Weekend Update

Just a quick update on how my weekend went. I feel like I should don my blazer and bring you this message from behind my desk... Only my blazer doesn't match my pajama bottoms and my desk is covered in homework papers... So...

{1.}

Prissy Posies news:

I have finally finished the last batch of my Prissy Posies orders!!! In the first month, I sold 72 Skinny Minis, Winter Warmers, and Bitsy Blossoms!!! If you have not yet received your orders yet, I am shipping them out tomorrow and you should have them by Friday! Seriously, I almost never want to crochet again, I've been doing 2-a-days for a month. However, thanks to everyone who ordered, and those of you who will order in the future.

{2.}

I have finished and sent to print the Creel wedding album. I am also super excited because I was also able to order my studio sample albums and they are GORGEOUS. Here's to new clients! As for the other clients on my to do list, I am halfway through the Canon Family photos and will then begin another wedding session, editing and album hopefully by the end of next week. I love keeping busy with what I love doing.

{3.}

Along the photography lines, I am so excited! I am working on a new logo, website, name, and marketing materials. Seriously it's amazing the influx of business one can receive just by amping up marketing materials. Hopefully I will have that ready in the next 2 weeks. I figure if I'm going to be a professional, I may as well look professional!

{4.}

Motivation for the semester has FINALLY kicked in... And only a month late... I am so amped to get straight A's in all of my classes, and I'm studying like a mad woman to make that happen. This is probably my 2nd toughest semester yet, but I am determined to come out with flying colors.

{5.}

I am obsessed with Blueberries. Can you believe I've never eaten a genuine blueberry until this last week? I've only experienced "Blueberry flavored" things, and haven't been impressed. However the real McCoy's are divine. I've eaten 3 pints in 8 days. They are such a delicious and healthy snack.

{6.}

BF got really sick this weekend, and he NEVER gets sick. I got to play nurse and take care of him and keep him company while he watched movies on the couch. It was nice to just veg. in my medical mask...

{7.}

Since I paid off my car, I decided it was time to get her clean. I cleaned out the inside, vacuumed, armorall-ed and everything. She looks beautiful. Now all I need to do is get the outside washed, as soon as the rain stops.

How was your weekend?

Big Girl Shoes

Today I reached Adulthood.

Well, not really, but I did make my very first Adult-like Accomplishment. {I've always been a bit of a late bloomer.} Today I paid off my car!

My parents bought me my very first car for my 18th Birthday my senior year of high school. {Because they bought through the car auction, they were able to buy all three of us cars for the price most of our friends' parents spent on one.}

My first car, Kiki, was a stick shift.  Awesome.

This is what we saw when my mom drove us home from school that day.

A very small Gibber-snibs posing with our cars. 

When I went to college in Reno, my parents didn't think I was an "experienced enough driver" to handle snowy roads, so I had to leave my car home... While I was away, they sold it because it wasn't doing any good just "rotting in the driveway." When I came home, I drove my brother's car for 2 years while he was on his mission.

Then, when he came home, it was time for me to get my own car. I went to our Credit Union, and was approved for a loan! I bought this car all by myself and paid for it too. Today, Dora is mine! Hooray!

I worked out my car payments so that I could stroll into the Credit Union and slide a $1.00 bill across the counter for my final payment.

Tada! I am a car owner! I was a little shocked by the lack of enthusiam on everyone else's part. I practically walked out the doors jumping and singing and everyone else in the bank acted like it was just another day. No balloons, no streamers, no cowbell, or confettii falling from the celing. They didn't even give me the Car Title. I figured they would hand me the title, as if it were a certificate, so as to say, "Congratulations-on-your-humungous-and-very-adult-like-accomplishment." But no. So instead of taking my photo in front of my car, with my car title, as planned, I just held up my keys!

To celebrate, I bought myself some cute key chains,

...and then I treated myself to a Root Beer and Gibber-snibbs to a Dr. Pepper. {He was, after all, so nice to come with me and take pictures.}

We are such party animals! {Hooray for blurry pictures taken by the neighbor!}

I am so excited... What a great day!

How 'bout That Tea in China

Skin clearing no soda cleanse complete. And I've decided that Green Tea smells like pikle juice. It kind if tastes like it too...

PS.  My skin does look a lot better, and my body feels less sluggish.  Nice.

