Mall in Munich

On our last night in Munich Luna and split up from the boys. It was weird being in a strange city not having any way to contact the boys who we'd kind of been using as our pass to safety!

We went into this giant mall, I still have the bag from it. It was super American and we had had dinner there the night before as a group. Our goals were to find tights and hats because we were freezing! We picked out neon blue tights to wear under our jeans but didn't have much luck with hats, Mostly, because I didn't want to mess up my hair... I was willing to sacrifice my ears. We wandered downstairs and it was huuuge! The basement was filled with so many people and there were chocolates, wine, adn valentines cards everywhere! Luna and I found her German edition of Harry Potter first and then we set out for candy. I got an octagonal yellow box of chocolates. Each wrapper had an impressionist painting on it. It was eating these later that night that I remembered I don't actually like German Chocolate... This was also where I picked up some chocolates with champagne in them for my parents. They ended up being awful but it was worth the funny looks on their faces. I remember at one point we were trying to meet up with the boys but we kept missing each other on the dozen or so different escalators.

New Years!

Over Thanksgiving Break I had my normal dinner at Hacienda with my YMCA girls. This time it was just me, Skipper, and Bingo but oh it was a blast! The best part is that we are all at different very stressful stages of teaching. I am just about to start student teaching, Bingo has just finished student teaching, and Skipper has just finished her first semester teaching at a middle school in West Lafayette.

After our quesadillas and loaded potatoes skins we were talking about what we should do the next day. The consensus? Chicago. I loooove where I live! I love being able to say, "I'm bored, let's go to Chicago!" While in our beloved city we discussed maybe getting a hotel room there for New Years. OMG YES!

I have never celebrated New Years. Normally I am asleep by midnight and due to the terrible weather where I live it is usually highly unlikely that the BF can come visit. So the prospect of a real New Years, in my favorite city, with my favorite girls? YES! So of course I have spent hours looking for New Years dresses! I'm leaning towards the bright blue or yellow one but I dunno...

Auf Wiedersehen

As Herm and I were leaving a friends house after our weekly Grey's night we broke into an impromptu performance of the Sound of Music.

"Good bye, fairwell, auf wiedersehen, good night... etc." We even had the same movements, and then we skipped out of the house.

We do this sometimes, I don't know where it comes from.

Seriously??

The BF and I were watching TV when one of those commercials came on about the shoes that give you a fantastic body while slowly scanning it up and down with the camera. I covered his eyes and told him not to get his hopes up, this is as good as it gets, it's all downhill from here.

"I'm not even as good as I was at 18!"

"Wow. Think of what you'll look like when you're 30!"

Not a happy face...

Ok, admittedly, this is exaggerated slightly on my part because of my exclusion of the rest of the conversation, but still. I threatened to put it on the blog so now I have to follow through.

He did apologize immediately, he thought we were joking. Um, I was only kind of joking, like 40%.

Bringing Fun to the World Everywhere!

So for an upcoming philosophy assignment we have to write a paper about something wrong with the world and way people are fixing. Mine was going to be about how people just don't have enough fun anymore, they don't know their neighbors and they don't try to get along with strangers. I have a few great sites that I want to use but I need more.

So, I typed "bring fun to the world" in google search.

Google, thinking that I couldn't possibly want to bring fun to the world, gave me this suggestion:

If you can't tell, that says "Did you mean: bring gun to the world."

I think this experience should be my thesis statement!

Not This Week...

According to the 10 day forecast it will not be snowing this week.

Don't loose hope. Maybe next week.

Little Lovelies at F21

Picked up this little lovely at F21 this weekend and I am all sorts of excited to wear it!

Finally, an occasion for genuinely tiny knickers!

I'm such a fair-weather blogger. But it's heading into Christmas, which is my favorite time of year so I should be back a bit more. And there are all sorts of important things going on over here! There are trips to Chicago to be planned! Trees to be decorated! Movies to be watched! Boots to be worn! Snow to fall!

And ya know, the whole deciding what to do with your life kind of thing. I am seriously contemplating taking two years to go through grad school in Europe. Do you have any idea how cheap grad school is in Europe? It's cheap. And I just watched Bridget Jones and now I'm hankering for some overt show of love in the middle of the London streets. And hey, my passport is good for another 9 years. I need to use that sucker.

You've Got Love!

Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks are my ideal couple.

They are so dreamy...

