Month: July 2013

this post was written (and mostly photographed) by Symphony with only minor edits for clarity

Today we went to Granville Island to go shopping. We first we went to the Kids Market and got some stickers for Mom, toys and books for me, and toys for Gwen.

We went to Crystal Ark There were these big rocks that were cut open to show amethyst, some sort of white crystal or topaz. There were big orbs that they had. Some were pink and some were topaz, they were really cool. There were slices of agate in different colours. I got a blue one that looks like raindrop. A lady asked me to take a picture of her with her son or nephew in the Cave of Wonders!!! (The rocks in there really hurt your feet.)

After we went for lunch and had Chinese. It didn’t taste very good, and the pieces were too big. I almost choked ‘^’ NOT COOL!!!! Next we bought some macarons from A Bread Affair and tried the different flavours out on the dock in the sun. Another person asked me to take his picture, a man from Australia.


After we went to a store called Dragon Space. It was really cool. While my mom was looking at stickers I saw a Queen of Hearts mask that reminded me of the Halloween episode of Pretty Little Liars. There were a lot of figures of fairies. Some were with dragons, some were naked (you can’t see anything), there was one called Medusa’s jewel or gem and another one was called the Bride of Death (not as creepy as you think. Well the Bride one was kinda creepy…) I secretly took photos with my phone >:D heh heh. Well I’m done. Peace!

I made these for a summer camp-themed party, and once I got my technique down they were fast and easy to make. They are also exceedingly cheap, all the supplies you need can be found at the dollar store.

You will need:
• clear plastic cups
• transparent cellophane origami paper in red, yellow and orange*
• twine
• double-sided tape
• exacto knife
• cutting mat
• scissors

Take one sheet of each colour and stack them up on your cutting mat.

Cut across the stack in a zigzag pattern. You can make the points as large or small as you like, and don’t worry about trying to be neat. You’ll end up with six “flames” of cellophane, each with a jagged edge and a straight edge.

Place a strip of double-stick tape along the straight edge of each flame. My double stick tape is quite wide so I cut each piece in half lengthwise before sticking it to the flames.

Now it’s time to attach the flames to the cup. This sounds complicated but it’s really easy, and remember: it doesn’t have to look perfect or symmetrical!

Remove the backing from the tape in the first flame. Place the center of the taped edge near the bottom of the cup and wrap it around so the ends of the cellophane curve up the cup. Take the second flame of the same colour and attach it on the opposite side of the cup. The ends will overlap those of the first flame. Next, take the first flame of the second colour and attach it below the overlapping ends of the first colour, and the second flame of the second colour below the overlapping flames on the opposite side of the cup. Place the two flames of the third colour in the same way, so the center of them is below the overlapped ends of the second colour.

Wrap double-sided tape around the bottom 1″-2″ of the cup, over the cellophane.

Place the end of your twine vertically on the cup, and then wrap it horizontally around the cup over itself. Keep wrapping until you reach the top of your tape. Cut the twine and stick the end to the tape (if it doesn’t stay in place a dab of white glue should do the trick, although I haven’t found that to be necessary).

You’re done! Now put in an LED tealight** and you’re ready for camp!

*You can find cellophane origami paper online (this is similar to what I used) but I found mine at Yoko Yaya (which is a Daiso store I think) for much cheaper. Each pack had three of each of the colours I used for the project, so be sure to buy enough packs for the number of candles you need. If you can’t get cellophane origami paper you can use larger sheets of cellophane, and cut it to 6″x6″ size before starting.

**Under NO CIRCUMSTANCES are these votive holders to be used with REAL candles. They are plastic and will therefore melt, possibly catch on fire, maybe burn down your house and ruin your life and I don’t wanna be responsible for that! Please use only fake LED candles!

I have a lot of feelings right now, about myself and my body and how useless it is becoming in the wake of this illness, but I can’t find the words to express myself. I just really, really wish I could go back to two months ago when nothing was wrong.

On Monday Taylor and I walked around Stanley Park on the Seawall for the first time since before I got sick, and afterwards I couldn’t do anything but lie on the couch and feel sad. I’m just so weak now, weak in a weird way where my arms feel like they aren’t there and my legs can’t lift themselves anymore. I have this idea that I’m going to keep living my life the way I always have and not let this disease get the better of me, but I literally just can’t. My body won’t let me, my body betrayed me.

I don’t know what to do.

this baby gives the weekend thumbs up

Friday Jenn came over to brainstorm ideas for party food & decorations. The dogs were THRILLED to see her.

We came up with some good ones, which I started working on already. Behold my campfire votive:

Laster Sym, Taylor and I ordered pizza and watched High School Musical 2, which was amazing OF COURSE.

