fifty acorns

Sometimes I do stupid stuff

2011-09-17T12:05:00.000-05:00

Yep, still AWOL for a bit. Sorry y'all. I realized what I did to make my blog a hot mess.... accidentally deleted ALL the photos! BAH! Whoops a daisy.

So I'll be on a bit of a longer hiatus while I fix it up and get it looking pretty again....

In the meantime here is a picture of some delicious food and a book you should read. :) I'll be back!

Peanut curry with chickpeas, spinach and red peppers with some wine and Life of Pi.

AWOL

2011-08-25T10:08:00.002-05:00

Sorry y'all, my blog is a hot mess right now as I've been neglecting it!

If you wanna hear all about my nerding out head over to

my twitter or my tumblr! :)

I'll be back soon!

Finding Hearts

2011-04-28T22:46:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite things: finding hearts.

Smile

2011-04-14T23:11:00.008-05:00

I kind of take a gazillion pictures a day, but I often don't have my nice camera when I'm playing with Dixie, since I'm often covered in mud at the same time. The other day she was romping around the living room and the sun was coming in the windows, I had to snap some photos. Realize that it took me a lot to only post a few!

She kinda loves the camera.

She is 100% puppy.

She uses her paws too much, I'm trying to get that out of her system. It's cute until she punches you in the face.

She pounces and pushes...

And is pretty much always smiling.

So Cheezy

2011-03-28T20:29:00.005-05:00

Vegan Mac is my go-to, I'm too lazy to cook, meal. It comes together fast and I can make enough to have leftovers.... and vegan queso!
I know there are a million vegan mac recipes out there that are super good, but this is the one I make most often. This is mostly because it has the simplest list of ingredients and I usually always have them on hand. So when I haven't gone grocery shopping in a while, I probably still have the makings for vegan mac. This recipe makes a lot of sauce so I usually use half of it for the macaroni and then make a big batch of queso with the rest. This recipe for the vegan mac is originally from the Willy St. Co-op in Madison, WI, with my edits.

Vegan Mac

3 1/2 C elbow/spiral macaroni (I don't measure, just dump half a bag)
1/2 C vegan butter
1/2 C flour
3 1/2 C boiling water
1 1/2 tsp salt (I use less)
2 Tbls tamari/soy sauce
pinch of tumeric (I use more)
1 1/2 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp paprika
1/4 C canola oil
1 C nutritional yeast flakes

Bring a large pot of water to boil & cook pasta until tender. I usually use a big pot of water so that I can take the boiling water from the pasta while it cooks and still leave enough to cover the pasta. If it's your first time making this I'd suggest just letting the pot of water boil until you need the water and then add the pasta, it's a bit much to be doing both at once.

Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat, add garlic and saute for 3 min, do not let it burn! Whisk in flour to form a roux & cook, stir constantly for about 5 minutes. Pour in the boiling water & stir to combine. Reduce heat to low, add tamari, tumeric, salt & paprika. In separate bowl mix the oil and nutritional yeast together (I usually just pour them in at the same time). Add this to the sauce, remove from heat and mix. If your pasta is done pour half of the sauce over your pasta and reserve the rest for making queso! If you're making this for a few people you may want to use it all and make more pasta, but then there's no queso!

Queso:
If you refrigerate the leftover sauce it will coagulate, just heat it in a pan to make it saucy again. To make the queso I usually add about 1/2 C or more of hot salsa, some cayenne and red pepper flakes (depending on how hot you like it!) and a little salt and pepper. It's super quick and easy this way, but you can also get all fancy and chop onions and tomatoes and stuff if you want :)

Variations on the vegan mac:
Substitute wheat flour and wheat pasta for a heartier version, it's really good, but less "cheese" like. (The photos are the wheat-y version)
I often cut up broccoli and put in a bowl with a strainer on top of it, I strain the pasta over the broccoli and the boiling water cooks the broccoli just right, so easy!
Bake as a casserole with bread crumbs for 15-20 minutes @350 in a shallow dish

Yum! Enjoy! What's your favorite vegan mac recipe? Or just your lazy, go to recipe :)

Food is so good

2011-03-27T19:55:00.005-05:00

When I was in college I worked at a North African/Middle Eastern restaurant in downtown Madison, The Mediterranean Cafe. I started working their right after I had lived in Egypt thinking I could practice my Arabic at work. The Algerian/French that the owners spoke was far from the Egyptian dialect that I had learned so I didn't get to speak a lot of Arabic with them. But I did learn some things about North African cuisine while I worked there. At the time, I was vegetarian and easily lived off of a lot of the main dishes they served.... mostly I just lived off of hummus though, I love hummus way too much. My absolute favorite dish that they made was the Tagine of Merguez. Tagine is a sort of stew with lots of veggies. The dish was served over little meat patties, but I just poured mine over rice instead. So good!
So when I bought the book "A Vegan Girl's Guide to Life" and saw there was a tagine recipe I knew I had to try it. The ingredients were not at all the same, but the idea of a mix of veggies with a bit of sweetness was still there.

This recipe had a pretty simple mix of veggies, but added garbanzo beans (maybe a top 5 favorite food of mine), almonds and golden raisins. I was a little weirded out that it called to serve it over quinoa, but I love quinoa so I obliged.

The recipe was pretty easy and the ingredients were pretty simple, as it was just stewing veggies in a light broth.

It was really good- light, spicy and sweet. The kick was definitely in the golden raisins and topping the tagine with toasted almonds and cilantro, yum! A little sweetness and a little crunch was perfect and cayenne for a little hotness.

This was a much lighter tagine than the one at my work, I remember the broth being a lot thicker. Since it was a light stew I think it worked well over quinoa, but I think if I make it again I'll put it over couscous or rice. It was really good, but I'm still daydreaming about the Tagine at The Mediterranean Cafe in Madison. I wish I could remember what was in that! Sweet potatoes, peas, tomatoes? So good. Food is so good.

I put together an album of delicious vegan food pictures on my flickr, check them out and listen to your stomach growl!

This very moment

2011-03-24T22:25:00.005-05:00

I am kind of obsessed with love songs. All kinds of love songs. I'm always trying to find that perfect love song that expresses exactly how I feel at this very moment, which is why music is so great, because you can totally find one. Even if it's Katy Perry's Teenage Dream, yes I have listened to that song and thought "This is exactly how I feel right now." Judge me all you want, jerks. But that's why pop songs are kinda awesome, right? It reminds me of probably the best line in High Fidelity "Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to pop music?" Right now I'm putting together two mix cd's about love. wah wah, it's always about love. One cd is about the good love songs, the ones when you know, you feel like you're in love, blah blah. And the other about heartbreak, because those are really the great ones, right? Or maybe that's just my view of love. Which again reminds me of that High Fidelity quote, "Nobody worries about kids listening to thousands, literally thousands of songs about heartbreak, rejection, pain, misery and loss." Oh, but those are the good ones. I also really love the "fuck you, I'm movin' on" break up songs, but that's a whole other thing...

My current obsession is this song by Aretha Franklin that Neko Case covers. I love love love both versions. I love Aretha's for how sassy and matter of fact it is and I love Neko's for how painful and haunting it is. Ugh, the song is just amazing... and expresses exactly how I feel right now. But just so you know, I can say that about probably 50 different love songs right now, for reals. That's why I listen to pop music.

So what are your favorite love songs???? Of any kind :)

5 Photos

2011-03-22T17:15:00.012-05:00

This sculpture was in the backyard of a house my parents rented when they came to visit, it's as big as a person!

Our tree for the Knitted Wonderland project at the Blanton.

Vegan chocolate chip cookies! So delicious!

Oh, to be a dog relaxing in a sunny spot.

I've been representing Wisconsin in Texas quite a bit lately and now I have two necklaces to show my love of them both together :)

Vegan queso will be the death of me.

oops, 6 photos.

Why, hello there

2011-03-21T23:33:00.005-05:00

Oh my.... I have been absent from the blogging world for a while! Bloglovin' says I have 421 blogs to catch up on, whoops a daisy. Sometimes life just needs your undivided attention. I have wanted to blog about so much lately, but it's all SO MUCH. My heart is being pulled in so many directions that I just needed to feel it all for a while.... Egypt, Wisconsin, Social work, Love, and Food! But I'm back and have so much to share. I have a billion pictures of delicious food and delicious vegan recipes to share, lots of new items coming to my Etsy shop, adorable pictures of my dog, and lots of adventures to share. I do miss blogging when I have to step away for a little bit.

So the chicken and I say hello again!

Material Love- Beat the Cold

2011-02-05T16:12:00.011-06:00

Yikes, I've been neglecting my blog. I blame the weather. It has been so cold in Austin! Thursday a cold front blew in and then it snowed! SNOW! I moved out of Wisconsin to get away from that stuff. But the awesome thing about snow in Austin means SNOW DAY! Do you know how many nights I prayed for a snow day growing up and still had to go to school? I woke up Friday morning to find out we had a snow day. I took Dixie out to go to the bathroom and found an adorable amount of snow on the ground, adorable. And by 11 it was sunny and beautiful. It was definitely cold though. So there was a lot of hiding inside and baking this week.

When it comes to dressing for cold weather, I kind of have a lot of experience. A number of people were shocked to learn that one could wear TWO pairs of pants and socks. I pretty much lived in multiple layers in Wisconsin. So here's what I wore to beat the cold.

Two of everything, almost.
Two pairs of socks, two pairs of pants (leggings underneath), and a long sleeve under the shirt and sweater!

Dixie approves. She also could not care less what the temperature is outside, she still expects her walks and trips to the park and she gets them!

I am sharing these pictures with you before I redyed my hair, there is about an inch of roots showing, eep.

I have had this sweater forever and I just love the flower details on the shoulders and arms. I wore leaf earrings that I made and vintage pink necklace that you can't see well in this picture, better in the one above.

I won some super cute scrabble piece hairpins from a friends party, they just happened to be a pink Texas and an acorn, so perfect for me. :)

And of course, today was 60 degrees. Gotta love Texas winter!
(Oops, I'm still having trouble putting that Christmas tree away! It's finally put away now.)

Sweater: Thrifted
Plaid shirt: Thrifted, Tommy Hilfiger, ha
Jeans: ancient, who knows when I bought those
Necklace: Thrifted
Earrings: fiftyacorns
Hairpin: Amelia Beth
Boots: Sporto, ancient enough to have survived some Wisconsin winters

Sunshine Sunday

2011-01-30T19:39:00.009-06:00

Today is was like 80 degrees in Austin... 80 degrees on January 30th! This Wisconsin girl still has trouble comprehending that. But not taking advantage of it!
Dixie and I headed downtown so sit outside at a coffee shop.

We sat outside and listened to a little country band play. I read while Dixie was spoiled with attention. She loved it! I love that Austin is such a dog friendly city, pretty much every person that walked by her stopped to pet her and there were so many dogs out. She got to make a lot of friends.

She quickly learned that she'd get more attention, and the occasional treat, if she'd sit for people and give them big smiles or puppy eyes (heavy with make-up).

She was working the crowd and posing for pictures- totally ridiculous! She's such a friendly dog and she just loves people. She was in heaven.

When we got home she was exhausted and passed out using her bone as a pillow.
I love this dog.

How was your Sunday?

Etsy Finds

2011-01-28T13:55:00.009-06:00

Lately I've been really drawn to typography. I'm usually way more drawn to image, but I've been loving the idea of putting up wall art that says something... I'm a sucker for something romantic or inspirational.

Here are a few pieces I found on Etsy that I would add to my wall.

Click on the image to go to the Etsy shop.

I love anything nautical. I may actually have to get this one.

I love the color cross-over.

Love this quote.

I may be drawn to this for the anchor reference, but I love the concept.

Hopeless romantic.

This may be my mantra.

Sick Day

2011-01-26T21:25:00.006-06:00

Today was a sick day. I think I finally crawled out of bed at Noon to take Dixie for a walk. I thought the fresh air would help a little. Down the street they were letting the water out of the fire hydrants and Dixie LOVES puddles. The water was flowing down the road and Dixie kept pouncing on it and trying to bite it. It was hilarious and I tried to catch it on video, but she would stop and stare at it for while so I kept missing the craziness. Here's a bit of video, she's trying to find the source!

After our walk I was completely out of energy so we decided to take a nap, Dixie seems to like sick days.

At 2pm I finally got some energy to make some food. I made some lentil soup from a recipe in and vegan corn muffins. I used the lentil soup recipe from this book I recently purchased, The Vegan Girl's Guide To Life.

