Roarin' Twenties

Whoa.
.
.
.
Whoa.

Two weeks ago I left the innocence of the teenage life and crossed the bridge into my third decade of life.
Like I said...Whoa.

Everyone growing up experiences the anticipation of their birthday in order to feel a year older and wiser.  It's human nature. We want to feel the change, to feel that difference.  We, as a culture, have totally romanticized birthdays.  We romanticize everything. Everything.

Cowboys of the Wild West. Pirates. Love. High School. Prom, etc. (Anyway, I digress.)

Every year, we hope to wake up feeling different and, lo and behold, we don't feel any change.  Each year, for some reason, we forget the disappointment from the year before.  Starting last year, I finally felt worn out from my annual birthday excitement.  So this year, I didn't expect any gaiety and certainly no utterly romantic notion of feeling my birthday occur.

Boy, was I completely wrong.

Number One: I did feel different. (very Twilight Zone-esque. haha)

Number Two: Friends threw a surprise party for me and my birthday twin.

AHHHHH, weird right?




The Birthday Girl partaking of her lovely and divine Birthday Cake Bluebell Ice Cream Shake
 courtesy of Kate and her work. :)


The day before my birthday, I set aside time to write my missionary and unfortunately it was very late at night.  It didn't help I am such a super slooooow writer, so I wrote this blasted letter until some ungodly hour.  Anyhoo, on this birthday eve of sorts, I was writing a letter to my missionary as midnight passed, and I realized it was officially my birthDAY.

 I was TWENTY. I had started this third decade of my LIFE.

And in this THIRD decade, I would make decisions that would AFFECT

the REST of my LIFE.  I would MARRY.  I would start

a FAMILY.  I would start/prepare my CAREER.

AHHHHH!

Needless to say, I had a minor mental breakdown/ freak out session.

All these insane thoughts rushed through brain and I started to freak myself out, especially since I was currently writing my missionary.  Writing a missionary generally brings out personal insecurities and worries.  (If one of those experiences that only someone in a similar situation could begin to understand.)  Personally, I know that I am definitely no where near ready to marry.  The whole thought of myself being married just freaks me out. Well, this missionary returns home in February and everyone, including him, will probably expect us to quickly get engaged right away. And shortly thereafter, tie the knot. Oh, Mormon/LDS culuture... what a love-but-mostly-hate relationship we have...  Well, this pressure is totally stressing me out. 

I am the queen of self sike(sp?)-outs.  (haha)

From Pinterest.com



But isn't this crazy? I freaked out about a silly birthday. Oh, yes, yes, these are serious concepts and decisions, but the people I expressed these feelings to thought I was crazy.  They didn't understand why I would think about distant future concepts while I am so busy with my present situations.  I guess I am just a planner.  I have to think ahead and perfectly plan out everything. Don't get me wrong, I can modify anything that needs be, but I have to always be working towards a goal.  My mom makes fun of my "10 year" plan.  If only she knew just how detailed it is...haha.  But, I can't just wander blindly towards an unknown future.  I am one of those nerdy freaks that check everyday for the university advising center shindig to post the schedule of classes for the following semester so I can create my schedule.  I don't care it's September.  I want my Spring schedule figured out and I want it figured out now! haha.

From Pinterest.com

Yes, I know marriage and grown-up stuff are good and important and necessary and commandments....

But still scary!

My next two years will require a lot of my faith for survival. Mhmm. Indeed.

I sincerely look forward to my next decade.  I am sure it will be filled with moments of sadness and happiness, but everything will be worth it. :)

From Pinterest.com

You ready for this?

Oh, man, I have amazing, caring, fun, crazy, awesome, super duper friends.  Ya jealous? haha.

My friend Sam and I have the same birthday and we are only one year apart.  We both have long dark brown hair and brown eyes.  We both have fair skin.  We are both short.  We both have "S" names.  I was actually almost named Samantha.  In short, people get us mixed up all the time. 

Well....

Sam's fiance, Ben, threw us a surprise birthday party!! No one has ever done anything like this for me! I felt so loved and appreciated.  I am one of those crazy people who need words, words, and more words plus some action. Oh, words, how powerful you are!  (sorry, awkward English major moment)  Anyways, for people to celebrate ME and to express their love for ME felt so nice and warm and fuzzy.  I'll admit at first I was super scared and awkward at being the center of attention, but I got the hang of it. haha. Good thing I shared half of the attention with Sam, or I would have probably bolted. haha.

 pictures soon to come...



I just can't believe I am twenty years old!!

P.S. I am SO addicted to Pinterest.com!
P.P.S Halloween is tomorrow!! Last Friday, Kate and I watch The Haunting in Connecticut... no matter how many times I watch that movie, I still totally flip out. It's my favorite scary movie. :)


Peace out, Dog!

Simple Banana Ice Cream

Let's all scream for banana ice cream! Woot!

