small projects: flowery mini amp handle

I don't believe I've ever posted about my mini amp here, except for the Christmas where it was on my wish list! (Wow, did I really get this thing in 2014??) As you can see, I ended up getting it, and I have had it since! For almost eleven years!

As I've mentioned before, I haven't used it much, although I like it. One reason is that dealing with the thick, lengthy, tangly, heavy black guitar cable is a pain, especially for such a little teensy amp. Another reason is that I had a different electric guitar for a long time -- this one -- and I didn't enjoy playing it to the same extent as I enjoy my current electric guitar. But I've been trying to use the amp more lately, since I want to become more accustomed to hearing myself play electric. I'm still getting used to being plugged in and on mic.

As though Karma is working her magic, one of my new guitar buddies has recently changed my game by giving me a little wireless system! It basically removes the need for that thick cord. Pop one dongle in the guitar and one dongle in the amp, and there you go! It transmits what you play wirelessly to the amp!

What a gift, I know!!! He said he got static interference with it and didn't like it, and if I wanted to use it, I could have it. It's actually perfect for me. I have limited space, and removing the guitar cable from the situation is a huge advantage for me. And it sounds really great on my teensy amp, imo. I recorded this little clip on my phone for the guy who gave me the wireless system so I could show him it worked, and so I could thank him for it:

As you can see, I was on the verge of watching Drawfee.

Also as you can see, the wireless dongle is there on the corner of it, where the jack is.

And also also as you can see, in this video, the little black handle that ought to be on the top of the amp is missing. Said handle recently broke into several pieces. I guess it was brittle from age? Again, "pleather" is the worst. But I soon decided, "I bet I can crochet myself a handle." And thus I arrive at the actual reason for this post.

I wanted to crochet around something that would provide the handle with some shape and resilience, and landed on a pipe cleaner. I bent the pipe cleaner in two so it would be doubled up, inserted each end into the metal tabs where the old handle had been attached, and crocheted around the whole biz. Worked perfectly.

And OF COURSE I put some matching icy blue-green flowers onto the handle!

It's actually very secure and sturdy-feeling, but not to the extent where it would be difficult for me to snip the handle right off again, if desired. The amp is very small and light -- I tend to plug it in rather than use batteries, so I'm not worried at all about toting it with this handle. I think it'd be fun to make a variety of handles, perhaps beaded or braided or embroidered ones. But for now I'm really pleased with its new flowery handle, and really pleased I have been using the amp more in general the last month.

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bandstarter

So for a while my dad (just behind me in the picture above) had a side-hustle buying, fixing up, and selling guitars. I mentioned it in this post from 2022, because I used to take pictures of the guitars for him. He no longer does it, but this business of his put him contact with a lot of new friends. For the past little while he's been meeting up with what my mom and I refer to as his "guitar buddies." They aren't a band, per se -- they just meet up and jam out playing covers, for the heck of it.

Well, guess who recently got invited to the jam sesh!!!

To set the scene: They meet up anywhere that works, and as of late that's been in a warehouse belonging to one of the fellas. It's a clean and nice (but very warm in the summer!) space. In the warehouse there's a little area set up with a drum kit, lots of guitars, a piano, microphones, speakers, pedals, cables, tripods, music stands, and a computer. Unless they decide to meet up at someone's house, this is where they've been playing.

The attendees are in their 50s and 60s, and so they play a lot of songs from their younger years. 70s, with a skosh of 60s and 80s as well. Currently they do not have a drummer, but do have a drum machine. My dad plays lead guitar; one guy plays rhythm guitar; and one plays bass guitar. I think there's another guy who sometimes shows up, and I have no idea what he plays, but perhaps I'll find out someday.

Whilst a gigantic fan blows around papers covered in chords and lyrics, songs get worked out. Everyone who wants to sing does so. Specific songs are pitched by whoever, whenever.

Left pic courtesy of my dad!

