Halloween

Sadly, another Halloween has come and gone. At least I was able to squeeze in three costumes this year. Last weekend I went to my friend's daughter's party as a skeleton. I'd been planning on being a skeleton for quite sometime and was going to make my costume myself when I realized that oops! I already had everything I needed in my wardrobe. Beneath my breast beats the heart of a goth girl, I guess. However, one thing I didn't plan out too well was my makeup. I had bought some zombie makeup last year (when I was entertaining the idea of going to the zombie walk) and just assumed it would come with some white makeup that I could use this year. About 30 minutes before I'm supposed to leave for the party I get it out and there is NO WHITE MAKEUP. UGH! So I rush over to the drugstore and pick some up but when I put it on it A.) is too sheer and B.) is melting the moment I put it on. It was such a disaster! I had to go to plan B at this point and just used my winter foundation (for my pale vanilla-strawberry skin), black lipstick, eyeliner and dark gray eye shadow. I  guess it turned out alright but it wasn't how I'd wanted it to look so I was a little disappointed. The children thought I looked "too scary" so I suppose my costume was a success. My friend's toddler thought I looked so scary that she ran away from me the whole night :(

My next costume on the other hand came out ABSOLUTELY perfect! About two weeks ago I was making a Puppycat embroidery hoop when I thought, ya know, I'd be perfect as Bee AND I already have a yellow sweater in my closet. All I needed were some pink shorts and then the rest I could make myself. I found the perfect pair at Forever21 (and on sale) then I handmade the bee patch and a peter pan collar. Then I just tied some pink ribbon onto my boots and I was all set. All I needed now was somewhere to go. None of my friends were having a party (no adult parties) and for a long time no one really seemed that jazzed to go out. I had wanted to go dancing and last year I went to Crescent Ballroom so I thought I'd just go there again. A few days before I found some people who wanted to go out--thank the gods. However, when Halloween finally came it was still SUPER hot. I didn't wear my Bee costume to work because I knew no one would know who I was and I definitely wasn't going to be a skeleton since I work at a retirement home and a skeleton would just be too much of a reminder of everyone's mortality. So I opted to wear my new Slytherin tee (it has a detachable cape) and go as Pansy Parkinson. All night at work I debated between which costume I would wear out but wound up sticking with Pansy since I figured it would be hot as heck once I was dancing inside (it was).

Last year we'd gotten to CB around 9:30pm and had no problem getting in so I had planned on arriving again early. Anyone who knows me irl knows that I'm punctual to a fault and being late causes me to go into a bit of a panic so I wanted to get there early rather than risk not getting in at all. However, my friends don't share my planner type personality. By 8:45pm I was ready to roll. My friends had said they'd be ready by 9pm but 9pm quickly came and went. Then 9:15, 9:30 and so on. Long story short, we didn't wind up getting there until nearly 10:30pm. I was one unhappy pappy. On our drive there our friends who were meeting us there texted us saying security was about to cut off the line. Merlin's Pants! When we pulled up Jackie let us out so we could give Maddie her ID and luckily by then they'd made it to the front of the line. The folks who worked there said as soon as people trickled out that they'd let more people in. I was pretty bummed but we only had to wait about 10 minutes before we got in. Classic case of me getting worked up over nothing :/

I was shocked how popular this Costume Ball had gotten compared to last year. It was completely nutzo. There had to have been 500 people there. I had fun dancing minus not knowing any of the songs they played. I don't really know what the dj was thinking by playing music that no one except him had heard of. I enjoy dancing so much more to music I can sing along to. It was fun dancing with my wand, though. I had forgotten to leave it in the car and it kept falling out of my purse so I figured I'd just go with it. People seemed to enjoy it too; I got lots of thumbs up from my fellow Halloweeners. There was this trio dressed as characters from Lord of the Rings who kind of followed me around for  most of the night. Especially Bilbo. Bilbo kept smiling at me and dancing as close to me as possible. I wanted to tell him that witches don't dance with Shire folk, haha. Anywho, we stayed until a little after 1:30am when I abruptly ran out of steam. I went from dancing my face off to ready to be back in my bed in a few seconds.

I was off the next day from work so I took myself on a date to see "Horns". IT WAS SO GOOD! I LOVE LOVE LOVED IT! I personally think it was Daniel Radcliffe's best performance to date. I know it was a horror film but it was more funny than scary. I liked the silliness of the movie. I hope it'll be spreading to more theatres in Phoenix soon so more people will go see it. Today or tomorrow I'm finally going to get to see "Gone Girl" since I finished the book yesterday. I think I'll like it. I was really excited to see "Before I Go to Sleep" since the book was so good but the movie got really crummy reviews so I might just wait to see it on dvd.

