Today Started With A Burn

I drove by this inferno this morning.  The traffic just suddenly started stopping and when I looked to see what it was, all you could see was black smoke.  This looks tamer than it did in person.

Here is a pretty cool LOTR poster set I found on Reddit:

(by mondo)

Pretty awesome.  Major talent!

This is a really cool idea if you don't have a closet!

I need to build a bunch of book cases so that I can just get stacks of books off the floor!  My closet is ridiculously full as well!  I think I'm just going to get rid of half of what is in there.  I already got rid of four or five huge bags recently.

Have to look in to that when I get home.

Merlin (aka Things That Keep Me Distracted)

Lets just get the ball rolling why don't we?

These two lovely men:

Colin Morgan and Bradley James(aka Merlin & Arthur) from Merlin.

Those pictures are from when they went on a trip to research the legend of King Arthur and Merlin. I've been very distracted lately watching the show, and reblogging a ridiculous amount of those two, and the rest of the Merlin cast/show, on my tumblr.

I've always been really fascinated by the tales of Camelot, I've probably read every wikipedia article on it (not that that means I know everything possible-but it is wikipedia so you never know...). I'm currently finishing up Le Morte D'Arthur by Thomas Mallory. It is considered the oldest and best source of the tales.

The show is pretty awesome, and totally worth a watch, not just for those two boys either. Too bad I couldn't go to Comic-Con to meet Colin this year! :(

I'm going to go back to being distracted by the gloriousness that is BBC's Merlin!

Things I Find on Reddit

Space Balls references that make me laugh:



Pretty interiors:

posted by yeebianca

Can't believe that someone actually put this up (and only hours away from me):

posted by unibod

Absolutely love Reddit! Check it out if you have time!

Back!

It's been almost two months since I last updated.

Absolutely no excuses, I've been busy with a new job and when I finally get home I just want to veg out. I recently purchased an iPad (typing on it right now!) and I'm hoping this will help with keeping up with this and my other blogs.

I will say, as a warning, that I'm not sure how well the photos I post from here will load. I'm going to have to load them using code, rather than from the uploader here, because I cannot find a way to edit pixel size on an iPad! You would think there would be at least one app for that but alas, there are none. If someone knows of one please let me know!

In the mean time, I guess I should finally pick a real subject for this blog. Right now it is really just my comings and goings, the things I like and my opinions on random things. It's hard to pick just one thing to focus on, especially when my life is never focused on any one thing. I'm no chef, nor do I have the money to be constantly updating about the exotic things I'm eating, but I do love food, I'm no great artist, or techie, or writer, but I dabble in it all. It may be that this blog will always be about random things, and probably rarely read, but that's okay, I'm sure someone somewhere will find it interesting enough to read a bit.

I still am making some layout changes, I was doing so before I stopped updating in May, so please pardon the construction.

This was just a quick update to show that I didn't fall off the ends of the earth, and will be around to update more often.

Dress I had to have!

Because I'm starting my wonderful new job in two days, I've been buying a whole new wardrobe (seeing as my current one is not considered business casual).

After spending a small fortune, or rather not small enough for my tastes and pocketbook, I ended with quite a few new tops, a few pairs of slacks, and some dresses.  Something I'm a little bothered with is my new work wardrobe's sudden decision to mirror my mother's.  That was a terrible awakening that I'm going to no longer have a stand out look.  I'm going to blend into a sea of dark blues, browns, and black.  

But I found the one dress I could not leave the store without, whether or not it fit in to the color scheme listed above!

The top is a little baggy close to the waist but I still love it.  I plan on wearing this for my first casual day.  Out of everything this is the one item that will definitely feel more like me!  So much color! Can't wait! :)

Sorry I've been busy!

I've been super busy!  I'm working on some posts for the next few days.  Until then here is a video with a pretty awesome announcement!!!

Great Marketing JCP

I was pretty skeptical of the new JCP logo when they announced it a while back.  It's not exactly eye catching or really unique.  Red box outline, smaller blue box, white company initials, pretty simple.  But pretty simple is what they were going for.  They rolled out a whole new look to accompany their whole new 'everything should be simpler' type philosophy.  I get it.  Slick JCP, very slick. 

What I really love about JCP right now is actually their new newspaper inserts!  Each one has a colorful theme and they traded in product cluttered pages with an over used design for less product and a simpler look.  Since I'm trying to simplify every thing around myself, my home, my mind, and (gasp) my closet, this whole new look JCP has going really appeals to me.

