what 2012 has taught me

I was in the middle of cleaning my room just now (which I really didn't want to get into to start with), and I decided to take a break (because we all know five minutes of cleaning = ten minutes of internet time). The internet, however, is also boring, so I decided I'd write up this post I've been planning for a bit.

BUT FIRST, I want you to meet my new puppy! Her name is Penny, but we can't take her home yet because she's only 3 weeks old. She's a maltese, and I am so, so excited for her to be a new part of my family. She doesn't even weigh a pound yet!

Anyway, back on track. I feel like I'm always one of those people who is waiting for something major to happen to me -- like lessons in my life are going to come only in major events. I guess I'm still waiting for my life to be a Lifetime movie (I'm sorry, I'm addicted... An Amish Murder is on on January 6th -- am I the only one totally excited?) or a bad "reality" show. 

After seeing hellokatyxo's video by the same name, I realized I've learned a lot this year, and even though some of them did come in big dramatic ways, a lot of them slipped by without me really noticing. Some of them are really trivial, and I threw them in just for fun. I figured since tomorrow is the last day of the year, now would be a perfect time to do this. 

What 2012 Has Taught Me:

• What is right for you is not always right for everyone else or what everyone else thinks is right for you. I guess this all goes back to "if everyone else jumped off a bridge, would you?", but this was definitely my most dramatic lesson this year. In fact, I have a post coming soon on the topic of why I haven't been attending school for the past semester (and why it was the best choice for me). I'll go more into detail on this later, but I spent a long time -- months, actually -- trying to justify to myself that this was right and everyone else was wrong about me. It was a huge struggle, and there's much more detail on that over here.
• Some people leave because you're better off without them. I've had several people walk out of my life (or do something that caused me to walk out of their's) in recent years, and to be honest, none of it was easy. Some of these people were people I struggled not to go back to (one of my former closest friends in particular), but in the past year, I've reflected a lot on those people and realized I really am better off without them. Some people are toxic, and as long as you're around them, you can't really realize how they're doing more harm than good in your life. I really realized that I don't need people who are going to bring me down.
• "You can be the ripest, juiciest peach in the world, and there's still going to be somebody who hates peaches." I guess this is kind of cheating because it's a quote (by Dita Von Teese, if you were at all curious), but it's true. I can't be liked by everyone, and trying to be liked by everyone was really bringing me down. Some people just won't like you, and you can't do anything to change that. You should still live to be the best you that you can be, but that doesn't mean people will like you.
• Your real friends will reveal themselves at your lowest points. Some people who I thought were my closest friends weren't there for me at all when I needed them most, and some of my best friends (who I didn't realize at the time were my best friends) were going out on a limb for me at that time. Hell, I had a friend who offered to take a five hour bus ride (and then five hours back) to see me for a single night in case I needed someone. 
• Living to please everyone isn't going to make them like you any better, so be who makes you happy. I guess this is very similar to the Dita Von Teese quote, only this time I realized that I wasn't even being the best me -- I was being the best someone else. Having other people like you for being someone you're not isn't a better feeling than having them not like you for who you actually are. 
• I love navy blue. This one is so dumb, I'm sorry, but I had to include it. I used to not own ANY navy blue (because I really hate blavy -- navy blue and black together and I owned a lot of black). But now I have some navy blue and I'm seriously in love. I can't stop. 
• I'm not easily embarrassed, so I have no excuse to not be myself. The other ones I feel like were more general and applied to everyone, but in the past year, for me in particular, I've realized that I have an extremely low level of shame (like when people ask me to identify my most embarrassing moment, I can't do it, because I don't really experience long term embarrassment... Like if I do something embarrassing in that moment I'll be a little embarrassed, but I can't remember it later). I don't know if that's good or bad overall, but it's been good for me in the sense that I no longer feel like I can't be myself because who I really am might be "embarrassing." 

I've obviously learned a lot of other things, but a lot of them are silly or less major or fall somewhat into the categories of the above listed. Also I didn't want this post getting ridiculously long! Happy almost New Year! I'll be back for sure on Tuesday with my New Year's resolutions post. 

xx, kristina

a personalized blanket for em

It's getting way too hard to do "tini _____" for every post, so I'm giving up on it. I figure if it's too hard now I should just give it up before it's too well established. Also, I have some pretty serious posts coming up and I just feel awkward using titles with "tini" in them, I don't know why.

