10 Things I Hate More Than Snow

In the midst of another snow storm, freezing temperatures, and page upon page of clever complaints and statements on Facebook, I have decided to take a different approach.

Because snow is not the worst thing in the world.

Here are ten things in the world I hate more than snow.

1. Meat - Especially bacon. Don't hate, that just means there is more for you.

2. Scary Movies - Mostly because I'm pretty sure no matter how silly the premise is, it will happen to me. Yes, I know how ridiculous that sounds.

3. Clowns - Because they are evil.

4. American Idol - I don't know if I can put into words how much I don't like that show. Though I do like a few of the artists that have been introduced to the world because of it.

5. The Real Housewives... of every region - I don't think this one needs any explanation.

6. A Flooded Basement - If you have ever had 4 inches of standing water in your basement for days upon days, you will understand this. If you haven't consider yourself ridiculously lucky.

7. Flying - Irrational... I know...

8. Paying Bills - Being in debt in general really.

9. Selfish, Uncaring People - I mean really, you're not the only person on the planet!

10. Foot Surgery - If you didn't know I have seven screws in my foot holding my bones together. It's constantly painful. It sucks.

As I finish this list I realize I could continue this list with many more things I hate more than snow like the long hiatus between seasons on the BBC, the fact that I can't spend more time writing, and my lack of travel thus far in my life. This list could take on a life of it's own and turn into a giant bitch session, but then I'm getting way off track.

My point is this.

Yes, the snow sucks.

Yes, this winter is one of the coldest in a while.

Yes, there doesn't seem to be an end in sight.

BUT!

We'll survive. We'll move on. We'll warm up when the Spring comes, and it WILL come sooner than you know, it's not like we live in Westeros or the land beyond the wall where winter lasts for years or forever!

Sending warm thoughts your way!

Much love.

E

Trying New Things: Air Curler

So you may or may not know this about me...

I LOVE INFORMERCIALS!

LOVE THEM!

I also love "As Seen On TV" sections of stores. With this extreme love for infomercials and "As Seen On TV" items I have tried many things. Some have been wonderful and some have sucked. I could give you a list of about 10-15 items I've purchased personally or have been purchased for me and review each one, but that's not what I'm going to do today.

Today I'm just going to tell you about the pleasant surprise I received after trying my newest "As Seen On TV" gadget the Air Curler!

This week I'm on vacation from work and I happened to find myself at Meijer browsing while waiting for a prescription and I happened upon the ASOT aisle and after happily browsing I saw the Air Curler and decided I just needed to try it. I was ridiculously skeptical, but my curiosity got the best of me and I spent the $15.

I've been staring at it for 3 days and today was the day I decided to try it and I LOVE IT!

(Side note: My hair is getting ridiculously long...)

I don't know what I was expecting, but I was definetly NOT expecting this. And this is just the first run! No product, no curling iron. Just this weird looking hair dryer attachment.

The tool is a bit awkward to work with althought that may have just been my first-timer lack of ability. I will do some things differently next time, most importantly I'll dry my hair a bit more before I start the twirling.

Overall though... I'm pretty happy with the outcome. YAY for not wasting $15! XD

Much love.

E

NaNo Freak Out!

And the nervousness sets in...

In approximately 2 weeks I will start writing my novel for National Novel Writing Month, or as it's more commonly known, NaNoWriMo. This will be my second attempt, my first attempt was last year and while I wrote a ridiculous amount of words, 16,250 to be exact. I was quite a bit short of the 50,000 words it takes to win.

I've taken a week of vacation in November for the express purpose of writing my novel.

This year I will win.

I am determined. I am driven. I am adamant. I am saying the same thing in different ways because I am also not sure what I'm going to do.

I have no plot. I have no main character. I have no conflict. I have nothing. Well I suppose that's not completely true... I have panic. I have nerves. I have apprehension. I have cold feet... And I have fear that the entire endeavor will end up an entire flop... like last year...

Darn you over thinking brain!

50,000 words. 1,667 words per day. 

When you break it down it doesn't seem that scary. It truly doesn't... at least to me it doesn't... until I start thinking about my lack of plot, character, crisis, etc.

Where is my inspiration dammit! 

Last year I jumped in, started a story, got stuck, hated it, started a new one, didn't totally feel the new story, get stuck, and finally quit writing when not even half way completed. This year I really wanted to be prepared. Ready. 

