Cheap Tricks DIY

I took my brother with me to thrift for the first time, which was pretty adorable since he had no idea what was going on. He ended up getting a striped tshirt and a color block sweater that are both very 90s. I'm a proud older sister though. I picked up a floor length floral dress with a darling lace collar and an extra large tribal print tshirt. After a couple carefully placed cuts and stitching, I now have two trendy looking tops for under five dollars.

Dwindling Weekend; Part Five THE FINAL COUNTDOWN

        This is the last one. The final countdowns- cue Gob from Arrested Development. My dwindling weekends are finished. In just three days, I’m moving out of the house I’ve grown up in and into my new life in Philadelphia. My room and life are messes with all these preparations for take-off. There are plastic bins and boxes occupying all corners of my room, and goodbyes are happening every day.

        Thursday was the true beginning of it. One half of our best couple friends, Ian, had to leave a whole week before the rest of us because he is playing soccer at school. We are excited for him but quite sad to see him go. The summer has been all the more meaningful with these friends along for the ride, and we will all be there to support each other as we go through the same thing. After some pool side sitting and pizza eating, we gave hugs and good lucks and watched him go. I’m attempting to master the last look as I go through the “see you laters” to friends. Even to acquaintances or fellow employees, that look seems important. I’m collecting them at this point, like Drew from Elizabethtown. We attended one last party that was hosted before everyone started leaving. Even the people I never cared for in high school will stick in my mind.

        Friday is the day one of our larger local farmers markets is open, so Sam and I bought some produce, fish and a pie and made ourselves some stew for lunch, before I had to work on Friday and then Saturday night. I know Ill be back to work on breaks and whatnot, but the fact that I grew up in the restaurant I work in makes each good luck handshake a little bit more honest and a little more sentimental.

           Finally Sunday came around and I did my first round of packing for clothing. I went ahead and picked out the sweaters and pants I’d need once fall got closer. And then it came to my normal outfits; I packed ten skirts and at least twelve dresses. The first chest is practically full and I haven’t packed tops, workout/lounge clothes, tights…basically I’m not even started. Sam and I got together in the evening. We found the most adorable diner in Columbia, called the Columbia Diner. It’s totally old school, with sassy waitress and great coffee to boot. The yummy blueberry pancakes were enough to fill me up for our last outdoor concert at Long’s Park – Joshua James. This summer is being kind to us and allowing us a sneak peak of cooler weather, so much so that we got to wear jeans and long sleeves to the show. 

          I did a bunch of clothing refurbishing and DIY projects this past week as well! I'll be doing some posts that will go up while i finish packing this week. Smiles, Morgen.

Birthday Crafts!

Today is Sam's birthday! He's now a big, bad adult and the same age as me. I stayed up later than my usual old lady bed time last night to finish the first part of his birthday gift. Since I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise, this will be posted tomorrow. I got crafty for my babe and made some hand embroidered handkerchiefs since he always keeps one in his pocket.

I decided to take a shortcut and not make the handkerchiefs from scratch, I got these at Kohl's for about ten bucks. Also to start, you'll just need sewing basics; needle, thread, pencil. (This is my sewing box for college, isn't it adorable and bitsy?)

I did a couple with just a monogram of his initials in different thread colors. Then I decided to get tricky and do some things that are a little more personal to him. I think the treble clef turned out the best, but the steal your face skull is the one I'm thinking he'll be most excited about.

Dwindling Weekends (More like weeks) Part Four

So I haven't been doing very good at doing my posts during the week because I'm busy having fun doing so much other stuff before I leave, so this will cover Wednesday through Sunday. (If you haven't noticed, I've fallen head over heels for #picstitch. Definitely my current favorite app.)

Sam has become quite the tie dye artist as of late, as in he's tie dyed at least ten shirts in the past two weeks. He's expanded into pillow cases and apparently women's blouses. If you want one, he'd be happy to make you one. He's so proud of his work and it brought me great joy to watch him do his art on Wednesday evening after thrifting that afternoon.

Thursday and Friday were both spent in our lovely downtown of York. Most of the people our age scoff at the idea of going downtown, but we had a great time. Central Market and Cherry Lane were our destination of choice on Thursday morning. After getting a cranberry walnut cookie from a new bakery, we hung out on the Codorus Creek and took some cutesy montage pictures. On Friday, I finally took Sam to a swing dancing class at the York Swing Club. Since I was busy dancing, I couldn't take pictures but I snagged some of us after in our outfits. It was so much fun and for only five bucks, you get a lesson and hours of dancing! But what you don't expect is how sore it makes your calves. We are going to try to go back next Friday if I get off work!

Saturday night was spent at a graduation party, which wasn't too interesting aside from some goodbyes to friends. It's just getting progressively more weird to think of saying goodbye to people I take for granted. Sam and I returned to one of our favorite hiking spots at Apollo County park on Sunday afternoon. York is having this wonderful break from the heat with regular breezes that force you to think about the anticipation of fall! To take full advantage of the weather, we went to another free concert at Long's Park featuring Booker T. Jones. I got a chance to rock my new tie dye blouse and jeans, but even more exciting was Sam's super seventies collar on his thrifted shirt from Wednesday. He looked like a total dad with his cooler and backpack chair, very cute though.  

