Ashlee Craft's World

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  • TUTORIAL: How to Hide Your Blemishes With Google Eyes!

    Article originally appeared in Issue 3 of Friday Magazine, which is an amazing, weird, wonderful, & magical indie mag you should TOTALLY check out because I adore it.

  • A Phoenix is Born – NEW BOOK!

    A Phoenix is Born is an avant-garde love letter to the world in the style of a novel by artist & writer Ashlee Craft.

    PUBLICATION DATE: November 6, 2018
    PAPERBACK 159 Pages
    GENRE: EXPERIMENTAL FICTION/MAGICAL REALISM

    Kindle eBook
    Paperback

  • New Zine! ISSUE 14 – ASHLEE CRAFT / ASSEMBLAGE

    Issue 14 of Ashlee Craft’s life-is-a-playground art & poetry zine, Ashlee Craft / Assemblage! Featuring an interview with guitarist Paul Bielactowicz, an essay about beating depression, & at 66 pages long, this issue has a ton of great art & images, all created by Ashlee Craft.

    TABLE OF CONTENTS

    letter from the editor 4 / what mike said 7 / you are just as afraid as I am 8 / hahahaahaah what I feel like doing 10 / funky snake 11 / I THINK I HAVE FINALLY CURED MY DEPRESSION 12 / african violet 26 / safe + wonderful 27 / metanoia 28 / the fun challenge of saving money 30 / in tune with energy 32 / a rainbow of music 33 / energy & dancing & magic 34 / be all there 35 / energy experiment in love 36 / no I’m not sad again 37 / our beliefs create our experiences 38 / never invisible 39 / INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST PAUL BIELACTOWICTZ 40 / get happier 55 / don’t let it dull your soul 56 / purple is the happiest color (((good vibes))) 57 / relax & it gets easier 58 / sometimes there are flowers at sunset (COVER PHOTO) 59 / last year I cried 60 / make powerful goals 61 / THE UNIVERSE IS TROLLING ON YOUR BEHALF 62 / vintage spaghetti meme 65

    PUBLICATION DATE: February 11, 2019
    PAPERBACK 67 Pages
    GENRE: ZINE – ART & POETRY

     

    Kindle Edition
    Paperback Edition

  • I Feel Guilty About Unsubscribing from Email Newsletters I Never Read

    It shouldn’t be so hard to unsubcribe, but it is.

    rawpixel.com

    I feel guilty about unsubscribing from email newsletters.

    Do you ever feel that way?

    You’re checking your personal email account & there’s this one newsletter you just skip over when you see it. Like, it doesn’t even register in your mind when they email you anymore. Your eyes just skip past like it’s not even there at all.

    One day, you realize you have a lot of unread emails. You take a closer look at them & see The Newsletter.

    “Oh, I forgot I receive their emails still. Boy, there sure are a lot of them. All of them are unread.”

    “When was the last time I opened one?”

    Sometimes you only pay notice because the sender sends you one of those “Hey, let me know if you still want to receive my emails” emails, which typically inform you it’s been like a year since you even OPENED one, much less read it.

    Or it’s a newsletter that has good information that has helped you in the past. Sure, you might open them, but you always make them unread without reading them so you can read them at some point in the future.

    You say to yourself,

    “There’s at least a hundred of these clogging up my inbox! I have 3,052 unread emails, but I feel like none of them are really important.”

    You take a look at The Newsletter.

    “Pretty boring. Why did I even sign up for it? Oh, that’s right. I got a free ebook if I did.”

    You scroll down to the bottom to click the “unsubscribe” button. Should be pretty easy. You haven’t read The Newsletter in more than a year, the information is often mediocre, or maybe it’s a store you don’t really shop at.

    But that’s when the sweat starts running down your face. Your finger or your cursor hovers, as uncertain as a chihuahua at an airport, over the unsubscribe button.

    “But I LIKE supporting this company. If I’m not following them, this poor person is going to go out of business.” You say, if the email in question is the newsletter of a small business.

    No, they won’t. You’re not doing them any favors by not reading their newsletter. All you’re doing is potentially costing them money if they have to pay for a certain number of subscribers, & making their send-to-open ratio a whole lot lower. If you’re not buying from them, & you never open their newsletter, you are not actually helping them, only feeling like you are. So unless it’s your mom’s business & you’re her only email subscriber, if you don’t open or ever buy from the newsletter, HIT THAT UNSUBSCRIBE BUTTON.

    “But SOMETIMES I learn something interesting.” You say, if the newsletter in question is informative.

    Yes, you might. BUT ONLY IF YOU OPEN AND READ IT. You are literally learning nothing by staying subscribed to a newsletter you never read. NADA. So here, you must face a choice: either begin opening & READING these emails so you can learn what you should have been learning anyways, or HIT THAT UNSUBSCRIBE BUTTON.

    “But sometimes they have good coupons! I don’t want to miss out on a sale. What if they have something I might want?” You say, looking at the marketing newsletter from a medium/large.

