Disillusioned

Book Review: Massive Book Review

By Chelle on February 5, 2012 6:25 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

I know that I haven't done a book review in... well who knows how long... but it's been killing me when I haven't been doing them. I've been consuming books as if they were keeping my life sustained here and there. A couple of weekends ago I read 2.5 books. So, let me open my Adobe Digital Editions thingie and let you know what I've been reading.

I've officially finished the Georgina Kincaid (Succubus Series) by Richelle Mead. If you lost yourself somewhere in this saga, pick it the hell back up. The ending is worth it. It's the best ending to a love story that I have ever read in my entire life. If this were my life, I would want this ending, I would fight for this ending and I would kill anyone in my way to get the ending. Oh, yes, I *still* want Carter to be my Guardian Angel, no one else will do.

I am currently caught up on the Sookie Stackhouse saga by Charlaine Harris. I know, I know, I should've been caught up ages ago. But now I'm really caught up. I'm truly impressed with Sookie. With everything that she has been through regarding her fae family and the vampires, the weres and some psycho trying to kill her, she gets up every day and goes to work. She gets up every day and takes care of business, does her job, takes care of her house, deals with her family, plans and throws a baby shower for her best friend. If anyone is running for their life as much as Sookie is, it would be Cassandra Palmer from the Dark Magic saga by Karen Chance, which I previously reviewed as "a rollercoaster ride of almost dying and almost sex".

Even though I skim the sex scenes because sometimes they are too much or too often (Sorry, Laurell) I have caught up on the Anita Blake saga by Laurell K. Hamilton. Hit List was pretty damn good. The Harlequin have been ... well, I'm not sure if they are officially absorbed into their Kiss or what. The Mother of Darkness has been... consumed. You have to read it, just do it, skim the sex scenes like I do.

I read Unearthly by Cynthia Hand in one day. ONE DAY. It's Young Adult and all but I don't recall the last time I read a book in one day. It was interesting to say the least, a whole new type of supernatural. A teen girl is quarter-angel and she is given a purpose, as are all those who have enough Angel DNA in them are and her family moves several states over in order for her to fulfill her purpose. It turns out she's supposed to save someone. It turns out all backwards though when she falls in love with someone and their life is in danger at the same time she's supposed to save this other person. She meets others of her kind who know a lot more than she does about the whole 'being an angel' gig and tries to learn what's going on. I actually can't wait to see the next book come out.

I've gotten to book 15, yeah FIFTEEN, of the Stephanie Plum saga by Janet Evanovich. Badly though, I read it in my head using a horrible Jersey accent and I'm so excited about this being on the Big Screen. I can't wait to see One for the Money! Although, the guy who plays Ranger... doesn't look like the ranger in my mind dammit. Anyway, with all the trouble that Stephanie finds herself in it's probably a really good thing that these are non-supernatural books. Probably the first I've read in a long (very long) time.

Don't let me forget about the Vampire Academy spin-off of the Sydney Sage series by Richelle Mead. If you haven't read Vampire Academy, do not read these novels until you do or you'll have no idea what Sydney's history is with the Moroi and Dhampirs. Just trust me, okay? Sydney is amazing. Intelligent, beautiful, a lover of knowledge and learning. Unfortunately, her family history is full of dogma and they are a very controlling lot. She's an Alchemist (not like Full Metal, okay?) and helps by disintegrating Strigoi when they are staked. She's also discovering more about herself now that she's away from her overindulgent family once again. Sydney has to be careful though, she may be the current heroine thanks to the good she did in Bloodlines but she doesn't want to do anything that will end up getting her sent to a Re-Education Center. I can't wait to read The Golden Lily!

I've finally gotten my hands on the Black Dagger Brotherhood books, so I've started that. I'm not entirely sure about them just yet but I will try to get back to you. So, yes to all of these, even the Karen Chance novels if you like rollercoasters (see, there's always a catch) and the Anita Blake series if you can skim through the sex scenes like I can (or hey, maybe you like tons and tons and TONS of amazing scream inducing sex - even I need it now and again).

Bottom line, though? Go grab a book, even an audio book and start reading. If it weren't for books I would definitely be in a padded room. So thank you to each and every one of the authors for every book I've ever read.

Continue reading Book Review: Massive Book Review.

Peanut Pics

By Chelle on January 31, 2012 9:05 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

I thought I would take the time to show you these absolutely adorable photos of our domesticated feline Peanut... and all the wonderful things she does. This is her sleeping in her bed, which I had to bribe her with catnip to do:

This is the bed we bought her forever ago, probably a few months after we got her actually. Since she never ever slept in it and basically looked at us like "Why would I sleep in that thing when I can sleep in your bed whenever the hell I want?" So I started bribing her by sprinkling catnip over the bed. She'd snuffle and rub and roll around and lick the nip and then curl up and pass out in a drugged catnippy haze.

