Father's Day Key Chains 2012

My goal was to have a million ready-to-ship items available for Father's Day.  It looks like I will only have a small fraction of that amount ready.  :(  That does seem like me, though...

Anyway! I made a handful* of key chains for Dad that are in stock and ready to be sent to a good home come this Friday!

*I did make a few duplicates of the larger key chains.  So, while this appears to be a fairly pathetic offering of items for Father's Day, I do have a few more key chains not shown. Still pretty paltry, I suppose. I sorries!

All Night Long, All Night.

All of my work is conducted at home. I am alone all day. Well, alone enough.  Because I am alone all day, I have developed some odd coping methods to deal with this solitary working environment.  The most recent tick I've developed is singing songs about the tags that I am working on at the moment.  The lyrics of these songs usually consist only of the names going on the tags, and are almost always sung to the tune of Ruby Rhod's deejay jingle from The Fifth Element (at 1:30), where he sings, "All night long, all niiiight."

A sampling of today's songs:

"Matt and Kass, MattandkaAhaaass"
"A W S, A W Ssss"

I also do something similar when I am printing out shipping labels.  However, by the time I get to this point in my day (late in the evening), my husband guy is home, sitting near me on his computer.  Surprisingly, whenever I randomly bust into song singing a guy's name as I am working on packing up said guy's order, my husband doesn't even comment/care.  I guess he's used to it.

Full Metal Alchemist

A few months ago my husband made me strongly encouraged me to watch the first episode of Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood.  This is an anime.  I have never enjoyed anime.  I watched a few seasons of Dragon Ball Z, assumed all anime was as bad, and stayed as far away from anime as possible. (I know that mentality was completely unfair to the anime genre, but DBZ was just so bad...)

However, Full Metal was different.  After watching the first episode, I deemed the show *FANTASTIC* and I have since been going through a few episodes a day.  I often whine because I want to watch more episodes when we've already watched 5 in a row.  As we are nearing the end of the series, I am reminded how happy I am that I found my husband guy.  Yet again he has introduced me to something new and awesome that I wouldn't have experienced on my own.

Since I am currently obsessed with all things Full Metal Alchemist, here are some cool related finds on Etsy.

Alphonse Elric Inspired Fleece Pillow from Fletcherable

 

Full Metal Alchemist etched glass tumbler- Homunculi Symbol from aradiadiane

Fullmetal Alchemist Inspired Transmutation Circle Wall Decal from Zikey Decals

 

Deluxe Fullmetal Alchemist Edward Elric Inspired Cosplay Apron Pinafore from DarlingAmy

Edward Elric Plush from pheleon

The first season has the best intro song.

The Hobbit --> Depression

For so long I was spoiled.  I had so much to look forward to. Years and years of enjoyment were laid out before me - perfectly planned.  Sadly, it appears that this precious way of life will soon come to an end.  After The Hobbit (Part 1 & 2) have come and gone in theatres, I will have no other beacons of potential happiness to light the way of my life. 

Err...my "movie watching" life.

While I really want to blame the Lord of the Rings trilogy for this problem, I cannot. No, this terrible situation that will soon be upon me can only be blamed on Harry F*cking Potter.  Harry Potter was always there...for years and years and years I always had a new Harry Potter movie to look forward to.  Yeah, it may not have always been the awesomely perfect magical movie that I was hoping for, but that didn't matter, for there would be another! And another! And another!

And then it stopped.  After Lord of the Rings was finished, Harry Potter soon followed.  Now all that's left is The Hobbit.  I know, I should be grateful that I at least have that, but I can't help but be depressed whenever I think of how I'll feel after The Hobbit: Pt. 2 comes out.  I'll have absolutely no other movie to be excited about.

It's so dark here.  There are no windows. I hope for the sake of my emotionally struggling 'movie life' that some lightbringer emerges and it is bright once again.

Wow! Keep the sharp knives away from me!



My husband's response to all of this drama? "First world problems."


**UPDATE!  The Hobbit has now been turned into a trilogy, so I can stave off mind numbing depression until after July 2014!  This is good news. Good news indeed.

A Tote for NYC

For the past few years, my husband guy and I have attended the OrigamiUSA convention in New York City.  Well, my husband has done most the "attending." Origami is one of my husband's favorite hobbies, however, not so much mine.  In the past, while he was enjoying the convention, I'd either roam around the city by myself or work wherever we were staying. This was fine, I guess, but I couldn't travel too far away from the convention because I always wanted to link back up with my husband for lunch and dinner, and whenever he had a short break in between classes.

