Evolution of a blog.

Hi guys!

Long time no blog (not really but not every day either!) Hope you are all doing fantastic. I am actually having a pretty good week so far (which is exciting!) Lots going on around here where to start, where to start.

I suppose I will start at the title of this post. When I first started this blog it was with the intention of writing about green/ organic/ healthy/ natural pet products, and although I felt and still feel very strongly about it, it is not something I can write about with any reliability, and so started the evolution on snouts heart sprouts. As it stands today I mostly blog about random events in my daily life, products I really adore, and of course my critters.  I have decided because of this I probably have a rather diverse set of readers, so I am going to make a bar for easier navigation between subjects for those of you who only follow me to ready certain posts *grin*

Another thing, no one comments. I am not sure if this is because of language barriers or because my followers have nothing to say, but I would love to know who you all are :)

Lets see what else did I want to blog about?

OH!

Gearing up for some serious summer fish tubbing! My mom gifted me her 169 gallon stock tank to use as one of my fish tubs, so it will be fantastic for growing out my baby plecos, although I am not sure what other fish I might put in them, maybe see if there is another kind of platy I would like to try to raise? I would love to get my hands on some peppermint platies, however I may just do an experiment with the red wags I have and maybe some of the snow whites and see what happens.  Back to the tubs though, I will have 3 small 25 gallon round tubs and the one gigantic stock tank, hopefully with my next paycheck I will be able to afford all the stuff I have in my cart at kensfish.com. I also still have to get a pond liner and probably 4 or 5 bags of sand to dump in the bottom of the stock tank before adding the liner, and then all the plants. Wooooey! I'll love all of it though, I always do!

Last but not least there is a now pallet from Sigma BEauty I am lusting over that I will write a separate post about most likely tomorrow!

Little Guppies, Big dreams.

My female guppy finally had her babies, and I have learned baby guppies have no survival instinct whats so ever. They there all float right out in the open, looking at the bigger fish with absolutely no fear at all, when they could be hiding in the naja grass or the tons of willow moss.

My aquarium lights haven't come on yet, but I will be surprised if there are any left when I go to check later today. They are cute though, strange little sets of eyes with a spine just floating about in the highest current part of the tank.

In other news, the second round of baby plecos is doing just as great as the first, and it looks like my smaller female "Gwen" is actually just a super late bloomer and will have to be called "Glen" now, as his bristles are starting to show up.

I bought 3 of the 6 tubs to make my fish tubs out of, This coming weekend I plan on cleaning up the corner of the yard next to the garage so I can build my little scaffolding for them there (too many raccoons to just hope free standing and uncovered at night will work) so I can get the air pump hooked up and get some plants at least growing in there.

I am thinking, I would like to have parrot feather, water hyacinth and maybe pond primrose for top plants.  The nice thing about he buckets is that even though I will still check on them every day, the fish will have constant natural food and if they get green the fish never mind. Algae control is such a human concept. Although I doubt with 50 baby plecos there will be any problem at all with algae *laugh*

I am also planning on selling some of my fish when I am sorting out for buckets. I only want to keep the best to raise up the next generation. Which I suppose is normal.  I really want to get into fancier guppies and different strains of bn plecos. I will always love my platies too, but I like too much, which is why I always want more, more, more.

I still am stuck on the idea of color coded tanks (as silly as that is) so it will be fun trying to accomplish those.  I know there will be some that wont work out but I'll try. I also think I am going to move my tanks to the basement so I have more room and have to worry less about spilling on the floor. Also in the basement I can store shipping supplies and have a bagging station, which will be a tremendous help. I can also set up a couple quarantine tanks, for new fish coming in or for fish getting ready to go out.

Enough about my fishy friends. Nothing else is really going on here. still waiting for some thing to fall into place. I can't get my tanks moved tot eh basement until I get the fish out in their tubs, so that I am stuck. I am drawing out room designs and trying to decide what I need in my room and what I need to get rid of.  I have so much stuff.

