speeblog

First, Shea got a new job! It is at ACC and he starts the week after next--he will be creating internal websites and projects for all different departments. This means he will be doing more of the creative things that he's so good at, he'll have a more flexible work schedule, get off at 5 instead of 6, and he'll have FIVE weeks of vacation a year! Holy moly! AND, his last day at his old job was Friday, so he gets a week off in between.

And then,
Porridge got engaged!



Paul proposed in Houston on the 23rd, which was also Porridge's 30th birthday. Then, he made it an even bigger surprise by inviting their friends Trung and Donna and Shea and I to a surprise party at Michaelangelo's in Houston. She didn't suspect a thing!

The next day, Shea drove back to Austin, Paul flew to Oregon, and Porridge and I drove to Beaumont. I have to say, this was definitely
one of my favorite Christmases ever! I got to see relatives I haven't seen in forever, and we all had a good time just talking and laughing (and eating). Everything was just so perfect. I love my family! And at our Christmas at home, I got totally spoiled like a little kid.

For my mom's (60th) birthday, which is technically today, Porridge and I made her a video with lots of pictures from the time she was a little baby until now. I have to say, either my grandmother or grandfather (or both?) was a great photographer! We came across a lot of great photos, especially of my mom and her sister (my mom is an identical twin). (Trivia fact about my family: my dad's mom was also an identical twin). I am making some higher quality DVDs to give to people in my family, but here is a YouTube video if anyone is interested.



Also, I was digging through some old papers in my bedroom at my parents' house, and I came across a letter I wrote (but never sent) to Fred Savage circa 1989. It is pretty hilarious and I will post it here soon.

I hope everyone had a great holiday!

xoxo,
sarah

Sunday was our three year anniversary! We went to Fino for dinner--which was great--and then we went over to 37th street and looked at the lights. That part is kind of a tradition; we went there on our first date after dinner. I knew he was a keeper when he asked if I wanted to stop by my apartment first to change shoes--I was wearing red high heels. So considerate!

I only took a handful of photos, but the ones I did take are up on Flickr.

This is us on our anniversary:



This is a picture of us right after we started dating (note my sister's cat making scary eyes in the background):


xoxo,
s

Sometimes I hear about internet comics, and I have to say, I almost never think they are funny. But holy moly, Shea and I spent an embarrassingly long time Thursday night looking through the archives of this one. This is one of my favorites:




marriedtothesea.com

Monday night I stopped by the grocery store, and there was a little girl waiting for her mother while I was checking out. She just sort of appeared out of nowhere and announced that she was "covered with stickers." Before I knew it she was putting one of the stickers, a sparkly rainbow heart one, on my coat. She told me she normally gives out butterfly stickers but she was out of them. She complimented my wallet (it's got Pandapple on it), and then when I signed my credit card receipt, she told me that everyone had their own unique way of writing and that she had invented her own style of cursive! It was very cute.

And, two strangers, one on the sidewalk and one on the bus, have told me "Merry Christmas!" this week.

As you might have noticed, I've been working on a new layout for the blog. I figured out how to do some things, but since I know nothing about HTML, it's lucky that I happen to have a boyfriend who knows a lot about HTML and fixed it for me. It looked a little wonky this week while I was working on it, but now it's fixed. Hooray! I made the drawing and the collage and took the photo, though.

xoxo,
s

or, "things i didn't know i missed"

- pine needles
- crawfish burrows in your backyard
- zydeco music at every outdoor festival
- sweet tea
- three-day thunderstorms
- strong texas accents on the long I
- "used to could"
- spanish moss (not ball moss)

Since yesterday, I've been going through a lot of my stuff and getting rid of things I don't need. I'm totally jealous of people who have a minimal amount of possessions. I find that my house gets messy really quickly, and a lot of that is because I just have too much. It feels really good to just purge--I cleaned out my shelves in the bathroom yesterday, tossing out all kinds of old bath products from who knows when that I kept "just in case," and today I got rid of a lot of stuff in the bedroom. I also managed to fill up about three bags (so far) to donate. Hurray! And since winter break is coming up, I'll have a lot more time to work on it. I would take before pictures but you probably wouldn't be my friend anymore...but I'll probably take some pics of my sweet organization when I'm done. I am planning on redecorating the living room when I'm done (uh, good thing Shea doesn't read this) and you know you'll see photos of that, too. Yay for cleaning!

