Organizing Nail Polish!

I'm just so happy to have finished a project that I have to brag a little. I successfully organized my mess of a nail polish drawer. Woohoo!

I got the idea from this Beaty Department post. They have great step-by-step instructions so I will just tell you what I did a bit differently. First off, I used a box I had that was already pretty and needed a purpose.

 

I also changed the box halfway so some of these pics are misleading.... Anyway, I painted nail polish colors around the borders of sticker paper (because I had no label paper and a ton of sticker paper). Be careful to keep your polish lined up in order and keep similar colors in separate batches.

After the polish dried, I punched out a hole for each color with a plain hole punch.

 

Then, stick the color designators on top so you know which color is which! That second box contains the spillover colors, topcoats, and accessories.

Bonus craft: when I was done, Mike and I were talking about how pretty the strips of color were, so I made them into bookmarks.

 

I peeled off the back of the sticker paper, stuck them on card stock and cut them out. They are kind of messy and abstract and I love them.

 

It feels good to finish something lately, even if it is small.

 

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I was just here. Where did I go?

Answer: over to Chocolate and Cream Cake.

I'm guesting over at my geeky friend Mandy's blog about geeky T's! Make sure to check it out!

Fall Things

Autumn is my favorite season, especially here in Colorado. My house is so charming with its porch and leaves scattered in the yard from the big yellow tree. I would show you a picture, but there is a construction crew rebuilding the sidewalk where they had to fix the sewer system a couple of weeks ago. It's not looking so pretty at the moment.

So, it seems like everyone in the blogosphere is in love with fall, but I'm throwing my two cents in anyway. Here are the things I love about it:

Pumpkin. I know it is cliche, but pumpkin beer and cookies and bread and pie are so fantastic and they just taste wrong in any other season. I'm also a fan of pumpkin soap and lotion. I just think pumpkins themselves are so pretty, too.

Fall premieres. I like my TV, and Fall is when the TV comes back! I haven't had time to watch, well, any until this weekend, so I'm enjoying catching up on stuff. Particularly, my comedies like Parks & Recreation, Up all Night and All about Schmidt New Girl.

My classic fall stand-bys. There is something about the change in the weather that makes me want to watch Gilmore Girls and read Sarah Addision Allen books. Stars Hollow always makes me think of Fall, and then curling up with a book about cakes that are also magic? Love it.

Changing leaves. Especially aspens. Enough said.

The colors. Especially orange and jewel tones.

So, what are your favorite things about Fall?

Books to Read or Re-Read by the End of the Year

(I've seen the musical a bunch of times. Does that count?)

(this last one is a re-read for the fourth or fifth time)

Is anyone else with me on this? We could call it the Movie Book Club 2012 or something.

When did Groupon become the best thing ever?

I have had a Groupon account for a while, but there was never much that interested me on there. Lately, however, it's like Groupon started reading my mind.

Your tenant just moved out? You must need amazing deals on carpet cleaning and full house detailing available from Phoenix Groupon! How do they know?!

You are in a wedding next weekend? Well, obviously you need a really cheap professional teeth whitening kit. Why, yes I do!

Did you need motivation to start exercising? Here's an amazing deal on fitness boot camp! Yay!

Seriously! How do they know? Is Groupon stalking me?

Making Sun Tea in Jars

I love sun tea. We have a big pitcher for it, but it tends to leak in the fridge and I tend to get sick of one flavor of tea before it's empty. Enter the most versatile item in my kitchen: the ball jar! Now, I may have seen this idea somewhere else (like Pinterest) and then completely forgotten it, but I would prefer to say I came up with it on my own.

Did I mention it is also the easiest thing ever? Just add 2 tea bags to a clean jar, fill with water up to the neck, cap, and then let it sit in the sun for 4-5 hours, depending on how strong you like your iced tea. Make sure the spot will stay sunny for a while. I set it up on the west side of my yard so it would get sun all afternoon. After it has brewed, remove bags and place jars in your fridge and let cool. When you're thirsty, pour over ice and add sugar if you like that kind of thing. I recommend storing your tea unsweetened. Drink it within a week of brewing.

When I was surfing around posts on sun tea, I discovered that some people have concerns about sun tea since you don't boil the water. If you follow these guidelines, you should be fine, but if you're worried, I would brew it overnight in the fridge instead.

Enjoy!

 

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It's 30 lists time again! Days 1-5 #30lists

http://30daysoflists.com/

Ideas, Goals, and Pledges

I have some good ideas. Well, I think they're good, anyway. Maybe if I put them out there I might abide by them for once. Once, like a million years ago, I made a pledge to not buy any tchotchkes for a year. Now it has been more than 4 years. No tchotchkes. Maybe it's because my best friend laughed at me in the comments to that post. IN YOUR FACE! (Love you)

Anyone want to make some pledges with me?

1. Clean out my closet. For reals. I actually clear out my closet quite frequently, but it never seems quite clear enough. I need to really get down to it.

2. Photos! I can't believe I still haven't gotten my photos from Comic-Con off of my camera. I planned on this being the year I blogged about it super early, but instead it's super late. I blame my back. It totally seized up after all the traveling I did this summer and I could barely move. I did get a lot of Vampire Diaries watched, though, so really it's a win.

