Disneyland Part 2

A wild Twinkie-chan has appeared!

Sorry it's taken me forever and a day to continue my Disneyland story but I had my wisdom teeth taken out the week after I got back and have been feeling pretty shitty ever since (which I will write about in my next post). The second day we went to the park we got a pretty late start. We didn't leave the hotel until about 11:30 and got to Downtown Disney around noon. Stephanie needed caffeine in a bad way so we stopped and she got a latte but then we remembered that they won't let you back into the park with a beverage so we hung out in Downtown Disney while she had some breakfast. We entered the park around 1 o'clock and it was pretty much pandemonium. I had never seen so many people at Disneyland in my LIFE (and I've been going every year since I was a bebe). A huge parade was starting on Main Street so they had to herd all of us through this secret door I'd never been through before and we all migrated towards Tomorrowland. As a person with social anxiety, this was a pretty uncomfortable situation. We were completely walled in a sea of people and everyone was pushing and shoving in every direction.

Gramma Courtney needs a sammich

Somehow, we managed to get to Space Mountain where we'd hoped to get Fast Passes but of course we were waaaaaaay too late for that. The standby line had an estimated 80 minute wait so we decided to bite the bullet and just get in it. Well, 140 minutes later we finally got to ride it and I was about to drop dead from not having eaten yet. Stephanie's friend Danielle (ahoymiss) also happened to be at the park that day so we met her at the Jolly Holiday and I got another caprese and tomato sandwich. I was really excited to meet Danielle since I'd been following her on Instagram for a few years (she has one of the dreamiest IG accounts ever). She was there with her bf and his family so they could only meet us for a late lunch/early dinner but it was a very nice visit.

By the time we finished eating it was already dusk so we took barely any pictures that day (to my great disappointment). We made our way over to Adventureland and got in line for Indiana Jones and then things got wacky for a while. First of all, the line was out of control. They had us wait in this labyrinth of a line over by the Jungle Cruise before moving us back to the regular line. When we got in the normal line, though, they turned all the lights on super bright and said that the ride was temporarily closed due to a "routine procedure" so either somebody barfed all over the ride or there was a celebrity on it because they turned the lights on like that and repeated that same message 4 times. Most people left the line but we decided to tough it out since weren't in a big hurry to go on anything else.

I look a little cray cray in this photo

I think all day we only managed to go on a grand total of eight rides. If we hadn't gone the day before too I think we would've been majorly bummed by this but since we'd already gone on everything Friday it wasn't that big of a deal. One thing of note that happened on Saturday was that Stephanie had her first Dole Whip. I wish we'd been able to get one during the day when it wasn't freezing but the line is always a nightmare during the day so when we passed by it again around eight o'clock  there was NO LINE AT ALL. We hoped we could find somewhere inside to sit and eat them but there really isn't any indoor seating in Adventureland so we had to just freeze our buts and guts off outside.

The rest of the night is kind of a blur but what I do remember is that we went to Denny's afterwards for a late supper. I was dying again from lack of protein so I decided to order the loaded veggie omelet since it said it has 20 grams of protein (daaaaammmn!). My whole life I've hated eggs but after being forced to eat so many both in Thailand and in England (both places weren't very vegetarian friendly so my protein options were pretty limited) I've kind of developed a taste for them. Stephanie wound up ordering one too and we both inhaled them! I rarely eat all of my food but that day I was a member of the Clean Plate Club.

Accidental Matching

The next day our flights were scheduled in the late afternoon but check out was at 11am so we killed some time at a Coffee Bean and Tealeaf across the street from our hotel. Luckily, it was really slow on a Sunday because we hung out in there for like, 2 hours. Before we knew it, we were saying goodbye at the airport and going to our separate terminals. I honestly missed Stephanie the moment she left and when I got to my gate and checked my Instagram she had left me a comment saying she missed me already too, haha! I'm so glad that I've found someone who I get along with so well and who is so much fun to be around. We're talking about going to Japan this fall for her birthday so that's my next adventure I'll be dreaming about. I've wanted to go to Japan my whole life so that would be an amazing trip to get to take together.

I hope 2016 treats you all well and that it's filled with lots of good times and lots of adventures!

