A Wee Bit of Travel Inspiration

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Get Organized with Custom Tags

 

Most of the tags I make end up on luggage, so it is always neat when I get to make tags that are intended for other uses.  I recently made a handful of tags that I assume were intended to label storage containers. 

I usually don't know the story behind what I am making for customers, so I have fun imagining how certain tags or key chains will end up being used. :)  I imagine the set above was used to adorn lovely wicker baskets in a storage closet.

Wicker storage container from Lowes.

I don't have any storage baskets of my own that I can "tag", but I recently bought a few of these guys, and have yet to add a label in the metal holders on the front. I am now super inspired to make some custom leather strips to add in the little holders to assist in my own quest to get organized.   Eeeee!  ><

No Regrets...Well, Just One.

I try to be the kind of person that lives without regret.  I wouldn't take back anything that I've done or said or experienced, as that has made me who I am today.  Except for one thing.  If I could go back in time, there is one event that I experienced that I would drastically change.

Circa 2000:

I am at the orthodontist.  My braces are finally off after 3 years of torture, however I now have to wear a "mouth guard."  Like the plastic mouth guard athletes wear, this contraption has been molded to my teeth, except slightly adjusted so as to train my teeth to get just a wee bit straighter.  So, when I bite into it (as I am told that I will have to do every second that I am awake (and not during school) for the next few months) my teeth slide into the new positions in the mouth guard and are straightened.

Anyway, this mouth guard is clear, yet huge and bulky and I can barely close my lips over the damned thing.  As I am sitting in the orthodontists chair, being told how often I have to wear this hideous thing, I am asked if I wouldn't mind showing it to another patient.  You see, this other patient would have to be wearing the same mouth guard thing in a few weeks, so my orthodontist wanted to prepare her.   Upon being asked this, I reply that I don't mind, and the girl is brought over.  I stick the plastic mouth guard in my mouth, as instructed by my orthodontist, and then smile so this girl can see what's going on in my mouth.

Then, this c*nty girl busts into a laughing fit.  Being a self conscience, gawky, 13-year-old girl, I am mortified and start to cry.  Seeing how upset I am, this douchey blonde, cheerleader-type girl quickly comes up with some stupid excuse about how the mouth guard reminds her of her stupid friends and that it really isn't that bad.

I leave the room to compose myself.  This is the moment.  This is the moment that I will regret for the rest of my life.  If I could relive the next five minutes and have a "do-over" I would pick that opportunity over winning a million dollars.

I should never of left the room.  Here's how it should have gone down:

::Girl laughs at me::

After slapping the shit out of that terrible girl, I call her horrible names and tell her what a worthless human being she is.  Upon departing the office, I locate her guardian and tell them what a worthless human being she is.  I probably spit on the girl, too, at some point...

That. Would. Have. Been. Awesome.

But alas, that didn't happen. I left the office dejected and shamed.

So there you have it, the one thing in my life that I wish I would have done differently. I know it isn't much, but every once in a while, I relive that moment, and it haunts me.

Blah.

Bitches, man.

Impulse Buys of the Week

I recently discovered a local organic/natural grocery store on my way to the post office.  I tend to do my worst impulse shopping at these kind of stores, as I feel I can justify the expense of it easier - I'm buying healthy food. At least it's not cookies and crap...

I had no business being in this store.  I had just done my regular grocery shopping, so we didn't need any of this stuff at home. I have a weakness for new foods.

These 4 items cost me about $22, which I feel is a little ridiculous.   I *love* goat milk, so hence the splurge on that.  I love trying new bread, but I wasn't a fan of this bread (which is sad, as Husband's name is Matt).  Turns out, I hate anything 'breakfast blend', so I won't be buying this coffee again. The pineapple chips are quite tasty, but sadly, the cost does not warrant them being a staple in our household.



On an unrelated note: 
The second trailer for The Hobbit recently came out!  I think I prefer the first trailer, with its more serious tone.

