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Fashion Advice from Lauren

| Viciously Sweet

I totally promised that I would post a doodle tonight. And I will follow through.

I really have so much going on that taking a moment for a doodle was the best thing I have done this week. And if there is anything that I super care about besides doodles, Christmas, and boats and stuff… is fashion. I consider myself to be a pretty fashionable girl. Well I have personal style… Because most people don’t consider fashion being in your 20s and trying to dress like some That Girl, Mary Ann from Gilligan’s Island hybrid. I have always followed the creed of Madonna and express myself with my funky fresh threads and curly hair, so although I may not always be in fashion… I feel like a totally rad, really short, super model.

And just because I like the way I dress. I wouldn’t tell anyone to not wear something they love if they feel that it expresses their inner being. You want to wear that yellow leisure suit, go for it banana brother. You want to have permed bangs, rock them Lunch Lady Awesome. You want to dress like a 16th century nobleman, Feudalize yourself freaky dude. You rock your look until the sun comes up. There is just one thing  I ask in this world full of tie dye stretch pants to never ever wear:

https://i0.wp.com/img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/YolkieFan27/IMAG7403-1.jpg

They may hold your wallet and sunblock, and collection of shrinky dinks. But they make your junk sad.

♥Lauren

The Oh Oh Overload

| Viciously Sweet

You know this time of the year is a magical time. The leaves turn, the nights get longer, people are a little nicer (to your face)… and the Lauren is always stuck in the office missing these previously mentioned things.

I have been so busy these last few weeks that I actually have dreaded taking the days off I had previously planned. This Friday I plan on not going to work and I plan to celebrate my birthday, so I need to figure out how to make a whole new day somewhere in between that can be filled with work. I think if anyone can do it… it could be me. I would like to call it Blergsday. I am in need of a Blergsday miracle.

I have work up to my eyeballs, no one wants to Wang Chung with me, and some people at my work are even gossiping about me (for real). This basically means, I’m too awesome for them to handle. And their lives are really really boring. Trying to deal with all of this while simultaneously trying to figure out if I found the lid to my pot.. is really stressful!

Any who I also have to admit that I actually had to do something even more terrifying to make sure I don’t neglect my blog, my birthday,  my doodle time, the holiday I created about my friend Isabel, and my other responsibilities. I made a calendar with a drawing matrix and scheduled events. I this I just made making doodles a  professional commitment… how is this happening to me? How is it you can get so busy you have to schedule in fun? Is this real life?

 

 

♥Lauren
Also shout out to my brother and sister-in-law. I haven’t heard from either of you for what feels like forever. I hope your vacation was awesome. And I ♥ you all.

Where is my mind?

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I have been very scattered lately. I have all these ideas floating around on loose leaf paper, and post-it notes. I have accumulated so many of these scraps my desk at work and at home is beginning to look like I’m starring in a remake of “Memento.”

I actually even have physical post-it notes on my phone. and they are written on front and back. I am aware of them every time I pull my phone out… because as many people have told me they make apps that negate my use of actual post-its. But lets just be honest, if I have to click around on a screen to find this graphic post it note… I’m not going to remember it if I’m in a rush. And true story I have digital post-its on that program from May, and those things are still incomplete.

No problem in 3 months I’ll be wondering what I meant by “incandescent toboggan” and your digital reminder will be lost to the world…

You may be saying to yourself right now… why are you having a traffic jam of thoughts in your imagination? And I will tell you, I have let myself get busy. I tell myself that if I get it half done I can finish it later. And later just isn’t showing up. I’m so stressed at work my hair is graying, and I find myself nearly passing out from exhaustion at 7:30. Yes 7:30, I can barely make it past the time the elderly are watching Wheel of Fortune. Also trying to figure out the business end of all the projects I’m trying to start right now is also killing my brain. I realize the reason I didn’t go into business is because I frankly find it confusing. Numbers and marketing? No thanks, I just want to bust out some of my thoughts with the free crayons I got at lunch.