    A classic case of FOMO. You don’t wanna unsubscribe from the Groupon newsletter because sometimes they have sales you want to take advantage of. FINE. But if you never open the newsletters or never use the coupons they send (NEWSFLASH: probably because you don’t actually like shopping there are much as you think you do), YOU ARE NOT HELPING YOURSELF OR THE COMPANY. Also, especially if it’s a large company, literally hundreds or even THOUSANDS of people might unsubscribe from it daily. To them, you’re just a number. They’re not going to go out of business because you unsubscribed. No tears will be shed in the marketing department when you HIT THAT UNSUBSCRIBE BUTTON.

    Moral of the story: if you never read it, never use it, or don’t need to use it, HIT THAT UNSUBSCRIBE BUTTON. No one who creates the newsletter is probably going to cry over you unsubscribing. There’s really no reason to feel guilty about unsubscribing.

    And here’s the most magical part of all: if at some point in the future, you realize you miss the newsletter…

    YOU CAN SUBSCRIBE TO IT AGAIN!

    *cues balloons & confetti

    And if you’re afraid of forgetting the newsletter, write down a list somewhere of what you have unsubscribed from.

    You really have nothing to lose by unsubscribing. So how about you hit that unsubscribe button & experiment with not getting the newsletter, at least for a while.

    Try unsubscribing. You might just like it.

  • MARCH 2019: AN EPIC MONTH IN REVIEW

    OVERVIEW: Published one book, went on an epic Everglades mini-road trip, went on a “slough slog” in the Everglades, walked two famous Everglades trails, tried alligator meat for the first time, released three songs, published one short film, got my art displayed in a public place for the first time, released an unofficial commercial for Bugles, went to the Florida Strawberry Festival for the first time ever, tried world-famous strawberry shortcake, went on my first roller coaster ever, rode on a Dumbo ride for the first time, saw 8 bands in concert, tried shaved ice for the first time, read 11 books, paid off a credit card, bought my first marionette puppet ever, & MUCH MORE.

    CREATIVITY & BUSINESS

    • BOOKS: Published Charlie the Churro. TOTAL: 1. // Began writing several more books.
    • SHORT FILMS: Released “The Power of Music & Food”, a short film featuring Shorty, my new giraffe marionette!
    • INTERVIEWS: Did a podcast interview with magician & life coach Jason Gardner!
    • MUSIC: Released three songs (I Know it Takes a Lot; The Daylight Savings Song; I Tried in the Night).
    • ART: Released several new designs on SHOP Ashlee Craft, including “Neverland Rebel”, “Lucky Clovers”, “My Happy Place – Mrs. Tiggywinkle”, “Norwegian Lundehunds are Special & Magical”, “You Have What it Takes” dancing sloth, “I Love Myself” Sloth, Horned Owl Scientific Name design, & “I Hope Something Really Wonderful Happens for You Seen”.
    • My art is displayed in a public place for the first time!!! This has been a huge goal of mine for a long time! My mom & I have our art displayed in a case at the New River Library in Wesley Chapel, FL! It features 3 of my books (Five Senses: The Nature Box Book, Sally the Kiwi, & Owls), two macrame pieces from Amy Craft Studio (my Mom’s Etsy shop!), plush owls & bees (including all the plush bees from my plush bees course, now with more than 550 students on Udemy!), a mini owl canvas, an original painting, a copy of my I BELIEVE poster, a macaron print, Life is My Playground pins, & a customized cupcake denim jacket! You can see a photo of it here.
    • Published a cute vintage-style unofficial “commercial” I filmed about Bugles snacks!
    • Wrote 15 poems.
    • Inspired by Austin Kleon’s Steal Like an Artist, I began this awesome “Swipe File” on Pinterest! I’ll be posting images of things that inspire me & that I keep in mind when creating my own art projects.
    • Put out a video finally detailing my experience with doing my first book signing & vending my first event ever!
    • Applied for some more acting jobs!
    • Began some new marketing campaigns.
    • FUN FACT: As of March 14th, I have published a total of 91 BOOKS!
    • Played around with some new marketing things, including more advertising.
    • Went through my script for my first official music video & did pre-production work on it for the first time!

    CONCERTS

    Total: 8

    • Saw Willie Nelson & Family in concert at the Wish Farms Soundstage in Plant City, FL at the Strawberry Festival!
    • The Drifters at the Wish Farms Soundstage in Plant City, FL at the Florida Strawberry Festival!
    • The Coasters at the Wish Farms Soundstage in Plant City, FL at the Florida Strawberry Festival!
    • The Platters at the Wish Farms Soundstage in Plant City, FL at the Florida Strawberry Festival!
    • Steve Miller Band at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater, FL!
    • Bobby Lee Rodgers at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater, FL!
    • Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band at the Amalie Arena in Tampa, FL!
    • Sunny Sweeney at the Amalie Arena in Tampa, FL!

