More Disney!

So I'm sorry for posting about Disney once again, but what can I say? I'm a huge fan!  Today I was on campus from before 8 am until after 7pm, so let's just say it was a looooonnnggg day!  I made it through and I was able to have a wonderful uplifting night with my FHE group.  We did Disney karaoke and man was it fun!  We seriously have the best group of people (I mean come on, how many men do you know who know all the words to Mulan and Tarzan?)  It was nice to just unwind from the day with some great people and great music.  One of the most fun songs we sang was "I'll Make a Man Out of You" from Mulan.  It has always been one of my favorites, and I even have it on my iPod.

I probably know all of the words, as did my whole FHE group, which is part of what made it so fun.  Torrin even ended the song with a flying Karate kick ha ha.  Call us nerdy if you want but hey we had fun :)  It also reminded me of my fourth year in girls camp.  That year we had a backpacking trip, and as was customary, before we returned to the main camp, we came up with a song to tell about our trip.  Part of our song was to the tune of this song from Mulan.  I wish I could remember the lyrics now, because it was pretty darn funny.  As always, Disney once again carries special memories for me :)

Marbled Nails

This afternoon I decided to retry a cool marbled nail painting technique that I found on pinterest.  The couple times I had tried it before, it had worked out alright, but not amazing.  This time I really got the technique down.  Here's how they turned out.

Here's the basic technique for how to do it:
1. Fill a small plastic cup with room temperature water.
2. Paint your finger nails a solid color and let them dry. (I painted mine teal)
3. Use a q-tip to cover the area around the nail and sides and back of finger tip with petroleum jelly or vaseline.
4. Pick your desired colors and let a drop of nail polish fall into the water (make sure to drop it close to the water or else it will sink to the bottom.)
5. After the first drop has expanded to fill the cup, continue dropping drops of nail polish in concentric circles into the water.
*at this point the water should look like this-

6.  After you have as many circles as you want, lightly drag a toothpick through the nail polish to create swirls or a pattern.

7. Dip your nail into into the part of the pattern that you want to appear on your nail.
8.  Blow lightly on the surface of the water until the polish hardens into a film.
9. While keeping your finger in the water, use your other hand to dip a toothpick into the nail polish film and twirl the film off of the surface of the water.
10. Remove finger from water and wipe of excess polish off of skin.  (the petroleum jelly should make it so the polish wipes right off)

Here is a close up of my thumb- I think it turned out the best.

I've found that it works best when you use white for either the base coat, or for one of the top colors.  The whole process takes a while, but turns out pretty awesome!

Friendship Bracelets

A couple years back my cousins and I started up with the fad of friendship bracelet making.  It went on for a while, and then I lost interest until I went to camp this summer.  I learned that it just wouldn't be camp without friendship bracelets and tie-dye shirts (post about tie-dye coming soon).  It just seemed like everyone made bracelets for everyone, and my interest in bracelets was rekindled.  Here is a picture of my bracelets from this summer.

They were made by a combination of friends, co-workers, and campers that I had this summer.  One that has a cool meaning behind it is the one on the far left.  It was made by my friend Sam, and it has nine different colors for the nine weeks we worked together this summer.  I hadn't made bracelets since camp, and decided to make some tonight for my roommates.  Here is the one I did for Hayley.

These kind are fun because they are reversible and are fast and easy to make.  There are all different kinds of friendship bracelets, so just find a kind that you like and try it!

Kittens

So today I had a pretty long/exhausting day and I got home to a wonderful surprise from my roommate. She did a lovely blog post about me. You can read it here http://how-lovelee.blogspot.com/2012/02/this-ones-for-you-erin.html :)  Anyways, it made my day, thanks Lauren!

Do you know what another thing that makes me happy? Kittens!  I mean come on how can this not make you smile?

We had cats quite a few times while I was growing up, but unfortunately we never had them for long because of the vast amounts of coyotes, owls, bobcats, ect. that lived behind our house... (but that is another sad story for later)  I have really always liked cats, but unfortunately I can't have cats in my apartment and since I'm in college I don't exactly have a lot of time.  I do hope to have cats one day, just hopefully I don't turn out like this ha ha (although I bet roommates think I might) 

But seriously, if you don't like cats, give these cute little guys another chance.

