Graduation Begins a New Chapter

I finished all of those assignments I had listed. It was hard and time consuming and I had to make sure that some shifts were covered for me at the Country Club, but I got it all done and I graduated Magna Cum Laude =).



My Aunt took this picture and it was a capture of THE perfect moment on the jumbotron. I had a full audience there, my mommy, my man, my best friend and my aunt & uncle.



Look at my very proud mama =). Every time I looked back to look at my crowd cheering me on, I saw her tearing up. Can you believe that she didn't bring tissues for herself to my graduation? What was she thinking?! Haha, my uncle came prepared though and passed his tissue pack down to her.

After graduation we went to lunch in Market Square at Sienna. Sienna is an adorable little restaurant that is all organic and locally grown food. Naturally my man and I are drawn to this place ;-). I am going to miss Market Square bunches I must say. At lunch though I finally got my ears!



I am very proud of my ears, but most importantly all that I've accomplished the past 4 years. I said it all along the way, it goes by extremely fast. People warn you of this and it is always brushed off. Everyone needs to enjoy those 4 years. It's a great wonderful crazy time to have and you don't know how much you're going to learn about yourself in those years. I'll give a hint though, it's a lot.

Enough sap now, I want to give you a little tour!



This is my new apartment. It's just my size and I absolutely love it. I know my mom has been dying to come see it but I will get this from everyone because I live through tunnels. Pittsburgh and their tunnels. If you live on one side of one of the tunnels, watch out, people are going to be saying they can't come because they are afraid of tunnels, traffic, it's too far, etc. I understand people getting tunnel vision (I get actual tunnel vision during a migraine), I don't understand the fear- it's a road that has shelter basically, right? The traffic is inevitable. And distance is nothing. If you want to see someone, you will see them, end of story.

Anyway, It's coming along. I do want to get a cute little table and chairs for the dining room because I really am missing a table you can sit at. Especially for my computer and crafting =).

I also wanted to share with you all my FAVORITE breakfast. It's a real treat for yourself and super super easy.

Eggs In A Basket:
What you'll need is simply 2 eggs, 2 slices of bread, some butter, a skillet, spatula and a small juice glass(or mini mason jar as I use).



The first thing you do is get the 2 slices of bread and use the juice glass or small mason jar to cut a hole in the center.



You then want to put your skillet on the burner on Med-High with some butter in there. You want this butter to coat the pan pretty well. Then you want to put 1 of the pieces of bread in there and flip it so each side is buttered. Then you want to crack in your first egg inside the hole.



It should look somewhat like this. Now let the bottom form a bit before you tempt to flip this. I like to push it a little with the spatula to see if it'll be a tricky flip or an easy flip. The butter is usually the key to this, but sometime the egg is just finicky.



I apologize I did not get an action shot but I have been doing this for a good while and it was a flawless flip. If you did not get a flawless flip, keep trying. It gets easier I promise =)



You just repeat those steps for the 2nd piece of bread! I like to butter the centers in the skillet between the eggs in the baskets. It helps clean the pan up a bit and then they are extra for soaking up delicious egg =). I only add a little bit of salt and pepper and then these are good to go! I'm sure ketchup wouldn't be too bad of an idea with this either though ;-)

I was asked where I got this idea by a friend at work the other day and I told them whenever I watched V for Vendetta I wanted to make them immediately. Breakfast is my favorite meal and eggs I can never get enough of, so I naturally tried them right away. I was not the greatest at them my first try, but once I got the hang of them, I became flawless and it is a staple breakfast (lunch or dinner) for me =) hehe.

Now don't think that was all I was going to show you. I must show you my finished coffee table! I don't know if I shared with all of you that I was making this table, with my man of course! Because it did take a good bit of time, but it is finally finished and looks fabulous =)



If any of you are Pinterest Pinners I'm sure you've seen this before, but I actually did it! Now I have been asked by people already if I drank all of those wine bottles and the answer is HECK NO! Hahaha, I work at a restaurant and I would NOT have been able to get this done without the corks from there. Thank you to the bartenders for stashing these away for me at the end of the night =)

The window I got at Construction Junction for $1. Just a DOLLAR! Then the legs were 50 cents each I believe? My man put the rest of the wood together and then I hot glued corks to the board for a good while, haha. Took me longer than I thought! Once I got it to my new place I was completely finished and pestering my man to get it finished. Once it was all up together I stained the sides of the wood with black paint and hot water to make the new wood blend with the obvious old wood. I'm really happy with how it all turned out.

