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smile on sunday!

Posted on 02. Jan, 2011 by Princess Lasertron.

♥ Lady Gaga in Omaha for Christmas ♥ New pins and headbands I made for you ♥ Orange nail polish with gold glitter on top ♥ Manheim Steamroller hot chocolate at CAMP (did you know they made food????) ♥ When Parents Text ♥ egg maracas ♥ Multigrain Cheerios ♥ Starting a new candle without using up the old one first ♥ A freak 60-degree day followed by a 10 degree night ♥ Marshmallow gun ♥ Making vignettes of my favorite treasured objects around the house (rescued from drawers and boxes) ♥ Homemade bread + chocolate bark ♥ A paper cup full of new years noisemakers ♥ Covering side tables I don’t like with chalkboard paint (more rescuing) ♥ Angel food cake ♥ Alice wanting a hug ♥ Alice laughing to herself at something she said ♥ alice Alice ALICE ♥

Via Hilary McHone

Peter Cales’ balloon sculpture

Boot hangers

Permission

♥ Recognizing myself in my child ♥ This article which reaffirms my intuitive parenting philosophy ♥ Lemon drop cocktails at sushi with Eric ♥ Twitter friends who love to retweet my good news ♥ Omaha-based Make Believe Clothing Co. and their awesome Americana-themed shirts. Brandon, you are one of my heroes! ♥ Overcoming workaholism ♥ Shopping at a craft fair, meeting the person who made the object I purchased, and seeing the look of pride and gratitude on their face ♥ Having an assistant who can have a meeting at midnight ♥ Copying Carmindy’s makeup advice on What Not To Wear (I got tons of compliments!) ♥ Collecting vintage decanters for bottling infused vodka for gifts ♥ Remembering my first Rainbow Brite roller skates ♥ Ruffly swimsuits in the baby section at Target ♥ Razor Scooter tricks ♥ A headphone pillow that plugs into my iPod for Coast to Coast podcasts at night ♥ Trading home decor items with a friend ♥

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Believing: Radvent journal Dec. 25

Posted on 26. Dec, 2010 by Princess Lasertron.

This is it! 25 days of Radvent journaling prompts coming to a close with Christmas. I had so much fun curating this project. Whenever I went out with my friends or family, everyone would ask what tomorrow’s prompt was, or we would talk about the one from the day before. One time at Target a total stranger came up to me and said they were a reader and that she and her husband were doing the prompts as a family with their kids. But I’m also excited to get back to “regular” blogging, with outfits of the day, things going on at CAMP, questions from you, this week in pictures and of course photos of the bouquets and projects we work on every day.

It’s 4:37 am on Christmas, my dad is sitting across from me holding Alice, and I am writing by the light of our fresh fir tree decked with pine cones and fairy lights. A soft blue light is pouring in from the window above me, and my feet are toasty under a blanket made by my mother. I have everything I need.

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One of my qualities that I’ve always been pretty proud of is my skepticism–especially when it comes to Life’s Big Questions. I am not a disbeliever, but that I believe anything could be possible. I believe some things are unknowable to me. Do our souls continue on after we die? Is there a God? Is there a meaning of life? I will never know, so I’d rather muse and wonder and learn about the possibilites than worry about it.

I like that I’m not sure about the answer. I’d rather wonder.

A few days ago, about a week after my dog Scout died, I was holding Alice on the couch in my living room late at night, quietly, with the lights off. Suddenly for a moment, I smelled Scout. It was positively unmistakeable and it hit me like a Mack truck. Then as soon as I sensed it, it was gone. I smelled Alice, I got up and smelled the couch, the rug, the cat, all around the room, and it was totally gone.

I think she was there.

I think she was telling me that she was happy, and thinking of me, and that she didn’t want me to feel guilty for not being there when she passed. Maybe it was “goodbye.” Maybe it was “hello again.”

★ I believe ★

The world is better because you were born ★ Nobody can know how wonderful the world really is ★ Hair color should always be done professionally ★ No one should wear uncomfortable shoes ★ Being a teenager sucks for everyone ★ My best is enough ★ I will not be better later ★ Strangers are just friends I haven’t met yet ★ Retaliation and revenge are stupid ★ We can always choose not to compete ★ Believing in negativity and limitations gives them power ★ Traveling alone is the best therapy ★ In the value of my work and effort

The night Scout died, we had our first snowfall of the year. I was sad that she never got another chance to romp in the snowdrifts, to chase her tennis ball through the crisp air. She loved snow.

My life is full of too many coincidence and serendipitous occurrences to not believe. In what, specifically, I can’t say. In magic. In love. In the power of individual souls.

xo
meg

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Click on the thumbnail below to download a printable .pdf of today’s radvent journaling prompt! Or check out the graphic on Flickr.

Are you writing your own radvent responses in your journal or blog? Feel free to share the link–they are awesome sources of inspiration for everyone!

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Trusting: Radvent journal Dec. 24

Posted on 25. Dec, 2010 by Princess Lasertron.

The second-to-the-last theme in my first annual Radvent series is trusting! Let’s wrap this piece up! I hope I can give you something meaningful to think about while you are taking in the warmth and happiness of Christmas today! xo

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Though I struggle with many things, trusting is not one of them. I’m kind of a Polyanna and I usually believe that people are kind, honest, and well-intentioned. I trust in the fundamental goodness of people because I think that everybody tries to do the best with the situation they are in. (And their situation is none of my business.) And when I am disappointed by people, I just chalk it up to the possibility that our paths just aren’t compatible right now. Maybe in the future we’ll have a more positive interaction, but if not, that’s okay. Not everybody has to be my best friend.

