Collections Exchange

Not too long ago, I was over on the Oh, Hello Friend blog, and saw this post; a collections exchange!

People signed up with a comment including what items they collect.

They were assigned a partner.

That partner did shop searching and scouring to find the perfect items to add to their partner's collection, and mail it off!

My immediate response to this blog post... I love shop searching! I love getting and sending packages in the mail! I love exchanging emails with strangers who become instant friends! It's like this was made for me.

My exchange partner was the lovely Susan Roden who is an artist and a very sweet lady. I had so much fun shopping for her collection items, and I hope she loves them even half as much as I love what she sent to me!

First, this beautiful brooch:

I love the color and the tiny details. What a beautiful little piece of jewelry!

Next, this beautiful glass bottle stopper. Here it is, displayed in one of my DI-find vases.

And the extreme close up!

Susan was kind enough to find a couple records for me to add to my collection.

Stephen Stills and James Taylor! I passed up this exact Sweet Baby James album just a few weeks ago in order to save money. So it was such a great surprise to see it in the box!

And my Dad would be so excited to see a Stills record. I hadn't heard much of his, but I turned it on this morning, and LOVED it!

And, my favorite part, a beautiful vintage hat! Susan wrote that she found some of these treasures in an estate sale for an older woman. I can definitely see this hat on a fashionable older lady from another era.

I had to try it on immediately!!

Thanks so much, Susan! I love my new collection items!

Counting Down

I've got two incredible vacations coming up.

And it's all I can do to keep from making a paper chain to count down the days. It's all I can do to keep from making the 40-minute roundtrip drive to my parents' house right this second because I know my tickets came in the mail last night, and I want to see how pretty they are in person!! It's all I can do to keep from praying that, maybe, if Heavenly Father could just skip the next few days so that Thursday, April 14th comes sooner...?

But of course, I have a lot of fun activities planned before my trip to Coachella. Zumba tonight, a preview of The Music Never Stopped tomorrow night, a sleepover playdate with Ariel on Friday night, celebration of Aubree's dirty 30 birthday on Saturday night. Plus, conference! One of my favorite times of year!

In between all that, I have to finish packing and picking up things for Coachella (shouldn't be too hard since I've been obsessively planning for the past couple of months...), as well as purchase birthday gifts for roommate Heidi, Ariel, Aubree, Justin, Sierra, and Denver! Busy time of year! (Or should I say that end of June, beginning of July are the "busy" times of year... *wink, wink*).

And, seeing as I have just a week and a half between getting home from Coachella, then leaving again for Austin, TX, I should probably take my time to plan for that trip! I'm so excited to make my way South! I've heard that Texas is pretty amazing, and I can't wait to experience the dance halls and barbecue and weather and The Alamo for myself!

In the meantime, if anyone can keep me busy enough from now until April 14th to keep me from going certifiably insane with excitement... let me know!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Top o' the mornin' to ya!

I started off my day doing baptisms for the dead at the Salt Lake temple. By sheer happenstance, I ended up getting names from Ireland. Neat!!

Then, on my drive home, I remembered that I told my boss I'd make St. Patrick's day treats, so I stopped and got some rice krispies cereal to make rice krisipes treats!
I got really good at making rice krispie treats after having to make 6 big batches worth for a church mingle on Sunday... And then dropping half of them in the parking lot!
Must not have had the luck o' the Irish with me that day!

After making rice krispies and showering the chlorine out of my hair
(didn't want my hair to be green,
no matter how much I enjoy St. Patrick's day...)
I made breakfast.
A bowl of rice krispies! (I had a lot leftover)

I colored them green! Naturally.
As well as the rice I made for my lunch.
Green food!
A few days ago, I made treacle bread, an Irish recipe. So I also ate that for breakfast.
I'm just Irish-in' it up today!
P.S. Sorry about the crappy photos... I took them with my phone

I hope you all have a beautiful St. Patrick's day
filled with great luck,
shamrocks and clovers,
and maybe even a leprechaun sighting!

And remember what the three-leaf clover represents:
Good St. Patrick travelled far, to teach God's Holy Word
And when he came to Erin's sod, a wondrous thing occurred
He plucked a shamrock from the earth and held it in His hand
To symbolise the Trinity that all might understand
The first leaf for the Father
And the second for the Son
The third leaf for the Holy Spirit
All three
of them in one.

Slainte!

Japan-- You're in my Heart

I've just spent the past few minutes looking at photos and video of the terrible disasters in Sendai, Japan and surrounding areas. The day of the earthquake and tsunami, I donated $10 to the Red Cross. That's just so little.

