DIY Painted Striped Shirt

Long time no blog.  Yeah yeah, sorry sorry. Yesterday marked 6 months until the wedding and lately, that's all I've had on my mind. I've also been way less focused on school, which will probably take its toll during my GI final this coming Friday. I will be SO GLAD when this module is over. Needless to say, I haven't enjoyed it as much as the previous two. It's just....too much stuff. However, my two patient interactions this module were awesome. And probably the only reason I haven't completely burnt out yet. It's so amazing to me how every person has a different story to tell. Granted, a medical history isn't necessarily the most happiest of stories, but it's still really cool to hear each one. 

But enough of the sentimental blogging. 

I've been working on quite a few projects for the wedding (and the blog) but I either haven't completely finished one to show it to you, or its a gift that I can't show you until the wedding is over. So, today's post is a random spur of the moment project I saw pop up in the craft blog world and I wanted to take my own shot at it. As you've already learned from the title, it's a painted striped T-shirt. 

I thought this was the coolest idea. I wish I could share the original idea with you, but I just saw it one day scrolling through Pinterest. So, instead I'll just give you my own tutorial.

Supplies:

 

Plain white T-shirt

Fabric paint*

Foam paintbrush

Masking tape

*I used acrylic paint mixed with a textile medium to make it fabric paint

How To:

 Use your masking tape to make stripes down the shirt. I used a ruler to make sure they were the same width all the way across. I also put a strip of masking tape vertically on each side. (But I didn't get a picture of this). I did this because I only wanted my stripes only go across the front. 

Before you begin painting, make sure to put some scrap paper inside of the shirt so the paint doesn't end up bleeding through to the other side.  Then, dab on your paint with the foam brush until each stripe is covered. I decided to alternate my colors.

 Let the paint dry and slowly peel off each piece of tape. 

And now you have a new piece of clothing in your wardrobe. :)

 Or at least a new, cute, pajama shirt?

It needs something...like a necklace. Or another stripe. 

I promise it's not a crooked as it looks. ;)

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Student Gift Basket

So for all of you that don't know, my fiance is a 2nd year in medical school. At the end of your 2nd year, you must pass Step 1 of the Boards to move on to your clinical year. I absolutely dread it. The MCAT was enough to make me want to pull my hair out. But anyways, he began studying a couple weeks ago and will take it April 19th.  In an attempt to be a good fiance and motivator, I decided to make a study gift basket.  I thought I'd share my ideas since they could be used for any devoted student. :)

I tried to keep it relatively healthy with the vitamin waters and granola bars, since he will be sitting at a desk for days on end. But, you have to have some unhealthy things...like his favorite candy! And we all know studying can be mentally draining, so I tossed in some headache medicine. It's necessary. I threw everything into a cheap plastic basket that I attempted to decorate the front of.

 
  
And being who I am, I felt the need to add a little cheesiness. So I made "coupons." One was for a coffee date, one for a running date, one for a neck massage and one for help cleaning (and by cleaning I mean, like, taking the trash out.)

Some other ideas I thought of after the fact were:

Coffee (he has a ton coffee), a stress ball, notecards, highlighters, postits, B12 pills for energy, and notebook/folders.

I don't expect to see him much these next few weeks. Ha.

Happy Thursday!

Spring Break

Sorry for being MIA the past few weeks

Last week was my Spring Break and the week before that was the week of my Pulmonary final (really just a pretty terrible week in general). Needless to say, the blog got pushed to the bottom of the priority list again. I spent my break in South Carolina with my grandparents and sister. My sweet, tough ol' grandpa was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer the same week as my final and my sister and I decided that Spring Break was a perfect opportunity to visit them and try to help keep them optimistic.

My 23rd birthday was also during the break and we celebrated with a baked spaghetti dinner and the most delicious cake! By the end of the week, the three of us girls had eaten all but, like, three pieces. I should really go run.

I got pretty birthday flowers, too!

The last day of my break was spent taking engagement pictures (finally)! That day also marked one year since our engagement. Coincidence? Overall, the week was great and I am so fortunate for the time I got to spend with my family. I'm officially back into full swing and preparing for major studying this module: Gastrointestinal (better known as GI). Mmm. Yay digestion.

Oh, and I promise to have craft post real soon!

Cupcake Palooza

Had my first Pulmonary test yesterday.

