Signed in Blood.

The husband and I took our peacock box of gift cards along with us on the honeymoon. Lacy-Hacy had suggested that it might be a good idea. Not only to prevent them from being misplaced/stolen but also to provide us extra cash for our trip.

It was an excellent suggestion, but turns out, she had multiple motives.

Because as I slowly opened each card one by one, reading the cheesy marriage poems and cliche wedding wishes, I came across a particular envelope with handwriting that looked oh-so very familiar... Upon opening the card, I found this message: "'Well, you did it. You WON! (pact) Go ahead, bask in it... I feel all warm & fuzzy inside. :)"

I couldn't believe my eyes!

After two months of shameless teasing, claiming that she had not lived up to her end of the deal, my BFF had actually paid out.

It literally was a laugh out loud moment.

I immediately text her in my excitement. (I know, I know. Honeymoon+texting best friends='no-no'. But I couldn't resist.) "Bahahaha!! You sneaky bandit.. :D I can't believe you actually paid up on our pact! Hehehe.. But I guess it was blood money after all. :P"

You see, my roomie and I (at the time) had decided one evening, during a fit of boredom, to create an agreement of sorts regarding who would get hitched first.

She claimed that I would obviously be the first victim while I knowingly knew that she would be scooped up in no time. Both being unattached presently and seriously doubting that that would change anytime soon, we drafted a document and signed at the bottom.

At first she insisted we sign our entire name in our actual blood, but considering that a new level of creepy and secretly wishing to inflict as little pain as possible, I suggested that a small drop would do. It was a good thing too, because apparently we are both sissies. Just one prick hurt like the dickens!

(Believe me. No one is more aware of my smart phone's bad picture quality than I am.)

It reads: "This pact set forth on this -the 11^th of September 200 & 11-amongst the foxilicious BABES Lacy Cornaby & Corin Haymore ensures that whosoever shall enter into the holy bonds of matrimony & sweet, sweet BABY MAKIN' TIME!! Shall immediately, without question, fork up the cold hard cash amount of $107.00. "

Why a $107.00?..

Oh, I dunno. Because $777.00 was too much and both of us share 7 as our favorite number. Do we need a better reason?

Little did we know that a month later we would both be in serious relationships and ten months later, married. It's crazy how time flies. One minute, you're wagering a small fortune (comparatively) in blood and the next you and your bestie are married within two weeks of each other.

And even though we don't live together any more and she's moved a county away, it's not going to change things one bit. Because people like us don't forget that easily.

We don't forget our debts and we certainly don't forget our friendships.

And you can bet on that.

'Drawn'-out.

I love seeing time lapses of artists making their artwork. So today I thought I'd share a little play-by-play of some of the pieces I've done recently.

Unfortunately for you, I haven't the time nor equipment to sit down and film myself creating a drawing in one attempt. My method is to work for as long as I possibly can before I go eraser-crazy then come back later.

I could potentially come back to the same piece an infinite amount of times, because it never seems quite right once I've given my brain a break from staring at it. But those are the times when I just have to call it 'good enough for who it's for' and finish the dang thing.

Speaking of 'who it's for', this first example I did for my former roomie, (sad day..) Lacy-Hacy's, upcoming wedding. Instead of a guest book, she's going to have people leave a thumbprint 'leaf' on this tree then sign their names very petitley beneath it.

You can thank Pinterest for her ingenuity.

This is how it started out. Looking EXACTLY like the picture reference she had given me. However, I was quickly informed that I was doing it 'all wrong' and that she wanted it to be 'less short and squatty' and with a 'less perfect heart'.

Forgive me for liking perfection, Bridezilla.

Once I had lengthened the tree and imagined more branches, (no small feat for me, I hardly ever draw from my imagination) I began shading in dimension with a brown soft lead pencil.

It was then that Lacy-Hacy informed me that maybe she did want her and her fiance's names included in the drawing. Did I mention that was why the tree was 'short and squatty' to begin with?? To allow room for said features?..

Have I also mentioned that she's somewhat of an indecisive Bridezilla?
Yes? Moving on then.

After similar indecisiveness surrounding what she would like the birds to look in her tree, I threatened to make them look like this:

Needless to say, she wasn't amused and increased the level of 'testiness' in our correspondence.

When she finally sent me an image of what she wanted, I penciled in two little bluebirds representing her and lover-boy. Naturally, one had a larger beak than the other. I'm not saying who it represents.

As if that weren't hassle enough, it took me another seven years to find out what font she wanted me to replicate for their names. Did I mention that this commission was pro bono?

Or that I no longer have any hair from pulling it out?..

But it was all worth it in the end upon seeing her satisfaction with the finished product. And my free-hand calligraphy turned out amazingly well, if I do say so myself.