Education Major Sucks

I've always really had a distaste for most of the professors in my education department. They are a huge factor in my back and forth decisions in my major, I'd like to be a teacher but the thought of dealing with them for four years was enough to end it for me. They are nice women, but I think that they have ill feelings toward secondary ed majors and I don't think that most of their classes do a lot to help me understand what I will be facing in a high school classroom. But senior year, by far has been the worst. I mean, I was told that I need to "uglify" myself for student teaching. Apparently I will be too distracting. Really? Seriously??

Now there is one in particular that seems to have picked out me and Luna. SO FRUSTRATING!

They are a waste of my time. There is only one that I have any confidence in whatsoever. This blog will surely be turning into a place for me to vent my frustrations about the education department...

Oh it's been awhile...

So I've blogged a little since school started right? But not anything substantial... And we are severely lacking in the photo department!... Ok ok I'm on it...

First of all, I am suddenly a senior. And I'm 22! That sounds so old to me right now. Not like senior citizen kind of old, but adult kind of old. My friends are off getting real jobs, buying homes, getting hitched, and I just want to stay in school forever... 

I'm also suddenly a first time renter! Also weird. Hermione and I are working on the house, it's not fantastic, but it works for us. And us living together is not bad! I was worried we'd end up fighting, we are so different. But it works for us, we have our own little system and we recognize that the other is different. So far so good!

And one more, I'm suddenly almost a teacher! What? I know. Crazy. Expect mucho student teaching and education degree posts, most of them complaining but whatev... 

And I will end this on a good note! I took this picture this weekend at the Apple Festival in Kendallville! There will be a rather large post on that later... This picture is just to show that my new camera can take flower pictures! I am super psyched by this news. 

Craft of the Weekend!

Thanks to this lovely post at Apartment Therapy I was supplied with a fantastic procrastination project for Sunday! 

Meet my new felt pillow!

It's not quite this:

But hey I didn't have enough felt!

This project was kind of labor intensive, I mean tracing 30-some circles and cutting them out is no small task! Not to mention you have to put a hand-stitch in each individual one, and then stitch them individually onto the pillow! BUT, it is super easy, like you can't mess this up. It's great for people like me who use these tedious tasks as excuses to watch She's All That and Notting Hill all day. It was a pretty fantastic day... 

Disgruntled Education Major

Grades returned to me today:

Two A+'s in POSC 236

92% on gigantically intimidating test in a 300 level constitutional law class with hardest prof on campus...

Two A+s on papers in a 400 level philosophy class

And the pièce de résistance?

3 grades in the B- to B range in education classes

Really? Seriously? I can get fantastic grades in incredibly hard classes and can't even pull a B+ in ed classes? Whaaaaaat???

I could just hurl with the injustice of it all. 

Twinkle Toes

In an effort to not study constitutional law I was looking over my facebook wall. 

It's interesting to look at it and think about how other people see you. What story is your wall telling? I'm a Facebook Philosopher don't ya know. 

Well I assume people that don't know about my job in the summer are very confused by my wall because almost every single one of the posts call be "Twink", "Twinkle", or "Twinkle Toes". I'm not sure that even one calls me "Char". And I kind of love that. I mean, if I had to have a second name, I'm glad it's Twinkle and I'm glad only my favorite people use it : )

This was our end of the year trip to Chicago! We spent a good many minutes trying to pick out trustworthy looking folks to take pictures of us... 

Ignore the bad words, it's a beautiful sentiment!

This never happened in Europe...

Ya know what? When I was in Europe I never had to study for tests. Not once. Ever.

This is crap. Somebody Leonard that I don't want to take a giant essay test on constitutional law. 

I hate the constitution.

And the judiciary too.

I will be making all decisions for America from this point on. 

Cream cheese and bagels for everyone!!!

500 Days of Summer

Just finished 500 Days of Summer! I've been waiting for a very long time to see this. I was surprised the BF didn't jump to see it this summer due to his long standing infatuation with Zooey Deschanel (is it weird that Elf was really when he fell for her?) but alas, it did not happen. And so I started watching it last night and finished today. It's lovely and it's very pretty to watch. The clothes, the colors, the scenery, all great. 

But it is not the love story I expected. It is a break-up story. A good one though. And the soundtrack? Completely amazing. A break-up movie with good music. If you get a chance please check it out, totally worth your time!

So I have a new camera!  Which I think I already posted about. But I've been very lax to post any new pictures. And so without further ado here is the first picture my beautiful Canon ever took! 

