#going after etsy shops yikes

[aquarri]

.

[cptnsantiago]

take me home 

1/?

~ compulsive

read on ao3

Jake Peralta is a compulsive shopper.

From massage chairs to more massage chairs, if Jake sees something he wants, he gets it. This debt inducing habit lessens when he started dating Amy, but not even her rational thinking effect could stop him at times. Only two months into their relationship Jake had bought an actual lightsaber . Not the fake plastic ones for children, but the ones that look so real that even Amy geeked out a little when she saw it.

Marriage had brought this habit to almost a complete halt. With Amy’s master budgeting, Jake still had a little money to spend on whatever he wanted, but even he had just been putting it into savings for their future .

Their future involving a family, a new house for their family to grow one day. Amy couldn’t be more proud of how he had matured, still managing to keep the goofy personality that she fell in love with. She falls more in love with him every day, and she doesn’t want the feeling to ever go away.

So she thinks her heart might explode the day they figure out she’s pregnant. They had been trying for just under six months, and he had been so involved in her binders and her anxieties. He was there every step of the way, to listen to her fears and discussing the best positions for conceiving before making a very appropriate title of your sextape joke. When she realised they were out of pregnancy tests, he sprinted to the bodega and back in under ten minutes so they could know .

When the timer is up, he’s finally caught his breath but immediately loses it again when Amy is nodding her head frantically, a smile stretched on her face and fat tears falling down her cheeks. He spends some time with her crying on the bathroom floor before he’s rushing to get the pregnancy binder they had been working on together. So they spend the day reading the crap out of the binder, making doctors appointments, more research.

This is when Jake’s dangerous habit makes a comeback.

A bout of sickness had come over her in the late afternoon, leaving her exhausted beyond what she could possibly understand. Except she understood, because of the reading.

Amy last remembers resting her head on Jake’s lap, one of his hands stroking her hair while the other held his phone, still researching while a movie played in the background.

It’s dark outside when she awakes. Jake now has his laptop balanced on one leg while her head still rests on the other. Amy groans, burying her face in his stomach as she stretches her limbs out. “I don’t know if I like pregnancy.”

“It’s only been a day, Ames, give it a chance.” Jake teases, his spare hand moving back to stroke loose strands of hair out of her face. “Good morning, babe.”

“You feel this tired and nauseous for a day and see how you feel.” Amy sighs, a smile still unable to stay off her face at the feeling of his hands in her hair. “What time is it?”

“8:30?” Jake guesses, before looking at his screen and confirming it with a nod. “Yikes, I’ve been on Amazon for three hours.”

“I’ve been out for three hours ?” Amy gasps, “I haven’t napped this hard since I got the flu in college and had to ask for… an extension .”

Jake takes a moment to laugh at how upset she still was about extending a paper all those years ago. “Okay, nerd. You’ve actually been asleep for about four and a half hours.”

“Four and a half hours?” Jake flinches at her screech but quickly recovers. “Why didn’t you wake me?”

“It’s been a big day. You needed it.” Jake shrugs with a smile, “Plus I tried. You were passed out . Almost took you to the hospital but your breathing was fine.”

“I love you, weirdo.” Amy kisses him quickly before looking at the laptop screen. “Jake-”

“Now before you say anything-”

“Jake, you have 27 things in your cart!”

“It’s all important, I promise!”

Amy snatches the laptop out of his grip, scrolling quickly through the contents of the list. All baby things. Mostly onesies, but also a few books, a rattle. Amy then looks at the onesies. Novelty ones, of course.

Dad’s a muggle, mam’s a witch.

I still live with my parents.

World’s most expensive alarm clock.

I pooped today!

Yippee ki-yay mother father

Those were her favourites. Amy can’t decide if she’s furious or overwhelmed by love for the worst compulsive shopper she’s met in her life.

“I was gonna get rid of most of them, but they’re all so cute, Ames!” Jake pleads, chewing slightly on the inside of his cheek. “I mean Yippee ki-yay mother father !? That might be the best thing ever.”

“I like the Harry Potter ones.” Amy mumbles, “Although you wouldn’t be a muggle, you’d be a wonderful wizard.”

“ Please , I could kick Harry’s ass any day.” Jake scoffs.

“Okay, sure , you could kick the chosen one’s ass.” Amy rolls her eyes affectionately, messing up his hair up slightly. “Anyway, we can’t get any of this.”

“ Amy. ”

“ Jacob. ”

“Pleeeeease!”

“Jake, you’re spiralling.” Amy says sternly, “We need to have our doctors appointment first. It could be a false positive, an ectopic pregnancy-”

“Amy, you know that won’t happen.” Jake closes the laptop and puts it on the coffee table so he can take her hands.

“It could.” Amy shrugs, “Look, I’m just being cautious. And even so, we’d make a registry so other people can buy us things.”

“Ohh, you’re so smart.” Jake laughs, happy to change subjects. “Let me just get the Die Hard and Harry Potter ones?”

“I don’t want to enable this compulsive shopping habit.” Amy tells him, “We’ll end up with seven different breast pumps.”

“We’re going to end up with seven different breast pumps because of Charles, you know that.” Amy snorts lightly at this, “Ames, I promise you aren’t enabling a habit. Just those two things.”

“Okay.” Amy picks up the laptop again happily, “Just these two things.”

~

Amy was foolish. She was a fool in love with a compulsive shopper.

To be fair, it could be much worse . The big important things, he leaves for the registry. But when it comes to clothes and books, he was out of control. Especially after they find out they’re having a girl.

Amy’s growing love for her husband overpowers her annoyance at the Amazon deliveries every other week. Jake almost always has a shopping tab open on his laptop and his work computer. She knows that Charles also enables it, makes it worse even.

But Jake agrees to run every purchase by her so he doesn’t get anything completely unnecessary. So arriving home early one afternoon she’s surprised (but completely not shocked at all) to see a package she doesn’t recognise in their mailbox. It’s not Amazon.

Strange.

So she makes her way upstairs, collapsing on the couch with her hand resting on her small bump and resting for a moment before picking up the package again. Ripping the package open, a quiet gasp leaves her mouth and she feels herself immediately tear up at the soft book in her hands.

Animal Crosswords.

On the back, the small description tells her the book contained mini crosswords to help toddlers learn their animals while having fun . At the bottom they advertise other books such as Colourful Crosswords and Shape Crosswords .

It was perfect. Amy didn’t bother to stop the tears as she flipped through the book.

One across, an animal that goes ‘oink’ . Four down, an animal that goes ‘baa’ .

Amy loves Jake, so much . Jake loves their kid, so much . She can barely comprehend every emotion she’s feeling, and it’s not long before she’s sobbing.

