DIY Paper Lanterns

My apartment is looking a little dreary, mostly because I moved in a couple months ago and during the summer I have had trouble getting motivated to decorate! Anyway, I wanted to make some cute lanterns to hang in the archway between the living room and dining room.

First I chose a color scheme that I liked. Choosing a color scheme would have been much easier if I had gone to the craft store first. But I wanted to get into my project right away, and I made due with what I had. Which ended up perfect! I wanted all my lanterns to have a similar look without being the same colors. I chose green and grays for the outside paper. And pinks, blues, and orange patterns for the inside.
 

I would recommend using paper from a pack. It's easy to mix and match and they all have a common theme that will allow the colors to flow. Otherwise you need to be cognizant of your colors or you might get a messy look. After you have your papers, cut off any end pieces you have.

Then start to cut one inch or 1/2 inch flaps across the paper. Make sure to cut vertically on your design. It does not matter the size of your flaps as long as they are pretty even. Leave about an inch at the top without any cuts. You do not want twenty strips just a paper with a bunch of flaps.

Oliver wanted to help too.

Next tape the bottom of the paper together. You could skip this step if you folded the paper in half and then begun to cut strips; however, I did not want to have a crease in my lantern.

Choose the lantern you want on the outside. Then make a circle with your paper and hot glue the top of one flap to the top of the other flap on both sides. You want their to be a slit between the sides you are gluing together. You will then make a circle!

Take the paper that you want on the inside of the lantern. Make a circle and glue one flap on top of the other flap. You want this one to be smaller so you are gluing flaps together without a slit. You could also cut off one slit completely and just attach the tops like you did on the outside paper.

Slide the smaller paper inside the larger paper.

Push both sides together to make them plump up. You can get them to stay by attaching strings on opposite sides of the lantern to create the correct height and bounce.

Add some ribbon on the top to hang and some ribbon along the top and bottom, and you have a beautiful paper lantern!

Still in the process of hanging and making lanterns. I'll be sure to post my finished project!

Summer Solstice has failed me again

July 20th, 2013. One more day until Summer. Well, sorry Gregorian Calendar but I do not think that this summer Solstice has been all too accurate. Summer is what you make of it. For a tired-over-worked college student, summer starts as soon as that last final is turned in and done. But for me, I have not been so lucky. I was painfully sick the last couple months of the semester and as a result, I still have five incompletes. Five. Incompletes. So no, despite spending day after day in the library as the rest of my friends travel the world, get drunk, and go to the beach - my summer has not begun. My summer will not begin until I gather my inner strength, go to the library, and actually work my butt off. A feat that is terrible difficult for someone like me who has spent the entirety of her academic career floating on by.

Well, reactivating this blog is my attempt at gaining my inner strength and motivation. It is also at the nagging of my mother who participates in the "Writers Way" program in which she writes for a little bit each day to find her inner motivation, (it's a variety of prompts though I do not know all the specifics).

Well, I hope everyone else is enjoying their summer and that I can find my inner motivation and allow my summer to start.

Once a Freshman, Always a Freshman?

Here I am: 12:10. Sitting on my newly made college bed, ecstatic for my next year of school. I have been in training all week, and finally I have been able to relax with an unpacked room. It's beautiful. A little bit bigger than last year, but in all honestly -- pretty small. My things are neat (other than wall decorations) but there's still not enough room despite the bigger room.

I am so excited for school to start. I want the freshman to move in already, so I can introduce myself and get them ready for a spectacular year. I have Hall President. It is my job to spearhead the Hall Government and ensure that our Residence Hall is an efficient community. I am not an RA, as my job is to include the residents into the Hall Government.

Freshman Halls are known for being rowdy, my only hope is that I can separate myself as a sophomore resident but not seen as different because I am Hall President. The bottom line: I'm a resident. I don't want another freshman year, but I want to be equal too.

I am sure it'll be successful, but hopefully I can focus on my academics despite my strenuous (but rewarding) extracurricular! I'm already at a time crunch and finding conflicts left and right!

Friends Come and Go

As time goes on you realize a thing or two about friendship. For one, friends grow apart. As people move on to different places in their life, the likelihood of one spending time with a friend either increases or decreases. And for people like me who are not good at keeping in touch with people, time spent often decreases.

It's a given that I won't keep in touch with all my friends back home who are living 3000 miles away, but not keeping in touch with friends at school is pathetic. For example, my absolute best friend from last semester (we used to be attached at the hip) and I never talk. She begged me to take a class with her and while I am so glad I took the class, we never talk. She is so much more interested in talking to her new friends in the class than catching up or hanging out. And of course, I get that. But it's kind of annoying how I feel like I've been trying to make an effort to reach out and talk to her and that it hasn't been reciprocated.

Last semester she spent every weekend in my dorm hanging out with me, this weekend she spends a lot of time here too -- but with her other friends. It's not as if she can't have friends, or that she has to hang out with me (I didn't ask her to come to my dorm and go out or anything) but she could have at least said "hi." But rather, she calls me in her intoxicated state begging me to go down to her friends room on the second floor and find her keys and wallet that she lost. To which I annoyingly obliged (I was studying) and the door was of course locked. I don't mind doing favors for her, just that I feel like she only talks to me when she needs something. I think that she legitimately cares about her friendship but we're drifting apart and I feel like this always happens to me. I always drift. I constantly drift.

We were best friends last semester, now we're barely friends. I'd like to think that I could call her if I ever had a problem, but I feel like I barely know her enough to do that. Plus, that's the place for a best friend. A title that we don't carry for each other anymore.

