Hipster in a Tub has moved!

Hey everyone! It's been a great journey on Blogspot but I've decided it was time to move on.

I may post occasionally here at times but everything with "meat" will be on Wordpress from now on.

I'm quite excited for this change but also quite frightened. New beginnings are awesome but scary.

New address: http://hipsterinatub.wordpress.com

Thanks everyone! See you on the other side!


Claire M

Photo love: Victoria Park, Calgary AB!

A bit of a blurry photo, but despite it all, Calgary will always be where my heart is. I just wish it (aka my heart) didn't  have to break into millions of pieces every time I try to let somone in. Photo credit: Best Calgary Homes

Words and how they can hurt.

I hope we can all take something out of this. I know I did.

Summary:
1. pride gets in the way of forgiveness. For the love of God,  let's not get pride get in the way.
2. when we hold grudges, we end of hurting ourselves and others and we just stew in our own mess for eternity

When Someone You Love Has Hurt You

By Cindy Thomas

It happens far too often. Words can deal a fatal blow to a relationship. People say mean and hurtful things, sometimes intentionally, to hurt the person they love the most. Once the words are out, it's impossible to take them back. The pain and hurt is usually entirely too clear in the eyes of the person who was hurt.

Hurting words can come from spouses, best friends, coworkers, siblings, parents, etc. No matter who it is that hurts us, the fact is words can sting with a vengeance. Rather than hold on to something that's done and can't be changed, if we choose to let it go, chances are the relationship will heal and flourish.

Sometimes the hurt is so deep and remains embedded deeply within the heart of the person who was hurt, and they walk away from the relationship. Too often pride stands in between the person who did the hurting and the person who was hurt. Instead of trying to make amends and healing the relationship, pride takes over on both sides, and a once loving relationship is nothing but a memory. It doesn't have to be that way.

When someone has hurt us, it's all too easy to just throw our hands up and walk away from it all. That's the easy way out, but it's also the losing way. You and the person that hurt you both lose out because you lose each other. But if we stop and ask ourselves why the person said hurtful things to us to start with, it could help the situation immensely.

Sometimes, though not always, a person will say something that hurts because they are stressed out or going through really rough times. They use us as bouncing board, someone to vent their frustrations out. But rather than vent what's really going on, the stress comes out as hurtful words to us.

No doubt we have all done this to someone we love and had it done to us. The difference is in how we handle it. Do we choose to see the hurtful words for what they most likely are, stress and frustration at something in life, or do we take it personal (which it probably isn't at all) and get angry and upset and just walk away.

If we walk away, we lose out on a wonderful relationship. Just because someone gets upset and stressed and says something that hurts us is not a reason to end a relationship, but sadly that's what happens too often.

We can choose to leave the past in the past, knowing that the past can't be changed or undone, and put our pride on the back shelf, and we can start fresh. To do this, it's vital that a person understand that we all make mistakes and that no matter what someone has said or done, they simply cannot change the past. No amount of regret will undo something that was done or said. If we choose to hold onto a past hurt, we are the ones that are hurting ourselves. The person who said something or did something that hurt us is not hurting us.

When we choose to hold onto hurt, we took over the role as the one doing the hurting. When we choose to allow pride to keep us from reaching out to the other party, we are the one who is hurting ourself. We don't have to let the past, that cannot be changed, to rule our present.

Sometimes a person has a hard time letting go and starting over because it seems that letting something go would somehow diminish the hurt that was said or done. But letting go of the past and beginning again isn't diminishing anything nor taking away the fact that hurt was caused. It simply is forgiving, moving on, and living and loving again. To hold onto the hurt is to deprive yourself and someone else of a beautiful relationship.

Hurtful words can cut deep. But the deepest cut isn't really the hurtful words at all, but rather the lost relationship and love if the two parties involved don't put the past to rest and begin fresh.

Copyright Cindy Thomas

Words of wisdom: "I shouldn't have to prove to you that I'm good enough for you"

"But you know, I shouldn't have to prove to you that I got my shit together.
You should be able to love me regardless. That's what love and commitment is.
You don't leave someone behind when they're struggling.
You work on things together.
You tell them everything.
When you're feeling like shit, when you're up, when you're down.
That's life and life shouldn't have to be about me proving to you that I am good enough for you.
You should be able to know that already.
Life isn't a pair of rosy sunglasses.
Life is hard. Life is tough. Life is not always fun.
But you keep going and you help each other out.
You don't walk all over them and spit on them or shun them or judge them.
You work things out.
You don't let things go unclear and dodgy.
You speak the truth."

