Krystal N Designs

Hello!

So, even though I'm sure no one actually reads this (or so I think), I am writing another post. Ok, ok I know my sister reads this but I'm hoping in the near future to have many more people looking at this.

Lately, I have started to get back into my passion...art. I used to love drawing when I was younger even though most people would never know it since I am more math inclined than anything else. However, I have heard that left-handers (which I am) can sometimes be good at

math and still be able to draw more than a stick figure. About a year ago, I decided I needed

some decorations in my apartment which we are required to keep this nasty off-white color on

every single wall. In the bedroom, I had some picture frames that were made of iron and had a scroll/swirly look to them...so I decided to decorate and match the current decor by painting a few canvases to look like that. Painted with "Faith", "Hope", and "Love" these canvases now hang in the bedroom and look awesome...or so I think.

Because I was so proud of my artwork I sent a few pictures to my parents. If anyone knows my mom, they know that she is SOOO into homemade things (she even makes her own jewelry and it looks amazing!). She loved my artwork and told me she would like something similar to that...so I made some small painted canvases for her which she hung up. Now, I know how

parents are, and I can't really blame them either: I knew she probably really liked them but that

wouldn't mean anyone else would like them...you know what I mean. BUT, my sister (not having

ever known that I painted them) thought they were store bought. After finding out that I made them she convinced me to continue this painting thing and introduced me to www.etsy.com. Now, if you don't know what this is and you're a DIY-er, you have to visit the website, you will fall in love.

So, I used this website to set up my own shop KrystalNDesigns.etsy.com where I sell customized

canvas paintings for any kind of ocassion. Alot of my artwork seems to be a great for baby rooms, as parents will spend outrageous amounts of money on their little-ones...but these canvases can be created for any kind of room and can be given as gifts! So, please visit this

website to see what I can make for you or contact me through this site.

Monogram/Letter Canvases (personalized to any name or word or date and hung with a ribbon)

5x7 - $7.50 for each letter

8x10 - $10.00 for each letter

Large Canvases with design - price depends on how extensive the artwork is

Spring Break!

HEY! So much has happened since I last posted. As I described in a few posts already I am in school still (still working on that bachelor's of science in Mechanical Engineering) which means I recently had Spring Break!

Chris decided to plan a wonderful camping trip to the Grand Canyon. We had a great time starting March 26th when we left for the campgrounds. It took us approximately 7 hours to get to the Grand Canyon which felt like much more to our ears since we were driving in a very loud Jeep wrangler. Chris fortunately put on the full cloth top instead of the half top that he usually has on the Jeep. The cloth though is really not that great for driving at high speeds (like on the freeway...which just so happened to be the entire trip there), but we made it with the help of a pair or noise canceling headphones and our good sense of humor (as seen in the picture below).


I absolutely HAD to take pictures of all of the cool signs we saw like "Historic Route 66" and the signs saying we were getting close to the Grand Canyon.

Despite the noise in the Jeep, we made it and set up camp around 5 or 6 pm. We realized we had forgotten a few necessary things like bowls...and shampoo. Not that those relate to each other but food and cleanliness are pretty important. Luckily the little Grand Canyon store down the street had all of this. We were absolutely exhausted after a full day of driving and setting up, so we started a fire, ate, cleaned up, and went to sleep.

The first night, I HATED camping. I had never really been camping before (well once, but I wouldn't really call it camping) and even though I had a sleeping bag that was rated for 20 degree weather, my feet were painfully cold in the 30-40 degree weather there at night. Luckily Chris had brought his emergency thermal blanket which he searched for at 2 or 3 in the morning for me to wrap around my feet. I was good for the rest of the trip :-). The first day we decided to get an early start to see the Canyon since I had never been! We drove to the canyon and realized it was only about a mile away from our campgrounds (very convenient). I was absolutely amazed when I first saw it! I have never seen something so incredibly vast and beautiful. We first went to Yavapai which is one of the main overlooks. We then proceeded to take a .6 mile walk around the edge to the other observation area "Mather's Point." They were both amazing.


