Keeping an Open Mind

Sometimes life surprises you. For example, I got my class schedule for this year on Tuesday only to find out that I am taking a business course. Yea, you read that right, business. My first reaction to this was "I AM NOT a business person!" And that's exactly what I texted my mom that morning. Now in this situation I could have done one of two things. 1) I could have gone straight to my guidance office and drop that class like it was hot! or 2) I could have been open minded and went to the class thinking hey, maybe this will be good for me, and I will enjoy it. Now, which one do you think I chose?

If you guess number 2....you're wrong. In fact, I went startight to that guidance office and demanded to have my class changed! Now, if you go to my school, and have ever tried to change a course on the first day of a semester then you know that it's doubtful you're going to even get put on a list. All I was given was class change request form and a boot out the door! This meaning that I was forced to go to class.

So here I go, I see my teacher in the hall way and greet him with a "Hey, how was your summer? Oh, by the way, im dropping your class" - Not exactly the nicest greating in the world but I was under a lot of pressure by that point in the day. So I got into the class, sat with someone I knew, and tried to get the jist of what the class was all about. (Note: It wasn't business, it was entrepreneurship.) Can you guess what happeded next?! Well truth is, by the end of the class, I was sold! I was so excited about being in this class that I wanted to start the final assignment right away! So, in life, you have to keep your mind open to new things, because it just might work out in the end.

That was an example of how things work out, and how you can start off unhappy, but turn out being overly satisfied. Now this is going to be a story of how you can start off proud, and happy, but turn to loosing your confidence and maybe shedding a few tears.

Tonight I went to my first meeting at my community photography club. I was so proud of myself for going, and getting out into the community. I had a great time interacting with people, and listening to the guest speaker, JLV Photography (who was amazing, and a delight to listen to for an hour!). I had some thoughts during the presentation about my own skills, and ended up easily relating to what the guest speaker was saying. He talked about how he started off taking normal family portraits, but always felt that people were better than him. This is the way I have been feeling. I recently did an anniversary party, but still was thinking to myself, this is not going to produce the photos I will be proud of from this, and even these photos could be better taken by someone with a better camera, someone with a better understanding of their camera etc. needless to say, I gave the family their photos today, unsatisfied, and feeling kinda shitty about what I had produced. Fast forward a few hours, and I am left, right now, sitting in bed with my laptop, being dramatic, not knowing what I want to do with my life... it feels like just a few hours ago I had everything figured out, but then I finally realized just how competitive the photography industry is. It's a hard thing to accept when you're sixteen, and think anything can happen if you just believe.

The point is, life is hard sometimes, and sometimes the lessons, or reasons for having certain experiences don't make sense for years, so for tonight, I'm going to go to sleep, and wake up tomorrow like it's a new day, and remember, things don't happen by just believing, things happen by planning, organizing, and overall working your ass of, and that, my friends, is just what I plan to do because I, am a photographer.

DIY: Headboard

I've been trying to finish my room up just the way I like it, but recently I've felt like something was missing on the wall behind my bed, so what does a DIY girl do? She makes a headboard! It was super easy and I felt very wo-manly after wards! *Note, my bed is a twin, so adjust measurements and materials to your bed*

What you'll need: 

-Scrap wood

-Bleach

- 2 2X4's

-Base paint

-Writing paint

-Nails

-Hammer

-Screws

-Screwdriver

-Tape measure
-Wood cutting devise (or a local hard wear store)

1. First gather your wood, I used 6 pieces total just for the headboard part and 2 2X4's (not pictured).
 *When you put your headboard together the 6th piece of wood will not be seen, so if you want a tall headboard add an extra board*

2. Take these boards and wash them down with warm water and bleach using a scrub brush. This will disinfect them and get all the bugs out of the boards!

3. Set the boards up to dry.

4. While the boards are drying go and measure your bed to get the desired height and width. These were my measurements;
Width: 38"apx
height: 48' apx

 5. You can choose to either cut the boards yourself, in which case you should be very careful, and use safety glasses etc. or, you can go to your local hard ware place and they will usually do 1 cut for $1.00 or so, so in this case, 8 boards would cost you $8.00, which isn't that bad!

6. Now that your boards are cut, you need to place them similar to the picture to the left.

Optional: you can use wood glue to secure them to make hammering the nails easier if you are doing this by yourself, I had help so i skipped this step.

7. Now nail the boards into the 2X4's. I used 4 nails per board, 2 on each end. Also, make sure your nails are long enough to go half way through the 2X4 so they are sturdy!

 8. Now the fun part, painting! So I chose a white base colour and a purple writing colour, but you can choose whatever colours you like! I did two coats of white paint all over the headboard using a roller and a paintbrush for the grooves. If you want a distressed look you can just use the roller and leave some spots still woody.

9. Let it dry before painting the words.

10. While the boards are drying choose the phrase, word, or quote you desire.

Here were some of my contenders:
"You have brains in your head,
you have feet in your shoes,
you can steer yourself in any direction you choose"
-Dr. Seuss

"For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others;
for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness;
and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone"
-Audrey Hepburn

11. Pencil the quote onto the boards the way you want them.

12. Paint over the pencil marks, let dry.

13. Screw the headboard into your bed frame.

And you're done!


I'm not the fondest of my own hand writing, but I did the best I could and that's all that matters, and even if my hand writing sucks, I am still proud of the headboard because I learnt a lot of things doing this project, and that head board is as sturdy as a rock!

If you try this DIY share the link in the comments! 

I would love to see them! 

