I've been making hand made jewelry for a while, and this is my most recent stuff listed in my Etsy shop:

Lately, I have been drawing stuff, for myself as well as for people on Gaia Online. I hope to do more drawings over the winter break. I also need to put some of my new drawings, as well as poems on Deviant Art. Here are some examples below of what I recently drew. Feel free to comment, as always, I welcome (constructive) criticism. My Deviant Art page can be reached by clicking the link. And same with my Gaia online page. :)
L

I've been in the mood for delicious drinks lately, although I am never a fan of packing on calories. So I have been making these concoctions, which are more like virgin margaritas than smoothies, really. One recipe was inspired by the cranberries which I boiled to make my famous home-made cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving. I had a lot of frozen cranberries left over, and didn't want them to go to waste. So I decided to throw them in a blender with a little crushed ice, a couple of lime wedges, half a cup of Splenda, and a splash of 2% milk. The result was this awesomely delish cranberry lime smoothie that my fiance and I enjoyed together. It was tart and refreshing, although sweet and festive.



And my other smoothie was made out of sliced kiwi fruit left over from a Thanksgiving dinner we went to at a friend's house. I love kiwi, and would have hated for it to get thrown away. So once again, I threw the fruit in the blender and decided to add some frozen blackberries, some sweetener, a drop of vanilla extract, and a little 2% milk, and voila, a gorgeous smoothie that everyone loved!

A lot of people have been asking me, so I decided to make a list of all of my favorite Firefox plug-ins that make life easier for me. If you do happen to use Google, Facebook, IM chats, or anything else that I use, chances are, you will find these VERY useful. Oh, and these are official Firefox plug ins, a lot of them actually recommended by Firefox folks themselves.


Boost for Facebook - enhances FB (removes pesky ads, moves events to the top where you can see them, lets you poke people back with only one click, etc...)

Gmail manager - toggle btw. 2+ Gmail accounts, get updates on new mail

Glue - movies/books/music recommendations based on your searches, option to ask your friends about it by sharing it on Facebook, etc...

Clipmarks - clip and save/share articles and photos without all the ads and junk around them and save the article and/or image to your "scrapbook" which you can keep private or share with people

Better Privacy - warns about bad cookies, sometimes it's just good to know which sites try to spam you

Lazarus - if your computer or browser crashes while you're typing or filling out a form, this plug-in will recover all the text for you

Meebo - combine all your IMs into one AND have the incoming IMs pop up in small bubbles in the corner of your screen, so that you can keep doing whatever you're doing and still keep up with the convo. Have you ever IMed someone on MySpace, others on Facebook, someone on AIM, and someone on Yahoo at the same time all while browsing and blogging? With this plug-in, you can!

Share-aholic - way to share a page on 50+ social networks. Sometimes, sharing an article on Facebook isn't enough. Someone you know may not have a FB. So share it with them through the network of their choice, or just plain e-mail it to them with 2 clicks.

Youtube video downloader - if you'd like to save the video to your hard drive, here's how!

Check out my full collection of plug-ins here
I have all these and more in my handy dandy list. :)

Today (and always) I am thankful for:

- being alive
- being in love
- my fiance's love
- my awesome family who never fails to nurture me and so selflessly gives me so much and Josiah's wonderful family who is so warm and welcoming and fun
- my awesome friends who are always there for me
- every chance to spend time with Nina, even if it is while she drowns out the new episode of CSI as she noisily rustles wrapping paper and plastic bags the whole time
- holiday food
- all the random animals that somehow always end up in our room and our yard
- all the stuff Josiah buys for me, which I don't deserve
- all the "out of the blue" blog comments, gifts, requests for me to do art for them, postcards, texts, tweets, etc that people have been spoiling me with lately
- Runescape
- all the photographers who are still trying to have photo shoots with me despite the economical circumstances and the lack of funds and time
- my mom's cooking (deserves its own bullet thingy)
- being able to blog random stuff like this

Yesterday, I watched the movie Romero, about Óscar Romero who was a bishop of the Roman Catholic Church in El Salvador in late 70's and early 80's. Monseigneur Romero was promoted to the status of archbishop in very troubled times for his country. Authoritative government used a military regime to terrorize anyone they perceived to be against themselves.

