Did you know? #8

Oops! I skipped yesterday's Did you know? because I was out on Chris's dad's boat getting sunburned! So you'll get two today :)

 

[via Pinterest]

Throughout my childhood, and into my first year at college, all I wanted to do was be an artist. Or an art teacher. But after my first year of art classes in college, I got discouraged and quit drawing and painting all together. I didn't pick up a pencil for years, and now I fear I've lost all my talent. I did channel my artistic and creative energy into the fiber arts, so it worked out well!

Did you know? #7

I'm the messiest person in the world. I keep hoping that with age and experience, I'll snap into tidy-person mode, but it hasn't happened yet. I would include a photo of my messiness, but it's just too embarrassing!

Did you know? #6

 

I've been searching for the perfect chapstick/lip balm since I started middle school. I'm very particular. Because of this, I've amassed quite the collection! These are what I carry in my purse. There are more stashed around my house, and my car, and a zillion other places!

PS: Do you have a favorite? Let me know in the comments :)

Did you know? #5

 

I have dreams of owning a cute pie shop someday. I've never baked a pie. I blame Ned and Jenna.

Did you know? #4

 

I cry so so easily. Youtube videos, commercials, books, anything about weddings or having babies, most movies I've seen... And not just watery eyes, but legitimately crying, tears streaming down my face and nose running... The whole nine yards! Here's some recent ones that have had me bawling:

Did you know? #3

 

I think I'm a super taster! Chris has always made fun of how picky of an eater I am, but then he suggested that maybe I just taste things differently than everyone else. I can detect really small amounts of flavor in things, and I CANNOT handle things that are the least bit spicy or sour! 

What I wore today! And a fun twist...!

Yesterday I mentioned that Chris and I picked something super fun up at Target, and here it is!!

I've been obsessing over this bike since I first saw it at Target last summer. I just thought it was the cutest style, perfectly vintage looking, but not cheesy. I like that Schwinn has put out vintage looking bikes, but a lot of them look goofy to me. This one, the Gateway, is perfect! It's a pretty cream color with brownish-red detailing, the handlebars are stitched (fake?) leather, and it has plenty of room for a basket on the front! I planned on buying a wicker one today, but the Target we went to didn't have any. Soon, though! And then it'll be perfect for riding into town for the farmer's market and filling up my basket with fruits and veggies! So excited!!!!!

I know these pictures are pretty much all the same, but bear with me :) I couldn't pick just one! 

This outfit is my absolute new favorite. I got the dress at H&M yesterday, and snagged the ruffly-tuxedo cardigan from the little girls' section of Target for $9! This dress makes me think of two things: The eighties, and sailboats.  

Chris and I ran some errands, ate some lunch, and then headed home for our first big ride. There's a pretty big network of trails just a few blocks from our house, so we set off.

I was having a seriously hard time at first, there were some intense hills that I had to get off and walk. But our plan was to get as far as the old horse stables that Chris stumbled upon last summer, and I made it! I kept up with Chris pretty well, and I only had to take a few breaks for water. I'm not in shape by any means, but hopefully we'll ride our bikes pretty often this summer and it'll get easier for me. I could already tell by the ride home that I was doing better. 

We ended up biking about six miles, which I'm pretty darn proud of! Now we're home, resting our (my) weary legs, and thinking about what we'll cook for dinner.

OH!! One of the errands we ran earlier was to the post office, and I set up my PO Box! I'm going to add the address to the right sidebar as soon as I can make a pretty image for it, but for now, if you're interested, it's:

susannahbean

PO Box 6183

Wauconda, IL 60084

I hope you've enjoyed your day!

Did you know? #2

 

My handwriting changes frequently. It depends on my mood, my patience, what pen I'm using, and what I'm writing on. My notebooks in college, in which I'd take about six pages of notes (front and back) per class each day, were different from page to page. I like my cursive handwriting best! 

What I wore today!