So... 2 weeks... I can come up with an outline by then right? A plot? At least a character? Right?

Right?

Oh dear...

Much love.

E

Homemade Soup, ArtPrize, & The Doctor

I have not introduction so lets just dive in.

Three day weekend = SUCCESS!

My "Friday Fun-Day" was more of a "Friday Sleep-Day". I didn't plan on sleeping the day away, and yet after turning my alarm off at 7 AM, the next time thing I remember is looking at my phone at 2:30 PM. So much for a productive day off work. 

Now don't start feeling bad about my "wasted" day. I made homemade tomato soup, unintentionally, that was quite delicious. I watched 3 episodes of Dexter, and I made significant progress on a baby blanket I started well before the intended recipient, who is not almost 5 months old, was born. All in all, a good day!

My soup:

Saturday brought a trip downtown to ArtPrize. We spent about 2 hours navigating crowds and walking around the various sculptures, paintings, and other such things. It was wonderful, though I did not see as much as I wanted to. There is literally something for anyone down there and it's absolutely insane how many people were out to enjoy the art. I'm hoping to go again this week, but later in the evening. I've heard there are quite a few things that are even more wonderful at night.

One of my favorite photos from Saturday:

The evening ended with a mini-marathon of Doctor Who, which is really how every day should end. In our re-watch, we're currently in the Donna Noble era. I forget how much I like Donna. She is absolutely fantastic. Silence in the Library is one of my favorites or hers though it's hard for me to pick a favorite from Tenant's last season, they are all so brilliant. The 50th is going to be epic. 

My three day weekend ended with a lazy Sunday filled with movies, laundry, and crochet. (Yea, that's right. I'm wild!) I actually completed the baby blanket which I couldn't be more excited about, and completed all of my laundry. Day full of win right here!

OH! Oh my! How could I have forgotten! iOS7! Yes, technically that was not this weekend, but I got to play around with it throughout much of my weekend so... yea... 

First thoughts. I like it. No complaints from me, and I'm not just saying that because I'm an Apple Fan-Girl. I am truly enjoying the updated look and feel as well as some of the new features.

Tell you what, I'll do a proper review this week... Sound good? (I hope so because I'm off to sleep.)

Much love

E

Do What You Love!

I don't think I say this often enough but I have really amazing and inspiring friends. I have friends that unabashedly love the things they love. I have friends that are geeks and proud. I have friends that are not geeks and are proud of that. I have friends who are sports nuts and friends who are book freaks. And I love it. I just love it.

So today I want to share with you some of the things my amazing friends are doing.

Let's start with Jason. He has a website and has started blogging again. I can't tell you how excited I am about this. Jason's blog used to be one of my favorite things to read back in the day (back in the Myspace Days... yep... it was forever ago...) Anywho he's started a new one and it's phenomenal! You should probably check it out.

Fluxtaposed

Next I'll move to Lucas. Now I've plugged Lucas' site before. He has started a production company with his business partner. First of all I'm so proud of Luke for pursuing something he's passionate about, it's unbelievable inspring.

True Myth Media

New to the blogging world with brand new blog pages are Jess and Dannette. Dannette and I worked together to set her page up and I'm looking forward to reading some great things about her teaching adventures. Jess posted her first post the other night and I can already tell I'm going to love it. Jess has a unique perspective on everything and oh yes, she can tell a story!!

Jess - And P.S.

Dannette - This Super Life

Amanda! Oh Amanda. She has one of the most unique outlooks on life and her passion for her art is insane. I am forever inspired by her. She recently created a website that you should absolutely check out... like now!

Amanda's Site

On the subject of photography Chris! My good friend and former roommate Kendra married Chris last year (the wedding was adorable) and recently I have had the pleasure of being his student while learning the fine art of photography. Chris' pictures are absolutely stunning! I bet you can guess what I'm going to say next, eh? YES!! Check it out!
Chris Vanderlip Fine Art Photography

Okay I could probably go on and on and on with more and more people who do amazing things, but for now it's sleepy time.

Much love

E

OMG! This is my 30th post. YAY! Good times. Thanks for reading :)

Photo Adventuring!

It's September.

The time of PSLs, sweatshirts, turning leaves, and crisp air.

