tongue in chic journalings

Transitions

So this move has been a big life transition for me. One of the biggest adjustments for me is that I really miss my friends. And having friends in general. Jeff and I just haven't found a niche yet, and I'm kind of a workaholic so our social circle is really limited. And of my closest girlfriends here, one is my boss and the other lives 45 minutes north. Which is actually not so bad except for the fact that I am a terrible driver who got lost for 20 minutes yesterday in my own town about 10 minutes from my apartment.

I was sort of used to having this social life where I went out a lot. For being such a needy person with all sorts of crippling emotional issues, Jeff and I really have a lot of independence in our marriage. He'd go play sports, or poker, or whatever and I'd go out with my girlfriends. But like I said, we haven't found our niche yet. So no sports for Jeff or malling dates for me.

And normally I make friends super easily. I'd like to believe this is because I'm really fun to hang out with, but it's probably just because I look twelve so people like to take me to the movies and get the child priced ticket.

In any case, I haven't made friends as easily up here, so last week I sent out a personal ad to all the people I've met here so far inviting them to be my friend.

I realize that totally reeks of desperation, but don't worry... I can top it.

I got an invitation to a party a few weeks ago from one of the girl I met up here.

And I went running into the den yelling to Jeff "Someone invited me to a party! Someone invited me to a party!"

And then I had this flashback to the 6th grade and realized that life at age 25 and life at age 12 might not be so different...

revenge

Do you remember this post?

I have a long memory y'all. I bide my time. I do it right. You should see my husband's bathroom now...

Happy Birthday To Me Like, Two Weeks Early

I don't normally promote things on my blog unless than are totally grandtastic. I just made up that word. But my early birthday present to myself came today and I am so completely stoked about it. I like to use the word stoked so that I sound like a surfer girl.

About 2 months ago I saw this purse on etsy.com that I thought was to die for. But since Jeff and I have this goal of buying a house next year, we're trying not to spend any money. So I thought I'd wait til my birthday. Only then the purse sold. The audacity. And I mourned it terribly. I looked all over for another birthday purse but it was hopeless. I even looked at the same purse made by the same seller in other patterns, but I craved the polka dots. I knew no other purse would satisfy me. I'm very dramatic about purses. Besides, I've carried my Vera Bradley since 2004, so this was a very big purchase for me. My first new purse in 4 years.

Finally, I emailed the seller and asked her if she would custom make me the same purse. Which actually made me feel a tad bit diva-ish. But she was super kind and went and bought the fabric and made me the purse.

It came this morning and it is even more fabulous than I imagined, all sturdy with a cute little polka dot pocket on the inside. Not too big, not too little.

I am so in love.

So if you're in the market for a purse, check out PlanetK. I was completely impressed by how fast it shipped and her customer service and seamstress-ness-ship. I don't really know what the word I'm looking for there is. But my new purse rocks. Happy birthday to me!

Also, check out the new video up at Scrap In Style Tv. It is the funniest thing ever.

Three Things

1) I gave in and just programmed the talk radio station into my car. I told Jeff about this on our way home from Chili's last night (thanks for the giftcard Mimi!) because he turned me and said "Honey, is that Adventures In Odessy" on your radio that I hear? And that's when I told him about just giving in to the talk radio and he just buried his head in his hands and said "my wife. my wife."

2) When we moved here we got a new washer and dryer. They weren't really new, just new and free to us (thanks Ansley!) I discovered last night while doing laundry at midnight that I had no idea where the lint catcher thingy was in this new dryer. Then I realized that I've lived here for 5 months. Apparently I have an aversion to laundry. This could be because the washer is possessed by the spirit of some sort of ancient rain dancer I believe. Whenever we put a load of laundry in (we being Jeff) it shimmies its way across the laundry closet. And since the laundry closet is just that: a closet, it's totally understandable that I am afraid of the washer attacking me as it lurches across this room. And so this is why I don't do laundry. Amen.

3) Someone please tell me how you teach a husband that bowls should not be places any which way in the dishwasher. Plates should not go diagonally. Bowls and glasses should not be crammed on the same row. There are ROWS for goodness sakes. There are clear cut lines IN the dishwasher. 1 year. 5 months. 365+days of rearranging everything in the dishwasher before I run it. And he wonders why I beat myself in the face with a frying pan every time I do dishes.

Jeff gave me a CD with some music on it to lift my spirits. And this song has been resonating with me, so I scrapped it :) Photo by the ever fabulous Shannon Wright. Lyrics by Hillsong. OH and all the digital elements are from SIStv's new digital boutique. I designed some of them too ;)

Happy Birthday SIStv!

One year ago today was the launch of Scrap In Style Tv. I had no idea then that a year later I'd be living in Tennessee and working for them. How cool is that? I think we should have cake at the office today. Because who doesn't want to eat cake?
And just because it's that time of year where I talk about my birthday every chance I get, I have a little public service announcement for you all.

PSA: Today there are only 22 shopping days left until my birthday.
PSA #2: Head over to SIStv today, we have some awesome giveaways going on!

Happy Birthday SIStv!

A Quarter Of A Century

In 23 days I am going to be 25 years old.

Today on my drive home, I realized that I've had my radio on either A) classical music or B) talk radio all week.

It's the B) talk radio that scares me.

I'm turning 25, not 65.

Why am I listening to talk radio?

Why do I ENJOY listening to talk radio?

Why am I admitting this to the entire internet?

Please buy me lots of cool presents for my birthday so that I can feel young and hip.

