Farewell, friend Summer!

Ah, me! So much has happened this summer, and I've done so very little blogging.  And now it's nearly time to head back to school again.

This summer has flown by.  On May 5, 2010, I was looking ahead to what I wanted to be a care-free, lazy, perfect summer.  What actually happened wasn't too far off from that, but as usual there were so many things I had planned to do and never did, and just as many things I hadn't planned on that I ended up doing.  Let's see...

*     I painted and redecorated my "suite".  This took a lot of perseverance, let me tell you.  I wanted it done.  NOW.  And it took foreeevverrrrrr!!!!  I'm so glad that it's finished now, and I can relax and enjoy it for years to come. :)

*     Planted and actually maintained a healthy, green, flowering garden. (*shock and surprise*)  We'll see if those beans produce...

*     I knitted and crocheted quite a few small items, and sewed an apron, hemmed a skirt and some shorts.

*     I corresponded with three people the old-fashioned paper way, and e-corresponded with a few others.  This is something I've been meaning to get better about for a while.  Still working on it, but improving, I hope....

*     I got to spend time with good friends-- afternoons at the park, coffee dates, runs to wal-mart, berry-picking, water parks.  Time deepening relationships with friends is time well spent!

*     I went on mission to Hungary!!!  I still miss them over there, but I'm excited to hopefully continue some of those relationships via Facebook. (the world's plugged in....)

*     But most importantly, I got to meet my precious niece this summer.  She's absolutely adorable.  No bias here, of course.

I think the main thing that I'll take away from this summer, though, is that it's ok to take life slowly.  After three crazy academic years in a row, I tend to stress about how I spend my time.  Not like I'm great at time management or anything, it's just I always feel guilty that I'm "wasting time" if I'm doing anything other than homework.  It took me almost a month to fully relax and re-learn how to spend my time doing constructive things that are unassociated with the word "school".  I'm still learning, but I feel that I'm entering my sophomore year with more than just an academic focus.  I can have hobbies.  I can do other things without having to feel like I'm wasting precious minutes, because I know I'm not.

Well, I suppose it's time to move on to the next subsection of this chapter of my life-- "Sophomore Year"

Goal #2: Planting and tending a garden

 Check!

My garden is finally planted and ready to maintain!  I "finished" it about a week or two ago, but wanted to wait for a few flowers, etc, before photographing and posting. :)

I purchased several of the plants and then transplanted them into my garden, such as the alyssum (along the path), the carnation (by the steps), and primrose (along the path, by the lawn).

Others I rescued from not-so-ideal locations in our yard, like this little petunia.  There were two of these along the path at the side of our house... they were growing in a bed of pebbles!

Ah, "The Prince" (according to David Austin).  This rose-bush is the veteran of my little garden.  He's been through quite a bit over the years, and has managed to survive and thrive through about 6 years of neglect.

And then others I planted from seed, like this bean plant.  It's so big already!  I'm hoping it doesn't take over the back porch along with the rampant morning glory that decided to take root, uninvited, in my garden bed.

Well, those goals are accomplished.... now to finish this book!

Goal #1: Cleaning, reorganizing, redecorating, and repainting my room(s)

 \/  Complete!

I'm still working on some smaller things, like curtains, etc, but it's getting there.

I've been thinking about a color for the red bookshelf in the corner.  Pale or rose pink, white or heirloom white, brown....?  As you can see in the second pic, my poor, bed sheet-draped chair needs reupholstering.  At some point in the not-so-near future, I'll probably have to whip out my yet-to-be-purchased reupholstering guide and tackle the job myself.  (as professional reupholstering jobs are apparently terribly expensive)  Anyway, my next post shall be about Goal #2: my garden. :)

Oh yes, and apologies for the lack of posts during the past month or two.  I've been very frustrated with Blogger lately... it's been doing the craziest things to my posts.  I've written several, but then deleted them because they wouldn't post correctly!

Summer days

So many things I want to do this summer

and so little time to do them!

Two of them I've started:

1. Cleaning, reorganizing, redecorating, and repainting my room(s)

2. Planting and tending a garden

They're both coming along pretty well, but taking much longer than I had expected.

I forgot to take any "before" pictures, so here are some from "during"....

