Work Buds

I work with some really awesome ladies (and a few awesome guys). One of those ladies had a birthday this past Saturday, so I made her a camera! I used the same pattern from craft night a few weeks ago and I switched up the colors a bit. Here's Miss Emily with her very own camera:

Isn't she gorgeous!? Happy birthday, doll! I busted out a few vintage buttons from my collection  for this little project.

Have a super weekend!

More Blythe...

Well, my first girl is finally (a week later) on her way to sunny Florida. Wednesday evening I found a friend for her. I purchased a Natasha Moore from a private collector in Illinois. I think I might even have a name for her already, but I want to spend a little time with her first. This is a stock photo:

(source)

Do I sound crazy?

Oh, well. At least I'm not collecting blow-up sheep or something.

The second doll is coming nude so I have to find an outfit for her fast! I've already ordered a light blue tutu from Oh Stumpets!, I have tons of fabric to make dresses and shirts (etc) but my printer is a little out of order. I have to find another way to print patterns. I'm also on the hunt for a few shops that peddle Blythe goodies. If anyone knows of any, please let me know! Have a fab weekend!

No Blanks

Hey friends, I don't have blanks lined up for today. Lauren is a new mama and I can understand why some of her regularly scheduled posts have gone to the wayside lately. I say, "good for her!" The blanks will be here when she has posted prompts. In the mean time, you get to read my babble. Ready?

We gave the kitten a proper burial yesterday evening. It was sad and there was not a single dry eye between the two of us. He was buried facing the east at the foot of the biggest tree in our yard.

Spring Break is officially over. It will be the last one for me unless I teach or go back to grad school. Both are way up in the air. I did get some much needed time in at the beach. Now I remember why I have stayed in Florida, especially so close to the coast. I will be going to my sandy spot much more often, even if it's only for an hour or two. No matter how noisy it is there, I can clear my head. The sun came out an hour after I took this photo.

Like I said, I will be spending more time here.

This weekend is the Honda Grand Prix so it will be a little busy around here. Chris is covering the race and I will be driving him back and forth so he doesn't have to worry about parking. Guess who won't be donning a photo bib this year? This girl. Last year was exciting and I learned a lot, but photographing races really isn't for me. I like people a little better. I'm itching to spread my wings. Call me.

Anyhoo, I would love for everyone to have a great week. Stay beautiful, friends.

Sundae Stroll- Remembering A Friend

So far today has been super lazy. I'm still in my pjs and I'm eating homemade pizza. Chris came home at 3am this morning. I had a post lined up with an update on the kitten but as some of you may know, the kitten has gone over the rainbow bridge.

He was playing with two of the ferrets on Friday evening and they got a little rough. Well, more than a little. Who the hell am I kidding!? Based on the bite marks the ferret was only playing. My ferrets bite each other in the same spot, but because they have tougher skin and thicker fur they don't hurt each other. I'm not sure which ferret it was and I don't want to know. I have a different kind of relationship with each of my ferrets and whichever one played too rough with the kitten didn't know what he or she was doing.

Either way, I feel like a horrible person. I was supposed to care for this kitten and protect him. He was only with me for less than a week, but I was in love. I planned to name him Totoro because of his big grey belly.

Baby kitty,
I'm really sorry. I love you.

I also threw out my back looking for him on Friday evening. So not only was work hard last night because I have to smile every minute of my shift, I also couldn't do my job very well. You bend a lot working retail. Good thing I was only at a register. I'm incredibly thankful that I was working with my friend Leah, she really helped me get through the evening. Actually, all of my managers were very supportive. 

I'm also very appreciative for everyone who had kind thoughts and sweet words on twitter and instagram over the last few days. Have a great rest of your week, friends.

Alllll byyyy myyyse-e-elf

...don't wanna be....But I am. At least until Sunday. Chris is out of town for a few days and I'm home with the kids. Chris has never been camping before and I was hoping to take him myself for his first time. So I'm just going to say that this weekend doesn't technically count as camping. It just doesn't. He's simply sleeping in a tent during race weekend at Sebring. There are showers, bathrooms and electricity. That my friends, is not camping.

While he's taking pictures of race cars and stuff I'll be home taking care of the kitten and guarding the house from elephants. I plan on hitting the beach after work tomorrow and probably for a good bit of the day on Friday.

Guess who has the bed to herself? Guess who doesn't have to wear pants? (not that I have to in front of him anyway) Guess who can pee with the bathroom door open? Yep, this girl.

