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Oh... hi!

9/4/2014

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Well... it's been over a year since I posted last - I'm the worst.  Needless to say, things got a little crazy and out of control.  A LOT happened...

So, maybe I'll just try and sum it up with some quick bullet points and snapshots...
  • I discovered a new love for West Coast Swing - JP, Katie, and I went up to Vermont last September on a whim for the social dance at the 2013 Vermont Swing Championships.  We were completely wow'd, a little over whelmed, but overall had an AMAZING time.
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  • I continued horseback riding for the Fall semester - even broke out Mom's old saddle! :)  (The Spring got a little too crazy though, so I took a break until after the semester ended...)
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  • Krista came to visit in October and we had a girls weekend while the boys went off for James' bachelor party.  We took Lucas apple and pumpkin picking!
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  • Ballroom had a full-fledged Halloween costume party! 
  • I presented a poster at the AVS conference in Long Beach, California in October.  I ended up being able to fly out there a few days early and spend some time with Aunt Carol and Uncle John - it was great to visit them and to have them come out to the conference with me! :)
  • The family at Thanksgiving!
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  • Also in November, we had a Bachelorette party for Adrienne - we had a great time playing Bachelorette Bingo!
  • Here are some quick pictures of JP and Lucas playing some video games together - because cute.
  • And then, of course, James and Adrienne's wedding! :)
  • Christmas was great - Dad got me a couple of snowball guns that we couldn't wait to try out!  And I made beard hats for the boys! :)
  • For New Year's, I drove to Cleveland to visit Krista!!!!  We got SO much snow while I was there!  But we had a great time - we went to the botanical gardens, the art museum, a little shopping, some snowy walks, and a lot of time snuggling up with knitting and some Downton Abbey.
  • Matt and I hadn't really been able to dance together much this year - we competed at Tufts in December and that was pretty much it, unfortunately.  (And lets not even talk about the fact that I danced even though I had pink eye, a fever, and just generally felt pretty miserable... hence the decision to only do Smooth...)  But I DID go to Columbia's competition with the rest of the team and TBA'd with Steve - we had a blast!  And did really well in Rhythm! :)  (And thank you to Eric for the great photos!!)
  • But Matt and I FINALLY were able to dance at the RPI competition!  JP and I danced a 3-person Cha Cha with Rozalyn - toooooooo cute.  And I was able to wear a bunch of new dresses!  I'm completely in love with the green one.  

