Blog Is Under Construction!

So because of some problems I have been having my Blog is undergoing construction! I will keep everyone posted and updated. I will be changing the site, the look, everything!

Holiday Party

I went to my coworkers Holiday Party at the Cabin, and it was so much fun. One of my other coworkers played and had fun with my hair, while I did my nails (at the party, I think we needed to talk, it was well overdue). I would show you my nail color, sadly I have no picture of them :(

But I do have a picture of me in my Christmas sweater, it was ivory with beaded snowman on it. I know this sounds silly, but I loved it. It was fun.

I love Picnik

What was crazy there was another girl there (she was really cool) that also had a sweater with a snowman on it (but the focal point of her sweater was a house decorated for Christmas. Later we also were the only one with awesome pj's mine was this and she had a red onsie (it was awesome).

I had a great time at the party, drank, met lots of awesome people and relaxed. Got in the hot tub, was with new friends and really enjoyed myself.

It was a great way to start off the holidays.


If you are going to one here is a set I made to help you out. I love Polyvore.

For that Christmas Sweater Party by christine-vanek featuring black leggings

My Top Favorite Sites

Lately I have been having a difficult time focusing on schoolwork. It's not just because Christmas is getting near or the semester is coming to an end. No, it's because of the interet.

This past semester friends have been introducing me to a bunch of new websites. As a result, in between classes, studying, meetings, working, sleeping, dates, etc I have been constantly been on the computer.

Here are some of my favorite sites and descriptions for each of them:

• Pinterest: Imagine have multiple bulletion boards where you can display all these wonderful ideas (recipes, DIY, fashion, cars, sports, etc) by category. You can add as many images/ideas as you want to this bulletion board and you can share it with others. That is exactly what this site does, but virtually. I have done DIY stuff, experimented with my nails, and so much more. They have everything! I love it and I check it on my phone, and on the computer everyday. You can also contribute to the images as well! I will warn you will have to get a friend to invite you or you ask the website to invite you, I think it's to prevent "autobots" (computer programs that are just trying to anaylze and see what is popular and throw pop ups onto that persons computer, I think I got that right, so don't qoute me. I'm no computer whiz)
• College Fashion: as a college student I don't have a lot of time on my hands and some days I'm not sure what to do with the clothes I already have some days. Also if you want to try a new look or just need inspiration this site is great for that. As well as DIY, contests, and some history about fashion.
• Polyvore: Do you wish to be like the editors of vogue? Do you just enjoy playing around with fashion? This site is perfect with that. You can make up boards (I have no idea what they are called, I'm new to this myself) but I love it and it is so much fun. It does take some time to get used to how you use it, but it is so much fun!
• Open Culture:  this is a great site to get help for your biology class or french. The best part it's free! They have helped me with so much, they have videos, send you to other free websites. You can also download free audiobooks, theyhave an iPhone app. They are awesome!

Well that's it for that if you know any amazing sites out there, just let me know. I'm always looking for new web sites. : )

DIY: Christmas Gift Bag

Well I am back again. Yah!!! I love blogging. Today at work we are doing Secret Santa. I ran around like crazy last night and this morning getting the gift together. Getting gifts for Gwen was difficult.  This person is not easy to shop for. The other problem was that I wanted to get her jewelry, however jewelry at Belk can be expensive. Thank God it was on sale (Yes!). I also got some chocolate and other candy for her as well.

Here is the cute bag that I put the gift in.

   

Here are the supplies you will need:

• 1 piece of green paper
• 1 piece of red paper
• 1 piece of brown paper
•  scissors
•  glue stick
•  leftover gift bag (or a really cheap one)
•  gold ribbon
•  tissue paper (red & white)

I had a leftover gift bag that I had saved from a gift that I had received (you should always do this in case you are short on cash or you just don't have time to get one). I had green, brown, and red paper. I got silhouettes of a Christmas tree and reindeer. I semi traced/semi free drew the Christmas tree and reindeer. I free drew the holly berries and leaves and folded the little brown piece of paper into a tag.

