photo dump: naturey things

Commence photodocumentation of what I've been up to for the past week(ish).

I have taken to walking to school now that the weather is warm. It's a 30 minute walk through a pretty neighborhood and I love it.


I found this bird's nest sitting in someone's front lawn. Birds are pretty crafty.


I also met this colorful caterpillar. There are so many of these little guys running around Georgia right now.


While walking to home from school one afternoon a friend and I rescued this turtle from the road. We named him Dead Space II after the game Hans is religiously playing.


I went to this gorgeous park with a friend. It's one of my favorite parks. It's a series of trails with a creek running through it and always populated by dog-walkers. It also has this beautiful field which is a great place to just lie around and talk in the sunshine.


And seriously, I love my Vibrams so much.


I conquered a tiny mountain.


I'm a big fan of this fallen tree. It gives me a crazyface.


This is my poor baby Kenya is recovery mode after being spayed. She's ACTUALLY curled up with me right now, acting like a friendly cuddly cat for the second time ever. I love my child.

I have some really exciting news I can't wait to share but I'm going to save it until I have some great photos to go along with it.

cat snip

Today I took Kenya to be spayed. We were able to afford this on our tight budget thanks to Project CatSnip, which is a traveling clinic offering vaccines, spay and neuter procedures, and other health care to cats at very discounted rates. If anyone in the Atlanta area needs affordable treatment for a feline pal, I definitely recommend CatSnip (kind of an cringe-worthy pun, huh?).

It was a BIT of an ordeal, but overall I was satisfied with the care Kenya received. I had to arrive at the clinic (the "clinic" is literally a traveling clinic: a bus in a parking lot) promptly at 7:30 am. So we were up and crating Kenya at 6 this morning. Once I arrived the veterinarian on site gave everyone the run down of protocol and the different options for treatments. This was great and informative, but unfortunately the vet was very brisk and borderline rude. When I went to turn in my paperwork to her, I had to warn that Kenya was feral when we adopted her and that she's a mean little kitty. I tried to make a joke about it but couldn't even get half a smile out of the vet. I can understand being stern when instructing people, but one-on-one? C'mon, be friendly.

I was supposed to pick Kenya up at 3:30 pm but the clinic called and said I could pick her up early at 1. I had been hanging around at my parents' house since it was close by, and my mom and my sister accompanied me to go pick Kenya up so we could do a little thrift shopping on the way. When we arrived to get Kenya, the vet opened the door, thrusted a crated Kenya at me and said "she was very bad" in a rather rude manner and retreated back into the clinic. This irked me a little but I let it go without saying I told you so. I mean, I DID warn them. Meanies.

Despite the rudeness, I think Project CatSnip is a great service, especially when so many cats are never spayed or neutered because their humans simply cannot afford it. I am definitely going to be spreading the word about CatSnip to do what I can to help reduce kitty overpopulation.

And I am going to close this on a completely unrelated note, which is this

HOMEMADE LIMEADE SWEETENED WITH AGAVE NECTAR.

I am drinking it right now and it tastes like PERFECT. Fill a cup halfway with water, then juice two limes and add the juice, then add copious amounts of delicious gift-from-heaven agave nectar and stir. And if you want to be fancy, throw in lime halves to make it look pretty! Yay delicious limeade!

tentacle♥

As I have probably made obvious, I love sea creatures, especially those with tentacles, especially octopuses. Probably too often I find myself hunting down awesome octopus-themed crafty things, mostly to wear but also to decorate my house with. Here are some of the prettiest tentacle things I found in my searches today.


This beautiful tentacle ring, oh my goodness, do I love this! It comes from this Etsy shop, Leviticus. It is available in multiple colors and sizes, and 50% of the proceeds to go Japan disaster relief. I die.


This gigantic so awesome hair piece, which I would totally wear every single day on top of my lion's mane, oh yes. Plus, it can double as a brooch! Utter brilliance. From the SteampunkCouture Etsy shop, and hopefully one day residing comfortably (and permanently) on my head.


This octopus lamp made of a coconut?! How neat is this guy? He is especially neat because I own him. He lives in our office and the way he casts light through his many holes is pretty great. He was a Christmas gift, but I found him on Amazon here.