Let's just say, the past few weeks I've had Spring Break-Itis and didn't study as much as I should have. That, or I just don't understand how the lungs work. Probably a mixture of the two. C = MD, right? I just probably shouldn't have a career in pulmonology.



(If you didn't know...I'm blonde.)

I spent the beautiful day yesterday (after my test) doing the things I am obsessed with love: crafting and cupcakes. Everytime I make cupcakes, I always bring the leftovers to my classmates. Now, I have roughly 180 classmates and I only ever make 24 cupcakes at a time. Therefore, a lot of people feel left out. So, I finally did it. I never thought I would, but it wasn't as hard as I expected.
I made 175 cupcakes.

(That's not even all of them. Also, I never got a picture of all of them iced.)

It took me 6 hours to bake and ice them all and two of my girl friends helped me deliver them to school last night. Because no one wants to carry that much at 7:30 in the morning.
In between baking, we girls crafted, watched a movie, and ate some Mellow Mushroom.
Basically, last night = bliss
Here's to hoping Spring Break gets here fast

Happy Time-Warp Tuesday

Life Update

Monday officially began our Pulmonary module. Yay, lungs.

I'm loving this organ based curriculum. So incredibly organized compared to last semester.

Not to mention, it makes me giddy to be learning so much doctor stuff.

I'm also one of the course representatives for this module. Can't wait to start getting emails from classmates with all their questions. Haha.

Last Friday was our final for the Cardio module and it went better than expected.  The weekends after a big test like that are practically mini vacations in my mind, so, needless to say, this weekend was full of productivity and fun.

Friday morning I headed to my parents' house to see my mom and do some laundry (thanks mom).  That evening I ventured to Tuscaloosa (ick) to stay the night with my sister and do a little wedding planning while we watched some Harry Potter. And by wedding planning, I mean we cut out a bunch of pictures from magazines. Heh.

Saturday we spent the day visiting dress shops to try on bridesmaids dresses. Except, only one of the stores actually ended up having bridesmaids dresses. Google lied. We eventually ended up getting coffee and shopping around. That night the fiance and I got to visit and have dinner with our college friends. We also spent Sunday watching the Super Bowl with them and by the time that was over, so was the weekend. I always end up wishing weekends are longer.

What did you do this weekend? Or, even better, what are you doing this coming weekend?

I'm looking forward to our school's Little Red Dress party this Friday in honor of cardiovascular disease. As long as I can make it through these next three days! :)

VDay Countdown

I wish I could tell you that a lot of exciting things have been going on lately.

But I'd be lying. As usual, I've just been studying my life away.

Our cardiovascular final is this Friday (yippee!), and then we start Pulmonary. I also remember telling you there would be more cardio adventures to tell you about. I was also lying then, I just didn't know it at the time.

I did get to see and hold some hearts. One was normal, while the others were diseased. We had the task of determining out what disease each heart had. That was pretty cool and it helped put all of the stuff we are learning into perspective.

The main reason for this post is because it's February 1st and what better day than today to show you my Valentine's countdown. I used the same tutorial for this one as I did for my Halloween countdown.

Now I just have to figure out what I'm doing for Valentine's. Probably studying, like usual. :P

What are your plans? Do you have a hot date or do you plan on rebelling against VDay?

First Semester

I've completed my first semester of medical school

And I couldn't be more relieved

I also couldn't be more ecstatic for all of the things I have time to do over the next two weeks

I'll keep you updated. And rest assured that there will be craft posts in the future!

Stocking Holder

So, it's been a little while since I posted. Sorry about that. Not a lot has been going on.  Just a lot of studying Microbiology. Pretty sure I won't be an infectious disease doctor. But what do I know. I will give it the benefit of the doubt.  This stuff is actually okay compared to the Immunology we just got finished with.. Bleh.

The fact that Christmas is steadily approaching is causing my dear friend, Motivation, to hide from me. I think he already went home for the holidays. Haha...But really. That's okay though, at least Crafty has stuck around to keep me company.

I started decorating for Christmas after Thanksgiving break, and it wasn't until then that I realized my random decorations don't actually make a difference (except the tree).  I had a stocking, but no stocking holder. So, as you guessed it (and probably because you saw the title of this post), I am going to show you my DIY stocking holder.

It's not great, but it will do for now.

And it's ANOTHER Mod-Podge craft. Go figure.