Anyway, almost forgot about my BIG NEWS! This February I'm going to THAILAND! I'm sooooo excited! I'm going with my friend Michelle to Bangkok and we're going to stay with her mom who is teaching English there. Last week we bought our plane tickets. The flight will be hell but it'll be great once we get there. I'll tell you more about it when I have more details :)

National Lampoon's Disneyland Vacation

Just hook it to my veins!

This past week I went on holiday to Disneyland and California Adventure and had a fantastic time. I've been going to Disneyland nearly every year (sometimes twice a year) since I was 5 months old but this might be my best trip ever. I went with my friends Heather, Jackie and Maddie and we met up with their friend Krista who works at the park.

Jackie had made a Disney playlist for the trip so on the car ride over we had a 6 hour Disney sing-along (which had every track from the Lion King in like, 5 different versions, haha). The first night I went to Downtown Disney while everyone else was off doing their thing and did some perusing. Krista got a 40% off employee discount so I wanted to get an idea of what I wanted to buy later.



Giant Mickey-o-lantern

We got to the park Monday morning at 8am (my half-birthday btw) and would end up staying all the way til close at 11pm. 15 HOURS OF DISNEY. It was a LONG day but a really good one, blessed even. The lines were super short all day and we didn't have to wait more than 20 minutes on any ride; most rides we only had to wait like, 5 minutes. I had heard about days like this from other people but had never experienced one myself. I think the reason why the park wasn't so crowded was due to the fact that it was "closing" at 6pm for Mickey's Halloween Party which ran from 6-11pm (Krista had gotten us tickets to that too). We went on all the rollercoasters at least 3 times each and pretty much got to do everything we wanted to do. We even had time to catch a few shows, parades, and the fireworks as well. One of the major highlights of the day, though, was I saw my very first DISNEYLAND CAT! I had heard about the feral cats that lived at the park about 5 years ago and in all the years I've been going to Disneyland, we'd never seen one. That morning I had been telling Heather about them and said that anyone who spotted one got 1 million points. About an hour later we were over by Big Thunder Ranch Barbeque when I see this massive black and white tomcat!! I whipped out my camera just in time to snap a pic of him looking right at me before he scurried away. It was totally unreal!

Big Thunder Railroad has been my favorite ride for a long time and I was so thrilled to get to ride it for the first time since its reopen. I loved the new explosion part near the end but was glad that they didn't change anything else. Being a Taurus, change isn't really my thing. My least favorite ride of the day, sadly, was Splash Mountain. I volunteered to sit in the front since no one else wanted to and I got more soaked than I've ever been. I think they raised the water levels on the ride when they renovated it because in 24 years of sitting in the front of the ride I've never gotten so drenched. It was like I'd had a bucket (a large bucket) of water dumped over me. It took the rest of the day for my to dry off. It was pretty miserable and I think that'll be the end of my days of sitting in the front on Splash Mountain.

The next morning we went to California Adventure, which I had never been to. It was perfect for a second day park but if I'm only there for one day, I'm going to choose the Magic Kingdom. They didn't open til 10am so we got to sleep in a little. Krista was totally on top of scheduling and getting fast passes. I was really impressed! We made sure we got our fast passes to the Cars ride since it's new and really popular then we walked over to the ferris wheel. This ferris wheel was cool because it has swinging carts; I'd never heard of swinging carts and it was really neat! Next was "California Screamin" which was their big rollercoaster. It was pretty intense and made me think of "The Demon" in Copenhagen.

One category that CA beats the Magic Kingdom in is FOOD. We ate SO well there. I had this delicious pesto 5-cheese ravioli with pine nuts for lunch, a frozen lemonade for my snack and a mandarin orange tofu rice bowl for dinner. Yum yum yum! Some kiddy rides that I enjoyed were the Toy Story Midway Mania, Ariel's Undersea Adventure, Silly Symphony Swings, and Monster's Inc. At dusk we went to see "Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular". Usually I don't go to any shows or watch any parades when I visit a theme park but I'm glad that Krista talked us into it because I think everyone really enjoyed them (plus it was nice to sit and relax for a while). The boy who played Aladdin was cute as heck too so that might have been the reason I enjoyed the show so much ;) I also liked Tower of Terror a lot. I'd been on it at Disney World but this one was better. Oh, and I forgot to talk about "Cars", which was awesome. The outside part of the ride where you race was designed I think to look like Zion National Park and it was just GORGEOUS!

