A Positive Post About College!

I am not a Negative Nancy anymore. I did something I should have done at the very beginning of this last week. I looked up some more quotes. Quotes always have a way of making me feel better in bad situations. Obviously the Wordy Wednesday quote didn't do much for me, but I ended up finding three quotes that actually made a difference in my outlook on this whole college thing.

"Fear is stupid. So are regrets." -Marilyn Monroe.

This one helped me because I was so scared. Change has always scared me and given me anxiety. I hate not knowing what to expect. But being afraid of something inevitable is stupid! Change is what gives you new experiences. And I know that if I were to not go to college, I would end up regretting it. And that would be stupid too.

"Every year many, many stupid people graduate from college. And if they can do it, so can you." -John Green.

I was always certain that I was not a smart person because I'm terrible at math and science. But after seeing my English score on the ACT it finally hit me that I am smart to at least some degree. I'm not smart in math or science, but I'm smart in English and theatre and common sense. I have good intuition, I'm pretty good at reading emotions, and I have a good sense of direction. So I'm not stupid, and I don't want to end up being a waitress or a model, so I will go to college and become an English major and then an editor and maybe a writer. Because if stupid people can do it, I can too. 

"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You're on your own and you know what you know. And you are the guy who'll decide where to go." -Doctor Seuss.

I love Doctor Seuss and when I found this quote it made me somewhat emotional. I can steer myself in any direction I choose. I'm the guy who will decide where to go. And getting over my fears and making myself go to college is the first step to getting where I want to go. I don't want to go the easy route and try to be a model, and I've sworn that the only way I'd become a waitress is if I have literally no other choice. I want to have a career that says "I have a brain and I know how to use it." I want to be someone that very well could have gone the easy route, but decided to work through 4 years of college to steer myself in the direction I chose. 

I wrote all three of those quotes up on my whiteboard for inspiration yesterday. Last night was the first night that I didn't have a breakdown about it, so I'm very happy about that. This morning I woke up and realized that this is my last weekend of summer, and instead of getting upset, I got excited! I'm actually excited now! I'm excited about being excited! 

I went on the campus tour this morning, which was very short because it's one small building, and I learned a lot about the campus and got very excited about the Math Lab (where they help you until you fully understand it!) and this cute little reading room in the library with big windows and plants and comfy chairs. Our tour guide taught us where all of the quietest places are, and what places should be quiet but aren't. She told us not to get the chik-fil-a lunches they sell there because they're expensive and they don't give you much. She led us to the testing room where we might take tests and she told us that we can buy our scantrons in the vending machines! Scantron vending machines? Not something I expected. 

I have about two more days until I have my first class. I'm starting with English, which is awesome yet kind of intimidating at the same time. I'm nervous, but I'm not anxious anymore. Nervous is good in my book! 

It's a Birthday!

Today is my (not so) little sister's sixteenth birthday! It was hard enough to believe that she's already a junior in high school! 

This past Saturday we did most of the birthday celebration. We picked up her 3 favorite sisters and went to Red Robin for dinner. 

"Bad news is we sing off key, good news is this sundae's free!" 

Bethany, Sarah, Maggie, Tessa and I. Why do I feel like we look so much alike in this picture?

Group hug!

After dinner we went back to our house to decorate cupcakes. What Tessa didn't tell us was that the cupcake decorating was going to be a game. Before we started covering our giant cupcakes with icing, she explained the rules. Everyone was to decorate their cupcake, make it as elaborate as possible, and once everyone was done she would leave the room and our mom would come in and pick the best. Now what does the winner get? This was a big surprise for us. Once the best cupcake was chosen, all four of us were to team up to decorate another cupcake which the winner of the decoration contest would use to smoosh on Tessa's face! 

Sarah won with her spiky looking cupcake.

The top two are mine and Sarah's, the bottom three are Bethany's, Maggie's, and Tessa's. 

Talk about "Sweet Sixteen!" 

Today she'll be spending most of her day at school and dance, so I got up super early (like 6:30) to watch her open her present. We'll have her ice cream cake after dance tonight. I hope she has an awesome day and an even better year! 

Bandana Headband DIY

Yesterday I posted a step by step tutorial of how I made my bandana bracelet out of the bandanas my little dog used to wear before she passed away. Today, I made a headband out of one of them! This one does require sewing, so if you're like me and can't sew for your life, turn away now. Unless you're even more like me and have an awesome seamstress sister willing to help you out. 

This is the bandana I decided to use:

I started with a spare black headband and flipped the bandana upside down. Then I dug out some wire that I had in my jewelry making box and formed it to the headband, then cut it and straightened it out. 

The only reason I formed it to the headband was to get an accurate length for the wire. One way I thought to do it originally was to just wrap up the bandana and attach it to the headband, but then I thought it'd be better to wrap it around the headband, which I couldn't figure out how to manage, and that's where the wire came in.

This is where you're going to need a seamstress with a cool sewing machine. I lined the wire up where I wanted it to go on the bandana and handed it over to Tessa.

This is what it looked like once she was finished: 

It is a bit off centered, but it honestly doesn't matter at all. Neither does the color of the thread, since we will be covering it soon. She used a zig-zag stitch very slowly as to not break the needle on the wire. She says that before you start sewing to use the wheel on the side of the machine to be sure that the width of the stitch is wide enough and that it won't hit the wire. Then I had her stitch the ends of the bandana over the ends of the wire like this:

That was just a straight stitch with her sewing machine. Now you see why it doesn't matter that it's off centered!

Next was the fun part; rolling it! I rolled it up really tightly.

I didn't get a picture of it, but I folded the tip of the bandana under.

Now for more sewing!

This is where she did some hand sewing with white thread. It's called a blind stitch, which should be easy to find on Google or the wonderful world of Pinterest.

Finishing it off:

Then we formed it to her head. We did have to bend it a little more for it to be tighter, and since it is made with wire we'll probably have to do that every time, but it's no big deal and it's super cute.

Tada! There's our lovely new headband made from a bandana! This came out so well and I'm really excited about it. Yay for teamwork!

Bandana Bracelet DIY

A little over a year ago, our little pomeranian named Sugar had to be put down because of her many health issues. She was 7 years old and we were very sad to have to let our sweet princess go to dog heaven.

Yep, she was pretty adorable. 

Whenever Sugar went to the groomer, she would always come back with a cute bandana around her neck. We threw away most of them after they got worn out, but a few of them were in pretty good shape. We had about 4 left after she died, and it wasn't until today that I decided to do something with them. I already had the idea to make bracelets, so that's what I did!

I took three of them and decided to braid them together. I lined them up and used a ruler to draw a straight line across them.

Then cut...

Then I tied them together at the top and taped them to my desk.

Then I started braiding...

I braided pretty loosely because I wanted the patterns to still sort of be seen. I estimated about how long I'd need it to be for my wrist and then tied it off. 

At this point I wasn't completely sure how to tie it into the bracelet form, but I ended up taking a scrap piece of fabric and using it to tie the ends together. Then I cut off some of what was left, leaving some hanging off and looking a bit like a bow.

And tada!

I personally like how it looks! And the fabric is somewhat stretchy so I was able to just slip it over my hand and onto my arm. 

Here's Sugar wearing two of the bandanas I used in this project:

She stuck her tongue out a lot.

So now I have a cute little bracelet to keep a memory of her with me. 

Tomorrow I'll post a step-by-step of making a headband out of one of these bandanas with the help of my seamstress sister.