I'm not terribly excited to have the place to myself though. To be honest, I'm terrified of the dark. I will have all the lights on at night. When he's gone for a day or two I tend to drink too much and not eat. I also don't like to walk outside the house by myself when it's dark out.

I sound like I'm 6, right?

I'm ok with that.

So my plan is to eat Nutella on toast. That's food. I'm going to run out to my car really fast tomorrow when I leave for my crack of dawn shift. Crap, I forgot to make Chris take the cork screw with him. Well, I promise I won't drink and drive. I can't promise I'll stay off twitter though!

Does anyone have any good Netflix recommendations? Well, goodnight!

My Little House Guest

If you follow along on instagram or twitter, you may have seen pictures of my house guest. This is how he came to stay with my little family:

I was lounging around in bed with Chris and scrolling through my instagram feed on Sunday after work. I saw a picture of a teesy little grey puff ball that @ashleyxrenee posted. She found the kitten in her basement while doing laundry. She brought him upstairs and made a little bed, but since it was Sunday all the shelters were closed. She couldn't keep him over night because she actually had to leave town in the wee hours Monday morning. I rolled over and stared at Chris. I had plenty of time to get my pouty face right because it took him a while to notice the holes I was staring into his face. I showed him the picture and of course he said, "awwww" (he always does). I told him what the situation was and he said, "poor kitty."

Photo by Ashley

I rolled back over and thought about it for a minute or two. What if that were me? What if I found a piece of precious but couldn't take care of it? I only live 10 minutes away; in 10 minutes I can help this kitten and give Ashley some peace of mind. Well, I don't necessarily believe in Karma, but I do believe that if you help someone else, someday someone will help you. (That's why I like to take the trash out at work. One day I'll be sick and I won't want to....). I rolled back over and asked Chris how he felt about us taking the kitty for the night, then taking it to a shelter or finding it a home. He looked at me and basically said, "your mind is made up, I can tell. There is no stopping you when it comes to baby animals." Damn right!

I left a comment on Ashley's picture that I could take the kitten. A few minutes later I was in the car. Ashley and the kitten were waiting outside with a very curious Gozer peeking out the window. This was also the first time I've met Ashley in person. She was so sweet to help this kitten! The kitten is palm sized, so our girly hands are just enough to hold onto him.

I took him home in the carrier and zipped out for kitten formula. I've got him on a feeding schedule and I'm going to hang onto him until he's eating solid food, maybe longer! I called around and Pinellas County animal services flat out said they would euthanize him. Not gonna happen! Keeping him any longer than a few nights wasn't part of the original plan, but at 2-3 weeks, Chris and I are the best thing for him.

He eats like a champ and already has a little tummy going. The photo above is from right after a bath. His fur was caked with dirt and blood, but he's squeaky clean now! I'm just so happy Ashley found this little guy. Ok, one more!

I'll do another post on his progress, but with real photos. Not iPhone and instgram photos. If you have ever nursed a kitten this young and have any advice I would greatly appreciate it!

Fill in the Blanks

1.  My favorite room in my home is     our "back room"    because     it's my craft room and Chris's work space. I craft, blog and do homework in here while he edits photos and makes business contacts. It's a creative space for both of us.

2.   My current decor style is      a mash-up. We don't have a solid theme in any room  but I wish it were more     modern, beachy/rustic. I would love for our house to look like the little beach cottage I used to clean. Of course we would still have our vinyl toys sprinkled throughout. 

3.  I wish I could redecorate the     bed  room in my house to make it more      cozy and less cluttered. It's a very small room, but we only sleep in it. I want to repaint and de-clutter our (my) nightstands. 

4. My dream house absolutely has to have a      a ginormous bathtub with a seperate shower stall.  A beach view wouldn't be bad either. 

5. One house item I am willing to splurge on is    bedding. I love mounds of pillows, fluffy mattress pads, and cozy sheets. Gimme all the thread count! I don't sleep well, so I may as well feel like a princess and be a comfortable insomniac! 

6. A decor trend that I just don't "get" is    the super sleek lines and ultra modern look where the furniture is super hard, or lacking cushion. I call that trend "doctor's office chic."  

7.   Warm scented (pine, cinnamon, pumpkin kind of warm) candles and big throw pillows (not the wimpy ones)    is/are a little touch that makes my house feel like home

Blanks from The Little Things We Do

11 more things.

