My Etsy Shop! Lovely Night Vintage.

Yay, so I finally got it up and running! I've wanted to open a small business of some sort for a while now. I get totally inspired when I see other bloggers opening Etsy shops, especially when they're successful. We live in an internet-based world where the majority of our browsing and shopping is just a click away. It's invigorating knowing I can research, thrift, and purchase things that I personally love and put them up for sale in my own little shop.

My shop is called Lovely Night Vintage. I got the name idea from one of my favorite Decemberists songs, "Isn't It a Lovely Night?"(you can listen to the song here. If you don't know The Decemberists by now, you need to get familiar!) My shop will showcase vintage homegoods and more. There's only two items in my shop so far (hey, I just opened it yesterday! Ha ha.) but I'm not stopping you if you want to take a look around! Down the line, I plan to add some handmade things but until I get the supplies and what not, it will be vintage goods for now.

Do you have an Etsy shop? Leave the link below so I can check it out!

Have a good first day of May. ♥ It's going to be a great month. ♥

Meet... Marceline, The Kitten Queen!

We call her Marcy, for short. She's the newest furry member of our home. 6 and a half weeks old, very sweet, spunky, and hyper. Everything a six-week-old kitty should be. Don't be fooled in to thinking she's *my* cat though... she's Sam's. Yes, I'm an animal lover (who isn't?) but it was Sam's decision to adopt her. He specifically choose and named her himself. He's been oddly been protective of her since, too. It's a strange sight to see, since he'd previously swore up and down that he "hates cats" and "never wants another again." Imagine how much it took me off guard when he's telling me he wants a girl kitten for himself! But I'm not complaining. Ever since we've moved into our own apartment, (have I told you guys that yet? My blog is behind schedule.) we now have space for a kitten. And if you're a fan of Adventure Time, hopefully you already caught on that Sam named her after Marceline, the vampire queen. Ha. And if you don't watch that show, then you're both confused and also missing out on a great cartoon!

♥ Follow my Instagram for more pictures of our new feline friend! ♥

Oh, Canada! Pictures from the trip.

My grandpa recently passed away, so my family and I drove to British Columbia in Canada for the funeral service. I managed to take a few Instagram pictures but since I didn't have cell service most of the time, I didn't get to post as many as I wanted. The funeral service was held on the last day we were there. We had to head home literally right after it was over, but it was a great service. My grandma spoke for part of it and I can't emphasize enough how blown away I am whenever she speaks in front of a crowd. She is seriously the sweetest and funniest lady ever, and each time I've heard her tell stories or speak at an event, I can't wait for the day she marries Sam and I, and  gets to perform our ceremony.

At the service, she talked about Grandpa's life and his death. From his childhood, up to the last few years of his life. She told everyone that he "lived a good life, and died a good death." Free of any pain, with no regrets in all of his 80+ years of life. She spoke about how he built bikes for his grandkids and how he taught us how to play SkipBo, our favorite card game. At the beginning of the service, I'm thinking, "ok. I don't feel like I'm going to cry. So far, so good." By the end, I'm just a hot mess of tears. I've only attended two funerals, but I've come to find I'm "the cryer." The weight of the memories I had with that person and every thing I loved about them hit me like a ton of bricks, and I can't contain it.

I came across a poem sometime ago by Mary Elizabeth, it goes..

Do not stand at my grave and weep 

                                                             I am not there. I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow.

I am the diamond glints on snow.

I am the sunlight on ripened grain.

I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you awaken in the morning's hush,

I am the swift uplifting rush.

Of quiet birds in circled flight.

I am the soft stars that shine at night.

Do not stand at my grave and cry;

I am not there. I did not die. 

Listening to The Decemberists on the way there.

Seattle! Rainy traffic and all. Oh Seattle, you so predictable ;)

Snowy mountains on the way to Merritt. So so beautiful to see! But, of course, no snow when we actually get to Grandma's.

Even though I'm four months shy of turning 21, Canada's drinking age is 19. My younger brother and I had fun ordering some dranks with dinner for the first time.

drink #1: twisted rocket. So slushified. so good.

drink #2: Appleburg martini. YUM.

drink #3: When we got back, my brother and sister and I had rather pimp-sized glasses of a fancy shmancy pear white wine.

We stayed up until 2am, making Vines and other equally ridiculous and hilarious-to-us videos. I love these weirdos.

Going home! That teeny-tiny town enclosed by mountains and hills? That's Merritt, with grand total population of 7,000. Sam says Merritt sounds like the setting from the movie, "the hills have eyes..."

John Green, you've done it again.

Man oh man, I don't really know how to put my emotions into words right now. Here's the thing... I just finished reading "A Fault In Our Stars," a novel by my all-time favorite author, John Green. I can't tell you how many times I teared up through this book. (And by "teared up," I mean shamelessly cried until my stomach hurt and I ran out of tears.) It's been on the New York Times Bestseller List for a long time, so odds are, you've read it. But to those who are in the dark, it's about a young girl named Hazel and Augustus, two 16-year-olds who battle cancer and fall in love through the process. This book evoked so many different emotions in me. "TFIOS" was so consistently witty, romantic, tragic, and heartbreaking all at once. The characters were truly believable and their story was so well-written. It wasn't too sappy either, it was just the right amount of romantic. It's hard to even write a proper review without giving too much away... You just need to read it yourself and tell me what you think. :)

Like I said, most of you have already read this book or at least hear about it. And if you have, great! If you haven't, I recommend it. Go get it. Read that shit, and cry buckets like the rest of us. I would have jumped on the bandwagon earlier but I actually purchased TFIOS via Amazon more than six months ago. I sometimes do this weird thing where I'll buy a book, and let it sit on my bookcase for an undetermined amount of time. It's strange. I know the story is going to be great, I already know I'll fall in love with the characters and become emotionally invested in their love and struggle. Even so, I hold off reading it because I know when I start, I won't put it down. And The Fault in Our Stars was no exception. After visiting my family in Canada, we made the long 8-hour trip back home and I simply couldn't put it down. (*All though, actually - I did put it down with about 50 pages to go. I could feel some intense waterworks coming on, so I held off since I didn't want to be a sobbing mess in front of my family, ha ha.*) I finished it a few days ago and I'm already itching for more, more, more John Green novels. If you loved TFIOS, you should also check out Green's "Looking For Alaska" and "Paper Towns." I can't decide which I love more.

Happy reading! I'm now going to continue reading 50 Shades of Grey. Review to follow! ;D

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