The Bow Belle

According to multiple sources, the titular Blue has a birthday today.  Etsy shop is JoyJoeyKangaroo . I was WAAAAY too old for Blue's Clues when it started airing, but I loved and still love the innocence of it.  Basically you had Steve, a dopey young man who owned Blue, a not-so-dopey blue dog.  Blue would want something done, and she'd make Steve (and the viewing audience) guess what it was by marking clues with her pawprints.  Each show incorporated three clues and featured a number of side routines like receiving the mail and helping a friend out with some task.  For the most part it was just simple crap; Blue wanted a special story read for her naptime, or snow was falling and Blue wanted to do something particular, or Steve had a cold and Blue knew something special that would help him recover.  I loved it...except that in the beginning Nick Jr would show the same episode all week.  I'm pretty sure I understand why; there was probably a limited ...

It's summer, unofficially.  It's Pride Month.  It's cicada season.  Cicada season means that my silk cicada clip is making a reappearance .  Etsy shop is TarnavskayaStudio . Yeah, June is Pride Month.  While I am on the rainbow spectrum I usually avoid taking part in pride events for reasons that I discussed last October.  That said, there is a pride event that I can get behind 100%...and it ain't asexual pride.  This shirt came from DeepFriedBits . Cicada pride, baby!  I freaking love these guys, and this year two particularly big broods are supposed to take over local trees.  Brood 19 is a large horde of 13-year cicadas, and Brood 13 is a similarly large band of 17-year cicadas, and they're BOTH supposed to be hatching this year.  Periodical cicadas look like this, with a dark body and red eyes.  I've never seen one in real life. Brood 19 and Brood 13 will be joined by our usual annual cicadas, with which I am VERY familiar. ...

LOL, I went through quite the song and dance to get this bow , but I'd happily shop at that Etsy shop again.  Etsy shop is BowtifulDreamer . Pretzels often go well with beer, so the beer earrings are also making a comeback. The last time I drank beer it made me violently ill (I solemnly swear on a stack of Bibles that I only drank one), so I won't be downing any booze anytime soon.  That headache was awful; my temples pounded like my brain was going to come out.  Then came the nausea, which built and built until I threw up EVERYTHING I'd eaten that day.  The headache subsided...then came back...then subsided...then came back...until I finally said "Forget it" and hit the sack way earlier than I usually do on a Saturday night.  Sleep did a world of good, but I won't be drinking beer for a long time. Pretzels, on the other hand...well, soft pretzels and Snyder's of Hanover pretzel bits are my vice.  Cheese-flavored, mustard-flavored, Buffalo-flavored, brown ...

It's National Crayola Day!  I've got the bow... ...and the baubles.  Blue baubles, to be exact, because they match my jeans and my eyes and the necklace I wear every day. Plain old green has always been my favorite crayon, with Cerulean , Razzmatazz , and Dandelion getting Honorable mention.  It's interesting that what I used to call plain old "green" is called Forest Green by the website I'm using.  Ordinary green is a semi-blinding green screen shade .  Anyway, Razzmatazz was a bright, happy color with a name that made me giggle, while Cerulean was calm and chill with a name that I needed help pronouncing.  I always loved pairing the two when drawing.  Dandelion was a word that my child's mind could read without help, and the crayon did indeed look like my favorite flower.  I'm still not over the fact that Crayola discontinued the Dandelion crayon, by the way.  I like its replacement, a lovely deep blue shade called  Bluetiful , but ...

Today and tomorrow are also what I like to call "tornado days," days that are anniversaries of particularly violent tornadoes (yesterday was another one , and tomorrow will be yet another ), but alas, I have no hair bow for that.  Who'd want a hair bow with a tornado on it anyway???  No, today calls for my Pac-Man bow. I have matching earrings that accompany this bow, but today I chose these instead. I shouldn't joke about popping pills since I know firsthand how easy it can be to get hooked.  Granted, I did NOT get hooked on hydrocodone...but I very nearly did.  When I broke my ankle in 2011 the doctors gave me a bottle of hydros and told me to take 'em as needed.  Well...one evening I popped a hydro for the sheer pleasure of it!  That stuff makes you feel great at first; I felt kinda warm and fuzzy, and then dreamy.  But I figure that after abusing the stuff it doesn't feel so great.  I didn't get that far; when I realized I'd grown fond of tho...

