Missing Rome

Hey hey! Happy Summer 2024!

I was recently thinking about how much I'm missing Europe - oddly enough it's one of those things that feels embarrassing to post on social media. Like, stop living in the past, Katie!

Who cares though. I figured I'd post it here with a few photos. Yes, I could go back. But also, yes, I miss the last trip I took!

How's everyone been doing?!

Love

Source.

"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage."

-Lao Tzu

I started dating a lovely guy 3 months ago and I'm so happy! We met over 5 years ago and have talked here and there ever since. We really reconnected back in September and made it official in December. This is a really cool feeling and something I've waited for for a long time. Life has been good :)

Crock Pot Recipes

Hello, beauties! Life is pretty crazy lately, huh? I'm doing my best to stay inside all day and it's given me a great reason to organize my apartment, read for pleasure, work on some art I haven't been able to, call friends I haven't spoken to recently, write letters to others, watch new shows and movies. It's been a scary time, but also a unique time watching everyone come together in interesting ways.

BUT ANYWAY, I'm sure that's all you've been hearing about so I'm going to post some crock pot recipes I've been trying and loving. A crock pot was basically the one thing I really wanted, because they're so easy and you can make SO many things. There's something really cozy (hygge) about the crock pot cooking while you're painting or reading in the other room. You feel?

Creamy Tortellini Soup

I loooove soup and tortellini. I could've eaten this entire pot if someone didn't stop me!

Honey Garlic Chicken

I'm a huge garlic person, so this was delish. Do you see how beautiful that chicken is? This recipe is so simple but so good.

Cream Cheese Chicken Chili

This is something I couldn't eat often, but it was still really tasty. The cream cheese makes it kind of heavy, but I love cream cheese so it was a cool addition to this recipe.

Chicken and Egg Noodles

So let me tell you!! This is so easy and it's even better as leftovers. I'll add a little parmesan cheese and BBQ sauce to mine and it's super good.

Taco Bowls

This was amazzzzing! But I also love tacos, so I'm bias. Instead of Fritos, I just used tortilla chips and then you can use any topping you'd like. This is fun to do with a group of people because each person can create their own bowls!

Pulled Pork

This one is really easy, I'm sure you've already made pulled pork before! It's only 7 ingredients and so tasty. It made a ton of leftovers and the way the BBQ sauce marinated into the pork was soooo good.

Do you have any crock pot recipes you've been really into lately! I'd love to hear some new ones to try!

**

Titanic, 1997

Source: open

Life update!

It's been a little bit since I've posted! I'll try to keep it short, but basically I found out at in the middle of August that I was accepted to an MA Art Therapy program in Scranton, PA! They told me pretty last minute, so I had to schedule classes, look far apartments, and do a million things in a really short period of time. I found a great apartment, but couldn't get in until the middle of September, so I commuted about 2.5 hours to class for the first 2 weeks! It wasn't as bad as it sounds, oddly enough. Grad school is a lot of work, but it's awesome! I'll talk more about it, but here are some photos from the past couple months!

This was my first day of classes! To get to class at 9, I had to leave my house around 6 am! Not a ton of fun, but I got to see the sunrise.

I'm taking 4 classes right now and one is a Jungian Sandplay class. It's SO interesting. I've used sandtrays with children before, but I never knew specific directives or the meaning behind much of it.

We also draw 1 mandala per class and it's really cool to see our progress through the course. I've done so many mandalas in the last 6 years LOL

These are the classic scribble drawings from my Developmental Dynamics class! We used 3 mediums to see how we felt about fluidity.

This is my apartment! It's gotten even cuter since I took these pictures. I am so in love with it - I've been dreaming about having my own space for so long, I can't believe I finally have that. It does get lonely, but I've never had the luxery of living close to home, so I always have the opportunity to go home if I feel the need. I haven't taken much advantage of that yet though!

And last weekend I had the chance to sell some art at a Fall Fest! I don't make art to sell it, I just make it for my own benefit and then I end up with a room full of art I can't hang on to. I actually sold 8 pieces! It was a great day - it so cool to know that a variety of people, all ages, took home my art and will display it in their own space. Crazy, right?!

Hope you're all doing awesome! I'm so content with life right now. I'm definitely stressed a lot of the time, but I have great friends that check in on me and I'm taking care of myself. 

Happy October! (my forever favorite month!!!!)

Terracotta

**

How perfect does this look? It's so weird because I normally really don't like orange but lately I've been loving it. Maybe because it's more of a burnt orange and reminds me of Fall? It shocks me that this is the vibe I go for now! Although I do like earth tones. Check out the original post with more pictures of this cozy bed on A&C Homestore.

Happy August!

You have to care