18 days

i always forget to update this blog. so summer is over in 18 days. i'll be 21 in 18 days. i'll be a college student in 18 days. i might even feel like a real adult in 18 days.

i got my class schedule yesterday, so it's starting to hit me that i'll have to grow up and go to school every day and really apply myself. i'm excited to go school shopping and get supplies and things for my room.

i recently bought a 17" Macbook Pro with my student line of credit. i also bought a cute backpack for it. hope my books and lunch fits in with my behemoth of a laptop.

on august 27th, i'll be going to both campuses for orientation. i'm going to get my student card and bus pass probably. i'll also get my book list i'm assuming so i can finally get those. i hope they're not too expensive.

the new sims expansion, Apartment Life or whatever, comes out in a few weeks. i hope i get it for my birthday. i also need to get an XP disc so i can dual-boot and play the sims on my mac. i'm so excited for that. my old computer was crazy slow and it wasn't even fun to play most of the time.

you know what if fun to play? wiifit. my aunt lent hers to me and it's such a great game. it's tiring, though, but it makes you feel good. my friends were playing it for the last few days and they were beating my records, so now there's competition to destroy :D i unlocked Free Step today. i walked 1800ish steps in 20 minutes while watching Bikini or Bust on TLC. good times.

so it's almost the middle of august. this summer has been really great. my friends are fun and my camera is nice. imovie 08 is a nice program. i finally figured out how to resize pictures using iphoto, so hopefully this will inspire me to update this blog more often :)

here are three videos of my friends and i having fun, lol:

ribs

shopping spree, sort of.

jake brought my sister and i to the mall in his new sky blue topaz. i returned my too small shoes and tried on a billion other ones. 7s are too small and 8s are too big. so i bought 3 pairs of ankle socks with my store credit. we went to mariposa after because they are closing and everything is 50-70% off. i am really going to miss this store, but by the time they close in september, i think i'll have probably bought half the store anyway, lol. i am no good at saving money. i bought a black argyle sweater (even though when i was picking out socks i told my sister i wanted to go a year without buying any argyle), a red raincoat thing, and a pink/black/white houndstooth light jacket/hoodie/scenester thing (even though i already have a pink and white one...). i know owe my sister $32. i feel bad for raiding my of montreal fund..it is now at $-4. eek. and here i didn't buy New Blood because i didn't want to spend my money. i am terrible, lol. i'm disappointed i didn't get new shoes, though.

Pottery Barn

this bed is at Pottery Barn for $1800. i really really want it. i need to become employed asap.


ps! i am ordering my Macbook Pro this week!!

Virgo

my horoscopes have been creepily accurate lately. i spent most of today going through things and organizing my room. i even put stuff i've been holding on to forever in the sale bag! then i read this:


7/18/2008- Go through your desk or your closet -- or, if you're feeling ambitious, your attic -- and reorganize. Better yet, you may want to clear out some of that clutter and get rid of it for good!


weirrrdd.

how to save a life

i saved it from drowning in my pool. my sister and i watched it for fifteen minutes as it recovered and dried off its wings.

replacements

i finally bought new flip flops. these ones actually flip and flop. i am worried about blisters, so i'll probably continue to wear my holey ones more until they completely fall apart.



i also bought a new bathing suit and some shorts and some other shoes and some mascara. woo.

Check Out my Tree

isn't that horrible? the neighbours behind us want to put in a pool, so they paid to have their tree and my tree cut down. the tree cutters couldn't get through the millions of knots on my tree, so they left it like this. my yard is completely full of sun all day, the grass is dying and the flowers are in shock. my cats hate it too and i feel bad for how embarrassed the tree would be if it knew how it looked now. i was actually wondering if it knows that it doesn't have any leaves or branches anymore and it just made me really sad. at least my pool will be really warm now.

Rides

i like two things about the carnival - $6 cherry lemonade and overly ornate rides. the lemonade stand was closed, so this is all i was able to get.


i always forget about this blogger, so i've got some catching up to do.