*clearing of throat*

Well, I have noticed the notion of making banana ice cream taking the internet by storm, so I decided to experiment.  As always, I like to do things my way, so I would like to share with you my banana ice cream...

I like to make mine with peanut butter, so I like to eat it after I work out.  Eating banana ice cream beats eating straight peanut butter any day. haha.  What we do to get protein...

mmm... goodness, I need to work on my photography skillz. Sorry, guys.



THE Banana Ice Cream

This is such a simple recipe, it doesn't use special or set amounts of ingredients. You just kind of do it.

Ingredients:
Ripe Bananas
Peanut Butter (can be substituted with nutella)
Milk
Freezer, Container


Instructions:
1. Chop up bananas and put into a sealed container.  Freeze for at least several hours.  I tend to do it over night.

Two chopped bananers

2. Once frozen, mash them up.  (note: Many recipes say to use a blender, but I've found that blenders don't really work with this. No worries, using a fork isn't that bad.)



Mashed bananers



3. Add a little bit of milk. A little.  Mash and mix some more!



Mashed bananers and milk.



4. Now comes the peanut butter.  Remember you could use nutella instead.  Also remember that this isn't an exact science.  Add one dollop of peanut butter, try it, and add more if you want more.

I added two dollops about this size...

Now put you lovely creation back in the freezer.  After it has been frozen for a while... eat and enjoy!  It is awesome that some innocent little things mashed together can satisfy my ice cream cravings.

It's a beautiful thing!

Embroidery Hoop CLock

Hello!!
Today I will finally share my super cute button clock! Well, felt button clock.

All of my materials were bought at Michael's, the best craft store in the world.  If I do say so myself.  And I used coupons!!

Materials:
Embroidery Hoop
Cross-stitch Fabric (or other strong fabric)
Felt Buttons (or regular pieces of felt)
Clock Parts (can be bought separately or can be taken out of a clock)
Needle and Thread
Method of Hanging (I used thumbtacks)
:)


Instructions:
1. Attach fabric to embroidery hoop, trimming off the excess. 
2. Stitch numbers onto felt buttons. (note: be super careful. I don't know how many times I poked myself for sure, but I'd guesstimate about a million and a quarter.)
3. Cut a little slit in the middle of your clock just big enough for the clock parts to fit through.  (*insert super scary monster voice here*) Now comes the tricky part: the clock parts. I bought the separate clock parts... and they did not come with instructions in the package. Nada. Zilch. Which is exactly how much I knew about clocks parts.  It took me hours to figure out how to put them together so they would work.  So just exercise caution and know what you're doing.  I eventually figured them out. :)
4. And you put it all together!
5. To hang on my wall, I put a thumbtack under the top rim of the embroidery hoop and another under the clock handle.  The gives my new baby support. :)

Enjoy! 


My Felt and Embroidery Hoop Clock. :)


The inspiration for this project came from here.


P.S. Today is my last day as a teenager! *gasp*

Latch Hook T-Shirt Rug

I found this awesome tutorial through craftgawker.com. The Gawkerverse is a magical place where blog posts are stored for people to search and marvel at.  It is my obsession. I'm not ashamed. Okay, maybe just a little, haha. Anyhoo, it is a magical place where one can look at either crafts, weddings, food, or in/exterior design.  Like I said, magical. 

So one day, I found said awesome tutorial and was {insert snobby educated British accent here} totally inspired.  I have exactly a gazillion two million ninety-nine thousand five hundred twenty three t-shirts from various activities in school and else where that I did not wear anymore.  I saw this crafty activity as a way to use this poor, sad t-shirts and make something I can use now.

Behold my little marvelous work and wonder...

My Prayer Rug!!!

If you would like to embark on this tedious and time consuming but entirely worth it project...

    Items You Will Need

• A ginormous pile of t-shirts
• Sturdy, reliable fabric scissors
• Small piece of paper
• A nice and good latch hook
• Latch hook canvas/backing stuff (can you tell I'm no expert?)
• Elastic binding stuff (should be in same area in craft store)
• Needle and thread
• Optional: fabric dye
• Optional: gloves or some other way to combat blisters



Rough Directions:

1. Make yourself a little template of how small you want your little strips. I suggest 4in. x 1in., maybe even a little skinnier. Then gather all of your t-shirts and snip away!  Trust me, this takes hours... and a few more hours.  But you must prevail, for the reward is oh so sweet! :)  Feel free to wear some sort of gloves or other form of anti-blister-ant. I won't call you a wimp at all.  Just don't steal your sister's brand spankin' new softball batting gloves for this stage of rug-tastic development.  She will get super angry.  Oops...

2.  Next, you must make your decision considering your colors.  I, personally, used RitDye to dye all of my white strips grey.  (It doesn't make to me to have a white rug for walking on.) Then, wash and dry all of your strips to get rid of all those little fuzzies.  Trust me, you will find a lot in the lint catcher.