My FAVORITE thing at California Adventure, however, was the World of Color. I hadn't heard anything about it so I didn't know what to expect but it was one of the most beautiful shows I've ever seen. It was a water and light show on Paradise Pier and they projected images from lots of Disney films onto the water. It was so lovely that I got a little emotional (I think all of us did). It just made me think of my childhood and how these films were such a huge part of my life ever since I was 5 years old. The Little Mermaid was the first Disney movie that I became absolutely OBSESSED with and it was also the same film that taught me how to sing. Next time any of you visit this park you MUST see this show! I demand it!

The last day of the trip we went to Newport Beach. I usually go to Huntington Beach when I go to California with my dad so I'd never been to this beach before but it was really nice. For it being October, the water wasn't really cold at all and I had so much fun playing in the sea. I just felt so happy and free. It was so wonderful. After the beach we met up with our friend Sharleen who's going to CalArts for graduate school. We hadn't seen her since August so it was so nice to see her face. I miss her a lot :(

I'd been a bit stressed about this trip since I'd never traveled with such a large group before but I'm happy to say that everything turned out great and I had a fabulous vacation. Now I'm super stoked about my next trip coming up in February. It hasn't been finalized yet so I'll tell you all about it once I have my plane ticket. Stay tuned!

Time Capsule 2014

Me in 2k14

So it's already been a whole year since the last time I did a Time Capsule post. This year feels like it went by faster than any other year, well, ever. Maybe because so many good things happened in 2014. Of course this year has had it's low points (that's part of the whole human experience) but as a whole it's been a fantastic year.

Now let's get into what Ms. Doom was into in the year 2014!

My Life in 2014:
Favorite Films I saw in the theatre: What If, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Pride, The Wind Rises
 What I was listening to: Phoenix, Taylor Swift, Vampire Weekend, Florence + the Machine, the Frozen soundtrack
What I was reading: A Song of Ice and Fire (books 3-5), Harry Potter 1-7, Before I Go to Sleep, Gone Girl, Pride and Prejudice, All Men are Jerks (until proven otherwise)
Shows I was watching: Game of Thrones, The X-files, Orange is the New Black, Adventure Time, Parade's End, Girls, The Big Bang Theory
Trends I was into: peter pan collars, rompers, wing eyeliner, high waisted shorts, jellies
Trends I hated: acid wash denim, pointy finger nails, 90s grunge fashion
What I was driving: Buick Regal
Who I was crushing on: Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hiddleston, Kit Harington, Daniel Radcliffe, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau
Games I was playing: Animal Crossing: New Leaf, Hyrule Warriors, Ocarina of Time, Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask
Best Friends: Melissa, Rosalynn, Michelle , Ashley, Heather
Favorite Restaurant: Tea Lite Noodle Café
What I was looking forward to: My Disneyland trip and my trip to Thailand!
What I was most proud of: travelling all over Europe with my bff, being featured on the 100 Creatives List in the New Times, drawing again, and selling lots of art!
Dream Pets: tea cup piggy
Favorite color(s): mustard yellow, hot pink, turquoise, moss green
Most Used Words: omg!, bb, wowzers, bananas, so cute!
Favorite Food: Veggie Eggrolls on rice noodles with veggies and Hoisen sauce (yum!)
Pet Peeve: misogyny
People I admired: Melissa Winning, Chelsea Bloxsom, Kelly Anne-Boylan, ALB, Lauren Crow

September Wrap Up

(Doesn't have a title yet)
Pastel and paper
2014

Things have been a little bananas the past few weeks. I got the flu for the first time in a long time and have been a gigantic baby about it. I've been pretty healthy for the past year and a half so I was disappointed in my immune system for succumbing to illness. I called in sick to work on Wednesday (my first call-in since I started working there) and probably should've called out yesterday and the day before but since I'm only part time I don't get any sick days so I'd have to use up my vacation time which I'm not willing to do. That vacation time is MINE. And I already know what I want to do with it...(insert pause for dramatic effect)

My very dear friend Michelle has invited me to come along with her to Thailand this winter while she visits her mother. I am beyond excited about this! It doesn't even feel real. I've only had my passport for less than a year and I'm already going to knock another continent off my list! The flight will be hella long (24 hours) but it'll be worth it. I've always wanted to visit Bangkok; it's incredibly beautiful and from what I've read, there's lots and lots of things to do. Michelle's mother has an apartment there so we'll have a place to stay and a very good friend of mine, Shong, lives there and is going to show us around a bit. I'm SO looking forward to finally meeting him in real life. Shong was the very first fan of my comic strip "Marksville" and we've been internet friends for nearly 8 years. I've been wanting to meet him for so long and can't believe it's finally going to happen! Right now we're just waiting for Michelle's vacation time to get approved and then I'm going to talk to my boss about it. I should have more than enough PTO hours by that time (we plan on going the first week of February) so hopefully he won't have a problem with me requesting a week off.

