Monday, December 13, 2010

Gift Guides

I love the internet if only because of the gift guides.

Presents with me are hit or miss, I'm either amazing or terrible at picking something out. So gift guides for those hard to shops fors save my butt this time of year.

That is definitely one of my life goals is to put together a great gift guide.

But in the mean time these are the places I've been visiting multiple times daily.

Cup of Jo- She has the cutest guides with the cutest names!

Rifle Paper Co's blog- Super snazzy, I love the guide for brothers so manly! It makes me want to grow a mustache just looking at it!

Greedy Girl- I'm almost positive this whole website is the most gorgeous gift guide ever.

Wit+Delight as well as {frolic!} are both great places to go as well, if only to browse their pretty pictures.

- -- - -- - -- -

My absent-ism will hopefully subside soon. I've been lazy.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

December

I used to hate December.

Don't get me wrong I love the Christmas season and as far as I'm concerned Christmas starts right after the Thanksgiving leftovers are in the fridge. I hated the desolation, December is so dark and lonely looking and cold. Ironically enough when winter rolls around I become a night owl foregoing all sunlight in favor of sleep.

But I've changed my tune as the years have gone by and I'm not sure why. I guess it's the change of scenery. So, I'm feeling very good about this upcoming month, excited even. Which is an incredibly welcome change.

Happy December!

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Running Red Lights

I like to run yellow lights.
It's the high I seek in life. I get this magical feeling that I'm seeing things I wouldn't have otherwise seen if I had been stuck at the light. Those few moments right after are the best, the sky, the cars everything is new and something I would have never seen before. Not only that but it pushes your whole world forward, for the rest of my life I'm seeing things 30 seconds (maybe more or less depending on the light) before I would normally see them. My whole life is being lived in the future and it rocks!

Note: I am not under the influence of any substances.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Poof.

I like to disappear for blocks of time. It makes me seem mysterious.

- -- - -- - -- -

Hylinn bought a motorcycle way back in June and has been riding it to work ever since he tried to get his brother to teach him how to ride, hit a curb and crashed it. It wasn't anything serious, a sprained wrist and a dented fuel tank. He's since taken a class, passed the test and actually gotten his license.

Last Thursday was the first time I rode with him and it is surreal. Riding in a car, to me, is like being in a bubble. For example, I drive my roommate back and forth to work almost everyday, but I've never actually been there, to all the road in between our apartment and the mall. I've never actually set foot on that stretch of land before in my life and still haven't, but riding a motorcycle down that same stretch of road cements everything in my mind. It takes all the pieces I've seen and only just noticed and affixes them there as touchable, real objects and actual space. Definitely not what I was expecting my first time riding.

I'm not gonna lie, it's scary the first time and probably for awhile after, but I'm not experienced enough to say.

Sounds like me and sex. Badum Chhh.*

*That's supposed to be the bad joke noise, my onomatopoeia skills are rusty.

- -- - -- - -- -

You can also smell everything, good and bad.

This is also like sex.

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Lethargy

Apparently, wearing face paint three days in a row for a majority of the day makes my face unhappy and when my face gets unhappy it gets a weird rash....

Sorry no pictures, it would make your face unhappy and I don't want it to spread.

I've been recovering and being lazy. Just sitting around in the house, watching Law and Order SVU and making pillows.

Proof! That I've actually made something.

It doesn't help that Hylinn got to work from home on Thursday. Which is so much fun!

*
This is how I found him after I got home from doing something, I can't remember.

I hope this becomes more regular.

*Look at that sweet white balance!
- -- - -- - -- - -- -

Fun Fact!

I took pictures almost everyday in October. That's pretty sweet.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

The Rally

Hylinn and I went to the rally in DC this weekend. Specifically the Rally to Restore Sanity and Keep Fear Alive. We were really far from the stage so it was basically like watching it at home with a horrible view of the television.


But you don't exactly go to a rally for the view, you go for the people.

And there were a lot of people.


Like Ben Franklin.

And druids.

The people on the porta potties.

People with signs.

Ah, taxes everywhere in this bitch!

If you ever have a chance definitely make an effort to get to a rally whatever your political affiliation, they're inspiring.


Friday, October 29, 2010

Please, Don't Make Me Go Back

Hylinn asked me to go to the Halloween store in the mall to look for a piece for his Halloween costume. Normally it would be no big deal, in and out no time to browse, but I had no idea where the Halloween store was at our mall... Curse you mall gods!

