Freckles: By Natasha Bedingfield

the best day of the year

I posted some Prints from an Etsy site on my design blog. But as I was continuing to search for inspiration I found these, some cute, some funny. I Love it

Nice or in regular english: Let us turn up the beat! clever play on words

Good advice for all of us

Write it on your heart... Ralph Waldo Emerson

Christopher Robin Quote

Baik hidup ni...

Life is Good. It really is. I even have a little knick knack on my dresser that says so - it helps to remind me when I forget, or when I'm not feeling it. I also have a picture of a sunset in Miri with a caption that says 'How did God bless me today?'. That also helps me keep things in perspective.

I can honestly say that at this moment in time I am so happy. I love all of my classes, I have wonderful friends and family, and so many opportunities and experiences are on there way. Right now I am working on my resume and portfolio to send out next month. I can't believe that I am here, and that THIS December, I will be graduating from USU. I still have a ways to get there, finish this semester, internship and working in the summer and then Fall semester and finding a job. -Of course, those are only the things that I have in my plans, who knows what will happen this year. Mungkin jatuh cinta? Saya pun tak tahu, peluang tiada akhir ^_^

I found this quote on a blog that I follow (click the picture for the link). I love it. I really do enjoy a good quote, they inspire me!

So things of note that have happened over the past few days - last Thursday night I had choir practice, that is pretty awesome we will be performing on Feb. 13 at the Joseph Smith Memorial Fireside. Friday night, my roommates and I wen to the Institute activity. It was super packed so all we did was stand in line to ride the mechanical bull. That was SO fun! I've ridden mechanical bulls a couple times before and enjoyed it, so I was excited for the opportunity to do so again! Saturday was very productive, got some shopping done, homework and of course we had our mini donut party! Mini donuts - frosting - sprinkles and of course cran-raspberry + pomegranate 7up slush. Yum! I spent most of the time manning the mini donut maker but it was a good time.. and a special guest came by which totally made my night. Great end to the night by going to the USU Aggies vs New Mexico Aggies - we won of course by 10 points. It was a good game, our Aggies played well for the most part. Then after the game my roommate and I watched another episode of Burn Notice Season 1. It's nice to watch them from the beginning so I understand the back story more. 

This week has been great. Learning loads, being productive, turning in assignments, and having a good time. Taco Tuesday last night was delicious, Country dancing tonight. Mm Life Is Good! 

Natasha Bedingfield - Say It Again

I love Natasha Bedingfield's music! I go through phases where I like to listen to a lot of her songs. They are refreshingly honest, with her unique sound. I rediscovered this song today and lets just say that it struck a chord with me.

Week 2 2011

I made it through week 1 and I still like all of my classes! I had quite the week too. Aside from good classes, Monday night we had FHE, Tuesday night we had a birthday party over at our apt., Wednesday my roommates and I went Country Swing Dancing at the Fun Park, Thursday night I went to Choir Practice at the Institute Building, and Friday after Religion in Life I drove down to Ogden and stayed with family.

 

Country dancing at the Fun Park was a blast. It's always a good feeling when cute boys ask you to dance.. the line dances were fun too, although they didn't play any ones that I know really well. My favorite line dances are to 'Any Man of Mine' and 'Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy'. I don't usually listen to country music any more but I still enjoy dancing to it. Thursday in my Pilates class we had a fitness test... yeah it was tough and then my legs were sore most of the weekend! Thursday night was really great. I decided that I am going to sing Alto and when the song calls for it, I'll sing second Alto. Usually I like to sing Soprano, mainly because typically the soprano part is the melody and I can have a hard time hearing the other parts. But I decided that for the songs we will be singing for the Fireside, the soprano part was a little higher than my range.. and I'd rather sing Alto this time anyway. I made a good choice because I have some friends also singing alto... that reminds me, I need to bring home a copy of the music so I can practice more.

