dirty feet. wide open mind.

sounds good. tastes better!

(some pretty birthday flowers. birthday flowers are one of the best types of flowers. just in case you were wondering.)
  
I would have had this post up Sunday.
But like I said a few posts before this one... my computer is not feeling so well.
And just getting the photos ready for this post took me two hours. Not including the times in the past few days that I've attempted the task, gotten super pissed and quit. 

There is a plus in this though - work has picked up like crazy and now I can justify getting a new computer and pay for it myself. Just a couple more weeks I hope!

Anyways. 
My birthday lasted... pretty much the whole week!
It was sweet and subtle and very kind. 
 

And I don't have a single photo of the actual day or of myself on the actual day. I did bring my camera to Neil's softball game... but left my memory card at home (seriously?? that is the first time in years that I've done that).
So I decided to take a few pics of the goodies, the gifts and the happy mail. Just some of it. To remember the day. Everything I received, every tiny thing, was given with such a genuine heart and thought -- I really felt so loved. 

My sweetest of sweet best friends, Dana, came to the softball game with an entire bag of gluten free baked goods. Chocolate cake, chocolate cupcakes with cream filling, lemon cookies and fudge brownies!!
Along with birthday candles and a lighter.
I honestly can't remember the last time I blew out candles!
But after the game, we hung out at Sonic and they ate their junk and I ate mine! And Dana, along with three softball players (my husband, her husband and his little brother) who are not such fans of singing, sang happy birthday to me.     

These were all I had left by Thursday morning. Let's not talk about that though.

I requested to go try out a new burger restaurant, they're very gluten free... even have buns.
a burger. a real burger on a bun. it was heaven.

We went to the movies with my little brother. First time since right after New Year's that Neil and I have been to the movies.

There was a family bbq where I was completely spoiled with a giant steak (hey... meat makes me happy ok?) and fondue and these really amazing cooked carrots...     

My birthday sounds like it was all about food.
oh well.
It pretty much was. 

I really felt.... cared about. thought of. and even a little bit important.

And honestly... I think that's one of the best parts of birthdays. It put a lot of things in perspective for me though and it also reminded me how much I've been lifted up lately and how good it feels. And maybe it's starting to be time that I look around a bit, and start doing a bit of lifting myself.

I've got some plans... some ideas.. some thoughts. To share some long overdue love. More about that later though.
This post made me insanely hungry (wonder why?). Some I'm off to make some lunch!  

sleepy but awake.

Working on my blog design this morning. Seems to be taking me forever to really knock out of my head exactly what I'm wanting.... going to doing a few more tweaks today so I apologize for the constant changes. It's rather inky right now (yay!), and I'm hoping to add a bit more color and pattern to the overall idea today.
Very tired this week for some reason. I went to sleep at about 9:45 last night with Neil, woke up with him about 5:20, like every morning, but then fell back asleep and only woke up about 9:30ish. I hate doing that. I'm all about giving my body the rest it needs, especially since I'm not in school right now and have no "has to be done today" work to do. But still.... I feel like my morning is wasted when I wake up so late!

Anyways...
Wanted to share some fun things I've found over the past few days...

- Amy Lapi's FREE etsy workshop:

- Kim Smith's One Life photo class.

- Kara's lovely shop update.

- This crochet blanket pattern. I'm tempted to start on it this week. No really. I just might.

- This song.... which I have heard before but found again randomly through an itunes recommendation the other day. Now I can't stop playing it.
 

(Florence and the Machine - Dog Days Are Over)
 

Just in the mood to share, bring a little light and creativity to this place! I really *feel* like I might actually make something soon. It will be nice when the dam finally breaks because I need it. 
 
I'm still typing up my posts to talk about the miscarriage, the series of events, what have you. There are some things that I need to say, very gently, and some things that I want to make more of a statement of. It's all pretty much just a story to me, like other stories I have told, I need to tell it. It's been therapeutic and I hope to put them up next week.

I'm going to go eat my lunch... err.. breakfast? Scrambled eggs with onions, spinach, sausage and pesto sauce. I have an obsession with putting pesto sauce on everything right now. Try it, it's yummy.   

...'cause there's a fine line between a skewer, and a decent sense of humor...

I have nothing April Foolish for today.
I was never ever good at coming up with pranks or jokes!! Not in advance anyways, I'm sort of a seize the moment type when something potentially funny rolls around.
Today was mostly calm, I'm trying to get back into the groove of working... it's very easy to wander outside and lose an entire hour of your day out here..

Here's a little flickr love:1. ., 2. Northern Saw-Whet Owl Back, 3. +, 4. ., 5. well, you are, 6. 81

I'm all about fresh and green right now.

I have a teeny housekeeping question to ask you...
Typepad allows you to reply back to comments through email. Which I do every so often when a question is asked, etc. What I'm wondering is if any of you get an email letting you know I've replied?? Because I would hate to think I was writing all these replies to commenters and they had no idea!

