Author: Tanie

This Print from Bikeparts on Etsy

I saw this on etsy’s front page last night and bought it IMMEDIATELY because it is the greatest thing I have ever seen. A BEAR EATING LITTLE FRENCH BABIES????? Amazing, I can’t wait to get this!

Buying Korean Skincare Products on Ebay

Why are Korean skincare products so fun and amazing? (I’m sure products from other countries in Asia are great as well, I’ve only bought Korean ones though.) So far I’ve tried Ciracle Good-Bye Blackhead, which I LOVE. It’s these little sheets filled with plant extracts and magic that suck all the gunk out of your pores (be careful if you look it up, there are lots before and after pics of pore gunk). Last night I got some Skin79 BBCream in the mail. I don’t know if I love it yet, because it’s on my face for the very first time right now, but 99% of the people I know who’ve used it love it, so here’s hoping!

The sellers I’ve ordered from are jbcommerce2002 and cosmetic.love. Both are top-rated sellers with great feedback and offer free or very cheap shipping. The products arrived WAY faster than expected- they were both supposed to take about three weeks to get here and arrived in about a week.

Dog Bellies

No explanation required.

The Addition of the Character Luke Granby to Up All Night

I love this show. Everyone I know loves this show and if they are in a relationship they love to say “omg, we are SO Chris and Reagan,” (unless they are like Gene and Terry, in which case gtfo). However, one of the things I loved most about it was the fact that Reagan’s work environment was a LADY environment: Reagan, Ava and Missy are all great female characters that work together without competing against one another, and Reagan was the boss. But last week they suddenly and unexpectedly and in my opinion detrimentally introduced this new male character? Who is their boss now? WHAT IN THE HELL????? Why can’t a WOMAN just be in charge? Why do they need this male overlord? Ugh I just feel like the network decided Will Arnett’s SAHD (stay-at-home dad) character wasn’t manly enough or something and decided to cram this completely unnecessary and unwanted strong male leader type into the cast, ruining the dynamic. RUINING IT.

Men’s Reactions to International Women’s Day
As I’m sure you all know, yesterday was International Women’s Day. You would think that on this day, men could take five seconds to appreciate the women in their lives: moms, wives, girlfriends, daughters, friends, coworkers, bosses, employees, politicians even! But instead all I saw all over the internet were disgusting displays of whining (about how why don’t men get a day of celebration, like COME ON) and unfunny “jokes” about how women should get back in the kitchen, do the dishes, make them a sandwich or just stop wearing clothes. Like, really? Are men so insecure about their VERY SECURE place in the world and society that when faced with a single day of appreciate women all they can think to do is act like babies and dredge up insulting sexist stereotypes? News flash: your misogyny is showing, and it’s not cute. Also, this:

But fear not, men! I’ve decided there should be a day to celebrate you, so here it is: from now on March 9th will officially be known as International Men Are Disgusting Day. Congratulations! All you hard work has finally paid off!

This past weekend I got to indulge in one of my all-time favourite activities: DRUNK TWILIGHT MOVIE NIGHT. This has been a tradition in my house since we first watched Twilight in ten fuzzy parts on youtube (superbusyhospital ring a bell for anyone else?), and continued with New Moon, although we totally skipped Eclipse (oopsies). But after hearing from numerous sources that Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 1 was the funniest movie of 2011 I knew it wasn’t to be missed, and if amazing fan-made posters like these were any indication I was in for a real treat.

After watching it all I can say is wow. WOW. wow. It was so dumb! And boring! Like you would think in a movie where a girl bangs a vampire and gets pregnant with his freaky vampire baby something would happen, but NOTHING HAPPENS. I live tweeted my reactions to the whole movie and normally when I try to live tweet something I lose interest after about twenty minutes because I’d rather watch it than tweet about it. THAT WAS NOT THE CASE THIS TIME.

It’s been suggested to me that I should do this (live tweet a terrible movie) every week but I don’t think I (or my liver) can handle this sort of emotional intensity. UNTIL PART TWO!

