Giveaway – Inez Gill Handmade Bows

What better way to start off the new year than with something pretty? My twitter pal, Courtney Gill Zurcher, owner and creator of Inez Gill, thinks so and this is why she’s offering Little Big readers a chance to win one of her charming handmade, vegan-approved bows to a lucky reader!

Her bows are really popular and you can see why: they come in a range of styles and colors.

I have been wanting to host more giveaways supporting small, independent handmade or vintage-based business, so when Courtney contacted me I jumped at the chance. She is generously offering her bows to any Little Big reader, even those outside the U.S. I love her bows and she’s sending me a pink one, which I completely expect to fight with Isobel over. Look for photos of her wearing the bow during the day and me secretly wearing it while she naps in the near future.

Courtney has a really lovely site (I’m drooling over that cowl on the home page) and in addition to artistic shawls and cowls she also does a lot of custom work, which is one of my favorite things about doing business with small independent businesses: they value your business and will work with you to create something that uniquely fits your tastes and needs.

And now, to the deets:

* To enter, leave a comment below.

For extra chances to win,

* Follow Inez Gill on twitter. (And leave a comment saying you did so.)

* Like Inez Gill on Facebook. (And leave a comment saying you did so.)

* Tweet the following:

“Supporting handmade with @exlibris makes the world an awesome place: http://www.thelittlebig.wordpress.com”

I’ll announce the winner on Friday. Good luck!

Follow Friday – Terrarium Giveaway

In honor of yesterday’s Vintage Terrarium Book Giveaway post, today’s Follow Friday theme is terrariums. There’s still plenty of time to enter to win a vintage copy of a how-to terrarium book, and it’s open world-wide, not just to residents of the US.

Isobel and I officially finished this round of swimming lessons this week, and I’m a bit relieved. It was a Mommy & Me class and I swear I came home more exhausted than she did every day! She got a report card and a popsicle for completing the course and we are officially cleared to move into the Preschool Class next year.

What is Follow Friday? It’s a Twitter meme that I have taken a couple steps further.  Learn more about it in my FAQ. See my nomination for a Shorty Award for Follow Friday here. You can read more Follow Friday goodness here.

rolldiggity “If you’ve got it, flaunt it” was the inspiration behind my “RABIES!” t-shirt.

markleggett All of the people who bravely fought for their right to party many years ago now enjoy going to bed on a Saturday night before 9pm.

ApocalypseHow My smartphone is one restaurant-finding app away from being Gollum’s “precious.”

Toaster_Pastry Surprisingly the sun rose another day, my life remains fulfilled as I have never watched the ESPYs.

simontarr I’m never buying another gift again. All gifts will be scored from the claw machine. Merry Christmas.

MeganBoley Long day, long day, what do you see? I see zombie looking at me.

TheSuniverse Google+ confuses me. I’m just making one giant circle of friends. So suck on that.

MattGourley There isn’t an afternoon nap alive that I can’t wake up melancholy from!

wawoodworth Great, now I’ll probably be known as the “bacon mug guy”.

apelad “Life is what happens between explosions.” -Michael Bay

_Monocle_ Hail is a forcing function for evolution: hard skulls, carapace, condominiums.

TwoAdults How would the animal kingdom survive without Diego?

modinkpeeb I just ate my pepperoni pizza dipped in ranch like a TRUE FUCKING AMERICAN.

FinneganWilde Pants: you are now at my mercy. I shall wear you when it pleases me.

vhsTapes2 At get-togethers at my place we take prescription drugs with a spoonful of sugar to get the party Poppins!

iasshole I need some kind of timed bed spatula system.

EvenMoreSarah Left the grocery list on the counter. Noticed this morning my boyfriend added “farts.” Lucky for him we already have those in the house!

TheBosha So fuck it. Next time a collection agency calls I’m just telling them I’ve raised my debt ceiling.

theRratedBull Fell asleep with my phone on my chest. I woke up and it was under the couch. Time to go all “Paranormal Activity” up in this motherfucker.

freudiantypo Asshole who put the “don’t text & drive” lighted sign in the curve of the 190: thanks! Now we will wreck and die trying to read your sign.

apelad Now the other kids are outside playing that game where you put a ball in a sock and throw it around. I think they learned it in prison.

LaurenAntolino If my last name was Smith I would say “no relation” every time I introduced myself to someone.

PolyesterPony The best experience in the world has got to be boning someone while playing Portal 2.

MakeMommyCoffee I bet the Germans have a word for when your husband comes home with a new phone & wants to show you a hands-on demonstration of every feature

Athenabee Louis bought me a steam sanitizer for my birthday. The man knows me.

mattsai If you give a mouse a cookie, you have a rodent problem.

steenyweeny i just showed my coworkers how to use twitter to find out what’s on fire down the street and i’m pretty sure they think i’m a sorcerer now.

librarianearp Know why Cedric Diggory died? He was a flippin Hufflepuff.

lunchyprices Corn isn’t the only thing that’s knee high by the 4th of July, the dog crap in my backyard is too.

iscoff I’m studying veterinary medicine with a specialization in animal podiatry. THAT’S why my browser history has a search for “camel toes.”

LouisPeitzman Your horoscope won’t come true unless you share it with all of your social networks.

lunchyprices It’s important to me that my son is a good speller because when I need him to tweet while I’m driving or showering I don’t want any typos.

BridgetCallahan There is a direct relationship between a social networking site’s failure and the frequency of hookups you get in its chat rooms.

LPCookbook Sometimes a girl just likes to feel special! Even when it is a headhunter calling! #bringmeflowers

HarryPotterish “When I’m 80 years old, I’ll be reading Harry Potter. My family will say, ‘After all this time?’ and I will say ‘Always.’” – Alan Rickman.

EvenMoreSarah My mom is monitoring Cleveland weather online & texting me to tell me about it. I need someone to break the internet, NOW.

letsdiefriends I forgot to bring my lunch to work, and nothing sounds good to pick up. Deal with that lame-ass tweet, Twitter.

TurtleParade Tora! Tora! Tora! in my pants #improvefilmtitlesbyaddinginmypants

chickenscottpie Black Hawk Down in My Pants #improvemovietitlesbyaddinginmypants

chickenscottpie How Stella Got Her Groove Back in My Pants #improvemovietitlesbyaddinginmypants

lauracope There Will Be Blood in My Pants #improvefilmtitlesbyaddinginmypants #earlyoversharewednesday

CalcNinja The village in my pants

#improvemovietitlesbyaddinginmypants

CalcNinja Hobo with a shotgun in my pants

#improvemovietitlesbyaddinginmypants

i_cherish_u Failure to launch in my pants #improvefilmtitlesbyaddinginmypants

theleanover Cool Hand Luke In My Pants #improvefilmtitlesbyaddinginmypants

LaOrganista Mr. and Mrs. Smith In My Pants #improvefilmtitlesbyaddinginmypants

unrealsnow The Brave Little Toaster In My Pants #improvefilmtitlesbyaddinginmypants

PolyesterPony Boys Don’t Cry In My Pants #improvemovietitlesbyaddinginmypants

librarianearp Something Wicked This Way Comes In My Pants #improvefilmtitlesbyaddinginmypants

ohnoCAPSLOCK A Guy Thing In My Pants #improvefilmtitlesbyaddinginmypants

TheRedQueen The Passion of the Christ In My Pants #improvefilmtitlesbyaddinginmypants

unrealsnow Naked Lunch In My Pants

#improvefilmtitlesbyaddinginmypants

Cre8BeautyDaily While You Were Sleeping In My Pants #improvefilmtitlesbyaddinginmypants

sgnp Everything Is Illuminated in My Pants #improvefilmtitlesbyaddinginmypants

heliumcell The Unbearable Lightness of Being in my Pants #improvefilmtitlesbyaddinginmypants

letsdiefriends Me: “Do you have poopers?” Zoey: “Shoo-wee!” & starts crawling to her room so I can change her.

lilpyrogirl Grandma just revealed that the secret to her spaghetti sauce is a can of manwich sloppy joe mix. #SkeletonsInTheCloset

WordShore American TV is odd. The CBS sports update is “sponsored by viagra”. Okay.

Squirreljustice Can’t I just text M for Murder?