Friday came quickly. My day started out with a challenging REVIT class - we learned how to draw walls and how to change the structure of the walls and started building a building. It was pretty intense. I thought it would be fairly easy, and similar to AutoCAD... yeah not so much. So this class is going to be a learning experience for sure! But good news, my textbook came so I can go back over what we do in class so I can make sure that I get it. Another challenge is that I can't let myself forget AutoCAD... that would be a tragedy. I think that I should be able to keep up my CAD skills because I relearned CAD well after my mission, and most of it came back to me. Only time will tell. After CAD, I ran some errands and then went to Religion in Life at the Institute. We had Elder Earl Tingey, President of the Washington D.C. Temple come and talk. One of his quotes from the talk was "I can sleep while the wind blows" - he told us a story about a farm hand who was so diligent and hard working, that he never needed to worry when the storms came, he could sleep peacefully knowing all that was in his control was taken care of.  He spoke a lot on being organized and prepared. D&C 38:30 "...if ye are prepared ye shall not fear."  He also spoke on having integrity and self confidence and also on the importance of prioritizing the things in our lives. He of course talked about the importance of the gospel in our lives and towards the end of his talk said: "If you understand the plan of happiness, your happiness will not be effected by the winds of the world."


After Religion in Life I ran back to my apt. got a quick lunch and then packed up my car and headed back to Ogden for the long weekend. My darling cousin met me there and we stayed at our Grandparents house. Highlights from the weekend: watching Sharpe's Peril, eating at Maddox, visiting my cousin Jani and getting to hold her month old son, watching Shrek 4, Playing Wii Party at my Aunt's house, hanging out with my Grandparents, and just being with family. 


So after a wonderful weekend with family, I am back up in Logan. Classes are going well and I am loving life ^_^ 

Spring Semester 2011

I have been back in Logan for 4 days now. Saturday was nice. It was a relief to get back up to Logan in my own car and it felt great to reorganize my room. My brother calls me a neat freak. It's not that I really enjoy cleaning (although sometimes it is an effective means of stress reduction) - but I like things to be cleaned and organized. I can handle a little bit of clutter, but I like it when things have a place. That's why I finally put together my bookcase, went through my storage and drawers - I got rid of old papers and things that I didn't need any more. It was quite liberating.

Sunday was good. I slept in a little then made pancakes for breakfast - I put the pear jam on them that my roommate gave me for Christmas. I LOVE pear jam - aka pear butter. It is one of my favorite things in the world - along with home made bread and fresh pressed apple juice. Mmm *heaven*.
  After church, I went back to the apt. for a quick dinner, then back to the church to watch the CES Fireside. Elder D. Todd Christofferson gave a talk entitled: "Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread"   He talked about taking things day by day and how goals are accomplished one day at a time. It was really good. :)
  Then once the fireside was over, I stayed at the church for Ward Choir practice. We are going to sing 'Come Thou Fount" so that should be nice.

This week has been going well. I think I am really going to enjoy my classes this semester. I am especially excited for my REVIT class and the Sustainability class. REVIT will be great because I love figuring out how things are built. Sustainability will be awesome, because once the class is over, I should be ready to take the LEED GA exam - if I pass it, I will be a LEED General Associate, first step to becoming a LEED Accredited Professional. I love Sustainable ("Green") design. That was something that really got me interested in Interior Design, that and the ADA. I like my 'Business Practices in Interior Design' class. I think that will be very helpful as I get ready to apply for an internship this summer, and in the future when I am working. Our assignment for tomorrow was to find a blog or website that inspires us. I am going to share dwellinggawker.com and a blog that I found on there: The Designer Pad. If you need some quick inspiration, check those websites out!

  I am also impressed with my Fundamentals of Marketing class, I feel that I am going to learn a lot in that class. Our first reading is titled: "Are You a High Potential" by Douglas A Ready, Jay A. Conger and Linda A Hill. It is on the Business Source Premier section of EBSCOHost. The article is about 'High Potential' employees of a company and how they are treated differently, and what exactly the define a 'High Potential' to be:

Anatomy of a High Potential

High potentials always deliver strong results, master new types of expertise, and recognize that behavior counts. But it's their intangible X factors that truly distinguish them from the pack.

