randomness

I have so much floating around in my head that I just can’t focus on one thing.

Have a good weekend, friends.

You can find me here on Pinterest.

*This was written Tuesday evening but I held off posting it until this morning so I could blackout my site in protest of SOPA/PIPA. If you haven’t already, please consider taking action against this censorship.

As I type this my house is quiet. It’s 11pm. Jasper is asleep and Josh is at work. I just finished watching tonight’s episode of Parenthood. It’s one of those evenings that I feel reflective and just a tad bit sad for no reason.

I hate that as an adult I still have that “left out” feeling. I seriously never dreamt that it would still continue into adulthood. People that technically are “supposed” to include me don’t. It’s not really a big deal except for when I’m reminded continually on Facebook. I’m sure they don’t think that my feelings would be hurt when I’m not tagged in a status even though I should be. Or how there are always pictures of their kids together and mine isn’t there… It’s just hard.

I get sad when bloggers get divorced or split with their significant other. It’s usually one of those “I didn’t see that one coming” thing because obviously I don’t see their entire life. Even though I don’t know them in real life I’m always really sad about it.

Making friends as an adult is not an easy thing. Have you noticed that? I’ve been a little skittish because of a recent bad experience. Suddenly a friend decided not to like me anymore which is weird because we’re not eight. Mostly I beat myself up about it because I feel like I should have seen it coming. I overlooked red flags that I shouldn’t have. So now I’m scared to make friends but thankfully my husband isn’t. We’ve hung out a few times with a new couple recently. Clients turned friends seems to be the trend for me. After doing some pictures for them a couple months ago Josh asked if they liked a specific restaurant. They did and thought going out to eat would be fun. (Yay!) After we set up a time I joked with Josh that he asked them out. I’m so glad he did because it turns out we get along really well and we’re excited to have new friends. I just decided that I can’t let a bad experience ruin future amazing experiences. That’s how life goes.

Though sometimes I feel like I just don’t understand life I do know this… I am lucky to have this boy and this man. They make me smile and love me in a way I didn’t know possible.

I’m a homebody by nature, always have been. However I do like to see new places and travel. (I just couldn’t go on a two-three week vacation.) Lately I’ve had this insanely strong urge to go somewhere. My travel Pinterest board just keeps growing. The last vacation Josh and I took was to Maine for our honeymoon (six years ago).

Josh and I are laid-back vacationers. We don’t want to take a bunch of tours or have lots planned out. We want to just wing it. We love the exploring and figuring out as we go. We are also totally not lay on the beach type of people. Sure it sounds relaxing but I think I’d get bored too quickly. Shoot, I can barely sit on the couch without doing something.

So we’ve been talking about where we’d like to go. Right now the plan is to go to Seattle. You know, someday when we have money. Also on the list: San Francisco, New York, Italy, Greece, Ireland, Australia… Ha. Yeah, someday we’ll go to all of those places. Josh and I have always talked about going back to Maine for an anniversary sometime. Part of me really wants to go back because it was so amazing. Another part of me doesn’t want to go back (at least not for a long time). There are SO many places I want to go. I can’t imagine using my rare vacation to go to the same place I’ve already been. Plus I really want to keep Bar Harbor special and I’m afraid going back might change that. I think of Bar Harbor and I instantly feel newly married and how amazing that vacation was. I kind of want to leave that feeling alone.

We are really hoping to be able to plan a vacation to Seattle in the next year or two. Financially I don’t know how we could ever swing it but you never know what will change in a year. I have high hopes that someday we’ll see all of the amazing things we want to see. We’ll spend the rest of our lives trying to figure out how to do it all. Because why not?

I’m not sure why but in the winter I always do my nails a lot more. Pinterest is loaded with crazy manicures so it inspires me to paint my nails even more. I don’t really do anything too crazy but I’m enjoying trying new things. I sorted through my nail polishes a few weeks ago. No idea why I still had polish from years and years ago. I also had two of one color which makes absolutely no sense. Unless I painted my nails with that color every day… I have never once emptied a bottle of nail polish. Have you?

