Quotation Wednesday {25th ed.}

This quote is whimsical and yet motivating at the same time. I love the idea of telling the dreamer to dare to dream big, just remember to build the foundations that hold the gravity of such amazing goals!

"If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost;
that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them."
-Thoreau

Love is a battlefield!

This performance is absolutely, ridiculously, be-still-my-beating-heart-because-I-love-you-Vicci!!! amazing!!!

Seriously, how amazing is she?! She makes everyone adore her right? Its not just me and my fanatical attraction to adorable lesbians who ooze emotion...right?!

Moving is annoying!!

That about covers it, Im annoyed! The moving companies are all about money. Can't they just stop and think about the people behind those boxes? I don't want to pay an extra $500 just so I don't have to sleep on a blow up mattress for an indeterminate amount of time waiting for my stuff that would likely just be sitting in a storage facility in the middle of Montana on the basis that I didn't pay extra money!!

Arghh...I bet rich people hire someone to take care of all this crap. I bet they just sit on their butts while someone finds them a wonderful place to live, deals with the landlords/sellers, packs their crap, decides what to keep and what to give away, figures out the logistics of getting it there, cancels their cable, gets them to their new home without them even knowing it, cleans the old place (I hate that the most!), unpacks all their crap, and then says "hey, just so you know, you are now moved!" Im pouting...

Happy Monday {39th ed.}

Happy Monday everyone!! Here is what is making me smile...

Im not entirely sure what these are, but they are cute!

via here

Pedal Pub

We saw this strolling down the streets of downtown St. Paul, how awesome is it?! Im pretty excited to give it a try once we get there!

Pride pictures

I didn't go this year, but just looking at pictures even never fails to make me smile! There is just something so wonderful about thousands of people celebrating being exactly who they are. If you have never been to a Pride parade (regardless if you are gay) you definitely need to make it to one!

Naked bikers...you may not want to zoom in! :)

Porch swings

I am so excited about the front porch on the place we found! I can't wait to get a porch swing, how amazing are these ones...

via here

I want to live in this one!! (from here)

That is all for me this week, what is making my lovely readers smile?!

Thank you New York!!

We are getting there, slowly but surely....

Oh, and happy Pride everyone!! :)

Companion Animal Grief

Hi everyone! Well, as I have mentioned (and complained and fretted!), I am working on that pesky dissertation and am finally to the research collection portion! So here is my plea for help. If you or anyone you know fits the critera and wouldn't mind taking my 15-20 minute survey, I would greatly appreciate it!! (Using Survey Monkey does keep it completely anonymous) Here is the info...

COMPANION ANIMAL GRIEF STUDY

 I am a doctoral student at Argosy University in Clinical Psychology and am seeking participants for my dissertation examining grief following the loss of a companion animal.

 You may qualify if you meet the following criteria;

·      You have experienced the death of a companion dog within the past 5 years.

·      You have attended therapy following that loss.

·      You are over the age of 18.

 Participation is completely anonymous and is conducted strictly online. It will only take about 20-30 minutes of your time. Participation will include a chance at winning one of 2 $50 gift cards of your choice from giftcertificates.com!

*Please contact CAgrief@gmail.com*

Thank you in advance for your time.

St Paul bound...

I've been distant my blogger friends and I apologize! The past week has been crazy with trying to distribute my dissertation flyers, plan a trip to MN (not as easy as it sounds when petsitting and scheduling rental showings are involved!), and then actually going to MN for 3 days to find a place to live!!

Our Tuesday was ridiculous! We took a red-eye flight (not my best idea), got in at 7am and grabbed the rental car, then were at a loss for what to do until noon when our first rental showing was scheduled. We were exhausted and hungry, so we ate and then slept in the car (not fun!). The afternoon was filled with rental showings and true to our form, there were some *interesting* ones! The first one was in such a bad neighborhood that we didn't even look at it, just turned around. The next was a cute little place, but the realtor told us that the people right before us filled out an application, damn! The next one didn't exist...seriously, the road just stopped even though GPS was telling us to continue into the trees, weird. The  next one we liked (and eventually decided to take) but I will get to that.

The final one we looked at on Tuesday was the craziest one of all! When I talked to the lady on the phone, one of the first things that she said was that she was "adamant about meeting dogs first." I politely told her thanks but no thanks since our dogs would be in Seattle, but she stated that she maybe would make an exception (sounds promising, right). We decided to look at it anyways since that was the point of the trip. There were people living in the house and she asked them to leave when we got there (apparently they had no warning) and then showed us around the house. When we got to the yard she started asking about the dogs again, then she said that she was "very strict about poop."...ok, I asked her to clarify and it came out that she did not allow dogs to poop in the back yard! What?! I was confused so I asked if she meant that she wanted it picked up every day, but no, she meant what she said, no pooping in the yard...at all! She also mentioned that she would drop by periodically (no warning) and if she saw any poop or if she saw them pooping, we would be evicted on the spot! We decided to leave at this point, but on the way out she blessed us with a little more of her crazy. Apparently she needed a $700 (per pet?) non-refundable deposit, she wouldn't show the lease at all until the full deposit was received (illegal!), and she made it sound like she was always lurking in the bushes waiting for you to do something wrong. Um, nope!! Plus, she kept mentioning that the neighborhood was the "gay area" and that we would not like any other neighborhood, and oh we should go to this bar or that restaurant. I hate when people assume they know everything about you based on one little fact, like that we are a lesbian couple! Anyways, we left, that was too much crazy at 7pm after 36 hours without real sleep!

We looked at a few other places on Wednesday, but the neighborhood had been hit by a tornado and was completely uprooted (literally), plus one had lost the fence and garage, which were our main selling points. So, we picked the place we loved on Tuesday :) It is beautiful and cozy,  has a front porch, is in a nice quiet neighborhood, and the landlords are awesome! Yay, I can't wait to move in and get settled!

Somehow we always end up looking at some crazy places (remember these gems?!), does anyone else go through all of this before finally finding a place?!

Random Simple Pleasures {11th ed.}

Random Pleasure #11 ~ walking barefoot through the grass!!

Is there any better feeling in the world?!.....

Quotation Wednesday {23rd and 24th eds.}

Yikes, I was not an active blogger last week, I even forgot my favorite posts, Quotation Wednesday!! (Side note: my IRB finally got approved so I was busy getting my dissertation survey out there!) Anyways, here are 2 of them, have to keep all of my fans happy :)

This one I just love because I am a quiet person and only speak up when I truly do have something to say! I have never been on of those people who can talk until their voice goes out, so when I say something, it honestly is important to me! Kudos Plato for encompassing that idea for me :)

"Wise men talk because they have something to say;
fools, because they have to say something."
-Plato

And this one is just awesome! Pardon my french, but you are all fuckin' perfect to me!!

"Pretty pretty please, don't you ever ever feel like you're less than fuckin' perfect!"-Pink

Perfect is being exactly who you are, not something that fits into a mold. I want to make it my life's mission to make people believe that they are all destined to be their own version of absolutely perfect!

Happy Monday {38th ed.}

Happy Monday Everyone!! Here is what is making me smile this week....

This adorable owl in a cup
Too cute! :)

find the print here

Transparent kayak

Now that I have seen this, all I want to do is float around in it, really it is all I can think about!

via here

Cool trees
I love trees! I really love unique ones with funny curves or shapes to them. I went hiking with my mom yesterday and we saw this cool one with a cute little "cave" in it!

(and while we are on the topic of hiking, another thing I love is burning 900 calories while doing something that is just plain fun!!)


My new crocs
Now before you laugh, these ones are actually cute! Plus they are ridiculously lightweight, super comfy (seriously!), and solve my dilemma of needing summery shoes that don't hurt my poor arthritic knees...I love them!

and they come in super cute colors, you can buy a bunch of them here!

Ok that is it for me this week, what is making you happy?!

Happy Monday {37th ed.}

Happy Monday!! Along with the recent "sun bursts!" here is what is making me smile...

Salt and Pepper shakers
I need these!!

from here

This dress
The sun is making me search for fun summer dresses and I adore this one. Damn being poor...

if you are not a starving grad student, you can buy it here!

The slight change that tie-die might make a comeback!

Fingers crossed :) Oh and also the fact that this shirt would show off Professor Hoot!!

from here

Pride cupcake

Although Cupcake Royale is not my cupcake shop of choice, I will definitely have to give this one a try before the month is over!

hehe... :)

Ok, that is all for me this week. What is making you happy?!

Random Simple Pleasures {10th ed.}

Simple Pleasure #10 ~ Reading in the park
Sunshine, grass, and a good book...does it get any better?!

ps: this book is amazing!! 

Soundsuits

I just went and saw Nick Cave's Soundsuit exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum. They were really amazing! They just have a beautiful aesthetic to them, it was everything I could do to not touch them! If this exhibit ever comes to your town, I highly recommend seeing it. (Oh and I saw the Picasso exhibit at SAM awhile ago too and that one is a must see as well!!)

I really liked these ones, they look liked they are exploding with excitement to me!

This one was my favorite, but the picture doesn't do it justice. Similar to the above one, it was a "man" in what can only be described as an afgan bodysuit and he was encased in a birdcage of sorts. I think he just found every tacky bird bric-a-brac item at a thrift store and made this surprisingly beautiful cage out of it...awesome! Oh, and to top it off, the man in the cage had a really awesome vintagey lion mask on :)

Ahh, as I am typing this I am realizing that these small distant pictures run the risk of making the work look tacky, but it really isn't! It is awesome to see in person, like it is art that is painfully sitting still and you can just picture it breaking free into a joyously beautiful dance!

ps: watch awesome videos here and here!!!

Quotation Wednesday {22nd ed.}

This is another one from the daily meditation book that I am reading and I think it is really beautiful. I love that it honors the difficulty of breaking out of the comfortable place of a bud, but also shows the beauty of blooming!

"And then the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud
was more painful than the risk to bloom." - Anais Nin