dj

Izze.

we can only sit on the floor of our balcony right now, as I still haven't bought any chairs. I'm being picky. I don't want new. I want old.
And I'm torn between finding the perfect old wooden slatted chairs or buying a chair and table set made from that black wrought iron. But I will find what I'm looking for, I usually do. We all do don't we? Even if it's completely different that what we thought it would be.

I love Izze. I'm not really a soda person at all, this is sparkling juice. I like to grab this mostly if we're going somewhere where there will alcohol or for new year's. That kind of thing. I found two new flavors at the health food store, Ginger and Birch. Seemed like the perfect reason for a treat.

Hip Update: (ha) I went to see the chiropractor yesterday. It was a very cool experience, and I had a little hesitation here and there but this man has been working with various members of my family for years and I trust him. I love new experiences, and this did not disappoint. What really surprised me, pleasantly, was how he picked up on my stomach issues when he was feeling around my abdomen. We had discussed it a bit before then, but as soon as found some tender spots he knew what they meant. Which, I didn't even know were a problem,  I just assumed that it was better than how miserable I was a couple years ago. Anyways, very informative, very cool. I feel like my hip is starting to get better, but it will definitely take a little time and more visits.

Alright, I need to hobble into the kitchen and fix up some dinner. Roasted red pepper sausages anyone?

The transformers hang out with the stickles.

 
I should add... I'm not a toy collector. I'm not really a toy person actually. To be honest, let's also add in that I'm not really a collector either. In fact, large groups of things that sit and collect dust make me twitchy. I just love these little guys so much and they came with a dvd set my husband got me for Christmas back in 2007.
So they sit on my paint shelf. And sometimes I will find that Neil has put them into odd combat positions. It's the little things in life you know?

Seeing Revenge of the Fallen was day #2 of Neil's four days of birthday celebration. I bought tickets a few days ahead for the IMAX showing and surprised him. He's all about the IMAX. I should be honest, I loved this movie and I loved the first one. I totally geek out about them. But that movie was one of the most stressful experiences of my life. Top ten at least. The action never ever let up and I get way too emotionally invested in these types of things. I wanted a long nap afterwards.

Day #3 was pizza at Spin, which was a treat because it was dinner out and we havn't been to Spin in awhile because I'm trying hard to avoid the gluten to avoid the headaches, stomach aches, overall sense of wanting to drop on the floor. That said - I just noticed a status update from Spin on facebook that they've got gluten free crust now. That is very good news. I've said it before and I'll say it again, if you're in the area, check them out.

Finally, Day #4 was probably the most hilarious of them all. The actual birthday. I woke up without much of a plan for the actual day, after all, Neil would be at work for most of it. We were having dinner with his parents later... and yet, I still wanted to do something more than the typical "happy birthday!! I love you! xxxoxo love love blah blah" text/call. And then I came up with the most GENIUS plan ever.
I posted this message on facebook:
"Neil is 25!! Text him @ xxx-xxx-xxxx - ha!"
Thank goodness my facebook is friends only. But I was thinking, this boy really truly deserves some love. And this is hilarious. Perfect.
And I get this text in the middle of the day "NOT FUNNY."
I was dying.
I don't remember how many texts he got, but it was a ton, some from people he hasn't seen in years. The best part was he was working in a tunnel that day, so he would lose service when he went down, and when he came back up his phone would just blow up with texts.
Goodtimes.

Anyways.... I need to get my poor hip (and everything attached) into the shower so I can see the chiropractor later today. I'm just happy to start figuring out what's going on. It's getting worse each day, this morning I woke up to it just throbbing. I had to medicate right away, which I loathe doing... but sometimes you just have to I guess.
I'll be checking back in tomorrow.

you can replace these things right?

 
 
So, somehow I hurt my hip. I didn't fall, I didn't run into something... I have no idea at all what I did. But last week it just started bugging me, it hurt a little when I walked. I thought, no big deal, I just slept on it wrong, it will feel better in the morning.
Yeah, no.
So it's been like this almost a week now, getting worse every day. Especially if I've had to do some walking or even just sitting up for awhile. By the 4th it was too much and I wasn't much up for going anywhere. Neil elected to stay home with me, which made me feel pretty terrible since the 4th of July is his very favorite holiday, and his family throws a huge party every year. So yeah, we stayed home. He lit off a few last minute fireworks in the street (like every other yahoo in this town - seriously this town was lit up and blowing up like whoa.) and played xbox with my brother, but still, I felt pretty awful.
Yesterday morning I woke up feeling better, which tricked me and I should have known better but after cooping myself up for the past couple days I wanted to get out! Neil and I wandered downtown to a couple random walls for photos - my intention was just to get some of him freshly 25, but we found a couple walls that screamed americana so it worked for that as well.