Alright. Now I do have knitting I should show you but I did NOT take a picture of that. I must go to studying though. Now you did read this whole post and realized I finished school but yet I say studying, what could I be studying for? Oh I got 2 job offers right out of school and I need to study to get a license to sell insurance because I'm going to be a financial planner! That's right! I'm really proud of myself. Alright, hope you all take some time to make some good breakfast or craft your day away. I'll be studying ;-).

My new chapter has just begun. Stay tuned!

<3 Carly

Last Few Weeks

I have said this before, time flies. Everyone will tell you entering college to enjoy it because it goes by so quickly and you don't realize it until the same time every year.

I have so much to do, so much left for the last few weeks, but I need to continue to remind myself to enjoy the last few weeks. I've been told by friends all around me that I really do need to just relax. I think I've listened to them a little too much. I am rather calm for all the work I have left to do. I am glad that some of it is done but heres what's left.

MBA Class:
Final DONE
20 Page Research Paper DONE
Book Review YET TO BE COMPLETED

PR Intro Class:
Events Calendar DUE TUESDAY
Present PR Plan TUESDAY
Final THURSDAY

Geography Class:
Paper on Economics of India (how Ironic right?) DUE TUESDAY
Final FOLLOWING TUESDAY

Independent Study:
15 Page Term Paper DUE MONDAY

It doesn't look like a lot, but I am also applying to jobs, trying to find a place to live, and not pull my hair out because of pet fees for a cat I don't even own yet!

My man doesn't want a pet in his house but for my apartment I will be getting a little kitten or adopt an elder cat. I want to name the cat Shia or Channing so I can come home to Shia Labeouf or Channing Tatum. Hahaha, yes, I really thought this through. The stressful thing about looking up apartments is that the location may or may not have parking. You may be tricked into the "maintenance fees" that consist of a 1 a summer lawn cutting. Reading the reviews on google or yelp is very helpful. Then there are the awesome stared sections of "$295 non-refundable pet fee, then $25 per pet, per month (limit 2)". WHAT IS THAT FEE FOR?! Are you taking my pet to the doctors 5 times a year for me? I promise I will get their shots. I also promise to clean their shit. Also, do you have an animal? Are you charged an extra $300 down payment and $25/month per pet on your property? NO? Maybe in taxes there is a non-refundable pet fee. Still no? Hmmm, why then are you charging me $300+ to own an animal? I don't even understand it. And I don't even have a place or cat of my very own yet.

Anyway, the job hunting feels like another class. There are a lot of online profiles and personality profiles that companies want to check. They also want you to do these on PC's (but I love my MAC). It's all fine and easy because they are just about me but they are time consuming. I just want a job when I graduate. Something that pays.

Now onto my knitting. I finished my man's stocking just a few weeks ago, FINALLY, I know.



Very happy with how it turned out. It's HUGE but it looks good. I used duplicate stitch to put his name up top and I think it looks really good. I was going to use a darker blue but I think it would've looked too harsh. I was originally going to make myself one just the same but I think I may use a different pattern from the holiday knits book I bought around Christmas time. I should start now so it'll be ready for Santa before XMAS EVE, hahaha.

I'm working on some socks now. I seriously dream about knitting now and really wanted a pair of purple socks. Luckily I had some MadelineTosh purple (Flashdance) sock yarn that I have wounded up and started. It's slow moving because I have to use US 1's to get gauge but they're going to be gorgeous when finished.

I also finished my first shawl! Which desperately needs blocked, but with yarn from Portland! =) I really want to wind up some of the the tweedy looking yarn for hats for me and my man but I must resist until all the assignments up above are complete.

Alright, I have procrastinated enough. I must get back to my term paper now.