The Order I Completed This In:

1. Get Supplies
2. Print Out Christmas Tree & Reindeer
3. Trace/free draw holly, reindeer, and Christmas tree
4. Cut Everything Out
5. Glue
6. Put Little Tag together
7. Attach tag to bag
8. Let glue dry
9. Put gift and tissue paper in bag

Done! This took me only 30 minutes to get the bag together.

Other Pictures of the Bag Below:

This shouldn't cost that much and you will have paper left over for other projects as well. If you want to you can even do this in bright pinks, greens, and blues. If you can put links of those pictures, if you do. I would love to know what all of you have

Look at the Bright Side

I have a lot of time on my hands right now and I really don't want to work on studying for exams.  So I'm just procrastinating at the moment (don't follow my example kids) and just talk abouthe bijillion things that have been on my mind, but have not talked about on here cause I have been extremly busy.

Looking on the Bright Side of Life. When it comes to life it is important to be positive without being blind to life's problems and complications.

I know many people that have a hard time grasping this concept, they just insist (or just have a hard time) at not looking at the bright side of life. They seem to live with a chip on their shoulder and just want to find what is wrong with life.

Yes, there are those that experience depression whether because of life experiences or because of chemical imbalances of the body. That is not what I am talking about.

I'm talking about the people that their life quest comes off as though they expect to be offended or mistreated by another individual and they go through life snarky, miserable, and extremely pessimistic. They have this chip on their shoulder because they feel like life has handed them a band hand of cards on purpose and have been losing that game of poker for as long as they can remember.


Here is my message to you:
1.) Life is not out to get you. There is no conspiracy going on saying "I'm going to make _______ miserable today." I'm sorry stuff has happened to you, but just because this happened doesn't mean you have to hold on to that pain.  You can always let it go. (Yes, I know this is hard. Heck, I have been to therapy).

2.) Stop waiting around for people to offend you. Stop looking for situations to be offended by. Don't you realize this that when you are doing this you are giving the other person power and you are not making yourself look any better. Instead, don't take offense, ignore them. They will learn in time. (Now if they are being physically violent and such, defend yourself. But if they call you names or say something that you don't agree with it, just ignore it. We all hear stuff we don't like, but not all of us makes a hugh stink out of it. Why are you?) Don't waste your time on them.

3.) Stop looking for what's wrong and messed up in life. Seriously, if you are hyper-focused on the messed up aspects of life, it's not going to help you stay positive. It isn't easy, I never said it was, but if you tend to look at what is wrong with life and what is messed up and all the other problems... you will be unhappy. Realize that, yes there are so many things wrong, but figure out what in life is right. What things are going well in your life?

To those that live to be unhappy with life and are upset, just to be upset......... Get over it, get over yourself. You are not the only that has had a lot of crap go on in your life. You are the only one that has a bad relationship with your family, has had a terrible boyfriend/ girlfriend/marriage that messed with your head or has been screwed over in one form or another. You are not the only one that has been through a lot. It's not the world's fault that instead of trying to live a positive life, you decide to be angry and unhappy with the world. Don't blame the entire world for all the bad that has happened to you  And anytime someone does something you don't like you lash out because you think they want to hurt you personally, when they have no idea who you are.

You are not helping yourself by choosing to find what is wrong with life and being unhappy. You really aren't. Blaming the world for your problems and your past hurts isn't going to help either. Ghandi said, "Be the Change You Wish to See." By being a positive person and working on preventing what happened to you happen to someone else is a much more productive way of going about things. Be the role model. Put your experience to use.  Treat others with kindess, write about it, talk about it, etc. BUT!!! That does not give you the right to get angry and nasty with those that might have a different point of view. You must allow the person to decided for themselves and remember we all have different experiences and points of views. Being hateful with others does not fix things.

Don't live life looking for what is wrong, live life trying to better yourself and those you know.

On a side note,  when first writing this I immediately thought of Monty Python, so here is one of their songs.

My How Things Change

It's weird what can happen to a person over a year. Heck over a few months. 

All my life I have been a very passionate person. At times I felt like I had all of this passion inside of me waiting to be used and I had no idea how to direct it.

At times it has gotten me into trouble, other times I got into huge arguments.

