The Penthouse

I have a new home!!!

And it's perfect. Absolutely perfect.

Over the summer I've been living in a smaller apartment on campus with three other girls, so sharing a room, bathroom, and kitchen/living area. It was a bit cramped and there was a bug problem since our door opened directly to the outside world and the building is older.

This past weekend, I moved into my housing for the upcoming school year!

My two closest girlfriends and I decided to splurge and pamper ourselves for our senior year together. We met the first day freshman year and have been inseparable ever since, even starting our own "band" as a singing trio. I could not had asked for more amazing of friends, and I'm so delighted that we're all three get to have our own space this last year of school. *sniff*

Since I've been on campus all summer, I got to move in early, and Flora and Merryweather decided to come and help me (Fauna) as a fun way to have a get-together (hadn't seen them since May!) and celebrate Merryweather's birthday.
(We identified ourselves with the fairies from Sleeping Beauty freshman year...thought I'd resurrect the old nicknames!)

Here are some pictures of our new space! (sadly I didn't get any pictures of the three of us...I believe Merryweather has those on her phone...)

My room before moving anything in - we each get our own room! And they're huge. So spoiled!

The lovely living room. While it still craves some wall decor and the tv is coming when the other two officially move in,  I'm already in love with this room. It's so cozy and peaceful!
Notice the piano in the corner? :D

Recycling a quote that Merryweather and I had in our room last year, we decided it livened up the kitchen nicely!

The view from the living room window. We're on the third floor, overlooking the creek/bluffs. It's gorgeous!

All settled in my room!

It's already a bit more homey since I took these pictures, and it will keep getting cozier as I find places for everything. 

The hallway leading to the other girls' bedrooms and the bathroom. I love that there's hardly any carpet. 

Perfect for primping ;) 

Even the bathroom is ginormous. 

We still like to have a sense of humor in the bathroom. ;)

And there you have it - The Penthouse, as we've endeared our new home. I feel so incredibly blessed to have such a delightful space to live in for this last year at college, and thankful for such amazing friends to share it with. Now I can start to feel ready for the school year to begin!

"If we will walk humbly with our God, He will lead us by the hand to exactly who and what we need, to those people, things, and experiences He has designed and intended for us, and this alone will be the cause of our deep fulfillment and happiness." ~Matthew Kelly (Rediscovering Catholicism, Journeying Toward Our Spiritual North Star)

3/4 of a year

Yesterday was a beautiful day. After a huge thunderstorm (in some areas close by there were actually tornado warnings, but thankfully we were not in danger) the air was clean and the sun was shining in the clear blue sky. Yes, it was probably over 90 degrees during the afternoon, but after being cooped up in an overly air-conditioned office for the majority of the summer, I was pretty excited to enjoy my day off by exploring some sunshine!

So when my boyfriend texted me wishing me a happy 9-months-of-dating and asked if I'd like to go on a walk around the big lake, I was delighted to say yes!

We set out later in the afternoon, so it was probably about 5pm before we actually started walking. Still pretty hot, though! We brought bottles of water to make sure we didn't get dehydrated.

I was also armed with my camera.

Nothing like starting off the adventure with a selfie!

The lake was splendidly beautiful with the bluffs in the background. 

We love to be silly every once in the while, and the sun was being so photogenic... ;)

Look at that water!

Most of the path around the lake is sheltered by trees, so we enjoyed the shade. 

So many ducks! This little family was especially cute. 

I absolutely LOVE weeping willow trees, and the breeze was doing wonderful things with this one. 

"The road goes ever on and on...."

We had a splendid, leisurely time - walking along chatting and holding hands while avoiding being trampled by the motivated cyclists that would whiz past periodically. Afterwards we enjoyed a lovely dinner and ended the evening by watching 'How To Train Your Dragon 2' - one I've been intending to see for quite a while. It was super cute! 

"Some of us were just born different." ~Valka, from "How To Train Your Dragon 2

Clouds and Flowers

This summer has been passing so quickly. Many days I feel that I am actually missing summer, since I spend so much of my time locked away in a box office or selling tickets at shows so I can't actually get outside and enjoy the sun.

Or the days when I do plan to go outside it decides to rain and storm so I have to stay inside.

Granted, I choose to spend plenty of my off-time hours watching tv shows or reading and such, but I was very excited this morning to get ready and go explore the town a bit while I had nothing else demanding my attention.

Where did I go? I went down by the river to check out the park there. Supposedly there's a rose garden somewhere down there, but while I didn't find any roses I did find lots of flower gardens! I was excited to exercise my camera.

The walk down by the river. It's gorgeous! Even though it was cloudy...

First flower garden..they were all small little gardens, but so vibrant!

I love tall, wild-looking flowers. 

A touch of pink :) 

This one was just waiting for someone to take it's picture. 

Do you see those little moth-like things? They were all over these plants!

Greeting the day. 

No garden is complete without some purple!

And more pink. 

Maybe I should work on my selfie skills, but I only took one to prove I was there, haha!

"I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours." ~Henry David Thoreau, Walden: Or, Life in the Woods

Squirrel Attack

Have you ever been attacked by a squirrel?

I suddenly feel for Veruca Salt.

This morning on my way to work, I was simply walking along, minding my own business. Suddenly I look up to see a little squirrel running at top speed towards me. Straight. At. Me.

Its ears were laid back. Its feet were determined. Its eyes had a wicked gleam that could chill the most strong-willed.

For a moment I thought it would swerve and be frightened of me.

It came on.

Then I started to panic. What if this was a rabid squirrel? I was not in the mood for a squirrel ambush this morning! Not. In. The. Mood.