This was easily Jake’s best purchase. Everything he bought was less compulsive and more thoughtful. The massage chairs back when they weren’t together were still compulsive, but it had transformed. It transformed into thoughtful, wonderful, adorable purchases. Amy was so lucky, and so was their baby.

Amy calms down to soft hiccups by the time Jake walks through their front door a half hour later. His panic has him immediately on his knees next to her, wiping the dried tears off her cheeks and frantically asking if she was okay. This starts a fresh wave of tears, but she’s almost smiling and giggling which changes his concern to confusion.

Being the detective he is, he soon spots the book in her hands and groans, “Damn it, I was gonna surprise you with that. I know I didn’t approve it w-”

Amy interrupts him with a kiss, his cheeks and mouth soon soaked with the tears that just don’t stop coming . “I hate hormones.”

“They’re definitely weird.” Jake chuckles nervously, “Do you like it?”

“I love it.” Amy laughs, wiping her cheeks again. “Where did you find this?”

“Etsy .” Jake tells her, “Homemade crafts and shit, Rosa told me about it. I suspect she sells jewellery on there.”

“Oh definitely .” Amy agrees, “I’ve been looking for it for a year.”

“Anyway, I just got one for now because I wanted to know what you thought about it.” Jake’s hand moves to her stomach as he speaks. “I know it’s not very useful for her for a little while but she’s half you so she’s destined to be a bit nerdy like her mom.”

“I love it, Jake. It’s so thoughtful, that’s why I’m so emotional.” Amy runs her fingers through his hair, smiling again when he presses a kiss to the top of her stomach.

“Also hormones.” Jake teases, another kiss to the side of her belly where they could both feel her kicking. “I’m glad though, because I contacted the account about making a spanish version for her.”

Amy whimpers as she tries to stop more tears from falling. “Really?”  “Of course, it’s a great way to teach her I thought. And Rachel, the creator, agreed.”

“How l did I get such a perfect husband?” Amy drags him to eye level so she can kiss him softly. “And the perfect dad already, she’s not even born.”

Jake shrugs, poking her nose and her bump. “Being the perfect husband is easy. Because you deserve the world. Both of you. My girls.”

[utopianmetanoia]

Goals for 2020

So, here I am, making some goals for 2020 the same way I have all years prior...but never achieving them. I’m determined to make this year different.

First, I just feel like crap constantly. Headaches from lack of water, stomach problems from crap food, pains in my kidneys(?), always out of breath etc. Etc. Etc...

Our house has 4 flights of stairs, and after 2 I’m out of breath which just makes me sad. So with plenty of reasons to change why have I never succeeded? I’m my own worst enemy. I make excuses, create big logical leaps to justify bad behaviour, and self sabotage constantly. But this year I genuinely want to change for the better, and not just losing weight but making positive changes to my mental health as well. So without further ado, here’s my goals.

Later I’ll be breaking these goals down in to planned out steps to prevent self sabotage and help ensure success this year!

1. Reach a weight of 200lbs, currently I am 235.

2. Draw once a day (follow me on insta @kcprintables to see drawings!)

3. Open an Etsy shop with my personal designs (this is a big maybe, but something I want to do!)

4. Go to the gym 3x a week, currently I go 0 times but have been paying for a monthly pass since last December... yikes.

5. Drink AT LEAST 1.5L of water per day. For my body weight I should be having around 3L according to some online calculators.

Obviously there are other goals, like meal prepping instead of eating out but I feel that falls under my weight loss plan. So I’ll be making another list breaking down how I’ll achieve each goal! I wish for everyone to have an amazing 2020 where you achieve all your goals, and I hope you’ll follow along with my journey!

[fullbeaumonty]

Ten Lords A-Leaping (Or, in this Case, One Excited Duke)

This is my contribution to the 12 Days of Cordonian Christmas for Day 10 - Ten Lords A-Leaping!

Pairing: Maxwell x Lydia, Lydia and Joni (OC friend)

Word Count: ~4,500

Rating: Let’s call it PG for language.  This is pure fluff, though.

Disclaimer: I own nothing except Joni and Oliver.

Author’s Note:  I’ve wondered about the friends that our transplanted MCs left behind - in New York in the case of TRR.  Certainly she had friends and I’ll bet they miss each other and find ways to stay in touch across the miles. For this story and in my universe, I gave my beloved Lydia a dear friend from back home named Joni (whom Lydia sometimes calls Jones as a nickname).  Inspiration for this story and a moodboard are at the bottom - they’d give too much away if I put them here!

To my own real-life Joni - you already know this story is a Christmas gift for you.  Your friendship is a gift in my life, as well as the million and a half things I’ve learned from you and the endless encouragement and insight you’ve given me.  If I could knit, I would knit you a squid scarf that I’m certain you would wear with Maxwell levels of pride. You deserve that and so much more. I love you.

12 Days Tag List: @ao719 @blackwidow2721 @bobasheebaby @brightpinkpeppercorn @fullbeaumonty @hopefulmoonobject @itsstillnotwhatyouthink @leelee10898 @riseandshinelittleblossom @speedyoperarascalparty @kenjikatsoros @zaffrenotes @mind-reader1 @cocomaxley, @blackcoffee85 @likethetailofacomet @endlessly-searching-for-you @tornbetween2loves

Personal Tag List: @breaumonts, @thedepthsremember, @ritachacha, @hellospunkiebrewster, @alj4890, @dancetothestoriesinyoursoul, @littlecrookedheart

Up next for Day 11 is @itsstillnotwhatyouthink!

                                            *********

She’d started the project with an Etsy-purchased pattern and a dream, no experience and little more for inspiration than a long-forgotten comment he’d probably just said to make her laugh in the moment.  But Lydia listens, and moreover, she thinks, mental gears in constant motion.  She’d tucked that idea away until she realized as the leaves began to turn that she should probably get started on such an ambitious project if it was going to be done in time for Christmas.

There was so much joy in the activity then, tools and supplies hidden away in a box, in a drawer, in a rarely-used room, every caution taken to be sure this would always remain a surprise.  But that was before the twenty YouTube tutorials (“...for absolute beginners, my ass!”), the half-dozen failed cast-ons and dozen and a half restarts when she had to pull everything apart and start over to fix yet another mistake.  It’s late November and the project she can see so clearly in her mind is little more than a heap of mottled red yarn on her lap.

She stares out the window at the distant mountains, trying to calm herself through her frustration.  Checking her phone, she does some quick mental time zone math to be sure it’s not too early on the East Coast before sending a message to Joni, who not only knew how to knit but also always knew how to make her feel as though she could take on the world.  And if the world was in her reach, certainly this project was as well.

After a few moments, the phone screen lights up, and Lydia smiles.

