A Spooky Day to You!

A "very happy Halloween" to everyone, first of all! Has everyone had fun celebrating in spooky ways today? I actually did not do anything for Halloween today; not a single pumpkin was carved. How sad. But, last night, I did bake these:

The cupcakes turned out....OK. The cake...um....well, he has some issues. I'm not sure what happened there. The blurry pictures don't help, either. But both the cupcakes and the cake taste pretty good. (Vegan) Devil's Food Cake with my super-secret-recipe Tofu Icing...Mmmm-mmmm! (OK, the recipe for my Tofu Icing isn't really very secret...its right here!)

I wish I knew exactly where all of my old books from my childhood are. I had some really cool Halloween books that my mom would read to me every year. This was one of my very most favorite!

Here's how I spent my Halloween today:

1) Work 7-4

2) Haircut (it was getting pretty poofy! Much better now.)

3) Went to the mall to find some khakis for work because I have no pants that actually fit. Blame Veganism. Didn't find any pants. Got really frustrated. Did buy a skirt at Charlotte Russe I've been admiring, on sale for less than $7! Woo hoo!

4) Left the mall feeling really cranky because a) I didn't find any khakis that I could actually afford/came in "short" lengths; and b) the mall is already decked-out for Christmas. No.

5) Stopped at the Goodwill in a last-ditch effort to not end my day feeling cranky. Found a pair of Aeropostale khakis, in 'short' length, for $6, score! I also found a really special treasure that I won't share just yet.... mostly because my camera battery is [constantly] dead, but also because I like to build suspense.

I think I'm going to follow Marjorie's example and go await a certain Pumpkin....

Happy haunting!!

First snow, and a sneak-peek

Well, it officially snowed last night. Nothing to brag about; its less than an inch, but it did actually blanket the ground, and its still there this morning, so I think it counts. I didn't take any pictures yet because, well, then sun hasn't come up yet. But I'll try to get a few pics before I leave for school this morning.

I did a little more planning/plotting for the Blard Sale, and now I actually have a few pictures of some of the items I'm going to be offering up. This is just a tiny sampling of stuff I need to get rid of, but I just didn't have time to take more pictures (plus my camera battery died). I'm going to try to get some more pictures taken either this evening or over the weekend.
Anyway, here are a few dresses:

(Detail)

I really love the teal dress at the top and the mustard-y colored dress at the bottom. I especially love the 'necklace' detail of the mustard dress. Both of those were worn to weddings this past Spring (each was only worn once), but neither fits me anymore! They're both Mediums. The first blackdress has only been worn once (actually as a Halloween costume 2 years ago...I was a Bombshell, hehe). Its marked a size 11/12, but that's waaaaayyyyy off - I'm 5'2", and about a size 3/4, and its only a little bit big on me. I mean, its stretchy, but I don't see how it could be marked 11/12. I'd say its more like a 7/8. The details on that dress are GORGEOUS. The second black dress is from Gap, around 2002. Yeah. I've had it forever and only worn it once. What is it with me? Sheesh. Its a size 8, but it also runs a little small. Probably more like a 6.

I have some more pictures on my Flickr.

So, there's a little sneak preview for you. Like I said, I'm going to try to get some more pictures taken over the weekend so we can have this Blard Sale towards the end of next week! Yay! I'm really excited. I think this'll be fun!

OK, I have to go get ready for school now. Its going to be another cold day, brrrr! Stay warm!

I have an idea....

I miss yard sales. I didn't really get to go to as many as I would have liked to over the summer. I certainly haven't been to any since school started; and now that its absolutely freezing outside, I think the season is just about over.

Since going Vegan in July, I've lost a lot of weight....almost 20 pounds! As a result, I have TONS of clothes that are too big for me. I have NO pants. Its sad, really. I look like a little kid playing dress-up in Mommy's clothes. Sad.

Now, if I lived in a nice, normal town I would simply take my too-big clothes (many of which have NEVER been worn, or only been worn a few times.... I ♥ shopping) to a consignment shop. But alas, there are no good consignment shops around here. There are only two, and they are both the same 'company' - just two locations; and both of them are overpriced and serve mostly old ladies. So instead, I propose the Blard Sale!

What the heck is a Blard Sale, you ask? Well, its Blog + Yard... that's right. Blard. Over the next week or so, I'm going to gather up some things that I just don't need/don't want/can't wear anymore, take nice pictures, and then one day next week (to be determined) do a blog post with all the items. All you have to do is claim an item in the comments and send payment to me through PayPal (I'll list my PayPal email in that post), and that item is all yours, baby!

