We’ve been making these for breakfast a lot lately. I forgot how refreshing it is to start my morning off with a healthy and naturally sweet drink… Although, I have to admit that I do use Vanilla Almond Milk instead of plain. And if I’m making a tropical smoothie I can’t resist a scoop or two of coconut sorbet.

Which is unbelievably delicious, with or without the smoothie!

Oh, and my final confession: Sometimes I have a smoothie before bed. I get my comeuppance though, when I’m tossing and turning all night from the combination of the sweetness and digestion itself. Those are the nights where I wake up and opt for coffee instead! :)

A few years ago I had a similar looking purse made of eel skin. It was a bit more stylish than this, but it was also stolen when someone broke into our apartment while we were sleeping upstairs! I’ve been waiting years for another purse to fill its place, and I finally found it at a rummage sale for two whole dollhairs. What a steal.

Only problem is, having come from a rummage sale, it’s got that musty smell to it… Like it’s been stashed in someone’s attic or garage for years. I put some pouches of herbs and spices in the pockets in hopes of solving the problem, and I even had to take a vacuum hose to inside seams ’cause they were filled with dust bunnies and other bits of dirt!

Oh, what a girl will do for a lovely new bag.

How amazing are these? They’re made by Diem Chau, who hand carves them out of crayons. The last one is from a pencil and utterly blows me away.

I’ve been looking at a lot of Joseph Cornell lately to prepare for the months of mulling that must take place before completing my final for Printmaking this semester. I know it’s several months away, but there’s nothing wrong with getting a head start in the brainstorm factory! Cornell’s pieces are absolutely amazing and so well conceived. I love all of his work, but Tilly Losch and his bird pieces are among my favorites.

I ordered a new lens last week, thanks to the generous money gifts I received for Christmas. Nothing too fancy– a 70-300mm f/4-5.6 for my Nikon so I can have a better reach. Since I don’t have a full frame dSLR, this lens will be the equivalent of 105-450mm. I honestly can’t even imagine it… But I’m super excited. I hate nothing more than walking down the street, seeing something awesome off in the distance and only having my 50mm on me, which is literally 1/9th the focal length of this bad boy.

I had to also bite the bullet and buy a new UV filter because it takes a 62mm and all my previous cameras took 52mm filters, so I just transferred them to whatever camera I was using at the time. I’m cheap.

Anyway, whenever I order a new toy I check the tracking like a crazed stalker, and my lens is out for delivery right now. It doesn’t help that our apartment is situated right next to the freeway exit and Arcata’s two main roads. Every time I hear someone drive by with more gusto than your average car I turn my head 90 degrees and excitedly [but prepared for disappointment] stare out into the street.

At this particular time of day the sun reflects off of the windshields and flashes in my peripheral vision for a split second, too, thus triggering my obsessive head turn.
Sometimes, I don’t even need to hear a car go by in order to look out the window. In fact, I just looked out the window five times while typing that last sentence. It would’ve been four times but I did a double take the second time. Stupid Arcata Exchange truck had me fooled.

Sigh. [head turn].

The ironic part is that my apartment is on the Northern edge of town. The part [head turn] of [head turn… stupid bus] the road where G and H meet and lead you into our complex isn’t viewable from my window, even if I press my face up against [head turn] it real hard.

So, in all likelihood I’ll never even see the truck coming. [head turn].