It's a pretty basic lentil soup recipe, but it was perfect for a sick day. I ate it while laying in bed and watching Glee and drinking tea :) I like this book a lot and am excited to try some of the other recipes- like the vegan sloppy joe!

After another nap I got some more energy to make it to the grocery store for some cold medicine, cough drops, sprite, oreos, and two kinds of sorbet- mango and raspberry. The raspberry is already gone. Sick days aren't so bad when you have treats and good company. :)
What do you do on your sick days?

Material Love- Shades of Green

2011-01-23T21:29:00.009-06:00

What I wore:

I love winter in Austin because it's cold enough for layers, but warm enough to still wear dresses and tights! I love knee socks.

My camera didn't pick up the colors very accurately, these shades are all a lot more green. The picture from my phone above is more accurate, taken at work. Oh well. I don't know why that red light is on during the day and I still need to take my tree down!

This photo shoot didn't go so well as Dixie kept interrupting. I couldn't get a photo without her in it somewhere!

She's at my feet in this one! It's hard to see, but this dress is black and white pinstriped.

The dress is collared and actually doesn't fit the way it should, but with the sweater over it it kinda works better. Look at that dog? Adorable.

I'm wearing a necklace I bought at Craft Riot from Fat Cat Creations. It's the state of Texas made out of metal with a heart cut out for Austin. I love it!

I finished making a cowl for myself and added that to my outfit since it was actually pretty cold out. See Dixie sneaking in the background?

Dress: Kohls clearance
Sweater: Target
Tights: Target?
Socks: A gift
Texas Necklace: Fat Cat Creations
Cowl: handmade by me

Diary of a Grown Ass Woman

2011-01-20T22:24:00.008-06:00

My birthday was yesterday, January 19th! Shared with Janis Joplin, Edgar Allan Poe and Robert E. Lee. Yep.
The night before my birthday I had big plans to stay up until 12:10am, the time I was born. (Yeah, I usually go to bed earlier than that)

I decided drinking a bottle of wine, dying my hair and baking a cake was the perfect way to stay up and start my birthday. I made my specialty- a vegan chocolate almond zucchini cake! A bundt cake that takes a good hour to cook! So I grabbed my new apron given to me for Christmas, from roommate/brother/bestie Nick, and my favorite wine and got started...

...by taking pictures in the bathroom. After I got my cake started and was well into my bottle of wine I got ready to dye my hair.

This is what someone with curly ass hair looks like when they comb the curls out. Nick decided it was my trashy look and needed to document it.

I dyed my hair Red Passion, a Manic Panic shade. I haven't used Manic Panic since high school! But I wanted a red with some pink tones to it. I thought it turned out quite lovely... and it matched my wine! And the cake turned out perfect... though I almost forgot about it!

The next morning I got up and put on my birthday outfit. I had a strong desire to wear pink, a color I rarely wear, but lately have been extremely drawn to. I wore my pink tutu-like skirt and a giant pink bow in my hair!

My friends often make fun of me for never looking at the camera in pictures... so I decided to try it. This is what I look like. Grown ass woman with attitude.

A little less attitude. I love how my hair turned out! In the sun it looks very pink, very magenta! I really want to go pink again... I was pink ALL through high school and college.

So for my 28th birthday I dressed a bit like a fairy princess.
(I should probably take the tree down, huh?)

Hair bow- Crocheted by me
Shirt- thrifted
Skirt- Kohls clearance
Tights- Target
Boots- Ariat from Allen boots
Belt- ?

Five Photos

2011-01-17T22:27:00.008-06:00

The sun finally came out today in Austin after an entire weekend of gray skies and rain. It's amazing how much sunny weather affects my mood, I need it! The rain brought me down and I was dragging my feet around all weekend. It was lovely to relax, but I definitely had the rain, rain go away blues.

So for a little cheer up here are five photos that make me happy.

A vintage polyester dress with a vintage mustard colored cardigan makes me happy. Crochet covered buttons!

Vegan raspberry muffins fresh from the oven make me happy. So do owl potholders.

Hello blue jay. Birds make me happy.

Coffee and roses make me happy.

My puppy laying in the mud while it rains makes me happy.

Material Love- Mustard and Navy

2011-01-09T09:49:00.008-06:00

What I wore to an art fair. I believe I was wearing black and navy cowboy boots too. A random woman stopped me and told me she loved my outfit so much she wanted a hug!

Navy blue and mustard yellow are two of my favorite colors alone, but put them together and it's a severe style crush. I added anchor earrings and a blue and white striped bow. I love anything nautical.

It's hard to tell unless you enlarge the photo, but this blouse has amazing texture and detailing on the front... and ruffles! I love ruffles. The puffy sleeves have fabric buttons as well, which is a detail I love to find.

Navy Blouse: Go International. Found at Savers
Mustard Sweater: Fossil. No recollection of where it's from!
Jeans: Old Navy clearance ... 8 yrs ago?
Blue and White Bow: H.E.B
Anchor Earrings: fiftyacorns

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2011... The year I watched my first football game

2011-01-06T23:01:00.009-06:00

January 1, 2011 I watched my first football game. The Badgers made it to the Rose Bowl and being that I am a proud Wisconsinite and a UW-Madison Alum I felt obligated to watch. Also I have faint memories of watching it the last time they made it!

So I sported my Rose Bowl gear and head to Austin's Packer bar with some friends who were ready and willing to explain the in's and out's of football. Look how excited I am!?

But then they started explaining...

But I had a positive attitude! I was sporting my Wisconsin gear! I was ready to be a football fan... for the first time!

But then I got kinda tired and bored...

And tried playing Euchre on my phone instead...

Until I got scolded. Fine! Fine, I'll watch!

And then we lost! We lost!

I felt deflated... I was really ready to start liking football... for a day.

Handmade Holiday

2011-01-02T09:52:00.000-06:00

Now that the holidays are over I can finally post about my gift giving this year. I felt really happy with all of my gifts that I gave this year. Every year I try to give as many handmade gifts as I can, they are always so much more unique. Some years I make some of the gifts, but this year I tried to give ALL handmade gifts this year from local Austin artists.

While this is not handmade in Austin or really handmade at all I still feel like this counts a little because it's from the local brewery Real Ale in Texas. There is a lot of good beer in Wisconsin so I felt like I had to bring my Dad back a little taste of Texas. I also brought back a sampler pack and a pack of Fireman's Four, my favorite.

For my Mom, I found some really unique gifts that I love. The book is from Pommes Frites, the garden marker and the bottle cap necklace are from R&R Design.

The book is actually a safe! I wrapped the necklace and put it inside the book. I love all of these things, I would have bought them for myself, which I think is something that makes a good gift. It was funny watching my Mom open the book and thinking I bought her some giant Texas history book to read.

For one of my sisters I got two more things I would buy for myself, but it totally suits my sister as she loves pandas! The shirt is ridiculously awesome and made by Bearded Lady. I got it at Parts & Labour in Austin. The amazing owl candle is from Pommes Frites.

For my other sister, I found this awesome t-shirt dress shirt at Blue Genie this year. I am in love with it and I hope my sister loves it. She doesn't wear a lot of dresses, but I thought this was a cool in between she could wear over jeans. The chain on the anchor is printed on the back too. The shirt dress is made by Harrilu. She also got an owl candle from Pommes Frites.

Both of these gifts for my brother were picked up at Cherrywood Art Fair this year. I knew The Wondercraft was going to be there and wanted this awesome mustache tee by Paired Hearts. I stopped by Nepenthe's Bathtime's booth and grabbed the mustache soap to go with it! Awesome. I was worried my brother wasn't into the mustache craze, but when I got home I saw he had various mustaches taped to the wall in his room, score!

I usually get something both of my parents together too so I picked up two Texas themed ornaments. The heart shaped one was picked up at Blue Genie and is made by Michael McCarthy. The license plate ornament is from R&R Design, found at Craft Riot!

I was really happy with all the gifts I gave this year, I totally want one of each thing I bought for myself now! I actually had my shopping done really early this year too. A local boutique and some craft shows and I pretty much done! I love buying handmade!

Goodbye 2010... Year in Review

2011-01-01T10:43:00.016-06:00

January 2010.
I turned 27 and threw a masquerade ball. January was a trying month as I was working a full time as a Teacher's Assistant in hopes of getting of a teaching job. I was also working a part time job as a Children's Advocate, which I loved, but it meant 60+ hr work weeks. And then... I was injured at my full time job, an event that would make me realize it was time for a change.

February 2010.
I was not working my teaching job due to my injury and because my injury was to my hands I was also not crafting. It was a reflective month.

March 2010.
Change is real. I quit my teaching job and my part time job as a Children's Advocate became my full time job. A change that I had wanted all along, but just took a while to come to. It meant a big change for me as I was shifting gears career wise, moving away from teaching to social work. Change is good.

April 2010.
April was full of change and adjustment as I got used to my new schedule and new job. I spent a lot of time thinking about what I still wanted and needed to change in my life. I finally felt like I had the time to start making goals and working towards them.

May 2010.
May hit me like a ton of bricks and left me feeling lost. I lost my Grandma, my mom's mom. 2 weeks later I lost my Dad's mom. I felt totally paralyzed and like the world just stopped.

June 2010.
I finally got to see Dwight Yoakam in concert! It was a bright spot to starting a month that was spent reflecting... I thought a lot about my Grandmas and my mom. I thought about how inspiring they are how much I wanted my life to reflect theirs. I did a lot of processing in June. When I was home in May my mom gave me a pair of running shoes, in June I put them on and started to run again.

July 2010.
In the summer my job changes a lot. The kids are out of school so we do a summer program. I taught the 2-5th grade classroom and found so much inspiration in lesson planning, teaching and my kids! This month I decided to pick myself up from my little rut and took my running to the next level... I decided to train for a half marathon.

August 2010.
Running was incredible therapy that helped me release a lot of stored pain. I spent so much time thinking about things I wanted to do, I felt so inspired all month. I decided to get another tattoo, this one as a tribute to my mom, grandmas and craft.

September 2010.
The inspiration continued and I continued crafting and making things like crazy. I had joined back up with Etsy Austin in the summer, a group of incredibly inspiring people and decided to do a holiday craft show, Craft Riot! The making continued!

October 2010.
The timing was finally right... I adopted a dog. This little 40 pound ball of energy bouncing into my life was just what I needed.

November 2010.
An absolutely insane month! I participated in my first craft show in a long time and then the following weekend... I ran a half marathon! I completed my first half marathon under my goal time and I felt awesome the whole time. Running 13.1 miles... I thought about my mom and grandmas... laughing one mile, crying the next and enjoying every minute of the 2 hours.... It was such an amazing feeling!

December 2010.
Much of December was dominated by this little puppy. We continued to work on puppy training. We had a health scare for a while, but she quickly got back to her usual crazy self. And then I got in a car and drove for 2 days to go home for the holidays! Dixie met my family and snow and we had a lovely family filled vacation.

2010 was a roller coaster of a year. Big highs and big lows. I am definitely ending on the high note as the last few months were filled with crafting, running and a crazy puppy
Here's to 2011!

Dogs in the Snow

2010-12-27T12:20:00.009-06:00

I brought my puppy home for the holidays. Dixie met snow and Ruby, a ten year old golden retriever for the first time. Dixie loves the snow! She romps and bounds around in it like a little bunny. It's adorable! Ruby isn't too keen on this ball of energy pushing her around and trying to get her to play though. They've had a few spats, but are mostly tolerating each other. Ruby is well known for liking people, not dogs. And Dixie kind of the annoying little sister that won't leave you alone. I'm trying to not to think that Ruby is mad at me for bringing a new dog home! And since our chocolate lab, Gilley, recently passed away at 16, I wonder how that is affecting the dynamics. Yeah, I'm probably reading into it all a bit much, huh.

They did play pretty well together in the snow though.

I love playing with dogs in the snow! I had a hard time getting good pictures as it's hard to mess with your camera settings when dogs are all over you and your hands are frozen! But notice the second to last one of Dixie bounding in the snow! Giant leaps! And Ruby will always give me a good glamour shot! Love it!

Christmas in Wisconsin

2010-12-26T11:25:00.009-06:00

A glowing white tree with only red chili pepper ornaments

Playing cards with the family. . . including the pups

Romping in the snow

Baking and cooking lots and lots

Lounging in the warmth while looking out the window

Come on Christmas

2010-12-18T18:44:00.003-06:00

I just spent the entire day cleaning my apartment, with a momentary break to take my puppy to the dog park. It's finally 7pm and I'm drinking some wine while some acorn squash cooks in the oven. I'm waiting for my 6th load of laundry to be done and making a To-Do list for this week. In only a few days I will be driving from Austin, TX to Madison, WI!!!