Xoxo,
Courtney

Baby's First Art Fair

This happened forever and a day ago but since I hadn't finished my travel stories yet, I thought I'd wait to blog about my art show. It was at Monarch Theatre last month and I showed with 42 other local artists. This was my first show as Iggy Starpup so I was very excited/nervous. I spent 2 months preparing so there was a lot of pressure for the show to be a success. For the most part, I'd say it was. The only exception was that I got SUPER sick the day before. Exactly 24 hours prior to the show I woke up with the flu (and I hadn't had the flu in many many years). It was probably a combination of stress and the fact that everyone I worked with was sick but the timing couldn't have been worse. If I hadn't had already sold all of my tickets to my friends I think I would've just backed out to be honest. But I felt an enormous amount of guilt bailing at the last minute. The morning of the show I took some Dayquil first thing after I woke up and by the grace of Glob, it actually worked. Within 30 minutes I felt better. Within an hour I thought, "I can maybe possibly do this." I had to be at the theatre at 2pm and since it was downtown, my dad gave me a lift. He was really worried about me and tried really hard to convince me to not go. It wasn't easy have to socialize with so many people for hours on end but I'm glad I went.

The show didn't start until 7pm so I was a little taken a back when they told us we had to be there at 2pm but our director assured us that we would need all of that time to set up and get photographed. I think it took me about 2 hours total to set up my booth but I did have to wait an hour for someone to help me set up my grid panel (I didn't have a boyfriend/husband to help me set up--I had to do everything myself) so I did end up doing a lot of waiting around. I popped some more Dayquil before they opened the doors and just told myself that I had to get through this. It helped build my confidence that a fellow artist bought a piece of mine before the show even started. Luckily I'd had the good sense to bring a chair with me, though, because there was no way I would've been able to stand for so many hours.

The show went from 7-11pm so it was a long day but it meant so much to me to see all of my friends there to support me. Some were only able to stay for a bit but knowing that they took the time to come downtown to support me and my art meant the world. It was super cool to watch people's face too as they made their way over to my booth. Everyone's faces went from mild interest to delight. I watched them as their eyes jumped from hoop to hoop and as they recognized characters they knew. It was very cool. Our director had told us to anticipate being at the theatre until 1am but I was positive it wouldn't run that long since it was a Thursday and things had thinned out by 10pm. We wrapped up around 10:45pm and I was home by 11:30pm. Even now, I don't know how I got through it being as sick as I was. Just looking at the photographs it's hard to tell that I was even sick but I guess that means I did a pretty good job with my makeup, haha.

In other art news, things have been going pretty well with my shop. I got interviewed recently for an article on a crafting blog and a crafting hero of mine, Twinkie-Chan, purchased one of my hoops! I've been a fan of hers for many many years so it's so cool knowing that she likes my work enough to want a piece in her home. That makes me so happy. In the past year I've befriended so many artists who I really admire and it's all thanks to social media. Even though my addiction to the internet does eat up a lot of my time, I am very grateful for the connections it's allowed me to make. In just 3 years my business has grown so much and I am excited for all of the possibilities and opportunities yet to come :)

Hang in there, baby

This past week has been so not the mama. I've been sick since last Wednesday and am still feeling pretty crummy. It's hard to get well when you have to work 10 hours a day almost everyday. Ugh. Everyone at my work has been sick too and I think we're all just passing our germs around. On top of that my mom fell down for the second time this month and that's been really stressful. She's getting x-rays today but I'm pretty sure she's broken something since she hasn't been able to get up on her own at all since she fell. So I've been filling in as her nursemaid and it's been really hard on me both physically and mentally. I never thought this would happen. That my mother who was once so strong and vivacious would become so fragile and delicate at only 62 years old. To be honest, I don't really know if she's going to be around one day to the next. I do appreciate that my family allowed me to come back home after things didn't work out in Seattle but I also think that my dad has been using me as a free caregiver for the past 2 years. I've had to take my mom to the ER several times since I got back to Arizona and to be honest, if I hadn't come home I don't think she'd still be with us. I'm glad I was there to help her but at the same time it's taking its toll on me.

My mom is always on my back about why haven't I found a husband blah blah blah but how am I supposed to date anyone when I work 50 hours a week and have to care for my elderly mother? I just don't have the time and men don't seem to be too enthused about dating someone in my "situation" anyway--so I've found out. My current life plan has been to stay with my folks for one more year so I can have a sizeable amount of money saved up to put towards my first home but with everything that's been going on this month, I'm wondering if I can handle living with my family much longer. It's putting me in a cruddy situation too because I really don't want to have a roommate again but I don't have enough saved up right now to live by myself if I were to move out in the next few months.

