Holidaze....

Hope everyone had a great thanksgiving! I know that we did. We spent it in Rock Island with Rob's family.

The thrift store gods smiled upon Rock Island when they gave them Fred & Ethel's. Fred & Ethel's is a small thrift shop that is PACKED with awesomeness. If I lived in Rock Island, it would surely be the death of my bank account. LOVED IT.

Across the street is another great place called DooDads. At DooDad's we found a kick ass Noguchi inspired coffee table. It's not exactly like this one, but you can definitely see that someone admired the guy. It will fit in nicely in the new and improved living room...once that's done.

We visited DWR this weekend in the Central West End. It was a bittersweet visit for me as I realized that DWR is heaven on earth, but was sad to discover that The Grind was gone. While the area looks like it's getting a pretty cool modern face lift, I was in love with the Grind, but had not been down to see it recently. I was very sad to discover it was completely gone.

I've registered for my Spring courses today, so Drawing I, here I come! Yet another semester of learning 2 pt perspective and drawing a city block or floating cubes. Phooey. I'm hoping that it will a.) be an easy A. b.) be a class I enjoy and c.) get me thinking creatively and working again.

I'm also taking Intermediate Algebra... which will make my head hurt and therefore make my drawings turn out angry. Yay. Me.

Tonight I head on back to the gym! That's something I can be excited about! If anyone out there owns and Ipod, can you recommend a good arm band?

Great Strides

I've just registered to walk the Great Strides: Taking Steps to Cure Cystic Fibrosis walk on May 5, 2007.

As some of you may know, my brother was born with CF and 4 years ago on Halloween, he had surgery for a double lung transplant. That's right, they took the lungs he was born with and replaced them with someone else's. It's an amazing procedure.

At 14, my brother was considered middle-aged for a person with CF. Before the transplant, at 17, my brother's health was rapidly declining. He was on oxygen all the time, and not just a little O2, but A LOT. We put a fridge in his room because he was too weak to walk to the main refrigerator... in the next room. He used a feeding tube every night to pump 1200 calories into him so he could gain weight. One of his larger health accomplishments was breaking 100 lbs when he was 16.

My brother was fortunate enough to receive lungs at 17. Since that time he's gotten his GED, his drivers license, and attended college. While this disease is not well known to most people, it's been a part of my life since I was three. The CF foundation does great things for CF research. Please help support me by going here and making a donation.

Via Text

Kim: K. Sigh. I feel like a stupid 16 year old. Again. Sheesh.

Me: Maybe that is because you texted "sigh" to your bff4e?

Kim: lol. rotfl, btw. nasa

Me: Nasa? That's a new one.

Kim: Not really. It's the National Aeronautic and Space Administration. It was the only other acronym I could think of real quick.

Jealous?

This is my new t-shirt. It's from an art show called, "What the deuce are you staring at!?!"

It's Brian as done by Luke Chueh. He's an artist I've admired for a while now and I was as happy as could be to have a piece of his work in some way, shape, or form.

Jealous? You should be.

One day I'll fly away...

A while back, I posted that I would have big news. The big news is that I'm quitting my current job and starting to work as an artist for an embroidery and print shop. Now, because this is a small business I will be working for, they do not offer benefits or take out taxes from my paycheck. This has started me thinking about setting up my own business.

I know nothing about setting up and running a business, but that's where my husband comes in. He knows plenty, and I'm ready to learn. As of right now, he's thinking I'll need to form an LLC. It's all new to me, so I'm sure I'll be posting all about it here.

Currently, I'm taking suggestions for a business name.

This crazy little thing called blog.

This Friday we're having a gathering of friends at our home for a Thanksgiving-ish dinner. If you don't know me, I love the holidays. There is something about cold weather that brings out my inner-baker, inner-martha (stewart, that is), and my inner-domestic goddess. My plans for the coming weeks include purchasing a tree, decorating the house, baking TONS of cookies, and knitting. Could I be any happier?

Of course life, school, homework, work and other things will get in the way, but I'm going to try to make the best of my blustery days. I'm thinking that my house will be decorated in this color scheme for the holidays. It fits with my style and existing colors in the house.

You will also notice that I've added a new item to the right side of the page. This is a list of selected posts from sites I subscribe to via RSS. Using Google Reader I can choose to share certain ones and they'll be posted here. Look for mostly holiday recipes and other assorted holiday fun.

Itchin' for a knittin'

Recently, I've been drooling over various knitting patterns I've found on the web. The problem? None of them are flat. Why must they be flat? Because I'm lame. I still haven't learned how to knit anything but flat items - scarves, blankets, iPod cozies, etc. Amber over at My Aim is True was kind enough to link me to this site for assistance. She was not kind enough to wave some sort of magic wand and give me time to look it over. (Stupid school/work/house/life)

I've decided that I need to come up with a plan for stupid school/work/house/life. I'm sick of not having enough time to think much less do anything else. The first step is for me to actually get my homework done ahead of time. How do I plan on doing this? I really don't know. I'm hoping to get caught up today, but it'll be next Monday that will be the challenge. If I can start getting my math homework done ahead of time, then I can start going back to the gym after work. This will make Andrea very happy.

As a part of this planning, I also plan on finally working in the Couch to 5K program. I've talked about it before, but I'm ready to buckle down and do it. I almost think that these past few weeks and the past few days when I've really been wanting to go to the gym have helped my motivation. It's making me want it more.

All I need to do is come up with a meal/diet plan for the coming weeks, and I will be set to go!

Oh, I wish I was an Oscar Meyer weiner...

Yeah. That's running through my head. Don't you wish you were me?