The Littlest Smile

I thought this stamped smiley face guy turned out so cute!  Initially, I was a little worried the text symbols (c: wouldn't translate that well onto leather, but I was pleasantly surprised!  I think a little smiley face like this could look just darling hidden away in a corner on a set of tags, like it was peeking at you.  ::boop:: 

Hanging Out Outside With Catty

Map Coordinates For Us

Sharing the memory of a special location...

...with initials...

...with each their own tag...

...or with names together. <3 p="p">

A little tidbit of info from Grammarist:

"In American English, the inflected forms of travel take one l—so, traveled, traveling,traveler, etc. In varieties of English from outside the U.S., these forms take two l’s—travelled, travelling, traveller, etc."

Some trivia for the day! :)

My Own Hydrangeas

Over a year ago I was lamenting apartment living and my lack of exposure to the plant world.  I would buy flowers at the grocery store to help me "connect" with nature.  However, after a while I couldn't justify the expense of buying flowers (I'd rather spend the money on organic groceries and fancy booze, ha ha!) and soon became quite flower-deprived.

Luckily, our new place has a few flowers on its microscopic lot.  It just so happens that all of the 'few flowers' are living on one plant - a hearty hydrangea bush in our front yard*.

*By "yard," I am referring to the 2 feet of space separating the front porch from the street.  New England is expensive. :( 


I am not a gardener. I don't know how flowers work. Pathetic story: Soon after moving into our new house I noticed that over half the blooms on our hydrangea bush were really dark (ugly) purple - to the point that I thought the plant was drying out and I rushed to Lowes to buy a hose so I could water it!  Before I could even hook the hose up, my new neighbor kindly informed me that the plant was doing just fine and that this dark purple color was normal for hydrangeas.  Even if it is normal, I don't like it.  Compared to the bright blue blooms nearby, the dark purple blooms look like dried up, dead blooms (even though they are alive and well!).

Bright blue blooms alongside super dark blooms.  [Husband guy LOVES taking pictures of me that feature one eye opened and one eye closed. Thanks!]

I need to figure out what is going on with the soil, so I can attempt to change the color to something a little prettier. Though, if the range is from blue to pink, I wonder where dark purple lies on the spectrum?

Below are my favorite blooms.  Seeing that I only took pictures of the pretty blue flowers, and not the dark purple flowers, kind of makes me feel like a jerk. Oh well.

Crazy bloom with blue, pink, and white.  IDK. 

Tomorrow, I think I'm going to go out and cut some flowers and make a lil' flower arrangement.  I am all for free flowers!  {Hopefully I don't kill the bush by cutting the flowers off the wrong way...}

Kewl Kwotes

A little quote collection:

Cold Catty is Cold

Before we moved out of the apartment, Rasputin developed a new habit of sitting on all the warm spots in the kitchen. He didn't start this until August of our second year in this space. He waited until the apartment was nice and hot to take advantage of the spots that were nice and hot.  What a weirdo.

 On top of the George Foreman Grill after we grilled some salmon.  Sometimes, I think he looks like the weirdest little creature.

 Big stretch!

 A recently used oven creates a warm stovetop for Pooper to relax on.

An hour later, and he is still enjoying the residual heat.

Now, in the new house, the Catty spends most of his afternoons in our sweltering hot attic. He has a handful of cat beds up there, but he usually prefers to lounge on a cardboard box, with his limbs all flopped out.

So happy! So sweaty.

I have no idea what his plans are for winter...

Petite Tags Now Available In a 4-Pack

With accessorizing groomsmen gifts in mind, I'd like to present a new item at Of The Fountain: The Petite Tag 4-Pack.  This set of 4 custom leather tags is an adorable (and super manly!) way to mark gifts for those involved in a bridal party and beyond.  The wee little tags (2" x 1") can be customized to read initials that are unique to each recipient.

Of course, if more or less tags are desired, I can accomodate.

The perfect touch to add to toiletry bags, laptop bags, Kindle cases, golfing bags, or whatever the cool kids are gifting to each other these days. :)

Hoping The Ghosts Take Pity On Me

This past week my husband was out of town.  I was left all alone in the new house for 8 days.  I didn't really think this would be a problem.  I could get some alone time, I could work on orders, I could continue painting the walls in the house. I had stuff to occupy me.

