I collect links the way some people collect magazine clippings for an inspiration board, and Google Reader allows me to star and share interesting tidbits I find as I’m reading. Here are some of my recent favorites:

• We Feel Fine: An almanac of human emotion is a new-media-esque project that tracks emotions across the blogosphere to get a reading of how the Internet is feeling at any given time. – I feel surprised because I’d never seen this before!
• Pencil set made from human remains – Call me Morbidy McMorbidson, but I actually think this is kinda cool.
• Tiny gingerbread houses to balance on the edge of your mug – I should have saved my gingerbread-decorating skills for something like this… definitely less time-consuming than a full-size gingerbread house.
• Pretty wrapping papers – I can’t wrap presents worth a darn, but these designs might get me motivated to try.
• Paper Pudding’s Apple card makes my heart go pitter-pat – Her other designs are just as clever. Via Design Milk
• I’m loving the new Wild Imaginings series from Art and Ghosts – I, too, am currently obsessed with the color pink.

Find these and more at my shared favorites on Google Reader!

I’m a dork. I was checking out my Dashboard at ThisNext, and saw my rank was at 0.9%. I thought, “Geez, my recommendations must suck! 0.9% is a really low number!” That’s until I realized that my rank was actually the top 0.9%. Smaller numbers are better when you’re in the top of it, you dolt.

I’m having a grand time recommending new products there lately, most of which are from fellow Etsy sellers. I think the indie/handmade community is slightly under-represented amidst the upscale designer fashions, housewares and electronics, so I aim to keep the majority of my recommendations indie-related. I’m also tagging my recommendations with “iGift” in hopes of being the lucky winner of an iPhone. That would make a really sweet early Christmas present, no?

Speaking of free goodies, there are 2 more free 5×7′s ready to go out with the next two orders from my shops – more details here!

It’s not listed on the official Prizes page yet, but one lucky participant in NaBloPoMo will get a free 8×10 or 8×12 print of their choice from my shop, provided they play nice and update their blog every day. If that’s not motivation to bare your soul to the Internets for thirty grueling days in a row, I don’t know what is!

I do so much better with lists…

1. I don’t think I will ever get enough of new kitten smell. Mmmmm.
2. My therapist gave me my first exercise: for the next week, I am to enjoy food, no matter what I eat, without guilt. I assured her that I’m entirely up to the challenge, and I think I’m going to like her.
3. I want to offer some of my photographs as note cards in my shops, but I’d have to offer a limited number of designs at first. Help me! Which of my photos would you want to see as note cards?
   
4. Sleeeeeepyzzzzzzzzzzzz.
   

Ok, so here’s the obligatory, “I’m only doin’ it for the BloPoMo,” post.  Look, I don’t intend to miss a day this month, but this stuff is rough for someone whose blog presence is normally sporadic – usually I post once a month, once a week at most. I’m not used to thinking this much, and it hurts, and what’s that smell?  Oh, hey, my brain’s on fire.

In the meantime, here’s a list of my recently-starred entries from Google Reader:

Cadbury kittez – lulz.
Monster Factory @ Cutable – I’m a sucker for strange plushies.
Unexpected Guests @ sfgirlbybay – I want to hire her to decorate my house.
Ffffound! – never lacking for visual inspiration.
Kapow Jewelry @ Indie Fixx – love love love, and I don’t even wear jewelry!
Feelin’ foxy @ Modish – a nice diversion from the birds/deer motif.
Petit Four @ Little Splurge – allow me an ultra-girly moment to say, I heart lip gloss!

I went into tonight’s blog certain that I’d have nothing more to leave you with than “This is me, checking in solely for the sake of not missing NaBloPoMo.” It’s been that kind of day.

But no! We visited my in-laws this evening, and brought back all manner of boxes of nostalgia – old photos, books, journals, and albums from Tim’s childhood. As he was sorting through them he pulled out these photos, and I thought, “Aha! Now that, my friends, is what I like to call blog-fodder.”

Yes, that’s hubby and me in June of 2000.

First impression: Wow, we were young!

Second impression: Holy CRAP, we were YOUNG!

(And suddenly the concept of “aging”, at 24, becomes much clearer. I promise never to scoff at anti-wrinkle cream ads ever again!)

Once I got past the initial shock of realizing that my 24-year-old face looks nothing like my 17-year-old face (*cry*) I realized that, damn… we were cute. I mean, look at those bangs! Look at his dimples!

These photos bring back lots of good memories. They were taken at Tim’s high school graduation dinner, no more than three weeks after we’d started dating, and only months before we started the long-distance portion of our relationship. It’s amazing we made it through the following year, being that we’d only known each other for a few months before he went off to college and I finished high school. This was around the time that Mr. Tim was oh-so-sure that I was going to be his wife someday. Because, you know, 18-year-olds are psychic like that. And crazy.

But I suppose he wasn’t too crazy, because here we are. Happy, together. It’s satisfying to see how far we’ve come, how much we’ve grown up… and in some ways, these serve as a reminder of how far we’ve yet to go.

Mmmmmm. Yesterday’s Crock-Pot chili success inspired Tim to make a beef stew, thanks to which I am so dreadfully full right now.  Between yesterday’s chili and today’s stew we have dinner for the week. I love it when the hubs gets domestic!

It’s been a lazy day, otherwise. I am totally lacking in energy and motivation for projects these days. It’s depressing to watch the sun disappear at 4:30 in the afternoon! Hopefully I’ll snap out of it soon, or else I’m in for a long, dreary winter (and a lot of really boring blogging!  “Today I woke up… and promptly fell asleep again.  The end.”)

I do have some ideas, though. I think I’m going to make a 2008 seasonal computer desktop calendar – one doodle for each month – and offer the desktop backgrounds for download here.  Just ’cause.