Supplies:

2 pieces of scrap wood

Mod-Podge (d'oh)

A paint color

Paint brush

Foam brush

E6000 or wood glue

Paper

Letter of your first name

(chipboard or sticker - I used my Cricut)

A hook

(got mine in the Walmart hardware section - they screw in)

Paint your wood pieces in a preferred color
Cut your paper down to size and Mod-Podge on your top piece
Stick on your letter with glue or Mod-Podge
Glue the top wood piece to the bottom piece
Screw your hook into the front of the bottom piece
Hang your stocking on the hook!

:)
Stay tuned for more Christmas crafts!

FUN 2

So, I don't know if I told you or not, but I started the second round of "fun" about 2 weeks ago.

Fundamentals 2.

So far, so good.

Actually, to be quite honest, it's been a lot better than the first round of fun.

I think it's because of this:

Okay, so probably not because of this.

It's just a decorated flashcard box.

But, hey, I will admit, it makes studying my flashcards a little more tolerable.

All I did was take my boring black 3"x5" flashcard box from Office Depot, cut some pretty paper to the correct dimensions and slathered on some Mod-Podge to make it stick.

Simple as that.

And now I have a cute little box to keep my millions of flashcards in.

I'm sure by the end of med school I'll have a whole rainbow of boxes (considering I've already filled up one box and this one is actually my second). Sigh.

Time to get back to paying attention.

Oh, and I almost forgot, how was your Halloween?

Special Delivery

This weekend was the Special Delivery Weekend for any medical students interested in Obstetrics and Gynecology looking for shadowing and/or hands on experience

If you didn't already know, OBGYN is high on my list of what I may actually do one day

So, I obviously signed up for one of the slots as fast as I could

Around 9 am this morning, I had the opportunity to deliver my first baby

A precious, healthy, slippery, little baby boy

To say that it was amazing, or awesome, or amazingly-awesome is simply an understatement

To know that there is a child that I helped bring into this world and was the first to hold is an absolutely indescribable feeling

FUN 1 = DONE

Friday marked the end of Fundamentals 1 (my first module) and I survived!

Only 3.75 years to go.

Oh, and did I mention, I'm on Fall Break for this entire week.

Be jealous. I'm hoping it's a week of non-stop fun.

The fun started immediately on Friday night. Some of my classmates and I decided to cookout and carve some baby pumpkins.

Everyone's pumpkins turned out great - except mine

(Mine's not even in the picture)

Saturday, the fiance and I visited the lovliest village on the plains (aka- Auburn)

We tailgated with some friends and watched the game outside of the stadium. We're too broke for tickets.

We stayed with Eric's sister Saturday night and drove home Sunday afternoon. 

Sunday night I got to visit my family and partake in (almost) weekly card night/dinner with the neighbors. I stayed the night with the fam and headed to the dentist this morning. On a side note, I have no cavities, hooray!

The rest of today I spent shopping with the fiance and we finished the day with some mexican food. Yum.

I actually just looked around today, but I did find a pair of $8 skinny jeans and couldn't really pass that up.

Tomorrow, we will be heading to Little River Canyon in Northeast Alabama for the day to do some hiking and picnic-ing.

That's not all the fun I have planned for this week, but I'll save that for a different post.

Chromosomal Cross-over Pumpkin?

Toomers



I had pretty much forgotten what it was like to have free time.

And, I ALMOST feel bad for all you kids at work or school this week. :)

What's something fun you've done lately?

Keeping Up

I know, I know.

I have been MIA for the past, like, 3 weeks.

It's been hard enough just trying to keep up with schoolwork and all the other day-to-day activities I need accomplish (e.g. showering, eating, and brushing my teeth).

Needless to say, updating the blog was at the end of the priority list. 

So, let me just give you a recap of the past few weeks. (Shouldn't take very long)

Aside from the copious amounts of studying (that turned out to be worthless once test time rolled around), this past weekend I got to catch up on sleep and celebrate the birthdays of some super-awesome people. I spent the early part of Sunday with the family for dad's birthday, and then Sunday night, some of my classmates decided to do a breakfast-for-dinner birthday bash. It was rather delicious. About two weeks ago, I also got to celebrate the 14th birthday of my little brother. I am SO OLD, and there are a lot of birthdays in September.

