PROJECT HEAVEN!!!

So being the crazy person I am, I am working on a million projects at one time...most of them swap-bot related.


Projects done/working on over this weekend

• Harry Potter ATC for the Meet Me at Platform 9 3/4 Swap on swap-bot. This swap is complete (YAY!) and the ATC is ready to be mailed out on Monday. First ATC I've ever made and  I think it turned out great!
• Eleanor Rigby ATC for the Beatles Lyrics ATC #2 Swap on swap-bot. I have an idea in my head of what I want to do, lets see if that actually happens!
• I also did a "Pay it forward 2011" homemade gift post on Facebook at the beginning of the month. For the first 5 people to post, they would get something handmade from me. I'm working on different things right now.
• John Argue: He will be receiving an envelope with several handmade postcards, a handmade magazine envelope, and possibly an ATC or something. He is a friend from high school that now lives in Texas, I believe this is going to be a big surprise for him!
• Erin Graebert: I'm going to surprise her with a postcard at school...she just doesn't know it yet XD
• Jamisa: I'm going to stuff an envelope for her as well :)
• Luna: Well...she reads my blog...and so I don't want to give away any surprises!
• I sadly didn't get a 5th person who wanted to do it....so if any readers want something handmade...let me know your address and I will send something magical your way!
• I wrote a ton of entries for my Music and Lyrics Journal Swap on Swap-bot. I am at entry 24 of 30...but I plan on having more than 30 :). This is a swap I made about using music and how it triggers memories. It has been interesting working on the journal and going down memory lane.
• I also wrote up my life story for another one of my swaps I'm hosting: Your Story! I sat down the other night with some Pendulum pumping in my ears and typed like a mad woman! When I looked up after being done, 3 hours had gone by and I had written 11 pages, and 6000 words exactly. But I learned a lot about myself in the process. I can't wait to send it off for someone to read and take in. I have had such an interesting life!
• I also have 2 pen-pal letters to write to go out Monday. One for my friend Lynn in California and another for my friend Sara in New Jersey!

As you see....I have a lot of not quite done projects, but I'm working on it!

Amelia's Mailbox Week #1 1/24-1/31

Here's my first week in photographing my mail! 


IN

 Got this delightful postcard as a part of a swap I did on Swap-bot. It was Quotecard Postcard #44. This lovely card has 2 quotes actually and I thought both of them were rather awesome!

 Another quotecard postcard. This one says "Do not argue with an idiot. He will bring you down to his level and beat you with experience." It made me laugh, but well all know it is SO true!

 This lovely card is from LR McArthur who lives in Georgia. She is someone who found me on sendsomething.net. She is doing a project of sending a postcard every Monday. This one was sent on MLK Day and has a picture of his tomb. The quote, "The quality, not the longevity of one's life is what is important." MLK Jr.

This was a lovely card from Sarah in Nova Scotia. She wrote all over this card and then on the front and back of 3 more note cards. It was an introductory letter as she found me on sendsomething. I believe it is the beginning of a mail friendship :)

 This postcard was from Fast Eyes, a sendsomething friend I have been exchanging mail with over the past couple months.

These three are from my penpal I got through swap-both, Sara. She lives in New Jersey! I thought everything about this litter was adorable and I loved the picture at the end. She told me about her music tastes and a little more about her husband. She calls herself the "Goth Barbie."

This last one I received today. It is from my friend Lynn who lives in Califronia. She works for the government and told me how her week has been. I love the old stamps she used to make postage. She sent me some old "lick it, stick it" stamps with my last letter. 


OUT!

This was a quick little card I sent out to Fast Eyes. I think they are cute :)

This postcard was sent off to Nancy as part of a swap I was doing on swap-bot. It is a really old postcard (about 40 years old) and was part of the local/state/national park PC swap I was in. 

This was a letter I sent off to my cousin Mary that I used to live with. I told her what has been going on with my life and such. The envelope is handmade, it is actually a magazine ad from Seventeen Magazine.

Not Pictured :(

(I guess I was too excited that I forgot to take a picture of them before putting them in the box...)

I sent a letter off as part of my "A Letter To Someone Else 2" Swap. It went off to someone in Illinois. I actually wrote to letters, one to an old love and one to a family member that shall not be mentioned.

I also sent an introductory pen-pal letter to a girl in Conneticut. I made another magazine envelope for that one.