He's gonna love that... More pictures to come later!!

First Time Renters!

Things Hermione and I have learned about our house so far...

1. The windows fall out sometimes. Push them up sloooooowly...

2. Roger the handyman is a good guy and he can fix anything. He's also very punctual. 

3. The house is happiest when we are playing Friends DVDs. 

4. If I plug my computer into one of the outlets in the living room it will vibrate.

5. The shower hates Herm and is constantly falling apart when she's in it. 

6. Boys eat food and create more dishes... 

7. But they put in lightbulbs and carry heavy things.

8. The people across the street are not the first house we will go to if we get locked out in a storm. 

9. The people next door are. 

10. Badminton nets are very hard to put up and are testers of friendships. 

11. Ceiling fans are not indestructible. 

12. Neither are lawn mowers. 

13. There are giant crickets on the back porch. 

14. Bees are attracted to holes in walls. They build nests there. 

15. Internet are necessary. 

16. Subtract 5 minutes from all things that go in the over or they will burn. When the fire alarm goes off your food is done. 

17. Basements are scary. I hope we never have a tornado because I'm not going down there. 

18. Not one door operates correctly.

Glee is the best thing since sliced bread.

Ok admitting that I'm home on a friday night eating Dairy Queen, writing a philosophy paper, and watching TV might take me down a few notches in coolness, but for this I'll take it. 

Glee is f-ing fantastic. 

iTunes and Free Fonts

Ended the evening on a cranky note : ( So to make myself feel better I finally cashed in the iTunes gift card my favorite little camper gave me at the end of the summer!

Music bought so far?

-Joy Williams

  -Charmed Life

   -One of Those Days

-Billie Holiday

  -Getting Some Fun Out of Life

-Kate Nash

  -Merry Happy

-Rone Pope

   -Fireflies

-She & Him

   -Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?

I have quite eclectic taste in music... Then jjust to top off the evening, I had a giant bowl of mint chocolate chip ice cream and then downloaded no less than SEVEN new fonts : )

For Free! Courtesy of DaFont

Back at my lovely little Pennies

I've been a terrible blogger lately. I think constantly of lovely things to write and record here and I almost never follow through. So here is a short update for you!

-I got a new camera! Expect lots of pictures very soon! 

-My love for interior design and decorating has reared it's head. Expect mucho interior posts.

-I did a ridiculous number of crafts this summer! There will be soon be photos to document them!

-I am on my way to becoming a teacher, whether I like it or not. Expect lots of education related posts about pros, cons, and everything in between...

-I have a house! Hemrione and I are officially in our house and l

earning how to do things like mow and clean up after boys break things. Expect fairly hilarious posts about that...

-Speaking of the house I finally managed to hook up wifi and speed up the terrible speed available in MC, so expect more blogs! I'm going to make a serious effort to be super regular about posting this year!

I think I'll close with two absolutely gorgeous interiors, styled by Lizzie Chambers. Definitely my ideal bedroom and living room, no contest. Lovely teals, metallics, and warm neutrals  :)

Images found via MadeByGirl...

All moved in! Now what?

Hermione and I have officially moved into our house for this year! It's not the greatest, and it comes with an overly involved landlady, but it's ours and it's coming along quite nicely! I'd love to bring pictures to you but alas, no camera yet. Mine is still dead and I still haven't fought up the courage to buy a new one. I so hate spending money... Also, no internet in the house yet, not until next Friday. I'm so desperate for some web time that I've been sitting at KenapocoMocha (a cafe in town) for almost two hours. They literally closed around me and now I'm sitting on the sunny porch of this old victorian house turned coffee shop, sucking in every bit of their wifi. 

I moved in a day earlier than Herm and that first night alone was not entirely pleasant. Luckily the BF was available and I took full advantage, including calling him for all scary trips to and from the car. I ran lots of errands and made a McDonalds trip and it was all very weird and creepy. If I had been home and doing any of those activities it would have been so normal. I love doing things by myself and for myself and I love the solitude of it all. But I've never done anything by myself in at school, not often anyway. I'm always with friends or the BF, jogging is my only real alone time outside of the dorm or maybe a trip to The Hut. It's going to take a lot of getting used to, doing things on my own here. But I already love it. I so enjoy having a house to make up and try out all of the lovely things I see in the dozens of decorating blogs/magazines I poor over!

