{justine wins the internet}

check out this ginger lamp my friend made with some spray paint and a blue sharpie marker over on her blog, birch & lily. this girl is crazy talented.

justine, you're like the mad scientist of doodles. {click the picture for the diy}

{the best moment of reality tv, ever}

american idol.

i was somewhere in high school when it started. my best friend at the time was very into it, so i saw every episode of the first season. i didn't see another one until i was living in my first apartment with karlie. we had exactly two channels {and one of them was french} so tuesday and wednesday nights were spent eating oatmeal and peanut butter and cheering for some stranger out in tv land who i can't even remember now. he might have had dreadlocks. or it might have been a girl.

so i don't even know why i decided to watch this season of it. i've always thought it was kind of a joke. i don't respect j-lo {one of the judges} musically, and steven tyler {another judge} WEIRDS ME OUT. the music they perform on the show is usually pretty lame and ryan seacrest, etc. anyway. i think it was just one of those times where i was folding laundry and got tired of the quiet room and i'd already watched this week's episode of community, so i just clicked on ctv.com and watched the first thing that i recognized.

anyway. i was hooked like a fish through the lip and i've decided to be ok with it. it had its cheesiness and its silliness and its pitchiness and its jennifer lopeziness, but it all led up to my single favourite moment of reality tv, ever. phillip and i both cried a little when the marching band came out.

this:

{update}

the other day over brekkie, i doodled up a few more doodles, just in time for the free shipping week {which ends sunday}. lots of feathers and lace, greeting cards and laptop decals and ipod/phone cases and stuff. 

note: this isn't me asking you to buy stuff. i'd feel incredibly awkward if people spent money out of obligation. this is just me saying, "here it is, if you like it, you can totally have it. for money. obviously." and i promise this blog isn't going to be all, "here's new stuff in my store!" all the time. just this week, because it's free shipping week.

thanks so much to all the people who have already bought things. i appreciate it so terribly much, you can't know. if i ever see you in public with an iphone case or something, i'll probably run over to you and yell at you about how much i love you. it'll be really, really awkward.

www.society6.com/suzy

{please don't fling your friends off of mountains}

i got mad. 

yesterday, i mean. 

and i was mad until i went to bed.

when i woke up this morning, i was less mad.

but still mad.

and i will probably be mad until tomorrow.

before i say why i'm mad, i'm going to say some other things. things about how i'm not going to be posting any links or names; and how this isn't a snarky post meant to make someone feel bad, and how the person i'm talking about doesn't read my blog, as far as i know, and how i'm not even mad at this person, necessarily; i'm just mad at a situation and the general population of the whole entire world and internet. except you, of course. 

i'm also going to say that if the person i'm talking about were to happen upon and read this post: good. i'd love that. besides, i've always been taught that if you're going to say something about anyone, be it on the internet or in real life, you should say it as though they were listening. because, you know, they could be. especially when you're in high school and you're talking about someone in the girls' bathroom. 

but the point is not that.

the point is that yesterday, i was reading this girl's blog. she had several pictures of herself and, yeah, i noticed how incredibly skinny she was. which is fine, right? some girls work to look that way, some girls look that way for no good reason, whatever. the point is really, really not that. anyway, someone had commented, asking her how she got/stayed so skinny.

to her credit, she didn't just say, "i'm not skinny! i'm a pig!" or "i eat soooooo much, all the time." {because sometimes when skinny girls say that, they're just saying that, i've noticed.}

but to my dismay, she gave an overly specific example of her teeny-tiny daily food intake. she had an example of a "bad" day too. which was still much less than the average person needs to eat to keep healthy alive. and then, instead of leaving it there, she added, {and i'm paraphrasing only slightly slightly} "the bottom line is, if you want to lose weight, eat less and kill yourself at the gym."

hey guys. hey blogosphere people. hey world. 

there are so many things wrong with this, above and beyond what i'm going to mention here. i'm not one of those people. you know, the ones who are going around all the time singing, "the most important thing of life is to learn to love and accept our bodies, you are beautiful no matter what you look like, embrace your imperfections, etcetera etcetera unicorns lol!" i've written about that before, about how our society has elevated the importance of being beautiful to this massively unhealthy level and how frustrated it makes me. so i'm not going to launch into a discussion about how you are perfect the way you are. {maybe you need to lose or gain weight to be at your personal healthiest, i don't know.} 

but. 

