Project: Modest-fy a Dress

So I usually don't post crafty things, but I was kinda proud of how cute this dress turned out, so I'd thought I'd share.
When I went on my awesome vaca to California with Em and Nay, we stopped in Santa Monica for some shopping. We went into a second hand store and I found this dress. It was only $12 and it looked fantastic on me, so I bought it. But as you can tell it was a little short. If my legs were nice and thin and toned and tan, I could get away with something this short. But even so, it IS a considered a little immodest by LDS standards. Also, you can see it has no sleeves, another "no-no."

So I went down to Walmart and bought some eyelet lace. (Three inches wide or so, I think.) And sewed it to the lining of the dress, like so:

(Please ignore the terrible stitching job. I didn't worry about it because you can't see it anyway. :)

I also went down to the mall to find a cheap, white shrug. I found one, bought it, and here is the finished product.

It would also look really cute with a white shirt underneath, but for some reason beyond every one in my house, our washer discolors all of our whites. We've tried everything from Oxyclean to bleach, so we're thinking something has gotta be wrong with the washer. Anyway, in short, I don't have a nice white shirt to match the whiteness of the lace, so I'm gonna have to stick with the shrug for now. :)

Stay tuned for a lengthy post on my adventures at girls camp! :) Peace.

Summer Movie Review: Inception

When I first saw the previews for this movie I thought, "Um, I'm not going to see that. It looks like it'd go right over my head." Then, later it became, "That movie looks really cool. Maybe I'll see it." And then, "I'm seeing it, it looks too awesome." And finally, "Hans Zimmer composed the music? Heck yes, count me there!"

And so there I was today. In the theater. Watching the movie.

When it was over, all I could say, after the entire theater including myself yelled "NO!" when the credits started to roll, was "Wow." And I'm talking a really good wow.

This movie was by far, hands down, one of the BEST movies I have ever seen. In my LIFE. I was honestly gripped the whole time. I was nervous and anxious and on the edge of my seat.

The acting was phenomenal. Dicaprio, I've always thought, is just fantastic. I haven't seen many of his movies, but I've always believed him to be a wonderful actor. The person who really stole the show for me, however, was Joseph Gordon-Levitt. He rocked this movie. I now how a large celeb crush on him. The supporting cast was great. I can't say enough good things about them.

The action, effects, story, EVERYTHING, was so well done, it's just crazy. See this movie. Right now. The music, by the way, was also awesome. Well done Mr. Nolan, and Mr. Dicaprio, and all you other Misters. :)

Final Score: 10 out of 10.

Book Review: Flipped

Flipped written by Wendelin Van Draanen is a book for many ages. It's technically in the category of ages 10-14 ish, but since I am now well past that age (at least in appearance) I can attest to the fact that people from any age group will enjoy this book.

When Bryce Loski moves into the neighborhood in the 2nd grade, Julianne Baker falls head over heels. Not being a shy person, she does everything she can to be around him, much to Bryce's dismay. Bryce isn't so sure about Juli. She's nosy, annoying, and just plain won't leave him alone.
Things go this way until the eighth grade when suddenly things get a little flipped. After a few events that I won't spoil, suddenly it's Bryce whose thinking Juli is pretty neat, and Juli is starting to realize that Bryce's blue eye's may be the only thing worth liking about him.

This book is amazing. I read it in just a few hours and I was sucked into Juli and Bryce's world. While I very much like Bryce's character, and really feel for him during some of his crisis moments, but Juli is the shining star here. She's a tough one, will a true sense of who she is and firm in what she believes. I can relate to each of them, and many of the other characters in the book. I for sure got misty eyed more than twice and laughed at least a dozen times.

Total score for this book is 9 out of 10. The only reason I dock a point is because, while the ending is wonderful and most will find it satisfying, I was hoping for just a little bit more of "set in stone" ending.

READ IT!!!

My Week (So Far) in Review

Monday I had a job interview. FINALLY! I haven't gotten a call back yet for a second interview, but I've got a feeling I will. I applied at a treatment facility for troubled teen girls. It's not my ideal job, but with my bank account getting closer to that big, fat zero, I'm willing to try just about anything. (Aside from prostitution.....although......)
On Tuesday morning, I took pictures of my cute nephew. He's now 9 months old, loves chewing on his hands, slobbering and is adorable in every way.




