It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

December 16, 2010 //  Holiday drink #2 – peppermint mocha.  I used left over peppermint extract + melted Ghirardelli semisweet chocolate from some peppermint bark I made earlier in my foamed milk and espresso, topped of course with whipped cream, sprinkled with candy cane dust and drizzled with chocolate syrup.  I also dropped in a Trader Joe’s chocolate-covered peppermint marshmallow.  A great way to get your chocolate and caffeine in in the morning!

December 15, 2010 // Tyler and I decorated lots of cookies after I got a 20-set of Christmas cookie cutters on sale for only $5!  What a deal!

December 14, 2010 // Ella bella.  The sweetest, largest, best dog ever.

December 13, 2010 //  Then, I travelled through the Candy Cane Forest…

December 12, 2010 // Mayer with his favorite toy

December 11, 2010 // LOVE poinsettas, and love fireplaces on really cold days (not above 30ºF for three days?  What the heck, Atlanta?)

December 10, 2010 // Holiday Drink #1 – Eggnog hot chocolate with whipped cream and nutmeg… mmmm

December 9, 2010 // Our cork bowl is mostly champagne corks, mixed with a few wine corks and beer bottle caps… but, after Saturday’s Love Actually and wine party, we have a few more corks in our collection!

It’s the most wonderful time of the year!

December 8, 2010 //  Emily’s mom is so sweet and brought us these adorable Christmas basket gifts.

December 7, 2010 // After a nearly 4-hour adventure, Emily and I had attained all of the necessary supplies to create our very own tacky Christmas sweaters.  We made reindeer out of our hand and foot prints, and we glued on pompoms, bows, googly eyes, and jingle bells.  We also drew holly leaves with glow in the dark green fabric paint!  We can’t wait to wear them!

December 6, 2010 // Happy 22nd birthday, Sima!  We celebrated with dessert and drinks at Bricktops.

December 5, 2010 // Katie and I wanted to buy the entire Christmas decoration isle at Target.  This garland was one of our purchases.

December 4, 2010 // We hosted a Christmas-themed viewing party for the movie “Love Actually.”  Funny enough, this event was planned entirely by boys who love the movie.  We just provided the gingerbread cookies and icing!

December 3, 2010 //  I usually don’t buy pre-ground coffee, but this gingerbread coffee from Trader Joe’s is delicious.  It’s not like other flavored coffees that are flavored with chemicals – this coffee is just ground beans, cinnamon, ginger, and clove.

December 2, 2010 // My pet octopus lives on my lamp.

December 1, 2010 //  We have an advent calendar from Trader Joe’s to help us count down the days until Christmas and to make sure we get our daily dose of chocolate.

November 30, 2010 //  Ribbon close-up, yay Christmas gifts!

November 29, 2010 //  I LOVE Christmas decorations!  Our apartment is like a real house now that we have a garland going up the banister and a big red bow!

November 28, 2010 // Emily taught me all about the water cycle in preparation for her Teach for America interview.  She could keep the attention of any fourth grader!

A Thanksgiving Fortnight

November 27, 2010 // Tyler, Chip, Bryson, and I gorged ourselves on a wine and cheese dinner.  We had four kinds of cheese, three kinds of wine, crackers, bread, salami, and fruit.

November 26, 2010 //  My mom loves the comic “Zits” because it always reminds her (eerily) of her relationship with my brother Hunter.

November 25, 2010 // Our family had Thanksgiving at our cousins’ house in Madison, GA.  We got to catch up with extended family, eat awesome food, and see this pretty sunset!  So much to be thankful for 🙂

November 24, 2010 //  I made homemade marshmallows for the first time today.

November 23, 2010 // My sister Tyler and I got pedicures today.  I picked my color because it reminded me of red wine in the bottle, but it ended up making my toes look like Christmas ornaments.  Which is definitely not a bad thing.