                                                    *********

They have no shortage of friends - noble, common, or otherwise - but every once in a while she still feels the pang of missing her friends back in the States.  Just because this is a wonderful, charmed life doesn’t negate the fact that she left another life behind that had its own positives.  Thank goodness for messaging apps and Pictagram to keep her far-away friends feeling at least a little closer.

The familiar tri-tone ring of Skype fills the quiet of the room before her dear friend’s face pops up on the laptop’s screen, pixelating for a moment, then returning.  Joni grins and squeals, “Lyddie!” and the smile Lydia returns as she waves at her friend hurts her cheeks, but it’s accompanied by the tangible ebbing away of her earlier frustration.

“It’s so good to see you!  You look great!  New hair?”

“Of course!  I loved the lavender, but it fades so quickly.”

“Well, that shade of red is perfect for you.”  Lydia pulls her long brunette waves over one shoulder.  “Still plain Jane brown over here.”

Joni waves her off.  “Hush, you’re gorgeous.” She props herself up on her elbows on the desk and smiles at Lydia. “I miss you, Lyd.  But it looks like royal life is treating you well.”

“We’re nobility, my friend, not royalty.  Big difference.”

“Yeah, huge.”  Joni laughs and Lydia joins her, happy just to see her friend.  It’s not the quiet coffee shop filled with hipsters writing manuscripts where they were used to meeting, but right now, it’s a close second.

“So…” Joni rubs her hands together excitedly. “You want some help to knit a scarf, huh?”  Lydia nods, looking down from the camera for a moment to email her a link to the picture and pattern.   Joni’s smile fades as her jaw drops slowly and her eyes go wide as she scans the instructions.  “I thought you were trying to knit a scarf scarf, as in, a very long rectangle.  I figured maybe you were being ambitious with something like a cable knit and it was giving you trouble.  This is…” she trails off for a moment.  “I mean, it’s doable, but it’s another level. And you’ve never knitted before?”

She shakes her head.  “Never.”

“You never did things by half measures, either, Lyd.”  Joni looks up from the pattern, brow furrowed.  “I’ll help you the best I can, but I’m gonna be honest, I have no idea how to change yarns like that.”

“Jones,” she sighs, “I don’t even know what ‘changing yarns’ means.  I’m in way, way over my head.”  She lifts the tangled pile of yarn so Joni can see it on her own screen.  Her friend pulls a face when she sees the mess. “I know, right?  Yikes.”

“Yikes,” Joni agrees.

Lydia watches in silence as Joni reads the instructions in detail, squinting at the screen and silently mouthing a phrase here and there.  Anxiety creeps back in by the moment.  Maybe this was impossible.  She hates that word, but she also hates the fact that she’s had this in mind for the better part of a year and it’s now exactly one month to Christmas, with no end in sight for the project.

Finally, Joni looks up at her again. “You know what, I love a good challenge.  I can’t exactly teach you more than the basics, because most of this is all new to me, but I’ll learn along with you and we can knit this thing together.  What do you think?”

Lydia can’t speak for the lump in her throat, but her smile and nod say “thank you” for her.

                                                *********

Joni is exceedingly patient, more patient than Lydia would be if the tables were turned, as she teaches her the essentials of knitting.

“Okay, basic knit stitch.  Bring this needle up into the first stitch, behind your left-hand needle.  Wrap the yarn between the two needles, counter-clockwise for you since you’re looking down on it, then pull that strand through the stitch.  Angle the needle downward if you need to, like this.”  She holds her needles up to the camera and slowly goes through the motions again as a visual.  Lydia nods and tries it herself.  “We’re going to knit this row and purl the next one, okay?  The instructions say to count 66 stitches for each.”

If these are the same instructions given by strangers on the many YouTube videos she’d watched over the past month of confusion and frustration, she wouldn’t know.  She makes mistakes.  She needs several steps repeated.  She unravels parts of her work in frustration and begins again.  But now she understands.  Maybe all it took was the encouragement of a familiar voice.  It’s amazing to look down and finally see progress.

The two friends talk while they knit, more words spoken aloud between them in these few weeks than in the past year and a half.  Theirs is an odd relationship, friends who met online as strangers through a shared interest years ago, happily discovering over time that they lived relatively close to one another.  In what feels like a former life now, they would meet halfway for coffee every few months for marathon chats and so much laughter.  She’s grateful for text messages, but her heart twists for a moment when she glances up at the screen, watching her friend skillfully knit while she tells a story about the customers at her job. Lydia simply wishes she could hug her again.

It has always amazed and delighted her that she seems to learn something new about life, the world, or herself after a conversation with Joni.  She’s learning about stockinette and right-leaning stitches, purl-wise and knit-wise and bind-offs, of course, but as the scarves take shape, their discussions deepen beyond even the light conversation between dear friends to fears, futures, and more.

Lydia shares stories of the animals in the menagerie and Joni shakes her head and laughs over Maxwell’s peacock obsession.  (“Did I tell you about the time he officiated a peacock wedding?”)  They ponder whether Joni’s boyfriend James will pop the question any time soon (“If he does, I hope he doesn’t do it at Christmas, that’s so cliche.”) and sometimes Lydia calls out a hello to him as he walks through the room in the background.  (“Say hi to Max for me!”  “You can text him yourself, you know!”)

As they start in on knitting the many stitches of the long, long tentacles, Joni asks about their corgi.  “So you just have Wigglesworth, then?  I’m really surprised that a couple with a panther, pandas, and a pride of peafowl only has one pet in the house.”  They look up at each other and laugh at her unintentional alliteration.

Lydia’s smile is wistful and her hands still for a moment.  “You know, I realized recently...now that we’re settled in here, it feels strange not to have a cat or two padding around.  I’ve always had a cat.  It was...just…” She takes a deep breath.  “Charlie died eight days before I met the guys. The apartment was so lonely without him, and so sad.  It made the decision all that much easier when Maxwell asked me to come to Cordonia with him.  I wasn’t leaving anything behind, really.”  She looks up at Joni quickly in the camera and waves her hand awkwardly.  “I mean, I left you, of course. And Daniel. I do hope he’s okay. But...you knew what I meant, right?”

Joni smiles.  “I knew what you meant.”

“So how’s your sweet little feline?”

She angles the laptop screen downward to show the old grey tabby asleep on her lap, completely unfazed by the yarn around him as he purrs in his sleep.  “He’s sweet, but not so little.  And he’s great.  12 this year.”  She scratches behind his ears and smooths her hand across his fur affectionately.  “I’m sure any man who saves a stray corgi off the street - which I still think is unbelievable, Lyd - and adopts two wild red pandas for you as a gift would love a few cats running around that big place with you.  Why don’t you talk to him about it?”

Lydia recounts her stitches, having lost her place while lost in thought, and continues knitting.  “I will, thanks.” She gives Joni a half-smile.  “Crazy cat ladies unite, right?”

