Crafty Times

Haven't been feeling particularly crafty lately but today I turned it around a bit.  Didn't do too much but I love how they turned out.  I created the tags for these 2 Easter baskets.  One is filled with vacation-y stuff and the other is filled with about the cutest flowers ever!

Happy Easter!

 



Friday 5

Because I promised myself I would write each day and because my life isn't all that interesting (yet, I hope), I needed to follow a bit of a format for my own sanity.  I'm a little OCD and having a template to follow makes me feel better : )  Therefore, we've got the Friday 5.  These are the things that made me happy this week and will hopefully make you happy too!

1. "Her Majesty's Explorer" by Emilie P. Bush: I'm in love with  Steampunk anything and I happen to collect kids books so a Steampunk kids book just sends me for a loop.  The illustrations are dreamy and the story line sounds perfect for any little ones who love something different.

2. Geek & Sundry: This is a YouTube channel brought to you by Felicia Day.  I kinda want to be her when I grow up.  Sometimes I think I'm the biggest geek I know, albeit I'm a little different geek than she is. (Firefly: Yes, Online Gaming: Not so much) For her to create an empire based on being a geek, gives us geeks something to aspire to.

3. Masters Weekend: Go Phil! Go Rory! Go Freddie!  Go anyone but Tiger!

4. "Somebody That I Used to Know" by Gotye: I've watched this an embarrasing number of times.  I love this song.  I love Matt Bomer and Darren Criss.  I pretty much love everything about this.  Enough said.

5. The Spring Egg from Paper Moon Diner: So kitschy!  So Baltimore!  So fun!  The Spring Egg consists of a crispy potato pancake topped with prosciutto, a medium fried egg and lots of spinach.  Delicious!

My 29th Year

So, today is the first day of my 29th year.  That means I only have 364 days until I turn the big 3-0!  That's slightly depressing...I'm not sure why but it totally freaks me out.  Maybe I've watched too many episodes of Friends but I should be living in an amazing apartment in Manhattan, dating the love of my life and lucking into the career of a lifetime by now.  Alas, not so much.  This year I need to step it up and get a life!  If I write the things down that I'd like to do, I'll have to do them, right?  Because anything written on the internet is the God's Honest Truth : ) 

Anyway, this year I will:

1. Visit at least 3 different bars.
2. Continue to eat anything I'm offered (My friends think this is a pain but I actually love having to try things...although, the beer tastings are getting old!)
3. Stop feeling so guilty all the time for things that I have no control over.
4. Get to a Ravens, Orioles and Caps game.
5. Shop less. Save more.
6. Go on a date.
7. Get to the Food bookstore in Manhattan.
8. Take my niece on a special girls day out, just the 2 of us.
9. Partake in a Supper Club.  (Had one planned for months with 2 girlfriends but we keep missing it...)
10. Learn to let the things roll off my back that I can't control.
11.  Create things.  (I really need to use my scrapbook powers for good not evil.)
12. Go down the Ocean, hon.
13. Read more.  (I do this a lot anyway, but I need to keep up with the slew of books I buy each year.)
14. Keep up with e-mails to family and friends.
15. Meet old co-workers for drinks at least every few months.
16. Cook more: At least one good meal and one dessert a week.
17. Learn to crochet.
18. Take Web Design classes.
19. Go red again, only this time a little more noticeably.
20. Invest in a great printer to scrapbook with.
21. Attend at least 2 concerts and Tailgate. (Already got my tix to Tim and Kenny, now who else to see?)
22. Become a passenger more instead of always being the driver.
23. Explore Maryland more.
24. Take a Yoga or Pilates class.
25. Take a cooking class.
26. Attend the Star Spangled Sailabration on a boat.
27. Stop biting my fingernails.
28. Visit a museum or 2.
29. Try authentic Indian and Thai food.

Here's to year 29!

29...

Today is my 29th birthday...Ugh!  How did this happen?When did I get so old?