 
I really do have a fondness for kitchsy, folksy, americana type decor - still, it's a bit too dated for me. I'm going to try harder next year to decorate though... found a few etsy storque posts that had me swooning.

oh! anyways. after the photos I was still feeling good and we went to breakfast and out shopping with my brother, aunt and grandma. it was FUN, but yeah, I was in some pain by the time we got home.

Insanely long and distracting story short - I have a funky hip, I missed out on the 4th of July (and dragged Neil and my brother down with me!) and I will be going to see a chiropractor on Wednesday.

It's slowing me down a bit, which is why I suddenly stopped my blogging spree - I'm getting behind trying not to overdue it. ugghhhh. I'm not really the resting type.
I am the rambling type though... and I should end this post.

Happy Monday. :)

Day One.

So please, please, please, ignore my ginormous tongue. It really disturbs me and is only stuck out here for documentation purposes.

The restaurant we ate at last night, had a western theme. There was a mechanical bull. Waitresses in short shorts and cowboy boots (don't their feet get so hot??). I had catfish, for the first time ever. But the desserts - the desserts! My grandma had the most amazing pecan pie I've ever had. And I don't even like pecan pie! I got brownie smores. Brownies with toasted marshmallows on top. Like... perfectly toasted, nicely blackened on the edges. And then there was... cotton candy.

Served in giant, metal, martini-looking glasses.
My teeth were more than fuzzy feeling and so blue by the end of the evening.
He was a happy boy though. We went shopping afterwards (birthday money - he made out pretty good!) which I think may have been more conflicting for him than anything. He hasn't had a decent amount of extra cash to spend on anything in awhile, so he wanted to get something "just right". It was like... watching a little boy trying to find the perfect candy to spend his allowance on.

He was surprised, and happy and it was fun. Thank goodness for all of that. Thank goodness for him. 

Be back tomorrow with scrappy stuff... which I know I've been slacking on, but I actually have quite a bit to share in the next few days.

happy sunday.

coming to you from front deck...

(not my deck at all, more like the community deck that allows all us top floor dwellers to get into our apartments...)

I was in the mood for cherry red toes today.

happy saturday.

what can I say?

I have no excuses, other than that Wednesday was seriously a ginormous mess of a day.
But then... Thursday, a little visitor and her parents showed up on my doorstep (with me in my pajamas, unshowered and cleaning the house naturally) to surprise me.

and so how in the world could I possibly do anything else like blog or catch up on emails when I had a friend like this to play with?

I just couldn't... so I just didn't.
I have a feeling I'm forgiven though.

She's down at the lake now with her parents and my parents and it was tough not to follow really, we may go down for a day or so, I don't know.

But now I've got this weekend to hide away and be productive... first time in a long time I've wanted to be productive.
Needed that little surprise.

I'll slave 'til the end..

Today I got my inbox from over 200 emails down to 65. *phew*

The apartment is pretty much all put together, as far as what we already had. Which, was enough, for the most part. I'm not sure that we really need to buy any new furniture, maybe a cart for the kitchen? Maybe update our chair with a recliner since I know that's something Neil would love.
I need a kitchen trash can I suppose.
Some new frames to hang all this artwork and photos I've been hoarding. Need to hang the tomato and flower baskets. Chairs for sitting out on the balcony would be nice.
Glad I chose those free wall sconces as one of my hosting gifts when I threw that At Home America party for my cousin two years ago.
We have DVR. DVR? Are we old enough to have something like DVR? It's always sounded so fancy to me.
I still feel like... maybe I shouldn't be here. Maybe I'll have to go home soon? Someone is going to tell me that this isn't all really working out. When did I develop this mindset that you have to go through hell to get good things to work out? We've done everything we needed to do, things are paid, getting paid, loose ends being tied up, so of course everything is working out fine. Why do I feel like we haven't suffered enough for things to be this ok? Why am I waiting for a shoe to drop? When did I decide good things weren't attainable for me?

I have to be at the Post Office after 3 to pick up the mail box key. Will make me less anxious? That our mail is being delivered here so it must truly be our home.
I'm so strange. That's what everyone says. I don't mind it. I am a bit strange. Just calm down, everything is fine. Dani, you're so strange!
I always thought it would be such a relief not to have something to worry about. But now I'm worrying because I don't have anything to worry about. Enough of that. Fear is such a strange thing, even when there's nothing to fear...
This is good, things are good.

So other than my odd reaction to a lovely new home, things really are good.

