25 Days and Counting

The count down timer to Europe is now at 25 days and I'm kind of FREAKING OUT! How did the time go by so fast? Now that we're getting so close to departure I'm feeling like I'm forgetting to do something. But what? I guess I do have to go to my bank and tell them what countries I'm visiting and what dates I'll be there. I finally picked out all of my clothes so that's done. I dunno, maybe I'm just have a Home Alone moment where I think I've forgotten to do something.

Oh, one thing I've decided to do is have a get together with my friends when I return. Originally, I was just going to do this trip and then be done with my birthday but my friends want to do something with me to celebrate since they won't be with me on my actual birthday. I think I'd like to go dancing. The last time I went dancing was kind of a let down. We went to that Art Gala thing at Crescent Ballroom and it turned out to be about 75% older people (like I'm talking seniors). Also, nobody was really dancing so we felt weird being the only ones dancing. Eventually all of the drunk people got on the dance floor but they still had all of the lights on and it just was...weird. So I think we'll go to The Duce next time. I'm still a bit too young to be dancing with the old folks. Plus I'd like to see the babes on (near?) my birthday (or any day).

Btw, Monday was a really great day. My bestie, Ashley called me up out of the blue and told me she wasn't doing anything that day. Coincidently, I didn't have any plans either so I asked her to COME ON DOWN! First we got lunch at my new favorite restaurant, The Tea Lite Café and it was crazy delicious. Then we went to Target and I picked out all of my travel toiletries I'd need. Apparently, toiletries can add up really really fast because I walked out of Target with $70 less than when I walked in. But I did buy a new hairdryer and they're not exactly cheap. Anyway, later that afternoon we hiked up North Mountain. I've been a couple times now and it seems to get easier every time. I was worried that Ashley was going to die since she hadn't exercised in a long time but luckily, we both made it to the top in once piece. I always feel like a million bucks after I climb to the top of a mountain (and the positive feelings last a few days too). After our hike we went to Trader Joe's to get dessert as a reward for our effort but wound up getting pizza at Whole Foods instead (a solid choice). We ended the day with crafting and "Curb Your Enthusiasm". Twas a very fine day :)

Pretty soon it's going to be a hundred billion degrees outside so I'd like to do as much outdoorsy activities as I can while the weather is nice. I'd like to tube the Salt River again this summer so that's something we can still do when it's hot as ballz.

Btw, I colored my hair today just so it'd be a little darker for my vacation and YOU CAN'T TELL I DID ANYTHING!!!! It's maybe one shade darker, if that. I might as well have flushed my $7 bucks down the toilet :/

Okies, I better get ready to go home. I'm can't wait to go home and finish "A Storm of Swords"!! I haven't been able to put it down for 2 days!!

Good night, my little flowers! :3

Queen of Pugs

Last night I went on a journey to the legendary Forever21 at Arrowhead Towne Center Mall on a quest to find the perfect dress to wear to Versailles Palace and I'm happy to say that I was successful in this quest. However, it was no easy task. Let me tell ya, that particular Forever21 is GIGANTIC! It's the size of a department store (and two stories) so it was quite the challenge. After an hour and a half and 6 dresses later I finally decided on a lovely white and pink floral number with a lace back. It's so cute I can hardly stand it! When I got home I went through my closet and picked out some strong pieces that will be versatile (since I'm only bringing a carry on suitcase) so I think I'm ready to go. All I have left to do now is WAIT. We're down to only 5 weeks now. It's so close I can almost taste it.

In other news, I'm really excited about tomorrow night. I'm going to an art gala downtown and it's formal attire only. There will be an art slideshow, food, dancing, the works. And it's FREE!

As a local artist I'm very excited to be going since this event is a celebration of the contribution of art to our urban environment. I'm mostly excited though to get fancied up. They asked us to wear lots of color so I thought I'd have to buy something new since I didn't really have any colorful fancy dresses in my wardrobe but then I remembered that I had stashed all of my formal wear into another closet. I found this amazing gem, a royal blue dress that I bought 2 years ago (at Buffalo Exchange for $10.00) that I'd totally forgotten about. It's a satin-y material with a square neckline and a big bow in the back. Mmmm...it's sooo good. I can't wait to wear it! ANNNNDDD I bought some ballet flats the other day that coincidently match it perfectly. Too bad it's going to rain tomorrow though, I hate having to lug a sweater around all night. Oh, wellz. Hopefully, there will be some cuties in attendance in fancy clothes too. Tbh, I haven't seen a cutie in ages. It really is a bummer. They must be out there somewhere but I don't know where they gather. It's a mystery to me. However, I'm expecting to see loads while in Europe so I'll report back on that next month (if I ever come back that is).