They even say owning a cat can have many benefits for your physical and mental health.  So in the end, the question is, why not have a cat?

Disney Generation

This past week I have been reminiscing in my childhood Disney memories.  I'm in the so called "Disney Generation" of kids who grew up watching the Disney Classic movies.  Most people would consider this to be something that you grow out of, but I say you are never too old for a good Disney movie.  This weekend I watched 101 Dalmatians and the Aristocats, and tonight I watched the Great Mouse Detective.  This is one that not everyone has seen, but definitely should.  Here is a little preview of it-

I just love this movie (even though it really scarred me and my sister when we were little ha ha).  Some of my other favorite Disney Animated Classics are:

Mulan

The Lion King

Beauty and the Beast

The Fox and the Hound

Aladdin

Robin Hood

The Rescuers and The Rescuers Down Under

Peter Pan

Oliver and Company

Pocahontas

Tarzan

Not to mention all of the great old live action Disney movies that I love too:

Pollyanna

Thomasina

That Darn Cat

Older Yeller

Bedknobs and Broomsticks

Swiss Family Robinson

The Parent Trap

Apple Dumpling Gang

Honey I Shrunk the Kids

Homeward Bound

I can't refute that Disney is still making awesome movies today, but these old movies will always be special for being a great a part of my childhood.

Irrational Fears: Part II

So here it is, my other irrational fear... FERRIS WHEELS!  Those things just scare me to death!  Back when I was younger I used to be deathly afraid of heights.  When I was seven or eight my family went to Niagra Falls.  We were walking over a bridge to get to the Canada side (a very large bridge that even had cars driving on it)  and I was so scarred that I started crying.  I got over that fear of heights around when I was twelve and I first climbed a rock wall.  Ever since then I have loved things like rock climbing, and last summer I helped to teach high ropes at a summer camp.  I also love roller coasters and even want to go sky diving when I save up enough money, but ferris wheels absolutely scare me to death ( as do ski lifts).  I tried going on one a couple years back to see if I was over my fear, and nope I wasn't.  There is just something about being in a swaying little compartment that is high up in the air without any type of seat belts or safety restraints.  They had a ferris wheel on campus for a day last semester and I took a pretty cool picture of it.

Maybe one day I'll conquer my fear, but for now I'll keep to rock climbing and high ropes :)

Tres Leches Cake :)

Tonight I went to my aunt and uncle's house for dinner, and I decided that I wanted to make a dessert.  I didn't have any butter but I had random things like whipping cream and sweetened condensed milk, so I decided to look on www.allrecipes.com (my favorite recipe website) for something that I could make.  I ended up finding a recipe for Tres Leches Cake which I love but have never made before, so I decided to give it a try.  


As a funny side story, here is what happened when I told my roommate what I was making.
Me: I think I'm going to make Tres Leches Cake
Roommate: You're making day of the dead cake?
Me: no ha ha
Roommate: What's day of the dead called then?
Me: Dia de los Muertos
Roommate: Wait what did you say you were making?
Me: Tres Leches
Roommate: Same thing....


Here is my version of the recipe because I made some changes to the one I found online.

Ingredients

• 1 cup white sugar
• 5 egg yolks
• 5 egg whites
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk
• 1 pint heavy whipping cream
• Caramel Syrup

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Butter the bottom of a 13x9 inch  pan.
2. Beat the egg yolks with 3/4 cup sugar until light in color and doubled in volume. Stir in milk, vanilla, flour and baking powder.
3. In a small bowl, add remaining 1/4 cup sugar and  beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Fold egg whites into yolk mixture. Pour into prepared pan.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) until light brown and cooked all of the way through. For me this was only 25 minutes.
5. Mix together condensed milk, evaporated milk and 1/4 cup of the whipping cream. Set aside 1 cup of the measured milk mixture or cover and refrigerate.
6. Poke many holes all over the cake using the back of a wooden spoon, and pour remaining milk mixture over hot cake slowly until absorbed. Follow by pouring desired amount of caramel into the cake.
7. Add desired amount of sugar and left over milk mixture to the remaining whipping cream and whip until it thickens and reaches spreading consistency. Frost cake with whipped cream, drizzle with caramel, and set in the fridge to cool.

