Paint's Peeling

If you can believe it, more painting.

Mike: "Maybe if we sing, the time will go by faster."
JeanaLe: "This is the job that never ends..."

We took 5 to go outside and greet the storm clouds. It was funny how the rain started by dropping a few extra-large drops and then beginning to pour.
I got paint in my eye, more than usual... all over my contact. Eww! I got it off though.
E-mailed this shirt design off to a screen printer for a quote. What do you think of it? I have no Idea how much things like that cost, but I hope they are reasonable because I have a lot of shirt designs in my mind.
Eric and Owen came by tonight. Owen brought Smarties for Barb and I. (Barb, I will hang on to your box for you.)
The Urban Myth board game was on ebay at a decent price, and I won the bid, so I now have a package in the mail to look forward to. Who knows, it may even beat my new macbook pro to the door!

(Rilo Kiley)

Here It Goes Again

Back to work.
Paint the walls.
My Mac spent the morning in tech services. (It pays to live next door to my school!)
I am now prepared for the worst! I have all of my files on an external hard drive they are loaning me, and I get to babysit a smaller mac in case mine dies again before my new one comes in. We hope it will be coming monday/tuesday.

For your enjoyment, I have posted a picture of a picture, well two pictures. These two pictures are framed and stuck on my grandparent's refrigerator. On the left is my mother, the right is my little sister. I stare at this every time we go there, I just can't get over the resemblance.

(OK Go)

Laughing City

We Headed for home today, but made a very special stop along the way. We had lunch with my Aunt, Uncle, & cousin at their new house. It is so cool! It has 5 different levels, and the rooms seem to never end!
I love when we get together with them. My Uncle has what they like to call "humor turret syndrome", and I'm thinking my dad has it too... This means, they cannot contain their jokes, it just comes out. I wouldn't want it any other way! When they get going we all join in too and feed off of each others jokes.
My Aunt is an amazing cook! It was so great to fill up on her amazing food before hitting the road again.

We made it home barely in time for the 4400. I had forgotten to set the VCR, but I ran to the TV only about 2 minutes into the show. For those of you that watch, a few thoughts:
I don't think Alana is coming back any time soon, and I am really hoping for Tom and Diane to get together.
If the show wants to have Jordan Collier as a paralell to Jesus Christ, thats fine by me, but it seems a little too close. JC, the line about giving and taking away people's abilities, the beard and long hair...
Sean looks emo now.
I knew art girl wasn't real, but I wish she was. Then Kyle could date her. :)

I made this little business guy in the car. He is all ready for a day at the office!

(Eisley)

...Baby One More Time

Today is the day my relatives come over to the grandparent's house to visit and introduce us to the newest member of the family. Her name is Ruby. Now, I am not really one to get excited about kids. I usually have to get to know them a little before I get attached, but I completely fell for this little girl. To my surprise, I really wanted to hold her. I think it was because she was very calm and content, a little wiggly, but pretty snuggly too. She slept a lot, as seen above snuggled into her mother's arms.
My little sister grew up the baby of the family, then my cousins got married and had kids. I think it was hard for her to adjust to it, but now that the baby of the family is once again a girl, she is happy.
My mom took my sister and I to the thrift store down the road, and I got some shoes. I found a really awesome board game, but it was missing some pieces, so I have decided to look for it elsewhere. It is called Urban Myth, and the box immediately caught my eye, and I'm sure that is no surprise to you.
Later, my Grandma got out all of her jewelry to go through and pass on to me. I got tons of stuff, some to re-make into new pieces, and some very meaningfull things. I now have both her's and my Grandpa's class rings, her sorority pin, a cuckoo-clock pin from Germany, and several other interesting things.

Bad news of the day, still waiting for my new computer, but this one up and died today. It did the same thing it did last time, when they said I needed a new hard drive. It has gone waaay past the last straw w/ this whole apple deal. I am so frustrated.

(Bowling For Soup)

Underwater

Today we headed for Nebraska to visit the extended fam (on my mom's side). I eagerly volunteered to do some driving part way through the trip, never having driven our new Prius before. After about a half hour, the skies opened up and before I knew it I could barely see in front of the car, the lines began to vanish, and all of the other cars were putting on their hazards and pulling over or getting off the road. I asked my parents if they wanted me to keep driving, but they suggested that I take the next exit. (They seemed much more nervous than I was, and I was driving!) I couldn't even see a sign, I just followed the taillights of the car in front of me. As we got off the highway, the roads were floaded with muddy water, we didn't know where we were, I saw one building and just pulled into the parking lot. My dad called my uncle to check for tornado warnings and such. He said there was high winds and flash flooding, but it should pass over in about 15 minutes. So we sat, and when it cleared we could see the warm and comforting glow of a Target store across the parking lot.
My dad and I made a mad dash through the rain to switch drivers, and pressed on. I got to see something pretty spectacular later. The sky was really bright along the horizon, and it made this one dark cloud illuminated so that you could see the rain falling from it and blowing about. There was such a distinct line between the clear sky and the rainy sky. I thought it was really interesting.
We made it to Grandma's house eventually.

