August Favorites

I have been crazy busy this month and therefore LISTENING to books instead of reading them. That isn't going to stop me from starting up this series, though. I'm going to feature my Favorite Fiction during the last week of every month. Just try to stop me.

New Release:

The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen

This is the first of a trilogy by Johansen, and it has everything you'd want in a great fantasy. The characters are dynamic and not-at-all cliche. Kelsea, the protagonist, isn't magically good at everything she tries, she isn't suddenly everyone's favorite just because she's queen, and she isn't even a pretty princess. This book actually made it into my TBR list after I read a piece Erika Johansen wrote for BuzzFeed. The Queen of the Tearling happened to be on our new book shelf at the library just waiting for me, so I checked it out. I couldn't put it down. I think that was an annoyance to the people who tried to talk to me this month, because I didn't really want to listen. I read this and then read it again right afterward, which doesn't add to my Goodreads total for the year. That is distressing.

Goodreads doesn't understand my life.

The only distressing thing is that I'll be waiting quite a long time for book two.

Oldie but a Goodie:

The Tiffany Aching books by Terry Pratchett.

Tiffany Aching by Alda-Rana. The little blue men are Feegles. Don't call them fairies.

I'm going through all these again, this time on audio. I love Tiffany. Stephen Briggs is the narrator for this series and for many of Pratchett's books. I highly recommend him. He does a brilliant job.

A (Tiny) Change

When I was in high school, I was talked into highlights by my mum, several friends, and a hair stylist who I think wanted to practice. It was never a good look for me, because my hair grows so quickly, the highlights had grown out enough in a week to make my roots obvious--and BAD. Because my hair has reddish tones, it looked brassy when bleached, so the stylist did a wash of another color over my natural color to take away the gross. That just meant she dyed all my hair, so all of it had visibly different color at the roots, not just the highlighted parts.

In retrospect, the major problem with my highlights was probably the stylist who did them.

It took ages to grow it out, during which time Mum gave me highlights at home to cover up the mess, accidentally bleaching my whole head and making me sort of blonde. When blonde, my face does not look pale, it looks pink. Like the color of a cooked shrimp.

 That was a bad look.

I paid someone to fix it. I told her to take my color back to as natural as possible and asked if she could blend everything in happily and make me look human again. Instead she dyed most of my hair almost-black, except for the "blended" bits, which were blonde. I looked striped. Like a skunk.

After that had faded out, I used a box of dye close to my natural color and dyed my hair repeatedly until the bleached chunks were finally grown out. Then I cut all my hair off.

When it grew back out, I vowed never to touch my natural color again. I would keep it as-is, until it becomes so grey or silver or white that I want to play with the color. I would dye my hair blue or purple just to freak people out, I thought. (This was before Dame Helen Mirren went pink and I decided that, while she was DAME Helen Mirren and could therefore still be taken seriously with pink hair, I was REGULAR Laura and would be mocked by all.)

And then I found Essie Button, a beauty blog (and vlog) that is exceedingly helpful and fun.Estée is fantastic. Her complexion is similar enough to my own that I can actually wear the makeup looks she shows on her beauty channel. Her skin type is even similar to my own, so I can trust her choices in moisturizers and cleansers. She has made my life a lot easier. Also she has great hair. When I started watching her vlog, she had it ombré. It was very subtle, and I thought to myself, "I can do that. That would be cute."


I waited until my hair got long enough that ombré wouldn't look like I had decided to go for 90's-style frosted tips (young'uns, look it up), then I scheduled my appointment with a TRUSTED stylist. I have learned from past experiences. Do not trust some random person who has never seen your hair before to dye it a different color.

Here is the before.

There could be any one of three results:

1. I am an idiot. I might get used to it, but right now, not a fan.

2. I like it! This will be a nice change for fall and might even convince me not to chop off all this length and go back to my pixie cut. We'll see.

3. I LOVE IT! I am so glad I took this risk (not that it would qualify as a risk for anyone else). Now I just have to learn how to make my hair do more than lie there, stick straight. I need to take a class called, "Hair Style 101" or "Hair for Total Idiots" or "What to Do If You Accidentally Were Born a Girl."

On Friday, we'll see what my actual reaction is. And there will be pictures.

Humidity and Misery: A Monday Runday Update

It is too flipping humid to run.

I have this genius plan, and it is to run a second 5K and not die this time. I want to do that on September 6th, but I cannot run in this humidity. It's not because it's too hot. It's because I cannot breathe in the humidity. My lungs give up.

