Harry Potter Birthday Celebration!

Today is a very special day. It is my cousin Michelle’s birthday, it was 3 years ago today that I got my first tattoo, and it’s Harry Potter’s Birthday!!!!

Of course you all know I am obsessed with those books, and it should not surprise anyone that I am doing a little celebrating. This year my celebration includes:

Wearing Harry Potter Colors – sadly I have to work today so my Harry Potter themed clothing is out, but I am dressed to represent in Slytherin House green and silver colors (these are the only HP colored work clothes I have). 

Wearing Harry Potter Jewelry – I received these 2 rings for my birthday last year, and am wearing them proudly today!

Listening to Harry Potter at work – I do this pretty much every day so it’s not really a celebration thing, but still. Right now I’m halfway through listening to Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince 

Butterbeer Latte!  - Magic in Cup no other words needed :) 

Getting Others Involved – The best part of celebrating is to share your happiness (craziness) with others! I spent this weekend making magic wands and here were the results: 

And last week a co-worker gave me the wonderful gift of the Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook, so last night I picked out a recipe and whipped up a few pumpkin pasties. When my team came into work this morning they found these on their desks:

Car Bling - some fabulous friends gave me this for my birthday, and it will be going onto my car tonight!

And finally, I will end my day by falling asleep in my Gryffindor house shirt. That's all for now, I hope you all have a beautiful day!

What is in a Name?

On July 3^rd when I went to go pick a little kitten to join my little family, I had absolutely no idea that I would have such a difficult time picking a name. I figured since it was just me choosing and I could pick whatever I wanted, it would be easy. HAH! I was a fool.

I spent two weeks going through every single Harry Potter name I could think of (this included food,  places, spells, potions etc..) I looked up Elf names, and words in Elvish. The little one reminded of a fox or a deer, a changeling, or a fairy and so looked up those words in various languages. I looked up words for happiness, song, love, sun and nothing fit. I randomly picked up books in my apartment and sifted through pages hoping a name would jump out at me. I looked at glacier names in Alaska, plants native to Ireland and Scotland, and characters in my favorite Disney movies. Nothing fit. And then of course I found out after two weeks that my darling little boy kitten was actually a girl. After getting over that little shock I started my search all over again only now looking for girl names. But still, no matter how hard I searched nothing fit.  

So how did her name finally come to be? This past Saturday night I was watching her scamper about the living room and once more thought of how she acted like a little deer. A flash of inspiration occurred and I whipped out my phone and looked up “female deer on Bambi”. The name “Faline” flashed back at me and I looked up at her intrigued…that just might work! I liked Faline (pronounced “eeen”) but I also thought “Falyn” would be pretty. I tried both names a few times but still they didn’t quite stick. But Sunday morning when I opened my eyes, the words “Good Morning Falina” jumped out of my mouth. I really liked that but still wasn’t quite sure.

I am going to semi-segue here and say that one of my newest favorite shows is Once Upon a Time, and one of my all time favorite names from that show is Baelfire.I thought of this name and decided if I used either of those names they would be spelled Faelina or Faelyn. Out of curiosity I decided to see if the name “Faelina” existed out there, and if so what it meant. I didn’t find a meaning but learned that this is apparently the name of a sorceress on World of Warcraft and that the character had a sister named Faelira which I also liked. I was pretty certain her name would be one of those two but couldn’t decide which. I was calling her both, and then all of the sudden out of nowhere I found myself calling her “Faelfire” (I evidently really like the name Baelfire).

Now it was about 2pm on Sunday afternoon, and for the rest of the day those three names were used on that poor cat countless times, still by the time I went to bed I was just as clueless. I liked all of them a lot, and they all seemed to fit her for different reasons. Monday morning I decided enough was enough and that I needed to get someone else involved. So (way too early for her) I sent my best friend a text with the names and asked her to pick her favorite. Her response of “Faelina is beautiful” sealed the deal. Faelina she was. I wasn't able to find a meaning for that name specifically, but "fae" does mean fairy and "lina" depending on where you look means delicate, light, compassionate or graceful. She is my graceful, delicate, fairy.

And now looking at her I don’t know why I was so confused. Of course she is Faelina – she couldn’t be anyone else. 

Faelina

Hello World!

