list the best of Christmas 2011

I am not really a fan of the year in review things because I am never able to give an appropriate representation of each month of the past year (usually because I forget half of the stuff that happens in the year).

Instead, here is a list of awesome things about Christmas 2011 [in order of memory not importance] :

• not getting any delays/lay overs/re-routing/broken air plane parts/crazy weather on the trip there or back!! This is a miracle. Every time I have flown for the past 10 times something has gone wrong. I am not sure how we managed, but everything went smooth & wonderful this trip. Who knew flying out on Christmas Eve & flying back on the 30th would be so easy!!
• seeing family. I never feel like I get to seem my family enough. Just hanging out with my family for 6 days was just what I needed. I love them so much. Someday the north & south are going to be closer than 1500 miles apart & I will get to see them more than every 6 months.
• My mom: who will understand me better than anyone else, ever. My dad: perhaps the smartest & most caring person I know. How you can be so perfectly balanced I will never figure out. My sister: the most talented, beautiful, & jealousy inducing sibling ever. Dang how I miss all of them. So terribly much.
• seeing how my extended family has grown over the past year. My cousins are starting to have babies. This means our already large extended family is getting bigger & bigger (also louder & crazier). I cannot wait to see what this means for future years!!
• my bed. my room. the shower. Being home is just so wonderful sometimes. Sure a lot has changed since I moved out years ago, but some things just always feel the same & that is exactly how I want them to always be.
• also applicable: my Shadow puppy (age 13 human years, that is 91ish in dog years) & Leo the cat
• my new bike shorts!! (I will review them when they get shipped here)
• $$ to go toward the purchase of a bed frame!! no more mattress on the floor…. once Amazon puts it back in stock….
• little flosser things!! (I hate flossing, but these things make it actually enjoyable – I will review these with the bike shorts review)
• hanging out with one of my best friends & her little family
• THE FOOD. Food made by my parents & extended family always tastes better than anything I can ever make. I think this is 90% mental & 10% because I did not have to do the work. Pretty sure I gained 5 pounds over the holiday.
• also related: pantry & fridge filled with food I love. The awesome thing about being home is they just know what I like & like what I like & magically they are always filled!!
• hand me downs/ups. I hate spending money on clothing, but I love new clothes. Going home means playing clothing swap with my sister & shoe swap with my Mom. LOVE IT!!
• an entire bag of random scarves my Mom got me for Christmas — I sense many a scarf project in my future

This is just a sampling of all the awesomeness of being home.

Due to some traveling related illnesses on Ben’s part (which I think he is sharing with me) tonight will be a low key evening with a few friends. The important part is I get a kiss on midnight & a fresh start with a new year.

Here is to hoping 2012 is not the end of the world, because I think it could be a pretty darn awesome year!!

Happy New Year!!

pack (for cold weather travel)

Did you know if you Google “packing for travel in cold weather,” the results are not helpful in the least? Unless of course you are going tromping around Europe or camping in the mountains (yes, people do that in the winter, yes, they are insane).

I consider myself a very good packer. Years of travel (both via car & plane) have taught me many tips & hints. It is only fair that I share them with you.

Think first aka prep work

1.  make a list. But only make it once. There is no need to have to re-write a list every single time you need to pack. I use Ta-da lists. That site is nice because I just keep it bookmarked & when we go out of town, pull it up & do not have to re-think about everything I will need.  Here is my packing list: http://whitkae.tadalist.com/lists/1475254  (I also have a to-do before we leave list with reminders about our feline family members)
2. consider the weather. Normally for weather I use NOAA. But for planning trips I usually want to see a few more days out & I have found The Weather Channel has the best 10-day forecast.  The low to high range for our trip is between 30-39 degrees. BURRRRRRRR.
3. When the weather is this cold the only way you can pack & not have to check a bag is by thinking in layers. 1 huge sweater might be warm, but a tank top, long sleeve, & light sweater will be just a warm & 10 times more space saving. You probably think I am lying. But just keep reading, I will prove it.
4. wear/ carry your coat. It makes zero sense to pack your coat. It will be the bulkiest item you have & you are going to need it the moment you get to your destination. Keeping it out of your bag means you can have it for the plane incase it is chilly & you do not need to unzip your bag before you reach your final destination. You might have to take it off to get through security, but that really is not that big of an issue (they make you take off hoodies & all jackets anyways).
5. bring clothes you like. Do not bring a brand new shirt or shirts you never wear. Chances are you will not be comfortable in them & will not actually end up wearing them.
6. consider colors & combinations. If you have all black/gray based clothing & packs (like in my example below) do NOT throw in a brown sweater. Do not pack for one outfit. Pack things that can be worn multiple times with multiple things.

