The brainchild for this project came from  a really sappy night, and a Valentine’s project for my friends. The really sappy night was actually my birthday and I was just thinking about all the love I received that day. If I had ever had any doubts on whether I was loved and that I loved my life they were squished into nonexistence that day. So from that day I was trying to think of ways to show my loved ones that I cared. Generally, I’m pretty good with expressing my feelings with my loved ones, but I really wanted something to express to them how much they meant to me, although it may not be a thing I say everyday. So, that’s where the idea for the roses came from for Valentine’s day. I made little roses for all of my loved ones and explained to them while handing it to them their significance to me and how much I appreciate them on a daily basis.

So back to this project. White roses have always been such a universally gorgeous, elegant and primly timeless figure of beauty to me and the i love the idea of and marrying them with another love of mine, a gold or rose-gold accent. Hanging them on my wall seemed like such a nice way to display them in my room to go along with the white roses of my head board, but they can be displayed in so many different ways to be a simplistic accent to any room.

Materials:

Paper - colors and types can be to your choice

Mod podge spray

Hot glue gun

Scissors

Glitter

To start this DIY  any type of paper or color will work and it needs to be cut it into squares. The size of the squares dictate how big your roses will be. For this project I used white printer paper but any type or color would work. For the valentines project I used graphing paper that my sister and I water colored.

For the second step, draw a spiral and this doesn't have to be perfect, but these are the layers of your rose petals.

Now you have to cut along the line of your spiral, making sure you still have a small circle in the center. It’s important that you have this base because this is what the rest of the rose will rest on.

(like so)

From there you will need to take a hold of the loose end and roll it until it's a tight spiral.

Once everything is wound up you can play around with this coil to loosen it up and create how the rose will lay. Once this is figured out you can use hot glue to secure it to the base.

Finally to give them the touch of gold I was craving for my room I sprayed them with a bit of mod podge spray and sprinkled the glitter on.

Here is the final project and how I placed them in my room:

In the same way that some people put off tasks, and goals, (including myself) I put off listening to new music. I get so comfortable listening to my select golden, set of songs and realize I end up never venturing quite far from those few. Making myself completely oblivious to any new songs I could end up liking. This happens to me a lot with new albums by old favorites, recommended songs from friends, people I’ve heard a lot of buzz about, and many other times. So, I think this will be the first edition of my “Getting to It” playlist. These songs are very diverse in their natures and recommendations to add would be greatly appreciated. Some notable favorites on this list include, "Monsters" and "Candles" by Thelma Plum, "You're the One that I Want" by Lo-Fang, "22" "Book of Love" and "Coming Home by Gavin James, and a few delightful songs that will become lifetime favorites, "Love is a Losing Game" and "Valerie" by the legend, Amy Winehouse.

Mary

I think the first time I said I wanted to be a writer was in the first grade. I probably called it an author at the point, before I knew the innumerable ways writing manifests itself in the world.  That’s what I decided that day.

I Want to Be An Author.

I told my teacher right then and there, too. He gave us a celebratory second recess as a welcoming to the first grade, and every other normal  first grader was instantly animated, working together to construct the lines we had perfected to a tee in kindergarten. Except little Mary. And, as a response to the teacher’s befuddlement at the lack of excitement to why any child would willingly turn down a free recess the little girl donning the long brains said “Can I stay inside and read this? I’m going to be an author”. This earned her a kind chuckle to the enigma that was this first grade girl. She likes to read?? And a bit of showing off to the other teachers along the same lines.

She likes?? to read??

But, she, over time, was pushed along, and nudged into more and more books and attempts at writing on her own by her mentors until she was a bigger girl. A young woman really, who still loves to read, still loves to write, and still like to be just a tad different than her expectations, and she will write in the form of a blog, or novels, articles, anything.

Hello,

Today, I woke up to an 8 a.m Saturday morning alarm, and a world rendered semi out of focus by a sheet of fog. But, neither could I be mad about, it was the good mood kind of day. As a part of choir tradition, and winter spirit, today was Caroling Tag day. This was something that I actually quite dreaded (because of the possibility of bad weather and the time that went into it) that slowly transitioned into something I was extremely excited for in the past few months. We got to sing for people, make them smile, and smile with them which made the cold and walking lightyears greater than worth it. We talked to the most lovely people, who were so kind and receptive towards us which was extremely heartwarming making this day will definitely be one of the high school experiences I will love to remember in the future. One of the people we met that I will definitely remember were a couple, Rosemary and Dan, who we had a lovely conversation with, and talked to us about the beauty of paying it forward while saddling our pockets with lifesavers, which we in turn shared with the following houses. Although, I am not Christian, caroling today was one of the days I got to see the kindness of people and spread kindness myself which was a very inspiring thing to me. Have a happy holidays to whatever you celebrate and an Eid Mubarack to all the other Muslims who celebrated Eid a little while back.

- Mary