    FOODS

    • TOP 3 FOODS: Orange juice over ice, chocolate in general, & SPARKLING WATER.
    • TRIED ALLIGATOR MEAT FOR THE FIRST TIME! While I was on my Everglades day trip this month, I stopped by the Everglades Alligator Restaurant in Homestead, FL, & tried some! It tastes kind of like chicken but a little more like a seared sea scallop, & the restaurant was so cute! I sat by the big adorable alligator sculpture out front to eat mine.
    • TRIED SHAVED ICE FOR THE FIRST TIME!!!!!! I have been wanting to try shaved ice for such a long time & I’d never had any before because things just never worked out so I was able to get any, any time shaved ice was available somewhere I was. I finally got some when I went to the Strawberry Festival in Plant City, FL! I GOT BIRTHDAY CAKE FLAVORED SHAVED ICE & IT WAS YELLOW & IT WAS SO BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!
    • Tried some of the “World-Famous” Strawberry Shortcake at the Strawberry Festival & it was LITERALLY THE BEST.
    • Drank a McDonalds Frappe for the first time ever! Also got fries. The Frappe was awesome & I had a really great & positive experience with the service there, which I wrote about here.
    • Put Reese’s Peanut Butter Spread on top of some squares of a dark chocolate bar & IT WAS EPIC.
    • Ate Hormel canned beef tamales for the first time!
    • Ate a Sumo Citrus for the first time!
    • Ate a “Sweet Griller Pepper” for the first time!
    • Particularly good lunch: roast chicken lunch meat roll ups on soft tacos with pepper mayonnaise with chocolate cookies for dessert.
    • Tried the Lindor Orange Dark Chocolate truffles for the first time!
    • My mom made grits & they were so good that it was the only time I’ve ever actually enjoyed eating grits. Congratulations, Mom! (Also I put crushed Lays chips on them).
    • My dad made a really awesome apple crisp & I loved it!
    • The best thing my dad made though were chicken breasts that he grilled with just olive oil & salt. SERIOUSLY AMAZING CHICKEN!
    • Ate Haribo Fruit Salad gummy candy for the first time!
    • Bought a honey mango that was shaped like a Peep.
    • Tried Chauo Bacon chocolate for the first time & it is SERIOUSLY some of the best chocolate! Been waiting to try this one for a VERY LONG TIME.
    • Tried Wensleydale cheese for the first time!
    • Tried Jarritos Cane Sugar Soda for the first time!
    • Tried birch beer for the first time & it was really good!
    • Went to Chili’s for the first time ever! Tried a queso burger & it was really good!
    • Ate really good smoked cheese & smoked pork that kind of formed a salt crust along with turtle pie & some smoked grilled peppers!
    • Tried Talenti Caramel Crunch gelato for the first time!
    • Drank Gatorade G2 Raspberry Lemonade for the first time!
    • Tried Yasso PB & Yay Frozen Yogurt for the first time!
    • Drank La Croix’s kiwi watermelon sparkling water out of fancy glassware.
    • Ate a Boston Cream Custard iced doughnut with SO MANY SPRINKLES at Target, which is the first Target doughnut I’ve eaten & it was really good! & did I mention I LOVE SPRINKLES?
    • Tried Tastycake Scoop Shop Cookies & Cream mini doughnuts for the first time!
    • Great lunch: baked sweet potato with steak sauce, grilled chicken with steak sauce, chipotle gouda cheese slices, & chocolate from a Christmas countdown (Despicable Me minion-shaped chocolate, no less!)

    MEDIA

    • STARTED READING: (* means a re-read; everything else is new to me) Manifest Your Destiny (Wayne Dyer), The 5 Love Languages (Gary Chapman), Feel the Fear…And Do it Anyways (Susan Jeffers), The Power of Now (Eckhart Tolle), #AskGaryVee: One Entrepreneur’s Take on Leadership, Social Media, & Self-Awareness (Gary Vaynerchuk), What If? (Randall Monroe), The Millionaire Next Door (Thomas J. Stanley), Mindfulness (Ellen J. Langer), Meatball Sundae (Seth Godin), Born Standing Up (Steve Martin), Your Best Year Ever (Michael Hyatt)
    • FINISHED READING: (* means a re-read; everything else is new to me): The 1% Rule: How to Fall in Love with the Process & Achieve Your Wildest Dreams (Tommy Baker), An Audience of One (Srinivas Rao with Robin Dellabough), The Lessons of History (Will & Ariel Durant), The Total Money Makeover (Dave Ramsey), Manifest Your Destiny (Wayne Dyer), The 5 Love Languages (Gary Chapman), The Power of Now (Eckhart Tolle), #AskGaryVee: One Entrepreneur’s Take on Leadership, Social Media, & Self-Awareness (Gary Vaynerchuk), The Millionaire Next Door (Thomas J. Stanley), Mindfulness (Ellen J. Langer), Meatball Sundae (Seth Godin) Total: 11 (Up from 11 in February)
    • WATCHED: (episodes in parenthesis for shows; all others are films. * means re-watches; all others are things I’ve never seen). The Umbrella Academy (Run Boy Run, Extra Ordinary, Man on the Moon, Number Five, The Day That Wasn’t, The Day That Was, I Heard a Rumor, Changes, The White Violin), Noel Fielding’s Luxury Comedy (Phone Cake), Extraordinary Interiors (S1:E1), Arrested Development (Family Leave, Self Deportation, Everyone Gets Atrophy), The Office (Dunder Mifflin Infinity, Launch Party) Total: 16 (Up from 11 in March)
    • ALBUMS I LISTENED TO: (*First time listening to this album!): How Strange, Innocence (Explosions in the Sky), Don’t Forget (Demi Lovato), You Never Walk Alone (BTS)*, Destroyer (KISS)*, Enema of the State (Blink-182)*, Musas (Natalia Laforcade)*, Healing (Todd Rundgren)*, Bitches Brew (Miles Davis)*, A Wizard/A True Star (Todd Rundgren), Let it Bleed (The Rolling Stones)*, Dream Wife (Dream Wife), Let Go (Avril Lavigne)* Total: 12 (Down from 14 in February)
    • Favorite songs this month: Feel it Still by Portugal. The Man, I Want Your Wonderwall, The New Adventures of Pippi Longstocking Theme Song, I Can Fly by Rainey, I Think We’re Alone Now by Tiffany, & Paper Birds by Parachutes.

