I almost called this post “My Weed Garden,” but then I quickly realized that the title could have terrible and misleading implications.  As a Kentuckian, I already have to deal with enough idiotic stereotypes.  I don’t want to have to start dealing with the notion that I would be home-growing illegal substances, please.

But I digress.  Even though you know I love the color green, I do not declare that I have a green thumb.  I don’t really have enough experience in gardening to know, but I don’t really have a deep-rooted interest in it, anyway.  (Sadly, that pun was most certainly intended.)  But as I was helping my mom weed her flowerbed in anticipation of planting new flowers, I found some little weeds that I thought were really pretty.  So I decided to try to save the lives of a couple of poor botanical pests:

One of them looks a whole lot like flat leaf parsley to me.  (It’s not, though.  I tasted it.)  The other reminds me of some sort of clover.  I’ll probably end up accidentally killing them anyway, but I wanted to offer them a second chance at life.  I am often a fountain of stupid ideas, and I’m afraid that this is one of them.  I’m going to put the planter inside by the kitchen french doors and see what happens.  I’ll keep you updated.

This week is an extremely busy one for me, and I’ve decided it would be best for my sanity to take a blogging break until next week. I should be back with a new post on Monday. As much as I’d love to post my little daily findings for the world to see, I simply don’t have time this week. I’ll look forward to bring you more chortles soon, though!

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a great week!

Yesterday, I went to the eye doctor, and I decided to try contact lenses again. I had tried them a couple years ago, but one of my eyes didn’t take too well to the type of lens. Apparently, they don’t make that kind anymore, and the new astigmatism contacts work a lot better for most people. So I’m trying them out. So far, they’re working pretty well.

I realized there would be a dilemma when I return to school on Sunday: my roommate has the same contact lens case. They had given me the standard white and aqua/seafoam/teal capped lens case. It’s the same kind that he has, and I’d hate for us to get our contacts mixed up in the bathroom. I went to Wal*Mart to see if they had any different cases, but they were all expensive and/or ugly. So, I decided to change up the one they gave me. This is the result:

I much prefer the green to the original seafoam aqua. And now, I won’t get my contacts mixed up with my roommates’. In case you’d like to pull this stunt off as well, all I did was mix equal parts decoupage medium and acrylic paint. That way, it gave it a nice plasticy finish, and it bonded pretty well with the plastic. I just put on one thick coat. I realize it won’t last forever, but it’s okay. You’re supposed to switch out cases every 3 months, anyway!

This past Saturday, Sarah and I took a day trip to Cincinnati, as I mentioned in yesterday’s post. We went so we could go to the Cincinnati Art Museum and the new IKEA which had just opened a couple weeks ago. I almost got lost on the way to the museum, but the driving was okay other than that. It was a bit stressful, but mostly because I hate city driving. But I digress…

Before we went into the museum, we had a picnic lunch in the park surrounding the museum. My mom had surprised us that morning with a cooler and bag filled with a delicious lunch. It ended up being really cold for a picnic, but we persevered and enjoyed it anyway. The Museum was really great, partly because it was free. Admission there is always free, except for certain exhibits. There was a Rembrandt exhibit at the time, but we decided not to go to it, mostly because we didn’t want to be at the museum all day. There happened to be a really neat quilt exhibit up, so it was neat to see such great handicrafts on display as art.

After a couple hours at the museum, we decided to take a trek a bit north of Cincinnati to the new IKEA store. Neither one of us had been to an IKEA before, and we were both really excited. I had been wanting to go to one for a couple of years, ever since I heard about the stores. But the nearest ones had been too far away. With the new store opening up within a couple of hours from us, it seemed too good to be true. So we decided to make the trip. I don’t think we could have been prepared for the rest of the afternoon that was about to ensue! I feel like there needed to be a first-time-at-an-IKEA manual for newbies. This is the store we saw as we approached:

I don’t think this picture even quite captures the massiveness of the store. We even saw a sign for alternative parking which utilized a shuttle van to transport customers to and from the store. Mercy.

