100 Possibilities for a Post-Death Party

Dying is sort of like Christmas Day. Er. Solstice Day. Whatever. (Sorry to get all existential on you guys, but I basically wrote this post in my head last night.) You want so desparately to go downstairs and see all the presents, but you’re stuck upstairs until, well, the sun comes up. You try to lean over the banister and get a glimpse of something, but it’s just too dark and too far away.

Similarly, when I think about death (I sound like a crazy person right now. Please, don’t call the men in white coats. I will do it for you.) I imagine what it could possibly be like after we die. What does it feel like? What does it look like? Are we alone, or simply just flying through space/the astral plane together and bits of excited moving energy particles which have spearated from our selves… or do our souls remain in tact. How big is our soul? Am I some random floaty little bit of blue sparkles, or a humanoid glowing figure?

Back to my Christmas/Solstice analogy. You’re so eager and excited to see what’s under the tree, but it’s too dark and you can’t see anything… until finally the sun comes up and you reach beyond the veil, so to speak.

Sometimes I have dreams about it. The veil, that is. In my latest dream, Brian is a rainbow trout. I am so confused because I miss him being a human… he swims eternally in a nice sparkling pond. Brian communicates with me through his mind and asks me to become a rainbow trout too. He misses me and he wants us to be trout together. So I turn into one too. Reincarnation is fun.

I’m considering an idea for a book with 100 collected essays, personal and written by my friends, of 100 ‘What-ifs’ about the Post-Death Party. I think it’s fun in a mind blowing and mildly depressing way to really imagine it, really think about it. I wouldn’t say it’s scary… Death is but the next great adventure. Again, please don’t call the psych ward, I’ve already phoned them and they are on their way.

A Winter Wonder New Years

The weather here is insane. It is a regular Pennsylvania blizzard outside. Normally I would be heading into work, however I have decided I like my car in the condition that it’s in and would rather avoid serious injuries for the New Year. I am soon going to be responsible for a mortgage and many other new home expenses, and I would prefer to not add hospital bills and funeral costs to that list.

I’ve been working on something new at work. Jobs have been pretty scarce unfortunately, and I am really missing the creativity that comes with designing… but this will have to do for now.

It’s for an electronics store online called Appliances Connection. Looking forward to seeing it live!

Going to make some herbal tea now and snuggle in some blankets… this snowstorm isn’t letting up anytime soon and one of my New Year’s resolutions is to enjoy these little things more. (Actually it was originally Brian’s idea – living in the moment – but I think it applies here ^_^ – Plus my second New Year’s resolution is to steal Brian’s New Year resolutions.)

Bright Blessings this Winter Solstice and Yule

It will soon be the 2009 Winter Solstice. At 12:47 PM exactly! It may be the darkest day (well, technically 8 days) of the year, but don’t forget, this is a time of celebration! It’s the rebirth of the sun, so decorate your evergreen, drink your spiced cider, and burn your yule log. The official start of the season is a time for reflection and looking forward to the warmth and sun returning (oh warmth, how we have missed you.)

I hope everyone has a beautiful Solstice and wonderful Yule. Take some time to reflect, spend time with your loved ones, and celebrate!

I know… and I’m sorry!

I rarely update the site… but that’s going to change, I promise! I didn’t have photoshop for a while, and we are in the process of buying a house. These are legitimate excuses!! Come on people!

Anyway, I plan to redesign the portfolio section of my website pretty soon. My web designs can be showcased in a nicer way… and I am a fan of abadpanda.net, but it isn’t the most professional looking to a potential client… Check out my mock up…

So my faithful bloggy readers… does this new mock up look somewhat professional? It’s an improvement over the portfolio section of this site, that’s for sure. But feedback would be *greatly* appreciated. I’d like to get it launched on leslieheartsdesign.com very soon. Any other good ideas for a url? Any feedback at all! I will take it!!

Much love, cookies, and bunnies, Leslie.

Lilabean.com second mock up

Lilabean.com first mock up

So I built the whole index page now, w00t.

The beginning of my aunt’s website, “Lilabean”

My aunt is the author of a fabulous serious of books about simplicity. The books are titled “Lilabean” and “Bertabean” (so cute!) She writes ‘grown up girl fairy tales’ about living simply, enjoying the beauty of the world, and not getting caught up in the hectic rat race. I am lucky enough to be doing her website, which has been so much fun! She likes the sort of scrapbooky look… so I’ve really been working on encompassing the theme of her books in this idea. What do you think of my header so far?

Cute things that happened today

1. Mariann said that she had a baby bunny in her yard that wouldn’t leave this one spot! They had to put it in a box when they mowed the lawn so they wouldn’t chop its head off. It was a beginner bunny. Then she learned a valuable lesson: not to google “anime pink bunny girl”
2. Maggie and Brian got engaged. Congrats! This is SUPER cute!
3. I found these picture of Roxy. ‘Nuff said.

Ah my life! What a dreary existance to be so cute!

This be my woman! You stay back! BACK!

A brilliant conversation I had with Mariann

Today my friend Mariann asked me something strange. She said, “We want to give a donation to the SPCA from part of our wedding favor budget… They give little cards that say “a donation has been made…” blah blah blah… do you think that’s a little obnoxious? should we just give and not say anything? The reason I wanted to give the cards is that if people wanted to donate instead of giving a gift or maybe it will inspire people to give, not to attention whore that we gave to a charity, but i feel like some people might take it the wrong way”

This just blew me away. People thinking that donating to a charity in your name or in their name is obnoxious?? WHY? Maybe they are thinking, “Oh, they don’t think I’ll pick out something nice for them,” but to be OFFENDED by this, that’s a bit much. Furthermore, to put this on a card isn’t bragging, and it is certainly something more of us should do!

I told her, obnoxious is having an expensive wasteful wedding with lots of garbage leftover and polluting Mother Earth…
In my opinion, showing that you care about others will inspire other people to do the same. I’d be grateful and inspired by Mariann’s actions!

Mariann said “I have had people tell me they were offended by couples giving charity donations in their names as wedding favors. can u believe that? I would be so honored and relieved that I didn’t have to take home another stupid pictures frame because I feel guilty throwing it away”

NO I CAN’T! How selfish can you be?? Really that just makes them look bad. I don’t even think I’d invite these kind of people to my wedding! But you never know what kind of people turn out this way, some people just hate charity. Poor charity

A walk through the woods

Brian and I like to walk through the woods a lot. This is because I am an elf and he is a child of the forest. Sometimes we smack rocks together, sometimes we climb trees, and sometimes we find cool stuff (*cough* garbage).

By the way, my shirt says “The truth is right here” except my phone camera sucks and I don’t have a scanner… so sorry for the crappy picture quality!