My ebay auctions are not doing so well. In fact, not one person has looked at them even. *laugh* I'm not getting discouraged, I just think I need to maybe find a better way to sell stuff.

I was thinking about my perfect jobs, my top 5 are:

1. Pet photographer
2. Dog walker
3. Plant nursery/ Pond maintenance
4. Fish Monger
5. Dog Sitter

All of which seem so attainable,  I already sell fish, I think though once I get my camera, I might try the pet photography thing and the maybe the dog walking thing.  I don't know.  I am not sure Clinton, IA is the best place to start a dog walking business. I guess I'll never know unless I try though.

Right now I make $200 a week, (that is a good week by the way.) So it would just have to make equal to that. Which I would much rather make out side with insanely happy walkin' puppies then toiling away inside a dingy video store that I am not appreciated at. So I just need to get my but in gear I guess. Ok enough babbling, time to take my happy doggies for their walk and to do water changes and clean my room as much as I can!

HAPPY MAY!

Happy May Lovelies!

I am sick today for some reason (I slept until 5 pm) but I am feeling a bit better now so I thought I would blog since I can remain sitting and it's fairly non-strenuous.  Tomorrow I will start my new work out regimen I am hoping; it is all based on body resistance which is something I am a firm believer in, especially since I can't run or basically do anything else with much impact because of my wonky joints and now my stupid metataraliga in my foot reappearing. I think it should be fairly easy to stick to as most of it can be done laying down, and what isn't is still very yoga based so I will won't be doing anything too strenuous.  My plan is to combine the 3 workouts below in some form:

Prevention's "Love your Lower Body Workout"

Whole Living's "6 Core Truths" Workout

Blogilate's "R.I.P. for Arms and Abs" Workout

I am not sure how I am going to rotate them or work them together, but I'll get it all straightened out. I look forward to having my old body back with in a month or two.

What else is going on? I ordered a new airbrush to do my face make-up with from Dinair. I am extremely excited for it to show up. It will be great if it makes my skin look as flawless as it says it should. Although to be completely honest I will just be happy if it can cover my under eye circles. I'll probably do a review once I get it. I really like the idea of only putting 4 or 5 drops of water based foundation one my face rather then glopping a ton of foundation on with a sponge that feels like a mask and makes me itchy.

Dinair Airbrush

In fish related news, still no sign of Manny but these seems to be a few teensy tiny baby plecos skittering about, so maybe he is just guarding a new nest some place. I am really looking forward to getting my tubs set up and it being warm enough outside to get them up and going. I think all the fish will enjoy being all spread out a bunch more, also I will enjoy being able to finally paint my bedroom and get everything all rearranged. I am hoping to be able to put up my ebay auctions up by the end of the week, although free comic book day is saturday so we will have to see.

I suppose that is all for today. Hopefully the auctions will be able to get me enough for a new camera. Then at least I will have some photos on each blog to oggle.

UPDATE!

There was a Manny sighting tonight, I am so ecstatic h is ok, although a bit on the skinny side. I think I need to find him a vacation home, so he can get a little break from being a daddy.  Anyone have an albino male short fin bristle nose pleco of breeding age for sale?

Depression- Case of the missing Manny.

I have been meaning to blog for a few days now, but I am depressed and I tend to not want to write when I am depressed because i don't think the world needs any more negativity in it. Nor do I think it appropriate to wander around bemoaning my life not being fair when there are people who can't ever have enough food to eat. However I do feel like my life is unfair and I am stuck right now, and it is not a happy feeling at all.

Also my favorite pleco "Manny" has gone missing and I am baffled as to where he could be. I looked behind the aquarium fearing the worst, not there, I looked IN both filters, not there, I looked in every cave (maybe is is guarding more eggs) nope, not there. So then I thought maybe I moved him to another aquarium to give him a break from his daddy duties, but I can not find him anywhere. Which actually adds to my depression. I know he is just a fish but he was my favorite fish, all adorable and stout and bristle nosed. Speaking of plecos, the babies are doing fabulously and are growing every day. I am aiming to get my fish tubs up and going by the middle of may.

