Sunday, May 30, 2010

Happy Sunday!

Just to make you giggle:



Sincerely,






Saturday, May 29, 2010

FURminator

Do you have a cat or dog?  If so, you've probably heard about the FURminator.  Michael first found it online beccause Bogart has such a shedding problem.  He checked out the reviews, and most had great things to say about it.  I looked into it, but the cost was a huge con.

The one day, I went to petsmart, and saw that the smallest one was on sale for like $30 or so.  They range from like $25-$70 depending on the size.  I finally used it today on both my long haired cats, and YES, I did get a lot out.  See pic below:


Isn't that f'in ridiculous??  This is just one cat, mind you.  Now yes, long haired cats have a lot of hair, but Bobbi's quite small and her hair isn't even as long as most long haired kitties.  Bobbi usually loves being brushed, but she wasn't happy about this at all.  She did had several mats, which makes brushing and getting rid of them pretty painful.  However, I still got out tons of hair, clearly.

FURminator claims to take away loose hairs and undercoat hair,  (it's the purple brush in the picture).  If you look closely, you'll find that the "bristles" are actually blades.  Although my cats even feel thinner now, I am sort of wondering if it just thins out the hair, or if it really does get out a lot of loose hairs.  Obviously, any blade is going to easily get out a lot of hair.  I guess time will tell to see if it really de-sheds them.

Pros:  It clearly got out a lot of hair.  My cats both feel very thin.  It also seemed to pull out some hair like a brush would, but whether it was loose already or not, I don't know.  Some people prefer instead of the hair falling on the ground, that the brush bristles capture it, which won't happen with this brush/blade.  However, if you want to get out a lot of hair, then the hair falling on the ground will be more beneficial than it staying in the brush (which people this is easier to clean, I disagree).

Cons: Some negative reviews say that it only thinned out their pets hair.  Others said that it doesn't work with all types of dog hair.  Other reviews also said that their animals did not like to be brushed by it.  From my experience, neither of my cats liked being brushed by it AT ALL.  If you have a very matted cat, you will want to get a special type of blade to get those out instead of using this, as it will be very painful to pull it out of the cat.  Lastly, the FURminator is pretty costly.

Only time will tell if it does indeed help with the shedding! I'll be sure to let you guys know.

Friday, May 28, 2010

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

Today at my job, we did a "movie character turned celebrity look-a-like" day.  Can you guess who I was?

Mia Wallace from Pulp Fiction (aka Uma Thurmans character).  I was wearing black pants turned capris and this shirt, and of course, a wig.  I loved it and had fun!  I won 3rd place.  Hunter S. Thompson was first place, Molly Shannon of Superstar won second (she found her clothes all at goodwill!), and me, third.

What are you doing this Memorial Day weekend? I wanted to go to the beach but I am not comfortable leaving Devin for a whole day, night, and half the next day.  I have had an extremely stressful weekend, and am hoping to relax as much as possible this weekend.

I have good news for myself, which should be a cause to celebrate tonight (but we gotta save)......we got the house we wanted!!! Now we gotta hope everything else goes through as far as the loan, inspection, and whatever else.  I'm really excited though!  Hope you have a great weekend!

Thursday, May 27, 2010

This Dress is Smokin'

I was browsing my usual go-to celebrity gossip forum, and was in LOVE with this dress Sienna Miller is wearing.  She was at the Belvedere Vodka party.

I love how she paired it with a brown belt and black shoes, instead of gold or brown toned.  I like her new blunt bangs, but her face looks fake and weird.  I want this dress!

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Vintage Pics Part 1

I have been so excited to share these (as you probably already figured)!  I have a lot to share so I wanted to start with a few. Click on the images to see more detail.

This first one is my maternal grandparents I never met (on the left).

This was during their college years, probably early-mid 1950s.  My Moms mother, had a big mouth and beautiful big lips!  Her name, Marian O'Brien (maiden name), explains all too well why Devin and I have the irish blue eyes and red toned hair.  I loved this picture because they were in a diner and you can see the table juke box.  Dude on the right has a hair style that's in style today!  Check out my grandpa's velvet jacket.
 

My grandparents aren't in this one, but they are in another one also wearing toga's.  When I saw this picture, I was so surprised.  I had NO clue they did toga parties in the 1950s!!  They did a great job too.


This one was my grandmothers bridal shower at work.  It was also in the 1950s, and I was extremely happy to see several black women in the picture celebrating with her.  I took African American history, and if I recall correctly, I believe there was still a good bit of segregation going on in the 50s.  The civil rights movements I believe picked in the 1950s as well (but I'm not history buff like Dave Kanner), but this picture made me so happy nonetheless.