It breaks my heart to see that kind of fear and devastation on the people's faces. Whenever disasters happen, I tend to donate, and then ignore all coverage. Because all the pictures and news stories and videos just make me feel so helpless. Here I am, sitting at my cushy job, perfect weather, full of my delicious lunch, clothes on my back, coat on the rack, listening to ABC by the Jackson 5. And it's just so discordant from the pain of the Japanese people right now.

My thoughts and prayers go out to those without homes, without families, without hope; to the brave soldiers and rescuers; to those with aching hearts all over the world because of this disaster. My prayers go out, because it's all the relief I can offer.

Except that I can still donate more. Which will happen, because I have so much.

P.S. Please send your prayers out as well. And, if you have the time, please also send your prayers out to my mom, who is going into back surgery tomorrow. Thanks, and I love you all!

Ultimate Geek Weekend

My geeky weekend got off to an early and incredible start with a Thursday evening viewing of Christopher Reeve's Superman.How does this movie not have a bigger following and hype?! It's absolutely amazing. It very handily made it into my list of top 10 favorite movies, I'd have to say. I need to go purchase it immediately, because I was wanting to re-watch it just minutes after it ended. Also, you cannot argue with John Williams' soundtrack. So awesome!

I recommend an immediate watching if you have not seen it. If you need someone to accompany you, please give me a call!!

My geek-culture-filled weekend continued on Saturday afternoon, when I joined some friends for a Quidditch game in Liberty Park. That's right, quiddich. In real muggle life! With broomsticks, and bludgers, and snitches! Oh my gosh, it was a beautiful dream come true.

The goal posts!

The players hold and ride broomsticks the entire time!

Players chose their own numbers! (Platform 9 and 3/4! What, what!)

Starting position.

They put their heads down to keep from seeing where the "snitch" hides.

If you look above the players, you can see the "snitch" (the guy in yellow shorts) running to hide behind-and later climb up into-the trees.

This is his leap over the fountain. Later in the game, he did another magnificent leap over that fountain again. The beauty (and ridiculousness) of that leap cannot be described.

And here's a clip of the game, with Kristin's commentary:

And to cap the absolute geekery/nerdiness of my weekend, I succumbed, albeit finally, to my good friend Kristin's requests, pleas, and demands that I play Dungeons & Dragons with her.

Yes, the ultimate role-playing game. We didn't go so far as to wear capes during our play, although it was seriously discussed. We discovered that there were only four available characters to play, but five people needing a character. So Kristin and I were jointly Lanin, the elf wizard. Sounds powerfully awesome, right?! Well, she wasn't. Our character ultimately kinda sucked.

But, through team work with the other characters-Rogue, Dothal, and Redgar-we destroyed the goblins, the archers, the Orc Mauler, and the Harpy. I tried to get our group to offer diplomacy to the Harpy, but the rest of them were blood-thirsty, and thus she was killed off.

I gotta say, it really was a fantastically awesome weekend...

Up and Down

I'm feeling quite bi-polar lately. And I don't like it at all.

Lately, I go from so contentedly happy to so frustratingly depressed in just hours. Minutes, even. I can't figure it out.

Is it loneliness? This diet I'm on? Is it that I'm so bored with my life at the moment? Is it this cold weather and the Spring in the air?

I think it's probably all of these things mixed together. Except the diet, because I'm actually loving that! Guys, I've found my favorite diet ever!

Anyway, I need to get out of this serious bi-polar funk I've got going on. Because when I get in my depression moments, my thoughts become dangerously rebellious. I've considered tattoos (not really...), random make outs (maybe really...), hopping a plane to anywhere, drinking alcohol (this was a passing thought, and one that really terrified me, actually), and a million other crazy, out of character things. And I don't like the person I am when I'm thinking these things.

I need something to occupy my time and thoughts.

When I was in school from September through December, I literally had no time for these kinds of thoughts. Are these the leftover thoughts that I would have had after a break-up had I not been too busy? Do these thoughts come simply from having too much time to think? I just don't know.

Anyway, like I said, it's a bi-polar situation, and I would say 75% of my time is spent being the extremely happy person that I really am. I'm on a great diet, I'm super stoked for Spring to come, and I'm discovering a lot of new and fabulous music. So, don't get too worried about me.

But if you have any suggestions for hobbies I can do to occupy my time, I may seriously take you up on that.

P.S. If you watch American Idol, keep Paul McDonald and Casey Abrams on. They make me sooooo happy!