But anywho, I told you my 3 week recap wouldn't take long.
Oh, and get excited, because I will be sharing my very first wedding project very soon.
But it has to stay secret for a few more days!
:)

My Best Friends Wedding

I know, I know. It's been a really long time since I last posted.

I've had a crazy past few weeks.

And by crazy, I mean full of studying.

See.

But the studying stopped after last Friday, thankfully.

Oh, and did I mention, my best friend got married this weekend!

She was absolutely beautiful.

In the hotel room getting ready 

Getting her hair done 

The wedding party

The girls

Cake cutting..yum

Daddy-Daughter Dance 

Garter Tossing

Their getaway transportation



The weekend was such a blast and I am so lucky I got to spend this special day with such a special couple.

Can't wait until they get to be a part of my day, even if it is so far away still!

I Wish I Was a Cullen

Another week of med school down, 9432947 more to go.

After being out of school for 8 months, I think I'm finally back into the swing of school.

This whole week was going great (well, aside from not getting much studying done) until yesterday.

Want to know why?

(Drum roll please.)

I got sick.

Yep. That's right. SICK. Sneezing, coughing, runny nose, headaches, and sore throat. Not a good time to get sick considering the amount of studying I need to do this weekend to get caught up for our test next Friday. Granted, I feel like when your in medical school, there is never really a good time to get sick.

Is that ironic to anyone else?

Like, how we are learning to treat sick people and will spend a lot of time around sick people, yet, we have so much to do that doesn't allow us time to get sick without setting us really far behind. Eh, kinda funny.

I've also come to the realization that there are just not enough hours in the day. Not.Even.Close. I need like 48 hours in a day. Or, I just need to be able to function without sleep.

Too bad I'm not dating a sparkly vampire, because if I was, I would totally pull a Bella Swan and have him change me into a vampire. (Yes, I just referenced the Twilight series. Get over it.)

Then I would totally get everything done, and probably more. And I wouldn't get sick. And I would sparkle.

So many win-wins in that situation.

A girl can dream, right?

While all you healthy individuals are getting everything done in your 24 hour days (really like 16 hours if you count sleep), I will be looking up Edward Cullen's phone number, and drinking a gallon of orange juice.

Oh, and HAPPY FRIDAY! :)

Clipboard

I have a new project for you!

But before I show you, you should all know that I passed my first med school test!

Okay okay, not really that big of a deal.

On another side note, the fiance and I also found a venue for the wedding yesterday.

It was absolutely beautiful and I'm pretty sure we are going to do it there! :)

Back to the reason for this post, I was asked by my future sister-in-law if I would make her a mod-podged clipboard for nursing school. Of course I told her I would, and I just wanted to show everyone how it turned out.

What I used:

Wooden Clipboard

Pretty Paper

Picture

Matte Mod Podge

Foam Brush

All you have to do is lay out your paper the way you want and glue it down with mod-podge.

Once you've glued everything down, brush one or two coats of mod-podge on top.

My clipboard has round edges, so once the mod-podge was dry, I took sandpaper to it to round out the paper's edges.  I also used my Cricut to make the letters of her name, but if you dont have a Cricut you can always free hand some or use stickers or chipboard letters.

Here's the final product!

It looks the same on the back, just without the picture and name. :)

Hope you like it Hannah.

Happy Wednesday to everyone!

I Need More Coffee

I've survived the first week of "fun"damentals, and needless to say, its really not that "fun". Who would have thought?

They weren't kidding when they said it was going to be like drinking out of a fire hose.

I mean, seriously. I've never studied this much in my life (i.e. more than 3-4 days before a test) and its certainly taking some getting used to.

What's even more sad is the fact that I should already know all the stuff we are going over.

I can't imagine how its going to be when we actually start learning stuff I've never heard of. 

It's like learning a foreign language.

Its also feels like its been one of the lonliest weeks of my life. Which I typically don't mind, but I'm going to need some kind of human interaction every now and then.

I wake up at 6:30. Get ready. Eat my breakfast. Drink my coffee. (Speaking of coffee, I've already gone from 1 cup a day to 3 cups a day). Walk a mile to Volker Hall.  Sweat to death and wonder why I even took a shower. Then I sit in class and freeze to death because the classroom thermostat is set to polar bear weather. Pretend I'm paying attention, but this is when my coffee kicks in and I become ADD. So instead I g-chat, facebook chat, blog, and wedding plan. (No worries, it really doesn't matter if I pay attention or not. I apparently only learn by writing and physical movement, thanks to the surveys med school made me take.)  Which leads me to my next step of the day- go home and re-write all my notes. Sounds fun right? Back to the physical movement learning thing- I have yet to come up with how to physically act out amino acids, protein folding and cell organelles. I'll get back to you on that.