In other news, I got this in the mail last week:

Yes. That is a case of Cadbury Eggs.
Okay no.
That is a half-already-eaten case of Cadbury Eggs.

It totally made my day Sonja, really. I was having a crappy, crappy day when Jeff came upstairs and said "Honey? Someone FedExed you a box of Cadbury Eggs!"

I think he was concerned that maybe I had another husband stashed somewhere.

We've been eating an egg a day ever since and I'm pleased to say that I have not yet tired of them. I think the new saying should be "A Cadbury a day keeps the KA...happy" or something clever. Oh okay, "A Cadbury a day makes a happy KA."

Come on y'all, that was so good.

So if you offered to send me some, please email me your address! I don't think I need any more eggs now, but I'll send you some scrap stuff just for being sweet enough to offer.

The One With The Fondant

So today Jeff and I ran to Hobby Lobby to pick up some supplies for an upcoming project at Scrap In Style TV. We needed some fondant icing. And some floral foam. So we stop in the cake decorating section first and I picked up the icing and some candles and stuff. Then we meandered around the store looking for modeling paste. We searched for that for quite some time. We found it when some Hobby Lobby employees rolled a massive shelf of art supplies wrapped in saran wrap past us. Apparently, they were rearranging the store. And the modeling paste? It was smack dab in the middle of that saran wrapped shelf. And I just felt guilty asking  them to put the shelf down, unwrap it, and give me a $5 bottle of modeling paste. I mean, the shelf was like, an entire aisle. On dollies. So we picked up the floral foam and headed to check out. We waited in line for a few minutes.

"Honey. I don't mean to be a pansy. But can you please carry the icing? It's totally killing my arm" I pleaded

Just then, another line opened and I forgot the throbbing pain in my arm and rushed to be the first to check out. Cause I was hungry y'all.

I sat down the box of fondant and then watched the girl at the counter eye me oddly as I doubled over with laughter.

In bold letters on the front of the box it read NOW IN CONVIENANT 5 LB PACKAGE!

That WHOLE time I thought I was being a total wimp, when really I was lugging around a couple of dumbbells worth of ICING. Who knew icing could weigh as much as a newborn?

Dear Prince William, It's Inevitable.

Around the time that the movie Enchanted came out, people started telling me that I reminded them of the girl in the movie. You people know this because you, my blog readers, made up a good portion of those people. I was befuddled by this because I don't think I look anything like the girl in the movie.  And also, I said befuddled only because, how cool of a word is that?

So I finally get around to watching the movie. And at the end of it I sat there for a few minutes thinking about it. I don't feel as though I'm anything like the girl in the movie.

So I called Jeanette.

"WHAT is it exactly, I asked her, that makes people think of me when they watch this movie?"

And she had an answer right away.

"The overexagerated gestures. You're very Disney Princess when you talk" she said

Which certainly is true. Like, that one time I had to film some episodes of SIStv, I sat on my hands to keep from waving them about wildly on camera. And instead, I ended up doing some weird twitching thing with my shoulders which made me look like I had some sort of tick.

Then I thought back to my bridal shower. Jeff had to fill out a bunch of questions about me and then I had to answer the questions and see if they matched his.

When I got to "Which Disney Princess are you?" I chose Cinderella. Jeff chose Belle.

"Belle! Why would he ever choose Belle?" I exclaimed

To which everyone attending my shower replied "Because you ARE Belle."

And then they all pointed out my affinity for reading, and speaking french, and croissants, and also how to prom I wore a big pouffy yellow dress...because I WANTED TO LOOK LIKE BELLE. I had forgotten about that.

"AND, said Jeff, you burst into random song pretty frequently"

On Wednesday I was driving to work and saw a turtle in the middle of the road. So I picked it up and took it to work to show my boss's kids. Then at work, my boss's cat laid in my lap all afternoon. And then when I got home from work, there was a large badger in front of my apartment.

So to recap:

• Overexaggerated sweeping hand motions? Check.
• Random bits of singing? Check.
• Big pouffy yellow dress? Check.
• Friendly, singing teapots. No. Dang it.
• Prince Charming? Check.
• Attracts large following of woodland creatures? Check.

Apparently, I AM a Disney Princess.

And what is amusing is that my senior year of high school, I auditioned to be Tinkerbelle at Disney World and didn't make it. Apparently, Disney does not recognize pure Disney material when they see it.

Easy Silence

I have to say, it is very uplifting when I don't write for a little while and then I get emails from all of you. Thank you for them, they make me happy to write :)

Tomorrow I will talk about Cadbury Eggs and sending some of y'all some scrapbooking goodies and update with some funny stories of life around here.

Today I will talk about how I have been slammed with deadlines at work- but for a good reason. We're about to unveil some amazing things at SIStv.

And also, how I've been having a bit of a personal crisis. Nothing major, just a lot of little things that made me sad. I don't like to blog when I'm sad. I like to curl up on the couch with my husband and eat Ben & Jerry's ice cream and watch people flip houses on pseudo reality tv.

But the other day I got together with some good girlfriends, and we talked and laughed and cried. Until the sun came up. And the next day I heard this song, and I was thinking about how I was less sad and more thankful. I'm so thankful for the life that has come along with SIStv- for the move, for the work I love, and for these new friends that I can put my heart out too.

So since I needed to do a scrapbooking update, I did a little video with my new pages + some pictures from my work life :)

And tomorrow: A story about fire, turtles, and badgers. Amen.