Last year I started working for a company (they make BUTTONS!) and we do a 4-day work week, which is four, 10-hour days. I have to wake up around 5:30am. Well I will say 4 DAY work weeks are the BEST EVER. I love having Friday off!! And I get to beat the morning traffic to work since I leave so early. The toughest part is waking up – especially on those dark winter mornings. Luckily, Bryan noted my bad habit of pressing snooze 356 times so he bought me this “Wake Up Light” to help. At first I wasn’t so sure – “yeah right NOTHING will help me unless you give me breakfast in bed!”.  I’ve been using it for about 8 months now and it does help VERY MUCH. A half hour before your alarm is set to go off the light gradually gets brighter and brighter – like your very own sunrise. You can set the brightness yourself. Sometimes I even wake up before the alarm even goes off – the light wakes me up.

I think many may not realize but those annoying alarms that sound like sirens on steroids do not help. Sure they will wake you up – but you will start your day in a bad mood. And NO ONE wants that. It will just snowball into a bad day, and I’d rather wake up happy. This clock/lamp has 3 options if I remember correctly, one is a chime-like sound, another is birds chirping and the other is an FM Radio station of your choice. I use the chimes, I found that the birds chirping kind of confused me a bit when I was waking up.

All in all this lamp is great, a little pricey, I know. I’m sure most people would just rather use their phone. But it’s so worth it especially if you are waking up so early. The other plus is you can use it as a regular lamp, and its not so obnoxiously bright that it will disturb someone sleeping next to you. It’s a soft kind of light. It also doesn’t just shut off, when you turn it on manually it has this gradual fade on and off. Which is kind of cool. I like that.  Bryan purchased the wake up light for me on Amazon.  Shipping is free too so I don’t think you’d beat that.  The price has gone down about $18 dollars since he purchased it.

Don’t waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind… the race is long, and in the end, it’s only with yourself.

It was 2005 when I met a boston terrier for the first time. Her name was Daru she belonged to my friend Jessie. She had the greatest spunky personality, and loved you so much when you got home she not only wagged her tail but she practically danced it off!! In 2007 she had puppies and I got to be there when they were just about a week old. (The one I am holding in the picture, her name is Loca) I truly fell in love with this breed and their snort faces! I always said that I would love to have a Boston of my own one day. Sadly, I can’t because my boyfriend is allergic to dogs! Fast forward to 2009 and I made myself a nice twitter account, started making some tweet friends! I met Aireen Arellano, and we chat here and there. She posts pictures of her Boston Terrier named Angel ~ and I live vicariously through her with her love of her dog. She has the most adorable snort face ever – I could stare at her puppy dog eyes ALL DAY! (see below ~ definitely my favorite snortgram pic!)

For the past 6 months Aireen and her husband have been working hard on their Boston Terrier dedicated project!! Combining their passion for design and love for Boston Terriers they bring you SNORTMONSTER.COM. They create bold snort-faced apparel for all snort-loving humans out there! I am super excited to order a t-shirt and I secretly hope to be the first customer They are really truly dedicated to this project and I admire their entrepreneurial spirit. This is their mission:

Since snort faced doggies bring us so much love and happiness, we want to make sure they continue to bring as much joy to other people. That’s why we are commited to donating $1 of each shirt sold to brachycephalic (snort faced ) doggie charities.

This month they are donating to TGC Boston Terrier Rescue. So head on over to SnortMonster.com and grab yourself a freshly printed shirt!! Don’t forget to like them on facebook and follow them on Instagram They officially opened their shop TODAY and are taking orders for shirts!!

Anyone who knows me personally knows about my “Ariel obsession”. It started before I was even a teenager and I was “moving out” of sharing a room with my little brother and getting my own room. Even then I was pretty crafty and creative. People see while walls – I SEE BIG CANVASES for decorating So I thought and about it and I wanted to make my room a THEME. I had some of my old toys left, including an Ariel doll and a case. I decided to make my room into an “under the ocean” / “Little Mermaid” theme. I was 12 then, and I still have those toys to this day!

