Procrastinating or Why yes, I am a college student.

Hello, lovelies! It feels like forever since I've written here and for good reason! I had no idea how busy I was going to be once school started. I feel as if I'm constantly needing to be doing homework. Right now, for instance, I should be reading The Song of Roland. Instead, well you get the picture. Ever since Spring Break it's been hard to jump back on board with my school work. It's seriously amazing how many things can fuel the flames of the inferno called procrastination. Here's a short list of some of my personal favorites.

1. Facebook- It'll only take a second to look! Sure....

2. Cleaning- It's interesting how I can avoid seeing my mess of a room. That is until I need to study and suddenly I can't start anything until the room is spotless.

3. Netflix- I've written before on how Netflix effects my character. Well it's even worse when I have two essays due, reading to be done, and a quiz the next morning. My addiction has gotten so bad that tonight I made the dramatic decision to ask my mother to change the password and not tell me what it is until I get out for the summer. I'm already semi-regretting it.

4. Friends- "Sure! I can go to the party this weekend, I don't have anything else to do." I lied.

5. iPhone- I recently got upgraded to this beauty and I love it. Let's just say I'm not writing this post on my computer.



So, what's your poison?

Back to School Time!!

Hello everybody! I just moved into my dorm room on Thursday and already life is getting pretty chaotic. Tomorrow is the first day of classes and, I have to say, I'm feeling pretty anxious about everything. It's been about a year and a half since I've been in college and most of my old friends from Freshman year have either moved on to another school or I just haven't kept in touch like I should have. So, it feels almost like I'm starting completely over, even though I'm going back to the same college I left. Luckily, I've been placed on a very outgoing and friendly hall, and I really like all the girls that I will be living with. I've also gotten to know a few of the exchange students and I hope that we can all be great friends!

My dorm is coming together, slowly but surely. It's still not ready for it's debut on Ragamuffin, because I'm still missing my futon, hanging lights, and just a few other nick-knacks. I have to say though that living in a single room is a big adjustment from living with a roommate. I find myself both loving it and hating it, at the same time. I love the size of my room! I can workout without worrying about hitting my head and also it's the perfect size for game nights. But, I have to get used to being alone for the majority of the time that I'm in my room and I don't have an "automatic" friend. During the day I've started propping my door open so that I can at least say hi to anyone that might pass by. But even with the door open, I end up getting lonely fairly quickly.  I would highly suggest to any graduating high school students that will be living in dorms next semester to have a roommate, simply because then you have at least one person to feel connected to in what can feel like a sea of strangers.

Well, wish me luck for my classes tomorrow! My first one starts at 8 AM. That would usually be bad enough, but it's also a math class (mortal enemy!). I hope everyone else who is starting back at college/university/high school has a wonderful and productive semester!

-E

Guess what? Guesstures!!

Hello lovelies! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! OK. I don't know how many people know of this epic, awesome, wonderful party game, but I simply must share my love of it with you. It's called Guesstures and it's like charades, but on steroids. You are given four cards that you must act out before you run out of time and they fall away. My family got this game probably sometime in the early '90's and it's still one of my favorite games to pull out during a party. So, of course, for our New Year's party yesterday we had to pull it out. I'm not sure if they still make this game, but if you stumble upon it I encourage you to buy it!

And so, behold! Below is my New Year's gift to each and every one of you. An example of just how fun this game can be, as well as an example of how badly I play it :) Let's see if you can figure out what I'm trying to acting out, I'll put the answers up on my next post!

-E

New Year, New You?

Hello everybody! With the New Year coming up fast I thought I might take a little time out to talk about changes. As some of my closest friends and family can tell you, change has always been one of my biggest fears. During high school I would suffer from anxiety every time a new school year would start, and to this day the thought of any big changes in my life, such as moving or breaking up with someone, makes me feel sick. But there is hope! Now that I've realized that change is my Achilles heel I have started taking steps to get through it. By over-preparing for upcoming changes I feel more confident going into them, as well as trying to push myself to try new things each day so that I never let myself get too comfortable in a single routine.

So, my New Year's resolution this year is to embrace change. And my first step in this journey is by getting my hair cut! What better way of embracing a new you than by changing up your hairstyle or color? My appointment is for tomorrow, and sadly I don't have a set plan just yet. So far the only hair cut that I've been really inspired by is Elle Fanning's cut seen below.