In keeping with the rain theme, here's a shot that I took last week.

(Death Cab For Cutie/All Time Quarterback)

With Arms Outstreched

I just found out the most exciting and wonderful news - are you ready for this?

RILO KILEY IS COMING OUT WITH A NEW CD THIS AUGUST!
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
I am so unbelievably escited about this! It is called 'Under the Black Light'.
AND this means a tour! I've never gotten to see them play, and I really really want to, but they have not been touring for quite some time, so now I will finally have a chance!

HOORAY!

I eagerly await this new album with arms outstreched!

(Rilo Kiley)

Let It Slide

Some advice:
Sometimes, you gotta keep on pushing through, and not give up or lose hope.
Bu sometimes, you gotta learn to let it slide.
I need to take my own advice here...

"It's time to draw the line
To draw the fire
Why'd you never know
The time to let go
The time to move aside
To let it slide"

(Keane)

Capturing Moods

I went to the doctor today, a nasal specialist actualy. I was pretty excited because I am so sick of being congested and I really want to find a solution. He had to numb my nose with some spray and look inside with a microscope. Very strange. Now he wants me to get a cat scan and allergy testing, and since I have tried many medications already, getting shots may be my only option. ::sigh::

Well, as promised, here are some more photos for you. (shot by Eric Secker)
First we have Lauren sporting the pinstripe jacket purse, with an "everyhting nice" bracelet on her wrist, and a little stuffed dog in her hand.
Jessica shows off a set of six 1" buttons packaged in a casette tape case, with a ribbon bracelet on her wrist and a dinosaur keychain, humorously hung from her gauged ear.
The last picture features my paintings of some women who inspire me, Twiggy, Edie, and Audrey.


(Rilo Kiley)

A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You

Day two of the photo shoot. More photos by Eric Secker. You really are awesome for helping me out! And of course, thank you very much to the Lovely Lauren and Jazzy Jess for being my hott models in even hotter weather. I even pulled my little sister Meredith into some shots. There are a lot of pictures, so I will be using them in the next several posts, so be sure to check back for more!

Lauren is wearing a 3/4 sleeve turtleneck with three plaid umbrellas floating down the front. I stitched the umbrellas with fabric and felt.
Jessica has on a long sleeved button up shirt which I hand embroidered two cars onto the back in red. It also has some red stitching on the collar and cuffs.
In the last shot, we are all holding some of my bags such as the pinstripe jacket purse, panda tote, multi-colored rabbit tote, and the skyline purse.

The bad news of the day, a colony of earwigs has decided to storm our castle by way of a window well. It is absolutely disgusting!! Parents to the rescue, saving my sister and I from the very scary creepy crawlies.
Oh, and I'm still sick, but getting better -- I think.


(The Monkees)

Metro

Today was day one of my big photo shoot project to promote my work. I decided that I need some nice pictures of my work actually being used. These photos are by Eric Secker of Piazza Design. (Blog link at the side --> )
And a big Thank You to Justin (--->) for being an awesome model despite extremely hot weather.
Hope you like the ties, I added a new one!

p.s. Still sick :(


(Alkaline Trio)

I Feel So...

...yucky. I am very under the weather, but trying to press on. I feel like doing nothing at all, but I have many things to get done. I missed a little work, but I made it up by working several hours over on monday, before I started to feel this bad. We are well into the painting phase at creekside. It looks wonderful, and painting is a lot of fun, but there is still much tearing out and sanding going on, not making my sinuses feel any better.

I think that everyone needs to watch the new tv show Creature Comforts monday nights on channel 2. It is so funny! They record people answering questions and then use their voices for claymation characters. This week, one of the topics was art, I laughed so much. It was brilliant! I think that it may be another one of those shows originally done in England, and re-done for the US using the same title. Oh well, I still love it.

(Box Car Racer)

Time To Go

Now we head back home, after a lovely journey. Thank you for everything Webers!
Happy Birthday Hannah!

(Dropkick Murphys)

Childhood Memories

What a day. We went back to my old neighborhood for a trip down my memory lane. I have not really been back there since I lived there eight years ago. We saw my favorite park, and if you look past the sign in the picture you can see a rock. This rock has a plaque on it with the names of me and everyone else in my 5th grade class because we raised a lot of money to plant trees and things in the park. I was very glad to see that it was still there. It really makes me feel like it really is my park. We had a lovely picnic lunch there, found some graffiti, and then went for a stroll past my old house and my elementary school. It closed down after my 5th grade year and now it has been made into an apartment building. Then it was off to Bonnie Doon for some really awesome ice cream! We cam back and it was time for Hannah to be the tour guide. She drove us around where she has grown up and off to the beach that is actually named for her family and one other family that both founded it. We got to see the sunset over Lake Michigan, as we waved across to Chicago. Everyone has had such an amazing time. I hope we can do more things like this in the future.

