“No sew” blanket, movies, and roller derby

#45 Make a “no sew” fleece blanket
Over the years I’ve seen lots of people with those cozy looking double layered fleece blankets made by tying the edges together, but I’ve never made one of my own… until now! I looked online for a tutorial and I came across this neat braided edge design, so I decided to try it out! I started by laying the fleece out and trimming the edges so they were straight, then I matched the two layers up and trimmed them so they were even. I then went around the edges and cut 1.5 inch slits and then cut little holes in the middle of them and used a paperclip to pull one piece through the other, making the neat braided pattern. It was a really long process that took FOREVER but I’m very happy with the finished product! It is really warm and cozy, and I didn’t have to deal with a sewing machine to make it!

 

#66 Watch Beautiful Creatures
I really enjoyed reading this book series and was excited to see the movie, but it came out in theaters when I was in the middle of reading the series, and it came out on DVD when I was in the middle of lots of studying last term in school, so I kept putting it off. When Redbox sent me a free rental code, it was finally the perfect opportunity to check this one off! I must say that I  enjoyed the books much more than the movie, but I’m glad that I finally got to see it.

 

#73 Watch Monsters University
I LOVE Disney movies, and was so excited to hear that Pixar was coming out with a prequel to Monsters, Inc. I marked it in my calendar and Alex and I went to see it on its opening day! It was really cute, and I’m so glad I got the chance to see it!

 

#41 Watch Roller Derby
One of my nursing school friends competes in roller derby, and it sparked the idea that I’d like to watch it sometime. Since they were having a “brawl” right here in my hometown, I decided to seize the opportunity and check it out. One thing I was surprised by right away was that the skating rink was just a flat hard floor, rather than the raised wooden rinks that I’ve seen on TV and in the movies.  I was also really surprised to see 7 referees in the center of the rink at all times. When I started watching, I thought I’d be able to figure it out on my own, but after several minutes of confused puzzling over what was happening, I resorted to google to learn the basic rules. Google gave me the general idea of what was going on, but I was really happy to meet up with my friend “Miss Kitty La Rue” during a halftime break and she explained things in a little more detail for me, while we watched other teams compete. I really loved the fun names that the skaters had, like Wonder Dread and Jala Pain Yo. I’m really glad I got to experience something so completely new and different!

#70 Hot Tub + Glow Sticks, #41 Donate Blood, #8k Watch The Borrowers

#70 Hot Tub + Glow Sticks

I first saw the idea to let kids take a bath in the dark with glow sticks on Pinterest, and I thought it would be really fun to adapt this for my summer bucket list. When you combine house sitting at a place with a hot tub (they’ve assured me that they don’t mind if I have people over), with my Jello shots, and a hand full of young adults, you’ve got the perfect mix to add in glow sticks! I picked up a couple packs in the $1 section at Target a few weeks back, and it was the perfect scenario to bring them out! Unfortunately, it’s hard to take good pictures in the dark, while showing both the people and the glow sticks, but I still got a few decent shots of our excitement. Adding in glow sticks was definitely a fun touch to an otherwise ordinary hot tub!

#41 Donate Blood For the First Time

I have a serious dislike for needles, but I got stuck by them 5 times within 3 days! Since I am starting nursing school this fall, I went in on Friday to get my tetanus shot updated, to have a little blood drawn to prove I’m immune to the Chicken Pox, and to have a test showing that I haven’t been in contact with tuberculosis. Then, I had signed up to give blood at my church blood drive on Sunday, so they got to stick me a couple more times for that! I had never given blood before, but I had always thought that it was a really neat idea. It’s something that almost anyone can do, that doesn’t cost them any money, that can help save peoples lives. I know that if I had a serious injury that required blood transfusions that I’d be incredibly grateful to the donors, and felt like it was something I should try at least once. I was incredibly nervous leading up to my appointment because my wonderful boyfriend (who is a paramedic) was kind enough to talk to me about how big the needle was.  I can do pretty well with small needles, but the bigger ones really shake me up! I never actually saw the needle because I kept my head turned the whole time and it was covered with a piece of gauze while I was donating, but I could definitely feel it going in and coming out! Inside the bloodmobile I had to sit in a chair that elevated your legs, keeping you in a leaned back position. Once the needle was in, I had to gently squeeze a foam ear of corn, and after several minutes (that seemed like an eternity) they told me I was done!  I mostly felt fine afterwards, except that I was pretty lethargic, took a long nap in the afternoon, and felt hungrier and thirstier than usual. Going to yoga this morning was also a lot more tiring that it normally is, but I think the side effects I experienced were pretty normal considering I gave away at least 10% of my blood! The best part was that our local Dari Marts sponsor blood donors by giving them a free pint of ice cream when you donate! I don’t know how often I’ll donate blood, but I definitely could see myself doing it again sometime in the future!

