After a long time away...

Sorry I haven't updated all summer. I was working with Totus Tuus in the Diocese of Tulsa all summer and had very, very, very limited internet access. I just have to say...this summer was AMAZING! I grew so much in my prayer life and my relationship with God. This summer gave me a new outlook on my future and what I am planning to do with my life. I am wanting to write down my life, especially this what happened this summer. I want to compile my journal entries into a coherent memoir. I think I will do that in little installments on this blog, so if anyone is reading out there, you can stay tuned. :-)

My awesome team!

Netbook Case

My awesome brother is lending me his netbook for the summer so I don't have to carry around my heavy laptop when I am traveling and teaching. I got the idea to make my own cover for it from here

http://alsn.wordpress.com/2008/05/06/ten-cloth-quilted-laptop-case/

of course, I changed it where I didn't understand the instructions or didn't like what it was doing. Here is the finished project....pretty easy.

My cute little bag..

I made this bag. I got the idea from a site I found on stumble upon, but I basically ignored the tutorial it did it my own way. I put interfacing on one side of the outside fabric to stabilize it and I added a lining to it. I also sewed the ribbon to the front because I like it :-). It is  a really great bag that I will use for make-up, shampoo, or maybe cords on my summer job. Here are some pics, I hope you like it.

Journal Jar...

I got this idea from the lovely lady over at It's a Slow Learning Curve which can be found here
http://itsaslowlearningcurve.blogspot.com/2010/05/sewing-challenge.html
The tutorial I followed is here
http://itsaslowlearningcurve.blogspot.com/2010/05/sewing-challenge.html
I really like this idea. I love rereading old journals, but I am so bad at making a regular habit of it. So, I hope having some topics to journal about I can make it a good habit and record some excellent memories for myself. I also secretly hope that some day someone will come across my journals long after I'm gone, in some dusty old attic, and enjoy reading them and some relative will feel connected to me. Hmm....sounds like a movie. It's okay. I know that we all secretly wish our lives were a movie, or else we wouldn't watch so many of them.

Here are the pics. I think it turned out really cute! I cut out the top from a piece of scrapbooking paper, put the owl sticker on top, put sticker letters that says "journal jar", and mod podge-ed all of it down! I got prompts from all over the internet by typing "journal jar topics" into google. I wrote them on pink paper half because it gives it a festive look, half because I just moved home from college and have no idea where my white printer paper is. I hope you enjoy!

Hollowed out book...

I found this tutorial on stumbleupon

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2Pawuk/howto.rivers.pro/hollow-a-book/

It was pretty cool, so I decided to try it out. It was waaayyy harder than I thought it would be, so mine didn't turn out as nice as theirs was. Here is my hollowed out $2 book from Goodwill.

A Body Manifesto!

I have been thinking a lot about body image lately. It seems more and more the media is trying to tell us what beauty is, but it doesn't resemble what real women look like. I love Dove and their campaign for real beauty, and Creighton picking it up (and me being a model for them!) I also love songs like "More Beautiful You" by Johnny Diaz. These things are encouraging real women to love themselves for who they are. Even Glamour is getting on the bandwagon and starting to use models of all shapes and sizes in their pages. So, here it is, a list, no a Manifesto! of the things love about my body.


I love my hair! Everything to the color, to the way it looks, I have great hair.
I love my eye color. It is an amazing blue that is really, really blue. I get more compliments on my eyes than any  other part of my body.
I love the way my eye crinkle and get lines around them when I smile.
I love my claves. They are strong and muscular and look good in heels.
I love my butt, it may be small, but it is mighty!

There it is: the things I love about me. I think it is a good idea for every woman to make a list of what they love about themselves and look at it often. As Johnny Diaz said, There could never be a more beautiful you!

Our God is not dead, He's alive! He's alive!

Lent is over, Easter is here! I did pretty well on my Lenten sacrifice (except for spring break...that week was a bust). My sacrifice was to attend daily Mass. So, not really a sacrifice, but an addition. It was hard because It was taking time (albeit only a half an hour) out of my day to go to Mass. It ended up being more rewarding than giving up pop or chocolate or snacking could have been for me. No, I didn't have an revelations during this time, but I feel a little closer to God than I did before Lent started. I think the best part was just taking the half hour to be with God everyday. I have tried to pray in the morning for before I do to bed, but at those points in the day I am just so tired that I let it go. Having Mass in the middle of the day gave me the time to not think about homework or where I am going to live next year, or all that other stuff and listen to God. It is hard a lot of times in this world to live that life, but going to Mass reminded me that there are those around me who also believe what I believe. A nice older man who sat by me almost everyday talked to me last Wednesday before I left for break. He told me that he was proud of me, and other students, that attended Mass so often during Lent. He said that it was a nice mix of older and younger people and encouraging to older people like him. It was such a positive effect on my life, and I think that I will still try to make a point to attend at least once or twice a week. Spending time with God, His Word, and His Body is time well spent in my mind.