Regression Night

I spent my evening reading books by Judy Blume, Kevin Henkes and Mercy Mayer.  I got to revisit characters I loved when I was little, like Lilly and Little Critter, all in the name of grad school.  After I got out of the shower I turned on the tv and found Space Jam playing on encore.  Tonight has been a top night!

Holiday Rules

I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving and, given my recent absence, a happy November, in general.

I love almost everything about Thanksgiving and Christmas. I don't love the crowds in stores and I don't love the heavy commercialization of Christmas that has pretty much stomped out all that Thanksgiving stands for, but I'm a fan of everything else.

Weirdly, I have a lot of rules for myself when it comes to Christmas and the holidays. 

1.  I always adopt two Angels from the Salvation Army Angel Tree.  And I always adopt one boy and one girl.  And I always get them the toy of their  choice and a couple outfits.  Sorry kids who want bikes and video games, someone else will have to pick you.  I just can't afford it.  But Barbies and Cars?  I'm all over that!

2.  The only Christmas shopping I allow myself to do before Thanksgiving is Angel Tree shopping.  Why?  Because I refuse to deal with toy aisles when I get too much closer to Christmas.  Also, the deadline for having gifts purchased, wrapped and back at the tree is December 11, which doesn't give me a lot of time after Thanksgiving to get it all done.

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3.  I love peppermint mochas, but I cannot allow myself to order one before Thanksgiving.  It feels too much like I'm cheating on pumpkin spice lattes.  I expressed to Paul the other night how much I wanted a peppermint mocha and how bummed I was that I couldn't have one.  He didn't quite understand my plight.

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4.  I love gravy on dressing, preferably when combined with mashed potatoes and turkey.  But the ONLY time of the year when I can eat this is Thanksgiving.  Otherwise it just tastes wrong, delicious, but wrong. 

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5.  Christmas music must not purposefully be played until after Thanksgiving.  Though I'm not going to lie, I cheated on this one this year.  I caved to the pressure of every store I've walked into since Halloween and listened to some Christmas tunes a few days before Thanksgiving.  But I didn't enjoy it as much because it's just wrong.

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6.  Christmas decorations do NOT go up until the month of December.  I don't care if the mall was decorated a week after Halloween.  I don't care if Thanksgiving is over, so now I'm "allowed" to do it.  I will decorate in December, like the good lord intended.

Do you have any weird rules that you can't let yourself break?  And what's your favorite seasonal coffee?

I'm Still Here

I'm still here, but life has been pretty boring lately.  The last few weeks have been filled with work, the gym, homework, church-searching and relaxing in what little time is left.  I haven't been doing any crafting at all.  I've just been on a search the perfect Christmas wreath project.  Which I haven't found yet.  I promise I'll be back as soon as things get more exciting!

Things I Don't Like

1.  Adele's Music.
I don't have anything against Adele as a person, but I really can't stand her music.  It puts me to sleep, it's depressing, and it makes me change the radio every. single. time. she comes on.  Her lyrics may be okay, but I can't deal with the music behind it long enough to listen to the lyrics.  And I don't feel compelled to look them up.  And when other people quote them on Facebook all the freaking time, I'm not inspired or moved at all.  I understand that you probably love her, and that's fine, but I do not.  And I'm not going to. 

2.  People Who Back Into Parking Spaces
Okay, in general, it's not so bad.  I get that it's worth it to them to spend more time backing into a space than it would take to back out.  That's fine.  But it's not fine when they're doing it at 6:58 in the morning in the parking garage and holding up everyone behind them.  That's rude.  I make the effort to get up and leave my house in time to get to work on time.  And then I'm thwarted by you and your massive SUV that you can barely control.  You're making me late for work and I don't appreciate it.

3.  Inconsiderate Drive-Thru Users
You know how some fast food places have the double drive-thru, where you order at two different speakers but you have to merge into one line to actually pay and get your food?  Well I'm a believer in taking turns and not skipping in line.  I payed attention in preschool like that.  So when I place my order and then 30 seconds later you pull into the neighboring speaker and place your order, it would only make sense for me to pay and get my food first, right?  Apparently not.  The other day the food and payment windows got backed up so the speakers got backed up.  I placed my order and 30 seconds later some woman pulls up beside me.  When the payment and food windows finally cleared up, she sped in front of me.  She knew I was there first.  That was rude, ma'am! 

4.  Amaretto
It's gross.  A friend of mine who was also a waiter used to be convinced that I loved Amaretto sours.  So no matter what I would actually order, he would always bring me an Amaretto sour.  Gross.  Gross.

5.  I Can't Put My Hair in a Proper Ponytail Right Now
I love my hair when it's down, but sometimes you just want to throw your hair up and not deal with it.  But I can't do that without clips or a headband.  It makes gym time a little inconvenient.

