My Crazy College Days...

Once upon a time, I went to college.

I didn't have a crazy college experience. I went to a Bible school and lived with four relatively normal girls my first year. We would stay up late, yes, but it was mostly because we were studying or making music videos to Disney soundtracks. We would stay up till 2am creating funny pictures like this one:

Embarrassing, but not really crazy. 

Anyway, Molly and I both really REALLY wanted to get our noses pierced that year. Apparently, we're not the sort of people to make an impulse decision (plus, it costs $50. $50 is a COMMITMENT.) because we did not get our noses pierced during our first year. We did, however buy glue and a package of rhinestones commonly used as nail art. And then we... well, we glued little rhinestones to our noses just to get the effect.

We LOVED the effect. But we never really had $50 dollars and we weren't sure what our dads would say, so we stuck with rhinestones that kept falling off our faces.

So on and off, we would talk about piercing our precious little noses. Friends began to pierce them and we thought that maybe we'd look too much like we were following another trend. Still, we thought about it. 

Time passed, and we laughed about our rhinestone days. 

More time passed, and we both got married. We still talked about our noses. 

Fast forward to our senior year.

I asked Carson what he thought about my nose getting pierced (I showed him the picture I just showed you) and he said he liked it. I told Molly and we decided that the time had come (this was probably early 2011).

I really don't think I've communicated it enough here, but I am scared of needles and sometimes hyperventilate after I have blood drawn. I also happen to know that they don't use a staple gun on your nose like they do with ears - they use a needle. 

But then again, I had wanted to pierce my nose for over three years. The time had clearly come. I didn't want to be 75 years old and still considering it. There is a window after all. (ps - if you are 75 and want to get your nose pierced, by all means FEEL FREE...)

So we discovered that one of the piercing places nearby had $10 off on Tuesdays. Tuesday it was. Carson was working, and just in case I'd decide to chicken out, I risked the embarrassment of telling him what I was going to do. Days before, I asked for his permission, just to be clear. "So, if I were serious about getting my nose pierced, what would you say? Are you really okay with it? Because I think this time I'm serious." And he said go for it (I don't think he actually cared at all). 

Molly and I went to the mall, full of trepidation. Well, I was. She'd decided not to pierce her nose after all. 

I signed medical releases (scary) and we went into a little room. I had my nose marked with a marker to show where the piercing would go. I okay'd the spot, then they cleaned my nose with a q-tip (I don't think I would like cleaning noses and such as part of my job. I bet they see really gross things.), stuck a little tube up my nose (it was weird), and told me to close my eyes (if I can't see the needle, maybe I won't know it's there). She said "I'm going to count to three and then you'll feel a pinch. "1... pinch". Smart going, lady. I didn't even have time to tense up. It pinched and made my eyes water and then I was told (this is tmi) that it was "gushing" so I kept a cotton ball on it. 

So after that, we went to get ice cream (we'd saved $10, remember?!) to celebrate the accomplishment of a first-year goal... three years later. 

I loved it. Carson was surprised that I went through with it but said he liked it too.

I would have expected that I was responsible enough for such a piercing. And I was, for exactly three days.

I went on a retreat and was toweling off after a shower when suddenly - ow! My nose ring came out and I couldn't get it back in (it was the corkscrew kind and I still don't know how to work them). I used the only substitute I had - a real earring, which seemed normal-sized on my ear, but was ridiculous on my nose. Someone called "diva" because of my bling and everyone laughed at me. I deserved that.

But then one Tuesday later, we found ourselves in that very same little room for Molly - who'd decided to get her tragus (the little flap thing on your ear) pierced. I imagine that hers was much more painful, but she has the highest pain tolerance ever so it wasn't a big deal.

Anyway, that's the story of how crazy we were in college. 

Insane, right?

A Berry Nice Time

Honestly, the most difficult part about this post was which pun to use in the title. Should I go for something to do with canning or with berries? So many options. 

Given that clever title, you've probably deduced that this post has something to do with berries. 

Well, you are correct. 

I joined Molly and her mom, Michele for an adventure amid strawberry plants. It was their very first time picking the delicious red berries, which surprised me since I grew up picking them on the way back from the beach every year. I sort of thought everyone had picked strawberries (I asked Carson and he doesn't think he's ever been either, so maybe it was just my circle of friends growing up).

I was also surprised to know that strawberries here aren't ready until late June (we picked on the last day of June) or early July. Back home, strawberries are an early to mid-May kind of thing. Must have something to do with the weather... 

Anyway, we went up and almost met a dead end when the first farm we stopped at only had berries for sale; nothing to pick. But they directed us down the road to another farm. As we turned in the drive, we saw dozens of families picking and eating berries and we knew that we were in the right place. Yay!

