Okay so it’s been a while since I last posted and a lot has happened to me since then.. but why hear about that when you could just see my puzzles.
It all started with some good old horse betting. This puzzle took a night or so, in which I analyzed the social hierarchy at the Kentucky Derby in 1924. While puzzling I think I listened to Lana Del Ray’s Off to the Races 1000 times and can tell you that the races Lana goes to are much sluttier than this one.
Then I went home for Christmas break and did this little gem:
All of these were the simple compared to this horrid creature:
That puzzle was only 500 pieces and entitled “Very Berry Nice”. I would like to rename the puzzle “Enough Berries That You Throw Up”
If you are sick of all these puzzle posts.. that makes sense. But I probably won’t stop.
I buy my puzzles at yard sales, flea markets, and Salvation Armies, so I start every puzzle knowing that the person who originally bought it is most likely dead. I have never thought that more than with the puzzle above. When I opened it up it smelled like rotting red wine. That didn’t stop me from finishing it, but I did use half a bottle of perfume to disguise the dreadful scent.
In better news the puzzle I just opened up smells like cardboard!
To avoid end of semester work I decided to throw a Christmas party. This was the first year I had a whole apartment to decorate so take a look:
For decorations I made paper chains out of a holiday JCrew magazine and added newspaper snowflakes using soda can tabs as hooks.
For added festivity I went out into a mysterious wooded area behind my building and cut greens and bittersweet. As for food my roommate and I made reindeer cookies, and peanut butter cup peanut butter cookies. I also made guacamole because everything is way better with guacamole. It’s not in the photo below, because it’s shy and also I forgot to take it out of the fridge.
For invitations I again took inspiration from Kerry at the Tragic Whale with her homemade present tags. I had made a holly stamp last year, but of course threw it out once I was done. The new version of the stamp was made with an eraser and a kitchen knife… and amazingly I still have 10 fingers!
I obviously have no pictures of the actually party since that would be logical, but here is one from before the party of our two fireplaces! Few places have a need for that much fake warmth.
If you wish you had a TV that doubles as a fireplace check out the movie on netflix “Fireplace for your Home” There are two episodes.. I like the first one best, but you can spend hours watching it by yourself to decide.
And no party would be complete without a snow globe of me in the bathroom.
Last weekend was the first snow of the season on the first day of December. To welcome in the weather I went on a long walk and took a couple photos. Keep in mind to take all of these photos I had to pull out my phone and take off my gloves (damn thermal touch technology!) That’s what I call commitment.
Embarrassingly when I got back inside and I saw the falling snow outside I just thought of Taylor Swift’s Back to December music video:
TSwift’s relationships are so emotional that it snows inside. Not everyone can say that.
I have been totally mesmerized by the photos of Ourit Ben-Haim. Her photo series Underground New York Public Library shows New Yorkers on the subway reading. Here are a few of my favorite photos:
I recently rearranged my room for summer, which means bed by the windows or else I’ll die of heat stroke. Because of the switcheroo this has become the super cool corner of the room (take that dresser section).
The letters spelling ‘hate’ is my personal favorite. My mom made the letters from metal, wood, and sticks for an art installation a few years ago. She had them spelling out a Wordsworth quote, but was kind enough to give them to my acrostic ‘hate’ wall. Every time I see it I can’t help smiling at the ridiculousness.
I got that chair last summer at a yard sale. Fun thing that chair taught me: you don’t need to be in a car for your butt to stick to leather. The cool barrel lamp thing was made by grandfather. He was a welder and made it out of a barrel and cast iron cobbler shoe molds, which is the coolest part and I am covering in this photo for no good reason except that I didn’t know where to put that handkerchief when I was cleaning my room.
On the lamp/barrel is a wooden ball and cup game, which my grandmother gave me a few Christmases ago saying, “I entered the toy store and it just happened.” Sixteenth century Mexico knew what was up, this game is perfect.
So yup, that’s an overly described corner of my bedroom.
I spent this weekend visiting my friend Katrina in Amherst. It was super fun… and as hot as the complete opposite of freezing. We ate more ice pops than any human has a right to. Here are a few photos from the weekend:
Someone’s in the kitchen with dumplings.
A vintage carrying case that I got at the Brimfield Antique Show. I am planning on turning this into a crafting case (photos may follow if all goes well). I also got shorts and a dress and Katrina found some good looking opera glasses.
Katrina took this picture of eggplants while we were at the Farmer’s Market on Saturday. As you can see the eggplants are sort of breaking a sweat, as was I.
After I turned into a total heat zombie we went to Puffer’s Pond, which I believe saved my life.
A couple more notes on the weekend: Honey butter is what the gods put on their crescent rolls. Bring a water bottle everywhere, cause you could die without it. That’s what I call a weekend.
I am back. And this is an honest, “I’m back” not an absent father’s “I’m here right now, so enjoy it cause you might not see me for three months.”
Well I know I never ended up posting my photos from Berlin, so sorry for the cliffhanger (remember that neopets game cliffhanger?) Here they are with bonus commentary because these are more than a month overdue:
A beautiful canal with restaurants that double as clubs on the side.
Gorlitzer Park, which was right near the amazing hostel I stayed at, JetPak Berlin.
A pretty canal near Berlin Cathedral.
Bode Museum, which was joked to be the Boredom Museum. They apparently have a very extensive coin collection. Before I went I had seen this beautiful photo on pinterest of it.
This is just a playground, but they made it super cool by just adding paint and immense amounts of talent.
Ada and I spent a lot of time rocking the Flea Markets. We got these delicious tarts at one and then sat on a river and ate them.
We were in search of a beach and saw a ferry running, so we hopped on. We ended up on Pfaueninsel, translating to Peacock Island. We saw a lot of peacocks, but sadly didn’t find a beach there. Also, turns out I am sort terrified of gigantic colorful birds. Now we know.
This is the beach we ended up at. This was the only day of my two weeks in Berlin that it was remotely cloudy.
This is 4am in Berlin, with some nice street art in view.
One of my favorite panels of the East Side Gallery.
Tacheles the super cool artist gallery/ squat spot which was full of amazing art.
Ada and I popped by a cultural fair thing. We ended up walking by this super fun band, Orchestre Miniature in the Park, for short OMP. They only sing songs that have to do with the sun. Check out OMP’s soundcloud, my favorite is ‘All Summer Long’ closely followed by ‘Komm Raus Zum Spielen’.
My last day, Ada and I met up at this restaurant Nest. The sandwiches were delicious, but the waitress thought we were idiots.
After yummy food, I rented a bike and we biked to this cool abandoned amusement park, Spreepark. We had to climb through a wire fence (I felt like a badass and have a scar to prove it) Here is a strange Charlie Chaplin-esque bumper car thing. Those things were all over the place in a creepy The Great Dictator way.
There was a full waterpark, filling all East-Berliners needs for Log Flumes.
This was a railroad that went all around the entire park, as well as over this very unclean pond and into a very scary looking tunnel. Wish we could have stayed there longer, but we were found by a guard and he walked us out. In walking us out he ended up showing us most of the park, so there were some positives.
So there it is, my trip to Berlin. If you are considering going to Berlin, do it. I think it is one of the most amazing cities. I also found the blog She Thought Outside the Box very helpful for knowing what flea markets and parks to get at while you’re there.
There is tons of stuff I am forgetting to mention so feel free to comment and say, “Hey Kendra, what about the Ping Pong club?” and I will respond saying, “Yeah it was really cool.” and probably add some more details.
ohijustdontknow 