    PETS

    • Began using some new hot spot healing gel on Sparky to see if it helps his chronic skin problems.
    • For Sparky, I switched him over to the PureBalance Salmon & Pea Dog Food, & he likes it! I like that it’s a good value dog food, & from what I researched, also very good quality.
    • Switched Frogecoin, my Pac-Man Frog, over to a staple diet of nightcrawlers & my frog LOVES them! Set up a worm bin for nightcrawlers before eventually getting nightcrawlers that must be kept in my fridge for temperature reasons.

    PERSONAL

    • SAW AN ARMADILLO IN MY YARD & IT WAS AWESOME!
    • Planned my travel for this year!
    • Had a really bad flare up of my seasonal allergies this year, complete with having a fever for almost a week & coughing for about two weeks. I took it easy, I rested a lot, the allergies calmed down outside, & I feel back to normal now!
    • Went to a brand new Hobby Lobby store & got some great new t-shirts & cute sculptures!
    • Researched a lot of logistics for making a lot of my big goals happen & pitched some people for big ideas.
    • Planted watermelon seeds from a little kit I got!
    • Implemented a new system for organizing my inbox that I think will really make organizing it more efficient! Article about this will come eventually after I’ve tested it more.
    • Put on a glitter temporary tattoo of a cute French Fry & it was a lot of fun! I got these at the dollar store.
    • Put new wind shield wiper blades on my car for the first time ever! (First time my car has had new wipers since I got it, & also my first time putting any wiper blades on any car).
    • Set up another bookshelf in my garage, this one for storing & organizing some extra books that I want to keep & be able to look at, but don’t have room for in my house! (I have a TON of books, BTW, & I probably get at least a few new ones each month – I read & re-read them all!). Unpacked one box of books onto this new shelf & organized them.
    • Got some samples & supplies at the hardware store for some projects I am working on.
    • Cleaned up & organized a lot more items in my home, especially in my art area. Shredded & recycled a lot of stuff I don’t need.
    • Set up a set of plastic storage drawers in my bedroom for organizing my jewelry! Put hair accessories/suspenders/necklaces in one drawer, earrings in the next, & bracelets in the last!
    • Paid off one of my credit cards!
    • Did a lot of lying on my dog’s trampoline with him on the back porch, snuggling with him & looking up at the trees & the sun.
    • Realized I wasn’t shy as a child, it was just a mask I put on over time.
    • While cleaning off my desk, I found both a black & a yellow ink cartridge for my printer, both of which I needed, & both of which I dreaded having to buy. Thank you, Universe!
    • Sold stock for the first time & profited some by doing so!
    • Used iron-on patches to fix clothes for the first time!

    THINGS I PURCHASED

    • Bought two new cacti! A Prism cacti & an Aalto cacti!
    • Bought a croton plant!
    • Bought a red triceratops Hot Wheels, which is one I don’t have yet for my collection!
    • FOUND AN ALLIGATOR HOT WHEELS CAR for the first time ever, the day after I got back from my Everglades trip, of all times. IT IS SO CUTE.
    • Bought a cute card with rabbits on it that I will use as a wall decoration for Easter!
    • Discovered the glorious feeling of purchasing used paperbacks on Amazon, which are often cheaper even than the Kindle versions of many books!
    • BOUGHT A BROWN + GLITTERY TY BEANIE BABY PLATYPUS & IT IS THE CUTEST. It makes me so happy!
    • Bought some amazing plastic magnets from a booth at the Strawberry Festival! I got an orange sting ray, a colorful lollipop, & a flamingo! It was raining the day I went & the booth hadn’t had many customers, so the guy running the booth was really grateful that I had come to buy some stuff.
    • Bought my first marionette EVER, named Shorty the Giraffe, from the MOST MAGICAL little booth ever (Omar Industries Puppets’ Marionette booth at the Strawberry Festival – see below under “Travel & Experiences” for more details!).
    • Bought some new lemon-print shorts!
    • Got a new paint brushes (which is always a nice feeling!)
    • Bought two new plastic storage tubs for organizing my holiday decorations in my garage!
    • Bought yellow & pink fuzzy Easter chicks at the craft store!
    • Bought an awesome colorful set of hair bows, including a silver sparkly one, one with little rainbows, & more!
    • Bought yellow & pink Lego’s, novelty socks that say “smooth snailing” & have a picture of a snail wearing a captain’s hat, novelty socks with flamingos wearing necklaces & high heels, novelty socks with fuzzy sloths, novelty socks with four-leafed clovers on them, a paint-able plaster snail, & sea green Crayola bath paint (which I then used for the first time, that night to paint an owl & a dinosaur in the shower) at Target!
    • Bought a tiny plush sloth & a tiny purple plush alpaca at Target also!
    • Bought a mini red ceramic dish, neon yellow & pink sequins, fruit-shaped rubber stamps, a cacti-shaped rubber stamp, & adorable fabric featuring owls, one featuring flamingos, & one featuring pineapples!