His appointment to archbishop was met with surprise and dismay by his fellow bishops. While this appointment was welcomed by the government, many priests were disappointed, especially those openly aligning with Marxism. The Marxist priests feared that his conservative reputation would negatively affect liberation theology's commitment to the poor. They thought, in other words, that he would stick with the wealthy crowd, leading an insulated life of dinner parties and private baptisms for the rich and ignoring the civil unrest around him. However, soon enough, Romero's timidness and reluctance to make waves and get involved in politics turned around.

A Jesuit priest and Romero's best friend Rutilio Grande, who had been creating self-reliance groups among the poor peasants, was assassinated. His death had a profound impact on Romero who later stated, "When I looked at Rutilio lying there dead I thought, 'If they have killed him for doing what he did, then I too have to walk the same path'". Romero urged the government to investigate, but they ignored his request. Furthermore, the censored press remained silent. People who happened to be in the car with father Grande, a little boy and an older gentleman, were also killed. Romero witnessed the father of the little boy have a mental breakdown as he wiped blood from his 7-year-old son's face. Three innocent vicitms lying there in a pool of blood and not even a line in a local newspaper! In response to father Rutilio's murder, Romero revealed a radicalism that had not been evident earlier. He spoke out against poverty, social injustice, assassinations and torture. He gathered huge crowds at his sermons and welcomed the poor into his office at any time of day and night. As a result, Romero began to be noticed internationally. In February 1980, he was given an honorary doctorate by the Catholic University of Leuven.

Schools were shut down and churches were used as barracks to station armies in various cities around El Salvador, and guerrillas were everywhere. People were kidnapped for ransom and students were killed for suspicion of being against the government, with a cover up statement that they must have been a communist. Witnessing ongoing violations of human rights, Romero initiated and gave his status to a group which spoke out on behalf of the poor and the victims of the Salvadoran civil war. Romero was pushed, threatened, and shot at by the military when trying to reclaim a church so that he can serve Eucharist to the hundreds of attendants on a Sunday.He was even briefly incarcerated for arguing with a military leader in an attempt to prevent torturing of the citizens who went to jail for a non-violent demonstration.

In 1980, as he finished giving his homily during Mass, Romero was assassinated by a right-wing group, for openly speaking out against the war and condemning extremists of both parties. He was shot through the heart with a military rifle and his blood spilled all over the altar. His assassination provoked an international outcry for reform in El Salvador.

In 1997, a cause for canonization into sainthood was opened for Romero, and Pope John Paul II bestowed upon him the title of Servant of God. Outside of Catholicism, Romero is honored by other religious denominations of Christendom, including the Church of England through the Calendar in Common Worship. He is one of the ten 20th century martyrs who are depicted in statues above the Great West Door of Westminster Abbey in London.

Archbishop Romero's funeral was attended by more than 250,000 mourners from all over the world.

Although a very depressing movie, it is only so because it is based on true facts and not "enhanced" by Hollywood. The events in the movie happened in real life, and it is very sad that not only this actually took place, but also that it still goes on in various parts of the world today. Innocent people die for what they believe in and many lives go wasted in these heroes' attempts at speaking out for their nation. I just thought I had to share this with you all, because the movie touched me and I cried in certain parts of it. Here is the link to the IMDB page with all the info about it, if anyone wants to rent it. It is definitely worth a look.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098219/

Oh noes! Some people are cashing in on everyone's desire to be liked... This is very sad. Basically, they put up ads everywhere promising all Twitter users millions of friends. Users excitedly sign up, because let's face it - we all want more friends. Well, at least, most of us do. So then, once you've signed up, this bot thing signs into YOUR account, supposedly to make you more friends. But what it's doing, really, is, well, spamming all the friends that you already have by posting every FOUR hours. It's posting self advertisement of course, but to your friends, it looks like you're doing it. They think: "Oh, hey, my friend _______ seems to like this thing that gets you tons of Twitter friends, let me give it a try!" and then the cycle starts allover again. Their accounts get hacked into by a bot sending out tons of self-advertisement. The bots not only post to your status every 4 hours bumping down your genuine updates, but they also direct message your friends urging them to try this new friend making machine. Eventually your existing friends begin getting annoyed at your frequent spamming of their inboxes and, well, your regularly updated statuses that have nothing to do with you. Also, since you signed up for the evil bot, the terms of service are bonding you to automatically adding all their VIP clients - people who have paid money to have their accounts to get hacked into. Of course, you have no idea who these losers are, so you have like a 100+ of random people who are also spitting out that same nonsense in their updates as you are, advertising that same evil bot. What's the point of even having friends online if you're not actually getting to know them? Your new "friends" are simply lifeless series of fake "updates" that are all advertising the same thing. So basically, you're STUCK IN THE WORLD OF TWITTER ZOMBIES. And it's not nearly as cool as getting stuck with zombies in real life. And your whole purpose of being in the bot system is so that the people running the evil bot can justify charging the naive saps who want a million friends a few bucks. They can point to you and say: "See? You've got a friend for your money." Hopeless.... -_-

