Presenting Dr. Jessica

So remember that time when I used to update my blog somewhat regularly and then I just sort of...stopped?  Well that is soon to be a thing of the past!  I'm back!! AND...guess what?!?!  I got my PhD!  I'm officially a Dr!

Last Sunday (5/19) was my PhD Convocation and then last Wednesday (5/22) was the university Commencement and then my hooding ceremony.  I am elated that I was able to achieve my dream of earning my PhD.  I just wanted to share a few pictures from last week's festivities. 

My mom, Sean (bf), Matt (best friend), Uncle Dan, and Aunt Cathy accompanied me last Wednesday to Commencement and hooding.  I know that they were so very proud of me--maybe as proud or prouder than I was!

Here I am leaving the hooding ceremony.  If you have never been to a hooding ceremony it is the time that we are officially presented our doctoral hoods that show the color of our degree (royal blue for me indicating PhD) as well as our school colors on the inside (although you can't see it in the picture, the inside of my hood is light blue and white for Columbia).  Technically we aren't supposed to wear our hoods before being hooded, but we all did--call us rebels!  Commencement took place prior to hooding and it just felt good to wear the hood to Commencement!

I actually have a funny story about the hood I received.  We had the choice of either buying or renting both the hood and the gown for graduation.  We all had to buy the tam.  Well, after pricing out the outfit I decided that it would be best to rent the gown (it was over $600 to own) and buy the hood as a memento.  If I was to buy the entire thing it would cost about $1,000 which is a bit too much for me right now for something I might not wear again.  Anywho, back to my hood story.  I had the bookstore ship my regalia to my house since I'm very rarely at school any longer.  (Side note: I got a job much closer to home so I no longer have to go to the city every day!)  So when my regalia arrived I was so excited to try it on!  When I put the hood on I realized that it was red and royal blue inside, but didn't think more of it.  When I got to school on Sunday for my Convocation my mom and I decided to visit the bookstore to purchase a few items.  The bookstore has PhD gowns on display and I realized that the inside of the hood was school colors--Columbia blue and white.  I checked with the bookstore staff and the assured me that as long as the velvet part of my hood was royal blue, the hood was correct.  When I asked about the red inside the bookstore staff, Convocation staff, and even a Dean did not have an answer.  So after my Convocation I was sure that I was sent the wrong hood in the mail--EVERYONE else had Columbia colors on the inside of their hood.  Luckily the bookstore lent me a rental for the other ceremonies!  At least my mom was able to spot me easily at Convocation!!

Ok, back to pictures.  Here are a bunch of people from the Human Development department.  HUD (as we call it) houses my program as well as other psychology programs.  We were waiting to go into the hooding ceremony--notice that no one is wearing the hood :).  I think someone commented that without the hood we look like a chef choir.  Haha!

Here I am post Commencement posing with the "Columbia University--Congratulations to the Class of 2013" banner!  I think I have a similar one from when I graduated in 2008 with one of my masters degrees.

Here I am with Sean and My mom after my Commencement.  If you look to the left of the picture ALLL the way in the background you'll see a "sea of blue"--that's where I was sitting for the ceremony!  Needless to say it was tricky to get to my family afterwards to take some photos!  Luckily we got some nice ones :).  There were over 30,000 people said to be at this years graduation.

Here I am with Uncle Dan (who is also my godfather) and Aunt Cathy!  I know they had such a nice time at the ceremony.  I'm so glad they came!

I do like that we got Low Library (which isn't a library) in the background of these photos.  I do love the campus!  Here I am with Matt and my mom.  :)

And last, but certainly not least is a photo with my advisor.  Dr. Johnson was a wonderful mentor for my dissertation and I'm very proud to have been able to work with him!

So that is it for now.  Definitely expect some project posts coming soon!  I've done a bit of knitting and crocheting during my blogging hiatus and would love to share the projects with you!  Until then, happy yarn time! :)

Christmas gift recap! [FINALLY!]

Ahhhh, finally I have the time to present all of my finished Christmas gifts!  This past Christmas I decided to make as many presents as I could.  I get such enjoyment out of making gifts and it's also a good way to save some money!  I believe that I made something for each person on my list--definitely a successful holiday!

I knit a cowl with carved wood buttons for each of my bosses.

For Sean, I knit a scarf and hat set and also made a Sheldon the Turtle in Giant's colors!

I added the year to to bottom of Sheldon's shell so that Sean will always remember which Christmas I gave him Sheldon.

For my cousin Kyle, I crocheted a rocket pillow.  He told me and my mom that this was one of his favorite Christmas gifts--which means a lot to me, coming from a 6 year old, especially when he got different video games and electronics from Santa and our family!

For my mom, I finally finished the ripple crochet blanket that I started 2 years ago!  It was worth the wait--she loved it!

