Tattoodles!

So if you have read my posts before, you know that I love Ancient Egypt. So, naturally when it came to wanting a tattoo, the only designs that made sense to me were Egyptian. I didn't want to just go in a pick something off the wall, but wanted my art to symbolize me.

The first one I got, quite a few years ago is the Eye of Horus, surrounded by two lotus flowers. The Eye of Horus represents a few different things. Firstly, it was a symbol of protection that granted the safety and health of the bearer and provided wisdom and prosperity. Secondly, each part of the eye is a mathematical fraction that represents six senses; touch, taste, hearing, thought, smell and sight. (the picture below is not my actual tattoo)
The next tattoo I got two summers ago. It is winged Isis. Isis was the goddess of motherhood, magic and fertility. Later she was known as the protector of the dead and goddess of children. She was the "mother goddess"And my most recent tattoo, I did in March of this year. It is a cartouche, my name in hieroglyphics with the symbol of an ankh at the end, which stands for eternity. A cartouche was originally used for the names of the Pharaohs. It loosely means "to encircle". It was meant to show that the name written was royalty, and was encircled for an eternity of protection. It was later used as a symbol to ward off evil or bad luck. That's it for now. If you have a tattoo, you know how addicting they are, but I think I am good for the time being. :) I just thought I'd share my form of art. I love my tattoos, they were all done by the same brilliant artist. She is amazing!

its mail time!

Am I the only one that gets excited over mail and packages that come out of the blue? It's one thing, to order something and be expecting a package, but when one comes randomly it's so much better!
My sister and I decided that every month we are going to ship each other a box of goodies. USPS is amazing with those "if it fits, it ships" boxes. So once a month we compile a little box of whatever tickles our fancy at the time! It's so much fun! It's hard being so far away from your family so this is our way of saying "hey sister, love ya!" We even titled it "Da Lub Box". It's sort of an inside joke, but if any of you have watched the old school episodes of Saturday Night Live you might get the reference!
A couple weeks ago my sister mailed me the first box, so tomorrow I'm out to send hers to her! I think it really is just as exciting to send the mail than it is to receive it!

So excited!! Hope you enjoy it sister!!

childhood imaginations....

For my English class we had to write an essay about our childhood dreams. I actually spent the entire week thinking about all the dreams I had. My parents like to remind me when I wanted to be a "Teenage Mutant Ninja Ballerina". It was a pretty awesome dream I'll admit. I even went as far as telling my neighbor that I was in ballet classes (which I wasn't). They were a Jewish family and when Hanukkah came around for them, they bought be a white and purple leotard with a tutu attached to it. She told my mom it was for my ballet classes (which I wasn't taking). So then came the awkward moment of my mom telling my generous neighbors that I wasn't taking any ballet classes. I still got to keep the tutu and wore it all the time! I was five, give me a break! :)





In 4th grade I took some gymnastics classes. They were so much fun! I think I only took lessons for a year or less, but I was convinced that I wanted to go to the olympics for gymnastics. Shortly, I realized that dream was a little out of my reach so then I decided I wanted to be a writer and began to write a story about a little girl going to the olympics. Unfortunately I don't remember what I did with that story.

My latest dream, that which I wrote about, was to be a female Indiana Jones! I wanted to dig for stuff! This carried my love of Ancient Egypt to a new level. Now I'm studying cultural Anthropology in the hopes of one day visiting Egypt and studying the ancients. Those of you who know me, know how much I LOVE anything Egypt. (Ancient Egypt in particular). I think I could make my own library of all the books I have. There is just something spectacular about the Egyptians. They had such a rich history and even though the culture and language have died out, the fact that we still have evidence of their daily lives is simply awe inspiring. They are a people to admire that's for sure.

Hobbies

My number one hobby is simple....reading. I have to have a book to read at all times. Without books, I get anxiety. It's my way of de-stressing and taking my mind out of reality for an hour or so. And it makes my dreams so much better! Last night I was studying for a math test and dreamed about math! Talk about a nightmare! It was awful! My favorite book of all time is Pride and Prejudice, but beyond that I will read just about anything.

