School Art Show

On Sunday, we had our first annual art show at our high school. For two hours, the halls of my school were transformed into a deep-sea environment leading to walls filled with artwork. I am proud to have had art displayed in it, and hope that the students of my school continue to be able to see the amazing art their peers make.

Take some time to enjoy art once in awhile :)

Last year, we planted some daffodils in our front yard near the sidewalk. I'm glad to see that they finally bloomed! 

What I'm not so glad about is these pear trees, which collect so much pollen and make my allergies worse! They are beautiful nonetheless.

On a random note, I found a new favorite snack: dried carrots! I found them at my local organic and fresh produce market that carries a huge variety of unique healthy snacks. They even have peanut butter dispensers that customers can get peanut butter from.

Enjoy this weather!

Snow Cones for Spring

...Wow, that was a great unexpected alliteration. Anyway, it was a great nostalgic moment when my friend and I saw a snow cone truck pulled up on the side of a neighborhood road. We instantly stopped the car and ran out to see what they were selling. It turns out, they were selling snow cones and you got to pick your own flavors to put onto the ice! The owners of the truck were extremely nice as well.

What a great way to enjoy this 70-degree weather!

Spring Break in St. Louis

I just finished Spring Break, and I had the pleasure of making a four-day trip to St. Louis, Missouri. I got to go to so many great restaurants and iconic locations. The only bad thing? The weather felt like fall in St. Louis!

We went to a restaurant called Bailey's Range, where I tried my first bison burger. I didn't know such a thing existed, but I'm always up for trying new food. To my untrained taste buds, the bison burger tasted very similar to a normal beef patty. It was delicious! Bailey's Range also makes homemade milkshakes and ice cream (I got coconut crunch ice cream) and carries a whole page full of sodas that I had never seen before.

Below: "Smoke bomb" burger with bison patty

I'm also excited that I got to see Walk the Moon! They played a great outdoor concert.

An awesomely nerdy (yet not really nerdy) restaurant we went to was called Pi Pizza. Everything was decked out in Pi and the pizzas were named after areas in St. Louis. They toppings were gourmet and the combinations very unique.

Spring Has Sprung...and It's Beautiful

It's officially spring!

It was so warm outside today, at least for a little bit. I am so ready to leave the snow behind and start wearing shorts, dresses, and sandals.

I'm really into floral patterns and flowy shirts this season too. :)

I don't usually do this, but I'm really feeling this song today and want to share it:

Happy Pi Day!

I'm the president of our school's Calculus Club, so of course when Pi Day rolled around we had to do something awesome. We had a pie walk, a pie recitation contest, and even a pie-a-teacher in the face event! What makes it even more awesome is that it benefits a special education program in our school district. Our club is going to buy math games using the profit we made from Pi Day t-shirts and raffle tickets from the pie-in-the-face event. We're even planning on going to the classroom and playing the games with them. I'm very excited!

The back of our shirts said "Would you like a slice of pi?"

Sitting at the raffle ticket booth

A pie in the face! I really appreciate all the teachers who volunteered.

Photo credit: Kathryn Fishman-Weaver

I hope your Pi Day was as delicious as mine was :)

True/False Film Festival

Over the weekend, I had the pleasure of attending and volunteering for the True/False Film Festival, which is becoming a bigger and bigger deal throughout the country. I got to see some amazing films and meet filmmakers, documentary subjects, and musicians. This is truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience I'm glad I had.

Clockwise from left: Q numbers for A Moment of Innocence; Mountain Animation (loved them!) opening for Rich Hill; and the band opening for A Moment of Innocence.

And of course, I absolutely loved volunteering and being a part of the festival. I took tickets for a whole night and saw lots of people come in whom I hadn't seen in a long time.

Mm, I stopped by a local bakery today and picked up some gourmet cupcakes. I've always wished I could make cupcakes this beautiful and delicious. These are wedding cake flavored, and I also got a carrot cake flavored cupcake whose decoration got ruined on the way home.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Winter Lights

My evening view outside the window of the room where I work is beautiful this time of year. I can see a little of the lake by my house, silhouettes of trees, and the light of lampposts on the snow. The pinkish glow on the cool blue snow is truly beautiful.

I'm trying to stay warm these months, and I hope the spring weather begins to show up soon!

Cake Pops & V-day Idea

My family recently bought a cake pop maker, which I'm so excited about! It's a huge kit of all the supplies you need to make cake pops, excluding the batter and icing, of course. Well, my sister got right to it and began making some delicious cake pops! And I thought, wouldn't these make a great Valentine's Day present?

Dipping cake pops in icing

On the drying rack

Wrapped and bowed

I'm planning on making a ton of these and giving them to my friends on the 14th. What a great way to make your friends feel loved!

More Snow

When I woke up this morning, there was a fresh layer of snow on the ground. Now the streets are as white as ever, but that also means it was covering the layer of ice on my sidewalk! While heading out, I slipped on the ice that I couldn't see and hurt my back. I hope it'll be okay...

Anyway, there were bird prints on the ground, and they were so cute I just had to take some pictures!

Snow Week!

It's a winter wonderland out there! School has been cancelled for the past five days, which never happens. It's been a great time to relax, catch up on reading, crafting, and try new recipes.

Frozen trees and frozen grass

I even got the rare opportunity to drink hot chocolate after going sledding in February! After getting so little snow in December, this is making up for it.