rut.

(fair warning....this was a stream-of-consciousness-get-it-all-journal-entry type thing. that is to say, it's a bit jumpy and might be difficult to follow. so...sorryforya.)

I started this blog on a whim. You've probably never read this, but that's where it all started. Brilliant piece of writing, I know. I wrote sporadically...when an idea hit me...generally on a monthly basis. What I really loved to do was stalk other blogs. I'm in love with YHL, Kendi, and Sydney. I mention them in casual conversation as if they're friends of mine (that's not creepster, right?!). There are a handful of others that I adore, but I keep coming back to those three no matter what. They inspired me to do more. So I did. For a little while. I fancy myself a writer so I thought it'd be easy to keep coming up with wonderful things to write about and I could really let my creative juices flow. You know what? It's not. Life gets in the way. I'm still in a rut if you want to know the truth. I've had writer's block for about nine months. Maybe you just thought I was prego and on a mommy hiatus. I'm not. Nor was I.

What I am is a creator. A crafter, wanna be writer, photographer, designer, jill-of-all-trades. Whether I'm writing, sewing, gluing, cutting, painting–I create. It's what I do. And I've been ignoring that. Don't you do that? You know you're happiest when you eat well, exercise, make time for the things you love...and you just don't do it. I've complied list upon list of thing I want to make, and my lists just keeps getting longer. I've done very little, and I think it's time for that to stop. But here's the thing. My "space" looks like this:

and I'd prefer it look like this:

There are a few things I need to accomplish in this room.

• A general cleaning is in order
• I need space for crafts
• Space for my sewing machine and related projects would be nice
• And of course, space for items from mary&nell

It certainly doesn't sound too hard. Maybe Santa will bring it for Christmas.

Yo peeps, it's Thursday!

 

Awkward

1. Imagining me saying "yo peeps" outloud

2. Adding up the amount of time you spend per week watching TV. Yeah, go ahead. I dare you.

3. Laughing HYSTERICALLY at Melissa and Joey while Boyfriend makes his "this is lame" face.

4. When other people notice you laughing at jokes from their completely separate, often private, conversation.

5. The high-pitched squeals that escape every time you mention how close the Harry Potter release is! 

Awesome

1. Visits from GerRee!

2. Tapatias. Mmmmmmmm (asada tacos are THE BEST)

3. Making my first sale on Etsy! Woot woot!

4. New jobs! (not me, but awesome anyway!)

5. New babies! (again not me, but yay Chad and Steph! Tripp Lawson, born July 4th!)

and on this day...there was awkward & awesome

It's awkward to trail a joke with your own only to realize the moment is definitely over.

It's awkward to adjust your bra and then notice Creepy McCreepster staring at you.

It's awkward to laugh and noises that can only be described as sounding like a donkey come out. And it's in front of people. And they look at you and can only be thinking the same thing as you are, "that was awkward."

It's awkward to pee with your cat staring at you.

------------------------------------------------------------

It's awesome to pour over a notebook of high school notes with a girlfriend and laugh at yourselves.

It's awesome to order Chinese food with Boyfriend and not have to cook.

It's awesome to watch this trailer. [say it with me in a sing-songy voice] Awwwwesoooome...

It's awesome when Puppy falls asleep in your arms.

mid-year's resolutions

Numero Uno: Figure out a way to keep Lucy's hair under control. She's a massive shedder, that little baby of mine. It gets EVERY. WHERE. This is my plan: take two minutes to brush her everyday. That's less than 15 minutes a week. Certainly doable. Especially if you consider I hardly brush my own hair...that means I definitely have the time. Also, vacuum 2-3 times a week. Or perhaps, alternate rooms and vacuum every other day? Crap. I thought I had this plan nailed down. Vacuum frequently. There. That will be my plan. Brush and vacuum. (To ward off any obvious questions–I don't do this now because I'm lazy. K, thanks.)

Numero Dos: Paperwork overhaul. It's absolutely out of control. Ridonkulous, even. I need some better solutions. I may start by going paperless with bills. But I'm deathly afraid of missing one...decisions, decisions...either way, change is a comin'.

Numero Tres: Get rid of junk! I can't believe how much STUFF has accumulated in the last year at our house. Can I make a New Year's resolution in June? How about a mid-year's resolution? No more "I need to fill my house and make it look lived in resulting in piles of junk" purchases. That is to say, I need make only thoughtful purchases. [sidenote to self: Ha! Ha! Good luck.]

I'll keep you posted on my progress.