Anyhow, today I FINALLY get to post about the blanket I made for Emily! It's been finished since, oh, October, and I originally planned to give it to her as a birthday present, but then it morphed into a birthday/Christmas present of sorts, and since she didn't know what it was, I couldn't post the stuff until I actually gave it to her. Which was on Saturday -- but then Christmas junk happened (I'm sorry, that sound so bah-humbug: HO HO HO, okay!) so now it's Christmas night (this might not get posted until Boxing Day morning) and I'm finally in bed in the dark getting around to this. This is about to be reaaaallllyyy picture heavy, so I apologize.

 This is the finished product. It's a 100% Cotton blanket (made with random odds and ends of Sugar'n'Cream yarn from other blankets) which was based off of this blanket. I think it's a really nice light weight blanket, but that's not really what this is about. It's really about how the heck I put her name on it. 

I started out with a handwritten sheet with her name on it. If your handwriting isn't so neat, or you don't have the patience to write it out a good 6 or 7 times like I did (until it was perfect, obviously... though this turned out to be a huge waste of time), you could print off the name in a pretty but simple font.  You don't want anything too fancy because you have to be able to trace it with little stitches, so just be careful, you feel me? Anyway, then I poked little holes all along the letters to use like one of those "learn to sew" kits for little kids, positioned the paper on the blanket, and started sewing in and out using the same cotton yarn in a contrasting color.

The best way I can describe to you how I sewed the letters is like the lochness monster. At first it'll look like your letters with gaps between each stitch, but you'll go back through and fill them in.  I went through and when I got to the end of a letter I turned around and made nessy's bumps go the other way (so wherever had been up was now down and vice versa).

I ended up giving up pretty quickly on my chart because it was causing me more inconvenience than it was helping me. I have a pretty good eye and pretty neat writing, so I freehanded the rest of the letters.

 This is what I ended up with after 1 time through, but I was really unhappy with it, because without the flash and from far away, it didn't stand out enough.

 I went through a second time, which still wasn't enough, so it progressed to a third time, which I was finally happy with.

 Since I did the second and third time through separately, I ended up with a lot of ends to sew in. I made another blanket for my neighbor and did each letter using a single strand for all 3 resews, and that got rid of a lot of the inconvenience of sewing it in. I definitely recommend doing it that way.

Obviously, you could sew in the ends the same way you do when you have a color change on your blanket (if you've never done that, I recommend this tutorial), but I didn't want the blue to spread all around the back of the blanket, so I weaved the extra yarn in and out through the back of the letters and then trimmed it. I found this also made the letters sturdier and they stood out a little better.

 I'm really happy with how the blanket came out, and like I mentioned, I made another one for a neighbor who saw Emily's at my house one day and insisted she needed a blanket with her name on it. I think the name really adds a nice personal touch to a pretty simple blanket, especially if you're giving it as a gift.

It's still Christmas, so merry Christmas to all of you! So excited to do some more posting in the next week or so.

xx, kristina

story time with em

I feel so bad about two posts in a day, but the other one isn't really a post right it's a repost so it's fine.

Anyways! Merry Christmas to all of you! (and if you don't celebrate Christmas, happy Tuesday to you all, I hope your holidays were good)

So I thought today would be a good day for an update post, since I haven't done one yet (and a lot's happened) and because I'm leaving for New York tomorrow and I'm not sure what my internet's going to be like.

I'll start with college, since that's basically consumed my life. I've applied to all 11 of my schools (there were a looooot of essays) and heard back from three, two of which I got into. Which is actually really exciting for me, since one's giving me money, and I really like the other one. I also applied for a few scholarships/honors colleges, but I'm just about done with those essays thank goodness. The next school I hear back from is in January at some point, but I don't really care about that school since I definitely don't have to go there. (Okay, it's a state school, right? and I really didn't want to go there, and so now I don't have to which is great I'm not just being spoiled or something there are legit good reasons for not wanting to go).