I forgot my birthday!

Guess what? My birthday was one week ago exactly. 

22 seems like a good age, so far I like it. 

Happy birthday to Twinkle Toes!

(When summer camp ends I'm never quite ready to give up my pseudonym...)

I spent the first day of my 22nd year on earth at work running arts and crafts. I hopped out of my car only to hear a choir of 30 baby 5 years olds singing "Happy birthday dear Twinkle Toes!". They were eating lunch at the time and they all came running at me with peanut buttery fingers and cheeto faces, I loved every messy second of their hugs and kisses!

That night after eating at least 5 giant sugar cookies I went to Albanos with some of my most favorite people. We had an evil waitress but the night was wonderful, filled with good conversation and great laughs floating out amongst the trees we were sitting under like little twinkle lights. I love my job and i love the people I work with : )

I am engaged to Kevin Jonas.

So I love to trick my kids at camp. That sounds bad, but you should hear some of the terrible things they put me through every stinking day for the past three summers. I am allowed to fool them once in awhile. 

This past week I convinced my kids that I'm engaged to Kevin Jonas. My k-1s are always bugging me about a ring I wear on my right hand ring finger so I just always told them it was my engagement ring to Kevin Jonas. I don't know why I did this. I'm not a JoBro fan. It just seemed like a fun idea. The k-1s bought it no problem. However this past week I had 4th and 5th grade. These kids were a harder sell. 

Step number 1. Change the BF's name to Kevin Jonas in phone book.

2. Show kids that most of my recent calls and texts are from KJ. This convinced quite a few of them pretty throughly, but it just wasn't good enough for me. 

3. Get the BF in on it. 

Wednesday when my kids started asking for proof I let them text message the BF/KJ directly from my phone. I'd type the message and send it, then put it back in their little palms. You should have seen their little eyes light up when my phone vibrated and it said "1 New Text Message- Kevin Jonas." Oh my gosh I almost died laughing. It was so easy!!

 Later the BF texted to ask me if they had bought it, "Hook line and sinker" I replied. 

A short transcript for those interested:

TT (Twinkle Toes): "The kids don't believe that you are KJ!"

KJ: "Of course I am, I would call you but I'm on tour right now. I miss my Twinkle Toes!"

TT: "They still don't buy it!"

KJ: "Didn't you show them the ring?"

TT: "Yup and I told them all about how we searched for it when you were on tour in Europe!"

KJ "But we did, we got it in Prague. We searched the whole day for just the right one!"

TT: "Jack has a question for you: This is Jack. Are you really going out with Twinkle?

KJ: "Hey Jack! This is Kevin. Twinkle and I have been going out for quite awhile now, it's true. 

TT: "Jack: Give me proof."

KJ: "What is the name in Twinkle's phone, it should say Kevin. I have a dog named Skip, live in California, and I wrote Love Bug when I met Twinkle."

Best day ever. Easily. 

DIY Wall Art

This is a little craft I've had my eye on all summer... I keep seeing new variations and I love them all. My problem is coming up with a quote, there are just too many!

Via Decor8 and Apartment 412

Lamps

I must be on to something, check out that architect/pharmacist/task lamp!!

Via Decor8

Task Lamps

I want these. 

But I could settle for this. 

I've seen them called architect lamps, pharmacy lamps, and task lamps. Either way, I'm sold. 

Found via i suwanne.

The Berghoff

The Berghoff is a famous old German restaurant in downtown Chicago. I've walked past it too many time to count, taken dozens of pictures of their sign, but only visited one half time. 

In 2006 many terrible things were happening in Chicago. Chicagoans went momentarily crazy and allowed Marshall Fields to disappear and The Berghoff to close. It was my senior year and I had made many many efforts to make a last visit to my beloved Fields and hadn't made it. When my aunts suggested they take my sister and I to Chicago to visit The Berghoff and Marshall Fields one last time I, of course, accepted. We made the trip in February 2006. As we trekked down Adams and got closer and closer to The Berghoff it took our notice that the famous sign was not lit up. We also noticed that the crowds which should have accompanied the last day of this historic restaurant were non existent. My aunts had gotten the date wrong and a lonely sign on the door told us were one day too late. 

The happy ending is that instead we dined at the Walnut Room and bought Christmas ornaments at Fields one last time before the unspeakable turn to Macy's. The Berghoff had an even happier ending and reopened, hardly two months after our visit.

