Buffy vs. Dracula

My apologies for the post title. I have a running list of all the Buffy-episode titles I haven't used yet, but I'm blogging from a road trip to my hometown, and I left my list at home. I know I've never used "Buffy vs. Dracula," though!

The Dude and I have major plans to celebrate our upcoming one-year anniversary in style. We're headed to NYC! The Dude's never been so, of course, he's super excited. We'll be staying at a cute boutique-y hotel in midtown Manhattan. I wanted to stay in Brooklyn, but I think this will better since the Dude has a lot of things he'd like to see in Manhattan.

Here's what we're hoping to do in our four nights/five days there.

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Have drinks at the Ace Hotel bar. It's only a few blocks away from where we're staying!

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 Do a little shopping (even if it's mostly window shopping!).

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See a baseball game.

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  In the Dude's words, go to a "hot rock show."

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And, of course, eat some of the most incredible food in the world. Maybe Nosh Girl or Try Anything Terri will have some restaurant recs for us!

We'll also try to squeeze in some touristy things for the Dude, like going on the ferry to see the Statue of Liberty. And I'd like to a little museum-ing and see "Wicked" on Broadway.

We leave in less than two weeks! I can't wait! 

The I in Team

Why working on Saturday is better than working during the week:

1. can park right out front in the executive director's spot
2. can be late without having to sneak in
3. can play Brick Breaker in the bathroom
4. there's no one to pop around the side of my cube, scaring the bejeesus out of me while I'm reading blogs on my Blackberry
5. there's no one to pull me into a one-and-a-half-hour-long conference call
6. can write a million lists on a million sticky notes 
7. eating a vending-machine lunch of Cheetos and Corn Nuts is significantly less embarrassing
8. now on friendly terms with the office ghost
9. no makeup, slouchy jeans, and a tank top is "work appropriate"
10. can read Sookie Stackhouse book on break time completely shame free
11. can actually take allotted breaks instead of pretending like I have too much work to do to take a break
12. can compose blog posts
13. can take yoga breaks

Innocence

One of the two custom orders that I recently got commissioned to make was for two baby headbands. My friend Melanie is a budding photographer, and she wanted some sweet, fabric flower headbands for an upcoming newborn shoot. This was her inspiration:

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Melanie asked me to do one headband in red and one in a neutral color. Well, my favorite neutrals are gray and tan, so I decided to go with a tan colored organza called "toast." I picked a ruby red for the other color. I decided to go with organza because I've been wanting to try the "sealing the edges of fabric with a flame" technique. I'm really happy with how these turned out, but I wish I could have found skinnier headbands to put them on. Hopefully they won't be too overwhelming to the teeny baby's head.

Homecoming

Last weekend, the Dude and I drove to Dallas for a meet-up with some of my fellow Weddingbee bloggers. The Avocados are moving to Chicago, so they invited all the Texas Bees to their apartment to have a day party at their pool.

We drove up on Friday after work, and I suggested we stop in Georgetown to eat at Monument Cafe, a restaurant that I read about in Texas Highways. (I get it free at work, OK? It's definitely not a magazine that you should pay for.)

The Monument Cafe has been open since 1995, and it moved to its current location in the Georgetown historic district in 2008. While waiting outside for our table, we spied this little herb garden right outside the restaurant.

The Dude ordered fried pork chops, and I got a bacon cheeseburger. I was going to get the portabella mushroom sandwich, but then I read on their menu that they use on all-natural, hormone and antibiotic free meat. So I indulged in the burger relatively guilt free.

It was delish. For dessert, we shared the Monument chocolate pie with pecan crust (wowza) and the coconut cream pie. I would go back again just for the choco pie.

Unfortunately, I don't have too many photos from the pool party, but I'm hoping Mrs. Avocado will post some on her blog soon!

The Dude puts on sunscreen (and I cut off his feet again!)

The Birds of Paradise (Bird of Paradises?) with Baby BOP

In addition to the Dude and me and the BOPs, Mr. and Mrs. Avocado and baby Avocado, Mr. and Mrs. Hydrangea, and Mrs. Frozen Yogurt and her two nieces were all in attendance. We had so much fun hanging about and splashing in the pool. I even got to hold Baby Avocado long enough for him to fall asleep sitting in my lap!

Before we drove back home, I asked the Dude to drive by the Grassy Knoll in downtown Dallas. Even though I've lived in Texas my whole life and grew up in a small town two hours away from Dallas, I'd never been to the Kennedy memorial there. So we did a drive-by:

One stop for gas, right across from the Dallas zoo, and we were on our way back to Austin.