***

Last week, I went to Galveston and had Thanksgiving with my sister Porridge, her boyfriend Paul, and his sister Erika. Erika did most of the cooking and Paul made the turkey, and I...well, I didn't really do anything. But I did load the dishwasher afterwards (I can't really count that though, because after being without a dishwasher for so long, loading one kind of seems like a luxury.

Porridge had to work nights while I was there, so I only got to see her before she left for work at like 6 pm. Here is a picture of Porridge and Paul:



We had a lot of fun! Paul and I went shopping the day after Thanksgiving. We went to Target and then to the mall (!) in Clear Lake (Galveston doesn't have a mall). It wasn't really that crowded! I had a really fun day hanging out with Paul. I am so glad that my sister has such a cool boyfriend!

We also got to meet up with my cousin Kelly! He is 4 years younger than me. His parents have a beach house in G-town and that's where they go for Thanksgiving. I haven't seen him in about two years (okay, I got sad typing that, I used to see him all the time). He is HIL-ARIOUS, let me tell you. Also, even though he is younger than me, he is much taller (as are most people), as you can see below:



xoxo,
s

One thing about going to school when you're older is that you (I?) feel a little better positioned to question things. For example, right this second I am working on a paper assignment that is utterly ridiculous. And I LOVE writing papers (I am not being sarcastic). I love thinking about something interesting and going to the library and whatnot and reading scholarly articles and incorporating all sorts of information into my ideas. I love thinking about things from all different angles. I love assignments that make me think critically and where I learn something from all of my work. Unfortunately, this is not one of those assignments. This falls more into the category of regurgitating information. I actually feel a little angry that I have to write it, which is making it difficult for me to work. Boo! But maybe now that I've expressed this, I can get down to business!

Quelquefois, si je pense quelque chose, je parle en français cette chose dans ma tête. Mon français n'est pas bon, mais je fais des progrès. J'ai eu un examen la semaine dernière, mais je ne pouvais pas étude parce que j'étais malade. Mais, j'ai ma note--84! Pas mal!

Avant vous pensez je parle français très bien, il est important pour se rappeler que j'écrit seulement ce qui je pense que je peux écrire. Je ne sais pas tout les mots!

Maintenant, je vais aller à la bibliothèque. Au revoir!

Yesterday was such a perfect day. We spent a lot of time outside. Shea is going to plant fall/winter plants in his garden, and he spent a lot of time working on that.



We found this little guy out in the yard. I think he's cute!



Then we sat on the front porch picking the leaves off the basil Shea harvested to make room for the fall plants. I got the idea that we should make basil lemonade! So we went to the store for some lemons and made a big pitcher of it. Holy moly, it was good.

More pictures on my flickr!

xoxo,
s

Friday I played hooky and went to the Round Top/Warrenton flea market with Natalie! I found the little deer and and an assortment of other woodland creatures for a secret project that I am working on. It was such a great day--awesome conversation and good finds all around. Natalie is one of my favorite people, that's for sure.

Speaking of favorite people, I apologize for my cryptic last post--that photo is of my Uncle Mark holding me when I was a baby. Uncle Mark passed away three years ago and it still does not seem like anything that the universe could have allowed to happen. He was such a sweet, hilarious guy. I don't know if you read the comments, but I think what Megan said was pretty apt. Everything changed.

xoxo,
s

I promise this post won't be as cheezy as the title makes it sound!




First, I painted the craft room and made it, well, less of a craft room! I have been wanting to do this for a while, and I decided that this summer was a perfect opportunity. I work in this space, and besides, my "craft area" was just a huge mess that I never really used. So I made it more functional and more pleasant to be in. I had painted it yellow initially, because I read that yellow is a good color for creativity. Well, turns out I am not a yellow person at all. I always felt a little cranky in there, actually. Blue is my favorite color and I decided to go with that.

There are more pictures on my flickr.

So the other thing I have to share is that I keep having dreams that come true! I know how crazy that sounds.

--I was having a problem with packages being lost in the mail. Some of them were really important/irreplaceable (vintage beads I'd ordered), so I was pretty upset about it. I dreamed that Shea came in the back door holding the packages, and said that they had been out in the backyard all along. Well, the next day, Shea came in the back door with the missing mail! Apparently, in a weird coincidence, the neighbor in the apartment behind me has a last name that is just a few letters off from my business name. So they had been delivered to him instead--meaning of course, that they had been in the backyard the whole time!

--I dreamed that Shea was like, "Let's change Chibi's name to Chips." I woke up and thought that was pretty funny. A few days go by, and Shea decides that Chibi's "sleepy smell" (you know how some dogs get a kind of smell when they sleep?) smells like corn chips. This kind of evolves into us calling her "corn chips," and then all of a sudden I remember the dream and am totally freaked out.

--My bike that I got for my birthday--I saw it in an ad in ReadyMade and I wanted one, and then I dreamed that I got one as a present. In the dream, there was something about the bike that made it easy for people to learn, and I jumped on it and just learned to ride really quickly. Then of course, Shea got me one for my birthday, and in real life, the bike IS made to where it's easy for people to learn. And I learned how to ride the second time I took it out!

Crazy, huh?

Okay, enough of that, some good news! As of the past month or so, there are five new places to find my jewelry and at least two more places pending! Specifics will be on my website soon.

-Atlanta
-Milwaukee
-Orlando
-Westlake
-Sydney, BC Canada (!)

and there are two more places pending but I don't want to jinx it.

Yay!

xoxo,
s

I'm on Daily Candy Dallas today! Check it out!

http://www.dailycandy.com/article.jsp?ArticleId=31142&city=8

xoxo,
s

So, my super awesome birthday surprise was...

...a bike!



And not just any bike--a PINK Electra Townie! I have wanted one of these forever--well, if forever started when I saw the ad in ReadyMade. I just thought they were cute, but turns out they are made where you can put your feet flat on the ground when you stop. Which was awesome for me, because it made it SO easy for me to learn (yep, you heard me right, I did not know how to ride a bike until last Sunday). But now I totally know and I pretty much ride every day if it's not raining. Next semester I plan on riding to school. I can't recommend the Electra Townie highly enough.


We also went to the Blue Bell Creamery, where I have wanted to go since I was about 8. I love Blue Bell and I love to watch things being made in factories, so there you go. They made Key Lime Pie and Sugar Free Banana Split while we were there. They don't let you take pictures on the tour, but luckily we got pictures of us in our sweet hats.



Then Shea's mom made me this AMAZING red velvet cake. I have two favorite kinds of cake and this is one of them. So pretty!



xoxo,
s

This weekend was really busy! Honestly, the last two weeks have been like that. I feel like I am running from one place to another all the time. There were some problems with my site in certain versions of IE (we only have macs at home and didn't test for this), so Shea and I went up to his office where he could see what was wrong. He got it fixed, but the poor thing had to spend a lot of Saturday and Sunday working on it.

We've been swimming pretty much every day and it's awesome! I love swimming! I have a cute suit and a cute cover-up and somehow that makes me feel a tiny bit less self-concious about swimming in public.

Tuesday is my birthday and Shea is really excited about the present he got me...it's pretty cute! I can't wait to find out what it is. He also took the day off and he's got a surprise day trip planned.

I've been updating my etsy shop...I am really starting to love taking photos! When I first started doing it, I hated it--I am usually pretty good at getting a good shot, but with the close-up product photography I wasn't able to do that and it was frustrating. I finally sat down with my camera's manual and spent the afternoon figuring out all the functions--sounds fun, huh? But it helped A LOT, and I am starting to feel really good about my product photography skills. My parents are giving me a new, fancier camera for my birthday, and I can't wait to get my hands on it!

xoxo,
s

As some of you might know, I have something of a reputation for being a "biblical scholar" (as Natalie puts it--ha!). I went to a Christian school for K-12 and we took Bible classes that counted towards our GPA. Plus, I have a pretty good memory, but it is especially good for things I have read.

So the other day I'm working in the craft room, and I see this old guy and a lady walking up the sidewalk towards the house. The window was open, so I couldn't just hide like I wanted to. It was actually kind of spooky in a way, because the man was dressed in like a 1930s style (fedora-ish hat included) and was moving really slowly.

Turned out they were Jehovah's Witnesses, and he started talking to me about the bible. I told him I was busy and he was polite about it, and then he asked me my name. I told him.

He said, "That's a pretty name; did you know that Sarah's name was changed in the Bible--it was originally Sarai?"
"Yes."
"Oh, you did? Do you know why?"
"Yes, because she laughed when God told her she would have a child at 90."
"Okay, well, did you know that Abraham's name was changed, too, from Abram?"
"Yes."
"Well, do you know what Abram means?"
"Yes."
"Okay, well, what does it mean?"
"Father of many."

He left after that.

First things first--the website is up! And, the etsy shop is up as well! I think I spent the whole day today taking/editing/uploading photos. Yikes!

Yesterday I did my first outdoor show in a long time! It was hot, but Natalie let me borrow her tent which saved me (plus, I got to have coffee with Natalie and James in their lovely backyard on Saturday morning). The show was pretty fun, I had some sales, and I did a swap with my neighbor Rachel for this awesome painting which is now in my living room:



At the show, they had watermelon, which is really good on a hot day.


If it doesn't rain this afternoon when Shea gets off work, we are going swimming! I got this awesome swimsuit at Sears (of all places) when I was home visiting my parents. I can't find a picture online, but it's very 1940s--navy blue with white polka dots, shirring down the front, and the kind of leg openings that go straight across (I am sure there is a more glamourous way to describe the cut but I don't know what it is--it's kind of like the one in that famous Betty Grable photo where she's looking over her shoulder).

I'm off to do some non-business-related chores, finally!

xoxo,
s

So I have a lot of cool and interesting things to post about, and I totally would, except that I can't stop thinking about THE ZOMBIES.

Shea and I went to see 28 Weeks Later last night. Holy crap. Now, I'll be the first to admit that I hate violence, but sometimes I can tolerate it if the storyline is strong enough (e.g. Pan's Labyrinth). But I think I had my jacket over my eyes for the first 20 minutes of this movie, and every time I would peek to see if it was okay, there would someone getting hit with a bloody crowbar and I'd have to go back under the jacket.

And the whole movie is like that! There is never a part where it doesn't feel like a bunch of zombies aren't going to run up and suddenly smash someone to death (probably because this happens every 30 seconds or so). Totally disturbing. If you are not too bothered by that sort of thing it might be worth it, but for me, well, there are just so many times I can see (or hear) someone being ripped apart by a violent and fast-moving herd of the undead.

So I had to leave! I have not walked out of a movie since the fire scene in Pinocchio--I was 4 and my older sister was pissed. Luckily Shea wasn't upset, but I did feel bad about wasting the money, and I kind of feel like a big baby for thinking I could handle it.

Do you know who this is? C'est Bette! Elle est une chatte désagréable! She is always trying to steal Tammy's boyfriend, Tex. Tex and Tammy are both armadillos. They are all the little characters in our French lessons and homework. And I keep getting all pissed when Tex gives Bette flowers (quand Tex offre des fleurs à Bette). Oh well, at least I can express my ridiculous indignation en français. That's something, isn't it? No, it's not.

It's 4:30 and I've been at the library since 1:30 and I'll be here until my final at 7. Holy crap! The quiet study floor where I am is kind of yellow and my eyes feel wierd. Oh well, back to studying. Wish me luck.

xoxo,
s

So, as you probably don't know (am I flattering myself here?), my mom's side of the family is sort of famous for having large heads. My Uncle Mark called us "gatorheads," although I have to say, none of us has a really long skinny head like a gator. Or maybe he meant that the gator's head is large in terms of surface area, as are ours?

Regardless, I keep thinking about cutting my hair for summer. It grows really fast and if I didn't like it, it wouldn't be that long until it was long again. I know this because I cut my hair short once when I was like 19, and by the end of the year it wasn't short anymore.

I found this virtual makeover site on iVillage.co.uk--I'm sorry; I closed the window and didn't bookmark the exact URL of the site, but if you're interested, just go to the homepage and search for "virtual makeover." You have to register, but it's free. You can experiment with different colors and styles, and you can even do your makeup, although I didn't use that feature. You have to go through kind of a lot of steps to get to the point where you can glam it up, but it's totally worth it, if just for the hilarity factor. The site is actually pretty helpful, despite the results you see below.


This is shortly after I launched my series of workout tapes:


This is either Jessie Spano from "Saved by the Bell" goes to the prom or Marie Antoinette; either way it was categorized under the heading of "glamorous," and I think we can all agree that it is indeed glamorous:


I don't know what happened here but I like it. Sassy! And so low maintenance.


xoxo,
s