“Hell yes”

                                                ********

There are several close calls during this clandestine crafting operation.  Once, retreating quickly, quietly, from her designated knitting room toward the end of the hall, she’d come upon him backing out of another rarely-used guest room and shrieked in surprise and fright in the shadowy hallway.

He’d jumped back against the door, hand still grasping the doorknob.  “Whoa, Lyd, watch it!  You’ll scare…” Catching himself, he’d paused for one long beat. “…everyone.”

“Who is everyone?”  Still clutching her chest above her racing heart, she’d looked around the empty corridor, silent but for the sound of her pulse roaring in her ears.  Before thinking, she’d asked, “And what are you doing up here?”

“What are you doing up here?”

Shit.

Knowing there was no use attempting even a white lie to her ever-perceptive husband, she’d decided quickly on an evasive truth.  Hands up in surrender, she’d leveled with him.  “It’s Christmas, Max.  You can have your secrets, and I’ll have mine.  Deal?”

“Deal,” he’d responded, satisfied.

Joni looked at her quizzically when they’d connected for a knitting session several days later. “Are you in a different room today?” she’d asked, as they each got out their white yarn and started in on the difficult task of stitching the eyes.

With less than two weeks to Christmas and so much work put into this surprise already, Lydia couldn’t be too careful.

                                              *******

The suckers nearly do her in.  After two days of working on them, not one is truly circular, and none are spaced correctly. Lydia finally throws down her needles and yarn in a frustrated huff, screeching in a manner rather unbefitting a duchess, “This is bullshit!  Why did I ever think this was a good idea?”

Joni, who has been the model of patience so far in this endeavor, looks up from her perfect row of suckers two tentacles ahead and levels a stern gaze at her, gesturing with one needle toward the camera. “Because that man is honestly such a good, he changed your life forever and he deserves this insane scarf at the absolute least and the world at most.  Because it’s your first Christmas together and this is worth it, I promise. Because you’re incredible and you can do anything you put your mind to, and I know you know that.  Do you need more reasons?  I have more.”

She shakes her head no and picks up the project again, simultaneously cowed and calmed, giving her friend a small smile as she counts the stitches to the placement of the next sucker.  “Thanks, Jones,” she says quietly.

Joni returns her smile.  “Anytime.”  Looking back down at the yarn in her hands, she asks brightly, “So what do you think Maxwell got you for Christmas?”

                                              ********

Finally, finally, the project is complete.  It’s a woeful imitation of the pattern’s accompanying example photo, but it’s done, and it’s clearly a squid, so that’s really all that matters at this point.  Joni completed her scarf several days ago and has so far spent this knitting session sharing her tips and tricks for finishing up the stitches and making sure everything is in place.  Lydia’s not sure everything actually is in place, but Christmas is four days away and when she holds the scarf up, nothing falls off.  She and Joni both decide on success.

“You know, this may be the coolest scarf I’ve ever knitted...the coolest thing I’ve ever knitted!  It’s certainly the most interesting one I’ve ever owned!  The most flair I’ve ever added until now was tassels along the edge.” Joni’s smile is bright and genuine, clearly proud of both of them.  “This is a real accomplishment for me - I can’t imagine how you must feel!”

“I feel like I can’t thank you enough.”

Joni waves her hand at the camera.  “You’re welcome, of course, but hey, I learned something new.  That’s never a bad thing.  And this time together…” She shakes her head slightly and trails off for a moment, collecting herself before looking back up.  “I’ve missed you, Lyd.”

She swallows against the lump in her throat and smiles at her friend.  “Me too.  I think we’re overdue for a trip to New York.  But you and James are always welcome here!”  She gestures toward the room behind her.  “We have twenty-two guest rooms just waiting for guests!”  Thinking a moment, she amends, “Well, nineteen.  One is Wigglesworth’s room, we just started working on the ball pit room I promised Maxwell, and I think this one will become my knitting room.”

“Hey, I know!”  Joni exclaims, face lit up with excitement.  “We can keep doing this!  Not inordinately difficult squid scarves, obviously, but if you actually enjoy knitting, we can meet up this way to work on our projects together.  Like a little knitting club!  But we need a name…”

Lydia delivers her suggestion proudly as though it’s a royal decree.  “We shall henceforth be known as the Knit-wits!”

“Oh, come on,” Joni groans.  She shakes her head but can’t hide her smile.  “Does Max appreciate your ridiculous puns?”

“Jones, you have no idea.”

                                               ********

She’d spent so much time researching how to knit before finally asking an expert that almost all her personalized ads on Pictagram are now knitting-related.  She’s scrolling through idly at her desk in a quiet moment to herself when she comes across the perfect gift for her friend - a black t-shirt printed with a lovely woman whose hair is made of multicolored yarn, knitting needles sticking out at odd angles for hairpins, a beatific smile on her face as she reaches up with scissors to snip off a section.  The fact that it says Yarn Goddess is the icing on the cake.  

She orders it immediately, giddy with excitement.  It won’t quite make it to New York by Christmas, but it’s the thought that counts, right?  

                                                   ********

The gift-giving portion of this lovely, quiet Christmas morning is wrapping up.  New clothes - including several lacy pieces for Lydia - have been tried on and modeled, a small pile of items both fun and practical sit on the coffee table in front of them, and new books are stacked on the floor. Paper and bows are strewn everywhere.  They’ve gone through half a box of tissues between them (“We’re ridiculous, you know that?  What couple cries this much on Christmas morning?”) as gifts both special and simply surprising have been opened.

Maxwell is currently at the Christmas tree, giving his latest gift pride of place front and center.  As he finds just the right spot for the ornament, she reaches up again to touch her new necklace - a simple aquamarine solitaire, so beautiful it needs no extravagant setting. The stone is a hue-perfect reminder of the crystalline ocean outside their honeymoon villa, a blissful memory in gemstone form.  She watches him hold the ornament in the palm of his hand for just a moment after he hangs it on the tree, looking at it once more, and her chest tightens with emotion.  She honestly never knew she could love someone so much.

He doesn’t even bother with a tissue this time, wiping his eyes with his hand as he flops back down on the sofa next to her, their knees touching on the center cushion.  She smiles softly at him, thrilled that one of the gifts she was most excited to give him this morning had obviously hit its mark.

“Where did you even find that, Lyd?  It’s amazing. Perfect.”

“Ah, Americans love to personalize things.  We’ll personalize anything if it has enough space to write a name.  And never underestimate the power of Google...though finding an ornament with a hippo couple under the mistletoe does seem like serendipity.”  She looks over to the ornament on the tree, the branches sparkling even in the bright light of late morning.  “But we know a thing or two about serendipity, don’t we?”