November 22, 2010 //  Another birthday!  Bryson’s granddad (aka “Paw Paw”) turned 75 today.  We celebrated with dinner at an Italian restaurant, and they brought him this yummy cake.  Paw Paw is also on the “celebrity wall” at this restaurant – he used to have a Sunday special on CNN called “Across America with Larry Woods.”  He’s also BFF with Pat Conroy and has won an Emmy.  Pretty cool, huh?

November 21, 2010 // Before we left North Georgia, Bryson and I hiked part of the Appalachian Trail and had a picnic.  We ate turkey, pear, and brie sandwiches on whole-wheat rolls with honey dijon kettle chips.  I learned that it would not be lonely if I hiked the whole Appalachian trail – we met a fair amount of people in the mere two hours we were there!

November 20, 2010 // Bryson and I went up to his lake house for a night over break.  The lake was so still since there were no boats out, and I took this cool reflection picture.  Can you tell what’s wrong with it?

November 19, 2010 // We have a lot of wine corks at my house.  I think I will use them for a craft…

November 18, 2010 // Happy 16th Birthday to my baby brother, Hunter!  He loves coffee, so I made him a chocolate cake with espresso buttercream icing and a chocolate ganache.

November 17, 2010 // Another pumpkin dessert!  This is chocolate chip pumpkin bread with a maple icing.

November 16, 2010 // I still haven’t gotten any better at the guitar, but I have gotten better at taking pictures of guitar paraphernalia!

November 15, 2010 // Emily’s hand turkey decorated our “What We’re Thankful For” list.  Emily is thankful for our fish, Dog, when he is not being mean and flaring out his gills.  Katie is thankful for caffeine (of course – who isn’t?).  I am particularly thankful for umbrellas, since it was raining today!

November, Week 2 (aka second non-creative title of the month)

November 14, 2010 // Emily is taking a class on the Incas, and for one of her projects she has to make a string of yarns to show she understands how the Incas recorded numbers.  What should we do with all this leftover yarn?

November 13, 2010 // If it’s not neon, it shouldn’t be on.

November 12, 2010 // I try to eat healthy foods, but I just can’t stay away from baking, especially when it starts to get cold outside!  Today, I baked pumpkin-swirl brownies and then made a caramel sauce to drizzle on top.

November 11, 2010 // This week, I got to dog-sit!  Which is really exciting for me because I miss my puppies ALL THE TIME, if you couldn’t tell by how often they are the subjects of my pictures.  This is Wendell, a Cairn Terrier (like Toto from The Wizard of Oz).  He loves to cuddle and tear his toys to shreds.  I tried to get a picture of him sleeping, but he heard my camera focusing and shot awake, warily staring at the camera, waiting for its next move.  Isn’t he cute?

November 10, 2010 // I started playing guitar in ninth grade which, I horrifically realized the other day, was seven years ago.  Gosh I feel old.  Despite owning this sunburst Fender strat for that long, my playing abilities probably haven’t progressed past where I was after just one year.  So, I lugged the guitar and my amp up to my Nashville apartment…  Hopefully having it around will inspire me to play more.

November 9, 2010 // Over the past few weeks, I’ve grown a yarn tree in my room.  It covered the blank wall like it was supposed to, but it looked a little… well, dead.  It definitely needed some life.

This is the first of three birds I plan to house in my tree, and it is also the first art I’ve done with Prismacolor colored pencils.  I wish I could take credit for the quote, but I stole it from a fun poster I saw somewhere.

“Today I will be happier than a bird with a french fry.”  A bird’s life must seem pretty mundane, just pecking at seeds and building a nest day after day.  But one day, the bird happens upon a crispy strip of potato and relishes in its decadence.  This quote reminds me to look out for the french fries of my life and appreciate them for the happiness they bring!

November 8, 2010 // Fall at Vanderbilt is beautiful!

First Week of November

November 7, 2010 // I celebrated Fall by trying to create art on my latte with chocolate syrup.  I also wanted an excuse to have chocolate in the morning.