So, what do you guys think? Are you intested in attending my Blard Sale? I think it'll be fun. Maybe some of you guys would like to have a Blard Sale at the same time? We could have a Community Blard Sale!

Good Day Anyway

Its terribly rainy and cooooold here today! With the wind, the high today is only supposed to be in the mid 30s! Brrrr!

But I've had a lovely couple of days so far this week. I got some of my grades from last week's exams yesterday, and its all A's so far. Yay! I also finally handed in the paperwork to declare my minor in Biology and a certificate in GIS... whew! I always knew one degree would simply not be good enough for me, the overachiever that I am. ;)

I get to submit my schedule for next semester today at 9:00. So far, all of the classes I want are still open, so I'm hoping it stays that way for just a little while longer!

I've also had a little flurry of sales since yesterday in the Quiet shop. Strange how that works, but I'm not complaining! Hopefully this trend continues! These two items are going to new homes soon:

Hooray!

Well, I should really hurry and leave a few minutes early this morning... Sarah Palin (yes, THE Sarah Palin) is actually speaking at my school today. I'm unimpressed.

Have a lovely Tuesday, everyone!

A Rose is a Rose....

Would you believe, I picked these from my garden yesterday?! Its been below freezing at night for the past few nights, and my little roses are still holding on. I was shocked. There's also some lavender and catmint in there (that's the purple flower). This tiny little bouquet has really just brightened the rainy, dreary day.

The yellow ones are my favorite!

I was so busy at school this past week that Thursday night I had a 'me-night'. I curled up in bed with my dog and watched some movies that I've been wanting to see for a while, that finally came in from Netflix recently.

First, we watched The Fall. It was awesome. Really. If you haven't seen it yet, go rent it! Now! It is just visually stunning; and the little girl, Alexandria, is adorable with her accent and gap-teeth.

After that, we watched Akira Kurosawa's Dreams. That too is visually stunning, but parts of it made me feel really....uncomfortable. I don't know exactly why. I mean, obviously that was the point of some of the 'dreams' and the way they were portrayed, but... I don't know. Also, there are a lot of elements that are repetitive. Its deliberate, but it made me feel really impatient and uneasy. The other thing that made me sort of uncomfortable with it was that a few of the 'dreams' just didn't seem like they actually came from, well, dreams. They were just too coherent, and had such specific messages (like "save the planet" kind of stuff, which I'm all about, but come on... this guy dreamt that? No way.).... it kind of betrayed the idea that these were a man's dreams, brought to realization. But all-in-all, it was pretty cool. I really liked the first two dreams, when he was a little boy. They seemed more dream-like, and the traditional Japanese costumes and dance are just gorgeous. The one 'grown-up' dream I really liked was "The Crows"... it was amazing the way they brought Van Gogh paintings to life. Beautiful. "The Weeping Demon" was terrible, I thought. I actually got really bored with that one. Anyway, the movie has a good concept, I just didn't like some of the segments.

Brrrrr!

Well, its another cold day here on my mountain. The high is going to be about 46 today (with the wind chill)...that's pretty chilly, considering it was in the 80s just about 10 days ago.

Monday I finished bringing in my 'cold weather clothes', which includes a huge assortment of hats, scarves, and mittens. I actually gave them their own drawer this year!

Sorry for such a terrible picture - this side of my room doesn't get much light, so the flash was a little wonky. But you can clearly see that I have too many winter accessories.

Duffy got in on the action too.

I've been studying and writing since 6:00 this morning. I have a Lit. exam today, and an exam PLUS a paper due tomorrow in Psych. tomorrow. Super fun. Needless to say, I won't get much sleep tonight. At least I have next week to look forward to: Halloween and the Straylight Run show!!

Frosty Mountain Morning

It is COLD this morning. The temperature right now is 34 degrees F, so I can only speculate how chilly it was overnight. Just look at the frost! This is the view of my garden out my kitchen window.

I am not a cold-weather kind of girl; so I camped out on the floor in front of the space heater with a lap tray to eat my breakfast... all I need now is a cozy little blanket tent!

I still have a yucky cold, but luckily (?) today I've had much better luck at actually, uh, expectorating all the yuckiness.... sorry, there's just no eloquent way to say that! But at least that hopefully means that I'm on the road to getting better!

