April Review- May goals!

April goals:


1. Be in bed by 10 every night sun-thurs. I can stay up until 11 on Fri and Sat nights ;D 

I actually did REALLY good on this. I stayed up later a FEW nights but I have definitely become an early-to-bed-er. I actually went to bed at 9:30 the other night, too!

2. Wake up early and read scriptures for at least 20 minutes each morning

Uh yeah I did this for like a week and realized I was too tired in teh morning to get anything out of it. So yeah.

3. Floss twice a day, morning and night

I think I did this about 50% of the time, but I flossed at least once everyday, which was actually kind of my secret goal. so. GOOD JOB, ME!

4. Finish and send my Interior Design application

Oops. Nope. But it's almost done! gotta get a few more things.

5. Send my Pension forms to the Japanese government so I can get a gajillion dollars back

Also oops. All I have to do is scan my passport and mail it in! Oh yeah, and I need a bank stamp which is hard to get when you work during bank hours...

6. Go to the temple once a week (Friday night or Sat morning most likely?)

KILLED IT.

7-9. Finish floral dresses one, two, and three

I finished one. LOL.
But it's awesome enough for three dresses.

10. Deep clean and organize room

Huh. I think I might have done this? but my room is now a mess again xD So.

NEW GOALS~!
1. Continue doing stuff from April: Temple, bedtime, flossing
2. Do things I didn't do: Application, pension, deep clean and organize room.
3. Keep room clean the whole month. Generally my room gets messy with clean clothes I just dont want to hang up. Hahahaa
4. Sew ONE floral dress!
5. Go see The Tallest Man on Earth
6. Learn 4 new songs (video proof?)
7. Start Japanese-teaching videos
8. Read 4 books
9. Write those apology letters
10. Write regular letters (To Japanese friends, american friends, etc)

OKAY GO.

April 10

My friend has a list of 101 things to accomplish in 1001 days (I think? It's almost three years or something). Anyway, I think the idea is grand but I am really bad at managing that many things, so I am going to try and have ten things to do a month. Hopefully that will help me actually accomplish them :)

So here are my ten things for April!

1. Be in bed by 10 every night sun-thurs. I can stay up until 11 on Fri and Sat nights ;D
2. Wake up early and read scriptures for at least 20 minutes each morning
3. Floss twice a day, morning and night
4. Finish and send my Interior Design application
5. Send my Pension forms to the Japanese government so I can get a gajillion dollars back
6. Go to the temple once a week (Friday night or Sat morning most likely?)
7-9. Finish floral dresses one, two, and three
10. Deep clean and organize room

There we go! Hop I can get it all done! Sewing dresses takes a long time! >o>

Change of direction!

So since I never really update my blog, I think I will slowly be working to change this into a CRAFT BLOG where I show you all the stuff I'm working on. Hoping someday I will actually FINISH things.

I hope you guys will stick around and will enjoy the switch. :)

With spring coming up, there have been two things on my mind: Floral. Dresses.

I had a field day at Joanns, finally selecting three different floral prints and three dress patterns. I loved the large, bold prints on the fabric above, and the Japanese influence was also very enticing for me :)

I decided the bold print and colors would work well for this pattern- Simplicity 2444- with a solid black belt to break up the large prints. Plus who doesn't love big bows??

I've been working on the dress here and there, cutting out pieces one day, surging another, etc.A few days ago I sat down and actually put a lot of pieces together! Here's where I'm at: 

I'm definitely at that stage where you are really worried it's going to be too small. It's either going to fit FANTASTICALLY or I'm going to have a LOT of fun undoing stitches, darts, and pleats to add some more room in the back... haha.

Really wanting to find time to finish this soon. Have to juggle it around three jobs (that awkward phase where you're quitting one job and training for a new one...!)

That's all for now! 

It's already 2-0-1-3!

The new year has never really been that big of a deal for me. But maybe it's about time I start making it more important. So I am going to make a goal list of 13 (rather big) goals I will accomplish this year. Some might be something I do all year long, others finish early or later on in the year.
So here's a list of 13 Big Goals for 2013!

1. Until I go back to school, save at least 1000 a month! That will give me a good amount saved up to pay for rent and tuition and stuff!

2. Go sell plasma twice a week at least 2 week from each month (this will give me more DOLLA DOLLAs to save for school. It can be tough to go with my changing work hours, but I want to go at least two weeks a month!)

3. Get all A's my first semester back at school!

4. Write a novel! This has been on my bucket list for a while, and I have a few ideas I'd like to actually expound upon. So this year, I'm going to actually get a draft done!

5. Go out on my own more often. I love to do things with friends, but sometimes I won't do things I want to because I don't have anyone to do them with me! So I want to go out and do things I want to do even if I do them alone!

6. Be more fashion-conscious. And when I say that, I mean pay more attention to what I already own, and try to add pieces to my wardrobe that can be worn many ways and with many different things.

6.6. Emulate Zooey Deschanel in fashion choices.

7. Eat more ice cream. Okay, not really. These are the 6 ideas I have right now. I need to think of a few more, but I would rather add to this list later than force out some goals because I feel the need to add some to fit an arbitrary number.

In other news, what are some of your goals this year? Do you have any goals you think I should also undertake?

Ciao~!

Jessica

Adventures in Online Dating

So I signed up for OKCupid yesterday, and since then a lot of really hilarious things relating to it have happened. So I decided to share some of the highlight in pictorial representations. Be so so excited.

Fishing with the Merrill Girls

Fishing is pretty awesome. We can all agree on that. Wading in a mountain stream, the sounds of birds singing, the gurgle of the stream, the wind through the leaves. It's all pretty awesome. But there is one way to make fishing even better. Add beautiful girls!

Sarah and Jessica sporting dollar-store hats and stoked expressions

So here we are, bringing you a Fishing with the Merrill Girls post!

Our dad's birthday is this week, and as a present to himself, he paid for Sarah and I to have a guided fishing tour in the wonderful land of HOKKAIDO, JAPAN. The guide was a crazy, chain-smoking Japanese man. He only spoke Japanese and he was pretty awesome.

Our guide, Yamaguchi-san

We met him outside our hotel at 7:30am Monday morning, and he drove us to our first fishing spot- a small stream in the mountains. While we drove, he and conversed about random topics. I think my favorite was when he told me to drive carefully because the police were really cracking down. I glanced over at the speedometer to see he was going 90 km and a 50 km road. Okay Yamaguchi-san, I'll keep that in mind.

Waders are a must for every fashion-conscious lady.

We got to the river and suited up, walking through bushes and ferns on the way.

 We made a friend along the way. Sarah's only about 3-4 feet behind him, so you can tell he was a pretty big spider.

We enter the stream and Yamaguchi-san starts us fishing and giving us tips as we go. 

Sarah caught the first fish (I actually don't know what kind it is. But they were very pretty). She then continued to catch 2-3x as many fish as I did!

Merrill Girl tradition

a picture of the stream

Aha! Finally I catch my own!

Hyrdation is extremely important, especially in hot and humid Hokkaido weather.

I catch a tiny "chibi-chan" I have eaten whole fish bigger than him at Japanese-style breakfasts (guts, bones, and all!!)

Sarah and I caught a fish at the same time, and RIGHT as I was pulling mine up for the picture, he twisted off the hook! I swear! and he was thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis big!!

 After about two hours in that stream, we ate lunch and headed off to catch some rainbows! We drove down the mountain and into a bigger stream. The sun had come out and it was pretty hot. Sarah and I mastered our long casting and we tried to tempt out some rainbows. And we waited. And waited. Annnnd waited. After about 40 minutes with not even a nibble, Yamaguchi-san decided it was time to return to the mountains where the water was cooler. So we hoped back into the car and drove off again. 

We had much more luck at this stream, though Hokkaido Rainbows are a lot trickier than the first fish we caught. After several misses and a change of flies, we caught some!

Sarah caught a monster rainbow!

My big rainbow. He was super fat too. Also I make weird faces.

We finally got back to our hotel at 6:30, exhausted, sweaty, and stinky! But our 11-hour fishing day was extremely successful! Sarah caught about 60 fish, while I probably caught between 30 and 40. Overall quite grand!

So thanks dad! Happy Birthday!!

Jellyfish throw pillow

My friend's birthday was last week, and we are having a party tomorrow.

Of course, I found myself without a present. Still. The day before. So my brain started creaking...

She likes jellyfish, so I searched "Jellyfish" on Pinterest and found this:

Jellyfish throw pillow. SUPER adorbs, right??

And I thought to myself- Hey, I could make something like that!

I used materials I had lying around my house, including old kimono fabric for the tentacles, and got this:

It's one am pretend the picture is the right direction or tilt your head

Anyway, I think it turned out all right. I learned a lot, at least, though it took about 6 hours of work, and my internet was trolling and refused to load Dr Who episodes. Booo NTT. :(

The end gotta clean up and go to sleep I got work tomorrow morning!!