Remember the post I did a week or two ago? The 11 things one? Well, I was tagged again by Lindsay from Shrimp Salad Circus. Rather than redo the whole thing I thought I would simply answer the 11 questions she tagged me for. Here we go!

1.   Coffee or tea? Green or black? Both please. I need them both. I like all tea and I really couldn't decide! I prefer my coffee black, but I do love soy caramel macchiatos. 

2.   Tell me about your pets. If you don't have any, tell me about your... plants? We have a zoo at my house. 2 cats, 3 ferrets, 2 veiled chameleons, 2 turtles, and 3 geckos. Did I miss anyone? Oh, Yes. We have a chihuahua named Trinket. I haven't really posted about her yet, but I do spam my friends on twitter with photos of her.

3.   What is your very first memory? I actually have a lot of childhood memories, but oddly enough I not sure if they are mine or something I imagined. I have a lot of mental blocks. I do remember eating strawberry ice cream in a room full of shelves and shelves of records at my Dad's friend's (Crash and Tony) place. From what I hear, I was too young to be able to remember that.

4.   If you could learn any language, which would you choose, and why? I should say Spanish because I live in Florida and it would be practical, but  I'm not practical. I'm going to say German, I love this language. I took German in middle school and I picked it up quickly. I only had the vocabulary of a 5 year old, but I still have the sentence structure (blah blah) down. My runner up would be Irish. I read a lot of Irish poetry a few years ago for school. I had the English translations, but the language is beautiful.

5.   What has been your most hideous fashion blunder? (Mine has to have been the fountain ponytail cascading down from the top of my head in middle school....) I looked hot in my white and neon orange, houndstooth printed stirrup pants. I only wore them with a lavender turtle neck. I wore this in 2nd grade. Like I said, hot.

6.   Pretend you're on tv. What song should play every time you enter the room? Anything by Lights. But if I had to pick:

7.   If you could hug any animal in the world, what would you choose? I hug every goat I see. I would really just love to have a real live bear hug though. A Panda would be cool.

8.   Tell me the best joke you know. I'm drawing a huge blank on this one. I love jokes but I am horrible at telling them o---oh! I know! Why did the chicken cross the road? Because Frank Perdue was chasing after him. (knee- slapper).

9.   How do you feel about celeb gossip magazines? I'm not into them. They aren't very credible. My favorite celebrities are the ones you don't see in those. Or they're in them for something awesome.

10.   Are you sick of the presidential campaigning yet?   Honestly, I've been so busy with school that I haven't really noticed them. I also haven't watched tv for about 2 months now.

11.   If you could go into business for yourself and not fail, what would you peddle? I would love to have a line of affordable pet stuff. There's so much out there, but it's ridiculously expensive! Doggy shirts, cat/dog/ferret bedding. Treats! Homemade treats! I just really love my critters and I know there are others out there who do too.

I have a shop?

Yep. I forgot about it too. I've had my head in the books so much lately, I just hope it's all worth it! There are still loads of feather goodies in the shop. I still even have all the supplies and sculpey in the world to make rings...just no time (yet). I'll spend some time next week (Spring break!) to work on the shop. I'd like to add a few crochet items and a few rings back in. I need a little thinking time to come up with something super unique and fun. Until then, if you're interested in feather earrings, check out the shop.

http://hellosundae.storenvy.com/

 

Book Smart

I've been looking for a way to tie my love of books and all things Lit into my blog without going the book review route. I'm not against reviews, they are very helpful sometimes. I just suck at them, that's all. I'm better at critiquing and analyzing. You know, looking for themes and conventions of discourse then trying to apply all that to the meaning of the universe. Agh! So maybe just for now I'll start by posting what I know and if I happen to stumble on something cute (ahem):

Source

I'll pass it on with a comment or five. I found this comic on my sister's tumblr page and traced it back to it's origin. Which really meant, I had to do a google search because the little twat (excuse my French) it was credited to on tumblr didn't credit the photo properly. Anyhoo, this isn't a "careful to link" rant.

I love this particular take on Pooh and Poe because I feel like "The Tell-Tale Heart" doesn't get read often enough. Heck, I don't think Poe gets read often enough at all! In fact, I never read any for high school and I only read one short story for college. Everything I have read was on my own time and I think I enjoyed it more for that reason.