3. Books. If I have a shopping addiction, it is probably to buying books. As a result, I have many books on my shelves that I have yet to read. For those not on my shelf (or on my desk, or stacked in the living room), I am embracing the library more. With the Colorado Springs Library (pretty extensive actually), several college libraries, and the DMNS library at my disposal, there's really no excuse. Especially with things like hold shelves and interlibrary loans. I just need to also embrace the "renew books" and the "return books on time" philosophies as well.

4. That Pesky GRE. I have taken this test once before, but my knowledge of Geometry deteriorates a little more each year, so I guess I need to study. I'm dedicating Friday as GRE study day! I'm hoping to take it in about a month. After the CPA exam, standardized tests don't really scare me anymore.

5. Make contacts and join societies. This is good for students and professionals. I've started going to office hours more, even if I don't really have questions. I talked with one professor about Harry Potter for about half an hour. As for joining societies, I recommend that for everyone! Joining a society looks good on a resume, and you might learn something, too!

6. Volunteer. Since moving to Colorado, I haven't been that involved. Since this is basically the only time since 7th grade that I haven't been volunteering for something, I am jonesing to give back to the community! It just feels good, you know?

7. Blogs. Not necessarily a pledge to get back to blogging (though, that is something to think about), but to get back into the community. I am planning a comment spree on all my favorites that I haven't visited in a while.

8. Facebook. How many people, in a list of goals, make one to spend MORE TIME on Facebook? This might be the first. I really need to promote Nerdified Shirts more on social networks.

9. New Shirt Designs! These have been in my head for a while, but they are going to be on shirts soon! Look for new designs by the end of September. There, I've made a deadline!

10. There is no ten, because I just looked up and realized I have to leave for class in 20 minutes and I'm still in my PJs. OOPS!

Anyone have any other good ones? 

Ancient Mayan Cities - Xunantunich & Cahal Pech

Xunantunich (Soo-nan-TOO-neech) and Cahal Pech (Petch) were some of the smaller (but still beautiful) places we visited in Belize. It was actually pretty zen because there were a lot fewer tourists there. At Cahal Pech, there was basically no one. We even laid down on top of the highest temple and had a nice relaxing moment before a busy day of taking a bus back to Belize City and then a water taxi to Caye Caulker.

First up, Xunantunich. We stayed at a place called the Trek Stop, which caters to backpackers. It was very hippie-ish with rainwater showers and compost toilets, but it was actually pretty nice. We had a fan in our room (and electricity!) and everything. We had chosen it because if its proximity to the ruins, inexpensiveness, and potential to meet other backpackers. Unfortunately, we ended up being the only ones staying there! Just kind of a freak thing, being the rainy season in the middle of the week. It was sort of cool, having the place to ourselves. The only problem was that rainwater showers have zilch water pressure so we didn't take showers for a couple of days.

We walked the half mile to the river and got on the ferry. There the sign said 1 mile to the ruins, but there were a lot of tourists taking cabs. Scoffing at them, we took the one mile hike. Straight uphill. All the way. Super steep. Now, I don't know about you, but when I'm backpacking across country, doing tons of manual labor, hiking up temples, and scuba diving on my "relaxing vacation," a whole bunch of extra walking uphill isn't really what I'm looking for. Especially in the crazy humidity. But, as was the case with pretty much everything on this trip, I feel like I really earned the pretty pictures.

Xunantunich's most notable feature is its Western Frieze. It is so beautiful. What you see here is actually an artist's replica set in front of the real frieze to protect it.

See how those stairs line up? What do you want to bet that's a direct North-South line? The Mayans were so cool.

Canopy view from the top of the highest temple. We sat up there for a while, chatting with a tourist from Chicago, originally from Latvia. We traded stories of temples and recommendations of places to visit. We forgot to ask his name, so we called him Latvia Chicago for the rest of our trip.

Current excavations.

Next up, Cahal Pech! This one was at the top of a hill, too, but we had taken a cab from our hotel as it was about 10 miles away. So, we just had to hike down the hill, which was very fortunate, as we had our backpacks with us. 

Give it scale, Liz!







Big stairs! For reference, Liz is about 6 feet tall.



Hey, we were both here! All gross and sweaty!



Zen moment. She also has a very similar picture of me from when I wasn't looking.

The very last installment of Ancient Mayan Cities will be about Tikal, the really spectacular one. You know the thing about saving the best for last!

Ancient Mayan Cities - Lamanai

Lamanai means "submerged crocodile" in an Ancient Mayan dialect. Actually, it doesn't. It means "submerged insect" because the Spaniards kept pronouncing the Mayan wrong. But, let's pretend it means "submerged crocodile," shall we? Lamanai was unique in that it is located along a river, and it thrived much longer than any of the other cities we visited.

The first time I went, it was by road, but the second time we had a very pleasant river cruise. It was really cool and there were plenty of animals to shoot (with a camera).

A brown sugar factory.

My monkey muses. 

Bats.

The first time I visited Lamanai, it was rainy, and that beautiful green moss basically has the friction coefficient of ice after a sprinkle. Long story short, I fell. Ouch. The second time, it was nice and dry and we were able to climb temples without fear of slipping off. 

The Jaguar Temple. 

The tall column is a stelae, upon which the history of the area and its rulers is inscribed. The stelae that you see here are replicas as exposure damages the carvings. The real ones are in the museum on the property.







The Mask Temple. These masks are also replicas, protecting the real carvings behind them.









The view from the top.



Here is the aptly named High Temple that I mentioned before in my Climbing Temples post.









I love seeing the top of the canopy. It almost seems like an escape from the jungle.