At 29, I:

1. Still have no idea what I want to be when I grow up.
2. Have yet to develop an appreciation for wine or coffee, or beer for that matter...yuck!
3. Haven't yet suckered George Clooney into marrying me.
4. Have a FANTASTIC idea for a food truck but can't get my father to buy in (which is slightly important since he'd be the one cooking!)
5.  Judge restaurants by the quality of their Iced Tea.
6. Still bite my fingernails (But trying so hard to stop...I even bought nail polish as an incentive.)
7. Have disovered Pandora and things can only get more expensive from here.
8. Need to get out more.
9.  Have finally figured out Football (for the most part...) but still working on Hockey. Go Ravens! Go Caps!
10. Get a little too wrapped up in Golf Tournaments and can waste entire weekends if the right players are in the lead.
11. Am currently wearing clothes that are 2 sizes smaller than last year at this time.
12. Spend WAY too much time thinking about whether my hair is acting like it should.
13. Spend too much time trolling wedding websites and know exactly what my wedding will look like.  The groom's face is a little fuzzy though : )
14. Think the perfect job would be a travel writer a la Anthony Bourdain but could really use some funding to make this happen.
15. Love the idea of sailing, just not so much the execution.
16. Have serious baby fever but I should probably get husband fever first.
17. Have become a bit of a Sharepoint wiz but would love to master Adobe.
18. Completely failed at taking more pictures each day.
19.  Am slightly obsessed with Instagram.
20. Haven't discovered my calling yet which is really starting to irk me.
21. Want to re-decorate my house and make it more girly-kitschy-chic, whatever the heck that means...
22. Could watch USA Network all day long if left to my own devices.
23. Am loving my New Year's Resolution to try new foods, and will continue to do so.  Just wish my friends would do the same...
24. Have realized the kind of person I don't want to be but not the kind I want to be.
25. Am fickle
26. Am not nearly as neat as my mother hoped I would be.
27. Am slightly neurotic when it comes to grammar and typos.
28. Still blush at the mention of anything risque.
29. Want to write in this blog everyday to satisfy my creativity but worry that I'm just a little too much of a slacker to do so...

Why you gotta be so mean?

I've been thinking about this post for the last few weeks and it seems that the only way I could get my feelings adequately across is by using the lyrics of a Taylor Swift song...which if you know me, you know she's so not my favorite person!  However she seems to have the right sentiment for the moment.  Where do I begin?...

A few months ago I started a new job that I love with lots of people that I love.  They are wonderful people and I really love working with them...most of them that is.  Over the last few weeks I've come to realize that 95% of the people are truly lovely to be around, but it's that last 5% that are really vexing me.  To that 5%: I implore you to listen to said Taylor Swift song.

These people are nice to each other on the surface, but never miss a chance to bad-mouth the other behind their backs.  They are short, curt and even rude to others asking the simplest questions.  They are unprofessional in meetings, acting like school children gossiping about their enemies.

To deal with this behavior, over the course of the last week, I've been told to:
1. Let (insert rude behavior here) roll off my back.
2. "Try to toughen up!"
3.  "Try not caring so much!"
4.  Just say (insert expletive here) and get on with your life.
5.  Stop being so nice all the time.

All of these things, I know will fail miserably.  So I've decided (since this is a blog about doing new things) to do the only thing I know how to deal with the situtation and to ignore all of this advice.  I know this sounds un-sensible but I promise there's logic behind it!

I am a nice person.  That's who I am and who I try to be.  I try to treat others in the same way that I want to be treated.  I don't see the point in being ignorant or rude.  It doesn't get me anywhere.  What's wrong with that?  Why would I want to change to become someone I'm not?  That's just lowering myself to the same standards that aggravate me on a daily basis.

So my pledge to myself and the people I love is that I will not change.  I know this will probably cause some heart ache (along with all my good qualities, I tend to take things too personally, and I will most likely have an ulcer by the time I'm 30 because of this...) but this is the person that I've grown to be.  And for the first time I don't see a problem with it!

Not to sound so cliche but wouldn't the world be a lot nicer place if more people weren't so mean?

28 for 28...