    TRAVEL & EXPERIENCES

    • WENT ON A DAY TRIP TO THE EVERGLADES TO DO A “WET WALK” or “SLOUGH SLOG”, which I’ve wanted to do for 2+ years, ever since I was preparing for my Epic Florida Road Trip. It was such a special & fun & educational experience. I drove the 5+ hours there & back in the same day. While I was in the Everglades, I also walked the Gumbo Limbo & Anhinga Trails, both of which are famous trails in the Everglades that I didn’t get to do the first time I visited. Oh, & I must note that I arrived at the place to do the wet walk tour just two minutes before the tour started, so I was really lucky on time! The whole trip though was fantastic. Tried alligator meat for the first time ever at the Everglades Alligator Restaurant in Homestead, FL! 
    • WENT TO THE FLORIDA STRAWBERRY FESTIVAL FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER!!!!! The fair is such a freaking magical place, kind of like a hyper-reality almost, because it’s this magical world that exists as part of the actual, “normal” world. Took so many photos of magical things. It looked so magical, especially when everything was lit up at night. Skipped across the grounds. Tried the World Famous Strawberry Shortcake. Saw strawberry plants & their little setup showing an example of a strawberry farm, including tiny baby green strawberries & huge tractors! Went into the animal barn & got to see a bunch of cute rabbits, chickens, & SHEEP WEARING SWEATERS!!!!! Got to see the strawberry mascots! Listened to Mint Royale’s Blue Song on the way home & it was perfect.
    • Saw the Pompeyo Family dog show at the Strawberry Festival! The dogs did some really cool tricks, & they were all so adorable & smart! So many poodles!
    • Saw a pig race from Robinson’s Racing Pigs for the first time at the Strawberry Festival! They raced four types of pigs, including some cute potbellied pigs that jumped into a pool & swam across, BABY PIGS, & totally adorable young wild boars (including a really cute spotted one!).
    • WENT ON MY FIRST ROLLER COASTER EVER! The biggest “roller coaster” I’ve been on previously was the dragon-shaped kids’ one that they usually have at fairs. I went on the biggest regular car roller coaster-style coaster that I’ve seen at the fair, at the Strawberry Festival. It was really fast & super fun!
    • At the Strawberry Festival, I went through a fun house that I think has to be my favorite ever – a Jurassic Park-themed one with dinosaurs painted all over the outside! I LOVE fun houses & this one was amazing. It had so many different things to walk through, rollers you walked over, platforms to jump across, ladders & stairs to climb, one of those spinning tunnels you have to jump through without falling, & a big slide at the end. It had so much stuff to it & I LOVED that it was dinosaur-themed.
    • Rode around in a gigantic spinning strawberry ride at the Strawberry Festival!
    • Rode in a tiny yellow helicopter (a ride, not a real helicopter) at the Strawberry Festival!
    • RODE ON A DUMBO RIDE FOR THE FIRST TIME!!!! Seriously, I was so excited about this. I’ve wanted to ride a Dumbo ride ever since I was like three, but I’ve never been to Disney (GASP! Say all the Floridians) & I had never been on one. I got to ride on a purple elephant & I made it fly as high as it could the whole time & it was so magical & so fun!!!!!
    • Discovered the most MAGICAL little booth ever at the Strawberry Festival: Omar Industries’ Puppets. Warm light spilled out into the darkness from a miniature room. On either side of the doorway, there were lit boxes with yarn marionettes magically dancing. I had seen the booth earlier, but didn’t want to buy anything until I was about to leave the fair. I knew before I even walked into the booth that I was going to buy a marionette. As I walked up, the guy in the booth showed me one of the multiple marionettes he was carrying around – a raccoon – & made it go over to a tiny food bowl, toilet, & more as he talked about “how to care for your marionette”, as though they were real animals. It was awesome. After looking around the booth & trying one of the marionettes, a giraffe one caught my eye. The guy at the booth really wanted me to remember what he had named the giraffe (Shorty, the star of my recent short film!) & in general seemed to be such an awesome person who really, really cares about marionettes. Super magical. I will totally get more marionettes from this business again! And I LOVE Shorty the Giraffe. It was just a super-magical experience.
    • Watched a 4-H animal show for the first time! Watched one age class of young sheep being judged & it was interesting! I had no idea what was happening, & I walked in in the middle of the show, so I pretended I knew what was happening.
    • Saw the biggest block of cheese I have ever seen!!! Walked up to the booth & said, “I just gotta know…how much does that cheese block weigh?” The guy said it weighed 40 pounds! (The kind of questions I have to ask…)
    • Went on a local “Tour of Homes” & toured some really nice houses (worth $500k – $1.5 million!), the type that it’s my goal to live in in the future!