The last time I wore this bow it was the anniversary of Vincent van Gogh's death.  This year I wanted his birthday, come hell or high water.  The Starry Night has always made me think of the Doors and " Light My Fire ," LOL.  The stars look like they literally are burning down the night sky.  My bow isn't really a good representation of that, but the reference is clear. I included a pair of earrings that I've not yet worn.  Mama found me those. I wish I could find some accessories to wear that had some of Van Gogh's other paintings on it.  The Starry Night is probably his best known piece, but I'm fond of some of his wheatfield paintings.  I particularly like this one , with storm clouds in the background.  And of course, the vase of sunflowers .  I love that one.   Starry love, RagingMoon1987

It's the Ides of March, AND Brutus Day.  I think it was LAST Ides of March that I wore the blood spatter bow and the scissors.  <pauses to look>  No, it was in May , LOL. The bow came from Nekollars , and the earrings came from EyesOnYouHandmade . Shakespeare is kinda ubiquitous in high school English class, and when I was in high school we got both Romeo and Juliet and Julius Cesar .  My teacher, who was a freakin' rockstar at teaching, informed us at the beginning of Julius Cesar that "This one is more of a guy's play.  Romeo and Juliet is more for girls."  I guess I think like a male, because I liked Julius Cesar better!  I couldn't help feeling sorry for poor dumb Brutus, who thought his cause was a noble one. On the other hand, Romeo and Juliet was the source of some comedy among my classmates.  The booklets we were using had the original Shakespearian text on the left, and then on the opposite page the corresponding modern English ...

It's Rubber Duckie Day, so I get to trot out my rubber duckie bow ... ...and my earrings... ...and normally I'd wear my shirt, but it's too cold to wear that. Seriously, the denizens of Sesame Street have declared today Rubber Duckie's birthday, and I'm not gonna argue with Bert and Ernie.  Everyone oughtta love Rubber Duckie anyway; I've even got Day of the Dead rubber duckies...somewhere.  I think my sister even collected 'em for awhile, but I don't know if she still does.  Now she collects coffee mugs and that's alright too.  While she was living in Vermont I even bought her one that says "I f#%king miss you, bitch" inside.  But for awhile she liked rubber ducks. Happy birthday, Rubber Duckie!  I had a rubber duckie meself growing up...and y'all know what???  The goober was top-heavy!  He looked just like this one, paint rubs and all. Oh don't get me wrong, he floated.  But if the water was even a little choppy he'd go belly-...

Today is a plethora of small obscure holidays, and I don't have a hair bow for a single one.  So once again I'm digging deep into my boxes.  As of the nine o'clock hour it's raining with some lightning accompanying, so I picked a plastic bow that I've worn before (I only have two plastic bows).  Pardon the flash; these transparent bows are hard to photograph.  Etsy shop is perfectprincess .  They're based out of Jackson, Tennessee and as of writing are not taking any orders due to the expected foul weather (it's supposed to snow this weekend). Okay, it IS Kiss a Ginger Day, but I have no one to kiss, let alone a ginger.  I'd almost give my left arm to have someone to love, someone who loves me just as much as I love him, but I'm not bettin' on it.  Not ever.  Anyway, this is the bow I wanted to wear with my jellyfish earrings for Jellyfish Day, but I misplaced the earrings.  Turns out I had them with the bow, but concealed by other bows. Thi...

Normally I wouldn't be oot and aboot on a Monday, but today is the library's Christmas party and the whole cotton-pickin' county will be gathered together.  This year will be a tough one, because the librarian at Clarkton died last spring.  She as an absolute dear and the whole county loved her, so her presence will be sorely missed.  Anyway, last year I wore one of my prettier Christmas bows (I'll be wearing that one...sometime this week), but this year I've chosen to be somewhat humorous.  Remember when I said that my family loved Christmas Vacation ?  Well, here's the bow to prove it!  Etsy shop is AutumnsUniqueHairBow . This particular line was uttered by Clark Griswold's father after Clark moved Heaven and Earth to get his Christmas lights to light up.  Hilarity quickly follows when Cousin Eddie and his family show up unannounced, but as with Home Alone I'm not going to give too much away.  Christmas Vacation is NOT a flick for kids due to...

