doodles

The Acheivement

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I did it. I really did it.

I finished my sketchbook 176 pages front and back. A whole year of doodles. An entire year of my existence chronicled in my jazzy doodling style.

I am going to be partying and enjoying the fact that I actually finished something… instead of giving up at 90%. I’m feeling good about this and maybe I can actually finish all my other projects….

Oh wait… I didn’t finish them because I was doodling:

Thank you little sketchbook. You were amazing. And I highly suggest to anyone out there who likes to doodle to keep a book. It becomes part diary, part planner, and 100% thrilling to look over. Like for example July was an awful month for me. But November was really rad.

And your book can tell you so much about what was happening in your life! It was there when I found out what Shepard’s pie is. When Enrique Iglesias grabbed my butt. That time I really wanted pancakes, and the time I decided to live in a blanket for as long as possible. That night when my life became a romantic comedy. It was there for the finale of Mad Men. It was there when I couldn’t stop laughing, it was there when all I could do was cry. It was also there apparently when I was studying for tests, passing notes to my friends, and when I had to draw a rooster in love. It was an amazing doodle year.

Actually this year has kind of been amazing. And it’s all in my book. I know this post was a little braggy. But It’s an accomplishment for me. New book ahoy! Also Yonadab is right my book is full of secrets but it is a doodle cryptix.

I miss you Amber!

♥Lauren

You wanna be starting something?

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This week I have started a craze in the office that is Michael Jackson themed.

I cannot for some reason get over the song “You wanna be Startin’ Something” Mostly because firstly it may be the catchiest thing ever recorded. Secondly it has the best insult in it of all time:

“You’re a vegetable”

It can be used in any conversation.

Ex.

Friend: So. Politically speaking….

You: You’re a vegetable!

—————

Boss: Can you file these papers?

You: You’re a vegetable

—————

Mailman: How are you today?

You: You’re a vegetable

—————

You: You’re a vegetable

Pee Wee Herman: I know you are. But what am I?

—————

Thank you Michael Jackson for making my life more fun than ever before:

And I didn’t color it because it doesn’t matter if it’s black or white!

♥Lauren

The Isle of Misfit Toys has found it’s Queen

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This time of year is a really fabulous time. You get to see the world be a little cheerier.

But it is also a time of plentiful get together’s, parties, meet and greets… and the ever exclusive couples parties (that I attend in my own special unicorn fashion). These parties make me excited to get to see my friends, and pray that they are wearing a Christmas sweater that is enough to make Bill Cosby enviable. I always do something at these events (like fall into a planter, forget everyone’s name) and this helps me remember that I am an awkward goof.

Now being a goof is really great at certain times…. I can lighten up a family shindig. I can can tell an entertaining tale, I can have my friends in stitches (of laughter, I’m not violent). But not every party is just friends, and some parties are mandatory and full of people who rather don’t like you.

This is when I want to climb into my bedazzled cocoon, because no matter what I do these people will talk down to me. The will say cruel and unnecessary comments about my style, lifestyle, weight, and anything that strikes them at the moment. This is the very thing I dread each year about the holiday season.

But this year is different. This year, I really don’t care.

I would be a heart shaped peg if I was a peg… this is an amazing truth!

And the reason I don’t care is that…. I like me. And if you feel the same way about the holiday season… remember there is only ONE you for a reason (unless you are a multiple) and you being around is an awesome thing. So what if the people you have to spend time with don’t think you are that fantastic… somewhere out there other people do. I know I sound like a Hallmark Card, but if you are reading this you are an AWESOME person. Simply, because you are. So go around this holiday season being yourself around not so nice coworkers, or weird uncles, or mean mothers in line to buy toys for their children. So what if they don’t like you… Just like being yourself!
I’m so awkward!
Be wonderful to everyone, especially if they don’t deserve it.

♥Lauren

Fashion Advice from Lauren

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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 Duality of My Nature

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Now some of you may know I’m kind of a girly girl. Like, a serious matching-jewelry-to-my-sweater-to-my-soul, kind of girl. Like, I skip on clouds made of cotton candy kind of girl. And this by the way is all true, my soul is bright orange and covered in flowers, and my the bottoms of my shoes are sticky.

However, even for a girly girl I have to have time out to just chill. And this is where I bring out on display my two polar opposite senses of style. Let me describe them a little for you.

