soulsistrin

Well that’s a new one.

Someone emailed me through my Storenvy store asking about an order that hadn’t arrived yet (I know, I know). So when I checked I had no record of it. 

Turns out they’d ordered it from my Etsy store.

Had me really confused for a hot minute.

I reblogged a post about women randomly complimenting each other this morning. It’s something I do all the time. In fact whenever I’m in the company of another woman I immediately look for something to give her a compliment about, friend or stranger. I do it with men too but I am more cautious about it, I don’t want them to perceive it as a come on. People love getting compliments and feeling good about themselves. My favourite thing is when I run into another woman like myself and we keep complimenting each other back and forth until we find ourselves standing in a glow of warmth and admiration. It’s the best.

Back in December when we both got the flu Chris and I stopped going to the gym. We didn’t resume when we got back from vacation in January because we knew it would be crowded with the last minute Carnival trainers. Since Carnival ended, I haven’t been able to persuade him to go back. I know I could go by myself but I also know that I was already getting bored and probably wouldn’t have lasted long. 

I decided to check Amazon video for workouts and found a bunch I want to try. I’ve had great results with workout dvds in the past, I have a whole bunch that I used to rotate and I lost a lot of weight in a short time with that. I took out a subscription on their BeFit channel so I could access some barre workouts. I used to love doing ballet as a child and it’s excellent for toning. They had some great yoga dvds too and I found one that concentrates on just back exercises which I think I’ll do today as I woke up in a lot of pain this morning. Chris will have to see about his own fitness. Maybe once he sees me getting into shape he’ll get inspired again.

lovelivelearn:

breelandwalker:

radial-glia:

slytherinica:

relucant:

bemusedlybespectacled:

the-archmagister:

bemusedlybespectacled:

so last week I was walking downtown and a girl leaned out her car window and yelled “YOU LOOK LIKE A PRINCESS” and today a girl walked past me on the sidewalk and said “I love your socks” (they have birds on them) and I suggest we replace all cat-calling with girls complimenting each other on the street because honestly I have never felt more pretty or into girls in my goddamn life

Catcalling is a compliment when women do it

no, complimenting isn’t catcallng because it’s actually trying to make the person happy as opposed to deliberately harassing someone as a power trip

one of the best moments of my life was biking past this group of late-teens girls and one yelling “I LIKE YOUR BIKE,” and i smiled and waved, and another yells after me “and you’re pretty!”

women supporting other women is pure and will always be a good thing; men harassing people because they feed off of asserting dominance over people without power will always be trash

If men want to yell things like your socks are cool and I love your hair, that would be well appreciated. But instead they’ll just bark at me from their cars.

I am totally here for people of all genders replacing catcalling with gentle drive-by compliments.

Yes! I am a random-complimentor and I love doing it. Sometimes it makes people feel really good! Sometimes I think it makes them feel a little awkward since most people don’t just compliment random things. But overall I think it’s a really positive thing!

I just spent an hour in the studio organising and putting things away and it somehow looks messier than before. 

Furniture got dropped off. We now have my Dad’s childhood dresser which had been in my bedroom, in our back room for Chris. I don’t think of myself as terribly sentimental but it’s a piece of furniture that  I’m really attached to. Also Chris can stop using the ironing board now as a place to put his wallet.

I find when my day is broken up my errands and whatever else that it really messes with my flow. I’m waiting right now for a furniture delivery after just getting back from running errands. If they come within the hour that would give me maybe 2-3 hours in the studio. And that’s basically nothing because I usually work 5-6 hour stretches. I’m just wondering if I should just call it a day. This week has been getting on my nerves.

I was just reading up on kosher and it seems to have a lot of parallels to halal. Is that correct?

Yesterday I started three rings. I finished one, broke one, and had to half dismantle another because I fucked up part of it.

I’m glad that these kinds of days where almost everything goes wrong didn’t happen a lot when I was starting out because it can feel very defeating.

Well one good thing was I made Chris a new wedding band. His was stolen a few months ago and he was really upset about it. So now he has a replacement and it fit him perfectly.

Tomorrow is another day. I’ll salvage those two rings. They’re going to be beautiful.