<3 Carly

The Best to Knit for

I finished my handsome's socks! =D



Just look how cute he is with his poses, haha ;-)



This is the reason for my title by the way.



My man is the best to knit for.



The adorable poses, the want of the first sock when it was done and I hadn't even started the second one. As soon as I finished these socks, he put them on, posed for the photo shoot, then kept them on all night. I'm not sure about the other knitters out there but it did take a little getting used to my woolen socks. I worked with Cherry Tree sock yarn and my feet were so itchy in these socks, but they were my first socks for me! I had to wear them. I went back and forth for a while, loving them and hating them then I just put them on one day and they weren't itchy at all. I am meant to wear my woolen babies, but for my man who hasn't wore woolen socks yet I was shocked how taken he was with them. This truly makes him the best to knit for.



Also getting a picture text from him letting me know that he's just enjoying his Sunday evening watching tv, wearing his new socks =)

I've obviously started a new project since, but wanted to show off my just finished project, and how wonderful my man is to knit for =)

<3 Carly

Natural Portland

To finish off my trip of the beautiful city of Portland, I'll be showing off pictures of the literal nature parks. My man really wanted to see these trees and as a city girl that loves her man, I happily went with to explore the nature and trees and whatever else we stumbled into.



The Hoyt Arboretum was our first stop in this tree hugging venture of ours. This may make me sound like I'm making fun of my man for wanting to visit the trees but it's really not at all. He was an absolute sweetheart going from yarn shop to yarn shop with me, walking all over the city and spending a week with me in the city in general. I love you handsome =), you are the best. Anyway, just the bus ride up to the Hoyt Arboretum was beautiful. Big beautiful houses, another park was passed, Washington Park (more people jogging and dog walking in the first park because it had a bit more sun than Hoyt), and then the big beautiful trees. I kid you not when we looked at these trees, they were huge. We both looked at each other and said, they do not have such big trees back in PA. Look how thick and tall they are! We went in to the little greetings center and the woman was telling us that these trees weren't even that old, but they're getting there.



I don't know if you can see it's a little bit more greener in Jared's picture, but I tried the outside scenery option on my digital camera and holy smokes it just made everything pop! Haha, I'm just in a dress walking through the park, haha. I thought that was the best part. I wore pants and jeans everyday except the last because I wanted to wear my cute little dress for our tasting of breweries. Well woops because we went to the park, haha. Totally fine though. It wasn't like a hiking trip or anything. We were used to all the walking we had going on already.



Now I took a lot of pictures of all the nature. I didn't necessarily get a good job of capturing the big tall and beautiful trees as best I could, but I'm little and my camera is just a simple point and shoot, haha.



Now the redwood trees are what my man really wanted to see. They were gorgeous. We enjoyed looking out at the "Redwood Deck".



We've decided that we both just have little bit of odd smiles, haha. If you see, my man's smile goes up a little bit more in one corner than the other. We've been dating for some time now and I just realized it going through our Portland pictures. Also, if I don't smile fully (if we both don't smile fully), I don't like my smile. I'll just stop the smile tangent there, haha.



Just some more lovely pictures from our little hike =)



Now after Hoyt we were going to go to the Japense Garden, the only thing stopping us was the $20 it would have costed us... Luckily it was right next to Washington Park so we just roamed there for a little. Washington Park had a lovely rose garden, but because those were not in bloom, we just enjoyed the walking around.

We took our bus back to the city, I went back to my knitting, and then we went on our brewery tour. We may or may not have gotten more doughnuts, hehe.



Here's my proof of knitting in Portland! =)

<3 Carly

Portland Continued

Just to show off and talk about all the great places I didn't mention in the first post of my Untraditional Spring Break.

What was recommended to us when we got there was Mothers Bistro, or what they usually refer to as Mama's. This is where we realized how much Portland loves hash and rosemary potatoes (YUCK!). I don't know what got them into putting rosemary on everything but they do. It's crazy how much rosemary is on everything. I realized by the second day that I needed to say no rosemary even if there wasn't rosemary listed on the item because it was going to be on it, haha. Sorry to my rosemary loving friends. I tried Mikes Scramble, which was very good, but I could've done without the rosemary potatoes...