PS: My camera broke, so I may be relying on phone pics for a while. Prayers  welcomed for my little Sony pal. Thank you.

PPS: I made strawberry vinaigrette. It was delicious.

[at least] five fictional character crushes

I recently came across this chicky and immediately loved her list of 5 fictional character crushes. I really love that she chose to restrict her choices to characters she met in literature, not film. I can't say that I'm going to follow the same guidelines because a couple of my biggest fictional crushes are not from books and they are just too big [and embarrassing] for me to ignore. Also, I'm clearly unable to keep the list to five people. I even cheated a bit and listed two people for one work of fiction.

1. Mr. Darcy / Pride and Prejudice
2. John Grady Cole / All the Pretty Horses
3. Edward Rochester / Jane Eyre
4. Edward Cullen (book), Jacob Black (movie) / Twilight Series
5. Chuck Bass / Gossip Girl, (specifically season 2 & season 3)
6. Ian O'Shea / The Host

Funny enough, Ian O'Shea is the only character not yet immortalized in literature AND film (or TV). But, that is due to change in the next year or so, and I'm so excited to see how he will be portrayed in the movie. Oh, and while we're at it I'll add my vote that Ian Somerhalder should be cast as Ian O'Shea. Perhaps it's because I love Damon Salvatore so much. Oh looky there, I just added another crush to my list.


PS- If you don't know these guys, might I suggest that you run out and introduce yourself to them immediately. K, thanks.

It's already Thursday, yay!

Hello all. It's time for another Awkward & Awesome Thursday. Because, well, it's Thursday. And I'm not sure if Sydney (The A&A Thur creator) of The Daybook is posting one today or not. But I am. So there.

Also, the following are awkward pics of today's outfit taken with my phone. I didn't have time to schedule a photo shoot with myself, so I did the best I could under the circumstances. I'm pretty fond of the dress turned skirt, similar to this one, so now you must like it too. =) K, thanks.

Awkward

1. The scene in Splice where Adrien Brody's character "crosses the line" with his human/everyotheranimalintheworld hybrid. Ewwww.
2. The scene in Splice where the human/everyotheranimalintheworld hybrid forces itself on Sarah Polley's character after changing sex (you know like the dinosaurs do in Jurassic Park). Ewwwww ewwwww.
3. Watching Splice.
4. The fact that I can't think of anything awkward besides this movie.

Awesome

1. The slice of Sacher Torte I had before eating lunch.
2. The hail carried in by recent thunderstorms. I know it sounds backwards, but in our household hail damage=income.
3. Fashioning a skirt out of a dress to complete today's ensemble.
4. Thrifting with Mary Lu and being gifted a great summer purse and a mens stripped button-up I plan to make into a skirt. (seriously, way awesome.)

awkwardness & awesomeness

Hi.

Last time I participated in Awkward & Awesome Thursday I wrote you this rap song. I did not write a song today. Nevertheless, enjoy.

AWKWARD
1. Trying to move your right hand and moving your left hand instead so "awkward" keeps looking like this: awd...awdk...awdw...awdward. Ugh.
2. Answering the phone at work and forgetting what to say.
3. Fearing I'd missed the trash truck, realizing I hadn't, and running outside to drag the bins to the curb while donning my robe and a towel turban.
4. Listening to some guy talk about the restraining order he has against him because he tackled his (now ex) girlfriend while they were in a fight. Drunk. And then listening to him question whether or not he should call her. (Sidenote: I just found out said guy is a teacher. Omigosh.)
5. Sitting in the chair at the dentist for 10 minutes trying to remove my nose ring so it wouldn't interfere with x-rays WHILE the hygienist is holding a mirror for me and realizing that it's stuck because of a booger. Awesome. I mean, awkward.

AWESOME
1. Realizing it's almost Friday (Boyfriend and I are traveling to visit Tremandi this weekend) Woot woot!
2. Making quesadillas, playing Munchkin, and visiting with a good friend who just got back from a two year stint in China.
3. Giving a haircut that turned out exactly how I intended. (much better than the alternative and ending up in the awkward category)
4. Having weather so nice I can leave the windows in my house open.
5. The heels I'm wearing today. I LOVE them.

And this is both awkward AND awesome. Yup, that's Mike "The Situation" with his siblings. In case you can't tell, he's in the middle. In the back.

found at this website

14 things on the the 14th

Consider yourself lucky you aren't catching my first draft of this post. Suffice it to say I went on a little rant, got carried away, and completely lost sight of the purpose for this little Valentine's Day entry. Now that that's over...let's move on, shall we?