This octopus style pink grapefruit soap! Who doesn't need octopus shaped soap? I know I absolutely do. The best thing about this soap, though, is that it is cruelty free and vegan! I definitely do not like to hurt anybody when I take a bath so vegan soaps and such are essential. Found here from The Charming Frog on Etsy.


And finally, this incredible abmer octopus lamp. Now, maybe I already have one octopus lamp, but two can't hurt! I love his big metal tentacles and I'm sure the light emitted from that big amber head is just gorgeous. Aaah, need! I found him here along with quite a few other fantastic lamps.

More tentacles, please.

my beautiful life

Yesterday Hans accepted a pretty prestigious award from our university. He was the Outstanding Senior in Biotechnology. When I read his little write-up in the program, boy did I swoon. He's accomplished quite a lot. He goes so above and beyond and he's obsessed with his field. He really deserved that award. Also, hilariously, he was the most under-dressed person at the ceremony, which was honestly fitting.


My dream man is real and I am so proud of him.

I'm basically in love with my life, and what my life is evolving into. The past few months have been a bunch of out with the old, in with the new. New home, new major, new job (hopefully!). My life is beautiful. I keep seeing all these patterns--or it feels like patterns--things are folding and overlapping and intertwining and opening up in the most wonderful ways. A hundred things I have wanted have just come to me, like all I had to do was desire something and the universe twisted and convulsed and wrapped itself around my life and spat out the things I needed. That's not to say I haven't worked hard. I have worked damn hard and I don't think I'm undeserving, but it also feels like what, is this really happening? Such synchronicity has never existed for me before. The future feels like a warm place. That the future even feels like a place is a wonder: it used to feel like a big fat nothing. A hole. I am excited to find out just what things are going to fill up the hole.


And have I mentioned we love our cat?


Because we love our cat.

vanity post: nautical style

I made the idiot decision to buy myself a new outfit the other day. Sure, I'm recently unemployed but spring has sprung and I can feel the summer heat already infiltrating the days. I definitely needed this new outfit, yes? Yes.


All I have is a silly mirror picture because sometimes I'm too lazy to balance my camera properly and find the perfect angles to use the self timer. Oh well! This fun frilly tank top was only $7 and these shorts (with an elastic waist which is wonderful in light of the dumb winter weight I'm still working on shedding) are so comfy and cute and were on sale for $14, half off. The shoes are some of my old favorites for the stripes and fun twine soles, and went perfectly with this outfit.


I braided my hair for the first time since I was a kid and it was pretty wonderful to wear braids again. I think I'll do it more often.


I realized I looking pretty nautical so I threw on red accessories and sported not one but two sea creature necklaces. Because sea creature necklaces are rad. The raddest. And as if the octopus and seahorse weren't nautical enough I added one more little touch, this beautiful bracelet my friend Dottie made me.


Yes, I am such a necklace fiend and I totally go to that obnoxious level and wear two at once.

I love dressing like a sailor. I'm honestly thrilled it's trendy and I buy it up. Who else loves the nautical style?


Khols shorts
Khols tank top
Target shoes
Octopus from a vendor at Dragon*Con
Seahorse pendant from Michaels

renaissance!

On Sunday Hans and I ventured to the Renaissance Festival with our friends Joseph and Dottie. Once we were there we got separated from our friends and then couldn't find each other again until the very end, so it ended up being more like a single date than a double date, but we all had fun anyway. Hans had been a little bit of a pouty face, worrying that he shouldn't be taking time away from his studies to go to the fair. Once we got there, however, his worries disappeared and he was reduced to a ten-year-old (a ten year old dork into swords and fantasy). We had a blast! I forgot my real camera but I snapped a few pictures with my cell phone.


Pixie hat?


I guess it really turned Hans into a pixie...


There was a beautiful bird sanctuary there filled with rescued and adopted birdies!


This guy totally posed for the camera.


This was a mommy and daddy and their baby. The baby was sitting right there with them but I guess he decided to sabotage the adorableness of my photo.


Hans had to shoot arrows in the archery range.


Yeah, he wears that Gryffindor shirt pretty much every day.