The “how much”

This is what I will bring (clothing only) on our 7 days, 6 nights trip:

(note: I will do laundry once on this trip…. probably)

- 4 pairs of underwear + 1 pair I will wear on the way there (total 5)

- 1 bra + 1 I will wear on the way there (total 2)

- 4 pairs of sock + 1 pair I will wear on the way there (total 5)

- 1 pair of pjs (total 1)

- 1 pair of jeans + 1 pair I will wear on the way there (total 2)

- 2 long sleeve shirts + 1 I will wear on the way there (total 3)

- 2 short sleeve shirts (total 2)

- 2 light sweaters, 1 heavy sweater I will wear on the way there (total 3)

- 2 tank tops + 1 I will wear on the way there (total 3)

navy, white, black

& THAT IS IT. 

Think about your travel clothes. Wear the bulkiest stuff on your body so it stays out of your bag. Also, remember you have to travel twice (once to get there, once to get home). It only makes sense to wear the same thing, or something similar for both trips.

Here is what that actually looks like (minus underwear, bra, socks, pjs)

3 sweaters, 3 long sleeves, 2 short sleeves, 3 tank tops, 2 jeans

Looks like an insanely small pile, right?

Oh wait, that includes ALL the clothes I will have to work with while I am away. Want to see what is actually going into the carry on suit case (ie – all clothes minus the ones I will wear on the way there)?

Yup, that is it. 

You might be thinking I will be terribly limited on my outfit choices & should bring more. Granted I do not consider myself a fashionista in any way, but here are just 7 outfits I picked out of the clothes I am bringing. There are still plenty of other combinations I could make & none of these include any sort of jewelry/accessories. This is just an example. You could easily swap in more colorful/patterns shirts & sweaters to spice it up a bit.

heavy sweater w/ long sleeves

light sweater w/short sleeves

light sweater w/ long sleeves

jeans with 3 options of shirts

light sweater w/short sleeves

light sweater w/ long sleeves

heavy sweater w/ long sleeves

My point is, a couple key pieces go a long way. Anything you pack that can be layered could also be worn by itself or paired with another shirt (ex: long sleeve under a short sleeve). The key is in the combos.

& that my friends is how to pack (in only a carry on) for a 7 day trip to the arctic….. errrrr I mean Western NY.

& if all else fails, just raid your sister’s closet ; )

get in the holiday spirit

This year it has been especially hard to get into the holiday spirit. I am not going to go into all the right now though. Just know that both Ben & I were feeling much less than jolly concerning the up & coming holiday. We decided we needed to do something to get us out of our funk. I kept mentioning getting a tree (even though we will not have it terribly long). Ben agreed we should get a tree. Thus began when would become quite the adventure.

As it turns out, getting a tree after December 1st is not that easy. Well, getting a fake tree anyways. Everywhere we went they were either sold out or $200+ — WHO THE HECK PAYS $200 FOR A FAKE TREE!? Not me.

We decided maybe we needed a real tree this year. We had a fake one in Knoxville for 2 years & that was fine. But maybe this year we needed something different. Both of us grew up having real Christmas trees. In fact, the year my parents came to Knoxville, TN for Christmas is the only year (I am 23 years old) that they have ever NOT had a real tree. Ben’s parents converted to a fake one once they had no kids in the house (ie- when Ben & his brother were in college). Needless to say, we both knew how awesome real trees were in the smell department.

We decided it was time to take a trip to Whole Foods. Did you know they plant 2 trees for every 1 they cut down? I like that. We went with the intent of looking at trees, but that quickly turned into a “we are getting a tree.” We were less than prepared. But we threw that sucker in the car & headed across the street to Target to get a stand, some lights, & a tree skirt.

Did you catch that I said “threw that sucker IN the car” because this is how our buddy traveled home:

Ben did not want to attempt to put it on the roof. Luckily we (I) had the forethought to put a blanket under it so when it was time to get it out of the car we wrapped it like a burrito & pulled that sucker back out again. Ben’s car might smell like Christmas from this year until next year. I think he is perfectly fine with that.  :)

Side note: our tree came from the Blue Ridge Mountains. The same mountains that Ben & I drove through every time we made the journey from NC to VA while we were both in school. (I was at UNC & he was at Virginia Tech). That was pretty special. Though it also proves our tree was the opposite of local.

We learned a valuable lesson about height this year. As it turns out 7-8 feet tall trees are TALL. It is a good thing we have 10 foot ceilings.

