MIA

Hi, blog friends.  I've been MIA for the past few days because apparently I'm going to do a really good job testing this whole "in sickness and in health" part of our upcoming wedding vows in November.  What I thought were some gnarly bug bites on my legs that I discovered Thursday night got a more serious diagnosis today after visiting urgent care, and I guess I can tell you I was told that I have erythema nodosum, which is a real fancy way of saying "you have swollen, itchy, painful blotches on your skin that have an unidentifiable cause and you're not contagious but they have to go away on their own IN SIX WEEKS".  (Don't google that if you're easily grossed out.)


At any rate, my urgent care visit was helpful today because I know now that I didn't just step in a red fire ant nest and that there's legitimately something to be concerned about.  My skin issues are supposed to go away on their own and I was prescribed some pain medication and steroid cream in the mean time which seem to be alleviating some of the misery somewhat.  Ryan has been pretty wonderful throughout the whole ordeal, despite the fact that I've been under the weather 2 or 3 times since last month.  (He laughed at me when I gagged while getting the strep test, but I forgave him.  I laugh at him every single time he gags over Eva's poo stench, which is kinda frequent haha.)


Which brings me to another point - I tell my clients all the time to keep a zoomed-out lens on their stress level, to consider what they've gone through recently that might be causing illness, irritability, or just plain fatigue.  I did a life stress checklist the other day in session with a client and was shocked at my own score.  Whether stress is good or bad, it definitely takes a toll on day to day life.


I've gone through a lot in the past few months, but 90% of my stress has been the happy, wonderful, blissed-out kind.  I have an awesome support system and I take care of myself as well as I can.  I'm physically super healthy and haven't felt even a tinge of depression in months.  It just goes to show that the healthiest of stressed out folks need to give themselves more credit and accept that some days are meant for relaxing, recharging and rejuvenating.


So, today, I relaxed.

And since this whole post has been kind of a debbie downer, I'll end by sharing a couple photos of my birthday last Friday.  

Ryan woke me up to a delicious breakfast of fresh fruit, whole wheat waffles with honey and whipped cream, and greek yogurt with coffee and OJ.  He also bought me pretty purple flowers :)






We went to Lucky Strike and bowled the night away, wrapping up the night at Bar Smith.  I had a blast and got to spend the evening with a lot of my best friends.  Let's just say I'm glad no photos were taken for the remainder of the evening :)






Also, this handsome devil got glasses last week and I'm very much enjoying them.  On more than one occasion lately I've caught him curled up reading a book and threatened that I was going to send his photo to Hot Guys Reading Books.  He was not amused.


Ok, so you're up to date on my little life now.  I promise to relax and get better.

Things I'm loving these days

The new Decemberists album.

I fell in love with the Decemberists in the summer of 2009 when they released Hazards of Love and went backwards through their catalog, falling deeper each album.  I was convinced I'd never be able to love anything as much as Hazards of Love again, but alas, I'm really getting into The King is Dead.  It's definitely different and has a more country, twangy vibe, but I guess I just can't find fault in Colin Meloy.  Ever.


My happy cactus garden.

A gift from my grandparents for Christmas this year, it was handpicked and planted from Grandma's own cactus garden.  When I was little, she used to send my brother and I home with a little potted cactus to put in our own garden, a tradition I always really loved.  Those now fully-developed cactus gardens are still at my mom and dad's house, but this year we got our own for our new apartment.  I love it.


The hair bow tutorial I'm obsessed with thanks to srslyliz.





It's truly the easiest thing ever and makes me glad I still have my long hair (I've been daydreaming about chopping it off...)


Real Simple magazine.

I got a subscription for Christmas and I'm obsessed.  It's so clean, simple, pretty and practical.  I love the fashion and the food.  It's not pompous and the styling is pretttyyyyyy.  Plus, I actually have time to read it!!


My new awesome boots.

I've really wanted to grab some boots like this for awhile, lusting over Steve Madden's version to Target's version and everything inbetween.  I finally found them at Charlotte Russe of all places...for $25.  SCORE.

What are you loving these days?