The seasonal stores at our mall move around depending on which spaces are empty at the time, it also turns out that our mall ditches Halloween at least a week before it actually rolls around. I found no sign of a Halloween store, but I did find a Christmas store.

But this isn't about the severe lack of Halloween support shown by our mall, this is about my severe lack of willpower! Despite the fact that I didn't find a Halloween store I did leave the mall with stuff. I would have left with more if I didn't already feel guilty.

I would have left with this shirt.


So sparkly! And this sweater, I can never own enough sweaters.


Both from J.Crew for like a hundred billion dollars.

Please don't make me go back, I don't think I'll be as strong next time. It's bad enough I have the internet and can comprehend buying this everyday.


Or this.


Both from Free People, for 11 billion monies.
Curse you willpower!

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Costumes

We dressed up for our pub quiz night on Wednesday.


Hylinn dressed up as The Scout, from Team Fortress 2.


He won nerdiest costume. :}

*

I went as a jester. We took these after we got home, so my face paint is all smudged.

- -- - -- - -- -

*Yay, messy apartment.




Monday, October 25, 2010

Reason #24

Reason #24 that I love fall.


Pumpkin carving parties! It was actually more like a get-together and less of a party, but I'm still going to call it a party.


There was inappropriate pumpkins.


Twisty pumpkins.


Pumpkin kisses.


Scary pumpkins.



Lots of pumpkin carving.


Delicious pizza.



And of course the finished products.

- -- - -- - -- -

These numbers are completely arbitrary, I don't actually have a list, but by the end of the year I might have one.

Friday, October 15, 2010

Reason #76

Reason #76 that I love fall.

*

Socks. Socks. Socks. Socks. Leggings. Tights. Anything that covers up my chilly legs and also happens to look amazing is a winner.

So what did I happen to find through the most awesome and amazing Celia, but the best store in the world Hansel from Basel. A story devoted to only selling socks, tights and bags. Does it get any better? Oh maybe that Celia pooped a unicorn!

Now I have to go decide if I should be smart and buy one or just go crazy and buy twelve!

Hearts!

*BrokenMasque

- -- - -- - -- -

P.S. It never fails, I don't shave for two days and wear shorts and then the moment I do shave I throw on tights and pants, like "don't you dare look at legs sir!"

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Rain Rain



It is very very rainy here today. I'm very excited, I love rainy days. They give me the excuse to be lazy.

Normally I feel bad if I just hang out doing a whole bunch of nothing, but when it's rainy it's ok.

Logic.

Appropriately enough here's a list of rainy day activities* for those of you who aren't lazy, or are backwards and want to get stuff done on rainy days. Craziness.

I'll be doing a lot of #4 minus the slippers. I lounge in a sweatshirt and stockings. And maybe a little of #8.

Hearts.

*via Cup of Jo

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Panda



I'm declaring this the best commercial ever. Handsdown. Forever.

Until the next great panda commercial.

Via Celia

Monday, October 11, 2010

Spider

We got home from Pennsylvania last night, it was an awesome weekend.

The wedding was so much fun. I love weddings. It's also nice to see more of Hylinn's family and straighten out who is who. I can never remember. True to form I forgot to tell Hylinn to take a picture of me so I'll have him do that tonight. I got a wicked scrap on my elbow...I'll have Hylinn take a picture of that too. I actually tried to take a picture of it and ended up getting a picture of my crotch instead. So I'll spare you and let someone else do the for reals picture taking around here.

I've been not so hot with the picture taking recently. Want to know why?! This is why:


The most bitchenest spider.

We actually drove up on him in the middle of him spinning his web. It was so sweet. So I took a million pictures of him or her. I can never tell with spiders. I'm going with him, he seemed pretty masculine.

I spent along time watching him and then even longer this morning trying to move him off Hylinn's motorcycle* and then watching him again climb up a tree I put him on. He was so cool.

*Good thing Laura doesn't read this or she'd know Hylinn has a motorcycle. Shhh!
- -- - -- - -- -

I think this post contained the first full paragraphs I've ever posted on here.

+10 points.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Yea...

Discoveries abound!

1. When I give myself a deadline I purposefully sabotage it.

2. I am completely inept at taking pictures of myself.

So with that in mind here's the pictures!



It's a zipper!



Upside down.

I know, kinda poop, but I'm wearing it this weekend so I'll have Hylinn take some pictures.
I think that will work the best.

