Bringing in the New Year!---2016

2016!  Finally.  Though 2015 wasn't necessarily a bad year, I'm glad it's over.  It was a below average year that was quite uneventful.   I did learn quite a few lessons that were a pain in the butt to experience.  I cut my hair unbelievably short...still growing it out...  I also colored my hair from a box for the first time.  Before that, I had just got a few highlights so it was a big step.  Gratefully it wasn't a total disaster, but as I've been coloring it over the past few month, I've never stuck with one color I really liked so now my hair has turned quite red which is definitely not my favorite thing.  My next goal is to go to a salon and get it taken care of and go blonde...like Julianne Hough blonde.  I'm really excited and ready for a change/to fix this hot mess.

I finished my first year of college and started the second.  I have loved it so far and feel very fulfilled even though I am completely exhausted all the time.  I went to a music festival for 3 weeks during the summer in Madeline Island which is in Wisconsin.  It was such an incredible experience that I grew from so much.  It was so beautiful and being in walking distance of Lake Superior was a dream.  I am hoping to go back this summer as well.

This fall, I learned a lot about friendships.  I learned that I can't live my life for other people.  I went through a lot of hard weeks and months when I felt very lonely and completely unhappy with myself.  I felt the pressure to be this certain type of person that was just not me.  I was miserable.  I am just now coming out of it...finding the value of who I am as a person.  I have also learned to keep my true friends and support close and put my energy into the relationships that are everything to me and make me a better person.  This is my quote of the year:

On a more positive note, New Year's Eve was a magical night.  My fiance and I had dinner at the classiest restaurant possible...IHOP!  Then we went ice skating at the rink at Forest Park.  It was absolutely beautiful and was the perfect way to end one year and start the next.  This picture pretty much sums up the entire night. 

Everything was so beautiful.  I know I keep saying that.  We got there around 9:30pm and had to stand in line for awhile to pay and get our skates.  Then we skated for awhile until we were completely exhausted.  So we went inside to their little Snowflake Cafe and got hot chocolate and funnel cake to snack on while we wrote down our New Year's Resolutions and Goals for us individually, as well as for us as a couple.  Then we played an arcade game which I had never done before.  Needless to say, I was terrible.  Then around 11:45, we were like "we should probably go out on the rink again."  We skated around until they started the countdown to midnight over the loud speaker.  We shared a beautiful kiss in the middle of the rink...fairy tale stuff, I know.  Here are a few pictures I took to capture the night.

A Kiss at Midnight

Now to start the New Year...  I have so many goals that I am hoping to achieve this year.  Here are some of the big ones:

• Stay positive 
• Live a healthy lifestyle
• Drink 56 oz. of water a day
• Spend more time outdoors
• Read more 
• Be more friendly/make friends who are good influences 
• Blog consistently

I am beside myself with excitement and hope for this coming year.  A lot of things are going to change, and a year from now, life will be completely different in the best way possible.  I am ready to tackle this year.  I won't let it freak me out and paralyze me...I'm going to go charging forward conquer everything that comes my way.  Let me know in the comments what some of your resolutions for the New Year are!

Christmas Cookies

Well hello there!  So...it's been a while.  Since my last post, I have finished my 3rd semester of college (5 more to go!), won my university's concerto competition, and am currently having Christmas observed in Austin, TX with my family...there will be a post coming up about that soon.

One of the things that I do every year at Christmas time, is making Christmas cookies.  The recipe that I use has been in the family for 3 generations.  The Kris Kringle Cookie recipe was found by my great-grandmother in the Buffalo Evening News newspaper one night.  It's THE BEST sugar cookie recipe.  The dough is literally little balls of angel fluff that melt in your mouth.  While most recipes seem to be very flour-y and dry, this one is so moist and butter-y.   The one downside to this process is that it is very time consuming.  Because I am with my family for Christmas right now, I needed to make enough that we could all enjoy plenty since they are our favorite Christmas treat.  I ended up splitting the process into 3 days.  Day 1: make the dough.  Day 2: Cut out the cookies and bake.  Day 3: Frost and decorate.  In total, I made about 150 cookies.  This divided up the work load so it was still enjoyable.  Plus I have plenty of free time since I'm home for winter break.  This year was extra fun because it was the first year that I was able to use a KitchenAid mixer to mix everything. 

My favorite shapes were the Christmas trees, Santas, and candy canes.   I am very proud of how the Santas turned out.  The red icing was more pink, but I loved it.  Sooooo...without further ado, here is the recipe.

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Kris Kringle Cookies

1 cup butter

2 cups sugar

3 eggs

1 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar

1 1/2 tsp. baking soda dissolved in 

2 tbsp. milk

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. vanilla

4 1/2 cups flour

•  Preheat oven to 375 degrees
• Cream butter and sugar together
• Then salt, cream of tartar, sifted with 3 cups of flour
• Add enough more flour to make the dough that can be rolled out (Chilling helps with this.  I chilled mine overnight)
• Roll on lightly floured board to desired thickness.
• Cut and bake on ungreased cookie sheet in a 375°oven for 8-15 minutes depending on the thickness. 

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I hope you have the chance to try out this recipe.  It could be used for Valentines' Day cookies or any sugar cookies you'd like to make!  Just change the shapes.  

See you next time!  And hopefully the space in between this and the next post won't be as long.

xo, Marisa

Dorm Decor + DIYs!

"Crafts!"  "DIYs!"  These two words are some of my favorite.  Combine those with "dorm decor"...and I go crazy.  The past few days have been dedicated to dorm shopping with the bestie and the Mom.  I first needed the essentials that I didn't have/needed to replace from last year.  The laundry hamper bit the dust long before the year ended.  A new backpack...school supplies...water bottle.  Sounds like I'm in middle school, not college.  OH WELL!  Starting off the year right with these fun adventures makes the coming school year feel a little less daunting.  But the best part of it all is that I am going to be able to have a futon under my loft in my room this year.  Yay!  But something that I quickly found out is that the much needed pillows to spice it up are quite pricey...especially with how many I wanted.  Not to mention the struggle of finding ones that I really liked.

My theme for the new school year is MINIMALISM!  I learned the hard way last year that it is ridiculous to bring your entire bedroom with you.  This year, I'm moving into a much smaller room and so keeping everything to a minimum is imperative.  Plus it's fun!  I love a good challenge.  After I move in, I will try to write a post with pictures to see how I pull it off...fingers crossed.

As of right now, I completed a few DIYS.  There are two that I am extremely excited about and proud of how they turned out.  I first need to give the disclaimer that I have never sewn before on a machine.  This was a first and now I think I'm addicted! 

PILLOWS! 

My mom was invaluable in this process.  We went to Hobby Lobby together and looked at fabric and figured out everything that I would need.  I went the easy route with these.  I just sewed up the edges except for a little hole and stuffed away (definitely the most monotonous part of the process.)  Then, I sewed the hole up by hand and voila!  I was done.  I feel like I should mention that I started this process at about 11:30pm with the full intention of making only one, but I couldn't stop!  Needless to say, I had completed everything except stuffing the biggest pillows at 4:30am.  NO REGRETS!

The bigger pillows in the back are 20x20 inches.  I asked for a total of 1 1/3 yards of that fabric and then just cut it in half myself. 

These beauties are both 14x14.  I love the pop of color with the coral stripes.  And gold arrows...you can't get more basic than that!  I asked for 5/8 of a yard for both fabrics and went from there.

This little one is my pride and joy.  I actually made it out of a burlap bag at Hobby Lobby!  I cut off the top and bottom, sewed them up and stuffed!  So easy and I saved so much money.  It is the perfect completing piece to this quintet.  (#MusicNerdReference)

To complete my "DIYing" adventures, I made my own little succulent decor.  I have always loved these but didn't have the $50 to buy them at West Elm.  I went to Goodwill and found a dish for $2.  I then got some acrylic gold paint and $15 worth of succulents from Walmart.  And this turned into this...

I still need to actually plant them.  I'm going to lay some rocks down first to make sure that it will keep everything airy under there and then place potting soil and the plants on top.  I'm so excited to have something living in my room with me.  (I was contemplating a fish for awhile there.)

I hope that you enjoyed reading about my adventures.  I will try to keep doing post like this as I progress with moving into my dorm.

Life Update-July 2015

So I'm back! 

  
I feel like the second I got this blog started, everything got in the way of staying consistent.  But hopefully distractions will no longer get in the way.  Since my last post, I have gone to two music camps in remote areas of the US and met so many incredible, new friends and mentors.  As I said in my bio on this blog, I am a music performance major.  That means that during the summers, "school" doesn't end for me.  Throughout the year, I research different music camps that will allow me to grow as a musician both by myself and with others.  This year I went to a week long viola intensive program in Indiana.  I stayed in a restored 18th century mansion with 6 other violists practicing, having lessons with the instructor, and playing for each other.  

After that, I went to a 3 week music camp on an island off of Wisconsin...which is where I just got back from.  Talk about gorgeous.  The island was so remote with the tiniest town ever in the middle of Lake Superior.  Many afternoons were spent on the dock trying to get some sun and collecting the courage to jump into the icy blue water.  When we weren't having free time, I was practicing, having rehearsals with my incredible quartet, and having coachings, lessons, and masterclasses with the amazing faculty members.  It was an incredible growing experience.  It is always good to get outside your tiny little bubble in your hometown and see what is really out there, competition and all.  I also made some incredible friends who I hope I will be able to see again in the future and remain in contact with.  

The aftermath of these adventures has left me happy to be back home, inspired, and sick...(too many late nights chatting away the hours.)  Next on the summer agenda is taking a family vacation down to see my grandparents in Virginia next weekend.  It's been so long since I've seen them and am very excited that they will be able to meet my fiance for the first time.  After that comes job searching!  Yay!  But seriously, I'm excited to get back into the real world and start making steps towards an incredible future.  Call me crazy, but I'm actually excited about my next year in college.  I have a good feeling that so much is on the horizon.