em's new year's resolutions

So I'm kinda thinking that this title might be misleading since these are probably more goals for myself than resolutions, but I guess those are the same things aren't they. But I don't usually make resolutions for New Year's but I'll try to stick to these (especially since I'm telling all of you!)

Either way, 2012 has probably been my most fab year yet. Honestly, like Tini, I didn't think that I had accomplished much in 2012. To be honest, it's hard to remember what I was doing a year ago (like midterms maybe? I don't even remember those) so it's easy to see why I couldn't think of what I'd done in one year. I didn't quite make a list of goals last January, but from what I have written, I actually did quite a bit. I passed my 3 APs (4's on all of them, even Physics what), I took the SATs and SAT II (and killed the math sections so I now can lord over my math teacher from last year oops), I got my driver's license (after I thought I had failed the test), and I made a new friend(s)!

And on top of that I got my Gold Award (it's like becoming an Eagle Scout just for Girl Scouts, a new post idea maybe?), I got my lifeguard certification and my first job, I got into two colleges (with a scholarship!), and helped some people through tough times. Not to mention my half finished attempts like writing a novel (I will get there someday) or knitting or crocheting something. All in all, I think I did more than I ever thought I would and I'm happy about it.

Somehow I've changed in the course of a year (the left is yesterday night, and the right is January 6th, 2012 can you see it well?) My hair's gotten longer, I've grown up a bit, realized I liked painting my nails and shopping at Forever 21 and H&M and that I needed pants other than jeans in my closet.

So here are my goals for this year:

• Get into college and go to college. I know I'm already in college, but I'm still waiting on eight more schools and I would love to get into a few of them. I already have a good feeling of where I'll end up next this August, but you never know!
• Get at least 4's on my APs. I think this is self explanatory.
• Do my laundry on a regular basis. I do my laundry, it just needs to be done more, you know?
• Blog more. Like Tini, I want us to make a mark, if that makes any sense. I will update on a regular basis, even when I move away (probably more oops, don't let me get distracted from college! We're going places Tini, I promise)
• Take more pictures. I don't have a super nice camera, but the one I have is really easy to carry around and I always take it with me but never use it. I always feel bad when I come back from something with very few pictures. So there's that. 
• Take care of myself. I'm starting to learn that I need to put myself first. I can't let other people take me down with them. Also, I need to eat healthier and exercise more (and learn how to do 100 push ups) I'm tired of killing myself over the way I look so I need to do something about it. 
• Finish writing a story. Whether it's for NaNoWriMo or just on my own, this needs to happen. I have 365 days and countless ideas, the only thing I need is time. 
• Get an A in math. I know this seems kind of silly but I'm pretty sure I haven't gotten a real, decent A (93+) since 8th or 9th grade. I think this is my year. Bring it on Calc. (FYI, first quarter I got a 96, so this isn't baseless).
• Get straight A's and A's as my final grades. This kinda goes hand in hand with the previous one, but I need to. Getting straight A's would be fantabulous and guarantee my spot at whatever school I end up at. 
• Make amends. There are at least 2 people I can think of who I've been not so nice to or ignored for a looooong time. And I'd like to go off to college with a clean slate. 
• Keep in touch. I'm literally terrified of losing friends when I leave for college. Even though I know I won't stay in touch with 90% there are a select few who I do want to keep in contact with.

So that's that. I'm not sure how well it's going to work (but hey, look at last year!) Oh goodness I forgot the big one: I want to graduate. Hello where's my brain, obviously not here. Like I said, I don't know if this'll work. I don't know how many I'll keep or complete, but I'm going to try. 2013 is the year I graduate (and we all know 13 is Taylor Swift's lucky number) so all in all, I'm hoping know it'll be a good year. Even if I end up at the state school.

Happy New Year guys, (and if you have a resolution you want to share with us, post it on either this post or Kristina's, we'd love to read them!)

-em xx

tini's new year's resolutions

Pretty much all I can think of whenever I think about New Year's resolutions is the episode of Degrassi where Paige says "new year, new look, new Paige." I honestly couldn't tell you the episode it was from or the season or anything, but I always always always think of that. What a start to a post, right?