- -- - -- - -- -

I haven't installed Photoshop or Lightroom yet on my computer.

So I can't see any of my pictures yet cause I need Camera RAW....
Ugh.

Setting up a computer again is exhausting.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

All Better

After much love and affection, an organ replacement and electronic therapy, my computer lives!

Unfortunately I've gotten so used to using Hylinn's computer that despite the fact that my computer is glowing with healthy vibrance, I've been ignoring it for the stability I've associated with Hylinn's computer.

I'm sorry dear computer.

- -- - -- - -- -

I haven't forgotten! Here are some pictures of the dress I made.



Here's some of the fabric in the middle of being sewn together.



Here's a close up of my sweet ass stitching.

A footnote to this, when I get involved in a project I like I run with it. Thusly I almost completely forgot to take pictures as I did this. So it's hardly a step-by-step, but a rough idea of what I did to get to the place where I could wear all the fabric I brought home.

I'll have a picture tomorrow of me wearing the dress, as well as a picture of the shorts and hoodie I made.

Hearts,
C

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

What?

*

I've been using Grooveshark a lot recently since my poor computer kicked it.

The weirdest ad, I guess it's an ad I didn't click on it for fear that it would actually happen, showed up at the bottom of the page today.

I'm not really sure what to make of it.

Except maybe that Grooveshark is taunting me...

This is war.

*Click to see it bigger!

Monday, September 27, 2010

Finished!

So I've finished my dress, finally.

I sped through the cutting and the sewing. If I had been smart I wouldn't have sewn it together before I had it fitted to me, but I'll consider that lesson number one.

I learned how to sew a zipper after about three tries!

I learned I hate ripping stitches out.

I also don't like hemming a dress.

It took me probably a week to figure out how to do it. But it is finally complete... Unfortunately I still have no computer...

It's like there is a void in my soul. Ok a little dramatic, but it is incredibly frustrating to have a full camera and no where to put the pictures so I can take more.

But hopefully everything will be fine by the end of the week, fingers crossed.

Hearts.

- -- - -- - -- -

Flickr is being mean and not letting me put pictures on here.

Not sure why.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Self Worth

Meg, over at A Practical Wedding wrote about money and self worth today. Definitely something I can relate to/struggle with. She talks a lot about not selling yourself short, about fighting for the goals you want to achieve. Actually you should just go read it, she says it a lot better than I do.

But that got me thinking about my goals, my decisions, and the way I live my life in general. I fall into the pit of low self worth everyday. I undersell myself because I think it's what I should do, it's the way I should behave. If I offer a lower price for higher expectations, people will see me as polite and, honestly, not a bitch.

Now I'm not sure if it's where I grew up or who I grew up with, but people throw around the word bitch like it's nothing, I even catch myself doing it sometimes. What upsets me the most is the word comes into play when there's no need for it, or it's completely unnecessary. If I get upset at someone, "Wow stop being a bitch." If I spiritedly disagree with something, "No need to be a bitch about it."*

It gets really old.

It also gets under my skin. Why can't I speak out about something, why can't I be angry with someone without being called a name.

And I think that's where my low self worth comes from. If I step out of the bounds of polite and demur, I'm in bitch territory. Why try to put myself out there, be confident, assertive even, if it's just going to get thrown back in my face in the form of a hurtful name?

So now that I've identified it I can work against it.

*Never has this come from Tag/husband face, just clarifying.
- -- - -- - -- -
Fun Fact: I typed in Diagnosis.com instead of blogger.com trying to get here.

But speaking of diagnosis, there is one for my computer. It's hard drive gave out.

Luckily Tag says it's salvageable, so I'll be able to pull all my important stuff off of it.

This also means I'm getting a bigger hard drive so I don't have to move pictures to Tag's computer every two months just to have enough space!

Overall this is a victory.

Friday, September 17, 2010

Shhh

Mr. GDB I have a secret for you.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Dead

My computer got dead... So very dead.

Sad face.

I was hoping it would be fixed by now. Unfortunately not.

So until then, I'll be commandeering Tag's computer, but no pictures...

He doesn't have an SD card slot. Even bigger sad face.

- -- - -- -- -

On other less sad face inducing news, I'll be in West Virginia this weekend visiting one of my best friends.

Not only that I the best book to read for the three hours it takes us to get there!


Friday, September 10, 2010

I think just maybe, I'm crazy

I decided last night it was going to be a good idea for me to start sewing my own clothes.