P.S. No, this did not happen to me, haha (someone asked). I was just feeling particularly keen when I clicked to check out the website below and read their terms of service. I then said "no thank you" to their scam and went back to Twitter only to see some of my friends spitting out that nonesense about how they just made hundreds of friends in a few minutes, and all their tweets were IDENTICAL.

BillionFollowers.com - Avoid the Zombie Machine!

Check out my new website! I deleted the old one and made this one from scratch: http://anya.anewpublishing.com

My sister's shower went wonderfully. Although we arrived late (thanks to mom and her indecisiveness of outfits), we still set up a gorgeous table and had plenty of time to make punch and decorate. The guests seemed to like our selection of food, as well as my punch. My sister bought this wonderful contraption - a fountain for punch. It was awesome. The whole thing lit up and acted as an attraction to people. We all had a good time, and Nina got lots of cash - enough for a good honey moon. The touch with the lace parasol was liked by everyone. We all had a good time. And even my BFF was able to make a guest appearance. She had to watch her autistic baby sister and so she couldn't stay long. But seeing her was nice, and she got my sister such a lovely card! Now that we've all met my sister's fiance's family, things won't be nearly as awkward at the wedding.

My sister's bridal shower is next week and I'm a bit nervous. I am in charge of organizing the whole thing. I invited all the guests and created a menu, and now I'll be in charge of setting everything up, decorating, and buying and making all the food. I'll also have to take pictures, mingle with the guests, keep track of all the presents for my dear sissy, and hopefully, I can sneak in a video or two with her. Mom will be great help, I am relieved she will be showing up early.

MENU (so far)

Cake from bakers kitchen
Meat and Cheese Tray
Grilled Cheese finger sandwiches
Veggie Tray with Ranch
Meat Balls
Cream Puffs /Éclairs
Shrimp with cocktail sauce
Bread Rolls/Croissants
Chicken salad
Winter (Potato) salad
Chips and Dip- (Salsa/Spinach)
24 cup-cakes w/engagement ring motifs (12 yellow batter w/wedding bell design and 12 devils food cake with white icing and ring insert)
Chocolate covered strawberries (I am doing this myself)

I am making most of these foods from scratch. Mom's making the Russian potato salad and hitting up Sam's club for eclairs, veggie tray and cocktail shrimp, and my sister's fiance's cousin is making the meatballs. I'm getting the meat/cheese platter from work and cupcakes from Kroger. The salsa will be store bought, although I will make some of my famous triple cheese salsa as well, for my sis to take home and enjoy AFTER the 50-something guests leave. I'm baking the bread rolls and dipping strawberries in chocolate as well as drawing a design on them to make them "tuxedo strawberries" - I have all the necessary equipment at work.

And while you're at it, adding me on Gaia, also check me out on Blogger
http://anjuta13.blogspot.com - that's a sister blog of this one. :)

What are your plans for this Halloween? Don't miss the ROCK / CAR SHOW WITH COSTUME CONTEST at Murphy's Law II!
Come out and chill with us!