Jim_Hamilton I just bought only PBR and condoms while wearing flip-flops. There should be no doubt about how we do it.

thelindywest I brought a garden hose to an Axe Body Spray fight. #everybodywins

apodixis Sure, no pun was intended. But one could easily have been avoided.

apodixis I am afraid I am not sufficiently legit to quit.

Caissie How good must it feel to be a fetus finally getting out of Victoria Beckham?

theleanover Declined to go to a concert today on the grounds that “Jesus has different plans for my Sunday.” Like illegally downloading Star Trek: TNG.

lauracope testing out the echo in Joe’s furniture-less house by screaming POOP at the top of my lungs. try it sometime. #stressrelief

SpaghettiJesus Crystal skulls on syfy channel. I just want to put everyone who worked on this show in a room, turn out the lights & run through it swinging.

slackmistress Saturday night on the couch watching Criminal Minds, eating cheddar potato PopChips & wiping the crumbs on my sweatpants. Like a pimp.

jillbarber Successfully “crashed” a Balderdash party. Baldercrash: Showing up uninvited to play boardgames w/ thirty-something friends on a Sat night.

laneymg I prefer guys that like a little junk in the trunk because my car is always messy.

badbanana My new social network is an empty pickle jar that you can scream anything you want into. Nearby people can comment.

TheRedQueen I had an hour home alone today. I used it to crap in peace and then shower and shave my legs. #timewellspent

letsdiefriends When I don’t really tweet much all day, then am suddenly very chatty, you can safely assume I’m pooping.

ecsuperhero I gave Shane my phone to take pictures of the boys. I’m now deleting ten pictures of my butt.

dwmulvin Everyone’s Boyfriend White #InitialsExplained

inversejaik Learning how to make jelly. My brother: ‘Going for a JAM session?’ Me: ‘I will kill you.’

ProfessorSnack *Secretly replaces tang with Folgers Crystals while everyone watches the shuttle launch*

BSeanRoss I imagine that being married to Calista Flockhart was all the preparation Harrison Ford needed for his upcoming role in “Cowboys & Aliens.”

mattsai The hottest rack a girl has is her bookshelf.

shariv67 The last item on my bucket list is dying. How convenient.

britain I just ate a medium pizza. Dare me to drive?

Sigafoos @shinyinfo Listen, heterosexial white males aged 20-35 aren’t discriminated against! And isn’t that the biggest discrimination of all?

massagebyted Congratulations to our office manager for acquiring toilet paper that is actually less than single-ply!

steenyweeny i was up at 5:30 today, so it’s taking special effort to make sure i’m late for work this time.

KeepingYouAwake Sunglasses outside: It’s bright. Sunglasses indoors: You look like a douche. Sunglasses at night: Winning hard.

mattsai I wish life would just hand me lemonade. That would be way easier.

sgnp I don’t want to be a naysayer, but I don’t think I’m going to use Google+ until it actually lets me sign in..

slackmistress My job is getting in the way of keeping up with Twitter feuds.

shinyinfo I am a little concerned how Zefram Cochrane is going to invent the warp drive without the Space Program, you guys.

What is Follow Friday? It’s a Twitter meme that I have taken a couple steps further.  Learn more about it in my FAQ. See my nomination for a Shorty Award for Follow Friday here. You can read more Follow Friday goodness here.

Giveaway: Vintage Terrarium Book

When I was a little girl I used to love visiting my Papa and Nana’s house. We went there often but it seemed to have an ever-changing array of interesting things to look at. Their house was modest and quite small but when my dad was in grade school they built a large living and dining room addition. It housed the baby grand piano, lots of Depression-era glass, and an old TV that the cousins and I would gather around to watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles every day after school. Under the piano, near a large, light-filled plate glass window stood this jar filled with the most amazing terrarium.

Only later in life did I find out these containers were called carboys and were intended for homebrewing, not terrariums. When the time came to move my grandparents out of their house, I took the long-defunct terrarium container home and hoped to fill it with plants and rocks and a tiny ecosystem someday.