And they are freaking crayola’s… FOR FREE. I FEEL LIKE I JUST WON PUBLISHERS CLEARING HOUSE OF CHILDISH ART SUPPLIES!!!! In my day they would just give you those knock off really waxy crayons… kids these days are all about the name brand.

The only thing that has been calming me the last few art-less days is listening to music. However now my imagination is mixing with the sweet sweet melodies and the next thing I know I am preoccupied with my ideas again, and then out comes another sheet of paper, another post-it. And the vicious cycle continues. You can’t comprehend how much I don’t want to be looking at these ceiling plans and renderings. They are trying to consume me with their evil stringent rules and budgets.

Anytime my coworkers have talked to me in the last few days they first have to break me from the spell of Joy Division, New Order or Of Monsters and Men to get in a word to my brain… and even then it’s questionable if I can soak in what they are telling me. My brain is lost in the music:

Tonight I vow that I will make time for my artistic needs. Hopefully this will clear up my brain so I can get more done for the big Friday rush. And seriously… does anyone have a post it? I have this great idea about a…

♥ Lauren

Doodler’s Anonymous

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So the Professional moratorium on my mischief has not been successful. Telling me that I have to be good is like asking me to be bad. And it’s totally my own fault, I give into the temptation of me.

So anyways as certainly as my cubicle neighbor has a Gangnam problem, I have a problem with the good old paper and pen. I just realized I have nearly filled my 2012 doodle sketchbook. that is 176 pages front and back… and 1-4 doodles per page side. I only have 7 pages left, and the front inner cover and back cover are already filled.

Hi I’m Lauren, and I have a doodling problem:

I would get help… but I’d rather just draw about it

♥Lauren

The Secret Dancer

| Viciously Sweet

Hi, it’s Lauren. You know the giggler, dreamer and constant doodler. You come here to read about my zany adventures and mishaps of adulthood? Yeah, it’s that Lauren.

It’s Friday and I’m creating a landscape rendering at work. Where my computer is busy making pixels into magic… I’m just waiting about ready to make that picture look better. But in the meantime that doesn’t mean I can’t take sometime to open my Sketchbook of My Secrets (What my coworker the Dab calls it) and share some good times with everyone.

Now I’ve been fluctuating about my nervousness about things changing and my incredible joy for all the good things that are in my future. Not only is it frustrating to read about, it’s worse living it. Like for example in one day I can go from a morning of  sunshine and lollipops, to an afternoon on the Noah’s arc of my tears, back to an evening of happiness/concern for crying about something stupid. For example, yesterday I cried watching John Krasinksi act in emotional scenes, because he seems like such a nice guy. On the other hand I get so incredibly happy when I see mustaches in 50 cent machines, that I could hug strangers. I would like to say this makes me a charming mess, but no matter what is going on I never want to stay down for long. So I don’t, that brings us to today’s shiny new doodle:

And this is the song that I’m dancing to:

Have a wonderful weekend. And Amber be careful with the dry ice… it can be spooky dangerous.

♥Lauren

The Pen to my Paper

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Sometimes you just know people who make your everyday so much better just for knowing them. I know this may not be true for everyone*… but it is for me! Christine is one of those people, she is like the biggest champion of my endeavors and the best advice giver of all times… basically the wind beneath my wings you know.

She is in a word….. “fanta-stic”

She is so fantastic that pretty much completes me like we exist in that Tom Cruise movie… Last night for example, while meeting up for our Lady Night I showed up with a hunger in my tummy and only a stack of paper. She showed up with presents for me, and only pens.

Then we combined our weapons like we were a part of Voltron and partied for the rest of the evening.

And also because I watch too many movies… telling me she had a plethora of pens in a parking lot reminded me of this:

* My cool pen story footnote: Someone in particular recently told me they have no one in their life that they feel lucky for knowing. Not one person… in their entire time on this planet. I mean I feel really lucky for (and totally am enamored of) the people who just read this blog and leave me a comment every once in a while. I think almost everyone is worth knowing, and so many people are worth appreciating. But this person’s sad story didn’t bring me down, I stopped listening to this person seriously when they told me they think I’m immature because I am so cheery all the time. They can go suck it in Not-Nice-Ville population: 2. The other person in not niceville is described here, they are perfect to spend an eternity together in Not-Nice-Ville…

♫Lauren

My Cupcake Caper

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I realized my joy is getting braggy. And I’m not going to unpack the brag bags… because that is annoying. And my Inner Pam Beesly told me “Take it down a notch, the world knows about your joy.”