 

#8k Watch The Borrowers

I rented this one randomly with my free kids rental pass from blockbuster, and what a lucky gem it turned out to be! I loved it so much that I HAD to add it to my list so I could blog about it. Is that cheating? Well I don’t really care! I knew that The Borrowers is a book (though I’ve never read it), and that they just came out with a Japanese anime version of it called The Secret World of Arrietty, which I loved, so I decided to try this one out. First of all, it was really neat how they showed the story of tiny people living in our world, and I thought it was really cute how it was set in Europe. But the best part was discovering 3 characters from the Harry Potter movies! This movie had younger versions of Draco Malfoy, Arthur Weasley, and Professor Slughorn! Talk about an amazing surprise! It also had Hugh Laurie aka House who played a police officer, but that wasn’t nearly so exciting as the others. Anyways, it was a cute movie, but if you’re a Harry Potter buff like me, you should totally watch it to see the characters! Little Tom Felton (Draco) playing Peagreen was just adorable! Definitely glad I stumbled upon this one!

 

Mail Updates, #8h Watch The Goonies, #81 Jello Shots, #82 Flavored Cigar, & #108 High Tea

I’ve been house sitting over the last several days, which has caused me to really slack off on my blogging. Therefore, I’ve crammed a LOT into this post! So without further ado, here we go!

Mail Updates!

I received two AWESOME pieces of mail this week! In May, I sent a couple care packages to our troops fighting in Afghanistan (see my post here) and this week I was thrilled to receive a thank you note from one of the soldiers! The second piece of mail I was delighted to see was a little package from Sarah at Gone With the Summer! I had entered a drawing on Sarah’s blog to win an adorable pair of heart-shaped sunglasses, and  was so excited to find out that I won! Since winning a prize was on my summer bucket list, it was an especially awesome that I got to check it off by winning a prize from a fellow bucket list blogger! Sarah included a super cute note, and I absolutely LOVE the sunglasses! I will definitely have to wear these this summer!

#8h Watch The Goonies

I came across this coupon for a free month pass for kids and family rentals at Blockbuster, and seized the opportunity to rent The Goonies! I had never seen this movie and (like most of the other movies on my list) had no idea what it was about, but I knew that it was set in Astoria, OR, which is just a 3 hour drive away from me! My wonderful boyfriend, Alex, had worked as a paramedic up there for a couple years, and he was getting such a kick out of seeing the town in the movie, because apparently it looks almost exactly the same, and he said he even ran a call in the blue house right next door to The Goonies house! Since the house is pretty close to where I live, I think I’ll have to take a trip up there to see it in person sometime! I thought that the movie was excellent, though I can’t believe that it was only rated PG! The kids said, “Oh sh*t!” multiple times throughout the movie, and there was even a scene where they broke a man’s private part off of a nude statue and were trying to stick it back on! I guess they had different standards of what is appropriate back when this movie was made! Nevertheless, I thought it was awesome, and it’s definitely one of my favorite movies that I’ve watched from my list so far.

#81 Make Jello Shots

I’ve been wanting to do this item on my list for ages now, and I finally decided it was the perfect opportunity to do it while I was house sitting! This particular family has a gorgeous house with a beautiful view of the city and their own private hot tub, and they’ve made it clear that they don’t mind if I throw a party. I’d never really hosted a party before, but it turned out to be really fun! I decided to make the Jello shots extra fun by using two different flavors, which were peach-mango and blackberry pomegranate, and they tasted amazing together! I tilted the tray at an angle to set in the fridge, so that the colors would be slanted in the end. Then I added the top layer and let them chill again. I think they turned out perfect! I definitely could see myself making these again someday, and they really weren’t that difficult!

#82 Smoke a Flavored Cigar

So, earlier this summer I smoked a little bit of a swisher sweet cigar for the first time, and I was thoroughly unimpressed by the taste. I was really hoping that smoking a chocolate flavored cigar would taste better, but unfortunately it didn’t. I can now say I’ve smoked things twice in my life, and I have no desire to try for a third. But oh well, now I can say that I’ve tried it!

