This summer Chet and I have been doing things differently. We are getting out, doing new things, trying new things. Going to places we have never been, seeing things we have never seen. Everyday is a new adventure and soo much is happening! I am having tooo much fun. All of my worries (the little worries I have) seems to disappear when I’m having fun. I just love being in the moment of a good time.

This summer has been great so far. We picked up on glow stringing this month. At first, it was really difficult for me. I kept trying to do a few moves and I just couldn’t get them down. I began to doubt myself and I kept thinking that maybe glow-stringing just isn’t for me. Deep down I had this desire to master the moves, but in reality, I thought that it would never happen. So this week, I woke up early and practiced all day, for many hours, trying to master some of the hardest moves for beginners. In the end, I eventually mastered and perfected these difficult moves. I’m glad I didn’t stop learning because I was really close to just giving up, but something told me to keep going. This taught me something very valuable, if you tell yourself that you CAN’T do something, then you won’t do it. You need to push yourself, work hard, because in the end, the result is very rewarding. Now I can glow-string many moves:

The Butterfly
The 2 Beat Weave
The Windmill
The Corkscrew
Simple leg/arm Wraps

Today is friday. I practiced these moves on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. By Wednesday, I had most of them down. I find it hilarious because in the end, I bruised myself really bad. I have bruises all over my arms and legs. The ones on my legs are disgusting lol. I even have bumps on my head from hitting myself sooo much from trying to learn the windmill. In the end, it was worth it. I have learned how to swing my sticks without hitting myself now haha. Here are some pics and videos of our glow-stringing moments! **You may want to “right-click and open in new window” when viewing the videos and pictures.

Gallery

Also, check out the videos too.

Videos

Conclusion

Its been a lot of fun learning how to glow-string. Learning something new gives me a good feeling. Its nice to do things outside of the box from time to time. The summer has just started and so much has happened already. I’m having a lot of fun and I’m liking it waay too much! Hehe.

A lot have been going! So far, this summer is probably one of the best summers of my life. Probably because I’m never bored and we are always doing something fun and interesting.

Chet and I are still “house shopping”. We did fall in love with a house that was a short sale, but we really don’t want to wait 8 months before we can move in. We want something that won’t be a pain in the butt when it comes to closing on the sale. Its still pretty exciting and fun.
I’m planning my wedding still. We’ve made a lot of changes to it and the progress is still coming along nicely. I wan’t to have all of my vendors by the end of August at the latest!!

Anyways, Chet and I have been experiencing a lot of fun events lately. We wen’t to a rave a couple of weekends ago at a camping site and it wasn’t all that great. The music was horrible and the weather basically ruined the event. It was my first time experiencing a rave, so I was a little disappointed in how it all came out to be. In my eyes, it gave me a bad impression that raves were all horrible, but I decided to go to another one this weekend and it was awesome!!! This rave was on the beach and the music was more my taste and speed. I was thoroughly entertained! This rave was actually free and it was trying to advertise their upcoming event in Sarasota called “Vinyl Music Festival”, which is in July and it will be on the beach!! This music festival looks promising and fun!! I’m looking forward to it a lot since I was able to get a little taste of it.

This past weekend was a blast. I loved it and I had a grin from ear to ear because I was having soo much fun!! I’m looking forward to more weekends like these.

Today Chelle, Chet and I went to Coldstone Creamery for some sweet treats and it was soooo good. Chet and I shared a vanilla with caramel topping ice cream dessert in a waffle cone and it was simply wonderful! Today we had a blast. It really wrapped up the weekend well.

Tomorrow Chet and I will be meeting up with the realtor again to scope out more houses on our list. I’m really looking forward to that. House shopping is fun and serious business at the same time.

Also, since T-Mobile or (T-Fail) isn’t doing any good for me anymore, Chet is looking into adding me onto a Verizon plan! I’m really liking “The Incredible” phone. Its a very nice phone and I can’t wait to get my hands on it soon! !

I’m loving this summer so far and I hope everyone is having as much fun as I am!!

Today I made some Hiragana flash cards. I used my Cricut paper trimmer, thick card stock, my awesome Canon printer and my handy-dandy vector program, Adobe Illustrator, to create these cool flash cards!!

Before The Cuts

They took all day to make because I had to cut them individually, one by one, page by page. I’m glad I didn’t run out of ink! I got the idea from a website I found today. This website sold Katakana/Hiragana flash cards and it was slightly expensive, so I decided to create my own!

Since I worked really hard on these cards, I plan on not giving out the template. Though, there are already a lot of free/ready to print- Katakana/Hiragana flash cards online. I would recommend in looking around online for the free ones. There are a lot of resources out there to learn the language!