It doesn't help that these are ozone awfulness days. Those are days when weather people send out little text alerts to those of us with allergies saying, "stay inside your house or you will die!"

The humidity, you see, keeps nasty things in the air and makes them breathable. So, the hideous diesel emissions that usually float up into the atmosphere and destroy the ozone stay close to the ground so we can suck them into our lungs and the toxins can poison our bodies. The same is true with smoke from burned leaves and yard waste, dust from roads with fresh gravel, pollen, cigarette smoke, mold spores, AXE body spray, and all the other toxins that slowly kill allergy sufferers.

I waited to run until Sunday trying to avoid the humidity. But it was just as miserable as Friday and Saturday were.

I do have a pretty place to run, though. It could be worse.

It's nice, right?

It still crushed me, though. I was destroyed.

My face only got redder after I started running. It was lobster red. I only managed to make it a few miles before calling it quits. I just couldn't take it. Now I am home, drinking lots of water and hoping the weather breaks before my next run.

I need a treadmill or something. But hey, if I had a treadmill, you guys wouldn't get to see me all sweaty and miserable. I hope you know how lucky you are that I chose to capture this misery on film. Not everyone would do that for you.

Bedtime Stories

I have taken to audiobooks. I always hated them. When I was a kid, they came on tapes, usually in plastic boxes that squeaked oddly when you opened them. The tapes were in compressed sections, with little posts that held the tape in place. They were usually recorded badly, at least in my experience, with lots of hissing and white noise along with the voice of the narrator. They were dreadful and I hated them.

It didn't help that, when I was very young, people would give you books on tape, or stories on tape, that were designed to put the fear of God into little children. They were heavy-handed, Old Testament-type stories in which Johnny was a terrible child because he was a liar, and he was going to Hell if he wasn't careful, because Hell is a real place, and Johnny is there now because he failed to be obedient and hold his mommy's hand when he crossed the street, in addition to being a liar. They usually were based around rules, like the Ten Commandments, with catchy songs about not murdering people. Mum hated them because they were all about rules and scaring children. They were always given to us by other families from church who had terrified their own children with the same stories already.

Then they invented Veggie Tales, and things improved for everyone.

When I started at the library, I had to buy audiobooks for the collection. I had no idea how to pick out an audiobook. It became a thing of choosing the most popular books and getting their audio double. So, if I ordered If I Stay, I would get the audio to go along with it, if someone wanted the audio instead of the do-it-yourself model, a paperback or hardcover book. Audiobooks, to me, were what you got when you didn't like reading. They were for the sort of people who like graphic novels because they can look at pictures instead of reading*.

Time passed and I got Francis Focus. Francis does not have a connector for my iPod. This is only because I have not made an appointment to switch out his current stereo for the one I have sitting in a box in my room. I had a long drive to make, and I decided that putting up with terrible music, which is all we get on local radio, would not be acceptable for my drive through Indiana, home of terrible radio stations. I decided to check out a book I'd been wanting to read for ages, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley. This was a lucky choice. The narrator was perfect. She was funny and managed to change her voice just enough for me to believe someone else was talking, and she didn't just read words, she ACTED them.

This was unprecedented for me. An audiobook that was CLEVER. Well made. Entertaining.

I listened to all the other Flavia de Luce mysteries, and when they were done, I gave up. I started listening to Welcome To Night Vale on my phone. this meant I could listen while I ran, which was awesome. It was even better than listening to stories in the car. I could be entertained while I was miserable, and this was the best thing ever. I finished all the old episodes and had to wait for ages for new ones. By then, I was hooked on stories while I ran, and running without a story to listen to was unthinkable. I had to do something, so I tried listening to a Terry Pratchett book as I ran every day. And that wasn't enough, so I started listening before I fell asleep at night. And when that book was over, I wanted more, so I checked out a bunch from the library. And then I joined Audible because the idea of making the library order tons of audiobooks narrated by Stephen Briggs just because I enjoy his narration seemed like an abuse of power.

And now I can sort of sleep at night. I listen to a story, and it makes me stop thinking. I turn off the obsessive voice in my head that analyzes all the things that are happening in my life, all the things I should do, all the things I didn't do properly, and all the things that COULD happen but haven't yet. Instead I listen to stories, and I relax. The Audible app has a little timer that lets you set it for whatever time you like, or to the end of the chapter, so you don't have the book playing all night while you sleep. And there isn't any light to keep you awake.