This morning the radio told me that next week in Austin the weather is supposed to be in the 70's! I cried a little, who knows what terrifyingly cold temperature it's going to be in Madison! But, I am so excited to go home! I need a break and I want to see my family and just be home.

My little tinsel tree is up and lately I've been listening to the Dwight Yoakam Christmas Album, Charlie Brown Christmas and the Elf Soundtrack in heavy rotation. With school being out, my work schedule changes and I have kids all day... which means holiday themed crafts galore! One day we are decorating homemade Gingerbread cookies and watching Elf! I'm so excited. I have so much to do this week, but luckily all of my holiday shopping is done! I bought ALL handmade items this year and I'm so excited to give them to my family and friends. Tomorrow I will spend some time wrapping... one of the best parts of gift giving! Tomorrow I also plan to spend some time getting my holiday cards together... I LOVE holiday cards!

Tomorrow I will try and relax and enjoy my time because the next few days are going to be a little crazy with work and all the things I need to do before the BIG trip! I gave Dixie a bath today so she's ready to go :) I can't wait for my family to meet her and to see her see snow for the first time! Oh, it's going to be fun.... and cold!

What will you be doing this week to get ready for the holidays?

'Tis the Season

2010-12-12T09:03:00.006-06:00

To make antlers for your dog.

Every time I have been to Target I have almost purchased antlers for Dixie. I kind of think dogs in costumes is ridiculously adorable and antlers have to be my favorite! But I couldn't bring myself to purchase them because I couldn't help but think I could make a pair myself.
So I grabbed some felt, wire, and bias tape and went to it.

I think they turned out awesome! I used fabric glue to make the project go a little faster and easier, I may go back and reinforce with sewing. While they were drying I decided to try them on to see how I did. Ah! I love them! I want to wear them every day for the rest of December! I made them so they tied around the head, which makes them adorable and versatile - for dog or human, that is.

I tried them on Dixie and about peed myself laughing. I still can't really look at this picture! It's too much! I might make another pair today so we can both have a pair, ha. Maybe I'll post a tutorial on how to make your own too! I'm going to try and get some daytime pictures with Dixie in her antlers, we'll see how that goes.
'Tis the season to wear antlers every day.

Love is Real

2010-12-08T23:17:00.006-06:00

I'm sitting here listening to KUT and drinking wine. They are playing John Lennon songs mixed with people talking about their memories of the day John Lennon was shot and John Lennon interviews . . .

If you remember, my blog and my shop are named from a John Lennon song, if you don't remember you can read about it in one of my previous blogs here.

But for now, I'm going back to my wine and KUT.

Lots of love, sale and giveaway!

2010-12-07T11:30:00.006-06:00

That's right, lots of love folks, lots of love.

My puppy Dixie had to take a trip to the Emergency vet last night. She was having trouble peeing, she would try to pee, but nothing would come out and she'd cry while trying. A week ago she ate some grapes, which can cause renal failure in dogs, so I took her straight to the vet. She was not happy about the vet, this little pooch has clearly had some bad experiences because she was not having it. We were there for hours and I was completely a wreck imagining the worst. They finally were able to test her blood and it looked good, but they could not give a definite answer to her problem without a pee sample. She refused! So I took her home with antibiotics, a heavy heart and a pee cup. I got her to pee for me this morning and took it in. I'm still waiting to hear back to know exactly what is going on. She will have her blood retested in a few weeks to make sure her renal levels look good. At best she just has a urinary tract infection, but with the grapes she ate we want to be sure everything is working properly. She's resting and doing fine right now, she's definitely more tired than usual. But she's a feisty girl and I'm hoping everything will be fine.

In honor of my little pup and to help offset her vet bills I'm having a sale in my Etsy shop. Head over to my shop and use the coupon code DixieRose to receive 20% off your purchase! Happy Holidays and give your dog lots of kisses today.

In addition to the sale in my Etsy shop you have a chance of winning one of my hats! Head over to the awesome crafty blog Think Liz and checkout the giveaway! It's super easy and you might win one of my vintage style hats, just in time for the cold weather and the holidays, right? Pretty sweet.

Much love to all of you for reading and supporting my little business!

Sunday, Inspire Me. Easy.

2010-12-05T17:50:00.011-06:00

Easy, like Sunday Morning.

Oh, Sunday. How does one get out of bed when you've got this? Luckily, Dixie enjoys lounging around in the mornings too. How do you like my red long undies? I look like an elf when I wear them. Or, as my roommate would say, "Thing One."

I usually start my day with a long walk with Dixie. It's the perfect way to start the day, even it's 11:00 because you lounged a little too long.

Today we found a little area by our place where Dixie could run around off leash a little. She has been doing so well with being off leash and I've been so proud of her. But today she gave me a big scare and took off after a squirrel. She ran out into the woods and it was not easy getting her to come back. I can't seem to figure out how to make myself for interesting than a squirrel!

Even looking like a bear pilot doesn't work. :) It was a bit cold this morning so I bundled up, a little too much as I was super hot by the end of the walk! But I had to wear my new bear aviator hat! I got it from Katastrophic Design at Craft Riot a few weeks ago. I am so in love with this hat! It's hard for me to find hats that I like, they all look a bit silly on me with my curly hair sticking out. But this aviator style is perfect...and it has bear ears!

You can bet I will be in this hat all winter. When it's colder I can button it under the chin, so adorable! She has them in other colors too, I am trying to resist buying a brown one.

After my long walk with Dixie I decided to go do some holiday shopping. I went to Blue Genie yesterday with a friend and today with my roommate. I will probably go back another time before the holidays, like after I get paid to buy myself presents. :) Today I saw some things I didn't catch yesterday and found my sister a present that I love! If you haven't gone to Blue Genie yet, you need to go! Over 100 local artists are featured and the work is all amazing! And go more than once, artists restock throughout the month. You can find the bear hats there, as well as the lovely crochet work pictured above by Assorted Musings.

After shopping, I got home and decided it was time to do something with all these pecans I keep finding on my walks with Dixie. I sat and listened to music while shuckin' pecans for Pecan Sandies! I've made these every year I've lived here with pecans I find outside and I think I'm pretty much an expert at getting the pecans halves out perfectly, wounded thumbs and all. :)

I'm about to take Dixie to the dog park and then finish my day up by baking cookies while watching terrible Sunday night TV, if my super crappy TV lets me. I will probably be wearing my Thing One pants too. I love Sundays!
How did you spend your Sunday?

Rescue Me!

2010-11-30T13:38:00.007-06:00

Happy Shelter Pet Appreciation Day!!!

The Shelter Pet Project is celebrating shelter pets by asking people to share their shelter pet story and post it on their Facebook page, so here's mine! :)

If you've read any of my last few blogs then you know I recently adopted a puppy. I got her just over a month ago and I'm pretty madly in love with her. I had wanted to adopt a dog for the last year, but I had been working long hours and knew I wasn't ready. This fall everything just fell into place. I knew I wanted a Cattle dog, as I love the high energy and intelligence that comes with this breed. There is a great rescue group in Texas called Texas Cattle Dog Rescue and I was pretty much on their page every day. I wanted a blue, girl, around a year old and with a tail (many get their tails docked, a disservice to the breed). I found this little girl and fell in love with her gorgeous coat. I was a little nervous about getting a dog from a photo, I had thought I would need to see and meet the dog to know it was right. But I knew that if it wasn't a good fit the rescue group would take her back.

It took me a while to name her as I tend to obsess over the perfect name for things. I ended up giving her a nickname I had given myself years ago, Dixie Rose. She started answering to it right away and it fits her perfectly. The rescue group guessed she was about 10-11 months old, but when I got her she was acting like such a crazy puppy that I went with 10 and gave her a December birthday. And she was a wild 10 month old! I don't know what her background is at all other than she was rescued from the Shelter in Bastrop. She came to me in great health, but with absolutely no training whatsoever. She was crazy on a leash, had no idea how to sit for a treat, she would jump and shove me with excitment and she just plain nuts that first week! Sadly, this is why so many Cattle dogs end up in shelters, puppies can be overwhelming if you don't know what to do with them. But all they need is some love, exercise and training.

I take her for long walks, running, to the dog park, hiking and she loves it. Dixie learned to sit in a day and now she knows a ton of commands. Oh yeah, and she rings a bell or gives me a bark if she has to go to the bathroom. Dixie is incredibly smart and eager to please and she'll do just about anything for a treat. Training is a challenge, but the good kind of challenge, it's fun and so worth it to have a well mannered dog.

I now get up early to start my day. Instead of hitting my snooze alarm or wasting time online I take Dixie for a long walk or a run. When I get back from that I have more energy and motivation to get things done in the morning since I don't go into work until afternoon most days. When I get home from work it's dark out and hard to not want to plop on the couch and do nothing. But Dixie is waiting after resting all day and ready to play. We take a walk to the dog park and play. When we get I have more motivation to get things done, read, train, craft instead of wasting time online or watching tv. All the while Dixie lays by my side.

There are bumper stickers and magnets that say "Who rescued who?" and it's such a lovely thought. I have a high stress job working with kids and being a social worker, but a nice long walk or romp around the dog park is the perfect stress relief. Dixie is the biggest sweetheart and I'm so grateful we found each other! Shelter dogs rock!!!!

November Love

2010-11-27T16:30:00.013-06:00

I am so very behind in my blogging this month, I don't even know where to start. I had so much going on. . . new puppy, training for a half marathon, and my first Craft Show this year! It kept me busy and motivated and even though it was a really busy, crazy month . . . I loved every minute of it! I will say that when I got back from running a Half Marathon in San Antonio I did think that I may be some sort of masochist for planning to do a craft show the following weekend! And I felt even more insane when I left so much until the night before! All I wanted to do after running was lay around and eat! I am so very thankful that this week was a short week! I have taken full advantage of my free time and used it to relax, play, eat and craft!

So the first weekend in November I had to go to a conference, which took up a chunk of my weekend. I had the bright idea to make Dixie a dog bed and drove from the conference to the thrift store to pick up my materials. In less than an hour Dixie had her very own bed! I'm going to post my tutorial soon! She loves it. I kinda want to make one for every room so I don't have to drag it around to wherever she wants it.

The second weekend in November was my Half Marathon! Nick and I got up early Saturday and drove to San Antonio. We spent the day roaming around downtown. It was so much fun exploring and hanging out, San Antonio is really pretty. We met some friends and ate a pasta dinner then I got up at 5am Sunday morning to get ready for my run!

The Marathon was awesome and fun and everything I hoped it would be. It was pretty cool out that morning and it took about a half hour for me to get to the start from my corral! I felt like the first 3 miles were just a warm up, but I felt good despite the fact that I had a cold and carried tissues with me. I decided to run for fun and not take a watch with me, I didn't want to obsess over my pace. I kept a good pace and tried to pick it up every couple miles. I finished in 2:20:24 which was under my goal time of 2:30! I never stopped to walk, stretch or breath, I felt great the entire time and felt like I was really in tune with my body and just having fun. It was great!

Two days later I helped out at The WonderCraft event Knit Night at Starving Art Studios. I displayed my crochet work and helped teach people to crochet. I helped Liz learn to crochet! It was a super fun event, more pictures here.

Then last weekend was Craft Riot! My first craft show in a LONG time. I shared a booth with Tara of R&R Design. We wore name tags so you could tell us apart since we pronounce our names differently, I'm not sure they helped :) I had an awesome time chatting with people and meeting new artists and folks I'd been following online. I got some super awesome presents for friends and family... and a few things for myself!

Finally Thursday, Thanksgiving! I woke up early and Dixie and went on a long hike. It was Dixie's first time being off leash in an area not fenced in. She had so much fun!! She was so good and came every time I called her. We discovered she's a water dog and loved fetching the ball in the water. I swear, I've never seen a dog so happy! I took a million pictures of course, I'll post them on my flickr soon, she has a little album started.

I came home and Dixie napped while I got things ready for our Thanksgiving potluck with some friends. I love Thanksgiving food!!!

I made this delicious vegan pecan-pumpkin pie... pecumkin pie, the best of both worlds. I'd never made a vegan pumpkin pie or any kind of pecan pie so I was nervous, but it turned out DELICIOUS! I want to make it again over Christmas.

The rest of this weekend has been spent running around with Dixie or relaxing and updating my Etsy shop, I made a lot of new items for Craft Riot that still need to be listed in my shop. I'm super excited about all of the new things I've been making, I hope you check them out. :) Oh and I'm still having my Black Friday sale until Sunday at midnight, Coupon code BlackFriday for 20% off!