See the hottest cars in Richmond 5-8pm with a rock band performing live, then enjoy drinks as you listen to four live rock bands perform and vote on the best costume! Hookah Catering, LLC will be in the scene, in full costume, serving hookah to the band members and the crowd. Lots of prizes! I will be a zombie pin up French maid. For more info, visit http://ping.fm/BbMHO

The most intense emotions arise when one is dealing with something or somewhat of the uttermost importance to him or her. Friendship essentially involves a distinctive kind of concern for your friend, a concern which might reasonably be understood as a kind of love. And it is, of course, love. Someone once said that tears and truth clear their way to a deep and lasting friendship. I agree with every fiber of my being. I suppose true friendship is never serene. And it is out of one's profound feelings of care that one gets very vulnerable to his or her friends. When certain words are said by just anyone, they mean little or nothing at all. Those same exact words gain a whole world of meaning and feelings once one hears them from someone one considers a true friend. Confusion arises out of a deep rooted desire to feel connected to another human being and to have one's feelings returned. If even for a moment one thinks that his or her feelings are rejected or ignored by those whom one has known for a number of years and/or by someone whom one loves beyond any extents, anger comes quick, pain drowns, tears overwhelm. Friends are the most important ingredient in this recipe of life. And when a certain ingredient goes missing, the matrix of the recipe skews and the otherwise perfect pyramid becomes unstable. Whether the actual missing of an ingredient is real or perceived remains a question and solely in the eye of the beholder of friendship.
Friends double one's joy and cut one's miseries in half. A friend is emotion incarnate, because he or she provides one with every feeling in the world. And even if one is a thousand miles away, it doesn't matter because what one shares with this friend is so much deeper then what lies on top that distance plays no role in their friendship.
Friends love unconditionally. They may have their little angry moments but what's done is done and all is forgive and forget. The very fact that the anger arose is the very proof of what deep feelings lie within their soul. Even if one has a fight/disagreement with someone one considers a true friend, still, deep inside, they absolutely know that if they were to commit a murder and be in need of help hiding the body, their friend would start a conversation by inquiring about the location of a shovel. Or otherwise, one wouldn't consider them a true friend.
My true friends understand my silence. They are jewels in the ring of my life. I love them beyond anything I could ever say. Friendship is a serious affection; the most sublime of all affections because it is founded upon principle, and cemented by time, someone once said. I find this very true.

Add me if you're on Gaia online! My Gaia Online profile page

This goes out to those individuals in my life who aren't particularly good at communicating. Ahem, Ashley, ahem, cough, cough. There's a few people I know who would benefit from reading this. This, by any means, is no lecture followed by a stern look. Simply a gentle reach out by me, as everyone knows that I love all. I am in a psychology major after all, and to share my insufficient wisdom is my joy. I know for a fact that silence in not by any means a deficiency in your cognitive process. I just realize that you simply don't know how. And you aren't used to it. Not to worry, my loves, I am here to assist you.