I've gone from sleeping a few hours a night to sleeping a full six hours, sometimes MORE. I feel rested. I feel better. And the best thing is, there were no pills! I mean, this audibook thing is ragingly addictive, so you do have to worry about that. All books are addictive, though. (Except for maybe My Parents Open Carry. That book isn't addictive, it's just disturbing.)

Have any of you tried audiobooks as treatment for insomnia? Do you have a favorite audiobook narrator? Leave your answers in the comments so I know what to listen to next!

*This was before I started reading all the amazing graphic novels people are writing (and illustrating). Have you read Smile? I loved Smile. And Stitches by David Small was amazing. It made me cry.

Bugs Everywhere

There comes a time every summer when the population of bugs seems to quadruple overnight.

I keep taking walks with Darcy and spending the majority of my time trying to wipe spiderwebs off my face, arms, and out of my hair, all the while hoping the spider wasn't present when I walked through the web.

Last week I was at Walmart, and I felt something keep tickling at my nose. When I was finished buying the library's supplies, I loaded the bags into my trunk, returned the cart, and finally got fed up and scratched the side of my nose. When I pulled my hand away, a tiny spider dangled from a little thread attached to my finger, and I realized that I'd had a spider on my nose possibly for 30 minutes, and no one had told me.

That's what kind of place Walmart is.

I took a bike ride with Mum Sunday and was struck so hard in the forehead by some sort of beetle or fly that it made and audible THUD sound. Also I lost count of the number of gnats that died by smacking into my face and neck. I kept wiping at ticklish spots and coming away with bug corpses.

It was traumatic.

I sat down across from Mum only to have her announce loudly, "A yellow spider is crawling up your leg! It's right there!" She pointed. We both hunted for several minutes for the yellow spider only to realize that she'd imagined the whole thing and we'd both believed it because there are so many crawly things about, there was no doubt that I had a spider on my leg. There were no other spaces available for the spider to live.

We also have a giant spiderweb stretched across our doorway, featuring a big-butt spider, that The Brother opted not to destroy when he went outside last night, meaning that whichever family member goes out via that door today will find out the hard way that a spider now lives there.

Then, I came to work, and I looked up.

Never look up.



Yes, it is exactly what you think it is.



I think I'm going to hide now.

Another Dramatic Escape!

Yeah, I needed video of me doing this, too. Mostly so I could show my teens at the library that girls can break out of duct tape just as easily as guys. It's not about strength, it's about SCIENCE.

A Dramatic Escape!

My mother called me over into the living room in order for me to duct tape my father's hands together. This is a normal night in our house, because we are weird. Dad had seen a duct tape escape video on YouTube from a security expert who wanted to teach everyone how to escape their potential murderer. I think escaping murder is an awesome idea.

Mostly, though, I only wanted to duct tape Dad's hands together because I thought he'd discover rather quickly how painful it is to rip out all your arm hair, and that his pain would be funny.

I had the presence of mind to video everything. Enjoy.



Off camera (because no one offered to record it), I tried this. It completely works. Keep your wrists flat against each other as the duct tape is applied, then raise your arms up and bring them down and apart quickly. We also tried it on The Brother and now he hates us because, unlike with Dad and I, he really did rip out half his arm hair and it hurt. That is why part of his arms are probably bald now (and that's funny too).

Teatime

My box of tea from DavidsTea arrived! Yes, I ordered tea on the internet. Yes, I know it comes in bags at the grocery store. This is way better.

It should come as no surprise to you that I love the box. I feel compelled to keep it and use it for something important. It could hold yarn. Everything should hold yarn.

Only when I opened the box and spread out the contents did I realize just how much tea my past self thought I needed to have in my life. I don't know how I will drink all of this. Or, if I do, I don't know how I'll ever sleep again, since I didn't think caffeine-free tea was necessary anywhere in the ordering process.

So far, my favorite is the Orange Pekoe, because the smell takes me back to my grandmother's kitchen. She always drank Orange Pekoe.

I got two tins for ordering the medium size of Orange Pekoe and Earl Grey (I like accessories a little too much), and when I dumped the tea into the containers, it made me remember Gran's tea tin. She'd had it since I was a little girl, it was a gift from her neighbor. It was blue, tall, and had a print of different tea pots all over it. I remember, when there was no tea inside, it still smelled like it was full.