The first time I went, I didn't know even one of the handful of songs they played. I learned one of them on the spot. First the chords, then the tune, by listening to the guy singing lead. They gave me a mic (!) and I sang some backup. Shyly. Even though that was the only song I could play and sing with (besides a very impromptu acoustic cover of "Stand By Me" with one of the guys while something else was going on), that was honestly my goal in attending: to be able to play along with at least one song.

Nailed it!

After my first time playing with them, my dad said, "Yeah, you fit right in." I took that as a super high compliment, because I am not skilled at all. However, I think it was a more a vibe thing: I am basically a 67-year-old man in all other respects. So.

The most recent time I went, I sang lead (!!) on what is truly my personal anthem: "One Toke Over the Line," by Brewer and Shipley. Just kidding. It's a song I learned expressly for this jam sesh. Hahaha. Not my usual fare. But fun to play. Honestly it is very fun to play music with others, and I'm honored I was invited. My skill level is honestly such that to be able to even remotely keep up with a song here or there is an achievement for me. I'm also nervous to sing in front of other people, but they make it a really chill environment and are so positive and encouraging.

I mentioned in the post about my guitar from 2022 that my dad and I don't have a ton in common, so even though we both play the guitar, our differing skill levels and musical tastes have kept us from really being able to play together. Those differences definitely remain. I am not a skilled player, and we don't listen to the same music. But I'm learning his songs, and he is learning at least one I picked out. This is really beyond any expectation I ever had. I'm happy to be able to have this experience with my dad.

(Almost all the pics in this post consist of screengrabs from phone videos, by the by.)

BONUS: Here's "One Toke Over the Line" as performed on the Lawrence Welk Show. Personally, as I am an honorary old guy, I enjoy it.

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now i'm your daisy

Happy July. No sense in not mentioning it: I've started a new med (ya girl takes like a dozen pills every day) and it's made me feel real wonk in a startlingly wide variety of ways. So this post, while it does have a running theme, is not going to be my most coherent. Just a small collection of different Things Of Late. Whee!

As pictured above, I recently got some daisy knobs for my guitar! Y'all remember Karma, surely! Well, Pinterest totally got my ass. That's where I saw them. They were cheap enough to seem like a fun purchase, and it was definitely an impulse purchase on my part! I rarely actually plug in my guitar to my mini amp, so I don't use the knobs frequently. That's good, because I don't think these knobs are super functional. One of them doesn't seem to turn the dial it's supposedly gripping onto. However, these are just a little something that makes my guitar look and feel cheery and me-ish, so I really like them nevertheless. They make me happy whenever I pick up my guitar.

I've been making these crochet flowers the past couple of days. Another throwback to an older post: I crocheted around a phone charging cord to give it a vine-y appearance. It is just to cute-ify things, you know! A whimsical touch to an otherwise boring and ugly thing. I always thought, "It'd be even cuter with flowers." Since that post, the cord pictured has met its final end, so I've crocheted two more cords, and may well do even more, if I need things to do during knitting club. And I have decided to go ahead and experiment with sewing flowers onto the cord. I'm still in the flower creation stage right now. I'm using this pattern for these flowers. But I'd like to find a few more so I can get in some variation.

Just for fun: Olive in a drawstring dress printed with daisies! I'm gonna freakin' squee just looking at her!! I have yet to dress her in anything other than green. Maybe someday.

Also just because I think it's fun/cute: I got this pink and daisy-print heating pad last month. I'm super rough on heating pads. I use them all the time. And of course eventually they give up on me. I've gotten the same plain gray heating pad the last three times I've had to replace my heating pad, and this time I decided to switch it up. Maybe this one will last longer than a couple of years. Or maybe it won't. But I'll find out! It's very cushy and fuzzy, which I'm not used to. But I gotta say it goes better in my room than the plain gray one I keep replacing over and over.