THE FOUR X FACTORS OF HIGH POTENTIALS  

1.  Drive to excel

2.  Catalytic learning capability

3.  Enterprising spirit

4.  Dynamic sensors

Very interesting. I love my classes! I think the best part is, is that I get to study something that really interests me, and will have practical applications today, and when I graduate and get out there and get a job! Awesome!

Something else I have realized this week.... I am really blessed with great friends. I am so lucky to have awesome roommates and great friends in almost all of my classes. Just another reason why this is going to be a great semester. Also, in the classes that I don't know anyone, the people have been super friendly. :) I found this picture a little while back and thought it was fitting now:

In other news - Sassy is still running! I am very grateful for that, I have grown quite attached and reliant on my car. I hope she makes it at least through the semester!

Sassy lives!

So in case you haven't guessed, Sassy is the name of my car. I usually don't name things, but my roommates named their cars and I thought it would be fun. Sassy gets her name from the quirks she has. She is a 1994 model so yeah. But she has a great engine. Well after a couple days of worrying and not knowing what was going on with my car, today we figured it out.

Well it being winter and my car being a little older we think part of the fuel line froze ... and somehow my battery went dead too. So a new battery and some coaxing finally brought my Sassy back to life. I think it didn't help that I didn't drive very far over the whole break. But thankfully we got everything going in time for me to load up and drive back to Logan before the snow set in. I believe in miracles. Do you?

And so it begins. After I got back to Logan I put together a bookcase that I bought at the beginning of the year but never took the time to take care of it. Then I organized and cleaned up my room. Pretty much did everything except put away all my clothes. I took a break to run to the store with my roommate and then we came back, got some dinner and watched Indiana Jones: The Last Crusade. I LOVE that movie. For some reason it never gets old! Of course I don't really believe in all the Holy Grail legend like that but I think the movie has some hilarious lines and good actors. One of my favorite scenes is when they are in the library breaking the floor tile to find the tomb of the knight, and the noise from breaking the tile matches up with the bookkeeper stamping library books. Classic. ^_^

I found this picture on another blog and I really liked it:

The Moment of Truth...

So Thursday I hopped in my car to go mail a package to my Dad and instead of roaring to life... my car decided to start and then a few seconds later, die. Then she wouldn't start again...awesome, as in not really. So I borrowed my brother's car to run to the post office and then when I came back I first, put my spare where it goes (when they replaced my wheel, they didn't put the tire back in the right spot, just chucked it in my truck... lame), cleaned out my trunk and then popped the hood to see what I could do. I checked the oil, antifreeze and the general look of the engine to see if I saw anything out of the ordinary but no luck. When my stepdad got home from work we looked at it again, check a couple of other things, even tried jumper cables to make sure it wasn't my battery... but again no luck. We were going to try again yesterday but he wasn't able to get off of work early enough so here was are, the day I want to go back to Logan, trying again. I really hope we can find out what is wrong, that it is a small, easy fix, and that I can get on my way. We shall see.

In other news, over the break I was getting very familiar with Wikipedia Commons. My Dad wanted me to find him some copyright free pictures of artwork for one of his projects. Did you know that in the USA, after the lifetime of the artist, plus 70 years, then the artwork is considered in public domain. I had no idea- but that is pretty cool.

My favorite artists are Claude Monet, Edouard Manet, and JMW Turner. I enjoy many different styles and subjects of art, but if I had to pick 3, these would be my favorites. Honorable mention to Vincent Van Gogh, I have been able to see many of these artist's works in person in various art galleries over the world. Speaking of art galleries, I need to get to one, I haven't been to an art gallery in a while.

But anyway I thought that I would share some pieces that I like:

Vincent Van Gogh

Vincent Van Gogh

Claude Monet

Claude Monet

JMW Turner

I think the last art museum I went to was the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. I'm usually not a huge fan of modern art museums, but I really enjoyed that one. They had a couple of temporary exhibits that used light and color - so interesting!