Well...I like a lot of invertebrates, but I do think jellyfish are particularly cool.  Today is Jellyfish Day, but alas, I've just got a plain jelly bow for my hair (Etsy shop is perfectprincess ). I did have jellyfish earrings, dangly vinyl ones that fluoresced under blacklight, but one of my cats destroyed them and I haven't replaced them. Admittedly I got tired of discussing the phylum  Cnidaria during invertebrate zoology, but in truth jellyfish are some of my favorite animals.  I won't say they're my absolute favorite invertebrate since I love so many insects and am very fond of echinoderms and cephalopods, but I do think jellyfish are pretty dern cool.  Like tornadoes and split rainbows , there's a lot of mystery surrounding them.  Scientists aren't really sure how long these boneless, brainless creatures have been around.  They have no brainstems or ganglions, just a ring of nerves that helps them to function, and yet they catch fish and breed and l...

I was sixteen when I learned what Day of the Dead was.  I'd already decided by then that I wanted to be a mortician, so a holiday that celebrated the dead was right up my alley.  That was the year that my Spanish teacher taught us how to build and decorate the shrines, and then graded us on our efforts.  My team picked the recently deceased Ray Charles and had a wonderful time doing it, so much so that our teacher gave us full credit.  "You all worked together so well!  You're the only ones getting full credit." she said.  I've never built a shrine since, but I love the sentiment behind Day of the Dead, and of course I love the decorations and the colors.  Yeah, yeah, y'all get the point.  Here's my bow.  Yeesh, I didn't know my hair was so tangled!  I don't know which Etsy shop this is, but it kinda looks like a bow that AbbeysAlley would sell. I've also got these, which my mama got for me.  They smell of nail polish. I don't know...

Y'all know what that means! I think I've worn and shown this bow before (shop name is CherylsBowtasticBows ), but it's one of my favorites because SLOTHS, that's why!  I don't think I ever showed y'all my earrings, though. Those also came from Etsy (shop name is JMDesignsbyUS ), and they're made of wood.  JMDesigns is located in Sedalia, so usually when I order from them I get my item(s) toot sweet.  I never have been to Sedalia, by the way.  They seem to be a tornado magnet, having been hit in 1952, 1973, 1977, and 1980, so maybe I'd best NOT go.  The tornado in 1952 hit the Missouri State Fair, by the way.  Normally it's a bad thing for a tornado to hit during the night, but in that case it was a very good thing, as the fairgrounds were fairly empty.  Indeed, the only fatality in the 1952 storm was in a mobile home, not on the fairgrounds.  But enuff of that; this is supposed to be about sloths, not tornadoes!  If you've read my doll blog t...

My bow today is one of the simpler ones, one that my deceased friend gave me.  I call this one my workhorse, because a simple black bow goes with everything.  I wore this one on July 18th , so it's a repeat. The earrings, however...these came from somewhere on Etsy.  Mama got 'em for me, and as usual I don't know what shop she got them from. I like how these have both black cats and gears.  Kinda gives 'em a steampunk sort of vibe.  And of course I love the black cats.  Currently I own a grand total of nine (yes, NINE) cats, but sadly none of them are black.  Mama has three cats, and two of them are black...take that back.  Edgar had the nerve to escape and never come back, so now she's down to one black cat and one cat that's tabby and white. Black cats have always been both special and elusive to my family up until about ten years ago.  The first black cat that my immediate family owned came along when I was in first grade.  One aftern...

I've been a fan of van Gogh's work for much of my life, and when Mama found me the earrings I knew I needed a bow to match.  The search proved to be like finding the Ark of the Covenant, but I found one that suited my fancy and matched the earrings. This one is yet another Etsy find, from FieryFoxBoutique . Here's the earrings; I've actually got two Starry Night-themed pairs, but these are big and in-your-face.  Plus, I love the pallet. I've never been as mentally ill as Vincent van Gogh was, but I've always related to his paintings more than I do those of any artist.  He painted what he saw, but he painted what he felt as well.  One could see the love he felt for the workers in the wheat field , for the night sky , for the vase of sunflowers ...but at the same time one could sense his own self-loathing as his self-portraits grew darker and darker and darker .   My fondness for van Gogh's work goes back a long time, long before Vince took a spin in the TA...