And something else, if you haven't yet and you use it, please feel free to add me as a friend on facebook. I'm finding it to be one of my favorite ways to keep up with everyone in scrapbook/craft/photography/awesome people/etc.etc.etc. land.

Back tomorrow.

(title lyrics - norah jones - it's gonna be)

...I don't keep much stuff around, I value my portability...

So Neil and I actually moved this weekend. Eeeek! I know. And I'll have more about that later but right now all I have is my laptop, not my big bad desktop with all my photos.

But... how about some filler for your sunday reading??

Forget about Robert Pattinson as far as Twilight goes for a minute. (I don't mind him at all as Twilight goes, but just to level things out) Neil and I went to see an early morning showing of Remember Me a couple weeks ago. I actually have no idea why I wanted to see it, the tv ads did not attract me. I just got a whim one day and well, off we went.
I haven't read reviews on it. I never do because my own opinions never really match up. Some of my very favorite movies have either bombed as far as box office numbers go or were totally panned by critics. So whatever.
I not big on recommending movies either... just because we all have different tastes. Mine especially seem to vary too greatly and it gets old hearing about how lame something I like is, or on the opposite end, how weird, how strange, etc.
But this I recommend.
Pierce Brosnan plays a character, that was very unsettling to me. In fact, actually, there were many times while watching this where I felt very unsettled. But it was the good kind of unsettled, a kind that shook me up a bit, made me think to pay better attention. To everything.
I love it when a movie does that.
The ending sneaks in. Well, I think. Abrupt in a way... that I think you realize what is coming but you really do not want it to. Both Neil and I sat for a minute while the credits rolled, I was just thinking... but... but... but!
(potential spoiler alert here if you worry about that sort of thing)
The way that 9/11 was so subtly put into the movie made it so much more impactful. It was wasn't big or booming or huge. When 9/11 happened I was 16 years old. I live in Missouri, and New York City and those events felt as far away to me as possible. This made me feel it, hard. I can't really explain it actually and this is going to sound very weird but .... I actually appreciate that, watching all this in the subtle way the movie unfolded it. It was very impactful.

Anyways... that was my random little movie recommendation for you. Take it or leave it, like I said, some people think the movies I love are completely lame! Even a couple weeks later and it's still been on my mind so I thought I would share.

Like I said, there is much news to share, I'm hoping that I will have my other computer up and running tomorrow so I can post about it all properly!

(title lyrics - ani difranco - soft shoulder)

almost forgot.

Even though I was an unorganized bum and didn't get my layout done this time around, I'm sponsoring the prize for the latest prompt over at The Creative Type.

And it's awfully pretty:
You've heard me talk about Savage Salvage before. I saw this necklace and thought it was a perfect prize.

There is still time, until Sunday, to get your layouts in...

I'll be back tomorrow to share some of the projects I made for Shaina for our swap.... until then, happy thursday. I love thursdays.

She's like toasted marshmallows too.

Shaina and I did a swap...
You see that red and cream floral paper? That paper and I bonded quickly. We're in love.
I get kind of giddy when people send me music, just because, there is a reason they love these songs, and what will my own be if I also fall in love with them? This time was no exception. It's a scrappy music mix indeed!

You can view all the pages here. I took photos of my own but realized Shaina's images do it much more justice.
This made me cry, page by page I started tearing up. Yes, I'm a cryer. I'm cool with it. To see something made for me, about me, that was so personal and meaningful. It was like, one of those jaw hitting the floor kind of moments for me.

I want to fill this with amazingness. I've got it sitting in my pile of "to be filled" blank journals and books but I intend to come up with a plan for it soon. It's got a mix of quotes, images by Shaina and a couple of my own. With the just the right amount of blank spots to add my own life to.

If you don't follow Shaina's blog, you should. Her flickr as well. She is... like fresh air or a cuddly blanket or cold lemonade. I'm being serious. She's got an intense kindness and authenticity, and I adore her.

she's always got an opinion.

So the first time this post was posted.. ahem... I had a paragraph talking about how unsure I was about liking Valentine's Day. But I've changed my mind.

I really love hearts.
And pinks, and reds, and whites.
Love notes.
Candy.
Flowers.
Love in general is pretty cool.

I'm just not sure I'm a big fan of the junk that gets bought/sold/thrown away because of it.
I've got a bunch of inner conflicts with most holidays lately. I'm working on changing how I feel about them, and celebrating them a little closer to their core and their origins. But that's a conversation for another time.

Anyways. Someday soon, I'll have a home again. And I've got lots of little decorating ideas..

(from here.)

(from here.)
(and check out this darling little bowl as well.)

(from here.)

(from here.)

(from here.)

(from here.)

A little something extra, that I do own and leave up all year actually... a print from sweet Tina,

(I bought this last year, completely without a good reason. I just loved it. I still love it.)
(purchased from here.)

What does it say about me that I would much rather Neil gift me a box of pink felted acorns over chocolates any day?