OH GOD I’M BORED ALREADY.

on Sym:
Sally Hansen Fuchsia Power & Blue Me Away!
Sinful Colors Frenzy

on me:
Sally Hansen Be-Jeweled, Lacey Lilac, Lavender Cloud, Green With Envy
Nicole by OPI Virtuous Violet
OPI Planks a Lot

Sym and I got the Sally Hansen Gem Crush Be-Jeweled on Saturday and I really wanted to try it out! We both put it on our toes- Sym over bare nails and myself over Lacy Lilac (like on my fingernails). It looks quite pretty by itself but like most clear-based glitter polishes, I prefer it over a matching colour.

Can I just say again how proud I am of Sym for quitting her nail-chewing habit? A couple of months ago her nails were bitten down to nubs and this weekend I actually had to cut them because they were so long they looked creepy and inappropriate on a fifth-grader.

Wanderlust

Taylor and I went and saw this movie last weekend and OH MY GOD I just loved it. I laughed so hard I think I might have actually peed a little, and I can’t wait until it comes out of blu-ray so I can buy it and watch it again and again and again, possibly while drunk. Basically if you like Paul Rudd, Jennifer Aniston or Wet Hot American Summer you should see this movie as soon as possible, and if you don’t like any of those things then frankly, I don’t want to be your friend and why are you even reading this blog anyway?

Jezzy Belle’s Vintage

This is my friend Deborah’s vintage etsy shop and she has so many great clothes, including a plus-size section, and everything is on sale right now so you should definitely check it out!

CHIA Seed Bread from Cob’s Breads

When Sym was a kid her dad would only buy white bread so now it’s a HUGE struggle to get her to eat any other kind of bread. I love this chia seed bread from Cob’s because even though it’s still white bread (I’ve bought the whole wheat kind before and it was NO DICE with Sym) I at least feel like she’s getting some nutrition from it.

Good Bad TV Shows

I watch plenty of good TV shows, but it’s nice to have some guilty pleasure shows that are cheesy and ridiculous. Right now I’m loving Ringer and Grimm, and although I just started watching The Secret Circle I have high hopes for it.

The scene under my desk right now is the ultimate in fuzziness.

Georgie is such a sweetie face.

Dougal is also great; I took this picture of him on Tuesday and I keep looking at it and cackling. Why you got such funny arms Dougal-dog?

When Sym was in the first grade she and I made button necklaces. We took large buttons and strung them on yarn and wore them for a day. Last year she rediscovered her button necklace and started wearing it everyday. All the time. She also started chewing on the (wooden) button and fiddling with the yarn and as you can imagine, it became quite disgusting.

I decided enough was enough and it was time to replace it with a new button necklace, one more suitable for a ten-year-old. I wanted something small, simple and silver, and after searching etsy I found this sweet little one from Andy’s House. It was also one of the more affordable options with the most reasonable shipping costs.

It arrived yesterday (sooner than the 2-3 weeks’ shipping time I was originally told) and it is perfect. Sym loves it, it has that button look she likes and it’s so tiny and cute!

I re-added a bunch of pretty micro-buntings to the shop today, including all the spring flower-inspired ones (like the crocus one pictured here). Perfect for chasing away those pre-spring when-will-this-weather-improve-why-is-it-so-cold-and-wet blahs.

Last weekend Taylor and I watched the ultimate double bill of Texas high school football movies: Friday Night Lights and Varsity Blues.

I realized something while I watched them: these movies are basically the same movie*. They are both set in Texas. Everyone is Odessa and West Canaan is obsessed with the high school football team and the players are treated like celebrities. In both movie football players shoot at things while discussing their lives & problems. There’s racism against the black players on both teams. A star player on each team blows out a knee and ends his football career before it’s really begun, but still comes to the final game in a show of solidarity and support. Each team has to struggle to recover from the loss of an important member to try to make it to the championships (state in FNL and division in VB).

