• This wonderful, magical animation drawn with crayons: Crayon Dragon Comes to Life.
• For the freelancers/self-employed, three good reads: How to Accomplish More by Doing Less, Death by Hourly Wage, and It Doesn’t Get Better, You Do. Favorite quote: “I don’t charge by the hour, I charge by the awesome.”
• Does the Sun Make You Sneeze? Finally, my affliction has a name: photic sneeze reflex.
• This is just plain awesome: JCPenney Responds to Homophobic Boycott Calls with Gay Father’s Day Ad. I need to go shop at JCPenney more often.
• A must read for the spouses/partners of bloggers: If You Love Her, Let Her Grow.
• Alycia has a useful list detailing 5 Reasons I Won’t Buy from an Online Shop, along with ways to fix the issues.
• An interesting and accurate look at What Happens When You Live Abroad.
• Two great posts recently on Yes & Yes: How to Broadcast Body Confidence, and You’re Smart. So What?
• A really moving post from Sarah about the importance of mental health and stigmas associated with it: Bringing in the Professionals.
• A very interesting read about the perils & advantages of nonconformity: Nonconformists Need Better Social Skills.
• 13 Inspirational Quotes for the Modern Cynic. Hilarious.
• I wish this were the standard everywhere! My Sienna is a sweetie. Ohio to pit bulls: You’re no longer ‘vicious’.
• Beth has some handy tips for summer.
• This seems awesome, and I hope it takes off: Swap-o-Matic, a barter-based vending machine.
• And finally, this adorable Cat Eating Watermelon. He’s very focused. 🙂

Things of Note:

I finished my very first solo, with-machine sewing project, and am ridiculously excited/proud of it. It’s just some pillows, with screenprints on them. But I sewed them myself! Successfully! I’ll have a sewing update w/ pics later this week, I just have to wait until after the recipient gets them in the mail, since they are a gift and I want her to see them in person before seeing them on the blog.

I had another great clothes swapping experience with Austin Clothes Exchange this past weekend. 🙂

Getting excited about the Zelda Symphony later this month – woohoo!

I received the first letter from my Lovely Letters penpal! I love getting mail. Except now I don’t know whether I’m supposed to write her back right away, since I also wrote her a letter and she might be responding to that, in which case our letters would cross and it’d be all confusing…Conundrum. But on the upside, I bought the CUTEST stationery on Etsy, so I’ll have pretty stuff to write on. 🙂

I’m scheming things to put in the box I’m sending to my Foodie Pen Pal, and I hope she likes it.