Jennifer

and so it begins

05/17/2011 by Jennifer 1 Comment

Here I am, enjoying the first day of my summer vacation! I thought today would never come. It is pouring outside, but I’ll accept that seeing as there is more than a month until the real summer solstice. I woke up later than I should have today but a day without responsibilities was needed. Since then, I have been unpacking like crazy. Note to self: bring about four boxes to college, five tops. Never again will I fill up my car as much as I did yesterday.

In two days, I’ll embark on my European trip with some of my favorite teachers and friends. We’re bringing one carry-on only, which means I will be a little grungy. I hope to come home with tons of beautiful pictures and neat souvenirs.

A couple things have happened since I have last blogged.

1. Molly had fifteen of her teeth removed! She is so sweet and I love her dearly, but she’s always smelled awful. Now, she smells like roses. I have mixed feelings about her surgery because she looks so sad, but I think she will recover well.

2. I said farewell to my wonderful roomies. The three of us celebrated a last hurrah by creating a megabed in the living room on the last night of final’s week.

Steph is going to China this summer! You can follow her blog at 2ChinaWithLove. Next year, we will no longer be roommates but we’ll be in the same apartment. Thanks for being the best roommate ever for two years!

Ashley will be around this summer, thankfully, and we will watch our favorite tv shows often and bake cookies as we always do :)

Well, I don’t have much to say. I just thought my first day of freedom deserved a little post. Now, back to unpacking and repacking for the trip!

summertime countdown part II

05/11/2011 by Jennifer 1 Comment

Today, I am finished with finals and papers and it is only day three of the week! But I have to tell you that studying was kind of fun. It involved a lot of singing, dancing, and looking at pictures of baby animals on Pinterest (which I have found is a great way of coping). Now that it’s over, I can finally think about summertime!!! Here is a list of what I plan to do:

1. Watercolor

I didn’t inherit my grandma’s watercoloring gene, so all I know how to do is make thumbprints and swipe a brush across a piece of paper. But it should be really fun!

2. Learn the kalimba

At the festival on Mother’s Day, I helped my mom buy a big kalimba with turtles engraved in it. It has a lower pitch, and it sounds super beautiful! I would like to perfect some songs. Not complex ones, but just “O Holy Night” and “Moon River.” Stuff like that.

3. Paint my room

(one of these colors? or a peachier one)

4. Study for the comp a whole year early? Maybe I will…

5. Drink out of this mug

from my favorite potter @ whole earth

6. Carry my new hemp backpack around

and other important things :) I really just wanted to show you everything I bought at the Whole Earth Festival.

Summer does not officially start until Sunday night. Until then, I’ll be doing checkouts in the apartments, attending the 10:00pm midnight breakfast tonight (so much koinonia, I love it), and creating a megabed in the living room with my dear roommate Ashley.

I am so excited to learn a lot of new things this summer and see beautiful places. Speaking of beautiful places, in exactly one week I will be on a plane to Europe. Asghfjsdkl :)

oh nothing, just treasures

05/06/2011 by Jennifer Leave a Comment

I think I should start a mini series called “why I can’t wait for summer.” And I will only share my enthusiasm about summer every few days for the next week and a half. Yesterday, I was flipping through Real Simple when I found this exciting resource: Yard Sale Treasure Map

This is so cool. I may even use it as early as tomorrow in iphone app-form.

It has been such a long time since I have spent a morning garage-saling. In the beginning of the school year, Steph and I went searching for cute items to decorate our apartment with, but we didn’t have much luck. Still, I made a really organized map for our adventure:

(old fashioned map vs. fancy new one)

During the rest of the year, I drove past several good looking sales without any time to pull over and scout them out. That was probably for my own good. Now that summer is around the corner, I can enjoy it again and try my best not to become a hoarder.

Here is my most favorite garage sale find ever:

and another lamp…

I am spending this weekend at the Whole Earth Festival with family and friends. This may be one of my favorite parts of the year. Thai food, peace necklaces, sunflowers, ceramics, and a million more things that I love :)

(Speaking of treasures, last Saturday I geocached!!! And found nothing. But still.)

neutral tones & cinco de mayo

05/05/2011 by Jennifer Leave a Comment

We stood by a pond that winter day,

And the sun was white, as though chidden of God,

And a few leaves lay on the starving sod;

– They had fallen from an ash, and were gray.

Your eyes on me were as eyes that rove

Over tedious riddles of years ago;

And some words played between us to and fro

On which lost the more by our love.

The smile on your mouth was the deadest thing

Alive enough to have strength to die;

And a grin of bitterness swept thereby

Like an ominous bird a-wing….

Since then, keen lessons that love deceives,

And wrings with wrong, have shaped to me

Your face, and the God curst sun, and a tree,

And a pond edged with grayish leaves.

Neutral Tones by Thomas Hardy

This beautiful to me. I made this collage to go along with it for a part of my British Literature Final:

I took the silhouettes from etsy via google, so source is unknown :(

I am so glad to be checking things off of my list. This week is crazy, but I feel a sense of peace. Probably due to the fantastic weather. As long as I can escape the heat and get rehydrated every now and then, I won’t complain :)

Also, before I forget, happy Cinco de Mayo! My friend Kristina posted on Facebook that the SPCA is giving away free kittens for Cinco De Meowo. Immediately I called my mom and listed a bunch of reasons why a kitten would be convenient. Maaaybe someday.

via everything fabulous

I would love to have a party next year because I like these decorations. May 5, 2012 will be a week before I graduate so it’ll be a last hurrah kinda thing :)

jenny igloo

05/02/2011 by Jennifer 1 Comment

Once upon a time, I was given the nickname Jenny Igloo. It was inspired by a talented musician who may or may not have stabbed a man in the abdomen in 2009. He shall go unnamed, but maybe you know of him :)

All of my usernames are jennyigloo, and I realized this blog should be called that as well. Thank you, Blogspot, for allowing url changes!

craftylovin, meet jennyigloo.

And it’ll remain that way for quite some time. I have also gone back to my old email address. So, I dedicate this post to my favorite nickname and to these fun igloos:

via Anna Emilia

via lineacarta @ etsy

via extratoppings @ etsy

via smockpaper on etsy

Now, time for a sad/happy kind of story. I was wandering around Pinterest last night and I found this:

Immediately I thought of how it would be perfect for my cat Tulip. I started telling my roommate about how we always take (“take”, as in present-tense) Tulip to the vet in a little cardboard box. And I kept thinking to myself how it had been such a long time since we had taken her. Suddenly, I looked up at Steph and exclaimed, “SHE’S DEAD!”

The sad part of the story is that I forgot, as I so often do, that Tulip passed away a year ago, but the happy part is that I found this kitty igloo! My future cat will love it.

Today marks the beginning of the last week of school before finals. Yay! Summer feels very far away, so I am celebrating early with lemonade, bright colored nails, and hopefully some walks. I will be studying like crazy this week and checking things off of my list. Happy Monday :)

moustache, mustache

05/01/2011 by Jennifer 1 Comment

…moustasche! Mustache? How do you spell that? Anyway, they drive me crazy. Fake mustaches are far too loved. When I saw a bunch of fake mustache-themed weddings, I knew things had gotten out of control. (look)

So I haven’t been into the whole mustache thing.

Except then I found this crochet pattern from Easy Makes Me Happy: