Fine. I'll be lazy today.

Some force in the universe does not want me to be healthy today. When I went to get a water out of the vending machine it refused to let me have one, or a diet coke, an it most definitely did not want me to have my change back so it gave a a Pepsi.

Then tonight as Mark and I were getting ready to head over to the Suite's rec room we both heard the light clinking of sleet hitting the house.





Look how cold and lonely the poor jeep looks. Ugh. Winter.

I've alwasy wanted to be Zen.

Mark and I both loath doing laundry. So much so in fact that we have piles of clothes on the floor in the bedroom, and in the living room. The thing about these clothes is that they are clean. Neither of us mind washing and drying the clothes but when it comes to putting them away....... Well whats wrong with leaving them where they are? We think they look pretty awesome right where they are. It's not that bad digging through them in the morning to find a shirt that kind of sort of matches those pants.

When I read Zen Habits "The Minimalist's Guide to Simple House Work" this little tid bit spoke to me,

"Fewer clothes means you have fewer things to put away and to wash. Sure,if you have lots of clothes, you can go longer without having to wash, letting the clothes pile up into a huge Fuji-like mountain. But who wants to face that mountain when you run out of clothes to wear?"

I have a new plan. All those clothes that are still hanging in my closet because I never wear them. I never wear them so much I would rather dig through the clothes on the floor then pull something out of there, yeah those. Those are so gone. Just thinking about it makes me feel lighter, more free. Then I will look through the clothes int he piles and see if I any of that should really be in the bag going to The Salvation Army.

From here on out it is four good pair of jeans for me, tees, tanks, and long sleeve shirts all good for layering. When I find that perfect belt that I have always been looking for I am going to get that. And that is going to be it. Yeah. That sounds great!

Am I strong enough to do it?


Ummm, yes...... probably not... maybe?

In which elaborate on my disdain for winter. Again.

It is freezing here. It is so cold you can smell it. Ugh. It makes me gag just thinking about it. I hate, hate, hate the cold. If it weren't for the cold winter wouldn't be so bad.

During these unforgiving months of despair Mark and I have three layers of blankets on our bed. 1. Down Comforter 2. Heated Blanket 3. A lovely quilt I bought at TJ Max for $30 that I so badly want to take a picture of in gorgeous sun light. However. The lack of natural light in this house prevents me from finding the perfect spot of sun floating in through the window ... and I am not going to go out side right now so don't suggest it.

Back to the three layers. Yes. We need all of those three layers. Know how I know? Because Mark agrees that we need those three layers. Mr "I like how cold smells". The heated blanket we only turn on about 20 minutes before we know we are going to get in bed, and then we are satisfactorily warm I turn it off and hopefully pass out from the Advil PM I have just taken.

Last night I thought I had turned the blanket on, but when I shoved my legs under the covers it felt like I had stuck them in a sub-zero black hole, again my gag reflex was tested. Tonight I forgot to turn it on.... which is why I wrote this post. I think it should be warm and ready by now. Night.

All I did today was go to class and work

Mark was lucky enough to snag a treasury tonight. I think it turned out pretty awesome.

He also went out and got some new packaging. Which I think is pretty awesome.

After all that he had time to clean the bathroom!

And he also brought me dinner!

SPC: Celebration, Week 4

SPC

Mark and I started Teal Town "just to see what would happen", it is three months later and we have sold 50 things! This me celebrating while Mark gets the latest orders ready to be shipped out in our brand new studio.

I love the feeling of getting things out in the mail. We are trying to get stuff out as fast as we can, but sometimes school work turns in to a huge monster that takes four or five rounds before we can move on to the next battle. Not that I am complaining. I am loving everything right now. I like having things I need to get done and responsibilities. It makes me feel all grown up inside.

Robo Boogie

Mark and I are going to print chandeliers on curtains for the girl's freshly decorated rooms. As payment Mom bought us the first season of Flight of the Concords, and as if that wasn't enough she also threw in a apron I was planning on using for ceramics class but I don't know if I can bring myself to ruin it like that. And to add to our collection of adorable tea towels with tea cups on them. I know Mark is so excited he can barely stand it.

One more thing that could possible make me not hate winter so much.

If I was a boy I would want this.... wait strike that. I want this, if I was a boy I would have it.

The Wallet Ice Scraper

I wish I had an iPod so I could carry her around in my pocket.

I heard an excellent song on the radio the other day. The DJ said the name of the song was "Almost Lover", but neglected to tell their listeners who the artist was. With a little research a.k.a itunes store I found out that A Fine Frenzy sings it. I also love her song You Picked Me which was a download of the week a while back. I also love her photoblog, which gives a little glimpse in the life of an up and coming artist.

If you need some mellow music to get you through February she aught to do ya.

One more thing to add on to my to do list during class

I signed up for Wists last night out of boredom. Turns out I love saving all the cool things I see. It's like having my own treasury all the time that isn't impossible to get!

Creating custom colors in the Teal Town labs conversations

"I'm not stupid!"

"Well. I just thought. Maybe you were."

Our big break

Xbonebrat informed us today that she had put our "You Deserve Pie" poster in her treasure and a lot of people were noticing it.

*click picture for link

I love this treasury. It is incredibly cute. I am so glad to be included in it.

Dream, Take One

First assignment for photo three is The Dream Project. I have to take a picture of one of my dreams. I have a lot of dreams where I am in amusements parks. I took that idea and played with it until I ended up with the idea of a country fair. I took some pictures tonight and mess around with them in Photoshop until I got something that I thought had potential. I like the glowy, haziness that I got.

I want the landscape to be very green and healthy, which I am not going to get in January in Ohio. So Mark and I went to the grocery store and picked out some things I thought might look cool. Did you know that there is such a thing as Brocoflower? Well there is. Thats what I use for my tree.

I didn't get anything I really liked tonight. I think I need to mess with my arrangement more.

Web surfing conversations

"Virgin unveils spaceship model."

"What! You mean like the company right?"

"Yes, Mark."

"Oh. I thought you meant like a single virgin."

"Yes. Thats exactly what I meant."

Here is the article.

Getting ready to go out conversations

"I bet it's warm out today!"

"It is twenty-four degrees."

"Warm is relative."

"Twenty-four degrees will never, ever. EVER. Be warm to me."

Thank God for the Internet. I wouldnt feel nearly as accomplished with out it.

I found Veerle's Photoshop tutorial on how to turn a photo vintage.
accomplished with out it

Because I have been a total lazy bum the Tea Tees photo shoot are the only real picture have to work with right now so I tried it out on this one.


I think it turned out pretty sweet.

Two romance novels read this weekend already.

I hate the winter.

I always tell myself this year will be different as January approaches. It never is. I no longer want to leave the house and am content with being huddled up on the sofa reading one trashy romance novel after another.

The nasty cold always makes me wish we lived farther south. I don't know where exactly I would like to relocate. A small town where everyone knows each other. Where we could find a perfect little house. Something that has been there forever with shutters and a front porch I could hang ferns on. We could put a porch swing up. It would have hardwood floors and book shelves built in to the corners. A place where it would be comfortable to walk around in jeans and a sweater in the middle of winter. Somewhere that is close to the beach and we could head there after work for a couple hours. Maybe even close enough that we could ride our bikes.

I can't help but think winter would be more bearable in a place like that.

Screw mountinering I would wear this thing to campus.

This is what I need. The Lippi Selk Bag. I am cold all the time. The other day Mark caught me reading with my mittens on. I had a sleeping bag suit I would never take it off, and the only time of day I was truly warm would no longer be in the shower.

I heart Mulder

I did a little dance in my seat when I saw this article.

If I got one I promise I will walk it and feed it everyday. EVERYDAY!!!

The sound I made the first time I saw the new Apple Air had Mark quickly turning around to make sure I hadn't spontaneously combusted.
I don't care how wrong Apple has done me these past couple weeks, that is just sexy. I had a split second of "I do have some more government loans I haven't accepted yet" and then moved on to "I bet I could get Mark to agree if I prooomised it was for us to share". And then Mark saw the look in my eye and firmly said,

"NO"

"Uh, but look at the box it comes in!"

The stars shine brighter

This lovely blog post John Mayer wrote yesterday defending Jessica Simpson only makes me like him 100% more than I use to. Plus, I am not even close to being from Texas and I absolutely love it, I have no problem at all believing he is telling the truth.

I hate not being wonderful at everything.

Because I am crazy and in some weird way aspire to be Martha I decided that I wanted our wedding invitations addressed in hand written calligraphy. I didn't want to pay to have this done. So. I located a lovely woman about 20 minute from our house who gave me a crash in the "simplest" font, and handed me a catalog with all of the supplies circled that I needed.

By the time I was done with all of the envelopes I was well on my way to being.... almost talented. Then I got married and forgot all about it. I discovered one of my test sheets yesterday where I had written random letters repeatedly, everyones name, and random things like "love", "ce'st beau", "Miami University", "Cincinnati", and "booger". It looked prettier than I remembered.

I have decided this semester I am going to spend a large amount of time working on my calligraphy and drawing skills. I have never had much confidence in working with my hands, which means I have never pushed myself. I hated my Drawing 1 class last semester because I felt that everything I turned in was ... crap. I hate not being able to turn in something that I at least like a little bit. My professor was more than generous with my grades. This semester even if I am not satisfied with my work I want to know that I tried. Really, really tried. Who knows, maybe I can figure a way to work calligraphy in to my final piece?

Crafting with Martha

*click picture for link

Check out this cool project I found at Martha's site. I can't help but have the deepest respect for her. I want to be her, but have a little bit of a warmer personality. Just a tiny little bit.

I think I may have finally found what to do with my fugly fridge.

*click photo for link

Kicken' it Old School

Over the break Kendra found a paper cut out of a girl standing under a tree. We both loved it, and it inspired us to mess around a little with the idea of silhouette cut outs. This was my first attempt, I think she is pretty cute.

More Valentine Ideas???

*click photos for links

Spring semester means one of these days it will be warm again.

Tomorrow starts the spring semester and as of right now I am kind of excited. All new classes means a fresh start and that is always a great feeling. It will also be nice to have something to do (I acknowledge right now that I will be eating these words in a matter of weeks) I start to go a bit crazy when we aren't in class. There is only so many tee shirts we can screen print before it becomes a little ridiculous. This semester I am taking Ceramics I, Drawing II, Photo III, Something about the digital Age and a Art history class. I think this may be my best semester yet.

Valentine's Idea, eh... eh?

If I had money this would be hanging in my living room.

The Last of Them

Whatever I need, he is there

Being a poor college student I have to work with what I got.

What I got is a husband and a tin trash can lid. Which fixes my problem of not having a reflector.

TeaTee Photo Shoot, Take 1

Nation, Here We Come

The week before Christmas Mark and I received an email from Kate, the senior editor at Imbibe, a national consumer drinks magazine. She wanted to know if they could feature our Tea Tee's in their Style section in their next publication.

After Mark and I did a dance around the living room I emailed her back letting her know that we were incredibly excited for the opportunity and would love to be featured in her magazine which is sold all over the country in places like Wild Oats, Barns & Noble, and Boarders. We went out with Mark's parents to pick one up. It is a very impressive publication, I love the design and vibe of the magazine. One of the articles in the January/February issue is 10 Reason to Love Tea, as if I needed any more.

No one has paid much attention to our Tea Tee's on Etsy so Mark and I didn't bother with making anymore after the first batch was done. This meant that we needed to dye a couple more and get them printed, plus get some good photos of them to send off to Kate. A couple days ago Kendra, Adam, Mark, and I went out on our first photo shoot. I think it went great.






I would like to thank my model Kendra because no matter how many times I said "Ohhh! Lets go over there and get some more" (which was a lot) she never complained.

I would like to thank Mark my makeshift garbage can lid reflector holder for giving me the perfect lighting.

I would also like to thank Adam for holding all of our crap, and for the entertainment.

My Fall from Grace

I had wanted Leopard before, but when I got to play around with it on my families new computer my Mac obsessive personality kicked in and I would not be satisfied until I too had Spaces on my computer.




This picture was taken pre-installation.

Pre-installation I was one of those people who swore the "it just works" tag line was God's given truth. Boy did I fall hard. The installation failed three times, the second time told me that I had to erase my previous operating system and consequently everything else on my computer. Good thing I asked for that new hard drive for Christmas (thanks Mom & Dad). I backed everything up and tried again. When it failed this time I had no operating system so I freaked out and left the room. Mark tried one more time and it decided it would allow itself to be loaded on to my last generation iMac.

As I looked around I realized that my whole iLife software was no where to be found. After a short while on the forums I was informed that the new operating systems do not have the iLife package in them. If I wanted the new iPhoto I was going to either have to buy iLife separately from the new OS X, or buy a new computer which Apple graciously installs the iLife software on. This wouldn't bug me so much if the site didn't make it look like the iLife software came with Leopard.

I fell hard and fast. All of my Apple products have "just worked" in the past and when there was a problem with my hardware the Apple people were always there to help in every way they could. It is truly heartbreaking to me to have to finally come to the conclusion that, yes I love them, but in the end Mac's are computers, and sometimes computers don't "just work". At least mine will look pretty when it is misbehaving.

Teal Town Ink's New Home

We spent today painting the middle room. It has long been designated as our Studio, however it has also been our junk room for a while. Mark received a very nice workbench for Christmas which forced us to get everything cleaned out and ready for his new screen printing station.




We were both worried that the red was going to give us problems, but two coats of paint covered it perfectly.

Home Again

And we are back!

Everything, minus one fish, has been moved back to Oxford. Teal Town Ink is up and running again, and I have just finished uploading all 638 photos that were taken over the break.


I figure this one sums up Christmas 2007 pretty well.