And that my friends, is how I visited the Beghoff one half times. 

Have I Mentioned How Much I Love Chicago?

I dare you to find anything better than a day in Chicago with the girls. It doesn't exist.

Every summer I am amazed at the friendships I create with my fellow counselors. This summer started a little rough but ended so much better than I could have imagined. I love these girls and I hope we stick together over the years! 

Skipper, Twinkle Toes (me), Bingo, Cricket, Meeko

Time Traveler's Wife

Just finished the Time Traveler's Wife. It's simultaneously terrible and wonderful. Keep tissues at hand, but definitely read it, it's worth the tears. 

I always forget how wrapped up I get in a great book until I read one. On the field trip yesterday I dropped at least three tears on the bus just thinking about where I'd left off in the book the night before. It's wonderful to get caught in a story and have it permeate everything you do, but there are times where it's somewhat disruptive to my life. Last summer I read a great book and was mad at the BF for days because the guy in the book was such a dick.  Whoops... 

Spread the Love

I so want to be this girl! Color Me Katie is a fantastic blog about a truly genuine girl living in NYC and doing wonderful things that make the world a better place in a thousand tiny ways. Example? She makes thought bubbles and scatters them throughout Brooklyn then waits for passerby and takes a picture. Why? Well, why not?

One day she was bored so she cut dozens of hearts out of pink take and scattered them throughout Brooklyn. Why? To make people smile. 

I wish I had the courage to do all these things but I just don't have the gumption! Check out her blog, it's seriously addicting and it makes you want to spread a little joy around!

Dear Krylon,

Hermione does not believe that I can get our black plastic, $2.50, 8x10 picture frames to turn white. She has no faith in you, and possibly even less in me. She was giving me that look that says "You are a crazy person who reads too many decorating blogs" while humoring me with an, "Ok Char, whatever you say." I have decided to take this as a challenge and I have chosen you as my partner. The Bonnie to my Clyde. The Ethel to my Lucy. I hope that you are up to the challenge. 

Love, 

Char

Contact Cases

Random fact about me I just noticed. Ya know how contact cases have an R and L on each little pocket? One for Left and one for Right obviously. Well I put mine in the opposite. Every night I put my left contact in R and my right one in L and every morning I put L in my right eye and R in my left. There is no reason for this. I have tried to logic it out and I can't, I have tried to switch it back and I can't. I'm just crazy. 

BTW when I went looking for a picture of a contacts case I found this adorable Etsy site that sells decked out cases! I want one!

Child Discussion of the Week

A little girl was talking about how she is going to be a flower girl next weekend. One of the boys asked her what a flower girl was and she said that flower girls throw the flower petals. Another little boy looked up from his coloring and said completely seriously, "Yeah, it's just like throwing chairs, " and started coloring again. 

Whaaaaat?

Baby Gremlins

I wonder if being badly behaved takes up as much energy as disciplining those being badly behaved. I'm guessing not, because at the end of today my kiddos were still climbing walls, jumping on my back, and spilling kool-aid while I curled up in a corner mumbling profanities. 

I need to report at least 30 break-ins. Between the hours of 4PM yesterday and and 8AM today 30 young angelic children were kidnapped. Left in their places were 30 replicas. 30 tiny little graffitiing and pinching gremlin replicas. I say gremlins because they are so dang cute but as soon as you get too close they bite. No really, they do... I'm not even joking. Yesterday two boys came up to me, one was crying but it ended up being a misunderstanding. The one boy kept crying though so I asked the other boy why he was still crying and he said, " I dunno. But he did bite me. Maybe that's why." The little tiny teeth marks were still there even. A whole bunch of gremlins is what I have.

The Future is Scary

I was a big crank yesterday, I was not a fun person. Happy optimistic Char went temporarily into hiding because cynical cranky Char had her at the top of her shit list and knew just where to find her. 

I have set my life up so that I have a Plan B. That's the responsible thing to do. Plan A is to move to Indy/Chicago soon after graduation and find somewhere downtown in the heart of the city to use my history degree and thrive on the energy and people. I get to go to cutesy cafes, indie flea markets, and fill my brain up with as much culture as humanly possible. I wish I could explain how much I love the city. Any city. I just live for the moments that I get to spend in the hustle and bustle of a bubbling metropolis. Those are the moments that I love most of all, they are the memories that shine to me like gold lost in 20+ years worth of file cabinets full of manilla memories. 