One of the most rewarding aspects of relationships is sharing personal feelings. The more you share your feelings with other people, the happier and more meaningful your life will be. Yet one of the characteristics of our society is that we are not given much training in how to express feelings in such a way that there will be little chance of misunderstanding. Years and years of our education focus on communicating ideas clearly and unambiguously, yet relatively little education is given in communicating feelings clearly and unambiguously. The English language has relatively few words that label feeling states. Sanskrit, for example, is reputed to have over nine hundred words describing various feeling states, while English has fewer than fifty, if one excludes slang and figures of speech.
To experience emotions and express them to another person is not only a major source of joy, it is also necessary for your psychological well‑being. It is natural to have feelings. The capacity to feel is as much a part of being a person as is the capacity to think and reason. A person without feelings is not a person at all; he or she is a machine. The quest of individuals who really enjoy life is to feel a greater range of emotions and to build relationships in which emotions are aroused and allowed positive expression. Feeling and expressing caring for another person, feeling and expressing love for another person, even feeling and expressing anger toward another person are all potentially highly rewarding and beautiful experiences. And it is through experiencing and sharing feelings that close friendships are built and maintained.
It is often difficult to express feelings. Whenever there is a risk of being rejected or laughed at, expressing feelings becomes very difficult. The more personal the feelings, the greater the risk you may feel. It is also sometimes difficult to control your expression of your feelings. You may cry when you don't want to, get angry when it is best not to, or even laugh at a time it disturbs others. Expressing feelings appropriately often means thinking before you communicate them.
Having feelings is a natural and joyful part of being alive and being human. Feelings provide the cement holding relations together as well as the means for deepening the relationships and making them more personal. The accurate and constructive expression of feelings, furthermore, is one of the most difficult aspects of building and managing your relations with other people.
One of the most frequent sources of difficulty in building and maintaining good relationships is communicating feelings. We all have feelings about the people we interact with and the experiences we share, but many times we do not communicate these feelings effectively. Problems arise in relationships not because we have feelings but because we are not effective in communicating our feelings in ways that strengthen our relationships. When we repress, deny, distort, or disguise our feelings, or when we communicate them in an ineffective way, we are asking for trouble in our relationships.
There are several difficulties that arise when feelings are not recognized, accepted, and expressed constructively.
1 . Suppressing and denying your feelings can create relationship problems. If you suppress your feelings, it can result in increased conflicts and barriers that cause deterioration in the relationship. A friend's actions may be irritating, and as the irritation is suppressed, anger and withdrawal from the relationship may result. Example: Me snapping at Kathy at Waffle House.
2. Suppressing and denying your feelings can interfere with the constructive diagnosis and resolution of relationship problems. Maintaining a relationship requires an open expression of feelings so that difficulties or conflicts can be dealt with constructively and in a timely fashion. There is a common but mistaken belief that being rational, logical, and objective requires you to suppress and ignore your feelings. Nothing is further from the truth! If you want to be effective in solving interpersonal problems, you need all the relevant information (including feelings) you can get. This means that your feelings need to be conscious, discussable, and controllable.
3. Denying your feelings can result in selective perception. When feelings are unresolved, your perceptions of events and information may be affected. If you are denying your anger, you may perceive all hostile actions but be completely blind to friendly overtures. Threatening and unpleasant facts are often distorted or not perceived. Unresolved feelings tend to increase blind spots and selective perception. Example: When Kathy texts you at 6 am, you may forget all the good times you have had together and snap at her because of a whole build up of unspoken problems accumulating over the last two weeks.
4. Suppressing your feelings can bias your judgments. It is common for people to refuse to accept a good idea because someone they dislike sug­gested it, or to accept a poor idea because someone they like is for it. If you are aware of your feelings and manage them constructively, you will be far more unbiased and objective in your judgments.
5. Implying a demand while expressing your feelings can create a power struggle. Many times feelings are expressed in ways that demand changes in the receiver's behavior. If someone says to you, "You make me angry when you do that," she is indirectly saying, "Stop doing it." Or if a friend says, "I like you, you are a good friend," he may be indirectly demanding that you like him. When feelings imply demands, a power struggle may result over whether or not the demands are going to be met.
When you describe your feelings, expect at least two results. First, describing your feelings to another person often helps you to become more aware of what it is you actually do feel. Many times we have feelings that seem ambiguous or unclear to us. Explaining them to another person often clarifies our feelings to ourselves as well as to the other person. Second, describing your feelings often begins a dialogue that will improve your relationship. If other people are to respond appropriately to your feelings, they must know what the feelings are. Even if the feelings are negative, it is often worthwhile to express them. Negative feelings are signals that something may be going wrong in the relationship, and you and the other person need to examine what is going on in the relationship and figure out how it may be improved. By reporting your feelings, you provide information that is necessary if you and the other person are to understand and improve your relationship. When discussing your relationship with another person, describing your feelings conveys maximum information about what you feel in a more constructive way than giving commands, asking questions, making accusations, or offering judgments.

Feel free to pass this on, people, as I am certain that you have people in your lives whom you want to communicate more clearly with. Share. (You know who you are)

I am happy to announce that I now model for CandyRiot.net! I have been accepted, and have sent in my filled out contract and my first introductory photoset.




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Urbandictionary.com definitions of me, idea stolen from Sandra Heims whose Facebook note made me crack up in several places. ^_^ So here we go... What you do is search for the definitions of your name, age, favorite color, and your nickname on urbandictionary.com and see what the results are. Quite amusing at times... ^^

Real name: Anna
1. Good to be around, fun loving
2. The subject of the Arthur Alexander song as well as the remake by The Beatles. Anna is a unique name that can be spelled the same forwards & backwards. The name is simple & elegant, which is a good description of females named Anna. Elegant & exciting. Simple & undefined. Traditional & radical.
3. A girl who is generally sweet and mild mannered on the outside, but is a crazy party girl on the inside.
4. An Anna is a friend and most likely a good one by the sound of her name. If you treat an Anna badly you will probably get screwed over. If you were to be an Anna's friend, she would have your back. An Anna deserves the best of the best because she usually gives you the best.
5. A Goddess on Earth.