I’m doing well with the language. I’m using Rosetta Stone (I HIGHLY recommend it!) and I’m also using a workbook that is really helping me. Hehe !

I wanted to go with something cute but also with a touch of my artwork implemented into it. I wanted to go with something light, web 2.0-ish and just… fun! I think I did accomplish that look. The layout is kinda made for larger resolutions. Smaller resolutions do no justice to the layout itself, but since I have a pretty nice screen, I felt like I had to take advantage of the large resolution.

I created the graphics in Illustrator and then edited more in Photoshop. Having these skills makes me realize how lucky and fortunate I am because any crazy and creative idea I have, I can easily bring it to any design since I have the skills. I like cute, simple and clean designs and thats why I have chosen this type of “Kawaii” artwork for the website. The artwork on this new design is very similar to the first launch design of Panda Sweets. I wanted to bring that art style back because its just too cute to pass up! Hehe

I worked very hard on the artwork. Vectoring isn’t easy, especially since you are using the pen tool and the results the pen tool gives is not always 100% perfect. I pay a lot of attention to detail and I am very intricate and picky when it comes to perfecting a piece of work.

Enjoy the new layout design!! You will be able to appreciate it more on a larger screen, I promise !

More goodies will be added to the layout, like a music section, an updated About Me page and many more… so stay tuned!

Melly Out!

My favorite and current apps that I really recommend are these below:

I went to the mall with my sister on Friday and I finally decided to see if this makeup was really worth it.  They have their own store in the mall called “BareEssentials“, so I was excited to visit a real dealer.

I walked into the store and the lady told me to sit down.  I told her that I wanted to try the makeup to see if it was the perfect match for me.   She pulls out a tray of all kinds of colors and etc.  She then begins to color match me.  She explains how I need to moisturize my skin more, since it help prevents dryness and uneven skin tones.  She gives me a tutorial on how to wear and apply the makeup.  Once she finished applying the makeup to my face, I looked in the mirror and I was blown away.

The colors were right on, and the makeup gave me what I had asked for, a natural light look that looked absolutely stunning.  You couldn’t tell that I was wearing it.  It felt very light and even the texture of the makeup had nothing to it!  It was something I had to invest in.

When I purchased the kit, with the brushes, foundation and primer, they gave me a really nice bag to carry my new makeup in! Its a re-usable bag that you definitely don’t want to throw away.

This is the kit I purchased below, including the primer and the foundation you see below.

I am very glad that I gave BareMinerals a chance.  I’m going to only wear it on special occasions and etc.  I’m sooo thrilled to finally say goodbye to my icky sticky liquid makeup that feels heavy and gross against my skin.  I’m glad to use something that makes you look amazing, yet feels incredibly natural and light!  I would definitely recommend this.  

First off, I’m doing very well in school.  My grades are excellent and I’m very proud of myself.  I’ve been doing homework everyday, making sure I keep up with all the large amounts of work.  On my tests, I’ve been getting a lot of good feedback from them.  I do have great study habits.

I move out in two months.  Chet and I are planning to get a house soon.  I need to start getting boxes so I can start packing a little bit.  I don’t have a lot of stuff but then again, you never know till you start packing.  We are planning to move out to “New Tampa.” Its a very nice area which is being built up nicely too.  So there is a lot of room for development.

Then Chet and I are getting married too.  Its very exciting, first getting a house (practicing on how to be a wife) lol, getting married and then going to Japan for our honeymoon!!  I don’t think that all these great things have sunk in yet.  Life is good and I could go on why, but its mainly because of the most wonderful guy in my life who I appreciate more than anything!!  <3

Even though some people might think that my life is moving a little fast, I would disagree, because I’m happy and I wouldn’t stop anything right now because of that fact.  I’m growing up.  I’m 22 years old and I’m glad that I have established a lot of respect for myself.  I know what I want in life.  People can think whatever they want, but nothing will ever take my happiness away from me.

Anyways, this Sunday marks one year for Chet and I being engaged~! Thats really exciting, and we are possibly planning to go to Kobe for dinner !

All in all, its been a good year so far. Lots of things have changed for the better, and a few things still need improvement, but overall, I cant complain. I hope things keep progressively getting better because I’m getting used to it being that way.

I love it! I couldn’t be any happier!  Every time I look down at my left hand, I think, “wow I’m his forever.” Its a great feeling and every time I see Chet, I feel all warm and fuzzy inside because its him who I am spending the rest of my life with.  Its amazing.

Well, I guess I will spill all the juicy details about the engagement/proposal.