Having so much trust in my path (which sounds so crunchy, but you know) makes it easier to overcome the frustration of human error.

So I hear everywhere that trusting is a weakness. But I think cynicism is a weakness, so whatever.

Things I always trust:
My instincts
My mom’s opinions about raising kids (isn’t that lucky?)
That I am living the best life I can live
I was created to be happy
My dad
That I am loved

What can you always trust in? When you feel unsure, go back to these rocks in your life, ground yourself, and then float away again.

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Click on the thumbnail below to download a printable .pdf of today’s radvent journaling prompt! Or check out the graphic on Flickr.

Are you writing your own radvent responses in your journal or blog? Feel free to share the link–they are awesome sources of inspiration for everyone!

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Celebrating: Radvent journal Dec. 23!

Posted on 24. Dec, 2010 by Princess Lasertron.

Setting up last Summer for my grandparents’ 50th anniversary

Nobody is happy and delightful all the time. For all of the magic and joy of the holiday season, the reality is that a lot of the “magic” doesn’t just appear out nowhere. Traditions don’t just manifest each year. I spent a lot of time today thinking about what to do about that. How to avoid succumbing to the bah-humbug holiday cynicism. I very much subscribe to the “one day at a time” lifestyle, taking each day’s problems and gifts as they come and doing what I can to just make it to the next day. It’s living in the present and celebrating the reality of my feelings in the moment.

Don’t force yourself to be happy as you do your holiday preparations this year. Don’t force yourself to be excited and full of goodwill toward men. Take the focus off of playing nice and instead just try to be your best self for today. Anyone can be their best self for a few hours. Be charming, positive, and don’t complain. Offer your family the best parts of you and you might be the person who inspires everyone to put their baggage aside and get to celebratin’!

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I need to remind myself of this especially this season. This year turned my whole life around. I am usually a very calculating and careful risk taker, and this year I jumped feet-first into more deep ends than is typical for me–the coworking space, the dress line, adding more people to my team, several blog projects and more bridal commitments than ever before. I’m still not sure I made the right choices. It is not yet paying off and I’m very eager for that feeling of success.

This year end I have been working twice as hard and neglecting the traditions and activities that brought me so much joy in past years–making Christmas decorations, choosing a new ornament, wrapping gifts and arranging them under the tree. I haven’t done any of that this year. And I haven’t done as much with Alice as I would have liked either. For all of my hard work, I wish that I felt like it paid off and I didn’t, like, sacrifice all of my personal time. It only really feels harder this year because I have a daughter and I have this weird instinct to create new traditions.

One thing I learned from my amazing parents is that “our” traditions are not wrong if they aren’t like everyone else’s. Today is their 25th anniversary and they hosted my dad’s company Christmas party tonight, and not once did they complain or wish they were somewhere else. The lesson they have taught me is “This is our life, this is how things are, and there is no “right” way to celebrate the wonderful reality that we live every day.”

Thanks mom and dad for teaching me that every day is cause for celebration, not just the red-letter days. And thank you for celebrating your love and marriage in front of me and my brother through your whole lives–you have been an amazing example to us in your relationship and in your individual self-confidence and love of life. Thank you for supporting my non-traditional lifestyle and job and making me feel secure with how I am raising my little family. Alice may grow up surrounded every year by the excitement and chaos that is Princess Lasertron at Christmas, and that will be our tradition. The right thing to do is celebrate that, embrace it, and make it the most magical and exciting time of the year.

xo
meg

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Click on the thumbnail below to download a printable .pdf of today’s radvent journaling prompt! Or check out the graphic on Flickr.

Are you writing your own radvent responses in your journal or blog? Feel free to share the link–they are awesome sources of inspiration for everyone!

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Laughing: Radvent journal Dec. 22!

Posted on 23. Dec, 2010 by Princess Lasertron.

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Dear Greg:

I wanted to take a few minutes to write you a note to thank you for coming to breakfast with us last week. I woke up that day ready to have a really bad day. I was mad about going to the dentist at 8am, afraid that missing that morning feeding would completely screw up Alice’s day, and I was still very sad and in shock about my dog. Anyway, I didn’t expect anything great to happen that day.

When you and Shannon came out to breakfast with me after my appointment, our conversation totally turned my day around. You guys always make me laugh and that morning you brought out the happy, joyful Megan and the rest of my day was awesome from then on out. Between Alice trying to eat Shannon’s clementine and The Great Malenket, you brought enough lulz for me to remember for many dumpy days to come.

Thanks dude
Meg

I also wanted to post this video from the other day of me blowing raspberries on Alice’s tummy. I hope I never forget her laughing like this as a baby.

And Dave’s own Radvent is perfect for this day. His gift to you. (And to me, I laughed forEVER.)

Mr. Lasertron made that graphic in MS Paint the day I started Radvent, while I was working on all of my graphics on my computer. When he and I first met six years ago, we each just died laughing with each other. We fell in love over internet humor and practical jokes, and I think that’s something that has absolutely kept us in love and deepened our connection through so many years. So that’s that. I think he’s funny and that’s a funny picture.

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Click on the thumbnail below to download a printable .pdf of today’s radvent journaling prompt! Or check out the graphic on Flickr.