I took two blends to work. Only then did I realize that maybe I should have gotten another spoon to take to work. I will remedy this next order. If I ever run out of tea.

I don't think I will ever run out of tea again.

Dinner Conversation

This is what dinner is like at my house. Because you need to know such things.

Dramatis personæ: The Brother, Dad, Mum, Laura

[Begin Scene, family seated around dinner table, excepting The Brother, who is standing in the dining room next to the table.]

The Brother: "I am going to watch my show." [departs to watch The West Wing in the next room]
Laura: [Fake sobbing] "He doesn't want to be with us!"
The Brother: "Your tears fuel me."

[Several minutes of silent eating. Discussion resumes over topic of prenatal doctor visits.]

Mum: "I never had any of those."
Laura: [mortified] "Yes, you did! You saw a doctor when you were pregnant."
Mum: "Well, yes. But they didn't call them that. And it was just me, no one came with me." [points at Dad] "You never came with me to any of my doctor's appointments, did you?"
Dad: "I'm not going to answer that."
Mum: "They didn't let you. They never let fathers into the delivery room, either, not until our generation."
Dad: "True."
Laura: "And now they have cameras. And photographers. And video..."
Mum: "They shouldn't let cameras in."
Dad: [noise of disgust]
Mum: "There were no ultrasounds for us, either. They had them, but our Doctor didn't use ultrasounds unless there was a problem. He didn't want to risk it in case of any harm."
Laura: "And that's why I don't have 16 kinds of cancer."
Mum: "Why do they do them so much now?"
Laura: "Because people want to know what's in there, and a flashlight doesn't shine up far enough."

[Family looks at Laura in disgust.]

Laura: [Points at Dad] "Are you coming running with me?"
Mum: Maybe you should wait for his new blood pressure medicine to kick in.
Laura: Oh, he doesn't need that. He has almost nothing wrong with him, except that freaky heart vein thing. [begins making weird vein noises]
Dad: [laughs so hard he cannot breathe]
Laura: [uses hand to make circle representing vein, constricts vein, makes vein noises in higher pitch]
Dad: [laughs, coughs, wipes eyes]
Mum: [looks pointedly at Laura] "You're going to put this in your blog, aren't you?"

Obviously, yes. I mean, the flashlight comment alone won this a place in the blog. And if you meet me in real life and want to know what a constricting vein sounds like, I will, of course, oblige.

Introducing, Frankenplanner!

It is no secret that I like things organized. I used to alphabetize all my CDs, when CDs were a thing. Now I have my books sorted according to genre, then alphabetized. I keep my knitting patterns in binders (inside plastic sleeves), sorted by the type of garment or accessory. Because that's who I am.

When I redesigned this blog, I decided it was a good idea for me to redesign how I looked at it, too. Usually I write posts when I'm inspired...and that's inconsistent at best. So I thought I'd make a planner, so I could try for some sort of consistency.

I looked around for planners for bloggers. They are out there. Here's the thing: I don't really care about monetizing. I'd like to be one of those people. I'd love to launch a business based on me sitting around in my pajamas eating pulled pork barbecue in bed, but that isn't really who I am. Someday I might work more on this, but not today. Most planners for bloggers--free and pay-to-download versions--are set up to record pageviews, money earned, and so forth. I write this blog because I love to write. If you guys enjoy reading it, I consider that a win. If I make you guys laugh, the Blogger stat counter can't record that. It would be nice if it could, but I think it would also be pretty creepy.

The Goal: A well-designed planner, on the cheap. 

Three-Ringed Binder: Target (Only in stores). $3.00. It is floral and pretty, and did I mention how it was only $3.00?
Pencil Bag. Target (Only in stores). Free to me. Mum found a matching pencil bag that fit inside, to hold my pen, washi tape, post-its, or whatever else I think needs to stay inside. She surprised me with it. She is awesome.
Pen, Printer Paper, Cardstock: All gathered from stashes inside the house. 

Total cost of project: $3.00

I needed, I thought, a monthly view as well as each week broken down so I could write notes and clearly map out everything. I also wanted blank pages (or near-blank) to scribble down anything that might inspire.

Sadly, none of those things existed in one FREE template. I wanted free.

I was forced to create a Frankenplanner.

I found the 2014 calendar here on Love Vs. Design. The calendar is free. There's also a store, and tons of other freebies, but I tried to stay focused today, so I didn't do too much exploring.