The next day we checked out was Bijou Cafe. I picked this place out and planned most of this day but was pleasantly surprised by the breakfast I had. What I thought was just a feta, olives and eggs over easy had cauliflower, kale and a bunch of different spices (much like the has I had at Mama's). Once the waiter helped me realize what I was ordering, I decided to go with it and Jared commented on how much of an adventurous eater I am, haha. I really was though. It was really good and I'm glad I tried something different each time =)

The next day we went to Isabel, which is again, in the Pearl District. If I haven't already mentioned, we were in the Pearl District a lot. They just had so many awesome shops and places to eat that were local so there was no way we would've missed out on them. I tried the Avocado Scramble. I was going to try the Coconut French Toast, because my man hates coconut and just because it sounded so good. BUT I did not. He although did try the Rosemary Potato Breakfast, which I just joked about but then he got. Haha, we like to share and try each others so I couldn't because of the awful rosemary. I was a little sad I didn't get the coconut just to get back at him ;-) haha.

Now the last day we just ate at the hotel and I had a delicious eggs benedict =) sooo tasty. But during the other days we did go by some amazing tea and coffee shops. Let me just tell you the amount of respect they have for tea drinkers out there, it's awesome. You can get full leaf tea all the time. You usually stay in the shop and have the tea, which means you get your own tea pot and a cup and a strainer and it was just awesome.

The first one we went by, but didn't have anything from yet was Peet's Coffee & Tea. Which we eventually went to twice. It was so delicious there. I had my first ever green tea latte!

The first place I did try though was Morning Brew and I had a lavender latte. It was really good. I really needed to wake up the day I got it too. I'm pretty sure it was the day we got there, Monday. We were on our way to Twisted and I wanted to be awake for my yarn shop experience =).

The other cafe that I really enjoyed and wish we had in Pittsburgh was The Red E Cafe. The tea that I had at this place was so good I even bought some at the Whole Foods to take home. Now this tea is a green tea, which I have been hooked on for a good while. It used to be black tea was my thing, because I went from coffee to tea and need that much caffeine. Now that I've been drinking tea for a good while I like to try them all and green tea has really been my favorite. The tea is done by Jasmine & Pearl Tea and called Genmaicha.

I like to compare my man's beer favorites to my crazy tea favorites. He loves a good hoppy IPA. I love a good funky green tea. He smelled mine and his reaction was great, "No way am I trying that", but he finally did and he said it wasn't awful but it was definitely different. That's just about the same way I feel about his hops and IPA favorite beers. I call those beers a Jared Beer because they have his name all over it ;-).

Which brings me to a wonderful transition into our Brewvana Tour, haha. Now being around all those micro brewery's/local brewery's I mentioned from the first post, I was learning a lot about beer. But I feel I am almost a complete (but let's face it, not on the same level as my man) beer nerd. My man is more of a beer snob (in comparison, similar to a wine snob).



Here is the start of our evening on the tour bus. I surprised the woman that showed us all around when she handed out pretzel necklaces, to help us pace ourselves and snack on while we toured 3 brewery's. She said before handing them out, "Bet you've never had a pretzel necklace before!" and you know what, I wear one everyday now. I got mine at the Handmade Arcade back in December it was. Anyway, I wear it basically all the time. She sent a picture to her boss and they both had a little geek out moment of love for my necklace.

***SIDE NOTE*** If you live in Pittsburgh, go to this years Handmade Arcade. I made it easy and made the link for you. Mark it on your calendar (DECEMBER 7th, 2013), it's such a great place to get Christmas/holiday gifts, spoil yourself, or heck- have your own booth!

Back to the tour. It was a very intimate tour and I think that made it better. Just me, my man and another cute couple that may or may not be moving to Portland soon (I'm a little envious). Check out ALL the photos HERE.

The first brewery was at Base Camp Brewing Company. They have only been open for 3 or 4 months and they're already doing great. They got their equipment from a brewery in Wisconsin, broke it all down and drove it back to Portland. The guy that talked us through our beers was Joey and he was just as beer nerdy as my man. After tasting our 6 beers (which we all admitted feeling something after), and touring the brewing room, my man and Joey had a beer nerd moment. It was adorable =) We learned about the different ingredients in the beer though here. Smelled the hops, dry hops, malt, barely, and it was really neat (I still hate hops and may or may not have gaged a little at the smell, haha).