I am Faelina. It’s nice to meet you. A few weeks ago (July 3^rd to be exact) I was picked up from Coastal Humane Society and taken to my new forever home. Since then I have quickly made myself an essential part of my new family. My new mom adores me and tells me every day that she loves me. I have a big sister who hasn’t quite come round to me yet but she’ll get there. I always try to play with her and give her hugs, so I know it’s only a matter of time. So what’s my story you may ask? Well, I was born in Indiana and have 2 sister and 2 brothers. Shortly after I was born we all moved to Maine thanks to the Coastal Humane Society and were then placed in the care of a wonderful foster family. I was very well taken care of and had lots of fun, but of course as we grew up the time came for us to go out and find our own homes, and here I am. Funny story about me, when I first got to Maine everyone thought I was a boy. I spent a good number of weeks in disguise and it wasn't until mom dropped me off to be neutered that the truth came out. Oh well, it was bound to happen at some point. What do I like to do? Well here is a list of my favorite things:

Paintbrushes – mom, kept her paintbrushes in a basket on the floor, but I have since scattered them throughout the whole apartment. I love to attack them and have spent hours do just that!

Extreme Climbing – sometimes mom doesn’t pick me up fast enough so I run up her pants, dress, skirt etc… Every time I do this these thin red lines appear on her legs wherever my claws have touched. Her legs are now covered in them, it’s just the strangest thing….

Pouncing and chewing on every single electric cord I see – great fun!

Running Behind the Stove – I know mom hates this so I do it as often as possible!

Extreme Eating – this involves going up to my big sister Synge when she is eating her canned food and pushing her out of the way so I can have it. So far I rock at it!

Attacking my sisters’ tail whenever she isn’t looking, attacking her face whenever she walks by, and attacking her when she's jumping up on furniture. I think this is great fun, for some reason though she always runs away when I do this.
Chilling Out - This involves trying to climb into the refrigerator every single time mom opens it. She now always has to make sure before closing the door that I'm not locked inside!

Mom recently let me start spending the night outside my kennel which led me to discover my new favorite game – attacking, clawing and biting her feet and legs under the sheets every time she moves!

Canned Food – yum!

Sleeping – a kittens got to have his daily nap or 12!

Being in whatever room mom is in – she’s stays moving so I’m constantly following her around

Sitting on mom’s shoulder - whether she’s sitting down reading, walking around, eating, or putting make up on in the morning, it is my favorite place to be (that last two are especially fun, we play a game where I try to bite everything she brings near her face and/or knock it out of her hand!)

That’s me in a nutshell. I’m sure mom will post lots of pictures and stories about my adventures in the future. Just remember that whatever she may say about any “mischief” I do, it’s only mischief in her eyes. For me it’s just fun J

The Best Things in the World

Opinion: Pintrest is one of those evil, time wasting, soul sucking, mind warping websites, that pulls one with the lure and promise of every wonderful thing you could imagine, leading you to believe that all great things are possible.

Fact:  I love Pintrest.

Truer Fact: I REALLY love Pintrest, and could easily spend a whole day sitting in front of my computer doing nothing but searching through the magnificence of its thousands upon thousands of boards. Luckily for me and my to-do list, I do not have internet at my apartment and therefore do not have the capability to do this. Instead every Saturday I have dinner with friends, I curl up in my favorite chair, plug in my laptop and get lost in the world of wonderfulness.

This last Saturday during my weekly scroll I came across this graphic: 

For some reason I really love the idea of taking all the wonderful things in your life and coming up with the best ever. Of course the best things for one person are not the favorites of the other and this is the case here, and I’ve spent the last few days thinking about my own “Best Things in the World”.  I should say though, that regardless of what this list is titled, or what I have chosen, the best and most important things in my life are my family and friends. The presence of just one of them has enriched my life further then all the things on this list combined. The fact that I have so many family and friends that fall into this category means that I have an incredibly rich life. This also is definitely not a static list. I know a year ago I would have chosen differently and a year from now this list will probably be different as well. But right now these are it for me.

 So now without further ado, here is my list of

Best Things in the World:

1.      An Alaskan Christmas morning spent inside with my family sitting around out wood stove fire with the snow falling outside

2.      A cat’s purr

3.      The night sky - whether is clear and the stars are sparkling, or the full moon is glowing through the misty clouds, I look up at the sky and I am complete.

4.      Creating, celebrating and laughing at inside jokes/blonde moments with your best friend

5.      The perfect chocolate chip cookie

6.      The smell of fresh ground, just brewed coffee – and that first sip

7.      That moment when you realize the book you’re reading isn’t just good – it’s one that will change your life forever

8.      Listening to Harry Potter narrated by Jim Dale

9.      At the airport picking up family, or a friend, whom you haven’t seen in forever and you have that whole vacation ahead of you

10.  A fresh, crisp, organic apple – or a whole basket of them!

So there they are. It was fun coming up with them, and hopefully this will inspire some of you to think up your own best things ever!