To be honest this is not even the only daisy-ish stuff I could have added into this post. But like I said, I'm feeling pretty wonky right now, so getting pictures of things is a challenge for me. Just sitting here at my desk, I feel like keeling over and yartzing.

Hopefully these side effects will ease up soon.

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karma (my new old guitar)

Okay, so. On Cure Touch I post about things that make me happy, and this... this. Takes the cake.

I need to give a little backstory so I can properly explain the nuclear levels of joy this guitar has brought me. Long post ahead, y'all.

I learned to play the guitar in 2011 during a period of out-of-control anxiety. I actually wrote about it in 2012 in this post, on my one-year "guitariversary." (Wow, that post was made ten years ago, huh? Let me just crumble into dust and blow away on the wind...)

Even now, after eleven years of playing, I suck at the guitar. I am not feigning modesty. For whatever reason, I am objectively not good at it. And I've been playing fairly steadily all these years. It's actually kind of incredible a person can plateau so hard.

But I just love playing. I admit I wish I didn't suck at it. But sucking doesn't stop me. Playing helps me with my mental health more than almost anything else in my life. Wellbutrin's great, and yay therapy, but I feel noticeably better directly after I play the guitar. The neurochemical reward is that fast-acting. I love to sing (also not great at that!!) so I really enjoy sitting by myself and singing while strumming my guitar. I like to provide accompaniment when my family has sing-alongs. As long as I can back my family, I don't need to shred.

Here's where this specific guitar comes in: my dad plays. His was the guitar I learned on when I first picked up the hobby. He's been in several bands during my life. I grew up hearing him play.

During the pandemic, the guitar became a major outlet for him. He actually started a business buying, selling, and trading guitars in 2020, and it's what he does day in and day out now that he's retired.

He asked me to take pics of some guitars for him to post and to send to buyers, and kept asking me, so during 2020-2021, I took hundreds of pictures of guitars.

Like. Hundreds and hundreds.

(This isn't remotely all the guitars I photographed. Just smashed this together in Photoshop real quick. He also buys/sells pedals and amps, so I've photographed many of those too.)

I'm relating this and showing this collage because I want to stress that over the past two years, I have interacted with more electric guitars than I can remember. Expensive. Cheap. Every color of the rainbow. Huge ones. Tiny ones. Brand new ones without a single scratch, barely touched. Ancient, well-worn ones only given up because the owner could no longer physically play. Many beautiful ones. Many ugly ones. I have seen them all, and played many of them.

And only once, prior to this guitar, did I feel any kind of interest in one. I don't remember the make anymore, but it was yellow, and one of the first ten or so my dad acquired. I was like, "Oh, I like this one!" and kind of wished he would keep it.

But in all, I've just seen so many guitars at this point. Whenever my dad shows me what he's just acquired, I'm rarely excited by it. I say, "That's gorgeous," or "Sounds good!" and notice if it seems particularly nice. But it doesn't pique my interest like it does his. Guitars are his hyperfixation, not mine. Plus, our guitar tastes are very different. He likes black and red ones. I tend to like ones that are white, or at least a unique color like yellow or purple or copper. I myself predominantly play an acoustic guitar, whereas he prefers electric guitars.

I did buy myself an electric guitar a few years into my guitar journey. (Also posted about it, here.) I played this one a lot less than my acoustic, just because I never felt like plugging it into my amp. I did now and then, but not super often. I liked it and had fun with it, but it wasn't my preferred instrument.

But oh. This guitar.

One of many my dad picked up in a haul. I laid eyes on it and immediately said, "That's my kind of guitar." It's off-white, and like I said, I like white guitars. It wasn't even the only white guitar he'd acquired in that specific haul, though! I picked it up and played it a bit. I enjoyed it. I often do! And then I went about my business again.

Buuuut. I found myself picking it up again the next time I saw it. I played it for about twenty minutes that time, and was like, "I really like this guitar."

I proceeded, then, to pick it up every single dang time I saw it. I'd be on my way to do something else, spot it, and go to play it. My dad walked in on me playing it repeatedly.