I found the portrait-oriented monthly calendar pages, designed by Lia Griffith here on her website. You can download the calendar here. The month headers are made to look like chalkboard signs, which I love. You can also edit the pages, meaning you can type out birthdays, anniversaries, or any other important date. She also provides a link to the font she used so your additions fit right in! I'm going to check back in 2015 to see what she does next.

For fancy pages focused on each week, I went to Remaking June and printed out enough to last me for the remainder of 2014. I only used her "The Week Of" page.

I also found pages for inspiration, I think these were intended for lesson plans, here on The Handmade Home. I didn't use the whole 2014 planner, but you could do so if you don't mind having to turn your binder to the side for the monthly calendar view. I think I'll use her 2015 planner (which you can get already).

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. The next few months will serve as a test period to see if I actually use Frankenplanner. I tend to get planners and fail to use them. Wish me luck.

Let's Talk Tea

Jennifer has made me an addict. For my birthday, she gave me FANCY TEA from Davids Tea! (For the record, they do not use an apostrophe. They must have their reasons.) Most of my life, tea came in a little bag inside a little envelope. And the box that contained the envelopes might vary, but as long as the outside said "Orange Pekoe" or "Earl Grey," we drank it. Preferably, the tea was English. Sometimes it was not.

I never knew tea could taste as good as this tea. The fancy tea, from Davids Tea*, comes loose--meaning not inside bags. This, during my childhood, was regarded as "messy" and "too much work," but Davids Tea makes these little drawstring pouches--tea bags--that you fill yourself with the loose tea. You do this with a special spoon. I love the fancy tea-scooping spoon. Then, you pull on the string and it closes the pouch. You have a tea bag.

This is a life-changing innovation.

Not only that, tea tastes so much better when it isn't as highly processed, that I have gone from maybe a cup a week to drinking at least two cups a day. Its a good thing most of the tea Jen gave me has little to no caffeine. If it had been highly caffeinated, I would have stroked out by now.

When I realized it was time to restock, I knew I couldn't go back to the wimpy commercial tea bags, so I went to Davids Tea and placed my order.

I decided to get my childhood favorites--Orange Pekoe and Earl Grey--as well as two fun teas. I went with Chocolate Rocket and Organic Blueberry Jam. Chocolate Rocket came in my birthday present. It is delicious. Blueberry Jam just sounds amazing, so I had to try some.

It is possible that I bought too much tea. I refuse to believe this.

Have you tried Davids Tea? Do you have a favorite? Let me know in the comments so I know what to try next!

* No, Davids Tea did not call me up and give me free tea, but if they did, I would not turn them down. I actually spent all of my money on tea. That's normal, right? As per usual, all the opinions here are my own. (Unless you share them, in which case they're ours.)

How to Design Your Blog In 20 Easy Steps

I realized through my design process that graphic design is hard. People who do it for money should get paid a lot. They also should get free coffee and unlimited shortbread cookies.

1. Take a look at your blog and find it wanting. Decide you want a change.
2. Convince yourself that you are capable of making the changes yourself. This can be accomplished with the help of your friends and their blogs, Pinterest, or a simple Google search. Blog design is easy! Anyone can do it!
3. Download 60 or more new fonts for no apparent reason.
4. Look at some blogs you admire for inspiration.
5. Download digital scrapbook paper from various sources.
6. Upload scrapbook image to Blogger. Realize that the new background is obviously tiled.
7. Remove background. Resolve to purchase cookies.
8. Read many blog posts from blogs you admire. You haven't gone through all their archives, after all.
9. Adjust your blog's layout. Maybe the sidebar could be a few pixels narrower...
10. Add some pages. You should have an about-me page. Even if it says nothing of note. And even if you find yourself boring. Everybody has one. You should too.
11. Find a way to make the Blogger bar go away from the top of the page. Eat a cookie as a reward.
12. Adjust your blog's layout to make the sidebar even narrower. Eat a second cookie.
13. Play around with making a header for your blog. Decide you hate this header. Repeat three more times.
14. Accidentally delete your current blog template.
15. Avoid crying by eating another cookie. Realize others might want to taste some of these cookies before they are gone. Hide cookies from self in cabinet.
16. Make another header. Decide header is hideous and nothing will ever make you happy again. Retrieve cookies from hiding place. Realize the flaw in your plan is that you know where the hiding place is.
17. Spend several hours on Pinterest looking at design tutorials. Realize that Blogger tutorials from 2008 aren't going to be of any help. Regret consumption of last cookie.
18. Learn how to use web fonts in CSS. Add fonts. Realize that fonts do not work. Weep.
19. Drop $15 for Blogger template provided by soothing website that somehow manages to make you feel good about yourself with its descriptions.
20. Upload template.