I also have a photo shoot in mind, but I’m somewhat lacking in props. Anyone happen to have on hand a bunch of clock parts or a few broken vintage clocks? I’ll gladly pay shipping!

The most discouraging thing about winter besides the lack of light is the lack of warmth.  More specifically, the inability to go outside wearing anything less than a full body snow suit and stay above frostbite temperatures for any length of time.  I’m mostly concerned for the girls who model for me on a regular basis.  I’ve yet to find fashionable outerwear that both looks good AND keeps one cozy while standing in the freezing snow for an hour.

Pipe Dreams: I has them.

I also has a serious inability to stop using lolcats speak in everyday conversation.  I caught myself muttering “Do not want!” when I spilled a drink at work the other day.  And I’ve started appending requests with “I can has…?” – I can has chocolate?  I can has computer?  I can has lobotomy?

Caro-cat is… annoying the crap out of herself.

It’s the kind of gray November day that’s best for chili (Tim fired up the Crock-Pot) and a good book. Mmm, yes, it’s been an excellent day, and it’s always good news when there’s the rest of a long weekend still ahead.

The obligatory crazy cat lady update: Pippen is quite at home with us. His favorite place is curled up on my shoulder, with his butt tucked snugly under my chin (he makes a nice scarf!) and he purrs on demand. We’re smitten with our kitten!

The girls still aren’t impressed with him, but they’re friendly with us, so I think they’ll adjust in good time. We’ve had help from treats, lots and lots of treats. I’m pretty sure Nala and Stitch would have suffocated us in our sleep already if it hadn’t been for their lack of opposable thumbs and being unable to open the treat jar.

Also: I found plugins for WordPress that allow me to cross-post to my Livejournal AND Myspace blogs in addition to Vox! No man, woman, or child will be free from my incessant rambling. Is there anything WordPress can’t do? Does anyone know of a good plugin that will mop my floors?

(There are four more 5×7 prints up for grabs! See here if you missed yesterday’s blog.)

An unexpected charge to my PayPal account by GoDaddy today reminded me that it’s Sixhours.net‘s sixth birthday! Six years ago today I purchased my first domain name on a whim. The resulting Web site was originally devoted to poetry and digital art and the overly dramatic rantings of a 19-year-old college freshman. Right now you’re thanking the higher powers that I took up photography instead, eh? I’m going through the Internet Archive Wayback Machine and laughing at my dorkiness – join me! Good times!

In honor of her (yes, my domain is a she – did I mention the part about geekism?) birthday, I want to do something special, so here’s the deal: The next six customers to my shops get a free 5×7 print of their choice! This applies to any purchases at Etsy, eCrater or Dawanda and there’s no time limit. You can either note your print choice in the message to seller at checkout, or I’ll convo/e-mail you to ask which print you’d like. It’s that simple!

Also! The cupcake girl above is now available at the Hey Pretty Cupcake Etsy shop as a tree ornament for the holiday season! Go visit, and check out all the shop’s other goodies while you’re there.

I was tagged by Jayne to do one of those 7 random facts memes, and since I’m in dire need of inspiration, I’m more than happy to oblige.

1. I sleepwalk. No, scratch that. I sleep-falldown. I only discovered this fact last night (This is breaking news! You heard it here first, folks!) after I’d gone to bed. I remember having a vivid dream that involved triangularly-shaped robot spiders. I was trying to get away from them, and in my dream, I fell. That’s when I woke up to find myself on the floor, on hands and knees, facing away from the bed. I don’t remember how I got there. The hubs has an interesting account of the event at his blog, where he described it as such: “So there I was, wide awake in bed last night. Couldn’t sleep. All of a sudden, Caroline sits up, says something quite untranslatable, and throws herself onto the floor.” Yep, that’s right. I threw myself onto the floor. In my sleep. Suddenly I’m uneasy about the fact that our bed is rather close to a flight of stairs…

2. I’m a leetle OCD about my blogroll in Google Reader. I can’t just mark a feed as “read” without making an effort to read it. Even if I just scroll past the new posts, I have to at least glance at them. Why? Because I might miss something important, of course! This is all well and good except when you’re five days behind and your Flickr contacts feed totals well over 1k posts alone. Hello, carpal tunnel!

3. In my youth I took many after-school lessons: Piano, jazz dancing, tap dancing, ballet, karate, cooking, sewing, chorus/voice. I do none of these things now, with the exception of cooking (only when I have to, or when I want to make cheesecake) and singing (very loudly and off-key, usually in the car).

4. In contrast, I had very little interest in photography until college (and only then because it was digital and therefore satisfied a need for instant gratification), even though I had many opportunities to try it before then.

5. I have no interior design skills whatsoever. In fact, any kind of artistic talent that goes beyond 2 dimensions is difficult for me. This could be because I have terrible depth perception, or because I hate to paint (walls). Or perhaps both.

6. Umm, I’m running out of facts, so I will regale you with tales from the cat-dom. Pippen is home and adjusting nicely. He’s quite taken with Nala (although the feelings are not mutual) and wants to follow her around. It’s entirely obvious that he’s infatuated, if only she would reciprocate. But she’s not having any of that, and neither is Stitch… there’s been a little hissing, but he’s not phased, and the girls are getting lots of pets and treats to make up for our treason. He’s walked across my keyboard no less than six times as I type this. He’s got a squeaker and a loud purr and he’s not afraid to use them.

7. … I’m beat! I like cheese. There’s my seventh fact.

 I’m doing this online gallery competition, and I’d really appreciate your votes!  You don’t even have to register.  Just click on this link and rate my photo as you see fit:

http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/showdown/index.php?showpic=90593

Thank you very much!