Wedding Heirloom Embroidery (a gift)

Another exciting thing that's happened recently is my darling friend, Stacee, got married on Saturday and I was in her bridal party. It was my first time being a bridesmaid and I felt so honored that she asked me to be a part of her special day. The day of the wedding, though, we had a huge storm and it rained so hard I could barely drive. Michelle came along as my date and I thought I knew where I was going but as usual I had no clue and got us SO LOST! I realized things had gone awry when there were cows right outside the window. I had no memory of the venue being out in farm country when I'd gone there for the rehearsal. Michelle GPSed where we were and I had gone like 20 miles in the WRONG DIRECTION. Aiya! Luckily, we got there safe and sound (we saw so many wrecks and cars that had driven right off the road) but I felt pretty crummy being so late. But Stacee looked so BEAUTIFUL--OHMYGOODNESS! She looked like a princess. I wish I had pictures to post but I only took Instax photos. I'm usually the one taking 10 billion photos and get so busy with that that I don't really experience the moment as much as I should and I didn't want that to happen this time; I wanted to look at everything and remember everything with my own eyes instead of through a lens. So I'll just have to wait until Stacee's photos are on Facebook then snitch some. It was so nice being right there during the ceremony and getting to hear all of the vows and see all of the emotions and everything. I'd never been so close at a wedding before and you miss a lot of that stuff when you're sitting 20 feet away. It was so hard not to cry through the whole thing. I was so touched too when they brought me a vegetarian meal made just for me. Stacee is pure ANGEL!

In other news, I've been taking a bit of a break from my embroidery work the past 2 months and have been focusing on my illustration work. So far I've completed two full color pastel drawings in a series of kitten portraits (as seen above). I'm nearly done with the third and will be starting a fourth soon. I've been wanting to get more comfortable working in color so this has been a great opportunity for me to practice. So far I'm very happy with the progress I've made and feel like I'm learning more with each drawing. Once I have some decent photos of the rest of the drawings I'd like to start selling them as prints in my Etsy shop (www.iggystarpup.com) and then get them framed so I can perhaps show them around Phoenix. As much as I enjoy embroidery it's been a nice change to draw again. I love going to the art supply store to pick up new pastel colors. Soon I'm going to have every shade of Nu Pastel they have! After I'm finished with my kitten series I'd like to draw some other animals as well; right now I'm thinking a pug, bunny, and a deer. I could draw animals in pretty dresses forever to be honest.

I said in my last post that I was going to post some new hoops, so here's my newest pieces (they're all Adventure Time hoops). BUMPS!

Homies Help Homies
SOLD

Marceline the Vampire Queen
$33.00



Princess Bonnibel Bubblegum
$33.00

Earl of Lemongrab
$40.00

LSP "Every Party Is My Party"
SOLD

Melancholy Baby

I've gotta be real here, I'm still bummin'. The past few weeks have been all full of suck. I've been trying to keep a positive attitude but it can be really difficult when shitty things are happening on a regular basis. I've been stuck in a rut and not doing a very good job of hoisting myself out of it.

First, I had a falling out with a dude who I really wasn't even friends with. I won't get into the specifics but he was treating me pretty shitty and when I finally spoke up about it he got all bent out of shape and pretty much cyber-bullied me. It was really childish and was another reality check of why I don't have any hetero male friends. It's just too complicated and weird. I'm trying really hard not to be a man-hater but the men in my life aren't giving me much reason not to be. I can count the decent men I know on one hand and that's really depressing.

On top of that I've been feeling pretty down about my career. As much as I love making art I'm at a point in my life where I need more financial stability that art just isn't providing for me. I'm not going hungry or anything but being poor for long has been pretty taxing on me. To be perfectly honest, I'm very unhappy with my living situation and would like to get my own place in the not too distant future. However, in order to do this my current day job would have to become full-time (and who knows when or if that will ever happen) or I have to start looking for a different job and the prospect of having to change my life around again has been pretty stressful. I hate looking for new jobs like the plague but then on the other hand, the idea of doing my current job at the retirement home 40 hours a week is pretty daunting as well.

My original life plan was to meet a man with a good head on his shoulders and we'd find our way together but that's the thing about plans, they never work out. I'm finding out that I'm on my own here and I need to start figuring out how I'm going to take care of myself. I can't keep waiting for some dude to come along and save me or whatever. And I love my family but I've gotten to an age where I just can't handle seeing them every single day. I've pretty much become my mother's care giver and she only really speaks to me when she needs something from me. Whenever I try to talk about how I'm feeling or what's going on in my life she turns up the volume on the tv and totally tunes me out. My dad and I get along very well but I rarely see him these days and when I do talk to him all he can tell me is that everything is going to work out and not to worry about anything. He's retiring this upcoming spring so he's been working as much as he possibly can to save money. It'll be a relief when he's home to take care of my mother so I can get my freedom back and won't have to feel guilty anytime I want to go out with my friends.

