buzz. imma bee.

I've been fairly busy lately - catching up with friends, learning to work my sewing machine, reading The Hunger Games, some funny car troubles...

This is Clara!! I'm so bad with deciding on names, but when I thought, Hmm, what should I name my pretty baby sewing machine? Clara popped instantly into my head :) She's a Project Runway Edition! I have no idea what that means. Maybe Tim Gunn touched them or something.

She does things like sew button holes!! This blew my mind when I read it in the little booklet. That was the only reason I attempted to figure out how to change the foot thing and needle. Otherwise, I would've just sewn with the straight stitch and her beauuutiful stitches would've been lost on me. (As you can tell, I don't know to much how sewing machines. I think I made up those sewing phrases.) Basically, I put the number for "random button stitch," hold on the pedal, and there she goes! I barely need to hold it the fabric. Freakin awesome.

p.s. Isn't that fabric gorgeous?! I loveee that pattern; it looks amazing on a bigger swatch. I stole it from one of my art classrooms. Okay, not really stole, because it was on the "Free Stuff" shelf, but I took almost all of it because I loved it so much...

 And then RA things happen. I go back to school on Friday!! I can't decide if I'm excited or not. Yes, for friends and being able to just walk into someone's apartment because you're bored and they're there. No, for classes and leaving my bed and having real responsibilities. Womp.

These are the door tags I made for my hall this semester! We don't get to decorate the walls because some real people live in our building (because college students aren't real people...), but I had fun making these nametags! While watching Doctor Who, of course. 

Also back at school, I don't get to stay up all hours of the night reading and never leaving the internet, because then I will die. So it's probably bedtime now. Good luck to anyone else starting classes again! :D

extrablogpostfail + Scotland?

This is why I don't keep diaries. I get all excited about a new thing and write furiously about small happenings for days, and then stop. For no apparent reason. I guess I get busy (sort of) and forget. Or think, Oh, I'll do it tomorrow and write for TWO days. And then that happens again and again until it's months later and I stopped caring.

BUT I STILL CARE. Because here's a thing. I want to study abroad but cannot because of my major and transferring to my school. However, I found some summer programs that work with some classes I need and won't interfere with other classes I have to take.

Summer program I am in love with: Scotland.

Summer program I am $3,000 short for: Scotland.

So I want to keep track of how I spend/save money in the hopes that I can magically get $3000 before June. I would like to accumulate $1500 before March, when I have to apply for the program.

Things I am going to do to save money:

1. Work more. I have two jobs on campus, but last semester was so crazy, I only worked maybe eight hours a week (plus RA things). I'm planning on working at least twelve hours a week. Not a ton, but I'm still taking the same number of credits as last semester, so 20 credits + homework + RA things + 12 hours of work = extra dead Maria.

2. Find scholarships. I'm kind of a lazy bum when it comes to applying for scholarships because they usually require some sort of essay. It just ends up feeling like extra homework and not let's-write-about-how-awesome-I-am, which can be fun. But now I am determined. Soooo I need to do that.

3. Not buy new clothes. I found this idea on a blog I recently found that I now cannot find again... :( She refused to buy clothes for a year. I really like thrifting and don't go too often, so I'm allowing myself to occasionally buy thrift store clothes, which is why I specified no NEW clothes. Also, I got a sewing machine for Christmas, so I can update old clothes or find some cute fabric and make new things! :)

4. Not eat out so much. We have this diner right across from my school that's open 24 hours. And a Wawa right down the street (please go look up Wawa if you don't know what it is. It is fantastic.) Of course, whenever my friends and I are bored and/or lazy and/or procrastinating, we go grab some food. It adds up, and I have plenty of food to cook in my apartment, so I'm hoping to save money that way as well.

5. Start an Etsy shop. I've wanted to do this for so long, but I haven't had time to make things. I finally opened an Etsy account, but I haven't opened a shop yet. I'm hoping to do this with Bug, because he's pretty artsy too, but again, we haven't had a lot of time to make things. Or things that people would buy :P

For now, that's pretty good. The last thing I bought for myself was the last two Hunger Games books (read them!!) from Amazon for $20 total. And that will be it for a while!

Total saved: $0