Some positive things, though, my business has been BOOMING lately. Booming a bit too much, haha. It's weird but as soon as I accepted the full time position at my day job I started to get flooded with orders. I absolutely love making hoops for people and my customers have been lovely but I haven't been able to take a day off in weeks. At least my vacation is almost here and I can just relax and not worry about everything going on at home. I've also decided not to take on any more custom orders next month since I want to have lots of new work prepared for my art show in March. I'm pretty excited about that and I think it'll be great for me to meet other artists and do some networking (and possibly meet someone cute!)

Well, if you have any good vibes you could spare, I'd really appreciate it. I have to get well in the next few days so I can be healthy for Thailand and I need my mom to be alright so I'm not just worrying about her the whole time I'm gone.

Thank you!

(And here's some new art to tide you over until I return)

Ice King Embroidery $45.00

Guy Farting Embroidery (SOLD)

Pikachu Embroidery (SOLD)

BMO Embroidery (SOLD)


 

Things have been going pretty good lately. Last month I sold more art than any other month before and this month seems to be following suit. I've gotten lots of new fans from Tumblr, Instagram, and DeviantART recently and am so happy to see my art getting more exposure. Speaking of exposure, I also recently got scouted by a show director at the Monarch Gallery and got asked to join RAW Artists. The director saw my embroideries on Etsy and now I have my first show post graduation this March! I'm so so excited! I have to sell 20 tickets to friends/well-wishers but then I get to show my work at the gallery for free, they'll put my profile on their website (and my interview), I get to keep 100% of the profits I bring in AND I get to show my work at several other RAW events around the country if I want to. Pretty sweet deal! I'm so jazzed about this show that I already bought the perfect dress for it (a velvet green dress from Forever21). I don't know how much space I'm going to be allowed but I want to have at least 10 hoops as well as some felt brooches and prints of my animal illustrations. I might even do a raffle for a free hoop!

Some more exciting news is that I managed to score front row tickets to see my favorite comedian, Aziz Ansari, next month!  He posted on Facebook that he was doing a show in Phoenix in January and that if you wanted to be notified for pre-sale tickets to sign up for his text alerts. Naturally, I signed up because I've been waiting forever to see him live again (I first saw him in Central Park in 2006) and on Monday around 11pm I got the text. I only have a flip phone though so I wasn't able to click on the link to buy the tickets so I texted my friend Rosalynn to see if she could buy us our tickets. Luckily, she was still awake and I about lost my mind when she told us we got in the front row! I've never been in the front row for ANYTHING so I'm beyond thrilled for this show! He might even talk to us since he usually talks to people in the front row! :D

Another bit of good news is that my older brother (the bane of my existence) finally got a real grown-up job and is MOVING OUT! Christmas has come early for the Doom family this year! For anyone who knows me irl, you can understand what a huge relief this is. I couldn't have asked the gods for a better gift this year. Peace and lovely lovely quiet. I'm hoping to land myself a real grown-up job in the not too distant future as well but I'm not in a huge hurry. Living with my family allows me to concentrate on my art and building my business as well as giving me the opportunity to save money for travelling. There are some downsides of course to living at home but it's only temporary and soon enough I'll be working 40 hours a week and making house payments along with all the other smallfolk out there. Being a grown up isn't as great as I thought it was going to be. Let that be a lesson to all you kiddos out there, enjoy being a kid AS LONG AS YOU CAN! Or if you absolutely have to grow up, don't let anyone tell you you're not allowed to enjoy the things you did as a kid. I'm going to play video games and watch cartoons for as long as I live. FTW!

Alright, my lovelies, thank you for reading! And I hope y'all are enjoying this holiday season!

One Night in Bangkok

Today I went to the doctor to get some vaccinations for Thailand. I got a tetanus booster and a hepatitis A and B shot. Oh, man! My arms are SO sore! I thought they'd at least spread them out across a couple appointments but they were down to do them all today. Surprisingly, the tetanus wasn't nearly as bad at the hepatitis. Those two really took the wind out of my sails. Besides having two practically dead arms I feel really yucky and tired. Bleah! I guess it beats getting super sick on my trip, though. Luckily, I did my research on what shots I would need because I need two round of hep B and you need a month in between shots. Once I get my final shot next month I'll be able to just concentrate on planning the trip itself.