I also made a vest for my mom....but it came out a little large and looked like armor on me!  I think she ended up giving it to a friend who it fit better.

And as usual I edged a couple of dishtowels for my mom and even monogrammed one too!

I also made my mom a snowflake fridge towel and one for Sean's mom as well.

I also made another fridge towel for Sean's mom as well as two crochet-edged towels!

And....I made a bunch of crocheted ornaments for Sean's mom as well. She loved them all.

For my Aunt Cathy and Uncle Dan's cats I crocheted 3 cat toys and stuffed them with catnip!  They were a big hit.

And last, but certainly not least, I finished Matt's sweater!!  It looks so good on him and he loved it!  I'm happy I was able to finish it and give it to him this year!

It was definitely a busy holiday craft season, as I'm sure you can tell, but it was wonderful!  I love giving handmade gifts to my loved ones!  I'm already thinking about next Christmas--because, you know, it's never too early to start!

Tis the season!

Somehow this yearn has FLOWN by!  It seems as if it was just the beginning of September...and now here we are approaching December!  I do have to say that I had a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving :), the best I've had in a long time!  I have such a wonderful family and it meant the world to me that Sean could spend the day with me and my family :).

When I was little we never put the Christmas tree up RIGHT after Thanksgiving...we sort of waited a week or two (?) or maybe even more depending on schedules!  However, since I started grad school I've learned that if I don't get the tree up on Black Friday it might not even get up! Sooo...that's exactly what Sean and I did on Friday :).  We put the tree up! It really was a lovely time....Christmas music playing as we fluffed up the branches of the tree that was in the attic for a year.  I was highly amused every time Sean said "wow you have more ornaments to go up?" :).  What can I say...I like my tree with lots of ornaments on it!  The bow I made back in...um..2008 I think, still looks pretty good atop my tree!

What do you think?

We also have an "Our 1st Christmas" ornament this year :).  Sean bought it for me at a Holiday Boutique we went to two weeks ago....he's so thoughtful.

I have a crocheted nativity under the tree.  I bought this a few years back before I ever tried to make an amigurumi.  I'd love to make myself a nativity one day.  For now, I adore this set!

This year, I also decided to make myself a holiday bunting.  Last year I had participated in an Attic24 themed swap on Ravelry and I had received 4 little granny trees as part of my package.  I had them hanging in my office last year, but I knew that they needed a better way to be displayed! (Especially since I have only been in my school office 1 time a week lately.)  So....I made 3 others (the yellow, orange, and dark purple ones) using the same pattern--Grandma Tree by the Royal Sisters.  I attached them all together using a glitter eyelash yarn from Martha Stewart. Then I hung glittery snowflake ornaments that I found at Target (2 for $1! can't beat that!).  I'm in love with my sweet garland bunting!!

Decorating for the holidays just makes me so happy :).

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone celebrating today! I have so very much to be thankful for this year, as always.  My wonderful Mom, my family, my friends, my amazing boyfriend Sean, my health, my success thus far in school, my angels in Heaven, and so much more.  Even if you don't celebrate Thanksgiving today, take a moment or two to remember all that you are thankful for!

And if you feel like baking...why not make some turkey cupcakes?

I spent some time yesterday searching online for easy and cute Turkey cupcakes.  I got a few ideas and headed to the store.  I first thought maybe I'd use candy corn for feathers (like I saw online), but I couldn't find candy corn...then I thought maybe use Nutter Butter cookies for the face...but I couldn't find those either! So, I came up with my own idea.

Here's what you need:

-Your favorite cupcakes (made from scratch or from a box or even store bought!)

-Icing (if your cupcakes aren't iced)

-Vanilla wafers (I used the WhoNu vanilla wafers)

-Pretzel sticks

-M&Ms of some sort (I used pretzel ones)

-Two colors of gel to write on the vanilla wafers (I used red for the beak and purple for the eyes)

What you need to do is:

1) Make two eyes and a beak on the vanilla wafer.  Put these aside to dry (or in the fridge) so that the features harden a little and don't run....(yeah...I wound up with a "crying" turkey at first ha!)

2) Prepare your pretzels.  For each cupcake you'll need 5 sticks.  Break 2 in half.  Starting in the back middle of a cupcake, place in 1 whole pretzel.  Then put two whole pretzels on either side of that one, but push them in a little further so that they are shorter.  Then place a half pretzel on each side of the growing pretzel-feathers.  And finally place the last half on the side, pushing it in a little more.  You want the "feathers" in the middle to be tallest and the ones on the side to be shortest.

3) I separated out the fall colored M&Ms (red, orange, yellow, brown).

4) Place a vanilla wafer at the front of the cupcake--sort of in the cupcake a bit and sort of resting on the icing a little.