I'm not looking forward to this week at school; I have 3 exams (one today) and a paper due, all before Thursday. Bleh. I think this morning I'm going to go out to the 'bungalow' (the moniker fondly given to our little shed) to dig-out my giant box of scarves and mittens, my (and Duffy's) favorite winter blanket, and probably the little space heater for my bedroom.

I guess it really is Autumn now!

Cozy Toes

So, I got up this morning, went downstairs for my coffee, then came back to my room fully expecting to see Duffy curled up on my pillow where he normally is. Only I didn't see him.... confused, I said, "Boo Boo?"

No reply.

Then I saw this:

Yes, those are his toes. Just his little toes sticking out of the blankets. He slept like that for about a half hour, until I had to go to work. I wish I could have stayed under the covers and snuggled with him instead of going to work today! I still have some sniffles, and it was cold today! Just two days ago it was in the high 70s, and today I think it was only a high in the 50s. I've even had to scrape frost off my windshield in the morning yesterday and today!

I got an awesome winter coat at the Goodwill a week or two ago, but I haven't taken any pictures yet....I look like Rudolph with my raw, red nose! Not pretty.

I don't really have anything exciting to report...just the norm: tons of school work to do, not enough hours in the day, yada yada yada.

I hope everyone is having a nice weekend!

"Four times Curacao"

"Four times Curacao", originally uploaded by Sander Copier.

I have a head cold and feel pretty icky. But no matter; I have some good news: I'll be snorkeling in Curacao in January, when its like -10 degrees here in PA.

That's right, I'm totally going to Curacao!! I'm officially on the roster, and I'm super-psyched!
(Photo borrowed from Sander Copier on flickr!)

Besides that exciting tidbit, I'm also excited to go to a Big Bad Voodoo Daddy concert tomorrow night at the school! Woo hoo! Its going to be awesome.

Ok, I have to go to school a little early today to buy my ticket. Be back later!

Invasion 2008

They're baaaaaaaack!

Ew. I hate ladybugs so much. I swear, I just thought to myself the other day, Hmm, that's strange; I haven't seen any swarms of ladybugs yet... maybe they're not coming this year?

I spoke too soon. I came home from the concert this morning to about 10 ladybugs on my window and curtains. I'm sure they're just the scouts, and about a gazillion more will be knocking on the door very soon.

Yuck.

At least I have a nice view:

The road up the mountain to my house is absolutely stunning. This is definitely the peak of the season. I should really try to take some pictures this week, before it turns all brown and yucky. Maybe tomorrow.

The concert last night was so much fun! I'm exhausted today, but I'll manage. Too bad I have class until 9:15 tonight. But that's what coffee is for, right? I'm just going to have to get used to this late-night Sunday thing, because we're going to 3 more shows before the end of November, and they're all on Sunday nights. Its totally worth it though. We always have such a blast.

Rise Against is so awesome....straight-edge, vegan, activists. Awesome.

Speaking of awesome, check out this video:

Not-Your-Granny's Sweater!

Just a quick post to let you know that this gorgeous sweater is now in the shop!

I really want to keep it for myself, but its just a tad too big for little ol' me. Boo!

I've got tons to do tomorrow- work, drive to Annapolis, go to the Rise Against show in Baltimore, come home Monday a.m., go to school (and be there until 9:15)..... whew. Its going to be a doosey!

I promise I'll be back soon, with a few tricks up my sleeve!

Have safe and fun weekends!

Aha!

Cool. I got ahold of a digital copy of the flyer from the prof in charge of the trip. Check it out:

http://webspace.ship.edu/srcornell/09_Flyer_GEO450.pdf

Curacao....?!?

*Edited to add that I've decided on FREE SHIPPING within the US in both of my shops, and everything in both shops is BUY-ONE, GET-ONE half off!!!! I also reduced the shipping costs to everywhere else, so you just can't go wrong! If you've had your eye on anything, now is the time to buy!! The sale ends Nov. 1!

http://crackthesky.etsy.com/

http://quietquiet.etsy.com/

Wow...I have an opportunity to travel to Curacao, Netherlands Antilles, for a week in January....and its for credit at school. I want to go soooooo bad! It would be the most amazing opportunity!!! It encompasses pretty much everything in my (very broad) major, Geo-Environmental Studies; and you can choose to specialize for the week in Marine Science. How perfectly awesome is that?! Except.... the cost right now is slated at $2100, if you want to s.c.u.b.a. ($1800 if you just snorkel). Um.... I don't have that much money. Actually, I don't have HALF that much money. Crap.