I don't know. Do you ever look at your life and wonder what the heck happened or where did the time go? It feels like I just got back from Seattle but that was almost 2 years ago already. I would've thought that by now I'd have some idea of what I want to do with my life but I feel just as lost as ever. If you would've asked me at 12 years old what my life would be like at 30 years old I probably would've said that I'd be a professional artist with a good husband and probably a kid or two (ew). Not in a billion years did would I ever have thought I'd develop social anxiety at 14 and it would completely turn my life upside down. I know I've made tremendous progress with my disorder but there are days where I still feel like a fuck-up. People like to say that we create our own reality; if that's true, I'm creating a pretty shitty reality for myself. I guess I just need to trust in the Universe and myself more. Things might be tough right now but life has a way of balancing itself out again.

The shining light through this bummer time of my life have been my friends. I might not have a lot of friends but they ones I do have are true blue. I'm very lucky to have found such wonderful people who really love me and understand me. It's comforting to know that I'm not completely alone in the world. I do have people out there rooting for me and who will love me regardless if I ever become a famous artist. I may be unlucky in love in the romantic department but I think I've done pretty well in platonic love.

Okies, well, I'm gonna try to keep my chin up and stay as positive as I can. But if any of you could spare some positive vibes, I'd really appreciate it! Take care, friends!

Love,
Iggy

London: Part I

First official buddy pic!

The morning we left for London started waaaay earlier than I would have liked. Our flight was at 7am so we had to be awake by 4:30am. Suffice to say, I didn't really sleep that night. Melissa had called a cab to take us to the airport since the buses don't run that early. We waited by the window but our taxi never came so she had to call another one. Luckily, that one showed up and it only took about 10 minutes for us to get there. When we got to the airport it was drizzling and cold which I took to be an evil omen, haha. Our flight was really short, only about an hour and 15 minutes but we landed in Luton so we were still quite a ways away from our hostel. We took a bus into the city and Melissa and I got to chat. It was the first time that we had really gotten to actually talk and it hit me that I was for real talking to the same girl who I had only known through letters for the past 5 years. I think it was on this bus ride that I finally got over my anxiety about her not liking me and was able to just be myself.

Palmers Lodge: Swiss Cottage

We arrived at Palmers Lodge: Swiss Cottage at around 10am. By then all of my sleepiness had been replaced by the pure excitement of being in London for the first time. Since check in wasn't until 3pm we had some time to kill so we dropped off our luggage and headed out. We took a look at the map and it said that Regents Park was just a short walk away from our hostel. I had heard that Tom Hiddleston likes to go for runs at that park so we made a beeline for it. Unfortunately, we did not have a Hiddles sighting but the park was phenomenally beautiful. We were blessed with a gorgeous sunny day and there were flowers, birds and dogs (met a magnificent pug named Emilio) everywhere. It was like a dream! I was expecting London to be cold and gray so I wasn't at all prepared for a crisp spring day. We stopped for a bite to eat at a café at the corner of the park and I got a fruit cup and some cashews since my tummy still wasn't feeling 100%. While we were sitting there my lower back started to feel crampy which is a precursor that my moon blood is about to arrive. It did in fact start shortly after so we had to find a drug store in town. While looking for a drug store we found ourselves on Baker St. and that was very exciting! We passed the Sherlock Holmes Museum and the line looked a little long so we didn't end up going in. In retrospect, I really regret that we didn't even peek in the gift shop. I know, I know. I fudged up on that one.

Sherlock Holmes Museum was super cute (at least from the outside)

Goddesses of Spring

Next we walked over to the National Gallery. That proved to be quite a walk so we got to see a lot of the city and do lots of people watching at the same time. When we finally got there we were pretty tired so we just sat down on some steps and relaxed (ie: took some selfies). The museum was free to the public so that was nice. I hate to admit it as an artist but I tend to get bored easily at museums. It's shameful, I know, but that's just how things are. We looked around for about an hour and on our way out we saw a queue lining up for a van Gogh exhibit. They said the wait time would be about 10 minutes and at the time that felt like 10 minutes too long so we peaced out. Again, big mistake. The exhibit turned out to be of all of van Gogh's sunflower paintings and the fact that I could've seen all of them together in one place for free if I had only waited 10 lousy minutes is enough to make me want to scream so I won't say anymore on the subject.