That lecture on organic farming I went to today was really interesting. There’s a lot of misconceptions about what “organic” really is. Most people think it means no pesticides but that’s not true. Also, it takes at least three years following organic farming practices before you can be certified organic. And hydroponic or aquaponic crops can’t be considered organic because they don’t use soil or benefit the ecosystem in any way.

Currently in Trinidad there are no official rules as to what constitutes “organic” or any governing body that regulates it. There is a group that is on the process of deciding the certification process. It has to be tailored to our climate and way of farming. So basically anything local you see labeled “organic” is lying.

One of the most interesting things I learnt is that anything with the label “natural” on it is deceptive. It practically means ‘not made of plastic’ so don’t use it as a marker of quality. Just about anything goes.

We’re going to be clearing several acres of our land soon and hope to start growing some crops within the coming months. This is really Chris’s baby but I’m interested as well so I’ve been attending free classes every Tuesday (with Chris). The last one was landscaping. It was also super informative. I’m learning a lot and it’s been really interesting.

I’m at this lecture and my mom calls me so I leave the room to take the call and as I open the door it slams into this poor guy on the other side who has two cups of coffee in his hands.

Coffee goes flying everywhere and in between talking to my mom I’m trying apologize to this poor guy while he cleans up the mess.

After I get off the phone I tell him once again how sorry I am and he’s like, I know it’s ok.

I ask him if he got burnt and he says, “This is my unlucky hand,” and he shows me his left hand that is MISSING A THUMB. “So yes I got burnt,” he sighs.

I just about died.

Today I woke up and had no service on my phone. Via email chat to my mobile provider I realised that the last two payments I had made on my bill had not hit my account for some reason. It took a while to figure out what was going on and in the end the rep was nice enough to accept jpgs of my online banking receipts and went ahead and reconnected my phone. He even went so far as to call me to confirm it was back on. Customer service is usually so crappy in Trinidad (or non-existent) that I really want to commend him. Unfortunately there was no opportunity for feedback, so his superiors will likely never know how much I appreciated the time he took to sort out my problem. Which sucks because for once they really got it right. *sigh*

I got lost in the studio today and when I finally took a break for lunch it was 5pm.

I made three rings that are now in the tumbler getting polished. I’ll post them tomorrow when they’re all done. Three rings in one day is kind of a lot I guess.

Decided to listen to NPR this morning mainly to drown out the downstairs neighbour’s loud radio and discovered that Depeche Mode is releasing a new album. Be still my beating heart.

I always wanted to do my own tarot deck. It’s a huge undertaking as a tarot deck has 78 cards and it’s highly unlikely I’ll ever get to it, but it’s a nice idea.

I’m bringing some shelves I left at my mom’s place to our apartment which has NO BOOKSHELVES so I can bring some of my books and have my tarot decks around too. 

I have also been thinking of doing a series of zodiac paintings, using mostly POC as models to represent the signs. Much more manageable than a tarot deck for sure. This idea kind of keeps haunting me and I think I want to get started on it soon-ish. Starting basically means sourcing imagery. I already have Capricorn planned out (cause that’s my sign). Some of them will be easy because I’m very familiar with the signs, others not so much (like I don’t even think I know any Geminis). But I’m thinking it will be fun. I’m just hoping I have the skills to pull it off cause I want to do them in watercolours. You know, to make my life hard…

I just checked my sleep app, the one that’s built into my iphone (it’s in the app with the timer) that you can use to track your sleep habits and it says that I sleep on average only about 5 ½ hours a night. I’m really surprised, I’d have thought it was way more than that. But at least it explains why when the weekend comes I sleep like I’m dead.

I guess the solution (partly) would be to go to sleep earlier. But I’m naturally a night owl and I wake up when Chris leaves for work at 6:30 so basically I’m kinda fucked. Oh well *insert shrug emoji here*

Why do I keep seeing blogs on my dash that I didn’t follow?

I keep scrolling and I’m like, who the fuck are you? who the fuck are YOU? what the fuck is going on?