Funny enough, the beers I liked from here was a Belgian Session Ale (similar to the one I tried at Hopworks), the Ripstop Rye, which I didn't think I'd like and the S'mores Stout. I've discussed this with my man before but brought it up with Joey to see if he had thought this as well. The thought of a dessert beer. The S'mores Stout was just so chocolately and he did agree that there such a thing as the dessert beer, just as there is a dessert wine. Although the beer tasted as if it was sweet, it was probably one of the more bitter beers we tried. Because of the malts though, it balances out the hops and bitterness. =) Correct me if I'm wrong handsome!

The second brewery we just did a tasting, no tour was necessary because it was a tiny little brewing house. The Commons Brewery does Belgium beers and boy do I like those Belgium beers. The Myrtly was my favorite from here. I have figured out, much like my green tea love, I love the citrus beers that have a little bit of zesty-ness to them.

The third and last brewery was Migration Brewing Co., which I'm not going to lie, didn't necessary pay too much attention to. We didn't have anyone really talking up the beers and we ALL needed the food that was there in us immediately, haha. I know we tried 3 beers, got a take home glass and the food was really good. I'm a sucker for some good brie, haha. I only tried 2 of the beers because one was an IPA and I already know with the amount of experience I've had already, I don't love IPA's.

Overall the tour was great! Please check out the awesome photos and I encourage others to do beer tours. We basically did our own each night by going to 2 brewery's but the bus made it so much nicer that we didn't have to drive anywhere. Smart move truly.

I still have a few more photos left from Portland, but I'll save it for next time ;-) (yes, I know I'm just lengthening the awesome time I had in Portland, but who wouldn't want to brag about the best Spring Break just a little bit longer?)

<3 Carly

Untraditional Spring Break

Last week was my final college Spring Break and I wanted to make it fun. My man rose to the occasion and we thought more traditional when we started thinking of where to go with Disney World. After we realized how much money it was to go to Disney, we decided to hold off. Then we were going through Living Social Deals, and I always get these emails but don't take the opportunities as often as I should, haha. We figured out that we could go to Portland Oregon for basically half the price of Disney! And we did! =)

Now my man and I are local lovers by nature. We both love small businesses and buying locally. Portland was the perfect place for us to go for this reason. We did some research, I looked at local yarn shops of course =). My man looked up a bunch of local micro brewery's, which there were plenty of.

As soon as we got there, we checked out a local yarn shop, Twisted.



This shop was the first one I went to and they had like over 10 local dyers I swear! I loved all the yarns in the shop and my man even helped me pick out some yarns =). He's the best. Picked out his own sock yarn and some yarn we found together for hats. All local dyers of the Portland, Oregon area. Some were from Washington or California, but all were yarns I could not get at home.



After finding our way through what I must say is a very organized public transportation, we ended up at Burnside Brewing Company for dinner. I was very adventurous during our trip and had mussels that night. But the beer might have been the best choice. It was a Belgium chocolate and strawberry stout, called Red Light District. After reflecting on our trip I asked Jared which beer was his favorite and he said this was his favorite he tried.

The next day we went to the only yarn shop I contacted to see if they had local dyers and they were completely underwhelming after visiting Twisted. Not even worth to mention the name. We of course found a place for lunch, BridgePort Brewing Company.



Now I warned my man that I'd be knitting in all the pubs we'd be in and he didn't mind at all =). He tried the Hop Czar and I tried the Summer Sizzler. Both our kind of beers. I did learn a lot about beer in general on this trip, which I know my man is very happy about. I figured out I like the citrus beers or the malty beers. My man is faithful to his hops though always ;-).

AFTER our lovely lunch at BridgePort, we stumbled upon a wonderful local yarn shop, Knit Purl.