Later that day, I was sitting on my back porch, enjoying the warmth because my house is freezing thanks to central air. Sisco was out meandering around and then suddenly she was leering over one of the window wells. I called for her, but she wouldn't budge. Something was in there. I figured it was a mouse, but when I looked into the well, I saw a little beak poking out from underneath a large leaf. I thought to myself: How the heck did a bird get in there?? So I went and put on some vinyl gloves, moved the leaf and found this little guy.

I picked him up and almost died of sadness because he was SO, SO tiny. I put him in a shoebox and immediately decided it was my cause to save this little guy. Still thinking it was a bird, I got on the Internet and found that if you can feed baby birds baby food. Chicken and fruit baby food. With my pajamas on, my hair wet, and no make up on I ran to the store and bought some. My mom and I force fed him some in with a little syringe. He wouldn't open his beak, the poor thing, so my mom had to force it open. But he ate a little and we made him comfortable with some towels and let him sleep. I took some pics and just kept checking on him. Well, later Les got home from work and we decided to go to Art City Pharmacy to get a smaller dropper to feed him with, I took my camera so we could show our friends there. Chelsea, one of Leslee's co-workers looked at the picture and said: "Oh, that's totally a pheasant." Of course it was! I knew it didn't look like a regular bird, it looked more like a chick. So she told us he needed chick food. So we went and got some of that. To make a long story short, we tried and tried, but the next morning, he died. We had named him Tuvix after a Star Trek character. My fam has a tradition of doing that. This particular character was one that only lasted a single episode because his character "wasn't meant to be." We decided that was fitting because this little chick was probably going to die because he was abandoned and just not meant to be. And he did. It was sad, but I didn't get to attached, so I'm good. It did however, make every one in my family reminisce about a sad, sad time in our house.

About 15 years ago, we had bunnies. We were new at the whole bunny thing, and made many mistakes in deciphering what sex the bunnies were, and turns out the guy who sold them to us, told us wrong. So we put the ones who we assumed couldn't get into "trouble," if you know what I mean, in the same cage. One summer we discovered that my bunny, Gizmo, had babies. (Who knew!) But we had had no idea that she was even pregnant, so we weren't watching for them. So when we happened upon them, most of them were dead. One, however, was not dead, though it was in really bad shape. It's poor little legs were bloody from the harsh metal cage. We warmed up some towels and cleaned it up the best we could. My mom took it to the vet and we found out it was a girl. The vet told us to keep her warm and feed her formula that was specifically for baby animals. So, we were determined to save this little bunny. We named her Little Bit.

We all fell in love with Little Bit. I still remember what she felt like, all covered in peach fuzz. I remember what she smelled like, which was the formula, but man, it smelled marvelous. We all had these visions of our little pet bunny, all grown up with nothing but stubs for feet. (The cage had deformed her, so if she had grown up, she'd have nothing but little nubs.) She would have been the greatest pet ever. Unfortunately, she died after a couple weeks. It was the early morning and Mark and I were downstairs watching cartoons before school. I think I was pretty involved in my show (which may have been Power Rangers, don't judge!) because I didn't even realize my mom had come down the stairs. I looked over at Mark and saw that my mom was sitting next to him, her head on his shoulder, sobbing. We buried Little Bit in our backyard.


Wednesday night, I went to a midnight showing of The Last Airbender.

I know I usually review movies, but I just refuse to bother reviewing this one. I had just finished the last episode of the series the movie was based on that morning. It (the series) was epic. I recommend it to everyone. The movie....not so much. I will refer you to another blog for a review. This review is written by my friend Mat, who went with us to the movie. Click HERE to read it.

Thursday was a good day because I got the spend the later afternoon with these marvelous people.


We went up to Bridal Vail Falls and spent some times looking around and spitting sunflower seeds. Good times. :) I also was able to snap some more pics of this handsome guy.


Well, that's everything worth mentioning so far. Now it's Friday and I'm going to see the new Twilight movie tonight. I'm not really thrilled about it, but it's free thanks to my sister. I'm sure it'll go into the same category as the other two movies, which is: Meh.

Sorry this is such a long one, hopefully you make it through it. :) Until next time. Peace!