Although some people like this dessert warm, it is originally meant to be served cold, and that is how I think it tastes best.  It turned out really great for me and it was a hit.  My cousin served his mission in Mexico and he said it tasted pretty authentic :) You'll have to let me know what you think!

Ein Heldenleben

Tonight I had the amazing opportunity of watching amazing roommate Lauren perform with the BYU Philharmonic Orchestra, which is the top orchestra at BYU, so I guess you could say she is pretty talented :)  The major piece that they played tonight was Strauss' "Ein Heldenleben."  It is an awesome piece written about the conquest of a hero. (To get the full story of the piece, visit Lauren's blog http://how-lovelee.blogspot.com)  The piece was almost an hour long, but it was amazing, and the orchestra did a phenomenal job!  Here is a little snippit of them playing-

Pretty good, huh?  Another cool thing about tonight was that Dieter F. Uchtdorf was there! And guess what! He sat in my row about 15 seats away and  Lauren even got to shake his hand after the concert!  He is probably my favorite speaker, and I love every single one of his talks.  All in all, it was a pretty awesome day, so we decided to end it by watching one of my favorite classic Disney movies- 101 Dalmatians :)  Nothing beats a day of classical music, Uchtdorf, and Disney :)

When You Have a Bad Day...

So it's inevitable that every once and a while you will have a bad day.  What matters however is not how bad of a day you are having, but how you react to it.  This morning I had a small fender bender, nothing major, and insurance didn't even have to be involved, but it still kinda shook me up.  I'm not saying that when bad things happen you don't have to be sad, but you don't need to dwell on them.  I was listening to music when I got back from work today and decided to listen to Joshua Radin's song "Brand New Day" which is a song that always cheers me up.  I decided to look up the music video for it because I'd never seen it, and I loved it! Here it is-

I just love how no matter what type of horrible things happen to him, he keeps on singing and playing his guitar.  That's what I decided to do today.  I just moved on with my day, watched a movie with my roommate , and then went out to get some ice cream. (because ice cream always makes things better)  Here is one last quote to leave you with:

"Just because today is a terrible day doesn't mean tomorrow won't be the best day of your life. You just gotta get there." - Unknown

Bread Bowls and Soup!

Tonight for dinner I made bread bowls with a little creation I like to call cream of green soup.  Essentially it is a broccoli, cheddar, and spinach cream soup, but that name is too long.  It turned out delicious, and it made a ton, so I shared with my roommates and my downstairs neighbor Alyssa.  The bread bowls took some time to make, but the soup was super easy and fast.
For the bread bowls-
1.) Let 2 packets of yeast dissolve in 2.5 cups of warm water (I also added a pinch of sugar for the yeast).
2.) Add 4 cups of flour, 2tps of salt, and 2 TBS of vegetable oil.
3.)Slowly add in 3 more cups of flour.
4.) Turn the dough onto a slightly floured surface and kneed well.
5.) Place in a greased bowl, lightly cover, and let rise for 40 minutes.
6.) Divide into 8 equal balls and let rise for 30 more minutes.
*Optional Step* Brush with egg whites
7.) Bake at 400 degrees for 20-30 minutes
8.) Scoop out the insides and pour in your favorite soup

For the soup:
1.) Cook 1-2 cups of broccoli and drain
2.) Place broccoli in blender and blend until smooth
3.)Prepare one package of dry cream of spinach soup
4.) Add blended broccoli and let simmer
5.) Add garlic salt, to taste
6.) Stir in 1-2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese until melted.

Here is how it turned out:

Quite delicious, and gives a good dose of vegetables! 

Lady Antebellum!