I also inherited their vintage terrarium guide that my grandparents used to make the terrarium that so fascinated me as a child:

Recently, longtime flickr pal Mia sent me another awesome vintage terrarium guide she found at a book sale:

And now, Little Big readers, I have some good news: I found an extra copy of Terrariums & Miniature Gardens while thrifting and I’m going to give it away to one of you! To enter this giveaway, simply leave one comment below.

You can earn an extra entry on twitter if you tweet about this giveaway, but if you do, be sure to leave a second comment with a link to your tweet. Additional comments will be deleted.

This giveaway is open to all readers, not just those in the United States. In addition to the book, I’ll also send along some fun miniature items to stick inside your terrarium and give it personality. I’ll announce the winner next Thursday.

Good luck!

Mother’s Day Bracelet Giveaway

 

Mother’s Day weekend didn’t work out at all how I planned. Friday I returned to work after getting really sick on Tuesday (aw, I just realized it’s my one week anniversary with this virus! special!) I had planned to see a friend’s band play that night, and even though I wasn’t feeling the greatest I still wanted to go. So we went. We had a good time but I could feel my fever returning and my voice leaving. We left early with regrets.

I woke up the next day and my voice sounded like I had been gargling glass. Sadly I realized I was going to have to cancel most of the weekend’s plans. I had really been looking forward to hanging out with Ellen & Laura and seeing Ellen’s sweet new baby and sniffing his little head until people looked at me awkwardly, but I wasn’t up to it and could no way justify bringing this virus in contact with a newborn. I was pretty bummed.

Anthony still wanted to make Mother’s Day special for me so he took me out for some thrifting and a Mother’s Day lunch. While out I managed to lock our keys in the trunk of the car. Happy Mother’s Day to meee! While waiting for the locksmith to come we tried to come up with ways of entertaining Isobel that did not involve letting her run around the dangerous parking lot like she so desperately wanted.

Thrifting obviously didn’t work out like I’d planned, but take a look at this amazing vintage clock I found. I will totally put this in the shop, just as soon as I quit finding attractive places to hang it in my own house. Ahem.

(Before I gave it a thorough cleaning)

 

We were famished after thrifting, but we knew Isobel had some energy to burn so we stopped by a park to let her burn off some energy before heading to lunch. Isobel had been quite content all morning, but as soon as we got to the restaurant she proceeded to throw the largest, most enthusiastic restaurant tantrum of her career.

Anthony and I ate in turns while the other tended to screamy baby. She was only happy sitting next to the fountain in the lobby. I ate my soup and salad alone and then let Antonyhave his turn. A well-meaning waitress tried to help, but the last thing Isobel wants mid-tantrum is a person she does not know making faces at her. It egged her on and she screamed NO NO NO right in the waitress’ face. That will teach her to be kind to babies!

The virus was returning with a vengeance at that point, so I tried to soothe Isobel as best I could but my voice sounded like Dr Claw. It was by turns a demonic rumble or ghostly whisper. Just imagine how soothing it would be to have Dr Claw rubbing your back saying, DON’T WORRY, HONEY. IT WILL BE ALL RIGHT. She screamed harder.

As soon as our entrees were ready we boxed them up and left.

 

Mother’s Day wasn’t a wash, though, because I did get to spend time with my family and there was some light napping (always a bonus). Anthony let me pick out some stuff from Etsy about a week before so it would come in time, and my favorite thing by far was this bracelet from BeadsByEvelyn.

I love this bracelet. I have super tiny wrists so I rarely buy bracelets because inevitably they are too big and it’s a huge disappointment. But I loved this bracelet and Etsy sellers can often customize things for you so I emailed Evelyn and explained that my wrists are about a full inch smaller than the smallest size listed on her chart. No problem, she said, she could fix that for me, and oh by the way, she offers a 100% satisfaction guarantee, so if I still didn’t like the fit after she adjusted it, I could send it back for a refund. Awesome.

 

It reminds me of a laurel wreath and I absolutely adore it. I’ve only been wearing it for a week now but I’ve gotten so many compliments on it. I need to have Anthony take a picture of me wearing it, but here’s the best I could do with my non-dominant hand holding my cell phone.

 

This bracelet fits me perfectly, and Evelyn is generously donating one of her gorgeous bracelets to a lucky Little Big reader! I’m super excited because this is my first giveaway ever that didn’t involve something I found at my house. (Although remember that time I gave away some monkeys? Good times.) 