It was so windy and bright when we were taking these pictures! But I love the huge lilac bushes in our backyard and I really wanted to take pictures in front of them. I've tweeted and instagramed photos of this dress a bunch of times already, but each time I wear it I forget to take blog photos in it! So here it is, the dress that I'm completely obsessed with. I got it for $4 at Goodwill a month or so ago. It's the prettiest vintage dress I have, and I honestly want to wear it every single day. It has pockets, and it came with a little tie that someone made for it (the fabric isn't quite the same pattern, but pretty darn close!). I love love love it, and it'll definitely be a summer wardrobe staple for me!

Chris and I are on our "weekend" now, so today we got a bunch of stuff done. We took his car into the shop early this morning, and then headed back to our area to run some errands. We ate lunch at our favorite little burger joint in town, and Chris tried their peanut butter and jelly chicken wings! They were surprisingly good, I thought they'd be gross but I tried the sauce and I actually liked it! And I'm a crazy picky eater :) After lunch we went to the post office. I wanted to open a PO box, but I had to hold off because I didn't have two forms of ID! Silly me. I'll most likely go back tomorrow and open it, so I'll be sure to add my address to my blog in case anyone wants to be penpals! (Just a warning, I'm not the most timely person in the world, my current penpals can attest to that!!)

We went to the mall after that because I wanted to pick up some Proactive. I'm really excited to try it, I'm so tired of having breakouts all the time! We also did a little shopping... Chris got a pair of shorts and I got a dress from H&M, and we got some loose tea from a place called Teavana. I don't really like tea, but I know it's good for you, so I'm trying to get into it! We went to Target to pick up some groceries, and I got allergy medication for the first time ever. I thought I had a cold for the last few weeks, but cold medicine hasn't been helping, so I'm trying out allergy medication out of desperation! I also got a new fun surprise for myself, but I'll share that with you tomorrow :)

Now we're eating pizza, watching tv, and I plan to crochet the night away! Perfect.

Did you know? #1

A few weeks ago, I saw that Elycia had started a super cute feature in celebration of her upcoming birthday. Every day, for the 28 days leading up to her birthday, she shares a little fact about herself. The things she's shared so far are just the cutest! I love getting little peeks into my favorite bloggers' personalities. You wouldn't know our little quirks unless we choose to tell you! So I asked her if I could do my own version of "28 Things", and here we are!

In the 25 days leading up to my 25th birthday (June 16th), I'll share a quirky little factoid about myself. These are the things that make me ME, but you guys don't know about them yet! Here's number one!!

I still sleep with a teddy bear. That's him, his name is Bear. So clever, right?? This is where my love for polar bears stems from (he was originally white, after 25 years... not so much!).

An Etsy update...

Just a quick little note to say I've decided to put my Etsy shop in vacation mode again. I'm working on getting a fully stocked shop ready for next fall, and I don't have any summer ideas floating around. I hope to have my new stock photographed and listed by mid to late July, but I'll keep you updated!

Birthday wishes.

My 25th birthday is coming up, and I've been having fun dreaming up fabulous gifts for it. I don't expect to get anything on this list, but in a dream world, this is how my birthday would go :)

[image source]

I'm dying to take more professional photos, and I really think it could make my blog and etsy more successful, as well as not bore you guys with blurry, washed out photos! 

It's comes with a huge price tag, though, so for now I'm just wishing. :)

 

[image source]

I'm dying for a puppy! We decided a few years ago that we want a miniature dachshund. I had one as a little girl, and she was my absolute favorite. We'd love a little girl, either black and tan (short hair), or a piebald like the one above! We aren't allowed to have anymore pets in our current place, and even if we were able to get one, I'm not quite sure we're at a point to get a dog. We both work so much, I don't know how I'd feel about not spending a ton of time with a new puppy. Someday, though!!

[image source]

I've been having a lot of trouble with my car this year, and I would love to get a new one. I'll probably drive my little yellow Bug until it dies, but if I could pick a new car right now, I'd love to get a Honda CR-V in black.

That was fun :) Like I said, these are just the grown up version of my little girl dreams of getting a pony on my birthday. Is there something that you'd love to get (in a perfect world)?