“We do,” he responds quietly, leaning back against the cushion with a smile.  She’s eager to share his final gift with him, but she can’t resist scooting across the sofa to curl against his side.  With his arms around her, it feels like a warm cocoon of holiday contentment.  Breathing in his scent, listening to his heart beat, his hand combing gently through her hair, she could so easily fall asleep.  The scarf was three months in the making, after all; it could wait another hour.  Wigglesworth waddles over from his plush new dog bed and hops up on the sofa with them to join in the cuddling.  After a few minutes, Maxwell breaks the cozy silence.  “I still have one more gift for you.”

She looks up at him.  “I do, too.”

“Oh! You first!”

Laughing at his renewed Christmas excitement, she reluctantly disentangles herself from him and gets up to grab the final gift package beneath the tree and places it in his lap. He tears at the paper until the mottled red blob of yarn is revealed, eyes widening as he lifts it up to see it in its full glory.

Lydia can see every imperfection in the stitching - the fact that two random tentacles are the better part of a foot longer than the other six, the eyes are too far apart and not even close to level, and one tentacle somehow ended up with three less suckers than the rest.  But Maxwell runs his hand across the soft yarn with a look of awe, his grin brightening as he takes it all in.

“This is...where did you even get...wait, did you make this?”  His wide eyes meet hers and she nods.  “I didn’t know you could knit!”

“I didn’t either!” she laughs, “I mean, I learned.  Joni taught me, actually.”

He’s already wrapping it around his neck as he asks, “How long did it take?  It’s really...wow.”

She thinks back.  “A little over three months.”

Suddenly her vision is filled with a swirl of knitted tentacles as he pounces across the sofa onto her.  “Hey, one lord a-leaping!  Careful!”  But she’s laughing as she wraps her arms around his shoulders and gazes up at him, his eyes glistening again as he grins down at her.

“Three months?  I can’t believe you took the time to make this for me.  I can’t believe you remembered a dumbass comment I made almost a year ago. I...”

She cuts him off with a kiss.  “Believe it,” she murmurs against his lips, before she pulls him closer, the tentacles between them draped softly around her shoulders.

Several long moments later, he pulls away with obvious reluctance and moves to sit up again.  “Stay here, Christmas blossom.  I’ll be right back.”

She watches him through the doorway as he hurries through the grand hall and past his namesake statue, who is currently wreathed along with his horse in Christmas boughs instead of the laurels of victory.  She laughs to herself watching him bound up the stairs two at a time.  

A few minutes later, he returns with a large gift box in his arms, adorned with a massive bow and making a...was that a scratching sound?  She looks at him quizzically.

And then the contents of the box meow.

He sets the package on her lap and slowly lifts the lid, a tiny pink nose peeking through first, followed by two ginger paws, and then a third.  Suddenly the kitten leaps from the box onto her chest, digging in his little claws and mewing loudly.  Wigglesworth jumps down from the sofa and retreats to his dog bed, deciding it best to watch this scene unfold from afar.  She wraps her hand around the kitten and carefully removes his claws from her pajama top.  Holding him against her shoulder with both hands to calm him, she gazes down through her tears at his sweet ginger face before looking up at her husband.  She couldn’t speak right now if she tried.

He pulls two tissues from the box on the coffee table and hands her both, taking the kitten from her to give her a chance to blow her nose.

As she wipes her eyes, Lydia watches as he holds the kitten to his scarf-covered chest, tiny claws snagging the stitches she so meticulously placed.  But the kitten is the spitting image of her Charlie, and Molly before him - a beautiful ginger tabby with distinctly-striped legs and a ringed tail - and Maxwell is looking down at him with so much joy and love.  Worrying about pulled stitches seems to be a waste in this happy moment.

He looks up at her with a hopeful expression in his eyes.  “Do you...like him?”

“I love him, Max.”  She reaches over to stroke down the kitten’s back and along his tiny tail.  “I’m wondering how you got a cat in here without me knowing, but I love him.”  Maxwell hands the kitten back to her and she holds him up to her face, touching her nose to his.  He mews at her and rubs his face against her cheek.  “What’s your name, little guy?”

“Well, the lady I adopted him from was calling him Oliver, so that’s what I’ve been calling him, too.”

Realization dawns on her.  “Have you been keeping him in that guest bedroom in the west hallway?”

He nods, smiling.  “We have a kitten room and you didn’t even know it!”  Reaching over to give the kitten a scritch under his chin, he says, “Is the name okay?  You can change it if you want.”

She brings the little feline up to her face again.  “What do you think, my tiny pumpkin pie?  Are you an Oliver?” she asks the cat.

Oliver responds with a loud mew.

She grins at her husband, who is proudly wearing the most ridiculous scarf on the planet.

“Welcome to our crazy family, Oliver.”

                                                  ********

She’s just popped the top on a can of wet cat food, Oliver mewing near her feet and attempting to scale the leg of her jeans with his tiny kitten claws, when a member of the staff enters the kitchen with the mail. A puffy manila envelope rests on top.  Lydia thanks him with a warm smile that grows wider when she sees the New York return address and familiar handwriting.  Suddenly equally as excited for the mysterious package as Oliver is about his dinner, she fills his bowl to calm his insistent mews and sets about shredding the adhesive holding the envelope closed.  

Tears spring to her eyes as she immediately recognizes the soft blues and greys of the yarn she’s seen in her friend’s hands over the past month of video chats.  The tentacles on this scarf are of equal lengths, the eyes are set parallel, the suckers are evenly spaced.  It’s obviously a superior version of the one Lydia gave Maxwell several days prior, but made with an equal amount of love.  She knows because she watched its creation.

Wiping the tears from her eyes as she wraps the scarf around her neck, she pulls the tentacles of one side through the little knitted loop behind the squid’s face that gave them each so much grief.  She laughs remembering their shared frustration and notes that the loop Joni knitted in looks far sturdier than the one she struggled over herself.  She looks down at the delightfully silly squid face staring out from her chest and finally notices the note safety-pinned halfway down one long tentacle.

I hope you wear this in good health and so much happiness, no matter what you do or where you go.  

     Be amazing.  

           Be badass.  

                Be kind.  

                     Be you.  

            I love you. - Joni

Lydia’s heart squeezes in her chest and fresh tears fill her eyes.  It’s amazing, she thinks, how this little crafting adventure to create something special for the love of her life also brought her closer to a far-away friend.  The whole thing began and ended with love.

Just then, Maxwell walks into the room, inexplicably wearing his own squid scarf indoors.  He bends to give Oliver a few scritches while he eats, errant tentacles dragging on the floor momentarily, before he catches sight of his wife behind the island.  He sees her tears first and concern crosses his face before she smiles and waves it off.  “I’m fine. Happy tears,” she promises, wiping her eyes with one soft tentacle.

He nods and gives her an understanding half-smile, leaning back against the counter before he reaches for her scarf in surprise.  “Hey! We match!”