The next big(ish) thing(s) that happened were of a medical nature. (That sounds so awkward). So I went ice skating with a few friends and I fell down. Not a big surprise, cause I can't go skating without falling. What was a surprise was that my knee (on which I fell) swelled up and I couldn't walk correctly. So I went to the sports doctor and nothing was wrong and it was this whole big todo but the moral is I'm not skating again unless there's a rail and the rink's been properly Zamboni'd. The other thing was that I got my wisdom teeth out! This actually happened last Monday, not yesterday, but the one before that. I could probably make a whole post on my experience but I won't because that's kinda dumb. So I'll just say I am so so grateful that I'm able to eat normal food again and that I can't wait for this whole process to be over with. (Be happy you guys can eat solid foods. basically my face looked like this:

when I wasn't allowed to eat real food) 

And then today was Christmas! We went to church last night (the one time we go to church all year awk) and then we when we walked out it was snowing! Which is actually a big deal cause we had a white christmas which hasn't happened in a while. (I have this theory it only snows Christmas Eve if we go to church that evening.) And then we had Christmas today and it was beautiful and great and actually I want to mention my sister's present cause she's adorable.

She first got me an Essie nail polish (Bachelorette Party, it's this hot pink color and really cute) and then she's been leaving me little notes all over our house about why she loves me. (there are 12 for each day of Christmas) So basically my sister is pretty cool.

Also I made a list of posts that I want to make for you guys in the future and it's pretty long which is a good thing!

Again, Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays

-em xx

em does her nails

*edit* since I don't know how to use blogger I accidentally deleted this the first time oops so I'm redoing it that is all okay


I need a better title for this.

So I saw this tutorial (credit to the Beauty Department, I love their blog) on Pinterest a while back (in October I think) and I've wanted to do it ever since. So December 2nd I sat down and I did my nails. 

(Sorry for the bad quality I hadn't found my camera yet) Anyways, it was kinda hard, but definitely worth it! 

The first thing I did was paint my nails white (Correction Tape, Spoiled by Wet & Wild, $1.99), and then once they had dried I draped black embroidery floss over them, and sealed that in with a top coat. After that had dried, I painted little lights on in red (Forever Yummy, Essie, $9) and green (Permission to Proceed, Spoiled by Wet & Wild, $1.99)  and that was that!

I hope you guys liked this, and they'll be another Christmas-y nail tutorial coming soon!

-em xx

tini updates

I just realized how funny the title of this post is as I typed it, but then it's only funny if you say it out loud (or you're good at hearing in your head) because like, updates could be a verb (as in "Tini is updating you") or this post could just be full of "teeny updates" which it is. I'm actually laughing out loud at my accidentally not all that funny post title. Just a normal day in my life. I'm not even sorry.

Em and I hung out today, so there's finally some pictures of us on the "about tini and em do stuff" page! It's only been months! Only been months where we barely use this blog! This is good. There were many, many pictures taken and most of them look at lot like this:

Yeah, that's actually my face. Em is probably going to kill me for posting this one, but I could have done much, much worse. Really, this is one of the better ones.

As you can see, I painted my room (it's all nice clean flat white now) and got new furniture, and maybe sooner or later I'll do a room tour type post? It depends how clean I can get my room. But more importantly, now that I've given Em her birthday gift, I can do a DIY-ish post about her gift. So that'll come very soon. I'm starting to feel like turds (turds is my favorite swear word replacement... it replaces everything) about not posting much, but no one wants to hear about all my babysitting (not even my mom, and I tell her it anyway) I'm trying to get back on top of things... I'll get myself a blogging schedule. Hopefully Em will work on getting back on top of it too. New Years Resolutions? OH MORE IDEAS FOR POSTS (Em, let's both do resolution posts that'd be fun!)

Anyway, the most important of all the updates: I'm going back to college in January! I start classes at the community college that is literally down the street from my house in exactly one month, and I could not be more thrilled about it. I'm probably going to do a post about what it was like making this whole decision (MORE IDEAS FOR POSTS) and why I think, despite what some other people might think, this was the best choice for me. I can already tell Thursdays will be my favorite day of the week from January to May because I only have one class at 11 o'clock, and it's my only day without an 8 am class. Tuesdays will probably be my least favorite (yuck, 3 hour chem lab, no thank you).