Luckily, this year I don't have to worry about being there for him during all his breaks.  My friend from Georgia (the same friend that accompanied me to Key West!) will be joining us in NYC.  This means I will have a friend with whom to roam around the city, and my husband guy won't have to worry about entertaining me on his breaks.  We can both go our separate ways each morning, and I'll see him later at bedtime.  That way he can fully focus on the convention and not have to worry about me being all sad and alone all day, and I can fully focus on enjoying myself in the city and not have to worry about being back at the convention at a certain time to meet up with my husband guy.

Since I am actually planning on being out in the city most of the day (and not in the hotel working like last year), I want to get a big bag to carry all my crap.  My current purse is tiny.  I only use it to hold my phone, keys, and wallet, so it really doesn't need to be big.  However, for this trip I will be adding an NYC guide book (I'm a tourist!), a camera, and a bottle of water.  I need a bigger bag. :(

I'm quite frugal when it comes to buying things like purses (I got my current tiny purse from WalMart for $9), so finding a cool, sturdy tote bag that is hella cheap has been a little difficult.

Also, I am a completely lost when it comes to what is in at the moment (I'm like a freaking moron when it comes to fashion), so below is my wish list for my dream tote bag:

-less than $30 (preferably including shipping)
-sturdy, but not so heavy it hurts my shoulder skin
-odd/weird looking?  I'll be in New York for f*ck's sake...
-room for all my stuff
-can wear on my shoulder comfortably

Below are my favs.

 Vintage Caramel Tooled Leather Handbag Tote ($24) from MetroVintage

 Vintage DVF Shoulder Bag Weekender Tote Teal ($30) from KissaPrince

 Vintage 1970's Straw Owls Handbag Purse Tote Colorful Birds ($8) from myalteredlife4u

 Vintage Hunter Green Suede Leather Tote ($28) from SimplyBorrowed

Nautical Nautical Fashion Shoulder Bag, White and Navy Purse ($25) from Etsplace

 Vintage Brown Vinyl Handbag ($19) from paisleyandpolyester

 Market Bag with Suede Straps ($20) from CheddyBaloogaVintage

I still need to drop by Goodwill first to see if I can scrounge up something.  If nothing amazing (and cheap!) is found, I'll probably be choosing from one of these bags.

*A little random: I kind of hate that Etsy now adds a row of "sponsored" items in the middle of the results page.  I'm scrolling down the page, see a bad ass bag, and then notice it is $200 over the limit I added to search criteria. :(

Refinery 29

I'll admit I wasn't aware Refinery 29 existed before they included my tag on their "50 Far-Out Etsy Items We Want Right Now" article today.  After tracking the source of a massive amount of inquiries regarding one of my tags, I found Refinery 29 to be the source. How have I not heard of this site before? It's pretty neat!

Anyway. :)  This item will resume being available at the start of the next month (June 1), when I resume taking orders for leather tags.

The Edge

Very rarely do I get a request to stamp on a tag in two different directions, so it is always fun when I get the opportunity to do so.  Up for your viewing pleasure is such a tag!

Impulse Buys of the Week

Post honeymoon, this week's impulse buys were quite tame:  Cottage cheese, blueberries, and "light" yogurt.  It is apparent that instead of my usual dessert impulse-buys, I was feeling guilty after all the honeymoon-food indulgence. The items shown above were great, healthy, blah, blah, blah...I mean, really, I have no qualms with any of these items, but they weren't deliciously, chocolately sweet. Currently, the only dessert foods in the house are bags of Easter Reeses cups I bought at 75% off.  You can only eat so many (a few handfuls) of those before you 1.) begin to hate yourself and 2.) crave a more "desserty" dessert, like brownies or cake.

Oh well...I would say this week's impulse-buys were a success.  I guess. :(

The Most Magical Place on Earth

My brand spankin' new husband guy and I went to Walt Disney World for our honeymoon 2 weeks ago.  Initially, we were thinking of visiting somewhere outside the US as our honeymoon destination, but time simply wouldn't permit (since we already had to travel for the wedding).  Instead we went to a place we both loved, but had never been to together, Walt Disney World!