6.  Pears
What's with that grainy texture? 

Big Girl Rant

I'm not small.  And I haven't been since I was about 4.  I didn't like shopping in the Juniors section of the store when I was a little girl and I didn't like shopping in the Women's section when I was a "Junior."  Over the years I came to terms with the fact that I was not meant to shop at Abercrombie & Fitch or Hollister.  And I was perfectly okay with that.  Much to my mother's chagrine, I was also not meant to shop at Lane Bryant.  Do you realize how humiliating it is to shop at Lane Bryant when you're 15?  I hope not. 

I do the bulk of my shopping at Old Navy and Target because they carry my size and I like their clothing.  I also really like the clothing at The Limited and Ann Taylor Loft, but, with the exception of a couple sweaters that I've found over the years, their clothing either doesn't come in my size or my size  is only available online.  I can't buy clothes without trying them on because I never know how certain brands or items will fit on my body.  I think it comes with the territory of being plus size.   Some people think that Lane Bryant is a plus size substitute for those stores, but it's definitely not.   Not at 15 and not at 25. 

A few months ago I found out that The Limited had plans to expand to accomodate plus size ladies.  I was ecstatic!  I assumed that they would expand their current sizes and that I could treat myself every now and then or destroy their clearance section.  But what they are actually doing is creating a new line called eloquii.  They haven't released the line yet, but I can only assume that the items that are available at The Limited will not be available in the eloquii line. This is what the website says,

"eloquii celebrates your love of fashion with styles that look fabulous and fit your curves. This is women's clothing, designed for you and inspired by you.  Our online store will feature a range of fashion apparel and accessories for plus-size women such as dresses, suits, outerwear, pants, tops, shirts and accessories." 

I really can't stand that.  It's like they're saying that plus size women are the only women who have curves on their body.  And "women's clothing, designed for you and inspired by you?"  It's like saying that the only thing that makes me, me, is the fact that I'm plus size, fat, chubby, zaftig, obese...whatever.  I'm calling bullshit on eloquii.  eloquii was not created so we poor, fashion-deprived, fat ladies would have more selection when it comes to shopping for over priced business-casual-wear.  eloquii was created so that The Limited could make money off of us without actually allowing us to wear their brand. And notice how it said that those items would be available in their online store?  Great, now we dont even have to clutter up their stores with our big butts, thunder thighs and sausage arms! 

Poor form, The Limited, poor form.

DIY: No Sew Infinity Scarf

I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before, but I cannot sew.  At all.  I mean, I sewed a button on a dress the other day and it was crooked.  I didn't even know it was possible to make a button crooked.  But it totally is.  I digress.  The point is, I can't sew (and I've never succeeded at knitting or crocheting, either) so I assumed that nearly all fabric-based crafts were out of my reach.  Folks, I. Was. Wrong.

I was on Pinterest the other day (of course) when I saw a tutorial for a no sew infinity scarf from My World Made By Hand.  Since it was no sew I figured I could do it and since I'm on a scarf kick I wanted to get a new one anyway.  So today while I was running errands I picked up a tshirt because that's all you need!

What You'll Need

Men's tshirt.  The bigger the shirt, the more scarf you'll have to work with.  I used XXL Fruit of the Loom, 100% Cotton. 

Scissors

What You'll Do

1.  Lay the tshirt flat and cut straight across the bottom, removing the seam. 

2.  Cut straight across, under the sleeves.  Here's a really awful picture of this step.

3.  You'll end up with a band of sorts.  Stretch and stretch and stretch and stretch it some more. 

4.  Enjoy!

I was really pleased with how my first non-decor craft turned out.  I'm not the best fabric cutter but it didn't matter because the cut edges curl up and you can't see the cuts.  I can't wait to make more in tons of colors!

Today I Found It, the Rainbow Connection

A few months ago I was clicking around on Pinterest and stumbling across nail polish inspired by the Muppets.  I thought to myself, "hmm, fun concept,"  moved on with my life, and didn't think about it again.  Until today.  I was catching up on some blogs and was reminded of the line.  I decided to google it and fell in love with, among others, The Rainbow Connection.

http://blog.beautycollection.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/OPI-Muppets-Nail-Polish-Collection_-Pictures-Photo-1-5-263x300.jpg

Is it not amazing?!  But then I thought, "Yeah, it looks good in the bottle, but how would it look on my hands?"  And then I saw this:

http://www.swatchandlearn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/OPI-Rainbow-Connection-Nail-Polish-Swatches.jpg

I'm not really a big nail person but I knew that it had to be mine.  But I was prepared to find it in stores.  So you can imagine my surprise when one minute I was stairing at the pretty colors and sparkles and the next I was adding it to my cart, confirming my shipping information and changing the available balance in my check book. When it comes in I'm going to treat myself to a pedicure and maybe even a manicure.  But probably just the pedicure. Because I'm cheap.  And because I usually ruin a manicure before I'm out the door.

I encourage you to check out all the other colors in the collection. I'm also partial to Gettin' Miss Piggy With It.  Do you have any favorites?

Edit:  I just noticed on my order confirmation that I ordered, "Opi Holliday 2011 Muppets Collection Rainbow Conection."  Part of me is afraid that someone is mixing together glue and glitter in their basement right now and that is what will be delivered to me.  I hope I'm not right.