I am so behind on everything, and the depression is just making it worse. My garden in non-existant, my fish tubs still are MIA, the house is a disaster, ick. If i had health insurance this would be the point in time where I go in and get anti depressants to help me get through this slump. I don't though, so I will just keep muddling on.

I took some pictures of the fish (or tried) my camera still is not working well at all, so I am rather disappointed with the quality of them (I HATE THINGS OUT OF FOCUS.) I need a new camera with manual focus, yes need is the absolute correct word.

I want to be well on my way to a career by 30, I want to not have to struggle so much, have my own place, enjoy my life, just easy things like that. What I really would like to do is be a pet photographer, and there can be money in that field, but there can be money in any field. I make money off my fish, but it wont keep me fed. I have two friends who are photographers who say go for it, but they have not seen my photographs *laughs* I think even doing image retouching would make me fairly happy if I had some one to teach me. Point being I need a career where I can still have the freedom to make my own schedule.

Being how I am some days I need 12 hours of sleep (ug. does that make me sound lazy, I swear to you I am not!) and other days I can work for 15 hours straight, it just depends on... I'm not sure what, but on something I obviously can't control. Working with animals is exhausting, but I love it. I didn't really love working at the dog daycare, I worked at, I loved the daycare aspect of it, especially walking dogs, that was the best therapy I could have ever asked for, but I hated the part where I needed to clean with horrible chemicals and bust my butt to try to keep up because I was old.

I think in general I want to work with animals, I would happily be a dog walker, pet photographer, pet sitter, dog groomer. I would be open to the idea of training too, but not in a class setting, it would have to be one on one unless the doggy parents were there.  The doggie daycare really opened my eyes and it was a fantastic business BUT trying to keep 25 dogs all in control at once is too much to handle for me.

Sorry about the lack luster post, better then nothing at all I suppose. Have a great Thursday!

Vacation wishes and Carol's Daughter macadamia intrigue.

Last year the Mister was kind enough to take me with him on a tour of some of Europe (bless his heart for being patient enough to be stuck in a foreign country and a ship with my horrible, completely social awkward, stubborn, panic prone butt for 2 weeks) and because I am stuck in the hole I am stuck in right now I have been craving any type of vacation, and of course the internet is rubbing salt in my wounds by showing me all sorts of stuff spain related. Example: Beers and Beans review of Casa Gracia in Barcelona. How in gods name did the Mr. and I not know about this when we were in spain? Ug. It's perfect. Of course we did spend out time on land in some amazing hotels, although one had a bed that was less comfortable then the floor. Or how about this example of a Low Carb Tortilla (Traditional Spanish Potato and Egg ommeltte)? I just want to escape. Vacation where are you? Oh that's right you are hiding in some mythical reality where I actually have a bank account with money in it. Gotcha.

Anyhow in other news, while I was bounding around the internet today, realizing how hopeless my fashion sense or lack of one is, I found out that Carol's Daughter has a new Macadamia heat protection line out. How did I not know about this? My hair loves all thing macadamia related, I used up every last drop of my macadamia oil and if it weren't so insanely costly I would still be using it, once I have normal income again I am pretty sure I will be using it again.  I am really anxious to try it out. Any one have any reviews up? Is this stuff any good?

I had better get going off to work, late because I was blogging doesn't seem like a very good excuse!

Revamp and obsession.

Morning all!