 This room is what will eventually be my drawing room. (So excited!)

Poor little teapot... so forlorn...

Can anyone say "too much junk"?

The garden....

it's like weeding the lawn...

but it's getting there!

I don't think I've ever seen so many WORMS in my LIFE!!!  When it's ready to plant, I'm going to put in some pale pink primroses, purple and white alyssum, red verbena, pink carnations, and lavender.  I also want to put in a couple pea plants and my little bean bush I've been growing in a pot since April.

♥ Summer Break ♥

I'm FINISHED!!!!

 

The LORD is my strength and my shield;
         My heart trusts in Him, and I am helped;
         Therefore my heart exults,
         And with my song I shall thank Him

 

~Psalm 28:7~

 

This year has been an adventure.

Totally stressful...

 

 yet new and exciting.

New friends,

new interests,

new experiences.

I was realizing yesterday, I'm really going to miss my room.

Farewell, Brown 303.

Day 6

Well, this countdown is sort of a fail... but I shall attempt to finish anyway!

So today I really want to have a tea party...

 Menu:

berries and cream

scones

cucumber sandwiches

muffins with jam

sorbet in little glass dishes

 truffles

lemonade and tea

 ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

 

11 days!

 

It's day 11 already?  Woops.... well here's another picture post, anyway...

 

Less than two weeks to go!  Only a paper, three classes, and four finals stand in my way....

 Then I can get lost in a garden somewhere. :)

15 days!

Ice cream, anyone?

♥♥♥♥♥

(photographs: 1) dailymail.co.uk; 2) aap.org)

Catching up... day 17!

This weekend I was in DC for a class field trip... fun stuff.  Anyhow, since I've gotten rather behind in my countdown, I'll just do one post for all four days...

I decided to Google "doing nothing."

May 5th. :)

(so cute...)

:)

(photos: 1- scrapetv.com; 2) blog.nj.com)

21 days! (3 wk point! yay!)

GRASS!!!

(am I really posting about grass???....)

Yup, I love grass!

and clover...

Totally looking forward to fighting the bees and gigantic spiders to make these lovely patches of verdant vegetation my morning reading haunts. (slight sarcasm there... and perhaps some wishful thinking...)

(photographs from thelocalharvestdish.files.wordpress.com and www.digitalscrapbookingnow.com)

22 days!

Remember this? :)

(photograph from hangproud.com)

day 23

 Mmmm....

lemonade.

 

(photograph from bobnewell.net)

24 days!

So today... I'm loving

flowers...

 ♥♥♥♥♥

♥♥♥♥♥

♥♥♥♥♥


(photographs: 1- ayearfromoakcottage.com; 2- mooseyscountrygarden.com; 3- kimhunter.ca)

25 days...

I ♥ water!!!

... in pools...

... in lakes...

... and the ocean...

26 days!

Looking forward to summer dresses... 

(and making summer dresses!)

 

 

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

 

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

 

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

(photographs from www.modcloth.com)

Summer dreaming...

Sooo.... I'm getting really impatient for summer to get here!  I've determined to try not to go home very much or at all until after my last final, on May 5th.

That's  26  days away!

Since total focus is on studying and homework from now until then (with some awesome social events and a field trip thrown in, of course), and in order to keep the goal in sight, I want to write a brief post each day about something having to do with summer!  So, my dear ladies (and, uh...gents....?), fasten your seat-belts for

26 days of summer dreaming!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

So this is love...

I can't wait

for

MAY

and

STRAWBERRY SEASON!

 Mmmm....

I must confess I've already begun to indulge.  Hehe...

And you know, there's no such thing as too many strawberries.

 

But store bought just aren't the same as warm, fresh strawberries right out of the field!

Lookin' forward to picking berries with friends and family this MAY!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

"Birthdays are nature's way of telling us to eat more cake."

I ♥ surprise parties for very special people.

x♥x♥x♥x♥x♥x

 

x♥x♥x♥x♥x♥x

x♥x♥x♥x♥x♥x

Happy Birthday Veronika!

x♥x♥x♥x♥x♥x

Come, look with me inside this drawer, In this box I've often seen" -- Pamela Harazim.