The only reason why step 19 was not drinking was because we are out of blackberry wine. So I had to skip that step and go straight to buying a template.

My template is from Designer Blogs. Thanks to them, I am not crying on the floor of my bedroom (anymore). Check them out here.

McDonald's and My Big Nonexistent Gay Wedding

Note: Today I accidentally wiped my background, creating the blog design you see before you. This is added incentive to start work making my blog pretty, because right now...it is nothing. Sorry. Back up your blog before you make changes, folks.

I went to McDonald's today, because they have $1.00 sweet tea. This is a good reason to choose where you eat lunch, even if the food is dreadful. While I sat, eating, I heard a voice behind me steadily cursing. I tried to block out the man's voice, because I'd have rather kept reading my Terry Pratchett novel than listen to profanity, but I could not help but notice that the conversation behind me seemed a bit...one sided. I kept reading, trying not to think of why this person was sitting at the booth behind me swearing to no one.

But I am me. I attract the freaks and weirdos, as you know. They come to me, from miles away.

Before I realized the man had left his seat, he was beside me, shaking his laptop in my face. I could only make out the Facebook logo before he began telling me, loudly, that he would never be shopping at Target again.

"It's the closest store to where I live," he proclaimed. "But I won't never go there no more. I can't believe they done this!"

I managed to read the title of the post in question. Target had released a statement in which they endorsed gay marriage.

The man left before I had a chance to reply to him. But I have thought up a few things I think would have really made the situation more interesting, mostly because they would have caused the man's head to explode or his arrest. It would have served him right for interrupting Discworld, not to mention food. It doesn't matter that I was eating dog food McDonalds. It was food. You don't interrupt food with crazy. Crazy waits until after dinner.

List of Things to Say to the Angry Swearing Man at McDonald's

1. "Who are you, and why are you talking to me?" This is sort of an obvious one, and it would backfire because he would then answer me, beginning a conversation when what I really wanted was to avoid one.
2. "Good, now I will have less competition for the good stuff in the dollar bins." I think this speaks for itself. Who wants to share the cheap--but awesome--scrapbooking stuff with random freaks that won't appreciate it? Not this girl.
3. "That won't matter to Target's profits. I buy enough to make up for any loss of revenue." This is sad, and not at all funny, because it is true. I would be way richer if Target did not exist. I spend way too much money there and am powerless to prevent money leaping from my bank account and into Target's. If only they didn't have so many cute things I can't live without.
4. "Oh, really? I guess you won't be coming to my wedding, then." It does not matter that I am straight, not engaged to anyone, and not even dating right now. The look on his face would have been priceless. I regret that I thought of this comeback whilst driving away from the restaurant after finishing my lunch.
5. This.

Official Warning

Hello, all! I have made an executive blogging decision! I am quite pleased.

When I started this blog, it was with the intention of becoming a knit-blogger. But here's the thing: while I love to knit, I quickly discovered that I hate writing about knitting, knitting in order to blog about it, photographing my knitting, and reviewing knitting-related things. What I like to do is write about my hilarious family and shocking near-death-experiences. I like writing humor. A few years ago I changed my blog's name to reflect the actual content. But now I'm going to finally change the url.

What this means for you: You'll need to make sure you update whatever method you use to follow my blog with the new address.

I think this transition should be pretty easy. I'm going to make sure I keep this url and redirect you back to it, just in case you forget. You can always reach me on Twitter in case you need the new address or you just want to tell me to be more careful when I walk around barefoot in a house that is suddenly filled with shards of broken glass (No, really, Mum broke a tiny hourglass and shards of it are everywhere) and razor-sharp magazine holders (my second toe will never be the same).

But that's not all. I'm also going to pretty this blog up a bit. For ages, I've been meaning to sit down and actually make my blog look...GOOD. I have never really liked the design, but when I started blogging (and up until I started doing web design for the library two years ago), I didn't know anything about html, css, or all the other stuff you need to know to customize your blog's design. I'm going to begin the redesign process, and one day, you will take a look at my blog and think, "Wait...is this the right place?" It will be, it will just look different.

I am also now on Bloglovin, because it's high time I got myself organized. Therefore, feel free to follow my blog with Bloglovin if you so choose.