Moving Update

Well, the race is on to get everything done here in Italy before we leave in the next couple of weeks.

Our unaccompanied baggage was packed up today, our household goods will be packed and sent off on Monday and our wine shipment will be gone on Monday as well.  Then Tuesday brings the picking up of our government appliances and furniture, Boomer's vet appointment for his health certificate. The rest of the week will be spent cleaning our apartment, finalling out of our apartment, paying the last of our bills and shipping our car.  It's going to be a crazy, hectic week, but I just want it to go smoothly.

I haven't been pleased with a lot of the service we've been getting on this post in order to leave. Out of every ten people, only one is helpful and it seems that most people do not know how to do their job.  I shouldn't have to tell you what to do or ask a question and you not know the answer.  Getting Boomer booked on a flight back to the States was a nightmare and the lady in charge of the tickets on post didn't seem to grasp the fact that we only have one day for travel. She kept trying to book us on days after Sean would have reported to Sill and he finally had to tell her the date in question was the ONLY day he had to travel and she had to make something work.  It appears before we leave I'll be filling out a lot of online complaints about the services on post.

I am a little disappointed that Sean's birthday (the 4th) and our anniversary (the 5th) will be spent cleaning our apartment instead of heading to some exotic location like Portugal to celebrate, but I will be back in Oklahoma for my birthday, so I'm excited about that.

I am so, so excited to see my friends and family in Oklahoma again, but I must admit I am very sad about leaving the good friends I've made in Italy behind.  You know how sometimes you can tell if you'll be friends with someone for a long time or if you'll only be friends with them while you are in the same location they are? I can tell these friends will be life-long friends and that's always a good feeling.

Tonight we are going out for some chicken and beer with one of Sean's good friends from work. We're just trying to eat our fave foods, see our fave people and do a few last minute things before we leave.  As much as Italy sometimes irritates me, I'm going to be so sad to leave.

We Have Orders!

Well, the time has come for the next chapter of our Army life. 

We have known for a couple of weeks where we are going to be finishing out Sean's medboard process, but I didn't want to share it on here, until we had orders that gave us exact dates.

So without further ado....we are going to Fort Sill and will be there by the second week in July.  We're excited about Sill because it is only 4 hours away from our hometown and I already have one good friend at Sill and know of another blogger there.

The only downside is that we have less than 30 days to do an OCONUS move and that's a bit overwhelming.  And I hate leaving the friends I've made here. Not to mention all the delish wine, cheese and pasta I'll be leaving behind.

If you're at Sill, don't hesitate to let me know, I'd love opinions, advice and anything else you care to share about it!

Five Things Worth Sharing

1. Several of you asked awhile back what eating plan I followed to lose 20 lbs a few years ago. I kind of forgot to mention it and quite honestly I've been loosely following it until I decide how exactly I want to modify my eating.  The book is called The G.I. Diet by Rick Gallop. I liked it because it was relatively simple to follow and wasn't super restrictive on what I could and couldn't eat.

2. I stumbled upon this fashion blog a few weeks ago and now I'm obsessed with it. I love her style and even though I can't see myself wearing some of it (let's face it, as a curvy girl I'm not super comfortable walking around in white pants) she's got a lot of great tips on there too about how to put together a look, how to score deals, etc.  Love it! So go check out J's Everyday Fashion.

3. Normally I'd save this for my book review, but I really, really love this new book I picked up at the library last week. If you're a fan of royalty or biographies, then you'll probably like it too.

It's called Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch by Sally Bedell Smith.

4. I love, love shooting digital photos, but yesterday I was browsing around on shopgoodwill.com and came upon a bunch of older Kodak Brownie models and started a search for one of them that seemed up my alley. An hour of research and a quick search on Ebay later and I am now the proud owner of this little number:

(Photo courtsey of Jarvis Chau on Flickr)

Since it takes a specific kind of film, it's a little pricey, not to mention the developing of the photos involves being sent to a special lab, BUT I think for special occasions or a certain kind of photo shoot, that it's going to be awesome.

5. I'm now a huge fan of IKAT, as in the print. Browsing around on Ebay I found this and promptly bought it, I think it'll be cute for this summer.  I must confess I've been buying a lot of my clothes lately from Ebay. I like the selection and although it takes a little searching, I can usually find a lot of great deals.



Christmas in May?!

Every spring I eagerly await for the new Hallmark Ornament Dream Book to come out. It actually went public a few weeks ago, but I've waited to share some of my favorite ornaments until now.