I don't quite have the length yet, but I think it would be a cute cut to grow in to. And as far as color goes I've always wanted the color hair Rachel McAdams has in The Notebook. 

The only thing is that I've never colored my hair! So that's a super-duper major change.. Oh yeah, I'm embracing change now. What have I gotten myself into? 

So what's your New Year's Resolution and how do you deal with change? 

-E

December Anime Favorites

Hello everyone! I'm starting a new segment here on Ragamuffin talking about one of my favorite hobbies: watching anime. I've been watching anime ever since I was first introduced to it by LittlePlum in high school. The first anime I ever watched was Ouran High School Host Club, a very funny and heart-warming show about a group of guys at a prestigious private high school who create a host club (think: male geisha). Haruhi, the new scholarship student accidently breaks an expensive vase the host club owns and must work off the debt first by being an errand-boy and then working as a host. But when the disheveled looking new student, who everyone thought was a boy, ends up being a cute girl all the guys in host club seem to fall for her! It's seriously the cutest show ever.

Today I am going to share the anime's that I have been watching over the past few weeks of December. Most of the anime I watch I get off of Crunchyroll.com, a website that operates much like hulu. I feel that the short commercials are worth it since the site is safer than others such as megavideo or truveo.

Ragamuffin's December Favorites

Chihayafuru is a compelling and interesting slice-of-life, high school romantic anime which centers around three childhood friends: Chihaya, Arata, and Taichi. The trio first become friends through a Japanese card game called Karuta, in which players must listen and quickly determine which card is being called and then grab it before the opponent does. There are 100 cards and on each card is a poem from the Edo period. The show focuses mainly on the three friends goal of becoming Karuta champions, while at the same time showcasing a love triangle between the two guys and Chihaya. The show is currently on-going and there have been 12 episodes subtitled in English so far. 

The second anime that I've been in love with this past month is Gosick. This anime is based in a fictional country in Europe during the year 1924, the story follows Victorique and Kujo as they solve the crimes Victorique's detective brother fails to do. The show has an almost Sherlock Holmes feel to it because Victorique, like Holmes has a brilliant mind and can solve any case put in front of her, while Kujo is her faithful sidekick and friend, like Watson. The only problem I have with the show is that I usually solve the mysteries before the big reveal, and that's no fun. But overall, I really enjoy the show and I'm super sad that it only has one season and that I'm coming up on the last few episodes!

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Well, I hope you enjoyed my picks for this month and check them out! So, what's your take on anime? Do you have any favorites, have you not seen any yet, or do you think it's silly and a waste of time?

-E

The Lost Gingerbread Post or The No-Mess Crisco Device

Isn't it cute! Look in the windows, can you see anything?

It's the day after Christmas and I finally have a moment to just relax and put this post together. I've had the pictures and the gingerbread house completed for about a week now, so I'm really happy to finally be showing them! The House ended up taking LittlePlum, Bethany, and I about two days to finish. The first day we made up all the gingerbread dough and icing and on the second we assembled the house and decorated it. As I promised before I'm going to share a little trick I learned to measure out Crisco. In a lot of holiday baking recipes you will  find that it calls for Crisco or vegetable shortening. I personally love using it whenever called for, because of how well the products turn out, but I know many people have trouble using vegetable shortening because of how messy it can be. So here's what I do, I hope it helps you the next time you have to use Crisco.

You will need:

• Sandwich size plastic bag
• Plastic wrap

 First, place a square of plastic wrap in your measuring cup.

Then, using the plastic bag as a glove, scoop out the Crisco and place it in to the plastic covered measuring cup until you have the desired amount.

I ran out of sandwich bags and had to use the small snack bags, thankfully it worked still and I didn't get any Crisco on my hands. 

Then, it's as simple as pulling the plastic wrap out of the measuring cup and putting it in the bowl.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

-E

Plans Gone Awry

Please forgive the slow updates on my posts lately, things have been slightly hectic around here lately. I had a great post planned for tonight but my youngest dog-child, Baxter, keeps taking my attention away from the computer. Right now I am typing one handed since my second hand is currently holding his bone for him. Yeah, he's a bit high maintenance. If I let him chew the bone by himself he immediately starts whining. But it's not his fault, he didn't get his hour at the dog park today, because we were too busy with our gingerbread house. That's what today's post was supposed to be about, our beautiful gingerbread house! Well, let this just be a preview for that post, because it will be epic. I plan on showing pictures of the entire project, as well as share my trick for measuring Crisco sans mess. See you then!

-E