So please explain to me why I'm sitting in a tank and cotton pants with my air conditioner going sweating balls...

Now I know that summer doesn't "officially" end until the 21st or whatever, but this sudden heat wave with added humidity is disgusting.

Yesterday was a gorgeous day. Not too hot. Not too cold. Nice breeze. Perfection! I don't think I could have asked for a better day for my photo adventure.

Oh let me tell you about my adventure! 

Early last week I decided I wanted to go out and take pictures, but I wanted a partner. I called up my good friend Amanda and we made plans to take an adventure on Sunday. We started off with one place I wanted to go, a church in a field. That's pretty much all I knew about it, I had been there earlier this year for a service and I just thought it looked so amazing inside and through the windows into the farm and fields next door.

On the way to said church we ended up lost more than once because even though I thought I knew where I was going, I was clearly wrong. (Worst navigator ever.) But we finally made it and the church was closed... worst news ever. But we were still able to take a few really great pictures of the farms and fields and even a few through the giant windows on the side of the church... why yes, yes we were being creepers.

Our next stop ended up being GUERRILLA PHOTOGRAPHY! What is "guerrilla photography" you ask? Well I don't actually know if it's a real thing or something I made up in my head... to me "guerrilla photography" is driving along, seeing something amazing, pulling over, and then BAM! Photos! We ended up in a weird parking lot with some pretty sweet typography on a building. There were also some trees so I took some creeper photos of Amanda. (Yes I'm a weirdo.) It was a good time.

We tried a couple other places, got lost again (Worst navigator ever.) and finally ended up at Palmer Park on one of their nature trails. If you've ever been there you know there are many, many, many nature trails in Palmer, we ended up on the boardwalk through the woods and by the creek. There were so many amazing photo opportunities throughout nature walk we ended up on. I also found my love of dead trees. Is that weird?

Let me try to explain. I'm not sure WHY I think this dynamic is amazing, but I love when everything around is green and alive and wonderful and in the midst is the forgotten tree, the dead tree, the broken tree. The amount of photos I took of random dead, broken, fallen trees was insane. It's just beautiful to me.

Me and my favorite dead tree by the path (Taken with iPhone):

We decided to head out to another park to get some sunset pictures and on the way I made Amanda pull over to watch this and we ended up in another church parking lot and there were SO MANY DEAD TREES!

My dead tree forest (Taken with iPhone):

After I took a ridiculous amount of pictures of this wooded area we ended up at Millennium Park for the sunset. It was gorgeous and amazing and I think I got some great photos for sure!

Sunset (taken with iPhone):

I can't explain how excited I am about photography. It's such a creative outlet and with digital photography "film" is unlimited. How can you go wrong?

The ride home was another adventure because I got us lost another 2 or 3 times (Worst navigator ever.) but Amanda was a great sport about it.

This is why I like hanging out with Amanda. She's so easy going and she just goes with the flow. It's good stuff and with so many people in my life having schedules and making plans it's refreshing to have a day where you just go where you end up.

Thank you 100 times over for adventuring with me Amanda!

I can't wait for Thursday night dinner and photo review with friends. (I love getting feedback on my photos and Kendra's husband Chris is kind enough to give it!)

Much love

E

And Sometimes the Best of Intentions...

So BEDA was quite the epic fail for me.

I say that, but I don't think I actually mean that.

I'm still on the fence to be honest.

My goal was to write more. To get in the habit. To really get this thing going. So on one hand I totally NAILED it. On the other hand... BEDA = Blogging EVERY Day in August... So yea... fail...

Overall though I think I'm happy with what I did accomplish. Okay let's make that a more direct statement. I AM happy with what I accomplished. I do feel better about writing.

I'm gearing up for NaNoWriMo coming up in just two short months! I'm taking a new approach this year, I'm working on outlining my story. So far I have nothing... But there's still time.

UPDATES!

My birthday was last Friday (the 30th), I had a ridiculously fantastic party on Saturday (31st). I have some really fabulous people in my life. I had a plan to name them all and thank them individually, but there's just no way... I'm too afraid I'll miss someone. (... Brag-town much?)

Sunday brought another surprise in Ronni cleaning up the backyard. I can't even tell you how appreciated that was.

Monday was just a chill day. Breakfast, movie, visiting the fam, RAW... OH! and I started a new book. I love starting new books.

Much love

E