I think the summary of my month being -relax, play, eat and craft - sounds pretty damn good. Here's to December! I will be back to blogging more regularly again too :)

Back to Life, Back to Reality

2010-11-09T17:48:00.004-06:00

October flew by in a blink and November has been a blur! I'm so busy with three huge things taking up my free time. Three huge lovely and awesome things.

Training and bonding with my new puppy! Dixie has been awesome and a lot of fun, I have missed having a dog in my life so much. Although I'm slightly broke and exhausted from her entering my life in late October, it's totally worth it! We get up early and go for long walks or run or we lay around in the grass after playing. She has totally helped me stay motivated to run!

Which is another thing occupying my free time! I'm still training for my first half marathon.... and it's this weekend! Yikes. Early October was a little rough with some injuries, but Dixie has helped me get back into my routine and not slack off. I'm really excited and completely nervous to run my first half marathon. I'll be heading to San Antonio this Saturday and running Sunday morning, wish me luck. :)

And in between running and dog training I have somehow found time to craft! Albeit, not as much time as I would like, but isn't that always how it goes? My first craft show in quite a while is coming up! November 20th and 21st ! So ya know, one weekend I'm running 13.1 miles and the next I'm doing a show. It feels slightly crazy. But I can't wait for Craft Riot! I am totally getting all my holiday shopping done there too. I hope I see you there!

What has been keeping you busy this month?

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T19:33:00.009-05:00

Happy Halloween!
October has just flown by! I seemed to be so busy this month and didn't get as into Halloween as I normally do, but I still made sure to have some Halloween fun!

I went to see one of my favorite scary movies at the Alamo Drafthouse. The Shining! It was so awesome to see it on the big screen and as many times as I've seen this movie I am still terrified. At one point I actually wished it was over and at another point I wanted to leave! I love it!
This picture is of the Red Rum I was drinking with the big screen in the background, it's hard to tell.

I had the crazy idea of making sugar cookies with 20 kids at my work! It turned out to be a lot of fun and the kids really liked it. They rolled the dough and made the cut outs and since sugar cookies cook so fast we were able to frost them right away too! Then we let them eat them all and sent all the kids home with a sugar high, ha!

The day after I adopted my puppy was the Viva La Vida festival downtown. I figured I might as well see how she handled crowds and we headed down there.

She was great at the festival and let people come up and pet her. She is still naughty and jumps on people, but she's a very excitable pup! We're working on it.

I went out to some parties yesterday after running 8 miles. Let's just say it was not the best idea I've ever had. I don't feel so hot today and I didn't even drink at all last night. Today was lazy, but Dixie and I headed to Town Lake for a bit to relax.

While we were relaxing and watching dogs play and people go by. . . Pirates attacked!!! Some folks on a raft dressed as pirates floated by flinging water balloons! It was hilarious! They yelled, "Pirate attack!" and used a giant sling shot to launch balloons, they were actually trying to hit people! And they did! They launched them at the runners, walkers, bikers, dogs and anyone canoeing or kayaking by. If you tried to hide they would aim for you! It was too funny. Then all of a sudden a group of other pirates came running up the trail and threw water balloons at the pirates on the raft! They yelled and threw them back and forth and then the raft picked them up and they helped fling more balloons.

And we thought we were just going to sit and relax by the lake! October has been lovely, warm and busy! This last week has been so crazy having a new puppy to take care of again. She's a wild one, but she's just the biggest sweetheart so we're having a good time. As busy as I am with her, she definitely helps me relax too. Starting the day with a long quiet walk or run is quite nice. How did you spend your Halloween?

Sunday, Inspire Me. Puppy Love

2010-10-24T20:03:00.004-05:00

In case you've wondered why the blog has been so silent this past week. . .

I adopted a puppy... meet Dixie Rose!

Well, I didn't get her until Friday night, but the adoption process and work kept me pretty busy this week. I had to buy a crate and a leash and a collar. . . all that fun stuff. I don't think I slept at all this week, I was so nervous! It was just such a huge decision, but I just knew it was time.

She's a blue heeler mix and her age is unknown, but she's definitely a puppy. The rescue group guessed 10 or 11 months old. We spent the weekend getting to know each other and so far I think we're both a little in love. She was rescued from the shelter in Bastrop and didn't have a foster family to take care of her so she's spent a lot of time outside, crated or tied to a tree. I have been debating adopting a dog for some time now and it finally got to the point where it was all I thought about. I was literally losing sleep debating! I love the freedom of being able to pick up and go, but I'm a dog person. I've always had dogs in my life and I just don't know how to live without one! So it was just time . . . I found one that met all my criteria and it turned out she needed someone pretty badly as there was no one to foster her. It's been a crazy weekend getting to know each other, but I'm deliriously excited to have a dog of my very own. :)

Ahh, puppy love.
Sorry ahead of time to those non-dog people reading my blog- there will probably be a lot of dog posts in the future.

Material Love: The House Dress

2010-10-13T11:28:00.007-05:00

What I wore:

A friend who sells vintage clothes gave me this dress a few years ago. It was about 4 sizes too big for me, but I loved it and figured I would be able to alter it. I put it on and measured some darts in the back (not easy to do) pinned it and sewed it up! It ended up being just a tad too small, but it wasn't worth it to me to try and redo the darts- I was nervous I would ruin it. It's made from a really thin cotton fabric with a beautiful little red and blue flower motif. When I started wearing it I felt a little suzy homemaker in it, but I embraced it and now refer to it as my house dress. Though, I do not clean in it! I wear it out and to work! Usually with cowboy boots.

Dress: Thrifted, given to me by a friend

Belt: My favorite belt, found at New Bohemia on South Congress

Shoes: Tom's, though I more regularly wear this with cowboy boots, but it was too hot for socks!

Accessories: You can't see them well in the picture, but I'm wearing a vintage necklace made of orange plastic (it's lovely, I'll have to get a close up) and my anchor earrings.

Sunday, Inspire Me. Creating

2010-10-10T21:16:00.010-05:00

Some days I sit at my desk and my hands just won't move. I'll get out all my supplies and play with them, move them around a little, but I'll keep getting distracted by something else. Then there are other days when I wake up and ideas are just bursting out of me. I sit down and take out tons of supplies, I start putting them together and all of a sudden multiple projects are laying across my desk. Some finished, some waiting to, but ideas are laying there. Everywhere. These are the days when I can't stand to take a break, but I need coffee, or lunch or to rest my hands for a while. But I walk away and ideas are still coming. . . These are the days I love creating.

This weekend I had a goal to get started on making acorns for the Etsy Austin's Craft Riot goodie bags. Craft Riot is Nov. 20 and 21, but it seems so close when I have so much to make by then! So for my goodie bag giveaways I'm making adorable little acorn pins made of felt! Fifty of them!

Usually this is a very daunting task... making 50 of anything is, but I really have an incredibly hard time making duplicates of anything! But these little acorns are so darn cute I actually have fun making them. And when you're in the groove you just go!
I started fifty of them today and I'm still working on them. There are many steps, but I think they look so fun all together at each stage.

Here is how they look when they are all finished.
I think they look pretty cute as ornaments too!

These aren't the ones I'm working on now, but I hope to have a nice basket of them like this soon! This is from another batch I made a while back, I like to stick them as a little gift with purchases from my Etsy shop too! Sometimes I switch it up though.

So if you want a little acorn you better be one of the first 25 people at Craft Riot this year! You'll get a bunch of other goodies from awesome artists too! Goodness, sorry about all the exclamation points in this post :)

Quinoa!

2010-10-07T22:26:00.008-05:00

Quinoa! Isn't it fun to say? It's fun to eat too. It's taken me a while to get my act together and experiment with quinoa. A good friend recommended it to me over a year ago, he even wrote it on a piece of paper so I wouldn't forget when I went to the grocery store. Well I finally decided it was time to make something with it and found a great simple recipe to get me started. Stir fry!

The New York Times just happened to have an few articles and recipes with quinoa the same week that I finally decided to buy some. So I read a little bit about the grain and methods for cooking it here and decided to try this recipe first.

A simple stir fry with vegetables and tofu is pretty much my go-to meal. I usually just go between different types of noodles or rice so I was excited to have something else to throw in the mix. I pretty much followed the recipe from the article but substituted what I had on hand. I used zucchini instead of bok choy and didn't use ginger or scallions. I made a little less quinoa than the recipe called for as well.

Here is the recipe the way I made it:

1/2 pound firm tofu, drained and sliced about 1/2 inch thick

2 broccoli crowns, broken into florets

Salt to taste

2 tablespoon soy sauce

2 teaspoons Asian sesame oil

1 tablespoon minced garlic

2 tablespoons canola oil

1 medium red bell pepper, cut in thin strips

1 zucchini, chopped

4cups cooked quinoa (1 cup uncooked)

1. Place the tofu slices on paper towels. Place another paper towel on top, and prepare the remaining ingredients.

Meanwhile, bring a medium pot of water to a boil, and add the broccoli. Boil one minute, and transfer at once to a bowl of ice water. Drain.

2. In a small bowl or measuring cup, combine the soy sauce and sesame oil. Have all the ingredients within easy reach of your pan.

3. Heat a flat-bottomed wok or 12-inch steel skillet over high heat until a drop of water evaporates within a second or two when added to the pan. Swirl in a tablespoon of the oil by adding it to the sides of the pan and tilting the pan. Add the tofu. Reduce the heat to medium, and stir-fry one to two minutes until it begins to brown. Add the garlic and stir-fry for no more than 10 seconds. Add the pepper and zucchini, and stir-fry for one minute. Add the broccoli, and stir-fry for one minute.

4. Swirl in the remaining oil and add quinoa and the soy sauce mixture. Stir-fry, scooping the ingredients up from the bottom of the wok, for about one minute until heated through and fragrant. Serve at once.

It was so delicious! I had enough to eat for dinner and save half for lunch at work the next day. The quinoa was ridiculously easy to cook and I kind of can't believe it took me this long use it. There are a series of recipes using quinoa on New York Times, like a breakfast quinoa recipe and a quinoa muffin recipe that I totally want to try! Here is how I cooked it, straight from the article:

"I use three parts water to one part quinoa. I cook the quinoa until the grains are fluffy and a spiral appears as the outer germ separates from each grain (15 minutes). Then I drain off the excess water through a strainer, return the quinoa to the hot saucepan, cover the pan with a towel and put the lid back on, so the quinoa will dry out and fluff. Quinoa will cook well using two parts water to one part quinoa, but I find that the grains are fluffier if I do it my way."

Here is a more detailed description of how to cook it.

Have you cooked with quinoa? What's your favorite recipe with quinoa?

Sunday, Inspire Me. Magnifico

2010-10-03T22:10:00.011-05:00

So most people who meet me learn one thing about me pretty quickly - I love the band Queen. Get to know me and you realize that it's a pretty passionate love (remember this post?). Queen is absolutely my favorite band of all time. I'm also fairly sensitive when it comes to Queen and quite protective. So when I heard there was a local Queen cover band I was immediately curious and a little obsessed. Really? You're taking on Queen? Someone is going to sing those songs and it's not a terrible karaoke version of Bohemian Rhapsody? Or is it? Honestly, I really thought they had to be good otherwise they were all complete idiots. You just can't mess with Queen! I mean it's Freddie Mercury! The songs aren't particularly easy to sing . . . . Basically there was a lot going on in my head when I heard about this band. But I had high hopes. The idea of hearing Queen songs played live excited me, if the vocals sucked at least I could sing along.

So Saturday night my roommate and I ventured out downtown to see Magnifico play at Red7. We got downtown at 9! Quite early seeing as they played at 12:30am. We were immediately disappointed to learn there was a ten dollar cover. Seriously, I could write a whole post about how annoying Austin venues are for not advertising their covers for shows! I realize I should just bring more cash, but I'd kinda like a heads up! Anyway, we went for a drink to decide if we wanted to spend the money (ATM fees in downtown Austin are like 5$). I think both my roommate and I knew that after a few drinks the answer would be yes. I say no to a lot of ten dollar covers, especially if it's a band I haven't heard- but technically, I knew the music! And I was just so damn curious.

So a few drinks, a stop at an ATM and we're in, turns out it was only 8$ anyway. The only thing I knew about this band was that the lead singer often wore a purple spandex jumpsuit and had some pretty intense chops! And seriously, I kind of fell in love with this band as soon as they walked on stage. They were all adorable and nerdy. . . like, I could envision some nerding out about Queen with all of them. And yes, the lead singer was wearing a spandex jumpsuit and had huge chops! And bonus! A lady bassist.

