(almost) all the images i post in this blog are completely stolen. i am constantly saving inspiring reference from flickr and blogs, and it would be impossible to keep it all cataloged. sorry for my inefficiency. that being said, if i have stolen an image from you, and not credited you, and you are super pissed about it, be sure to send me an email so i can tell you to fuck off.... jay kay. i will link you or take it down or whatever.

so i have been being super dilligent about keeping my del.icio.us page up-to-date with lots of good links.... enjoy.

mega-super-fun-crazy-million-dollar dance party last night at empire with h&m girls... so fun! also pleasant surprise running into nate
he is currently putting together a book of topless polaroids that he has taken over the past bazillion years, and i am considering being a part of it. ....?
funny story... when nate and i first became friends i would go hang with him at his loft apartment and watch movies a lot. that place was so disgusting that i would usually end up cleaning it. his bathtub was literally black, so i cleaned his bathroom in exchange for him bringing me to see team america. amazing.

i am going to try really hard to schedule slash keep all of my appts coming up. please get in touch with me if you are trying to get work done and we can work it out.

amy has been gone all weekend and its been strange. i thought i would enjoy having the apartment to myself, but ive been pretty lonely. its been pretty convenient not having to leave the house to socialize.

i got a crazy ton of new music this weekend, and ive been pleasantly suprised by a lot of it. i will report back when i have more thoroughly sifted through all 500 mp3's.

beating the dead horse to death

hipster: the dead end of western civilization

i. am. guilty. we are all guilty. i wear skinny jeans and ride a track bike and have an ipod, macbook, a bf with a beard. i use terms like "bf" "jay kay" and "oh em ef gee". i blog and myspace and twitter and del.icio.us. i guess im completely trivial and vapid.
amazing.

i feel that at the foundation of any culture are truly creative and unique individuals who do there own thing, and arnt responsible for copy cats. bottom line.

i love bob ross. go youtube him right now.

so... umm.... i am totally and completely OBSESSED with 1960s design ephemera and illustration.
also, watched the helvetica documentary the other night... made me dream of living in 1960s switzerland.
grain edit has such an amazing collection of vintage design... plus modern stuff, interviews, and studio visits.... its my current fav.

me and bryan at my art opening in 2005. he moved to portland and is never coming back.... its pretty annoying

business as usual at the tattoo shop


p bur.

heres a bunch of images... because i am bored, and feeling generous

i posted a bunch of wedding stuff on my flickr... but these items are all mine... sort of. the shrug is being made custom for me in black, which i think will be amazing.

i like charley harper.... who doesnt?

these are examples of several stages of the tomato hornworm.... aka "steve". i have been drawing this mf-er all day.

i have not been very good about updating this thing or any other thing for a little while. my camera is broke, and its a lot less for to update without new pictures. this weekend has been no fun. i somehow managed to accomplish very little, when in reality i had very much to do.
i did, however, manage to scoot over to h&m and buy some cute satin stretch pants that i am quite pleased with. ugh. i am so sleepy. i hate the fact that i spend all weekend running errands and cleaning and have no time to do the things i enjoy, like working on new paintings. i am so excited to go to maine and cool off for a few minutes.... also, it will be nice to tie up all the last loose ends for my wedding planning. (or at least the brunt of them)
i think i made a new friend. its such sketchy territory. i feel like people treat me differently because justin and i do tattoos. its hard to trust people, and ive been disappointed a lot lately. i really want to try to create some more distance between myself and the rest of the tattoo community. i feel like i spend every minute talking about tattoos or listening to shit talk about other artists, and im a little exhausted by it. i mean, when i worked in printing i didnt want to go to a bar and see every other printer in town. i just need to draw some sort of line between work and play.... maybe im asking too much.
i think i just want distance from richmond people in general. i kind of miss red necks and military guys.
i think i just want some "normal" friends.
end rant.
im just really tired today. i had to get up early and deal with the diamond people, the bank, and the FBI. after some severe threats it looks like we will be returned the 2000 plus dollars that was embezzled from us. yah.

a.