To enter all you have to do is leave a comment below. Anyone who RTs this giveaway will be entered twice. A winner will be selected randomly and announced on Friday. Good luck and check out BeadsByEvelyn’s shop for more lovely goodies.

Hey Hey, You Won Monkeys

It’s Saturday which means it’s MONKEY GIVEAWAY TIME! On Tuesday I announced my first-ever MONKEY GIVEAWAY based on the fact that I might have another personality living in my brain. One that likes to write cryptic notes to self that I find later and have to guess at their meaning. At any rate, I have collected a stash of vending machine monkeys for my MONKEY GIVEAWAY and am giving them away in the hopes that the winners will use them to build a terrarium, decorate it, or use said monkeys in the pimping of their workspace. I have selected three winners using random.org.

And the winners are…

Me? Is it me?!

 

(…No, it’s not you.)

Me? Is it me?!

 

(…It’s definitely not you. You’re kind of gross.)

WINNER NUMBER ONE IS… NUMBER ONE!

AmandaStretch! That’s you! Hooray!

WINNER NUMBER TWO IS… NUMBER SEVEN!

Congratulations, catvoncat!

And our final winner is…

NUMBER TWELVE! THAT’S YOU, GRUMBLIES!

Winners, please email me your address so that I may send you a selection of MONKEYS for your terrariums or your pimped out workspace.

 

 

Thank you so much for everyone who participated, and I plan to have more giveaways in the future so your odds of winning something spectacular (like vending machine monkeys) are still very good. I am impressed with all the Little Big readers who are definitely going to Heaven because they retweeted this give away and/or posted about it on facebook or their blog. I love you all.

This One’s About Boobies

You may have noticed that I’m posting an awful lot lately. My husband’s new job requires lots of business trips for training so while he’s been gone I’ve been spending quiet evenings writing on my laptop while Isobel contentedly lines up her toys for some Mysterious Toddler Reason. Plus I haven’t been watching any TV lately. Strangely enough it feels lonely to watch my favorite shows without Anthony there to share them, and I’ve been watching my recorded episodes of Oprah only half-heartedly since he’s not there to groan in boredom. I’ve been making a conscious effort to watch less TV in Isobel’s presence anyway. With my husband gone I’ve been turning to my surrogate husband, The Internet, for adult discourse. Hence the multitude of posts.

(As an aside: I was trying to explain NaBloPoMo to Anthony over the weekend except I got the name wrong and accidentally called it “No Blo Mo or Something” and let me tell you, my husband is 100% in favor Mo Blo. And we’ll leave it at that.)

Before I talk about boobies I’d like to remind everyone that I’m currently hosting a MONKEY GIVEAWAY and you have until Saturday to enter. So far about six of you are going to Heaven because you’ve retweeted my post. Thanks, guys! I’m currently singing “Monkey’s Gone To Heaven” in your honor.

And now, onto the boobies…

I love commenting on other people’s blogs because I think writing is best enjoyed as a conversation, so imagine my frustration when all of my comments lately have been eaten by the internet. No matter where I commented or what I said, none of my masterful, well-thought-out comments (HA!) seemed to post. I have an extensive blog roll that includes all of these blogs plus several other blogs that I nose around in from time to time.

This glitch was especially irritating because Grumbles and Grunts is hosting a giveaway that I particularly want to be a part of. If you’re a parent and you have ladyparts, there is a chance that you have tried your, er, hand at pumping. Everyone told me that breastfeeding would be hard, but nobody told me that pumping would be hard. In case you were wondering, it’s really really hard.

I don’t want to get into Isobel’s birth story yet because frankly, I’m going to need more counseling first. Suffice it to say that things went horribly wrong and I ended up with a catheter bag full of blood and emergency surgery and a C section besides. My body went into shock afterwards, and I was a mess.

I was not making enough milk to sustain Isobel so my lactation consultant recommended regular pumping. No problem, I thought. I’ll just hook up the old love jugs to the machine and fold diapers, browse on my laptop, or check twitter on my phone. I just assumed that the pumps suction-cupped themselves directly to your breasts. At no point did I think you had to hold them in place for the entire thirty minute pumping period with your own goddamn hands.