My second example is a drawing I did for my and the fiance's parents last Christmas. I probably should have taken a picture of the rough sketch before I added any shading, but in all honesty, rough sketches of humans are often quite scary. I'm talking super hideous here people.

Be grateful that we live in a 3-dimensional world.

The only thing that prompted me to document the beginnings of my drawing at all was a need for validation. Luckily, 'da twinneh' recognized who I was trying to draw, albeit over poor quality picture message.

And so I plodded along, hoping that I wasn't horribly mangling President Monson's loving features too much.

That's the problem with drawing a person you (and possibly a LOT of others) know. There's always something wrong with the depiction, because everyone looks at different things in a face.

Gratefully, I've only gotten an overwhelmingly positive response about the image, because I was a little worried there.

It was two months in the making, but I finally finished it. And this time round, I decided to let Photoshop add the wording in for me.

Then it was packaged, wrapped and gifted. And now hangs happily in both homes, not to mention Lacy-Hacy's bedroom, her parents' house and her soon to be in-law's house.

So there you have it.

Creating artwork is fun when you stop second-guessing yourself and aren't collaborating with a semi-unresponsive/indecisive bride.

It's also fun when you get paid.

But then again, I wouldn't know anything about that.

And so leads the life of Corinner-Elly.

Hey... Take it Easy.

So yesterday, I completed my Scrabble fridge magnets.
Once I figured out where I had put my dang magnet strip, it was easy-peasy from there on out. It is an understatement to say 'I love them'.

As you can see, they've already been put to good use.

I decided to one-up Lacy-Hacy on the swearing issue.
And it was a good choice too because, no joke, after being home less than two minutes, she had already adorned the front door with a resounding 'OSHIT'.

Lovely.

She then continued by chewing me out over not being able to find a particular letter.

"What the F!!? What did you do with all the 'Y's??!", she bellered.
It was then that she noticed the "<3 YOU LACY" in front of her nose.

Bet she felt sheepish.

But it's ok. I forgive her.
She's the only person I know who can be yelling at me one minute and laughing at me the next. And I the same with her.

I just can't stay mad at the girl.
Plus, we have some pretty fantastical arguments.

Yesterday, she accused me of never listening to her. I, of course, accused her of the same. Keep in mind we were both accusing loudly at the same time so in essence, we proved each other right. Haha.

But by the time I left to go stargazing, when I yelled 'love you' on the door step, it was immediately countered with a 'love you long time' response.

It's nice having a home away from home.
A family too.

Dysfunctional as it may be.

She Scares, Because She Cares.

My roommate thinks I'm crazy.
It's because I like to do things like twist my plastic bags into little balls or save mini sauce packets from fast food joints.

I can't help it if I'm all about efficiency.

My roommate is also the master of torture.
Last night, after turning out all of the lights and heading to bed, I wandered back into the kitchen to grab a vitamin and a glass of water. Little did I know that she would be crouching in the darkness, waiting for me to walk by.

The girl can make the creepiest noises you've ever heard. Combine all of the monsters and psychopaths from every movie you've ever seen and that is the sound she produces as she crawls from the darkness and claws at your legs.

Naturally, this produces extreme terror on my part.
And usually shrill screaming. (Sorry people on the floor below us. Not my fault.)

A relatively normal person would call it good at that, after producing the desired result. But my roomie bestie?... Never.

Needless to say, less than two minutes later, she'd done it again.
And I'm sorry to say, I was completely caught off guard. Again.

I'm here to attest that the terror only intensifies the second time around.
I practically sh** a brick. Pardon my French.

But back to the point at hand.
Why am I being punished for my efficiency?

Okay, okay. It really has nothing to do with efficiency. Lacy-Hacy just likes to scare the bejeebies outta me. For some strange reason it brings her heart immense joy to see me scream and almost fall over.

Then she'll laugh maniacally and saunter back to her room.
It's just not natural, I tell you.

But that's why I love her.
We torture each other. I with my inherent need for perfect organization and she with her inborn desire to frighten people.

And I think we're rubbing off on each other too. Because the other day, she asked me to show her how to twist her plastic bags into little, efficient, space-saving balls. And I, in turn, felt the strange desire to jump out and scare my 6-year old nephew, who immediately burst into tears. Pretty sure I'm winning 'aunt-of-the-year' for that one...

So it's kind of a perfect partnership.
She's tons of fun, and I'm no fun at all. She... completes me.
(Name that movie.)

And let's face it, when she tries the scrumptious smothered burritos I make with those extra Taco Time hot sauce packets and the Mexican rice I whip up with McDonalds' leftover ketchup bags, she's not complainin'.