(basically me)

For whatever reason, this guitar feels very comfortable for me. I don't know why. It's a nice guitar, and all -- nicer than my mint green Affinity -- but mind you, I've played thousand-dollar guitars with mother-of-pearl inlays and celebrity names stamped on them. I've played guitars that sound nicer than this one. But somehow I just found myself in love with this guitar. It feels like an extension of me when I play it. It's the most comfortable guitar I've ever felt. I feel relaxed and at-home with it.

I suspected it might be pricey, but I decided to ask my dad about his selling price.

"How much for other people? Or for you?" he asked.

"Haha, both," I said. (Family discount? Yes, please.)

"It's probably a $500 guitar," he told me.

Oof, was my thought. But I thought I'd see if he would take my mint green Affinity as a trade and let me make up the remainder of the amount.

Before I could make this offer, he said, "If you want it, it's yours."

I... I almost have to lie down, thinking of that moment. I haven't been that happy since I got Aury, my first Blythe doll. The sheer gut-punch of euphoria! The feeling like I'm flying, and life has just changed for the better for me. The sensation of the sun coming out. My dad just... gave me this guitar. I was in shock and in a way I still am.

He liked it as well and I think he liked the idea of it staying in the family, so I think that's partially why he gave it to me. I also like to think it's karma for the sheer amount of hours I've sunk into doing guitar photography and all its associated emotional labor for him for the last couple of years. I mostly did this work for free.

My dad had put the guitar up for sale already and was astonished it hadn't sold yet. People really like this specific guitar, so he expected to it to sell quickly. I said, "It was meant to be with me. I really feel like this guitar was destined for me."

I have been playing it every day, sometimes three or four times a day, since I got it in late April. I love it so much. Every time I play it, I love it more.

My dad doesn't know much about its history. Often he can tell you about the prior owner and where they got it and how long they had it and why they parted with it. But he got it in a larger haul rather than picking it up individually, so its former life is a mystery. But it's a Fernandes RST-50, made in Japan, and I think it is maybe from the 80s. Looks like the pickups have been switched out. There are nicks and chips and oddities about it that don't really show up in pictures. It's "antique white" but to me it looks kind of like a lemon creme color.

I hope this post doesn't come across as braggy or something. (To whomppsssttt would I even be bragging? I think about three people max read this blog.) I've just historically posted about my guitars here and wanted to do the same for this one. And I wanted to record how I feel about it. Record how I got it and how happy it made me. I want to always remember my dad gifting me this guitar, and how much joy it's brought me. This is the definition of Cure Touch.

You'd be forgiven for assuming the guitar is a major thing my dad and I have in common. From the outside, it looks that way. But between our diverging tastes in aesthetics and music, and his high skill level versus my shockingly low one, it's not. We don't play the guitar together. We don't have a super close relationship. Him just up and giving me this relatively expensive guitar was not a foregone conclusion on my part. Not remotely. And thus it shocked me, and it is incredibly meaningful and special to me that he would do something like that. Like, I was prepared to buy it, haggle with him for it, trade for it.

I love this guitar so much.

I want to take super good care of it, so last week I took it to a local guitar place to have the floating bridge tightened down. Hopefully in the next month or two I'll have them do a full set-up on it. I want this guitar to be with me for years to come.

Off to cry now!

P.S. Is it not WILD how much it looks like the guitar in Wayne's World? I did not realize this until making this post.

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Bea and my new gear.

Oh, you know my color compulsions! My new Fender Squier Affinity Stratocaster arrived a couple of days ago and I've been like, "Oh, I have to take pictures of Beatrix with it!" Haha! I want to do a series with all my instruments!!

But about this guitar: I'm really ridiculously happy with it! It's so pretty and cheery. I must confess that, aesthetically, I like having guitars that really feel like me (and not like I'm a 15-year-old boy starting a garage band). Although I haven't decided on an amp yet, I've been enjoying jamming on it without an amp enough to feel like I have to get one ASAP.