So they started with Killer Queen and I'm immediately impressed. It's a really tough song to sing! But almost immediately I'm sold, vocally the lead singer sounds great and I love the female backing vocals. Maybe it was the vodka, but their second song is Death on Two Legs and I'm sold. It's one of my favorite songs and the second of two lesser known songs- major points with me. I turn to my roommate and say I'd pay 8$ dollars just to hear the music, I don't even need someone up there singing, it's was just so awesome to hear it live! Their third song is a more well known hit, I think it was Bicycle Race and the crowd starts going crazy. And then I get a little bit of my Queen-itude and start yelling "Oh yay, now they play one y'all know!" And talk a little shit for a minute. My roommate says, "Maybe they all love bicycles." And ya know that part of the song with all the bicycle bells? Yeah, they had one and rang it... adorable. They also played kazoos during another song -Seaside Rendezvous, I love that song, more points scored.

I mean, they scored a lot of points with me. I honestly can't say anything negative about this band, I really loved them. I appreciated seeing how much fucking energy it took the lead singer to sing the songs, and I really loved how sometimes he missed some words or didn't quite hit the notes - because come one, he's not Freddie Mercury! And he mentioned how winded he felt after a song or hard a song was to sing occasionally, saying something like "God, I hope a slow one is next." I liked that he was not up there trying to be Freddie Mercury, he did his own thing and he was flamboyant in his own way. The whole thing was definitely a lovely tribute.

They played a great mix of songs, but after more drinks and some guy buying us shots I do not remember them all. Yes, they played Bohemian Rhapsody and yes everyone was singing to each other and for a second I was a little bored and snobby, but only for a second! And then I was right there with them and got into it too! How could you not? When they played Under Pressure though, I was particularly floored. Another song that is not that easy to sing! And it's Freddie and David Bowie! Well, the guitarist sang the David Bowie part and holy shit, he does an amazing David Bowie! And the lead singer hit every one of those little bee-bop-dees etc in that song! It was pretty great. The whole show was great, I loved it and I'm so glad I loved it! I definitely feared having to walk out, horrified! But I had a pretty good feeling about it, if you're gonna have the guts to take on Queen you gotta mean it. And Magnifico... they mean it, there was a lot of Queen love emanating from the stage.

Material Love ~ Blue and Coral

2010-09-30T22:41:00.009-05:00

What I wore:

Here is an outfit I wore earlier this month. I got really stressed out about going to a friend's bachelorette party because I had never been to one (I was really good at avoiding them.) Am I supposed to dress up? Wear heels? I was also incredibly stressed by what gift to get her. . .undies? Penis shaped pasta? I finally decided to just be myself and wear what I was comfortable in. And I got her a garlic press.

So this is my outfit. I am totally terrible at posing- I pretty much don't know how to smile unless it's a huge cheesy smile. But I like taking pictures of myself. . . I was really into Cindy Sherman in High School and College. So I've been taking pictures of some hairdos and outfits etc forever, but I'm going to start posting on my blog. Hope you enjoy!

Shirt: Handmade, gift from a lovely friend. I love this shirt! It has a delicate lace trim around the collar.

Skirt: J. Crew, Thrifted. This skirt has two layers, one with little circles and one solid.
Boots: Ariat, from Allen boots in Austin 4 years ago!
Belt: Vintage, New Bohemia in Austin. I wear this belt like 3 times a week.

That's what I wore!

Love Hurts

2010-09-28T22:10:00.009-05:00

Happy Fall! We are finally getting some chilly weather in Austin so I can actually say it feels like fall. I was actually cold when I woke up this morning and had to put on a hoodie when I went for a run- woah. It's still sunny and warm during the day so we're not there yet, but it's certainly a nice change from HOT everyday. I'm getting a little nervous already about Fall and Winter this year, every year I'm in Texas I get more used to the heat and more of a baby in cold weather. Anything below 80 is cold and anything below 60 is freezing! Yes, I was born and raised in Wisconsin!

The cooler weather has been making me break out the yarn more often! I have lots of new hats in my shop already! Including this one with one of my favorite combination of colors- yellow, black and white!

If my hands/arms didn't bother me so much (part carpal tunnel, part strain, part overuse) I would be crocheting so much more, but I'm trying to be careful and not crochet too much. I don't know what it's like to not have my hands ache anymore, which is really sad, but I'm trying to just do what I can and try to figure out the best way to care for my hands. I even had trouble holding a baby for too long tonight :(

The pain in my hands means I can't punch out the hats as quickly or as often as I used to, but I still really love making them! I have lots of works in progress on my craft desk. Some new colors that I just need to photograph and then I can add them to my shop!

I love this turquoise one and need to find more yarn in this color- it's so rich and bright!

This whole desk is dedicated to yarn projects, sometimes it gets a little out of hand :)

Hope y'all had a lovely Tuesday, it was a little crazy here in Austin with everything that happened on campus. Oh! and Sorry for not posting my Inspire Me post on Sunday! I had a busy weekend crafting and my hands were really aching, typing often hurts too. Hmm, they've been hurting a lot lately and I'm wondering if maybe it's time for another round of acupuncture. . . or another visit to the doctor!
Maybe I'll bust out the cross stitch tonight, it tends to hurt a little less when I do it. Or maybe I'll just make popcorn and watch tv.
Do you ever have pain when crafting too much? What do you do?

Peace and Paperclips

2010-09-22T23:16:00.005-05:00

My dad rules.
I got this picture in my inbox today while at work, it totally made my day!
Now, if he was my student I totally would have made him color it in on BOTH sides! And probably make him either write or draw a picture about peace. I'm really strict! I've also banned the phrase "I'm done" from my class a couple of times.
I'll let him slide. :)
I also love that there is a handmade paperclip holder in the photo!
Awesome.

If you're wondering what the pinwheel is about, check out my last post!

Happy Peace Week!

Happy Peace Day!

2010-09-21T10:49:00.005-05:00

Happy International Day of Peace!
Want a lovely way to celebrate? Check out the Pinwheels for Peace campaign.
They have a really easy template and how-to for making pinwheels. I'll be making them with my kiddos at work today.
Here are a few photos from our project last year:

It's a really fun and simple project and a lovely way to sit down and talk about peace with kids.
All you need is markers, scissors, paper, straws, and brads (but something else could be used to fasten the pinwheel to the straw)
We laminated ours to give them more support so they could blow in the wind outside for a while. They looked beautiful all together!
Here's a link directly to the template.
Enjoy! Happy Peace Day!

Sunday, Inspire me. Kids

2010-09-19T21:57:00.012-05:00

I mentioned it so many times before. . . but I love working with kids.
And although this week was pretty crazy and I was stressed and exhausted. . . I still love every minute of my job.
I love that I can be creative and fun and teach and learn everyday. I love it.
This last week was tough, working with kids is hard work! But I still have to stop and laugh in the middle of it all.
Like when I was explaining a project and I'm trying so hard to get 30 kids to stop talking and listen to me. . . one of my kids almost falls out of his chair because he fell asleep! It's hard for 5 year olds to make it through a whole day of school AND an after school program, I gave him a blanket and pillow and he was out. :)

Here are a few photos I snapped with my phone when I could stand still for a minute!

Which toy do you want to play with? All of them. This is often what my craft room looks like, what do you want to make today? Everything.

Kids and their sorting and arranging, I love it! A little boy set all these up and literally pushed them all down right as I snapped this photo. I had to wait for my phone to load to see if it caught it!

Selfishly, this is totally one of my favorite things about working with kids- they make you things! How cool is this drawing?? Red curly hair and I'm holding a bird!

I love this one too.
This girl knew I loved cupcakes, everything she drew for me had cupcakes on it!

A couple weeks ago I had my kids trace their hands and write what friendship meant to them on each palm. We put them all together to make a bunting for the window. I love the way it looks! I was going to string all the hands flat as I'd done when I previously did this project, but when I strung them all up this way I liked the way it looked. It kind of reminds me of the garland on Christmas trees, so I left it this way.

I love that I leave work everyday inspired by something I learned from one of my kids.

My desk

2010-09-16T23:02:00.010-05:00

Work is kicking my ass this week!
My days are crazy and although I don't sit for very long,
my desk makes me quite happy.
Here are a few photos from my desk at work:

Did I mention that I work with kids?

Sunday, Inspire me. Handmade Clothing

2010-09-12T19:19:00.010-05:00

♥ Handmade Clothing ♥

Of course I love handmade items more than store bought, but like a lot of people I sometimes have a hard time ponying up the money. It's not that I think it's not worth the price, I am totally willing and happy to pay more to get something handmade. But I often just can't spend the money. The vast majority of my clothing comes from thrift stores so going from buying a 5$ shirt to a $40 shirt is pretty hard sometimes. But not all the time. There are some of the most amazing artists out there making really stellar clothing that I just have to have. Here's a few of the handmade items from my closet that I love:

Yep, me in a bathroom with a camera, it's pretty common. This shirt is by Aorta, I love ALL of her applique work. When she came to Renegade Austin I tried on maybe 20 things and since she works with vintage clothes it was hard to find a fit. But I found this shirt and absolutely love it, I love anything with anatomy on it.

See, more anatomy. I coveted this shirt from Apple Noggin for a long time and finally purchased it, adding to my ribcage collection. During the summer I taught a unit on the the body, skeletal system etc- I had a ribcage or other anatomy shirt for each day :) I'm holding a clay model of a heart that I made, I had the kids make their own too, it was awesome!
oh, and Apple Noggin is from Wisconsin!

This shirt you saw before in an earlier post, but I didn't mention where it was from. This shirt is made by Material and oh my god, I want everything she makes. She takes vintage shirts and clothing and transforms them- often adding ruffles!

I work with kids and when I saw this shirt I had to have it- it says "Cats Not Kids" I wear it to totally wear it to work too. eek! The artist name is slipping my mind right now, I got it at Parts and Labour. . .

This item was given to me as a gift so I am not sure who the artist is. But there is nothing better and more thoughtful than giving handmade items as a gift. This shirt was just made for me, if I'd seen it in a store I would have bought it. Thanks Kimberly!

Oooh, this was my naughty purchase this summer. This dress is by Material as well. It was Austin Fashion Week and I had just bought the shirt the previous week, not knowing she was having a show for AFW. When I got to her show I pretty much knew I was leaving with another piece. I love this dress. Kelli, the artist, told me she originally bought the shark material to make her brother some scrub caps, but had enough material to make this dress and one for herself. Awesome.

Oh I love handmade clothes.

Keep the Pace

2010-09-09T22:46:00.006-05:00

I got home from work today at 9pm. I was all grouchy from a pretty hectic day and double grouchy from thinking I'd missed my run today. I'm learning that I can't get much grouchier than when I miss a run. It doesn't happen often, but when it happens. . . I don't want to be around me.

So I sat on my bed debating. . . It's 9pm and it's completely dark out. . . bed? I can't go to bed, by body is not feeling restful, I'm still all tense from work. I put on my running clothes and decide I'm going to walk to the track near my house. Maybe a night walk is all I need since it's so late.

I walk and my pace increases. . . I start to run feeling a little pain in my shin and quad. I get to the track and think I'll just do a slow jog around a couple of times and then walk home. . . I start to run . . . I kind of love the track. . . . Running around the track starts to feel hypnotizing, meditative, and my pace increases. Then my phone, which is strapped to my arm, announces in a british accent that I'm running an 8 minute pace. I keep running. Ok, I'll just run a few more laps. . . I keep running. I hear myself negotiating how many more I will do, 2? 5? 8?

And then I start to laugh. Because I totally could. I could just keep running around in circles with this stupid smile on my face and be totally content. I ran the stress right out of my body and ran a smile onto my face.

I love it.

And then I got home to find an Etsy sale :)

Before/After

2010-09-06T22:49:00.005-05:00

Happy Labor Day!

It has been a nice and relaxing weekend, as it should be! I actually got some things done that were on my To-Do list for the weekend. I had to take it easy running this weekend due to some shin pain . . . which made me a bit grumpy. But I spent much of the weekend sewing! I made a bunting! I've never made one before and I'm quite happy with how it turned out. I will post pictures of soon. While uploading photos I found these photos I took last weekend when I got my tattoo. I have pictures of my other tattoo in progress, but I knew this one would be finished in one sitting so I did something different. I took a before and after shot! They were actually taken on different days, but when my roommate saw what I was doing he encouraged me to go put the same outfit on! Ha.

Looking at the photos now I realize I also did some rearranging in between shots too! Funny. These photos also remind me that I need to hang that lamp properly! I made it and strung it up there temporarily and haven't gotten around to giving it a proper hook. I'll put that back on the To-Do list! I hope your Labor Day weekend was lovely, what did you do?