Kinda like how when I finally get my heart rate back to a normal pace, I'm smiling as I go to sleep because I know I get to wake up tomorrow and be surprised by her spontaneity all over again. :)

The Bestest Burfday Ever.

Being a twin, growing up I never had a birthday to myself.
But I didn't mind. Much to the contrary in fact.

I loved always having a best friend to share everything with.
The only problem was, who throws the surprise party if your best friend is your twin. It's her birthday too!

The other problem was, our birthday was in the summer. So all school year long we decorated lockers and sent balloons to our friends during class to celebrate their b-days, but when July 7th came around and school was out, all of our friends seemed to be vacationing.

But this year, oh this year, I was spoiled rotten.
Somehow, a mixture of AMAZING roommates & not moving home for the summer equated to THE best birthday I've ever had.

This is how my day went:

Actually... I should probably preface.

The week before my birthday, Lacy-Hacy left for Minnesota to visit her older sister. Remembering the 500 sticky notes she had plastered on every available surface in my room upon my return from England, I decided to leave her a little welcome home present as well.

After weaving in and out of streamers for 30-minutes, I left to see a movie with my other roomie, Hamm, utterly pleased with myself. Little did I know, only a short two hours later I would come home to find the tables had been completely turned.

After walking in to the apartment, Lacy-Hacy was acting kinda strange... She kept trying to convince me that she needed to go get a drink while blocking the hallway and likewise the entrance to my room. Confused but determined to use my bathroom before we left, I pushed past her and around the corner to find...

All of the streamers transplanted to MY room!

But she didn't leave it at that. The girl's a criminal genius, I tell ya.

I was trip wired, my toilet bowl was saran wrapped, my bathroom mirror/sink was vandalized, my sock drawer emptied under my sheets and my immaculate shoe organization scrambled beyond belief.

And that was only the half of what she had PLANNED to do should I have given her more time!

But even her devious mind couldn't compare to my extraordinary intelligence, because I noticed the trip wire before it got me, I went to throw a tissue into the toilet before going and discovered her treachery and I felt the socks under my sheets before I climbed into bed.

The fact that I neglected to remove the trip wire promptly and later stumbled fantastically is besides the point.

Needless to say, she was pleased with herself.

Telling me it was an early birthday surprise, I expected nothing more on my actual birthday.

So I wake up early on the big day to get ready for a birthday breakfast with 'da twinneh' and open my door to find the first of many surprises.

A beautiful pink saucer chair, an amazing card/balloon, some certified Minnesota moose poop (chocolate covered peanuts) and Bananagrams. *YAY*

Lacy-Hacy and Hamm had remembered everything I wanted without me having to tell them a thing. :) The epitome of true friendship.

Smiling happily, I made my way out to the parking lot to find my car had also been visited during the night.

Lacy-Hacy had smeared every window with birthday wishes amongst other things... I couldn't believe it. The little turd.

One flamboyant car ride later, I ate a scrumptious breakfast and exchanged presents with 'da twinneh'. She gave me the cutest pink-orange nail polish, an adorable pair of purple earrings and a gift card to Walmart. Once again, exactly what I wanted.

We spent the remainder of the morning together, revelling in birthday excitement. If you weren't aware, 'da twinneh' lives everyday in preparation for her next birthday. And when that day comes, oh, we milk it for all it's worth. ("It's our burf-day!...")

At lunchtime, we left to meet up with the parents and Gem for lunch at Tucanos. Happily, I did not reenact the fantastical spill I had during my last visit.

Food went flying. Face went red. It wasn't pretty.

I was, however, required to dance around with a tambourine while the whole staff sang a Brazilian birthday song. 'Da Twinneh' refused.

Afterwards, I drove back to my parents' house and took it easy for a bit. My phone was constantly buzzing from all of the wall posts on Facebook from friends wishing me a happy birthday. I couldn't believe there were so many. (Over 50! Yes... I counted.)

I knew Hamm wanted to take me out to dinner, so I went back to the apartment. It was very... quiet. Little did I know, Hamm was crouched in my room, waiting to ambush me as soon as I rounded the corner.

 

Along with the 300 balloons she had inflated over the course of the day! How that girl didn't pass out, I'll never know. 

I thought surely this would be the last of many surprises, but I was wrong.

Earlier in the day, Gem answered a call from Lacy-Hacy in the car, leading me to believe they were both conspiring to throw me a surprise party. But being the best liar I've ever met, Gem had a completely one sided conversation about going country dancing that night (with Lacy-Hacy on the other end quite confused), in order to dispel my suspicion. The tricky devil. :P

Needless to say, I was completely oblivious when Hamm carted me all over Provo to look at different design styles in the architecture.

My mind: "Yay! Finally someone who appreciates design as much as I do! I'm going to spout out as many vocab terms as I can possibly remember. What a nice friend to indulge me on my birthday."