Regular blogging! Regular blog visiting! Regular email replies! wait - I was never on top of that. Oh well, Regular email replies will start!

The blog is about to get a design overhaul. Very excited for that.
I MUST do a blog post about Vintage Plum's May kit. geesh. That's long overdue.

Oh! I almost forgot! Check out this lovely lift Jenny did of my bloom layout. One of the many fun things I found when I finally dug through my emails.

Happy Happy Happy Monday. A lovely Monday all about mailbox keys and accepting good things.

(title: swing life away - rise against)

i want to eat the last gluten free banana muffin, but it's neil's.

Sooo... I thought that since I'm super tired from unpacking but still wanted to do a post about my excitement over having internet and a suitable area to use internet in my new place, that I would do a little flickr mosiac of good things. stuff either in my life that I love right now or stuff that I'm excited to soon add to my life.

Tazo tea. When did I become such a tea person? It's slowly become a necessary part of life over the past couple years.
OPI's "Baby It's Coal Outside" from their 2008 Christmas colors I think. Love this polish. Painted it on just today. Both fingers and toes. Go me.
Incense. Yummy. It's so campy and wild smelling. I need it.
Lilacs. TOM has a bush in her backyard and the smell is divine.
Farmer's markets. So glad they're back.
Spin Pizza. If you ever visit KC, eat here. Just do it. Can honestly say doesn't usually bug my tummy the tiniest bit. Which says a lot about their ingredients.
Ummm.. sunshine and moccasins?
Crowns. We all should have crowns.
Long shorts. Though mine would be holey and grungy to be honest.
Thrifted wooden bowls. Picked some up this week.
White kitchen cabinets. Which I now live with. Lovely.
Rain. rain. rain.
Blown glass balls. My grandma got me a green and yellowish one for Christmas and I finally get to hang it.
Mrs. Meyer's basil anything. I just bought the dish soap, hence that pic, but every product is good. You should smell my clothes.
Vnecks. and cameras. and taking photos in vnecks.
Pretty words and important thoughts.

1. Tazo Tea, 2. OPI Baby It's "Coal" Outside, 3. Hinduism Incense Sticks: Udaipur, Rajasthan, India., 4. Lilacs Through The Viewfinder Photo Print, 5. City Market, Kansas City, 6. Spin pizza, 7. Untitled, 8. feather by whichgoose, 9. posso cortar sua cabeça?, 10. myrtlewood bowls, 11. A cabinet with glass doors and light makes a nice addition to the otherwise clean kitchen, 12. rain-tree, 13. World On A String, 14. Mrs. Meyer's BASIL, 15. Untitled, 16. dr. seussism

Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

Mmmmm. good things. Happy Friday.

...how the girl feels...

So, we are moved in. Well, mostly. You know, those odds and ends are still left.
I have a hanging basket with various plants (sage is the only one I remember! ha!) and my tomato basket as well. I've never ever had plants before, so we'll see how these do. Went to the market Saturday morning, got my plants and treated myself to a tiny gooseberry pie. Which is probably the best thing ever.
Wish I would have gotten photos of the flowers I bought for my mama in law. They were so lovely, irises with one big bright peony mixed in.

So, not much time to chat of course - but some Vintage Plum items to share:

My turn to do the weekly challenge for this week.

all about using up the most random of scraps.
When I did this layout, I literally was feeling so strange about sitting down to scrap with all the packing and moving and working and everything else happening before and after. I didn't just slap this together or anything but I did kinda just let myself go with it. I sort of believe that's probably the best way to go about using paper scraps anyways.

Check out the challenge here - if you get your layout posted in the gallery by Sunday at 8pm CST, you'll be entered into the drawing for a $5 coupon at VP!

And tomorrow night I'm hosting Creative Cafe. We'll be making some paper lanterns:

Such an easy, quick project. I really just wanted to make something fun and light like this.
Starts at 6pm CST tomorrow so come play with us!

Alright, off to get ready for work. Then errands later, gotta pick up my new mail box key, run by the library, we really need some groceries and toilet paper, yeah...

happy monday!

(title: no you girls - franz ferdinand)

party like.... a 85 year old rock star with a scifi fetish?

So before I jump into scrapmojo goodness, I have to say, even though I'm working in a couple hours I am having the BEST morning.

I took a little trip down to the farmer's market (which after I move will be seriously like a minute away from me...) bought some gorgeous delphiniums for a vase (will need to keep them out of reach of the cats, which I hadn't remembered until after I was in the car)  and on saturday morning the vendor will be bringing me a hanging basket with a mix of plants and a hanging cherry tomato plant for my new balcony. At a stand down from that one I bought some fresh spring greens, green onions and eggs.