Photo I almost died over

In the courtyard outside the gallery all the children were having their pictures taken in front of these awesome lion statues so naturally I wanted my picture with one too. I did find it a little strange that no other adults were having their picture taken but not enough to stop me from climbing up there. Hoisting myself up was a challenge but the bigger problem turned out to be getting back down. The reason why only children were having their picture taken was because their parents were needed to lift them up onto the pillar. When I looked over the edge I noticed the edge was curved and there was no foothold for me to climb down on. At that point I resigned myself to the fact that I was going to be stuck on this crummy pillar forever. To my relief, a kind stranger came to my aid. A gentleman (they do still exist) who I didn't even share the same language with put his hand out for me to grab onto and then used his leg as a step for me to climb down on. At that moment I was filled with a surge of love for my fellow human beings (which is a pretty rare occurrence for me). 

Next on our list of destinations was Big Ben and luckily it was relatively close to the National Gallery so we didn't have to walk that far. The London Eye was directly across the street from Parliament so we got to scratch that off our list too. We didn't ride on the Eye (too cheap) but it was cool to see up close. It was about 5pm by then so we decided to just see one more landmark then we'd head back to the hostel. Being the super nerd that I am, I chose the Millennium Bridge since it was in "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince". If I had known it was going to take us an hour to walk down there I would've chosen Westminster Abbey instead but hindsight is 20/20. We got to walk along the Thames though, so that was nice and once we got to the bridge we had a pretty good view of Tower Bridge as well. I was running on empty by that point so we took the Underground back to the hostel. When we got back to our room we were surprised to find that we had a new neighbor! A Japanese business man was to share our room with us so any plans to sleep in our underwear went out the window. But no matter, I had a bit of a lie down, which I sorely needed and felt much better. Around 8pm we went trolling for food and we found a cute Italian place a few minutes away. It was really packed but we were starving so we didn't mind that much AND all of the people who worked there were from Italy so that was cool. When our pizzas arrived they were absolutely humongous so we could have shared one but whatevz.

I think we turned in pretty early that night and I slept like a baby. I was shocked that I slept so good since my bed was itty bitty teeny tiny but I was exhausted so a pile of hay would've been good enough at that point. I wish I had taken a photo of our dorm since it looked like the dorms in Harry Potter. To be honest, that's why we chose this hostel in the first place, haha!

So in conclusion, our first day in London was great despite not getting to see everything we had wanted to see but there are only so many hours in the day. The next day we would journey to the Warner Brothers Studio and that turned out to be another great adventure. Get ready for lots of Harry Potter love in my next post!

Cheers!

There and Back Again: Courtney's Tale

To be honest, I've been super intimidated to update this blog since returning home from my adventure since there's just so much to tell and I don't want to leave anything out. Seventeen days is quite a long time so I've decided to write about my travels in Europe in segments just to make things easier on myself (and on you). So let's start from the beginning!

The evening of April 7th I began my journey. I'll admit that I got a little emotional upon take off but let's be real here, this trip was a BIG DEAL and naturally there were a lot of feels involved. I had really started talking about visiting Europe when I was 22 years old. My anxiety had become semi-manageable and I had quite a bit of savings so I started giving a European vacation serious consideration. However, the boyfriend at the time had no money and to tell the truth, had no real interest in traveling with me at all. I was pretty upset at the time but after my experience last month I now realize that I went at exactly the right time in my life with exactly the right person. It was all meant to be.

I'm not going to lie, the flight sucked. Don't get me wrong, British Airways did their very best to make all of us comfortable but being trapped in a plane for nearly 10 hours is never fun. I still get nervous flying so I didn't eat a whole lot before departing so around 9pm I was pure starving. I started daydreaming about macaroni and cheese but then I noticed that I smelled something that kind of smelt like macaroni and cheese (very weird). I guess I was naïve but I honestly thought that all I was going to get was juice and a cookie on this flight. Boy, was I WRONG! The flight attendant asked me if I preferred the curry chicken or pasta bake. I asked her if the pasta was vegetarian and she said she didn't know. I took a peek at it but it was hard to tell so I told her I didn't want to risk it. A few minutes later she came back and plopped the tray in front of me and said, "You better taste it just in case. I don't want you to starve." Pure angel! The pasta did in fact turn out to be vegetarian but it also came with bread and butter, a side salad, tea, water, and coffee cake! My tummy was very happy! After my feast I tried to get some sleep but I don't think I was very successful. I drifted in and out of consciousness but I don't think I got any actual sleep. Yadda yadda yadda ten hours went by and I see London out of my window and got a dash emotional again. My layover in London wasn't too bad; I filled the time with people watching. I finally arrived in Glasgow at 5:20pm the NEXT DAY! Spoopy!