    So today's post is another thing that REAL scrappers usually scrap.  So, since I'm just a wannabe, I'll write about it instead.  I've already gotten off to a good start, so this may be one list I actually complete : )
The 28 things that I vow to do while I'm 28 are:
1. Join Match.com (again...) and actually try to make it work for me.
2.  Create and stock a store in Etsy.
3.  Attend an Orioles, a Ravens and a Capitals game.
4. Try VOLT again in a new season and Bryan Voltaggio's coming soon new restaurant. (I'll try pretty much whatever this man offers : )
5. Visit at least 4 states.
6. Try any food that I'm offered.  (I may live to regret this...)
7.  Make a new friend.
8. Take a day in DC to explore the monuments.
9. Reconnect with an old friend.
10. Cut my hair short (I already accomplished this but I started working on this list last week so I figured I could include it!)
11. Try authentic Indian food and Vietnamese Pho.
12. Visit the Visionary Arts Museum, Air and Space Museum and the Smithsonian.
13.  Throw a party for no other reason than throwing a party.
14. Volunteer.
15. See at least one show on Broadway (Of course I could always be persuaded to see more than one...)
16.  Attend the PGA Tournament in Bethesda in 2011.
17. Tailgate at a sporting event or concert.
18. Take a cooking class.
19. See a classic movie in a movie theatre.
20. Go to the Farmer's Market and actually prepare something using the fruits and veggies I purchase.
21.  Write and submit an article for a magazine.
22. Try Yoga.
23. Participate in a race (most likely a walk of some kind...)
24. Enjoy a Boog's sandwich, Thrasher's french fries, fresh-squeezed lemonade, and a Dumser's sundae in the sun with my toes in the sand.
25. Get organized.
26.  Design and enact a workable craft space.
27.  Learn to crochet.
28. Go OUT more instead of always staying in.

27 at 27...

So most people who scrapbook, tend to scrap things like this, however, I am one of those weird scrappers that don't actually scrapbook.  Sure I have all the doo-hickies.  I have a lifetime supply of stickers and you could wallpaper the white house with the stacks of paper that I have but scrapping itself eludes me.  It's too big of a project for me to settle on.  I think that when it comes to things like scrapbooks, you need to have patience (I have none) and you need to have a set topic (which my ADD gets in the way of all the time!) So I prefer to work in smaller venues like cardmaking or creating ABC books for my niece.  Those things take just a few minutes and I still get to use all the fancy doo-hickies that I've spent a fortune on. So with that in mind, I'm sharing my 27 things about me at 27 on the blog.  Not nearly as pretty but enlightening (I hope : ) if you know me.  If not then, feel free to pass.  I really am a pretty boring person!

At the age of 27 and 360 days Kristen:

1. Seriously addicted to travel books.
2. Changing careers...again.
3. Doesn't cook nearly enough to justify her beautiful kitchen.
4. Still bites her nails.
5. Finally open to the idea of a blind date. (but still nervous as anything!)
6. Seriously considering joining Match.com
7.  Could fill up a week's worth of work with all the artsy ideas in her head.
8.  Thinks her niece is about the cutest thing ever!
9.  Loves a good margarita every now and then, but still prefers sweets to booze.
10.  Attempting to find "her bliss".
11.  Adores seeing creativity in all forms.
12.  Has 3 separate business plans in her head, but no money to fund any of them.
13. Watches the Food Network all too regularly and is on a first name basis with most of the chefs.
14. Has finally made friends at a job she's soon leaving.
15.  Needs to toughen up.
16.  Can't pass a Target without buying something.
17.  Needs a haircut.
18. Wishes her condo was just a little bit quieter and had a little nicer view.
19.  Loves that she's receiving not 1 but 2 magazines for free even after her subscription has officially run out.
20.  Misses listening to a bunch of 4 year olds play but not the pay she received to do so.
21. Wants to be adventurous but wishes her friends would too.
22.  Has finally realized that she is VERY different from all of her friends and that's OK.
23.  Thinks her Cube is much cuter than anybody else's but would still prefer an office!
24. Still blushes at curse words and dirty jokes.
25.  Thinks she's not cool enough for Anthropologie but wishes she was.
26. Secretly judges restaurants by the quality of their Iced Tea.
27.  All too invested in the Entertainment world.

So there you have it: The inner workings of me at 27.  Hope you like!