Words of Caution: you may need to wash the strips in a sort of lingerie bag so they don't clog your washer/dryer.  I didn't have this problem but some people did. 

Then you will have some nice piles...

I separated them by color to get an idea of how I wanted design my rug.

After much debate and inner turmoil, I decided to go with stripes.

3. Now to the latch-hooking!! If you don't know how, follow the instructions through the tutorial link from the top of this post.  But before you latch hook anything, you need to hand sew the binding around the edge.  This keeps the material/grid stuff from coming apart.  Sandwich the edges between folded elastic and sew!  I promise you will not regret this step.

So, it should kind of look like this around the edges...

Now how should you space your strips? However you want! It depends on how thick/thin your strips are.

This is how I spaced mine... every other horizontally and skip up three vertically... if that makes any sense...

I used the blue grid on the canvas stuff to size my stripes: 2 blocks wide and 1.5 blocks for the outside stripes.



Tadaa!!!  A lovely addition to my room.  My new prayer rug! :)

General Conference October 2011

Well, let me just say...

I loved Conference!!!!!

I always enjoy listening to the words of our modern-day prophets, seers, and revelators, but this year was special in it's own way.  I guess at the old age of 19 years, I am finally mature and smart enough to pray before Conference to ask for the Spirit's guidance in my own personal revelation and understanding of the talks.  Never before have my reactions to the beautiful talks spoken at Conference been so emotional.  I didn't have a certain question or concern in mind beforehand.  The Lord simply knew what I needed to hear before I even knew.  Several talks and portions of talks seemed to be directed at me.  Little insignificant Miss Savannah in the second row of the institute building in the tiny college town in the one little area somehow a part of this massive world.

Why would my needs matter? There are so many others bearing heavier burdens and trials.

Because

According to President Uctdorf,

I AM significant.  I DO matter.  My simple little life

has the potential to touch and influence literally

thousands of lives.

I can enjoy this journey of life while striving for

my goals.  I may have weaknesses, but I can turn them into

my strengths.

According to Julie B. Beck, Relief Society President,

I am a daughter of my Heavenly Father.

I am a part of a world wide sisterhood, the largest of its kind.

According to Silvia Allred, 1st Counselor of Relief Society,

all sisters can be a pillar of strength in the Lord's kingdom.

According to Ian S. Arden of the Seventy,

When you have children and how many children you have

is only

 between you, your spouse, and the Lord.

Rock that triangle of eternal marriage!

According to L. Tom Perry of the Twelve Apostles,

we all must be bold in our declarations of our testimonies

of Christ, our faith, and your active membership.

According to President Henry B. Eyring, 1st Cousnelor,

our sacred charge is to:

1. Be Charitable: exhibit the pure love of Christ
2. Stand as a Witness: your testimony will give you strength and power
3. Endure: we can do all things through Christ and God's love

According to Kazuhiko Yamashita of the Seventy,

we can prepare to serve missions by:

1. Having a desire to the Gospel
2. Developing your testimony
3. Love others

When President Thomas S. Monson spoke about how commandments are not merely suggestions, I couldn't help but think of the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie.  You know, the rules of piracy are more like guidelines?

ahahaha, such a fantastic movie...

The "Pirate Code" involves trickery? only applies to pirates, a select few?? are only guidelines???

Thank goodness the Lord's commandments and blessings are nothing of the sort.  The Lord would never trick us. (That's Satan's job.) He loves us and wants us to succeed.  The commandments of God are for everyone, and everyone has the potential to earn blessings.  The commandments are commandments. Not suggestions for an unattainable lifestyle. Not guidelines for one to loosely follow on a whim. Commandments.

Seems fair, ya?

Yes! You mean that if I learn His commandments and follow them, I earn blessings? I have the chance to earn eternal life by doing so?

Right on!

Also, I absolutely LOVED Sister Elaine S. Dalton's talk.  By directly teaching fathers how to raise daughters, she indirectly taught what women should look for in a husband.  These are some of her points:

1. Be an example of a honorable husband. Be the man that you would want her to date and marry.
2. Be an example of one who keeps all of his covenants, especially marriage covenants.
3. Be a frequent temple goer.  Take her with you.
4. Preside with love and righteousness.
5. Protect your family and home from evil
6. Be a guardian of her virtue
7. Let her know your standards
8. Be a worthy priesthood
9. Share your testimony frequently with her
10. Spend time together.

These are all special attributes and actions that I hope and pray I will find in my future husband.  I definitely want all these blessings (yes, a father who does all these things is considered a blessing) for my children. How nice would it be if we all had a father like this?

Love this movie...

In this movie, Quest for Camelot, Kaylee's father may be deceased but she still sees him as a source for strength. I LOVE this movie.  It's one of my favorites from childhood. :)

Click here to watch and enjoy Conference yourself. :)