Sometimes I wonder why people drift apart. Sure, people grow up. People don't spend as much time with each other. But if you legitimately cared about each other in the first place, wouldn't you be the first to call and catch up?

Didn't Immaturity and Drama End in Highschool?

They say that if someone bothers you and you take time out of your day to fuss about it, it isn't worth your time. Well, this is definitely not worth my time. But I think that it's funny so I figured I'd tell the world. I really don't "hate" this girl, I dislike her and she occasionally gets on my nerves. But "hate" is a wasted emotion, and I honestly don't care enough about her to waste so much energy on her. So I'll just blog about the hilarity of the situation.

So, I got to Leadership Orientation. And I liked everyone there, except there was this one girl that I got a weird vibe from. (I can kind of read people, but that's beside the point and makes for a different story). You know how there are those people that you immediately don't think you're going to like, either because your similar in one aspect or something about them just sort of bothers you? Well she was definitely one of those. But, hey. I don't dislike anyone and I give people the benefit of the doubt. So I let it slide.

Fast forward a day. She sort of weaseled her way into our group, but hey - I got to know her a bit and she seemed nice enough. It was only after I became friends with her that things really got to heat up.

So, FYI: I say a lot of stupid things, but I'm actually an intelligent person. However, she kind of took some of her remarks a little too far. But she seemed legitimately sorry for the rude things she said. So, whatever - it really didn't bother me. But things got worse and her true colors showed. It started out with just mocking me when just the girls were in my room. It got annoying and I told them to lay off. So I finally decided to take a shower and leave the two obnoxious girls.

When I got into the bathroom, the curtains to the shower were closed and I got a sort of ghostly vibe. "Hello," nobody answered. I opened the curtain, nobody was there. So I chose the stall a few down. Needless to say I was already a little freaked out, so when someone opened my curtain as a joke. I shrieked. Hey, it was a little scary in that bathroom!

One prank. That's a joke. No harm in that.

Then they flushed the toilet, which left a cold shiver down my spine. But that's still a joke.

I guess you could say that when the girl threw a cookie into my shower stall, I was unerved. A cookie. Yes. No not like "she threw cookies" as another way to say "spewed chunks." No. She threw a cookie into my shower stall. Now let's analyze this for a moment.

1. Who throws cookies into the shower?
2. It was my freaking cookie!

By this time I was getting pissed of. Especially since I had calmly said, "lay off," after the toilet flushing ordeal. Then it happened again. By this time I was already done with my shower so I just took a few minutes to cool off.

I then calmly walked into my room, where all the girls were to see the girl laughing her head off. Real mature. At this point I had two options.

1. Confront her: Which I normally would have done. I just didn't want to risk bitching her out or crying, what? I'm an emotional creature!
2. Calmly walk out of the room.

Needless to say, I changed, grabbed my things, and calmly left. This was college, and I certainly was not about to get involved in petty drama and pranks.

The Ultimate College Vacation

I guess you could call it vacation, or laziness - but I haven't had a chance to post the past two weeks on account of my amazing vacation. But don't you worry, I'm here to tell you all about it.

Leadership Orientation
Two weeks ago I packed my bags, worried that I would make a terrible impression and make no friends at orientation. To my surprise, I had the time of my life and made so many friends that I can't wait to keep in touch with at school in the fall.

I flew into the airport all by myself and checked into a hotel, all by myself. I then had a delish burger as room service all by myself, and slept in a king sized bed - all by myself. Then I took public transit to my Leadership Program at my University - all myself.

The program was full of ice breakers, ropes course, leadership sessions, meeting the deans, and even a "Top Chep" competition. Needless to say it was amazing, I'll tell you about the competition and drama later this week.

Bottom line, I had so much fun, made so many friends. And I absolutely cannot wait for school to start!

Orientation
Leadership Orientation truly prepared me for regular orientation, where I met around four hundred people all at once. Luckily I had my Leadership Orientation friends to mingle with! I made lots of friends at regular orientation, got to explore and learn about the campus, and even had a blast dancing to my own drum. Literally, dance party! No body understands how us Northern California girls dance!

Visiting Family
After orientation I got to stay with my family for a couple of days. We hung out, went to a county fair, and caught fireflies (something I hadn't had the chance to do in a very long time). My cousin and I even got to finally see the Harry Potter 7 Part II movie! It was good, the best out of all movies - but, nothing compared to the books (of course).

We even got my college shopping out of the way, well most of it. All I need is bedding, and alarm clock, storage, binders, books, and some clothes. Who knew that all that dorm crap was so expensive?!

AIPAC
After all my fun with orientation and family, I still had an amazing American Israel Public Affairs Committee Saban (College Student) conference to attend. I was initially very worried about making friends due to the fact that people already knew eachother, but I made some friends. I even met this amazing guy, but he lives very very far away. We even got to explore D.C., and we saw Horrible Bosses together. It was great, even the second time.

The Saban conferece truly inspired me to get active in politics and lobbying for what I believe in. I can't wait to get involved on campus. Oh, and I met Debbie Wasserman-Shultz. One of my idols!

Visiting My Sister
After all that, I flew home, slept for a day, and drove to Southern California to pick my sister up from camp. She's at an athletes camp, and eats very healthy. I'm going to start her program too! Here's how it goes:

I eat less than 20 grams of fat a day. (Fat is harder to burn off then carbs and proteins because it is more dense). And around 1220 calories a day. It's a healthy life choice, but I probably eat too much sugar!

Home At Last
Well, I'm home for the next few weeks! I have so much to do to get ready for school, and I don't even know where to start! My sister and I went for a beautiful run today, it was amazing. And I can't wait to start school!