Connections v.4

Names: Sonya and Kam

Blogs: fishnetshipchecks.blogspot.com/ and campfirechicblog.blogspot.com/

1. How long have you known each other? How did your friendship begin? (or, how did you find each other?)

 

Sonya: Well, the earliest thing I can remember is Kam winning my blog giveaway. That was in August (thank you, Blogger, for making that easy to check) so by my calculations that would mean it’s been about eight months, which sounds like a really short time. Thinking about it, though, it feels like it’s been much longer than that. /cheesycomment

Kam: I was so excited to win :) I wonder if anybody else remembers their first win? I think our friendship really took off when we became quasi-Etsy Holiday Bootcamp buddies. We had no idea what was actually going on, but we made sure to check in and offer encouragement. It was really nice to have somebody I could go to with questions.

2. How do you two normally communicate?

 

Sonya: I think Twitter is our main device of choice, but usually if we’ve got long stories to tell or something we know is going to turn into a bit of a discussion that 140 characters just can’t cover, then out comes the email. Also, since I’ve been gone we’ve been sending postcards to each other! I think I was particularly excited to be able to send Kam one from Ireland when I visited.

Kam: Telepathy. At least, that's how I try to communicate with her. She's doing study abroad right now, so we aren't able to be on gchat at the same time or tweet too much, but we make do! We currently send postcards across the pond and I sent a belated birthday/early Easter package recently, so I guess you can say a lot of our communication is via snail mail?

 

3. Have you met in person? What was it like to meet that person face to face for the first time? If not, do you plan to?

 

Sonya: No! But I think it’d be great! I was thinking about this the other day, actually, because Kam and my boyfriend both love hiking (I like camping … not so much hiking) so I was thinking it would be cool if at some point we could go visit her and/or she could visit us and we could share our hiking and camping areas. Also, because I am me, if either of us visited each other I’d make sure it was during derby season so I could take Kam to a bout. I tend to make everyone go at least once.

Kam: I would love to meet Sonya in person! When she's at home/school, she's still 3,000 miles away. I feel like we would have a blast at Harry Potter World or wandering through used book stores if we ever did get the chance to meet.

 

4. How is your internet friendship different from friendships you have offline?

 

Sonya: Well I can nerd out with her about things that my other friends aren’t interested in (yet), like Hunger Games. And I don’t have any other friends who blog, either, so we have that, too. But for the most part I don’t think it’s all that different, for me anyway; we just don’t hang out in person. I think since I’ve had online friends for years now that it just feels normal to me, so I don’t see a difference, y’know?

Kam: My eFriendship with Sonya is different because I don't need to worry about wearing pants when we chat. Yeah, I said it. I can curl up in bed with a tall glass of water and not have to worry about Sonya seeing me eventually spilling on myself. I can be myself and not get caught up in what I'm wearing, if I have food in my teeth, or if I'm making weird faces. I know she'll get back to me if I ask a question and geek out with me if news about Hunger Games or Harry Potter starts circulating.

 

5. What drew you to the other person initially? What do you love most about them?

 

Sonya: Does “She’s adorable” count as an answer? Because she is. And I think the fact that she really loves camping and hiking kind of stood out to me because that’s something my boyfriend loves, so it was sort of this clue that she was pretty awesome. I just kind of followed her blog, and she always had interesting and smart posts that stood out to me and made me want to actually talk with her, rather than just be a lurker. And I think the thing I love most about her, at least right now, is probably the fact that she totally blindsided me with the fact that she likes WWE. It’s not something I would expect just looking at her and knowing the other things she likes, so I think that makes her even more awesome! And perhaps somewhat mysterious, as well ...

Kam: I think the thing that drew me to Sonya was how honest she was in her blog posts and how we had a lot of nerdy/geeky things in common. We have a lot of differences, but I think that helps keep things fresh :) I think the thing I love the most about her is that she writes me postcards saying things like "What are you supposed to write on a postcard?". She's right, what does she say that I won't already know via Twitter/her blog? She's so adorable. Oh, and I love that she forgives my spelling <3

 

6. Do you have any other thoughts about the role the internet plays in building new relationships? (this one's kind of a 'say whatever you want' kinda question!)