1. My “I’m so fancy, and sparkly” look. This transcends all of my usual outfits that make me look like a sailor from a 1960s musical or Jenna Rink from “13 going on 30”. When I get fancy… it is ornate. There are fake eyelashes, diamond flaked mascara. There is serious fancy time hair. There are borrowed jewels. Basically you take me out for a fancy night… I’m going to show up looking like we’re going to the Academy Awards. (This is also probably why no one takes me to nice places, but why I’m tops on the bring a date list to company parties. Just in case you are wondering, I can clean up well, and I like appetizers.)

2. My “Liz Lemon having it all” outfits. This is when I’m comfortable, and it usually very shortly follows my “fancy” look. This is when I have no more patience for trying to look nice. This is that moment when your makeup is begging to be washed off. This coincides with the moment I can’t imagine living without my  pajama pants and a tank top. There is also sometimes a sweat shirt involved. And since I only own 1 sweatshirt there is a 100% chance that it is a “Montana Grizzlies” sweatshirt. And when I’m dressed like that my only accessories are my glasses, a blanket, and a remote control. Because when we have reached the point of “Liz Lemoning” I’m down for comfy times, and comfy times involve me eating cheesy snacks and being wrapped in a blanket as Vanellope Von Schweetz says in “Wreck-it Ralph”, “I wrap myself up like a little old homeless lady”.

Now I am sharing this story because The weekend of my birthday I went out with my BFF Christine. And I was fancy. I had decked my own halls, I was like a Christmas Tree prepared for a lighting ceremony. (It was my birthday, after all.) And then… then, I got back to her apartment and shed all my fanciness to reveal my plain old self. Now don’t get me wrong even plain Lauren is still sparkly… because I sparkle from the inside… I just well…

———————- 2 minute time break————————–

And the rest of the time I look like Mary Ann from Gilligan’s Island. And to those who think my styles are weird, I’m comfortable with every style I have, because it’s all in fun. True story.

♥Lauren

Happy Fangsgiving Everyone!

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It’s finally here. The day we’ve all been waiting for.

Fangsgiving.

So make sure you cook your undead turkey, hang your spiderwebs, bake your store bought apple pie and just sit back and relax. The day is here for you and your spooky-scary friends and family. Make the most of it, and don’t go out in the sun. I think you may melt or sparkle:

Just remember to fang it up!

In all honesty, have a wonderful weekend. Eat. Buy things. And be wonderful.

♥Lauren

A Fangsgiving Miracle

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I am still trying to hold on to Halloween. Mostly because I’m not a big Thanksgiving fan.

I mean I love having a day dedicated to being thankful. I get to see my family… but I really cannot stand cornucopias.

And I am always afraid their little coned shaped wicker horn is going to show up and provide my day of thankfulness with a serious visual blight.

So I suggest a new jazzy holiday. One that combines the sheer magic of Halloween and the thankfulness of Thanksgiving:

And see you still get all the best parts of the holidays… spooky scary things and food! The best part is that the cornucopia must check itself at the door.

And you can party safely without the fear of that horn of plenty getting in your way.

♥Lauren

The Pro’s and Con’s of Cornucopias

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Hi Internet. This is a new type of post for me. It’s a pro/con subject matter. And this one is about cornucopia’s. If you find yourself questioning the existence of the horn of plenty… this is the article Phil Collins would say you’ve been waiting for all your life.

Pro Cornucopia: Amber’s side of the cornucopia debate

I’m indifferent.  They just hold fruit and stuff… I don’t see the big deal.

I don’t love them or hate them.

Indifferently yours,

Amber

Con Cornucopia: Lauren’s Cornucopia Conundrum

It’s Lauren. And I have something to tell you. I don’t like cornucopia’s. The back story of this is that when I was a kid I loved to check the brand new calendar to see what day of the week my birthday was. Like every other cool kid out there I prayed it never landed on a Wednesday… because it would be too far to wait for a weekend! But the calendar always had alternative plans for me…

Unlike my sister who was born in July and usually had beautiful pictures of fireworks. And my parents born in June had beaches, summer in full swing. And both Christine and Isabel born in March who would have fields of gorgeous flowers for their calendar month. And the children of December who had these fantastic winter scenes, Christmas, promises for the New Year… and of course October and September riddled with the most gorgeous changing leaf colors you have ever seen. And then there was November… and the Cornucopia.

It was on a table, near a turkey, with a pilgrim, with an Indian. It was featured by itself, it was outside marring the beautiful scenery. But it was always there. And even on the calendars without a picture it would sneak its little wicker basket self in there.