On Saturday after Sym was picked up we hit the farmer’s market for salmon, hummus and produce, as well as a visit to the Pig on the Street truck.





this community gardener has HAD IT with thieves.

On Saturday evening we headed down to Sunset Beach for a picnic. I’d wanted to do this the weekend before but Taylor had to work so he suggested we go this weekend instead.

if you look very closely you can see her tooth!




he doesn’t really care to have his picture taken


up, up and away!

On Sunday we considered going for brunch or running a few errands, but in the end we decided to stay close to home and hung out in the backyard with the baby, dogs and a bunch of watermelon.

She was very sticky afterwards and was rewarded with a bath in the kitchen sink.

Adorable prints from Radical Possibility.

Hannah’s blog about terrible things, Jenn’s blog about beautiful things.

Crazy satellite image timelapses of the whole world.

The tumblr-est banner ever.

Bunny cookie pins & hair clips (all those little sprinkles are individually hand-rolled!!).

All the babies on Tiny Buttons have been killing it recently, and we have a new contributor, Joaquín, who is only a month old!

Literally the cutest baby hedgehog video ever.

Eight Months
Gwen is eight months old now. Eight months and three days, actually.

She’s a delight, even when she’s difficult. She skipped a nap yesterday and was very fussy and emotional, with little pink sleepy eyes and alternating between smiling and crying. We are thinking of transitioning her to an earlier bedtime. We’ve been putting her to bed at around 8:30, and she used to wake up at 7 or 7:30 but recently she’s been sleeping until 8:30 or 9 in the morning. While ordinarily I’d love to sleep in as well, I’m going back to work at the end of the month and I need her to wake up earlier with me.

Eleven Years
Sym is a delight as well… sometimes. At other times and I get super frustrated with her, especially when I want/need her to do something and she’s like LOL NO. I’m probably too lenient with her and let her do whatever she wants too much, because trying to get her to do something she doesn’t want to do… oy. Yesterday I wanted her to come for a walk with me, the baby and the dogs and I had to threaten to take her phone away to get her to even stand up.

Fat Cup
I have a cup full (FULL) of bacon grease in the fridge and last night I took it out to add some grease to it. When it had cooled I went to put it back in the fridge but it wasn’t fully solidified and I spilled it all over my hand and the inside of the fridge. Gross. I ended up leaving it out all night and I went to put it away just now I almost did the same thing, so I yelled aloud “STOP TILTING THE FAT CUP, YOU MORON.”

Internet Famous
Sometimes I wish I was a better blogger, that this blog was more popular and successful. I don’t think that’s ever going to happen though, and for the most part I’m glad. I don’t think I would want to deal with the scrutiny and weird expectations. Do I really want thousands of people judging how I raise my kids and what I share about them? No. No I do not. I also do not want to work super hard at this, if it isn’t fun anymore I don’t want to do it.

Internet Successful
I do think I can be pretty successful with my etsy though, I mean not to the point where I can quit my day job but enough. I recently redesigned my header & packaging from a super busy colourful look to a simpler grey and yellow. Yesterday I re-redesigned it again to be even simpler, and later in the afternoon I RE-re-redesigned it to be the simplest yet.

clockwise from left: stickers, foldover labels, gift message card
I also created a new subdomain for it (shop.unicornpara.de) & an email address (tanie@unicornpara.de), so I could order business cards that didn’t have like… fifty different usernames on them.

Wet Dog
This morning while I was feeding Gwen I could hear Georgie whining and yipping somewhere in the house, but I just assumed she was playing slappy paws with the cat. When I went to go say good morning to Sym, however, I found my dog trapped in the bathtub. She hates having baths so I have no idea why she had jumped in there, but she couldn’t jump out again! Her paws and fluff were all wet, that silly creature.

Memory
Last night I had terrible insomnia again, and for some reason I started thinking about the trip to Hawaii in 2009 when Taylor and I got married. I remembered all these things that happened and all these moments we shared that I never told anyone else about, and how magical the whole trip was, and I started bawling my eyes out. Recently things have been kind of hard for us, between my getting sick and his working more than he’s sleeping we’re both crabby and keep sniping at one another. I ended up messaging him at 2am to talk about that trip and hopefully help us both remember to be kind to one another.

Look at these babies :’) I still love him so much.

I guess I had a pretty alright weekend. I did accomplish the one thing I most needed to accomplish, which was rearrange my side of the office. It’s not perfect, I need to paint a bookcase & fill in some holes in the wall so I can put up my shelves, but it’s definitely better than before. And I cleaned off my desk! It’s amazing how much bigger my computer looks when not dwarfed by piles of garbage. Actually that goes for the whole room, really.