Especially when you consider there is a very important figure that needs to grace the top of the tree:

yoda the tree guardian

We are not the only ones who appreciate the new living room decoration.

Yes, there have been a few instances where someone tried to take a bite out of the tree. More than once we have caught someone with their head stuck up through the bottom branches. & yes it is terrifying to watch wrestling matches take place under the tree. All in all, sleeping on the tree skirt seems to be the cats most favorite thing about the tree (& we are just fine with that).

If you think we staged that photo you are sadly mistaken. We tried to place the cats near/under the tree with treats. It was an absolute failure (though hysterical). Late that night though, this is how I found them. Darn cats, always do what you want them to, just never WHEN you want them to. Little boogers.

Our condo smells amazing, I smile every time I see it, Ben has been playing Christmas music or a Christmas movie every night, & we are much more jolly. Sure it is not perfect & has holes a Duggar sized squirrel family could live in, sure you have to water it, sure I could vacuum 12 times a day, sure we will only have it for a total of 2 weeks unless it survives a week left alone on our porch.

But that is not the point. This tree, everything about it, is perfect – for us. It has brought the joy of Christmas back. Who knows, maybe this will turn out to be one of the best Christmases yet.

 

cover (a book)

Since I am unemployed this Christmas, the budget for getting family & friends gifts was very small. Our family really is not big on gift anyways so I did not have to be terribly worried about spending hundreds of dollars. Also, being unemployed also meant I did have a little extra time on my hands for things like crafts.

Enter Pinterest. It is my new inspiration capital. I use to only do things I could find with tutorials, but for this project I branched out. I went out on a limb (heck yeah, 2 tree references in one paragraph) & took something there were only a few pictures of & recreated it.

This was my inspiration. A tea cup book cover. My tea drinking read-a-holic Momma HAD TO HAVE THIS. No, she has not actually even seen that picture, but I just knew she needed it.

So I made this:

I hope you will forgive the pictures, it was a dark day & I had to use *gasp* artificial lighting. This was the best shot of the fabric I could get. It is sort of a dark brown/black deniumish looking thing. If you want the real name, check out some Ikea couch covers (that is one of the only places I buy fabric).

You will notice mine is a bit different than the one in the inspiration picture. I am perfectly ok with that.

For one, I wanted the inside of my book cover to be bright & pretty just like my Momma.  :)

You maybe notice this was a bit of fabric left over from another project (seen here) in which I turned a dress into a skirt.

The handle (I only put one on mine) was just top stitched together, stuffed with a bit of jersey sort of fabric (extra pieces of tshirt material), sewn closed & then both ends were sewn to the book cover. I was going to make this part way more complicated, but caved & took the easy way out. I am actually really happy with how it turned out.

The two brown columns on the left & the right are the “pockets” that the book slides into to keep the cover in place (demonstrated in the next picture).

The tea bag you can see in the first picture is actually a book mark. It is a bit strange because it runs bottom to top (it is attached at the bottom & hangs out of the top of the book). It is simply a small ribbon sew onto the cover with a bit of white fabric hand stitched to make the tea bag itself.

I did not make a tutorial for this because I most certainly was just winging it. Maybe if I make another one I will actually take more pictures as I do it. It was probably a 2 hour project (but part of that was deciding if I really needed to make a pattern, scrapping that idea, & just starting to cut). There is a reason I am not a professional….

Oh & I have started adding some pictures of mine to Pinterest to show the projects I make & tutorials I do. They can be found on this board: http://pinterest.com/whitkae/made/

I also pin all my inspiration ideas here too. Maybe someday I will even figure out how to link the pictures & projects better so the blog link is not just in the comment section. Oh someday….

think

surprise my Mom (her 50th birthday present)

1. My sister came up with this idea.

2. I am sure she found it via Pinterest. (yes, even college aged kids know what it is. Pinterest is taking over the world).

3. This is in no way an original idea & I am so not claiming it be: we based our box a lot off of this blog post. & that was actually a spin off from another blog post (found here).

4. We tweaked it a bit, added things, left things out, & made this our own. But it is one of the best gifts we have even given my Mom. Perhaps THE best gift. We shall have to wait & see what she says.

