Life Lately

Spring is finally here and I'm so happy! I got some new summer shoes and our lilac bush and dogwood tree are KILLING it right now. It has still been cold at night and in the mornings, but I know I'll be in the pool soon!

Last week I was in the backyard with the dogs and saw something moving....it was this possum! At first I thought it was really puffy and weirdly shaped, but then I saw she had SEVEN babies clinging to her back! I put the dogs back inside real quick (not that they even noticed the possum) and took some photos of her. She trundled around the yard for a while and I tried not to scream out loud because it was SO CUTE. I've been keeping an eye out for this little family but haven't seen them again. The babies were about as pig as russet potatoes and I wanted to kiss their little faces!

I have been dog sitting up a storm lately! First I spent several days with my friends new puppy Bowie, then we had Cooper (a 14 year old blind pug gentleman) as a houseguest for six days, and now I'm watching my Aunt's dachshunds while she is on vacation. I'm actually there right now, sitting on the couch with two dachshunds and my two pugs. We're watching Catfish and they are loving it.

Look at how cute Bowie is! I was with him from 6:30 to 3:30 for several days because he is being crate trained and they weren't ready to leave him alone all day yet. It was wonderful, I mostly played with him, then read while he napped. They have a great backyard with a little deck by a creek so I spent many hours reading on the deck, listening to the birds. So relaxing! You can see Bowie helping me read.

This past weekend Nashville had it's first Vegfest! I didn't get any photos because it was SO CROWDED! They had almost 5,000 people show up! Double what they expected. Above you can see all the stuff we brought home. I was so stoked that there were so many vegans and veg curious people in Nashville! And we're getting two new vegan restaurants by the end of May!

Retro Sno, one of my favorite food trucks is back out! I try to talk Travis into going to find them as often as I can. I love a good Snoball!

My good friend Marc drew this photo of me being carried by Spock! I LOVE it and it makes me laugh. Look at that sultry pose! He made a pin up of Kimmie from That Girl in the Wheelchair that I love! Crystal made me a 2.5 inch pin of this so I can wear it all the time. Spock!

Speaking of Spock, I'm trying these straight across bangs again. Getting closer and closer to the everyday Vulcan look I want. (I'm so excited for the new movie this summer! I'm planning a little casual Kirk/Spock cosplay for Travis and I). Also, I might go to Knoxville to meet William Shatner. We'll see....we'll see.

My birthday is coming up and my friend Aubrey gave me my gift early. It is an Amazing Kreskin ESP game! We tried it last night and non of us seem to have the gift. It was fun to try through!

The weather means there has been a lot of patio sitting lately (and way to much going out to eat!). We took Phyllis to a Warby Parker dog event recently, then ended up at a bar with a fire pit with her. I think she loved it.

I'm still loving working at the vegan kitchen. I'm trying to get in a habit of taking breaks, even if it is just to sit in the parking lot for a few minutes. I have some other job stuff going on, exploring some possibilities, waiting for calls. Waiting is the hardest!

The pugs are doing well! Priscilla had her yearly exam just last week and everything looks as good as expected. We are going to try some medication for her dizziness. Phyllis hasn't had a coughing spell in about two months, so fingers crossed! We're hoping for no medical emergencies this year!

That's it for me I guess! I hope you are having a nice spring. Summah is coming!

Life Lately

If you follow me on Instagram you know I just got back from a fun nine day trip to Asheville, NC. I have a TON of photos to go through (I think 16GB? or something insane) but I'm not emotionally ready to tackle that. So here are some shots of what has been going on lately. We have been having quite a summer.

First things first, the day after the Fourth of July we found this puppy in our backyard! Or, Travis found her. She had on a collar that was way too big and leash so we assumed someone must have taken her to see some fireworks and she got loose. We put up tons of signs and posted ads and called all the shelters and vets but no one called about her. She was even pretty good on a leash and in the crate, so it seems like someone had to have lost her.

Look at that tiny thing! She was a little too much for our senior pet rest home so my friend Crystal offered to take her in until the owners called. And no one did, so now she is part of the family! Little Veruca. Look at how precious she is with their dog Scurvy. A match made in heaven.