Working girl

For those of you keeping track of my graduation and the subsequent unemployment I suffered for a month or so, you'll be pleased to know that I not only have one job now but two.  You know, because I can't do anything half-assed.

I got an offer to do ongoing therapy at my internship site part time, so I accepted.


Then, I got an offer to do mobile crisis work full time, so I accepted that too. 


I now officially work an extremely weird schedule between both jobs, but I don't care.  I have both a part time and full time job, and have secured supervision and a caseload to count towards my professional license AS WELL AS BENEFITS.


(Um, you guys, I am SUPER EXCITED to have my own benefits.  I was thrilled on my day of corporate training to research and select the package I wanted and they kick in February 1st.  I want to go see millions of doctors so I can get extremely cheap/free services.  Is that weird?  I'm such a boring adult, what with my spice racks and dental plans...)


Anyway, the point of this rambling is to tell you that I started my crisis job today on a ridealong and I LOVED it.  I learned a ton and the day moved by so quickly, even though it was a 10+ hour shift.  Phoenix police and fire were amazingly professional and it was nice to know that they will stick around the scene whenever we ask them to.


For those of you who aren't therapy dorks like me, here's a little run down of my crisis job: people are in some sort of crisis (suicidal ideations, homicidal ideations, substance abuse, serious mental illness, domestic argument, etc), they call the police/911/our crisis line, then we show up in a van and make it all better.  Lots of people don't like crisis work.  Some people love it.  I think I might be "some people".


It feels really good to have a full work schedule and be getting experience doing what I was made to do.  Not to mention, steady paychecks that are more than twice anything I've ever made is pretty amazing ;)


Working girl, over n' out!

Venue hunting

I discovered that I approach wedding planning very similarly to how I studied when I was in school (just a short month ago...) - procrastinate, feel overwhelmed about it and therefore avoid thinking about it, then get it whipped out in a burst of frantic panic/energy.  

Thus, we've spent the past week searching online for venues that will fit within our itsy bitsy budget.  We toured our first place today.  We didn't love it - overall, it just didn't fit our needs - but it was good to get our feet wet in this process to learn how to identify what we do and don't like.  I think knowing what I DON'T want is just as important as knowing what I DO want.

While there were some pretty outdoor areas, the indoor clubhouse wasn't ideal for what we want to do and the catering package was a bit above our budget.

I love the idea of getting married outdoors in a desert-y area, simply because there are some beaauuuuutiful areas of AZ with perfect desert backdrops, especially at sunset.  This venue had a few of those, but unfortunately it was inside the city so there were power lines, traffic and other club patrons to be seen within feet of the ceremony site.

Plus, there was trash in the wash :(

While the astroturf ceremony site would definitely show up crisply in wedding photos, I think I'm looking for something a bit more connected to nature.

After all, I need to keep in touch with my inner maxi-dress wearing hippie :)

One down, hopefully not that many more to go.

Also, check out my first Polyvore creation...inspiration for my centerpieces.  I told you I was a desert rat at heart.  I stuck a couple wedding bands in there because I'm playing with the idea of having a band of something other than diamonds.  I thought I loved sapphire most, but the black diamonds are so pretty!!

Wedding succulents by sunshinekara 

Bad dog for sale

If you follow me on twitter, you might have seen my status the other day:

...and I think it's time you should hear the story of this nonsense.


From last Thursday evening - Sunday evening I felt like total crap.  I didn't throw up or anything, but I felt stiff, achy, sore, hot, cold, miserable and full of coughs.  I don't know what exactly went wrong with my immune system, but it definitely rebelled for a couple days.  My skin even broke out into a ridiculous rash where one of my blouse zippers had rested against it...GAH.  


(My skin is allergic to cheap metals.)


(This means I wear only pure gold or platinum jewelry.)


(That's a lie.  Most of the time I wear cheap crap and suffer.)


Anyway, Sunday morning rolled around and I finally dragged my sorry butt out of bed to get the day started, hours after Ryan had already left for work.  I put on enough clothes to make myself presentable and took Eva out to the potty place at our apartment complex.