Despite how awful college went for me (again, waiting for that post, my bad), overall, I'd say I accomplished a lot in 2012. Before I really thought about it, I had branded 2012 as an utter failure, full of stupidity and downfalls. But after looking at my list of goals for the year from last February, I really did get a lot done. Graduate with a 4.0 GPA. Check. Knit a sweater. Check. Make money. Check. Start college. Well... almost check, but soon to be a definite check. Start blogging or vlogging. Check. Learn to drive. Well... check. I didn't say get my license.... Publish a brilliant yearbook. Check (says the awards sitting at my high school...). Pass all five of my APs. Check (says all 4s and 5s). Get better at guitar. Check (I think so at least). 

Turns out that 2012 was not so bad after all. I knit a lot, I only got one sunburn, I did a lot of fun stuff, I finished high school, I cut off all my hair, I broke a world record, and I voted for the first time, among tons of other stuff.

It's like a year in instagram highlights -- but really a year in just general highlights too. There was a lot of bad in 2012, but also a lot of good that I'm very, very thankful for. And I'm very, very thankful for all of the people who got me through this past year, even when I wasn't sure I was going to make it. 

On a brighter note, now, I really think I can achieve anything I set my mind to in 2013. I think 2013 can be my year. I've never been so excited for a new year as a fresh start in my whole life as I am right now. I'm so ready to start over -- and, seeing as for the first time in my life January will also be the start of a new school year for me, now is the perfect time. The perfect fresh start. The perfect time to turn over a new leaf. I'm ready to go (I even did this whole thing where I bought a bunch of new clothes online the other day to prepare for the new me... haul post?) -- but not completely without any path at all. For once it's a new year and it actually feels different. Maybe it's just because I want such a big change, but it feels like it's happening (even if all I'm doing is writing blog posts and sending Em sappy text messages).

New Year's Resolutions 2013

• Post on our blog regularly -- and get a legitimate and actual following. This year, I'm going to not only post for me and Em, but hopefully for other people. I'll have a schedule, and I'll stick to it. I'll run a weekly post with a weekly theme -- whatever it takes. I'll do tons of getting us out there -- making a name for this blog and the two of us. 
• Take more pictures. I have a really nice DSLR camera that I bought at the end of my sophomore year and a really nice point and shoot camera I received as a graduation gift (that's also tiny and perfect for carrying). I just want to carry my cameras more -- get more pictures of everything. It'd also make random blogging a heck of a lot easier.
• Get my license. I know. I'm 19 and I still have no license. Even Nickelodeon shows have started taunting me about it (they've actually made jokes about not having your license on iCarly and Victorious). I'm going to have to have my mom drive me to my first semester of college. But hopefully, soon, I'll be getting my license. This one isn't so much a resolution as just something that absolutely without question needs to be done. 
• Start a happiness jar. I don't know if that's really what I should call it -- but a jar where I put little slips of paper with great things that happen to me written on them. I just think it'll make the whole "reflecting on the year" process a lot easier next year. 
• Stop wearing leggings as pants outside of my house. I don't think I need to explain this one.
• Wear my retainers regularly. I am so bad about wearing my retainers... I haven't been wearing them for over a year now and my teeth are starting to get a gap. It wouldn't really be a problem if my teeth hadn't moved so much that it's extremely painful to wear them, so I need to ween myself back onto them. 
• Stop swearing -- or at least swear less. It's not very ladylike. 
• Start exercising -- at least a little. I'm seriously the least active person on earth -- I could sit down all day for weeks on end and never notice. Like -- thank God I'm naturally thin and don't eat that much... but I feel like it just can't be good for me anymore. Walking Penny once she gets to come home, maybe doing some work out videos on YouTube, etc. Nothing too drastic -- just a little something. 
• Read more. I honestly wish I read more, but I just don't. I lost my library card in January of sophomore year -- it's sad that I know exactly when it was but I have no clue where it is -- and ever since then I just haven't read as much. I used to read a lot, and I loved it, so I'd love to get back into that. 
• Finally read The Happiness Project. I've wanted to read this book for almost a whole year and never got around to it. Yet.
• Do well in school. I don't mean to sound like a snob, but I'm going to community college (and I did extremely well in high school) so I think this one is kind of a freebie for me. 
• Start flossing. Now you all think I'm obsessed with dental hygiene. 
• Be at peace. I think I might even start meditating to try to get rid of the hostility inside me. 

I am so excited to see what this year brings because I know it's going to be great. Happy New Year! Please share any resolutions you guys have in the comments!

xx, kristina

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