Self Employment

I made my very first meme! Haha, I couldn't help it!

"Self Employed"

TreeCricket.etsy.com

A Handsome Treasury

"Man Cave"

Here's an Etsy treasury I curator featuring some extremely handsome man cave necessities!

(Just click the pic to have a closer looksie!)

Happy weekend, y'all!

Stay Motivated!

May your week be full of PURPOSE & PRODUCTIVITY!

Happy Monday, Crickets!

A DIY Cardboard Cottage

My twin nieces turned THREE this week! 

I decided to go with a "simple" gift this year. 

"I'll get them a huge cardboard box!" I said. "Oh, ya know... I'll just cut out a door and a window or 2 and call it good."

Well... I may or may not have gone wonderfully overboard. . . . .

I think I had way more fun making this than they're even going to have playing in it! Everything I used, I already had lying around the house, so making this was basically free.

First I cut out windows and doors (with a knife, yikes!) and reinforced all of the edges with duct tape.  

I covered the box inside & out with white banner paper and bordered the windows and doors with Trader Joe's grocery bags.

Tuffy helped, of course. 

I covered the door with baby blue poster board and added some flowers to the windows (from scrapbook paper I had) and a wreath to the door (cut out of old clothes).

The roof I made from two pieces of foam board. I layed them flat and duct taped them down the middle on the inside so they would easily bend. To hold the roof up I duct taped two small pieces of extra foam board to the center (it's amazing what duct tape can do.) The shingles are cut out rows of a cardboard box and connected with hot glue. (After this project, I've been finding hot glue strings everywhere!)

And, of course, I added a pink "F" and purple "V" for Felicity & Viviana!

This project took me about 4 full days, but it was worth every second. 

"Knock Knock! Anybody home?!"

Merry Halloween!

It is a PERFECT October day, friends! The trees in Nashville have finally changed - red, orange, yellow, brown. It's been drizzly and crisp, and the leaves are gently falling, caught up in a breeze, swirling & twirling in the atmosphere. (Sorry to get all sentimental... I just love this weather, and it is completely appropriate for a spooky Halloween!)

Merry Halloween, all! Meow!

Flea Market Adventures - DIY Booth Display

Last weekend, Noffy and I participated in our first ever Flea Market... and let me tell you, it was an adventure. 

Firstly, allow me to preface with this - we had a blast and we really, really enjoyed ourselves and we WILL be doing it again this weekend. We met a handful of awesome folks - both customers and fellow sellers. And we made a few bucks. But their were certainly some obstacles. 

I spent all of Thursday before the market setting up the above layout in our living room. It was nice to be able to visualize everything before we got there, and it gave me a handle on my inventory (which I had really lost control of.) I think the set-up looked pretty snazzy, but it was fairly difficult to transfer it all from our apartment to the flea market. The loading and unloading was simply exhausting - from hauling everything down the apartment stairwell, to puzzle-piecing everything into the Subaru, to unloading into the booth, and then all over again once the weekend was through. We woke up Monday feeling like we had been mauled by a grizzly bear. 

But every problem has a solution. After some brainstorming and some heavy Pinteresting, we began to create a more portable booth display. 

This is the first of the displays Noffy will make (I say "Noffy" because, let's be honest, I can't do that Bob the Builder magic.) Each part is connected by a bolt and nut, allowing us to take it apart and easily transfer it into the car. 

The purses are simply hung by nails, which I think adds a great rustic vibe (and also hardly cost a thing.) All together, making this display cost about $35 - thanks Home Depot for your cheap wood!

Noffy will be making a smaller version of this display to hang our belts. Can't wait!

We'll be at the Nashville Farmers Market again this weekend selling these lovely purses and belts, so come by and say hello!

It's Autumn, guys.

As of last Sunday (my 25th birthday), it is officially AUTUMN, and I could not be more pleased to sport jeans and sweaters yet again. It's not quite scarf-weather, but believe you me, as soon as it hits 55 degrees, I'm pulling those babies out of the back of the closet. 

Happy Fall, my friends :)

Gonna close my eyes.

Sometimes you just need a boost.

An inspirational shove.

A coaxing into getting your creative shit done.

Sometimes you just need to have coffee with a friend.

Sometimes you just need to write a poem.

Sometimes you just need to snuggle with some one.

Sometimes you just need to take a long fucking walk to nowhere.

Sometimes you just need to say "fuck."

Sometimes you just need to throw things. Or paint with your hands.

Sometimes you need to stop and take a deep breath.

Sometimes you need to stretch your arms up to the sky and let the sun give you a fat hug.

Sometimes you need to jump into the ocean in your underwear.

For the love of God, sometimes you need to pick up your guitar and write a damn song!

Sometimes you need to rest.

But mostly you need to keep yourself occupied.

Sometimes you need a cold beer in the cold air with your best friends on a dirt road at midnight.

Sometimes you just need to stop thinking so hard about it and just go for it.

Sometimes you need to just close your eyes and create.

Create something!

Sometimes you need to believe in yourself a little bit more than you do.

Sometimes you need to give yourself credit for.........

..........sometimes you just need to give God credit... for once.






Good night.

Quicky

Ick. Almost a year since I've blogged. Shame on me.
Let's see... all the wonderful things that have occurred this year... well...

I graduated college (yay!!!)

I got married! (YAYYY!!!)

And I moved to Nashville with my hubby!

Meh.

Nearly 3 in the morning and I have almost no intention of falling asleep anytime soon, though I'm exhausted.

Just sinking into a deep, dark, hallow abyss; not sure when I'll find the motivation to snap the fuck out of it. Maybe later. Everything's maybe later. Homework? Maybe later. Dinner? Maybe later. Bed? Maybe later. Wake up? Maybe later. I went about a month without doing any laundry. I finally did it, but right now I'm just staring at the bin of clean, unfolded clothes, apathetically accepting the fact that, no, they will never get put away, and I can just rummage out of the hamper for a few weeks until I find it absolutely necessary to wash them again.

I tried writing tonight and all I ended up doing was figuring out a few songs on the piano. Which was actually not the worst thing; "Laughing With" by Regina Spektor. "I'll Catch You," and "Montana" by Rocky Votolato. "I'll Catch You" tears my insides up.

I have my senior guitar recital in two weeks.... HAA!!!! What a good joke to play on myself.

Yeaaah. Graduation can not come soon enough.

Dear Me, I would really enjoy for you to be over this little phase you're going through. Call me when you're ready to gtfu. Thnx. Lisa

Senioritis

Someone... anyone... please motivate me to get up off my ass and finish undergrad like a champ. Thanks.

In order to avoid annoying the crap out of Facebookers and Tweetsters by over-posting about wedding planning, I hath created a blog into which I can pour my excitement.

http://coffeeandmatrimony.blogspot.com/

Subscribe if you wish, ignore if you like :)

(P.S. I will still be updating this blog. No worries.)

Joe and Matrimony

I have a short paper due tomorrow on a topic I am yet undecided on, and therefore haven't started writing. So of course, I'm blogging.

A few updates of life (if you're at all interested):

One, I'm sipping about my 5th cup of coffee in a month. For no particular or intentional reason, I've been drinking a lot of green tea lately and haven't communed much with good ol' Joe as regularly as last semester. I must say, this cup is pretty muddy, and I think I needed it; not for the energy, but for my soul. Probably not unrelated to my random hankering to blog, either.

Secondly, I got my grades back from the last 20 credit semester... Eight A's and two B's. Woop woop! Getting ready to start an 18 credit semester next week, 7 credits in the Summer, and I am DONE! Take THAT, college! (We'll see if I feel this feisty at finals... better yet, mid terms.)

Third: I got a bread maker! (No real back story, I'm just stoked.)

Lastly, and certainly NOT least... I'm engaged! As of the day of my last post, actually... I won't get into all the juicy details here... you want 'em, you can ask. But I've been a woman on a mission to get the big bizznass out of the way before semester starts. Sooooo... in last week we booked the ceremony, booked the reception, picked out bridesmaids dresses, AND bought a dress... among planning other microdetails that we've yet to execute. This weekend we're finalizing the guest list. I have to say, I'm loving the planning process so far, and I'm looking forward to sharing this celebration with all our friends and family. I'm thinking about starting a little side blog on the wedding planning... I really want to avoid being that person; you know what I mean... that girl who only and always talks about her wedding. So I figure I can outlet it in a blog, and people can choose not to read it if they're uninterested.

Short and sweet tonight. I've gotta get back to Academia Land. Wish me luck.

(P.S. Check out Hawk in Paris. Listening to them currently on Spotify. Purr-ty catchy.)

Fun Fact #384

So, I go out into public from time to time. I know. I know. Shocking. As dangerous as this activity is, for certain, it's a kind of hobby of mine...

...Anywho, so, more occasionally than not, there's a situation I find myself in when I am out in a public place that I can't help but laugh at. I'm trying to formulate a way to explain it so it doesn't sound... creepy. But I'm having a brain fart, so I'll state it bluntly:

Little girls love me.

I'm serious. If I'm out somewhere, and there's a little girl, usually ages 2-7, that I've never seen in my life, 8 out of 10 times that little girl will end up next to me, playing hide-and-seek from behind a chair, or telling me all about her American Girl doll collection and pet lizards, as if she's known me all her little life. And I don't do anything to provoke it; no initiated conversation or bribery of tootsie pops. They just find me!... like a magnet. It's weird.