I was/am passionate about a lot of things: my country, the military, my family, my faith, my friends, etc.  I love learning, reading, writing, the arts, music, politics, etc. What I believe in, what I love is what I am passionate about.

I realize though you can't live 24/7 with this passion going on. This may sound strange to some of you, but imagine if you are the Energizer Bunny with a Solar Battery that is constantly being charged and going on and on and on...

You get the idea.

You can't live life like it is a constant battle. Like you are taking on the next challenge. Many will probably disagree with me and that's fine with me. I understand, I used to be that passionate. But eventually you have to realize that if you keep going down that route, you will burn out.

I realized it these past few months. I am full of life and love to live life, but I know people who always seem to be "on."  It seems they never take time to relax or sit back and enjoy life.  No, to them life is a constant battle and one must always live with Passion 24/7, night and day, awake or asleep. That's exhausting.

Why?

What is wrong with taking time with life? What is wrong with having free time? These people seem to need to feel every waking minute of there day learning something, doing something, etc.  Don't they want to have time to relax, to be at peace, to think about the fun stuff of life, etc...

Why must it be this constant battle where everything must always get fixed, where we must always focus on an injustice or something that is terrible and evil and wrong? Why do we constantly have to fill every moment of our lives to the point where we are exhausted?

Is it bad to look at the fun little silly things that are going on in life? Why is it considered "degrading oneself" to  love fashion or sport for example? Why must we be wary of those that are different in thought than us?

I finally got an answer after 2 months.

They don't want to face themselves.  It sounds crazy, but it's true.  When we fill up our lives with constant activity, we don't take time for ourselves and we don't take time to examine ourselves. We need that time for ourselves to not only take care of our physical health, but our mental health especially. Sometimes people use all that activity and all that passion for fixing/changing problems they see in the world as a way to distract themselves from their own problems, their own issues. Hate to break it to you, that won't help you with yourself at the end of the day.

This semester although I have had a filled schedule, I forced myself to take some time for myself because of my health. I think it helped a lot too. I learned a lot about myself too and not only did I face the baggage I had, I faced my nasty, not so good side.

I'm not perfect. : /

After facing the the rest of the baggae (there was a little left) and coming to terms that at times I can be nasty and judgemental. It's hard facing tha truth.

Through discovering this, I dscovered some friends of mine were staying active, leanring, working, and fixing everything else but themselves. Some of them seem to live with this chip on their shoulder and they can't let it go because they don't know how to.

I know it's not easy, but it is very liberating and it helps a lot. Because of this discovery I feel a lot morrelaxed and at ease. It's a shame that those that I know are still trapped in the world were they have to escape from their problems.

Having passion is wonderful, more people need to have passion in their life. But to have it 24/7, although it sounds wonderful it is also time consuming and becomes very exhausting. Being able to relax and enjoy oneself is also a wonderful thing. 

I Woke up in Vegas! Part II

The dance was a lot of fun. There wasn't a lot of people there, but I didn't care. The decorations were amazing, the music was awesome, and I had a great time with everyone. Not going to lie, my favorite part (besides being with friends), was getting ready and getting my costume together. I will do that post later.

It took me about 45 minutes to get ready. It was a lot of fun, I looed so tacky, I had the messed up veil (tutorial coming soon) ripped panty hose, zebra ballet flats and a tacky bouquet.  Yes, I smeared my eyeshadow and guady lipsticktoo.  My boyfriend of 2 years went as a messy groom ( he wrote groom all over his white shirt in sharpie), his outfit was a lot more easier to get together, of course. Men are lucky likie that.

Some of my friends went as hookers and pimps. It was hilarious and a lot of fun. I tried to dance the whole night away, but man, my knees were hurting like crazy.  Our t-shirts looked great!!!  The Panther looked hungover and it was awesome.

There was of course some drama that night (shocker) it felt kind of like high schoolish. But other than that it was a lot of fun. Wondering what happened?? Just boy girl drama. *rolling eyes*

So sorry this is so late, it has been insane this past month. Will have that tutorial for the veil as well as how to be a tacky, skanky bride (should not be that hard though).

Have a great day!