101 Movies I Love

I will be doing a whole "101 Things" series. I forget where I got the list. I started this a few years ago and just never entered it online. I've updated it of course, because new movies have come out.

1. Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle
2. Pride and Prejudice
3. Sense and Sensability
4. Clerks II
5. Grandma's Boy
6. Dogma
7. Dirty Dancing
8. Clue
9. Four Rooms
10. Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead
11. Adventures in Babysitting
12. The Cell
13. Scream
14. American Beauty
15. Reefer Madness
16. Bad Boys 2
17. The Lost Boys
18. The Goonies
19. Flashdance
20. The Opposite of Sex
21. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
22. Rome and Juliet (the Claire Danes version)
23. Everyone Says I Love You
24. Romy & Michelle's High School Reunion
25. Girl Interrupted
26. Hackers
27. Friday
28. Empire Records
29. Scarface
30. May
31. How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
32. Cable Guy
33. Shallow Hal
34. Talladega Nights
35. While You Were Sleeping
26. Existenz
27. The 13th Floor
28. Run Lola Run
29. Desperate But Not Serious
30. Beavis and Butthead Do America
31. The Last Unicorn
32. Gone with the Wind
33. The Maltese Falcon
34. Labyrinth
35. Swing Kids
36. Pulp Fiction
37. The Fifth Element
38. Audition
39. Uzumaki
40. Doom Generation
41. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
42. True Lies
43. Con Air
44. Can't Buy Me Love
45. Ten Things I Hate About You
46. Teaching Mrs. Tingle
47. The Breakfast Club
48. Weird Science
49. Uncle Buck
50. The Bully
51. Grease
52. A Time To Kill
53. Clueless
54. Watership Down
55. The Rock
56. Gone in 60 Seconds
57. The Client
58. Heathers
59. National Lampoons Senior Trip
60. Save the Last Dance
61. Alice in Wonderland
62. The Nightmare Before Christmas
63. Space Camp
64. Mars Attacks
65. Hideous Kinky
66. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
67. A League of Their Own
68. So I Married an Axe Murder
69. The Pest
70. Thing Called Love
71. Little Miss Sunshine
72. A Prairie Home Companion
73. Encino Man
74. Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
75. 300
76. The Bone Collector
77. Taking Lives
78. The Rocky Horror Picture Show
79. The Big Lebowski
80. Army of Darkness
81. Ghost World
82. Be Cool
83. The Long Kiss Goodnight
84. Garden State
85. Napolean Dynomite
86. Waking Life
87. Minority Report
88. The Matrix
89. Seven
90. Speed
91. I Married A Strange Person
92. Joe Dirt
93. Cecil B. Demented
94. Blade
95. Basic
96. Dark City
97. Broken Arrow
98. Tears of the Sun
99. Lucky Number Slevin
100.Crash
101.The Departed

March & April Book Log

I got really busy with end of semester projects and packing for my move, so I didn't get to read a whole lot the last two months. I'm still doing well though. I'm over half way to my goal of 50 for the year. I know that I will read a lot on my road trip, so I'm hoping to be over 50 again.

March
21. "The Time Traveler's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger 529 pages

April
22. "Bloodfever" by Karen Marie Moning 320 pages
23. "Haunted" by Chuck Palahniuk 432 pages
24. "Shampoo Planet" by Douglas Coupland 312 pages
25. "No is For Noose" by Sue Grafton
26. "The Cat Who Lived High" by Lillian Jackson Braun 182 pages

This was my second time reading "The Time Traveler's Wife." It's one of my all time favorite books. My boyfriend also read it this year because I like it so much.

"Bloodfever" was good, but nowhere near Laurell K. Hamilton's stories in my opinion. I will definately pick up the first book (I somehow started with book 2) and the next one in the series.

"Haunted" was bizarre, but most of Palahniuks works are. There were some parts of the book that I found really disturbing. Where does he come up with some of this?

I wasn't really into "Shampoo Planet." Douglas Coupland is real hit or miss with me.

I can't help but read the Sue Grafton books, or shall I say listen to them. Mom get's them a lot for us to listen to while we work out, or for road trips. "N" is good, but it's not the best in the series.

I'm also a sucker for "The Cat Who" mysteries, even though they are a bit stuffy. But they're good for a quick read.

Bloggy Giveaway Winner!

The winner of my drawing for the lavender eye pillow is Elaine – comment #42. Congratulations Elaine! This was a fun event, and I hope to be involved next time too. If anyone that didn’t win would like an eye pillow they cost anywhere from $8-$12 depending on the fabric.

Thank you everyone for your suggestions. I tried to alter my page on the suggestions that I knew how to do. If anyone can tell me how to make a header, I’d try that too.

