craft projects and apartment decor.

These are some necklaces I made. The one on the left I made for my friend and RD from last year, Ms. Kim. I cut out the dictionary definition of joy, glued it into a bezel and poured resin on top. The buttons are from an antique button collection that Ms. Kim gave me when I lived on her hall. The necklace on the right is for Katie who is traveling to Haiti for a semester of medical mission work.

Apparently my roommate and I have a tree theme going. The top photo shows three canvases that I stuck together to show a tree traveling through seasons. In the bottom left photo I cut out my favorite Psalms from an old Bible from Goodwill (I felt weirdly guilty doing it) and I mod podged them to a canvas. [Psalm 1:3 says, "He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers."] And finally the bottom right is a lovely fall painting my roommate did while she introduced me to the very first Harry Potter movie. All of these were pinterest inspirations.

Here are a couple of the light switches I covered with scrap book paper. Much nicer than the off-white they were before, and much cheaper than buying new ones. Hope my landlord doesn't mind... :)

Here's the view of my living room from the kitchen...photo banner inspired by Katie and Sarah :)

I bought the Japanese lanterns online for cheap and ghetto-rigged them onto Christmas lights.

Grey hair is a crown of splendor.

My first day home for Christmas break my mom put me on Grandma duty so that she could spend the afternoon running errands. We took a girls afternoon out to Olive Garden and Walmart. Our waitress seemed impatient as she waited for Grandma to slowly hobble to our table at the other end of the restaurant. A slightly run-down looking middle aged couple sat at the booth across from us -- the wife smiled and asked if she was my grandmother -- I smiled and nodded yes. As we ate I noticed the lady across the way begin to sob quietly. The waitress asked her what was wrong and she said, "Seeing that little girl with her grammy makes me wish that I had spent more time with my mom and grandmother. People just don't understand how short life is." She got up and left her husband to finish eating and pay the bill...I passed her sitting in the parking lot as we left.

Here's to a wonderful woman who raised four awesome kids during WWII, who is sweet, who loves and who encourages. I wish I had more time to take in everything that Grandpa was, but I am so grateful for all that Grandma is and does.