Here is the most resent ad I have:

(All images are property of their respective owners)

I love this mix of blues and greens.  For the first time ever a retailer's ad inspires me and gets my creative juices flowing!  These new ads make me want to search out this ad every time to see what cool coloring they have next.   Whoever is doing the marketing and design over there is an absolute genius!  This ad revamp is one I hope a lot of other retailers will copy soon!

What do you think of their new ads?  Love?  Hate?

Today

While I'm waiting for a phone call to set up an interview I'm going to be spending the day messing around with the layout and design of the site.  I haven't really finished with the design I had in mind and it isn't really that fabulous looking, soooooooo I'm going to give it another go!

*crossing my fingers for the call back*

New Spiky Friends

I'm from Texas, where every thing is bigger and better, and where when you buy tiny plants for your windowsill or desk they are as deadly as they are pretty.  Okay not really deadly but they can hurt if you don't watch what you're doing! 

 

I just bought these two little babies to protect my desk from tiny alien invaders bugs ghosts ninjas absolutely nothing.  Actually I've just been wanting to get some small cacti for a long time and finally picked a couple I couldn't leave the gardening section of Home Depot without.

I couldn't leave them in the little plastic pots so I transplanted them today into some old tins I had lying around.  They look much cuter and now have bottoms that won't leak.

I love this pic!  This cactus is known as the 'Red-headed Irishman' because the spines are red.  It blooms with these pretty little flowers during the winter and spring.

This is called 'Moon Cactus' and gets it's color from a lack of chlorophyll at the top, making it orange-ish in coloring, although it looks pink and yellow in the pic.  It has a red-ish orange color with some deep yellow and all together looks pretty fabulous.

 

I had these containers sitting around so I decided they would be perfect for the new cacti.  I painted them both white then put snack size bags inside as a liner to keep the water from leaking out the bottom too much.  Then I put each in their new homes and they look great on my desk!

Now I just need to think of some names for them!

Have a fantabulous day! :D

Fun Nails!

I saw a post on Tumblr featuring a great nail art tutorial from The Beauty Department.  The Beauty Department is a website for all things beauty: hair, make-up, trends, questions, etc..  It's pretty cool and run by Lauren Conrad, Kristin Ess and Amy Nadine.  I love the layout and all of the cute posts.  Definitely check it out!

 

On to the nail accent tutorial with tape!!!  Mine is simple, it is the first time I've tried this and I didn't want to get too detailed immediately.

Supplies:

Two or more nail polish colors

Clear nail polish (not pictured-I forgot!)

Clear tape (I didn't have any clear tape so I winged it with matte tape)

Scissors

Step 1:

Pick the colors you want for your accent designs and paint some thick straight lines on the sticky side of the tape.  I wanted to put a lot of different colors when I first started this, hence the four pink polishes, but ended up only using two. It's easiest to paint the lines while the tape is still on the roll, just paint on the part between the roll and the cutting edge.  Cut it off and let it dry.

Step 2:

Paint your nails with the base color.  I did a terrible job but I'm blaming it on doing it at 2 am and in a hurry, haha.  

Step 3:

Cut and stick the tape to your nails where you would like it.  I found that it's best to do this if the base coat is still a little wet, the tape will stick better to the nail.

The last step is to paint a coat of clear polish over the tape to keep it smooth and prevent it from peeling off.  I forgot to take a picture of that, but it's pretty self explanatory!

Here is another close up of the nails/pic of moi! Haha.  I cleaned them up a bit and made it look a little nicer.

This tutorial is really easy and great when you don't have much time but want to add a little something to your nails!  I'm going to try it again some time with different shapes and see what I can really do!

I just want to take a quick second and give some praise to NYC 'In a New York Minute' color nail polishes.  This line of NYC polishes dries fast, is pretty thick (not watery/thin colored), and comes in a lot of fun shades (These two are 'Water Street Blue' and 'High Line Green').  I love NYC nail polishes because they're always pretty good quality for cheap and since I never wear one color for long, if I wear any at all, I don't like to spend $5-$20 on one polish (These were $1.27 each and not tiny).  NYC polishes usually only need two coats to be perfect and last for days.  

Hope you like the tutorial!

Any questions or comments?