I hope you will keep check back on my blog.

Movie Madness

I saw this on Elaine's Blog (http://alguires.blogspot.com/) and thought that it looked like fun.

Here are the rules:
1. Pick 10 of your favorite movies.
2. Go to IMDb and find a quote from each movie.
3. Post them here for everyone to guess.
4. Strike it out when someone guesses correctly, and put who guessed it and the movie.
5. No Googling or IMDb-ing. That’s cheating and that’s no fun.

So here are my 10. Have fun guessing!

1. "The extreme always seems to make an impression."

2. "When you grow up, your heart dies."

3. "Just because you're hung like a moose doesn't mean you gotta do porn. "

4. "I'm the Mary, and you're the Rhoda."

5. "You have no power over me."

6. "When you give up your dream, you die."

7. "Here's the deal I'm the best there is. Plain and simple. I wake up in the morning and I piss excellence."

8. "Husbands should be like Kleenex: soft strong and disposable"

9. "Well "Sinead O'Rebellion." Shock me shock me shock me with that deviant behavior."

10. "Wow J.P, that is a great outfit. How much do clothes cost in The Matrix?"

Okay, leave your guesses/answers in the comments and we'll see how long this takes.

**********************************************************************

I was having so much fun with this I decided to include more:

11. Ooh, great job man! I really thought you were retarded. I mean, you'rebetter than that Corky kid and he's actually retarded. If there was a retarded Oscar you would win, hands down, kick his ass!"

12. "We trashed the one that looks like Twisted Sister."

13. "There may be many reasons not to kill you, but among them is not that you'll be missed by NASA"

14. "I'm right on top of that Rose."

15. "I caught you a delicious bass."

16. "Next time you're talking to yourself, tell yourself you're single and end the conversation!"

17. "Take this quarter, go downtown, and have a rat gnaw that thing off your face! Good day to you, madam."

18. "If you want be a party animal, you have to learn to live in the jungle."

19. "Since God created man, and man created the Transformers, the Transformers are like a gift from God"

20. "Kid, don't threaten me. There are worse things than death, and uh, I can do all of them. "

21. "Men are either eaten up with arrogance or stupidity. If they are amiable, they are so easily led they have no minds of their own whatsoever."

22. "Is this a kissing book?"

23 "Oh how fabulous. Getting Marky Mark to take time from his busy pants dropping schedule to plant trees."

24. "You know, I know another little boy who has a horse. His name's Edward. The boy, not the horse."

25. "Anyone who isn't dead or from another plane of existence would do well to cover their ears right about now."

Finals

I’m one final down; one more final and my art critique to go. I’m not feeling so great about my Spanish final. I sat down and forgot which verb endings were future, which were past participle, infinitive and so on. People say Spanish is so much easier of a language than English. I beg to differ. There aren’t 66 different ways to say the same verb in English. Not that any of this matters anymore, since I found out mid-semester that I need French, German, and Italian for my major, and Latin is also recommended. I’m not sure what my final grade will be. The bulk of it comes from the quizzes and online work and I got a perfect 100% on that, but the C on the speech and what little I can scrape up on the final worries me.

I’m positive that even if I bomb my speech final (which I won’t) I will still get an A. I’ve gotten close to perfect on everything in that class. And when we played Finals Jeopardy my team won (I got the Bangle’s Greatest Hits CD out of it –which is cool because I was just thinking of upgrading my tape to CD). I feel pretty confident.

As to my art class, who knows? She hasn’t posted half the grades for the semester in the computer. I’ve done pretty well on everything put two pictures – I got docked half a point (on a 2 point project). I will just be glad when this class is over. It’s awful!

I sold my car yesterday (Good bye Focus!) and I got exactly what I wanted out of it. I think it was because I had two people come at the same time. Yay! I drove my new car to school today. It was cold, so I didn’t put the top down, but I did make good use of the seat warmers (Yay! Seat warmers). I’m still getting used to the difference in engines – this one is a V6. I don’t have to give it as much gas as in my car so I’m still a little jumpy on the get-go.

I made lemon cupcakes for mom’s Bible study group tomorrow. I was too busy to make them from scrap, so I just used a box mix. The frosting is lemon as well. One thing I did do, was buy the frosting bags and tips so that I could make the frosting look pretty. I need practice, but I don’t think I did too poorly for my first time. The first picture is a completed cupcake, the second were my works in progress. I added a little bit of yellow sprinkles as well.