As I walked through the airport the excitement started to build. I was finally going to get to see my dearest, Melissa in 3D. I navigated myself through the crowd and then I saw her! It was again, very emotional! She was just so cute and we both were so excited. It was a Hallmark moment for sure. My first impression of Scotland was that it was SO COLD! I was not prepared for it to be so cold--yikes! We took the bus back to her flat and I got to meet her sweet mum and her adorable kitty, Shadow. We had Dominoes pizza for dinner which was funny for me since I wasn't expecting there to be Dominoes in Glasgow. I slept for a few hours but woke up at 1am wide awake. During that time I made friends with Shadow, the Creature of the Night.

The next day started off good. We took the subway into town and Melissa showed me her turf. We went into a super cute shop called Primark and she bought me an adorable blue dress with a black peter pan collar for my birthday. However, while in Primark I started to feel a bit...weird. My stomach started doing funny stuff and once that happens my anxiety will slowly start to kick in. We stopped at Hill Head Bookclub for lunch (even though I wasn't hungry) and I ordered a veggie sandwich thinking that would be the safest thing for someone who's feeling sick to order. BAD IDEA. Making myself eat made everything so much worse and I had to visit the bathroom more times than I'd care to admit. It took all of my strength not to vomit everywhere. After lunch we were walking to the subway when I had to tell the truth that I was feeling super nauseated and having a bit of a panic attack. A weird thing about Europe is that there are very few trash bins on the street. For someone about to hurl, this is not the best news. The thought of barfing right onto the street or on the subway was more than I could bear.

Somehow I managed to make it back to her flat without puking though. I had been so tired in town that day but when she left me alone in her room to nap I could not sleep. I felt so bad about feeling ill the first day of the trip. All I could think was, "Well, Courtney, you already fucked it up. You've ruined the trip. This was a mistake. You're not meant to travel the world." All of these negative thoughts kept rolling around in my head. It was the worst. I truly thought that the rest of the trip was going to be a disaster and that I'd let my anxiety win.

I'm happy to report that that wasn't the case. In retrospect, I can't believe I was so hard on myself. First of all, I was super jet lagged. It should've been no surprise that I felt super ill after flying for 12 hours and getting hardly any sleep. Also, I was in a new country with a girl I had never met in person (and was worried wouldn't like me). Combine all of those things and anyone would feel barfy.

The next day and the days to follow were gold. Next stop was London but I'll save that tale for my next post. We were there for 2 days and one of those days was spent at the Harry Potter Studio Tour so I might break those into two posts as well.

Thanks for reading!

Love,
Courtney

Three More Moons

After today the Earth will only have to rotate 3 more times before I'm on an airplane. So far I'm feeling very positive about things. Normally, I'd be having vomitty butterflies in my tums and be having a panic attack but not this time. I just keep reminding myself just how much fun we're going to have and how many amazing things I'm going to get to see.

Here's a bit of good news too! I emailed our host in Copenhagen to get some directions to his apartment since Google Maps was not very help at all. Not only did he give AMAZING directions, he told us that he and his family will be in Portugal during our visit so we get the entire apartment to ourselves! I had only booked for the loft of his apartment which had 2 beds and an office (plenty of room for 2 people). We only paid $66 USD a night for the loft so I figured we could just eat out while we were there since we wouldn't have access to a kitchen but I'm very happy to see that now we will! We'll probably be eating our lunch out so we can people watch or sit in the park but I'd like to eat breakfast and dinner in the room. I'm just so impressed by how hospitable all of our hosts have been from Airbnb. I think I might use Airbnb for all of my foreign travels from now on :)

I did some more research on Copenhagen today and there's tons of free stuff to do and that makes me very happy. Just north of the city they have the world's oldest amusement park, Bakken. It's 431 years old and has 34 roller coasters, a ferris wheel and some free fall rides. Also, it's connected to a park that has free range DEER! And that's not even the best part, it's completely FREE! So we'll have to make a stop there and also to Tivoli, which is another amusement park that Copenhagen is famous for. After going to a bunch of art museums and whatnot it'll be nice to go to a theme park and just have FUN.