Officially Summer

hello summer. next time i'll bring a tripod, i swear.

Officially Summer

it is finally my favourite season, but it doesn't feel like it at all. the sky is grey and cloudy more often then not. it rains a lot. my pool isn't open. i'm still pasty and gross. i have barely worn skirts. where is the summerness.

i've been cutting my hair constantly all month and this is what i've ended up with:







i think the back needs to be trimmed a bit, but overall, i'm pretty impressed.

this is a boring post. sorry.

Do Good Divas

I finally finished my first "commissioned" drawing for the Do Good Divas. It's exciting. It took some time and some tweaks to get it exactly how the client wanted it, so her she is in all her changing glory:





The original concept. The arm has no attitude at all, lol.



My favourite version. I hated the hair at first, but I played around with colours and now I'm in love.



And finally, the final version! The Do Good Diva colours are pink and lime green.



This lady will be on flyers, posters, tshirts, etc. I am happy :) Up next: poster-making!

moving clouds

i downloaded Jasc Animation Shop again! i haven't had it in years. i'm excited.


i'm going to my cousin's house for my other couin's 14th birthday party. my mom told me to bring my bathing suit. i was excited and was going to until i realized that there's going to be a million 13 and 14 year old boys there, so instead i will bring knitting needles.

Art in the Park

Laura, Dan, Marla and I went to Art in the Park on Sunday. Laura, Dan and I took the shuttle bus over and Marla met us later on. Everything was crazy expensive. I bought a Starry Night + Cow print from these neat Asian people. The guy was playing a DS the whole day. Walkerville school's tent was my favourite. It definitely made the heat and the walking around worth it. My mom said my art and photos were better than half of theirs, but I'm not going to hate on them. After Art in the Park, Laura went home for dinner, so Dan and Marla came to my house where we bbq'd hot dogs and I made mashed potatoes. It was nice. There was a crazy freak thunderstorm and I thought Laura was going to die on the way to my house. She did not. We played Singstar (lame) and then went to Marla's house and played Rockband (amazing!!). Marla had to drive her brother's girlfriend home, so Laura, Dan and I went to Little Caesars and got a pizza from Miranda. We came back to my house, ate, watched some mtv and then watched Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself. Laura and Dan went home at 2am. What a nice, busy day. I need to buy a PS3 and Rockband ASAP.



~more pictures here.

Prom

Amanda had her prom on June 6th. She went with Jake which was really nice. I took a million pictures. Here are two of my favourites.

It's the American Duty

franklin and death cab

the day after the playground hangout, laura and i went to dan's to play wii games. i forgot my games, so we went back to my house and picked up steve while we were there. it's nice and convenient that he lives close. we played with dan's new dog franklin. i remember seeing pictures a few months ago from when he was a teeny tiny puppy. now he is gigantic and chases his tail a lot. we played warioware, this monster truck game and multiplayer bully. i really need to get another nunchuk. my batteries died after this video, so i didn't get any pictures.

another time i didn't get any pictures was last night when i saw death cab for cutie in detroit. i was under the impression that no cameras were allowed in the fox theatre but EVERYONE had cameras. how annoying. it would have been really neat to get pictures of all of the red wings fans celebrating out on the streets after the show. oh well, it was a good show. i'm sort of happy i wasn't distracted by my own camera because i'm not too sure i would have enjoyed the show as much if i had a camera to hold up. everyone else who had cameras (and cellphones) seemed to pay more attention to them than the band. good times nonetheless.