Baked Cheesecake Recipe

Clearly I have been baking a lot from the past three posts I have made! But these recipes are just so good I would feel bad just keeping them in my favourites folder for no one to see! 

Sorry for the "one piece" picture,
it was just so good I couldn't stop! 

Here is the original recipe: Baked Cheesecake Recipe
Here is mine, with a few alterations:


Ingredients:
Crust:
-Pre-made graham cracker pie crust
Filling:
-1 pk of cream cheese
-1 tbsp lemon juice
-1/2 cup of sugar
-1/4 cup of milk
-dash of salt
-1/2 tsp vanilla
-2 eggs
Topping:
-2tbs sugar
-1/2 tsp vanilla
-1 cup sour cream


Directions:
1. Filling- Beat cream cheese until fluffy, then toss in the lemon juice, sugar, milk, salt, and vanilla.
2. Filling- Add in eggs one at a time mixing well between each egg.
3. Pour filling into pie crust and bake at 325F for 30-35 min. (Until the pie only jiggles when you shake it)
4. Topping- While the cheesecake is baking, mix together the sugar, vanilla, and sour cream.
5. Once the cheesecake is fully cooked slowly scoop on the topping, and even it out over the top of the cake.
6. Cook the cake for another 10 min.
7. Let cool for 5 hours and serve.

Viola! You're done, now you can have your cheesecake, and eat it too! 

The Ultimate Birthday Cake

 One of the first pins I ever made on Pinterest was this cake. It inspired me to make the cake pictured to the right for my uncles birthday!
Of corse, the inspiration for this cake used smarties, not Reese's Pieces, but I had to be different in some way!


To make this cake I gathered these materials/ingredients:
-Cake base (Bulk Barn-less than $2.00)
-Bulk Reese Pieces (Bulk Barn-around $5.00)
*You only need one scoop of them, I over did it and got two, and paid for it, literally!*
-Ribbon (Wal-mart- $2.00)
-3X 4 pack of kit-kat bars (Wal-mart- 2.50/pack)
*If you're buying them individually you will probably need 10 Kit-Kat bars*
-2X cooked chocolate cake slabs
-Chocolate frosting


 Now just put it together:
1. Cook the cake, let cool.
2. Put some frosting on the cake base and place the firs slab on.
3. Generously apply frosting to the top of the first slab of cake.
4. Place the second slab on top of the first.
5. Cover all of the cake in frosting.
6. Get all of the Kit-Kat bars open and broken in half (so you're left with sets of 2 bars connected).
7. Put some frosting on the smooth side of the Kit-Kat.
8. Place onto the cake.
9. Repeat 7 and 8 until all sides of the cake are covered.
10. Place the ribbon around the cake to secure the Kit-Kat bars.
11. Drop the Reese's Pieces over the top of the cake.
12. Finish by wrapping with cellophane and tie with matching ribbon.

Viola! You're done! Cut and enjoy! :)

Tofu Fettuccine Alfredo

There was a point in my life when I thought I could be a vegetarian, in less than a month I realized that I was so not a vegetarian! But I came to this conclusion without even trying tofu! So, the other day I was grocery shopping and decided I would try tofu for the first time! 

When I got home my first instinct was to refer to the Spark Recipes App. I've used this app many times, like for my baked potato soup! So, I found many recipes but decided to pick one for "tofu fettuccine alfredo"and It was awesome!

Ingredients:
-Cooked fettuccine
-12oz. soft tofu, drained
-3 garlic cloves, minced
        *I used this site to learn how to mince fresh garlic*
-1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
-1 tbsp olive oil
-1tbsp onion powder

Directions:
1. Cook pasta.
2. As pasta is cooking place tofu, garlic, cheese, oil, and onion powder into the blender and bland until smooth.
3. Pour this mixture into a sauce pan and warm over medium heat, stirring occasionally.
4. Toss pasta and mixture, and viola, you're done!



What are your favourite recipes with tofu in them?

Pinterest INVITE!

So, in my last post I mentioned my obsession with Pinterest! So I'd like to give you some more information, some tips, and maybe even the opportunity for you to get an invite! 

Pin it!

The way that I explain Pinterest is that it's like Tumblr for people with OCD in the way that you can organize all of your pictures (called "pins") onto different "boards"(Think: a tumblr page for every category!) 

Pin it!

Some of my favourite boards are categorized as:

-DIY/Crafts

-To Do: Before I die

-Quotes

-Health/Fitness

-Style

-Nails

-Hair

-Makeup

-Future Wedding

-Future Kids!

-Recipes

-Organization/Clever

-My Future House <3 

-Want!

Tips:

1. If you want more details about a pin simply click on the picture and it will take you to the corresponding website!

2. If you're pinning a picture and want to create a new board to pin it on scroll down to the bottom in the drop box of your pin boards and there will be a text box that you can create a new board in!

3. Create a good amount of boards! If your board topics are too broad than you will have a hard time finding things!

4. Follow people who pin things that interest you! 

5. If someone you are following is pinning stuff you don't like, but you love all the other stuff they pin you can choose to only follow specific boards!

Pin it!


If you are now dying to get Pinterest then comment below with your e-mail or e-mail me (breanne96@hotmail.com) saying you would like an invite for Pinterest and I would be happy to send you one!

Happy Thursday :)

Pinterest: Marble Nails

I have been so addicted to Pinterest for the last three months and I love sharing the awesome things I find so I'm going to start making posts about things I have found/ been inspired by on Pinterest! 

The first is going to be marbled nails! If you're interested in trying it out, here's the tutorial I was inspired by!

My mess after marbling! 

What happens when you don't tape around your nails
while marbling!

The Final Product!