This picture was among the several in an envelope that belong to my great grandmother.  There were lots of really old pictures that I can't wait to show you.  A lot of them had a back like this one, the photo itself is paper thin (they all were back then).  I believe this was in the late 1800s-1900s, because of their outfits, the type of house, and a lot of the others were and one had the date of 1889.  Click on the picture to see the details.  I think pictures like this are so interesting.


This is the last one for now.  I wish I knew more about this picture.  I found it extremely interesting.  I googled "Cora & Albert boat" and a few other searches, and I didn't find anything.  I definitely think this picture was taken in the late 1800s.  I think the little girl in the front is one of the little girls in the above photo.  I have more pictures of her and will be showing you guys soon.

I have so many more interesting photos! I think I will post one of my favorites next week.  It was very interesting and I think you will agree.  So stay tuned!

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Note

I really can't wait to post some of the pics of my moms family, and other random pics that belonged to her grandmother.  There are some extremely neat ones, some go back to 1889.  I have a couple favorites to share.  However, I have been getting home pretty late and have been extremely busy!  This house buying business is no joke.  Anyway, I can't wait to post some every week, starting tomorrow.

Favorite Postsecrets of the week:


I really don't think this secret means the partying life, I think it's something more.  I guess that's what drew me to it.

They say often times after they send it in, they feel some type of relief.  I wonder if this person does?  What about someone who reads it that is living a lie, what are they thinking?

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Happy (pre) Sunday!

I most likely will not be able to do my usual 'Happy Sunday' blog tomorrow.  We will be leaving San Jose at 12 p.m. but won't arrive to the east coast until 12 a.m.  We have a 3 hour layover in Michael's favorite town, Dallas (boooo- I'm a Redskins fan).  On our way here, we stopped in Dallas as well, but basically hopped on the other plane.  It is a big airport though and I even saw a massage place, so maybe it won't be too boring.  But anyhow, I most likely will not be willing to pay $15 or so for the internet, and therefore probably won't have time to post.

California has been a relaxing trip.  I am happy about a few things and will probably blog about them soon.  For now, I will make a short list of different events/things about my trip:

- From Texas to Cali, I was woken up by a white- trash women in front of me shoving her (probably) 2 year old child, telling him to "shut the f up" and "you're such a stupid f'in bitch", then the dad made her switch seats with him and she proceeded in saying "he's so f'in stupid!" I was devastated for that little boy. I was so angry, I almost told the stewardess to call the cops for when we land. It's sad people treat their kids that way.

- Sacramento was relaxing, I got to see pictures of my mom and her family.  A lot of the photos my mom hasn't seen, and I am so excited to show her pictures I took of the photo slides (that turned out pretty nice), and I brought two albums as well.

- We went to the Jelly Belly factory Wednesday.  It was really neat to see everything, the history of jelly beans in general, and can you imagine how good it smelled in there? Hello cavities!

- Thursday, we went to San Jose and relaxed.  I passed out early due to a horrible headache.

- Friday, we did San Fran, went to Haight and Ashbury, and I got Dev a tye-dye onesie and a Grateful Dead t-shirt with the bears!!

- Today, I have just been relaxing and thinking about the house we put our offer on.  We'll find out Monday hopefully if the bank accepted the offer!!

Have a happy Sunday tomorrow!

Thursday, May 20, 2010

100th Post!

Wow!  This is my 100th post!!  Too bad it's not really about anything fun, just wanted to say that SpottieOtties now has a twitter.  I'm really excited about this and am looking forward to meeting new readers.  I've also been wanting to do an advice day one day a week on this blog, so hopefully this will help get that started as well. So add me and follow my tweets for some fun treats here ;)

http://twitter.com/SpottieOtties

p.s. I will have lots of old pictures to scan and share, from 1886-1970s, I can't wait to share the fashion and other interesting things in these photos!

Which is Your Favorite Get Green Video??

Did you know that 80% of what people throw away can be recycled?  But, the recycling rate is only 28%.  How sad is that?  I stumbled upon this fact at www.planet-connect.org.


Planet Connect is a non profit, social networking organization that teaches students about current environmental issues, funding opportunities, green colleges, and environmental careers.  Not only do students learn about different green issues, they can also easily share and exchange ideas.  The site also has volunteer oppurtunities you can find around your area.  I highly recommend checking it out.  Remember, any little thing you do can make a difference!