 I sucked at the Buzz Lightyear ride at the Magic Kingdom.  Probably because I had both eyeballs open? (This is my normal, everyday hairstyle - I call it Wildling Chic.*)

*This is also one of the ways that helps me to avoid attention on my daily walks to the Post Office - looking as homely as possible.  +5 stealth for adding leaves or twigs.

First day of our honeymoon. 

Our first official dinner as married peeps (after the wedding) at Raglan Road in Downtown Disney.

I think husband guy mentioned that we were on our honeymoon when he made the dinner reservation, as they gave us the only squishy armchairs in the room. 

At MGM, err...Hollywood Studios.  

The Magic Kingdom was just so...f*ing magical!!  The thing that always impresses me the most about Disney is the attention to detail.  Here is a fabulous example.  As you walk down the main drag at Magic Kingdom, you are flanked on either side by gardenias.  Now, I love me some f*ing gardenias, and to be enveloped by their glorious scent as I am roaming around the Magic Kingdom (and other parks/resorts at Disney)....well, it just doesn't get any better than that.  I mean, there were WALLS of gardenia bushes! WALLS of them!!!!  I'm used to seeing a single bush in somebody's yard, not 300 gardenia bushes all smooshed together, blooming with sweetly scented flowers!! Um, so yeah.  That was pretty awesome.

Our room at the Beach Club Resort.  Notice the Mickey towel arrangement on the bed.  Everyday they'd leave us a new towel design (sting ray, kissing swans, heart, etc.).

 Solid while chocolate Minnie and "Congrats" card from the hotel.  By the time we left, we had only gnawed on her ears and face.

 Our daytime view off our room's balcony.

 Our nighttime view off our room's balcony - Epcot!

 To get to MGM/Hollywood Studios, we had to take a boat taxi.  I require some form of breakfast every morning, so here I am waiting for the boat outside our hotel while chowing down on a hard boiled egg, croissant, and coffee.

 Husband guy is not too amused (he doesn't requite breakfast in the morning as I do).

 To get to the Magic Kingdom and Downtown Disney we had to take a bus.  Waiting for the bus...

 On this particular morning, we were provided with entertainment during our wait for the bus  (See!! It's the little details!).  Bean bag toss!

I'm proud of Smi Husband.  I'm pretty sure he only used the computer to make dinner reservations and other honeymoon-related things.

On our first night in Disney we saw La Nouba.  Crappy photo = we weren't allowed to take photos inside and had to make it quick! This was my first Cirque Du Soleil show, and I was a little skeptical about seeing it.  I really didn't think it would be something I'd enjoy.  However, I am happy to say it was absolutely *wonderful*!  It may have been one of my favorite parts of the trip!!  My husband guy is always so good about getting me to try new things. It's probably why I loves him so. <3

A Special Date

I'm still trying to clean up the 'unpacking mess' that has exploded on our living room floor after our return from our wedding(!) and honeymoon, so I haven't found my camera yet to upload anything new...not that I actually have a single photo from the wedding in my possession anyway.  5 weeks remain until the return of the professional wedding photos!  I am also pleased to share that my biggest fears for the wedding did not happen:

-falling while walking down the aisle
-erupting into a 30 minute long coughing fit during the ceremony (happened during my final dress fitting)
-feeling super awkward around everyone as I am quite shy

Yay!

Not surprisingly, there were a few minor issues that came up (songs that I spent *months* choosing not getting played, the weather being way colder than anticipated, etc.), but for the most part, all went swimmingly. :)

Since my special date was a week ago, I thought I'd share some tags and keychains that feature their own special date. <3

We arrived back in town this afternoon after 2 days of driving from Atlanta to Boston, and I was so ready to reopen the shop and get back to work!


Just a reminder: I have implemented a new method of taking/processing orders...well kind of.  At the 1st of every month I will happily be taking new orders for custom leather tags and key chains.  Once I fill up my limit of tags/key chains that I can complete in a month (probably after a week or two), I'll either close the shop or just take out all the custom items.  (I haven't figured that part out, as I'd *love* to be able to offer ready-to-ship items even when I'm no longer taking custom orders.)  I'll resume taking custom orders on the 1st of the next month, after all pending orders from the last month have been completed and shipped out.  This will be my first official month of testing out this new way of processing orders, so hopefully it isn't too confusing. ;)

Feel free to contact me at brandy[at]of-the-fountain.com with any questions.