San Diego Vacation

I have been MIA for a little while because I was enjoying the perfect, and I mean PERFECT, weather in San Diego, California. My dad, brother, and I decided that this year we would take a vacation out west; I have never been west of the great state of Texas, so I needed to expand my horizons. In Texas, everyone was always competing with California about which was the best state, and being a Texan I naturally despised the Golden State. That feeling was based on others opinions and never on my own. However, after visiting, I absolutely loved San Diego! Other than some of the strange people and events going on, it was a perfect vacation. I can't speak for how I would feel about the rest of the state, but San Diego was amazing. But Texas will always be the best state in my eyes, and I don't think anything could change that, except maybe Hawaii. Our 5 day trip was packed full of things to do, and my feet were killing me by the end.

We got there on Friday night and just went to explore downtown. We ate at a great Mexican food restaurant, and explored. We were super tired from the plane ride and didn't want to stay out very late.

On Saturday, we woke up, fairly early for California time, but not so much for North Carolina time, and went to the world famous San Diego Zoo. I am an animal lover, so this was awesome. My favorite animals were the gorillas. I will have a more detailed blog on this tomorrow.

Sunday was when I got most of my shopping done. There is a great mall in San Diego called Fashion Valley. It had a ton of higher end stores as well as normal priced stores that an 18 year old college student  can afford. However, that didn't stop me from wandering into Bloomingdales and purchasing a new bag. There were a bunch of stores there that I had never heard of, and after shopping at them, I really wish that we had them here. I went to two malls while in San Diego, and they were both sort of outdoor malls which was awesome and I loved to be able to enjoy the beautiful weather while shopping.

Monday was probably the busiest day of the whole trip for sightseeing, but we got to see the most we possibly could by taking an Old Town Trolley tour. If you ever go to San Diego, I highly recommend taking this tour if you want to see a lot in one day. They have eleven stops, and you can get off at all of them or only a few of them. There is no time limit, and a new trolley arrives to pick people up every half hour. It was perfect. We got picked up right in front of our hotel at 9:30 and were off for the day. We got off at the Gaslamp Quarter first, but it was early so not a lot was open yet. We ended up going into a few shops and getting back on the trolley a half hour later. The next stop we got off at was Coronado's Orange Avenue. We spent a long time here looking at the Hotel Del Coronado (beautiful old hotel I want to stay in it so bad), the shops on orange avenue, the beach, and we had lunch there at Leroy's Kitchen and Lounge. Our next stop was Old Town San Diego State Historic Park; this was my favorite stop. There were tons of old houses and museums, and the Mexican culture was prominent and amazing here. There was a street with about six Mexican restaurants on it. There were also a lot of old shops here that were cool to look at. I had a lot of fun at this stop. Our last stop was seaport village, and if you like to shop this is the place to go. They have about forty shops and restaurants here. I bought some jewelry, Christmas ornaments, gifts, and cupcakes here. Seaport village overlooks the harbor and it is beautiful. We boarded a trolley at Seaport Village that took us back to our hotel. That night we went to our second mall and out to eat at The Top of the Market seafood restaurant. I am going to write a whole blog devoted to the food I ate on this trip.

View from the trolley on top of the Coronado bridge

Hotel Del Coronado

Coronado beach with Point Loma in the back

Coronado Beach

I have a thing for cows

The view of the harbor at Seaport Village

On Tuesday, we spent the day at Coronado beach. The water was way to cold for our likings so we just sun bathed for a few hours. I didn't mind not being able to get into the water because I never got hot or sweaty. 

The beach was absolutely perfect. The sand was white and shimmered. It was the widest beach I have ever seen which I guess helps it from getting too crowded. Literally my only worry in the world was if the tide was going to reach my towel (ZBB reference!).  There is a Naval base on Coronado, so all of the planes and helicopters flying over us got a tad annoying, but other than that and the water temperature I have zero complaints. After the beach, we went back to the hotel and then headed to Hodad's for dinner. You wouldn't believe the burgers at this place! 

I was super sad on Wednesday when we had to pack up and head back home to boring North Carolina. But knowing that I only have about three weeks until college makes it go by a little quicker. This was an awesome vacation, and I am so thankful for the chance to get to travel to places like San Diego!

DIY Chevron Print Bow Wall Art

While on Pinterest I came across a picture of a really cute canvas wall art. I clicked on it and it brought me to an Etsy shop. Frustrated, I decided to try to make something similar myself and this is what I came up with. Click here for my inspiration.

Part 1: Make Your Bow

Materials:

Fabric (Scraps or Fat Quarters will work great)

Thick ribbon

Fabric Shears

Rotary Cutter and Mat (Optional)

Ruler

Thread

Sewing Machine

Step 1:

Fold the fabric in half, measure and draw an 8 inch by 10 inch rectangle, and cut out the rectangle. You will now have two identical sized rectangles.

Step 2:

Using your sewing machine, straight stitch all the way around the rectangle pieces. Make sure they are right sides together. I used a quarter of an inch seam allowance.

Step 3:

Find and mark the very center of the fabric.

Step 4:

Cut one piece of the fabric at the mark you made in step 3. Make the cut about an inch deep, bigger if you are making a bigger bow. You need to make sure that you do not cut all the way through both sides of the fabric.

Step 5:

Pull the fabric right side out through the slit that you just made.

Step 6:

Pinch the fabric in the middle to make it look like a bow.

Step 7:

Wrap the ribbon around the pinched part of the fabric and keep it held tight.

Step 8:

Sew a straight stitch on the ribbon to keep it holding the bow together.

Step 9:

Cut off the extra piece of ribbon from the bow.

Now your bow is finished!

Part 2: Make the Canvas

Materials:

Blank canvas

Paint

Painters tape

Paint Brush

The bow you made in part one

Hot glue gun and glue sticks

Step 1:

Tape off the chevron print on your canvas

Step 2:

Paint around the chevron print

Step 3:

Tear off the tape to reveal your print.

Step 4:

Hot glue the bow to the canvas.

This is going to look super cute in my dorm room!

Link Ups:

http://www.thegirlcreative.com/2012/08/i-heart-chevronparty.html

Bucket List

This is my bucket list as of July 14, 2012. Some people say I'm too young to have a bucket list, but when I'm 90 and about to die I probably won't be able to ride a mechanical bull. I will be adding things to this list as I go on, and I'm not including things I've already done.

1. See the Dallas Cowboys jumbotron
2. Go to an NFL football game
3. Meet Colt McCoy
4. Run a 5K
5. Ride a Mechanical Bull
6. Run a Half Marathon
7. Learn to surf
8. Leave the country
9. Go to Hawaii
10. Raise a cow
11. Adopt a dog from an animal shelter
12. Swim with dolphins
13. Swim with manatees
14. Fly First Class
15. Go to a country music awards show (CMAs, ACMs, CTM Awards, etc.)

Cow Appreciation Day

Cow appreciation day is my favorite holiday of the year! Considering my favorite animal is a cow and my favorite restaurant is Chick-Fil-A, combining them is just genius. I am embarrassed to admit how many times I've dressed like a cow, but it's worth it when I need the costume to get free food. My friends and I all were lucky enough to get a free meal or entree from Chick-Fil-A. I would love to know if anyone else participated and has posted pictures. I saw some hilarious costumes at my Chick-Fil-A, and got some odd looks when we were at JoAnn's in our costumes. 

The Perfect Frozen Yogurt

I work at a frozen yogurt shop, so I have tasted pretty much every flavor and topping and combined them all. I thought I would share my favorite concoction with y'all. 

I start with some cheesecake froyo and some peanut butter froyo. Those are my absolute favorite flavors. Now I hate pretty much all fruit, but I love strawberries, so I have to put a few of those in there. Then I stick a piece of waffle cone right in the middle of the two flavors. Next I add some cookie dough pieces, crushed up heath bar, and mini butterfingers. 

This is by far the best frozen yogurt combination out there. I won't eat any other flavors except cheesecake and peanut butter, so when we have the both in the shop I am a very happy person.

Pinterest Obsessions: Arm Candy

I have been loving the bracelet stacking trend lately. It makes me want to buy a ton of bracelets because I have a limited amount to work with. I'm going to post some of my favorite stacks from my collection later, but for now here are some that I found on Pinterest.

I need to find some of these chain looking bracelets! 

And I obviously need a gold watch!

Let me know if you know any good places to get some bracelets for stacking. 

DIY Striped Picture Frame

I've been super into making things for my dorm room, so today I decided to make a picture frame in my room colors! This was a super simple project and I love painting even though I suck at it.

Materials: 

1 Plain Wooden Picture Frame (I got mine at Michael's)

A White Paint for the Base Coat

2 Accent Color Paints 

Painters Tape or Masking Tape

Paint Brush 

Newspaper or Another Surface to Paint On

Step 1: Paint the frame with a thin coat of white paint. It doesn't have to be perfect, but it will help the colors from your next two layers be more vibrant. Let it dry completely.

Step 2: Paint the top of the frame with one of your colors. I would choose the lighter of the two, so that it can be covered by the darker in the next step. Make sure this layer covers the whole frame and there is no white showing. Wait for it to dry completely before continuing. 

Step 3: Use the tape to create a design on the frame. I chose stripes. 

Step 4: Paint the space not covered with tape with the other color. Make sure there is not gapping in the tape, so there is a straight edge. Let it dry before ripping the tape off. 

Step 5: When you rip the tape off you may want to touch up some spots.