A letter was sent to LR McArthur. 

Another letter was sent off to Sarah from Nova Scotia in another magazine envelope.

BBC Booklist

So I was reading a blog that I just recently started following, Drachenfrau, and she had this list on her blog. And well I thought it would be interesting so see how many of these I have actually read. They will be marked in purple. 

1. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series – JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
6 The Bible (I've only read some parts but not the whole)
7 Wuthering Heights
8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa May Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
19 The Time Travellers Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch – George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House – Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina –Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
34 Emma – Jane Austen
33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis
35 Persuasion – Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Berniere
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Willaim Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne
41 Animal Farm – George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabrial Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving
45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery
47 Far from the Madding Crowd _ Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaids Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martell
52 Dune – Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon
60 Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
66 On the Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula – Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson
74 Notes from a Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylivia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal – Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 The Christmas Carol– Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - Charles Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare
99 Charlie & the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo


I have to credit the fact that I was in AP English in high school for the reading of most of these books! But for a majority of them, I really did enjoy them!

One Month Late Christmas!

So, my friend Ryulua had a very busy holiday season that made some gifts come late. I really didn't care when she got me the gift. So, I was given it this Monday, almost a month to the date late. But I was still excited. And I LOVED them!

She told me that everyone needs some art deco tape! I think that this is really cute and I can't wait to start flowering things up!

This is actually a small photo album. It says "Only when you are no longer afraid do you begin to live." That is my favorite quote and has so much history with me. Inside are pictures that she took of me when she came over in December and took photos in the city of Flint. You can see them at Luna's Flikr. If you go the photo album named Flint! Some of them can kind be seen in the filmstrip along the top corner of this photo.

Luna makes zines...(and I am going to make one soonish...when I get up the ambition!) and this is the zine she gave me. This is inspired by "This is Not a Book" by Keri Smith. Keri uses guerilla art to express oneself, and really is the whole reason I started crafting. I find beauty in a lot of new things now and I can express myself in more ways than I used to be.

Some of the pages in here are: Vandalize this page, write an acceptance speech for an award of your choice, and Smile at Every Stranger you see!

This is an envelope made out of a magazine ad. I want to start making these because I think they are just really cool and a great way to recycle magazines!

This is a cool postcard that I can send off to someone :)

And last but not least, a frixion pen. This pen she said is "God" as it really erases as well as a pencil and uses friction to erase. I haven't used it yet, but I can't wait to! :0

Another New Project...but Blog related!

So I have been recently sending and receiving a lot of mail. Thanks to swap-bot and sendsomething.net, I have not had a lonely mailbox as I used to have. And its nice meeting people through the art of letter writing.


I just got a nice card from my aunt Jane where she said," Letter writing is one of the last arts out there still that hasn't changed, but it is losing it's popularity."


I agree with her. I love getting mail! And it makes my day when I get a random postcard or note from someone new or old!


So I decided to do a Week in Amelia's Mailbox every week. I'm going to try to do it every Sunday (as my schedule can get crazy, we'll see!) But this way I can show the beautiful cards, letters and objects I get from all over the world! And I'll also be showing what I am sending out for the week!


And if you want me to send you something, just send me your address and something will be on your way very soon!


Have a great week all!
Amelia

LINKIN PARK!!!

So last night was the night I have been waiting for for weeks! Monday night my friend Ryuluna came over to spend the night. Her, my roommate Mindu and I were going to see Linkin Park in concert. It was so amazing!


We got a late start and missed all but one song of the band: "Do I Offend You Yeah?" but they seem cool. Pendulum is really awesome. I want their singer. Oh what a hunk!

Pendulum (watercolour)

Then the band of the night came on! I will probably post some of the videos later on when I figure out how to get them from my iPod and onto here...it could take a few steps.


Linkin Park blew me away. They are such great performers and love the fans. They played a wonderful mix of the old AND the new. This is my second time seeing them in concert and both times they were amazing. I had moments where I wanted to actually cry (as songs reminded me of times in my life when life was hard) and I would have to take a moment to compose myself. 

Linkin Park (Waiting for the End)

Their music has always been one of anger for me. When something had happened that was unfair, or that made me angry, instead of fighting, I would get out the ole CD player and blast some Linkin Park. They helped me through so much anguish in my life and will always be one of my favorite bands.