A few weeks ago, mom and I were sifting through things at a thrift/antique store.  This particular store is actually an old house with each of its rooms filled with old treasures (along with, I must confess, old junk... but half the fun is in the treasure-hunting.)  In an old upstairs bathroom, buried beneath boxes and shoved between a tub and a wall, I discovered a pretty, but rather worn old sewing machine.  When mom eventually found me in this old bathroom examining my find, I told her I wanted a machine like that.  I didn't like the table it was on, and thought maybe I could buy just the machine and put it on the table that we already owned.  Then mom asked me why I would buy half of a no-name brand machine when we had a perfectly good, whole Singer at home.

Me: "But isn't ours missing the machine part?"

Mom: "No, Honey... it's inside the table..."

So, yes... all of these years I thought the "sewing machine" in our living room was just an old, pretty table that used to have a sewing machine that went with it (which, I imagined, had long since been lost, broken, sold, destroyed, or come to some other such unhappy end.)  Today I opened it up, and lo and behold, I found this beauty inside:

(cloth and thread added for effect... no, they weren't hiding in there, too)

My first question was: Does she still work??

My fix-it instinct had me playing with it for at least half an hour before I decided that threading this was a lot different than threading our newer Singer (which, up till this point, I had always considered ancient.. it is older than I am, after all...)  So I, uh... read the directions. (I'm sure if I were a man, I'd still be messing with it now)

As the accompanying manual is nowhere to be found, I looked her up online with this serial number:

According to Singer's website, she was manufactured in Elizabeth, New Jersey in 1904.

Wow.

Well, I found the manual, threaded properly, and finally attempted to sew a few stitches...

It worked!

Unfortunately, the belt on the treadle is broken and actually sewing on it requires you to use the hand wheel to the right... which is really painful after a while.

Well, actually, to be honest... I kind of broke the treadle belt. (Hehe... )  Apparently 106-year-old leather isn't as strong as it used to be, so when I attempted to hook the belt together over the wheel, the hook sort of broke off...

Luckily, I found a website that sells parts for old machines, and they happened to have a replacement belt for only about $13, including shipping!!!

I'm so excited to start sewing with her this summer as I attempt to learn how to make my own dresses, skirts, etc... and, of course, tiny clothes, dolls, etc. for little niece. ♥

(An addendum: My dad is pretty sure that this machine was his great grandmother's... my great great grandmother's!)

♥ Isle of CRU ♥

Spring break-- a week of sitting around at home in luxurious nothingness?  Usually yes.  

But not this year!

This year I decided to go with Duke Campus Crusade for Christ on their spring break beach trip called, as the title of this post indicates, Isle of CRU. (CRU, by the way, is short for Campus Crusade for Christ... yeah- long name to type out, and a mouthful to say.)  At any rate, while I did little more activity at Isle than I would have at home, I got to meet new people and strengthen existing relationships with fellow Christians from Duke.  Fun fun fun!  And now, for the real substance of this post-- pictures!!!  Though not many, as I forgot to take my camera with me most of the time... whoops.  I'll get the hang of this eventually.

Our lovely bedroom:

Emily and I roomed together for the week. ♥

View from our balcony door

We had a sunrise service on the beach

The services each evening were fantastic: singing, great talks, then small groups for deeper discussion following.  I really learned a lot this week about what it means to rest physically and spiritually, especially as a student, friendships, being vulnerable and open with fellow Christians, and why we should trust God with everything.

~~~~~~

To return to the pictures... :)

Unfortunately, it wasn't as warm as these people make it look...

Swimming, anyone? (high of the week-- 65)

Emily and I baked... a lot... with random ingredients we scrounged out of the snack closet(s) and, of course, the stocked-for-an-army guy's house (which, by the way, was hot pink).

These tasted like granola bars/cookies:

We cleaned kitchens a lot, too.  Is it weird that we enjoyed it...?

The dish faerie...

I took a great picture of her in some snazzy Eskimo sunglasses (or whatever those plastic slatted things are called), but as the photograph was deemed "dreadful", deletion demanded, retribution threatened, and the act reluctantly committed in order to avoid said revenge, this image must now suffice:

♥ a.d.o.r.a.b.l.e.♥

Well, that's all for now, friends!

Hope your week was just as blessed.