And I'm really wailing on it, for some reason! I tend to play very gently, and I only "ghost strum" -- I have ever since I began to learn how to play the guitar three years ago. That means I only strum downwards, and not up and down, like, you know... you're supposed to! I've never minded this, as I play the guitar strictly for myself and for its therapeutic benefits to me. I'm not joining a band anytime soon. But for some reason I feel more comfortable practicing strumming upwards on this instrument. And I feel comfortable really letting go on it. I can already tell it's helping me with my bar chords (although that is a constant work in progress).

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things to look forward to

Oh! I've been working so much; it brings me lots of stress, so I have trouble disconnecting from that and concentrating on pleasurable activities.

But with work, there are rewards! Here's some things I'm really excited about...

I'm going to go see Sucre, the Honey Trees, and Merriment on tour in September!! I'm very stoked. Concerts are anxiety-inducing for me to attend, but I have seen Eisley... four times? And Merriment opened for them the last time I saw them. But I never thought I'd be able to see the Honey Trees live. Liking all three bands on a single tour is so rare!

One of my paychecks went to this beaut, a Fender Squier Affinity Stratocaster in Surf Green.

I'm buggin'! Looking at guitars in pawn shops in June -- and getting to sit down and play a few -- really solidified my desire to get an electric guitar. I watched reviews on this model and it's cheap but very playable, and I love that it comes in fun, retro colors. (I almost got the pink one... of course. This minty one is almost the color of my bedroom, which I've been considering painting, so I thought if I did paint it, I'd still love to have something minty.)

Now I've just got to choose an amp! If they're not little $20 portable, battery-powered amps, they can be very pricey! I need one I can plug headphones into, so as not to disturb my family.

The new Sailor Moon anime, Sailor Moon Crystal, has started airing. They only air one episode every two weeks and it's strange to be watching the same story for the umpteenth time, but it's definitely something I've been enjoying. My favorite version of Sailor Moon is by far the live-action Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon. But I actually like the waify manga-echoing style of the new anime more than the old anime... which is pretty heretical, I know! A lot of people don't like the new henshin sequence but I think it's beautiful. I also love the new theme song. Mercury has been introduced, but I can't wait to see Mars, Jupiter, and Venus.

You can watch Sailor Moon Crystal on Crunchyroll for free.

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In which I'm Wayne Campbell.

I went with my parents to a couple of local pawn shops to look at their instruments. Really, we wanted a tambourine (which we got!!) but I had to scope out all the guitars.

I CAN'T BELIEVE ONE SHOP HAD A "NO STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN" SIGN. It was just cardboard, but the guy behind the counter said it had been there for over 15 years. Wayne's World is my favorite movie, so I can't even begin to explain how excited I was when I saw it.

Some of these were so beautiful. There were mandolins, ukuleles, and banjos, too.

I don't need an electric guitar. I love my white acoustic (which is acoustic-electric -- it is acoustic, but you can plug it into an amp), and also I would never, ever want to disturb anyone in my house or neighborhood by rocking out on an amp -- but holding electric guitars tends to be far easier for me just due to their slim bodies, so that makes it easier for me to strike bar chords on them. I'm not seriously in the market per se, but I have to say, I would still like one.

I saw this beaut for $80 and seriously considered it!

It's a little worn and torn; it had an interesting hole drilled in it which made me wonder if it had been flipped by a lefty; it doesn't have a tremolo arm. Johnson is basically a Fender knock-off.

However, for how cheap they are, they place nicely, from what I understand, and I hardly intend to start a rock band. I played it and a couple of others, but I liked this one best... I'm thinking of it very longingly right now. For $80, I could have afforded it! But my mind's very cluttered right now, and since I know I don't need it, I couldn't think whether I should get it or not. Perhaps someday...