i find it so frustrating when we as women grab each other by the ankles and fling each other off of mountains. {you know, figuratively speaking.} and who has that power? people with voices. in this case, bloggers. me. you. whatever you put out there has the power to help, and it has the power to HURT. 

the reason i'm not mad at this particular blogger is that i don't think she even knows that {if} she has a problem. she probably thinks she's being helpful to the poor souls who need advice on how to look better. she doesn't realize that there are teen girls on the internet who will take her advice very, very literally. right down to the juice and piece of cheese that she eats for brekkie. right down to the "killing" herself at the gym. {if you're scratching your head, puzzled about why this bothers me so much, please do some research. ask a nutritionalist, hire a personal trainer. someone who knows what's up and who can explain to you what your body needs, what your body can handle. maybe her diet and her exercise routine are ok for her, but the way she explains them as though they are universal truth for every body shape and size are what i find so dangerous.}

anyway! the reason i'm mad at the blogosphere is that it's made up of so many of these people who are so quick to offer "help", often without being qualified to, or knowing the exact specifics of their readers, like a blindfolded guy performing brain surgery. 

and i'm not just talking about advice. i'm talking about all of the words you put out there. bragging, teasing, admonishing, helping, opining, sharing. these things aren't bad; they just need to be approached so carefully and with so much thought. it's not a one-on-one conversation with a close friend. it's an open letter to whoever wants to read it. you could be writing to someone struggling with anorexia, loss of a loved one, divorce, depression, etc etc etc. of course you can't control those things, those peoples' reactions to your writing, and you shouldn't censor yourself right out of your online existence, but you should be aware.

and hey. if i ever put something out there that is insensitive, stupid, offensive or whatever: EMAIL ME--STAT. that's absolutely part of the reason my address is in the sidebar, along with a contact form. i'm serious. i don't ever want to be the girl flinging friends off mountains by their ankles. i hate that mental picture of me. i want accountability and honesty, because those are just straight-up good things. 

{FREE CD OF YOUR CHOICE, kind of}

my society6 iphone case came in the mail this weekend {mail on the weekend? how?}!!



i ordered one of my own from my little soc6 shop because i was paranoid and distrustful, as always, that the quality of the case was going to be bad or that the picture would be pixel-y or something, and that people would be mad at me for selling crap.
verdict: my mind is at ease. the case itself is solid; it's sturdy and it doesn't obstruct the camera or any of the buttons like some do. and the picture looks the very same on the case as it does in my sketchbook! {one of my friends actually thought i'd drawn the picture right onto the white iphone case.} so i guess all systems are go.

not to be pushy, but you should know that shipping is free until sunday. shipping is normally 10 bucks. 10 bucks could buy you a cd, or a ticket to a local show, or 9 chocolate bars! click here if you want one or ten.

if that doesn't sell you, here's a picture of me endorsing my product over a cup of cold coffee. sorry i look like that, i haven't washed my hair since thursday and it's starting to dreadlock underneath. plus i have kind of a sunburn and am wearing all the same clothes as yesterday. that's how you know we're friends now; i don't feel like i have to dress up for you.

www.society6.com/suzy

{brown bag lunch party}

i love hosting parties. i love picking a theme and trying to build on it in a way that matches the person [people] i'm throwing the party for.

oh, but two other things: i wouldn't call myself a great cook, and i'm CHEAP. so. 

we had barclay's mum and his sister {a mother-to-be} over last sunday for mother's day, and--true to form--i had a wonderful time hosting without cooking--or spending--anything crazy. not because i don't care, just because i'm like that. i just am. but i've noticed that if you put enough thought into things, people don't mind that you didn't spend all your money on them, or that you're not good at whipping up a three-course gourmet feast. did you know that?

i made the decorations out of brown paper bags, and we had a picnic lunch-type meal with a bunch of fresh fruits and veggies, mango-coconut chicken salad wraps, bbq chicken buns, and basil blts. and then we went outside for the frisbee/walk in the sun part of the picnic. maybe not pinterest-worthy, but we had fun and everyone ate, like, 13 sandwiches each. which, i believe, is the point. 