Sunday, Inspire me. Treasuries

2010-09-05T12:18:00.009-05:00

I've recently discovered the fun of making Etsy Treasuries. These are collections put together by Buyers & Sellers, anyone really, you just go to the Treasury page and can start making a collection! Other Etsiers can look through the Treasuries for fun or to buy stuff and they can end up appearing on the front page of Etsy.

It's really just another way to look at things I wish I could buy :) It's fun to think of a theme and look at amazing work by Etsy artists. I've definitely discovered some new awesome shops. Here is a Treasury I made the other day, I want everything. . .

'oh Snap' by fiftyacorns

instant love

LET GO TRAVELING - Gree... summerground $8	Original Drawing Illust... michelemaule $35	Polaroid Decorative Pil... Spiderbot $25
Vintage Camera Necklace... VectorCloud $28	Sterling Silver Camera ... luckyduct $88	FREE SHIP - Camera Colo... MartyMay $20
Super 5x5 Fine Art Prin... TheLightFantas... $12	Aqua Polaroid Plush Cam... onelatenight $40	Vintage Polaroid OneSte... shutterlylovel... $20
19 CAMERA DRAWINGS - Li... CB78 $35	Hip Polaroid Camera Han... HeatherKent $35	red imperial - photo pr... snapco $10
Made to Order - 12oz c... CircaCeramics $30	Savoy 5 x 5 Print LolasRoom $17	1950's Kodak Browni... JuniperHome $24.99

Generated using Treasury HTML code generator by Whale Shark Websites.

Give it some clicks and check out some awesome Etsy artists :)

Also, did you know you could search for an artist in the Treasuries? A great feature for sellers to see if folks are featuring them! Very cool, here are Treasuries I've made or have been featured in.

Also, use this awesome website to post your Treasuries to your blog! Share the love!

Hello September!

2010-09-01T12:54:00.008-05:00

Mustard, originally uploaded by fiftyacorns.

Happy September! To celebrate the coming of Autumn I'm starting to list fall items in my shop. Although it won't feel like Autumn in Austin anytime soon, I'm getting in the spirit anyway.

My vintage style crocheted hats will start appearing in my shop now. I make them in a variety of colors and I welcome custom requests! These are my all time favorite crocheted hat style and I have about 5 of my own. I usually make myself a new one each year. . . . oooh what color/colors should I do this year??

Check out my little shop for hats and more new fall items!

Sunday, Inspire me. In Honor of

2010-08-29T21:32:00.010-05:00

Have I really not posted since last Sunday? This week has been kind of crazy at work since it's the first week of school! The kids are all wild. But this weekend has been lovely, relaxing and inspiring.

Yesterday I woke up and ran 7 miles and I spent most of the rest of the day relaxing because I had a tattoo appointment in the afternoon. I guess you could say this is my second tattoo, though my first is a half sleeve. . . :) These past few months I have been reflecting a lot while running and my mind has been on family a lot. With my Grandmothers passing away I thought a lot about their influence in my life and that has made me think a lot about my mother. I've thought a lot about the ways these women have all influenced my life. They have all truly inspired me. I watched as my mom reflected about the way her mother had influenced her and it mirrors the way I look at my life through my mom.

From curly hair, to a strong, confident and spunky personality to creativity. . . I find myself thanking my mom and my grandmother for these gifts often. Memories have been floating in my head. . . early memories of their artistic influence on my life. That lead me to wanting to translate that into art, into a tattoo. Which may seem odd to some, but for many people tattoos are a way of marking a moment in your life. So I thought of one the greatest gifts I have that I thank my mother and my grandmother for and that is creativity.

I started thinking about how much my mother influenced my artistic abilities. I grew up in a thrift store watching my mom in her funky vintage clothes create displays with clothes on the walls. She had me paint the storefront windows at such a young age that I barely even have memories of actually doing it. Very vague memories of watching people walk by as I covered the glass with color. Being around clothes a lot probably influenced my interest in sewing and I have vivid memories of being in maybe 3rd grade? and joining a sewing club. I remember falling in love with a needle and thread. In middle school I started playing with my mom's (my grandma's) sewing machine making and altering my own clothes. I hand stitched a quilt in 8th grade that my teacher was convinced I paid my grandmother to sew- on a machine! I pulled open seems to show him my stitches, but he didn't believe me. I was offended and kind of flattered.

And though I could go on listing memories like these they all have one thing in common. . . they come attached with a memory of my mom being so excited and in awe of everything I made. My mother's creativity and artistic talent has always inspired me. There are the photos she took when she was into photography and all the projects she would think of to make and do around the house. She would oftentimes have the idea for something and then ask me to make it, a lot of the time it was something that I'd never done before, but she believed I could make it. Like when she and my dad drove my sewing machine up to visit me in college so I could make them Elvis costumes in a hotel room! And although in high school and college metal became my first love I have remained in love with the needle and thread. And throughout every artistic endeavor I have taken my mom has been my number one fan. When I wanted to join a sewing club, when I took art classes in high school and decided to go to school for art, when I started teaching art, when I opened my Etsy shop ... I've always felt so supported and encouraged by my mom.

So I honor my mother, her creativity, encouragement and love. . . my grandmother. . . and my first love of art- sewing.

Sunday, Inspire me. Run

2010-08-22T22:12:00.010-05:00

Run.

{all images via weheartit}

Running inspires me. I am a runner. I discovered running in high school and although I not run all the time, it is always what I come back to. I have realized in the last few months that running has saved me many times. At times of stress, sadness, loneliness or pain I have turned to running. Two years ago when I was unemployed and frustrated - I started running again. Last summer when my relationship turned sour - I started running again. And in between I would run every once in a while, but it's the getting up and running during those times that really helped me.
So this spring when I lost both of my grandmothers within two weeks of each other... When I found myself laying on my bedroom floor feeling deflated and lost. I started running again. But it felt different this time. This last year has been hard and there has been a lot of loss and I have held onto a lot of pain. But what is pain? Pain is just a test. And running is the best metaphor for life. It's a battle of will. Can you stand the pain? Can you get through it or will you give up? Will you let the pain make you stop and quit? Or will you keep going? And so I decided to run the pain, the sadness and the loss right out of me. The more I ran the better I felt ... and I wanted more.
So I decided I would start training. I'm training to run a half marathon. I'm running 5 times a week and I've never felt better. I ran 8.25 miles this morning and I didn't want to stop. Since running has always been a part of my life I tend to think about it very spiritually. A good run can be a therapy session with yourself. And there is nothing like the feeling of runner's high. I am reminded of the quote our high school Cross Country team sweatshirts read:
"I run to add life to my days, not to add days to my life."
Exactly.

♥dad♥

2010-08-21T14:04:00.007-05:00

Happy Birthday Dad!

And people wonder where I got my style. . .
Love you!

♥Dottie♥

2010-08-18T20:55:00.005-05:00

Happy Birthday Grandma.
One of my favorite pictures ever. . . my mom, my grandmother and me.

Love you, miss you ♥

A little bird told me

2010-08-14T14:23:00.002-05:00

Blue Bird, originally uploaded by fiftyacorns.

New bird rings are in my shop!

and more to come!

These sweet little rings feature a little birdie sitting atop a vintage button. They are one of my favorite things to make because I love searching for new buttons to use and match with the birds. I'll be adding more to the shop tomorrow!

Sunday, Inspire me. Color

2010-08-08T12:01:00.012-05:00

The color wheel, a long time obsession and inspiration.
All images via weheartit.

Such a dreamy picture, love the little touch of the color wheel. I've been trying to collect jars so I can separate my seed beads and buttons into colors.

I love this because I love vintage pyrex and the colors are all put together! I wish this was in my kitchen!

If I saw this at a bakery I would just stand and stare, how do you choose one? I love them all just lined up together.

I want to meet the person who is putting color wheels up around cities! Love it.

So awesome. I want the dog too. I once lined up all my clothes according to the color wheel. I got really obsessive over where to put certain colors and shades so I finally had to put it all back to being mixed up!

The River

2010-08-02T22:15:00.016-05:00

I went on Vacation the second to last week in July. Where do I take my vacations? The Midwest! I went to Iowa, where most of my family is from, and camped on the Mississippi river with A LOT of family. 5 days in a tent, on the sand, in the murky waters of the Mississippi and playing with the best dog ever. Sounds like a vacation to me! We camped while the Midwest was getting pummeled by a ton of rain and we definitely felt it. Crazy humidity, intense thunderstorms and a river ready to crest at any moment, but that didn't stop us. We still floated down the river many, many times. We still experienced the Bix! (A festival, race and concert dedicated to Bix Beiderbecke, a jazz musician.) And we still sat around the campfire every night as the Mississippi crept closer each hour. It was a lovely vacation.

Here are a few pictures from my trip.

Ruby. I could take glamour shots of her all day.

She loves the water and playing fetch.
Don't make her get her back wet though, she doesn't like that.

A building near the river that documents the flooding of the Mississippi river, by year.
There is usually not water at the base of it, but look where the water was in 1965!

Boat ride on the Mississippi.
The bridge is open for the barges to go through.

Centennial Bridge.

Music mural in downtown Davenport, a few blocks from the river.
My parents and brother in the background, :-)

Boat ride ;)

The water rose so high it washed over this path. The railing is where the edge of the path should be and then a good 6(?) foot drop until there is water. The ducks don't seem to mind the flooding!

So many cool bridges in Davenport.
(This one is also known as Naked Man Bridge.)

Moonlight over the Mississippi. Vacation.

Summer of Inspiration

2010-08-01T18:30:00.009-05:00

Happy first day of August! And I believe Austin finally hit 100 degrees today! I used it as an excuse to stay in and make things. Which I have been doing a lot of lately. My summer schedule has me working days so my evenings have been filled with cooking, crafting, running and reading. Funny alliteration. I have a lot of goals for August and for this year that I am starting to write down and plan. I so many ideas in my head for my Etsy shop and I'm really trying to fit more crafting time into my schedule. I also want to blog more. This past year I haven't blogged as much and I really miss it. I miss writing and getting my ideas and thoughts out of my head. This summer has been full of self reflection and it feels good to be inspired and motivated again. These past few months I have struggled with that, but I have pushed myself to be creative and set goals. I am also working on some very big personal goals that I'm not quite ready to reveal, but will come out in a blog post soon.

For now I'll share some of what I've been working on and adding to my Etsy shop!

I've been working on new versions of my retro owls! I love these big blue beads.

These little star earrings make me think of The Little Prince!

I have been working with raw brass again and I'm excited to reveal a lot of new designs. Like these bees!

I have always loved nautical inspired art and it has definitely been appearing in my work a lot more lately.

I've been working on some new necklaces with chunky beads, but I've also been working on some other creations with metal that I hope to reveal soon!

There are lots more new items in my shop too so check it out!

Sewing with 9 year olds

2010-07-30T19:11:00.011-05:00

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Teaching children to sew is slightly traumatizing and completely inspiring. I have done this "Make a Stuffie" project for many years and I just love it. It takes a lot of work on the teachers part- threading needles, making knots, fixing mistakes, re-explaining everything so many times. "You can't make a knot if you sew to the eye of the needle!!"

But it's absolutely amazing to see children discover hand-sewing for the first time. From sketch, to rough draft, to design they are slightly mystified by what we are doing. I have them do a sketch in pencil then transfer it to construction paper. This step receives some groans, but it helps them understand that every part of the design will be cut out of felt. It also helps them realize that some parts of their design has to be adjusted to become 3D.

Watching the process of learning to sew is a lot of fun, even if it is slightly painful for all involved. By the end of the day I couldn't see straight to thread a needle and my back was killing me from being hunched over someones project. But when the last bit of stuffing is stuffed in and the creature is sewn shut, their response is nothing short of amazing. They are proud and stunned. They can't believe what they did.

This last one was not sewn shut, we opted for hot glue due to the students circumstances. But it is my favorite because of the design! He drew it, picked the colors for felt and buttons and placed everything. My camera didn't pick up the colors very well, but the orange, blue and lime green is an awesome color combination! Kids are so awesome.

Whiskers

2010-07-08T22:22:00.010-05:00

While I am partly sick of the whole mustache fad, I must admit that I also really love it. Does that even make sense? I get annoyed when anything gets overdone and overexposed. But I must say that I am quite fond of the fake mustache. I think it partly relates to my absolute love of Freddie Mercury and the other part is something I can't totally explain. And that is just . . . I kinda wish I had a mustache.

In college I was a theatre minor and one of my classes was a make-up class. My absolute favorite assignment was turning ourselves into the opposite sex. I turned myself into John Lennon (I know I considered Freddie, but my hair didn't work for it). I had the class at 9am and I definitely kept my mustache glued, yes it was glued, on all day. This polaroid is the only picture that I have left of me as John Lennon.