Here is how the whole thing went down:

• October 22nd (1 month & 2 weeks before my Mom’s birthday): MJ (my sister) says “we should do this for Mom’s birthday”
• I say HECK YES. We phone call immediately, develop a list of things we need to do & set up a time line.
• First step was drafting a letter to our family & friends explaining what we were doing, what we needed from them & when we needed it by & to keep it very hush hush.
• Since MJ is in a dorm in Buffalo & I’m in Austin, TX I decided all the letter would be sent to me where I could package them & ship them all in the memory box to MJ who could present them to our Mom.
• We started to contact people & we decided we were going to need some help – DAD.
• Most people we emailed, some we facebooked (ie- stalked my Mom’s friend list), & a select few got a printed copy of the letter.
• As the letters came in I placed them in 5×9 envelopes & wrote “From:” on the back. We decided not to number them because we were now sure how many we would get. Getting exactly 50 was not the important part. We wanted to have at least 50, but were not going to turn away any memories. We also accepted email or facebook message submissions & just printed them out.
•  I tried to make sure that for each person that submit a memory, we had a current address. This way, my Mom will be able to update her address book & reply to these people. (some of people she has not spoken to in years)
• Final total: 54ish (there are a couple of repeats of names in the box. some people sent so many we felt they deserved it. originally each memory was going to have an envelope, but that would have been over 100 & a bit insane.)
• I put all the envelopes into a photo box from Hobby Lobby. This is what it looked like. Except mine was much prettier.
• I also included a “why the heck we are giving you a box of envelopes” letter to explain (because I knew in the heat of the moment there would probably be confusion & tears).

Notes:

- I wish we would have had more time to contact people. Email & facebook were good, but we did not get the response from that I thought we would. I think the key was actually mailing the letters out to people. For some reason, people were not able to ignore a letter they got in the mail & were much more likely to respond.

- We included the line “please tell other people about this & have them do it too” in the letters. I was really shocked because I do not think people actually did that. It was not a big deal, it was just a bit surprising to me.

- Some of the memories we got were absolutely hysterical, some were sentimental, some were cry your eyes out beautiful & touching, & some are from crazy family members who said crazy things that should not be taken seriously. They are ALL amazing in their own special way.

- This could absolutely be done for any occasion. I think my Mom’s 50th birthday was perfect because she did not want a big party, but this way she still gets to “be with” a ton of people & know how much they care about her. That being said, I think it would be an awesome graduation gift. Every college student could use a box filled with “the good times” for when they are feeling defeated & overwhelmed. Plus, if someone is only 18, people still remember all the crazy & cooky stuff they did as a kid. It would also be mondo easy to get the person’s high school friends to write a quick blurb at the grad party to include – then present the box before the party is over. Yeah, I am most certainly going to remember that one.

The plan of action:

The plan is my parents are going up to Buffalo on the afternoon of my Mom’s birthday(ie -today) to go out to dinner with my sister. MJ will skype me when they are on their way. When they arrive she will pull the “Whitney wants to say happy birthday to you, she is on skype” dealie. While I distract my Mom telling her how great she looks, how I cannot believe she is turning 29…. again, blah blah blah. MJ will present my Mom with the box so I will get to see her open it too. Remember, my Dad is in on the secret so we have backup if my Mom is hesitant/uncooperative. My sister also has conned her roommate into taking some pictures of the whole thing going down (she has an awesome camera). My guess is, she will open it, start reading the “why the heck” letter & start crying. At which moment, I will almost most likely be bawling my eyes out. I am not sure we will actually go through all the letters right then & there, but I will want to see the look on her face when she reads some of the names of the people we contacted!!

Hopefully, everything goes off without a hitch & by the end of the week I will have a photo to share with you!!

I am super excited – I cannot wait to see how she reacts.

wash it all away (update)

Here is the update from this original post when I decided to try the oil cleaning method.

Now since I am really going out on a limb & posting non-makeup, gross faced, crazy hair pictures for all of the internet to see – be kind please & thank you. Just focus on the little kitty that some how managed to jump in most of these shots. She absolutely loves climbing to the highest place possible. I only put pictures for a couple of days. There was not enough noticeable progress day to day (& let us be honest, there were some days I just did not want to take pictures).

Here is my process (a slight deviation from some of the others out there):

1. Mix 1/3 olive oil with 2/3 castor oil (mine was probably more like 1/4 olive, 3/4 castor because I was not measuring exactly) – I keep mine in a little travel sized container because a little bit goes a long way. I have gone through MAYBE 2 oz in almost a month.

2. DO NOT WET YOUR FACE. This stuff is meant to be rubbed on dry skin. If you have make up on, you just rub it right over the make up. It seems weird, but you can see the oil pulling the make up from your skin, sounds gross, but makes me believe it works. In fact, some people mention they use regular face washing, but use this mixture as their make up remover.