Of course we had to eat dinner at Braum's in Hillsboro on the way back. It's our Braum's! We even ate there on our way back from DFW Airport after our honeymoon.

Living Conditions

So by now, everyone's taken a side in the great "toilet paper over or under" debate of 2009.

Personally, I prefer over, but it's not that big a deal to me. It's not like when I use the bathroom in someone else's home I feel the need to flip the roll if it's going in the wrong direction.

But what about another toilet debate that has yet to make its way to the forefront of our consciousness? I'm talking about whether you're a toilet-lid-up or a toilet-lid-down person? Now I'm not talking about the seat here. Unless you're living in a frat house, the seat should always be down (unless the toilet's in use by someone with male parts). No, I'm talking about the lid—the part that goes on top of the seat and sometimes wears those fuzzy, colored shrug things (ick—just, no).

In our house, we're staunch toilet-lid-down people. For one thing, we have cats. And cats are disgusting creatures who cover up their own poop and pee, and then use those same paws to clean themselves. *shudder* Needless to say, they have no qualms about drinking out of the toilet. So to keep temptation at bay, we keep the lids down. Also, I just think it looks cleaner and neater. Kinda like keeping all the drawers and cabinets shut, you know?

But I know not all people are in agreement on this. In fact, my parents' house growing up was a toilet-lid-up kind of house. Or maybe it was just a "we have way to many fucking kids and jobs to give a crap about whether the toilet seats are up or down" kind of house. Either way, I know that other lifestyles exist out there in the world of toilets.

Are you a toilet-lid-up or -down person?

What's My Line, Part Two

Usually I write a blog post when I have a topic in mind. But I'm feeling the urge to write for a little bit without a strict idea of where this is gonna go. Bear with me, please.

I didn't blog about it, I guess because I didn't want to "jinx" it (stupid, I know), but I was in the running for a legal editing job with a state agency in Austin. I was pretty excited about it because it would have meant doing what I'm passionate about, yet not having to take the financial risk of going 100% freelance. Well, even though I did well enough on the editing test to get an interview and nailed the interview (or so I thought), I didn't get the job. Super bummer.

I guess I'm kind of at a loss right now as to what my next move is. Don't get me wrong, I am so grateful to have my current (temporary, through November) attorney job and, of course, my Weddingbee gig. But I know that I need to be figuring out something else long-term to supplement my editing income.  Do I keep looking for state jobs? They offer a lot of stability, vacation time, benefits. Or do I pursue my dreams and search for more freelance gigs? Right now my dream is to be able to work from home 100% of the time and to keep earning roughly what I'm earning right now, or maybe a little less.

In other professional news, I've recently gotten a couple of inquiries for custom Dead Flowers orders. Very exciting! I've been feeling burnt out and kind of overwhelmed creatively in that arena, so I'm glad to have a reason to get back into designing and making accessories. I've also got to get cracking on making product for the event I've got coming up in October. (I know I've been a little cryptic about it—details are forthcoming, I promise.) I was feeling uninspired, until I got the idea to make some fabric belts. Maybe something like this:

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Now I'm really psyched to get started!

I Only Have Eyes for You

Do you and your significant other have a list? Yeah, you know what "list" I'm talking about.

The Dude and I never really thought that much about our lists until recently, although we're definitely one of those couples that have no qualms about telling each other when we find someone else (extremely) attractive. The Dude and I were talking a few nights ago before bed and started compiling our lists.

His consists of (and I'm just guessing here because he never fully completed his thoughts):

Kate Beckinsale

Gillian Anderson

Elizabeth Hurley (not to be confused with Elizabeth Berkley)

Yeah, there were supposed to be five, but he has a short attention span. 

My list (which is way better, of course) is:

Alexander Skarsgard (whose list is he not on right now?)

Joseph Gordon-Levitt (made a flying leap onto my list after I saw Inception, though I liked him back in his long-haired, 3RFTS days)

James Franco

Taylor Kitsch

Shia LaBoef

I was debating between Michael Cera and Brit Daniel for that last slot (not that these are in any particular order), but I couldn't make up my mind. Then I realized why I couldn't make up my mind: I forgot about Shia. It's a good thing for the Dude that Mr. LaBoef is in the Transformers movies; otherwise I most likely would not tolerate watching them with him.

I guess I feel kinda weird about the lack of diversity in my list, but what can I say? I know what I like. (Apparently that is quasi–bad boys with greasy hair.)