I had just taken a bite out of this one; I had to edit the berries off my teeth; oops!

As you can see, they were naturals at this berry picking thing; Michele made herself at home in the field

We went a little crazy with the picking: 15 pounds of berries. 

And then it was time to make strawberry jam. 

When we got back to Molly's apartment, we ate and de-stemmed. 

I mashed. I was the "gentle masher"... but not gentle enough to avoid berries on my shirt.

7 cups of sugar per batch! 

Boiling

  

Jarring

Lidding.

I helped with the lids too.

Placing the jars in a pot of boiling water to set. I like this picture; they're so ready to jump in and fix whatever mistake I was about to make :) 

Finished

Labeled

Proud. We were intending to do only 12 jars but we picked (and had already mashed) way too many berries so we sent Jerrad out for 12 more. And we still had a lot of leftovers for Molly and Jerrad to put over ice cream or shortcake the next day. 

All the credit for the canning goes to Molly's mom, of course. She instructed and guided on the first batch, and we learned so well that she left us and read a book during the last batch. We're probably the best students ever. At least that's what we like to think. 

It was fun, and though not a process I'd enjoy alone, I think I'd like to do it again. It wasn't as difficult I thought, and the result tastes pretty nice. 

Sewing Day

Molly and I had a sewing day. We've had "craft day" before, where we make a small project, but as we browsed Pinterest for ideas that weren't too expensive, we landed on this idea:

Our projects were based on these two tutorials:

(from here) 

(from here)

Molly began with a pillowcase she had sitting around, but I bought fabric (a yard of knit from JoAnns... with a coupon it was about $5 for a yard... I didn't use the whole thing... I had about 1/4 yard left over).

We basically made a pillowcase shape (two rectangles) - hers was whatever standard pillowcase size is. We didn't measure it because we didn't need to. Mine started out wider, so I found that what worked best was to cut it to 21 inches wide. I'm not sure how long it was, but when held to my shoulders, it came to my mid-calf. I had intended to make a shirt, but when we saw how long the fabric was, I decided to just make a dress... if I ever wanted it to be a shirt, I could just trim off the extra fabric!

You sew a casing for the neck tie, then sew up the sides... not all the way, because then you won't have arm holes. Measure and mark with a safety pin to figure out the best place to get arm holes and sew up to that point. 

One of the tutorials I used said to use a zig-zag stitch, but my fabric kept getting stuck in my machine when I tried, so I used a straight stitch and didn't have one single issue with the machine or the fabric. It wasn't a super-thin knit, so that might be why.

Then you thread the ribbon through (mine was a satin sash from an old skirt, and Molly's was a ribbon) and tie it on! Both of us had to sew our arm-holes up a little higher, but it all worked out. After we tried them on, we hemmed ours. Molly's was easy... she just had to seam-rip the bottom and sew over the line of the old hem. I measured where I wanted my hem to be and then just sewed it up! My fabric was knit, so I really didn't need to sew a hem at all, but I can't really cut straight lines well, so I didn't want to risk it. 

 I didn't get a picture of Molly in her shirt, but she wore it home! I didn't have anywhere to go, but I tried it on anyway... I can  either belt it or leave as-is.

This project did take us a long time, mostly because we didn't know what we were doing. The sewing machine created problems, and Molly had to take the time to seam-rip parts of her pillowcase. All-in-all this project could easily be accomplished in 1-2 hours, possibly less depending on the skill level! I have some extra fabric sitting around that I might employ to make similar garments this summer :)

happy birthday molly!

My dear old roommate and friend Molly turned 22 on November 3. Her favorite cake is German Chocolate so I was commissioned by her husband to make one. Very scary, since I wasn't sure how German Chocolate is supposed to taste. I guess it tasted fine, because Molly, Jerrad and Carson all approved.

Here are pictures from the little "party" at Molly and Jerrad's. 

We had pizza, cake and ice cream, and watched Despicable Me (Carson really loved it if anyone is looking for a birthday gift)

Here is a link to a past birthday post for Molly

Jillian's Visit: Day Three

part one

part two

Day three involved a 7:45am three hour class, chapel, and a 12:15pm four hour class, so pictures are lighter today (tomorrow there will be a TON).

Friday night, I had my old roommates and good friends Molly and Erica over for dinner so they could meet Jillian. Isabel stopped by too. Jillian made (sugar free) pudding with (sugar free) Oreos for dessert. I made spinach and ricotta stuffed chicken, one of my most-often made dishes. Erica and Molly brought salad and bread.