#108 Attend High Tea

A dear friend named Jennifer invited me to attend high tea with her at Scatter Joy tea room in Junction City, which is just a few miles away from Eugene. I had never been to a high tea, but was thrilled to try it out! We got to try 2 different pots of tea, and we chose Caramel Creme Brulee and Jasmine Green tea. Both were very good! We also got a dainty little salad, and a multi tiered tray of finger sandwiches, scones, and other goodies! I was so glad that Jennifer knew what she was doing, because I was clueless! I learned that you drop a sugar cube into your tea by letting it slowly slide down the side of your cup, rather than just plopping it in. I also learned that the little tray of yellow goop was not butter, but rather a delicious lemon curd, and that you don’t eat the said lemon curd like a pudding, but rather by putting it on your scones! My favorite was the dessert, which was a homemade pink lemonade cake, and oh my, was it delicious! The tea room was absolutely adorable, with all kinds of dainty little treasures and treats, and I could definitely see myself going back there for another girls day out!

#57 & #87 New Hair Style & Waxing

#57 Try a New Hair Style

My hair has basically been the same style forever. Long, straight, and dark brown. I’ve never dyed my hair. I’ve never bleached it. I gave up layers and bangs a long time ago. So I felt like it was time to try something new. I had been thinking about trying to dye a strip of my hair a different color for a while, but was afraid by the permanence of it. Plus, since my hair is so dark they would have had to bleach it first, and then color it. And then I’d have to deal with it growing out. So I was really excited when I saw a pink strip of color in my sister, Hannah’s hair and I learned the exciting news that you could add color into your hair in just a few minutes with the simplicity of a hair extension! I’ve been meaning to make an appointment for myself to get one put in for over a month now, and I finally got around to doing it. Since my former hair stylist didn’t do extensions and I was long overdue for a trim, I decided to turn to Google to discover a new salon. That’s how I stumbled upon Face It! They were a pretty reasonably priced, really fun place, and best of all, they did extensions! Rochelle was my stylist, and she was the sweetest person ever! And when I told her about how this was an item on my summer bucket list, she offered to do the extensions for free! I will definitely be going back to her in the future! I had never had extensions before, and I couldn’t imagine having a whole head of them, but having my one little strip is really fun. It blends into my hair really well, and adds a little bit of excitement into my ordinary hair style. #57 was a definite success!

#87 Get Something Waxed

Since I was already at a salon, it made sense to check off #87 at the same time. I had never gotten anything waxed before, and the idea somewhat terrified me. Big mean strips of hot wax being yanked off of my body, ripping my poor hairs from their follicles, while they scream at me in waves of pain… Perhaps I’m being a bit dramatic, but I was really afraid of how much it would hurt. Since I pluck my eyebrows nearly every day, I figured that they would be the least likely to cause pain. Applying the wax was actually a really interesting sensation. It felt like a soft brush rubbing warm goo on my face, with the consistency of thick honey. The ripping process was really minor, and felt more like yanking a piece of scotch tape off my skin. Laying on a table with all of the bright lights while getting plucked and trimmed made me feel like Katniss in the Hunger Games. All in all, I was impressed by how little it hurt, and I really like the smooth finish that the waxing left. I just might be going back sometime to get my brows done again, and I might even venture into waxing other areas one day. Definitely glad I overcame this fear and checked this one off of my list!

#8e Watch Breakfast Club

The Breakfast Club was next on my list of movies that people can never believe that I haven’t watched. I was over at our friend Patrick’s house and saw it sitting on a shelf under his TV, so naturally I asked to borrow it.  As it turns out, it was one of his wife’s all time favorite movies!  I really didn’t have any idea what this movie was about when I put it on my list, but I had heard the name so many times that I figured it was something I should probably see. The first thing I noticed was that it had Molly Ringwald, who plays the mom in the TV show Secret Life of the American Teenager. I had no idea that she had ever acted in anything before that show, let alone as a lead role when she almost 30 years younger. At first, I couldn’t believe that the movie was rated R, because it was about a group of high school students stuck in a Saturday detention! But as it went on the content became increasingly more risque. Abusive families, parents who expect perfection, the stress of performing well in sports to get a scholarship, peer pressure to smoke pot and admit virginity, the thought of committing suicide… this movie really did have it all, and I feel like it touched on actual issues in a fairly realistic way. I realized that I had watched other TV shows that had episodes similar to The Breakfast Club, throwing a bunch of kids together in Saturday detention and watching them bond. Most recently, I watched an episode of Dawson’s Creek that did the same scenario, and I know I’ve watched others that followed the same story too. All in all I liked the movie, and I’m really glad that I watched it. It’s amazing to me that even thought it was made in 1985, I feel like a lot of the issues are basically the same that teens face today. And another bucket list item bites the dust!