November 6, 2010 // Cooking with Bryson and Caroline became quite the adventure today when we realized Bryson does not own a can opener (really?).  Rather than bear the cold and ask a neighbor if we could borrow theirs, I had the bright idea that it would not be so difficult to open a can by stabbing it with a knife!

It, in fact, is so difficult to open a can by stabbing it with a knife.  However, if you have pent-up anger, I would recommend tossing your can opener and stabbing a knife into the diced tomatoes instead.

After much finagling, we managed to make a hole large enough to allow the diced tomatoes to come out of their can and into our shrimp and grits, which were delicious, by the way.

Despite the tomato can debacle, the meal turned out great!

November 5, 2010 // I went home to Atlanta this weekend, and I concluded (yet again) that I have the cutest puppy in existence.

November 4, 2010 // Fall leaves are finally here!!

November 3, 2010 // Rainy day

November 2, 2010 // A music video was filmed right outside our apartment!  I didn’t recognize the song, but everyone by the stage was wearing crazy clothes and dancing crazy and screaming and jumping up and down.  It looked fun.

November 1, 2010 // Active Minds at Vanderbilt volunteered at Pearl Cohn High School in Nashville today.  We have set up a weekly college workshop, where we help seniors with the college application process.  I saw this sign walking back to my car, then saw the dog, then laughed.  That dog is way too cute to be vicious.

Finally, the Halloweekend!

October 31, 2010 // I am the bearer of grave news, very grave news indeed.  Our beloved cannibalistic pumpkin was the victim of a gruesome assault last night.  We believe this attack occurred between the hours of 3 and 10 AM.  He did not survive the attack.  On behalf of Wesley 1941, please lock your doors and travel in groups to prevent a breach of your own safety on these premises.

October 30, 2010 // My Li’l Rugrats // Tonight, we dressed up as the characters from the ’90’s TV show, Rugrats.  Katie is Lil, Emily is Angelica, and Sima is Tommy.  I was Chuckie.  We were cute.

October 29, 2010 // My indian Emily has a matching camera!

Is it Halloween YET???

October 28, 2010 // I think the only thing to say here is…

MWUH-AH-HA-HA-HA-HAA!

October 27, 2010 // A Hint // Can you guess what one of my Halloween costumes will be?

October 26, 2010 // Ghosts in our Apartment // AAHH!  They’re everywhere!  Thanks to the lights Katie’s mom sent us 🙂

October 25, 2010 // Do the Dog // It’s official – we have the coolest fish ever.  After the first few days we had him, when he was very skittish and very probably anorexic, he is now super friendly and always cleans his plate top of the bowl.  He especially gets excited when we start drinking for the night, even though he is a teetotaler.  He also participates in our dance parties by swimming up to the edge of the bowl and waving his fins wildly.  We have taken to dancing with him, “doing the Dog,” as we call it.

How to do the Dog:  Lift your elbows out to the sides to about chin height.  Place the backs of your wrists on either side of your mouth with your fingers pointing outward (these will be your “fins”).   Wiggle your fingers spastically as you bounce from side to side.

It’s going to take the club scene by storm, and it’s all because of our awesome fish.

October 24, 2010 // This fluffy friend completes our roomie collection of PillowPals – stuffed animals that have a velcro strap over their bellies that, when removed, turns them into a comfy place to rest your head.  We have named this purple sparkly unicorn Pegasus, and he is a close cousin of Emily’s white unicorn PillowPal, Unicorño.  Both are (very) distant cousins of Katie’s travel size Moose PillowPal, Mousey (we couldn’t name him Moosey, which seems more logical, because Emily already has a mouse stuffed animal that she named Moosey as a child).

Fall Break through Homecoming

October 23, 2010 // Homecoming Tailgate // I love tailgating, especially when all of my friends who have graduated come back.  I think this picture means Emily feels the same way.  Thumbs up for homecoming tailgating!