Photo Love: Strawberry Fields Forever

Strawberry Fields Forever - Photo Credit: Pictures of Strawberry

I read somewhere that strawberries symbolize righteousness.

"Perfectly wonderful, fine and genuine".

But pinned to blank canvas, its meaning takes a dark turn...

What is right, what is wrong, what are our morals? Who are we? Who do we want to be? Where are we going? What is real? What isn't real? 

The most memoral scene in the movie Across The Universe is of Jude pinning strawberries to a canvas...
Strawberries are bleeding like bleeding hearts, bleeding out the virtuous and the good out of the perfect fruit.

Thoughts are my own. Please do not take it too personally. Just expressing how I feel. 

The mood I'm in: shiftless hobo

Credit from Fashion Inspirations.

I have similar boots, I knit hats that look like that....lately I've been in a "let's get comfy" mood. Nothing over-on-top, nothing with high heels and nothing overly dressy.

Yeah, I just want to look like a shiftless hobo is what I'm trying to say.

I kid, I kid.

The book of LOFTS, new photo blog and other ramblings

Guys, I went and bought this ginourmous (giant/enourmous) book on LOFTS with photos from Jordi Miralles and it's fantastic. And you know what else? Only 40 bucks!!

So, I've been writing lots lately from cheesy poety, to a screenplay set in the woods to cover letters and resumes to real-life short stories.

There's one short story I wrote that I'm waiting on being published but hey it might not and if it doesn't I'll post it on here.

I'm tired of thinking too hard on the structure of this blog. All it's been doing is holding me back from writing what's really on my mind.

People nowadays don't want facts, they want personal opinions and ideas and inspirations.

I always thought talking about what I'm really going through in life and what kind of person I am would bore people. And you know what, maybe it will.
But it's good therapy nevertheless!

Also, check out my new photo blog! It's called Photo in a Tub and I've been adding a photo a day. It's been great to dig back into old photos and memories.

Today is going to be busy day. I'm frightened with what is about to come next in my life but I need to go forward with it.

Wish me luck.

Obsession: terrariums

Photo credit: Ciera Design

I fell in love with these little globes of green at December's Market Collective.

I am the proud owner of a little terarrium myself, and although it went through a "breaking to pieces" mishap, the plant itself is still kicking in its new U-shaped vase. 

What's great about terrariums are their DIY qualities.  I bought mine fully put-together but its shattered state left  me with nothing but the living. 

I was so saddened by my little green buddy with no home that I emailed the creator pleading for a solution. Well, the solution wasn't hard to find: I needed an open glass container, a couple rocks for added decor, and some gravel or pebbles.

Terrariums are highly decorative, and do not require more than a couple drops of water a week. 

Done and done!

Melissa & Claire = priceless

I usually don't post on things I do but this has to be made into an exception!
My friend Melissa, who lived in Seoul and who shares this appreciation for Korean food and culture, took me to this little hole in the wall on 9th Street and 7th Ave. It pretty much shares a wall with Crack Mac's and above, a packade.

It is called Don Day and it's pretty freaking amazing, my friends!

We shared a couple things to bite on (Melissa proceeded to show me how to cut with chop sticks PROPERLY because I was just going nowhere with my shitty chopstick cutting skills), drank too much and watched K-pop, which I found to appreciate quite fondly after a couple shots of that delicious 14% plum liquor and a couple glasses of SoJu (19%).

After the second shot, I was quite reluctant do to a third right away. Props to Melissa for doing shots like a pro!

We shall meet again Soju!

Photo credit: Sequined Strawberries

The hole-in-the-wall we went to!

Four ways couples sleep

I'd say this is pretty dead on.



Photo courtesy of: justchillout.net 

Adventure Time with Finn & Jake

Woke up from a two-hour long nap in Fernie.
Walked downstairs. half awake, sat down.
Others were already watching and I had no idea what I was getting myself into.
I tuned in and got hooked.
How is this possibly a kid's show? I was instantly boggled by the weirdness that unravelled in front of me.
It was just...perfect, pure genius, completely out of this world.
WTF just happened?! I witnessed thousands of miniature spiders explode out of a spider's ass.  Woah, that shit's crazy and completely had my full and most devoted attention.

Thumbs up to The Adventure, originally entitled Adventure Time with Finn & Jake.
The show made me feel like a kid again? Sort of?

Postman

Postman ran
Postman hands
Postman delivered
Postman beard
Postman smiled
Postman said good-bye

Photo love: Julie Andrews circa 1950

Credits: Everett Collection

Read this: The Last Bohemia: Scenes from the Life of Williamsburg, Brooklyn by Robert Anasi