I also got my Lush charm bracelet in the mail. Isn’t it cute? Ilovecloudy scented it too. It’s got a light strawberry scent. She also made me this Sex Bomb necklace and scented it rose. My charms are Think Pink, Sex Bomb, Creamy Candy, Rock Star Soap (from the gift set), Iridescent Glitterbug, Sakura, and Flosty Glitter. As you can tell I went with a pink theme. She also made me a HIWTK charm but she didn’t like how it came out so she didn’t attach it to the bracelet. These pictures aren’t the best, as I took them with my camera phone. When my regular camera’s battery finishes charging I will post new pictures. If anyone is interested in jewelry or barrettes with miniature Lush, contact ilovecloudy a.k.a. Skye at zenskye @ hellokitty.com.

She has great attention to detail on the Sex Bomb!

Yesterday after the stress of selling my car, going to the Tax office to get my title, and then transfer it, losing my nose ring and replacing it, mom felt we all needed a break. She, my step-dad and I all went down to Caddy’s on the beach for some sun and relaxation. None of us have drank in a while, so we were all pretty tipsy. I had 2 Rum-Runners over a couple hours, but the bartender made them really strong. Afterwards we ate at Conch Republic.

I know I have more to say, but this week has been exhausting, so I’m turning in for the night (if I can drag myself away from my Scrabulous matches).

100 Things

I've seen so many other people do this, and I thought it looked like fun. So here goes:

1. I love Steve.
2. I have since we were 12.
3. We met in middle school.
4. It took us 16 years to finally be together.
5. He is worth the wait.
6. In those 16 years we both learned a lot about what we do and don’t want out of life.
7. We want each other.
8. I’m a bath product junkie.
9. I can spend hours in the bath –especially with a good book.
10. I have at least 50 bars of soap at present.
11. And over 100 other bath items.
12. Lush is my absolute favorite bath & body company.
13. Lush’s Think Pink bath bomb is my absolute favorite scent.
14. I would spend my whole paycheck if Lush or another company made other products in that scent.
15. I also love Lush’s “Honey I Washed the Kids” and “Rockstar”, Bathed and Infused’s “Cremase” and Pixie Potions “Faery Candy” scents.
16. Steve says I need Lush rehab.
17. He’s probably right.
18. I also make soap.
19. I used to sell it at the pier at the sunset festival each night.
20. Now I make it for fun with my Emily and Helen.
21. We also make lavender eye pillows.
22. And we’re learning to crochet.
23. I’m a college student.
24. I’m majoring in art history and museum studies.
25. I want to be a curator in an art museum.
26. My favorite artist is Botticelli.
27. I hope to study in Florence in a couple years.
28. My mom’s spaghetti sauce is the best I’ve tasted.
29. I also love Thai food.
30. I almost always order panang curry because I’m afraid I won’t like the other dishes as much.
31. I like Indian food too.
32. Especially samosas.
33. I’ve been a vegetarian since I was 14.
34. I’m also lactose intolerant.
35. Some dairy foods are worth the consequences and I eat them anyway- especially tortellini.
36. I love flower flavors, especially violet, rose and lavender.
37. When I was younger I wanted to be a rock star, a lawyer, a storm chaser, a chef, and a writer.
38. I’m afraid of public speaking.
39. I’m afraid of singing in public too- even though I took voice lessons when I was 14 and again in college.
40. Bad grammar annoys me.
41. So does people wearing socks with sandals.
42. I’m afraid of spiders.
43. Lawn gnomes creep me out too.
44. I love to dance.
45. I took at least 15 years of lessons – ballet, tap, jazz, modern, lyrical, pointe, and swing.
46. I wish I had the time and money for all those classes now.
47. Steve agreed (begrudgingly) to take ballroom with me.
48. I also love yoga – but I never have the time.
49. I love taking photographs but I wish I was better at it.
50. I love to read.
51. My favorite authors are Dean Koontz, Laurell K. Hamilton, Jane Austen, Christopher Moore, Chuck Palahniuk, Douglas Coupland, Augustan Burroughs, Deepak Chopra, Patricia Cornwell, and Francesca Lia Block.
52. My favorite books are “The Time Traveler’s Wife” and “The Zen of Oz.”
53. I’m a sucker for books about fairies, vampires or werewolves.
54. I love fairies.
55. I can’t wait to go to Fairy Fest in Phoenix.
56. When I get married I’m wearing fairy wings down the aisle.
57. I want to live in California – somewhere around Pasadena.
58. Monkeys are my favorite animal.
59. It’s also my Chinese astrology sign.
60. My normal astrological sign is Pisces.
61. I was born on the Ides of March.
62. I love spring flowers – especially daffodils, lilacs and lily of the valley.
63. They remind me of childhood and my grandfather.
64. Strawberries with milk and sugar, rye toast, and Indian corn also remind me of my grandpa.
65. He is the greatest man I’ve ever known.
66. I miss him. A lot.
67. He died of cancer when I was six.
68. Because of this I participate in Relay for Life every year with my college.
69. I grew up in Ohio.
70. I moved to Florida when I was 12.
71. I have 4 half brothers, 3 half sisters and 2 stepsisters.
72. I grew up with two of my brothers. The rest are a lot older than me.
73. I would like to have 2 kids.
74. A girl – named Lorelei and a boy – named Skye.
75. I love music almost as much as baths, books, and art.
76. Tori Amos is my all time favorite musician. I’ve seen her in concert 3 times.
77. I also love Depeche Mode and the Cure.
78. I love making cupcakes – especially from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.
79. Scrabble is my favorite game. My cousin and I have marathon games of it. I also play it online through Facebook.
80. I don’t like jasmine. It smells like decay to me.
81. My favorite movie is Labyrinth. I watch it all the time. I love the song “As the World Falls Down” from the movie.
82. My favorite actor is Joseph Fiennes. He’s gorgeous – but he also is a great actor, and I respect his role choices and abilities.
83. My cat’s name is Luna. I talk to her like she’s a human. I’ve had her since she was a baby.
84. I have one white eyelash. Even when it falls out, it grows back in white.
85. I’m not sure what my natural hair color is. I think it’s a medium brown.
86. I prefer my old NES to the new game consoles.
87. My favorite games are Burger Time, Bubble Bobble, and California games.
88. I love the 80s.
89. I miss Jem and the Holograms, Popples, and She-ra.
90. In more recent times – I love Invader Zim, The Fairly Odd Parents, and the Power Puff Girls.
91. I used to collect comics – mostly X-men, Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, and Squee.
92. Margarita’s and Rum-Runners are my drinks of choice.
93. I was in 4-H growing up.
94. I spent my summer’s on my grandparents’ and uncle’s farm as a child.
95. I love horses. I ride western saddle.
96. I hate cleaning the bathroom, but I don’t mind washing dishes or vacuuming.
97. I still prefer regular mail to email.
98. One thing I’d like to work on more is my procrastination problem.
99. I don’t believe in having big houses with rooms you never use. I think families are closer and grow together more in smaller, cozier houses.
100. I’m very close with my family.