i am shocked and irritated by the fact that i am sick.... again! oh and my kitty broke my keyboard, rendering my shift and control keys unusable until justin gets home and fixes them.... i attempted but found myself far too impatient and cranky to deal with the little parts.
i feel like summer is almost over and i havent really done anything to enjoy it. josh will be here next week and i am hoping that the the three of us can take a fun trip somewhere or something. i want to go to the beach in maine and crawl on rocks. i am slowly trying to prepare the house for amys arrival, but it seems as though every time i clear out one area, justin sees the space and begins piling. i found some leftover antibiotics from the last time i was sick and started taking them... just in case.
anyway, im bored out of my mind.

a.

okay. so its been a day or two since i have updated. things have been hectic... stressful. however, i have managed to cross some MAJOR things off my to do list, which is AMAZING. do we need this stress in order to motivate us? fear is the greatest motivator.
i think at some point recently i realized that i was not in control of my own decisions, and it really started to eat at me. i think that people have a tendency to take advantage of you when they realize that you need them more than they need you. is this vague? i will try to clarify later... maybe.

i guess im just in spring cleaning mode. i let things pile up all around me until i am so stressed i cant see. i have started to clear things up. dumb stuff like re-loading all my mp3's back into itunes, and getting my cpr, first aid, and blood borne pathogens certifications. flossing.... literally and metaphorically. having WAY too many social obligations.

anyway... this is boring me.

i am SO tired. so many odd tasks seemed to go undone during my illness. sigh.

i went to my first gym orientation earlier, informative.
went to target to exchange some work out clothes (why do they run so damn big?)
cleaned
did countless loads of laundry
bought groceries

tired.

turtley died today (not pictured). its amazing how something that you barely have contact with could cause such heartache. justin and i inherited turtley from his little brother timmy, almost a year ago. he was a tiny little guy, maybe an inch and a half in length. i noticed a week ago that his shell seemed soft and fragile, so i started running the lamp for longer hours. i have been sick for the past couple of weeks, so i didn't pay much attention to the tank. last night i noticed that he was laying in the corner of the tank, with his head stretched out and laying on ground. he looked sick and barely moved when i poked at him. his shell had become extremely soft. i googled "sick turtle", and determined that it was a lack of uv rays and proper nutrition that led to his illness. i placed him in a separate impromptu tank with very little water on the ledge of my window sill. this morning he had moved down from the rock i had given him, and had eaten a little pellet food. i decided that this must be a good sign, even though i wasnt too happy abut the fact that he was sitting in the water with that soft shell. justin and i then dismantled our 55 gallon terrarium and relocated it to our trunk room (which is like a small office), directly next to a sunny window. after we completed the move i was going to put turtley back in the tank, and when i picked him up, he was lifeless.

we buried turtley in my downstairs neighbors front garden (sorry, laura).

i feel like such a bad mom. i wish i would have done more research on his particular breed of turtle, or kept the tank a little cleaner. i wish i could've saved him.

in response to our loss, justin and i have erected the "turtley memorial terrarium" which is basically our old aquarium, but with a new faux rock waterfall filter, live plants, water conditioner, moss, and new buffet style food (with krill and nasty shrimp).


in other news....
i am still on the hunt for the perfect bedroom set, and to be honest i am leaning towards the "MALM" set on IKEA. i know IKEA is cheap, but its also versatile and they have lots of different pieces for each set and the sets come in a variety of colors. Plus, i'm probably not going to want this bedroom set forever anyway. i think i am going to have to make a little road trip to potomac mills and check it out in person. justin and i went to EQ3, west elm, pottery barn, and crate and barrel today, and didn't see anything that either of us really liked.

i joined the gym today. exciting. if anyone goes to golds in the fan, we should work out together. aimee and i are going to "body flow" (cheesy name) class tomorrow, and to get myself extra inspired to start working out, i bought a really cute outfit... too bad i realized when i got home that it doesn't match my sneakers!

oh... we are obsessed with the showtime series "the tudors".

kit is coming in town tomorrow.

lars is helping me do some work to my bike tomorrow... riser bars, bmx kiddie grips, and new tubes.

"real simple: weddings" appears to be the best wedding magazine i have bought to date. it has limited ads and really focuses on planning, with easy to read lists.

my ring still hasn't made it to Virginia. (sad face) i called today to check on it, and was told that it was running late and wouldn't go out until thursday. which means that justins tatsoul chair will arrive before my ring... even though it was ordered nearly two weeks after. sigh. i am tired of telling people that i am getting married, only to have them glance down at my bare hand. boo.

alright, its late and i've had and emotionally exhausting day.

a.

this video is super cute..... i really want to make zombie puppets now.

They have lots of sweet stuff on the zune arts site.....zune

as seen on kitsune noir

to bad the bums will just end up peeing onit

(they ruin everything)

so sometimes i am really fascinated by teenagers, i mean, we all remember being young a dumb... but i am SO thankful that i grew up pre-digital age. before camera phones and digital video and every personal aspect of your life being posted on the internet.

with that said i came across this website recently when i was searching for a cute new haircut.... bascially its a social networking slash photo hosting site, similar to photobucket or flickr, but for "emo" teens. the part that i found entertaining was the section devoted to "emo girls making out" and "emo boys making out" (at least these kids are practicing tolerance!). i guess the part that i find shocking is that they are posting this stuff on the internet for everyone on the planet to see, teachers, bosses, family, and creepy perverted dudes.

anyway, i had basically forgotten about that site til i came across some "emo porn" blog today, and saw all these video clips from you tube of emo girls making out.... its like, a culturally phenom. or something. so of course, i had to do a youtube search...


proliferation

i kind of feel guilty posting this.... but by rational side tells me its totally anthropological and interesting.

i just remembered how excited i am for SATC!!!

awesome

will everyone hate me if this becomes a wedding blog?

nobody reads this crap anyway....

so i haven't been to work in a week and a half, which basically means that my days are spent drinking prescription cough syrup (syzurp) and doing online wedding planning.... which may seem a little obsessive considering my wedding isn't for 15 months, but there are SO many damn variables... for example: we are getting married in maine, outside, which leaves us with a very small window of time to operate within, because the weather in maine is only tolerable (esp. for virginians) for about three months. so we decided on the first week of august, however, i then realized that the weather in the caribbean is super shitty and rainy in august. also, i want my wedding to be slightly off-season, so i can get a better deal on a honeymoon. so now i either need to change the wedding date to september, which might be colder than i will like, or change our honeymoon location.


this is SO cute. i want an old school b-boy dance off at my wedding.

offbeat bride is super cute.... and there is even an entire section on tattooed brides!

so i have done a good job at secret keeping, as of late, but i can no longer hide it.... IM GETTING ENGAGED, BITCHES. we ordered the ring yesterday, and im super excited. its basically this ring, but with an upgraded rock and setting. (platinum, wa-what)
i really have to thank kari so much for helping me with all the diamond info.... and for letting me steal her idea of getting a black one. i went into this without a damn clue about buying diamonds, and it really made me realize why young girls get into learning and planning weddings WAY before they get engaged. i kind of regret NEVER picking up a wedding magazine earlier, it would have made the whole process a lot easier.... thankfully, kari has had a subscription to martha stewart weddings since she was 12, and has been very helpful.

in other black diamond news...
carmen electra just recieved a black diamond from her fiance, and he actually bought the ring from my solitaire which has an AMAZING selection of black diamonds, and are very reasonably priced.

here is an awesome article about black diamonds. it has been theorized that black diamonds come from space!

i was initially feeling very overwhelmed with the prospect of planning my wedding (even though i have 15 months!) but then amy told me that she made her mom do all the boring planning stuff, and that her mom was super stoked about, and that made me feel better about it.

where should i register? suggestions?

also... im pretty sure i found my dress. i posted pictures of it in my flickr. DONT SHOW JUSTIN!

in other news... (involving people who are SO much cooler than me)
my awesome friends aimee and stacey got engaged last night! they are the cutest couple EVER (besides me and justin).... and i am totally voting for them for prom queens. stacey drove ALL the way from florida last night to surprise aimee and pop the question. i felt VERY special to be included in the surprise. we will all be at cous cous tonight to celebrate.

also....
my good friend from high school ALSO got engaged. melissa and her boyfriend have been together for SEVEN years, and he totally surprised her. That is the cutest shit ever.

jeez... all these surprise engagements make me secretly wish that i wasn't such a control freak, and let justin surprise me.... who am i kidding? if i waited on him, i would be an old dried up hag before i ever got a rock.