  • LIST OF ALL TAROT CARDS IN ORDER (INCLUDING PLAIN TEXT LIST)

    I recently had trouble finding a list of Tarot cards. I wanted one that was in order. And I wanted one that was, most importantly, just a plain list of the cards without the clutter of a bunch of definitions (because that makes the list hard to copy & paste if you just want a list of the cards). So I made this one! Hope it is helpful!

    Scroll to the very bottom of the page if you want an unnumbered list of the cards, one which is perfect if you need to copy & paste a plain text list of the cards!

    MAJOR ARCANA

    *Note that the numbers in parenthesis are the number associated with the cards’ technical place in the deck

    1. The Fool (0)
    2. The Magician (1)
    3. The High Priestess (2)
    4. The Empress (3)
    5. The Emperor (4)
    6. The Hierophant (5)
    7. The Lovers (6)
    8. The Chariot (7)
    9. Strength (8)
    10. The Hermit (9)
    11. Wheel of Fortune (10)
    12. Justice (11)
    13. The Hanged Man (12)
    14. Death (13)
    15. Temperance (14)
    16. The Devil (15)
    17. The Tower (16)
    18. The Star (17)
    19. The Moon (18)
    20. The Sun (19)
    21. Judgment (20)
    22. The World (21)

    MINOR ARCANA

    Suit of Wands

    1. Ace of Wands
    2. Two of Wands
    3. Three of Wands
    4. Four of Wands
    5. Five of Wands
    6. Six of Wands
    7. Seven of Wands
    8. Eight of Wands
    9. Nine of Wands
    10. Ten of Wands
    11. Page of Wands
    12. Knight of Wands
    13. Queen of Wands
    14. King of Wands

    Suit of Cups

    1. Ace of Cups
    2. Two of Cups
    3. Three of Cups
    4. Four of Cups
    5. Five of Cups
    6. Six of Cups
    7. Seven of Cups
    8. Eight of Cups
    9. Nine of Cups
    10. Ten of Cups
    11. Page of Cups
    12. Knight of Cups
    13. Queen of Cups
    14. King of Cups

    Suit of Swords

    1. Ace of Swords
    2. Two of Swords
    3. Three of Swords
    4. Four of Swords
    5. Five of Swords
    6. Six of Swords
    7. Seven of Swords
    8. Eight of Swords
    9. Nine of Swords
    10. Ten of Swords
    11. Page of Swords
    12. Knight of Swords
    13. Queen of Swords
    14. King of Swords

    Suit of Pentacles

    1. Ace of Pentacles
    2. Two of Pentacles
    3. Three of Pentacles
    4. Four of Pentacles
    5. Five of Pentacles
    6. Six of Pentacles
    7. Seven of Pentacles
    8. Eight of Pentacles
    9. Nine of Pentacles
    10. Ten of Pentacles
    11. Page of Pentacles
    12. Knight of Pentacles
    13. Queen of Pentacles
    14. King of Pentacles

     

    PLAIN TEXT LIST

    The Fool
    The Magician
    The High Priestess
    The Empress
    The Emperor
    The Hierophant
    The Lovers
    The Chariot
    Strength
    The Hermit
    Wheel of Fortune
    Justice
    The Hanged Man
    Death
    Temperance
    The Devil
    The Tower
    The Star
    The Moon
    The Sun
    Judgment
    The World
    Ace of Wands
    Two of Wands
    Three of Wands
    Four of Wands
    Five of Wands
    Six of Wands
    Seven of Wands
    Eight of Wands
    Nine of Wands
    Ten of Wands
    Page of Wands
    Knight of Wands
    Queen of Wands
    King of Wands
    Ace of Cups
    Two of Cups
    Three of Cups
    Four of Cups
    Five of Cups
    Six of Cups
    Seven of Cups
    Eight of Cups
    Nine of Cups
    Ten of Cups
    Page of Cups
    Knight of Cups
    Queen of Cups
    King of Cups
    Ace of Swords
    Two of Swords
    Three of Swords
    Four of Swords
    Five of Swords
    Six of Swords
    Seven of Swords
    Eight of Swords
    Nine of Swords
    Ten of Swords
    Page of Swords
    Knight of Swords
    Queen of Swords
    King of Swords
    Ace of Pentacles
    Two of Pentacles
    Three of Pentacles
    Four of Pentacles
    Five of Pentacles
    Six of Pentacles
    Seven of Pentacles
    Eight of Pentacles
    Nine of Pentacles
    Ten of Pentacles
    Page of Pentacles
    Knight of Pentacles
    Queen of Pentacles
    King of Pentacles

  • Playfulness + Self-Reliance = GAMIFICATION

    jplenio / Pixabay
    I have deemed 2019 the year of my “second childhood”. I want it to be a year filled with as much childlike freedom & imagination & fun & play & believing anything is possible, as I can fit into a year.
    But at the same time, I also have deemed it the year I stop crapping around & start acting like an adult. I want to stop using the “my parents will pick up my slack” line as a convenient excuse to be, at times, a broke slob.
    How can these two things co-exist when they seem to be moral opposites?
    Because each exists on its own spectrum. Yes. I believe that you can be chillin’ & paying down your credit card debt while playfully imagining colorful owls swinging on a swing set. Why?

