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

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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

Arthur

I recently came across a clothing website called Arthur Apparel. The stuff is so simple and cute! It's my style completely. I wish it was more affordable, but I know that quality clothes cost money. Check out a few of my favorite pieces:

Corduroy Tee

Utility Tank

Long Sleeved Pellucid Skivvy

Doris Mini

Mini Tee

Comfort Culette

Inspo

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Lonliness

"I have so much love and respect for women who are honest about their own lonliness but also find the good in it, like when Audrey Hepburn said 'I have to be alone very often. I'd be quite happy if I spent from Saturday night until Monday morning alone in my apartment. That's how I refuel.' and when Charlotte Bronte said 'I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself.' And when Jenny Slate said ' I think I've come to terms with the fact that there will always be a ribbon of lonliness running through who I am. But that's why I want to do comedy, and why I want to connect with people. You can use that ribbon to be apart of a finer tapestry, or you can choke yourself with it! Your choice!' And when Mary Oliver said 'Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like wild geese, harsh and exciting - over and over announcing your place in the family of things.'"

Music

I've been listening to some REALLY good music lately. I can't fit all of them into 1 post, so here are my 5 top songs at the moment.

Recently someone asked me how I find the songs I listen to and I had to think about it. Browse pages on Spotify, creators online, and my personal favorite: friends. I have new friends, as well as friends from back in the day, some that I really never see anymore, and we share songs with each other over Snapchat and stuff! I really cherish those people.

Okay! Current top 5:

Borderline by Tame Impala

New Magic Wand by Tyler, The Creator

Lucid Dreams by Juice WRLD

Bury a Friend by Billie Eilish

Sundress by A$AP Rocky

Okay it was SO hard for me to narrow it down to only 5. I'll do another post soon!

Fall Lust part 7482

If you know me, you know it's around this time of year that I really start itching for Fall. I loveeee Fall and Halloween! I'm really not a fan of hot weather, and I have constant allergies in the Spring so the Fall/Winter is where I really thrive. I hope to get a Halloween themed tattoo soon!

Don't these pictures just make you so excited?! Or is that just me?!

Photos: theharvestmoonwitch on Instagram

Feeling... lost?

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Life, man!!! I've been so busy, but oddly enough I have a lack of inspiration. I feel like I'm not using my brain the way that I should. I won't update you on my life quite yet because it's still a jumble and honestly I don't even know if I know what's going on in my own life right now.

All I know is some days I'm excited and feel like I know what's going on, but most days I feel stuck, lost, and frustrated. I think blogging more would be good for me, because then at least I'm using my computer for something productive rather than watching YouTube Videos of people having the person in front of them in the drive through decide their meal. LOL.

Happy Tuesday!

Life has me pumped, ya'll!

What's up guys! How's it going! I'm at Starbucks right now, working on a bunch of things, and I only have about an hour before I have to head off to my next job. But! I really wanted to write a little something. Life just has me so excited right now.

Photo credit: @polly.florence

I don't know how long this feeling will last, but I'm in love with it. Here's what I'm up to:

-I made the choice to apply to grad school last week, so that's what I've been doing. I just have to write my personal statement (which is what I'm doing at Starbucks lol) and then I'll be good! I hope everything works out. 

-A few weeks ago I was sitting in my room thinking about how much I want to visit LA. And then I thought... I CAN. So right then and there I used my saved travel points and booked a round trip flight for the end of April. I found a cheap hostel on Hollywood Blvd, have been outfit planning nonstop, and mapped out my 4 days there. It's cool to be excited about a trip because I haven't really done that for myself since early last year. When I was in college, I would get bus tickets to random places by myself all the time and now I don't do that as much. ALSO! I booked a tattoo appointment with an artist in LA I look up to so much! His name is Vince Espinoza and he's tattooed some of my favorite people. I should hear back about a confirmation soon - I'm beyond stoked.

-You guys. Kids are cute. I've never really vibed with kids (I prefer to work with teenagers - weird, I know) but I've been around kids so much lately and it makes me excited. Not that I want to have kids right now, because I don't, but as much as I thought I wanted to travel the world and live in a million places, I think I'm most excited just to start my career and plant down in one place for a bit. I hadn't even thought about it until recently, but I find myself looking at apartment decor way more than travel essentials. Everyone knew this about me, except for me. Haha! Seeing cute kids everywhere makes me think about what life could look like soon(er than I think! But not that soon ;)

-Besides that, I'm keeping busy. I'm still taking the TEFL course online even though I won't be teaching abroad any time soon. I get to facilitate art therapy sessions every Monday at my internship, I still work retail which is a bummer but it helps me save, I babysit on Monday afternoons, and I also am a substitute teacher about twice a week for schools around my town. I try to just sub for art classes, which is awesome, but it's fun just to chill with the students for the day regardless.

How have you been feeling? Anything in your life have you excited? Are there changes you can make to get that feeling?

Happy Monday!

5 happy things

Life's been a roller coaster lately, so here is a list of 5 things that have made me happy recently!

1. The gym

I know, weird right? I've realized that I actually enjoy the gym. Of course there are times when I don't feel like going, but if I'm there doing things I like, I leave feeling amazing.

2. Substitute teaching

I have like 4 jobs right now, and subbing is one of them. It's been so fun! Last week I was in a high school art class and it was my perfect day because I love working with teenagers and being around art.

3. Oatmeal

I've been so obsessed with oatmeal lately LOL every morning I eat oats cooked with cinnamon and flax seed, and then topped with granola, a banana, almond butter, and more cinnamon. SO GOOD.

4. Slime

Another random one... but I babysit 2 girls every Monday and the younger one loves slime. She's been bugging me to get supplies to make slime for so long, so last week I surprised her with everything and she was stoked! We made slime together and it's been oddly relaxing to play with.

5. Call Me By Your Name

The movie! Sadly I haven't read the book. The movie makes me so happy though - Timothee Chalamet, Italy, art. Love.

Photos: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5