A trip to Cincinnati

Crying Heart Tattoo in Cincinnati. Love how they decorated, I felt right at home.

 I’ve been following Mike Adams for a few years since photos of his tattoos floated across my tumblr dashboard. He’s only a few states away but I’m usually too scared to drive too far for fear something bad will happen to my car. Lucky for me he’s befriended some fellow tattoo artists in Cincinnati which is not a far drive at all. Even luckier I happened to be scrolling through Instagram when he posted that he was doing a guest spot there. I instantly emailed him and put down a deposit and got super excited! I was finally going to get a tattoo from Mike!

The day came and I was so anxious. I got to the city early hoping to get Holtman’s donuts, but they just happened to have a kitchen fire the day I came and had to shut down the OTR location for a week. SUPER BUMMER. So I got some coffee from 1215 Coffee bar and a raspberry danish, and walked around some shops because I had a lot of time to kill. This was on December 7th so I picked up some Christmas gifts and also some macarons from Marconi Bar because that’s something I can never pass up. I ate them all that night, haha.

I got a little worried when I couldn’t find the shop, but I was looking on the wrong side of the street. When I turned and looked the other way it was right in front of me, so I headed in half an hour early thinking that was good itquette or something haha. Mike had just arrived and was setting up so I flipped through his book of drawings and sat on some pew like benches. Nothing in the book was what I had in mind, so when he asked I explained what I wanted and he remembered my email and went back to draw.

Right in the thick of the action.

 Not too much longer later as I nervously scrolled through my phone and checked every app and live tweeted my life, he came out with a drawing and I was instantly smitten. The nerves went away(because how can you tell someone you don’t like their drawing? That would be so awkward, and then you have to live with it on your skin forever??), and he set up, applied the stencil to my arm after my deliberation of placement in the mirror, and got to work. I was so determined to impress all the guys in the shop because I figured they’d see my blonde smiley face walk in and assume the worst of me. So I didn’t grimace or wince or anything. I even smiled haha. Bare in mind I was also on my period so I think I'm pretty damn tough, haha. Everyone was very nice there, and Mike and I definitely have a love of Dogs and staying home in common. His work was quick and precise, and oh so beautiful. I was so pleased with the outcome and overjoyed I had the opportunity to get tattooed by him. If and when he comes again I will most likely book an appointment again!

 On my way home I saw a car painted to look like the catbus from My Neighbor Totoro. Of course I had to pull over and photograph it. Look how cute it is, I wish it was mine! It even had some plushies on the dashboard.

Here's his photo of my arm and instagram handle if ya'll want to follow him!

A beautiful and delicious rainbow of french cookies!

I got groceries, knowing under all my layers of clothes I had a little secret on my arm that felt like a burn wound haha. That night I peeled off wrappings and revealed my raw little arm with my awesome new tattoo! I felt so proud of myself, despite being anxious I went and planned out the day, set up the appointment, paid for and got my tattoo alone. There’s something very liberating about getting a tattoo, you’re in charge of your body and deciding to decorate it in a beautiful and permanent way. Its an awesome experience.

Charlavail, Madi, and the Happiest Camper!

The first weekend in August, I was lucky enough to accompany Vail and Madi on their journey to craft and camp across America! They stopped in Cincinnati at a campground I had no idea existed, so I decided to gather my courage and go. Twenty nervous outfit changes later, I had my bag packed and I was ready to go meet them. I'm a very socially anxious person, and I'd usually rather avoid it and stay home, but I know I need to become a stronger person and make more friends so I pushed myself to take the opportunity. I was so happy I did, I had such a wonderful time! I met so many kind people and had a lot of great conversations. We tie dyed things, doodled, roasted veggies, and made s'mores(Vegan s'mores, hello I am a changed woman and can never go back)!
I went home that night and after thrifting with my Mom, met up with them again at Ault park where even more people had gathered to embroider beautiful designs Vail had made up for everyone. It was so peaceful and calming to sit in the shade with a bunch of nice people all flowing positive vibes into the atmosphere. I made even more friends, and met up with the same ones from the night before.
It was truly a wonderful experience, and I am so grateful that they stopped in my city. Vail's dogs Melon and Bear were super adorable, the happy camper full of crafts was lovely, the project is inspiring, and Madi and Vail are so kind. If they're stopping in your city I encourage you to meet them, you'll have a great time. You can find more information here!

The Happiest Camper in action!

Delicious vegan cookies brought by Taylor.

A gift for Vail from Taylor.

Happy Melon :)

Taylor and I in instax snapshots!

Lowkey obsessed with Melon and Bear...

A beautiful sunset.

S'more time!

Panorama of the park meet up!

I arrived late and got a good start but I still need to finish. Positive Vibes forever!

