Lembas

According to the Lord of the Rings wiki page;
"Lembas, also called Elven bread or Waybread in the Common Speech, was a special food made by the Elves."

I thought I would try to be clever and send the guys some "lembas" during Lent, since cookies are a no-no.
Though I'll be honest, with 1.5 cups of sugar and a cup of butter, this isn't particularly mortifying food.
Unless you're allergic to sugar and butter. 

Pictures! Because that's one of the keys to a fabulously popular blog post!(which we all know this is bound to be!)

I was lazy and crudely cut some cheapy green cardstock paper for the lembas wrapping.

These definitely aren't as fancy as THIS post's lembas, but I bet they taste better! The recipe is from the mom of the British family I did Ministry to Mom's to while in Austria last semester. It's actually British flapjack, but hey, that might've been what Tolkien had in mind when he thunk the idea up!


LEMBAS BREAD (aka, British flapjack)

• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar (I use brown)
• 1/2 cup honey
• 4 cups oats
• 2 cups coconut or oats.

Melt the butter, then add the sugar and honey. Melt and mix well, then add oats, mixing well. Add coconut, or two more cups of oats. You can flavor with orange zest and cranberries, or something else - whatever you like!
Spread it all out on a flat baking tray, about 1 1/2 cms or so thick. Press down a bit and bake until golden brown, 15 minutes or so.

This stuff tastes a lot like the Sunbelt Oats and Honey granola bars, so if you like those, you're in luck! If you don't, then well, you probably won't like this stuff.

Crazy Summer

I think that this is probably the most crazy/memorable summer ever, mostly due to Maria's entrance, but also probably because I have the memory of a goldfish.

Some crazy things that happened this summer;

1. Maria's entrance, as mentioned above.
2. My first real car accident. Apparently the driver who hit me "didn't think (I) was going to turn." (hmmm, yes, that definitely excuses the blatant running through a red light...) I'm almost excited this happened, because unlike most of my older siblings, who have been in near-death situations, I've been pretty low key till now. I can't help but connect the fact that my guardian angel was doing some serious damage control here (like with my siblings) and the fact that now most of them have a pretty good idea of what their vocation is! Is this a pathetic hope? Yep. 

1. I got my hair cut by a real-life hair cutter person for the first time! Okay, so maybe this isn't really crazy, but the experience was pretty terrifying (hair salons are SCARY) Oh, and I got short bangs, which I haven't had since I was ten (maybe?) and I go in between hating and just being annoyed with them...

1. This hasn't happened yet, but I'm going to live, in a different country, with no relatives, for three. whole. months. 
2. I got invited to join the design team of one of my ALL TIME FAVORITE STAMP COMPANIES. I'm still kinda in shock about this, but maybe by the time December rolls around (I couldn't start right away, studying abroad and all) it will hit me. BUT I'M SO EXCITED. Seriously, as pathetic as this may sound to non-crafters, this has been a dream of mine for about five years now. 

There have been a lot of little exciting things too, but that's all I got for tonight. 

Yikes!

...I just bought a Eurail pass! That basically means this whole Austria thing REALLY IS HAPPENING.

I'm really excited but I'm also pretty intimidated.
Because lists are cool things (whenever they don't have horrible, unfun things you need to do on them)...

Excited for:

• being able to dawdle in Europe! Last time was all rush! rush! rush!, though I guess I shouldn't complain since I accidentally won that trip.
• getting the "full college experience" - i.e. living in a big building with people who aren't blood-related (horror, I know). I didn't really understand at my freshman, but it is hard to be a commuter, especially if you play college athletics. Between driving, helping a bit around the house, volleyball practices, and studying, there isn't a lot of time to be piddling around campus, so it's harder to make new friends and to actually get together with them. Not that I actually want to change this (I LOVE MY HOME) but living in Austria should be a nice little taste of that "experience".
• seeing a friend that I hardly ever get to see and going on adventures with her! 
• European fashion! Haha, I know, right? I'm not the most fashion-savvy person, but since I wear skirts pretty much all the time, I'm hoping that for once, I'll blend in well with the people around me (at least, until I open my big American mouth) and that my fellow students won't seem so judgmental of my fashion choices (or lack thereof)

Not excited for:

• being away from my HOUSE FOR THREE AND A HALF MONTHS! Trips and small "vacations", however enjoyable they were, tire me out pretty quickly, so how I'll handle all that time in Austria should be...interesting.
• getting the "full college experience" - I know what I said above, but this is definitely a mixed emotions thing. Since none of the people are blood-related to me, I can't just do weird things I do (like completely blank out when I'm talking to someone) and expect them to understand/not be offended. I'll actually have to communicate! With people! In real life! Who aren't related to me! Terror! On the flip-side of that, I'm going to have to figure out how other people work too. 
• the campus spirituality. It's funny, Franciscan is pretty "conservative" to most other colleges, but for a Catholic college, they do some things that just...well, weird me out. Like FOP's (Festival of Praise)?? Uh, yeah, I tried understanding that...um, energetic part of Catholicism, but I'm still not comfortable with a lot of it. So many times during campus Mass's, I've wanted to shout "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! EVERYONE PUT YOUR HANDS DOWN. NOW. AND PUT THAT GUITAR AWAY!" I've heard that things are more...levelheaded on the Austria campus, but I'm still worried about possibly going so long without a Latin Mass, or at least a really reverent Novus Ordo Mass.
• getting horribly lost in a creepy country. 

and finally

• not seeing any of my family for a whole three and a half months. :( There will definitely be some Skype attempts (I've heard the wifi there is pretty crummy), but man, no adventures or fights with siblings for that long? REALLY not looking forward to that.

So in the end, I'm trying not to get too excited in case I get horribly disappointed too easily, and I'm also trying not to be too much of scaredy cat so that I chicken out on any fun adventures. In any case, this should be an interesting three and a half months!

Hum dee dum

Because I don't want to be nit-picky and want to have this as pretty much a free-for-all blog, I'm not worried about my pathetic title.
Or the fact that this post isn't going to explain my 'absence'.
Because I don't care, though I'm sure the unannounced absence for everyone else has been similar to that which Sherlock fans experienced between the airing of season two and season three. ;)

Mostly I just wanted to post these dresses...

I'm not quite sure how I feel about this one, but I do like navy and pink.

This has some pretty stitching, and the chambray that comes from this site is actually pretty nice.

I don't care for the collar much, and the pattern isn't my favorite, but man, I just love two part dresses - why are they so dang hard to find?!

This one is the most simple, but I think I like this one best out of the lot - too bad it's also the most expensive of these dresses!
Heck, they're all too expensive, because...

....I've been accepted into the Fall 2014 Austria Study Abroad program! Maybe Europe will have some nicer dresses (though likely as not, more expensive) ;)