Reminder to Show Empathy

Back in May my company sent me to a leadership conference at Disneyworld. I wrote about my experience in a previous blog post; however I did not say much about the actual conference itself. I had a great time during those sessions, learned a lot, and walked away from it feeling very inspired. Out of everything that we went over in those three days, the one moment that had the biggest impact on me was a video that we watched the second morning. It was created by the Cleveland Clinic as part of their “Empathy Series”, and is a truly superb reminder of all the joy, pain, success, and confusion that we don’t see, which occurs in the lives of the people we interact with every day. There is so much that we just don’t know, and it is so important to remember this, and infuse into all your interactions kindness and understanding.

Hopefully all of you will watch this and feel the powerful message it’s sending, and that you will share it with others. I will warn you that at the conference by the end of the video many people were crying. I recently shared it with some co-workers and a couple of them had the same reaction. I myself have a hard time keeping it together watching it, so you might want to have a few tissues nearby....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDDWvj_q-o8

Coffee Love

The Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard loved coffee, had amassed a collection of 50 coffee cups, and had an assistant. Every day, the assistant would pick a cup, fill it with coffee and bring it to the philosopher, who would then have his assistant explain why he had chosen the cup he had on that day. I love this for many reasons....

1)  Coffee love is the central focus of this story.
2)  I collect 2 things in life, books and coffee cups. Knowing there are others out there who can't resist a great mug is fabulous.
3)  He has an assistant, I would so love to have an assistant.
4)  He has someone who brings him coffee every day, this would be like the epitome of heaven for me.
5)  I love that the assistant is asked to state why he chose one cup over all the other 49. I do this daily with myself and my own small collection, and it's a great way to be forced to evaluate the day and all the factors that have presented themselves in just the short time between waking and coffee. It also makes one slightly more aware of their present state of mind, because I have found how I feel about life and myself does make a difference.
6) Coffee love again - I always love stories about coffee!

Søren Kierkegaard in the coffee-house, 1843

And speaking of coffee...

I discovered this recipe for dark chocolate ice cubes last week. I made them over the weekend and they have been a delightful change to my iced coffee these last few days. I highly recommend them as an alternative to those who do not like the watering down awfulness that regular ice cubes do to iced coffee (coffee ice cubes are also small miracles!).  The only thing I did differently was substitute agave syrup with honey, enjoy!

http://www.manmadediy.com/users/gabriel/posts/3034-manmade-guide-step-up-your-summer-drinks-with-grown-up-flavored-ice-cubes

Loving Life Today

Today was another wonderful Sunday - I so love this day of the week -  but I didn't really feel like taking pictures all day. I'm also not really in the right frame of mind to write any long paragraphs, but I want to share something of how awesome it was. So here is all the greatness in bullet points ...

- Waking up on my own - no alarm
- Kitten!
- Yoga
- Coffee with homemade maple hazelnut coffee creamer
- Peanut Butter Jar Breakfast!!!
- Kitten
- Anna Karennina
- Wait Wait Don't Tell Me
- Successfully baking Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Truffle Brownies
- Successfully cooking Golden Beet Soup with Roast Garlic Cashew Cream Sauce
- Kitten!
- Sun Tea
- Synge touching noses with the new one and not hissing!
- Ipswitch (likely there is only one person who will get this)
- "Total Misunderstanding" (again only one person will understand)
- Kitten!
- Stuff You Missed in History Class Podcast
- Fun craft project with beeswax and old book pages!
- Dessert - half a cantaloupe with Maple Sap Tap Gelato from Gelato Fiasco in the center - OMG!!!!
- Kitten!


There there it is. I know I said I didn't take any pictures, but thankfully a friend stopped by and took this one for me!

Completely in Love!

My Independence Day

Happy July 5th to you all, and I hope that you had a fabulous time yesterday celebrating the birth of our country! I myself had a simple, wonderful day. I did only whatever I wanted to do each and every moment, and those really are the best days. Today though instead of writing about it all I am going to show it to you in pictures...

 It started with an early morning walk through Bowdoin campus...

 And then a successful Jillian Michaels workout with some relaxing yoga after to focus my mind...

 

And then most important meal of the day - breakfast!! I had one of my favorites: homemade "cereal". For me that means Maine rolled oats, chopped walnuts and almonds, ground flaxseed, a sliced banana and a few blackberries; I sprinkle it all with cinnamon and then pour lots of vanilla almond milk over it. All organic, all delicious! And of course, no meal is complete without coffee!  

Then I popped in one of my favorite books on cd...

 ...and made baked to my hearts content!

Then it was time for my favorite movie of all time...

   

 I took part in a little coloring...

Which turned into a new table decoration!  

I did some writing with Synge giving her input,

and of course, no day in my world is complete without a little reading and a cup of tea (in a brand new fabulous mug, a birthday gift from my mom!).

Overall, a truly wonderful day - what could possibly make it better?? 

Wait I know!

 

Maybe this!...

Or this!!!!

 More to come on this exciting new addition to my life, until then live beautifully!!!