this little life of mine

Blogging From A to Z: Camera Lens Coffee Mug

A couple weeks ago, I bought myself a little present: a travel coffee mug that looks like a camera lens. I saw it around the web, and absolutely HAD to have one. I bought this one off amazon.com, and ended up buying the larger white one as well. Too much fun!

Home and Garden

Well, our house is all painted and it looks wonderful! It's a kind of greyish blue and the scalloped trim is just slightly darker; the trim is a bright true white. It's such a relief to have that done!

Our new outdoor lights were installed, too:

 

They look SO much nicer than the old ones. Ew. Shudder!

This morning, mom and I trimmed and mowed the front and back lawns (such as they are), then put our garden back in order.

 

I'm thrilled at how well these flowers are doing! Check out these Cosmos:

 And the pansies just exploded!!

 

 

 

 Yay, the day lilies are finally blooming!

In the past month I've been on an outdoor decor spending spree, and it was really fun to put out all our fun new stuff! Here's our new handmade copper hose pot:

  

And here's our adorable new garden gnome:

 

This new outdoor thermometer looks SO much better on our new fence than the old one:

 

Oh, and I don't think it was actually 90 degrees out. The thermometer had been sitting in the sun a bit long. Yeah, it's still too early for that kind of heat!

And finally, here's my new recycled metal lanterns. Mom and I put some small pots inside them, filled the pots with old aquarium gravel and put in a couple citronella candles. I think they looks really nice on the table with the pot of marigolds and my little froggie statuette:

 

We're both very happy with our backyard, even though the grass is dry and dead and overrun with crabgrass, but that's a project for another day. Or maybe next year. Yeah. Next year!

Summer Scents

I was in the mood for a new summer fragrance, so I walked over to Sephora on my lunch break today to test out some new scents. I tested Jean-Paul Gaultier's Classique Summer (I had a version of this a couple years ago and really liked it), Burberry Classic Summer (I've used Burberry's Brit and The Beat and loved both), Issey Miyake L'Eau d'Issey Summer, and Kenzo d'Ete Eau De Parfume. The first two I really liked and the last two stank to high heaven and NOT in a good way. After eliminating the last two, I sprayed the Gaultier on one arm and the Burberry on the other. I wandered around the store for a while, periodically sniffing each scent to see which I liked better. In the end I couldn't decide and I had to get back to work, so I bought both:

 

 Okay, I'm ready, now: Bring on Summer!!

My New Purse

I was finally able to pick up the Isabella Fiore purse I won on eBay at the post office this morning. It's much smaller than I'm used to, but everything fits comfortably inside (except my book which it's sitting on), it's sturdy, it's beautiful and I love it!

Update List

Because I am a terrible blogger lately, all I have time to give you all is a bulleted update of recent happenings:

1. Last weekend mom and I headed for SLO for a little shopping. We browsed World Market, Bed, Bath and Beyond, Sears, Best Buy and Gottschalks, and saw lots and lots of things we wanted, but in the end we just bought two new television sets: a 26" LG for my bedroom and a 32" Panasonic for the living room. Luckily both items fit in the car, and also luckily, they were both easy to hook up. We have now officially entered the 21st century. Now if I could just get my DVD player to work ...
2. Mom's Earthbox Garden is growing beautifully so far. The tomatoes and zucchini have doubled in size already and the one cucumber plant we thought was near death is making a comeback. There are buds on the pepper plants and the Japanese eggplant, which I'm very excited to try in a recipe this summer.
3. Remember the Isabella Fiore purse I was bidding on? Well, I ended up winning it, and at a very reasonable price, too. A postal worker tried to deliver it yesterday, but I wasn't home to sign for it, so I guess I'll have to wait till Saturday to pick it up down at the post office. Bummer.
4. Of course, that means I have to sell one of my other purses to make room for the new one, but I've actually decided to put three up for auction as well as a few other things. I'm hoping to spend one day of the upcoming 3-day weekend gathering crap junk useless stuff wonderful things to photograph and put for sale on eBay. Actually I'd love to just have a big-ass yard sale and get it over with, but that's just waaayyy too much work, and in the end, you still have to deal with all the crap junk useless stuff wonderful things that don't sell.
5. My broken eyeballs are slowly but surely getting better. I'm still going to see a rheumatologist next month, but it might be a totally useless trip (except that I am curious to see what kind of arthritis I might be developing). My eye doctor said he was chatting with one of the iritis experts at UCLA one day, and was told him that with some people they never find out what caused the iritis or why it takes so long for it to clear up. I may be one of those people. Great. Anyway, the really good news was that my distance vision was reallyreally good, and I'm now down to a lesser dose of Pred Forte (called Pred Mild) every other day. Yay!
6. My weight has been at a plateau for about a month now and has become very frustrating. Also, the gym was starting to get boring with the same old routine every week, so my trainer and I are mixing it up a bit by doing Super Sets twice a week instead of once. Since the Versa Climber - once the bane of my fitness existance then the love of my life - has vanished never to return, we are speed-walking around the track in between weight sets. It's really quite nice - the weather is great now, and it's light outside much later. I'm hoping to see some significant changes in the next few weeks.

I think that's about it for now. Cheers!

Then Again ...

... this Isabella Fiore purse is cute, too. Plus the green in the design would closely match the green in the wallet I already have. I'd be saving money and still enjoy a purse from my fave designer. Hmmm. Decisions, decisions.