Really? Are you shitting me, technology? WE CAN PUT A MAN ON THE MOON BUT I HAVE TO HOLD MY BREAST PUMP IN PLACE WITH MY OWN GODDAMN HANDS FOR THE ENTIRE DURATION OF MY MILKING? If women had been the dominant sex in our society you’d better fucking believe this technology would have been discovered by now.

I do plan on having another child and the pumping problem has been something that has haunted me. If this pumping-bra-thing works half as well as it says it does, then I at least have one free hand with which to play Bejeweled. So consider me entered.

The Grumblies requested that those who enter share their most embarrassing pumping stories. Fortunately, I had an extra-long maternity leave thanks to my health complications and I was able to pump in the privacy of my own home. My most embarrassing pumping story happened nearly every night: when Anthony would realize I should be done pumping but still hadn’t emerged from the bedroom he’d come in to find me topless, slumped over dead asleep, one boob attached to the pump while the other inevitably became free from the pump to distribute milk all over my pajama pants and bedding. The unused side of the pump would whir pathetically in time with my snores and he’d have to wake me up to deal with the aftermath. Yay, technology!

Now pray with me to the lactation gods that I win that pump holder, or else I suspect you’ll have to hear more embarrassing details about my boobs in the future.

MONKEY GIVEAWAY

Oh, Little Big readers. Ask and you shall receive. A few weeks ago I found a cryptic note I’d written as a reminder to myself that said only, “MONKEY GIVEAWAY.” I have no idea what that means but often I’ll write notes to myself using only pithy two-word phrases that I’ll expect to remember later. News flash: I never do! Which makes me wonder if I have another personality living inside me that likes to write notes for the sole purpose of confusing the hell of my dominant personality.

When I tweeted the discovery of the MONKEY GIVEAWAY note I think half the internet responded by enthusiastically demanding I give them a monkey. Which put me in a tough position. I needed to find some sort of monkey to give away or else I was going to look like an Internet Scrooge who was hoarding all the monkeys for myself while the rest of the internet remained chimpless.

All this happened around the time I was writing my terrarium tutorial and inspiration posts. While writing I figured out a humane and legal way of solving the problem of a MONKEY GIVEAWAY: vending machines.

While buying cat food I stumbled upon tiny plastic monkey figurines in a vending machine near the checkout lanes of the pet store. This is a particularly sweet vending machine spot because before they were offering monkeys they had offered fake mustaches. Awesome.

To sum up, I bought the hell out of these vending machine monkeys and am offering THREE SETS OF MONKEYS FOR MY MONKEY GIVEAWAY. Which means three of you lucky readers will get a chance to win a set of MONKEYS.

Right now you’re asking yourself, do you have ADD? Because you mentioned something about terarrariums. Yes I did! You guys! Tiny plastic monkeys are perfect for life inside a terrarium.

Winners, you don’t have to put your monkeys in a terrarium, but how awesome would that be if you made a terrarium, put the monkeys in them, and then posted your photos for all to see (and covet)? That would be rad.

To enter this contest all you have to do is:

1. Leave a comment. One comment. Your chances are EXTREMELY good because there will be three winners. Multiple comments will be disqualified.
2. Technically, you don’t have to tweet about my MONKEY GIVEAWAY on twitter, post about it on FB or your blog, but it does make you a better person on the inside and does possibly get you in to Heaven. Just saying.

I’ll announce the winners on Saturday morning.

Look at these little duders. How can you not want one?

Terrarium Inspiration

Yesterday I posted a tutorial on how to create terrariums, but something weird happened and it posted in the past. By the time I noticed and fixed the back-dating issue it was nearly today. I know that sentence barely makes any sense, but that’s what I get for fucking with the space-time continuum. If you haven’t read the tutorial, it’s very very easy. If you have read it and can’t wait to get started, here’s some container, plant, and figurine inspiration. If you found my blog by searching for “how to build wet terrariums”, seek help immediately. Possibly in the form of a dictionary.