What do you think of the blog overhaul? I am liking it so far, I am still by no means done with it, but it is getting closer to what I see in my minds eye.  I am still pretty new to the whole blogging experience, but I am learning new tip and tricks every day and I feel like I am making progress. I meant to post a "health & wellness wednesday" post yesterday but I got caught up doing a couple signs for Record Store Day for work (one of my jobs is at a record store, and record store day is this saturday 4-21) so by the time I could have posted it was 3 AM and I can't ever write anything that makes sense that late, so I decided to wait until today. (Here are the signs if you are curious:)

Speaking of health and wellness, I am eating breakfast while I type which is weird but I am making it work. I am eating my normal "girl in a hurry" breakfast today which consists of 2 blueberry multigrain waffles topped with natural peanut butter and sliced bananas, a container of Stoneyfield's O' Soy strawberry yogurt (they have been out of the yummy SO Delicious strawberry coconut yogurt since the first time I found it *frown*) and a cup of coffee with 8th continent complete vanilla soy milk. It's high in protein and fiber and easy to eat while doing other things (ie blogging *laugh*) any way, back to my original point, I was planning of talking about something yesterday health and wellness related and I kind of came up short. I thought, "think of all the awesome new recipes you have found... oh, but haven't had time to try to cook them yet.. drat." So, in leu of that I am going to talk about my current obsession with the smell of my Shea Moisture conditioner and my never ending quest for the perfect perfume.

It, for me any way is pretty much the quintessential perfect fragrance for me any how. It is vaguely floral and somewhat sweet but with the perfect amount of spice and musk to balance it out. Well, thats all well and good, unfortunately the ingredient panel has been less then helpful, it says it is scented with honeysuckle. Then a little led came on in the back of my mind, "Oh! They make lotions!" so zoom, off I speed to Walgreens and stake out the lotion aisle, and... nothing. What? Where is it? So then I wander around and finally find some in the baby aisle, which is fine my skin hates everything. I crack open a bottle that is labeled chamomile, frankincense and myrrh, inhale excitedly, blink a couple times and then disappointedly put the bottle back on the shelf. It smelled like skittles, definitely not what I am looking for. Much like beauty products I battle with my body about perfumes pretty often. My body is not a fan of fake fragrances, I can't even use most fabric softeners unless they are unscented. Not to mention I will not dish out hundreds of dollars for perfume, I just won't. So here is the list of perfumes I have used over the years.

ages 14 to 18: Custom Vanilla, cinnamon, tea oil blend my mom and I would make together, it was delicious but the cinnamon really irritated my skin and people were always asking what I had baked.

Ages 18 to 23ish: Patchouli, orange and clove oil. It gave me the musky, earthy notes I constantly crave and didn't make my skin hate me too much, but I just sort of out grew it.

24 was when I started really experimenting with store made perfumes, what can I say I am a late bloomer and I can't stand cloying or sweet smells. Tried several, all kind of just fizzled. I settled on Bath and Bodyworks Breathe Comfort 'warm vanilla milk' scent and I still have that bottle. It is good and is sprayable.  I also used their cherry blossom scent, but it dries down to a horrible cat pee-esque smell on me for some reason on certain days, so that is long gone.

26 to nowish- My arsenal is comprised of Victoria Secret's 'amber romance' spray and Woodsmoke & Vanilla Perfume oil from Firebird Bath and Body on Etsy. I like both but I am not a fan of the dry down on the amber romance and I really love the smell of the WS and vanilla, but its a roller ball and I am not a fan of that sort of applicator, so that brings us up to date. I do have a tiny bottle of Flowerbomb for when I need to smell lady like, but I am not a big fan it was a gift.

So all that brings me back to where I started and what I plan to do. I am going to attempt to make my own custom body sprays. One that is honeysuckle, agran oil, frankincense and myrrh and one that is vanilla, blackberry/ black cherry, caramel, sandalwood, musk and amber. I'll document the process and let you all know how it works out. If it does; it will be fantastic, if not, well I'll have to start making soaps or something to use up all the oils I'll be buying *laugh*

 I had better get moving though, I need to get those posters for record store day printed out and actually make my self look like a member of the human race. Oh and put on some purfume!

See you later Lovelies!