That’s how it all started… and it never ended. The Little Mermaid Obsession. I went through high school and everyone knew it. Even my teachers. I knew people laughed behind my back, but I didn’t care. It was me – my character. I wasn’t obsessing over N*SYNC or Dawson’s Creek like everyone else, I was doing my own thing. When I turned 16 and I entered my high school’s art program and began learning more about painting and drawing. I decided I wanted to paint scenes from The Little Mermaid movie on my walls. The biggest problem was convincing my mom to let me. It took me a few years but I made it happen… And 10 years (almost 11) years later it still sits in my old room at my mother’s house.

Back then it felt like “oh this will fade, the movie came out in 1989, the 90s will take over and it will be forgotten”. Because in the beginning it was hard to find Ariel-related things. I had to check certain stores every-so-often, and most of all The Disney Store. But today that isn’t the case. It has blown up and now all these kids who weren’t even alive when those movies came out (Sleeping beauty, Cinderella, The Little Mermaid, etc) are loving them as if they came out last week. I think it’s awesome.

Originally I was going to make a photo-blog of my “Ariel stuff” and in a way I have. I started an instagram, which also updates the tumblr I created: arielfreak.com. It’s pretty simple, because I can update it with my phone. You can also follow my account @arielfreaks on instagram. If you are a big fan yourself please send me any photos of “Ariel stuff” you have or mind come across. I’m always interested to see what others have!

One day I noticed my neighbor was using this bag for his laundry – a good sturdy bag that can stand alone but it wasn’t a hamper. ANNND it had 2 compartments which read “light” and “dark”. Even though that wasn’t exactly how I sorted my laundry I knew this bag was THE ONE. I had to have it. Over the next 12+ months I search time and again for this bag. It was originally distributed by Crate and Barrel. That link is a huge tease because it shows you the product and its reviews BUT they don’t sell it anymore. I even took the time to email them to see if they had any available anywhere but they said no it was discontinued. Why they have the link still up is beyond me… but anyway.

After months of checking the internet, even putting alerts up on ebay I decided to craigslist it. I went to the “wanted” section under “for sale” (oh yes for those of you with dirty minds I know what you are thinking). I posted a photo of the bag and said if anyone had it collecting dust in their broom closet that I would gladly buy it from them. Within a few minutes someone emailed me letting me know they recently bought it at Home Goods!! I right away made plans to head over to the store and I even dragged Bryan along with me…

I looked up and down the aisles and nothing. I searched for a good 30 minutes. No sign of it. We were about to leave when Bryan noticed this big bag underneath a pile of stuff (this happens a lot in home goods, doesn’t it?) It ended up being exactly what I was looking for!!!! There were two left… so I bought both. In the 20 minutes between waiting online and checking out I had two people ask me about this particular laundry bag. “Oh where did you find that? How much is it?”.

OMG. Hands off house-wife! THIS IS MINE. I’m an apartment-girlfriend and I need it! =]

[edit] I realized afterward on the tag that the company that made this particular bag is TaylorMadisonDesigns.com.  [/edit]

Being that I am in such a crafty mode and spending a lot of time on Instagram I thought why not mix the two together? Of course I’m sure I’m not the first to think of this but I wanted to try it out anyway. I printed some of my own favorites of my Instagram pictures and obtained some nice square pendants. And I made my own Instagram photo on a necklace!

Of course I can’t share ALL my secrets… but these are squares smaller than an inch 18mm to be exact. I felt that an inch square was too big I don’t like bulky things on my neck so I went with this slightly smaller size. They seemed to have worked nicely and now I am selling them in my etsy shop! You can send me your own photo and I will create one with any Instagram picture you’d like. Don’t have Instagram? Thats okay too! I can create this using any photo as long as it can fit in a square nicely. If you are not sure you can always contact me and ask!

To celebrate my shop’s recent opening and these new instagram necklaces use coupon code BLOG15 for 15% off in my etsy shop!