Hans bought me this beautiful ring! It's coiled metals with spinning little ditties in the center. I am in love. Can't stop staring at it on my finger. Orange is my favorite color so it is perfect. The lady who made it was super nice and all her wares were gorgeous! She had a coily metal octopus necklace I would have died for but I couldn't pass up the ring. Her etsy shop is here but she said she probably wouldn't stock it till after Ren Fest.


And, being the amazing man he is, Hans sneaked off and bought me this fantastic handmade wand!


You can bet I spent the rest of Ren Fest shooting spells after him. I'll never grow up.

So, the Renaissance Festival was lovely this year. If you're in Georgia, check it out!

moleskin monday: pink haired and broken

I just have time for a quick Moleskin Monday post, and as a result I'm even cheating, as this sketch doesn't come from a moleskin. Eep! This little girl resides in a regular old nonmagical sketch pad. She'll have to do, though.


Her page is bent and imperfect, but I don't really mind. I'm thinking of just tacking her to the cork-board above my desk and letting her hang out there for a while.


I have this new habit of writing whatever comes to mind all over a page in cursive because (I'm practicing. I CANNOT write in cursive) and then drawing over top of it. It's like sealing off the thoughts I had, keeping them private and packaged within the drawing. So she's a consequence of this.

farewell to dixie

Well, last night my coworker started acting viciously toward me, again, and I ended up leaving work early and in tears. Awesome! My boss called me later in the night to check that I was okay, and apologize (see why I love my boss?), and he told me I don't have to finish out my last two days. After discussing it with Hans and my dad and my boss, I think it's best if I just don't go in. Unfortunately, those two days make up for 19 hours of my paycheck, and I missed a 9 & 1/2 hour shift last weekend too due to an ear infection. So, I was hoping for one last awesome paycheck and instead I'm getting a measly one. I'll just have to make due until I start making money elsewhere. I hope I start getting paid PA jobs soon!

pink!

I had a lovely day with my dad yesterday. We met up at my house and then drove down to the city (Atlanta) and spent some time in the sunshine. I had a little meet-up/interview with a local production company my dad often works with (my dad is a lighting director: very awesome job). It went very well! I hope some good things come out of it. After the interview, we headed over to Little 5 Points, an part of town which is probably the closest Atlanta comes to resembling my favorite little city, Asheville, and grabbed salads at Little 5 Pizza. It was fun hanging out in the city sun and talking. I really, really love my parents so I always appreciate the time I get to spend with them. We're all very busy so we have to jump at opportunities to get together.

Once back at my house my dad did some fine-tuning on my bike (he's a bike-enthusiast and I'm a wannabe). I can't wait to ride my bike to school next week!

When Hans got home we went on a long walk and it was beautiful! I don't want to gush but that boy is a prize. Tonight we are going to a midnight release party for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part one and you can bet I will be totally dorking out. I pre-ordered just to get myself a free movie replica wand. I am going to cast so many fake spell with that thing...

To wrap this up with a little spring time fun, I am so in love with the color pink right now. So I nearly fell on my face when I came across this beautiful sight while out for a walk the other day,


A sea of pink petals on the sidewalk!


Beautiful.

moleskin monday: flower child

I want to try to post sketches from my moleskins every Monday. I'm hoping this will not only be fun for the blog but also motivating because let's face it, sometimes I just don't find the inspiration to draw. So! First Moleskin Monday! Ready, go:


Because I think progress shots are fun!


I've been working on this little lady for a while now. I'm almost almost almost done, but not quite.


She resides in my favorite moleskin. I love these books. They feel so earthy and magical to me. I find more inspiration in their pages than in any others.

I'll be sure to follow up with the completed flower child, whenever I get around to it. I'm always skipping around between sketches so it sometimes takes me months to finish a single one, though I amass great piles of unfinished pieces.


I walked home from school today upon realizing my class was canceled. (I LOVE that I can walk home from school now!) Walking was a lovely thing. I can feel the sticky Georgia summer right around the corner, but I'm enjoying every ounce of spring time I can soak up. Once I got home from my walk I sent off an email to a prospective job. I hope I get to do something entirely new and exciting. I'm really quite tired of being a cashier, especially within the same walls for so long. I don't know, someone pay me to go on adventures, please?