One positive thing about today's doctor visit was that it didn't cost me one red cent. Thanks to our president, my immunizations were 100% covered by my insurance. I didn't have health insurance for the past 6 years so I am so grateful to finally be covered again. Being a starving artist is already stressful enough without having to worry what the heck you're going to do if you get sick. If I hadn't had health insurance my visit today would have cost me about $400 which I really couldn't afford. So say what you will about Barack Obama but I'm think he did a great thing by helping all of us without health benefits. I'm hoping that this country will someday go one step further and mandate universal healthcare to all its citizens. But, hey, I'm a dreamer!

Anywho, I leave for Bangkok on February 1st and will return on February 9th. The journey there is going to be INTENSE to say the least. We leave at 7:15am and won't arrive until 11:15pm THE NEXT DAY! I think it's 26 hours total. We'll have a layover in LA for an hour then another in Tokyo for an hour and a half. This time I used my noggin' and got us both aisle seats the whole way. I learned my lesson when I was trapped next to a sleeping 80  year old Russian lady for 13 hours back in April. NEVER AGAIN. NEVER EVER AGAIN. If the journey there doesn't kill us, I think we're in for a really amazing adventure. Bangkok looks like such an amazing city and Thailand is a beautiful country.

I haven't had too much time to plan out an itinerary yet but the things I know I'd like to do are:

*meet my friend Shong (who I've been online pals with since 2007)
*spend a day at the beach (it'll be summertime there)
*go on a river tour
*visit lots of Buddhist temples
*ride bikes to the markets at night
*rent a scooter
*visit some art galleries
*go dancing
*and eat lots of yummy things

I'm SO EXCITED! OHMYGOSH! And it's sooooo soon too! Only 86 days to go! ACK! It's amazing that a year ago I'd never been out of the USA and now I'm about to scratch another continent off my list.

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

Copenhagen: Part I

Photo by Melissa

The next day we were up before the dawn and power-walked to the U-baun. I was so ready to get on that plane and leave Berlin in the dust. The difference between Berlin and Copenhagen was like night and day. Our first impression of CPH was "OMG! It's frikkin' adorable!" The houses were all super charming and everyone's yards were full of flowers. On top of that, everyone we encountered was so NICE. I had always heard that Copenhagen was the World's Happiest City and now I know why. This city is so dreamy and we just felt comfortable, relaxed, and safe from the moment we got off the train.

Our adorable little kitchen

I had contacted our Airbnb host a week before I left for Europe just so I could get better directions to the flat (Google Maps directions were too vague) and not only did he give us excellent directions he said that since his family would be on holiday for the duration of our stay that we had access to the entire house! I had only booked for the loft, which had 2 beds and a bathroom and had only paid $66 USD a night so to get to use the entire house for the same price was unbelievable! We had no trouble finding the house...finding the key was a different story. He had hidden it under a wood pile and after a brief freak out we managed to find it. When we walked into the house we could NOT believe our good luck. This was the most adorable house I'd ever seen in real life. It was like an Ikea showroom and it was all ours for 3 glorious days! When I made a pitstop in the loo I noticed the floors were...wait for it--HEATED! I screamed to Melissa, "You gotta get in here!!!" We were so impressed by the Danish and we hadn't even left the house yet!

We took at little snooze since it was only about 10am by then and it was the best nap ever. We woke up so refreshed after the bad luck in Berlin. Since we hadn't really eaten yet we hopped on the train and went in search of food. In the city center there were tons of yummy things but I decided on a giant veggie sandwich. There was a boy working at the sandwich shop who was absolutely precious. I wish we could've taken him with us. After lunch we just walked around a bit and soaked up the atmosphere. Eventually we made our way over to see the Little Mermaid. It was so cute! I loved it so much that I bought a little figurine.

The Little Mermaid

We got back to the apartment around dusk (the walk to the Little Mermaid turned out to be a pretty long walk). On the way back, though, we stopped at a local supermarket and picked up some dinner things. We also bought a chocolate cake and whipped cream that really hit the spot. It was only 30DKK and lasted the whole time we were in Denmark. I think Melissa made risotto that night with mixed vegetables (such an angel). I took a bath that night since we had this lovely giant bathtub that looked awful lonesome. I never take baths at home since I feel bad about wasting water in the desert so this was a nice treat and a great way to end the day. We had bought mud masks while we were in Germany so we used those that night too and had a mini spa night.

Photo by Melissa

The next day we'd be going to a famous Danish tourist attraction, Tivoli, so we turned in pretty early. Melissa had never been to an amusement park so we were pretty excited. I'll tell you all about our day of fun at Tivoli in my next post.

Thanks for reading!

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