I did some more just-for-fun banner making. Sometimes I get so burnt out making the same ones over and over that I don’t even want to look at glitter on the weekend, but not this weekend. In addition to last weeks’ PUKE and BARF banners, over the weekend I made a bronze with iridescent hex glitter WOW GREAT JOB, and a purple gradient THE LITERAL WORST (both are available in the shop).


I’ve also been working on a banner using drippy letters that I’m hoping will be really tumblr-y when it’s done, as well as some ombre skulls.

Gwen had some exciting travels this weekend- she visited the foyer and underneath Taylor’s desk (meaning we cleaned/sorted out his half of the office just in time, although he still needs to properly secure those wires. WHAT IS IT WITH DUDES AND WIRES????).

One bad moment this weekend: Taylor and I were wishing on a six-pack ring (you each put two fingers in the two end rings and pull, whoever gets the bigger half gets the wish, like a beery wishbone) and I couldn’t pull. Like, my upper arm had literally zero strength and felt like there was no muscle there at all. At first I was laughing about how weak I was, but then I remembered that muscle weakness/loss is a symptom of my disease and then I was really sad. Since then I’ve been super aware of how sad and floppy my arms feel all the time.

My neighbors’ ridiculous kitten that keeps trying to climb in my windows. Also shout out to my hydrangea for still being alive.

Last Saturday I made Taylor and Sym come with me & the baby for a walk down to Sunset Beach after dinner. It was the first time I’d been there in weeks- I’d been so tired and sick for the whole of June that I’d hardly gone anywhere, and I think it was kind of an act of “I’m not going to let this disease get the best of me” defiance. idk.

Anyway, Taylor brought his camera and took some amazing pictures that I’ve been waiting all week for him to upload, not realizing he did on Wednesday! Better late than never though, so pls enjoy.


I literally cannot believe this, Sym smiling in a picture???? And look at Gwen’s little knees, they are getting so scuffed from crawling around the house.


Dipping tiny toes in the ocean for the first time. She HATED it, haha. There was another baby having her toes similarly dipped who hated it too. BABIES. They appreciate nothing.







Gwen loves her big sister, she wouldn’t let go of her arm.

After my big emotional outpouring about being diagnosed with Graves’ disease I kind of felt like I didn’t really know how to get back into blogging about regular things. I was planning on doing a real post earlier this week but I had a Very Difficult day dealing with doctors’ offices and health woes (including a couple new symptoms that developed this week, great), so instead I just said FORGET IT.

I took some me time to have afternoon baths and finish marathoning season 3 of Pretty Little Liars so I can catch up on season 4. I made a few banners for etsy orders and I made a few banners because WHY NOT.

When I print out sheets of letters for mini banners I fill in any extra space with words like “UGH” and “GROSS” or phrases like “WHATEVER FOREVER” and “CAN U NOT.” I have tons of these hanging around so I figured I’d better start using them. For these “PUKE” and “BARF” banners I used gold & silver for the letters and fuchsia and peacock for the hearts/stars, respectively. I’ll probably put these up in my etsy eventually, so if you are a big fan of puke and barf keep your eyes peeled.

I spent a lot of time making goo-goo faces at Gwen. She’s totally professional at travelling around the house to get at something she wants now. I used to keep all the remotes and controllers in a basket by the couch, but this week I had to fill it with toys instead because she kept crawling over and dumping it out. One of her rattles was kicked under the fauxdenza I’m making in the dining room and she crawled all the way there from the living room to fetch it out.

I know this is a terrible picture but it’s been almost impossible to capture her new “tough baby” sneer, because as soon as I take out my camera or phone she smiles and tries to grab it.

As for my health, well I don’t really care to discuss my new symptoms because they are too personal, but I will say while one sucks SO HARD OMG I HATE IT, the other I actually don’t mind. I’ve been on medication for a week now and I’m starting to feel a little better. My sweatiness has lessened (THANK GOD) and I’m much less jittery. Sometimes I do still feel like my heart is racing but it’s not as bad as last week.

One thing that’s been happening that I am really unhappy about is weird spells of muscle weakness. I’ll be standing or walking and suddenly I’ll lose all the strength in my arms or legs. I hate it because for some reason it always happens when I’m holding Gwen! Luckily I haven’t dropped her or fallen down while holding her but I’m really afraid it might happen.

This weekend I’m looking forward to working on some more just-for-fun banners (I have some drippy-style letters printed out that I’m excited to make, as well as some cool ideas for ombre skulls), rearranging my side of the office now that Taylor’s is done:

… and making goo-goo faces at everyone in my family. They deserve it.

I’m having a really tough time today so please accept this photo of an actual giant baby in lieu of a real post. xoxo