Eight and Playground Hangouts

today was a really good day and hopefully the kickoff of a really great summer. it's sort of sad that the play wasn't a highlight, but i guess i wasn't expecting too much (although john did really well). ice cream is really expensive. i think if i put $5 aside for every two scoops of ice cream i eat, i would be rich in a month. playgrounds at night are underrated. my pants are dirty. i took a million pictures (though not as many as laura since she was basically doing stop-frame animations) and a bunch of videos that i'm excited to look at. good day, friends, good day.

today was really hot

today was the hottest day ever. i laid on the couch watching crappy tv with a fan pointed at me (everyone should know how much i hate fans) while either knitting or eating freezies for twelve hours straight. no loan or jobs were applied for today. perhaps wednesday.

i'm knitting a gigantic blanket, so i should probably buy some 4.5mm circ needles because i'm not too sure how my ol' straight ones are going to be able to handle getting 50000 stitches across. i think i probably knitted at least 1500 stitches today. i'm getting really quick. i could totally knit seventy fish in a day now, lol.

i cut my sister's hair and took pictures of her in her prom dress in the back yard. i really like how both turned out.

the other day, my mom mentioned that her charity organization, The Do-Good Divas, needed a logo and that they were interested in having me draw it. my mom said, "it has to be super super skinny and have purse for a head." i sort of argued that super super skinny isn't really a good image to promote these days, but apparently to be a diva, one must be a stick figure. so i quickly drew this girl with lines for arms and legs and my mom loves it. i'm going to email it to the director tomorrow and see what she thinks of the design before i make a completely polished version.

laura and i were talking about going to chicago to attend lollapalooza. that would be amazing and expensive, so maybe i should get a job soon. i was writing out a list of expenses for the summer last night (computer, tuition, concerts) and the total was almost $7000. jesus.

may has been a really long month, but i can't believe it's already almost june. i'm excited to make my monthly photo post. it seems like it's been forever since the last one. here's a sneak peek:







that was fun. what do you think of the Diva "logo" (lady with no head, on the left)? i clearly don't know what purses look like. wow, it's so messy. maybe i will redo it before sending it off after all.


oh wow, death cab is already in one week and one day! maybe i should get more acquainted with the new music right now. good night.

how to knit really fast

how to knit really fast: watch a suspenseful movie. i recommend Cloverfield.


i think i'm making a blanket. there are 65 stitches so far. i've got four balls of yarn like this (from laura!) that are different colours, so i'm just going to keep knitting until i get bored of this/the stitches can't fit on my needles anymore.

hair cut and stuff

i cut my hair last night at 2am. i liked it a lot, even if i do look like Selphie from ffviii.

when i was waiting for my bus, a car of white boi gangstas honked and waved. i thought that was funny.

i'm doing well in this volunteer thing i'm doing. it's all confidential, so i cannot say much (like anyone even reads this...lol). we do role plays in training and today i thought i did poorly, but the trainers said i did well, so i am proud. basically, i'm volunteering to learn how to communicate empathetically/effectively and i can see it working already. i went to bk afterwards and ordered food and it wasn't even stressful. i think, in a way, i adapt to my surroundings and who i'm with for periods of time and adopt their characteristics. the other volunteers are all really nice and focused on doing well in school and in life and i can feel that affecting me in a good way.

i'm really excited to start school in september and maybe get my g2 in the summer and maybe get a job in the next few weeks.

laura, britt, shawn, ashley and i are seeing death cab for cutie in less than two weeks!

vegan cupcakes

two posts in one day, huh? i'll allow it.

YESTERDAY I MADE VEGAN CUPCAKES! the baking process was really nice and smooth and productive. i HAND MIXED icing for 12 minutes. it is so delicious. the cake, not so much, but i've got some idea of how to fix it for next time.



i haven't really been trying to be vegan lately. i haven't been keeping track of what i eat on this site i was using either. i think i need to focus on becoming a better vegetarian before i take the plunge into veganism, but i will continue to try vegan recipes and eat grilled cheese in the same day. i don't see anything wrong with that.

to me, eating is almost the same as personal spirituality. i can't stand overbearing religious people who dictate how to worship, and i certainly can't stand those who dictate what to eat and why not to eat other things. i've been a vegetarian for over three years, but i still eat chicken noodle soup from time to time. of course there is no actual meat in the soup, but it is made from chicken stock. does this make me an omnivore? no, i don't believe it does.