We complement, she thinks, her scarf a mix of the cool blue of a buoyant ocean and the soft steel grey of the sky after a storm at sea.

She simply agrees, however, as she stands on tiptoes in her bare feet and reaches up to wrap her arms around his neck.  “I like it that way.”

“Me too,” he says quietly, smiling.

She presses her chest to his, the two squids kissing just a moment before their wearers do.

                                                   ********

And of course, my inspiration came directly from canon:

The poor man never got his jello shots at the wedding, but the least I can do is get him that squid scarf.

[eirenical]

To-do, to-do, to-do...

OK, I woke up this morning, after some really fucked up dreams, and realized FUCK, IT’S JUST 2 1/2 MORE WEEKS UNTIL THE SEMESTER STARTS, and I kind of have a lot to do, so... yeah.

(...wow. OK. That’s more than I thought I had to do. O_o;;;  Yikes.)

Work

check course rosters

plan semester schedule

MAKE SURE YOU CHECK WHAT DAYS YOU’RE OFF

find new assignment to replace the research paper because fuck ALL i am not grading that again

...email boss about it maybe?

find articles for students to read

write syllabi (syllabuses?)

Adulting

LAUNDRY

Food

go grocery shopping

cook and freeze rice

cook and freeze chili

buy and salt and cook and freeze salmon

take out garbage

change cat litter

clean out gabriel’s water fountain and swap filters

...unclog sink drain. fuck.

call insurance company about ime

call v.erizon about phone

call optometrist to order more contact lenses

go through mail

get pin so you can sign up for yet another matric. fee *sigh*

respond to ao3 comments

Fun things

go for a walk

writing

TMR 5 things fic

TMR fix-it fic

OPIT 6

Muet 14

Inktober fic

make some new journals to put up on etsy

visit crystal shop

[starkravingcat]

Yikes! 🙀 Medley scared herself. I guess she's never seen her reflection, or at least so clearly, and never outdoors. But there she was: reflected in a glass shelf on its side in the gazebo (hot tub removed). She was truly scared. Note the meerkat stance; tail gets extra floofy; her fixation and unease even after I moved her; and happy-go-lucky Lollipop is oblivious and goofing around on her own. Happy FriYay - watch out for spooky cats! Note: Medley is super smart and keenly observant. This event make sense to her. But like me, she overthinks things 😹 🍭🐈‍⬛💗🐈〽️ #starkravingkittens #lollipopkitty #medleycat #starkravingcat #starkravingranchito #austincats #funnycatvideo StarkRavingCat makes hip, handmade toys and gifts for cats and #catlovers near #austin #atx . Founded by the amazing Tamale CEO (🌈#angeltamale) See profile for links to webshop and Etsy shop for #cattoy #cattoys #catgift https://www.instagram.com/p/CVDG9jUreRL/?utm_medium=tumblr

[thegreenwolf]

Note: This article was first posted over at my now-defunct Patheos blog. Due to contractual disagreements, which included them refusing to remove my posts from their site after repeated requests, I am moving some of my writing over here. Please link to this version of the article rather than the Patheos one. Thank you!

Ah, mid-August, how I love thee. It’s the height of summer here in the U.S., with barbecues and campouts and calling the air conditioning repair company because the HVAC is down again. My garden is overflowing with fresh produce and I have no idea how we’re going to eat all this kale, but I’m going to make it work. And all the kiddies are trying to squeeze the last remnants of summer vacation out before having to go back to school. Even the stores are getting in on the act, with shelves and displays full of backpacks and pencils and all that other stuff on the school supply list that just arrived in the mail.

Of course, the back to school displays have been up since the fifth of July. But soon enough (probably just after Labor Day) it’ll be time shopping for Halloween, or so the chain stores say. (Sure, it’s a little early to be talking about this, but I have to beat the stores to the punch!) You can expect endless lines of green-faced witches, styrofoam tombstones, little plastic cauldrons, and strings of Christmas-style lights with translucent smiling skulls and ghosts. Right on cue, the feeds on my social media profiles–Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter–will be full of squealing pagans all excited about “Look at all this Halloween stuff I got from Michael’s for just twenty bucks! They had a sale!” and “I got this cute gargoyle statue with red LED eyes at Wal-mart!” (In fact, I’ve already seen a few posts–apparently Michael’s already has their Halloween stuff out. Yikes.)

Most of the time I just hold my tongue and cringe. The very same pagans who have been reblogging and sharing calls to action about fracking in Canada and human rights abuses in Gaza are proudly displaying cheap, chintzy tchotchkes that are the products of environmental degradation and slave labor. It’s a peculiar sort of cognitive dissonance driven by materialism and rampant consumerism without reflection. It would be one thing if there were no alternative options, or if it were over something necessary to life like access to food or water, or even something educational like books. No, these cheap, mass-produced items (only slightly different from the ones offered last year) are purely luxuries, and not even luxuries in the traditional sense of actually being worth something.

And they come out of a well of toxicity. Those cute plastic window decals are derived from the petroleum industry, which severely damages the environment throughout the entire process of harvesting, processing, and using oil. Fossil fuels are also implicated in a whole host of human rights abuses. That cheap metal candle holder with the flying witch cut out? It was made from metals that were probably unsustainably mined, producing countless toxins and destroying nearby waterways and habitats.

These materials are then turned into purely decorative items, usually by poorly paid and abused slave labor in China and elsewhere. In 2012, an Oregon woman bought a set of Halloween decorations from K-Mart. Inside it was a letter written by one of the workers, detailing the horrible conditions at the factory. It is almost certain that this year’s shiny new decorations from Michael’s and the like are made by similarly abused workers.

And what’s it take to get all these trinkets from China to the United States? Generally they’re sent by giant freight ships across the Pacific Ocean, ships which create a massive amount of pollution and devastate wildlife and marine plants; the noise from these ships also interferes with whales’ ability to communicate with each other, particularly as the sound is often on the same frequency that the whales use.

How else can these big box chain stores sell you their tacky items at low, low prices except through abuses to the environment and our fellow human beings? When you get to pay $5.99 for a packet of paper plates with smiling black cats on them, or get a buy one get one free pair of resin skeleton candle holders, you’re not paying the full price for these things. Other living beings are your coupons, and future generations of humans and other living beings will be paying the price for your purchase for decades, if not centuries, to come.

The sad thing is, there are plenty of alternatives to the crap you’ll find on the big box shelves, and yet millions of people convince themselves they just have to have these useless, toxic items, to include people who claim they venerate nature and believe all people should be treated equally and humanely. It would be one thing if we were talking about something necessary to human existence, like food or water access, or if these were carefully hand-crafted pieces bought directly from the artist. But we’re compromising the environment and each other over things nobody actually needs, and which can be easily replaced by better options.

Want to break the cycle of damaging consumerism? Make your own decorations and costumes using recycled and reclaimed materials, and invite your friends and family to get in on it. Here’s one set of tutorials, and here’s another, and some more over here, and those are just three of the first links that popped up when I Googled “how to make Halloween decorations with recycled materials”. If you want to get really artsy about it, try sculpting your own scary skeletons and witches out of recycled paper mache instead of buying the resin ones from the chain stores.

If you don’t feel you’re artistic enough, consider going through Etsy* or other avenues to patronize artists who make holiday wares. You can ask them about where their materials come from, request custom work, and you’ll be giving money to an individual person, not a nameless corporation. Chances are whatever they make will be better constructed than the cheaply made offerings at the stores, and so will last much longer. It may be more of a financial investment in the beginning, but it pays off in the long run.

Remember, too, that Halloween (Samhain) was originally a harvest festival, and many pagans still celebrate it as such today. This means that edibles like squash, sugar pumpkins and apples all make great decorations. You may also be able to find corn stalks from local farmers, and fall leaves are always abundant wherever deciduous trees grow. Once Halloween is over, you can eat the vegetables and fruit, and compost the rest.

If you absolutely must decorate your home in poor-quality, mass-produced Halloween kitsch, consider checking out Goodwill and other thrift stores in your area. Plenty of people offload their old holiday decorations when they move or clean house, and every year I see aisles full of perfectly serviceable secondhand Halloween items available for cheap. A lot of it will end up thrown out because there’s just too much to go around, and too many people insist on heading to Target to buy brand new costumes and decor (most of which will probably end up tossed, or donated and then tossed, in a few years). If for whatever reason you’d be horrified if your friends knew you went thrift shopping *gasp*, you don’t have to tell them the truth of where that inflatable vampire came from. Just tell them you bought it at the Halloween Superstore a few years ago.

Halloween can still be full of fun decorations and playful costumes, and those of you so inclined can still make your home look like October year-round. But with a little care and consideration, we can make this year’s Halloween better for the entire planet, and take some power away from the truly scary monsters that we face in our world today.

* Please be aware that Etsy now allows mass-produced items. You may have to be a little careful in shopping there. Generally speaking, if it’s cheap, it’s probably mass produced.

Did you enjoy this read? Consider supporting this self-employed author and artist by buying my books, or checking out my Etsy shop, or purchasing the Tarot of Bones! You can also get exclusive content, art in the mail, and more by being my Patron on Patreon!

[plogan721]

I am not Organized-Blog Revamping and Niche Change to a Blog

What Are You Talking About-Intro?

Trying to Revamp Some Blogs P. Lynne Designs

I had it all figured out.  I thought I could do it, 100% committed to this whole blogging thing.  I am ready, writing my posts and <tire screech> I do not.

I have been pouring my heart out with My Ambiance Life, stopping every couple of months to check on life (and my parents), and I forgot I have another two blogs I have totally ignored.  Yikes.

I thought I had closed one of them, Tricia’s Baskets, where all posts, sales, and news about The Longaberger Company lived.  It was the perfect place for someone to come, find out how to decorate with the product, and actually order from me. I started thinking, probably around 2016, that I should concentrate on my Facebook page, Tricia’s Baskets-Longaberger.  I have more to say on that for another day that does not have to do with Longaberger’s recent announcement.  As a consultant, you are allowed to run your business as you see fit, as long as it operates within the company’s policies.

The second blog, P. Lynne Designs is, of course, for my second company.  The idea of neglect there is concentrating on my Etsy shop by the same name, getting set up to move the whole writing portion to my WordPress store by the same name, P. Lynne Designs.  Life got in the way, or rather the whole idea of getting behind was overwhelming and doing too much too soon.  The store is still coming, but actual opening day sounds closer to Christmas 2018 than Summer 2018.  I have some kinks to work out, like when can life take a temporary backseat to me playing with the website to my liking and to potential customers.

Life tip: Sometimes, no matter how good you try to make things, you have to prepare to roll with the punches and adapt to the situation at hand.

What am I going to do about this?

I am regrouping these two blogs.  Due to recent events that I mentioned in two of my posts…. What are you fighting for…Prepare to Win and Motivational Monday: Self-Doubt, one of my blogs, Tricia’s Baskets is getting a regrouping and sort of a niche change.  The other, P. Lynne Designs, the blog needs a little updating. 

My thought Process-Tricia’s Baskets

As I said in the previous segment, I am regrouping and changing the subject (niche) on this blog.  At first, I was going to leave the blog as is, but again, due to Longaberger’s announcement to the Sales field, my future with them is up in the air for now.  I must think fast since I want to keep this blog open.  The best thing for me to do at this point is to change it to a home lifestyle blog, similar to the Simply Organized Crafts Blog I had two years ago.  I still have the name of “Simply Organized Crafts” on my Facebook page, so, I will officially change the name to Tricia’s Baskets-Home when I get the blog changed.  The name of the Blog will reflect that change, by me adding “Home” at the end of the name.  In case Longaberger decides to continue in the Direct Selling industry, I will keep this name, since I had planned on exiting the company at the end of June 2019.

My thought Process-P. Lynne Designs Blog

For this blog, I plan on updating it.  There will be no name change, and a simple, “Where have I been” post will suffice, for now.  I want to update it so that I can add it to the store portion when I get that part updated. Hopefully, I will not take too long to do it.

So, why am I Telling You my Plans?

To be honest, I am not sure.  Maybe I want to help you out in your blogging journey, and the only way it to give you my plans as examples.  Maybe it is to be accountable to not only to myself but to those people who have been reading my blogs (My Ambiance Life, P. Lynne Designs, and Tricia’s Baskets), subscribed to them, and waiting to see if I am going to post something new.  Or, perhaps I am admitting that I am human after all. I admit that I made mistakes in my businesses, and perhaps this is one way for all of us to learn from it.  I am glad that these mistakes are not the kind that costs me money or gets me in trouble with the law. 

My one takeaway from this is honest with yourself and your readers if you have a blog, a website, or any type of CyberMedia.  In fact, be honest, period. Admit to your mistakes, correct them, and move on from there. One of the things I admitted to in my “Self-Doubt” post is that I always blame my mistakes of the past on why I cannot get ahead.  I cannot go back to correct them, so, the only way to correct them is to learn and do not make the same mistake.  Regrouping and updating my blogs, P. Lynne Designs and Tricia’s Baskets is one way of correcting my mistakes.  I could have shut them down, but what good would it do my readers.  I am an influencer and I need to act like it.