Oh, one more thing! I'm having my first art giveaway!!! You can enter through Facebook, Tumblr or Instagram. This is the hoop I'll be giving away.

 



Here's some links if you'd like to enter:

www.facebook.com/iggystarpup
www.iggystarpup.tumblr.com
Instagram: Iggystarpup

All you have to do is share, reblog, or repost this giveaway to be entered into the drawing. Right now the contest ends on March 10th but I might extend it to March 17th just for fun. I'll be shipping anywhere so international friends are welcomed to enter.

I've been a pretty busy worker bee lately as well. Here's my newest hoops:

Lady Rainicorn and Jake
$40.00

Ouran High School Host Club Usa-chan Hoop
$33.00

Parisian Pug
$34.00

Heisenberg Blue Sky Hoop
SOLD

Sherlock High Functioning Sociopath Hoop
*this is for me*

John Watson "Not His Boyfriend" Hoop
*also for me*



Iggy Hearts You

Since my last post all of our lodgings have been booked for Europe! So we'll be staying at a youth hostel in London (it looks like Hogwarts inside!!) but in Amsterdam, Berlin, Copenhagen and Paris we'll be staying in apartments we found on Airbnb. Let me just say that Airbnb is FRIKKIN' AMAZING!!! We found the most gorgeous apartments that are also super affordable. It's going to be great to have our own place (and our own bathroom). All of the apartments look like Ikea showrooms too! Looking at them as made me grow to hate my own room now. It just looks horrible and disgusting compared to these beautiful European flats. I'm totally going to have to redecorate when I get back. Anyway, I think the apartment we're staying at in Paris was only $130 a night (split between 2 people) and it's 2 minutes away from the Eiffel Tower! On the night of my birthday we're going to get some chocolate croissants and champagne and walk over to the Eiffel Tower at midnight. It's just out of this world to think I'll be spending my 30th birthday in Paris! I truly feel like the luckiest girl in the world.

Also since my last post I've arranged our Harry Potter London Tour at Warner Bros. Studios. I'm SO STOKED for that! It's going to be INSANE to have my picture taken in front of Number 4, Privet Drive. It'll be a dream come true.

me with Tinkerbell hair

Oh, more good news! Well, it's good news for me...but I've been the same weight since I was 14 years old. No matter how hard I tried I could not gain any weight and people would tease me a lot and say nasty things like, "Don't you ever eat?" and "You must weigh like 2 pounds." Over the years I've become a little self conscious of my petite frame and would get super jelly when I'd see other girls whose jeans actually fit them. Well, last year I suffered a knee injury that really forced me to change my lifestyle. I'm way too young to be blowing my knee out by just walking so I started an exercise program. It didn't take very long for me to start feeling the benefits of regular exercise so I stuck with it. Exercise is like MAGIC, man. Not only do you get a ton of self confidence by watching your body become stronger (and more bangin') but its done wonders for my mental health. I'm naturally prone to melancholy (depression runs on my mother's side of the family) and exercise has really elevated my mood and given me a more positive outlook on life (as well as increased my appetite).

So today I was trying on a dress I bought about 6 months ago when I noticed it was really tight around the bust (which never happens) so I thought I'd take a trip to the scale and I weighed 115 lbs!! That has been my goal weight for AGES and it seemed like it was never going to happen. The most I've ever weighed was 111 lbs but I normally fluctuate between 105-110 lbs, which is pretty underweight for my height. So this is very happy news! For the first time in my life I can look at my buns in the mirror be like, "Haaaayy, guuurrrrl!" AND my bras fit me too! It is possible that since I'm approaching thirty that my metabolism has slowed down but whatevz. I'm very happy with the way my body looks these days. Hooray for positive body images!

Have a Happy Valentines Day, my lovelies!


Mama Iggy

You've bewitched me body and soul

Ms. Starpup

So. Since my last post we've made more progress in preparing for our trip. Last weekend we booked all of our flights for flying from country to country in Europe and I am pleased to say, we scored some smokin' deals. For 6 flights it came out to $359 a piece. Crazy! It would cost that much for one flight in the US. Sheesh.

