Etsy Update!!!

I've listed a few things in my Etsy shop, and I couldn't be more excited! I've brought back the Bloom and Big Bow headbands, and I have a new design! Meet...

The Bombshell.

I'll be adding more colors as I finish them, and I have another pretty thing up my sleeve! What do you think??

Connections v.6

I'm so excited to share a new Connections post with you, because this one's pretty special to me! Danielle of Sometimes Sweet and Jess of The Doe or the Deer are two of my very favorite bloggers, they've inspired me so much and are downright amazing ladies, and they were actually the first pair of girlfriends I thought about contacting for a Connections post! So here they are!

Names: Jess and Danielle
Blogs: thedoeorthedeer.blogspot.com and sometimessweet.com

1. How long have you known each other? How did your friendship begin?  
Jess: About 4 years ago we randomly started following each other on Flickr. After a few months I realized that our husbands bands (Hour of the Wolf and Bleeding Through) had toured together... It's a small world. 

Danielle: Gosh this is hard to think back so far. I think we've known each other for at least a few years. We met via Flickr- I fell in love with her adorable family and then realized that my husband had played shows with her husband before! I messaged her some silly kind of message I'm sure, and started to get to know each other from there.  

2. How do you two normally communicate? 
Jess: Twitter, Facebook and texts.  

Danielle: We text, talk via twitter, read each others' blogs, facebook, you name it. We've also talked on the phone a couple of times- I know that if I ever needed to, I could call her and she'd be there. Jess is such a great friend and is so supportive. 

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? 
Danielle: Yes! We actually have. We met at the AZ Blogger Meetup in the spring and talked non-stop with excitement up until then. We had a funny joke that she would be carrying me around in a Baby Bjorn or pushing me in a stroller since she is very tall and I am very short.  Before meeting Jess I wasn't nervous at all- it may sound nerdy but I honestly felt like I had known her in person for years. When she walked into the restaurant I ran over to her and we gave each other the biggest hug. No awkwardness whatsoever.  

Jess: Last year I attended the Arizona Blogger Meetup (although, I live in California) and we met there. I didn't find it awkward at all!... Well except our height difference... That’s a tad awkward in photos. We've both said that our friendship feels like we have been friends forever. We are totally on the same page. 

4. How is your internet friendship different from friendships you have offline? 
Danielle: It's weird because if you would have told me years ago I would meet some of my most favorite people in the world online...I would have laughed and then said "no way, that's creepy!" Well, look at me now. I feel like a lot of the time these online friendships have the potential to be a bit deeper than a regular, in-person friendship because you're in a contact a lot more, and we often feel comfortable talking to these "outside" friends about things we may not always feel comfortable discussing with people who are directly involved.  Being a pretty serious blogger comes with a few annoyances and when someone else understands that and you can vent about it, it's such a nice thing. "Real life" friends don't always get that. 

Jess: I can really confide in Danielle when I just need to vent. No judgement. No cattiness. Just 100% support and honesty. I'm not totally sure why it's so different, but it just works for us. 

5. What drew you to the other person initially? What do you love most about them? 
Danielle: This is hard because I love EVERYTHING about Jess. She is one of the most genuine, real, loving, caring people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting, and to know her is to seriously love her. She also happens to be THE funniest person I've ever met, and that's a crazy thing to say when you know some of the funny people I know. Witty, hilarious, intelligent...shall I go on? She's just a gem. 

Jess: I thought she was really cute (does that make me sound like a creep?) I also loved that she was a high school English teacher. I grew up in a teacher household and felt like I could relate. 

6. Do you have any other thoughts about the role the internet plays in building new relationships? 
Danielle: I'm all about the internet, so naturally I have no problem building these new relationships with my online friends. Next month there's a whole group of us internet mamas (and two non-mamas) coming from all over the country to meet in Vegas. Jess and I will be rooming together and will also be meeting up with a few other internet friends we haven't met in person yet. Totally another one of those things that I would have thought was insane years ago, but it makes perfect sense now. Yay for internet friends turning into real-life ones too! :) 

Jess: I've met sooo many incredible women! It seems almost easier to find friends with the same interests, because online, you kinda lay it all out there. You can weed out the "meh" people and really connect. Surprisingly A LOT of the people I've become friends with, through the internet, we actually end up having a few friends in common. I told you it’s a very small world!

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Aren't they just adorable? Danielle's blog was one of the first I found that I really connected with, and I found Jess's equally amazing blog through Danielle's shortly afterwards. Both Danielle and Jess are so down-to-earth and honest, and I admire them so much. These two can teach us a lot about positivity, support, love (of all sorts), kindness, and grace. I truly believe that, and have learned a lot from them! Thank you so much for participating, girls!