5) Place the M&Ms you sorted between the face and the tail to ad some color to the body.

And you're done! :)

Enjoy!!

Bottle Boobies

This weekend I crocheted something that I think might just be the silliest thing I have EVER made.  However, it is fitting that I made it during October, since this is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  Well, this past week, as I was pouring over the patterns in Ravelry I somehow stumbled on a pattern for a can cozy that was the torso of a woman (sort of) complete with boobs and a bikini top.  Of course I immediately started giggling and sent a photo of it to my boyfriend.  I knew this was right up his ally.  Of course I got a reply about how funny that was.  So I told him I'd make him one if he'd like--his reply was "yes! and make one for Myles (his friend) too!"  

So being the good girlfriend that I am, Sunday I went to Michaels to find some Caucasian flesh colored yarn.  I was torn between a Loops and Threads Incredible color and a Red Heart Super Saver one.  After much deliberation and some in-aisle opinion asking I settled on the RHSS in "buff."  I went home...and got hooky!  About an hour later out popped a bottle cozy with boobs!  Later that evening I made the second :).

Seriously this is the funniest thing I've ever made!  If you want to see them...um...topless, you can click on THIS LINK to view them in my Ravelry project page. :).

Sheldons!

I've been a very busy crafter lately, even though I have not been blogging about it. Tsk tsk on me.  One of the patterns that I've just fallen in love with is Sheldon the Turtle from Knitty.  Sheldon is a pretty quick knit and makes an excellent gift.  One of the best things IMO about Sheldon is that you can remove his shell and make him other little outfits to wear instead! How fun is that?  Anywho, I went to my bf's niece's 1st birthday party in August and wanted to bring a little gift for her.  I figured that something hand knit would make a nice gift, so I knit her a Sheldon with a pink and purple shell.  Since this was a gift for her first birthday I embroidered they eyes rather than using safety eyes or buttons.  It's totally child friendly!  It was really cute when she opened her present because she gave Sheldon a big kiss! :)

So...Sheldon is *such* a great pattern that I decided to make another one as part of a gift for my cousins' who are expecting their first baby.  This one took even less time to make.  I really love making the shell!  They expecting a baby boy sometime in September (I think).  I'm also making them a baby blanket and I picked colors for Sheldon that match the blanket.  I've also embroidered the eyes to make it totally safe for a baby.

I also really love that I've used yarn that I've had in my stash for both Sheldons!  I love making use of things :).

Are you ready for some football?

It's that time of year again, football season!  Now, I have to be honest...I'm not much of a football fan, but I don't mind watching games (in fact, sometimes I really enjoy it!).  My bf, however, is quite the football fan.  He LOVES his Giants!  So what better to make for him than a football hat?  He was so happy with the hat :).

I also recently met his 11 yr old nephew, B, and when I met B he asked me to make him a dog (because I made his sister a Sheldon the turtle)...well I was told that he's too old for a stuffed dog (which I'm not sure if I agree with).  I don't want to ruffle any feathers, so I knit him a football hat too (and I'll probably knit the dog later :)).  B's hat is a surprise and I haven't given it to him yet.  Hopefully he'll like it!

WIP Wednesday

So, I'm not an impulsive person.  Ask my Mom and my friends.  When making decisions, ESPECIALLY when making purchases, I take my time and never rush into a decision.  (Shopping with me can sometimes become annoying, I imagine, because I put so much thought into my purchases...but c'est la vie.)  Well, the other day I surprised myself with my impulsiveness!  I was in A.C. Moore browsing the yarn (and picking up a few skeins of Vanna's colors which were on sale for $1 each--can't beat that!) and I came across a bag of gray yarn that was SUPER soft and a bag of super soft purple yarn in the "mill ends" section.  I quickly fell in love with them and decided that I'm going to make Sean (my bf) and I a blanket that is just "us"--he loves gray and I love purple.  Sickeningly cute, I  know.  So into my basket they went and I checked out.  I also started the blanket that night!  (It's called Impulsive btw in my Ravelry projects).

I'm using the granny stripes pattern from Lucy of Attic24.  I've used this pattern before for baby blankets and it has always produced lovely results.  I'm not sure how many I chained, but the blanket is just about the width of my full-sized bed.  My original plan was just to crochet until I had finished the two bags of yarn, but when Sean saw my progress he was so excited to use the blanket to cover up with that I decided to go and see if another bag each of the colors existed (which they did).  So now I'm going to crochet until the two bags of yarn is gone.  This should hopefully make a blanket long enough to cover an adult (rather than just be a lap blanket).  I had been crocheting this on the train during my commute, but since it is getting larger I haven't taken it the past few days.  However, it is really growing quickly!!  Here it is in it's current state!  I'm really excited!