Recently I caught her curled up on the pillow-pet Panda that I acquired one day at work. (Don't ask.) You could see her, see the panda, but not quite tell where one ended and the other started in the white areas.

By the way, you'll have to forgive the quality of these photos as they were taken with my cell phone because there aren't any batteries currently residing in my camera. There were other needs for those batteries, like the remote control for the Wii or the remote for the tv needed changed. I can't remember which now, but let's just say one of the things I'll be buying with some of my tax refund (if it ever gets here) will be some rechargeable batteries. The ones I bought over 3 years ago are almost completely nonchargeable at this point.

Here's another photo of Peanut lying across my legs from the other night. A friend of mine said I had made him cry (I keep teasing him that he has to send Peanut a 'child support check' since he thinks she's so cute and it hasn't gotten here yet.) I told him that Peanut had given up on ever getting her Kitty Support and has therefore decided to beg me for whatever she can get in return for keeping me warm.

That's our Peanut.. some days I think she forgets that she is supposed to beg her momma (Little Lady) for food, water, clean litter and love. Then she pulls this cuteness crap on me and I end up taking photos of her and petting her and talking to her in a cutesy voice that would annoy even the most sweetest person in the universe.

I have to boot her off of my bed on a regular basis when I go to bed, sometimes twice in one night, because instead of sleeping (because she gets around 16 hours a day...) she wants to cuddle and purr right in your face all night long. Only one time has this cat slept the night through in bed, at my feet, and I think that night she was possessed by the ghost of my cat, Velvet, when it happened.

Alright, you may go away from the cuteness of it all now and find your own furry fluffy animal and snuggle, pet, kiss and talk cutesy to it so it knows that you love him or her. Make sure you give over some snacks, too, all animals need a little extra snacks during the winter for having to put up with us being stuck in the house more often with them (on those really bad days we absolutely refuse to go anywhere). Goodnight all!

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Working Logo

By Chelle on January 28, 2012 12:50 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Every once in awhile a good friend contacts me to do a little graphic design for him on behalf of a customer. I enjoy creating and lately I may not have been badgered all that roughly by my muse to do much of anything creative but I feel that if I play around in Photoshop or play around on Pinterest I might find something to inspire me.

So I agreed to do this logo for him for a local company in his home state. (When everything is said and done everything will go up on Exquisite, by the way.) He sends me their current artwork via email and it's this cute little line drawing with text stating the company's name. I about died At first I was completely flabbergasted as to what to do with this little line drawing, especially since the size is not all that big enough to really do much with it.

I started by cleaning up some of the lines and then copied the layer and changed the blend ode to overlay in order to make it darker. Doing just that helped quite a bit, it looked much cleaner. Still, anytime I zoomed in to work on it the amount of degradation was crazy. It's a small logo and it's going to be on their website so I suppose it doesn't have to be all that large, right? I'm working with circular text, which I'm loving how it's turning out. I'm also going to work on a banner logo in case they'd prefer a header instead.

I plan to have Little Lady redraw the logo in a larger version since she saw it and wanted to color it. Since she isn't able to draw digitally at this time (she said it, not me) she can draw a larger version, color it, then we'll scan it and see how it turns out. I think whatever she does with it will turn out amazing.

I think the one Professor for my Web Design truly challenged me when he told me he didn't think I could pull of creating an ad with a black background. When the final version was turned in he was truly impressed. To this day I do whatever it takes to challenge myself when creating graphics. From the most simplest of images to the most complex designs, I try to put all the emotion and thought I can into each project. I learn a lot from tutorials over at Planet Photoshop and many other places on the internet. It makes me glad that there are people out there who willingly share their knowledge with so many others. Being in a creative field could be considered competitive, but not in the same way as say sports. Each and every person sees each and every thing in the world differently. This makes it much more interesting to see what comes of their design, no matter what the medium it's created with. What did you create today?

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It's all about me

By Chelle on January 27, 2012 8:02 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

I know there are tons of people out there who write About Me pages, so I thought I'd contribute this gem of a page: About Me - Enjoy!

Continue reading It's all about me.

Refreshing Balance

By Chelle on January 21, 2012 1:22 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Saturday was not a day like any other. Friday night I had to go to bed as if it were a weekday in order to wake up quite early. I was perfectly fine with this however, as it was the most coveted day of all. SPA DAY. My first ever (real) spa day. The first thing I want to tell you is that if you do not have a decent tolerance for pain, don't get anything that includes deep tissue massage. You will be in pain. Even with my high pain tolerance I was sorely pressed at least twice. Surprisingly, there aren't any bruises.