Tomorrow morning we're going to have our last Skype meeting to get us hyped up for the trip (well, more hyped). It's so weird to think that in 3 more days (well, 4 if you count the 7 hour difference between here and Europe) I'll be meeting face to face with my favorite human being. It's just kind of surreal. I had always hoped that we would meet someday and now it's actually happening! I cannot wait! We're going to have such a great time. I was telling Melissa in my last letter that if we find that we travel well together that this can be the first of many trips we can take together. It would be so awesome to get to see each other every few years and put another stamp in our passports. I'm thinking that my next BIG trip might be to Japan in 2016. I've wanted to go there my whole life. I think I can save up enough money in the next 2 years. I'm really good at saving my money ;)

Anywho, this will be my last post before I leave so I will write again when I return. Wish me luck and thanks for joining me in this adventure!

Love,
Courtney

Lil' Goth Baby

Two Weeks

As of today, we have hit our two week mark. In exactly  a fortnight (Glob, I love that word) I will be making my first journey across the Atlantic Ocean. It's so dreamy! I think that this trip is going to change my life forever. Not everyone gets to experience a trip like this in their lifetime (my parents have never been anywhere out of North America) and I feel very fortunate. Being from a culture that's only a few centuries old, I'm very excited to get to see places that are so rich with history. It's going to be amazing walking down streets that have been walked upon by people for hundreds of years. It's very romantic to think about.

However, while I'm very excited about all of the amazing things I'm going to get to see and experience I'm also trying very hard to keep my anxiety in check. Sometimes there's a fine line between anxiety and excitement and it can be hard to differentiate the two. But I must give myself props for handling all of this so well. The fact that I'm even going on a trip of this magnitude is HUGE progress for me. Ten years ago (even 5 years ago) I wouldn't have been able to go on this trip. My anxiety disorder kept me on a tight leash and I had so many limitations. In fact, ten years ago I was pretty much housebound, believe it or not. I had so many phobias that my life became pretty isolated and small. I couldn't work and I could barely handle going to school. But with the support and love of many people in my life I began to face all of the things I was afraid of. It's weird thinking about the person I was back then since the person I am today is so different. For many years I had an eating with people phobia and for 5 years I didn't eat out with anyone. I ate all my meals at home because my anxiety was so intense at the time that I was nauseous practically around the clock. Since I felt queasy so often I worried constantly that I was going to throw up (and Glob forbid, throw up in front of PEOPLE). And now I love eating out with friends. It's one of my favorite things to do. But back then I cared so much about what others thought about me that I let it consume me. I would avoid any situations that could result in potential embarrassment. Living this kind of life led to very low self esteem and as you can imagine, very few friends. My future seemed so bleak in those days and I had pretty much renounced any hope of getting over my anxiety. Pretty bummer times, yo.

But as you know, things did get better! During this past decade I learned a lot about Anxiety Disorder and educated myself on it thoroughly. One of the most valuable things I learned about this disorder was that MILLIONS OF PEOPLE have it. It wasn't just me. I wasn't just "crazy" like I believed I was for many years. I was just a negative thinker, a worrier, and very sensitive. Just knowing that I wasn't alone was super beneficial to me. However, once I learned that most of my problems came from how I speak to myself internally, I realized I had the power to heal myself. I heard a quote somewhere in my research, "I am the lock but I am also the key". It's taken years but I've realized how to spot negative thinking patterns and how to stop them and replace them with a positive thought. Through this whole process I've become a very positive person and it's funny how now everyone comes to me when they're feeling down and need cheering up. But the most important thing I learned about phobias is that you HAVE to face them. If you don't you give them power and that power can quickly take over your life (and peace of mind). It's very scary but you have to force yourself to do the things that frighten you. It's best to take things slowly and do baby steps but by doing the things that you're afraid of you'll realize that you're not going to die and it's not the end of the world. You have to give yourself praise for any steps in the right direction. We all need to learn how to be our own best friend and love ourselves unconditionally.

When I was about 25 years old I made a decision (one of the best decisions I've ever made) and it was to stop being who I thought other people wanted me to be and to just be myself; to 100% embrace who I am and love that person completely. I've always been different and kind of "weird" and for most of my life I suppressed those parts of myself and was very unhappy as a result. But once I started being myself and not caring if people liked me or not, something funny happened. People liked me! Everyone at university wanted to be my friend; I was my professor's favorite student. I finally set the real me free and I have no regrets.

I still have my bad days though, I'm only human. I've accomplished so much with my battle against anxiety disorder but I'll never be "cured" or anything. I just learned how to deal with anxious feeling when they arise. But I've never travelled for this long without my family or in another country so some amount of anxiety is bound to happen. I'm going to try not to think about that though. I'm trying reallllly hard just to focus on all of the fun we're going to have. I know this trip won't be perfect and there will be bumps on the road but we're going to leave with so many memories. I simply cannot wait!

Wish my luck! And thank you for reading this little blog and sharing these experiences with me.

Xoxo,
Courtney

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