I'm always late.

I know most of you are probably familiar with what has happened to fellow blogger Stephanie and her husband Christian. If you aren't, please visit this site. For those that are aware, you know that today (Thursday) was declared Nie Nie Day by Design Mom.



Being the procrastinator that I am, I missed the deadline to submit my blog to Design Mom, but I felt I should do my part anyway. Technically it wasn't procrastination. I was away in NYC all day with no laptop. So anyway, I'm holding a silent auction of my own over at Operation NICE. Even if you aren't interested in my things, I'd love it if you could check out the Design Mom blog because she has over 275 listings of silent auctions, so there might be something out there for you! All proceeds go directly to Stephanie and Christian's recovery.

Thanks for reading!

I Can See (physicially and spiritually)

I came to my parents' house this morning for a few days of quality family time. On the agenda for today was a manicure, eyeglass shopping, lunch, and a trip to Barnes and Noble.

Picking out frames was much easier today than it usually is! I normally go through a good hour of indecision before I decide on a pair that I really feel so-so about in the end. But today I found about five similar frames, and I really did like all of them. But the pair I ended up buying was the easy winner. Check 'em out!

While waiting for Lenscrafters, my parents and I went to kill time at Barnes and Noble. At the recommendation of my father, I picked up Creative Visualization. I have this feeling inside of me that I should be doing something more meaningful with my life than formatting faxes or powerpoint presentations, so I'm going to see if I can find a bit of guidance. My father is a brilliant man, and I take his opinions very seriously. He truly believes in the idea of creative visualization, so I'm going to give it a shot.

I visualize myself doing some serious shopping tomorrow with my mom. I think I can make that happen.

Excited for a new look!

Next Monday I'm going to spend some time with my parents for a few days. The one thing that I'm excited for is picking out a new pair of glasses! I love buying new glasses. It's like a whole new me. I've been getting a lot of use out of my brown frames, which I got last summer, but I could use a new pair of stylish black frames. You know, to match my hair. Gotta coordinate.

So when my mom asked what I wanted for my upcoming birthday, I already knew my response. We're headed to lenscrafters! I was browsing around their website this morning to get an idea of what they might have, and I picked out a few of my faves.

I am absolutely in love with the top pair. It's exactly what I was looking for. So I hope they look right when I put them on!

Weird incident this weekend #1

I feel like since I started the nice blog, there's been this weird gravitational pull around me.

Yesterday, as we were driving to Barnes & Noble, we noticed something in the street in the middle of an intersection. Rob drove past slowly and realized it was someone's wallet, so he pulled over. He brought the wallet back in the car and looked for a phone number. I suppose no one really ever puts their cell # in their wallet, but gosh, I think I'm going to start because tracking this guy down was more difficult than expected!

I did a reverse address lookup on my trusty iPhone and came up with a phone number for a household about 25 miles away. We called a few times. No answer, no voicemail. Rob tried to call the guy's Blockbuster to see if they could give us a number. Turns out he gave them a bogus number because owes them "a lot of money" according to the Blockbuster lady. On our fifth attempt calling the number I dug up, an older man answered. I asked if was the residence of Mr. so and so. He said no.

No? But his address is the same and the last name is the same. Weird.

Anyway, a few hours later, that same number calls me back. It's the wallet-owner's dad. He thought I was a telemarketer, but his son must have contacted him about the wallet because he thought I might be the one who found it. So, long story short, we met up and returned the wallet. Good deed for the day!

Rob said it was a good thing we found it because he feels like only 30% of people would make sure the wallet was returned. I don't know about that. Maybe I have more faith in humanity than is deserved, but I'd like to think that the majority of people would try to return the wallet. What do you think??

I'm so sneaky, in a nice way!

I know I need to keep this blog separate from Operation NICE, but the things I do for that blog always seem to be worth mentioning over here! And I know I'm being redundant because I'm assuming that the people that read this blog also read that one, but I can at least talk about things more personally over here.