say i was a vegan. would putting margarine on my sesame seed bagel in the morning make me not a vegan because whey powder is listed near the end of the ingredients list? again, i don't think so. however, if i were to tell someone i was a vegan and then eat a grilled cheese sandwich, i wouldn't be a vegan. i'm not a vegan, so i should probably change my "being vegan" label.

i'm going to watch trekkies now.

sims and exciting things

it took seven hours to play three sim days. my computer is garbage. agustus is finally a teenager. he is the fourth youngest first gen grim. sarelleh will be a teenager in i think four days. the twins will be children in two and that will be it for the first gen grim babies. finally. i'm so happy i got them back. isavellah and spy are going to be seniors in two days as well and that just makes me sad, but i've been putting off their birthdays for literally three years and a few of their children are catching up to their age, so they might as well grow up, for continuity's sake. i remember one time i actually allowed their daughter merachella to grow up into a senior and then i turned of the game without saving because it was just too weird.

things i am excited for

1-bathing suits (oh july, come quickly)

2-getting a line of credit (applying this week!)

3-warm weather every day (so may really sucks..)

4-new computer! (though i've been hearing bad things about 17in screens and college?)

5-college!? (106 days. it's coming up.)

6-tattoo for my birthday (but where..)

7-watching people squirm at training (lol)

8-taking summer pictures

9-road trips?!

10-making perfect vegan cupcakes (this will never happen)

11-getting a new bike

12-my bangs growing out or something

13-wii fit!!

14-um, income tax money that is a thousand years over due

15-getting a new cook book tomorrow (why is today a holiday..)

16-getting a job?! (value village? i would be a hero to my 15 year old self)

17-trying this painting thing i've always wanted to do

18-developing a cult-like following

19-g2 in the summer??

20-finishing His Dark Materials

21-death cab?!?!?

22-sleeping like a normal person (maybe i will wake up at noon today. joke of the day.)

i wasn't expecting the list to be so long.

invites and another washcloth

you aren't invited of course, but check out these invites i made for my sister's birthday party





+ a washcloth





i have no idea how to neatly weave in ends.


in the last two days i've watched three movies, all of which i thoroughly enjoyed. i watched Evan Almighty, The Nanny Diaries and Adaptation. the special effects in Evan Almighty really surprised me.

last night i practiced my volunteering phrases/conversation techniques with dan on msn. i think i'm getting pretty good with the structure and content of my active listening statements and open ended questions. we talked jobs and how we should probably get employed some day soon. i printed off my resume and finished filling an an application i printed the other day. hopefully i actually go and apply somewhere sometime next week.

i took some pictures

none of which are too exciting.







my cats are always so angry looking.. i was reading my volunteer handouts and gracie decided she wanted to sit on them. so she did. for like five minutes.



i made a pizza and put tomatoes and soy meat on it. i bought a green pepper the other day for like $2.25 and it's completely wrinkled and soft and garbage. i scraped the soy meat off because i don't like when it is on hot food.



my bangs are getting ridiculous. i bought new shampoo yesterday. herbal essences' long term relationship. the conditioner smells terrible, but my hair is soft, so whatever. should i cut my bangs and/or commandeer someone's razor comb things or should i left them grow for a while and have side bangs again?



i knitted another washcloth.



i like this side better. my blue and green one disappeared. i have no idea where it went, lol. i'm knitting a grey and green one now. it's going to be sexy, for a washcloth.

The Idiot's Washcloth

After knitting for almost four years, I've finally taught myself to make "The Idiot's Washcloth" while watching ANTM the other day. I love it so much. I started making an orange and green one last night, but I was so outraged by ER and CSI that I had to stop knitting. I hate tv so much.

strawberry

self-portrait.