My new favorite thing.

I feel a little silly writing up a whole post about this, but I'm really more excited about this than I should be :) The other day I tweeted about needing a solution for Mr. Littlejeans's insane amounts of fur. Seriously, you couldn't pet him without a pound of hair falling off. A few people responded that I needed to get myself a Zoom Groom, which I promptly ran out and bought!

This thing is fantastic. I love it, Jeans loves it, and my vacuum cleaner loves it (because it has to do less work.... ehhh?) He hates being brushed by a regular brush, but this, I hold it up and he comes running! See how happy he is now? Alright, I won't lie, he lays like this all the time. But inside he's happy!

He's pumped! Do any of you guys with short haired kitties have any other tips and tricks for keeping their fur in control? Let me know in the comments!!

Asymmetrical and angular.

I can't quite make up my mind about this dress. On one hand, I love the colors and length, and the top is interesting, but on the other hand I feel like I'm wearing a hospital gown. Or not so much a gown, I guess, but it reminds me of a hospital because it makes me think of these blankies they give to newborns. But whatever, I still like it!

Last night I tried the no-heat curl thing that's been making the rounds in the blog world. I watched this video, and the girl in it is just the cutest! It worked pretty well, a little too well actually! It's very curly, and maybe it's just because I haven't been curling my hair lately, but I feel like I have totally crazy hair today. I'm weird, if my hair is big in a vertical sense I'm totally cool with it, but if it's big in an --outward-- sense I hate it!

Today I have a few crafty things to catch up on (like making pillows for my nephew's nursery!), and I want to check out some different thrift stores in the area. I didn't realize it, but right down the street from one of the Goodwills I go to is a huge Salvation Army! I'm excited to check it out :)

Did you see my lovely sponsors over there --->? They're some of the sweetest girls ever, and I'm so excited to have them here! I'll be back in a few days with an introduction post so you can get to know them a little better!

Oh Monday Monday.

I'm back to working my thirteen hour shifts two days a week, and I had my first one yesterday. Let me just tell you, it was rough! I felt completely useless by the time I got home. But I have today off, and I was determined to get some stuff accomplished! I threw on a pretty thrifted (new, not vintage) dress, and headed out!

We went by the auto-body place that's going to fix up my car first, and they said it's going to take about five days. Ooof! At least I can get a rental car. Next we headed to the Goodwill, where I picked up two brand new Target dresses, a few cute mugs, a pair of Minnetonka booties (in really good condition!), and a tripod! I seriously don't want to buy anything new anymore. I can find everything I've been wanting and needing at Goodwill for so much cheaper! I'm going to start phasing out all the newer mass-produced stuff we have and replacing it with vintage treasures soon. I'm so excited about that!

Tonight we're having some of Chris's work friends over, and then I'm going to play chauffeur and take them to a club/lounge place nearby. It'll be interesting, Chris and I have never been to a club of any sort, so we'll see how much we stick out!

In case you're interested, I posted something kind of morbid that I found today on my Tumblr. It's not for the faint of heart or easily upset, but I thought it was incredibly interesting. If you're intrigued, check it out here. 

Style Obsession: Animal Prints

I've never been one to wear leopard or zebra print clothes, they're too flashy for me and not something I gravitate to. But I've seen so many animal print dresses lately that I'm totally swooning over! The ones that I like have teeny tiny animal shapes, and I picked out a few of my faves to share with you!

1. City Bird Dress, Modcloth, $52.99 // 2. Do Re Mi Fawn Dress, Modcloth, $47.99 // 3. Orange and White Cat Print Dress, Dorothy Perkins,  £28.00 // 4. Like What You Zebra Dress, Modcloth, $44.99 // 5. Elegant Equestrian Printed Dress, Ruche, $42.99

What do you think of this trend? Are there any animal print dresses you're loving lately?

Playing dress up.

I'm a wee bit obsessed with this tee lately. I wanted to wear it in some outfit pictures, so I threw it together with this skirt and some new heels just for fun.

Shirt: Target

Skirt: from my mom

Heels: Target

I got a new pair of glasses, too! I wasn't sure if they'd look good on me but I really love them! I usually stick to square ones, but I went with round ones, and they're pretty darn perfect :)

Crafting for my nephew.

Yesterday I made the trek into the city to meet up with my sister. We had plans to make a mobile for my nephew's nursery, he's due in less than a month and we're down to the final details of putting his room together! My sister had a few options that she'd narrowed it down to: this one, this one, and this one. We couldn't settle on one, so we're incorporating all three into his room. We worked on the last one today to hang over his crib, and I think it turned out pretty darn adorable!