So I took a cue at not to make myself a real life Mary Sue, and to look at my sketchbook and pull a drawing from my archives that I already should have shared. (Hehe, I have archives!) A few months ago I was not feeling the joy, and much like the friendship of Turk and J.D. from “Scrubs” my Lady Turk counterpart (Nancy) told me to drag my booty to her house to experience the “WORLD’S GIRLIEST WEEKEND”. And we did, we watched teen movies until we passed out, we ate fancy hamburgers, we made crafts, we packed goodie bags for children, we went as lady dates to a wedding…

And

then

we

tried

to

make…

red velvet cupcakes…

from scratch.

Being our first go of making red velvet cupcakes from scratch we pulled out the recipes, and not wanting to risk making a horrible huge batch Nancy decided to cut the recipe… in 4s. And most impressively she had all the math all figured out, but that wasn’t the difficult part. The most difficult thing  was attempting to mix .375 teaspoons of baking soda with a 1/2 an egg. But we were in it. We were committed. Everything was going on the good side of moderately strange until I had to add the red dye to the mixer…and like most things that were happening to me at that time, the mixer decided to stage a mutiny, and it exploded in my face, and hands and all actually over my person.

My face was red… with more than embarrassment.

However the cupcakes were then baked and finished… and were fabulous except for 2 small flaws…

1. They were burgundy and pink, like a weird steak.

2. They were crunchy on the top.

We covered that stuff up with frosting like crazy! So we may not be opening that cupcake shop like the “2 Broke Girls” afterall:

♥ Lauren

Friday I’m a chicken… in love

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I don’t care if Monday’s blue…

Today I am so happy, I have to make a post. But I’m not exactly in the best position to be scanning doodles because I am making a set of drawings for work… it’s so hard to be an adult on a FRIDAY!

So to get to the meaty part of the post. I will say this doodle was inspired by several things… talking about drawing a Rooster in love with my wonderful sister-in-law, Season. And also by the department stores telling me that I should already be Christmassing (what is up with that?)

Any who, lets get to the first wintery chicken of 2012:

And a special request… if anyone out there does encounter snow.. can you make me a snow chicken?

Oh, and have a nice weekend… I’m going to!

♫Lauren

The Eternal Sunshine of My Spotless Mind

| Viciously Sweet

Some people are happy people. I have a confession… I am one of those happy people.

I know many of you are gasping, because your like… can that really be true? Does that mean all her giggles aren’t lies? Does that mean her sketchbook is really full of kittens and an occasional unicorn? Do you really not sit around all serious like a … professional?

The answer my dear readers is… YES!

And above all, I hope you have gleaned that I’m a huge dork, and unapologetic for it. I realize that most people who had a job that didn’t pay them much, and living with your parents after living without them for 5 years would not be as chipper as me. But sometimes we have to just appreciate it, we may not have all we want but what we have is good. And I’m not talking about settling for what we have (we all know how I feel about settling.)

But sometimes we can wear really pretty shoes, listen to some tunes that totally rock our world (Shout out to the Cure) and just appreciate a nice fall day. And that is what I choose to do today. For some reason I feel that today life is extra beautiful. Maybe it’s because I watched my favorite movie this week, maybe it’s because I’m an “adult” cherishing my new Hello Kitty wallet, maybe it’s because tonight I’m eating chicken. Mostly, it’s because I am in love with how I feel, when I feel optimistic about my future. I hope you find something beautiful today that makes you realize how wonderful the world is:

And if you need a little boost to give you some more happy read this article. Every time I do, I find something instantly to be happy about. Friends, smiling, music and sex… you really cannot go wrong reading it. It will make you want to take the boat of happiness the world sends you and sail about with joy in your heart!

♥ Lauren