Addison's Birthday Party

today was addison's 2nd birthday party. it was really nice. i ate cheese pizza. i haven't eaten cheese since april, but i wasn't really in the mood to have to potentially defend my eating habits like i had to the other weekend. i don't really miss it at this point.

i was taking pictures of addison opening presents. i was across the room and used the zoom a lot. i've never really used the zoom that much. it wasn't focusing right, so i kept messing around with the settings. the flash was sometimes making everyone look gross and sweaty and red-eyed. the pictures don't look bad, but they don't look perfectly fine to me either. after the presents, we ate cake and i took more pictures. this time i put it on the movie setting, so no flash was used. the lighting in lacey's living room is so perfect for photography. the pictures turned out really well, except for a few where people were moving and therefore turned into blurs. i don't know how to prevent that.

after the party we went grocery shopping. i bought a bunch of vegan food, so hopefully i like it and can have a proper diet.

every april i get a stupid sunburn on my face. i've been waiting for it to happen, and i think it's finally here :(

today was a really nice day

(click the pictures to see MASSIVE versions.)

today was a really nice day considering nothing really happened.

last night i went to an orientation for a volunteer position i am interested in. i'm really excited to start. after i got home, i took a bath, read a little and went to bed with wet hair around midnight.

this morning i was woken up by the phone. my hair was gigantic, so it's a good thing it was just the phone and not someone at the door. phone lady said that my references haven't emailed her yet and to please get on that. so i called my aunt at work and she was like omgiamsobusygoingtocourtbye. i emailed my other reference and she faxed it in asap. she's so nice.

i cleaned my kitchen sort of and made embarrassingly empty soy tacos. i haven't been grocery shopping in like a week and a half, and i decided to make a diet change in the middle of that somewhere, so it's a good thing my aunt sent home a thousand pounds of veg penne with me from that baby shower on sunday. the bowl finally emptied today. it's also a good thing i bought organic peanut butter when i went shopping with her on saturday because i ran out of my old pb a few days ago. i think i need my own car so i can easily go shopping any time i want. i can be shopping right now. how amazing. i think i'm going to make and try pasta salad for the first time tomorrow. i bought some frozen diced vegetables the other day and this vegan book i was reading has a nice recipe in it that seems simple enough. this will be a year of trying new things. i've been stuck in a lettuce-tomato-cucumber rut for too many years.

after lunch, i cleaned up my room a bit, but books are still all over the place. the other day i took everything out of my book shelf and put it into specific piles on the floor all over my room. it's been like that for maybe two weeks now? i suck. i took pictures of my room for this lj community and i took pictures of my chloe cat because she is cute.

after that, i went to the library to return House of Leaves. i didn't get very far in that book because the His Dark Materials series took over my life. i started the third book on the bus going downtown yesterday. it's such a good series. anyway, i also went to the library to pick up the two vegan cookbooks i had put a hold on the other day. they're called How It All Vegan and The Garden of Vegan: How It All Vegan Again. the writers are young, hip, open minded girls who remind me of Tegan and Sara (one is actually named Sarah and the other's name starts with a T, so it makes sense, lol.) i also took out You Are Your Choices and Th!nk, which is a rebuttal to Bl!nk, which i haven't read because it sounds kind of dumb anyway. the weather was really nice and the sky was blue, so i sat under this tree and read the first few pages of the first vegan book. it was nice, but ants are annoying.

i walked home while reading more of the first book and waved to my neighbours. andrew, whom i've haven't seen in a year or two, called me and i thought he was dan at first. he told me about this eight person play at riverside in a few weeks. i am excited for it. it's nice that he called.

my aunt finally called me around 9:30 to tell me that she didn't get any emails from me. i asked her a million times if she checked her spam or junk folders. she was like, "what does that even mean?!?" and then she went on about how it says Spam and not Sam or Spamantha. needless to say, by the end of it all, she had four copies of my email, from two different accounts and in two or three different folders. (my aunt decided at 50 to go to a business college and become a legal assistant =|)

all in all, i had a really nice day.

ps. did anyone watch 20/20 tonight? it just showed a couple in bed with their macbooks' apple logos lighting up the room as they bid on weird politic stocks at intrade.com. it was sort of cute, lol.