Our little nephew turned two and we went up to Louisville for his Elmo party.

We've been movie crazy as usual. Did you see Jurassic World? I loved it! It is pretty dumb, which is exactly what you want in your dinosaur action movie. We also went to see Jurassic Park in the park here! That is the only outdoor movie we've made it out to so far this year. I'm sad we missed Coal Miner's Daughter at the Belcourt a few weeks ago!

One of the perks of outdoor movies is Retro Sno seems to always be there. These are sweet tea sno balls with lemon! Yum!

Our good friends Aaron and Valerie visited from California and we all got the matching tattoos we've been talking about for YEARS! We tried to get them maybe seven years ago? But couldn't find a shop that could fit us all in. If you aren't familiar with TCB, it was Elvis' personal motto/symbol and we're all crazy Elvis fans.

A new raw vegan restaurant opened in town and we went to the soft opening. It was good, if expensive. The most amazing thing was this avocado margarita! Have you ever heard of such a thing? It was creamy and delicious and I want to have one right now!

A bar called Canvas hosted a Richard Simmons dance party and you know I was ALL over that. (if you haven't seen my post about the time I got to work out with Richard you have to see it here). People wore workout clothes and they showed Richard Simmons work outs over dance music and I LOVED it. I don't know if we've ever danced that much in public. We were all dripping with sweat by the time it was over. I hope they do it again!

Drag Race fans! Check out this beautiful lady! We went to see Miss Fame at Play and she was so weird and so good! I loved her latex outfits! I missed seeing Trixie Mattel because I was sick (ugh!) but Violet is coming next weekend and I can't wait! Also, did you hear they are doing All Stars 2? Yay!

Even with all the great stuff going on I've been under a lot of stress lately. Which is hopefully getting better. I treated myself to my second ever pedicure. The first was at the Aveda school and was less than relaxing, this one was great, even though I felt totally awkward and didn't know where to look. I also treated myself to a couple new dresses. I always send Travis dressing room selfies asking for opinions, even if he always says "That looks great!"

I'm reorganizing and cleaning and trying to get back on the Kon Mari train. Here is a photo of my "jewelry" collection. It's light on fancy, heavy on cute.

Oh man how did I get this far without mentioned this! We got tickets to see Dolly Parton at the Ryman this weekend! If you are in Nashville you know it sold out lightening fast, but Travis was able to get us two great seats because he delivers there. I can't wait! It is going to be all acoustic and I know I'll cry at least once.

I got my summah gum perk from backing Howard Kremer's Gu Cruise video last year. If you don't listen to Who Charted? that sentence probably makes no sense, so please enjoy a picture of my cat and my linoleum.

Of course I've been swimming like crazy. I'm getting tattooed next weekend (at a convention by someone from out of town. I don't usually get work done in the summer) so that will put the kibosh on swimming for a few weeks. Here is a photo of me as a mermaid pretending to drink from a big cup. I love that stupid underwater camera.

I love Chatbooks!

I'm a huge fan of Instagram and I've been looking for an easy way to get my photos off the app and into some kind of book. I've been seeing Chatbooks everywhere and decided I had to give it a try. It was hard to tell what the quality was like since everyone I saw posting about them was sponsored and didn't really give much info, so I thought I would write my own unbiased review. I set it so I get five a month, and I just got my second shipment. Once I get caught up to my current photos, I'll probably set it to get one a month.

Verdict: I love them! The app automatically imports your Instagram photos, then you go through them and delete any that you don't want in the books. You can also change or delete the captions. At first I was taking out hashtags and @ things, but I decided they didn't bother me after all.  You get 60 pages per book and they cost six dollars each. Blurb is my go-to for photobooks, but it can get pricey fast! These feel really affordable to me. I really like having a tangible way to flip through my Instagram photos.

Here is a photo to get an idea of the size. The paper is thick but not glossy and the cover is like card stock. Sometimes the top of the spine is a little rough as you can see, but it doesn't bother me. The photo quality isn't like a high def photo printer, but I think it looks good for the price. I'm interested to see how it changes when I get to the photos I have taken on my iPhone 5 instead of the 4. The only photos have looked bad were ones I took on my dslr then uploaded to instagram. I'm not sure why! Thankfully there was only one of those. But of course I chose it as a cover. Dang!

I guess they don't have the rights to actual emojis, but the ones they replace them with are funny to me. If you can't tell, that one is two cat faces and a Christmas tree.

I'm so pleased with these little books! I use my instagram like a journal and this physical record of those photos makes me really happy!

If you want to get some you just have to download the Chatbooks app in the iTunes store. Like I said, this isn't a sponsored post or anything, but if you want to give it a try you can use code LRZCJ9W9 and you get one book free, and I get a dollar off! I totally recommend them if you are in love with Instagram like me. The app is really easy to use. I can't wait to get the rest of my books!

And here is a photo of Scout for good measure. She loves hanging out with me when I'm trying to take photos in the kitchen.

Life Update

Hey guys! I didn't mean to take such a long blogging break, but that happens. It seems like everyone I follow is really busy right now. I can't remember if I mentioned but my position changed at work. I got kind of a promotion and my work load doubled, maybe tripled, so I've been flailing a little bit. Now I'm two months in and things are starting to feel better. And I've started going back to acupuncture which really helps me with stress so, yay! Here are some of the things we've been up to:

Vegan Vee opened up a storefront recently and I'm so glad it is out of my way because I would be there every day. Finally a place in town to get vegan donuts! The whole place is actually vegan AND gluten free. I don't avoid gluten but for those that do, every single thing we've tried has been delicious and you would never guess it was allergen free. Yum. I want another lemon raspberry donut right NOW.

We got to dog sit my friend Stefan's pug Bean and it was amazing. Look at that chunk! He was so sweet and liked Travis better than me (what!!) and I hope I'll get to watch him again. He was impatient when we took him on a walk with Priscilla. I never realized how SLOW that old lady totters down the street. Once we put her in the sling Bean was able to go at a normal speed.

Group photo! Not flattering of little Phyllis but look at Priscilla's sweet smile! I feel like these are pugs in small, medium, and large.

Sitting with Travis. Breaking my heart.

This was so long ago now but I won tickets to the Isa Chandra Moskowitz event at City Winery! It was very fancy and so yummy! I'm not really a wine drinker but it was great to have wines paired with the food. They all tasted so good! My favorite courses were the tamale and that cupcake. She makes the icing with tofu instead of earth balance and it was so fluffy and decadent. Yum.

I also won tickets to Oscar night at the Belcourt! It is a fancy fund raiser event so I got to dress up with some friends and drink cocktails and cheer on our favorites. I lost our Oscar pool but I did get to wear a glamorous black and gold look. For those of you that were worried, I have been keeping up my cat eyes eyeliner every day in 2015 goal. Ha! Best news years resolution I've ever had I think.

Last event I'll tell you about, some local lady musicians put on a girl group tribute the night before Valentine's day. The whole band was girls, all girls sang and it was one of the best shows I've EVER been too. All the girl group hits you could want and every single lady there looked adorable. I hope they do it again! Maybe I'll have longer hair and can have a beehive. I went with my best girlfriends and danced the night away!

I've gotten tattooed a LOT this year. Four of them were Friday the 13th little guys, like that rabbits foot. The Dirty Dancing one was a Valentine's special and I just couldn't resist. Have you watched that movie lately? Do it! It is so so good!

Travis bought me this crazy beautiful Lush set and I've been taking a few baths a week. I'm still in love with their bath bombs. I haven't tried the bubble bars yet. It is such a nice way to unwind.

I took these photos in February to talk about how I was deep cleaning our room, but since then I read The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo and things have gotten crazy in here. Have you heard about it yet? I feel like everyone is talking about it. I have a few posts planned. So far 9 bags have left for Goodwill (just from our closets!) and we got rid of MOST of our books. Its insane, and I feel great about it. You'll see! But the drag queen photos are staying in my closet. They are my morning inspiration.

And it isn't an instagram post without a few pet photos. Look at how cute Phyllis is!

I love how Scout will sit on me purring up a storm, but with that look on her face and her ears back. She can't decide what she wants.

Laundry helper.

Teeniest bundle.