Plan B is to be a history teacher. This is a super safe plan. I would probably stay somewhat close to home. I love home. My hometown is perfect for me, and Plan A involves my town but not until after I have kids. Plan B puts me in a safe environment with a job I know I can find around here. 

I wish I didn't have a Plan B. When I look at the scary parts of Plan A (moving to a city by myself, making new friends, finding a job) Plan B looks too enticing... I don't want to throw away what could be a lifetime of gold memories because I'm scared. 

Fair Oaks Dairy Farm

This past thursday at the Place of Occupation we took the kiddos on a field trip to Fair Oaks Dairy Farms. This farm is massive, I'm talking like 35,000 cows. Intense and super cool.

Well one of the sites the farm offers it's guests is a chance to view a calf being born. There are like 10 calfs born a day there so it happens pretty often. Well we lucked out and got a chance. Here is a picture I found online of what this room looks like. 

This little glass area is surrounded by stadium seating. Stadium seating. There will be no stadium seating in my hospital room. Poor mama cows. And the poor mama cow we saw just happened to have some difficulty. I won't go into details but the whole ordeal ended with ropes, a vet, a few of my older boys complaining of nausea for the rest of the day, and me being scarred for life. There will also be no ropes in my hospital room. 

Side Note: The last thing we did was watch a movie called "From Grass to Glass". I had no idea what they meant by "Glass". I just kept thinking about it, do they make glass from milk? Is there something I don't know? And after the movie I still didn't get it. I was super confused by the title. Just 5 minutes ago did I realize that it meant glass as in a liquid retaining device. Ya know, something you drink milk out of. Oh my goodness. Not good Char, not good. 

Summer Lazy

I don't know what it is about summer that leaves blogging looking a little lackluster, but i imagine it's hitting everyone since my favorite reads are a little sparse these days. This ban on talking about work related anything is getting to me. I see a lot of policy breaking in my future...

What does rear it's ugly head in the summer however, is shopping! I've been logging some serious hours on Forever 21, Urban Outfitters, and Mod Cloth's websites. 

Here's my latest find. I'm loooving this dress from Mod Cloth!

I'm also falling for this cute little tee. I found it on Delias, not a website I normally check out but I made an exception. How cute would this look under a blazer with the sleeves scrunched up or a pretty colored cardigan??

Oh Char

I told a friend that the every 2 week routine the BF and I have hammered down in the last THREE summers works pretty well. The first two weeks are the hardest and then it's pretty doable. 

Well I told her that in May. Before summer had started. Back when I could see him whenever I wanted. 

Sometimes my optimism comes back and bites me in the butt. 

Posts to follow about the weekend!

Wigs and Boas

You know you have a great job when your male coworker calls at 9 pm asking if you have a wig or a feather boa he can borrow for work the next day. And then seems genuinely disappointed when you tell him you don't have either. 

On a run...

This makes me laugh every time : )

Taste 5

Overall I would classify this week as a success! Except for my brief stint as a tripod... Friday we ran off to explore Valparaiso. First we went to BDubs and then walked around exploring the beauty of downtown Valpo. I had never fully appreciated the city's efforts to keep the main drag looking beautiful but wow they have done a fantastic job. On our walk we ran into a sign advertising a wine and food festival the next day to raise money for a park downtown. Mental note made. 

After our exploration it was miniature golf! I have not yet added up the scores, but after a particularly nasty incident with a hole on a slope I'm going to guess the BF will emerge the victor... 

Saturday we took a little trip to Lake Michigan, making a point to go to a beach we hadn't been to before. As usual, we never get beach weather, it was windy and chilly and soon the sky over Chicago started to darken and head our way. We narrowly escaped rain and it was back to Westville. 

After some grilled cheese and laziness the sun came out and we decided to check out Taste 5, the wine and food festival in Valpo we had seen advertised the day before and I have to say it was pretty great! It was smaller than we had imagined, Valpo is after all a rather large city, but still very nice. Five of the city's best restaurants teamed up to put on something akin to the Taste of Chicago. We bought tickets for a dollar apiece and each restaurant had a booth set up where they sold their most popular dishes for a set amount of tickets. We decided to split lamb from a spanish restaurant and a fantastic nut and berry cheesecake from either a french or italian restaurant, we don't remember which... The BF tried a new dark beer and I tried sangria. I am not a wine person, something about the smell bothers me, but this was actually pretty good, with big chunks of  orange, lime, and lemon floating in the dark red liquid. A success definitely. 