 [here's the link to the tutorial for the cutest mobile ever!]

Doesn't he have the cutest room already?? I'm going to make a few throw pillows for the chair, Lauren has some prints from Etsy that she wants to hang, and we're working on the tissue poms and yarn balloons for another cute decoration that I'll share once we finish. I had so much fun crafting with my sister! I usually fly solo with my DIY endeavors, so having a partner in crafty-crime was so awesome :)

Just a few recent thrifted finds.

I went to the two nearest Goodwills the other day, and I had a pretty decent time. I found some cute vintage stuff, like this strawberry sauce pot and green plastic mug.

I also got the pretty dress on the left. It's brand new (with tags) from Target, and it's the same style as this one. Every time I go to the Goodwills around here they're packed full of brand new stuff from Target! It's all from the clearance section, and last time I found about a dozen of this dress! Do you ever see Target stuff at Goodwill?

Jeans was being a little helper while I took these photos.

He always acts a little weird when I go into the upstairs room. It's supposed to be my craft room, but I don't get to use it very much, so mostly it's Jeansy's room. I feel like he's my teenage son who's going "Moooommmm, get out of my rooooooom! Stop touching all my stuuuuuuuf!!". (Anthropomorphism, much?).

I get to go into work a little later than normal today, so I'm working on some baby booties for my sister (and nephew!). I'm going into the city on Tuesday to help her set up the nursery, and we're going to make a mobile! We've been scouring Pinterest for inspiration, and I think we have it narrowed down to a few options.

I still have a few sponsor spaces available, if you're interested! Don't forget, if you sign up for the month of September, you get the last week of August for free!!

Confession: I love scary movies!

I'm the worst when it comes to watching scary movies. I hide behind my hands if I have even a minute inkling that something's going to jump out on the screen. Even if a movie isn't very good, I still get scared to the point that I'm afraid something's hiding under the bed or behind the door. But I still watch them, regardless of how much they freak me out! We watched Insidious recently, and Chris really liked it, but I thought it was a little hokey. It got me thinking about my favorite scary movies, though, and I came up with two of the best I've ever seen... 

DRAG ME TO HELL

Drag Me to Hell was an awesome combination of cheesy horror movie and legitimately freaky film. I loved that most of the scary scenes were also darkly humorous. I have a soft spot for terrible B list horror movies, and this one hearkened back to those cringe-worthy 80s flicks.

THE DESCENT

The Descent is one of those movies that no matter how many times I see it, it still scares the bejeesus out of me. The premise of a group of strong women getting caught up in this terrifying situation in an unknown cave is so disturbing to me, but that's what I like about it. I really liked the way this movie was filmed, too, it made it very realistic (even though what you're watching is totally unreal). 

Have you seen either of these? What did you think? What's your favorite scary movie? I need to add some to my list of must-sees!

Sponsor Susannahbean!!

Big news, guys! I've decided to open up my blog to sponsorship! I'm really excited about offering my blog as a space to advertise your blog or Etsy shop. I had so much success with the ads I took out for my blog and shop last year, and I really hope you guys can get the same return out of advertising on my blog. I'd love to support up-and-coming blogs and Etsy shops by providing affordable ad space with a whole bunch of extras! I'm offering up three different sizes for you to choose between:

EXTRA LARGE - $20

 

 There will be one extra large ad available monthly. This ad will be featured at the top right corner of my blog, and will stay there for the whole month! When you purchase this ad, you'll be included at the beginning of my monthly sponsor highlight post, with a full bio, up to three links, and one large photo. You will also have the option to do a giveaway!  

MEDIUM - $15

 

 Medium ads will be featured right under the Extra Large ad in the right sidebar. You will be included in my monthly sponsor highlight post with a full bio, two links, and one large photo. Your ad will be shuffled for maximum visibility! There are a limited number of medium sized ads available, so grab yours quick!

SMALL - $10

 

Small ads will be located directly under the medium ads. You'll be included in my monthly sponsor highlight post with an introduction, one link, and one small photo. These will be rotated for maximum exposure! There are a limited number of small ads available!

I'm also offering an extra special treat for my first round of sponsors! If you sign up to advertise with me for the month of September, I'll put your buttons up the last week of August, so you'll get 5 weeks for the price of 4!

If you're interested in sponsoring Susannahbean, email me at susannahbean@gmail.com and we'll get started! Check out my Sponsor page for more information!