Favorite #1- National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

I've been loving the fact, that for the past several years, Hallmark has been featuring my favorite Christmas movie in ornament form. This year's ornament is infamous Moose eggnog glass. It also has sound, so I'm eager to hear what clip it will be playing.


Favorite #2-  Beverly Hillbillies TV Theme



They actually started somewhat of an unofficial series of these TV sets that played the theme songs of various old television shows. Sean and I have the first two, The Twilight Zone and the Andy Griffith Show and then last year, there was no TV ornament. I was super psyched to see they brought it back this year.

Favorite #3- Vintage Toys

I love the vintage toy ornaments that Hallmark does each year. I'm super excited about this one, as I had this toy growing up. I'm pretty sure it's still somewhere at my parents' house.

Favorite #4 The Grinch

I try to get a Grinch ornament every year, but sometimes that doesn't happen. I'm loving this year's Grinch ornament and am putting it at the top of my to-buy list.

There are a TON of other cute ornaments, but I just featured a few. If you'd like to see the rest. Here's the link to Hallmark and the Keepsake Ornament page.

Supporting the Troops?

Clicking around on Facebook today, I keep seeing various pages popping up on my newsfeed that either friends have liked or have discussed.

I'm sure if you're a military spouse you've seen a few of these, pages where women "support" our troops by taking pictures of themselves in varying states of undress.  These pages have names like, "Vixens for Veterans" or "Booties for the Troops". There are literally dozens of these pages for every branch and all with equally ridiculous names and themes.

Normally, I just ignore these pages as ridiculous quests for attention, but today they really got under my skin.

I do NOT understand why the people that run these pages or the women that post pictures of themselves on these pages claim to "support the troops".  Please explain to me how exactly taking a picture of yourself in your underwear and slapping it on Facebook in a desperate cry for attention, is supporting the troops?

Really? I seriously doubt most of these women have ever been in a relationship with a military member and if they currently are, I have to question why exactly they'd be sharing a picture like that with the rest of the military community.  With all the ways to support the troops: care packages, letters, donations to foundations, volunteering, how exactly does your paltry contribution of a photo of your girly bits qualify as "supporting the troops?"

Instead, why don't you get out there and actually do something for the troops? I'd be a heck of a lot more impressed if there was a website where women took pictures of themselves writing letters or putting together care packages, then I am by these attention-seeking, lonely women who have to validate themselves by any means possible.

March/April Book Reviews

Looking back, it appears I neglected to do my March book review, so I decided to combine March and April together.

In those two months, these are the book that I read:

23. Two Kisses for Maddy- Matthew Logelin
24. The Many Lives and Secret Sorrows of Josephine B.-Sandra Gulland
25. The Dressmaker- Kate Alcott
26. The Eighty Dollar Champion- Elizabeth Letts
27. The Reading Promise- Alice Ozma
28. More Room in a Broken Heart: The True Adventures of Carly Simon- Stephen Davis
29. The Lost Girls- Jenifer Baggett, Holly C. Corbett, Amanda Pressner
30. Alice I Have Been- Melanie Benjamin
31. A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty- Joshilyn Jackson
32. Bond Girl- Erin Duffy
33. Sarah's Key- Tatiana de Rosnay
34. Southern Lights- Danielle Steel
35. The Gilly Salt Sisters- Tiffany Baker
36. Maine- J. Courtney Sullivan
37. The Paticular Sadness of Lemon Cake- Aimee Bender
38. Snowflower and the Secret Fan- Lisa See
39. Sideways on a Scooter- Miranda Kennedy
40. Wanderlust- Elisabeth Eaves

Since I'm combining the two months, I'll go ahead and do a few more favorites, than my usual three.

1.The Eighty Dollar Champion

This book is about a horse, Snowman, that was rescued from being sent to the slaughter house. An enterprising,hard-working Dutch immigrant bought Snowman for $80 to use as lesson horse at the girls' school that he works at. After a series of events, it comes to light that Snowman is an excellent jumper. Snowman goes on to win the most important jumping competition in America several times. Nobody thought this old plough horse would be able to compete against some of the finest bred horses in the world and win. This book was heart-warming and I definitely teared up a few times.

2.  The Lost Girls

This book is about 3, late 20-something girls living in NYC who decide to put their jobs and personal lives on hold and travel around the world for one year.  Along the way they become like sisters, have their share of crazy adventures and meet lots of interesting people. It's not my favorite travel book that I've ever read, but it was still a good read.