After Taste 5 we wandered around and took pictures. Well the BF did, my camera is still out of commission : ( Eventually we ended up at a South Bend Chocolate Factory Cafe where the BF got some coffee (yet another grown up drink I don't enjoy) and we read over some newspapers. 

The plan was to go to see Up later that night but we still had a lot of time to waste so we went to Barnes & Nobles for awhile. The movie overall was really cute and visually stunning, but we were both left wanting a little more. I thought the ending was a little abrupt and the BF just thought it was generally a little boring but oh well. 

Today was mostly just a lazy day. After hiking up dunes and running around Valpo we were pooped. We took Boomer and Wicket for a walk and that was about the extent of our day. Later, we fell asleep for a looong time and then watched a pretty snazzy dinosaur show on the History channel. 

So, one long blog later and I think that's the end of our weekend. The BF took off a few hours ago and it's always weird to go from seeing each other nonstop for a few days to being two hours apart again. Luckily a great weekend sent us off in good moods and looking forward to a weekend two weeks from now : )

Quote of the Weekend

BF: Babe, stand still.

Char: Are you seriously using my head as a tripod?

BF: Babe, you're the perfect height!

This weekend was the start of our summer weekend trips to each other's houses. Generally, our rule of thumb is to see each other every two weeks which isn't exactly ideal but it's worked for the last two summers! 

More on our weekend later : )

Old School Robyn

Ok I remember being in middle school, maybe a few years younger, and hearing these songs on the radio alll the time and loving them! It was back before itunes and internet in the house and for some reason I never got the tape/CD. I stumbled upon them today and just had to share. I know no one else will probably care but I do!

The Many Faces of...

I make this face all the time. 

I use it to express surprise, disgust, and any number of other reactions. 

As far as I know, however, it's only been caught on film twice. Once at my senior prom and once at my best friend's wedding last summer. 

Enjoy. 

Second photo courtesy of the BF...

I bought my first Hemingway...

Wish me luck.

Across the River and into the Trees. I've read a few pages in Barnes and Noble but haven't gotten up the nerve to actually buy it. Hemingway just sounds daunting to me. However, one of my favorite things to do is read those dang classics people talk about and it has lead to some interesting literary experiences (wow that sounds pretentious) even if I don't always love the book. So far I haven't read anything that made me consider the time invested wasted. 

So far. 

My Wedding Up-Do

Per wedding, tradition before my cousin's recent nuptials the female bridal party met up at a salon to get our hair done. 

I hadn't decided how I wanted mine done, I just knew I wanted it up. My hair stylist was young but very pretty and had very cute normal hair, no red stripes or bleached anything, so I gave her carte blanche. I told her I wanted "classic and simple". "Classic and simple". Like Charlotte York I told her, nothing promy, no corn rows or anything of the sort. "Classic and simple".

My dear friends, does this look simple?

I think not. There were more twists and curves than am Appalachian road through the mountains. It wasn't bad per-say, but it was about as far away from my style as possible. 

This leads me to another point. See the beautiful girl in the back? She's a G, my cousin Danielle. G genes tend to be pretty dominant. We pop out slightly pale with freckles, reddy hair, and big ole blue eyes. When seen together, we are very clearly a family. We are small in stature and large in sarcasm. Dear Danielle's mother must have found a man with very stubborn genes. Uncle Robin shines through in Danielle and her brother like you wouldn't believe. She gets to be skinny yet curvy, be permanently tan, have beautiful thick dark hair all the way down her back, and did I mention she gets to be curvy? This picture does not do her justice. She's the envy of the G's...

About Me

My name is Char and I have a blog. None of my friends do, but the BFs family got me hooked and so I blog on all on my own as far as fellow co-eds go.

I love pretty pictures and fashion, decorating and paper. I use Harry Potter pseudonyms for all of my friends because as of now they are skeptical of the blogging world. I expect when we grow and up and move away and have babies we will all have blogs because that seems to be the thing to do. And when that day comes I will laugh and gleefully answer all their questions about blogger, thankful that they can finally share in the obsession with me! And secretly, I will be very proud that my archives stretch back much farther then theirs.

Pennies From Heaven is where I write everything. I put my favorite photographs there, my favorite fashions, thoughts, stories, and humorous conversations between Hermione and I.