And so my breakfast this morning was spring greens, green onions with pepper, olive oil and a little ranch dressing. Is that strange? I'm so not a typical breakfast food person. oh well. It was yummy.
And I think I spent about 8 bucks on everything. A bag of icky greens at the store costs about half of that for just half of what I got.

I love you farmer's market.

ANYWAYS!

Scrapmojo #34 - Describe what your day would be like if you could party like a rockstar. Use Cinco De Mayo as your design inspiration.

So that is my sad truth people. That a day of being lazy in bed with my husband, eating ice cream and popcorn and watching scifi totally sounds better to me than any party. I know. I know. GEEK.

BUT can I just say, how freaking excited I am that Neil and I will finally start to have our usual Friday and Saturday nights of scifi and bbc shows, home cooked dinners and a little scrapbooking (from me..) back? I'm like.... about to explode I'm so happy. I was missing our usual weekend routine. It's been about 6 months.

Ok, must get ready for work.... Happy Wednesday!

packing and unpacking secretly makes me all giddy inside.

somehow yesterday turned out to be an internet free day. which, I've been thinking may be a good thing to start trying to do every once in awhile...

BUT I have news! Neil and I put a deposit down on an apartment - the building we'd looked at before had another apartment open up and we snatched it!

We should be moving within the next couple weeks.
Which has me doing tons of reflecting on this past year... will probably be doing a post on that soon, as it's really been on my mind.

so my point? Forgive me as I get moved and settled into my new place as I won't be around much in blogland.
I'm also going to be changing my work schedule around for summer, with three days on and four days off, which should help me balance things MUCH easier.

I love change. I really am so excited. A little unsure, but mostly excited.

Back later with some cool news about Vintage Plum.
(and those of you expecting emails will get replies today!)

don't call me hippie 'cause the way that I look....

yummiest song ever. well, one of them.

Earth Day today.

If you're interested, I just did a post at Vintage Plum for today. Later after work I'll be checking into the forums, sharing ideas and tips.

I honestly feel, and I'll say it a million and one times, that regardless of your politics or your feelings about environmentalism, we are all still citizens of this planet.
It's never ever ever a bad thing to be less wasteful and more respectful. To take care of what you've been given.
EVER.

Also - I shared this in the post but I'll share it here too. For so many of us, this is just another day, another work day, school day, another busy day. So just make the decision, pick one thing that you want to do. And start doing it.

I'm going to make darn sure I never leave the water running while I brush my teeth again. (I can't believe I just admitted that, because it's the easiest thing ever...)

Been meaning to buy resuable shopping bags? Wanting to use cloth napikins instead of paper towels? Ready to switch lightbulbs? Make today the day.

much love.

bleep. bleep. bleep.

I want to throw a brick at something.

I don't have internet right at the moment, but in the interest of keeping peace I won't say more than that.

I'll be back over to my dad's in the morning to keep catching up on blogs and other things... I'm finally feeling like my head is above water!!

I do have something fun.... new prompt up at Scrapmojo!
Peter Pan, good times.
I would post a pic of my layout BUT it's at my home computer and I'm on the laptop at my dad's.
(NOT GETTING INTO IT. NOT. NO REALLY. NOT.)

So, go play and enjoy a little random internet time for me!

Happy Monday.

I almost forgot about this.

The other night before we fell asleep, Neil and I were laying in bed, chatting.
About things like divine intervention, humans being comparable to parasites and how much responsibility we all have when it comes to the planet.

Because after six years of falling asleep beside each other we will pretty much discuss ANYTHING.

but then later that night I had a dream. not a bad dream I guess. maybe not a good dream, though it played out like a science fiction show more than anything so I have to say I was entertained.

I dreamt that the planet finally gave away to all our abusing and for some reason the whole world was flooded with a nasty, dirty water that was filled with just... stuff. Just junk, old toys, furniture, knick knacks... etc.
Like a wet version of Wall-E maybe?

But instead of being up on a ship far away, what was left of us was on a boat, floating around in the mess.

What I thought was the most crazy, what that my dream wasn't actually about ANY of this. This was more like the setting, because the dream was mostly about me trying to stop my lover from leaving me for another girl.

Which when I woke up really bothered me, that even being surrounded by all the mess, what felt like my biggest problem was a relationship.
But then I thought about it and I realized that it's pretty much true now that even surrounded by all the *stuff* my biggest worries and concerns have to do more with people and emotions than all the junk that pervades my life.

So, either I should start being much more mindful of what I actually need and what is just junk to add to the junk or Neil and I shouldn't talk about such serious topics before bedtime.

I've been telling him for awhile we should read before bed anyways...