(British Sea Power)

One for the Road

Well, this was day one of our roadtrip, and I am pleased to tell you that it went very smoothly. Sally and I managed to navigate our way through chicago, into indiana, and up to michigan to stay with hannah. Then we all drove to get barb for a big sleepover weekend @ hannah's. I've had so much fun today and I can't wait for tomorrow!

(Before Summer Ends)

Sweetest Thing

My Sweet Jessie package arrived today! I love Love LOVE it! Actually, it is a lot like an idea that I have been working on. I hope to start some kind of monthly goodie bag subscription.

These little items are so cute! Everyone needs to hop on over to her blog and take a peek.

http://www.sweetjessie.com/ or click the link on the side -->


(U2)

Consequence of Sounds

Well, I'm sure you are all dying to hear the dramatic conclusion to my Apple story. We didn't let it go. My dad talked to someone higher up in and they took a look at my case and they have decided to give me a new computer, which is actually better than the model I have. It is the same size, just upgraded. It is the latest and greatest release from Apple; faster and more eco-friendly. I might end up transfering my files without their help this time, but I am willing to let go of that issue because they are giving me a new computer.

No more crazy sounds! Yay!

Well, today I am getting everything for the big trip this weekend. Me and three of my friends from college discovered that we all have a connection to an area in Indiana, so we planned a trip back there. It will be really crazy to see where I lived for seven years, my house, my elementary school, everything. I haven't been back there in eight years. I wonder how much it has changed.

My little sister and I had a dollar store adventure today. We found a clear clip-on cover for her cell phone, and we added some wrapping paper to it. I think it looks pretty nice!

(Regina Spektor)

On the Table

My most recent work is this little guy. Not a very good picture, sorry.

Ahh, work. Yesterday I scrubbed tables for so long that my hands smelled of bleach & remained pruny well into the evening. Then today we had to move all of those tables into another room, only to be told later on that there was a mistake and we had to put them all back again. Eric and Owen showed up, which was really awesome! I miss seeing you guys everyday. It is so strange to think that I can thirve in an environment where I am surrounded by people but be equally happy on my own.

I have been going through one of my "why can't I be done w/ school?" phases. I am very excited about being back at college, I plan on doing a lot of fun things over the next three years. I just want to be done with the stress of school, and there is so much living to be done after college that I just want to be at that point now. Mainly, I just want to stop this shuffleing between home and dorm rooms and go find my wonderful (dog friendly) Chicago apartment.

(A.C. Newman)

Skyline Drive

More rainy weather here. Went to work. Recycled some magazines, packed up books and moved some boxes. Adam called me! It was so very nice to hear from you dear!
The new issue of ReadyMade came today. Hooray!

Here are the latest projects of mine. A pointing hand necklace to go with those earings I posted earlier. As well as a new purse I painted and stitched on.

(Mae)

Pleasant Valley Sunday

Went to Goodwill with my mom today. I found these wonderful ties. I am sure they will make another appearance on the blog after I add my own little touch.

(The Monkees)

Trouble

Friday was a horrible day, but a good night.
I still had not recieved my call from Apple, so I decided to call them and find out why it was taking so long, only to learn that it was ready. Who knows how long it had been ready, but they were supposed to call and tell me and they didn't. So I went in and got it, came home, tried to open itunes, it was locked, called apple support, fixed that, opened iphoto, not a single one of my pictures was there... all kinds of problems kept popping up, but I eventually got the pictures back where they belong. You see, we had to pay them $99 for some care plan so that they would transfer all of my files over for me, but I guess they didn't care if I could access them or not. I ended up spending 3 HOURS on the phone with 7 DIFFERENT PEOPLE! Now add that to the 2 trips to their store in february to have a part replaced, and 2 trips in the past week to have another part replaced, all since I bought the thing last June. Well guess what, it is STILL MAKING THAT CRAZY NOISE! The 7th guy I talked to yesterday wants to look into my case, but I think that I am going to have to make a very special visit to the Apple store and demand that they give me a new computer and perhaps a significant refund from their horrible data transfer work. I hate to get upset with the employees that are not to blame for it, but when I picked up my computer yesterday, before I knew about all these new problems, I most definately expressed how upset I was. I feel like they are not very concerned about the fact that my $2000 computer started falling apart after about 6 months of use. That just is not supposed to happen, but wait, it as happened before to me. I bought an ipod mini from them a while back, and after only 2 weeks of use i had to send it in and get a new one because it was defective. Hmm... every time I bite into an Appple I find half of a worm.

Well, now that I released some steam,
onto the good night I mentioned.
I got together with a group of friends that hasn't all been together in over a year. It was a blast! We had some strange conversations, as usual. I am still amazed that we managed to sync our schedules enought to pull it off!
::sigh:: It was great to see all of you girls. I love you so much.


(Coldplay)