Funny

http://www.thetshirtdiner.com/ A tshirt site where you can pick your style and color.

My brother just sent me that link. I only looked at the first few pages but among some of the stupid ones there are a few gems... such as "Jesus loves you, he's just not in love with you."

And this one - which I love:

Bloggy Giveaway - Lavender Eye Pillow

As part of the Bloggy Carnival, I'm giving away a lavender eye pillow. Winner will have their choice of colors. I will also give a choice between lightly lavender scented or heavey lavender scented. These are handmade, and I make them with an inner pillow and removable case that can be taken off and washed without ruining the pillow.

This giveaway is only for the United States, please.

Please look around my blog, I'm relatively new to blogging, and let me know via comment what you like about my blog and what you think needs improvement. Make sure to leave an email address or link to your blog so I can contact you if you win. Winners will be chosen at random on the 27th.

Thank you for visiting.

Random Boredom

I should be writing my final paper for Speech, but I just can't get into it. I'm feeling so "meh" today. I don't really want to do anything. Instead of writing my paper, I'm drooling over bath products on various sites I shouldn't be on because they are too tempting. Like I need more bath stuff. Steve says he has never met anyone with a soap fetish before. He has mentioned Lush rehab a couple times. I keep thinking of ways to justify buying, - like
www.bathedandinfused.com is offering $4 shipping no matter how big your order all month. They also have 15% off with the code "springfling" and I'm sitting here thinking about how they have creams and body sprays that match the Lush soaps that I use (Honey Bee Sweet = HIWTHK and Rock Candy = Rock Star). But I'm behaving. Really I am. The fact that I need to buy a vacuum keeps me in line. But, I should be getting a $60-$75 gift card from my credit card rewards that I can use towards it, and my dad is supposably sending me money for my birthday too. I have a couple I want to look at. I want upright, bagless and I have to have a HEPA filter because of my allergies. Steve has never had a cat, so he may actually find that he has allergies once Luna and I move in.

I went online to log in some coke rewards, and they had sent me notice that my rewards were about to expire. I was slightly irritated. They shouldn't inspire. I thought I was going to have to waste them on contest entries or magazine subsciptions, but to my delight, Sephora gift cards were back. Yay! I had enough points for a $25 gift card to Sephora. It can only be used online though, so I'm not ordering anything just yet. I can get the eyeshadow that has been on my wishlist for a while, but I need to wait until I have money for shipping... and maybe a promo code.