    Because the adult never had to come at the exclusion of the childlike.

    It’s a cultural myth. Coming from a viewpoint, no less, that somehow thinks that being stodgy, stressed out, about to have a breakdown, unhealthy, & unhappy is more respectable & “responsible” than someone who lives whimsically, eccentrically, playfully.
    O12 / Pixabay
    And this makes absolutely no sense. It’s not an “either/or” proposition. It’s BOTH.
    As I stated in “Weekend (In the Breeze)”, a song off a recent album of mine:
    “It was illusion, the way they told me being grown-up had to hurt,
    They told me happiness was all a scam,
    All around me I saw adults falling, into the depths of the rat race
    They’d created, thought it was the way it had to be
    But they were just trying to sell escapes to you & they were jealous of your dreams”
    And recently, I’ve really been learning a lot about & finally IMPLEMENTING a lot of gamification in my life. Mostly thanks to reading “Level Up Your Life” by NerdFitness creator Steve Kamb & beginning to use the awesome Habitica app.
    Google defines gamification as:
    the application of typical elements of game playing (e.g. point scoring, competition with others, rules of play) to other areas of activity, typically as an online marketing technique to encourage engagement with a product or service.
    Nietjuh / Pixabay
    In other words, it’s about using fun, playful strategies to make things that might be boring or just not as fun as they could be into a form of play.
    Which is why gamification is the primary tool I’m going to use in 2019 to achieve both my themes of “second childhood” & “greater self-responsibility”.
    Here are a few specific things I’ll be doing to combine the themes using gamification that you can use too:
    • Giving cool, fun names to tasks that aren’t necessarily inherently fun. Instead of “clean your pet cages”, the task can be called & thought of as “caring for your precious zoo animals”. Instead of shopping, you’re Indiana Jones hunting for a treasured artifact or a hero gathering survival supplies or a pirate digging for buried gold.
    • Treating everything like a quest. Pretend everything is a quest or a step necessary to achieve a quest, or pretend you’re an awesome character as you’re going about your daily tasks (either a character from fiction, history, or your own creation).
    • Breaking things down into smaller, more manageable steps. Instead of trying to clean your bathroom all at the same time, try cleaning just one different part of it every day. Sundays, you might just clean the mirror. Mondays, you might mop. Tuesdays, you might wipe down the counter. Etc. This makes tasks seem less overwhelming & therefore, more likely to get done.
    • Making sure playfulness is a prominent part of daily life. Use your imagination more to tell stories about what you’re doing & who you are, just like when you were a kid. Take time each day to actually do something playful, whether you actually play or experiment or explore objects/places or even just a fun game on your phone. And if you’re too busy any given day to do that, at the very least you can approach problems & situations with a playful mindset.
    • Let yourself feel free. Try to see the world again through responsible, but childlike, eyes. Is it really the end of the world if you don’t tackle the WHOLE pile of dishes on the counter? Try to spend less time stressing out about all the things you think you’re not doing well enough at & take more time to just be. Flow through the day. Take your time. Give yourself some space to breathe. Take breaks. Let yourself change course or activities as the mood strikes you. My epic Florida road trip was very playful, but as I was the only one caring for myself, I also was entirely self-reliant.
    • Start being accountable for the results of your life. I was googling the idea of self-reliance when I came across this awesome quote from The Art of Manliness’ article, “Developing a Self-Reliant Mindset“. “[…] while it’s easy to get by by having other people do everything for you, ‘the trouble is, when you’re not self-reliant, you’ll never do more than just get by’.” I think that quote is one of the most important things I’ve ever heard. The truth is that nobody cares as much about your world or your environment or your dreams as you do, so if you’re always blaming others for how things turn out or when you don’t get what you want or always putting the responsibility on them to make things happen for you, you’re always going to be let down. Start accepting responsibility. Why? When you hand responsibility off to someone else, you’re in a sort of disempowered “victim” mindset. But when you take responsibility & look at your life & can healthily say, “Yes, it’s my fault that this didn’t turn out right.” You’re acknowledging yourself as source of the problem. But when you’re the problem, you’re also empowering yourself to be the SOLUTION. If it’s your problem, you can also fix it.
    Playfulness & self-reliance are compatible, & if you want to be a next-level person, both are essential.
    How are you going to mix playfulness & self-reliance this year?

  • Rosie the Riveter…With Rainbow Freckles – Outfit of the Day – February 22, 2019

    blue collared button down shirt / grape purple Danskin cloth shorts / pink & white bendable hair tie I got from Amazon a long time ago / Doc Martens with rainbow laces that I bought at Hobby Lobby / strawberry earrings / pink Wet ‘n Wild paint palette eye shadow / red & yellow & blue freckles created with cheap face paint crayons!

