A Taste of India

Hai!

At the beginning of this month I hosted a India themed tea party with some friends. It was a blast! I had lots of fun planning, researching, and watching Bollywood movies :D And of course, decorating! It's my thang, people.

My mom, sisters and I have been having tea parties with this particular group of friends for as long as I can remember, but originally they were always Anne of Green Gables or Little Women themes. Now we are branching out into other awesome themes too! For example, the other ladies threw a Alice in Wonderland tea party for my bridal shower last year!
 This tea party was kind of inspired by The Secret Garden, and since India is a big part of that book, I ran with it.

Hosting parties should be my JOB, guys. I'd like that kind of job.

Anyway, there are a lot of pictures, which is why I haven't posted this sooner :P You don't want to know how many times I tried to sit down and blog this month. Time has run away from me :P

So, pictures!

The Kitchen Table. And a random pineapple :D

My sister's colorful, heart-shaped tea cups.

Our Irises!

The Menu. My first time painting with chalkboard paint!

Dining Room Decor. I read 'The Secret Garden' before the party. Lovely stuff!

Table decor. The Indian woman is actually from India! My uncle (who was born in India) brought it back after one of his trips :)

Pretty peonies that Mom brought for the party :)

My little elephant. Have you ever seen 'The Secret Garden'? The twin sisters had twin ivory elephants in the movie and my sister and I have ALWAYS wanted to find some that were similar, and she did last year! She has the exact same one :)

My sister had this idea! We had first thought of draping fabric across the dining room ceiling somehow, but streamers were a much easier to work with :)

Childhood toys to amuse the kiddies with :)

Kiddie books and Henna books. I wanted to try Henna for the party, but then I discovered how long and messy the process is. Maaaaybe when I have 6-8 hours to kill :P

A globe in the dining room.

Nail polish of course :)

We always do a craft when we have these tea parties, and this was one of the two that I had planned.

I found this India clothespin doll idea on this lovely lady's blog! I tweaked mine a bit, just by using sari fabric and colorful pipe cleaners.

My doll!

This is my sister's :)

The main dish. It was yummy :)

My outfit.

My attempt at a model-like expression XD I ordered bindis for the party! Bindis are the jewel thingys they wear on their foreheads in India, if you didn't know. I didn't know what they were called until I researched them :D They completed the party!

FINALLY! The post is complete :) The party was awesome and as always I had tons of fun planning it! Hope this inspires you :)

Til next time!

Cheers :)

Pickles

I don't think I've mentioned this before, but my family has had a Jack Russell Terrier named Pickles since I was two years old.

This is her 17th year and the past several years we have seen her slowly lose her hearing, become nearly blind with cataracts, lose teeth, stumble, and just.....become old. This past year she has been leaving messes on the floor frequently and my poor parents have had to deal with all of it. 

So, Mom and Dad made the decision a few weeks ago that it would probably be best to have her put down soon. And we all agreed. I don't want to see her suffer anymore but UGH, I just hate this :( She is a part of the family and I've known her and loved her for as long as I can remember. And now we are sending her to her death. I feel awful, like I'm betraying her somehow.

Well, Mom brought Pickles into work today. To say goodbye. I knew it was happening soon, but I didn't know it was going to be today :( I guess it has to happen today, so this is just the way it has to be.

I'm trying not to be heartbroken, but I can't help it :( It's hard. My last glimpse was of her happily trotting down the sidewalk.

I love you, Pickles.

Now she's gone :( I never thought I would feel this much emotion with any kind of animal, but gosh darn it, I've been a waterworks all day.*sigh*

She was the best dog ever. I don't think I'll be able to allow myself to let another dog in my life, this in itself was far too painful.

P.S. All the pictures I added here are about 5 years old. I didn't want you to see how much she declined in recent years. Plus, I refrained from taking pictures of her for that very reason. Poor thing :( At least she's not suffering any more.

Sorry to leave you with such a depressing post :/ I just needed to share this.

Things I've Been Obsessed With Lately...

I need to post something right now. I feel so behind!! June is pretty much over already and yesterday  I looked at my schedule for the rest of this month and almost passed out. June gets the prize for being the most insanely busy month this year yet! It's ridiculous. I hate being this busy.

If I don't have at least half of a day completely to myself just once a week, I get very agitated. It's not that I don't like people! I do! I just need that time to catch up on things, do something I like doing, reading, or just plain thinking. Now, I know I won't get this kind of time when I have kids, but I also (hopefully) won't be working when children pop into my life, so therefore I'll have more time just being at home. Which I don't get much of these days. That leads to me feeling like I'm behind on everything at home and then I spend all my free time doing house work instead of blogging or crafting :P I've been stressed out a lot this month and having frequent headaches, so blogging has been put on the back burner lately (as I'm sure you've noticed) and I'm not happy about it. So here I am.

I thought I would share things I have been obsessing about recently. Music, movies, books, etc. Am I the only person who has a specific soundtrack for each year?

For example, 2009 included:

-Pretty much the entire "Letters to the President" Hawk Nelson CD
-Just Dance by Lady Gaga (I'm sorry! It was catchy :P I changed the lyrics up a bit to make it better, okay?)
-Disturbia by Rihanna (Also needed some editing)
-Real Life Fairytale by Plumb
-Awake and Alive by Skillet
-Feel So Right by Krystal Meyers
-Barbie Girl by Aqua (Edited)
-Love Story by Taylor Swift
-Only You Can Love Me This Way by Keith Urban

And more, but you get the idea! These songs remind me of that year, so yeah they're my soundtrack :)

First, I'll do the music I've been obsessed with and singing ALL the time:

Pompeii by Bastille. This is my favorite song this year. I love it! I sing it with the accent...uh, yeah you get the picture.