I got a C on my speech in Spanish last Friday. She said that I read my cards, and I mispronounced a few things. Well, what does she expect on the mispronounciation? We had to give a 5 minute speech in Spanish and some of the things I've done the last two years of my life (the speech topic) aren't words that we learned in class. And as for reading my cards - I didn't read them the whole time - but instead of sitting in front of the class so she could see me clearly, she sat in the very back by the food where she couldn't see anyone. I didn't read the whole time. I glanced down from time to time to make sure of where I was. Oh well. Hopefull I do well enough on the rest of the assignments to still get an A.

I got to drive my new car today. Well, it's not really mine yet. Chrysler still has to fix some things while it's warrantied under my mom's name. And her car doesn't get here for 2 more days. This car is bigger than mine, so I have to get used to driving it. I hate that I have to sit high in order to see the front of the car, but then the top of the car/window makes it hard for me to see. Why don't they account for this when they make convertibles? I am pscyhed that I will have a 6 disc changer and heated seats.

I finally finished the library books I've had forever. I read 20 books by February, but then only one in March, and 3 this month. "Shampoo Planet" by Douglas Coupland was disappointing. His books are kind of hit or miss with me. I loved "All Families Are Psychotic". I also just finished "Haunted" by Chuck Palanhuik. It was disturbing, bizzare, but funny. His books are always so strange, but they make you think.I suppose I should get back to my paper and stop procrastinating.

Cupcake daydreams

I've been dieting all week - trying to keep off the ten pounds I've lost. It's so hard with cupcakes in the house. I could ignore the Tequila Sunrise and Margarita ones that are left - but there are still Devil's Food Cupcakes left and they are calling out to me, "Eat us! We are yummy! You will be happy!." Yes, they are evil. Evil cupcakes. I can't shut them out either. And even as I'm sitting here trying not to think about cupcakes, new ideas pop into my head. Such as, "Hmm, I had a pina coloda yesterday, I wonder how a pina coloda cupcake would taste." And I have boxes of cake mix in the freezer. My mom has Bible study in her house on Saturdays, and I make dessert. The cupcakes last week were a big hit so I'm thinking of making Lemon cupcakes for them this week. With Lemon icing. And I was thinking about decorating with a lemon drop. Is that too much lemon?

I checked some online recipes, and they seem to use lemon frosting with lemon cupcakes. I wish I could make my frosting look as pretty. I guess I need to get one of those squeezy things. Can anyone tell me how to make my cupcakes look like this

http://thecupcakeunderground.blogspot.com/2007/04/amchur-lemon-cupcakes-with-cream-cheese.html

I also have boxed cake mixes to make red velvet cupcakes and strawberry cupcakes. I'm not sure on how I want to garnish the red velvet, but maybe a fresh strawberry half on the top of each strawberry cupcake?

Usually I prefer to make my cupcakes from scratch. The boxed mixes are just good for when I'm super busy. After school gets out, I definately want to make the pistachio and rose cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. I love the flavor of rose, and I've been wanting to try these out forever. I have enough boxes of soy milk left to make at least six more batches of cupcakes.

Horns and Tails

The last weekend in March, I went to Renaissance Festival with Isaac. I kept seeing people with these horns. I had to have some. At of everything there, that is what I wanted most. Mine are glittery and pink (we all know how much I love pink that glitters) but they also had sparkly purple ones and blue ones... and red is always nice too. I mentioned them at the last crafty girls night, and Helen knows how to make them. She is my new hero! Every time Emily or I mention something, Helen knows how to do it. We're going to try to make some of our own the next time we get together. I'm just wondering if the Fimo expands when you bake it, or if we have to buy huge blocks of the stuff. If that's the case, I may want to get it in advance online. I also wonder if we need to paint them or just buy the colored Fimo. I'm so excited!!!

The other thing at Ren Fest that I saw and really wanted was a fox tail. People had them attached to their belts and were walking around with tails. I wanted one, until I found out they were real. And then I was horrified. I've looked online to try to find faux fox tails but I can't find any. Isaac suggested getting a stuffed animal and cutting it's tail off, but I couldn't live with myself if I did that. Poor stuffed animal. Anyway... I'm wondering if anyone has any ideas on making one - that doesn't involve maiming an animal real or stuffed?

CUPCAKES!

Tonight I made cupcakes to take to my Spanish class tomorrow morning. It's the last class before finals, so we are kind of celebrating by having a pot luck. It's also the day we do our five minute speeches. The cupcakes I made aren't just any old cupcake. Our dishes had to be Spanish in some way. So, my cupcakes are Margarita Cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and Tequila Sunrise Cupcakes which are adapted from the Margarita cupcakes.