Hamm's mind: "You're really cute... but I have NO IDEA what your saying... I just need to keep you busy for a few more hours..."

So we eat dinner at Pizza Pie Cafe, which was ridiculously busy, much to her delight, I'm sure. Ready to leave, I start to stand up when she decides she needs another salad.

After dessert. After JUST telling me how stuffed she was.

Did I suspect? Of course not! Why would I?

Hamm's a healthy girl. She likes her greens...

And gullible is written on the ceiling.

I'm content. I've had an amazing birthday. I'm ready to go home and watch a movie with my besties. But, as I'm sure you've now realized, the celebrations are not quite over.

I begin up the three flights of stairs in my stairwell, getting to the second floor before realizing something... The steps are a little more colorful than they were before I left.

Yet another roomie, Chan, left me happy little notes all the way up, listing my best qualities and complimenting my undie drawer. Haha. I've never loved climbing stairs so much in my life.

I open the door and am welcomed with a cacophony.

Commence surprise party with 30+ friends. Insert fun-fetti birthday cake with trick candles that DO NOT extinguish. Notice pink streamer and balloon explosion. Find a present your amazing friend Stef left at your door containing fabulous scrapbooking items. Proceed with presents, sand volleyball and swimming. Remember to play the toothpick game and open a present from the Spanish Fork YSA guys containing a pregnancy test, toilet bowl cleaner, uglier-than-dirt China doll, glow sticks, regifted book, fairy doll and 'Get-Well-Soon' card.

Become overwhelmed and immensely happy. :)

So I went to sleep, feeling happier than ever and so, so blessed for good friends and family. I considered being sad that the day was over, but that only lasted a split second before I realized that I can live it up every day of the year!

I've already employed the 'last week was my burfday...' line successfully in various different scenarios. 100% positive results.

We'll see how well that works in six months.

If there's a Wil, There's a Way.

I have a special treat for you all this afternoon.
It involves a certain Honduran and his extreme makeover.

For privacy's sake, we'll call him Wilmer L.

No. Wait...

W. Lara.

And so enters part II of saga: 'Life at Corinner-Elly's Apartment'. (I told you it'd be an on going investigation...)

In case you didn't catch on, I'll give you quick run down.

Lera has a class project.
Lera decides to have W. Lara put on mascara for the assignment.
W. Lara tries his best but is lacking in the makeup application skills area of expertise.

W. Lara's man card bursts into flames.

Gem decides to enhance his unfortunate attempt.
Corinner-Elly happens upon the scene.
W. Lara is so pretty.
Gem is creating a 'smoky eye' effect.
W. Lara has been trained well and resists the urge to twitch/blink.
Lera declares Corinner-Elly 'has to put this on Facebook!'
Corinner-Elly wants to see the finished product.
Gem states that, not only will it be good, it will be Wil-a-licious.
W. Lara questions if this will seriously be put on Facebook?...
Corinner-Elly responds that it may end up on her blog.

Gem doesn't have a bra on.

Gem cries defensively , "Don't look at me!"
W. Lara announces that as long as he's embarassed, so is she.
Gem whines.
Lera laughs hysterically on Gem's bed while wheezing, "That's my boyfriend!"...
Lera concludes, "He wants to be Adam Lambert."
Corinner-Elly dies of laughter.

Oh, Canaduh...

What say ye we resort to a little roommate blackmailing?

Yes? Yes. (For more effective viewing pleasure, turn up the volume AS much as possible. I mean loud. Really, really loud. She can thank me later.)

In case you didn't catch the lyrics, here they are:

"Let's go all, the way tonight. No regrets. Just love.

We can dance, until we die. You and I.

We'll be young for-ever!

You. Make. Me. Feel like I'm living a, Teen. Age. Dream.

The way you turn me on. I can't sleep.

Let's runaway and don't ever look back.
Don't ever look back."

And who might our fantastic vocalist be, you ask?
(I know you're wondering why Katy Perry was showering at my apartment but let's think out of the box on this one...) Why, our resident Canadian. That's who.

Formerly referred to as Candy? Remember her? (See "I'm Just Sayin'.")

Well guess what.
As if it weren't the proudest moment of our young lives to have caught her shower serenading on tape, she was engaged less than 24-hours later in an oh-so entertaining twist to the story.

Because he. Makes. Her.
Feel like she's living a, teen. Age. Dream.

The way he turns her on.

We. Can't. Breathe.
They're always makin' out. (Creative liberties...)
Don't ever look back! Don't ever look back!

And now... the refrain...

No regrets, just love.
They're gonna dance until they die.
They'll be young forever!
(P.S.  I have it in good faith that the 'going all the way tonight' is postponed til' December.)