good fun

The Lauren Way

| Viciously Sweet

So I’m all stuck at work today. And outside couldn’t be more beautiful. I know this is true, because I saw it at lunchtime while eating pudding in my coworkers car. That isn’t a weird thing…

So how can you deal with this cruel peek at the beautiful world a then return to your bleak little cubicle? You can handle it the Lauren Way! I just sit in my cubicle and make things cuter than they actually appear!

For example: Your plain old boring stapler? Try to make it yellow and then coordinate everything you can to it!

This is my stapler… my nails match it now, and so does my post-its. Someday it will look like the sun is coming from my cubicle, true story!

 

And doodles… well, just make sure they make something cuter than it actually needs to be:

This is how I get through tough times… I draw regular items as even cuter then they actually appear.

Oh, and Indulge in your silliness. You may not think it’s the best thing, career wise…and it may not get you as far as someone with a total stick up their butt and a jacket with straight up lapels… BUT, you won’t get bogged down in the junkiness of a regular work day, either. And sometimes the carpet sample guy will bring you a big throw rug just because you make work fun (that is a true story!)

Can you expect anyone else to be giggly and happy for you?

And soon enough it will be 5pm and you can go home and dance until you pass out. Oh darn, I think I just gave away my plans. Also I should study and draw more cute things. #ALLMYDREAMSAREWEIRD

♥Lauren

Sittin’ on the dock of the bay

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One of my favorite songs in all of life is “Sittin’ By the Dock of the Bay” by Otis Redding.

I say this because although it’s not a catchy dance song, or crafted with recorders and office supplies, it still brings a smile to my face. I used to sing it like crazy when I was a child because… Well, I was really weird. I have since grown up and I’ve done the regular things people do, I grew my hair out longer than that standard bob all little girls had, I have tried to watch Twilight, I have eaten a load of pizza…

But I don’t spend my time on the dock of the bay anymore “wasting time”…

This is why I’m made for the internet…

Party Freaking ON!

♥Lauren

Isabel Stare-A-thon 2012: Exponential THON

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Today is the final day of staring, glaring and gazing at the one and only Isabel.

Since I have not been as up to date this year on my staring logs. I have decided the best way to share how much staring at Isabel means to our office. Cue the romantic music.

The guys in the office are really into the whole event:

It’s been really hard to get work done in the office because people cannot literally look away from the live Isabel feed on the computer. The professional loves that the stare-a-thon can be integrated into his cubicle time:

And then there is Jonathon… our new coworker:

Jonathon preparing to stare

Has not only caught the staring bug:

But he also made this years staring slogan:

Yes, I work with some really weird dudes. And well, they could be doing worse things than staring. So as long as the star-a-thon is on we’re all safe… wait, it’s over.

Happy Stare-a-thon Isabel!

2012 Isabel Stare-a-thon, out.

♥Lauren

Make It Big!

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Noel and Liam Gallagher.

The Jackson 5.

Hanson.

Debarge.

All musicians that make beautiful music with their family members. Notice who is not on that list, Christie & Lauren… And for all you jazzy readers out there, that would be me and my sister.

So we may not have the rivalry of Liam and Noel… nor do we have the stage presence of the Jackson 5. Actually we barely know how to play instruments. But that is not the point, it shouldn’t stop our musical dreams.

Christie and I have discussed the possibility of taking our love of WHAM! on the road. And calling ourselves “LADY WHAM! a Wham! Experience”… but we have one very important problem:

Wham! Bam!

Now if my brother wants to be the Andrew Ridgely… We can get this show on the road… but I have a feeling he may not want to… because he doesn’t want to revisit his time with “the mullet”:

But Tony could totally pull this off!
Image Courtesy of: FANPOP!

Anyways, we will probably never resolve this issue… and time can never mend the careless whispers of a Wham! coverband.

Have a wonderful day everybody…. and yes, I would make the better George Michael.

♥Lauren

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

The Isle of Misfit Toys has found it’s Queen

| Viciously Sweet

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

Isabel Stare-a-thon 2012: The Flock

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Happy Isabel Stare-a-thon everybody!

I was thinking that the stare-a-thon could use a little more pizzaz. So I dusted the sparkles from my brow and said… “Why not make it a little more musical?”

So today read the following with the sweet beat of the 12 days of Christmas:

On the 8th day of the stare-a-thon I would like to share with thee a Bird staring at Isabel by some trees:

He did 7 hours of staring’

With 6 passing tourists…

5 DAYS IN A ROW!!!!!

With 4 bathroom breaks,

3 parked cars…

2 beatty eyes…

At ONE Isabel holding flowers!

I’m expecting Isabel to be questioning my brain thoughts after reading this. And for everyone who is severely confused by a holiday made to stare at a stranger… I should have a doodle up later today too. And a story, a story about things that can only happen to me.

♥Lauren

The Duality of My Nature

| Viciously Sweet

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