Pretty Sure I've Decided To Become A Scarf-Wearer

I have fallen victim to this new craze, Pinterest. Or, maybe it’s not so new. Honestly, I am super behind the times, usually. I’m not “trendy,” I didn’t get a smartphone until way after everyone I knew had one (and now I can’t imagine living without Sudoku at my fingertips at all times, especially on the train), I just finally started actively using Twitter (and loving it, 5 years after everyone else), I don’t know how to do much on computers, except for Googling, Word, Facebook, and rebooting if I have any problems whatsoever, and when my computer programmer bf starts talking about codes, I am supportive and interested, but it’s all Greek to me!

That being said, I have just found Pinterest, the new love of my life. It's like the mother-lode of craft projects. I have always been crafty. I can cook, I can knit and make bracelets and necklaces and lanyards. I can sew, whether it’s hemming pants, sewing on a quick button, or actually taking 2 or 3 different shirts and making a whole new one. I still do the simplistic turning-jeans-into-a-skirt thing. I like arts and crafts, ok?

I don’t often wear my creations, and I mostly give them away. Or I relegate my crafts to a shelf. I don’t usually have a nostalgic attachment to them. I just enjoy making things. I love putting things together. Even Ikea furniture! The process of building and creating, calms me. Man, I totally should have been a carpenter. LIKE JESUS. I could totally be a big, Jew-y carpenter!

Anyway, my style hasn’t changed much since high school. I wore ratty jeans, t-shirts with pithy sayings, and a sweatshirt around the waist. This exact same was true throughout college and the first few years after that, where my first “real” job was uber-casual, and my daily uniform included flip-flops. Once I moved to NY, I thought about changing, but I was too lazy. And broke. And I hate shopping, so being trendy is totally out. I’m not a fan of florals all over the place. I evolved from witty t-shirts to a workday standard of dark-wash jeans and a solid color top with a colorful tank top underneath.

Thanks to Pinterest, my love, I am now into scarves. There’s this whole part of Pinterest with clothes ideas and stuff, and as I’m looking through it, I realize 2 things: 1. Almost every single one I like has a solid color top, a cardigan, and a colorful lightweight scarf, and 2. I apparently REALLY, REALLY love grey clothing. 98% of what I liked included a grey shirt or sweater.

But Pinterest, my adored companion, also has an arts and crafts section, and it is magical! In there, people post all kinds of stuff they made, they want to make, designs for stuff, and how-to’s. After realizing that I now want to wear scarves, I almost immediately see a cool design for how to make a drapey decorative scarf out of a t-shirt. I went home that night, and I made it!

source: thesauerpatchkids.blogspot.com

 

Looks the same, right??

The next day, I swung by target on my way home and bought one teal and one pink scarf. And then saw another, even easier design to make a half-braided scarf on Pinterest (that saucy minx!), which I made THAT night our of one of my bf’s old t-shirts. From 0 scarves to 4 in 24 hours. 

Pic refuses to rotate, the jerk. But I'm quite happy with the scarf.

And now, to scarf myself. Solid t shirt, dark wash jeans, cute jacket I already owned and never wore, teal scarf. I AM SO FASHION-Y AND WORK APPROPRIATE RIGHT NOW. And my gym sneakers. They may detract from the look, but I go to the gym after work every day, so tough cookies.

 
Oh, Pinterest, I love you so, my sweet meshugganuh!

Little Miss Sunshine!

So, as a child, I loved the Mr. Men and Little Miss series. They were so fun! Little Miss Chatterbox, Mr. Quiet, Mr. Happy. They had books and a cartoon, and they were always teaching a good lesson. They lived in a little town and had adventures, and everything. 

But my personal favorite was Little Miss Sunshine. She was happy and cheerful, and she had the best name. I now read these books to my little niece and nephew, and they love them, too. 

When I was a kid, my mom sang “You Are My Sunshine” to me all the time. I was a very happy kid. This translated into a very happy, optimistic, and…what’s a nice way to say it?...energetic adult. I am, in many ways, similar to Little Miss Sunshine (also, to Little Miss Chatterbox!).  If I had only read the book, I don’t think I would have been as attached to the little happy yellow character as much as I am.

In addition to singing me “You Are My Sunshine,” my mom sometimes called me Sunshine. As I got older, I had colleagues and friends who called me that as well. There was one woman at my first job right out of college, who always greeted me with “Good morning, Sunshine!” Every day. And even now, in memory, it makes me smile. 

My niece, my mother, my sister, and I all sing “You Are My Sunshine” together, to each other, to my nephew, or just for fun. It makes us sound so sitcom-y, now that I just wrote it out in a sentence…

And I love the connotation. I am very much a look-on-the-bright-side, glass-half-full-of-delicious-beer type of girl. I think Little Miss Sunshine is what I want to be, what I see myself as: happy, bright, fun, a bit silly, ambitious. In the cartoon series, she ran the town morning show, "Good Morning Dillydale." And while there are others I can see myself in, like Little Miss Trouble, or Little Miss Lucky, or sometimes Mr. Noisy or Mr. Clumsy, I think we all want to see the best in ourselves.