Age: 25
1. The age at which one can finally rent a car in the United States without being charged enormous amounts of money and without having to sign thousands of papers for that matter.
2. A measure of dispensing illegal drugs, pronounced "two-five"

Favorite color: Aqua/turqoise
1. Main ingredient of shampoo. Fancy term for water, because shampoo's are too cool to use the word water.
2. A blend of blue and green, In holistic medicine, the color turquoise purportedly has a calming effect on patients, and is particularly used to treat patients prone to panic attacks or mania. To a lesser degree, mainstream psychiatric hospitals also use turquoise and other light shades of blue and green to calm patients by painting the walls in these colors. Turquoise is perceived by most people as the coldest of all colors.
3. A color that is a cross between light blue and sea green. It is a also a jewel. it is often the color if a Pisces's eyes.
4. French name for the pretty gemstone that they discovered due to Turkish people, thus the name.
5. French slang for anal sex (WTF?!?! LOL)

Month of birth: August
1. The idea of perfection. The 8th Month of the year in certain European and Asian cultures signifies greatness in achieving perfection, or something close to it.
2. That short German muscle guy that sits in the back of the bar who can drink everybody under the table. (LMAO!!!!)
3. The eighth month of the year characterized by cookouts and swimming!
4. A month that has no holidays.

One of your nicknames: Anya
1. Usually means grace
2. Usually located on a large pink cushion, Anya is in fact a big fluffy white cat with a big bow in her fur. Bossy but cute, she always gets her way, especially over small dark tabby cats.
3. A fit girl
4. Crotch area, as in "Your skirt is so short I can see your Anya" (OMG LMAO!!!!)

1. First thing you wash in the shower?
Hair

2. What color is your favorite hoodie?
Aqua

3. Would you kiss the last person you kissed again?
Yes! As soon as he gets over here!

4. Do you plan outfits?
Most of the time

5. How are you feeling RIGHT now?
A bit tired but happy that I don't have to get up for anything tomorrow!

6. Whats the closest thing to you that's red?
Tie between scissors and lipstick

7. Tell me about the last dream you remember having?
Last night's dream: Sam's Club was a labyrinth full of fresh fruit, cartoon butterflies, and flowers and I was not able to get out... And I was wearing my jammies with the cows jumping over the moon and shuffling the fruit like tetris shapes... Yeah, anywayz, back to normal people...

8. Did you meet anybody new today?
Customers at work?

9. What are you craving right now?
Hmmm... Vanilla hazelnut coffee I'm about to have

10. Do you floss?
Usually but it's sporadic vs. organized daily flossing

11. What comes to mind when I say cabbage?
Caterpillars!

12. Are you emotional?
Not really... Well on some occasions, but those are few and far in between.

13. Have you ever counted to 1,000?
When I was a kid

14. Do you bite into your ice cream or just lick it?
Both!

15. Do you like your hair?
Yes most of the time

16. Do you like yourself?
To a certain degree

17. Would you go out to eat with George W.Bush?
Yes if he's paying

18. What are you listening to right now?
An old Aqua video, LOL

19. Are your parents strict?
I don't live with them, but when I did, my mom was pretty liberal

20. Would you go sky diving?
Yes bring it on!

21. Do you like cottage cheese?
It's all right

22. Have you ever met a celebrity?
Russian celebs, a couple

23. Do you rent movies often?
Um, no - *cough* uTorrent *cough*

24. Is there anything sparkly in the room you're in?
OMG tons of things ^_^

25. Where is the one that has your heart?
On the couch, napping *HOW CUTE!!!!*
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I am slowly but surely completing photo shoots of concepts that I've always wanted to do: leather clad assasin, schoolgirl with a pencil mustache, Nana, girl with green hair and super-bright clothes, Middle Eastern girl (to honor my Persian best friend, Sandra), corset wearing warrior, Betty Beau Peep, anime maid, Dorothy... I've still got lots to do, but I think I know what I'm doing by now. ^^
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