Have you ever seen The Santa Claus? Remember that scene when Tim Allen is at his son's soccer game and that little girl just determinatively marches over to him, sits down next to him, and keeps inching toward him, finally ending up on his lap as comfortable as can be, telling him what she wants for Christmas? Yeah. That's pretty much what happens to me, minus the whole Santa thing.

This is a very random thing to tell you all, I know. But I'm at the airport in St. Lou, and a little two year old girl wanders over to me and starts playing that cute little peak-a-boo game, where all you have to do is look at her and look away about twice and she's just giggling like crazy, and my heart starts melting all over the place. Not the first, nor last, time this will happen. I guarantee.

Anyway, enjoy that little awkward fun fact, bloggers. I'm gonna go fall asleep somewhere till my next flight.

Short, sweet, and a little bit lazy.

So, here it is, Christmas Eve 2011. And here I am, laying in bed past noon for the 3rd day in a row. It's wonderful.

This past semester was a success. 3.80 and I'm officially exhausted. Spring semester, here I come!

I've been doing a lot of nothing since I've been home for the holidays. My sister/bro-in-law and their twin baby girls are here visiting and it's been amazing spending time with them :) Those little girlies (they're one year old) are so bright and cute!

Being home with friends and family is refreshing, it really is, but I'm glad it's only for a short time and then I can leave again. This place is home in the sense that I grew up here and loved ones are here, but this is no longer where my soul fits. There's a fog over me when I'm here, I suppose. A good fog that makes you want to curl up with a cup of tea and read a book, but ends up keeping you inside much longer than you'd prefer (all metaphorically speaking if course. It's rather sunny outside right now).

I do love it here. But I look forward to getting back to the Mid West :)

Theology, food, and knots.

I am in the process of doing research for a theology paper that's due shortly. I haven't decided exactly on the thesis (hopefully that will flow naturally from my research), but I'm working toward formulating what I believe to be true about the nature of sin, the purpose of redemption, and the possibilities (or impossibilities) within sanctification. The broadness of these three ideas combined is somewhat overwhelming to me, but I'm finding it difficult to separate them. So, for now, it is what it is.

Ah, how I wish I could detach myself from this; that I could have chosen the topic of "infant baptism" and simply regurgitated some micro-wave easy, pre-formulated view that I purchased at Wal-Mart for $.89.

Directions :
1. Babies should be baptized.
2. This is why.
3. Add nip/tuck sources.

Let cool and serve.

But no. Instead, I thought it would be a good idea to pile up 6 large plates at the All-You-Can-Eat Theology Buffet so that I could get my money's worth, regardless of the consequences which, by the way, happen to involve me hugging a toilet at 2AM due to overeating and food poisoning...

...metaphorically speaking, of course.
(I'm not crazy, I've just been contemplating the meaning of life for 4 hours.)

Still, I prefer it this way. It's just that time constraints are... well... constraining. And for whatever reason, I've become so emotionally enthralled with my research topic that my spirit has reasoned and impassioned my stomach into a thousand tiny gut-wrenching knots; forcing me to quit for the evening.

I'm trying hard to stay open-minded and sensitive. I have become progressively aware that truth is not determined by what I feel about it (though the soul's responses can certainly be indicators in sniffing it out). If something is, in fact, truth, I must follow it, regardless of how nicely it sits with me. But because that is the case, I am determined to be all too particular concerning what I choose to believe, if I am to be devoted to it.

I digress. Good night, dear bloggers (whoever you are).
I leave you with a few fine knots to untangle yourselves :

"And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments."
1 John 2:3

"For if the inheritance is based on the law, it is no longer based on a promise."
Galatians 3:19

Via Cellular Device

So, mainly I'm just testing out my Blogger app on my iPhone. I remember checking for this app a few months ago and not finding it... so I'm pretty stoked to have it.

In other news, Spanksgiving Break shall be upon us shortly, and my big plans involve getting started on a paper for Theology... Not really sure exactly what the research will be on. Something along the lines of assessing the personality of Jesus. It sounds super stiff when I put it that way, but, really, what I would love to do, as far as "research" is concerned, is sit down with Jesus and share a bottle of wine; just have a conversation with the guy... "So, Jes, what did You REALLY mean when You said that? Did you ever intend for Your people to do this, that, or the other? What do we actually have right? What about You did we get wrong?"

"Well, Lis, you see... (*insert Truth here*)."

But I don't know if that would count in a Lorenz class as a "scholarly source." ;)

Well, then... to the library!

Blogging Equals Irresponsibility

It stormed today. It was wonderful.

As I stood at the window watching the rain, sipping some coffee, I had the strongest desire to step outside, sit down on the street curb, and allow myself to be immersed in the cold downpour. Alas, I had to go to class, otherwise I guarantee you that I would have.

I recognize this to be a completely typical scenario in the current chapter of the Book of Lisa. Everything must wait; everything; from sitting in the rain, to finding time to call my own mother (which I could actually probably be doing instead of blogging). I pondered this as I ripped myself away from the lovely scene outside and wandered back to the classroom.

Don't get me wrong. I'm actually obsessively addicted to school (as you may or may not have gathered from recent posts). I get a disturbing high off of going, going, going, stressing myself out, working my toosh off, and seeing the fruit of it. And I love learning. Love, love, love learning! I've found a new and surprising interest in music theory and music history. And what's absolutely insane is that I am seriously considering getting a 2nd bachelor's, and continuing to graduate and doctorate work! And what's even more, I want to teach music history in college! (She proclaimed through deranged, hysterical laughter). Some one, please sedate me.

Despite my true love for it, school is rough, because it demands all of my attention. I can't compartmentalize my college career. It's there, looming, always; filtering into every nook and cranny. Anything that's not fulfilling an educational obligation comes second, and if I don't have time to gather my entrails, then I simply don't have time, and instead I have to press on across the battlefield, with or without all my limbs intact.

The fact of the matter is, I enjoy what I'm doing, but I need a recharge. I need to get out of this town for a day or two; drive for a few hours, find a new coffee shop, a change of atmosphere, and gather myself.

Anyone up for a road trip?

The Little Collegiate Acorn Who Surrendered and Drank Lots of Coffee with Hobbits to Grow a Forest of Apple Trees, or Something Along Those Lines.

Okay, now that I've caught my breath for a moment, here's the situation:

I'm on a mission. A mission to get my bachelor's and get the hell out of Kansas. 

So, I'm cramming credits this semester to graduate in May (buh-bye, adios, see ya!), only to discover that I've overlooked quite a few electives, and instead of breezing my way through Spring and being done with it, like I'd anticipated, I've got to clutter it up with even more credits in order to walk on time, and then another 2 courses this summer to officially complete my B.S. It could definitely be way worse, but it's a disappointment regardless.

All to say, I was talking with a professor the other day about this slightly frustrating turn of events. He listened patiently as I expressed sentiments similar to my previous blog post (with less profanities... he is an Anglican priest and professor at a Christian college, after all), and then he shared with me some kind and helpful words.

"There's sacrifice... and then there's surrender," he explained.

He presented the idea that sacrifice poses a necessity. It demands action without option. When we sacrifice something, it is because we have to. There is no other choice. No other way out.

But when we surrender, we are under no obligation to do so. We have the option to go all in or quit, and when we surrender and "suck it up," so to speak, we do it because we have a belief that there is something greater on the other side of it.

"We never know what we can accomplish; how much potential we have," he continued. "Think of an acorn. Not only will it grow to become a tree, but that one acorn has the potential to produce an entire forest! It's like that saying... 'You can count the seeds in an apple, but you can never count the apples in a seed.'"

It brings me back to some advise my Dad gave me recently:

"Rule over chaos. 'Get up Trinity! Get up!' Stand up. Keep moving. Others need you. Remember the reason we wear a helmet and armor. Life's a war which is won by folks in those stories who press on because the have a growing awareness that 'there's good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it's worth fightin' for!'"

(Unrelated, sort of, he also added):

"And oh, yeah, force yourself to make and drink a very robust, manly cup of coffee. Sometimes drugs actually help. Legal drugs."

So, I keep going. I surrender, regardless of the emotional hissy-fit I've been throwing. And I hope that this hard work, this college "stuff," really is building toward something specific in my life; something more than a lousy "at-least-I-can-say-I-did-it."

I want to arrive at that "forest" and be able to say, "Ohhhh... so THIS is why I did it!..."

College is devouring my soul.

DISCLAIMER: The following consists of a big huge bundle of bitching.
Proceed at your own risk.

Is it just me, or do other students also feel that college life just loves behaving like a greased pig?

WHAT in the world am I doing here? Okay, so, I BUST my ass (49 credits in 2 and a half semesters, you bet I am!) just so in May I can walk down the isle in a cute little cap and gown, so they'll hand me a little, black, cushiony folder... that's EMPTY (because I'll still be in the process of receiving the last 7 of those 49)... and when I FINALLY earn each and every damned, worthless, asinine credit in August, they'll mail me that somewhat-thicker-than-computer-paper piece of paper, stating that I'm capable of sitting still for a few hours and that I know how to waste money.

...And do you want to know what I'll do with it?

Nothing! NOOOTHINNGGG!!!!!

I would really really really really really like to just throw my hands up and say "f-ck it."

Happy Registration Day. Enjoy the movie clip...