If you like Thrillers, Horror, or Mysteries take a look at some of Pooh, I mean Poe's work (teehee). My personal favorite is the "The Cask of Amantillado." I was really stoked to see a Poe themed haunted house at Busch Gardens's Howl-O-Scream last year. In fact, the second time I walked through I identified all the poems and short stories that were being enacted. The guy from Cask looked pretty surprised when I yelled "Oh, your from "The Cask..(yadayada)." He said, "Yes!" 

Is any of this interesting? I kinda got excited and started typing. We'll do this again some time, thanks for hanging in there!

#30lists- 1st post

I will admit, I have fallen a little behind. I finally got to scan and upload the first 5 days today. I caught a stupid cold again. I swear I just got over one 2 weeks ago! (body, do we need to talk?) I'm still working on Day 6, so here we go!

Fill in the Blanks Monday

1.  The highlight of my week was   (because it is only Monday, the highlight last week was) proposing to Chris!!!!

2.   If I had to classify my interior design aesthetic it would be   a mix of geek, antique, modern and well, just a mix. We don't really have a plan at the moment and it's killin me.

3.  My first vehicle was   a white 1989 Plymouth Acclaim. The "Dirty Snowball." It was missing the headliner, so I stapled some pink and grey fabric to the roof. Cost? (tax, tag, title) $450. I bought it myself.

4. An item I need to have in my day in order to function is  a drink. I don't mean alcohol. I mean tea, coffee, water, something! I'm one of those "always thirsty" people.

5. My favorite way to waste time is  by checking twitter and instagram. I also like to just nap.

6. Right now I could really go for   a caprese sandwich from Mazzaro's and a Pennsylvania Dutch Birch Beer.

7.  This weekend I will be  catching up on homework so I can relax during Spring break.

Prompts by Lauren

Sundae Stroll

Hello! I have a few posts that I'm working on. One of them is from when my sister and I put henna on our hair. I would have liked to have this one published a few days ago but of course that hasn't happened. I'm just trying to get an 'after'  picture of me, but nothing is cooperating. I'm finishing up my last photo skills post, but I'm having issues there too. Lots of behind the scenes. I'm just going to keep it simple around here while I lay in bed doing homework.

Leap Day: My Proposal Story

Leap Day was a very big day! I only let the cat out of the bag to a few people beforehand and literally only 1 person in the blogging community. What's the story? Well,

I had class on Wednesday, so I planned around it and it actually helped. I went to the party store before class and bought a dozen balloons, all different colors. Thankfully, they lasted in my car. I told him to meet me after class outside the bar where we first met, The Independent. On the way to class I felt excited, scared, nervous, nauseous, happy, and terrified....all at the same time.  

Chris looked a little confused when he saw me with a bunch of balloons. He asked what they were for and this is how it went:

Me: "I thought we could tie them to our house like the movie Up and go on adventures."

Him: (confused, but not surprised at my spontaneity) "Yeah?"

Me: (pulling the pin out of the pocket on my shirt) I asked him, "Will you go on adventures with me?"

Him: (confused)

Me: "Will you marry me and go on adventures with me?" (by now I'm starting to tear up a little)

Him: "Yes!"

Me: "Are you serious?!?!? Because I'm being serious right now! It's Leap day and girls can propose on Leap Day!"

Him: (taking off his sunglasses) he says, "Yes, I'm serious."

Me: (melted into a puddle on the sidewalk)

I didn't get down on one knee, I was wearing a skirt. Plus, I felt that the one knee thing was too masculine and what I was doing was masculine enough. I tried to make it 'me.' 

After that we had a drink at the Independent and then scooted off to Magic Kingdom. They were actually open 24 hours for Leap Day and my original plan was to propose there, but I really couldn't skip class. It also wouldn't have been as personal as I wanted and what if he said 'no'????

The ring? I didn't go that route. I bought him a pin instead. This pin, to be exact:

It's the pin Ellie gives to Carl in the movie Up. We love that movie and like everyone else, we both cry through the beginning. I had a light bulb moment on Valentine's day when he tweeted a picture of Ellie and Carl to me. (sigh)

Leap day is not Sadie Hakwins day. That day is actually sometime in November. It comes from a comic, but the general idea is that it's a day when a lady can ask a guy to go with her. I can see how the two would get mixed up and even merged, but to me Leap day sounds so much more romantic than a story line from Lil' Abner. Mental Floss actually has an article that explains the tradition and it's history a little better than wikipedia.

I feel like this was a huge leap (see what I just did there?) for me and it was pretty brave. Did anyone else propose today?