Finally, just as I was about to try and dodge the seemingly inevitable impact, the squirrel seemed to recognize what he was about to do.

His whole expression changed from determined attack mode to guilty terror and at the last possible moment he veered to the right and within seconds almost ran into a car in his panic.

Admittedly I let out a bit of a squeak whilst this was occurring, but I felt an immediate relief when the little furry demon was no longer hurtling itself in my direction.

The rest of my walk to work was rather shaky, as I pondered what could have possessed the little rodent and whether it had thought I was a tree for climbing purposes...

I hope you all have had less traumatic mornings! ;)

Nothing ever becomes real 'til it is experienced." ~John Keats

Colored Water

This might seem obvious from the overall theme of my blog, but I just want to state here that I do consider myself something of an artist. While usually that comes out in music and sewing, I have many mediums that I love to play with and it comes as a thrill when I get the chance to dabble in various creative projects.

This weekend that form came in watercolor art.

Now, this would be much more impressive if I could draw my own pictures, but since all I can really draw and feel pleased with are cartoon-style flowers, I prefer to purchase ready-drawn pictures waiting for someone to add the color.

Despite this lack of originality, I do tend to feel rather pleased with the outcomes of my efforts, and this painting turned out quite nicely, in my opinion.

Someday I will study drawing and draw my own pictures, but for now I enjoy working on my painting technique and enjoy the pretty colors that swirl at the end of my brush. 

Plus it's fun to add some cheap artwork to a boring dorm room wall!

"To be creative means to be in love with life. You can be creative only if you love life enough that you want to enhance its beauty, you want to bring a little more music to it, a little more poetry to it, a little more dance to it." ~Osho

Culinary Adventures

A couple of week ago I traveled with my boyfriend to visit his parents for the weekend. As a part of the weekend spent at their house, we planned to cook a fancy dinner for his mother as a belated mother's day gift.

That Saturday we went shopping after poring over a few old family recipe books and picking whatever sounded good to us.
No, we picked nothing that we knew for sure we could make. Hey! Experiments are good, right?
Well. We got the ingredients for everything, and put them away for Sunday afternoon.

After spending the morning and early afternoon going to church and watching the Indianapolis 500-mile race, we buckled down and got to work.

Turns out we make a great team! Sadly we didn't get any pictures of the two of us together, but somehow we managed (after a good 2 1/2 hours of intense cooking) to put a lovely meal on the table, served with wine and champagne that his parents provided.

We were allowed to use the fine china and make the table all fancy :) 

I put together a modified chef salad, topped with a citrus dressing that was quite refreshing. 

Dijon mustard sauce over a seared pork chop, mashed potatoes,
orange-candied carrots, and a side of orange slices and parsley. 

Somehow we managed a successful chocolate soufflé, served with an attempt at a candied orange.
Also concocted a delightful desert coffee with chocolate syrup, orange liqueur, and whipped cream!

We were a little out of our league (especially with the soufflé!) but in the end everything tasted delicious and the whole family seemed to be fans of our cooking efforts. Someday we'll have to try again!

"One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well." ~Virginia Woolf 

Getting on Track

As the summer seems to be finally getting into a routine, I think it's time that I start pulling out some long-dormant goals and brush the dust off, letting the light shine on their sleepy faces as they stretch and get excited for some exercise.

Too much?

Well, I have missed playing with words so this is the kind of banter you are going to get!

Since I already have the whole work-from-eight-to-four, exercise-three-times-a-week, sleep-as-much-as-possible thing down, it's time to start implementing other activities so my already-too-fast summer doesn't completely fly by leaving me feeling like I missed out on golden opportunities for adventures.

#1: learning music. I've been planning for months to spend my summer learning new music so that this fall I'm not so overwhelmed when I get back to lessons. Turns out I still find it pretty overwhelming in the summer, so practicing gets pushed aside for movies or long walks in the bluffs.

Granted, the scenery here at school is so gorgeous I feel bad for spending sunny days indoors, but let's be honest - I can't drag the piano outside!

#2: getting fit. Okay, so I've started doing the "Couch to 5K" running app with my boyfriend, and we've been doing really well so far. I'm loving the exercise and the feeling of moving again! However, I need to adjust my eating habits if I'm really going to notice a difference. A few less greasy foods at lunch, perhaps? And definitely less smarties...they have really become a problem. Perhaps I shouldn't refill the bowl I keep on my desk....

;)

#3: deepening my faith. This has already been off to a great start - since I have plenty of boredom-time at my job (waiting for the phone to ring can leave some dead time...) I've taken to reading in between helping patrons. Last week I finished "My Sisters The Saints" by Colleen Carroll Campbell. It was so good! And really increased my longing to get to know the saints better. I have a few other books I've been meaning to read, too. And stopping at the chapel for a few minutes after work is a habit I would love to cement.

#4: having fun. So yes. I'll admit it. I've been overthinking life and spending so much time worrying about what I'm not accomplishing that I forget to actually stop thinking so much and just live it! Learning to 'Let Go and Let God' has never been easy for me, so setting aside my fears and having a little faith that it will all work out is something I'd like to become better at. That might be asking a lot!

Hopefully I can try to keep myself motivated on these and other goals...I have another bad habit of making too many goals that I simply cannot keep up with: my list includes learning french, embroidering, sewing a skirt and three pillows, and learning about six new vocal pieces. (okay, that last one must happen! I have a recital in October!) But those are 'fun' things I can tuck in between trying to make myself the best that I can be :)


"You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this." ~Henry David Thoreau