Reading Resolution

I wanted to do the "Rory Gilmore" challenge that I found on Pinterest.  It's about 250 books that she was seen reading or mentioned in the t.v. show.  But, I don't want to read some of them, so I'm making my own list.  The list is made up of mostly classics, with a few series, sagas, and books I just loved.  I know I'll never be able to read them all by the end of 2012, so this is a resolution.  A resolution to be reading one of these books on a consistent basis.  Here goes!

I have read this book.
I own this book, will read soon.
I am currently reading this book.

1984 by George Orwell
Alls Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Atonement by Ian McEwan

The Awakening by Kate Chopin

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
The Bielski Brothers by Peter Duffy
The Boleyn Inheritance by Phillipa Gregory
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas Pere
The Crucible by Arthur Miller

Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand

The Divine Comedy by Dante

The Fifty Shades Trilogy by E. L. James

For Whom The Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway 

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald 

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

Heaven is For Real by Todd Burpo

Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry
How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo

The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins

The Immortal Series by Alyson Noel
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
Lord of the Flies by William Golding

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

Night by Elie Wiesel

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
The Other Boleyn Girl by Phillipa Gregory 
Out of Africa by Isac Dineson
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbowsy
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

The Scarlett Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Shining by Stephen King 

Slaughter-house Five by Kurt Vonnegut
A Song of Ice and Fire Series by George R. R. Martin
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

The Twilight Saga by Stephanie Meyer

Walden by Henry David Thoreau
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Wicked by Gregory McGuire
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

Summer Lovin'

What am I lovin' on this summer?  Crafting.  Working out.  Being outside.
Unfortunately, my favorite of these is the only one that costs money, which I have close to none of.  After my first pay check from Michael's is cashed tomorrow, it's time to get REAL with my crafting.  After rent, utilities, groceries, and a speeding ticket fine are taken care of, of course.




The only thing I've crafted so far this summer is a hand-painted cooler for my Big's 20th birthday.  Which I was extremely proud of.

This is the top of the cooler that I painted.  Yes, that is the Lilly Pulitzer Pi Beta Phi sorority print.  The reason for my pride.  This felt like my life's work, but it only took a few hours over the course of two weeks.

How did I do this?  I painted in layers.  And by that I mean, I painted one color at a time.
-First I painted the entire area in Pale Blue acrylic paint.
-The next thing I did was trace the print onto tissue paper, but not every last detail.  I only traced the outline of the carnation groups.  So whatever wasn't blue, I traced as one.
-After tracing the print onto the cooler via tissue paper with a white paint pen, I painted all of the traced areas white.
-Once the white areas dried, I began a more difficult part: The dark pink outline of the carnation groups.  After the white area, I didn't trace anything, it was all by hand and looking at the print.
-After that was finished, I then filled in much of the white space with the lighter pink.
-Once all of that was done, there are a few mint green leaves to paint.

At this point, it looks awesome, I'm super excited about how it's turned out, and then I realize: I have yet to do the most tedious part of this print.  The white arrows in the background.  UGH!  But while it was tedious, it wasn't hard to freehand different shaped and sized arrows and a few " ΠΒΦ"'s.

Finally done!! So if you're a Pi Phi and want to paint this print rather than Mod Podge it, do it!! And definitely paint it in layers.  And this technique works for any Lilly print, not just this one of course :)

 Remember... this was only the top of the cooler.  Haha!  But I was so happy with how it turned out and my big loved it.  It was completely worth it!



Hopefully I'll have more crafting adventures to come VERY soon!

Who are you?

My name is Cara.  I love giraffes (obviously).  I am a lover of daffodils, children, maps, travel, bluegrass music, superheros, dance parties, glow sticks, floral patterns, crafts, silliness, summer time, and above all things... Jesus.  I am a sister of Pi Beta Phi at Virginia Tech.  Needless to say, I love the arrow, and I love the Hokies <3

Why am I writing a blog?  I have no idea.  It's a place where I can write my ideas down instead of driving my roommate crazy with pointless banter.  And maybe I'll even have something inspirational to say some days, who knows?  The possibilities are endless.