i now know this much of photoshop

It's official, people. Today, I experimented with photoshop.

And these were the results:

sorry, no before picture of this one. I learned the hard way that pictures
can be replaced...

(Of course, I couldn't have done it without the help of this lady.)

Goodbye picnik, hello photoshop!

The Annual Christmas Party

Every year, two of my best friends, Erin and Sonia, come over and enjoy a few presents, treats, and laughs with me. We call this our Christmas party.

I set up my mini Christmas tree and neatly piled the gifts underneath--still leaving space for the others yet to come.

This year, to start off the party, we did something a little different from last time--crafts. You see, my mom has lots of cute, little trinkets that are perfect for making necklaces, and bracelets, and magnets. How could we resist from the little scrabble letters that would look so cute as magnets in our rooms? :)

Photo via Mom

After about half-an-hour of intense crafting, we decided to start our favorite sugar-snack--puppy chow, the 'peanut butter, chocolate, and powdered sugar'-y treat. 

It was good. :)

We did lots of other fun-filled activities too, but I was only able to catch a good chunk of the party through the lens. We played outside in the knee-high piles of snow, talked for long periods of time, and wrote a few short stories.

But the best part, by far, was when the clock struck five, because that was, really, when the party started. We prepared a wonderful dinner, which consisted of rotisserie chicken, green beans, and pickle wraps--most of which was homemade, except, of course, the chicken. After dinner, we started the peanut butter blossom cookies.

Our favorite part of making these each year is listening to the crunch sound they make when you push the kisses into the cookie.

With our tummies full of chicken and beans, we ran to my room for the presents--the moment we had all been waiting for. (I would have taken pictures of the actual moment, but my room is so pink and orange, that there is a weird glow at night that makes the pictures all weird.) Want to see what I got? :D

Next we prepared my room for the final few hours of our night with sleeping bags and blankets galore. Then we ran back to the kitchen a whipped up a platter full of popcorn, puppy chow, peanut butter blossoms, fruit, pomegranate Izze drinks, and a few other cookies from around the house. Once we were settled in to our little 'den', we plugged in the DVD player and turned on 'Flipped'--the world's cutest movie ever.

We were supposed to watch 'Elf' afterwards, but we didn't. Instead, we watched 'Flipped', again.

Yeah, we're just that obsessed. :D

Overall, we had a really. good. time. I enjoyed hanging out with such great friends and sharing such great laughs.

Have you had any parties lately?

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One more thing.

Check out the awesome chain reaction my brother came up with using a few hot-wheels tracks and dominos!

15 Minute Clean-Up: the Room

I'm usually not the type of person who has to be told to clean their room. (Reassuring pause.) Nope, not really. But when I woke up to this:

I decided I didn't want to take any chances. (I realize this may be clean for some people....) For those of you who do need to be reminded how much of a pigsty your room is, don't fret--I am here to help. Follow these simple steps and you'll have a much more enjoyable space in 15 minutes or less! (Is it just me, or did that sound like it came straight out of an infomercial?)

Minutes 1-4 Let's start out with the desk; probably the most cluttered part of the room (well, the most cluttered part of mine, at least).

1. Clear your desk of all homework. If you have some left to do, I recommend putting it in a 'to do' pile (ex. on the pull out platform of your desk, in a wire basket, in a 'to-do' folder in your backpack, etc.)

2. Sort through doodads. If you can't think of a use or interest, it's not worth keeping. Post notes where they can be easily seen. Put pens and pencils in a holder (a cute one, maybe?).

3. Give your mom her laptop back. Or give your brother his notebook back. Or--you get the idea. If it's not yours, then why do you have it? Give it back.

4. Straighten up. Simple as that. Now that your desk can be seen, make it nice, so that you'll actually want to work at it.

Minutes 5-10 Now move on to your bed area. In my case I have a loft, and a chair and nightstand underneath.


1. If you are like me, you pile all your (clean and/or dirty) clothes on your bed (or rest area). In order to keep this area clean, try to break that habit (ahem, I need to work on that...).

2. Next is the night stand. Oh, the dreaded night stand. This, next to the desk, is the second most cluttered area (not just for me, right?). There's never telling what you're gonna find on the night stand. Start off by ridding the table of garbage, books that have a home, pens or pencils, and anything else that your sure you won't need by 11 p.m. at night. Looking better? Now straighten it up; maybe keep a couple reads on it, just incase you can't fall asleep, a flashlight, some paper and a pen or pencil, and a lamp (of course).

3. Cords can get messy (if you have a phone, light, camera, and straightener, well, you know what I mean). Cleaning up this tangled mess can make your room look a whole lot nicer. So set up a charging station. It keeps your cords organized and simple.


4. Put away any remaining clutter in the area.

5. Make the area enjoyable by arranging pillows, stuffed animals, etc.

Minutes 11-12 I'm sure everyone has 'that space'. You know, the place where you pile the stuff you have no idea where else to put it. And all that clutter just sits there taunting you for days on end. Ya, lets tackle 'that space' now.