I was reluctant to stand near the edge at first since I highly value my life and just could picture my body plummeting to the bottom of a canyon while my husband watched in horror. That fear was quickly forced out of me since Chris wanted to stand on the edge...so I made him hold my hand in a death grip. Once I stood there on the edge (at some points with no bars) I really felt super small.
The next few days we continued to seek out other little overlooks that would give us a great view of the canyon. We even decided to take a steep hike down the canyon wall. I recommend the going-down-the-canyon part but highly discourage the walking-back-up-the-canyon part..even though that is the only way to get back to the top where civilization is :-D. Once the long and strenuous hike back up the canyon was done we just took the next day easy and hung out. We saw some deer and elk but the sign "it is illegal to feed or approach the wildlife" kept me from trying to pet the deer. Each night at the Grand Canyon the temperature dropped down to around freezing and during the daytime the temperature would get up in the 60's. Our second night it even snowed!

We had a great 3 and a half days at the Grand Canyon and then decided to head Northwest to the great Zion National Park in Utah. It took us about 5 hours to get to the Park where we promptly set up our tent. It was much warmer at Zion (I'm not sure if this was because we were at the bottom of the Canyon this time), but the daily temperature got up to about 80 and the nightly temperatures were a comfortable 50-60. At Zion we took a few hikes around the river that flows through the canyon (which if I recall correctly it is the virgin river) and spent the day "ooh-ing" and "aah-ing" at the rock formations and crazy awesome views that Zion has. We spent a day at Zion and decided we should head home a little early so I could get some homework done before Spring Break ended.Overall 3 days at the Grand Canyon, 2 days at Zion, freezing feet at night, 2 showers during the whole trip, a really noisy Jeep, and amazing views that I will never forget, it was SO worth it! I will go back to those places eventually, they are just the most amazing things to see.

First Week of Classes!

Krystal Here!

So I decided to change my background (with the suggestion from Rachel).

I started my Spring semester this year of my Mechanical Engineering BS degree (and no, it's not B.S.). I'm only 3 semesters away from graduation and I am already getting so excited. It's been a long time in the making, since I transferred after getting married to Chris, but it's been very worth it all though being married and going to school. I will be glad, however, to get into a job and make some money finally when I graduate. I am also an officer in the Society of Women Engineers at my school and I am also a member of Tau Beta Pi so that along with classes kept me busy and having a good time this first week. My classes this semester include:

Heat Transfer
Fluids and Thermal Lab
Human Factors in Engineering Technical Elective
Seminar in Engineering (Ethics)
Mechanical Design
AND the lovely Athropology 100 to satisfy the General Ed. Gotta love GE.

So, for the next 4 months my life will revolve around Heat Transfer and Fluids Lab (not something I'm completely looking forward to, but nonetheless very interesting). We'll see how I do. :-)

New Haircut

Krystal Here!,
I spoke with my sister Rachel a few days ago and she told me I needed to take and post some pictures of my new haircut. I got a haircut over the Christmas holiday while in Texas and it might be the BEST haircut I have ever had. Take a look:


Photos courtesy of my incredibly wonderful husband Chris :-)

2009 A New Year

Krystal here!,
This is a brand new blog about the life of me and my husband Chris. We were married on June 3, 2007 in Texas and promptly moved to California where my husband is stationed...as a Marine. I was 21 (which means I'm 23...yes I know I was young) and I transferred schools from Texas A&M to California State University in Fullerton to finish my Bachelor's of Science in Mechanical Engineering (3 semesters left!). I have 2 wonderful parents and 1 older sister who is married to an Air Force Pilot.

So, I've had a blog for a few years but haven't updated it in a long time. Chris also has a blog that he rarely updates, so I figured why not create one for the both of us that everyone everywhere can read. I named the blog "Here, There, and Everywhere" based on the fact that we have friends all over the world and it doesn't matter where our family and friends are everyone can be updated about our journey!...and it is also one of my favorite songs by the Beatles :-) That may be the main reason too.

This update is about the new year. In 2009, we are happier than ever here in California. Chris just returned 3 months ago from a 6 month long deployment (on a ship) where he visited pretty much everywhere including the Middle East. This was his second deployment and we're just happy he's home safe and praying that he will not have to go again. In December of 2008 we finally visited "home" in Texas where we had so much fun with our families. Here's a picture of the family (Chris' parents on the left and my parents on the right).


We hope everyone enjoys the New Year!