My "assignment" for today was to leave little nice notes scattered about. So of course, I had to be the first to perform this task. I whipped up some little notecards and took a quick walk outside this morning. Hey, I needed to get my Starbucks anyway. So I took a brief detour and left four notes in Philadelphia.

This one was on a park bench outside of my office building:


Then I walked up a few blocks and stuck this one on a pole at an intersection:


I wanted to go over to the Comcast Center, since it's such a busy building with a lot of business-folk that could probably use a little "nice", so I put this one on a fence near the bike rack:


And lastly, I snuck one into the napkin dispenser at Starbucks:


All of this was done around 9am, which is a crazy busy time in the city, so I felt a little odd sneaking around, taking photos of my notes. I'm sure tons of people saw me and were wondering what the heck I was doing. But on my way back to the office, I saw my bench note was still there. I'm really excited about the idea of someone finding my notes! It would be great if they would visit Operation NICE and let me know how it affected their day. We'll see. And I sure hope some other folks decide to attempt today's assignment.

EDIT: Okay, something is wrong with me. Above the 2nd picture, where I wrote "walked up a few blocks", I had to edit it because I initially wrote "walked up a few blogs". Oh my gosh. I need help.

Start spreading the news

Ahh, that's just what I wanted to see. Rob and I have been waiting patiently for a gorgeous day to head up to NYC for a little meandering. This Saturday is shaping up to be the perfect day for that.

We'll probably just tour our usual favorite areas, the East Village and SoHo. Maybe I'll see if there are any events going on while we're there. I always like visiting the farmer's market in Union Square. (I think it's Union Square, right?)

Seems like every weekend this summer has had a threat of a thunderstorm, so this is just what we need. YAY!

Friendly Reminder: Giveaway

That giveaway on Operation NICE is happening tonight at 8pm, so if you'd like to be included in the drawing, send your comment soon!

Gasp! She'd been Milli Vanillied!

Olympic girl seen but not heard

What?! They had a little girl lip sync in the opening ceremonies because the SEVEN YEAR OLD with the great voice wasn't CUTE ENOUGH?? Wow. This is even worse than the whole C+C Music Factory debacle. Things that make you go hmmm, indeed.

Amish Paradise 2008

Rob and I spent the weekend up at Rob's dad's house for his 4th annual summer bbq extravaganza. It was a great time! The weather couldn't have been more perfect. Rob and I dominated Ladder Ball. I spent some quality time with all of my in laws. I ate so incredibly well.

I should have taken a photo of the actual party to contrast these photos of the area where they live.

Giveaway on Operation NICE

Hi folks! Just wanted to post a little note to let you know that I posted a giveaway on Operation NICE today. It's for a beautiful set of letterpress cards from one of my favorite shops, Simplesong. What could be better than that? So go enter the drawing or you might miss out on all the letterpress goodness!

(image from Simplesong)

Starting a Collection

Yes, I shopped again. So sue me. At least I went one day (yesterday) without shopping.

It all started at 12:32. I received an email from russell+hazel that happened to mention a "sidewalk sale." I saw this KIT Business Card Binder and couldn't resist. I always end up throwing business cards away because I don't know what to do with them. But I'd love to keep all the ones I gather, especially the really cool ones. Like a collection.


I also bought the KIT Binder with Paper, just because I have an obsession with binders and notebooks. I don't even use them! It's unhealthy, really.

Then during lunch, I made a teeny tiny little stop at H&M. Well gosh, everything in there is cute and inexpensive! I left with a cute short sleeved, gray and purple argyle turtleneck sweater, a chunky necklace, and the most adorable green dress with little black polka dots. I must take a photo of it because I can't find one online. I think I'm going to put it on before I head out to the movies to see American Teen tonight.

I'm vlogging!

The wonderful camera that crazy Maria sent me is a Flip Ultra. It's so tiny, it fits in my purse! And it's orange and white!! Super cute! I'm going to use it all the time!!!!! (Excuse the gratuitous exclamation points.)