The only things left to do are figuring out/booking our lodgings, buying our Harry Potter London Tour tickets (can't risk us getting there and them being sold out), and making final outfit decisions. I had this goal to wear a cat themed outfit for every day of our trip but that hasn't worked out for me so far. I thought that finding a cat print dress, skirt, sweater and leggings (I wouldn't wear all at once, of course) would be easy peasey but in reality it's turning out to be quite difficult. Grrrr...I guess I'll just have to make due with what I already have. I already did a trial run to see how much clothes I could fit into my carry-on suitcase and everything fit even with some spontaneous outfit additions so that's a relief. I wanted to bring a mini backpack as my purse and ordered one off Jansport but it came in the mail today and was friggin' ENORMOUS so now I have to return it. Returning things is such a pain in the butt :(

Only 2 months to go. I can't get over how close it is!

Other than freaking out about my trip (in a good way) I've been super busy crafting. Here's some photos of my recent work:

Jiji (this one I made for me :3)

Lumpy Space Princess Hoop $34.00

Pink Squid Hoop (a gift for a friend)

Pusheen Hoop $33.00



Squirtle Hoop, $35.00

Bubbline Hoop Set $78.00



All of the hoops with prices attached can be found in my Etsy store www.iggystarpup.etsy.com

I'd like to have a giveaway sometime next month so I'll have to make a special hoop for that. You'll be able to enter from Tumblr, Instagram or Facebook. I'll post more about that when I actually have a hoop to give away, haha!

Another thing that's been going on lately is that I've fallen madly in love with "Pride and Prejudice". I finally got around to reading the novel 2 weeks ago and since then I've watched the Joe Wright film adaption about 4 times (once with the director's commentary--I love listening to commentaries), watched the mini series with Colin Firth (100% babe) twice and tonight I'm going to be watching the Sir Laurence Olivier version. I'm just soooo in love with Mr. Darcy. I can add him to the list of fictional characters I'm madly in love with. Doesn't look good for real men at this point. Not. Good. At. All.

It's Poetry in Motion

Le Me

 Thanks to modern technology something magical happened yesterday. Two friends who live an ocean away from each other got to have a face to face conversation via Skype. To be honest, I was pretty nervous worrying that she might hate my voice or think I was weird or something. I've met a few online friends in person and it's always exciting to hear their voice after only imagining what it sounds like. Usually, people tell me that my voice is a lot higher and girly than they imagined it would be (I'm not sure why people would assume that I have a scary deep voice).

It was so cool to get to see her wee face (I had only heard her voice once in a video she made me over a year ago) and hear her adorable accent again. I love loved seeing her laugh and just being super cute. It made me really happy too how well we got along. It think it'll be a  great time. We're both very enthusiastic and excitable girls so I think there will be a good energy on the trip.

My favorite thing she said was when I asked her what kind of stuff she wanted to do on the trip and she said, "Oh, I don't know, take pictures of you when you're sleeping." (SO GOOD)

The Lovely Melissa

We organized this meeting to discuss plans for our upcoming Europe trip since I'm going to be meeting Melissa in Glasgow. I had had some free time so I did some research on cheap and/or free things to do in each city we're visiting (free might be my favorite word in the English language). In case I haven't already mentioned it, here's an updated list of the cities we plan on visiting during our Euro Adventure:

*Glasgow
*London
*Amsterdam
*Copenhagen
*Berlin
*Paris
*Versailles

I was surprised by how many things we can do for free in Europe but I guess some of the best things in life are free, right? I'm just super stoked to simply wander around and explore these cities and soak up all of the history and culture. There are a few museums I'd like to visit but we found out that many of them don't charge any admission fee (party. bonus.) What's probably going to cost the most will be transportation and lodging but we're going to try to get transportation cards whenever we can and stay at youth hostels and maybe a few b&bs. I'd like to take a train at least once but for longer distances we'll probably be flying since flying is getting cheaper and will save us some time (maybe).

Oh, man! I am just so excited for this! It's going to be such an adventure and we're going to make so many memories. I CANNOT wait to take a billion selfies with Melissa. Can you even imagine it? A buddy pick of Melissa and I in front of Big Ben and the Eiffel Tower? It's MADNESS! Only 11 more weeks to go! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

All About New Year's Eve

HAPPY 2014, MAH BABIES!

I'm really really stoked about this year. I have all kinds of positive feels for this year. I think good things are going to happen, which is rare for me but I dunno, I just feel it in my bones that this year is going to be awesome.

But before I start fangirling 2014, let's wrap up 2013 first. So my New Year's Eve was pretty good. Not great, but still good. I met up with my friend Ashley for dinner at Pita Jungle and I must say for a place called Pita Jungle their pitas kind of (really) suck. All of their other dishes are great but c'mon guys, let's work on making the pita bread edible. My jaw seriously hurt after choking down one pita.