Dorm Crafts: "Jewelry Box"

In preparation for my move to dorm living, I've been doing the normal shopping for big plastic bins, bed linens and school supplies. However, the more pressing issues to me are those concerning how I will bring all my clothes, scarves, shoes and jewelry with me without losing it all in a big plastic bin. So I concocted this remedy for my jewelry. I have an old wooden jewelry box in my room that I love dearly but I wouldn't think to bring it to college because it's a bit clunky. I made my own "jewelry box" out of recycled boxes that I've received jewelry in, and a gift box. Using Modge Podge and colorful cardstock, I decorated each tiny box and labeled them for optimal getting-ready-in-the-morning speed. One tip for using Modge Podge, make sure you cover the surface with a layer of Modge Podge then add the next object before covering it in Modge Podge again. I think it turned out cute and it was fun to do! Anyone else been doing cute dorm room prep crafting?

Dwindling Weekends (Part Three) plus a Monday!

The weekend itself was pretty low key. We celebrated Sam's graduation and his brothers with a party thrown at his house. The most eventful part of this was when the boys played jazz for about twenty minutes at a time. I adore watching Sam perform and play his guitar because he is so happy to do it. Some of our couple friends showed up later in the party and we all ate and had some laughs since we hadn't all been together for a few weeks. After the party we went to watch fireworks at the park, where the boys decided to take their shirts off and we all sang "When My Time Comes" by Dawes at a borderline disturbing volume.

Thanks to Sam's parent's we got to go to Philly for the day and see Good Old War perform at Union Transfer as his birthday gift. It was a new experience to travel together but we made quite the pair since we are both so into planning things down to a tee. We spent the afternoon in South Philly, walking through the neighborhoods of older town houses and grabbing a malt on South Street. After working up an appetite from walking for a few hours, we headed into Center City and Rittenhouse Square. The hot dogs we got from Underdogs on 17th street were fantastic, especially because they were accompanied by great tunes and friendly staff! I will definitely be making this a regular stop whenever I'm in this area. To regain some strength and rest up before the show, we got coffee and pastries from a French bakery and sat around in Rittenhouse park for a few hours of people watching, reading and talking about dogs. We made our way north for the concert before the doors even opened. Good Old War had a great DJ spinning oldies tunes and a pleasantly surprising funky folk band opening for them.  Of course, Good Old War was awesome especially because Sam sang along to every song, since they're his favorite band. We had to leave early to catch our train home, but it was okay because the day was perfect. I'm looking forward to having memories with Sam in Philly, so when I go to school it will feel a little more like home.
Smiles, Morgen.

Summer (from concentrate)

Have you ever tasted the orange juice from concentrate that comes in the frozen cans? It tastes insanely sweet because its so much flavor without anything to dilute it. That's how my week has been, except it's summer fun instead of orange flavor. So much so that I haven't been home for more than a few hours, besides for sleeping purposes, all week. Enjoy the long post to recap my week.

Monday was date night after a day of moping around and being kind of scared of my professional future, or lack thereof one. My babe took me out for sushi at my favorite place and then we went to Maple Donuts for coffee and the best donuts. (Side note: I will miss these donuts a lot while in Philly. They are a York treasure.)

Tuesday started with a hike in Wrightsville, on a portion of the Mason Dixon Trail that I strongly recommend, and some nice views of the river. I rushed home and got dressed just in time to drive a little ways, about a half hour really, to go to Maple Farms in New Park for some peach picking. The experience was incredibly fun, though the weather was a bit warm, and the peaches were a total steal at only six bucks for half a basket, which is about fifteen peaches. Fast forward to the evening, and me and the boyfriend joined his brother for some free bowling courtesy of local coupons. This was probably my favorite day of the week, and the most tiring.

Wednesday began early in the morning with loading the kayaks on Sam's truck and heading to Shank's Mare for some "yaking" on the river. Beautiful morning on the water, but didn't get any pictures. Our evening found us in Hanover, a small town west of York. We were planning on seeing the Grateful Dead movie that was showing at select theaters in memory of Jerry Garcia's birthday. Before the movie, we went to a little drive-in called the Tropical Treat upon recommendation of his mother. I cannot get over how adorable this place was - straight out of the 1950's, order at your car, cheeseburgers and french fries with a vanilla malt. Not only was it great ambiance, but delicious food!

Thursday came and it already feels like the weekend. We took Riley to Gifford Pinchot State Park to hike and to learn to swim. Yet another time I wish I had taken pictures because he looked so cute in the water, but I was having enough trouble keeping up with him as is without a phone in hand. I'm happy to be home to work on re-purposing a skirt and read some of Anna Karenina before bed! Sweet dreams & sunny mornings to all!