I cannot speak for you.  I hope you learn from this exercise of becoming organized in your cyber life.  I want to take you all along for the ride of recreating these two blogs and in turn, learn how to update this one as well.  For this blog, I feel like I have outgrown Blogger, and have felt like that for a while, but that is another subject for another day since I had setbacks with this blog as well.  It is all in the process of being a writer in the 21st century, as the writing industry has grown from the typewriter to what we have now, and do not get me started on that subject either.  I tend to have a “squirrel” mentality lately. (For those of you who have seen the Disney Movie,” Up” would know what I am talking about, LOL)

I hope you have enjoyed this post, and if you want to see more like it, let me know in the comments section.  

from Blogger http://bit.ly/2IzuyE5 via IFTTT

[reagen-reads]

Top 5 Fav. Bookish Shops!

Top 5 Favorite Bookish Shops

          Hey Hi Hello friends, it’s me again. Long time no see, it’s been almost a month since I last typed out a blog post. I’ve said it once before, and I’ll say it again, Uni is an all-consuming maw – devouring any and every chance of actual freedom. Which is why I decided to take a small break for ME-time, I’ll do my homework later! Today I’m bringing you guys a post that I’ve been thinking about for quite some time. Over the past few months, I’ve found myself collecting more and more bookish pins, goodies, bookmarks, accessories, and well.. books. I have OwlCrate to thank for bringing a couple of these shops to my attention, and working with them all has been such a delight. In no particular order, I to present to you all, my top 5 favorite bookish shops! As I say in all of my unboxing videos, let’s get crackin’

          Now if you guys know me at all this should not come as a surprise, as I’m always chatting with this little group of people, we have the ever creative and unique – Raquel’s “The Melting Library.” First, if you have never heard of TML, then you haven’t really been paying attention to mot posts or stories. Raquel – aka the Scent Sorceress – crafts the most wonderful Soy Candles a bibliophile could ask for! I’m a HUGE candle freak, I would even go as far as to say Candle Dragon – as my collection has grown to the size of Smaug’s treasure hoard. For the past few months, I have had the amazing opportunity to be one of Raquel’s Reps for TML. Over this time, my collection has grown from a Niffler’s secret stash to a Dragon’s hoard. Raquel is without equal when it comes to her bookish scents and candles, if ever I have a custom candle idea, she always knows which scents will pair best. She is constantly inspiring us with her label designs, and she genuinely cares about the input and suggestions made to her. She even includes little quotes inside each and every jar, taking the time to make every step of the process magical. As difficult as it may be, If I had to pick my favorite scents, they would be Night Bazaar, Welcome to Hogwarts, Kowalski’s Bakery (sampler), and Pippin’s Pint! Be sure to check out her shop, I guarantee you will not be disappointed. 

Link to Raquel’s shop: https://themeltinglibrarystore.com/

          Moving right along, I have another inspiring woman to gush about. A woman that I have had the opportunity to work with, and though our time together has been brief, I already know that she has a customer for life. Benita – the original creator of BookBeau. Benita taught herself the craft that has taken the book world by storm, out of necessity. Like most of us, she brought a book with her everywhere she went, and unfortunately along the way she found that books need protection from the elements! Our precious paperbacks need armor! That’s when Benita taught herself how to sew, and created the first BookBeau! Talk about a woman who knows what she wants, and works for it! BookBeaus are a bookish accessory, NAY necessity that I use on the daily. I’m always on the go, whether it’s my commute to Uni, traveling to far off lands, or just on my way to work – having a Beau to protect my precious paperbacks is essential! Each Beau is made purely out of love, from one bibliophile to the next! I will always support those who have made something out of necessity, who strive for success. Benita just wants you to use the Beau, and love it. Pretty easy to support somethin’ like this huh?

Link to Benita’s Etsy Page: https://www.etsy.com/shop/BOOKBEAU

          Next we have another shop that I have always been interested in, but only recently became obsessed with – Obvious State.  Obvious State is a studio based out of NYC, crafting literary treasures for book-lovers all over the world! From bookmarks, to mugs, to calendars, prints, tote-bags, notebooks and more – each piece is dripping with beauty and literary aesthetic. Recently, I received a calendar from OS and I have already been asked by many friends and family members where I bought it. From there, I purchased three of their Greeting Cards – specifically their “Fair,” “Pathless,” and “Silver” designs – for a few of my friends on Bookstagram. They arrived in no time flat! Honestly, I was so surprised and overjoyed at the short amount of time that it took for me to receive them! Overcome by their beauty, it was tough to send them on their way, but a handwritten card from a friend is something too magical to keep to yourself. As of this past week, I have already ordered another Greeting Card, and their “Bloom” Bookmark Set. Each member of the team over at OS is so incredibly talented, and their customer service is always on point. I highly recommend that you check out what they’ve got going on, check out some of the amazing projects they’re a part of too!

Link to Obvious State: https://obviousstate.com/

          How do I begin this next introduction? This chick and I go waaaaaay back. I’m talking ‘baby Bookstagrammer Reagen’ back. A lady that I have literally scheduled a future kiki with – in full on Victorian attire, wigs, tea and all. Someone you may have heard of: Mrs. Evie Seo! Also known as EvieBookish on Instagram. Aside from being a full-time, wonderful Mother, Evie runs a successful blog and Society6/Redbubble store. She is so super hardworking, and despite everything that’s thrown at her (haters, etc.) she still continues to inspire us! All of her designs are so unique, colorful, and warm. I may or may not have a plethora of throw pillows and I’m definitely the go-to-guy when it comes to bookish mugs, solely because of Evie. I think I’m starting to see a trend here, successful women who know what they want, and take it! HELL. TO. THE. YES!

Link to Evie’s Society6: https://society6.com/evieseo

          Last but certainly not least, is a subscription box that I have always admired – Anissa’s very own: FairyLoot! When I heard the words YA+Fantasy+Monthly Box – I lost it. Being a huge reader of fantasy myself, the idea of a monthly subscription box curated around a book of this genre, packed with goodies, blew my mind! Certainly the box alone drew me in, but then I learned that on top of managing everything that goes along with a monthly bookish subscription box company, Anissa is also pursuing her Masters Degree! And here I thought that finding time to read after my part-time job and three classes at Uni this semester was difficult! Yikes. AND CAN WE TALK ABOUT THE FAIRYCHAT’S organized over Twitter? I could gush about these Boxes all day, and about how magical they are. If you have been in the market for a bookish subscription box, that values communication with its subscribers and provides top quality goods, look no further! There are so many ways to start your FL journey, whether it’s a single Box purchase, or a 3-6 month subscription, FL’s got you covered. Here’s the link to all things FairyLoot and how to get started: http://www.fairyloot.com/

 The overarching theme, I’ve discovered in this post is the power of Women! Inspiring, hard-working, diverse, successful women! 2017 is FEMALE & DIVERSE, and I am here for it.

 -      Reagen