So since I haven't posted in a couple days, I decided to give my blog a makeover and redesign it. I'm still in the process of working things out, and it isn't completely finished but should be finished in a couple days.  Last night Hayley and I went to the Lady Antebellum concert in Salt Lake city and it was awesome!  Thompson Square and Darius Rucker (lead singer for Hootie and the Blowfish) opened and they were both pretty good, but Lady Antebellum was completely amazing!   Here was my face when they finally came out-

And since it was a country concert, I haaadd to wear my boots...

We were all of the way up in the top row, but it was more than loud enough for us to hear, and we were at a pretty good angle.  Like I said before, Lady Antebellum was amazing, and I would almost consider them to be better live than recorded.  Here is a video that Hayley took of them playing their final song (Need You Now). It's kinda fuzzy because it was so loud, but it is still a pretty good recording.

Lady Antebellum has been one of my favorite bands lately, so I'm really glad I got a chance to see them.  Even for people who don't like country they are good because Hayley doesn't normally like country and she really enjoyed them too.  Here are some of their songs that are my favorite:  

Dancin' Away With My Heart

Hello World

We Owned the Night

American Honey

Love This Pain

Heart of the World

If I Knew Then
Cold as Stone

Tonight however, I watched the music video for "Hello World" for the first time.  It was soo good, and I have to admit, it almost made me cry.  It is kind long but has a great message and is an awesome song so you should definitely watch it.

 In all, it was a great concert, I had fun screaming along to every single song, and I look forward to going to see Ingrid Michaelson in April!

My God is My Strength

So the title of this post says it all.  God truly is my strength.  He has helped me through more hard times than I can count.  One of the scriptures that I really like is Alma 26:12.  It is actually the scripture that my sister has on her missionary plaque.  She sent me this picture of her and her missionary companion the other week I thought it would go along perfectly with the scripture, so I did a little photo editing once again with picnik.

If you let Him, God really can help you through your trials.  A quote that I really like says “When life knocks you down to your knees, just remember you're in the perfect position to pray.” I find this to be so true.  Through prayer I have found the strength to do things that I never could have done otherwise.

Preference Dance!

Tonight my roommate Hayley and I went out to dinner and BYU's formal preference dance.  I went with a guy named Torrin, and Hayley went with a guy named Josh.  Both of them are in our FHE group.  We started the night out with taking some pictures.  (We joined our other friends Mary and Jennica and their dates.)  After that we headed out to Texas Road house for dinner.  It was delicious and we had a good time too.  After that we headed to the dance which was in a cool little restaurant/lounge in downtown Provo.  It was pretty crowded, and loud, with crazy strobe lights, but fun nevertheless.  All in all, it was a pretty awesome night.  Here are some of the pics we took prior to the dance.  (My date and I didn't even coordinate our outfits, we just both like purple!)

7 Brides for 7 Brothers

Tonight our ward had a giant group date valentines activity.  All the girls were asked out by a guy and then we had a picnic dinner.  After the picnic dinner we watched the movie "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers."  It was an  old movie made in the 50's, but I absolutely loved it!  It was pretty cheesy, but hey, that's what makes a movie fun.  Here is one of the fun scenes that I enjoyed where they seven brothers are trying to win the girls over at a barn raising through their dancing skills.

It really was a great movie, and you should check it out sometime.  Speaking of dancing... My roommate Hayley and I are going on a double date to the BYU girls' preference dance tomorrow night.  It is a formal, and we both have dates, so it should be fun :)  Pictures to come soon!

Nursing Home Visit

Tonight as a ward Relief Society activity we went and "heart attacked" (put paper hearts everywhere) at a nearby nursing home.  It was such a great experience!  The people there were so sweet and seemed genuinely happy that we were there.  They took the time to ask each of our names and where we were from.  I realized that we have so much to learn from those that are older than us.  I have amazing grandparents and I love them so much!  I was down in St. George visiting my Dad's parents earlier in September, and I snuck this picture of them as we were leaving the restaurant.

Here is a picture of my Mom's mom and her husband.  

My mom's father passed away when she was a teenager, so I never had the chance to meet him, but about ten years ago my Grandma got remarried to a wonderful man named Harold.  They live in North Carolina, so I don't get to see them very often, but I love when I get to.  Enjoy your grandparents, because you never know how long you will have them.

Not everyone can be Da Vinci...

