How to...?

What do you guys want? I want to do a DIY, and I am pretty well rounded, so I can try to do what you want me to. I can do step by step on how to cook something, or how to make a certain kind of jewelry, or how to make butter. Pretty much anything. So comment what you want, and I will try to do it. (please do not embarrass me and not comment, give me some ideas!)

Its a winter wonder land. (I took this last year)

Daisies (I think)

I love fishing

At my grandmothers I found this

Rose

I forgot to tell you that I draw... stuff

So, I drew an eye.

Seven Things

Seven Things that Scare Me:

1. Not knowing where I am
2. Spiders
3. Not being able to sing
4. Loosing a limb
5. Choking/Drowning
6. Being burned to death
7. Shopping

Seven Things I Like:

1. LAUGHING
2. ACTING
3. READING
4. Chocolate
5. Snow
6. Friends
7. French

Seven Random Facts About me:

1. Je parle Français.
2. I have been playing piano for 10 years
3. I have played piano at Carnegie Hall
4. I am a soprano AND an alto
5. I have a crush on a man like 15 years older than me, Tom Hiddleston.
6. I have a wired obsession with salt on watermelon
7. I go to a school with around 400 students

Seven Things I want to Do Before I Die:

1. Be on Broadway/ in a movie
2. Not say stop when they give cheese at Olive Garden
3. Run away with the Doctor
4. Be self-sufficient
5. Forgive people more
6. Be fit
7. Finish cleaning my room

Seven Things I Can Do Well

1. Knit
2. Crochet
3. Eat food
4. Cook
5. Write
6. Read
7. Sing

Seven Things I Can't Do But Wish I Could:

1. Fly
2. Have super powers
3. Run away with the doctor
4. Be British
5. Have a non-crooked nose
6. Meet John Green
7. Write a book

Seven Phrases I'm Known to Use:

1. Allons y!
2. WHAT!?
3. Oi!
4. You've got to be kidding me
5. Bloody Hell
6. Thanks a lot
7. Theater is my life

Any questions?

Coffee or Tea?

This is a common question, is it not? I am asked this at least once a week: Coffee or tea? It seems it depends on the time, I suppose. If I am tired, then I will drink tea. If I need to go to bed, I drink tea. If I am bored, I will drink tea. If there is no tea left in the cupboard, then I will drink cof... I am never out of tea... ever.. I always drink tea. ALWAYS drink tea.
In short? Tea.

How about you?: Coffee or Tea? (post answer in the comments)

New Years Traditions

This morning, I was watching the news and I came upon the most intriguing thing. So apparently New York is not the only place in the world that drops something on New Years (duh...). There are many other places that drop things. Such as Des Plaines, Illinois. They drop a diamond. This is the funniest thing ever: in Key West, Florida they drop a drag queen... in a red stiletto shoe and the guys name is kiwi. In Cincinnati, Ohio, they "choose to let a giant pig fly rather than fall, in order to prove that pigs can fly.", direct quote from http://www.examiner.com. These people are very creative. And I remember that there was another one in Beaver Creek, Colo where they have skiers(?) ski down the snow covered slope holding REAL torches. It looks like lava flowing down the mountain.

  

Simple Cooking #4: Best chocolate chip cookies ever

adapted by: tendercrumb.blogspot.com

Jacques Torres' Secret Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe
Makes twenty-six 5-inch cookies or 8 1/2 dozen 1 1/4-inch cookies

Ingredients 
1 pound unsalted butter
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
2 1/4 cups packed light-brown sugar
4 large eggs (5 1/2 small eggs)
3 cups plus 2 tablespoons pastry flour
3 cups bread flour
2 tablespoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
2 pounds bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (add more if you are me... yum.)

Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or nonstick baking mats; set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugars on medium-high.
- Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
- Reduce speed to low and add both flours, baking powder, baking soda, vanilla, and chocolate; mix until well combined.
- Using a 4-ounce scoop for larger cookies or a 1-ounce scoop for smaller cookies, scoop cookie dough onto prepared baking sheets, about 2 inches apart.
- Bake until lightly browned, but still soft, about 20 minutes for larger cookies and about 15 minutes for smaller cookies, if in the middle cook for 18 minutes.
- Cool slightly on baking sheets before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

- EAT!!!

Simple Cooking #3

Adapted from ittybittykitchen.com 

Lemon Melting Moments:

• 1 stick and 1/2 unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup confectioners sugar
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• zest of 2 lemons

Filling:

• 2 cups confectioners sugar
• 50  [ 1/4 cup, or approx 3.6 tablespoons] grams unsalted butter, room temperature
• juice of 2/3 lemon

Please note: Comments have been left stating an extra 1 cup of confectioners sugar was required for a thicker icing sugar. Please keep this in mind if a thicker consistency is preferred.

Preheat oven to 150 degrees Celsius / 300 F.

In a large bowl cream the butter first until light and fluffy on a medium setting, roughly 2 minutes, then add salt and sugar and mix for another minute. Reduce the speed to low and  incorporate the vanilla and lemon zest, scraping down the sides as you go. Sift the flower and cornstarch into the mixture and beat on a low setting until just combined.

Take very small portions of the mixture and roll into balls, continue until you have 25-30 pieces. If you want them to be as even as possible, roll out the mixture until it forms a log then use a clean knife to section into 30 pieces. (You can, but it is much harder and takes much more time)

Place them on a baking tray lined with wax paper, gently press on each piece with a fork until it has left an imprint. You can also press on them gently with your fingers, if you do not wish to leave an imprint.

Bake for 20 minutes. let them cool completely.

For the filling beat the sugar, butter and lemon juice on a medium setting until incorporated. Use the back of a spoon, or a knife to ice one side of the cookie then sandwich them together. Try to find two which are similar sizes.

After creating these "biscuts" I became very frustrated and ended up with a cookie and frosting, which was much easier to eat and were not driping everywhere with icing.

The biscuits can be kept for up to 5 days in an air tight container.

Simple Cooking #2

This is the most amazing thing one can imagine:

Homemade ginger ale:

·         2 Tbs grated fresh ginger

·         1 cup sugar

·         ½ cup water

·         Juice of 1 lemon

·         1/8 tsp active dry yeast

·         8 cups water

In a small pot, add the grated ginger, sugar and ½ cup water. Bring to a boil and let sugar dissolve. Remove pan from heat and let the syrup steep and cool for about 30 minutes.

Strain the syrup through a fine sieve. Mix with the lemon juice, yeast and 2 qts of water. Whisk together and using a funnel, pour into a plastic bottle. Screw the cap on the bottle. Make sure it is a plastic bottle and not glass as the gases from the fermentation can crack the glass jar.

Let it ferment at room temperature for about 2 days until carbonation forms. Make sure to refrigerate after it starts to carbonate.

OMG YUMMMMM! (again, this is not my recipe. None of the recipes I post are mine unless said otherwise.)

Simple Cooking

There is this amazing thing you can do with and oven... its called... BAKING! I do it all the time and have become somewhat obsessed with it. Now This recipe is not mine and I take no credit for it, so here is the first one:

Disappearing marshmallows:

•   One can of crescent roll dough
• 8 large marshmallows (or one for each roll you’ll be making)
•  Melted butter
• Cinnamon sugar

Roll the marshmallows in the melted butter.

Roll the marshmallows in the cinnamon sugar.

Cut crescent rolls in triangles

Wrap the marshmallow in the crescent roll, pinching the dough together securely.

Put the rolls in the oven and bake for 12 minutes. 

EAT!

(Actual) Book Review #2

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

This entrancing book is about a 16 year old cancer patient named Hazel Lancaster. This strong minded girl narrates the book, during which she meets a boy named Augustus Waters. They both live in Indianapolis and meet at a Cancer Kid Support Group through a friend who knew both Hazel and Augustus. Hazel is very anti-social and normally keeps to herself and reads, quite frequently, the book An Imperial Afflicion by Peter van Houten. She has become somewhat obsessed with the book and quite frequently quotes it. 