I've Got It!

I know what I can make! I'm going to sew myself a neck tie!

I've mentioned before how I love wearing ties. I own quite a few actually. But I'm always on the lookout for more feminine ties. Obviously they are hard to come by. So maybe I can try to make my own. It looks a bit difficult for a novice sewer like myself. But hey, gotta start somewhere.

Getting Antsy

I need to make something. I have no idea what. I love the mini canvas magnets that Jessica over at How About Orange made. So cute. I've been wanting to try my hand at a little paper collage. Or maybe some bookbinding? I can always fall back on cards. I made a few the other night (first time in a while) and wasn't happy with them.

I feel like I haven't found my niche yet. I'm a lost crafter!

Mama's Got a Brand New Bag

As Devon wrote in an email on Friday:
"mel solves everything with shopping! lol. ;)"

Truer words were never written.

My shopping problem has been taken to a whole new level lately. Bear in mind, I only use my debit card, so it's not like I'm racking up the credit card debt. If it ever gets to that point, I may need help.

Anyway, I went out for First Friday, and one of our last stops was in J Karma. I was good all night, but when I saw the great bags available at what I consider to be very reasonable prices, I knew I wouldn't leave empty-handed.

I ended up buying this satchel from Sondra Roberts. (Excuse the crappy camera phone photo.)

I am absolutely in love with this bag! It's huge! It's split into two large compartments with little pockets in each. The strap is nice and thick, which is great for me because skinny straps hurt my boney Skeletor shoulders after about ten minutes. And it's very lightweight. When I walked out of the store with this in tow, Rob didn't hide his disapproval. But I don't care, it's such a great bag! Worth every penny!

In other news, we went to my parents' house for the weekend where I lived the Garfield life of eating and sleeping. For your viewing pleasure, here's a camera phone photo of my mother's dog, Mindy. Isn't she the cutest thing??

A whole decade already?

My 10 year high school reunion is next month. I was really torn about whether or not I wanted to go. I didn't have the greatest high school experience. I was a geek, dork, braniac, shy girl. I didn't have many friends. And to be honest, I'm sure most of the people going to the reunion aren't thinking, "Hey, I wonder how Melissa Morris is doing?" It's more like, "Melissa who?"

I didn't want to be one of those people that goes back to say, "Hey, look at me now! I'm hot (eh, kinda), and successful (eh, kinda), and people love me (okay, that part is totally true)." I was afraid that would be the only reason I'd go back, with the "I'll show them" attitude. That's just not cool.

Then I got an evite last night and started looking at the folks who were invited and attending. I thought, "Hey, I liked Barbara a lot, and I'd like to thank her for treating me like a human even though she was popular." And "Oh, Karen was so nice! I hope she has a great life now!" So I got a little excited about going. Then Rob reminds me, "Don't we have plans that day?" Huh? Oh yeah, the Built to Spill concert. Well, I guess that made up my mind for me. I can cancel, but it's probably not worth it.

Here are some school dance photos I had handy. Pretty much the only photos I have from my high school career.


Clockwise from top left: sophomore year homecoming (I went with my best friend's gay friend); sophomore year, junior prom (that guy was my first kiss and a total dick); junior year homecoming (with my high school sweetheart); junior prom; senior prom (if I look bored it's because I was); senior prom (I hated that hideous purple dress)

QUESTION: Did you go? Would you go? Will I regret it if I don't go?

LOVE: Frock Shop

I received an email this morning from Justina over at On My Perch with a story for Operation NICE, so I took a little trip over to her blog. The first post showed these beautiful red shoes from Frock Shop! I had to buy them immediately!


(image courtesy of Frock Shop)

I'm always a bit nervous buying shoes online because I'm a little particular about fit. But seriously. These shoes?? Amazing!

And camera phone pics of my big, yellow, Sharma Designs earrings: