Throwing it All the Way Back

Recently I have been looking at old pictures from when I was younger. I'm going to say this in the most modest way possible, I was adorable. I honestly don't know what happened. Life was so simple and magical back then. I honestly believed in the mythical, spoiler alert, Santa, tooth fairy, and Easter bunny. Not only that, but it seems like I had no concept of embarrassment. Now I'm grown up, and am constantly feeling the reddening of my cheeks that occurs with an awkward moment. In this time of great stress and worry, I've decided to throw it back a little to some of my favorite memories of a simpler time. Besides, Thursday, as in throwback Thursday, is the fourth day of the week, and hey, it's fourth quarter!

Me running from a bear... probably

The first memory I'm going to share is of my family's so called "bear hunts." I have no idea how our parents thought of the idea, whether it was a tradition passed down from their childhoods, or we just had too much energy one night, but every once in a while all five of us would grab a flashlight, and head into our large yard at night to look for bears. We sing a stupid song that was both short and repetitive until we made it all the way around the house. Some nights we would even do multiple laps. Despite the lightness of it all, I was always certain that we were going to catch a bear. Even after an abundance of bear hunts where we came back empty handed, I felt there was no doubt that we would run into a bear in the middle of our yard. Looking back, a couple of questions come to mind. Specifically, Why did we want to catch a bear? When we were to encounter said bear, we would be empty handed, save for a flashlight. How were we going to capture/protect ourselves from this bear? Not once did we find a bear (thankfully), but I will always have fond memories my determination, and feeling of invincibility that came with hunting dangerous beasts with my family.

Second is another story from my backyard. After all,  backyards are places of infinite wonder and possibilities to younger kids. So in my backyard, we have a sand box. I'm almost debating putting that last statement into the past, because slowly it has become nothing more than a litter box for the neighborhood cats. Despite that, back in the glory days my siblings and I spent a lot of time there. And out favorite sand box activity? Flooding it. My brothers and I would build an elaborate kingdom, and then starting with just one small lake or river, we would start adding water features until it looked like the set from Water World. If you haven't purposely flooded, and in turn ruined, a small sandbox, I am tempted to say you haven't lived.

Lastly, I remember the nights I pretended to fall asleep at random locations in the house just so my mom or dad would carry me to my room. For example, one night I couldn't fall asleep and I heard my mom in the kitchen. I decided to get out of bed and lay on the kitchen floor with my eyes closed until someone carried me back to my room. All was going as planned, I was about to be picked up by my mom when Charlie (my twin brother with a most excellent blog) sleep walked his way to where we were standing. We asked him what he was doing, unaware that he was unconscious. He then turned around and walked right into our kitchen counter. Being young and short at the time, he hit his head pretty badly. I faintly remember him crying as my mom carried him back to bed, but by that time most of my surroundings were blacked out by my rage. I didn't care if my brother had hurt his head! I just wanted to be carried back to bed. Me being the ridiculous child I was, I stood there waiting for about another five minutes until I realized that my mom wasn't coming back for me. I still hold a grudge to this day. I'll never forget.

You think we are sleeping? Nope. Acting.

Sorry for the long post. I hope you make it through the large amount of stress these coming weeks. Just take deep breaths and try to remember a time when your biggest problem was getting the wrong flavor of popsicle.

The Key to Craftastic Chords

We all remember my snazzy friendship bracelet style headphones I shared with you guys right? Well, I thought you might want something similar to that. Especially now that summer is coming along, its time to break out the hot pink nail polish, and open toed shoes (boys included). And by that, I mean it time to let the light and bright things back into your life. How we are going to do this today is decorate some charger chords. Some of its pros are: makes you a positive and optimistic person by just looking at it, protects your chords, works on headphones too, and it makes the chord undeniably yours (in cases of sibling theft). Another added bonus, this DIY is even easier than the aforementioned headphones project! With a little time, and a very small supply list, no one will be able to deny your arts and crafts swag (it's a real thing, I promise)!

No Charlie, these are not your chargers. Yours are not nearly as fabulous.

The things you will need are very few: a chord of any kind, perler beads (bringing back those childhood memories), and small scissors (I used my mom's sewing scissors). Now that you have all you supplies it's time to start designing! Pick the colors you want, and decide on a pattern (like alternating, or just random). Remember, the more colors you pick, the less sorting out you will have to do to get enough of them. Speaking of sorting the beads out, I got efficient by using the self designed technique I like to call "insert creative name here." It just consists of grabbing a handful of beads out of the bucket, take the ones I want out of my palm and into the bucket lid, and placing the unwanted colors into a separate bowl.

A picture showing many of the techniques
described. Ten points to me for that photography
 skill! And five points to Gryffindor.

Now that you have the beads you want, it's time to put them on you chord. Use your small scissors to cut an opening in the bead, and then use the same scissors to hold the opening wide enough to push your chord into it the bead. Repeat these steps until your chord is covered. It may seem slow at first, but as you work out a process, you will soon get to a speed worthy of the Flash. I was able to finish mine in, give or take, an hour and twenty minutes. Try to beat that! Despite the blisters, it was a fun thing to do with my free time. Added bonus, binging on some Netflix is a perfect way too multitask while doing this DIY.

I hope you enjoyed what will probably be my last DIY as this year comes to a close. Just a reminder, there is still time to stalk, I mean follow, me and this blog. I still have at least one more post coming, and I would love to see your comments and suggestions. I hope you all live through the stress of the coming weeks, and let's be honest, the coming lifetime. Don't stop being incredible, and yes, that is an order.

Living Life In Color

Excuse the cheesy title, but I have been waiting to use that one for a while now. So on Sunday, March 29, I attended the festival of colors, otherwise known as Holi, at the Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork. This, if you do not know, is a celebration of good over evil, love, and equality among all. It can be considered a religious ceremony, but I think everyone should go at least once in their life. It begins with a bonfire the night before, which I did not attend, but the following event the next day is when the clouds of color begin to form. People come and buy a colored powder of the same consistency and taste as flour to throw at each other. I can tell you this from personal experience. Speaking of experience, I wanted to share mine with you, along with a couple tips.

My title for this post does not get more literal than this. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

As I mentioned before, this is essentially a festival of love and happiness. The moment you walk through the entry gates, you can feel people sharing that with you. I mean that literally, the moment you walk in, there is welcoming committee of people with the colorful dust ready to ruin that perfectly white shirt. The cleaner you are, the more of a target you become. This, despite what it seems like, is not a bad thing. The more you embrace it, the more fun you will have. The best way I can explain it is that you start as a blank canvas that everyone contributes to. Not to mention the large number of works of art you will contribute to. Nobody likes an uncompleted work of art with white spaces, so don't expect to come out clean (my dad bet ten dollars to anyone that could). Never have I been so happy to have my face continually hit with rainbow dust.

Taking a selfie with my mom after getting powder in face at least five times.

Another one of my favorite parts is the atmosphere of the place. No I don't mean the cloud of dust continually drifting above. I loved how genuinely happy everyone seemed to be. The good mood was contagious, and I was still feeling blissful for the entirety of the next day. It felt like everyone knew they were sharing something special and unique, and just being there made you part of some exclusive club.

So artsy. I couldn't help myself.

The festival of colors is fun, but there are some things you need to do to make it that way. Th most obvious is wearing clothes that you don't care about (preferably white). While the rest of my family and I were able to brush most of the dust off, some was still left in my shirt. You should also where easily washable shoes like flip flops, or Crocs for the brave. When going to the festival, you may not be planning on getting hit in the face, but other people might have different plans. This means you should bring sunglasses for eye protection. Bandannas to cover your mouth are also an option, but I was fine without one. Also a must, a bag for your phone. You need to protect your phone while taking those artsy selfies.

I hope you decide to attend this awesome event in the future! Something that is also awesome is you people! That's right, you! Thank you for reading my blog! Challenge for the break, let go of your reservations, and have fun with something you wouldn't normally do (stay safe though, I need your page views).