    This was actually something I wore a more than a month ago (February 22, to be exact) but sadly it was the most recent outfit I could find that I’d photographed since then (I guess I need to up my outfit game – I’ve been feeling a bit bland). AND I really, really loved this combination. First off, I loved the blue + purple of the shirt & shorts together. And I love my Doc Martens with ANYTHING.

    But my favorite bit was definitely the makeup & hair tie combo. I have been sometimes doing realistic-looking fake freckles with brown eyeliner, & several folks I follow on Instagram began doing brightly colored freckles, sometimes as part of a clown aesthetic. Of course, I’m for anything colorful & happened to have some old face paint crayons, so I gave it a try & LOVED it. I’ve done it several times since then & it just instantly makes you look colorful & magical. I dusted a bit of powder over them when I was done drawing them to “set” them.

    Then, I added this super-bright pink from a Wet ‘n Wild paint palette I got around Halloween with really saturated colors. The pink was a bit dry & ended up staining my eyelids for a couple of days, but that color didn’t go anywhere even when I was out in the heat of the day sweating, so I loved that.

    Finally, because I wanted to wear a hair accessory, I remembered this great one I own. I was going for a slightly retro, Rosie the Riveter-type look, which I think I pulled off well with the combo of the polka dot hair tie & the denim shirt ♥

  • Great Experience at McDonalds Store 34367 SR 54 in Wesley Chapel, FL!

    skeeze / Pixabay

    Yesterday (3/28/19), I visited the McDonalds store located at 34367 State Road 54 in Wesley Chapel, FL! I was having a big craving for a sort of iced-coffee milkshake type thing & wanted to get a good deal on one. I’d never been to this McDonalds before, nor had a Frappe before.

    I went through the drive thru, ordered a small caramel Frappe, & two small fries because my mom & I both wanted some (also, McDonalds fries are THE BEST). The person on the speaker at the drive thru was really nice, & I drove up to the window to pay.

    At that window, the associate who helped me was very friendly & helpful. She cheerfully told me I was lucky, because they were afraid they were out of the caramel Frappe mix but they found some just in time. She seemed to genuinely care.

    When I went to the window to pick up my food, the associate here again was incredibly friendly & welcoming. She told me it would be a minute on the Frappe because they were changing out the bag on it, so I should pull up in front of the store & they would bring out the Frappe.

    As I haven’t been to McDonalds that many times before & didn’t know where to pull up for them to bring my food out to the car. I’d forgotten to ask. I parked along one side of the building & saw for a few minutes, but didn’t see anyone bringing my drink out. I pulled around the other side & still didn’t see anyone, so after waiting for a few more minutes I went into the store.

    As soon as the associate who had given me the fry part of my order saw me, in a genuinely caring tone she asked,

    “Oh, you didn’t get your drink?”

    When I said no, I hadn’t, she immediately stopped what she was doing & began making the Frappe right in front of me. She apologized. I admitted I probably hadn’t pulled up where I should & asked her where I had been supposed to pull up & she explained it very nicely. The associate who was supposed to bring the drink out but who didn’t see my car & had thought I’d left came over & apologized too. The associate making my drink gave me a free upgrade to a large Frappe instead of the small that I’d ordered as a way of saying sorry, & apologized again.

    I can’t think of any way that throughout this whole experience that the employees could have been kinder or more helpful towards me. I think the customer service skills of anyone really shine best when a problem is resolved, & these employees solved the problem (even which was more my confusion than theirs) quickly in a very satisfying way, & were just so nice & welcoming throughout the whole process.

    I count this among some of the best service I’ve received eating out anywhere, & probably the MOST positive experience I have had with service & staff at a fast food restaurant anywhere. Kudos to the staff at this location. I will definitely be returning!

  • 15 REASONS WHY NETFLIX’S UMBRELLA ACADEMY IS THE BEST SHOW – REASON #1

    REASON #1: THIS IS THE FIRST SHOW I’VE EVEN WANTED TO BINGE-WATCH IN A VERY LONG TIME

    Source: IMDB.com

    This is the first show I’ve wanted to do my version of “binge watching” on in a VERY LONG TIME. It’s very important to note that I am NOT a binge watcher. (I usually don’t even watch movies all at the same time, much less watch more than one episode of a show on any given day.) The last time I was watching a show where I HAD to know what happened next was probably in Season 2 of BBC Sherlock or Season 6 of Doctor Who.

    But with Umbrella Academy, I just couldn’t stop watching it, especially after the second or third episode. I divided the first episode up over a few days (a normal rate for me watching a 1-hour episode of anything), but I watched an episode or more per day starting with Episode 4.

    On the day I finished the series, I watched 2.5 episodes, which is a ton of watching anything for me. But it was THAT good. I HAD to know what happened next & was willing to lose a bit of sleep over staying up to finish an episode. And when I found myself in my car in a parking lot waiting for it to be time to go into a concert venue, I took the fifteen or so minutes I had & used it to watch JUST A FEW minutes more of the show. Whether or not the episode ended on a cliffhanger or with a new revelation, I really cared about the characters & NEEDED to see how this was going to end.

    The plot was just so fucking good though, which made Umbrella Academy one of the best, most intriguing, most well-done series I’ve watched in a long time.