My husband and I and some of our friends are also really into Renaissance and Pirate Faires. There are a ton that happen from pretty much May through October. We were in a guild and worked the faires at one point, but it got too political so now we are purely guests. My friend and I love to sew and we work hard to make all of our costumes according to 17th/18th century dress. I have to say after wearing a 8-10 boned corsets for hours at a time I think my ribcage is permanently smaller!

Another thing I've been getting into lately is making jewelery. It all started when I made the jewelry for my bridesmaids in my wedding, and now I like to do it all the time. My friend also is crafty like me and instead of watching the superbowl we made earrings! The boys thought we were nuts. :)

Lately I've been wanting to try something new, so I went to the store and bought a few things to try my hand at embroidering. We shall see how it goes, it seems complicated. I'll keep you posted. :)

That's all for now...until next time

My addiction

Hello my name is Jamie and I am addicted to Dungeons and Dragons Online (DDO). I am totally aware that I have now inducted myself into the geek club, but I plunge in head first!

For those of you that don't know, DDO is another mmo similar to World of Warcraft. You get to make a character, or ten if you wish, and craft them into whatever you want them to be. You choose a race, like elf, human, warforged, etc, and then choose what class, whether they are a ranger, fighter or wizard. There are many different classes and races that you can choose from. Then if you choose you can decide what path you want them to take and after that point the character is up to you on how you want to play them.

Once you establish your character you can play by yourself or join one of the many guilds. My husband and I have been playing since September 2009 when the game went 'free to play'. He played a lot of pen and paper Dungeons and Dragons when he was younger, especially when he was in the army. I didn't start playing until DDO came out free. I know it sounds ridiculous to some of you but we joined a guild and have met some truly awesome people that I now consider friends. The game is live chat, so even though we can't see each other, we can talk freely with many people at the same time.

I know to some it sounds completely nerdy, but hey I freely admit I am a nerd to the core and completely happy about it!

Seriously though guys.....its fun! :D

An introduction

Alright, so now that I have established a blog, I feel that I should introduce you to the people/animals that I most likely will be referring to as the stories come.



First off is my husband Sean Carter. We have been together since April 2005 and got married April 25, 2009. We met while working in Downtown Disney together and he proposed at the Blue Bayou Restaurant in Disneyland. We frequently like to dress up like pirates with our friends and go to Renaissance/Pirate Faires! Right now he is working at Quicksilver as a graphic designer. He is an artist as well. Hopefully I can put up some finished paintings of his. They are amazing. But in the meantime, here is his blog/website, which I am supposed to tell you that it is still a "work in progress"
http://www.id8tion.com














Next up is my fabulous sister Annie! She is another brilliant artist/illustrator. She is my one and only older sister. Though we live a few hours apart she is still my best friend and has some awesome jokes! And I think we probably take the cake for best stories ever! They are pretty epic! And like I did with my husband, I can't leave out my sister's blog too, she is quite an incredible artist!
http://illustratedbyanniehobbs.blogspot.com/


<--Cairo


Now the last two I should mention are my kitties, Selene and Cairo. I love them to pieces but they drive us nuts! They are sister and brother respectively and both Bengals. Which if you don't know, the Bengal is a mix of Egyptian Mao and Asian Leopard, so they look like mini leopards which is pretty cool, but also means they aren't quite as calm as "normal" kitties. They have some serious personalities! I swear they act more like dogs then cats. They even play fetch! We got them from our really close friends who have the mom and dad, Cleopatra and King Kong. And yes, he is as giant as Kong, in the cat sense of course. No, I'm not the crazy cat lady but since they are crazy cats I have a lot of fun stories/rants that usually involve one or both of them.
Selene -->


That's all I have for you for now.
Until next time...

it begins

My very first blog. It seems I will have to get used to this as my thoughts are a bit incoherent at times and seem to not want to gather together. What do you write in a blog I ask? News, weather, books, latest silly conversations with friends? I am not too keen on the news and the weather but I'm sure I can adequately entertain you with the latter. Well, at least I hope I can entertain you with my scintillating words! :) I am not extremely clever or witty, nor am I a poet in the slightest, but I hope that I can give you, reader, a glimpse into the eclectic though often chaotic mind that is mine. Enjoy!