I use somewhere between an nickel & quarter sized amount. I tend to skip parts of my skin that get super dried out. for example, my eye lids (right under my eye brow) tend to get real flakey & painful if they get dried out. the nice part of this stuff is it tend to sit (or just slowly glop/drip) where you put it so targeted key areas is super easy.

3.  Then I let it sit. I would say I usually let it sit 2-5 minutes.

Sometimes I brush my teeth while I am waiting, usually I am just trying to fill time waiting for the water in my skin to heat up.

4. Now there are 2 directions I take from here:

A. When I am not going to shower (ie – before bed):  Once the water in my skin is quite warm (not scalding, but hotter than warm) I wet a wash cloth & place it on portions of my face. The idea of laying the whole wash cloth over my face freaked me out, so I just so it by sections – chin, left cheek, right, then forehead & nose.

The key is to press the cloth to your face & hold it there until it cools. I usually wait about 20 seconds per section. If once area needs more “work” than the others I will rewet/rewarm the cloth after 20 seconds & press for 20 more.

B. The alterative is when I am going to shower (ie – in the morning): It is basically the same theory. I heat the shower up decently warm & press & hold the wash cloth for 20 seconds on each section. The difference is, the cloth does not seem to cool down as much/ can be easily rewet from the stream of water in the shower. I do not think this actually works as well as the sink method, but in the morning that is what I do. There is no way I am going to wash my face & then shower. That seems silly. Plus you still get the deep cleaning wash at night before bed (which seems more important anyways).

5. Now that most of the oil is rubbed off of your face, I tend to do a couple once overs just to make sure there is no residue. The great part of this stuff though is that it will not hurt your face in any way if you leave it on – it is the same ph balance as the natural oils in your skin.

Day 1: washed my face three times

day 1 - mug shot

Day 2: washed twice & decided to do a nutmeg & milk mask for ~20 minutes (to help the acne)

The nutmeg & milk smelled good, but man does that stuff look nasty on your face, in the sink, & on a wash cloth.

Day 3: decided it should not be called washing your face. “oiled” my face three times

Day 4/5: 2 times today – (can you tell this is the weekend?)

Day 6: three times, nutmeg & milk mask again

day 6 - I should have smiled in these....

Notes: This feels different than washing your face with normal face wash. There is no minty fresh tingle when you are done. My skin did feel a lot smoother though (I think face wash was drying it out). This is not proactive. Do not expect to see life changing results in 24 hours. I noticed subtle changes, but I would not recommend starting this 3 days before your wedding. I do not think that is the point of this method.  Sometimes I used face lotion after, but I found I did not really need it. Again, I think the oil part of this helps your skin to naturally stay moisturizered. This may take a bit longer than “normal” face washing, but really I do not think the extra minute of two deems to an unreasonable amount of time. You can adjust the mixture. If you have oily skin like me – more castor oil. If you have dry skin (I wish) – add more olive oil & less castor oil. Heck yeah, a face cleaning remedy you can adjust as your skin changes (or as the seasons change – winter always dries out my face). Also, you could basically eat this stuff. DO NOT, because you will get sick, but you could & would not die if you did. Some of the old ache spot treatment cream I had bleached towels. Ummm yeah, I will stick to the stuff that does NOT do that thank you very much.

Like I said, I would not call this “the perfectly clear, insanely drastic skin changing oil method.” But it does work better (for me) than regular face wash. The ache I had began to shrink (as in, it actually was healing) & clear up. I found I did not need face lotion, yet my skin was still soft. & a lot of my previous break out areas (especially the blackheads on my nose) were greatly reduced, if not gone.

After day 6, life happened & I began stressing. I reverted to the old face cleaning ways & my skin had an utter panic attack. I kept using the old face wash & things only got worse. I said WTH are you doing self you had a good thing going & returned to the oil cleaning method. My face is back on the mend again. I really think I am going to avoid face wash in the future.

Again, I would not say this is for everyone. I like it, but I do think it depends on the amount of time you want to put into it & your skin type. I would recommend you try it though (because it cannot hurt). Give it more than 2 days though if you are going to try it. Also, it is MAY more cost effective than “normal” face wash. I bought 16 oz of castor oil on Amazon (see post at top of the page for the link). Since you use so little at every wash (& the mix has olive oil in it also), I imagine that 16 oz bottle will last me AT LEAST 6 months. $10 for 6+ months verses $5 a month. Yeah I would say that is a bit of saving.

Conclusion: I say try it for a week. If you hate it, you can always go back to your old wash washing. If you love it, yay a cheaper (probably healthier) way to wash your face.