Gifted

I started this blog mostly as a way to keep a journal of sorts, my daily comings and goings. I chose this format because I type a lot faster than I can write (85 net wpm... yes I've been tested). Over the years it has turned into something slightly different. People started reading it. My mom thinks it's hilarious that people care what I do on a daily basis, but they do. The feeling is mutual. I care about what others do, and my blog roll includes over 200 blogs! I try to keep up with most of them and spend about 20 minutes a day "catching up" with my friends. Thank goodness many of them don't "blog as often as they should!"

Today I received a package in the mail. {Think think, what could it be?} I wondered to myself, "what do I currently have on order?" I am pretty sure I have received everything I've ordered lately... Oh wait, did I get my new swimsuit yet?

Oh yes, it came on Monday...

Hmmm? I don't recognize the sender's name, and I don't know anyone who lives in London... Well, my uncle has a home there, but he lives in Prague...

What could it be?

AAAHHH!!!

One of my readers has noticed my recent obsession with Lush, and sent me some goodies! When I ordered my Christmas products I got everything that was online, but apparently I didn't get EVERY Christmas product that was available... they must have been sold out. She sent me everything I missed out on (apparently except for 1 bubble bar and 1 soap), plus two 15% off coupons for my next purchase!!!

Top to bottom: Christmas Morning Bath Ballistic, Snowdrops Bath Ballistic, Snowcake Soap, Angel's Delight Soap, Holiday Bubble Bar, 15% off Coupons for In Store or Online, Candy Cane Bubble Bar, Star Bath Melt, Super sweet card.

How awesome is it to make new friends? Thanks so much to Nicole for the awesome gift!

Check yourself.

Dear Blogger,

I appreciate that not too long ago you came out with an "Updated Editor" option. I like how much easier it is to manage photos and videos. I also appreciate all of the nifty features you included, such as geo-tagging, and the Preview button. One huge mistake you made with this "New-supposedly-awesome-editor" is that you forgot to include a spell check option. I just switched from the New editor back to the Old editor and spell checked every blog entry I've made since December. Apparently, I'm not a very good at spelling-everything-correctly-when-I'm-typing-85 wpm, which is embarrassing, and annoying. Please see to it that you fix this as soon as possible so that when people read my blog, they don't think I'm a complete idiot.

Thank you,

I Need a Fezzik

It took everything I had to get out of bed this morning. I didn't sleep very well last night. Someone in the neighborhood got a new puppy and the poor thing howled all night long. Not barked, HOWLED. I had half a mind to stand outside until I could determine which backyard he was in, march over, knock on the door and give the carless owners a piece of my mind. But I didn't.

The weather didn't make getting up any easier. We've had 70 degree weather all week, but today Las Vegas decided to be cold and windy, definately a hat-and-hoodie kind of day. To add to my Monday frustration, I took the crappy way to school. You see from my house I can take one of two freeways to school. One is quick, the other is not... ever. However, I bought a hot green tea from Starbucks and therefore was already headed the slow way. Rather than backtrack, I decided to press on.

All of Las Vegas' traffic problems stem from rubber necking. We have a serious problem with it. Whenever there are flashing lights on the side of the road, ever driver comes to a complete stop and then slowly nudges past the culprit vehical... even if it is not law enforcement. This is weird behavior for Las Vegans; you would think we've had our fill of neon, flashing lights, but no. While siting in traffic, I went maybe 1/4 of a mile in 32 minutes. I thought to myself, "there better be a disasterously bloody wreck up a head. I'm talking mangled bodies and the like."

No accident, {*sigh of relief* but still pissed off}. 32 minutes of stalling vehicals caused by a police car pulled to the shoulder with lights a glow for no apparent reason. ARE YOU KIDDING? By now I had developed a mild case of road rage.

Now, from the slow freeway there are 2 possible exits I can take to get to school. I took the first one. Bad idea. One of the busiest surface streets in Las Vegas, Flaming-O {as dubbed by a local radio personality}, is closed from 5 lanes to 1. ONE LANE!

Map of the freeway, my exit and my school

It normally takes only 8 minutes for me to get to school from the freeway exit. Today it took almost an hour! Eventhough I left my house 45 minutes early, I missed most of my first class, and I'm pretty sure a pop quiz. The whole time I was sitting in my car, all I could think of was the movie, Princess Bride, and how badly I needed a Fezzik. "Everbody Move!" {ha ha.}

Hopefully my Monday will get a little better.

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner (Lush Give Away Winner)

(Such a lame title, but my friend Chris used to say it, and it was always funny...)

A few weeks ago I found a blog tutorial that showed me how to number the comments left on my blog posts. I figured this would be a easy way to determine winners of giveaways, since the random generator uses numbers and not names. However, I must have entered the code wrong because for some reason all of my comments are showing up as #1... I guess that's because all of my followers are #1!!!