Just on a whim.

I then decided a dress is the place to start. (My cousin-in-law is getting married in a month or so.)

So today I borrowed my mother-in-law's sewing machine, bought some fabric,

*

a pattern, some thread, and fabric cutting scissors.
I'll keep updating as it goes on, we'll see where this ends up.


*Oh birds. They are so pro.
- -- - -- - -- -

Read this and this!

It's what a gentlemen would do!

Thursday, September 9, 2010

I Found It

I'm going to let you in on a tiny secret about myself. I really really like fall, I won't say love because I'm not sure I'm that comfortable with our relationship yet. I really really like the colors, the chilliness, the smell, Halloween, the clothes, pumpkins; I really really like everything about fall, except that it's a precursor to the dreaded winter...

And here we are on the brink of it and of course I'm ogling all the fall clothes like a schoolgirl ogling textbooks.

That's what they ogle right?

So, in all the ogle I've been doing, I've found it! Finally, after years of searching and I mean years, it is here I've seen it and am ready to purchase it!

The perfect coat.

*

Right, right?

Perfect and it only took me 27 years to find.


*It's from the Land's End Canvas collection
- -- - -- - -- -

On a side note to this perfect coat rant nonsense.

Whenever I go to type in tags if the letters are from tags I've typed before it automatically pops up.

I can't get it to not auto fill in, the only solution I've come up with is to hit the space bar a bunch of times until it quits.

Weird.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Labor Day

I was in New Jersey for Labor Day. It was sweet. My family was there.


And a Pepper.


And some babies!



- -- - -- - -- -

I also got to go to the beach for the only time this summer.
It still counts right?

We'd go more except for the fact that it's so far away.

Also Pepper hates the beach.


That's him hating the beach. Love.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Goings On

Our bathroom paint is peeling. It's because our upstairs neighbors have a leak somewhere. We live in an apartment so it's not really our problem, except for the intense and ever present fear that the ceiling is going to collapse in on our heads as we shower.

I think I'm most worried about being buried alive naked, it's life threateningly sensual.

- -- - -- - -- -

I've decided it's important to take my camera with me everywhere.

I'll probably look like a pretentious tool hauling my camera through the grocery store, but so be it.

- -- - -- -

Maybe to justify said decision, I'll document all the things I do.

These will make for very short posts.

Monday, August 30, 2010

Child Labor


I forced my sister outside this weekend so I could take some pictures of her.


I'm exaggerating about the child labor of course, she's nearly five plenty old enough to be out in the working world.

- -- - -- - -- -

I think the lines I use to separate the different sections of my posts change everytime.

- -- - - -- -

I need to sit down and write one of these. -via LobotoME

If I remember...that's always a problem.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Fickle

Blogger/Blogspot whatever this place is, is so fickle.

I type this --> www.blogspot.com into my URL bar. The first time it always throws an error at me.

Today it couldn't connect me to the site because my cookies weren't enabled.

Refresh.

Oh nevermind, it's all good.

Weird.

- -- - -- - -- -

So I'm just now, approximately a year later, starting to shoot in RAW.

I tried before, but was then thwarted by my Photoshop. Also I can't see the pretty thumbnails in the folder and I get sad...

So being the persistent person that I am, promptly gave up. So here I am.

Probs 5 months later I've decided to try again with a little more effort. I'll let you know how it goes!


Thursday, August 26, 2010

Dilemma

I'm all kinds of confused.

Not quite sure what I want to do with myself.

That's what happens when you have all sorts of time in the day.

- -- - -- - -- -

I'm going back to school, but only for a couple classes. Mainly so my two previous years at college won't be a waste. Business=boring.

I want to be a photojournalist, but I'm not sure about how to get there. It's frustrating.
I also want to be an anthropologist, a doctor, and an elephant. So you see my dilemma.

I just want to know, if someone could just let me know that would be great.

- -- - -- - -- -

Neon Trees stole my heart.

Go let them steal yours too.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Musikfest 2010- Bethlehem, PA

He's my favorite.



I also have decided that a piano made from bells is now an instrument I need.
It's very important.

- - -- - - -- - -

I've been assisting some photographers and applying other places, but nothing seems to be going anywhere. It's discouraging.



Monday, February 15, 2010

Valentine's Day...was yesterday



Valentine's Day is for suckers!

Suckers in love! <3

I hope you are all in love with something or someone.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Pictures!

Some pictures from the world.