Friday night, Chet spent the evening with me and then Saturday morning, we woke up around 8:00 a.m. and left about 9:00. He first went over to his house so he could grab a couple of spare tires just incase one pops. Hes been having bad luck with his racing tires lately, so we didn’t want to take another chance. His parents were supposed to go, but he said his mom was sick and his dad went to go grab medicine for her.  I was bummed out because his mom really wanted to go and she is a plant lover, and I knew she would love it! Once we left his house, we began our loong road trip to Delray Beach, FL, which is about a few hours north of Miami. On our way there, we listened to some dance music, talked about projects and etc. We stopped and got lunch at Wendy’s in West Palm Beach. The food was excellent and we were in a VERY upscale area, so everything looked amazing. We were about 30 minutes away from The Morikami.

Once we arrived at The Morikami, we went in, payed for our admission and then began our walk around the Gardens.  This place is BIG. You can spend a good 45 minutes to an hour till you finish your first time walking around the gardens. We walked around a couple of times before he proposed. Our favorite spot in the gardens is this little shaded area that is made by curved plants supported by bamboo.  Its beautiful and its very nice. It was nice to walk around the gardens, holding hands and smiling at each other every 10 minutes or so.  I had no clue what was going on or what was bound to happen.

Where he proposed.

Once we walked under that shaded area on our 3rd time around. He stopped and pulled me close to him.  He was smiling and he spoke to me and said, “Melly.. I really can’t wait to start our lives together.”  In shock and in awe, I hugged him tightly and said, “Wow, me too! I am very excited about starting our lives together.” After I hugged him, he pulled me back. He began to spoke again and said, “I really want to begin our lives together as one. I love you a lot, and I am very happy with you.” His eyes looked watery red and it all happened to quick and so fast, I wish I remembered more of the wonderful things he had said to me. He then said, “Melly.. I have one question to ask you…” my eyes grew big and I placed my hands over my mouth.  He pulled out a black box, got on one knee and said.. “Melly, Will You Marry Me?” In so much shock and awe, I felt nauseous instantly because I couldn’t control my wonderful feelings at the moment. My heart was pounding so hard, and so fast, I felt like I was going to pass out. I glanced at the beautiful ring, which said “Kay Jewelers” on the white part behind the ring. I instantly said “Yes”, we were both shaking and crying all at once. He placed the ring on my finger and we embraced each other for a few minutes, speaking softly saying “I love you, Im soo happy, yes I can’t wait to spend forever with you.”

I will never forget this moment for the rest of my life. It was a dream come true, the most beautiful event/moment and proposal in my whole entire life. I stood there, experiencing feelings I have never felt before. I was in heaven for those slight few minutes and it was mind blowing. Words will never ever be able to describe that moment, it was too breathtaking. It was everything I had ever imagined and more.

Once the proposal was over, we sat down at a near by bench to let it all sink in. I asked him, “How.. how did you do it all?” At the time, I was still not able to make out words haha. He then said, “Well first off, everyone knew. My mom was never sick and my dad is still on his business trip.” I laughed, feeling so lost and confused. He said “You should never propose in front of your family/friends.” and I agreed. He then went into detail about picking up the ring and when he bought it. We had tried the rings on back in february 28th 2009. That same day, he asked for my parents approval… and then that same night I was thrown into the hospital because of a Kidney Stone. He was there by my whole side and he never left me. I was in sooo much pain and in agony haha. He though it was funny how he asked for my parents approval and they said “Promise us to take care of our daughter.” and that same night, he was beside me in the hospital, caring for me. Isn’t it funny how God throws random “tests” at you like that? Haha its a miracle, a sign from god that we are truly meant to be!

Chet told me that on the day before we were engaged, on that Friday. Chet, Chase, Chelle and I were playing around with each other, bantering I guess and Chet was gonna say “Melanie Weaver!” and he stopped himself before saying it. He said it was very weird how it came to his mind without him thinking about it, like it came naturally and he told me, “I knew that we are really meant to be because your name just instantly came into my mind like that. Melanie Weaver.” I thought that was really funny, cute and just awesome all at once!

Before we left The Morkami, he texted friends and family about the good news. I couldn’t get in touch with my parents because they were in Las Vegas at the time. That evening,  we had dinner at Kobe Japanese Steakhouse in Orlando to make the event even more memorable. This marked the end of a new beginning. <3

I love being engaged to Chet Emerson Weaver <3. Our engagement should be in the paper either by the end of this month or the beginning of next month

Here are some pics of the day we were engaged:

Texting friends/family after the proposal

My beautiful 2 1/2 carat ring from Kay Jewelers