As we got nearer to the store, we realized the parking lot seemed more like an amusement park parking lot than a home furnishing store parking lot.

And that’s only one little piece of the entire lot.

After we parked, we took a deep breath and went into the store. I won’t go into detail as far as how the store is set up, because I don’t think I could describe it adequately. It will suffice to say that the entire time I felt like I was a cow being herded through an enormous showroom and warehouse. Many beautiful things, but we both went out empty-handed. I don’t know how that was even possible. Well, I think neither one of us were in the immediate market for any substantial furnishings, and it would feel ridiculous to wait in line for one small decorative item. Besides, I saw really cheap mugs I wanted to buy, but I decided to walk through the rest of the store and come back to them if I didn’t see anything else. If you have been to an IKEA, you know that was a mistake. It seems impossible to turn around in that store! It’s a maze of beautiful things, really.

I’m glad we went, but oh my goodness. It took me until today, I think, to really recover from my first IKEA experience. At least next time I go, I’ll know what to expect!

Well, it’s finally Friday, and I’m ready to welcome the upcoming weekend and Spring Break which follows. I don’t have too much planned, but I like it that way. Hopefully, I’ll be able to post a few slightly interesting entries over the next week; my busy schedule has certainly gotten in the way of my post-writing skills.

I’m ready to take my camera in hand and capture the week ahead. I’m hoping to see pretty things and make some decent food. We’ll see…

Have a good one, everyone! Go ahead and look at the week in review:

Chortles Goes Cordless

Green and Brown Rosary

Etsy Find #3

Tagged!

Well, I’ve been tagged by Marichelle! I enjoyed trying to think of superfluous things about myself. As you will see below, I did not meet the 6 person tag quota. So if you happen to stumble upon this and want to do it, tag yourself.

Rules:

1. Link to the person that tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
4. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
5. Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.

Six random things about me:

1. I check to make sure my alarm is set about 3 or 4 times each night. (It usually doesn’t do me much good–it takes me about 6 snooze cycles to wake up.)

2. I almost always put my parking break on, even when I’m not parked on an incline.

3. I sleep with socks on and usually end up kicking them off either before I go to sleep or in the middle of the night.

4. I fell off of a pontoon boat into a lake when I was little.

5. I enjoy wearing bracelets every once in a while–they feel comforting to me.

6. I have an awful habit of not deleting e-mails. My inbox always looks so full and demanding of my time.

Here are the people I’m tagging:
So…I’m just going to tag one person, because I really don’t follow enough blogs right now. Or at least, I’m just a blog lurker. Plus, Marichelle already tagged me. I don’t think some of the design blogs I follow would be very amused.

So, Ariane (cue reaction)…it’s just you.

Over the weekend, I went home and received my graduation gift from my parents, two months early! I picked out a laptop with my dad, and I’m glad they went ahead and gave it to me. It’s going to be nice to take back to school for the two remaining months I’m there. I’ll still love my beloved desktop, but it’s nice to have the mobility of a laptop. It’s a Toshiba Satellite 13.3″ Widescreen, and I love its small size. It has a nice shiny black exterior with a silver keyboard. And yes, its appearance had a partial impact on my decision.

Perhaps my laptop will inspire me to spontaneously blog while I’m out and about!

Well, I’ve finally done it.  I’ve (mostly) worked out the kinks of the site, and I’m launching this blog.  I really have no idea where it will go, but I’m taking the chance.  I don’t feel like formally introducing myself…I just hope you’ll learn more about me as this crazy thing goes along.

I guess it’s only fair to share my thoughts about where I hope this goes.  I want this to be a blog of my life, but not through a traditional journal-like lens (although I’m not limiting those occurrences ).  I’d like to document my growth as a person as I’m influenced by the various things finding their way into my life.  What things?  Color.  Design.  Crafts.  Food.  Music.  Things that catch my eye, things that catch my senses.  Hopefully, this will be a journey of self-reflection and a journey of sharing the things I love with other people.

With that, I say hello…and I hope you find my little journey worth following!