I need to figure out a way to go on this trip. Maybe I could step up my advertising for the Etsy shops?? I haven't been selling anything lately... I just don't have much time to promote with school and all. Maybe I could do some kind of fundraiser?

Does anyone have any experience with fundraising for a personal project? I feel really weird about flat-out asking for money... and I'm not allowed to do fundraising where I work, so.... does anyone have any ideas for how I can raise about $2000 by November?? (Ok, even if I can raise only about half of that by then, I'll be happy - I'll be saving up my paychecks, too, but I need as much as I can get!!)

*****IF ANYONE CAN OFFER ANY KIND OF WISDOM, IT WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED!!******

(I'm working on getting a digital copy of the flyer!!)

Thursday.

Phew. Its....6:56 a.m. here in PA. I've been up for nearly 2 hours already, studied for my GIS exam, downed 2 cups of coffee (about to go get my 3rd), and had a piece of chocolate-chip-pumpkin-spice-cake. I'd say that's a pretty accomplished day...so far. Haha!

I just checked the weather; its supposed to be in the mid-70's today. What's up with that?? Stupid weather. Its this kind of temperature-fluctuation that makes me (literally) sick every time the seasons change. I'm not sick yet, but I definitely have the sneezes-and-sniffles. Blech. I also get extremely frusterated when the weather is chilly one day, and warm the next, because I'm so busy with school and I don't have time to play outside like I want to. I had a dream last night about my garden, that I was growing huge pumpkins, cantaloupes, and watermelons (all in the same giant hanging basket, nonetheless). It was pretty cool. I haven't even been out to my garden in over a week, and I'm kind of afraid to see how overgrown and sad it probably is.

So how do you guys like the music I added to the ol' blog? I got the idea from miss Marjorie. You can make a playlist for your blog here. I need to add a few more songs... the ones I have on there right now were very hastily added just before I was leaving for school yesterday, haha.

Alright, everyone; have a lovely day! I've got to go get ready for school!

Happy Thursday!

PS

PS - I added some songs for your listening pleasure. I hope you enjoy them!

My Christmas List - part 1

Every year, when the weather starts to turn cool, I get that tingly, excited feeling in mystomach. The familiar pitter-patter of tiny elf-shoes teaching sugarplums and candycanes to dance in formation to the Nutcracker Suite. Its simply unavoidable (and the fact that Wal-Mart, Target, etc. already have Christmas stuff out definitely isn't helping).

Anyway, although it is only October, I have already begun to compile a Christmas list. What with Etsy's "favorites" function, its all too easy for me to make a list that stretches for pages, and pages, and.....well, you get the idea.

So here are some of the very lovely things I have "favorited" in recent days, and the beginning of my ever-growing Christmas list.

Bird of Peace espresso mug and saucer by Holli Bolli

Coral earrings by Spilly Jane

Silver Spoon keychain by Webby Sue

Silver Spoon earrings by Revisions

Porcelain Goldfish magnets by Revisions

I'm especially coveting those goldfish magnets. How gorgeous are they?!

Well, today I actually have class... I feel sort-of reluctant to go back, but at least I know its just a few weeks until Thanksgiving break. Its hard to believe the semester is almost half-over! Boy, how time flies. I have a Lit. quiz today (meh), and a GIS exam tomorrow (eep). Not cool. I studied a little bit this morning, but I'm just having one of those days/weeks when I just don't feel motivated. I'm really not too worried about it. I just have a lot of things weighing on my mind right now, and I'm going to take care of myself/my sanity first, before stressing over a silly 15-point quiz. I always do better than I think I will, anyway.

What I Did Today.

I had another nice day off from school and work today. I spent the morning drinking coffee in bed and watching the Planet Green channel. Pretty nerdy, heck yeah. Around noon I decided to go to the best Goodwill in the area, which is about 1/2 hour from my house. I found 2 nice sweaters for myself, a birthday present for Lani (that I can't share yet, just in case she peeks on here!), a gorgeous sweater for the shop, and the most amazing jewelry box ever. I'm just having some really good luck lately on the thrifting-front!

The sweater isn't in the shop, yet, but I plan on putting it in there sometime in the next few days. As for the little house jewelry box, I think I have to keep it all to myself. Its just too adorable. Its marked "Japan" on the bottom, and it still works- it plays a little tune when you wind up the knob on the back. I'm in love.