#8i, #7c, #93, & #13 Sound of Music, Red Pyramid, Butte to Butte, & Fireworks

Wow, I’ve really been slacking on my blogging! I accomplished several items on my list over the last week, and worked on several others that are not quite finished yet. For example, I practiced my handstand, worked on a 1000 piece puzzle, tried sipping several different types of beer (Bud Lite with Lime is the one I dislike the least so far), bought new flowers to keep in my room, took a picture with another Amanda (I’m up to 6 so far!), watched several episodes of South Park, and I tried calling into a radio station to win movie tickets, but the lines were busy. Needless to say, I’ve been very busy! And without further ado, here are the ones that I actually finished over the last few days:

#8i Watch The Sound of Music

How did I ever make it so far in life without watching this movie? I watched my sisters in a dance recital on Saturday night and when we were sitting around the house at midnight after the show, my sister Hannah said she was wide awake and really wanted to do something on my list. We looked through the list and she couldn’t believe that I hadn’t seen this movie yet, so she begged me to watch it with her. She told me “It’s only about an hour and a half long!” so I agreed to watch it. 2 1/2 hours later, I sleepily dragged myself off to bed and told her I’d have to finish the ending another time. I couldn’t believe it was a 3 hour movie! Even though it was ridiculously long, I LOVED it! I recognized several songs that I hadn’t realized were from this movie (Favorite Things, Doe a Deer…etc) and I just really enjoyed it. The Anne of Green Gables books and movie are some of my favorite stories, and this was right along the same lines. Anyways, even though I technically still have another half hour to watch, I feel like I saw enough to learn that I loved it and will be watching it again sometime.

#7c Read The Red Pyramid

I had been working on reading this book over the last couple weeks and then I realized that I had copied the audiobook from the library and stared listening instead. I listed to the last half of the story while I drove 2 hours to my parents’ house, 2 hours back home, and a final 2 hours while I cleaned an office on Sunday. I really enjoy curling up with a good, hard copy of a book and getting lost in the story for hours on end, but it’s also pretty awesome to get lost in the dramatic voices of an audiobook too. The Red Pyramid is the first in the Kane Chronicles series, which are written by the author Rick Riordan, who also wrote the Percy Jackson series. I had actually read this book 2 years ago when it first came out, but I had long since forgotten everything that had happened. I remember thinking that it was really good and being anxious to read the next book, but that’s about it. Needless to say, it was really exciting to read a book that I had no memory of, but that I knew was good because I’d read it before. Does that make sense? Anyways, I’m very eager to start the next one in this series!

#93 Run the Butte to Butte

The Butte to Butte is a 10k race that takes place in my hometown of Eugene every year on the 4th of July. The race is very appropriately named because the course goes from Spencer’s Butte to Skinner’s Butte. This year was the first time they offered a 5k option as well, but since I put this item on the list intending to run my first 10k, I felt like it would be cheating myself to take the easier option. The first mile of the course was a brutal uphill climb, but the second mile was downhill, and the last 4 miles were (mostly) flat. I had fully intended to start running several weeks ago in preparation for this race, but I never quite got around to it… and the last time I had run was in January. I was definitely not in running shape, but I managed to finish, and that was my goal! My wonderful boyfriend, Alex, was kind enough to slow down his pace enough to keep me company for the 1 hour, 8 minutes, and 50 seconds that it took me to complete the race. I had to walk a few times and my face was raw from wiping sweat away (I hate the feeling of sweat on my skin), but I did it!

#13 Firework Show

And what would the 4th of July be without fireworks? I’m lucky enough to live pretty close to the Oregon Horse Arena where they hold our local rodeo every year, and they set off an awesome fireworks show at the end of the night. Alex had to take a big test first thing in the morning for his intensive summer biology class, so his mom and I drove down the road to take in the view. Unfortunately, my phone doesn’t do a very good job of focusing on fireworks, and this was the best picture I got. But the show was really awesome and was a great way to end the holiday!