Royals by Lorde. I couldn't believe it when I found out she is 17!!!! GAH! I need to up my game. She makes me feel old and unaccomplished ;)
I also like "Team" by her as well.

Happy - Covered by - Walk Off The Earth (feat. Parachute).

I LOVE WOTE! Every cover they do is better than the original and their own music is just awesome. Check them out! They've done covers of Somebody That I Used To Know, Royals, Say Something, Wrecking Ball, I Knew You Were Trouble,  Somebody Like You, Little Boxes, etc.

Let Her Go - Covered by - Jasmine Thompson. This girl is amazing. I also like her cover of Pompeii!!!


2nd: Movies I've Been Obsessed With

I haven't been watching many movies lately, but I did go see Maleficent in theaters a couple of weeks ago! I really liked it! I liked their take on Maleficent's story and it had a good ending :)

I loved this scene! ADORBS.

3rdly: Books I've Been Reading Lately (I'm not obsessed with any books at the moment)

I've been reading a lot lately. I finally made a trip to the library and have a nice stack of books by my bedside :) Right now I am currently reading "Sorcery and Cecila Or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot". I took your advice, Treskie! I'll let you know what I think of it when I'm finished :)

So I just finished this yesterday:

I liked it. It's taken me a loooong time to even request it, but I finally did it :) I didn't LOVE it though...it definitely has some adult parts in it (at the beginning) and I don't like sex in books, even if it's just mentioned. I like romance, but not that kind in books. (I'm not looking for any arguments here, this is just my opinion. As a Catholic, I try to stay away from that kind of stuff.) So yeah, that was a turn off but the book got better and I loved the characters! I am looking forward to reading the rest of the books :)

This one was pretty good too :) Although I feel the same way about this one, with the adult stuff in it (not much, but enough to make me hurl). I really liked the sisters' relationship in this story, very realistic :D And I liked the Red Riding Hood twist, anything similar to fairy tales is awesome :)

I really liked this one! I loved the plot, it wasn't predictable and it kept me guessing and that is ALWAYS a win with any book. No adult stuff that I can remember, so yes, a very enjoyable read. I even got a little emotional at the end, so definitely a plus! :D

I recently joined GoodReads, so if you are also on there send me a request or just check out my page to see what I'm reading!

https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/31767526-mary

So that's is what has been going on with me lately....I have a few more posts that I need to finish, so don't worry, you'll hear from me soon :)

P.S. I drove all by myself for the first time last week!!!! It was scary and liberating at the same time. Then I drove to the library and the recycling place the other day and discovered that my library has an adult summer reading program!!!!!! With PRIZES like a Kindle eReader! More incentive for reading this year :) YAY!

Cheers!

And May just.....flew.

I remember thinking to myself when I was little that adults must be exaggerating when they said time just flies the older you get. Ugh, why did they have to be right? Now there isn't enough time in the day to do everything I have swirling around my crazy brain :P I wonder if I'll be less busy when I have kids? Haha, I'm kidding moms!

May went by fast, just like April. I swear that my favorite time of year speeds itself up as soon as it gets here. It was a very busy spring, but a delightful one :) And as I said before, I don't mind being busy as long as it's not insanely busy!

So here is what happened in May:

Our pear blossoms popped!

Lots of 'em.

Leaving Kroger's with my lovely anniversary bouquet!

Isn't it perty-ful? :)

This is what I made up for Robert at work :D He's a gummie bear addict.

We went on a local weekend trip to celebrate :)

 I also used a snack machine for the *gasp* very first time :D The snickers bar was from the second time I used it. The first thing I got was some chips ahoy cookie bag...which became stuck :P I felt like RJ in Over the Hedge. I ended up shaking the whole thing, desperately trying to get my cookies. It worked! And I didn't even draw the attention of the hotel staff :D

We saw this little cutie during our trip!

I made this when we got back. I'm quite happy with how it turned out :) The flowers are from my myrtle patch.

Purple on the inside!

Wedding memories! My dried bouquet, and lots of lovely cards from family :)

May crowning!

One of my Maw-maw's myrtle patches. I love the purple flowers!

Our herb garden with some new additions! Basil and Cilantro, some of our faves.

Parsley.

The fairies in my garden :)

A wreath I made from my sister's leftover wedding flowers.

My Mary alter for the month of May. This was the first time I used my table runner from Ireland! I bought it in Galway while I was there.

Lilacs!

What I wore to church a few Sundays ago.

Shirt: Hand me down from Robert's sista
Skirt: Goodwill
Black Flats: JCpenney's
Cami: Maurices
Necklace: Church Jewelry Sale
Black Rose Earrings: Claire's

The necklace matched perfectly!

My first vanilla ice cream cone with sprinkles! Pure wonderful-ness.

This adorable creature was right at my back door! I wanted to squeeze it :) I'm not a big fan of animals, but I appreciate their cuteness!

Nerdiness overtook me when I went shopping one day....

Oh look! More sprinkles :D My sister made sure she got me one with sprinkles!

Our irises popped!

A pink one bloomed a few days later!

I made an Indian pattern on the pavement. I've been obsessed with India lately.

I made this clover crown on memorial day! I was quite proud of myself :)

I wasn't trying to channel the arm in hammer ad lady for memorial day, but everyone said I looked like her :P

How did your May turn out? Did you have an epic Memorial Day weekend? I hope you guys are enjoying warm weather like we are!

Cheers :)