I knew we were expecting several inches of snow, however I did not expect the plows to not touch anything other than the main highways. Which is kind of stupid since they haven't done a decent job yet since we've started getting snow that sticks to the ground. I wish I had taken a picture of our road. If there hadn't been anyone out before me on Saturday morning (I have neighbors that work odd shifts) then it would have looked as if we didn't have a road, the snow was that much and the road was that well covered. In fact, as I was leaving a truck passed up our road. The truck didn't have its blade down or the salt spraying from the back. It seemed like a huge waste of fuel to come wandering down to our little cul-de-sac just to not do anything.

Luckily, I made it safely to Casal's de Spa. When I walked in I liked the fact that they have the salon and spa completely separate, but in the same building. I was a little weirded out that you don't pay ahead of time, but after you leave. I mean they are a service industry, how can you take back a massage and facial? Anyway. From what I've read the prices at Casal's are reasonable and the service is absolutely amazing. When I arrived I was seated and served my choice of refreshment. After that I changed into a robe and came back to a nice hot bubble-filled foot bath. Right there I felt as if I found a new home. I filled out a form and had another drink, then shortly after that I was introduced to my massage therapist. Since I had requested the Chakra Balance Massage it's a bit different. She had tried to explain what chakras are to me, but luckily I already know since things got a little loud with laughter and discussion on other massage services in the waiting room. She brought out these cards with words like insight, wisdom, nourishment and so forth on them. I chose wisdom, insight and harmony. From those choices three scents were chosen to be used during my massage. I didn't ask which ones, unfortunately.

The massage was an hour of bliss, minus the couple of moments of intense pain from the deep tissue part. I lived and breathed through it. I felt really bad about how twitchy my back is. From muscle issues to nerve issues my back is not the best thing to touch. The lovely lady who performed my massage was very patient with me. I would really like to go back to her again in the spring. If I start couponing maybe I can start getting a massage every 4 months (that would be FanTasTic).

The facial was just as fabulous. It was 25 minutes of more massage on my face, neck, shoulders and upper arms. She explained the different things she'd be doing on my face due to dryness (winter...) and went to work. It was fabulous. My face never felt better than that day. The skin was so soft that I couldn't stop touching it and the scent of jasmine followed me for the rest of the day. If I can't go back for an hour long massage, I think a facial would definitely be a good alternative.

So, if you find yourself in Northeast Ohio or Western PA, feel free to hit Casal's De Spa up for a massage, facial or any of their services. Although, you'll want to make an appointment at least two weeks in advance. Or you can always pamper yourself wherever you happen to live. Enjoy!

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Vicious Mindset

By Chelle on January 10, 2012 5:31 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

This post is not something I would normally post here due to the amount of anger and irritation boiling inside of me. I'm drinking at the moment though so I'm slowed down just enough that I won't do anything stupid. I know, most people who drink and write do stupid things, but I tend to do them in anger, like the rest of society. Feel free to continue now that you've been warned.

Continue reading Vicious Mindset.

Epiphany

By Chelle on January 5, 2012 8:32 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Even though I adored the Kuroshitsuji (Black Butler) layout, I thought for the new year, why not yet another new look? So introducing the Zen of Disillusioned, inspired by my Zen calendar from 2011. Each month had beautiful flowers in some beautiful and calming arrangement all up close and personal with one word glowing to help induce calm, tranquility, peace and so forth. While I enjoyed the sentiment of the calendar it's very hard to find peace when there are little things that irk you through the day. Especially when they are everyday occurrences. So I thought I'd bring a little zen to Disillusioned and vice versa, give it my own bit of flair.

And I added in this extremely cute photo of Peanut, for which Little Lady yelled at me about since I didn't ask her to sign a release as Peanut's official 'momma' and all. I told her that I did have one signed and that Peanut took care of it, that the chicken scratch signature looked valid enough to me. Who was I to know she forged it?

Starting a new year, starting a new way of doing things. Instead of resolutions, I've decided to change up the word and call them "Motivations". Instead of resolving to do something I will motivate myself to do them. This layout didn't take as long as I thought it would. I think it actually took longer to find the photo than it did to create it. After I thought it was finished, and possibly going to be a 2 column layout instead of 3, I decided I wanted it to be a 3 column. I then went looking for something to put in the footer like I always do and found the Japanese Zen Symbol. After editing that, I saved it again. I saw how the orchids were reflected in the water and decided to see what it would look like to put a reflection action on Disillusioned. I changed the opacity to be a little lower than what the action set it at and then saved it again. Bam, it was done and we shall see what others think of it as well. Until next time, enjoy!