We usually have a nice little routine, Eva and I.  I take her out to the courtyard, take her off the leash and let her roam around and do her business.  She never goes outside the courtyard and obeys all my commands like a good girl.  (I usually just stand there and go "GO POOP!" like an idiot.)  It's pretty brilliant, and usually I congratulate myself on having a dog well-behaved enough to do her business leash-free in the doggy poo courtyard.  Then we go home and I feed her a treat and we snuggle and I tell her how awesome she is and how much I love her.


This particular morning, however, was not so precious.


You see, Eva is afraid of water, and a few minutes into our little routine, the sprinklers in the courtyard started to come on.  Before water could even escape from the sprinkler heads, a neuron burst in Eva's tiny brain and she BOLTED towards the apartment complex to flee from the terrible, horrifying water that was about to come out of those black things in the grass and burn her flesh off.


Chuckling at her sheer idiocy, thinking she likely just ran upstairs to our apartment and stood shivering there at our front door, I headed back towards the complex to fetch her.  On my way there, I ran into a man who was giggling and said, "Your dog ran straight that way!!" and pointed towards the pool area, which is the OPPOSITE DIRECTION OF WHERE WE LIVE.  When I reached the building, I called her name.  She appeared from near the pool area.  I sighed with relief.


Except...instead of following a command and coming to follow me upstairs, she freaked out and ran the opposite directions towards what, in her sheer, panicky fright, she thought was our apartment.  Except we were on the first floor.  And we really live on the second floor.  I called and called to her in my sternest Cesar Milan pack leader voice, and all she could do was RUN.  


Like an idiot, I actually ran after her.  She stopped in front of the door she thought was our apartment, then looked extremely confused for a moment as she realized she had made a mistake, and wondered her very angry mom was stomping towards her in a sick haze, wearing mismatched pajamas and blind from forgetting her glasses.  I caught up to her and flipped her onto the ground so I could put her leash back on.  She actually SNAPPED AT ME as I did this, no freaking joke.  Our sweet, neurotic puppy snipped at my hand (don't worry, she made no contact and only did it from fright) because she was so stupidly thrown into a tizzy by the MERE SOUND of the sprinklers.  In a blind rage - and I do mean blind...as I mentioned a moment ago, I actually forgot to put on my glasses before we went outside, that's how sick I was - I dragged that petrified puppy back upstairs to our REAL apartment and put her in timeout.

I think, just for a second, I felt a fraction of what parents must feel like when they have toddlers.


Moral of the story: I'm an idiot for thinking my dog could behave 100% of the time off the leash.  No more off-leash time for this pooch.  Not now.  Not ever.


Oh, and of course, Eva is an idiot for being afraid of sprinklers.

Birthday wants

Because I'm old and decrepit now and soon to be officially in my mid-twenties, my wishlist has gone from awesome stuff to decidedly less awesome stuff.  Since we're getting married in November and we just moved into our first apartment together, there are a lot of things I want that are just practical items.  I know a lot of these are things we should put on our registry, but frankly I don't wanna wait that long.  


A microwave food blower upper preventer:

Officially called a "splatter cover", this would make my day-to-day living much more splendid.  Honestly, how annoying is it to have crap blow up all over your pristine microwave?!  SO ANNOYING.


A spice rack:

We need one.


Gift cards for groceries:

We're setting out on a journey to make more delicious things at home and go out only once a week for date night.  This means new recipes, more time on allrecipes.com, more foods we've never tried and having the gays over for dinner dates.


And there IS one selfish thing I want that's super expensive...


The joy of great skin:

I wrote all about my love of Philosophy skincare products in my last post if you'd like to reference - but this kit is a great deal on some of the best products.


Other than that, I'm all about cash, practical gifts or gift cards this birthday.  I guess it's just a sign of getting older.


Did you guys turn lame in your mid twenties, too?

philosophy: purity made simple - product review

I've never been much of a so-called "brand whore"...whether it's clothes, shampoo or makeup, I typically can't pay attention long enough to be on the cutting edge of whatever's hip and new.  That, and I have difficulty swallowing the price tag of most things the kids think are "fresh" these days.


However, none of this applies to my newfound love of philosophy products.