My theatre professor took the photo and then said "You totally pull it off . . . except for the boobs." He gave me an A for this assignment, by the by. The other thing about this photo that needs to be mentioned about this photo is that outfit I'm wearing was totally normal attire for me. Like, I wore it to look like John Lennon on this particular day, but I also wore it regularly. It went with the brown plaid polyester pants! This entire outfit was made of polyester. Ridiculous. And my hair was blue! I borrowed a friends round glasses to complete the look. I remember going to my other classes that day wearing this get up! Mustache and all! I went to my Women's Studies class looking like this!

Anyway, so needless to say, I was a little excited when mustaches started showing up everywhere. Which is always a blessing and a curse when you love something. Again, I am partly sick of it and think it's a little stupid to have a mustache on your shirt or something. . . but I will also take any opportunity to sport a fake one!

Just give me a mustache I can wear.

Break Free

2010-07-05T18:32:00.009-05:00

I love the 4th of July. Above is how I spent my day. I love a good excuse to have a BBQ and relax with friends. I love an excuse to wear a coordinated outfit- red, white and blue is one of my favorite color combinations. And I love a reason to reflect. On the 4th of July I love that many reflect on personal freedom and what that means. I do the same, as personal freedom is something I think about a lot on any given day. Freedom, and what that means to me, is a something that I make a priority in my life. I always have and I always will.

I think back a year ago to a time when I feeling very little, if any, personal freedom. I was trying to leave a relationship that didn't feel right or healthy. I was trying to free myself from control, abuse and fear. Last year at this time I said goodbye to a lot of things that I also really cared about. But I knew I had to sacrifice them in order to be free. I will say it was one of the hardest things I've ever done, but I am glad I had the strength to get through it as best I could. I still hold a lot of pain from everything I've been through in this past year and in past blog posts I have hinted at it. But I feel a little bit more free every time I talk about it. Because the things I went through last year and in these past months are part of me, part of my story. That pain is mine and talking about it sets a little bit of it free each time. Personal freedom.

It is no wonder this has been my favorite song for so long:

On this 4th of July I ask myself what is holding me back?

Delicious food

2010-06-30T22:36:00.011-05:00

Orange Ginger Beets!

Sweet fried plantains with cinnamon and brown sugar.

Homemade hummus. Tuna salad with red onion, parsley, celery and black olives.

Vegan buckwheat and sweet potato rice noodles with zucchini, tofu and spinach.

Spring rolls with homemade peanut sauce. Some vegan, some with shrimp.

Non-dairy zucchini and almond chocolate bundt cake.

I have been cooking up a storm. A storm of food! My summer schedule for work is radically different from during the year and I'm taking advantage of it! I get home from work and start playing in the kitchen right away. My goal is to make something I can eat that night and then take to work for lunch the next day. I'm also trying to branch out from my old standards, though I did make black bean tacos tonight. And I'm trying to make more of my meals vegan. I'm not calling myself a vegan by any means, but I do flirt with the idea of going all the way. I've already cut out dairy for the most part, I do still allow some byproducts- whey is in everything! But I've been really trying to limit eggs too, but I do really love breakfast tacos.

My eating habits are a little all over the place. I was a vegetarian for almost ten years and then suddenly started eating meat again. That only lasted 2 years and then I cut meat out again. Then I finally realized that I have to cut dairy out due to allergies and intolerance. I definitely struggle with limiting anything completely. I like to eat vegan when I can, but I'm just not ready to cut everything else out yet. I'm not sure if I will, I still like the option to try something new if I want to. And I'm not all into labels anyway. But the more I think about it philosophically, the more it makes me want to. Oh, it's complicated. ☺

Beets!

2010-06-27T22:43:00.007-05:00

I posted a picture in my last post of a beet dish that I made recently. I had posted the recipe a while back, but it is worth posting about again. I haven't had beets in too many different ways, but I'm gonna say this one is my favorite. It's pretty easy and they go great with brown rice!

Orange-Ginger Beets
1 bunch beets with their greens
2 teaspoons oil
1 small red onion, cut into halves lengthwise and thinly sliced
1 1/2 teaspoons grated ginger
2/3 cup orange juice (tastes great with fresh oranges)
2 teaspoons rice wine vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
salt and pepper

Cut the greens off the beets. Trim roots from beets and and peel. Cut the beets into smaller wedges. Steam beets until tender. (Can also boil them before you peel instead of steaming) Wash beet greens and cut the leaves crosswise into 1 inch ribbons.
Heat the oil in a wide skillet over medium heat. Saute the onion until it begins to soften. Add the beet greens and saute until they are wilted.
Mix the ginger, orange juice, vinegar, and cornstarch in a small bowl. Add the beets to the skillet and turn the heat to med-low. When the beets are warm, pour the orange juice mixture over them and cook, stirring, until the mixture just begins to thicken. Season with salt and pepper.

Now the cookbook I got this recipe from says to arrange the greens and onions around the edge of a serving dish and place the beets in the center of the plate. But when I make it I just leave them all in the pan, the way it looks in the picture above. I also use about three medium sized beets which makes a pretty good sized batch.

Give it a try and let me know what you think! How do you eat your beets?

Focus

2010-06-24T22:23:00.006-05:00

I'm on the search for inspiration. Motivation. Clarity. It's been a hard year. It has been a rough few months. Gravity has got me, but I'm fighting. I've been cooking and running with my new found free time, yay summer! Both things make me feel good and make me think. I cook and listen to music until I'm ready to run and then I find the night smelling like flowers and grass. . . it feels bittersweet. I am teaching again this summer which I know is so good for me. I need to be inspired by my students and I need to feel the drive to inspire them. I need that focus. It's starting. . . . but ever so slowly. I'm realizing how much work there is to do. I'm not quite sure where to begin. But taking some time for me is definitely a start.

♥ Dad ♥

2010-06-20T11:14:00.009-05:00

Happy Father's Day!

1979!

I love this photo because we're making the same face!
I'm wearing knitted goodies from my dad's mom.

Might be the cutest picture ever!

Thanks Dad!
For your unconditional love, support, and laughs!
From my dad I learned to always look for the positive, to be patient, and to see the opportunity for fun and humor in everything.
I know how lucky I am to have you as my dad, love ya! Daughter #1

A Thousand Miles From Nowhere

2010-06-06T20:44:00.010-05:00

It's been a while since I've talked about my love of Dwight Yoakam. When I first moved to Texas I was excited at the prospect of seeing him live . . . I just figured there would be a better chance of seeing him than in Wisconsin! But I was wrong, he was off making movies and only doing festivals here and there.

Finally, after waiting for almost 3 years for him to come to Austin it finally happened! He played the Nutty Brown Cafe last night and it was absolutely amazing. He put on an incredible show!

I had never been to the Nutty Brown so I didn't quite know what to expect. The venue was great and I had a perfect spot with a perfect view!

The crowd was great, no pushy or super tall people anywhere near me! I had plenty of room around me to dance and belt out every single word. Yep, I was that person at the show. But so where a lot of other people. . .

I had some great folks with me to support my love of Dwight. They had a lot of fun despite not being as enamored of him as me. But he put on such a great show how could you not have fun!?

I mean, look at us!? Haha. No one is having more fun than these two people at this very moment in this picture! I'm probably belting out a lyric ♥

It was a bittersweet day. I really wished I could have been home with my family for the weekend. But I guess if you can't be at home with family the next best thing is seeing your favorite artist live, right? It was exactly what I needed.
The official show photos are up at Nutty Brown :-) I also have some video I'll post later.

Showing off

2010-06-03T22:08:00.010-05:00

A visit from a good friend from Wisconsin gives me another chance to run around this beautiful city.

Of course, we went to my favorite park!

So much in bloom.

Lots to look at, touch and smell.

It looks like a comma!

Checking out the view above.

A stop at the Capitol to visit some of my favorite grass. :-)

Adorable baby squirrel!

We walked all over this city and had a lovely day. Thanks Cully!

Sit Down

2010-05-27T22:49:00.006-05:00

It's been a really long week. . . or two weeks. And I'm not quite ready to post about it yet. So I'm going to rewind and post a few more Renegade Austin photos. I still need to post about my great buys, but for now it's photo fun. I posted our Awkward Class photos so now I'll share our photo booth photos! Again I will say, photo booths are one of my favorite things of all time. I wish I owned one. This one was super fun because it had props! When I had my birthday party in January I set up a little photo booth with props and I probably had more fun doing that than anything else at my party. . . except maybe eating cupcakes.

Anyway, the really funny part of this photo booth was that it had a few instructions. The number one instruction being "Sit down." We totally failed in our first attempt at photos:

Oops! We got out of the booth and were so disappointed! The guy thought it was pretty funny. He said, "You can tell y'all are trying!" He let us do it over.

Time for bed! Tomorrow is Friday and I'm so happy for the long weekend! I need it! What are your weekend plans?

Awkward School Photos

2010-05-19T23:55:00.007-05:00

More artsy fartsy fun from Renegade Austin! Photos from the creative minds at Public School! They did a super fun awkward school photo booth/set-up at Renegade and posted the hundreds of photos they took on their site. Photo booths are probably on my top-five-favorite-things-of-all-time list, for reals. I love them. (Remember the one from my birthday a while back?) Anyway, if you took a photo at Renegade you can order a copy from them or check out the gallery online. I highly reccommend checking it out even if you didn't go- hilarious and awesome photos abound!

In the meantime here are the photos we took. I turned them into polaroids for fun. (If you haven't played with this polaroid app, it's super cute and fun! Try it.)

Nick

Gabriel

Hilary

Me.

The jig is up

2010-05-17T22:37:00.010-05:00

Renegade Austin has come and gone! Oh, it was so much fun and so inspiring! I spent almost the entire day there Saturday with my friend Hilary and have not a single photo to show for it! Why? Because my hands were too busy picking up all the lovely art! I wrangled Nick and Gabriel to join in the fun on Sunday with me. I only managed a few photos because again there was just too much awesomeness in one room. I loved seeing some artists I've followed for a while in person. Though, I didn't do a very good job and meeting some of them- I was too busy looking at their work... and buying it!

Here are the few photos I managed to snap:

Gabriel hamming it up at Squid Ink Kollective!

It kind of looks like I'm looking at Lynnea from Squid Ink who kinda looks like she's smiling for the camera!

Stella! The Wondercraft ladies and their awesome airstream. There was a super fun make and take as well! I'll have to get a photo of what I made. It was fun seeing EtsyAustin artists again, I miss them! Now that I have more free time I'm hoping to get more involved again.

We stopped and watched marching band for a while. They looked like they were having too much fun!

After shopping we had to get some coffee and delicious food, of course. I had some delicious vegan pancakes, scrambled tofu and soy sausage. I love Kerbey Lane Cafe.

I'm excited to post all of the goodies I purchased from some amazing artists!

Did you hit up Renegade Austin this past weekend?

Renegade!

2010-05-13T17:46:00.007-05:00

I can not even explain how excited I am that Renegade is in Austin this weekend! I have always wanted to go to Renegade, but never got around to driving down to Chicago for it when I lived in Madison. So I'm super excited that I can just drive downtown and check it out this weekend! There are SO many artists that I have been a long time fan of that are going to be there. . . oh I'm going to spend so much money this weekend!

Here are a few artists that I'm really looking forward to seeing:

Red Velvet Art
I'm a regular reader of Elsie's awesome blog and can't wait to check out some of her stuff along with things from her shop :-)

Berkely Illustration!

I love these adorable animals and have purchased some prints from their Etsy shop in the past. I think my walls need some more! Especially this adorable hedgie. :-)

Circa Ceramics

I have a little obsession with mugs and love all the awesome ceramics that Circa makes.
I might have to purchase this one!

Aorta Apparel

Super cute upcycled aweomeness that I have coveted for a long time. I want this skirt!

Oh, and so many more. . . .

And of course, I can't wait to see so many of my favorite Austin artists as well!

Plus there's food, music and demos!

I really can't wait :-)

Are you going to Renegade this weekend?

Who are you looking forward to seeing?

(If you're not in Austin, have you been to Renegade in the past?)

❤ Mom ❤

2010-05-09T11:13:00.007-05:00

Thank you for always being there for me, encouraging me and supporting me unconditionally! I definitely got my strong will, self confidence, creativity, sassy attitude and curly hair from you! Thank you for being someone I can look up to and learn from.

The strongest, sassiest, most incredible women I know.
Love you!

Happy Mother's Day!