Anyhow, I think that's about it. I started this post and then had to go to a Christmas party at a neighbor's, but then ended up at my OTHER neighbor's watching Scooby Doo with their three year old. There will DEFINITELY be more posts soon, without a doubt because I have so many plans for this blog and hopefully Em has some too!

xx, tini

em reviews: the perks of being a wallflower

"Things change. And friends leave. Life doesn't stop for anybody."

this week: The Perks of Being A Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky

in a nutshell: Charlie starts and completes his freshman year of high school

extended summary: Charlie documents his freshman year of high school in the form of letters to his 'friend' (we never find out who). He deals with making friends after the suicide of his only friend, and then the typical problems that high schoolers deal with. There are, well, I guess, mature topics covered in the book as well, sex, drugs, and abuse. It's well done however, so don't let that prevent you from reading the book.

the book and i: I was really bored last Monday since I had five gazillion frees the next day (okay like 4) and was going to do all my homework the next day. I didn't want to go to the library but I wanted to read something so I was like "Oh, I'll see if I can find this book because everyone cries about how good it is so maybe I should read it." So I got it and I read it and didn't stop because let's face it, it's a really really good book. And now I want to see the movie and it's just perfect and yeah.

the perks of reading the book:

1. you have an excuse for going to go see the movie
2. you laugh
3. you cry
4. you want to read it again
5. Charlie is super cute
6. You don't realize what you're reading until like 17 pages later when Charlie figures stuff out
7. Patrick is just about the best character ever (except for near the end but we'll ignore that) and you'll want a Patrick in your life. And a Sam. And a Charlie. And just about everyone except Mary Elizabeth and Bob.

end notes: yeah so just go read this it's really good. And yeah. This is just ugh too many feelings. Or just watch the movie trailer. But if you've seen the movie, or plan to, I would recommend reading the book.

"So, this is my life. And I want you to know that I am both happy and sad and I'm still trying to figure out how that could be."

-em xx

em's ipod: taylor swift

So I probably should be studying for my chem test tomorrow, but we're just going to ignore that. In case you guys couldn't tell, both Tini and I are absolutely positively in love with Taylor Swift. Since Red came out on Monday (I’m gonna pretend it didn’t leak)  here are my favorite 13 Taylor songs, both released and unreleased and covers from before her album came out. Some of her new songs are on here, but ugh. I just can't even. She's perfect, and as soon as I figure out which songs I like best of hers off her new album, I'll probably post about that as well. 

So in alphabetical order, here are my 13 favorite songs. You should listen to all of them and then go buy her new album and all her albums ever, okay?

(also I don't have picture for this post since because reasons so you can just pretend there's a pretty photo of Taylor here)

Baby Don’t You Break My Heart Slow (cover)

I don’t even know why I like this song, I just do. I think it’s her guitar, to be honest. 

Back to December (Speak Now World Tour)

I just can’t even. I love love love the way she puts together three songs, cause normally it’s not one of my favorites but idk man. It’s really nice like this. 

Brought Up That Way (unreleased)

This is the original video I watched. She does a nice job. I think what really gets me about this song is that she used my name. Like, I know it’s not about me, but still. Also it’s the first song I cried while listening to. 

Crazier

I love playing this on the piano. It’s just so pretty. She has some really nice unreleased acoustic demos of this too. 

Dark Blue Tenessee (Unreleased)

This song is super underrated. I love it a million gazillion times. And it can be interpreted in a lot different ways/her piano songs are amazing.

Drops of Jupiter (Cover)

Taylor would be the reason I got into Train. I love their music, and I love her cover of this song. I just really like her acoustic stuff so maybe that’s it. Idk. 

Fearless (Speak Now World Tour)

Now, I love this song normally, one because it’s super pretty on the piano, and two, it’s just a really good falling in love song. I think I like this version the best cause it’s acoustic though. Oh yeah and she mashes it up with other songs too.

Fifteen

I wasn’t fifteen when I started high school but idk this song is just super pretty and speaks to me and yeah. 

Long Live

So I’m 90% sure the only reason I like this song is cause it reminds me of my friends. It’s my theme song for them and I wouldn’t have it any other way. 

Red

I love the chorus of this song. I love everything. But the chorus.

Sparks Fly

I love this song and it’s just great and beautiful and that’s not a very good reason but too bad. 