I've noticed that everyday, somewhere during my note re-writing, I fall asleep. Never fails. Then I wake up, eat dinner, and attempt to study some more. Then I go to sleep for good.

I know you're jealous.

On a side note, med school has a medical spanish interest group. It actually sounds like its going to be a lot of fun.  And if I have to get involved, then that's what I'm going to do.  (Speaking of which, I thought once I got into med school I didn't have to have "extracurriculars" anymore.)  But since its apparently looked down upon if you don't, instead of 1 foreign language (med school), I have now signed up to learn a second one (spanish). I'm either a) out of my mind or b) superwoman.  Give me a few months and I'll let you know which of those I actually am.

You'd think after 4 and a half years of spanish education I would be fluent, right?  Wrong.  I could hardly remember how to say "my name is" in spanish.  Pitiful.

But, now its time for a 10 minute break, so I am going to leave the Arctic and go sit outside to get some Vitamin D.  Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Three Weeks Down and White Coat

Today was the day I've been waiting for since I got accepted to medical school.

White Coat Ceremony Day.

Dean Watts and I

The family

The fiance

Best.Day.Ever.

(Okay, so I realize I've had a lot of "best-day-ever" days lately- whatever.)

Friday marked the end of our first module, Patient, Doctor and Society.

Thursday we had our final exam/first med school test and it went decently well. Especially for not studying very much.

I passed the class.

That's all that matters, right? :)

I can't believe 3 weeks have already gone by.

Craaaaazy.

Tomorrow, we will finally start the "fun" stuff, aka- FUN-damentals 1, and I am actually semi-excited. Also a tad bit scared. 

Switching to a more serious note.

The past three weeks have included many talks about the stresses of medical school and the effects it may have on us and where to go if something is wrong.

Depression. Loneliness. Sleep deprivation.

Lack of motivation/burn-out. Sickness.

And the list goes on.

It's pretty scary the more I think/hear about it and even more scary since I have already seen some of these things happen to several other professional students (not just medical sudents).

It's pretty closed-minded to think that one of these things "could never happen to me" because, in all reality, something definitely could.

It's just really hard to imagine it because of how I have felt these past three weeks. I've been crazy happy since I started school.

Like smiling all the time, freakishly happy.

I'm meeting amazing new people.

I'm getting to fulfill my goals.

I'm engaged to my best friend.

There is absolutely nothing else I could wish for right now (well, maybe for a wedding to magically plan itself-kidding) and I could not be more thankful!

Thanks to everyone for the support and encouragement that got me where I am today.
Loves <3

Oh, and on a side note, I have a new project post coming soon! :)


Soap Dispenser Decor

The second week of school is in full swing and so far so good.
Feeling a little more organized and in the loop this week than I did last week.
I've noticed that I have forgotten how to pay attention for long periods of time, though.
Oops.
Facebook, Pinterest, and my fave craft blogs have all come in handy during class this week.
Just kidding.....or am I? ;)

I've only been in school 8 days, but I have already completed 5 assignments/papers and working on my 6th as we speak. Sad.
So as a break from all things school, I decided to show you guys a little project I whipped up for my bathroom.
It's nothing grand but it was a project that didn't take much time and I think it turned out rather adorbs.

My supplies:

- A cheap bottle of hand soap

- Leftover spray paint (cream color)

- Brown Vinyl

- My handy dandy Cricut

Directions:

I covered the actual dispensing part with some tape

Spray painted the bottle

Let dry

Cut a size 3in K out with my Cricut and the Calligraphy cartridge

(K for my first name, and eventually for my new last name)

Stuck the K onto the bottle

Easy peasy, right?

I know you can't tell, but the rest of my bathroom is brown and cream.

Just in case you were wondering why I went with those colors.  :)

Well, time to get back to school related things, and then I must get to bed since I'm shadowing in the neurology wards bright and early tomorrow.

Super pumped

Hope everyone has a great rest of the week.

It's almost Friday!!

:)