In the spirit of St. Valentine's Day, I thought I'd share a few things I love. Are you curious to know the focus of my list today? Come on, I'll show you!

14 things I love about Boyfriend:

1. his smile
2. his cute little nose
3. the insane shade of red he turns when he's giggling at It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
4. that he'll eat just about anything I cook, even the experiments gone wrong
5. that he loves, loves, loves his family and mine
6. that he'll let me pick the movie
7. that he loves God so faithfully and passionately
8. that he'll tell me I look nice (when prompted) when I wear skinny jeans, even though he hates them
9. that he participates in love-bubble affections even though he thinks it's weird
10. that he shares his food with me (even when it's obvious he wants all of it)
11. his arse
12. that he sings along to country songs when we're driving
13. his enthusiasm for outdoor adventures (and Hawaii)
14. that he'll get up and feed Lucy when I'm really, really tired (or hungover)

Welp...that's it. Everything I love about Boyfriend in a nutshell. Just kidding! That doesn't nearly cover it...but hey, fourteen is fourteen, right? I do what I can. Here are some extras for anyone who prefers pretty pictures over my type-A list.

he wears boots all the time...even in the snow

he poses for pictures like this in the middle of the thrift store

and this with the duke

and he's really good at catching catfish when all I can seem to hook are carp

AND he takes me out for nice dinners and finds awesome jewelry for my birthday, like this

So, that was my fourteen things (plus a couple). Now I'm off to make a lobster and steak dinner with Boyfriend. Do I have the best sweetheart in the world, or what? No response necessary, I know I do. =)

Ceeee-le-brate good times, come on!

I hope you sang the title out loud! Ok, maybe not out loud, but did you at least give it a little hum, head bop, or shoulder shimmy? I did a shoulder shimmy. Of course, I knew what I was writing, so I shimmied and wrote. At the same time. Whatever, back to the matter at hand. Celebrations. Today, I am giving a nod to my blog. Or, as it were, a very tiny nod to my very tiny blog.

For any confused readers (probably most of you)...my blogiversary came and went without recognition. Oops! I actually didn't think of it at all until today, over three weeks late. But realistically, I don't have too much to celebrate, right?

WRONG!

Though my first thought was to let the seemingly insignificant date pass by without acknowledgment, I reconsidered. What would my attempt at blogging amount to if it weren't acknowledged? Small successes are still successes, right? Maybe I didn't write as much as I'd hoped in the beginning of the year, but I wrote. Maybe I didn't find a central topic around which to focus my writing, but I wrote. And, maybe I didn't make much sense to anyone who was forced to read my blog while I stood over their shoulder stumbled upon my site, but I wrote. Are you getting my point? I wrote, dammit. And even if it wasn't to the degree I imagined, it's definitely something to build on. In that spirit, I've created a list (imagine that) to keep me pumped about my teeny tiny progress. Enjoy.

1. I am still blogging (however infrequently).
2. I posted 16 times last year. (Don't laugh! It's better than one. Or none.)
3. I am happy about the variety of moods/themes in posts. That is to say I feel like there's a good mix of "this-is-what's-going-on-in-my-life" posts sprinkled with "I'm-a-goofball-and-this-is-totally random" and "I-am-very-serious-about-this-so-take-this-seriously" posts.
4. I actually have followers. Granted, not very many. But they're there! So thank you Mary, Adagui, and Mandi! Muah!!

Now comes the fun part. The extra encouraging part. GOALS. I don't have any new year's resolutions to speak of, but I do have goals. And what better way to share my goals for blog than like this:

Number One: WRITE MORE! That's the most obvious and most important goal. I'm tempted not to tell you my ideal number of blogs per week, but it might help me get off my ass and contribute to my own project. So here goes. Three. Three times per week. That would be ideal. Here's the thing though, for someone who didn't even write much more than once per month on average, I feel like three times per week is lofty. Very, very lofty. However, two posts per week doesn't sound crazy. So that's what I'm settling on. That's my goal. Let's see how I do. ;)

Number Two: By the end of the year, find a focus (not the car, just got rid of that) for the content of my blog. That's the one I'll need the most luck on. Even more than frequency, I'd bet.

and Number Three (because I think 3 sounds like a good number for this sort of list): Improve my writing skills. I have an idea that writing with more frequency will inevitably enhance my writing. So here's hoping #1 helps with #3!

And because I've included no pictures in the post thus far...

because, well, it's a celebration!

and this is just because I like these boots. =)

Cheers!