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guitariversary

A year ago, I had a bad anxiety bender. I couldn't eat; I had no appetite and felt nauseated. I couldn't sleep. I couldn't be at the computer or watch TV or movies or craft or do any of the things I normally do because I was so preoccupied that I couldn't concentrate on these everyday things.

I went to sit with my mother in the living room and bother her because I suddenly had nothing I could do. This so rare -- I have so many things I occupy myself with that I am always working, like a little elfin shoemaker on something. But I just couldn't concentrate. My dad's beat-up old classical guitar was leaning against the bookcase in the living room, as it always is, and I picked it up and asked my mom to show me some chords. I already knew the D chord from previous attempts to learn to play the guitar. I just wanted to learn to play "Michael Row Your Boat Ashore," as silly as that sounds. My mother printed out a chord chart for me and some songs with easy chords: "This Land Is Your Land" and "Sloop John B."

Although I had tried to learn several times, each time I found it incredibly difficult to hold the huge body of the guitar and spread my fingers over the wide neck, and the guitar was out of tune all the time and I couldn't tell whether I was striking any chord correctly. They all sounded like mud!  "Is this a C? How should I know? What does a C sound like? I can't tell!" I didn't know how to tune it, either. I am a musical person, but I never learned any instruments because the idea of taking lessons and having recitals made me so anxious. And I was really afraid of breaking a string or somehow damaging my dad's guitar in another way, so I didn't dare fiddle around with the tuning.

Still, I suddenly threw myself into it, picking the guitar up over and over and over, because it was so hard for me that it required all my concentration. After seeing me suddenly pouring in all this effort, my mom suggested we go to the music store to look at guitars, try a few out and see if any better suited my small hands.

That was the day I decided I was definitely going to learn to play the guitar, instead of giving up because it was so difficult. I mean, it really was difficult for me. My left hand is the worst, I have weak wrists. I gingerly strummed by myself in my room, as quietly as possible, worried someone might hear me.

Over the next many months I slowly continued to practice every day -- and finally, finally, I got my Little Ghosty Boo, a lovely slimline with a tiny neck with a built-in tuner. I have played the guitar almost every day for the past year solid now, often a couple of times a day, slowly conquering those difficult Fs and D minors, adding song chords to my favorites on my UltimateGuitar.com account and basically learning new chords just as they appeared in Jewel songs, or whatever.

I don't think I will ever be a good guitar player; I started learning so late in life (at age 28), that for me, it isn't easy to acquire what are essentially new language skills. Guess what: I'm so poor at playing that I can't even strum upwards, and this is a year in. I still can't even strum with confidence. Maybe I'll never be able to do bar chords without struggling to get my fingers where they need to be. But I can certainly play "Michael Row Your Boat Ashore." It's no small feat for me.

Those couple of months of severe anxiety were awful, even moreso in retrospect, but I am also so glad that my desperation made it possible for me to obsess, fixate, and begin to do something I have always wanted to do. Even if I never become good and I never really play in front of others or even make it through a song without messing up, it has still brought me so much joy that I simply want to keep it up for my own happiness. Music is truly the best therapy.

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these are the golden days

Hello, October! I love you and I'm glad you're here!

Tiny delight of the day: my nails match the gold lettering on my Fender guitar pick. This polish is outrageous. It's Milani Gold Glitz. I love gold nail polish of all types, but this is the only glitter polish I've tried that doesn't take about a billion coats to get a good glitter-encrusted disco ball build-up.

I'm still playing the guitar daily. It's been four months since I took it up, and I really love it. It's very relaxing for me because it takes intense focus for me to play and sing at the same time and it really helps me forget everything outside of what I'm doing... music is the best therapy!

(Blythe and crafting are pretty good too, of course!!)

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happiness

After two months of waiting, bad luck, practicing on any other guitar I could get my hands on, and learning how to play such amazing/unfortunate songs such as "Baby" by Justin Bieber, I finally got my guitar today.