I blogged back in the day about my first foray into philosophy things.  Since then, I've fallen absolutely head over heels for another product...

Purity Made Simple (one-step facial cleanser), and let me tell you - this stuff is popular for a reason.


I, unfortunately, have been cursed with oily teenage boy skin.  Coupled with a stressful past year and a half, I've become one of those girls that's always on the lookout for the best product for my skin.  I did Proactiv back in the day, tried a slew of Neutrogena stuff, fiddled around with Cetaphil (which le college roomie swore by) and didn't really see a difference with any of it - other than the fact that it gave me disgusting patchy, dry skin.  My friend Krysta has flawless skin.  Observe:

Ugh.  Tragically perfect skin.  When I asked her in envy about it, she talked about how she loved the philosophy Purity Made Simple cleanser and the Hope in a Jar moisturizer and encouraged me to try it out.  She warned me that the price tags were not little.  She was right.


At $20 for an 8 oz bottle, the cleanser isn't exactly cheap.  And the moisturizer is even worse - $38 for TWO OUNCES.  So clearly, I haven't jumped on the moisturizer bandwagon yet, and I'm using Cetaphil SPF15 moisturizer in its place which seems to be ok for now.


BUT DUDES.  Purity Made Simple.  It smells amazing (when leaning in for a nighttime kiss after using any other cleanser, Ryan would usually proclaim in horror, "YOU SMELL LIKE A GRANDMA!"), leaves my skin completely soft, gives the normally oily surface a nice radiance instead of greasy shine, and has drastically improved the breakout situation.  I'm absolutely in love.  Like, it does what it SAYS it does.  Miracle!!


Sooooo....mah birfday is comin up this month on the 28th...methinks it's time for the moisturizer to match ;)


Anyone else into philosophy skincare?

Will you be my bridesmaid?

In the hunt for a unique, memorable way to formally ask my bridesmaids to be a part of my wedding, I couldn't find anything that felt just right for me.  I loved seeing what other girls did for their bridesmaids, including Elsie's adorable candy jar idea, but I wanted something a bit different.  I searched for a few days, doing research online and browsing shops.  NOTHING.  Boo.

...Until I was at the mall with my boys, and saw Lush.  If you're not familiar, Lush makes all natural bath and shower products and are known for their "bath bombs", which are giant fizzy alka seltzer-type deals that have little treats in them to float around in your luxurious, amazing-smelling bath.  Uh, CUTE.

I asked the clerk if she had any ideas to help me pop the question.  Her face seriously lit up with glee and she pointed me to the Tisty Tosty bath bomb.  Shaped like a heart and filled with 7 roses that read "He loves me" and "He loves me not" (ending up with the affirmative!), this bath bomb is a "spell for lovers".  From their website:

"Tisty Tosty was inspired by the beautiful writings of a literary critic. It was based on a spell used to stir the passions and bring love to you, depending on the state of mind of the caster. With seven roses, if you start positively, it will end positively. Its fragrance has constantly evolved over the years and Simon has mastered the definitive Tisty fragrance.

Weaves a magic love spell with a scent of precious rose and orris root. The fragrant rose is surrounded with mystery and legend: it is said to have come from the Great Garden of ancient Persia; and Cleopatra is rumoured to have seduced Anthony with it. Rose perfume is said to ease tension and stress and to give people happy, positive feelings." 

Omg, a bath bomb that induces love, wrapped up in romantic history.  Perfect.

The awesome clerk printed off labels that say what the wrapping holds inside, imprinted with "Will you be my bridesmaid?" and "Will you be my maid of honor?"  She thought it was the cutest idea ever, she even took a pic of the labels with her cell phone to show her manager!

They smell AMAZING.  I'm honestly a bit sad I didn't purchase one for myself!

Two of these will be hand-gifted, and the other will be on its way to Pennsylvania soon to greet my maid of honor in the mail as a surprise.

I can't wait for my ladies to try these out and let me know how fantastic they are!

And for those of you keeping track, I didn't leave out my bridesman.  I'm gonna take him out for a beer :)  He may be gay, but he still can't appreciate the joy of taking a fizzy bath while floating around in roses and hidden messages.  It's a bit much, even for him.