Me and Ashley

Anyway, we finished eating around 8:30pm which was still super early but we had nothing else to do so we walked down to Crescent Ballroom. They didn't open up the actual ballroom until about 9:45ish so there was a lot of standing, eye rolling at creeper guys attempting to talk to us, and evaluating other folks outfits. When they finally let us in to the ballroom there was an opening band that's music wasn't very memorable for me (sorry, guys) but soon after a DJ came out and everyone started dancing. The first hour of dancing was pretty good but then it got SUPER crowded and kind of nutzo. It was just a wall of bodies in there and everyone had spilt their drinks EVERYWHERE so the floor was wet and sticky and we kept stepping on empty cups. I kind of don't get why they let people drink on the dance floor. You should have to drink your drink in the bar and when you've finished it THEN you can come out onto the dance floor. But that's just me.



I saw this dude who I was very briefly interested in but later rejected and he saw me too so that was kind of awkward. He kept dancing nearby wherever we were too so that made me feel a bit weird but at least he didn't say anything. I hate that. After midnight people got really crazy and were like shoving each other and we thought we were going to die. Ashley managed to plow her way through the sea of sweaty drunken bodies but I wasn't aggressive/strong enough to navigate my way through so I got separated from her for about 3 minutes and it was TERRIFYING. I kept thinking, "SHE LOST FRODO!!!" And I don't have a cell phone so that made it extra scary since I couldn't just text her. But Ashley had the good sense to wait for me outside so I wasn't lost for too long. When I found her I said, "Don't you lose him, Samwise Gamgee." and got no response u__u

After things had calmed down a bit we went back inside and danced a bit more but decided to leave at about 1:30am. By the time we got home it was a bit after 2am and I was friggin' exhausted but still didn't fall asleep until around 4am. Although I didn't work until 2pm the following day I awoke around 8:30am and couldn't fall back asleep. My work day was easy though since it was a holiday and it's usually pretty quiet on holidays. One of the residents at my work even brought me a whole plate of food! It was a FEAST!

I got out of work around 8pm and made a beeline for my friend Heather's house so we could watch episode one of Sherlock Series 3. I don't know if it was due to our lack of sleep (she had only gotten 2 hours of sleep that day) but we found the episode to be all over the place and hard to follow. Sherlock is our favorite show and we'd been waiting to see this episode for 2 agonizing years so we were pretty bummed that things didn't go the way we'd hoped they would. I don't want to spoil the episode for those who haven't seen it but I'll just say I hope the next two episodes will be better.

Alright, I guess that's all for now but I wish you all a very happy and healthy New Year!!

xoxo,

Courtney

National Lampoon's European Vacation

So I haven't written in a while (been working a lot and ya know, hanging out and stuff) but I have pretty big news so here I am.

Today I officially applied for my PASSPORT! AAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! My squees today could probably be heard in OUTER SPACE.

Having never been out of the country this is extremely huge for me. Like, life-changing huge.

Luckily my skin was having a moment of clarity so I zipped up to Costco and got my picture taken. If you ever need a passport photo, I'd highly recommend going to Costco. They took a great picture and it only cost $4.99. Also, you can enjoy a nice slice of pizza for $1.99 while you wait ;)

So anyway, today I went to the Municipal Court to apply for my passport and was prepared to have to wait all morning but was in and out in about 5 minutes! It was awesome! Even got told I was "gorgeous" by the security guy, haha.

Next month I'm going to buy my plane ticket so that'll be HUGE. I'm kind of nervous about the flight but hopefully my excitement will overpower my nerves. I've never been in a plane longer than 6 hours and I think I'll be flying for like 13 hours that day (total travel time was estimated at 17 hours- yikes!)

I'm so ready to start getting stamps in my passport. I'll be getting 4 on this trip so that's a good start. Ideally, I'd like to start going on one big trip a year. I think that's a pretty reasonable goal. Here's a few destinations on my list:

*Hawaii
*New Zealand
*Bora Bora
*Canada
*Peru
*Japan
*Southern Europe (Italy, Greece, Spain)
*Thailand
*Iceland

Man, I can't believe I have only 3 1/2 months to go. It's so nutzo! I've been talking about finally visiting Europe for about 2 years and it's almost here. I think this is going to be a trip of a lifetime. 2014 is going to be one hell of a year. I think 30 is actually going to turn out to be a great time in my life. Maybe I'll finally find a boyfriend too (gotta stay positive!)

I'm ready!

I'll post images of my latest work (been super busy--drawing again too!) in my next post.

Good day, my lovelies!