#28 Make Homemade Ice Cream

When I was creating my summer bucket list, I initially wanted to make this one “Buy ice cream from an ice cream truck”, but then I realized that it’s been years since I’ve heard of an ice cream truck making the rounds in any neighborhood, and I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to complete it.  As a comparable alternative, I decided to try my hand at making homemade ice cream instead.  Since today was a warm, sunny Father’s day, I thought it would be the perfect time to check this one off of my list. My wonderful boyfriend, Alex’s parents had an electric ice cream maker, so I asked them if we could make ice cream for our Father’s Day lunch dessert. I have never made ice cream before, but it was a pretty simple process. First, we combined all of the ingredients in a bowl, which included sweetened condensed milk, eggs, vanilla, and some other stuff. We poured it into the ice cream maker container, and added almost an entire half gallon of milk. Then we put in the mixing thing and the lid, and set it in the blue bucket. We filled the bucket with ice and rock salt, and turned on the motor, which spun the canister and turned the mixing thing at the same time. The rock salt helps to lower the melting temperature of water, so that the ice melts faster, and makes the ice cream canister colder. Since it kept melting down, I had to keep adding more ice and salt to maintain the cold temperature. Eventually the motor started sounding sluggish, indicating that the ice cream was starting to get thicker and harder to churn. We unplugged it, let it set for a while, and then opened it up to find delicious vanilla ice cream! It melted really fast, but was really really good. It was a fun, sweet treat for a hot day! I definitely will be making this again someday, and might even experiment with trying different flavors. #28 was a definite success!

#103 & #8j Carve a Watermelon & Watch Grease

#103 Carve a Watermelon

I was incredibly excited to embark on this adventure. Most people have probably carved a pumpkin at some point, but how many can say they have carved a watermelon? Since Father’s Day is tomorrow, I decided to carve a nice, simple, “Happy Father’s Day!” message. Initially, I tried cutting a circle out of the top like you do with a pumpkin, but I quickly realized that I was going to have a really difficult time scooping out the insides. I decided to slice the entire top off instead, and to flip it upside down before carving my message on the side. This proved to be an especially good idea, because it gave me a solid base for the watermelon to stand up. Eventually, I managed to get all of the pink out and I moved on to sketching my design. I taped it onto my watermelon, and proceeded to use my pumpkin carving tools to finish the job. I think it turned out pretty awesome!

#8j Watch Grease

My day concluded by watching Grease for the first time. Basically, the only things that I knew about it was that it had John Travolta, and it was set in the 50’s. That’s about it. I had no idea that it was a musical.  I didn’t think that the singers were the best, and the acting was beyond cheesy and terribly unrealistic.  I can’t say that it was my favorite, but I’m glad that I watched it. Like all of the other movies I’ve seen from my list so far, I feel like I will now be more in the loop whenever this movie gets referenced. Thanks to my future sister in law, Ashton, for recording it for me! Another one bites the dust!

#69, #7b, & #8a Grill on a Charcoal BBQ, Read a Book, & Watch Star Wars

I accomplished a LOT today! I started off with finishing 7b, reading The Beyonders: Seeds of Rebellion. This is the second book in the Beyonders trilogy, and now I absolutely can’t wait for the third one to come out next year. It’s written by Brandon Mull, who is also the author of the Fablehaven series (my boyfriend, Alex’s favorite book series ever), and he is really an amazing author. His story lines are so detailed and complex, and they have all really drawn me into their world. I highly recommend you check out his books if you like J.K. Rowling and Rick Riordan.

And then the real fun began. Until today, I had never used a charcoal barbecue. I’d eaten plenty of burgers off of them, but I’d never actually done the cooking on my own. I was actually quite intimidated by the thought of using one, since it’s not like you just turn a knob to the temperature you want and set a timer. It actually turned out to be considerably easier than I expected. To start with, I dumped in the charcoal briquettes and stacked them up into a nice pyramid. Then I got to douse them in lighter fluid and light a match. Honestly, lighting the match proved to be the hardest part! The box I was using only had 5 matches left and I couldn’t get them to start! The first one broke in half, the next 2 got blown out by the wind, the 4th one just fell off of my charcoal pyramid and went out, and finally, the last match successfully lit the pyramid on fire! Then I got to douse it with more lighter fluid and put on the lid. After several minutes, the briquettes in the center of my pyramid were glowing hot, and I got to spread out my pyramid into an even layer. Then it was just a matter of putting on the burgers, flipping them occasionally, adding cheese, and pulling them off! Easy peasy.

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The night concluded with experiencing Star Wars for the first time. It was a bit confusing, but I mostly enjoyed it. Having heard Star Wars references for my whole life, I had a few ideas in my mind for how I thought things would be. For example, I was really expecting Darth Vader’s voice to be much deeper than it was. When he spoke, he really just sounded like a normal person. I was really expecting him, to have a deeper, angrier, voice. And I wanted Luke and Leia to be cuter. I mean, Leia is a PRINCESS for goodness sakes! She’s supposed to be a knockout! And I thought that the wookie would talk, so I was somewhat put off when I discovered that he could only make annoying wails. But I mostly liked it. I might even watch another one sometime. In the meantime, today was a very successful bucket list day, and you HAVE to check out this little girls recap of the movie!