Recently, Planet Connect made a video contest, called Get Green, that allowed people to create their own videos on how anyone can get green.  The prizes included, macbook, iPad, and other great stuff!  Now Planet Connect has put the top 10 finalists (out of 120 videos!) on their youtube channel.  Help them decide on which brilliant contestant should win by clicking on the video (which brings it to the posters channel) and giving the video a thumbs up.  The video with the most thumbs up scores will have a better chance of winning.

They were all really creative, a lot were funny, and all were informative.  It was a hard pick, but I really loved Video #3!  That's the one I gave my thumbs up to :)  Which is your favorite?? Click the youtube channel link to decide.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Happy Sunday!

I don't think I have mentioned it yet, but Tuesday, I am going to California.  I was born in Sacramento, and lived up north for a little in 7th grade.  I have been so busy I haven't even had time to get excited, but slowly the anticipation is creeping up on me. 

I wouldn't call this a relaxing vacay per se, I will still need to get some work done.  But I am visiting my Aunt (moms sister), and then Michael's best friend and his wife, who had their baby girl (Devin's girlfriend), two months before Dev. We are flying into Sactown late Tuesday night, and then going to San Jose on Thursday until Sunday. 

Although we don't have much planned, we are going to visit the Jelly Belly factory, and make a trip to San Francisco as well.  I love San Fran and am psyched for our visit and the Golden Gate Bridge.  The thing that will be most exciting, is how I will finally see pictures of my deceased Grandparents (my Mom's parents who died when she was 10), and my moms childhood pictures.  That's the one thing I am really looking forward to.

What about Devin you ask?  Well, I am taking him with me and I'm sure he will be fine.  When he and I traveled to Florida, he did wonderfully. I'm getting more and more excited!

Hopefully I'll have lots of great pictures to share!


Hope you have a great Sunday!

Friday, May 14, 2010

Hunting

I have some exciting news....

I am on the hunt for a house! I never thought this day would come.  Of course there is no guarantee of anything working out for a very long time, but we will see, keep our hopes up (but not too high), and keep in mind that whatever happens in the end is meant to be.

I am just super excited to not only own a home, but decorate it the way that I want, cook for people, not waste money on rent, have a garden, and of course, watch Devin grow up in the home.  People actually get very attached to their homes (have you seen that Realty Intervention show on HGTV?).

Now, I know there are the down sides too, like repairs are on us, mortgage could get tough, the stress of buying in the first place, and whatever else. But, again, I'll have to keep reminding myself that whatever is meant to happen will!  Please wish me luck in the meantime.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Iran in the 1970s

When most people think of Iran, I'm sure Muslims, nuclear power, head scarves, and possibly even terrorists come to mind.  I've been to Iran, and I look non-Persian, and I did get treated with the utmost respect.  So many people were beyond generous and kind.  I miss it and want to go back to visit so bad.

Did I have to wear a head scarf?  Yeah, but nothing drastic, imagine a lady in the 50s that wears a scarf on her head for fashion, that is how most wear their scarves there.  But Iran didn't used to be like this...I don't know the specifics of what year, but when the Iranian Revolution occurred and the Shah (King) got kicked out, Ayatollah Khomeini came in, things had to drastically change and Iran became a nation run by Islam.  So many people there long for freedom they never had, and some long for the freedom they used to have.

I remember as a kid, looking at my dads photo albums and being surprised by how chic and stylish everyone dressed.  He would always play movies and point out the ladies in their cute, short mini skirts.  The other day, I was given this link to these pictures of people in Iran in the 1970s, and I have been so excited to share!

This is one of my favs, I love all their outfits, and I kinda like the girl smoking a cig.  The coke bottle you see is still used at most restaurants.

It seems as though these ladies are working.  Notice their big stylish hair, dresses and peacoats.  Love it!

Apprently, this was on a magazine cover and it reads, "Will people of Tehran approve of this style?"  It reminds me of Superwoman, but I kinda like it for back then.

And last, another magazine cover.  I was almost surprised by this picture when I saw it.  What up gladiator sandals!  I'm loving it paired with the plaid dress.  Isn't it funny how this is in style today?

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed! I really love these pictures.  You can find the more of them here.  Thanks Dave for sending me this link!

Monday, May 10, 2010

Jergens Natural Glow- Daily Moisterizer

Last week, my Mother and I met up with one of her best friends while I was growing up, she was like a second Mom to me before my dad got remarried.  I hadn't seen her for a while, and it was so nice to catch up.  She always looks so nice, and she looked very tan!  When I asked her about it, she told me she used Jergens Natural Glow, and that she recommended it to a few people who also loved it.  I decided to give it a try, since I know tanning is not good for you.