Now my man found this shop on our way back from lunch, have I mentioned he's the best? Haha, but this shop was super cute and right in town, I loved the atmosphere. The awesome fun fact I learned about this shop was that the owner actually owns Shibui. Naturally I had to get some Shibui and I found a beautiful pattern to go with my purchase. They have all the colors and it was so much fun. I had no idea that Shibui had that many colors or different weights of yarn! We get a few where I work, but had no idea they had all the beautiful colors =). We should expand our Shibui collection here, haha.



Probably my favorite picture from the whole trip. Both of us wearing knit hats by me and both of our smiles just so big =).

Well after a little bit of resting we found another local brewery to check out, Cascade Brewing. We only tried a few beers, but made my man take a photo outside for his nerd beer portfolio ;-).



This brewery focused on sour beers and we tried these 4 that were all fruity, which is very common in sour beers. My favorite was the Apricot. The others were a Black Cap Raspberry, Cherry Blond, and I think the Blueberry one. I don't think a sour beer would be my first choice but I was glad I got to try them and test them out.



We ventured to an Irish Pub, Kells, for dinner. They had their own beer, but we tried some different local beers. I had a Widmer Hefeweizen, which is SO GOOD! We got some to take home at a whole foods the next night =).

The next morning we went out to breakfast, but went to Voodoo Doughnuts after. The most awesome doughnut place ever.



We actually went to Voodoo Doughnuts twice... Hehe, we had the Maple Bacon Bar, the Portland Cream, and Old Dirty Bastard the first time. Then we had the Memphis Mafia, Captain my Captain and McMinnville Cream. Look those up followers and readers, you need to see how good these look. Also these doughnuts are HUGE!

We may or may not have gained 5 lbs in Portland, haha.



My man did so much walking though for all my yarn shop travels. This was Wednesday and we ran into 2 yarn shops this day. One of my favorites for sure was Dublin Bay Knitting Company. Sadly I did not take a picture in front of this store because this store was adorable and probably the most organized yarn shop I have ever seen. So clean and they dye their yarn solstice, which I snagged 2 skeins of =). I also got to chat it up with one of the girls that worked there and she told me about a few other shops that I should check out while I was there.

***SIDE NOTE; I missed the Yarn Crawl by 1 day. We got there the day after the yarn crawl had ended but all the shops had lots of local dyers anyway so it was a win win.

So the girl told me about the other yarn shop that was on the same street. Naturally I had to go, and my man was very nice about following right along to the next yarn shop =). Pearl Fiber Arts was the yarn shop and they were another cute shop. I was drawn to their yarn that was locally dyed and the dyer used cake dyes. It was awesome beautiful colors and I picked up another 2 skeins. I will put a picture up of all my yarn as soon as possible. Just lots of other things going on as a senior in college to stress about.

Anyway, there was another brewery we checked out for happy hour that night. If you haven't caught on, we went to amazing breakfast places (which for some odd reason I'm leaving out), then checked out at least 2 local yarn shops and then went to happy hour at a local brewery, then another brewery for dinner. That night happened to be Hopworks Urban Brewery. My man found his brewery with a place that serves organic beers.



I had the Organic Velvet ESB. The English Session Beer I picked out all by myself and throughly loved it. The session beers means that you should be able to have a few in a "session". Which is why they made them. My man will confirm once he reads that if I said that properly, haha.

Anyway, after Hopworks, we went to try another local brewery but with dinner. Deschutes Brewery was a good brewery and we were told to go the by different people so it was a must go to. I got another Hefeweizen because I had liked the one from Kells so much. I probably should have tried a different beer because I sadly didn't love it. It wasn't awful, but definitely not as good as the Widmer. The food was pretty good though, I had a healthy salad (we had been eating very unhealthy food and a salad was necessary for my body, haha).

After Deschutes, we had to checkout this bookstore, Powell's Books. Now we went to Powell's again, because this picture is clearly from the day, haha.



If you can see, this book store is a block large AND has multiple floors! I got lost in the knitting section.



As you can see the bookshelves are very tall and I had to have my handsome help me from time to time but I could've stayed there for hours looking at all the patterns =) hehe.

The last day was spent at the parks and the brewvana tour. I'm going to have to save those for next time though because this post took me too long. I must go to bed. Goodnight!

<3 Carly