              (All of these photos are thanks to Jay Zhang, Chris Shake, or Eric Lam!)
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My absolute favorite... THANK YOU JAY!!!! <3
  • I suppose the next big milestone was USA Dance Nationals!  It was really overwhelming but Matt and I danced our hearts out and did pretty well for our first time out there. :)  We got 7th in the Adult Champion Nine Dance!  We also danced the Adult Pre-Champion and Champion Rhythm and Smooth events (I honestly don't remember what we got in any of those four... haha I told you - I'm the worst...)
  • So I suppose there is one MAJOR detail I have neglected to include, thus far... Sometime in February, I decided to audition for the musical.  Crazy right?!  The show was Gentlemen Prefer Blondes - if anyone was going to be Marilyn, I just knew it had to be me.  PLUS Jen was going to be the choreographer - how fun!!  So I went to the auditions, nervously forced my way though a song (When You're Good to Mama, from Chicago - obvi.), read my monologue, and then rocked the little piece of choreography for the dance audition.  I found myself with a callback for Lorelei, Dorothy, and Gloria - crazy!!  Long story short, I found myself as Lorelei... :)  Nothing says "stressful" like having your very first theater experience be the leading character...  But I more than survived - and while I had a few jitters opening night, by the end of the third scene I was completely comfortable and loving performing!  All in all, amazing.  I would pretty much do anything to put on that blonde wig and belt out Diamonds one more time!!!
  • JP did the trifecta for his birthday - QUITE an afternoon/evening/night! 
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  • At the end of May, JP and I headed up for a long weekend in Montreal to go to the Canadian Swing Championships.  The whole thing was SUPER fun - it was mostly Lindy Hop (and also Blues, Rockabilly Jive, and Balboa) but there was some West Coast, too!  We got to watch some amazing dancing and were bummed that we didn't plan on staying for the full competition weekend.  We ended up going into Montreal for the second half of the weekend (dancing was actually in Sherbrooke) and then JP stayed for the American Helicopter Society conference for the rest of the week with his lab group, while I went home early.  This was definitely the spark of West Coast fever. :)
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  • I PASSED MY CANDIDACY EXAM!!!!! Thank God.
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  • JP, Katie, Susan, Steve, Emily, and I all met up in NJ for the Liberty Swing weekend at the end of June - amazing.  SO many workshops and SO much dancing!!!  Amazing - I can't wait for next year!
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(Photo from Steve's camera)
  • I also used this summer to unleash a little bit more of my creative side - with painting!!  Definitely something new for me, but I'm loving it.  Don't get too excited - I've only done three Painting at the Pub nights, but Kristen makes the whole thing really easy-going and it's super relaxing!  I can't wait for the next one! :)   June was "Fireflies in the Moonlight," July was "Aloha Summer," and August was "Under the Sea" - which Mom even came out and did with me!
  • Another cuteness interlude - Lucas just HAD to help JP with his guitar.  #adorable.
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  • Mom, Dad, and I took a mini-vacation in mid-August to go up to Lake Placid for the weekend.  It was perfect - although I forgot how chilly August actually is up there!  (Our first stop was to the Gap outlet to stock up on cute sweaters and scarves).  We also went for a trail ride at the Olympic cross-country facility and had a nice time exploring Mirror Lake and the downtown area!  Overall, very relaxing.
I ended my summer with a trip down to Maryland for Labor Day weekend - I went to visit JP, who has an internship down there for the Fall semester.  I didn't take many pictures, but I was able to get a few from our trip to the National Aquarium in Baltimore!  We also went out West Coast Swing dancing Friday and Monday nights, had crab cakes in Annapolis Saturday night, and then had a pretty relaxing day on Sunday (grocery shopping, brunch, some pool time, went to the movies to see Guardians of the Galaxy, experimented with pumpkin tomato sauce and tortellini for dinner...).  All in all, a pretty great weekend :)
Whew!  I think that just about sums it up?  Maybe I'll be able to stay more on top of this from now on... Or maybe not...  I'll certainly try though!!!

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Rozalyn turns 3!

8/17/2013

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(Actually written on November 11, 2013. In true grad student style, my life got away from me and I am VERY behind in writing this...)
I can hardly believe my little Rozalyn is three already!! She's getting to be such a big girl... :)

Her birthday gifts have turned into one of my favorite annual crafting adventures, for sure.  This year?  I think I might have just outdone myself.   (A.k.a.?  What the HECK am I going to do next year????)

With a little inspiration from my own childhood, I decided what this girl needed most was a good fort!  Something that will last her for years and can supplement hours and hours of make-believe.  

I knew I wanted it to be sturdy and easy to take down and set up again - that way it could be used outside, inside, brought to Mimi's (Grandma's), etc.  I settled on PVC and canvas and after a little Google search, I came up with this for inspiration!  (In general, I used her instructions really more as just guidelines and kind of made it all up as I went along... perhaps I will have to come up with my own tutorial at some point...)

Ryan was in town the weekend I was set to make it so the two of us made a trip to Lowe's and then set into putting the pieces together!  

Long story short?  The final product:
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Yeahhhhhh.... I'm pretty much in love with it... :) 

JP, Luc, Ryan, and I also tested it out briefly.  (For those who were wondering - four adults can comfortably watch TV from it.)  I wanted to cover the entire thing in polka-dots but the boys convinced me that she would have fun making "cave paintings" on the walls so I settled for leaving them blank - who doesn't love a little fingerpaint??

