THURSDIY: Canvas Art!

Our living room walls were looking pretty scarce for awhile and we finally got our acts together and decorated them! We went through several ideas for the walls. At one point we wanted to put up posters that represented us, but it just didn't work out. We finally decided making custom canvas art. My idea was the quote painted over newspaper while Phaedra's idea was the melted crayon art. So, in a way we ended up doing exactly what we hoped to do with the space. Creating both are super simple there are millions of tutorials about them online.

All it requires to make this is a canvas, newspaper, some sort of adhesive (hot glue or mod podge work best), and paint. The hardest part of this was choosing neutral newspaper clippings to use for the background, but I managed. I snagged this idea from one of my favorite blogs A Beautiful Mess. I chose the sentence "Revel in it" partly because "revel" is my favorite word and partly because the phrase promotes just being foot loose and fancy free, two things I don't do enough of.

Crayon canvas art is so much fun and so easy to make. All you need is a pack of crayons (Note they have to be crayola and we suggest getting the 64 pac) hair dryer, and a canvas. First you you hot glue the crayons on the canvas in whichever way you want, some people get fancy and glue them in shapes. Let the the crayons dry you take your hair dryer and hold it over your crayons until they start to melt. Some girls bleed faster than others, your reds will go pretty quickly. If that happens just move the blow dryer over the areas that aren't going as quickly. You can blow the melting wax around to blend colors and create a pattern. Be careful not hold it under the blow dryer for too long or else some of your colors will start thin out or blend into brown. 

Our living room feels so much more complete now! Happy creating :)

~Turtle & Bunny

WENSDOM: Staying connected to campus

(One of my favorite walkways on campus.)

Moving off campus brings on a lot of changes, some pretty obvious like having to budget time for cooking and being respectful to neighbors. Amongst the obvious changes come quite a few I didn't consider namely staying connected to the comforts of my campus. The luxuries of having a postal service nearly a yard away, easy accessible meals, more free time in between classes, and most importantly my friends at an arms reach. I'm a pretty sociable person, so I'd like to think. Last semester I lived in a dorm that housed my core friends while I'd see the bulk of my friends in the dining hall for meals or around campus as I hung out during the day. When I started school last week the first thing I realized was how quickly the distance of my new apartment could drive a wedge into my friendships and social life if I wasn't careful.

In efforts to prevent this I had to create systems that blended the old ways I interacted with my friends with the much needed new. Every day I eat at least one meal in the dining hall, normally lunch. I try to sit with different groups and really spread my time evenly. I visit my old dorm weekly to catch up with the lovely folks I left behind there. I don't hesitate to invite people over to the apartment, nor do I use the distance of my apartment as an excuse as to why I can't participate in something...no matter how tempting. I also have figured out that including my friends as much as possible in my new change helps keep them close. I keep them updated on apartment happenings that are funny or silly through texts and photo messages. Pics of my cat are always crowd favorites. In addition to joining my friends for lunch I initiate grabbing meals out around town and hanging out in other ways off campus.

Even though all these new systems of keeping up with people are great I still reserve some good old traditions. Every Saturday I have make sure to have brunch at noon with friends, I bask in the sun on my friends couch in her dorm when I need to think things over or pass time, I read in the Lit House in between classes, and nothing will ever beat just walking around my beautiful campus talking with someone.

~Turtle

Taste Test: Stewed Chicken

I watched my mom prepare this meal one night over the summer and was shocked to see how easy it was, yet how gourmet it looks. If you like chicken and want to impress people with your cooking skills I'd whip this up. 

What you need: chicken breasts (enough for however many people you're feeding), a can of stewed tomatoes, four different color peppers, and a dish to put it all in. You'll also need to budget about an hour and a half for this meal's preparation and cooking time.

Step one: Season your chicken. I used garlic powder, season all, and poultry seasoning. Don't be stingy either, it's okay to get a little heavy handed when applying them. 

Step two: Place the chicken in the oven to bake on 375 for 30 minutes. 

Find something constructive to do while you wait but hang around the kitchen to check up on it. 

Step three: When there's about five minutes left for the chicken cut up your peppers. 

Step four: Combine the stewed tomatoes and the peppers with the chicken. 

Step five: Place the dish back in the oven for additional 30 minuets.

And you wait some more...

And voila! You may want to serve it with rice to add a little something else to it. Easy isn't it! It'll be a hit whether you're just looking for a colorful dish to try or perhaps trying to impress that special someone. For a vegetarian spin kick out the chicken and add beans. Enjoy!

~Turtle

Heading back to school with a bang!

(Our kitchen chalkboard is a crowd favorite. Loved waking up to all these silly notes.)

To kick off the beginning of the fall semester, Phaedra and I threw a back to school party. Marking it the first major bash our little apartment experienced. Despite a few chaotic moments, the night was amazing and whether good or bad it was definitely one to remember. I blame the hard lemonade recipe a friend gave us. I was surprised at how in order the apartment was post party. I think cleaning as the party is in flow keeps the workload for post night much smaller. We had out clearly visible places for our guests to dispose of their trash as they saw fit, that helped tremendously.