Margarita Cupcakes

(from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World)

1/4 cup lime juice

1 1/2 tsp lime zest (1 lime)
1 cup soy milk (plain or vanilla)
1/4 cup vegetable oil

2 tsp tequila
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup sugar
1 1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350F. Fill a 12-cup muffin tin with liners.In a large bowl, mix together lime juice, lime zest, soy milk, oil , tequila, vanilla and sugar.In a small bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add to lime mixture and stir until just combined. Divide evenly into muffin tins.Bake for 20-24 minutes, until a tester comes out clean and the cakes spring back when lightly pressed.Turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

Tequila and Lime Frosting
1/4 butter or nonhydrogenated shortening, softened
1 tbsp soymilk
3 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp tequila
2+ cups confectioners' sugar
coarse sugar for "rims"

Cream together butter/nonhydrogenated shortening (depending on whether you want the frosting vegan or not), soymilk, lime juice, tequila, and 2 cups of confectioners' sugar. Add in more sugar as needed to make frosting stiff, but spreadable.Spread on cupcakes and roll the edges in a small amount of coarse, colored sugar (poured into a small bowl, so it's easy to direct it.

If you would like the recipe for the Tequila Sunrise Cupcakes, please see Nicole Weston's Blog http://www.slashfood.com/2006/12/31/tequila-sunrise-cupcakes/

This is my second time making both types of cupcakes. Last I used orange zest instead of the cherry on the Tequila Sunrise Cupcakes. I think the cherry makes it a lot prettier. As this is for a class on campus that includes some dual enrolled students I did not use tequila in the frosting, as it's not cooked down. Also the frosting was a little too sweet the last time that I made it, so I went a little less. You will need to expirement and find out how much works best for you. Best part - there is no egg used, so you can lick the spoon without worrying about getting sick.

I heart these

I really should stay off the Lush forums. They are horrible enablers. There are two things recently that I have found that I am in love with.

The first is the Limited Edition Banana Cupcake from Tiny Cravings (http://tinycravings.com/banana-cupcake--limited-edition.html). It's a 3/4" cupcake charm, to be worn on a necklace. Her attention to details is amazing. The tiny banana slices look like bananas. The best thing of all is that it smells like bananas. Girls on the forums rave about her charms and how wonderful they smell. She also does custom orders. The banana charm is $25 and $5 for the chain. If you love cupcakes (I do! I do!) check out her site. She is also on Etsy and Deviantart and makes all her jewelry herself.

Emily is talking to Helen, to see if she knows how to make them. So far anything Emily or I have mentioned, Helen has known how to make. I'm not sure if she knows how to scent them (which is the coolest thing about the charms) and Tiny Cravings is definitely not going to tell her secret (not that I blame her).

The second thing I'm lusting after is a Lush charm bracelet made by "ilovecloudy" on the forums. She can do 5-8 charms on a silver tone bracelet for $20. She also makes pendants, key chains, barrettes, and earrings. Many forumites have bought from her and rave about her work. I'm posting a few pictures that she emailed me. If anyone is interested in her work, send me a message and I will give you her email address. She is very reasonable. The hard part is picking out which products you want made into charms. I'd definately want Think Pink and Sex Bomb. Probably creamy candy bubble bar too. Maybe Snow Festival Bubble Bar. Maybe Karma Komba. Rockstar Soap. Honey I Washed the Kids. Glitterbug - definitely! These charms would be the ultimate in cool if they smelled like the products.

I don't know if I have the patience to make these items. I don't even know what they are made of, but since they are small, involve more than one color, and intricate details, I'm sure it would be more stressful than fun for me. I give major props to these girls for being able to make such tiny, beautiful things.

I have decided that I am going to get my sewing machine fixed. The lavender eye pillows Helen showed us how to make are so easy, and cheap. I'd also like to learn to make sachets. When I've got the hang of sewing, I'd love to make an apron. I saw some really cute one's on Etsy, and I've decided I like the old fashioned full style aprons.

Additionally, I am still working on the blanket I’m crocheting. I’ve got a pattern for arm warmers (similar to the ones I saw at the Renaissance Festival) and mom is supposed to teach me how to read patterns so I can make those. I also got patterns from Kristie’s Kreations (http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=26966) for seven different crochet animals including a kitty, puppy, elephant, and monkey. I’m really excited to start working on these. I think they will be fun, and the nieces will love them. Check out Kristie’s Blog at http://www.kristieskids.weebly.com/ for some of her free patterns. She has given me permission to show her pictures on my blog. I will post my own pictures someday when I make them myself. If you’re interested in making these animals, check out her Etsy store. She offers email support on all her patterns.