This semester one of the classes I am taking is Art for Elementary Educators (since I'm going into Elementary Education.)  Besides photography, I've never really been an artist, but I'm really enjoying this class so far.  Last class we went over all the different styles of art and I realized that you don't have to paint like Da Vinci to be a good artist.  There are all different styles of art and they are each good in their own way.  The two artists that I really like are Van Gogh and Monet.  Believe it or not, when they first started painting, people didn't like their "impressionist" style.  Here are a couple of their paintings that I really like.

The Church at Auvers- Vincent Van Gogh

Venice Twilight- Claude Monet

The oil pastel of gerber daisies that I posted a couple posts ago was something I did in this class along with these-

For this assignment we had to use contour lines to draw our shoes and then put optical art in the background.

For this assignment we had to use different watercolor techniques to paint a flower, and I decided to do a gerber daisy again because they are my favorite flowers.  Even though these aren't amazing works of art, they were fun to do which is really all that matters!

Big Hair

When I was first born (and actually up until I was three) I was a very bald baby.  When we were living in Ecuador the native ladies there told my mom to shave my head so that my hair would grow in thicker.  All I can say is that thanks goodness she didn't! It may have taken a while to grow, but now I have super thick hair.  It seems like every time I go to get it cut the hairdresser makes a comment about how thick it is.  Not only that, but it also can get super frizzy (especially when I blow-dry it). Luckily I have now learned how to tame my hair and I love how thick it is, but it is because of this lovely hair that my older sister Emily gave me the nickname "Bushkal" when I was younger.  She said my hair was like a bush...  Anyways, just recently Charlotte showed me a video of an exercise lady who apparently used to be pretty famous.  The video is pretty darn hilarious, and because of her hair, Charlotte said I should be her for Halloween next year.  I'll have to think about it, but in the mean time enjoy this video!

Crepes!

So tonight for dinner (well it was really like dessert) I decided to make banana nutella crepes with homemade whipped cream and oh man were they delicious!  Here is the recipe:
Ingredients
1 cup of flour
2 eggs
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup milk
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbs melted butter
Directions
Whisk ingredients together all ingredients until well mixed.  Pour 1/4 cup of batter in circular pan and tilt pan around until it is completely covered in a thin layer of batter.  Cook for 2 minutes then flip.  Fill with ingredients, roll, and enjoy!

Irrational Fears

Tonight I was watching Rise of the Planet of the Apes (which was a pretty awesome movie) with Hayley and Evan, and I was once again reminded of my irrational fear of living in large cities.  This first started when I watched the Spiderman Movies.  It made me think about how anytime there is something crazy and dangerous where people have to run screaming for their lives through the streets, it happens in a large city.  I know this is all just by the design of the movie producers (because come on who would want to watch a movie about apes taking over Provo?) but it still just freaks me out a little bit. Here are some of the movies that have gotten me freaked out about big cities-

In all of these movies innocent city livers are abducted, taken hostage, or killed!  I mean come on!  Don't get me wrong, I love a vacation to NYC as much as anyone else, I just couldn't ever see myself living there.  Stay tuned for irrational Fears Part II.

Tests, Picnik, and more!

So today I had the lovely opportunity of taking my first exam of the semester in the testing center.  This is our lovely testing center-

It is probably the most dismal building on campus and quite often the people in this building feel like this-

(Yes, I am a Harry Potter geek)

Luckily that was not me today because I got an A on my test! Woo hoo!  Another thing I wanted to show you was how to make pictures of ugly things (like the testing center) look pretty.  I am really into photography and photo editing, and to do all of my work I use a little website called Picnik.  Here is a before and after of the testing center that I did using picnik.

Now doesn't that look much better?  I've used it so much now that it took me less than 5 minutes to do that picture.  The thing that makes me sad about picnik however is that they are shutting it down after April 19th :( I guess I will have to find something new to edit my photos with, so if you have any suggestions, let me know! And since the title of this post is "Tests, Picnik, and more" I guess I should provide you with something more. So here you go, a video that will give you a good laugh! (especially if you are either a Harry Potter fan or Rebecca Black critic!)