And, as you can see, it breaks down to be a nice little bundle!
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Rozalyn's teepee was a HUGE hit with everyone at the party, too!  I managed to get a few pictures of her and I playing in it.  :)  (Someone gave her a doctor's kit so she was very excited to give me a check-up in her new "office".)
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P.S. Rozalyn also had a clown at her birthday party.  Daisy had some interesting new "magic words" for us - including, "hocus pocus, chicken bones choke us" - ummmm... boy, have things changed since I was a kid!
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Baby Lucas Subway Art

5/13/2013

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I'm not even sure where I saw the baby-stats subway art but as soon as Baby Lucas was born, I knew I wanted to make him something to commemorate, well... him!  I used my scrapbook software (MemoryMixer, FYI) to come up with my own design... 
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and then had it printed on glossy paper and framed it in a shadow box!

Adrienne and James loved it! :)
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(yes, I've blocked off their last name... just being careful <3)
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Baby Bambi and Secret Santa!

12/1/2012

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Written: January 3, 2013 - I'm trying to catch up on a few things I let slip by...
Big Day!!  EVERYONE came back this weekend for our group's little baby shower for Adrienne and James!

I am SO excited for both of them - due date is January 25th!!  It was great that we were all able to get together this weekend and be with them, too.

Being me, of course, I went with a mostly-homemade gift...
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Baby fish hat!!!  I basically followed the tutorial I've used before by Thelma Egberts, found at Knitty.com.  I scaled it down to make it baby sized and it actually worked great!! 

And then I just rolled some onsies around different colored socks and held them with a piece of wide, black elastic to make sushi to go along with my little fish! :)  LOVE how the whole thing turned out!


Congratulations Adrienne and James!!!! <3
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Soon-to-be Mom and Dad!! :) (photo by Emily B.)


Since we already had everyone together this weekend for the baby shower, we decided to also try and pull of the annual Secret Santa!  We matched everyone virtually (thank you Secretsanta.com!) just before Thanksgiving, and then had everyone over to my apartment later in the evening after the baby shower to open gifts!

Earlier that morning, we did a little decorating to get in the Christmas mood.  Remember the Christmas Tree extravaganza from last year?  Well this year I didn't want to just redo the same thing (laaaame!) but didn't really feel like buying anything new... so we improvised!

I had a vision... similar invisible-hang-from-the-ceiling kind of thing but this time using red beaded garland that I had hanging around.  Brian came over early to help us decorate and volunteered to tackle the tree.  I kind of briefly relayed this to him and told him to just go with it.  

The end creation?
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Essentially?  It's perfect.  EXACTLY what I was thinking!!  (This photo is at a semi-odd angle.. it's actually super symmetric, etc.)

Added bonus?  It's SUPER resilient!  I can't even count the number of people who have walked through it, thrown pillows at it, put their jacket on into it, Just Danced at it, etc...  

While Brian took care of this, Krista and I worked on the rest of the apartment. (Rob was busy making cookies...)
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Stars above the TV
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And here's the final group photo!
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(I'm pretty sure this was the largest Secret Santa so far, as well?)
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Don't Forget!

11/15/2012

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I'm sure we all have our own little version of reminders that we leave for ourselves, particularly in the morning when we're on our way out the door.  

For a while, I was writing lists on scraps of paper and taping them to the back of the door so that there was no way I could miss it on my way out.  Usually it was something along the lines of "start the dishwasher," "take out the recycling," "bring sweatpants for dance," etc...

I figured a dry-erase situation would probably be ideal.  And then I figured I would take it a step further by trying to make it cute! :)  Plus, I wanted to be able to hang my keys near the note as well - that way, there was NO WAY you could miss it!

Verdict thus far? SUPER useful!!! :)  
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I found some simple black picture frames from Jo-Ann's  - yay for being on sale!  I picked up some scrapbook paper to act as the background (that's the cute part!) and some little hooks to screw into the bottom of the frames for our keys.  (I added a quick tutorial here, if you're interested but it's pretty straight forward!)

I ended up making three different key reminder boards - Katie and Kaleigh just moved into a new house (Katie) and apartment (Kaliegh) this summer and I knew they would both love this idea, too.  :)


I LOVE how they turned out!  I tried out different DIY flowers for each one - Katie's (far left) has crochet star flowers, Kaleigh's (center) has felt flower bursts, and the one for Krista's and my apartment (far right) has fabric flowers with clear stones glued in for centers!
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    Alison "Ali" Rose

    Currently working on a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering and all of the side projects that help get me through it!

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