I woke up today and didn't want to move. As I said to my roommate, "Are you sure I wasn't hit by a small bus last night?" I didn't drink, but I did dance and jump and clap and scream. Granted, I didn't go to band (my head and hands killed) and I woke up at 11 am...then 1 pm...then 5 pm. Basically I stayed in bed all day, but it was quite wonderful. I feel much better now!

Here are some pics of us at the concert!!

Luna being hilarious

Luna and me!

Mindu my roommate and me!

I Hate This...

Memories...


Why won't they fade away. There are moments at night when I wake up and I still believe you are here. That I'm going to climb out of bed, and there you'll face will be, smiling at me.


I remember running away with you. Going to a place far from friends, far from family, far from anyone I knew...but you. And life was just so carefree at that time. I didn't care what was going on. We didn't care. I hadn't been that happy in such a long time.


I remember that one night, just running through the streets, so in love. The rain was coming down, I was just so happy. I didn't care that I was getting soaked.


No one has loved me that much since.


And I miss that.


It makes me sad that you had to pass away.


Heartbreak is one of the most painful things. And it takes the longest to get over. It's been over a year now...and though it doesn't consume my life as much as it used to, there are nights like this where it doesn't feel real. There have been nights when I wake up and don't know where I am. I still think I'm in that apartment in Charter Oaks and you are sleeping an arms length away


But you are not. And it feels so much more real each time.


It hurts when someone thinks I should be over your loss. It's like a scab, it hardens over for a long time, then someone says it and the scab rips off. And I find myself crying.


I miss you still.


I want to move on, but it's hard to. I want to be that happy with someone else, but I can't seem to find that kind of love. I can't seem to find anyone.

Moments with her, now they're all a blur. Except for every second and every word, every drop of rain, every single grain of sand. The sidewalks, the streets were soaked. The sky was gray but you should've seen her face, shining like that lighthouse through all the rain. And the way she called my name. I've lived those seven days a thousand times, those seven days a thousand times.

Seven Days- Kenny Chesney

One of those days...

Today is one of those days. One of those days when everything just seems to be "annoying" to you.


First there was the fact that I had to get up. BLAH! I am still so tired from the weekend and my stint of volunteering at the animal shelter yesterday (it was great fun but HARD work!). I didn't even want to get out of bed this morning, but I did (and somehow I was earlier than normal getting to class)


There is the fact that, after 3 hours of bowling on Sunday night, my right thumb is swollen to twice it's normal size. I can still bend it so it isn't broken or sprained, it just hurts. Thats annoying....


Then there was this girl in class. The professor was talking about an extra credit assignment and how we have to print out the confirmation page after we did the study. She raises her hand and says that "do we have to have a printer? I don't have one at home." Then he assured her that she would need a printer.


"But I don't have a printer at home, is there some way..."


"You need a printer"


"No I don't have a printer, so is there anyway you can save the page to print out later?"


"Not that I know of. You need to do it on a computer with a printer."


"But I don't have a printer at home."


"Well find somewhere else to do it."


"Can you still do it and since I can't print it out, do the other assignment for extra credit?"


"Of course."




And I sat there and was like, a) the school has computers, b) the school has printers and c) the school gives you over 200 pages for free each semester. I'm pretty sure you can find 30 mins of time to go downstairs to the computer lab, do the study, print off the page and turn it in within the next week. I mean COME ON! We don't care that you don't have a printer at home and we hate the fact that you wasted 10 minutes of class on a subject that we don't care about. 


It just annoyed me.


/rant

Ugh...

This world will never be what I expected, and if I don't belong who would've guessed it?


Sometimes I look at life in the city and I see so many people who have this look of hopelessness on their faces and it makes me so sad. I know that they look at me and I just feel that they don't think that it is fair. Here I am walking around with a smile on my face, life is going how I want it to be.

And it's depressing seeing how the world is so cold for so many people around me. This city is falling to pieces around me and here I am, all the hope for the future.

Even if I say it'll be all right. Still I hear you say you wanna end your life. Now and again we try to just stay alive. Maybe we'll turn it all around and cause it's not too late, its never too late


I almost feel bad that my life is slowly making itself right. I hate seeing all this pain and I wish there was something I could do. If I had enough money to give people to solve their problems, then the world would just be such a nice place. But...I don't.