(Phaedra and I on our balcony.)

We also put a drink cap on for the night so at one point we weren't having to worry ourselves with constantly cleaning. In addition to the drink cap keeping down on trash it also keep down on things getting to out of hand. Before the party even got started by way of enforcing a cap we encouraged BYOB. You never want to wakeup to find $40 dollars worth of alcohol down the drain in one night.

 (Jacki, me, and Em in my room.)

 (The much missed Mike who's finally returned from studying abroad and Phaedra.)

(What too much fun looks like.)

Since we live off campus now we don't live with a major friend group anymore and with our differing schedules during the week it's hard to see one another so the party was a great place to catch up. We had a good time and most importantly all of our attendees did too.

~Turtle & Bunny!

Oh the anticipation!

(Sinatra lounges on my bed when I'm gone.)

With the start of the semester this coming Monday, Phaedra and we can barely contain our excitement and anticipation for what's to come! We can't wait to see our friends, start classes, and we both will be starting new jobs this semester as well. Before we can get to all of that we both have to survive this week. We are frightfully busy this week. By the time we get home the last thing on our mind is updating our blog and we apologize for that. Don't worry this won't become a habit. Curious as to what has kept us away? Well, I started training for my section editor position of my school's newspaper. It's been a lot of fun. I'm feeling pretty good about the whole thing. While I'm mastering programs like photoshop and Indesign, Phaedra has been training and preparing for her new position as a peer mentor. We both start our days around 8am and end our days around 8pm.

In the morning we both wakeup, she puts on a pot of tea, while I make coffee and moan and complain over what to wear. Then we return to end up talking for nearly three hours about our days. It's been blissful. More to come very soon!

~Turtle

P.S. expect a lot of exciting changes around here!

SATURDAY DIME: Party Planning!

(Our friends Reanna, Brittni, and Jacki at Brittni's 21st party.)

It's official! Phaedra and I are officially living at our apartment full time now. Upon settling in and putting those finish decorating touches in certain rooms, we had to stop and plan one of the most important functions of our apartment...PARTIES! Now, we love themed parties, and our friends really do too...or they at least humor us and go along with it. So, we sat down and comprised a list of ten ideas we hope to execute over the course of the school year.

1. Back to School/Open Apartment: The weekend of every semester is always a lot of fun, so we figured we'd start the year off with an awesome back to school get together. And to show off the new digs to our friends.
2. Halloween Costume Party: I'll take any excuse to be in a costume!
3. Black Dress party: Little black dress parties always seem so sexy and classy. 
4. Murder Mystery: Phaedra is a pro at these and we have a lot of friends who would be way into playing a character all night. 
5. A mustache party: We want to throw a party that is so hipstery it's ridiculous, just for kicks! 
6. Moving drinking game party: Nothing can top sitting around watching an old comedy or bad horror film and drinking along to it. It's so much to yell at the screen together, laugh, and just be merry! 
7. Board game party: Sometimes just staying in popping open wine and playing a board game does the trick.
8. Drinking game party: Basically you take birthday party ice breaker games and add beer. 
9. Arts and crafts party: Who doesn't love sitting around making fabric flowers and friendship bracelets?! 
10. Christmas party: It'll be nice to end the semester with a fun Christmas party!

Can't to start posting as we plan!  

~Turtle 

THURSDIY: Tea Dying

Tea - Dying!

The school years approaching which means it's time to get my little craft shop off of the ground. For years now I've been crocheting by commission or for birthday gifts, but I've been inspired to create my own shop to sell my crocheted and knitted goods. More to come on that later!  For this DIY I decided to tea-dye tags which I will be using to label the items in my shop, it's super easy, but takes some time!

Supplies

Tags (or paper)
Black tea
Small pot
Water

Step 1:

Take a pot and fill it with water.

Step 2:

First bring pot to a boil and put back on low heat.

Pick any black tea. I'm using Irish Breakfast Tea (Which is my favorite, but I accidentally got the decaffeinated kind, so I've got tea bags to spare!) 

Step 3:

Add the tags (or paper) to the pot. I put a fork over top of the tags so they would stay submerged in the tea and gain more color. Leave in the pot for about 20 mins.

TIP: Check back frequently to see the development. If you don't want your tags to turn out too dark, simply take it out sooner. If you want your tags to be dark, let them sit for longer.

 

Step 4:

When your tags are the desired cover, set them out to try. It takes a few hours for the tags to get completely dry.

  And you're done! The tag on the left is the finished product while the tag on the right is the original tag. I wanted the tags to only be slightly stained to give each tag an individual vintage look. Since all of my crafts are one of a kind and handmade, I believe I should also take the time to create one of a kind hand made tags. This DIY is super simple!

~ Bunny