Today is one of my dad's favorite holidays.  I don't know why, but it was.  It's National Hot Dog Day.  My clip today is actually a corn dog, but in my family corn dogs counted. Crocheted corn dog from CreationsbyCronisha .  I never would've thought of it, LOL, but I'm not gonna ask too many questions.  The earrings aren't hot dogs either, but they are something good to eat with hot dogs.  These are from EyesOnYouHandmade . Yum!  I'm not a huge fan of tons of ketchup, but a little bit of it is good.  I prefer my French fries with spices, or with salt and vinegar, but I'm not too picky. Oh yes, National Hot Dog Day.  My family didn't have weenie roasts super-often, but when we did my dad went all the way.  We'd char our hot dogs until they were black on the outside, and then we'd load on the kraut and the relish and whatever else we wanted.  Daddy always had a few bratwurst in the mix, and we'd have lemonade and Kool-Aid, and usually...

Ah yes, the dog days.  I remember the long, hot stretch between Independence Day and the start of school as a bittersweet wild card for my family.  The sweet consisted of afternoons spent in the pool, of day trips to Cape Girardeau or Fort Massac or wherever, of staying up late playing Uno or Pop-o-matic Trouble, of weenie roasts with s'mores and lemonade, of stargazing and bat watches.  On the other hand, the bitter consisted of bad sunburns, of the occasional spanking or family squabble, of long periods of heat followed by waves of violent thunderstorms, of the impending school year and the changes it would bring, of MOSQUITOES!!!  There are times when I wish the gates of hell would open and devour the mosquitoes, but the swallows, the bats, and the house spiders (all of whom I love) live off mosquitoes, so maybe I need to just shut face.  I have a pretty good relationship with most of the insects summer brings out (mosquitoes and red wasps are the exception),...

According to my favorite source for daily holidays , the word of the day for today is "tenebrous," which apparently means dark and gloomy.  Since today is also an auspicious day for tornado buffs, and since I associate tornadoes with the color black, I chose a simple black bow.  This one is another of my Wal-Mart cheer bows. I haven't had an excuse to wear these earrings in a good long time, but they're some of my favorites.  The Etsy shop, CorvidArtsBoutique, is no longer selling. I've been a tornado buff ever since I was three.  It was 1991 then, and that particular spring was an active one.  One particular tornado, one that struck Wichita and Andover, Kansas, left a huge impression on my toddler mind.  The video of that tornado striking McConnell Air Force Base is one of my all-time favorites (link is HERE ; parents cautioned due to language).  Seventeen people died in that tornado, but none of them were on the air base.  You'd have guessed fro...

The bow today is a simple one, a pink grosgrain cheer bow that I picked up at Wal-Mart when I first started wearing hair bows. The earrings, on the other hand...well, they're these.  Etsy shop is hobbittownjewelry . The doll is the same on each earring, and she's one of my favorites, My Child.  My Child dolls were glorified rag dolls that were meant to compete with Cabbage Patch Kids.  Despite being better looking all-around than Cabbies, My Child wasn't around long, and as a result a doll in good condition can go for...oh, a couple hundred bucks.  My doll's name is Morgan, and her review of her can be found HERE , but if you don't want to click on the link, here's a better look at her.  Morgan has a saggy, faded face, so I only had to pay eighty bucks for her.  Both problems can be mended, but I haven't gotten to it yet. Please ignore the fact that Morgan is wearing a Magic Nursery dress.  My Child could share clothes with Magic Nursery toddlers ....

This one is one of my more macabre bows.  Etsy shop is Nekollars , and be forewarned:  a lot of that shop's stuff is BDSM-related. Yes, that's blood on the bow (fake blood, of course).  I like to joke that I was running with scissors.  Remember these? Believe it or not the bloody scissors are popular with some of my patrons at the library.  I like to call them my murder earrings, LOL.  Indeed, I did kinda wake up this morning wanting to murder someone.  A gimpy leg, blurry eyes, fleas, and a nonfunctioning A/C made for a sleepless night.  I plan on doing something about the fleas TO. DAY., so that at least won't be a problem for much longer. Adieu, RagingMoon1987