So the other day while I was washing dishes, I was thinking about my relationship history before I married Chris. I didn’t have many long term relationships. Two that lasted over five years (Chris was one). Other than that the pattern seemed to be three months or a year and a half. And part of me always beat myself up for having so many short term relationships that I deemed somehow “unsuccessful” even though I was the one who ended them all.

It hit me the other day that the pattern exists because my first relationship was such a good fit. I had a really good template. So my expectations and standards were very high. And that helped me weed out a lot of potential relationships, because I already knew what a good fit felt like, and they weren’t it. I also realise that the further I got from that ideal relationship time-wise, the messier my love life got. Because the memory of what that perfect fit felt like got more and more blurry. Sometimes I wondered if it was even real, if it had even been that good.

Chris and I will have been together for four years in June. The time has flown by. It’s been mostly extremely happy with the occasional what-the-fuck-am-I-even-doing moments. I think I was so lucky, to find love, true love not just once, but twice. I see now that my track record didn’t mean I sucked at relationships. It meant I was discerning and I knew when to walk away from something that wasn’t working for me. That I was open to love but strong enough to stand on my own. And ultimately, I got my happy ending (insert massage joke here) so what does it matter how I got here? I’m really, really happy. It’s working out for me this time. Everything else was just training wheels.

*starts writing long self-analytical post*

Self: Oh who cares nobody gives a fuck about this

*deletes post*

*writes this instead*

*posts post*

too-witches-to-come-sorry:

Someone once said to me, “I hope the pain eases soon.” It struck me as the purest blessing that had ever been offered over my head – I hope the pain eases soon. It’s so gentle, so kind, so hopeful. So to everyone who’s hurting: I see how hard you’re trying, and I hope your pain will ease soon.

1: Do you sleep with your closet doors open or closed?
2: Do you take the shampoos and conditioner bottles from hotel?
3: Do you sleep with your sheets tucked in or out?
4: Have you ever stolen a street sign before?
5: Do you like to use post-it notes?
6: Do you cut out coupons but then never use them?
7: Would you rather be attacked by a big bear or a swarm of a bees?
8: Do you have freckles?
9: Do you always smile for pictures?
10: What is your biggest pet peeve?
11: Do you ever count your steps when you walk?
12: Have you ever peed in the woods?
13: What about pooped in the woods?
14: Do you ever dance even if theres no music playing?
15: Do you chew your pens and pencils?
16: How many people have you slept with this week?
17: What size is your bed?
18: What is your Song of the week?
19: Is it okay for guys to wear pink?
20: Do you still watch cartoons?
21: Whats your least favorite movie?
22: Where would you bury hidden treasure if you had some?
23: If you’re a girl, bra size? If you’re a guy, pants size?
24: What do you dip a chicken nugget in?
25: What is your favorite food?
26: What movies could you watch over and over and still love?
27: Last person you kissed/kissed you?
28: Were you ever a boy/girl scout?
29: Would you ever strip or pose nude in a magazine?
30: When was the last time you wrote a letter to someone on paper?
31: Can you change the oil on a car?
32: Ever gotten a speeding ticket?
33: Ever ran out of gas?
34: Favorite kind of sandwich?
35: Best thing to eat for breakfast?
36: What is your usual bedtime?
37: Are you lazy?
38: When you were a kid, what did you dress up as for Halloween?
39: What is your Chinese astrological sign?
40: Are you horny?
41: Do you have any magazine subscriptions?
42: Which are better legos or lincoln logs?
43: Are you stubborn?
44: Who is better…Leno or Letterman?
45: Ever watch soap operas?
46: Are you afraid of heights?
47: Do you sing in the car?
48: Do you sing in the shower?
49: Do you dance in the car?
50: Ever used a gun?
51: Last time you got a portrait taken by a photographer?
52: Do you think musicals are cheesy?
53: Is Christmas stressful?
54: Ever eat a pierogi?
55: Favorite type of fruit pie?
56: Occupations you wanted to be when you were a kid?
57: Do you believe in ghosts?
58: Ever have a Deja-vu feeling?
59: Take a vitamin daily?
60: Wear slippers?
61: Wear a bath robe?
62: What do you wear to bed?
63: First concert?
64: Wal-Mart, Target or Kmart?
65: Nike or Adidas?
66: Cheetos Or Fritos?
67: Peanuts or Sunflower seeds?
68: Ever hear of the group Tres Bien?
69: Ever take dance lessons?
70: Is there a profession you picture your future spouse doing?
71: Can you curl your tongue?
72: Ever won a spelling bee?
73: Have you ever cried because you were so happy?
74: Own any record albums?
75: Own a record player?
76: Regularly burn incense?
77: Ever been in love?
78: Who would you like to see in concert?
79: What was the last concert you saw?
80: Hot tea or cold tea?
81: Tea or coffee?
82: Sugar or snickerdoodles?
83: Can you swim well?
84: Can you hold your breath without holding your nose?
85: Are you patient?
86: DJ or band, at a wedding?
87: Ever won a contest?
88: Ever have plastic surgery?
89: Which are better black or green olives?
90: Can you knit or crochet?
91: Best room for a fireplace?
92: Do you want to get married?
93: If married, how long have you been married?
94: Who was your HS crush?
95: Do you cry and throw a fit until you get your own way?
96: Do you have kids?
97: Do you want kids?
98: Whats your favorite color?
99: Do you miss anyone right now?