I really love it, I have been using it for a week now, and definitely saw results after a few days.  I was worried it would be uneven and stinky, but to my surprise, it was neither.  I even put a sparse amount on my face, and haven't broken out.  Someone actually commented on how nice my skin looked.  Now, you don't have much to compare my arm to in the picture, but it can give you an idea.  I got the fair to medium skin tone one, and they have a darker one as well.

I'm going to California next week and I don't want to be pasty, so overall, I am very happy with this purchase! I highly recommend it if you want a natural looking tan without getting sun rays.  I heard the Banana Boat brand is good too, I might try it after.

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Happy Sunday!

Today was my first (official) Mother's Day!  I ended up conking out last night at like 9 p.m., woke up at 6 to feed Devin, and then woke up again at 10 to Michael shoving a camera in my face with my present and card laying next to me.  How sweet (except the me passed out shot isn't too cute).   I must say though, Michael did well. 

Have you heard of Pandora?  It's a jewelry company (a bit overpriced) that allows you to customize your jewelry; they are most famous for their customizable charm-bracelets.  Michael got me the charm bracelet, with three starter charms, an elephant, in between two glass, light green beads, PERFECT!  I was really excited to look through the catalog he brought home that had pictures of the other charms, and though slightly overpriced, (starting at $25-145+) per charm, I found a couple cute ones I can't wait to fill it up with (pacifier, chucks, travel suitcase, teapot). 

 (I wish you could see the cute elephant, he even has a tail)

One option they have, is instead of a silver bracelet like mine, they have suede or leather rope ones, that can be very chic as well, I loved the rope one!

And since I didn't find a finished charm-bracelet example on the website (since you can create your own by dragging and dropping the charms), here is a picture from the catalog as an example of your end product.  Nice, right?! I am happy (thanks babe).  All in all, I had a great Mothers Day, and another great Sunday.  Hope your weekend went well!

Thursday, May 6, 2010

First Painting

I never posted my first painting that I did.  It was a nice experience.  It was quite relaxing, fun, and also a tiny bit nerve wrecking because I was worried if I didn't like it in the end I'd be disappointed, and also I kept thinking 'what if I mess up?!'.  But the reality of it is, with acrylic paint, if you mess up, you can fix it most of the time.

In the end, it is not something I would hang up in my house one day (I don't think).  But maybe it would look better in a big, vintage, gold frame?  I tried to find some type of image editor that had frames online for free to get an idea, and this is the only one I found:


The picture itself is kind of blurry. But this isn't too bad for a first painting, right?  I can't wait to do it again, I think I will try a beach theme next time....or, I love those splash type of paintings or abstract ones, maybe I will do that.  If I do a good enough job, that would be something I would hang up!

p.s. we may be house shopping soon, keep your fingers crossed for me!!

Favorite Postsecrets of the Week

The back reads: I wish people would spend as much time on their marriages as they spend on their weddings.  TRUE.

 Catcher in the Rye is one of my favorite books.  This secret is...true.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Happy Cinco De Mayo!

I am really sorry I have been slacking lately.  I promise I will do better soon! I will have a couple posts tomorrow to make up for it!  Hope you aren't too hung over tomorrow!

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Happy Sunday!

Mothers Day is next Sunday!  This will be my first official Mothers Day, and even though it is a silly commercial holiday, I am a little bit excited.  I would love to have a brunch with my mom.....along with some type of jewelry, since I don't have not even one diamond or gemstone.  Isn't that kind of sad?  I am not pressed for diamonds really (I even want a lab created if I ever get engaged), but I do want just a dressy necklace, every girl should have one!  I recently discovered the gem stone green amethyst, and fell in love.

But being a Mom isn't about getting spoiled on Mothers Day, is it?  For some it may be, but for me it will be a day of appreciating my Mom, reminiscing and now understanding so many things I hadn't before.  I am pretty excited.  What are you going to get your Mom for Mothers Day?  Some ideas:

- Massage gift card
- A lovely picture frame with a nice picture in it (Homegoods has beautiful frames, Target has nice ones too!)
- Make a brunch and put some type of pretty/different flowers on the table:
- Pedicure/Manicure (kinda unoriginal, but I'm sure she'll still appreciate it)
- A coupon that you will come clean the kitchen, bedroom, etc.
- Bonsai Tree

There are many little things you could do for your Mom, she'll probably love a sappy card too.  So, enjoy your Sunday, think of what you may get for next Sunday if you haven't already!

P.S. Macy's is having the family and friends sale, today is the last day to get 25% off everything online and in-store. ;)