It's All Weetabix's Fault

I officially hate my new purse (which I've only had a couple of months and which I took a picture of, but apparently never posted because I can't find it now). I’ve disliked it for some time, but this past week I realized that I well and truly loathe it. I still love the fun, muted colours on the outside, the handles that make it fit perfectly snug under my arm, and the fact that it’s so deep inside that I can fit my wallet, a full-sized hardback library book, and a good-sized notebook and pen, but there are other problems with bag that irk me. There is a nice zipper pocket where I can store my keys and ID badge, but the other two pockets are basically useless. One is just a little big too small for my digital camera (which is teeny tiny to begin with, so what the heck?), and while my cell phone fits comfortably in the other one, the loose, floppy construction of the purse itself causes the phone to fall out and flail about inside my bag along with whatever book I’m currently reading, my wallet, camera (in its case since the pocket’s too small), notepad and pen, and whatever else I happen to have shoved in there. It also doesn’t sit comfortably on my lap while riding the bus. Basically: it’s annoying.

Then last week my friend Weetabix sent me an email about this awesome Isabella Fiore bag. It was love at first sight, just as it was for the first Isabella Fiore bag and wallet I bought a couple years ago in Chicago. The particular bag Weet showed me was sold out at that department store, but it started me on a quest for a similar bag. I learned that that design (which is called “Live to Love, Love to Live”; the other bag/wallet set I have is “Me Hearty”) came in different styles, all with girls names like Keira and Nika and Bridget and then oh, my look at that: There’s one called Jordan.  And it has a matching wallet! How perfect is the Jordan bag? I mean, it’s my surname! Plus it’s a sturdy looking bag with a deep interior that includes a zippered pocket and two pockets for my cell phone and camera. And even if those two pockets don’t work out, there are two more with magnetic closures on either side of the bag. Sweet!

So, yeah, I think I'm gonna have to buy it. And the matching wallet. Gah!

Spring Cleaning

After a long absence (due to Broken Eye Syndrome), I am once again selling my crap, er, I mean some of my wonderful, but no longer needed stuff, on eBay. I have already sold the three Torrid outfits I bought for 3tacon last September (I only ended up wearing one of them, so the other two outfits were brand new, with tags and everything!), and the Victorian-style dress I’d bought to wear for Halloween, but didn’t get to because it didn’t arrive in time. Now I’m just waiting to sell the three Four Seasons musical carousel horses (I have Autumn, Winter, and Summer. If I could find Spring, I’d buy it and keep the set!), and the box of 100+ used rubber stamps. That’s what I’ve got on so far. I have several other things to put on, and have been inspired to add even MORE stuff after finding really, really nice stuff I would rather have while out at the Sweetheart Stroll last Saturday. Mostly jewelry, but also some pretty things to sit around and collect dust.

Most of the jewelry I fell in love with was at Endless Summer Unique Jewelry. She had some of the most beautiful pieces I’ve ever seen!! One stone in particular – the pretty sky-blue Larimar – tickled my fancy quite a bit. I saw at least one necklace and one ring I would LOVE very much to have. However, I already HAVE a TON of necklaces and rings, and really have no place for either. That’s when I decided to clean out my jewelry boxes, and get rid of some of the cheap stuff I’ve bought at Express, and Lane Bryant, and other department stores, and make room for some REAL jewelry – nice pieces like the Larimar necklaces and real silver items.

A couple other things I plan to get rid of, although the decision wasn’t easy, are my Polaroid SX-70 camera and Holga lomo camera. I bought both of them with the intention to do more artistic kinds of photographs like the ones seen here and here. However, realistically, I just don’t have time to manipulate Polaroid pictures (nor, I suspect, do I have the artistic talent required for successful manipulations), and besides, the film is being discontinued and is already hard to find and expensive as hell once you’ve found it! And, as for the lomos, what’s the point; especially now that there’s dumpr.net? I upload one of my pictures to dumpr.net and voila! A lomo! And my other favourite photo playground, picnik.com, has added more features that can make photos look old and soft and grainy and dreamy like the SX-70 (They also have a lomo feature, but between the two, I like the results from dumpr best.). So why keep cameras around I will never get around to using? I have no reason, so they’re now on the list.

A part of me would like to get rid of EVERYthing and start over from scratch. Just hire a dump truck to come haul everything away, then go shopping at Ikea, West Elm and FunkySofa.com. But then I look at some of my favourite knick-knacks and funky stuff I have sitting around, and just can’t bear to part with them. Not even for one of these beautiful Kenyan soap stone hearts I saw at EarthStone Gifts and Gallery. Not yet, anyway.

Baby steps, I guess. Baby steps.

Perfume Comparison

I looked up the scent notes for the Gaultier "Classique" and the Fendi "Palazzo" and here's what I found:

From the Macy's website describing "Classique": "... the tenderness of Rose and the spicy freshness of Star Aniseed at the top, the sweetness of Orange and Ginger at the heart, and the caressing aroma of Vanilla and the sensuality of Woody Amber at the base."

Vanilla, huh? Well, that explains the candy smell!

From Women's Wear Daily: Fendi Palazzo "is a flowery-woody scent", and the notes include mandarin orange, bergamot, lemon, pink pepper, orange blossom, jasmine, Bulgarian rose, patchouli and Gaiac wood."

Ah ha: Patchouli! One of my favourite fragrances! Well, I guess that explains why I ended up changing!