I'm a 21 year old from the Region (portion of Indiana that should be annexed by Chicago). I go to school at little ole Manchester and my middling-conservative self fits in a bit oddly here but I have carved out my little niche. MC, I have come to realize, may not have been the best choice for me. But if I could go back in time I would still end up here because I have met wonderful people, friends and professors, and it has very pretty weeping cherry trees. Pretty spring blooming trees are very important to me.

POC

New POC (place of occupation) policy. We are no longer allowed to mention the name of our POC or post pictures on blogs or facebook of us in our T-Shirts or at camp. So from now on when I speak of my job it will be known as POC. 

So yeah, I'm now 200 pictures less popular on facebook and have a lot of work to do censoring my past blog posts. Goooood times. : (

You're My Favorite

Some days I would just kill to be back in Europe and today is one of them. 

I keep thinking about singing jingle bells with Luna on the streets in Budapest.

And waking up the BF and his friends every morning because, well they are lazy boys and ho doesn't love barging in on a bunch of sleeping college boys who look like 8 year olds in the morning. 

The BF and I had almost zero alone time over there, so alas there are no romantic stories of walking through Prague holding hands, but there are plenty of stories of Luna and I trailing after college boys with impossibly long legs and laughing at one thing or another. Stories about searching through book stores in every single country and about a dozen jewelry shops in Prague. Plus I did get an opportunity to fight with the BF in Munich, now how often does that happen?? Almost never. 

I would just kill to go back there. Other girls dream of honeymoons involving white sandy beaches but I dream of museums and royal gardens, palaces and book stores. 

To go and see a Europe not covered in snow would also be nice...

Charmed Life

This is pretty much how I feel about life these days : )

It's a Good Day

I am in such a good mood. I know I have been slightly absent from the blogging world lately, since summer vacay has started every day feels like a weekend, and generally I don't blog on the weekends. Eventually this will sort itself out. 

Sooo I checked my grades online last night. Normally they don't come out till Wednesday and normally I don't check them until the Wednesday after that. But this semester I decided to check it asap. I took way more credits than are necessary and generally even allowed but man I pulled it off with flying colors! Not to toot my own horn or anything : )

Generally when I get all A's I take it as a sign I've been working too hard and slack off accordingly. I found out an a veeeeery early age I can totally slack off and still get all B+'s with some A-'s. It's a gift, and the secret to my having time to blog. But this time, I got five (count em, 1,2,3,4,5) five A's and 1 B+! Oh yeah!

Yesterday was just a good day all around. I started working.

Oh my gosh I love the POC. It felt sooo good to walk in the doors and have Digger stop mid-sentence and run up and give me a hug! Shortly followed by the equally lovable Meeko and Bingo. My friends in high school were not the best. I've kept the few that were true friends, but I have abandoned most of the rest. I have not, however, abandoned the feeling that I love everyone a little more than they love me. It feels good to know that my POC girls love me too : ) It also feels good to be called Twinkle Toes again. Whoever came up with the idea that we should all have camp names is a genius. Anyway, I'm ready for camp to start, and although I'm really worried I won't get my K-1's again (fingers crossed), I'm just happy to be back. The new counselors seem amazing and I'm just itching to write out the first homegram of the summer!

More than that I'm itching to write the first blog of the summer that has quotes from five years olds. Those are always the best quotes. 

Break Me Off a Piece of that Kit-Kat Bar

Just when I'm celebrating Love 21, I see this. 

Know what that means? I didn't. So I looked it up. It means everything (waist, bust, inseam, etc) is on average two inches larger. 

Come. On. Give. Me. A. Break. 

It's not more modest if it falls off of you, fyi. 

You can't convince me those girls in the pictures are two inches larger... That's for sure. Where can I get their clothes?

Love 21

Forever 21 has launched yet another line, Love 21. And I love it. 

Lately F21 has been lagging a bit to me. With student teaching on the horizon I need to make some better decisions about clothing options, less short-shorts and more button ups. : (

Love 21 is a great grown up option to F21, and is a little less fashion forward than Twelve by Twelve (another F21 line...). It's full of pieces that I can easily throw a cardigan over to teach in, and then still wear it out that night with friends. And I am soo excited that it will be available in Chi-Town! Yet another excuse to grab the train this summer : )

Here are some of my favorite pieces. 

The best part is the prices are still way reasonable and every time I've checked the website today there have been new additions! I love it!