Earth Day is Every Day

2010-04-22T17:39:00.009-05:00

Happy Earth Day!!!

I've been bouncing around the internet today looking at some fun Earth Day activities, crafts and ideas for going Green-er. I think I do a pretty good job of continually trying to make my life Greener, but I am always looking for more ways. There are so many new and creative ideas out there!

I found a fun little thing on Heidi Kenney's blog about buying organic food. I am a big fan of Heidi Kenney and frequent her blog often for all her cool craft ideas and awesome plush artwork. She has a cool post about the "Dirty Dozen" and the "Clean Fifteen." The Environmental Working Group ranked a list of fruits and vegetables according to how much pesticide residue is left on them after washing. Since not everyone can buy organic all the time they came up with the worst 12 and the best 15. Heidi Kenney came across the list and decided to make a little illustrated cheat sheet to take with you to the grocery store! (Photo from her blog)

How super cute and fun is that? The flip side is of the card is the "clean fifteen." You can print out the illustrated card from her blog! I love this little card because I often debate the organic and non-organics at the grocery store. I try to buy organic, but sometimes they don't have the organic variety or it's out of my price range. Either way, I want to have these cute little fruits and veggies peeking at me when I open my wallet.

Check out Heidi's blog and her awesome art!

Be the Change

2010-04-11T13:26:00.008-05:00

Men's Rally for Change in Austin, Texas April 10th 2010. Rally at the Mexican American Cultural Center followed by a march from the MACC through East Austin and down Cesar Chavez to Fiesta Gardens to join up with the SafePlace Field Day and Festival!
We march for safe homes and safe streets. It was a truly amazing and inspirational event!
Thank you to everyone who came to support!
More pictures here!
Join the cause!

Owls

2010-03-31T22:18:00.002-05:00

Owls, originally uploaded by fiftyacorns.

Oh it's been a crazy couple of months. I kind of feel like I'm always saying that! But it really has. I have been neglecting my Etsy shop. First, because an injury made me unable to craft for a while. And more recently, because I changed jobs. My new job allows me a lot more free time to craft. . . At least that's the plan. I have a new job and so I have a need for a new routine, which is exciting and daunting all at once. I need to get back into making things again. I just feel so much better when I'm regularly creating. Sometimes I think a lack of craft time is what starts to make me feel all out of wack and then it just snowballs from there. Clearly making things needs to always be part of my routine.

I have a few new items lined for the shop and have been updating some old pictures. These little owls, above, are one of my more popular items and as I've been making new ones I decided their photos needed to be revamped. I found these old vintage boxes a while ago. I have 5 of them all in different colors with a different word on them- Which, What, Who, Where and probably my favorite- Is Doing. You can see some of the other boxes in the pictures from this post. Except for the 'Is Doing' one which I took to work. I feel like I should be 'Is Doing' more at work I guess. The owl earrings with the Who boxes were just too cute to resist.

Red Owls, originally uploaded by fiftyacorns.

Time to get crafty!

For the birds

2010-03-25T09:32:00.006-05:00

I will stop dead in my tracks, almost drive off the road, stop listening to someone talking to me . . . for the birds. As I was getting into my car after work the other day I noticed this little flock in the tree. It was odd because usually there is just one lone mockingbird yelling about in this area. And then I gasped when I realized what they were, tufted titmice!!!! Do you see there little crests? Up close you could see their yellow bellies as well. (Click on the pictures to enlarge them.) I have only seen a tufted titmouse on occasion, never have I seen a whole flock of them! So cool, their mohawks silhouetted against the sky. I love birds.

My Park Loves Me

2010-03-14T18:08:00.008-05:00

Last weekend was "It's My Park Day" in Austin! 3 hours of clearing out barbed wire and fencing from my favorite park in Austin- Mayfield Nature Preserve!
Where the peacocks live! ❤

Peacock crossing

Heart

Sentinels

Partner in crime

All the fencing and barbed wire we eradicated.
Happy animals.
More of my peacock pictures here.

Change is Good

2010-03-07T20:24:00.006-06:00

February was largely a blur. A busy and stressful blur. My craft table would get cleaned and organized just to quickly get covered with papers and nonsense having nothing to do with creating. Frustration and need for change. Tension building and building and then suddenly everything has changed. The one last thing holding me back from the change I needed is finally out of my life.

Here's to Spring. Change. Growth. Renewal.

Zombies are cute too

2010-02-21T11:53:00.008-06:00

I love when gross things are made cute. These watercolors by EmiBoz on Etsy are so awesome. How does one make zombie cats look so cute? And you know I'm a sucker for anything with anatomical hearts! I love the little phrase too! I may have to buy the heart one at some point. It would be a great addition to my wall of little frames and art I have in my room. :-)

Check out her super sweet website/blog/gallery too
http://www.creepalicious-inc.com/index.html
I am a little in love with all of her work!

❤

2010-02-14T13:20:00.011-06:00

Love . . . one of my favorite subjects ☺

Happy Love Day. All images found on weheartit

A Reason to Celebrate

2010-02-07T11:37:00.006-06:00

A Masquerade Ball

in honor of the birth of the

macabre Edgar Allan Poe and piquant Tara Lynn

Vegan cupcakes with handmade cake toppers

A morbid photo booth

Mad revelers

A happy birthday girl!

Winter

2010-01-05T22:16:00.010-06:00

Hello. I am a little behind in my blogging, I see. December was a busy and reflective month. I think I was pensive for the entire month, really. Sometimes the words just don't come out in blog form. Instead I am needing to write, draw and create a lot more. I'm getting the New Year off to a bit of a slow start also, which seems hard to do as the days seem to be moving so fast.

I think I am still reflecting on this past year and thinking about this new year. I believe I will be ready to get it out by the time the real New Year starts- January 19th, my birthday. :-)

I do have many pictures to share from projects and adventures. Here is a handful from visiting home over the holidays.

More photos from home on my flickr.

Happy

2009-12-24T22:39:00.006-06:00

Happy Holidays.
Lovely to be home in Wisconsin with the family.

I have been MIA from blogging this month.
It's been full, busy and contemplative.
I love that cold weather, being home and the new year gets me daydreaming and reflecting.
I'm going to try and get up the nerve to take a walk in the snow tomorrow.

Easy heart

2009-11-28T16:26:00.009-06:00

For Thanksgiving this year my best friend and I decided to do things a little different. He had the genius idea to make sushi and y'all know I love making sushi! And it was also perfect for someone who doesn't eat meat or dairy. I wasn't quite sure I could survive my first Thanksgiving without multiple servings of Green Bean Casserole.

I spent the day cleaning, decorating, cooking and baking. It was lovely.

Here is the centerpiece I made. Oh ya know, the usual, roses and skulls.

And here is the spread! It was so beautiful once it was all together. Homemade sushi, deviled eggs laying on lettuce from my patio garden, a delicious salad with homemade peanut sauce dressing, and loads of tempura!!

We made some amazing sushi with sweet potatoes, avocados, shrimp, carrots, shiitake mushrooms, carrots and cucumbers. We made tempura sweet potatoes, avocados, shrimp and bok choy as well. Oh my goodness shrimp and avocado tempura in sushi is heaven.
It was all crazy good!

I contemplated making pumpkin pie, but went for vegan chocolate cupcakes instead to complete the non-traditional theme. And how cute are the cake toppers with mushrooms, grass and deer! I love them.

We invited some close friends to share in the deliciousness and had a lovely lovely evening. The food was deliriously good! And the company- grand! I vote for sushi, wine and cupcakes for Thanksgiving every year!

This year has been a challenging year, but I am thankful for oh so many things.
I am thankful for wine and cupcakes.
I am thankful for close, wonderful friends that make me feel so very lucky.
I am thankful for my easy heart that falls for something new everyday.
I am thankful for my job, that doesn't feel like a job because of my lovely co-workers/friends.
I am so thankful for the kids I work with, I will always need them more than they need me.
I am thankful for art, creativity, passion and beauty.
I am thankful for personal freedom. Freedom from control, abuse, and fear. Freedom to be.
I am thankful for the people who dedicate their lives to helping others.
I am thankful for best friends moving to Austin.
I am thankful for coffee.
I am thankful for Queen.
I am thankful that, regardless of what is going on my life, I am still a positive and thankful person.
I am thankful for beautiful strong women in my life, my mother, my sisters and my friends.
I am thankful for unconditional love.
And this year I am thankful for . . . me. My strength, my resilience and ability to endure. How I can change, adapt and am still stay true to myself. My ability to face challenges with courage, confidence and love. I am proud of myself, despite it all, I feel good, I feel healthy and I feel love everywhere.

Paper Roses

2009-11-21T16:33:00.009-06:00

Oh, how I love roses.

I found this lovely little DIY project idea a couple weekends ago. I find so many little projects that I want to do and they always end up piling up somewhere. But this one was just too cool that I made immediately. And because I happened to have all the materials already in the house!

The original idea was to attach the newspaper roses to dowels and paint the dowels. I wanted something more organic. I was looking for sticks outside when I remembered I had this plant that had died. I went over and pulled the stems out of the dirt, roots and all, and used those.

I was quite happy to find a use for this awesome green jar that had been sitting empty on the shelf. I really love how the roses look sitting in this green jar, it's like a little sculpture. The little display of roses is sitting on the floor in the living room. I just love the roots all tangled together in the jar, lovely.

Here is the link to the project if you want to give it a try!

Matters of the heart

2009-11-15T20:19:00.008-06:00

A work in progress.

I've been doing some work on the heart. I've always had a little obsession with the anatomy of the heart, but I've had the heart on my mind a lot more these days. I've been drawing, painting and collaging the heart and I'm getting ready to attempt to crochet one. I'm enjoying sitting down to paint again. Painting is something that has never come naturally to me, but I enjoy. I haven't worked in watercolor in a long time, it's been fun trying to manipulate the medium again.

This last piece is finished and hanging in the living room.
The heart in the center is watercolor, the background is a collage of a vintage map.

Finding it's way.

Another One Bites the Dust

2009-11-07T15:04:00.021-06:00

If you don't already know about my absolute love for a certain band then you're about to be enlightened. My love for Queen is beyond explanation. They are more than my favorite band. I have to make myself stop listening to Queen sometimes because I start talking about them so much that people get annoyed. I have so many favorite Queen songs that I am putting together a "Tara's Essential Queen" mix. There is a Queen song that fits almost anything happening in my life. Sometimes when I am stressed or frustrated with something I will listen to a few Queen cds and inevitably there is a song that gives me some inspirational push. I can not listen to Queen without thrusting my arms out in front of me and belting the lyrics.

And Freddie Mercury. . . ohhhh. One time I asked my dear friend Reem, who is a music teacher, to explain Freddie's singing to me. I'm not musically inclined so I really didn't understand how Freddie could hit all those notes in one song and still sound good? Like, how could sound good singing so low and so high in one song, like within one word being belted out? Reem gave me that look that she gave me the first time she heard me sing "Come Sail Away" but then realized I was serious. She took me over to her piano and explained scales and notes or something. Eventually she said, "He just knows." That's all I needed.

And that's all I can say before I just go on and on. . . .

So for Halloween this year, I thought it was about time I embodied the man himself- Freddie. And because I'm a nerd for Queen I had to go and get all obscure with my reference. I decided to dress as Freddie from the "Another One Bites the Dust" video.

This is the best picture I could find other than the video itself. I spent an entire day gathering the supplies needed. I even searched for a belt that had the little metal point on the end of it like the one he's wearing. And I even looked for the white adidas sneakers he's wearing, but thought buying shoes just for the costume that I'd probably never wear again was a little excessive. My converse were pretty close.

Here is my pile of supplies. Notice the many mustaches. I spent a lot of time deciding which was the best one. I ended up wearing one and packing backups in my purse just in case! And of course, after dancing for a few hours my mustache fell off and needed to be replaced.

Once in my Freddie outfit I was a little crazy for it.

I just wanted to Be Freddie All Night.

I just wanted to sing and dance to Queen songs. Every chance I had I was posing like Freddie. There are a ton of photos of me trying to pose.
My friends would only indulge me so much, I probably could have posed all night.

And at the end of the evening when the dancing started. . . oh dear. I waited patiently and danced to Michael Jackson until I couldn't take it anymore and ran and got my Queen cd. I really could have danced and sang to Queen all night! I danced and sang my mustache off, literally. How could I not? Queen is fucking amazing! And Freddie!

Oh, just watch the video, below, for Another One Bites the Dust and see for yourself.
And tell me I didn't look just like him!!!

Seriously, we're like the same person. :-)

Look at us!

Pure Love for Queen right here. Love!