Horns of sadness is more like it

And when I grew up I started to resent it, not just because of the beauty of the other months. But because the cornucopia was always so forced. I never remember us having one for any other day. I don’t remember getting a cornucopia to celebrate the crisp days of autumn, from a horn of plenty lot. Actually it was just wicker with plastic fruit on my grandma’s kitchen table. And it was only out for Thanksgiving. Now here is the moment we can all admit it’s not as charming as a Christmas tree, it’s not as fun as an Easter basket stuffed with candy, and it definitely could not hold a candle to a pink foiled doily valentine, heck it can’t even compete with Flag Day. It’s just a wicker horn with vegetables in it. And since I never have had to live a cold winter clutching my wicker horn to get me through the long nights, I just can’t get into it.

I also want to take this time to share from first to sixth grade I had to color the same cornucopia color page… every year. It may have even been this picture:

linked from family color pages. Featuring Families that color horns of seasonal fruits and vegetables

And one more thing about cornucopia’s. They are not even very convenient. I mean I don’t carry around horns of water. Or horns of markers. When I go to the market I don’t say “Horn” when they ask “Paper or plastic”. There are so many better ways to hold things. Bags, boxes, those little packs on the sides of mules. I just don’t get their horn-shaped allure.

And although this week I will get to see my family and eat wonderful food with them. And I will have a fantastic time… there is just a little hesitation knowing that a horned foe may show up. I just hope that we have plenty too cumbersome to fit in that wicker horn… if you know what I mean.

Happy Thanksgiving week everybody. Decorate accordingly.

Lauren

Club 27

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Seriously. My birthday is finally here.

That means the whole calender year is nearly complete. But for me it’s a beginning. A new chapter.

And since my 26th year was one of the strangest, and most surreal 365 days of my existence and tentatively titled “The Passion of Unicorn” … I’m expecting my next 365 to be even more exciting.

I’ve been sharing my experiences on this blog all year so this post is going to be like one of those clip shows from the Golden Girls… except it will have awesome new material too. Because that is what I do.

So let’s kick it off with the old.

Things I’ve Learned in my 26th year:

♥ Crepes are fantastic. And in the right moment, they can be life changing.

♥ That every one deserves to feel like their life is a romantic comedy, even if it only lasts for a few hours.

♥ That everyone should “be prepared to be surprised”, because if you keep your eyes open… you can see that life is made of them.

♥ That sometimes you should just try to realize in the future things won’t suck in the way they do now… but it isn’t going to be perfect.

♥ That the things you want, aren’t always what you need or get… but I will never settle for anything that is less than wonderful.

♥Some people in the world really just like you for who you are. And I send them my most sincere thank you’s.

♥There is no shame in telling people to “Wang Chung tonight” especially if you are sincere about these wishes.

♥Sometimes a churro makes everything better.

♥My optomistrist is right, I should have a tv show. Everyone would have died of anticipation during my sweeps month.

♥Even though loved ones have great intentions… no one but you, knows what is best for you.

♥ Talk to strangers. Because sometimes awesome things happen. This is a shout-out to all my lovely blog readers who I have never met in real life but feel an affinity for!

♥And if there was a narrator to my life, it would be Drew Barrymore.

Things I will do in the next year:

♥Buy more red lipstick. I’m so tired of people trying to drag it down. I like it and it likes me. And I don’t care what dudes say about it.

♥Enjoy my girliness with reckless abandon. I’m 27 and I bought sparkly diamond mascara. #dealwithit

♥Finish up my new doodle store! Preview notice, it’s going to be called the “Viciously Sweet Shop” and it may be candy themed. Take that, Katy Perry.

♥Kick back and draw. Work is stressful enough, turning it into silly doodles ALWAYS makes it better

♥ Blast through my ARE’s. Boy have I been procrastinating on those. I need to get my booty back in gear and get it done with.

♥ Maybe the masters… I should probably add that to the list too. I mean if it’s out there… maybe I’ll do it.

♥ Take more dance classes. I stopped doing them because I thought they were “uncool” during my teen years. Well teen Lauren was wrong… I love them, they are the best way to get out energy. And also the weirder the better. I like telling people that I Tahitian dance, and I love dancing around my office. And I think more dancing could help my confidence when I go out to places. Any suggestions of what kind?

♥ Learn how to play the songs I love on Ukulele. I will then pull out said ukulele from my trunk and surprise serenade people.

Have a wonderful Lauren Birthday weekend!

♥Lauren