I also went to the mall in the afternoon, but left completely disillusioned. There's just no point in even trying. I saw a few dresses that I really liked at Macy's, but they were $60. Each. That's just not ok in my book. Not when I can spend $18 at Goodwill and walk out with a new winter coat, a pair of shoes, two shirts, a teacup, a candleholder, and a piece of art for my walls. Now that's shopping.

I did, however, get another birthday present for Lani while I was at the mall. Of course, I can't say what it is yet, but I know she's going to be thrilled! I'm so excited- I'm going to Annapolis on Sunday to go to a concert and celebrate her birthday (early). Today we decided I should also take off the whole weekend of Halloween so we can celebrate! I was sad because I didn't think I'd have any plans (besides working, bleh); and we're going to a concert on Sunday Nov. 2, so why not just take off the whole weekend and hang out with my best friend? Now I'm super-stoked for Halloween, even if all we do is bake pumpkin-shaped cookies and watch silly horror movies all day. Hehe.

I came home from shopping to discover that season one, disc two of Carnivale arrived today; and suddenly all my plans of studying for tomorrow's Lit. quiz went straight out the window. Oops! I'm just so upset that Carnivale was cancelled. Will I never know what its all about??! Drat!

A Delicious Fall Treat!

I've been meaning to make some sort of pumpkin-spice cake or cookies for a few weeks now, and I finally got around to it today. It is absolutely heavenly, easy to make, and better yet, its vegan!

I didn't take step-by-step pictures because, well, I mostly made it up as I went along. So here's basically what I did.

Ingredients:

1 box of Spice Cake mix (if you're going for a vegan cake, just check the ingredients on the box. The one I used was Duncan Hines Moist-Deluxe)

1 can of pumpkin (instead of oil)

Ener-G egg replacer (equivalent of however many eggs your box of cake mix requires)

1 cup of chocolate chips (*optional; make sure they're vegan - I used Ghiradeli)

Directions:

Follow the directions on the box of cake mix, substituting Energ-G egg replacer for eggs and 1 can pumpkin (or applesauce, if you prefer it) for oil.

I stirred in 1 cup of chocolate chips for good measure (because isn't everything better with a little chocolate?).

Use baking times on the box - mine baked for about 30 minutes.

Let it cool completely before putting on icing.

The icing:

Ingredients:

1 block of silken tofu

3-4 tbsp. lemon juice (to taste)

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1/2 cup sugar

a pinch of salt (to taste)

Blend all the ingredients together (using a hand mixer) until creamy. Spread over the cake once its cool.

Eat up!

301st post! And... more vintage!

Holy cow, I didn't even realize that the super-emo post I made last night was my 300th! Doesn't that require some sort of celebration? Hmm. I'll have to think of something fun to do to celebrate on here..... but for now, I have some new vintage-y things to show you!

Giant owl magnet

This thing is seriously huge - 7 inches across!!

A whole slew of belts:

And my best find today:

These are all currently in my shop, go and take a peek!

I've been doing OK, but today was kind of hard. I was OK until Chris called me on my lunchbreak at work - and we talked on really good terms. True to his form (and not to my surprise), he's doing just fine without me. Not in a smug way, but in a "well, what can I do about it? You've made up your mind" kind of way. That's just the way he is. Not that I wanted him to desperately try to get me back, but it would have made me feel...well, I guess it would have helped my ego a bit. But I'm glad he's mostly alright.

He called to tell me a funny story about one of his friends. We talked like best friends, like we always have. That's what made it so hard. Its just so hard to imagine my life without him, because he's been my life for 4 1/2 years. Who do I call on my lunchbreak to chat? Who is the first person I think of when I have a story to tell? Who do I call when I'm bored and just want to hang out?

Its not so much a matter of being alone. I've always been independent, and I"ll be fine. Its just that my whole life has to change now because I'm not with Chris. I can't let myself see him, at least not for a while, so I can get used to this whole 'being without him' thing. Otherwise I'm afraid we'll just fall back into old habits, and nothing will have changed, and everything will be confusing. We aren't meant to be together. Its just what we're used to.

Sorry to be all gloomy, but I just got done watching the Sex and the City movie, and it was so lovey-dovey, and happy-ending-ish, and I just needed to get that out.

And then there was One.

You can't fix something that's just too broken.

If you try to force it, it breaks.

We're not who we were when we were 19.

I broke up with Chris.