State of Grace

I just can’t even. This is going to be like Fearless for me, I’m almost positive.

Sweet Tea and God’s Graces (unreleased)

I wish she had released this one. It’s so pretty and I love the lyrics, especially the chorus. 

tini wears: eep it's fall

Hey guys. God, it feels good to be posting again. I've been really bad about it -- I can't even say I've been busy because I'm an unemployed non-student who does nothing. I know Em is legitimately busy a lot, so unlike me, she has an excuse. I have been working quite a bit on a birthday present for Em though, which will get it's very own post once she has received it (I can't post it here until she knows what it is because it's a surprise!). It's handmade, so I'll do a little DIY post.

Honestly, I wish I were busy. It'd mean I had more opportunities to wear actual cute fall clothes. Fall fashion is my absolute 100% favorite, no question about it. I love cosy sweaters and not having to wear huge coats over them, or having to wear two pairs of pants to keep my legs warm enough. Not to mention my obsession with muted neutral fall colors. And scarves. And boots. And socks. I can't pretend that I don't love every single thing about fall that's ever existed... food, clothes, Thanksgiving. I'm actually not a huge Halloween fan, but it's okay only because it happens in fall.

On Saturday night I met up with my friend Michelle, who was home from Vermont for the weekend. Perfect! An excuse to get dressed in some cute fall clothes! A little disappointing because it was night, so I definitely needed a coat, so this outfit needed to be displayed SOMEWHERE. Good thing I have a blog.........

I know, it's Tuesday now, but I didn't get a chance to post this on Saturday, so it had to be done now. While I listen to Taylor Swift's brand new album for the first time (which is perfect by the way, you should all go buy it...).

Jeans : LC Lauren Conrad for Kohls Chambray Shirt : Target Scarf : Forever 21 Belt : Abercrombie and Fitch Hat : H&M 

I honestly never knew the difference between a denim shirt and a chambray shirt until I bought this shirt a few months ago. Sadly they don't seem to have it anymore, but I think a chambray shirt is definitely something you need if you own any colored jeans or pants. It's so effortless but put together! Also, the belt, scarf, and hat are all from a long while ago... I think the hat is 3 or 4 years old, the scarf was a Christmas gift from my junior year of high school, and the belt used to be my sister's, so I have no clue when that's from.

I wore this outfit with a pair of brown combat boots from Kohls (these ones!) because to be honest, the pants are a little short on me. If you're at all tall, I wouldn't recommend buying them, but I was too in love with the color to pass them up for being the tiniest bit too short when boots will totally cover it!

Ah, I just can't get over how much I love fall. Sorry I'm such an awkward model! What's your favorite season?

xx, tini

tini bakes: coconut chocolate chip cookies

Night is my favorite time to bake. I don't know why, it just always has been. Probably because my cravings for cookies and cakes spikes at around 7 and by 8, I can't take it anymore. If it's chocolate I'm craving, I try to fix that problem by just eating semisweet chocolate chips with ice cream (no, not ice cream with chocolate chips. In the amount I do it, it's the other way around).

Sometimes you need more. I can't eat 99% of store-bought baked goods because of allergies, so I do a lot of baking. I have an arsenal of cookie recipes, and I'm always open to a new one (seriously, if you have a recommendation, let me know. If I can eat all of the ingredients, I'll try it out!). 

Last night, I was determined to try something new. But I was tired, hungry, and just wanted something I knew would taste good. I swear, I don't think I'll ever bake a different chocolate chip cookie again. This is the chocolate chip cookie I've been looking for my whole life... buttery and chewy and perfect. Even if you don't like coconut, just omit it; these cookies are incredible.

I can't lie to you, these pictures aren't fresh out of the oven. I baked these last night and took these pictures today after lunch. But they are just as good later as they are fresh out of the oven. I'd be interested to see if they go back to their gooey, melty state if you popped one in the microwave. 