Tval Banana Lavender Shea Bath Treat

I received a Tval Banana Lavender Shea Bath Treat as part of a Lush swap. When I saw the scent I thought, "What a weird combo. That can't possibly be good." I was pleasantly wrong. The smell is divine. It has a strong banana scent and the lavender is not overpowering. The two scents compliment each other well.

The bars are good for 1 or 2 baths and are made from shea butter. To use crumble 1/2 - 1 bar under running water. The bar did not color the water, but it made a lot of nice bubbles. I liked the Tval shea treat because it was moisurizing without making me or my tub greasy.

If you would like to try Tval shea bath treats in banana lavender or any other scent, they sell for $3.50 on their website http://tvalskincare.com/home.php. Their scent for the month of April is Daffodil. They offer free samples with all orders and free shipping on orders over $75. If you register with them they will email you a coupon for 15% off your first order.

Lavender Eye Pillows

Friday night Emily, Helen and I got together for another crafty girls session. We went to Helen's this time. Our main project of the night was making lavender eye pillows. They are surprisingly easy to make. Helen thought it would be a good idea to make the pillows with a light white material, and then to make the cases removable so they could be washed if they get dirty. I thought this was a brilliant idea as every lavender pillow I've ever purchased could not be washed. We each made two and I still have lavender and flax seed left. We used about 5 parts flax seed to 2 parts lavender for the really heavily scented pillows. We used Helen's sewing machine, but Emily showed us they can be hand stitched too.

Other projects included more soap making. I had purchased seashore, blueberry, honeysuckle, violet, spicey carnation, and (synthetic) musk oils at Great American. I love the carnation and violet. They smell amazing. Seashore is wonderful as well.

We also worked on the crocheting a little. I've almost made it through my first roll of yarn on the blanket I'm making. I'm excited to get it done so I can start working on arm warmers and animals (which I will blog about later).

Thai food, soap making and puppet sex

Friday was a good day. I took Steve's grandma out to lunch. We went for Thai food on St. Pete Beach. She let me order for her, and likes my panang curry. She even got it with the tofu. We had a lovely time. I was nervous because it's been so long since I've seen her, but she made me feel comfortable immediately. I brought her the framed photo of Steve and I that I had made back in December. We ended talking before we went to lunch and then had a very long lunch. After lunch we wandered the little shops in the plaza and she bought us cute, kissing, monkey salt and pepper shakers. It was nice spending time with her. I really like her. She is nice to talk to and has a lot of spunk.

The only down side to my Friday is that someone scraped my car in the parking lot. They left a note, so that was nice. Pat, in a rare helpful mood, called for me, and made arrangements to take my car to a body shop, and the lady who hit my car will take care of it.

Friday night I was at Emily's until somewhere around 2:30 a.m. She invited her friend, Helen, as well. We had a girl's night making soap. We stopped at Michael's first to get some glycerin and odds and ends. I needed more yarn for the blanket that I'm making and when they heard I could crochet they both wanted to learn too and bought hooks and yarn. It's been almost five years since I've made any soap. I was mostly just getting the hang of it again, and expirementing with scent combinations. I made a really yummy smelling bar for Steve with Colombian coffee, chocolate, vanilla, coconut and a little peppermint. And I made a Monkey Farts bar with banana, honeydew, raspberry and coconut.


We are supposed to get together at Helen's next. I really like her. It was fun having a girl's night. It's so sad that I'm leaving when I finally have some girl friends that live close by and are into the same kinds of things that I am. Helen is going to teach us how to make lavender eye pillows. I had been wanting to make them and when I mentioned it, I discovered Helen used to make them and could teach us. Yay!

When my parents are in Ohio for my sister's operation we will have girl's night at my house. My parent's counters are ideal for spreading out all the scents and molds and other supplies. I had at least 100 scents and Emily has a bunch of her own. We have a ton of molds too. I forgot how much fun soap making was.

Saturday I ran around to a bunch of stores with mom. She is looking for throw rugs and placematts. We stopped by the house of one of our clients that just closed. She gave me a whole bunch of boxes. Boxes are good! Then I can pack. The time is both dragging on and flying by at the same time. I can't wait to be with Steve every day, with our own place. I'm terrified of the whole new job experience, but I know it will all be ok.

Sunday was a bad day. My stepdad was being a jerk - more than usual. I won't go into all the details but I had a margarita for breakfast if that tells you anything. I ended up working most of the day to try to get my desk caught up some. Did some Spanish home work. We had a play that night. "Avenue Q." It's the one I was looking forward to all season. I wasn't that impressed. The acting and singing was incredible.... I just feel some of the content was lacking and in some places unneccessary. It was definately a one-timer for me - but I think my brother would really like it.