I tend to just go for the simple. Doing a short bright red nail is fun. I also have a great nude color that I like.

These are a few of the times I branched out and tried something different.

The top left Sally Hansen Insta-dri Blue-Away with OPI Rainbow Connection on top. I started looking for the Rainbow Connection right before Christmas. Apparently it sold out almost instantly. I was not about to pay 15 bucks for a bottle of nail polish so I didn’t order it online.  Luckily my hair stylist got it for me and it was under five dollars.  It’s a lot of fun to wear and not a lot of fun to take off.

The top right is Sally Hansen Red Zin with OPI Gettin’ Miss Piggy With It. The glitter is another one of The Muppets Collection for OPI. It was perfect for Christmas.

The bottom left is my absolute favorite color (which of course you can’t get anymore): Sally Hansen Problem Child. I need to find a good replacement for it because it’s getting kind of clumpy.  I just put silver glitter polish (cheap-o random brand) on the tips.

The bottom right is OPI Warm & Fozzie from The Muppets Collection.  I really, really like this one in the bottle and not so much on my nails.

A few things I’ve learned with all of the nail painting:
1. Go pee first. It never fails that I’ll mess up a nail trying to go to the bathroom (even if they’re dry).
2. Use Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Anti-Chip Top Coat. Warning: Even though your nails will be dry in about 30 seconds, it’s still possible to mess them up for another 30 minutes or so. If you bump them or push on the tip, the whole color just slides off.
3. Try colors you wouldn’t normally wear. It’s funny how different things look on.
4. The more you paint your nails, the better you get at it.
5. To remove glitter nail polishes (like those two from the OPI Muppets Collection), soak a cotton ball in remover. Put the cotton on your nail, wrap in aluminum foil and then pull off after about 5 minutes.
6. Painting your fingernails can actually be really relaxing!
7. It seems like when I put a few coats of nail polish and top coat on, they chip right away. If I want my polish to last for quite a few days, I will do one fairly thick coat. Yep, just one and then top coat. That seems to last longer.

I used to think it looked weird on me but now I quite enjoy it. I’m pretty hard on my hands/fingernails so I know to wait until the last minute if I want my nails to look really nice for something. So do you do your nails?

It’s a good day to have a good day. Don’t you think?

I had another string of lights go out. Luckily it was just half of a string and it’s all in the back of the tree. I’m totally not going to fix it. I seriously cannot tell you how many lights I have replaced this year. I should have kept track.

So I got my Christmas wish…well at least halfway. Josh’s working weekends will now be days. Yes! He’ll still work nights during the week but every other weekend will be during the day! This is kind of enormous for us. Hopefully soon he’ll be days all the time. For now I’m going to appreciate being on the same sleep schedule as him for a few more days a month.

Josh and I are ridiculously excited for Christmas. Jasper’s gifts are wrapped and tucked away in the crawl space. (Side note: I would be lying if I said I haven’t been checking our sump pump numerous times a day out of paranoia.) I think he’s going to flip out when he sees what he got. Not only that, Josh has an entire week off around Christmas. One whole week on the same schedule! Just us, Christmas movies, coffee, games to play… It sounds like heaven.

Jasper and I hosted a little Christmas party for some of his friends. I met all of the moms because of this blog. How cool is that? There were four boys under the age of 3 1/2 which is kind of crazy. (There was one girl there but at 9 months old she mostly just rolled around.) They all did really great. We played a game, made some crafts, ate a lot of cookies and donuts. It was a blast. And by the looks of the playroom, I believe they all had fun too.

Many lessons learned this week:

-Even though the box says “If one light goes out, string still stays lit”, chances are if a bunch of Christmas lights go out the whole string will.

