Challenge

I am a Mormon.

And as such, I believe the Book of Mormon to be a book of true doctrine, inspired by

a loving Heavenly Father. It was given to us to give us paths to follow

and examples of overcoming trials by trusting a higher source.

Yesterday, I was reminded by a very good friend of a challenge that my high schools seminary sponsors. They ask every student to

read the entire Book of Mormon over Christmas break. 

I participated every year when I was in high school, but only finished my freshman year. 

I will complete it this year.

I know I'm not in high school anymore, and I have a different break than the other kids, but I will be reading this year! I started last night, and I will finish by January 8th, the day before Spring semester starts at USU.

I need to read 24 pages a day in order to reach my goal.

I challenge you, dear reader, to go along with me. Whether you are

a student, parent, or retired, I ask you to join with me and read the Book of Mormon this season. Start today, and set an end date. Make it a New Year's Resolution. Finish

before the end of 2011. Whatever your goal is, stick with it. 

"Now we not only need to say more about the Book of Mormon, but we need to do more with it."

-Ezra Taft Benson

{ a few of my favorite things }

Artsy fartsy

You would not believe how artsy I have become! I am so proud of my accomplishments lately. 

Also, you know that feeling when you see something

on Pinterest, re-pin it, and say you will do this thing yourself? 

Well, I DID.

Introducing my crayon art.

Coolest thing, right?

Here's how we did it. And by 'we' I mean the incredibly

 talented Seth King and I.

We started by taping the canvases     

to a sheet of cardboard, to hold 

them together. Then we used

hot glue to attach the crayons.

Next, I used a blow-dryer to heat and melt the crayons down the canvases.

This was the COOLEST thing ever to do. I loved it. love love loved it :)

We separated the canvases,

giving a real artsy feel.

With his magical talent of art, Seth drew the little girl 

swinging from the crayons.

(this is my favorite detail)

Here she is, a little bigger.

this concludes the explanation of the magic.

..but not the pictures!

I now have a quite unique piece of art to hang 

wherever I live from now until I die.

Thank you Seth, for the Christmas gift. 

I love it!

my favorite things

Reason for the Season

Long time no blog, eh? Well I'm back!

Recently, I've been hard at work studying for my finals this semester at USU. I only had two real finals, so it wasn't too hard to study. The miserable thing about being a music major is that we have a thousand and a half classes per semester, but the best part is that most of those classes don't have written finals. 

In all of my spare time, I have been quite busy doing my favorite thing, 

CREATING. 

I'm a huge fan of home-made Christmas gifts, (and since I have the BEST friends ever) and I knew I had to take some time to make items that could be semi-worthy of my besties.

root beer bottles with twine

 SO, this first one is a set of decorative bottles wrapped in twine, glued down. Hobby Lobby, my new best friend, is having killer 50% off sales that are KILLING my bank account, but I still love it. the hardest part was getting the ends of the twine to dry fast enough to stay down, but I solved that by wrapping a rubber band around it until it dried completely. 

Enjoy your new deco, Amy. 

Michigan

This little gem was built for my favorite musician, Seth. He is from the great state of Michigan, (which is the bomb.com) so I thought to make something to remind him of his roots. This idea was stolen from Pinterest, slightly tweaked. I took carpet tacks, and to the chagrin of my downstairs neighbors, nailed them in the shape of Michigan into a hard-wood board. The X on the lower half signifies Seth's hometown of Charlotte. 

Merry Christmas, Michigan.

I forgot to take a picture of the last gift..but perhaps that is for the better! My dear CJ received a spray painted t-shirt. I took masking tape and spelled out the words, spray painted over that, then peeled the tape back for the finished product. The words I chose for this shirt are an inside joke, and we all had a good laugh about it. I'll have to ask him if I can share before I put it on the internet. :)

Stay warm, Frankie.

Last, but not least, we had a little Christmas feast last night.

Incredible mood lighting, right? I'm sad that I didn't take a picture of all of us with the food as well. I gutted Norbert, our turkey, earlier that day and put him in the roaster. 

It's true, the fruits of your own labors are the sweetest! He was delicious. 

Our good friends Derek and Britany also came for dinner, making it a real party!

I hope my friends had as good of a time as I did.

I am truly blessed to have their friendship. 

~ few of my favorite things ~