Meeting Internet friends IRL

Chances are if you're a millennial and reading this, you have a few friends who exist strictly in the realm of the world wide web. Internet friends are a wonderful people you can spill your heart too without fear of judgement or bias, and are always there when you need them(especially when you're a teenager in Alaska stranded at your house 85% of the time). They're technically the strangers your parents warn you not to talk to, but you do it anyway because you've got your wits about you and you can tell who's a creep and who's a real gal your age.
In 2006 I was logging into a My Chemical Romance based forum to talk to fellow fans about anything the band was up to, and build friendships with strangers. Two of which named Victoria and Michelle stuck around like glue and transcended from the board, to all my other planes of social media. We would chat daily on msn, and I'd spill my guts to them about boys and other pains of youth. As we've gotten older, I've gotten bad at keeping in touch, but we still remained pretty close. In July, they planned a trip to come and stay with me for a week! I wasn't able to take a full week off of work unfortunately, but we made the best of it and had an absolute blast. Here's some of the photos of our time together.

Victoria arrived first because Michelle's flight got delayed due to storms earlier in the day. So we went out for burritos!

Delicious Mexican food!

We went down to Kentucky to explore the Red River Gorge.

Riding the sky lift was pretty friggin terrifying.

Victoria took this picture of me and we were expecting it to blow up and be internet famous haha!

We had such a great time, and I'm so grateful that the traveled all that way just to see me :)

Sugar and Spice

Barbie breakfast dreamhouse?! Yes please!!

I had to make a post about this restaurant, I'm in LOVE! Jared and I often get stuck in routine and go to the same place over and over, which is fine(especially when the people at the Shaan know us by name and our orders by heart and are always happy to see us- love them!), but it's great to shake things up and try something new too! So that we did, and I am so happy we found Sugar and Spice!(it's probably going to become the new routine, haha).

We looked up breakfast spots on our phones and this came up for both of us with good reviews and it peeked our interest so off we went with our gps set. The wait was a half an hour, but upon arrival and seeing the place, we were even more intrigued and decided to wait it out.

 We walked around the building and checked everything out, like the little pig statue out front, and the little shed and ticket booth looking thing out back. While we were waiting a lady pulled up on the most beautiful scooter,  I was smitten. I've been watching an anime called Rolling girls lately and it's made me want to get one... but they're out of my price range at the moment. Anyway!

We finally got inside and got seated at the bar. While we waited we picked out rubber duckies on the wall that we liked(there were zillions.), then we noticed they were giving them out to guests. I spied a unicorn one and skeleton one and told Jared excitedly that I hoped I could get one of those.

After we ordered, one of the waiters came around four different times with plates of samples. He brought me an ice cream in a little cup(probably because I had on an ice cream tank top and ice cream earrings in), and came around with a plate of fried mac and cheese(I was like How?!), a plate of brownies, and I feel like there was one more I can't remember but maybe not... anyways I probably spoiled my appetite but it was all delicious and worth it. Then he came around and let up pick out ducks.

I picked this fabulous mermaid(which was a close tie with a dia de los muertos duck, but I was feeling more mermaidy then muerte), and Jared picked the flash. Then our meals came! I got the special which was peach toast and boy was it delicious! Jared got a burrito and biscuits and gravy(the waitress remarked on that "Boy, you aren't messin' around!" haha). The wait staff were all extremely nice and very funny, having all kinds of banter all over the place(there was some awkwardness of a waitress encouraging a busser to hit on a  customer which I thought was distasteful, but that was probably the only problem I had with anything there at all...). We loved it! Oh and right before we were getting ready to leave, our waitress came over and gave me a unicorn duck!! She said "I want you to have this one, now don't lose it, these are rare" I was overjoyed haha. Again it was probably because I was dressed all kitchy and cute, but it worked for me. Next time I'm going in goth to get that skeleton duck, haha.

Snow Day!

It's basically snowmageddon here in Ohio, which in my opinion is kind of awesome. Granted I would have rather it happened in the middle of winter, not the end, but oh well, what can you do? Jared cleaned my car of snow this morning(he is so good to me ♡), and Scarlett(my car) does just awesome in the snow. I got to the on ramp of the highway, and noticed a bunch of people stopped on the ramp, sliding into one another. Of course I turned around and went home, because my life and car are worth more than one day of work. I called in to let them know it was literally not possible for me to make it, and a few phone calls later they let me know they were closing the store anyways! Glad I didn't even attempt it. Thankfully Jared had the day off too, so we took the cabin fevered dogs out to play in the snow.

*chants* Snow people snow people

Nerd.

Snow beard! I wish he'd quit moving so much so I could get a clear shot haha.

Ka-pow!