Just to review, the winner of this give away is going to get 2 Frothy the Snowman Bubble Bars, 1 Jingle Spells Bath Ballistic, 1 Silent White Bath Ballistic (my favorite), and 1 sample of Porridge Soap.

I had 8 entries, my favorite number!!! Instead of using a number generator (since I had so little entries), I did it the old fashioned way. I'm so glad my lovely assistant, Gibber-snibbs, could be torn away from his busy Olympic watching to help me out.


And the winner is:

Congratulations!!! Please e-mail your address so I can get this to you!

P.S. I am now on Day 3 of my "No Soda Skin-tervention." Day 1 went off without a hitch. I drank some milk, some juice, some green tea, even about 8 oz. of water, but no soda, and I was fine. I also slept better than I have in years!!! Day 2 was ROUGH! By noon I was restless and shaky, I even started to get a headache and had to take some Excedrin to ward it off and get a little caffeine in my system {so so sad, I know}, I felt like an addict going through with drawls. Surprisingly, by Day 2 I already noticed a difference in my skin. My face had cleared up, and was really smooth looking! But... I want a Pepsi!

Lime in the Coconut

I just booked an 8 day/ 7 night cruise, and I am so excited! Originally the plan was to go to Hawaii this year, but I found SUCH an awesome deal on a cruise, that I couldn't pass it up. Where am I going?

The Bahamas
St. Thomas
Puerto Rico
Grand Turk
and 3 full days at sea

This year, I will be bringing my good camera so that all of my travel photos don't look like this again:

This would have been such a cute picture. Sun dress, huge hibiscus in hair, sunset, ocean... But oh no...

Did I mention I am so excited? If you're looking for AWESOME travel deals check out Travel Zoo. They have great deals because they are the "we-need-need-to-fill-last-minute-openings-on-this-flight/cruise/hotel etc." They also send out a weekly e-mail with their "Top 20 Deals," like this:

Their best deals usually only give a few weeks notice, but they have deals throughout the year also. My former boss and his wife would take the most amazing vacations for so cheap using this site. I'm talking $600 for 5 nights in Paris kind of cheap, including airfare!

If you are thinking about a cruise (my new favorite way to vacation), go to the BEST discount cruise website: Cruises Only. This is the second year I have booked through them, and I am tickled pink with the price I paid. I even got 2 extra discounts: one is because I live in Nevada (don't know why) and the other is because I've cruised before!

I know times are tough, but everyone needs a vacation once in a while. There's no need to spend a fortune to have fun. Do a little research, there is an awesome travel ticket with your name on it.

SKIN-tervention

I went tanning last night. I know, I know... "cancer." I know! But today someone told me that I am glow-in-the-dark-white! I also have a REALLY inexpensive membership that I will never cancel, simply because it is so cheap (unlimited tans at the Tan Factory for $3.99/month). NO ONE gets that kind of deal and gets rid of it, even if they don't ever use it. I took off my makeup before going, and when I looked in the mirror, I was horrified!

My skin and I are have been in a fight for the past 2 weeks or so. The dry winter air leaves my usually combo skin super dry. However, it is still a little oily, so the question is, "to moisturize, or not to moisturize?" I always choose to moisturize, and so I break out. Even if I don't use a moisturizer, my face produces excess oil to compensate, and I break out... It's a lose-lose situation, and one that is quickly making me anxious for warm, springtime weather.

As I looked in the mirror, blemishes, redness, discoloration, and super large pores stared back... Something had to be done. After tanning, I went home showered, and then gave myself an acid peel. I first purchased a 20% Glycolic Acid peel from Natural Skin Shop over a year ago, and I love it. I only use it about twice a year, and the price I paid for DIY beats paying $70.00 to have it done at the salon. **Disclaimer, I do not recommend using at home acid peels until you have thoroughly researched them. It is also important start at a low concentration such as 10% and work up from there.**

My poor face needs rehab, so I have also decided NO SODA for at least 1 week, only water and green tea. I haven't had anything but Pepsi and Root Beer for about 6 days, and the results are evident. I also read a post on my friend Kendra's blog about soda and cancer. {YIKES} I know I need to cut back and this little hiatus will only help with that. This should be interesting. I have not gone 1 day with out a Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Dr. Pepper or Root Beer since I started High School.

Wish me luck!

Pro.Duck.Tivity

I feel like I got more done today by noon-thirty than I have accomplished all week. It is a really great feeling. I love days like this! The best part is that I even have 2 hours to take a nap since I didn't sleep very well. Then it's off to the airport to pick up my fweetie (Colby).

PS Today was our first warm weather day of the year. To celebrate 70° I decided to paint my fingers in bright summery neon colors! How fun.

Happy Hump Day!

Perfectly Imperfect

I make a lot of mistakes. I am not always in a good mood. I don't wash my hair everyday. I don't do my hair everyday. I can be stubborn. I get zits occasionally. I drink too much soda. I loose EVERYTHING! I eat too much chocolate. I am really bossy. I randomly hum songs for no reason. I honk the horn at other drivers. I am an eye roller. I don't know how to cook. I don't wax my legs most of the winter. I am annoyingly organized. I always turn right on red when it says not to. My room is always a mess. I am bad at returning borrowed things. I have been grounded from Target for 2 years. I am too tired to wash my face most nights. I can change a tire, and my oil, but prefer not to. I get lazy. I have breakdowns. I'm a little selfish. I love coffee. I get really bad anxiety in cars. I am not as dedicated to school as I would like to be. I am easily distracted. I hate doing laundry. I am always late, for everything.

Happy Singles Awareness Day {

I never celebrate Valentine's Day. I wear black and tell my family I love them, but that's about it. I am NOT a romantic. I love LOVE, but sappy romantic stuff makes me throw up in my mouth a little bit. Lucky for me, BF had to work on Valentine's Day... However he had President's Day off, and he IS a Sappy Romantic {gag}. A few weeks ago he mentioned seeing the movie Valentine's Day, and this is how our phone conversation went this morning:

BF: "...So, why don't you look up some movie times, and then we can go to dinner either before or after that?"

Me: "Sure, what do you want to see?"

BF: "I thought we were going to see that Valentine's movie..."

Me: "OK... but what do YOU want to see?"

BF: "I don't know, like Wolfman, or that John Travolta movie... "'Roy-al with Cheese'."

Me: "So you don't want to see the Valentine's movie?"

BF: "Not really, but I know you do, and it's Valentine's Day..."

Me: "I don't want to see it, I thought you did. I think it looks awful! Thank goodness. Let's go see the Wolf movie!"

{Love}

So to celebrate Anti-Valentine's Day, BF and I went to see the Wolfman. So romantic! Not. I made a deal with him that if he bought dinner, I would pay for the movie and snacks... You see "Fatty" here was hungry. So, while watching people get ripped to shreds by Benecio del Torro, We snacked on Hot Dogs, a small popcorn, Butterfinger bites and a large Root Beer. Afterwards, we were still hungry, so we went to IHOP for dinner. I got my pancakes {I've been craving pancakes lately}, and BF got a Moons Over My Hammy. We had a long discussion on the annunciation of his dish; when he ordered he asked for a, "Moons Over Miami, please..." Being the annoying I-need-to-correct-everyone's-grammar person that I am, I had to explain that it's "MY HAMMY, because of the Ham on the sandwich... it's a play on words and is only fun if you order it correctly."

Anyway, we had a nice, low-key, anti-romantic evening... with gifts! He insisted on gift giving, so I obliged. However I did insist on no flowers, or stuffed animals... Chocolate was OK as long as it wasn't in a heart shaped box, or red wrapper.

BF is awesome! He gave me HAND MADE chocolate covered strawberries!! He dipped some in dark chocolate, some in milk chocolate, and some in white chocolate, and some in both milk and white chocolate. Then he topped some with a strawberry "glaze-drizzle" as he coined it, and he made 6 with milk chocolate topped with pistachios {I've eaten 3 bags of pistachios in the last month, I love them}! That was only part one. Part two was a gift card for a massage, and mani/pedi! Holy crap, he is the best, this is why I ♥ him.

These pics were taken today, the 15th... after I've eaten about 5 strawberries...

BF's gift was a little more on the "fun" side. He mentioned a while ago that he had recently tried gelato and loved it, and that he would like to learn to make it so he could create his own flavors. So... I bought him an Ice Cream Maker and a Gelato book. He LOVED it! The book is really informative, with the history of gelato, tables of fat:sugar ratios, etc. Cooking stuff is like a foreign language to me. The best part is that it has 45 recipes which are each customizable!

This weekend I went through the book and picked out the "prettiest" gelato pictures. I told him that I would like to be his taste-tester.

People Watching at Walmart

This morning my mom was out running errands, and called to see if I wanted to go with. I said, "sure," not sure exactly where we were going to go. She was looking for some new make-up and apparently Walmart has the cheapest makeup prices. They started selling Hard Candy there, and I wanted to check out some fun, brightly colored eye shadows and liners. I decided I would go, as long as we could go to the only location in town I can enter without having an anxiety attack. So we did.

My mom and I have never been shopping together. Seriously. I'm 26 and the last time we went "shopping" together was maybe my Freshman year of high school when she took me Back-to-School shopping. But even then, it was shopping for a purpose, not for enjoyment. We have never gone to a store, together, and purchased things for the both of us (groceries not included). Isn't that crazy?!?! I thought so. We both just HATE shopping. She makes herself sick whenever she spends more than $20.00 thinking of all the other things she could have bought with $20.00, and I get overwhelmed by all the "stuff."

Today, however, we had fun hanging out in the makeup isles trying out products and buying WAY too much fun stuff. We even saw these tiny bobby pins, decided they were so cute, discussed what we would use them for, and when we couldn't decide, purchased them anyway because they were so cute!

Normal bobby's and tiny bobby's

Anyway, I was distracted by Sally Hansen's HD Nail Colors when I looked up and saw this:

Faces covered for anonymity.

Now at first I thought this was a "seeing eye dog." However she is clearly reading labels on the products... Then I thought maybe it was some kind of social disorder dog. For example I saw on TV once a lady who had agoraphobia and had to take a monkey, dressed like a ballerina, everywhere she went. I decided that couldn't be the case, because if someone has agoraphobia, the last place they would want to be is Walmart on a Saturday afternoon. I decided, "to each his/her own," and left it at that. But, it's still always funny to see animals indoors in public places, even if they do serve medical purposes.

Not even 5 seconds later, my mom ran over pointing to the opposite end of the isle. "Get this one, get this one!" She whisper-yelled:

This girl was hilarious! She was super pregnant (which was adorable) and screaming at her boyfriend, that she "needed" makeup because she felt fat; and her butt crack was showing. Don't get me wrong, I love tattoos (BF has 14- only 4 show in normal clothes), but that hair!!!! It was no joke 5 inches high, and the colors! She was really sweet though, and helped me decide on some hard candy lipsticks, and even recommended the "animal print eyeshadow tattoos."

Every time I go to Walmart, I get to people watch, one of my favorite past times. There are so many characters, don't believe me? Check out People of Walmart. Today I very well could have been one of them. My mom picked me up and I had just gotten out of the shower. Wet hair and zero makeup. I at least put on jeans instead of sweatpants.

PS. Yes I do take pictures of people on my iPone ALL THE TIME. Part of people watching is finding the "Big One," the "Queen Mother" of watch-ees. I like to have proof. BF hates his this habit of mine and gets really embarrassed when I do it. My mom however was an awesome sport. she would run over and stand in the general direction of everyone I took pics of today so I could pretend I was taking her picture. I do know that I'm going to Hell for this... Oh well.

Look What I Found...

An oldie, but goodie. I love this picture. Everyone has the best expressions on their faces.

...In the Black SS with the Navi-ga-tion

Not really. I don't know what an SS even is... some kind of luxury car I'm guessing? Ask Nelly. Today's post is really different for me. I often receive comments on the layout/style of my blog. I really appreciate them, as I've designed it numerous times, on my own. If I see something on someone else's blog, or if I like their layout, I google how to do it. In the last 2 years, I've taught myself HTML and I'm currently teaching myself Flash so I can create a new photography website. I figure, "why pay a bundle for cute layouts, when I can do it myself?"

Anyway I stumbled upon something super cool today. I love the Navigation menu in my blog. I've thought about making it a drop down, maybe this weekend.... When trying to create it, I spent days looking for tutorials, and trying to get it just right... Today, I found out that Blogger now has a "Pages Widget!" Just like WordPress, bloggers can now create their own horizontal navigation menus! Links can be put horizontally under the blogger header, or vertically in the sidebar, and there's absolutely no coding, it's super easy. Where was this widget 6 months ago?!?

Here's how to get one:

Or, you can do it this way:

Tada!!! Insta-Cuteness!
Keep in mind this widget is still brand new. If something doesn't work, don't get upset, and don't yell at me. I don't know how to fix it, as I'm just the messenger. However, if you want to learn the long way, which includes photos for as the menu options (like mine), I can help you with that...

Thanks to Computery for all the info! Also check out I Love the Way She Blogs for details on creating a label category. That way when someone clicks "recipes" all of your posts with "recipes" as the label appear.