-If someone is usually snarky and sarcastic, it’s best to assume that they think you’re being snarky and sarcastic. Even if you’re just curious, concerned, or even friendly…

-The more coats of fingernail polish you apply, the easier it is to chip.

-Try as I might to conserve wrapping paper, I will always end up with a weird shaped too-little piece that can’t be used.

-It is true what they say about glitter. It’s the herpes of arts and crafts.

-If you think, “Man, that kid fell asleep fast!”. He probably didn’t. He’s probably sitting in the hallway watching everything you do.

Lessons learned.

Self imposed radio silence for awhile here.

Peace and love to you all.

This is Josh’s working weekend. So while everyone else is excited it’s Friday, we’re bummin’ because it feels like a Monday. As usual, I just keep telling myself “only three nights”. Then tomorrow I’ll be saying “only two more nights”. It’s the only way I get through it.

New favorite word: quagmire. Fun word, right? Also curmudgeon.

I came up with an awesome playlist on Spotify and turned it up loud on Wednesday to motivate some cleaning. It worked! I spent an hour cleaning my kitchen which of course led to other rooms in the house. Maybe it’s just me but when I do a really deep cleaning or organizing, I always come back to the room and stare at it. Like numerous times a day… And then I will have Josh come look at it. Thankfully he humors me.

Here are my hott shoes that I wore on Sunday. Yes, that’s right, hot with two t’s. They are so not shoes I would normally buy but I pretty much love them. So worth the giant blister on my left foot!

I had Josh drag out all of the Christmas boxes from the crawl space the other night. My intention was to sort through things and see what I need to get rid of or replace. (What I always want to do after Christmas but never do.) Unfortunately it just made me want to put the decorations up.

Speaking of Christmas decorations, I realized that I didn’t have a tree for upstairs anymore. After the crawl space flood fiasco earlier this year, we got rid of our little tree for the upstairs window. Thankfully I’ve had a lot of sessions and was able to buy a replacement yesterday. I put it together to make sure it was the one I wanted. That led to putting the lights on it. As of now it’s sitting in the middle of my living room. Guess I better go forward with the Christmas decorations.

You may have already seen this video floating around this week…a murmuration of starlings. Just incredible. I think I need to add seeing one to my life list.

Jasper’s common phrases right now are: “You talkin’ to me?” and “What you say?”.

My parents watched Jasper for us on Sunday while we went on our date. When we dropped him off, the first thing my mom said to me was “Whoa, Kimberly!”. I hadn’t safety pinned my dress yet so it was a little low. I love that at 31 years old my mom can still make sure I’m dressed appropriately.

During my session yesterday I got hailed on. That was a first. Definitely one session I won’t forget!

Saw this on Pinterest and had to laugh. This is so me. I would say that at least 95% of all rude things I’ve ever said to Josh have been out of hunger.

Which reminds me, I’m having a mad craving for my husband’s lasagna. He’s a darn good cook and I’m happy to share some of the cooking responsibilities with him.

I’m making a Santa countdown (something like this) for Jasper to start on December 1st. I distinctly remember this one that 7up put out in the early 90′s. So I’m designing my own. Each day we’ll put a cotton ball on the circle until his beard is full. We already had planned on doing The Elf on the Shelf which we got awhile back. Our elf, Franklin, will be here on December 1st to keep an eye on Jasper. I had never heard of this book until I saw it on Pinterest a hundred times. I think Jasper will get a kick out of it.

I always get in crafty mode this time of year. Being indoors more makes me want to bake and craft. If I get really ambitious I might make some little winter village houses (via Martha Stewart). Much cheaper than the ones you can buy in the store…I would just need to raid my recycle bin.

Now if I could just get caught up on my work so I can do some of this stuff. This is the one time of year I need to hire someone to help me process/edit sessions or someone to babysit my kid. I think it’s going to be some late nights and a lot of coffee for me in the next two weeks.

Hope you all have a great weekend! And remember, “Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good”. -Dr. Minor Myers, Jr.