Last night Hans sang to me while we drove home from a lovely day spent first with my parents and then with his. Things are really beautiful right now. The stars and planets have aligned. The universe is in order. I am ready for anything.

changeling

BIG changes are in the works for me. I have been working at my job for two and a half years, and Thursday night I put in my two weeks. I love so many things about my job. My boss and his family are wonderful. I have learned so much from them, and have had so much fun with them. They have also shown me how delicious Korean food can be. Unfortunately, I have been harassed by a coworker, and it has gone on for far too long, so I'm taking my leave. Hopefully onto bigger and better and better things. I have an internship in the works, which I'm very excited about, but I don't want to say too much before it's set in stone.

I also officially changed my major from art to english, and I'm excited about the classes I have lined up for fall semester.

These are certainly welcomed changes, but scary nonetheless. Just a few months ago, I was stuck at my job because I was tied to school bills and my apartment, and having to suffer through the crazy antics of my coworker. It was pretty miserable at times. I worked very hard at school and earned a scholarship, which takes care of most of my tuition. And I suddenly find myself living a magical dream life in a house with my boyfriend, instead of trapped throwing all my money into that apartment. I am finally in a position to make big changes, but I can't help but have tiny fears, mean voices in my head telling me it will all come crashing down.

And now I'm getting a stupid earache what the heck!

Anyway! Here is a picture of some geese I took on campus the other day.

Because I like geese.

chronicle of a former hair dye junkie

I used to change my hair. A lot. We're talking twice a month, here. I have been growing out my hair (I want long beautiful princess hair) and letting my natural color grow back for about a year now. I mostly love it, but sometimes I am attacked by urges to chop it off and dye it some funky color or other. One of those urges struck me last night, and inspired me to compile a bunch of pictures of all the hair colors and styles I have worn.

I first dyed my hair when I was 12 or 13, in middle school. I put pink streaks in it because I was super cool. Curiously, there are no pictures of me from this time period. My parents swear it's because they were making the switch from analog to digital cameras, but I remain suspicious. So, we'll begin with no one's favorite era, high school!


These pictures are from 2007 and earlier, wow. I had long hair, dyed black and with only a few long layers. I wore it with kinky curls or stick straight. My senior year, I got a wild hair (I went there) and dyed my hair bright orange, as I'd been longing to do for years. I walked at graduation with a traffic cone head! That raised unfortunate controversy...


After high school, I wore my hair short for the first time ever, and briefly sported fire-hair again before somehow turning my head the ugliest green and then donning every possible shade of red, ever.


A billion shades of red later, I landed an awesome job (my current job: liquor store cashier) that let me look however I pleased, and I ran back into the arms of rainbow hair, this time blue and purple. Bleaching this out meant I spent a fun few days platinum blond. (also fun to note: I became a vegetarian and started working out after high school and what a difference that made!)


I sported my "super hero hair" with a dumb blonde streak, then decided to begin the journey to rediscovering my natural color and dyed it a dark brown, which looked black for a while, much to my horror. I denied my nature and straightened it a lot. I also got adventurous and tried wearing short bangs.


This brings us to the present! I kept growing it out, chopped it off one last time, which meant my hair was 100% my natural color for the first time in so many years, and now I've been fancying messy wavy hair for a good while. I'm proud of my self restraint and how long my hair is getting! (Past my collar bones now?!) Princess hair here I come.

smoothie criminal

I make smoothies. Lots of smoothies. Hans and I have smoothies for breakfast, smoothies for lunch, smoothies for dinner. Sometimes we accompany them with other food, but sometimes just a big ol' glass of delicious smoothie is enough. I never make the same smoothie twice, and I never follow a recipe. I just throw a lot of complimentary fruits together and add some coconut milk and blend away. Here's one I whipped up the other day!


Coconut milk, mango, banana, orange, and canned pineapple because I don't have the patience for the real deal. (I always make sure I get cubed pineapples canned in pineapple juice, not that sugary syrup crap).


Juice the orange!


Slice the mango!


(Hans has peculiar decorating sense. Thus, a sword above our sink)
I added the orange juice, mango slices, and a whole banana, along with about half the can of pineapples (and a little of the juice) with a bit of coconut milk and a few cubes of ice, then blend!


And done! Beautiful, tasty smoothies, served the classy way in Hans's SweetWater glasses.