spring break round-up

The other day I was thinking and didn't feel like I had done a lot over spring break, but as I recounted parts of my spring break, I realized that wasn't true. Here are just a few of the fun things I've done over break:

Finished The Man Who Was Thursday [Gilbert Keith Chesterton]

Read A Severe Mercy [Sheldon Vaunaken] and The Sign of Four [Sir Arthur Conan Doyle]

I took my first solo-road trip and went to Portland for a few days, which included a fabulous visit to Powell's. I also got to catch up with my good friend Maia, whom I met studying in Oxford.

Went to the Cinema twice. Once to see The Artist on a date with Charlli:

 and The Hunger Games with Josiah

 Visited IKEA for the first time as an adult. 

Completed a project with the spoils of the IKEA visit:

Got to get all dolled up for both the CCA Auction

 and a wedding.

Plus my trip to the MAC counter with Christine.

[I still absolutely love playing dress up!]

Checked my inbox and mailbox obsessively for news from Oxford

Stayed over with my sister and her family for a night, where I enjoyed Ross's fabulous steak and re-watching the Downton Abbey Christmas special [sigh =].

Sent my good friend Lois off to England with a fabulous double-header of great period dramas.

Had a Packer-Surface girl date in the sun this Saturday. We walked all around Juanita Bay and got to see a bald eagle.

Also went on an amazing Seattle date with my aunt Kristina.

Worked more shifts to make some extra $$

Got to introduce Stephanie H. to Sherlock (BBC).

Phone chats with my friends from far-away, like Beks and Kristina D.

* * * * *

"Let me explain. No there's too much. Let me sum up."

Overall, I had a marvelous time off. I read leisurely, spent lots of time with some of my favorite people, went on a few adventures, tried new things, had my patience stretched (in regards to Oxford), shed a few beautiful tears, laughed more than I cried, wrote a surprising amount, filled my journal with tons of quotes, survived the Ides of March, missed London a lot, sent and received letters, re-focused for the near future, and learned to choose peace + trust even more.

Ahh... goodbye Spring break, hello Spring quarter.

[photo-credit: Sarah]

Well, I think I did pretty good in Powell's today. I said "no" to quite a few tempting volumes, but I got a few fun ones. I purchased:

• The Metamorphosis, and Other Stories by Franz Kafka
• A Room of One's Own and Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
• and Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl (I love the film so much and was ashamed I'd never read the book... but now I have a fun afternoon to look forward to sometime in the near future)

I also got this incredible journal! It's cloth-bound and has a famous 1920's cover of Pride and Prejudice printed on the front. I have a book bag from Bath with the same cover and I just love it. Plus I thought this would be an appropriate journal for the next few months as I will be working on my longest Austen paper to-date. This should keep my motivation high and my thoughts flowing.

[from Out of Print]

Tomorrow I head back home, but it has been so relaxing to leave routine and the familiar, to have the time and space to fall in love with literature all over again, to allow the Lord to awaken and re-awaken beautiful things He placed inside me. It has just been a special time.


Well, I'm going to go curl up by the fire with A Severe Mercy for a while, but I hope the rest of you have a lovely evening =)

Tomorrow...

[via]

I'm heading out on my first, solo-road trip.

I am beyond excited!

I've been to Portland countless times... but its always been to visit family, and the city has become this fabulous, adventurous place without me even realizing it.

Several weeks ago when I found out I would have an 18-day long spring break (yes-18 glorious days!), the Lord suggested I try and get away. So here we go!

I'm going to be staying with my Aunt and Uncle, visiting my grandparents, and hanging out with a friend from Oxford (!!!). But other than that, I have very few plans. I'm going to visit Powell's and hopefully a few other fun spots... but I think there will be a lot of extemporaneous adventures--which is out of the ordinary for me.

[via]

I fully expect to get lost a couple times, and I have no doubt that I'll spend more money on books than clothes, but I think it will be such a fabulous time.

And I just have to give a shout out to my amazing Dad!

This morning he goes, "Now, we're getting an oil change today to make sure the car is fine, and I filled up yesterday so you should have a full tank of gas. And here's my AAA card if you have any emergencies." Oh... so precious! So grateful for him =)

Well, you can be on the look out for adventures in Portlandia over the next several days.

Until then I'll just be packing, getting my maps in order, and picking the perfect playlist for the trip down =)

I have a new favorite joy: flower shopping.

In fact, I think I'm going to take up gardening. Today is my mom's birthday and the only thing she asked for was flowers to plant in her front garden beds. Every year she buys the same flowers, and they're cute, but I reeeally wanted to experiment with other things. Now, I hardly knew anything (still don't know much) about flowers and gardening. So I headed off to a local nursery. A really nice older lady helped educate me on a bunch of different types of flowers. But the best part was picking out the variety of flowers. I bought 9 plants in 5 varieties. My favorite was a stunning corally-orange geranium!!

It was such a blast. Plus I get to go back and buy more flowers today! Hopefully planting them goes well. I have the spacing planned out and I think it will be gogeous.

I'm just praying that she likes them since they aren't what she would normally pick out. But I'm hoping she's willing to try these.

I told my younger sister that we should pool our money together and make up a pot of flowers.

PS... she LOVED them!!!

Check out some of my favorite flowers =)

If you've followed my blog for a while, you will know that I love corally pink peonies!

I just can't fathom how one flower can contain all those petals. The Lord gave me some revelation regarding this particular flower which you can read about here.

My mom has a peony bush. The color is more of a light pink, but they're still gorgeous. The stems are growing rapidly and a month from now we should start to enjoy the first bloom =)

I'm not exactly sure why, but I'm very drawn to coral :)

This is the geranium I was talking about earlier. Isn't the color captivating??

Ok... I think I have new 2nd favorite flower (peonies always being the first :)

This is a white non-stop begonia. I love it! I bought one of these for my mom too. I think it looks very rose like.

Oh and finally, these are juliet-orange diascias. I bought one of these as well. What I hadn't noticed, because ours haven't bloomed yet, is that they petals are actually asymetrical. What a lovely effect!

Ok... just a few faves. As gardening is my current obsession, you may see more on this in the near future. Oh, and I'll try to put up a picture of what my mom's flower beds look like once we've planted everything =)

I'm officially on spring break :)

just one of today's highlights: i finally found a tea that i can like!!

[this is huge for me]

tonight i had "cherry rose" from the georgian... yum!

Today I...

... celebrated my first day of Spring Break!
... painted my toes pink to usher in Spring
... took a gorgeous walk in a t-shirt
... enjoyed the warm breeze playing with my hair
... wore flip-flops for the first time this year
... got a blister for the first time this year :-/
... looked at our outside thermometer and it 70!
... read a few chapters of Jane Austen <3 nbsp="" p="">... smiled multiple times today thinking about Sydney
... wished that every day could be this beautiful :)