What I didn't think of when agreeing to this arrangement (Husband Guy did check to make sure it was ok to abandon me for over a week), was how I'd feel about sleeping alone.  I can be a semi-paranoid person when I am left alone.  My nighttime imaginations can scare the crap out of me.  When I was little, I'd wake up from a nightmare and sit up in the bed.  I couldn't go back to sleep because I'd scare myself into seeing a line of shadowy ants walking above the baseboard, going around my room.  They were everywhere. [And no where.] My point is, that I can work myself into quite a fright.

Since Husband Guy is working out of town, I'm alone in the bed, with the cat joining me periodically throughout the night.  He likes to venture into the attic, so I leave the door open so he can roam up there as he pleases.  What bothers me most, is that when he is under the covers with me at 3 o'clock in the morning, I hear noises up in the attic.

A room in our super creepy attic.

I get that we now live in an old house, and old homes inherently have creaks. (RIGHT?!)  However, it still scurrs me.  When I am laying in bed, I can hear noises from all over the house, not just the attic. Eeek.

I hope that 1.) The noises are, at the worst, friendly ghosts (and NOT EFFING PEOPLE HIDING IN MY HOUSE THAT ARE WAITING UNTIL I GO TO SLEEP TO CREEP NEXT TO MY SLEEPING FACE AND KILL ME), and 2.) The ghosts think upon me in a kindly fashion. ie. They see that I want to make the house nice and that I appreciate it and I am all alone and I'm not snooty and I brush my teeth twice a day and I try to be a good person while I'm in the house, etc.  Surely, if I have such qualities the ghosts will have to be nice?

I wonder at what age I will be when I am able to not freak myself out.

Off To College Gift - Custom Key Chain

SCENARIO:  Student will soon be starting school.  Student will be living somewhere that requires that they have a key to gain entry.  Student needs something to attach to key so key doesn't get lost.

SOLUTION:  Custom key chain.

Frustration.

I recently moved into a new house with mah husband.  Luckily, there isn't too much work that needs to be done.  Mainly just painting.  Our bedroom was the room that needed paint the worst.  It had a lot of cracks and blemishes on the wall that I needed to spackel, sand, and then paint.

The awesome thing was that I loved the paint color that was already on the walls, AND there was a full gallon of this paint color in the basement. Free paint = Happy Brandy.

When we were moving in, I had all of our bedroom furniture deposited in the spare room, leaving this bedroom empty so I could get to work immediately. I tried to repair the walls as best I could (though I fear the wall above will need to be replaced in the future), taped plastic over the floor, and then taped around the trim. I was ready to start painting with the free, awesome paint that I had in stock!

I retrieved the paint can from the basement, and upon attempting to open it, I ran into a few problems.  Problem #1: Since I didn't just buy the paint, I didn't have any paint can openers (or paint stirrers, but I remedied that by using an old ruler). How the hell was I suppose to open this paint can?  I first tried using our can opener from the kitchen (It has a metal piece on it that I could wedge in the top of the paint can). That didn't help too much. I then grabbed a butter knife and started hammering it into any cracks I could find in the lid.

Problem #2: Pain. This method eventually got the lid off, but it hurt like a bitch.  I repeatedly hit my knuckle, and well, it hurt.  But I needed to get this freaking lid off!  I didn't want to go buy new paint when I had paint on hand. After 20 minutes of hammering the butter knife around the lid (and numerous hard strikes with the hammer on my knuckle), the lid was off. Well, it didn't come off completely.  I was able to pull it mostly off with some pliers, and then the lid stayed attached to the can like a hinge.

 Ew, son.

Problem #3: I've finished painting the walls, but I now can't close the lid and store the rest of the paint.  I had a little empty container and put a small bit of paint in that to keep for touchups.  I guess I'll have to find a way to dispose of the rest of the paint and the can...

This is the knuckle that I often wound when stamping tags, so this type of injury isn't new to me.  Poor hand. :(

This is a different wall in the room post-painting.  I think it'll do until we decide to change the color.  It should help hide the plaster blemishes once we add in furniture, things on the wall, and some nice, fluffy curtains.


Next, to tackle the pink dining room!