So I'll continue with my schooling and I kinda hope that when I finally get a job, I can move from this depressing town and to somewhere that will make me a much happier person. I think I am going to move to a city because I have loved my life in the city.

Who knows.

I just don't know right now.

Today

Today was pretty awesome.


I woke up at 11 like I planned, got ready to work out. Sadly my roommate Tanisha wasn't here to join me so I worked out alone. I did 30 minutes of uphill fast walking on the treadmill...harder than it seems and 20 minutes of weightlifting.


Then I found out my new laptop, a HP 210 with a larger hard drive and more memory....arrived this morning. So while my roommate Mindu went to get that, I took a quick shower. Then I set up my computer and went off to band. We are playing some really cool pieces. My favorite is Prelude by Shostakovich Op 34 no. 14. It is his lament for his neighbors and friends taken by the Russian Government during the Red era...kind like a fuck you as well. So beautiful. I found a wonderful link to youtube where you can listen.


So after that I ran around getting Microsoft Office from the school for my new computer, getting my computer and iPod hooked up to school internet then I had my First Responder's class. First off...the professor was SOOOO good looking, it is amazing. Secondly, all we did was talk about ourselves and our lives. It was wonderful getting to know my classmates.


Then I walked home and I wasn't as scared in the dark as I thought I would be. The night was rather beautiful actually. I'll post some pics I took the other day on a walk of the area, they really are beautiful...at least in my eyes.


The only downer is to find out that 2 of the 3 discs that ITS sold me were "corrupted" and they wouldn't load onto my computer...so I sadly had to do my homework in Wordpad for one night. But I did get this thing called clouddrive....3 GB of space online that can be loaded on any computer through the internet and also on the iPod/iPhone through the use of Zumodrive app. Awesome!


I played some Sims 3 and got some videos put on my iPod. 


All around awesome day.


I just hope I'm not too sore in the morning =/


Until then...

My New Project

So last week, I started school and I am taking Health Psychology with one of the coolest professors in the department. He was telling us about how his family is doing "The Greatest Loser" competition in their household. Then he told us our project for the semester. We have to change something about our life that is a "bad" habit. He asked those of us who smoke to work on quitting. He told us to exercise, work on losing weight....something unhealthy we do and change it.


So here is my project, starting today. I am adding 3 hours of planned exercise into my schedule. I wrote out my schedule and it is very doable. My earliest wake up time during the week is 10 AM (I love college)! I am also hoping to sort out my sleep schedule.


There is a good chance that I will talk about it a lot on here. I'm hoping to lose 10 pounds by the end of the semester. That gives me less than a pound a week. Totally doable.


Cheers all!


Amelia

Melancholy

It's one of those nights where I don't have a lot of stuff coming up, but I have so much on my mind. And it is bothering me! 


I don't know really. I have been thinking about the past and such, which I shouldn't really worry about that much, as it is the past, but it's hard not to think about what could have been and all.


There are some people in my life that I really miss. There are also some people in my life that I don't think I would have gotten close to if certain people hadn't left my life.


I was thinking back to high school earlier and I remember those years as some of the hardest years of my life in truth. I had to deal with my aunt and uncle which was hard at the time. But at the same time, there were parts of my life that proved to be so hard after I left high school as well.


I guess I never thought my life would be this way. At the same time, I am so happy with where my life is right now.


Here I am in this crazy, mixed up world that I call my life.

Song of thought: September- Daughtry

Kiwi's Blogger Follower Swap #3

Welcome to my blog!


Even though I have just recently been introduced to blogger, I have found it an outlet for me.


I hope you enjoy my posts :)


Amelia

A New Year

Here we are, at the beginning of a brand new year.

And how crazy is this? I mean here we are at both the beginning of a new year, but also a new decade.

Where did it all go?

I mean, I still remember bringing in 2000, but that was 10 years ago and I was in 4th grade.

But here I am, in my 3rd year of college, 20 years old, and I can't believe what I have been through.

But over the past year, I've moved into a place that feels right to me, I've found out what I want to do with my life and I found myself, in the work of helping those who can't help themselves. I met new people who will always be a part of my life, no matter if we talk again or not and I lived life in a way that I've always wanted to.

And I'm finally happy.

And this year, I plan on making it even better. I don't know what is going to come this year, but I am ready to take everything as it comes head on and make it into a positive experience.

Here's to 2011. Here's to life. Here's to being alive!