1. Before we get to the hardest part, lets cover the little things: clothes, the unpacked bag from your last sleepover, school bags and instruments, etc.

2. If your like me, you have bags of clothes that haven't made it to the car yet. It only takes a minute, so get to it.

Minute 13-15 The last essential part to cleaning a room is the closet. Even though no one may actually see the inside, you will and keeping it organized can leave more space that you may think.

1. Make sure all your clothes are on hangers and are hung up. For some people it can help to have the clothes organized by color, date last worn, or type.

2. Put shoes on racks or in baskets. Trust me, it saves space.

3. If you have hooks, use them. Hang neclaces, belts, or scarves.

By now you should have a room lets not so much an eye sore. Maybe, just stick to these tips for a while.... :)

By the way, how do you like the new look? I know that I love it! Thanks to Olivia at Robin Blogs for the beautiful design! Don't forget Operation Beautiful: November is ending soon. I've got a little surprise up my sleeve for the December issue!

A Week in the Life of Charming Elephant

I'm sorry to say that it has been 11 days, and not a single movement on Charming Elephant. Go ahead--shun me. It has been far too long.

Anyway, I've been working on little project. One that required a notepad (in this case, the one on my iPod), math skills, and a lot of patience. You see, I was recording one full week of me. Every little thing I did. Everything.

I got the idea from a 'get to know each other' activity at church 2 and a half weeks ago. 2 days later, I began the quest--if you can call it that.

I have to say, I'm pretty content with what I do in my week. Are you?

Operation Beautiful: September

Hello lovely followers! Very sorry about the delay, I've realized that the days just aren't long enough for 7 hours of school, 2 hours of homework, and whatever other necessary doings I have going on. Yup, this means I'm totally drained on sleep.

Anyway, on the topic of something a little more satisfying... I'm here with the first ever entry of Operation Beautiful! You'd be amazed at how long I've been planning this out, well, only if one week counts. :D

A couple nights ago, right after my last post, I took out a pad of lime-green post-it notes and began to brainstorm the perfect OpBe (can I call it that? It's much shorter and OB was already taken... :D) message. I came up with this: YOU are BEAUTIFUL because you are you! Never forget that!

There were a couple of attempts to sticking it on the school bathroom mirror, but things like sleep, bells, and stupid lockers got in the way. Yes. So this morning I hurried off the bus and ran to the bathroom, the whole way scheming a glorious plan. It consisted of this:

1. Grab a stall and pretend to, well, you know...

2. Listen for anyone else in bathroom

3. Wait for the 3 loud ones who just walked in to get out

4. Still waiting...

5. Okay, it's been too long, just stick it on the inside of the stall and snap the picture

6. Now hurry out before someone sees the stall you were just in

Mission. Accomplished. Yay!

Do you want to see it?

Excuse the blurriness, I took this with my phone. :D

That's all for now! Don't forget to link up, it will be open for the rest of the month, which is coming up. Soon!

Operation Beautiful

After finishing a too-easy-for-my-own-good English test, I picked up a GLAMOUR magazine from the pile in the back (open to anyone). Flipping through it, I found the usual--'the best makeup', 'the best hair', Justin Bieber.... But then I found something amazingly cool--Operation Beautiful.

Have you ever looked in the mirror and thought, 'I'm too fat' or 'I'm too skinny' or 'My nose is too bony'. Unfortunately, I think we all have. And when we notice those things, we tend to notice every. other. thing. With what started as an 'I'm too fat' day, turned out to be a 'I'm too fat and my clothes don't match and pencils make an annoying squeaksqueak noise like they never have before' day. On those days, it seems nothing in the world could make us feel skinny again.

Ah, but yes, there is a cure! And it's Operation Beautiful--the post-it note life-changer.

It can really change a life, or two, or even an entire city. You never know what one little piece of happiness can do. So that's why Charming Elephant is participating. Once a month, I'll post a pic of my note, with a couple words aside, and a linky so you can share yours too! This project is kind of a cliffhanger in itself, because we never know what kind of results there will be. But we can hope there will be amazing, life-changing results.

So remember, even an optimistic post-it note can change a life. :D

End of Summer Project

Ooo... you guys are lucky! 2 posts in one day! Hehe, I'm just messin' with ya--the first one doesn't count. :D

~

It wasn't until Thursday that I realized...today is the. last. day. of. summer. at. home.

The last day to make my summer of 2010 worth it.

So I took one quick glance around my room for any project. Just one.

One that will take hours. A whole day even.

Then I saw it.

The bulletin board that's been screaming PAINT ME WHITE!!! for months now.

So I picked it up and brought it downstairs... (Which wasn't easy considering it's almost as tall as me--and I'm tall :))

Got all the materials...

And took some not-so-great pictures with self-timer of me.

So that was my end-of-summer project. I think it adds a nice little *ting* to my warm days...

(It's actually still in the basement asking for another coat... I'll get to it, someday :))