October 22, 2010 // Cannibalistic Jack-O-Lantern //  Bryson and I needed a Friday afternoon activity, since I got out of class at 10 and the B.O.B./Passion Pit/Snoop Dogg concert didn’t start until 7:15PM.  So, we found a pumpkin patch at a church in Green Hills and got to work making this cannibal pumpkin while eating pumpkin sugar cookies and drinking pumpkin beer.  Our jack-o-lantern is scary and cute and funny all at once!

October 21, 2010 // There were so many alumni at the Frayed Knot tonight – it almost made me forget I’m a senior!

October 20, 2010 //  Setting up for homecoming on Library Lawn with pretty lights and lanterns

October 19, 2010 //  Vandy pompom that didn’t help us at UGA but looks festive in my room!

October 18, 2010 // Fat-Talk Free Week // This week, Active Minds is promoting “Fat-Talk Free Week.”  Today, we handed out stickers that said things like “You are Beautiful,” “Happiness is Beautiful,” and “Love Your Body.”  We based these stickers partly off of Operation Beautiful.

October 17, 2010 // When we got back to Nashville on Sunday, Emily had decorated our apartment with these mirrors!

October 16, 2010 // Athens, GA // Vanderbilt football got embarrassingly crushed between the hedges of Sanford Stadium today.  Still, we had a good time in Athens, and Katie got this beautiful mocha at Walker’s while we were waiting to meet up with my friend Kristen from high school.

October 15, 2010 // East Andrews, Post-Interview // Bryson, Katie, and I ate a celebratory dinner at Red Sky, a tapas bar, then headed over to this bar in Buckhead.  East Andrews is this large bar with a courtyard surrounded by three or four bar counters, with this fountain right in the middle.  So nice.

October 14, 2010 // Augusta, GA Hotel //  I traveled to Augusta today in preparation for my medical school interview at MCG tomorrow morning.  It’s my first interview, so I’m a little nervous but really excited!

Black and White Study

October 13, 2010 // Nashville Girl //  I have adamantly rejected traditional Southern things, like country music, football, and fried chicken, for most of my life.  Even though I’ve lived in Nashville the past three years, country music still hasn’t grown on me, I prefer my chicken grilled, and I really only like football for its social aspect.  One of my preferences has changed from living in Nashville, however.

I never thought I’d say this, but… I think I might kind of like cowboy boots.

October 12, 2010 // When we got this orchid almost two months ago, it only had one blossom.  Since then, it has regularly bloomed one more flower each week, until it ran out of buds.

October 11, 2010 // Emily worked as a counselor at an art camp this summer (coolest job ever!!) and made lots of neat things.  She has a pretty painting hanging by her bed, and she has this sweet little guy on her desk.  He looks like he wants to give someone a a big hug! I’m sure the kids were envious of her talent!

October 10, 2010 // I have silly roommates.

October 9, 2010 // Happy Birthday, Bryson!

October 8, 2010 // I keep most of my jewelry on this hand statue.  I think it’s a lot cooler looking than a jewelry box.

How to Do October Right

October 7, 2010 // Keep a bowl of eyeballs on your table.  We take them from people who come over for our “parties”…

JUST KIDDING!  These are chocolate.  I got you, didn’t I?

October 6, 2010 // Celebrate Halloween like this moth by adding more orange foods into your diet.

Of course he’s celebrating, and I’m not just relating everything I see to Halloween…

October 5, 2010 // Drink October-inspired hot chocolate to stay warm and happy.  There are so many ways to spice up a plain old hot chocolate mix.  You could put coffee in it and make a mocha.  You could add cinnamon to make Mexican hot chocolate.

OR, you could mix a spoonful of PUMPKIN with some half and half into the dry mix, add hot water, and top it with ghostmallows!!!  So tasty and festive.

October 4, 2010 // Use an innocent sunburst mirror as an accomplice in taking a haunted house-esque self portrait.

October 3, 2010 // Be like Katie and buy you and your roommates jack-o-lantern lights to decorate!