I couldn't help but include this piece also:

'Soul of the Rose' by JW Waterhouse

Waterhouse has many paintings of women from medieval times or inspired from literature. I liked this one :'The Soul of the Rose' - for one thing, because I like roses a lot, and I like the general quality and feeling of this piece. 

Well wish me luck with my car. I really would like to drive myself up to Logan today. We'll see what happens. 

Noble and great. Courageous and determined. Faithful and fearless

Sunday in church we discussed the talk "Knowing Who You Are- and Who You Always Have Been" by Sheri Dew. I thought it was quite a fitting start to the new year. Click on the link above for the whole talk, but I picked out a few quotes that I really like!

Our spirits long for us to remember the truth about who we are, because the way we see ourselves, our sense of identity, affects everything we do. It affects the way we behave, the way we respond to uncertainty, the way we see others, the way we feel about ourselves, and the way we make choices. It affects the very way we live our lives. So, today, I invite you to ponder in a new way not just who you are but who you have always been.



  We are among the elect whom the Lord has called during this "eleventh hour" to labor in His vineyard, a vineyard that "has become corrupted every whit" and in which only a few "doeth good" (D&C 33:3-4). We are those few. God, who saw the "end from the beginning" (Abraham 2:8), foresaw perfectly what these times would demand. Thus, said President George Q. Cannon, "God . . . reserved spirits for this dispensation who [would] have the courage and determination to face the world, and all the powers of the evil one," and who would "build up the Zion of our God, fearless of all consequences."6
  Can you imagine that God, who knew us perfectly, reserved us to come now, when the stakes would be higher and the opposition more intense than ever? When He would need women who would help raise and lead a chosen generation in the most lethal spiritual environment? Can you imagine that He chose us because He knew we would be fearless in building Zion?

Noble and great. Courageous and determined. Faithful and fearless. That is who you are, and that is

 who you have always been.

Listen to these words from President Gordon B. Hinckley: "Woman is God's supreme creation. . . .


"Of all the creations of the Almighty, there is none more . . . inspiring than a . . . daughter of God who walks in virtue with an understanding of why she should do so."14


"Rise above the dust of the world. Know that you are daughters of God . . . and that there is for you a great work to be done which cannot be left to others." 15


My dear sisters, will you seek to remember with the help of the Holy Ghost who you are and who you have always been? Will you remember that you stood by our Savior without flinching? Remember that you were reserved for now because you would have the courage and determination to face the world at its worst and to help rear and lead a chosen generation. Remember the covenants you have made and the power they carry. Remember that you are noble and great and a potential heir of all our Father has. Remember that you are the daughter of a King.


 -Definitely gives me something to think about. I especially love the part where she says that we are Noble and great. Courageous and determined. Faithful and fearless.  - Something to live up to right? This talk made me think for a little while. Sometimes I forget. I forget why I am here, what I should be doing - and get wrapped up in school or trying to fix everything. I am grateful to know that I have a purpose - even if I don't always understand it, or recognize it. I am grateful to know that my Father in Heaven, knows me and knows what I am capable of. I hope that I can continue to grow and better myself so I can rise to my potential and life others in the process. 

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Well life is good. I am getting ready to head back up to Logan for Spring semester - incidently my last spring semester as an Undergrad! I am excited for the classes I will be taking - which I have mentioned before - and I think this semester will bring an array of new opportunities and challenges. So that should be exciting. 


This week, as with most of the break - has been spent hanging out with family. I was able to go to the Temple with my Mom, help my Grandparents organize and clean their laundry room, watch some more Dr.Who Season 5 and Psych Season 3 with my brother, do a little art research for my Dad, and still have some time to myself to watch Merlin Season 1, cross stitch, and read The Last Unicorn. It has been a nice break from class, but I am ready to get back to school.


In other news... I am really excited for Valentine's Day. Why you way ask? - I have no idea really, it's not like I have someone special... although a lot can happen in a month right, so suppose there is always a possibility. I am excited for the candy and the treats and most likely a girls night with my roommates. Perhaps fueling my excitement is something awesome that I got for Christmas - a mini donut maker! It is so cute! 

