Christmas lights all year around seems to becoming quite a trend in teenage girl's bedrooms lately. Many use them to embellish headboards, boarder door frames and use icicle lights above windows to mimic a starry night. If you're lucky, you'll have white coloured Christmas lights, which will match any bedroom colour scheme. But if you're like me and got stuck with Christmas tree lights (you know, the dark green ones you wrap around the tree) and have a colour scheme no where near green, you'll really need to think outside the box on creative ways to use the lights to match the theme of your room.

The way I originally arranged my lights was like a web going across from one wall to the other in a narrow corner where I place some of my artwork. It looked really out of place, especially during the daytime, and when the Christmas lights weren't on. I still kept it however, because when the room was dark at night, and the lights were plugged in, it looked like floating stars, and I thought it looked cool. But obviously I still hated how it looks either way, because it was just a web of green cord in a pink and purple room. Thats until I realized the dark green made it resemble a vine, and flowers could be added onto it...

STEP BY STEP DIY ROSE CHRISTMAS LIGHTS:
*I really do apologize in advanced for the horrid quality of most of the photos. I only had my phone to take the pictures, and the lighting in my room was very uneven*

SUPPLIES:

One or two pencils, tissue paper of your choice (to use for the petals. I used two colours, but you can also just use one), scotch tape, scissors, safety pin or toothpick (or anything with similar shape), glue.



STEP 1:

Cut out your petals from the tissue paper. You can freehand it like I did or use these stencils as a reference: Inner Petals Outer Petals (Stencils via http://www.favecrafts.com/Valentines-Day/Crepe-Paper-Rose-Bouquet  I used this DIY as a reference when I was experimenting for this DIY. Do go check it out)

Honestly, you can probably make this DIY without the outer petals, but I have never tried. They are quite hard to work with, and a lot of tweaking is needed to make it look proper.

STEP 2:

Using the safety pin, curl the ends of the petals by rubbing your index and thumb together to roll it in. For the outer petals, curl both bumps in (see provided reference link above). This takes awhile to get used to, but keep trying! You'll get the hang of it eventually! A helpful tip is to do all your petals now before you use the glue; sticky fingers is your enemy when it comes to this step.

So, I've recently decided to create my own snazzy list of things I would like to do before I die, also known as a bucket list. I look at bucket lists as a record of long term goals to achieve, whether they are "once in a lifetime" experiences, or smaller achievements I would like to accomplish before I die.  I think it's something nice to have, so you'll always have something to strive for.

Though this new project is much to take in, I thought a fun way to get the most of this ongoing experience was to share it with others, and what better way to do it than to document all my bucket list events here on my blog!

I've created a page here on Penny Bee, listing down every single thing (both big and small) that I hope to do before I die. Once I complete a point on my bucket list (or something worthy enough to be on the list), I will create a blog post talking about my experience. This will be a great way for me to record and keep track of my bucket list, and also a great way to exchange bucket list ideas with others. Woohoo for sharing, because sharing is caring! :)

So without further ado...  My Bucket List

This evening my parents, Isabel and I went for a nice bike ride out (another good excuse to get my butt off the couch!) It was a beautiful evening, and the nature trail was wonderful, as always! Like any avid photo taker, I risk dropping my nifty phone camera to take some lovely nature snaps:

So the past couple of days I had a bit of a change and actually put my computer down and did something productive! With my best friend, Isabel, we helped out with the arts and crafts station at a local vacation bible school day camp. Being the couch potato sleep lover I am, it was a big pain to get up early in the morning. Getting up at 6:45am is not my forte, especially during summer break. I also might admit, my laptop is well loved and a part of me questioned if I really wanted to part with it for a few days. I know! It's bad! But boy was I mistaken because during this time, I had a good life check with how I wanted to play out my life as a teenager.

We have a nice group of friends we made through the years when we ourselves participated in the camp as children. Only this year we were too old to be participants and decided to help out. Since the camp was only until noon, all of us would go to one of our friend's houses and play there. And yes, I did say play, and I am not afraid to say I play like a child I am no longer considered to be. I am not afraid to say these people who are not even in high school yet are my friends, because they are, and not only am I friends with them, but I have Nerf gun wars with them and I myself pretend I am actually in war.

That was the first time I played an imaginary role play game in quite awhile. And with this experience being with all my younger friends, I realized how much I missed being a kid. When I was their age I was crushing on boys, and hanging out with people who acted much older than they are; swearing every other word and thinking of every innuendo possible. Not to mention how often we were all home alone and how out of hand it always became, and how uncomfortable I would feel. I did not like the environment I was in and I lost my sense of creativity that an innocent child had. My imagination turned from living in a cabin in the woods during World War II, to practically no imagination at all. Daydreaming of boys is understandable though, its the hormones taking over, but I do miss the days where I wouldn't be always on my computer and instead would be creating endless amounts of role play games with my friends.

It really got to me, how this generation is focused on being someone way older than they really are. And unfortunately, it seems that acting older than your true age is what many people decide to do to in order to be so called "accepted" in the higher areas of the high school hierarchy. Teens my age, maybe even younger, drink and smoke and have sex. Having a boyfriend is a must, swearing and dirty jokes is mandatory in conversations, girls should be showing as much skin as possible in their everyday outfits. I am not at all like this, and I don't want to be like this until I'm at least out of high school and hopefully well into collage, and even then I won't be doing anything that isn't necessary or out of hand. Sometimes I wish I was homeschooled, like some of my Nerf gun war friends, because you don't have to act older to be accepted. These kids are cherishing their childhood to the final drop, and I gratefully admire them for that.

I do still have time to take back some of my childhood, I mean I'm not that old! But it's harder now. Once school comes around, it takes over your life, and there's never any time to be a kid again. But I will keep in mind that I am in no rush whatsoever to grow up, I've got time for that later on. Hope this inspired at least one person to look on life like how I do now.

Hello blogging world! I'm not quite sure how to go about my first blog post, so I'll make this quick! A few quick facts about me:

• I'm right brained, so I suck at grammar and all that crap
• I'm not old and wise (or anywhere near being middle aged) which means I have a lot of learning and experiencing to do
• I have no idea why I just created a blog, but I guess it will be fun sharing my thoughts with people (when in fact, I'm probably the only active reader hehe)
• maple syrup, eh?

Also, my name is Millie, but in my attempt to be 'cool' and 'professional', I've done my best to think of a quirky alias. While researching non-stop as to what I would like my blogging nickname to be, I've come up with "Penny-Bee" which is now the name for my blog! The name "Penny" is sometimes used as a nickname for my full name (Millicent), coming from the 'cent' in the name. I thought that was cute, and since I love doing DIYs and finding inexpensive alternates for things (for say, just a 'penny' ;), it worked perfectly for my blog name! Also, a variation of Millicent is 'Melisande' and it is old french. Melisande is the French form of 'Melissa' which means 'bee; honey', hence the second half of my alias. Wowzers that is quite a stretch, but hey, if you want a nice nickname, you gotta do what you gotta do!