 

Sonya: I think it’s a great way to become friends with people you normally wouldn’t. I’m really bad at making friends off the internet (woo! Social awkwardness!), so it helps me to still make friends and find someone I can connect with. So I guess basically what I have to say is that I love the internet and its ability to help me, and probably other really awkward people, make friends. :)

Kam: I really like the saying, "Facebook is for friends who are now strangers, and Twitter is for strangers who should be your friends". Twitter really helped us build our friendship 140 characters at a time. I think interactions have changed a lot from the time of the random "a/s/l" instant message and will keep changing.

 

Aren't they the cutest? I contacted them about participating in Connections because I follow them both on Twitter, and they're hilarious and adorable together. Their conversations are witty and caring, and I thought they'd be a perfect pair to participate in Connections! Have you checked out their blogs yet? Because you need to. Right now. Go ahead, we'll wait :)

Prairie Ruffles.

Chris and I both had Monday and Tuesday off this week, and we really had a great time together. Our schedules will both be the same week to week, so we'll have every Monday and Tuesday to spend together. I'm really excited that we'll have a nice little "weekend", we'll be able to get stuff done but also have time to enjoy each others' company! Monday was a really relaxed, fun day. We ran by a thrift store near my work because I'd seen the prettiest pair of Seychelles in the window (like these but gold). I couldn't tell if they were vintage or not, but I wanted to run back and see if they were my size and worth buying. Well, they WERE my size, but not vintage. That's perfectly fine with me, because I got a brand new pair of gorgeous $100 platforms for $7! So lucky. Then we went off to our favorite restaurant, Sushi Station, and gorged on really good sushi. When we got home we wanted to play outside because the weather was so nice, so we went down to the park down the street and threw around a football for a while. We played tetherball for the first time, too, but quickly ended that after *someone* whipped the ball and hit me in the face! (Don't worry, I'm ok!). We went home, hung around for a bit (I napped on the couch), and then headed off to the movies! We don't go to the theater very often, the last time we went was to see Toy Story 3 with my little brother last summer! We've been saving all our spare change in a jar, though, and we set a goal amount and a fun thing to use the money for. We emptied it before our Wilmington trip, and since then we'd saved up about $30. Our goal was to get to $30 and go to the movies, so we turned in our change and headed off! I picked the movie "Bridesmaids", and surprisingly Chris was up for it. It was seriously SO FUNNY! I laughed so hard I choked on a Twizzler at one point :/ Like, thought I needed the Heimlich kinda choking. I worked it out though :) We got out of the movie and stopped at our favorite local bar for a few drinks and rounds of darts. I kicked his butt the first time, but he beat me the second. We went home and planned out our errands for Tuesday.

Monday was our day for fun stuff, and Tuesday was a day for getting stuff done. Chris ran errands early in the morning and let me sleep in (way in, I woke up at ten and fell back asleep til 11:30!). He cooked lunch (grilled chicken, smashed potatoes, and corn), and then we wrote out our grocery list. We went to Target and I got a whole bunch of fun stuff (like a cute new notebook to keep in my purse for blog and etsy ideas!). Then on to Trader Joe's for a few more things. We stayed in for the night, and I got some laundry and crocheting done. All in all, a good little faux-weekend!

I wore this outfit out on Tuesday, and I really wasn't feeling it until I saw the photos. I felt very Laura Ingalls Wilder in it, but it grew on me. The dress was $10 or so on sale at Target, the cardigan is from H&M (also on sale), tights from Walmart, boots vintage.

I finally narrowed down what date I'll be having my birthday party! My birthday is June 16th, but I can't get the weekend before or after off of work, so I'm going to have my party on June 25th! We're hoping to have some of our closest friends out for a barbecue on our back deck. I'm excited, I haven't had a birthday party in far too long!

Check back soon for a new Connections post, and I'll be doing something fun in the days leading up to my birthday that I think you might enjoy!

I hope you're having a beautiful day (just like you!!).