Last night I did not sleep well at all. I tossed and turned all night, couldn't get comfortable and was too damn hot. For those of you who don't know me, I get these sort of hot flashes where my body temperature will suddenly rise and I'll be sweaty and red. It's hot, trust me. (Hot! Get it! HA!) These don't just happen overnight. They happen all. the. time. Let me tell you, a 25 year old with hot flashes = not fun. I swear I'm going to be one of those people who spontaneously combusts. All you'll find left of me is a shin and my wee little skull.

But I have about 40 years before that happens so until then, it's causing me to be functioning at about 40% today. (This post is brought to you by the number 40.) As a result of my not getting enough sleep, I have a headache that seems to lay docile and just throb every once in a while. (Usually about the time I think it has gone away...) and a mild stomach ache.

While I wish I could go home and sleep on my lunch break, I don't know if that would actually help me or not. Instead, my plans are to head to the local Social Security office to get my name officially changed over to Lammle. After that, I'm going to grab lunch and the world's largest cup of coffee and head back to work. We'll see, though. They are having my favorite soup at Panera, so soup and nap might prevail. (I'll keep everyone posted... I'm sure this is a saga that you'll want to follow.)

Tonight I have my web design class. I have started over on my site and now I'm trying to choose content. I'm taking this rather seriously, because I'm thinking about actually creating and maintaining the site, not just doing it for a project. The domain of NerdyArtist is available, so it might be mine in a week or so. I have to say, I'm torn on the whole thing. I don't know if NerdyArtist is something I want to keep using or if I should find another way to refer to myself. At least a new name for a site. I'm open to suggestions, so send them my way.

I suppose that I should get back to "work" now, and by work, I mean staring at the screen willing this caffeine to kick in.

It's not working.

Packing my polynomials and going home!

Bloody hell. Does anyone hate math more than me? Rob might. Might. I'm an art kid. Art kids don't do math! A few other things we don't do are team sports, grunting, frat parties or allow Freddy Prinze Jr to make the "art-kid" trendy.

I have a math test tonight. I'm currently deciding whether or not I want to a.) curl up under my desk and weep softly or b.) begin repeating "Math + Me = Mediocrity!"

I'm also trying to decide what I'm taking next semester. What do you think, internet? Drawing I or Design I?

The other class I'm taking next semester? More freakin' math. I must hate myself.

Cosmetichat

Soniya, Liz, anyone else (ha! Like anyone else reads this!)... our cosmetic discussions go here.

I'm opening up discussion by responding to the comments from my makeup brush post -

I just washed my brushes last night with a little shampoo. Most of them turned out fantastico, but I'll probably invest in a the MAC brush wash, since it's not that expensive. My eye shadow brushes were able to regain a shape that I only vaguely remember them having. My blush brush is continuing to fall apart and my powder brush continues to be pointy, fake, and awful.

I'm trying to come up with a good list of brushes that the average girl can't live without. So far, I'm up to smudge, concealer, blush, powder, and blending. Eyebrow maybe once I have something to actually put on my eyebrows.

Throw in your two rusty coppers on what brushes you love.

Soniya - I love applying my foundation with a brush. It takes a little longer, but I like the look of it once it's applied. If I'm in a hurry, I'll use that sponge. I didn't get the MAC brush tho, I bought the Sonia Kashuk one from Target and am very pleased with it.

Question for the Internet!

Ladies, what makeup brushes do you use and love? I'm looking to start collecting some decent ones and stop using these things that shed all over my face. (No, that's NOT a mustache...)

Has anyone tried to use just good quality artist brushes for this?

Of course, in a perfect world, I'd have this in a heartbeat, with a few additional brushes to round things out, but we don't live in a perfect world, do we?

On a random sidenote, I really hate to sit back and watch bad things happen to what seems to be good people. There are two parents here to bail out their kid, and they were prepared to pay $300 for his bond... they were informed that he was charged with a few additional things while he was here. I think the mother is just heartbroken. I feel bad for them.

Sardines! Sardines!

It's a play weekend.

I certainly wish that I meant that this was a weekend for me to run around and have fun, but alas, it is not. It is a weekend of working Friday and Saturday evening, and Sunday afternoon. It's a weekend of not having a real weekend. Aren't you jealous? I'd be willing to bet you're more jealous of the fact that I'm sitting near the police department entrance and get to assist a rather colorful cast of characters as they mistake me for a receptionist.

Starring (in order of appearance)
Underage Drinking Kid!
My-Shit-Got-Stolen Lady!
Mr. No-Really-This-Is-A-Misunderstanding!
Bailing-Out-My-Baby-Daddy chic!

I'm sure you can guess how the list goes on and on.

But the real highlight of the weekend will be the volunteers that feel the need to tell me how wrong I'm doing everything. No, really... i love my job.

And then you have the downtime. Like now... I'm sure this weekend will be filled with pointless posts (example - see this post) that I write in order to fill the time and ignore my math homework/studying.

Does the fun ever stop?

I must kill Frank Drebin.

I suppose it is Friday, now isn't it? It doesn't seem like it to me, but that's because I have to work all freakin' weekend because the community theatre is having a production and everyone's favorite assistant has to sell tickets and concessions. Fun times!

Other plans for the weekend?
-Try my hand at home screen printing a shirt or two
-Clean! Clean! Clean!
-The great clothing overhaul starring Andrea with Rob in a supporting role.
-Organize the closet!
-Put away laundry!
-Kill a drifter!

As you can see, my weekend is action-freakin' packed. I really am not sure how I will contain my excitement.

And speaking of excitement - big news to come in future weeks. (No. I'm not pregnant.) Don't touch that dial!