris will tell you a different story.  The good news is that they were so distracted by the trick-or-treaters that they forgot to be mad at me for the costumes!  I still maintain that Ally likes her headband.  She will wear it for a few hours before shaking it off.  It could also be that she has finally realized she is fighting a loosing battle since I continue to put it on her.  

My final project is a new scarf pattern that Jenna found.  It is a normal scarf that has buttons so it can be converted into an infinity scarf.  So far I have finished one for Rose and am mostly done with one for me.  Pictures to come very soon ( I hope!)  The nice thing about crocheting is that it doesn't require my full attention.  I found that relistening to lectures ( because who really listens to the 6th hour in a row of lecture on a Friday afternoon?) is much easier  (by easier I mean I actually stay awake) when I can crochet at the same time.  Plus then I get cute things!

So any way.  This is what I have been up to recently (besides the normal class, studying and stressing out).  Hope you all had a great halloween!

Midterm Crafting!

 Third year has managed to keep me busier than previous years.  One of the time consuming activities is spaying and neutering dogs and cats from local shelters.  So far we have spayed one dog and neutered 2!   The left image is basically how I spend every tuesday morning!  So far all the pets have done great!

Another activity taking up time was midterms. Luckily those weren't too bad (Don't get me wrong I still freaked, hyperventillated and stressed about them :)  ).  

Right before midterms I decided to de-stress by making fall decorations.  Fall is one of my favorite seasons!

My fall board turned out really cute!  This is all due to Jenna's dedication to going to Hobby Lobby and Michaels over and over again!  I know it was hard work for her :)

I finally found leaves to make a wreath from my pinterest page.  I absolutely love how it turned out.  It was also really easy to make.  

After midterms, I finally had a few days where I didn't have any material to study.  I went home to see my families new puppy, Zoey.  I also got to see some of the family.  It was a fun way to spend my day off!

Chris and I also ventured to Madison, IN for Laura's baby shower.  It was a blast!  I also had a lot of fun crafting presents!  It was hard because I was trying to be sneaky so I couldn't pin anything (so Laura would be surprised).  I ended up making a diaper wreath.  The base is rolled diapers of varying sizes. Then I tied on socks, shoes, hats, toys, clothes, mittens, and hair ribbons.  I followed Laura's theme of safari.  I think it turned out really cute.  I know she loved it!

During the driving from all of our trips, I was able to finish crocheting the baby hats!  I made Juilana Rose Love a football hat that I found on pinterest.  It is my first crochet piece.  It is an odd shape but that is due to the ball of yarn I pretended was a baby's head ( I thought about going over to the neighbors to ask if I could use their baby's head to see how the hat fits.  I reconsidered and decided that would come across a little creepy!)

I made Baby Snell a hat as another shower gift.   It also turned out really cute!

Lantern Flowers

For a while now I have wanted to check out The Art Party Studio.  They offer classes demonstrating how to paint different paintings.  They provide all the supplies and demonstrate step by step.  It took me 6 months to find a time that worked with a painting that I knew I would love to hang up in the house.  Probably would have been much quicker if I didn't spend the summer working nights!  Jenna and I finally had an opportunity to attend a class to paint lantern flowers.  

We took this opportunity (before school gets crazy) to go on a double date.  We took the husbands to dinner at an amazing pizza place.  Chris and I tried a gyro pizza (Jenna and Jesse were horrified by it:). It was amazing!  We got polar pops to take to the studio (anyone surprised by that?).  

When we arrived, it turned out that we were the only ones painting (probably because it was a Thursday night).   We had so much fun painting.  The lantern picture was fairly easy to do.  It surprised me how different the two paintings of lantern flowers turned out.  Both will look amazing in our houses!  I am already looking for another date to paint another picture!

Photo Op!

 I have a few more pictures from the trip to Colorado that I wanted to post.  The corvette show was a blast (even if it did hail while we where in little ski lift gondolas!)

This shot is us in the gondola before the crazy, cold, random rain!

We apparently were so mesmerized by our favorite corvettes that we forgot to take pictures.  Whoops!

This last picture is of Ginny and me about half way up the mountain.  I am smiling in this picture because I am lying to myself so that I think we are farther up the mountain than we actually are.    It was an amazing view!

Back into the Grind

I hate when you blink and time disappears.  It always seems to happen to me about mid July-then BAM suddenly its the end of August.  I bet once I work year round this weird summer time continuum will no longer be an issue.  Anyway, I enjoyed the end of my last summer!  Chris and I both spent a lot of time working.  We also had the opportunity to see family and friends before we settled in for another year of vet school.

We traveled to Winter Park, CO to see Ginny, Roger, Michael, Jessica and Noah!   We had a blast looking at corvettes (although Chris and I couldn't decide on which year we liked best so it looks like His and Hers corvettes are in our future!), walking around the town, and eating crepes!  I had some altitude issues (but only if you think O2 consumption is important) but it seemed to improve with time.  We were also quite proud of our 2.5 mile hike up the mountain!  It was great to see everyone.  Chris and I are looking forward to being closer and able to see family more often once I graduate.

I also got to spend some time with Laura and Baby Snell at the pool!  We enjoyed the lazy river every day for a week(and only ended up sunburnt one day!).  It was fabulous!  It was really fun to see Dave, Laura, and Mark.  Elsie and Ally LOVED seeing Bowser and Colby!





We also went to Iowa to see my family! We squeezed in a quick visit to Rachel and Tatum.  I made Tatum my official quality control officer for the new hair bows I have been crafting.  I also have some new models to demonstrate the hair pieces.

While home, we saw Dad and Barb.  We did a little shopping and had an awesome dinner!

During the time continuum, Chris and I also celebrated a birthday and anniversary.  Since we planned so many trips, we spent some time home together.  Chris got me amazing flowers in honor of the occasion.  I can't believe we have been married 2 years and together for almost 5 years.  It feels like we have been together our entire lives.  I often find myself surprised when I tell a story from high school and realize he wasn't involved.  I don't think he realizes how lucky I am to have him in my life.  There are so many times when everything gets overwhelming.  Each time Chris is there to hold my hand and remind me that I will be ok-that I can do it.  Basically, I am so glad he found himself in Holly's dorm room that day forever ago :)

That was a lot to blog about but I'm telling you blame it on the time continuum!

The 4th!

 

To celebrate the fourth (and the fact that both Chris and I had the same day off!) we went to Brookfield zoo!  We had a ton of fun.  It reminded me of the trip we took the weekend we got engaged to the Cincinnati zoo.  We saw a polar bear, kangaroos, tons of snakes, zebra, giraffes, and alligators.  We saw a seal marital debate in which one seal barked at the other for 10 minutes. We also saw a penguin love triangle that turned vicious! There were dogs that looked (and acted!) like Elsie. They were pushing each other off rocks (our dogs play a similar game where they push us off the bed in the middle of the night!).  We also had time for the summer games (with all contestants being dolphins of course).  We spent a lot of time watching the dolphins perform and play.  They are the biggest reason I got Chris to agree to a 104 degree day at the zoo!.  I got a really good picture of a dolphin throwing the ball in the air (it's only a really good picture if you ignore the woman walking through it!)And of course we had time to do some shopping!   All in all it was an eventful day.

Me at the entrance to the zoo.  I accomplished my goal of making Chris nuts by taking millions of pictures early on in the trip!

 

Chris and the gigantic (moving!) wasp.  Can you tell which one is the pest?

 

 

  

Chris and I the day after we got engaged.  We visited the Cincinnati zoo. 

  

Chris and I after two years of marriage (3 years after the first picture).