combeferret:

wentiqo:

writers: how are we gonna top ourselves! we got tons of exciting stuff in store!! at least eleven big bads this season!!!! whos gonna survive who won’t????!! 3 love triangles and 2 quadrangles!!!! 

me: I’ll Pay You 5$ To Let The Characters Just Simply Talk To Each Other For Once

#i will pay u just to have them deal with the emotional repercussions of what happened last season

This weird cold but not a cold I have is making my life miserable today. I finished early in the studio and made myself a huge salad and relaxed. Pretty soon though my throat and nose were acting up. I’ve taken some NyQuil and I’m gonna just pass out. I give up man.

Apparently movie theater food does not constitute “dinner” because now I’m lying here at 11:30 hungry no ras.

Chris is asleep. What can I sneak in here that is quiet and crumb-less?

The best advice I ever got was to stop taking the world personally. It changed my life. And freed me of so much angst and hurt feelings.

People are not thinking about you. They are thinking about themselves, and what you think of them.

cirquedurartastic:

gluten-free-pussy:

Let me tell you what happened to me an hour ago:

So I’m at the bus terminal and this guy (who’d been following me and hovering over me for 10 minutes) comes up to me and says “hey beautiful. Can I talk to you?” So I said “no thank you.” He goes “I just want to speak to you, though.”
And I said “yeah I know that and I’m not interested in talking to a strange man at a bus terminal. Please leave me alone.”
So he stands there watching me. Finally he says “listen, there’s no need to be difficult. I approached you politely like a gentleman so I don’t see why you’re saying no. Now just let me speak to you.”
I said “nobody’s being difficult my guy. You asked a question, I gave an answer so we’re done.”
Then he says “yeah but the answer you gave me made no sense. Why don’t you want to talk to me? You don’t know what kind of person I am. You’re judging me before you know me. You’re being ignorant and prejudiced so”-
Just then this other guy who’d been sitting close to me said “my nigga shut the fuck up! I saw you following her and stalking her like a fucking animal or some shit, like you didn’t think she didn’t notice? She’s probably scared of your predatory ass and I don’t blame her. Mans need to understand you don’t follow girls and shit. That shits corny.”
So the guy goes “yo, mind your fucking business.”
And the other dude says “nah because I see you harassing this girl and as a man this becomes my business. You thinking you were polite doesn’t mean a girl has to speak to you. Be nice because you’re nice, don’t use that please and thank you shit and think somebody has to speak to you. You’re not a “gentleman if you don’t respect her. Take the L and go catch your bus you fucking creep.”
So the guy starts swearing and then walks away. The guy who’d defended me is like “you okay tho? Like real talk I don’t really like men because of shit like that. They’re fucking predators man. I do what I can when I’m able to for women because you don’t deserve to be hunted.”

This is literally how you do it.

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻to that guy.
🖕🏻🖕🏻🖕🏻🖕🏻🖕🏻🖕🏻🖕🏻🖕🏻🖕🏻🖕🏻🖕🏻🖕🏻to the other guy.