Pin-tastic

Maybe you've heard, but Pinterest is the best new thing on the internet. I know, you probably have heard of it, but on a regular basis, I meet people who haven't, so if you are one of those people: you are welcome!

Pinterest is essentially a corkboard for the internet. You know all those great things you have pinned on your wall: postcards, cleaning tips, ideas for decorating your room, photos of your favorite healthy celebrity? Well, now you can have it all in one lovely aesthetic pleasing website. Plus, each pin has the ability to link back to its origin, so you never have to face that awful: "Well, here's the pillows I wanted to buy, but where did I find them?" dilemma ever again.

(truth resists simplicity)

While Pinterest is all of those things, it's more than that, too. My boards range from home decor inspiration to sewing projects to beautiful and inspiring images from around the world. You aren't restricted by anything but your own curiosity (and perhaps your job, relationships and free time -- it can take over!). As well, you are able to see what the rest of the web has pinned. Looking for a red poster? Search it, and you'll find practically ever red poster ever printed.

(cute crochet slippers)

While it's mostly fun and games, it has also been populated by a lot of really great and inspiring images and stories, that serve to motivate and encourage. So yes, the internet has it's faults, but you aren't gonna find too many of them in practice here.

Sign up and follow my boards! I hope to see you!

Long-Distance Dance Party

Are you a student?

Do you go to college away from home?

Is calling your family and friends on the phone just not enough?

If you answered yes to any or all of these questions, then you better believe I have news for you!

Okay, okay, enough of that. But don't you feel like an infomercial when you tell people about a product or service that you like? I always do.

But really, I found a really cool new service that I wanted to share with you! Since I go to a school outside of my hometown, I spend quite a bit of time keeping in touch with people at home. Last year, we invested in webcams and started using Skype. Skype is great, especially for times when I hardly get to come home -- I can Skype with my parents to see what's going on at home and church, with my best friend to get some much needed encouragement and chat time in, and even with friends who have moved away to chat about their lives. It has been so handy.

Over Christmas break, a few of us at church decided to try a bible study during the semester. Since we are all over the country during the year, we thought we would Skype video calls. However, unless we paid, having a conference call with 7 of us wasn't going to happen.

Then what? Well, nothing happened at first, I'm ashamed to admit. But when I got down to searching for a great video call provider who would allow the 7 of us to all talk and see each other at once, I finally found a winner. Yesterday, I signed up for tok-box.

tok-box is a video call service that allows you to conference call (for FREE) with up to 20 people. So you can have business meetings, share exciting news with a big group, have a bible study, or who knows what else!? Now that I'm signed up and getting the hang of it, I'm attempting my first 3-way video call with a couple of friends this weekend. I'm very excited.

Now all I can say is: 20-person-long-distance-tokbox-video dance party GO!

Have a favorite new product or service? Share with me, my friends!

Happy New Year!

Yeehaw!

After a year full of love and laughter and so much blessing, I am looking forward to 2011 with open arms.

I hope that your year is even more stellar than the best you've ever had.
As for new years resolutions? Well, this is a real fine place to start.

Happy New Year!

Halloween 2010: Historical Accuracy

Guys, I'm gonna be honest with you.

I LOVE costumes.

Halloween ranks up there with my favorite days in the whole year, because when else do you get to dress up and look completely awesome? Can't think of a day? That's because Halloween is the only day. So before delving into my costume for this year (which you should remember is a secret) I wanted to fill you in on past costumes and how they came to be.

When I realized that I could throw a Halloween party as a freshman, I jumped on the chance and sent out invitations to my friends, with only one requirement: you must wear a costume! I had quite the plan up my sleeve for my own costume. Though I had been growing my hair out since the beginning of the year, I wanted to be a very authentic Edie Sedgwick (sans drug addictions and eating disorders).


I came home the night before the party, had dinner with my two best friends (long hair still intact) and then the next morning -- chop chop! I lost my locks all in the name of Sedgwick. Fun, right? (I should be honest and tell you I had been considering the hairstyle for a while, and it lined up well with Halloween.)

Last year, I day-dreamed about Amy Adams' sleek look in Night at the Museum II, and then decided to dive head-first into Amelia Earhart research. I picked out a great jacket, borrowed a hanky from a friend, wore very little makeup (big change from the year before!) and voila!

The movie starring Hilary Swank came out a few weeks before, but I still haven't seen it! This was a nice costume as well, because people recognized me a little quicker than they did when I was Edie. The airfield in my hometown actually has a very similar plane to what she flew, but I never got to get my picture with it. Next time!

So now that you know what I was in past years, here's a few tips on how to have a great costume without emptying your (probably already meager) wallet:

Don't buy new/full price: My Edie dress was $9 dollars at Ross. It was a great deal for a dress that I figured I would wear once, but I've worn it several times since then, so it's an even better deal! For Amelia, I already owned the pants, shoes, shirt and borrowed the hanky. The jacket came from Marshall's!

Do your makeup/hair: Though you may think that your costume will look fine with your everyday 'do, makeup and hair are in many cases the "make or break" factor in a good costume. Edie, for example, would have been a flop if I had long hair. For Amelia, I could have done a little more, but I wasn't cutting my hair off again!

Be creative: This probably seems a little obvious, but it's important, and applies to all facets of a good Halloween costume. If you search for a clever costume, you are far less likely to see someone else dressed like you, and if you put a lot of effort into yours, even if you do see a twin, you'll probably look better! Don't think that because you don't want to spend a lot that you have to have a lame costume.

Brainstorming? I hope so.

Did you have an awesome (or maybe not so awesome..) costume? Comment or leave a link, I'd love to see it!

Well Written

When trawling through the posts at one my regular reading spots (you can find my list to your right and also with descriptions in this post) I came upon a post by Jenny over at Geek in Heels sharing a fun and intruiging writer's toy.

The "I Write Like" site will analyze a sample of your writing and tell you which great writer your writing most resembles. Obviously, I couldn't resist, and like Jenny, wanted to test several samples before taking one name as the writer I was most like.

My results?

I write like
David Foster Wallace

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

I write like
Dan Brown

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

I decided to list both of these results, because they both came up repeatedly. However, I am ashamed to say I have never even read a page of David Foster Wallace. Any reading suggestions of his? I have read the DaVinci Code, but not Angels and Demons, so I suppose we'll have to wait and see on that one.

Interestingly, I also got the results of Nobokov, Arthur Conan Doyle and James Joyce - each once. These were all using samples from different posts on this blog.

Ready to test your writing? Tell me what you get or link back here so I can see it!