Hush

Jeggings are awesome, despite what some people may tell you.

Exhibit A:

This is what I wore to work on Friday. (Why am I not using the DSLR I borrowed from my friend Katie? Well, the battery died, and I need to return it to her anyway.)

So yeah, I'm pro-jeggings. As long as they don't have, like, a weird fake denim wash going on, like this specimen: (Click here to see some ugly-ass jeggings.)

Graduation Day, Part One

So I've still got one last photo project from my class to share. This was the assignment we were meant to bring to our last class. It was a lot more open ended than our previous ones. We had several different "types" of shots we were supposed to get, and we could go anywhere on our own time to experiment with these shots. Each shot was supposed to demonstrate one of the basic rules of photography.

The Dude came with me one evening to Mueller Park, which is pretty near our house, on Airport Boulevard, East of I-35. It's actually the location of the old airport, and it's now a major residential and commercial development area. Anyway, there was plenty of nature, man-made structures, and people to shoot.

These first three photos were my attempt at "framing." In the first one, I used a metal structure to create a frame around the Dude, the subject of the photo.

For the next two, we were supposed to take a shot of something "normally" and then get closer, filling the frame with the subject.

For the following two shots, the assignment was to take a photo of something head on, and then shoot it again from a more interesting angle. Meh, I could have done better.

The next two shots demonstrate the "rule of thirds." You can see how the subject (the Dude) is in the center in the first photo.  In the second, the subject is in one third of the shot.  I really liked this one, but my teacher totes called me out in class for cutting of the subject's feet. Oops!

Our teacher was pretty big on graphic images, so part of our assignment was to take a photo of something cluttered and then zoom in on a part of it to "simplify." The second shot here was his favorite of mine. (Oh, and yes, I was boring and took a photo of my own car.) But look! I used the rule of thirds, too!

Finally, my favorite shot of the whole class. For this part of the assignment we were meant to take a photo of something with "leading lines." My interpretation of a leading line is a line in the photo that draws you in to the photo and either directs your focus to the subject or serves as the subject itself. All you smartypants photographers out there, please let me know if you have a better explanation!

For this shot, I just got really lucky that the child happened to be running by right at the time I was clicking away. Not to mention the fact that my ISO was set high enough to get her in focus! (Pure luck, plain and simple.)

Thanks for indulging me while I shared my progress in my beginner photography class! It was fun, and I hope in the future to take the next level so I can really start to build some skills. Now the question is: what type of DSLR should I buy?

Beauty and the Beasts

Some of you guys wanted to know more about my Clarisonic, so I thought I'd do a little one-month skin update.

I've been using the Clarisonic almost religiously—once a day, usually before I go to bed at night. (I think I've only skipped it once or twice since I bought it.) In the mornings before work, I either wash my face in the shower with my trusty, scrubby Aveeno, or I do a quick swipe with this stuff if I'm skipping the shower. (And no, I'm not fancy—I got the Carita cleanser for free in a giveaway I won like a year ago.)

So far, the most noticeable change by far is the texture of my skin. It's much, much softer. Like a million times softer. And I didn't think I had rough skin at all pre-Clarisonic! Even the Dude has commented on MULTIPLE OCCASIONS how soft my skin is. And he is not the most observant person in the world, to say the least.

Before Clarisonic, I would often get breakouts, mostly on the sides of my face, near my hair. I also had a constant slew of teeny tiny bumps on my chin and forehead. The breakouts have almost completely stopped (aside from the occasional pimple), and my forehead and chin are noticeably smoother, less bumpy. (Haha, less bumpy. It sounds like I took an anti-vampire pill.)

Sorry, no before photos, but here's what my skin looks like now, with no photo post-processing. The only makeup I have on is mascara, and the mineral powder I put on eight hours ago, hence the shiny. (By the way, I refuse to apologize for the fact that my hair looks greasy, though I'm not quite sure WHY it looks so greasy in these photos.)

OK, I know what you're all wondering about is the blackheads/pore-shrinkage factor. I have to say that my pores don't really look any different yet. HOWEVER, I barely have blackheads on my nose anymore. And when I did a blackhead-removing pore strip a couple weeks ago, it seemed to be way more effective than they were in the pre-Clarisonic days. I'm hoping if I continue with this little device that I will see more improvement in this area.

Bottom line: Is my skin perfect yet? No. But it's the best it's been since before puberty, I can almost guarantee. Best skincare purchase I've ever made.