It's a Yamaha APX500 acoustic-electric in vintage white, which I chose because it's got a slim body (much, much easier for me personally to hold) and a built-in tuner and I read reviews about it being easier for women with small hands to hold/play and how it's very nice quality for the price. Also, it's pretty, and the white version just felt like "me" more than any other guitars I had looked at.

The white version is a European release, so my local music store couldn't order it from Yamaha; online, it's only on eBay and such, not on the Yamaha website. So instead, accepting that the white guitar was out of my reach, I ordered the same model, but in blue (it really is also very pretty, but I had really wanted the white one!); however, they couldn't tell me when it would arrive. After a couple of weeks, I found out that it was back-ordered and wouldn't be in until October and was so distressed.

I ordered from the music store in the first place because I was uncomfortable ordering one online, as I wasn't sure what to do if it came to me warped from this blistering summer heat, and I am just a newbie player, so I wasn't sure if I would be able to tell if it was in acceptable condition or not! If it wasn't, would I have to ship it back? Would they even take it? Ordering Blythe dolls from eBay is one thing, but a guitar is so much larger, and to be honest, I have major anxiety when it comes to navigating such situations where I don't know what to do. Some people would just shrug and say, "Oh, then I'll return it. If they won't take it, then I'll just sell it myself." But I don't have that No Big Deal gene, so it was all very worrisome for me.

My ever-supportive BFF J was the one who actually found a store in our state that had it in this color, emailed them about it and found that it had a really good return/replacement policy, so I canceled my order at the local music store yesterday... and boom, one day later, here it is, my little ghost guitar.

(And Klara.)

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it certainly is summer

Wow! I took Gavin outside for some pictures and just about died of heatstroke in the two minutes I was out there in the crunchy, sun-bleached grass. Gee, is it July?

Here's my to-do list for this week:

write on my short story, which is getting way long...

ship a frost hat to France!

keep practicing the guitar every day

watch Point Break with my Keanu-lovin' boyfriend

see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 again!

I'm still waiting for the guitar I bought to come to me. The wait is excruciating. But Gavin is keeping me company today!

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stuff I'm into right now...

painting my nails!

Blues, super-pale shades (I have Basically White Pink, Basically White Blue, and Basically White Grey) are favorites right now... and I always love gold!! I also picked up some 99-cent black Wet'n'Wild polish at the drugstore the other day. It's great for a fast one-coat kind of look.

I've actually been playing with makeup a lot more than usual lately.

Pretty Little Liars!

Season two has started airing and it's just as kitschy-delicious, creepy, and full of eye candy as ever! Seriously, what a perfect guilty pleasure show. Spencer's my gal and Toby's always been my favorite dude, so the Toby/Spencer relationship is something I hope isn't scrapped.

Best of all:

I'm learning how to play the guitar. I actually started in late May and it's what I've been doing every day single day for six weeks. I've been learning on the guitar above, my dad's ancient classical guitar. (Seriously, I strummed and plucked on this thing when I was a toddler... I'm twenty-eight now!) I have always wanted to learn how to play but past attempts have always failed... but all of a sudden, I can't put the guitar down. I spend a lot of time looking up chords to songs I know so I can practice them.

Just yesterday I finally went to the music store and bought my own guitar. I actually have grown fond of my dad's guitar but its neck is huge and I need one that I can learn how to tune myself (the one I bought is an electric-acoustic and has a tuner on it) and hold on my lap easier. I'm excited to death... and I'm also deeply depressed because they had to order it for me and they couldn't really be specific with me on when it might arrive. "Anywhere from a week to ten days to a month," they said. I about cried. I want my own guitar on my lap already!

But in my estimations, that's also about how long it takes to get a Blythe from overseas, so I guess I'm actually accustomed to the wait...

Speaking, here's Klara in a new sleepforever dress. It's so gorgeous and perfect for her. She looks like a lovely buttercup princess.

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