Blue moon it is, Robert!

SO EXCITED to present these to my girls!!

**UPDATE** They all said yes!!

Local terrorism

A 22 year old man named Jared Loughner launched an attempted assassination over the weekend upon Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson, Arizona - about 2 hours south of where we live.  The story made CNN and BBC headlines all weekend, so I'll operate upon the assumption that you all know what's going on with this situation and spare you all the gruesome, horrible details.

I have just a few thoughts on the matter:

-Not everyone in Arizona is a hateful, gun-toting, anti-government, would-be assassin.

-First responders, helpful bystanders and the U of A medical team have my absolute respect and admiration for their true heroism in the midst of the shootings.

-I cannot express the sadness and disgust I feel that someone would purposefully shoot a kind, respectable woman in the head with a firearm.

And mostly:

-I am appalled that a person like Loughner, who so clearly (in my eyes) needs mental health assistance, either did not or could not gain access to mental health services.  As Dooce so poignantly put it, if you're concerned about someone you know, please, please encourage them to get help.  I hope and pray that Loughner gets to spend some serious time in counseling.

...In prison.

Apartment tour

So, people wanna see our apartment.  Here at Sunshine Cupcakes HQ, we like to make sure you get what you want, so here it is!  A few things are still works in progress, so please excuse any clutter and/or crap and/or lack of awesomeness you might see in the following photos.

This is the kitchen.  We love the shiny white appliances, and everything was pristinely clean when we moved in.  We've been pretty successful at keeping it that way, too!

We still need to fill up the above-cabinet space with decorations, but we'll acquire those over time.

 The commode:

We went with a black and white theme with red accents here and there throughout the apartment.  

LAUNDRY.  For anyone who's had to use community laundry, this is the ultimate awesomeness right here.  The washer/dryer is behind doors, just to the right of the shower.  It's hard to capture in photos, but the bathroom is large.

Our bed:

The white space above the bed is another space we'd like to fill with art, eventually.


The door to the famed closet, and some disorganized nonsense on the right:

(Notice my jewelry on the left and Ryan's Cubs pennants.  We compromised on this opposing girly/boyish decor, haha)


The reading nook!  We set up our comfy recliner and Eva's bed in this corner so she could be cozy.  The window has awesome natural light for reading, which I now so joyously have time to do!

The dresser area, including my transformed bread box-turned-jewelry box and our favorite  childhood stuffed animals holding hands.  AWWW!

The dining nook/view into the kitchen:

Another shot, featuring my favorite painting:

The entryway.  Kitchen to the right, 2nd bathroom door to the left (there are 2 doors), hall closet closest to the edge of the photo.  We keep our games and crafts in there :)

And the part that still needs the most work: the living area.

Notice my zebra rug??  ;)  Notice the famous pillow???  ;) ;)  

Notice the TV on the floor????  We had so many family members offer us TVs that we now have two extra.  If anyone local wants one, let me know - otherwise, I think we'll donate them sometime next week.


We still need to organize our entertainment center and hang a piece of art in that corner.  We're thinking a big, pretty clock.  I also want to make a bunch of paper cranes and hang them with fishing line over the TV in that corner. 


The opposite corner:

I spy: Eva wrapped up in my Snuggie, a DVD/CD shelf that needs to be emptied and sorted into the entertainment center, an awesome photo my friend took and blew up HUGE for my 21st birthday, and a messy bookshelf that needs to be purged.  Badly. 


And finally, our solution to the lack of office space: the office hutch!  It needs to be cleaned up as well...it's currently occupied by a couple of unfinished Christmas gifts (I know, I suck) and my camera bag lurking in the corner. 

We're using the kitchen table as a little working office space when we're not eating, and it's working out well.  When I lived with my college roommate, I literally NEVER used my actual desk and always worked at the kitchen table.  

It's awesome having a small apartment.  It's easy to clean, easy to keep clutter-free and it has challenged us to get rid of crap we just don't need.  One day we'll definitely need something bigger, but I'm enjoying our little work in progress :)