Of course there ARE differences. FNL is based on a book about real events that happened to real people so the characters are more realistic, believable and sympathetic. The characters in VB are not. Coach Gaines (FNL) is a pretty good guy, Coach Kilmer (VB) is the Devil. Varsity Blues is rated R and is rife with boobs, butts and cursing (or as Taylor bizarrely and grandmotherly called them, “effs and jeffs”), Friday Night Lights is rated PG-13 and I don’t remember much swearing at all (although I’m pretty sure there were some racial slurs). In FNL, in spite of their best efforts the Panthers lose the state championship, in VB the Coyotes win the division championship** without the evil Coach Kilmer. One of these movies is good. One of these movies is stupid (yet entertaining). And only one of these movies has this classic line:

* I may have had this epiphany while drunk on wine.
** In the voiceover at the end of the movie it’s stated that they never played football together again, but like… if they won the division then they would go on to the state championships, and would therefore play together AT LEAST one more time. IDK MAN, I CAN’T DEAL WITH THESE PLOT HOLES.

Spring is springing up all over the place, crocuses and snowdrops and baby daffodils and bluebells are everywhere. Sadly, I don’t think all the bluebell seeds Sym and I planted last year are going to grow, but at least some of them will, and maybe they’ll have baby seeds and next year there will be more. Circle of life, ya know?

Along with all this springiness going on, there is also the inevitability of taxes. Fun fact: I haven’t filed in two years. OOPS. I also didn’t keep my records and papers properly organized, so this afternoon I was confronted by this:

A BASKET CRAMMED FULL OF RANDOM PAPERS. And that wasn’t even it! There was also a drawer of random papers and a loose pile of random papers. Business stuff I need to file my taxes, but also business stuff I DON’T need, millions of credit card statements, drawings by Sym, vet bills, junk mail. Clearly my filing system leaves much to be desired.

After about three hours of sorting, recycling, shredding, inputting into spreadsheets, typing up lists and printing stuff out I’m finally done and ready to go see my accountant! Unfortunately it took me so long to get everything ready that his office was closed by the time I called to make an appointment, but there’s always tomorrow, and after everything I did today the hard part is done.

I also made a new resolution today, a late-February resolution: KEEP TRACK OF MY PAPERWORK AND FINANCES SO THIS MESS DOESN’T HAPPEN AGAIN NEXT YEAR.

Last week I decided I wanted to try my hand at making some Confetti System-style tassel garlands. I really like the way they look but I DON’T like the $130 price tag, so I figured I’d DIY it. I found a couple tutorials, combined them, used what I liked, ignored the rest and eventually came up with my own technique. I haven’t perfected it yet, but I think I’m close!

The first thing I need was some tissue paper and mylar. I couldn’t decide what colours I wanted to use, so I bought all of them. No, really.

Since this picture was taken I’ve actually bought two more colours- a bright orange and a dark purple. I know, I have a problem.

Then, I spent a lot of time turning that into this:

Can I just say, this paper cutter is INDISPENABLE. I picked it up a couple of weeks ago for $25 at Homesense (a discount housewares store) and I’ve used it so much already! It’s so much faster and easier for this than using scissors, an exacto knife or a rotary cutting tool.

The first garland I made was for Sym’s room, using three colours of tissue paper (white, grey and mint green) and one shade of mylar (silver). I made all the tassles the same size and strung them in a repeating pattern.

It’s pretty, but not really the look I wanted. Next I wanted to make one for my bedroom, but I don’t have the right colours of paper. Yes, you read that correctly, none of the 23 colours of tissue and mylar are right. Okay, SOME of them are, but I need a turquoise blue and a taupe or greige. YES I AM AWARE THAT I HAVE A PROBLEM.

Instead I decided to make one for the office. Taylor’s side of the office is grey and black (black-brown really, but black is close enough) with a little bit of yellow. My side of the office is grey, yellow and white. I decided to use more yellow and white on my side of the garland and more black on Taylor’s side. I made tassels in five colours of tissue (white, grey, silver grey, yellow and black) and one shade of mylar (silver), and three different sizes (regular, long and mini), and strung them randomly on 3 meters silver cord.

I like the effect of this a lot better, but like I said, my technique still isn’t perfect, so I guess I’ll have to keep making more until I get it right!