This book gives you insight to the mind of a depressed teenage girl suffering the horror of cancer. She has had trouble breathing because of this illness and jokes about it because she knows it will never go away. This book is very believable, as well as comical, romantic, and tragic. If you like any of these things, you would like this book. From the moment you first step into the mind of Hazel, you never want to put the book down. You eventually start to feel for and even love the characters. A month after finishing the book, I picked it up and read it again. That is how good this book is. I promise you will like it. 

If I have not already convinced you, it was The #1 New York Times bestseller

If you want to hear the author reading the first chapter, here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_vFvbfn9Fs

My wand!

Being a Harry Potter freak comes with a downfall... I am incapable of diverting my mind away from it. Therefore, I am obligated to use my crafty mind and replicate my Pottermore account wand... in real life... It is not stained yet and I am in need of some twine, but the carving is all done. Here it is. It dosn't seem that awesome yet, but it isn't done yet.

HOLY MOTHER OF AWESOME! Star Trek: Into the Darkness

BENEDICT-FREAKING-CUMBERBATCH!!! PLAYING KHAN????? WHATTTTT???!!!!
If this is ACTUALLY happening... I am so exited!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=diP-o_JxysA

Berries

Photography is Cool

As I said, I was a photographer. These are not "instagramed" or otherwise. These are directly from my Fujifilm camera. :) I feel like a legitimate professional photographer who gets paid... HAHA... These are my pictures, so please be kind and not steal them. THANKS!

So, I told you I was a Photographer, here is the first one!

 There's two fish in a tank, and one says ''How do you drive this thing?"

My mother-in-law fell down a wishing well, I was amazed, I never knew they worked.    

Joke

Dyslexic man walks into a bra

Book Review #1

I have read a lot of books in my life time. I must say that I do read a lot. In the time that I have this blog, I will post many things about books I am/have/will read(ing). I am reading Matched by Ally Condie. I have read The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (read it and love it). I will read Seraphina by a writer who's name is slipping my mind. Name in the comments... when I remember. There will be a lot of book reviews in the course of this blog.

Simple Life

Many people like going surfing, or watching there team win a game. It could be meeting a friend, or going somewhere new. I find simple things to be the most satisfying. 

1. After getting a new and well deserved book, there is that satisfying moment when you know no one is looking, opening the book in the middle to reveal crisp pages that hold a mystery yet to be discovered, and you sink your face in it. Your lungs instinctively takes a whiff of the book. Right then and there, you can tell it will be good.

2.Sitting down by the window dusted with frost to watch the snow fall. The steaming tea that makes stories, flitting with its wings in the air pushing the aroma around the room. Tea is magical.

3. You sink your feet in the sand to await the tide, and the ocean breathes you in. 

4. DOCTOR WHO

Sorry

My account on Google is acting up and only occasionally lets me on, so I am sorry if it takes a while for my to post new stuff for the next few months until I figure it out.

Frankie

"To love and be loved."  This man is kind of the most amazing person ever. Thank you and goodnight.

Pictures

So, To start off this blog, I would like to tell you that I am also a photographer, and I take a LOT of pictures... you don't like pictures? Well, TOO BAD!

Hi!

Hello World, This is Ariana speaking here. I am sure that not many, if not anyone is even paying the slightest attention to this blog or has any interest in my life or the things I do, but many people have told me that it is worth it. Trusting my friends, quite obviously I have taken there advice. I am an actor, singer, dancer, writer, nerd(fighter), whovian, Sherlockian, potterhead, and many other nerdy things as well as artistic things.Well what else can I say. If anyone has any questions, just ask. Please no questions about like personal things like addresses or stuff like that. Oh, by the way, happy Christmas eve!