The Gorgeous Gorge

Since I’ll be leaving Oregon soon, Jessica and I took a trip down the Columbia River gorge so I could get my fill of green. It was BEAUTIFUL. We started in Troutdale and got on the Historic Highway and drove past dozens of waterfalls. There are 66 waterfalls in The Gorge – some small, some big (like Multnomah). We mostly stopped for three: Latourell Falls, Shepperd’s Dell Falls, and Multnomah Falls, of course!

The drive itself was stunning, surrounded by forest, catching glimpses of the Columbia River and the occasional flash of a waterfall. To give you a taste of the loveliness, I’ve put together a collage-o’-green:

At Latourell Falls, I decided I’d get as close as possible to the base, which was cool because the wind the waterfall generated was pretty intense. I also got completely soaked by spray, though. :)

Multnomah Falls was beautiful, as always, and Jessie and I took turns taking pictures of each other up on the bridge. Here are my favorites:

(Jessica, lookin' cute)

(Me being a dork)

All in all it was a lovely trip and the perfect way to see some of the gorgeous Oregon landscape before leaving for New York City. The best part was that I got to spend some fun time with Jessica!

The Dead Poets Society

Last night Kelsey, Jessie and I had a double feature that also included us eating soooo much little Caesars. We watched ‘The Dead Poets Society,’ which I had never seen before, and I decided it is one of my new favorite movies. It was pretty emotional, though. Particularly at this part:

Robin Williams was phenomenal, although sometimes he was quite crazy, like in the scene below.

Also, I couldn’t get over how tiny and adorable Robert Sean Leonard was!

Afterward, we watched ‘The Devil Wears Prada,’ which was a night lighthearted follow-up after the heavy experience of ‘Dead Poets.’ Although, it led to us wondering: Anne Hathaway’s mouth is enormous, but it seemed extra enormous in ‘Alice in Wonderland.’ Did they digitally make her mouth larger, like they did with Helena Bonham Carter’s forehead, or is her mouth actually just that big?

Engagement Photos

No, not of me. I actually took some engagement photos on Saturday.
These two seriously deserve to be together. After a rocky relationship, my roommate Maren will {finally} be getting married to her perfect guy. They are so cute together, and Kelsey and I were more than happy to take their engagement photos. Plus, Kelsey and I were co-conspirators in setting things up on the night Blake popped the question,
so we feel an invested interest in their success as a couple :P

Basically, we just took pictures while they were cute all over the place. We just said, "Stand by that tree and look cute" and they did, and we took pictures. Here are a few of my favorites:

Burberry ad, all the way.

We took these pictures up at Sundance, where Maren and Blake first fell in love. The fall colors were beautiful! I was just glad it hadn't snowed up here yet.

It was a struggle and a half getting this picture, haha.




This pictures is true love!

Okay, before you judge me, this next picture was not for serious, haha. Kelsey and I are always making fun of tacky engagement photos, so, of course, given the opportunity, we HAD to take a few. This was my favorite (and, sadly, I have actually seen someone use this exact pose as their engagement photo):"Yep, this is my ring. It's obviously more important than either of our faces."

All in all, it was such a fun experience, and I can't wait for Maren and Blake's wedding in December!

Crème brûlée

Kelsey and I had a cooking adventure. It started like this.

Kelsey: "I want to bake something"
Me: "Yeah, something delicious."
Kelsey: "Like creme brulee, haha, j/k."
Me: "...let's do it."

We looked up the recipe, and discovered that all we were missing was chocolate chips and whipping cream (which we got from Smith's), and some ramekins. Note: We did not in fact know what ramekins were, or how they worked, so we figured mugs would work as effective substitutes.

This is me lining the "ramekins" with chocolate. Also, it meant that I ended up eating a lot of melted chocolate. Mmmm...

Then we made the creamy custard stuff that goes inside:


Kelsey did an A+ job at stirring.

And we looked gross from being at the pool.Finished! It had to bake for quite a while, and then afterward it was supposed to chill for something like FOUR HOURS, so we stuck it in the freezer for a bit and then ate it.
It turned out pretty delicious, actually.

Crafts!

Perhaps it's just because it's spring, but I am feeling so happy and sunshine-y! All I want to do is plant flowers, wear bright colors, and do arts and crafts all day. Two days ago I made some adorable paper crafts--homemade envelopes, stationary, mailing labels, etc. I write a lot of letters, and I'm excited to use them!
I found inspiration with some fun templates and printables.
I especially had fun making the matching stationary. I just printed a second envelope and cut out bits of the pattern, glued them on, and used a ruler to make the lines.

Here's another little craft I did yesterday: This is a baby shower gift for my cousin, who has a little girl due this May. I didn't have wrapping paper or ribbon, so I improvised with grocery sacks, hemp twine, and shopping bags.


I found the pattern for the pom poms here. It just uses plastic bags! I have millions lying around anyway.

Then, to make my "wrapping paper", I just took used a paper grocery sack from Albertson's. I cut out the bottom and along one side so that I had a long rectangle of brown paper, then I crumpled and re-crumpled it over and over until it was all soft and wrinkly.
I wrapped up the present, tied it with hemp, stuck the pom poms on top, and used some of the leftover brown paper to make a tag. Voila! Isn't it cute? And basically made from recyclable materials.

Wedding Blogs

I have lately fallen hopelessly in love with bride blogs (don't judge me). I especially love ones that show entire weddings by real couples. Cute stories, lots of flowers, and pretty dresses? What could be better! Anyway, I finally broke down and subscribed to a bunch of blogs on my RSS feeds. After sifting through many wonderful and addictive blogs, I boiled it down to a few favorites:

The Bride's Cafe - Probably my favorite. Gorgeous weddings, as captured by pro photographers (so the pictures are always beautiful). Lots of modern and non-traditional weddings.
Style Me Pretty - This shows whole weddings, like Bride's Cafe. Some really cute rustic weddings!
Snippet & Ink - This has some really cute wedding ideas. It posts daily, some real weddings, some just cute ideas.
{ritzy bee blog} - Some of these posts are just general adorableness, not necessarily weddings. They have cute craft/decoration/detail ideas for home as well as weddings.
Green Wedding Shoes - Yet more cute weddings. Like most of these, it posts daily. I found what may very well be my dream dress here.

I warn you, wedding blogs become addicting almost immediately.
Enjoy!

A newfound love

So, I have a bit of a new obsession. I'm looking into a program for next winter, which takes students to D.C. and sets them up with internships in their field. The only problem is I'd have to save up some money, so I've started looking at scholarships again, going back to FastWeb and college-scholarships and college board and stuff.

In any case, I've found a new site that is really quite interesting. It's called Scholarship Points (http://www.scholarshippoints.com/). You basically do little activities and earn points, which you can use to enter scholarships. The activities are pretty cool, actually, like reading articles about student loans, checking out FAFSA, taking surveys, etc. It's kind of fun.

The thing I like about it, though, is that the scholarships you enter are mostly drawings (you use your points as entries) so it doesn't take a lot of time, and you're not competing for who has the highest GPA or lowest annual income or anything. Everyone has the same chance, so it's almost like... lottery-style? For this months I entered two scholarships worth $1,000, one for $2,500, and one for $10,000, and all I had to do is take surveys and junk. It's pretty cool. Plus then you don't have to write a bunch of essays or fill out ten thousand applications. I guess it is just leaving it to chance though, which could be a good or a bad thing. Meh.

Anyway, I'd recommend it. We'll see if I win anything, haha.