3. Maine

I read J. Courtney Sullivan's first novel, but this book was so much better. This is probably my favorite book that I read in April.  The book follows four different women in the family and centers around their summer home in Maine. I loved the different characters and how developed they were. Definitely an awesome read.

4. Snowflower and the Secret Fan

I've read several of Lisa See's other books, but this has been my favorite.  It follows two young girls in China who become a kind of best friend/soul sister and follows them from the age of seven, through their adult lives and until their deaths.  The writing in this book almost reminded me of an Amy Tan novel and that is a very good thing.  I loved the book so much that I'm really wanting to see the movie. I just hope it does the book justice.

5. Sideways on a Scooter

This is another sort of travel book and it was my favorite of the travel-related books I read in these two months. Miranda moves to India for several years to try out her independence and work doing freelance news work.  She's explains her fascination of India that started as a young girl and it's interesting to see how her view of India changes in the years that she is there. I loved the descriptions of her friends and the various people she meets in her years in India.

Most Hated Book of March/April

1. Wanderlust

Do NOT read this book. I had high hopes for it as it was another book in the travel genre, but quite frankly, it sucked.  The book was less about travel and more about what drugs and various sexual partners this girl encounters in her travels through a span of about 15 years. Seriously, it got old really quickly. I'm not sure why she chose to focus on those particular aspects of her travel, as she was in so many interesting locations. I wish she would have elaborated more on them.  I am not alone in this review, as I checked out Amazon and she received many similar, scathing reviews on there as well.

Stolen Photos: A Cautionary Tale

Those of you that are on my Twitter or Facebook probably know most of this story, but if you haven't heard it, read on.

The other day I was on Etsy, searching for things using keywords that were similar for some of the prints in my shop.  As I'm scrolling down I see one of my prints, but it isn't in my shop!  A bunch of emotions went through me at once. Shock and anger being the two dominate ones.  As I investigated this particular Etsy shop a little further, I realized that not only were one of my prints in the shop, but there were two. Both of these prints were from my Paris trip and both of them are in my own Etsy shop.

I wanted to contact the seller right away and rip him a new one, but I thought it best to contact Etsy first and see what they had to say. Let me just say that I'm pretty disappointed in how Etsy managed this whole situation. It was over 24 hours until I heard from them and I also sent two emails. Then all they had to say was they didn't like to get in the middle of disputes like this and couldn't be the jury. So they gave me links to Copyright Infringement which basically gives the instructions that I'd have to send a letter to their corporate office and jump through a bunch of hoops. Really Etsy? When I offer to show you the original print unedited that has all the photo info and you still won't get into the middle of it? Whatever.

In the meantime I used TinEye on some of the other listings in the seller's shop to see if he had stolen from anyone else. I found a large number of the prints in his shop on Flickr and on DeviantArt, where I promptly emailed the artists and told them the situation.

After hearing back from Etsy, I decided to contact the seller. I told him he had two of my prints in his shop and I did not appreciate that he stole from me without my permission. I also got an email back from a couple of the people on Flickr telling me that their prints weren't stolen and they actually had a contract with the seller to use their photos and get a certain percentage from his sales.

The next day I heard back from the seller (who happens to live in Madrid). He apologized and explained that he had bought the photos (in full-size) from a former co-worker who was a photographer. He took the prints down from his shop and I've enlisted his help to get the info for this photographer friend of his. Normally, I'd call BS on that story, but after hearing from several of the other photographers that they actually have contracts with him and he has permission to use their photos, I thought he might be telling the truth.

Now, here's where it gets tricky. Those photos are also on Flickr, which is where I'm assuming the guy got them. However, I have downloading disabled on my pictures and when you right click my pictures, it doesn't even give you the option to save as. So...I'm not sure how this guy got the full-size version of my picture. 

In the meantime, I've made my Flickr private and I honestly don't know if I'll ever share my photos on there again. I've also been going through my Etsy shop and watermarking every photo. Honestly, I hate the look of watermarking and that's why I've put off using it on my photos. However, after this little debacle, it appears I'll be putting it on every single picture that I upload to the web.  I know this probably isn't the first time that someone will steal my photos, but it's really eye-opening. It just shocks me that people would steal from others and then try to pass it off as their own.

Seriously? Get some talent of your own.