nostalgia...what a way to hold up saturday cleaning

so I am many things and one of them is a pack-rat. I seriously hold on to like everything. however, I am also a pretty organized person, so I try to keep all of my things in a very organized manner. I think I pretty much have every letter, card, or note I have been given since the age of 13. I would just throw them into the bottom drawer of my jewelry box. one day I came across this and knew something needed to be done. I didn't want to throw away these messages of encouragement, but I couldn't just have them taking over valuable jewelry box space. I found a scrapbook that just had blank pages on it without page covers, so I bought it and started pasting in the cards and envelopes to hold my letters. today while cleaning my room, I kept finding random notes or cards from either before my mission or after, so I thought it was time to update the book...which lead to my reading the book. probably the greatest note I found was one I had written to myself, probably in young women's around the age of 13. it reads:
dear me,
hey self. yeah, right. just do better with school. and boys. goodness they're hard to figure out.  remember when everything was so clear? screw it all just READ YOUR SCRIPTURES!!!
<3 me
gotta love how really...nothing has changed :)

ofcourse I had to make a little crane for this photo shoot. he's made out of an envelope from a letter I recently received. I realize there are lots of habits I have that some might think I got from my mission, but I had them long before. one being a love of writing letters. so, you want to write me letters, I guarantee you something cool in return.

enjoi!

recent fails

I used to read  fail blog from time to time because let's face it, some of those fails are pretty funny. however, this last week I did quite a bit of failing myself...

exhibit a.

one might say that taking a picture of yourself at the end of the day is a failure in itself, but that my friends is not the fail. the fail comes in the form of the harry potter glasses that I so eagerly awaited. voila. they finally arrived and I tried them on to discover they were poorly made and are a bit lopsided...it is rather unfortunate. I'll probably keep them anyway.

exhibit b.

the only crane I made while in boston...and basically the only picture I took in boston. as I was packing my sister mentioned this fail and how I could have found cool maps of the places I'd been in boston and made cranes out of them. what can I say, my vacationing skills are not what they used to be.

exhibit c.

every sunday i sit down and make goals for my week. [just so everyone is aware, I did that before my mission. thanks] neanmoins, this week for some reason I decided to make the goal of no sugar. why I was possessed to make that goal the week after easter is beyond me...especially with reese's bunnies and coconut hershey kisses! I didn't even know they made coconut hershey kisses, or that I was such a fan of coconut.

so there we have it folks, my weekly acts that can be called "fails."

enjoi! [and don't mimic this behavior.]

my cranes like to fly!

this week I went on a trip to boston.

on the way there I mainly read harry potter and the sorcerer's stone.

but I did manage to make a crane!

and I learned that napkins are not the best material for cranes...

on the way back I saw a pamphlet for a southwest credit card and decided to make cranes with it.

after all, this trip was made possible by southwest rapid reward points :)

so I made the cranes and was taking their picture when a lady across the aisle leaned over and said "excuse me, did you just make those?"

I replied yes, because I had.

then she said "well those are really beautiful."

how lovely :)

enjoi!

sunday will come

in the spirit of easter,

I have decided to post this message.

it is by far, one of my favorite talks of all time.
on my mission, I learned a lot about the resurrection
and just how grateful I am for it.

you can read the whole message here

happy easter!

enjoi!

sabbath cranes

I don't know if this is just me...but sometimes I feel my mind going in so many directions at once that I need to do something to focus it...and that happens most at church. I know, that is like the worst place, but sometimes it happens and I just need to do a little origami to focus my mind on something and I can listen :)

these are the two from last week.  how precious!

this little guy is not because my mind was going all over, but because I was taking notes on a post-it and I kept messing up so I started a new one and made a crane out of the old one. he's posing with my new scripture case, an old clinique free gift give away. I saw a sister in the mtc doing that and thought she was quite clever, so I used it yesterday and so many people asked about it.

enjoi!

ma chère macclaine

I've already given this girlie, macclaine a shout out before, but I'm going to give her another one.

check us out in the tuileries gardens! anyway, my birthday is in january and for my last birthday I had a joint p-day celebration complete with hot chocolate and cakes at angelina's! soeur macclaine surprised me with a present, origami paper! I was so excited!!!!! when I first learned how to make the cranes, I decided to make a crane out of each of the colors of the colorful pack! et voila!

how precious?! all just chillin' in the cup! the blue crane was my VERY first crane EVER! so I don't know why I didn't start with this post...oh well, it's all good! 

enjoi!

my love of moleskine

I don't know if there is a brand that I love more than moleskine. they are just so classy and quality. while I was living in france I went through a moleskine journal [a red one] and had to get a new one [peanuts limited edition :)] and obviously had to buy the paris travel journal...and when I saw that the 2011 planners were half-off right before coming home, that was a necessity...and the beautiful moleskine cahiers for my studies...very much needed :) the point of all of this, is that I love moleskines. inside each moleskine is a little pamphlet that tells you of the history of the company. I found an extra one I had and decided to use it to make a mamma crane and a baby crane. how cute!

enjoi!

umm, yes please!

yesterday I had the wonderful opportunity to hang out with one of my oldest friends [& first follower of this blog I might add] and catch up on some movies that I missed. ofcourse the first one that we watched was harry potter and the deathly hollows [part one] which made me realize how much I had forgotten about the magical wizarding world. so, along with making 1,000 paper cranes, I will also be re-reading the harry potter books :) I don't think it will take me that long...maybe 7 weeks? pas mal...neanmoins, this morning I was thinking about how I can't find my harry potter glasses anywhere and hopped on the ever trusty amazon.com and looked for new glasses and sure enough, there were many...and the easter bunny told me I could order them, so later this week I will receive my harry potter glasses that I will sport to the midnight showing of the final harry potter movie [I don't know what they are calling it...]

enjoi!

galler chocolate

one day on my mission, I was with my very good friend sister macclaine. she asked me if I had ever tried galler chocolate, and I responded that I had not. her eyes got big and she told me that I had to try it, that it was the greatest chocolate in the world. she offered me a bar, I don't know which flavor, but that is not important. what is important, is that she was right. it is the best chocolate in the world.

that's 59 bars of galler chocolate goodness that I bought on an exchange in brussels right before I came home. my favorite is noix de coco [coconut]. I was telling my sister how I didn't know how I could go on with life knowing that this chocolate was only sold in belgium and I didn't live in belgium when she informed me that nowadays you can find just about anything on amazon.com. I decided this morning to check it out, and sure enough galler chocolate is most certainly on amazon.com. 

enjoi! [and order some galler]

my favorite dinner :)

my mother makes the greatest stuffed shells on the planet. the thoughts of eating these often occupied my dreams while I was away and I'm so grateful that she made them for me tonight :)

aren't they beautiful!? don't you wish you had a wonderful mother that would make them for you?! I decided to take the label off of one of the spaghetti sauce bottles and use it to make a crane!

labels from bottles or cans are easy to use UNLESS they have a sticky back. this label did, so I stuck it to a piece of paper and cut the edges. very simple :)

[notice how the plates are different colors...they are so good that I had to go back for seconds!]

enjoi!

don't throw it out-fold it up!

another book...I know. I recently got back from serving an 18 month mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Paris, France [don't worry if you forget...Im sure I'll mention it every now and then ;)] anyway, at the end of my mission, a lot of people asked me what my plans were for my life after the mission and I always responded origami. upon returning home, I was in borders with my brothers and sister-in-law and I was determined to find an origami book that was cheap. my sister-in-law found me this book, trash origami. it shows you how to take items that you are going to throw away and turn them into origami projects! how nifty! so, as you will and probably have noticed, a lot of my cranes are made from materials already used. I feel that makes it so that each of my 1,000 cranes has more of a story than just something I made this summer because I wanted a fun hobby.

enjoi!

it all started with a book...

as a child, I liked to read. I would read anything and everything. randomly I will have memories of stories I read, but unable to name the book. I think I was in 4th grade and I read this book about a little girl who became ill from the effects of the nuclear bomb dropped in japan during world war ii. there is a japanese legend saying that if you make one thousand paper cranes, that you will be granted the wish of your heart. I have always wanted to get into origami since my 5th grade japanese day, so this summer I will be making one thousand paper cranes. not because I am ill from radiation, but because I want to, so I will take you through that process with this here blog.

enjoi!