{lately, according to instagram}

*here

follow me on instagram @suzykrause

{part 25}

{parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9,  10,  11, 12,  13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24}

 our time was coming to a close too fast. our britrail passes expired, and we began to do those things that you do at the end of vacation: make lists of the places that you still need to need to need to see, take so many pictures of the people you'll be leaving behind, and spend less time sleeping so that you don't miss anything.

day 13 was our second-last one in scotland. we'd filled days 11 and 12 with family and food, mostly, and decided to take this last morning together on the royal mile in edinburgh. we took the bus with our cousin beth, dropped her off at her job, and continued on on our own. we found a wall that made us look very fat, and that ended up luring us into a very fascinating house, where we were split into thousands, shrunk and enlarged, and had our heads chopped off. 

it was a beautiful old house. with staircases that wound up and up and up, with strange pictures all over the walls, and occasionally a window so that you could see how far up you were and be assured that you were still in real life.

we noticed a room with an eerie blue glow and when we entered, neither of us knew which we was us anymore. there were hundreds of us, and we were all us, and yet we were all not. i kept touching the skin on the back of my hand to make sure that i was still in the right body. i reached for barclay's hand to make sure he was still in his, but his hand was glass and it shocked me so much that i yelped right out loud. his voice was everywhere, but every body that i thought was his was made of glass. after we wound our way through the glass maze, we came to a bridge through a dark tunnel. and when we walked inside, the bridge flipped right upside down! every room in the old house was like that. light tunnels and funhouse mirrors and human kaleidoscopes  to the max. when i grow up, i want to own that place and live in it with my fifty cats and crazy husband. we'll turn out all the lights and chase people around in there for fun, while they wet their pants in terror. doesn't that sound lovely? and at the top of it all, a camera obscura and a perch from which you can see all of edinburgh and sing, "i'm the king of the castle, and you're the dirty rascal..."

{part 26>>>}

{part 24}

{parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9,  10,  11, 12,  13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23}

the other thing beneath the fourth road bridge {across the fjord, the firth at fourth, to fife} is a place where you can sit on a moving floor and look up at sharks and fish and sting rays. you can pretend you're sitting at the bottom of the ocean if you want to. but if your worst nightmare is being trapped at the bottom of the sea, then maybe just take deep breaths and tuck your head into your knees and keep saying, "it's only an aquarium, it's only an aquarium" over and over. {and in that case, you might be better off to visit the zoo.}

{part 25>>>}

{happy monday! from barclay and the barclays}

a fun thing to do when it's raining outside and you are {therefore} inside, is to take pictures of each other. extra points if the pictures you take have the appearance of being photoshopped but in actuality are not. this is my favourite from a grey saturday afternoon at the cabin. can you tell how it's done?

{case work 2 + self-promo}

sometimes when i spend too much time in a library or book store, i rush home and spend about two hours trying to write a book. that's how my brain works: it sees what other people do, and then it wants to join in.

so yesterday, after spending much too long browsing other people's iphone cases, i made a rash decision and opened up a store of my own on society 6.

this feels suspiciously a lot like self-promotion, but anyway--how am i going to have a store if no one knows it exists?

that said, go here, for laptop decals, iphone cases, and prints. i'll add more later, these are just the prints i had on hand.

{case work}

today i'm iphone case shopping. if there were an iphone case olympics, 1st and 2nd place would go to society6 and lazerwood, respectively. have you seen these beauts?

{families}

i mentioned it once before: we have three little nieces or nephews joining the family this spring/summer. one {a girl} arrived a couple weeks ago, and the other two will be here before august. my best friend also just had a baby, and it seems like every day there is another clever birth announcement on facebook, or another phone call to share some happy news.

{one of my good friends is having a baby as i write this.}

it's such a strange little world around me suddenly. everything is hushed and heightened. everyone is so happy and scared out of their minds. everyone has this look on their face.

moving bellies and spare bedroom makeovers and secrets and worries and excitements and preparations and talk about labour and names and expectations and all that. things they shouldn't eat or do, vitamins they need to take and doctor's appointments they need to go to. ultrasounds and grainy black and white pictures of strange, developing bodies and the first time an excited father gets to feel a kick.

and then. actual human beings, where there weren't before. the thought that this person didn't exist anywhere in the world until now. that this person is going to grow up and talk and laugh and relate. birthday parties and graduations and weddings. that my friends and sisters and brothers are suddenly fathers and mothers, with huge responsibilities and inconceivable amounts of love for these little babies.

families are happening. and how lucky that i get front row seats.