Bite sized bits of happiness

I have been looking for another excuse to break out the donut maker and decorate some darling mini donuts.

- And now I have so share a picture of my favorite donuts ever - I stumbled across this picture while looking for one of mini donuts:

J.CO Donuts are amazing!

I first found J.CO in Kuala Lumpur (West Malaysia). If ever a donut could change a life - it would be one of these! Okay I am totally kidding about the life changing thing, but these donuts are really good!

Well I thought I would take advantage of the time I have this week to blog a little bit before I get swamped with school work and things, but even then I'll try to post weekly.. at least bi-weekly. Not that I think my blog is important to anyone but me, I write what I see, learn and think about. I try to keep it interesting, but at the end of the day I do it for me. I appreciate that you took the time to read this, and hope that you will be back. Leave a comment if you will and let me know how you are doing and what you are thinking about. I'll be honest, that's probably much more interesting than anything you will see here ;)

Selamat Tahun Baru! (Happy New Year!)

And so it finally has come -the dawning of a new year full of promise and unique opportunities and experiences. Over the past couple of days I have spent quite a bit of time contemplating the past year, and what 2011 may bring.

One of the things I have been giving my attention to lately is my love of good quotes - whatever the source. I love quotes from writers, Prophets, poets, academics, and 'ordinary people' - if there is such thing. So to start my collection I went and bought me a journal of sorts that has 'Live Love Laugh" written on the outside. What really drew me to this particular journal was the silver coating of the pages. I thought it was fitting to hold the words of wisdom, advice, and observations of the quotes I will find to fill it - little treasures. The first quote of my new book is by Henry David Thoreau:

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. 

Live the life you have imagined"

I LOVE that quote. I thought it was particularly fitting to begin this year off with because this year I will graduate from USU! I have a feeling that this year will play a part in shaping the rest of my life. (well I suppose every year, every day has the potential to shape the rest of our lives)

I am grateful for the Christmas Season, and although we know better as to the date of Christ's birth, I like celebrating it at the end of the year. It is a wonderful opportunity to shift the focus of our lives to others, to try harder to do good and to reevaluate our priorities. Then as soon as Christmas is over, we get to celebrate the beginning of a New Year, full of the lingering Christmas Spirit. This new year will probably bring trials and difficult situations... but I am grateful for the opportunities that are going to come my way, the decisions I am going to have to make that will influence me, my future and perhaps to some extent those around me. Sometimes it is easy to feel insignificant but I know that we have a greater influence on those around us than we realize.

As I have been contemplating the past year, I wonder if I wasted some of it. If I could have done more, if I should have done this or that.. I am borrowing this quote from my friend's blog, which got me thinking...

You can always look back and see where you might have done something differently, changed this or that. If you can learn something, fine, but never second-guess yourself. 

It's wasted effort. –John Wooden

I know that there is truth in that. Although I am sure there are times in our past where we could and should have done something differently... but once things are done, we should focus on the present and what we can do today. I try to live in the moment. Now don't get me wrong, I think of the future and I set goals and make plans, but I really try to be in the moment - to give my attention to those I am with, savor the moment and make the most of it. 

As I have been thinking about my goals for the month, semester and year, these words came to mind: Balance, Aspiration, Confidence and Courage. I feel like this year is going to be a challenge and that I am really going to have to step up to the plate and courageously move forward. That reminds me of a quote by President Gordon B. Hinckley:

"This is a season to be strong. It is a time to go forward without hesitation, knowing well the meaning, the breadth, and the importance of our mission. It is time to do what is right regardless of the consequences that might follow. It is a time to be found keeping the commandments. It is a season to reach out with kindness and love to those in distress and to those who are wandering in darkness and pain. It is a time to be considerate and good, decent and courteous toward one another in all of our relationships, 

in other words, to become more Christlike."

 And so it is with an open heart I welcome the New Year and move forward in the direction of my dreams grateful for those family members and friends who are such a strength and blessing in my life.