New Music Mondays

I’ve decided to do a new blog series. Just by looking at the title of this post I bet you’ll never guess what it is. New music!! New music to me, anyway. Indie is my main squeeze, but I like some other stuff too. Enjoy :)

Catapult by Operator Please. They’re a pop-ish band from Australia.


I Need a Dollar by Aloe Blacc


Little Secrets by Passion Pit. This song just makes me happy.

And The Winner Is...

The winner of my necklace giveaway (http://jovial-jones.blogspot.com/2011/04/giveaway.html) is...

HavannahSoy!

Hope you enjoy your necklace :)

Spring Inspired Goodies

My newest creations posted to Etsy...

Minion

I've been wanting a dog for a long time, and now that Zach and I are buying a house (with a big yard) that's actually a feasable thing. I grew up with Huskies and I love them. But they were breed to run. And I want a dog that I can take with me hiking or to the creek and be able to let it off-leash. I decided on an Australian Shephard and I really like the red and white Aussies.

So I took it as a sign when one of my good friends (who's house has turned into something like a Rescue The Animals because of all the strays she picks up haha) found a red and white Aussie stray. His fur was kind of matted, he was pretty skinny, and didn't have a chip. I guess the original owners didn't care too much about him. He's so friendly and minds fairly well (but still needs some teaching). So I will be picking him up in 2 weeks when we move out of the apartment. I'm so excited! His name is Minion.

Happy...

Sad...

Goodies

A new treasury I was featured in - full of awesome stuff made by Austin vendors!

Nikon Coolpix Giveaway

Follow this blog for an entry to win a Nikon Coolpicx Camera! (Pretty awesome giveaway, so I thought I'd share.)

Un-birthday!!!

Happy un-birthday to me!!!! Today is not my birthday, nor is it even close to my birthday (August 8th). But in celebration of my non-birthday, feel free to buy me any of these awesome items on my wish-list…

1. Street smarts
2. A Munchkin from the Wizard of Oz
3. 8 square feet of Switzerland
4. A ninja cat (video demonstration of acceptable cat
5. Susan Boyle’s voice
6. 3 purple pixie sticks
7. Eyes for the back of my head
8. Hippopotamus shaped cookie cutter
9. 1 oz bottle of moon dust
10. Winning lottery ticket
11. Canned air

Happy hunting! I know you won’t let me down!

Giveaway!!!!!!

Who doesn't like FREE stuff?? I'm giving away this cute necklace. I made it using a long brown leather cord and attached some nifty charms - a large silver tree pendant, a silver feather, a Czech glass bead (one side is purple, and the other is green), and a piece of green sea glas from Rincon, Puerto Rico (Although I love collecting sea glass, this is not a piece that I found myself...I can't manage to part with my own findings.)

Ways to enter (up to 2 entries per person):

1. Start following my blog (on the right side of the screen towards the top) and leave a comment on any of my blog posts. Or "like" my facebook page: facebook.com/JovialJones and leave a comment on the wall.

2. Twitter, blog, or make a facebook post about this giveaway. Leave a comment here with a link to your twitter, blog, or facebook post so I can count your entry.


The winner will be announced at the end of the day April 23rd!! :)

Check out my other stuff for sale at JovialJones.etsy.com
Use coupon code GIVEAWAY10 to get 10% off your purchase! Coupon is good until the end of the giveaway (April 22nd).

Envy

I always thought it would be cool to sign up for something like a new email or some online account and get the username ''Tara.'' No numbers. No extra words. Just Tara. But of course, that's always taken. I'd like to meet the person that actually got that username. I hope she's a good representative for all the other Taras out there because she has the only username that could be used to describe all 166,825 of us. Ok well, maybe ''human'' or ''girl'' (hopefully) would also describe all the Taras, but you get what I mean...

Speaking of names, in September my last name will be changing. I went to howmanyofme.com to look up the stats on my name. Turns out there are 843 people named Tara Jones in the U.S., and only 293 people named Tara Hall. I thought I was switching from one common name to another. I guess I am trading up. Whoo hoo!

Mmmm Brownies

Not your average cooking video, but much more entertaining.



This guy is actually pretty funny. You can check out his other videos here: clickity click click

My Red-Headed Side Is Clumsy

Zach and I went to Abilene this weekend to do our engagement photos. I spontaneously decided to color my hair red...and I mean red red. I like it, but I'll get tired of it fast (and it will fade pretty fast). Then Saturday night we were at a friends house and I stepped in a pothole in their lawn (it was dark-ish and the grass covered it up) and rolled my left ankle. Horrible pain and swelling this morning, I couldn't walk on it, and I was worried about a fracture, so I hobbled to the car and my Mom drove me to the minor emergency. Just a sprain. Or possibly a hairline fracture that doesn't show on the xray. But I got some good pain meds. And I can thank Murphy's Law that this happened the day before I'm switching my schedule to work doubles (16 hours on Monday and Tuesday, and 8 on Wednesday), so now I'm missing 2 shifts instead of just one tomorrow. Geeezzz.

Before...

After...

RICE...rest, ice, compression, elevation

Disturbed Children, Dust, and Ice Cream

It's 4am. I'm going on 14 hours at work. 6am please come fast. Surprisingly, the hardest thing about the night shift is not staying awake (I work at a mental health facility for children. I may like the kids that I work with, but I never forget that they're psych patients. I've been hit, bit, spit on, had chairs thrown at me, and on one occasion I truely thought I was going to be stabbed. I would never let my guard down enough to fall asleep.) The hardest part is the boredom. There are about 4 hours of work for this 8 hour shift. So I've been cleaning. And I think I'm the only one that does...there was probably a good 2 years worth of dust on top of the soap dispenser and memos from 2002 on the walls.

But the evening shift was anything but boring. We made ice cream. It was amazingly easy (made from things you already have at home) and the kids loved it. They didn't even mind cleaning up the ice, salt, sprinkles, and milk cartons that managed to cover every surface within a 5 foot radius of the ice cream table. The ice cream actually turned out really good. Now I know you wanna try it yourself...

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons sugar
1 cup milk
6 tablespoons rock salt
Gallon sized ziplock bag
Quart sized ziplock bag
Ice (enough to half-fill gallon bag)

Fill gallon size ziplock bag half full of ice. Add 6 tablespoons of rock salt. Set aside. Put milk, vanilla extract, and sugar in the quart sized ziplock. Seal quart sized ziplock and place it into the gallon ziplock. Shake the ziplock until the contents of the quart sized bag are the consistency of ice cream. Remove quart sized bag and enjoy :)