To me, Little Miss Sunshine represents the kind of optimism, the kind of happiness, that I hope to be able to have myself, and to bring to others. And you gotta admit...she's adorable!

The Road To a SWEET Timeline Thingy

Subheading: I may have too much time on my hands.

First, I stumbled across some pictures of really creative and artistic timeline covers and pictures online, of how people have found ways to manipulate Facebook’s new timeline and cover feature in really cool and interesting ways.

Here’s several examples: http://blog.mad4flash.com/2011/12/get-creative-with-new-facebook-timeline-cover-ideas/

Then, I started thinking about what I could do. One idea was to do a similar thing to a doodle shown in the site above. Take a page and doodle silly ideas and squiggles and names and randomness all over, and then have it simply be my picture in the regular part. Another idea I really liked, I thought of doing a picture of me with an ah-HA face, and my finger pointed up, and then having the cover photo be a lightbulb that was on, with a “Eureka!” or something next to it.

In the end, I went with my love of mustaches and randomness, and came up with the idea of a photo of a surprised looking person (originally it was going to be me with a big fake paper mustache, mostly because I love them), being scared of a razor in the cover photo at the top.

On my journey, I happened along this lego surprised face. At the time, I was only looking for a good example of a surprised/scared face, as I had also thought about drawing it on my fist with a little fake mustache. The idea was still really forming... But, once I saw the lego dude, I knew that had to be it. I love legos, and I can draw a mustache separately, and attach it to the lego guy!

he's soooo surprised (or scared) and Lego-y!

I found a couple random pictures of razors pointed in what I hoped would be the right general direction, and set to work, drawing mustaches (mustachii?) in different styles, colors, and sizes. What would work on tiny surprised lego man? 

It was then that I realized I needed to name tiny surprised lego man. “George” came to mind. But only because my niece names everything George, after the curious monkey, of course. The name needed some more work! Calvin? ZopittyBOPBOPBOP? Maybe Shawn? I do like Rider. Like, Rider Strong who played Shawn on Boys Meets World. LOVE that show. OK. Lego man’s name is officially Rider. Which, really, is kinda badass when teamed with an epic freehand mustache.

Back to the mustache dilemma. I had it narrowed down to 2: small and red, or comically overlarge? I sent a text to two friends that simply said “which looks better?” And then confused the hell out of them by sending the following two pictures out of the blue.

They both agreed comically overlarge was better. I, too, was leaning in that direction. All that was left was to upload Rider and the razor. And personally, I like the results! I was thinking about adding a thought bubble to Rider’s head saying “My name is Rider! Don’t shave my precious ‘stache!” I’ll have to decide on that later.

You can see the finished product at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=2012400
Because apparently it isn’t /jyssicascott, like I had previously assumed. Weird!

UPDATE: I went in and added "Don't shave my precious 'stache!" in a thought bubble next to Rider's face. I tried to add a "My name is RIDER!" but it just wasn't working with spacing. Rider is currently more epic than ever!   

I would also like to go on record saying that while I understand that there are probably programs or apps or technological ways to have done this timeline cover pic thingy, I did not go that particular route. I accomplished this in the way I knew how. I physically drew out or printed out the pictures I wanted (drew the mustachii by hand, printed out picture of Rider), put the different things the way I wanted them, then took a picture with my cell phone, which uploads to FB directly from my phone, and then went into FB to move it around. I literally had to do the cover picture with the thought bubble like 5 times, uploading, placing and deleting it when the spacing or size wasn't right. You can only move cover pictures up and down, not side to side! Wtf, FB?

A Poem About Me That Ends With An Unsaid "So THERE!"

Would it bother you if I said the voices in my head are telling me to sing?
Would you walk away even if I told you that I can explain everything?
Do you let those little voices keep you up throughout the night?
When I start falling, it’s bound to be a long, long flight.

When you start to wonder why the world is pretty bleak,
And you ask me why every word you say is sounding weak.
I’ll have to answer with honesty, or truth, or hard-won fact.
You’re looking at it upside-down, too far away, your view’s become abstract.

I may be a little off-center, out of left field, or slightly odd,
But no one can make listen when they tell me I am flawed.
Hard-learned lessons, putting self-respect on an endless loop inside my head,
They saw my happiness take over as my insecurities were shed. 

No one will ever hit me twice, I would never stay,
And when cheated upon, I’ve turned and walked away.
Respect for myself, confidence in me
Makes everything in my life better; it holds the key.

I may not be the best, the top, or number one.
I have no aching desire to be what you consider fun.
Judge me all you want, but listen up, here’s profound:
You’re the one talking about me, not the other way around.


....hmm....guess the 'so there' (please imagine that with ridiculously pretentious air-quotes) actually WAS said. Right there in the beginning. Oh, well. leaving it as is. Screw you, people who take things too literally! :P