There was a whole song with full on puppet sex. It was mildly disturbing. Puppets having sex. Hardcore puppet sex. The song had something to do with you have to be quiet in the library, church, and the ballet, but you should be as loud as you want when you're having sex. It wasn't put quite that delicately though. And then there is a monster that is kind of like Cookie Monster (the whole thing is kind of like an adult Sesame Street) who is addicted to internet porn. He actually says something about how he "whips out his dick and starts to click". Also disturbing. There is a very Bert and Ernie like set of puppets and one of them is Gay and Republican and having issues coming out of the closet. The Ernie like puppet sings a song about how it's ok to be gay and he would still be his friend. There is a song that says we are all a little bit racist (as in telling racial jokes) and if we all just realized that we would get along. Another song had to do with the fact that people get happy when they see homeless people and people struggling or in pain because it makes them feel better about themselves. Another song had to do with the fact that the more you love someone the more you want to kill them - that hate and love are just two sides of the same song. Overall the play had a very strong statement and it had several very good statements. There were just a few things, and I can't think of them off the top of my head (other than the puppet 69) that made my jaw drop and made me feel a little uncomfortable to be sitting next to my parents while it was being said.

GRR!

We all know I don't have a temper - so I guess that should be more of a little grr - no exclamation. Anyway... Today isn't really that bad. I took Steve's grandma out to lunch. Well I guess, she took me. I picked her up and planned to pay, but she was not having it! We went out for Thai food close to her house. It was pretty good, and very prettily decorated. It was fun chatting with her and hearing stories about when Steve was little. She also bought us these cute little monkey salt and pepper shakers. They have magnets in them so they are kissing.

The grr comes from the fact that someone scraped my car in the parking lot. No body damage but they scraped up the paint pretty bad. They did leave a note and their phone number. I'm hoping Pat will be nice enough to call and take care of it for me so that I don't get ripped off.

Tonight I'm going to make soap with Emily. It's been in the works a long time. Finally! Yay! I hope it turns out as pretty as all the ones I see on websites and fiend after. I'll try to post some pictures of it later.

Missing birthdays...

I had my twenty-eigth birthday on March 15th. This one was nothing special. Steve sent me a nice card, and my youngest brother sent me a text message. I spent the day cleaning the house, and I took myself to dinner. I ate at my favorite Thai place, and the waitress that I've become friends with bought me dessert. That is the extent of it.

One of my friends had been texting since the beginning of the month about doing something for my birthday. When it came right down to it she wanted to go out, drink a lot, get trashed. I told her I would rather go to dinner, as I didn't feel like getting trashed, and was just getting over being sick. After that I didn't hear from her again. I'm sorry, but if it's my birthday, shouldn't we do what I want to do? It's not like I was asking her to pay for me.

My immediate family doesn't celebrate birthdays because of their religion. However, my aunts, my grandma, my biological father, and my cousin usually send me birthday cards or call me. This year nothing. I'm feeling a little sensitive about that. Maybe I'm over reacting a little... but to have noone call me or send me a card hurts my feelings a little. It really made me feel like crap... very alone - especially with my boyfriend being 1700 miles away. My grandma and one of my aunt's have sent me a card every year since I was born. I always look forward to the cards and phone calls because it lets me know they are thinking about me - especially since I only see them about twice a year as they live in Ohio and I'm in Florida.

Maybe I should just give up on birthdays in general. I've only had one good one since I started celebrating again. I didn't celebrate them either for religious purposes until I turned 20 and then I changed religions and started celebrating again. The two birthdays before this one, I was still dating Eric. He was out of town for work a lot, and it seemed like he was always gone for holidays and my birthday. So I felt alone a lot, but especially so on my birthday. By the time he got home my birthday was at least a week over so we didn't do anything. One year we fought and broke up for my birthday. One year he didn't give me anything - not even a card. Another year we went out to dinner with friends, which was nice.

Honestly the only good one I had was four years ago. Eric made me breakfast in bed and brought me up a small gift. It was a nice gesture and it made me really happy. When I came home he had bought my favorite cupcakes (white with the white frosting) from Cupcakes by Caroline. He had strung up a happy birthday banner, and there were some other presents for me. And then he made one of my favorite meals, and did clean up duty. Nothing huge, but it was nice and it meant a lot to me.

I'm not asking for sympathy. I just needed to vent. One of my aunt's finally called - to talk to my mom - and I happened to answer - she said, "Oh, I think I missed your birthday, well oh, happy birthday." Still nothing from the rest of my family.