If you’re lucky enough to find a vintage terrarium container while thrifting, scoop it up and never look back. They aren’t that easy to find. I’ve been lucky enough to find three: an acrylic egg-shaped one, a glass mushroom, and a glass apple. I’m keeping my eye out for more and you can bet that if I find one it’s going up immediately in my store.

Before I ever found those, however, I made countless terrariums out of inexpensive thrifted glass containers. That’s the beauty of terrariums—they are adaptable and can be made from all sorts of things.

My first terrariums were created in thrifted fish bowls and storage jars from Ikea. The more I kept my eye out for interesting jars and things while thrifting the more I became inspired. I found all sorts of lovely glass bowls. I especially loved making them in tiny containers. Especially if they said something weird like, “Bishop’s Awards Dinner.”

I once bought a glass jar from either Crate and Barrel or CB2. I may have registered for it, actually. I don’t remember but I’ve had it for awhile. It was just sitting somewhere taking up space when I thought I know! I’ll make it into a terrarium! I get the most compliments from this terrarium.

One of my favorite terrarium bowls was a vintage thrifted find that was hand-blown with little bubbles embedded in the glass. Gorgeous.

I like to liven up the simpler terrariums by adding extras: toys. Historically some terrariums featured little figurines, especially mushrooms, as a decorative touch. The egg terrarium I bought came with a vintage mushroom and swan. I’ve seen some terrariums add dinosaurs for a whimsical prehistoric touch and it made me want to add more toys to mine.

Anthony and I collected the totally strange and inexplicably rave-themed Buddha Buddies from a vending machine in an old grocery store. Why they were ever created is a mystery but I love adding them to my terrariums. I purchased plastic sea creatures from the craft store and made one that resembled octopus in a bed of kelp. The terrarium I keep at work has a roaring hippo.

My sister bought me this good-luck cat and it was very happy in the terrarium I kept by the sink.

I used to keep all my terrariums on the counter near the fruits and vegetables. They looked really lovely and unfortunately I never took any pictures of them, so enjoy my cat amongst produce and a dismembered pomegranate along with your terrariums.

When I want to create a new terrarium I troll the Terrarium group that I moderate on Flickr for inspiration and it never lets me down. Really, any glass container has terrarium potential.

Winner! By Default!

Anthony had a surprise for me this morning after checking the mail… my Snorg tee came! Yay! For those of you just joining us, I entered the Snorg Tee Giveaway on Knit in Public, and I WON! BY DEFAULT! (Someone else won but they never contacted Windsor Grace to claim their prize, so she drew again and this time I was the winner! by default! YAY! I’ll take it.) I couldn’t decide which tee to get so Little Big readers voted for their favorite, and The Greendale Human Beings tee won.

The Human Being is the mascot for Greendale Community College, from one of my favorite TV shows ever, Community. That show is awesome. Boo on the world for not giving that show a trillion Emmys. It fucking rocks. I am a crotchety old woman who hates just about everything but I love this TV show. It’s part of a collection of shows I call “My Stories,” as in “shut up, Mama’s got to watch her stories!” My stories includes (but is not limited to) House, Arrested Development, Community, The Venture Brothers, and Star Treks TNG & DS9.

Snorg tees run infamously small so I got a medium just to be safe. I’m glad I did because post-pregnancy lady bits would not have fit in a small. I put it on as soon as I opened the package. Here I am celebrating my Victory By Default:

Thanks again to Windsor Grace at Knit in Public and Snorg for giving me this awesome tee. By the way, if you like really awesome jewelry you should check out her Etsy shop.

Speaking of Winners…

I mentioned earlier that I was selected the Winner By Default for a Snorg tee at Knit in Public. I dropped by Snorg this morning all set to pick out my fave. But which one to choose?! My indecision is in top form.

So far I’ve narrowed my shirt choice down to these:

Jawesome

Greendale Human Beings

& Wolf Shirts Are Awesome

I’d like your help, Little Big readers. Vote for which shirt you think I should get and I pinkie promise, that’s the one I’ll choose.

In the interest of full disclosure, this poll was my idea and the result of my indecision. Snorg is not paying me, nor am I purchasing the shirt. I won it fair and square by default by entering the contest at Knit in Public. So, I guess that’s it? If you have any questions feel free to email me.