I halved the original recipe and made some minor changes... I wouldn't recommend making more than this many. I find that they tend to get a little stale at the end of the batch. Unless you're making cookies for a lot of people or you go through cookies really fast in your house, it's not worth it. The cookies are pretty quick to make, so you can easily whip up another batch when the first one is gone. 

coconut chocolate chip cookies

Adapted from Taste of Home

Yields: about 20 cookies

1/2 cup of butter

1/2 cup of granulated sugar

1/2 cup of brown sugar, packed

1 egg

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups of flour

1/2 teaspoon of baking soda

1/2 teaspoon of baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1 1/3 cups of unsweetened large flake coconut

3/4 cup of semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°F. 

In a large bowl (I do it in the bowl of my stand mixer), cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg, beat until fully mixed in. Beat in vanilla. Add dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt), beating on low until fully integrated. Add coconut and chocolate chips, stir in. 

Make heaping tablespoon balls of dough (I use a cookie disher), and place on an ungreased cookie sheet, leaving about 2-3 inches between each cookie. They will spread quite a bit. 

Bake in oven for 12-18 minutes (I find they usually take about 15-16 minutes in my oven), or until lightly browned around the edges. The coconut will brown before the cookies, so go off of the cookies, not the coconut pieces. Allow to cool on pans until firm enough to move to wire cooling racks. 

Store in an airtight container to maintain freshness. 

Enjoy!

xx, tini

em reviews: 13 reasons why

Before I start, I just have to say that 13 Reasons Why is my favorite book in the whole entire world. That is all.

"Hello, boys and girls. Hannah Baker here. Live and in stereo. No return engagements. No encore. And this time, absolutely no requests. I hope you're ready, because I'm about to tell you the story of my life. More specifically, why my life ended. And if you're listening to these tapes, you're one of the reasons why."

this week: 13 Reasons Why, by Jay Asher

in a nutshell: Clay receives his classmate's suicide note in the form of seven tapes, and reacts accordingly.

extended summary: Clay's crush Hannah kills herself before the start of the book. She ends up recording the tapes as her suicide note, and sends them around to the thirteen people who caused her death, Clay presumably being one of them. The book follows Clay as he listens to the tapes, interacts with those mentioned on the tapes, and tries to figure out why he has gotten the tapes, because he hasn't done anything wrong. I'm not sure what else I can tell ya'll without spoiling the book.

the book and i: I found this book in seventh (?) grade at Barnes and Noble. And my dad bought it for me because it was so interesting to me and I needed something to read. Since then, I've read it over and over, and I'm 87% positive I've got most of it memorized. I'm not really sure why I like it so much, I just know that I do.

thirteen reasons why i love this book:

1. The plot speaks to me. I'm not really sure why/how. I just think it's really interesting. What would you do if you got a suicide note in the form of tapes? 
2. I related to Hannah. I think that's pretty self explanatory. 
3. I wanted to be Hannah. Even though she ends up dead, and pretty messed up, she still was a person that a lot of people loved. She was almost ideal, but at the same time she still had all her flaws.
4. Everyone can relate to one of the characters. At least one. I guarantee it. There's such a wide spectrum of characters that it's pretty hard not to relate to one person. 
5. I like the way it's written. Clay's narration is interwoven with Hannah's narration on the tapes. 
6. I personally think it raises awareness about suicide and suicide prevention. My copy of the book comes with Suicide Hotline numbers in the back. And I think it exposes people to this idea who wouldn't normally think about it. 
7. It's about high school students that face other problems besides suicide. Which you know, is the truth. 
8. It's an honest book. It doesn't sugar coat high school all that much, which is nice. 
9. It's got unrequited love, hatred, depression, happiness, and hope all rolled up in one. 
10. I really, really love the way he ends the book. It's a really powerful message if you read into it and apply it to your life. 
11. I'm almost 90% sure there's symbolism and stuff, I'm just too lazy to go get up and get the book right now. But I like symbolism. So. 
12. I really wished I lived in that town.
13. I think that as humans, there's something fascinating about death to us. Like why someone kills themselves. We just can't comprehend that unless we've lived it ourselves. So I guess the book is just kind of an insight into what that's like. And like reading about people who are depressed. 

end notes: Um, so ya'll should go read this. Right now. And if my seal of approval wasn't enough, they're making a movie, so you can read it and say you read it before it was popular. Cause you know, everyone wants to be a hipster. In all seriousness though, I hope you pick up a copy.

"Because it may seem like a small role now, but it matters. In the end, everything matters."

-em xx