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tootiredmotel · 2 years

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Our Mark Sheppard photo op!

So Adry (@stressedtaco) and I met Mark Sheppard at PRCC yesterday while cosplaying as Dean and Cas, and it was.. a ride. Storytime and pics under the cut! (Ok to reblog!)

Let me start off by saying we got so much more than our money's worth with this con. It was incredibly surreal and fun and wonderful and we'll remember it forever.

At PRCC it's very rare that we get big name guests, and we've actually never had anyone from spn visit. Mark was the first. Even before he was announced, Adry and I had planned to meet at the con and cosplay Dean (her) and Cas (me). Mark being a guest was the most amazing cherry on top.

Right before our photo ops was the Q&A with him, and we both got to ask him questions! He roasted me for cosplaying Cas and it was hilarious. (Video of the full panel, and our part is at 57:10)

Afterwards, we're in line together for the photo ops. It was announced early on that they would only allow one person per op, so we'd each bought our own. I walk in first, and it goes something like this:

Mark, recognizing me from the panel, deadpan: "Terrible costume."

Me, genuinely: "Thanks!" :D

[Pic is taken]

Photographer: "Can we reshoot that?"

Me, confused but gladly: "Yeah!"

[Second pic is taken]

Me, to Mark: "Thank you, and thanks so much for coming!"

Mark: "Of course my darling, thank you."

Me: is dead now

I walk out, and it's Adry's turn:

Adry: "Can I stand on your other side? I want the handprint to show." (She's a genius)

Mark: "Sure!”

[Pic is taken]

Adry thanks him, but they're already bringing the next person in, so Mark only smiles and nods.

We stand in line to get our prints. Two of mine come out, turns out my eyes were closed on the first but the photographer caught it in time. This is the good one:

But then Adry's print doesn't show up.

We wait a few batches, and nothing. The photo op line empties out. The con employee knows what's up, keeps an eye out for us, is actively looking for Adry's pic with every batch that's handed to him. At some point the photographer walks out and starts helping with print handouts. The last batch of people get their prints, and we're still waiting by the table. No Adry pic.

We start joking that the pic got lost. "Imagine I have to take another one," Adry muses. "I could ask to bring you in with me and take it together!" We laugh it off.

A line forms for the next guest doing photo ops. Mark is still behind the curtain though, we can hear him and kinda see him. The photographer is the one who finally walks out with Adry's pic! But she has her eyes closed. We both brighten up because what are the fucking odds! The photographer utters the magic words once again: "Can we retake this?"

And then Adry and I have our lightbulb moment.

"Could we take it together?" Adry asks. My hopes aren't very high because of the rules that it can be only one person per op, but Adry seems a bit more optimistic. She's right to be.

Photographer contemplates for like, half a second. He's an absolute sport. "Yeah, sure!"

We both go back behind the curtain and we're shaking with excitement. We have no idea what to do because we never thought we'd get this chance. We have like 15 seconds to frantically discuss while Mark talks to a con employee. Adry, being a genius again, proposes: "you two should fight over Dean" (so, her).

Mark turns around.

Me, to both Mark and the photographer who's getting into position: "Hi! So, sorry for this—"

Mark: "It's no problem."

Me: "We were thinking, could you and I fight over Dean?" (pointing to Adry)

Mark: "I wouldn't fight over Dean. I wouldn't fight over him."

Me: "Yeah ok, that's fair." (Who am I to contest his majesty)

Adry, jokingly: “Daaamn, my heart..”

Mark, after chuckling at Adry’s comment: "What we could do is, you can reach for Dean, and I can try to stop you."

Adry and I, recognizing the absolute galaxy brain of that: "Yeah!"

[Pic is taken]

Adry, spotting her chance: “Thank you so much, Mark.”

Mark: “Thank you, darling.”

Adry: is now also dead

And that, our dear friends, is how this beauty was born:

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bunnymcbunnister · 4 years

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SPN Season 15 Spoiler Sheet, update 11/18

Some updates including an ep 7 description, some guesses on the writer/director for 12, and some vague filming info for 11. I feel unsure about Misha’s status in eps 9-11, so if anyone knows differently, let me know. Might have to wait for episode descriptions on that. Also, I added in some guesses on airdates based on this post, but they are not for certain. And no photos for 6 yet, but they will likely post 30 seconds after I post this.

DISCLAIMER: This is gathered info from various sources. This is not confirmed information. Stuff in this WILL be wrong. Don’t take this too seriously. This is for fun.

General Info (oldest to newest)

There is hope to wrap up some Wayward Daughters storylines in the back half of the season

They are adding a whole extra day to filming to do the final scene. They will film the final scene last. (Implies logistics- lots of returning people?)

Brad Bucker used the word “romance” when asked about Sam and Dean’s arcs. Did not specify who.

In an interview, Kripe indicated that the series ending would have “peace” for Sam and Dean

Not much new at the TCA’s, but it was said it is “unlikely” Jeffery Dean Morgan will be back since his last appearance was such a good end note. There were some jokes about a Castiel spin off. Hell, I’d watch.

There will be a special tribute ep, not clear if its one of the 20 or additional

Misha will be in 15 out of 20 episodes this season

According to Dabb, Sam and Dean are going to start to lose people who, in past seasons, we would’ve never lost — and lose them in a very real way. Our guys are going to realize there’s a certain finality, and some of the things they’ve relied on to get through the day — people, talents, things like that — they are no longer going to be able to roll out. And that’s going to throw them for a loop

Also according to Dabb, Jack is still in the empty and “he’s not coming back in the near future”

Cas’ deal with the Empty may come up later in the season.

Dabb intimated that Chuck was inherently responsible for killing Mary when asked how the boys would respond to Jack.

Adam Rose, who played Aaron Bass from the golem episode vauge-tweeted about working a show with two badass leads. Could be Supernatural, but I think the timing is off- he indicated he was filming late Friday night.

Dabb compared Chuck and John Winchester, claiming that Dean would have to break free of “conditioning.” Also, for Jack “there have been cosmic forces fighting for his attention since he was in the womb — and that will continue. As much as this season is about Sam and Dean finding agency, it’s also about Castiel finding agency, and it’s about Jack finding agency. As always, death is never the end. It’s just part of the journey and that’s certainly true with Jack.”

Per Variety: At the outset of the season, the “Supernatural” foursome of Dean, Sam, Castiel and Jack are split up, but Dabb notes they won’t be for long because “ultimately this is a found family, and they have deep emotional bonds” that make up the most important part of the show.

Sam’s wound from the equalizer gives his powers/an advantage of some kind (per TVGuide)

Jack will be a critical part of the ending of the show

The cage/Adam is looking like it will be coming up for midseason

Shaving People, Punting Things: https://youtu.be/azTwku2uosA

The shaving promo, punting things promo shows glimpses or Lucifer!Sam and MOC!Dean, as well as bearded Dean in tactical equipment. Recent interviews by Dabb seem to indicate that these are glimpses into other universes, a la Apocalypse World, and other endings from Sam and Dean.

According to the MarySue and other interviews, Sam’s bullet hole will give him a connection and insight to god- like a tin can telephone string.

In the cage, Micheal and Adam have formed a working relationship (MarySue)

Dean and Amara’s connection will be explored

There will be a bunker themed episode (MarySue)

According to Misha (Cinablend) Dean and Cas will have discord up to ep 8- which is the mid-season finale.

At a convention, Jake Abel was asked to share two lies about Adam’s return and a truth. The said 1. Adam is not upset about hell 2. Adam kills someone 3. Adam bring someone back. I am assuming its the bring someone back (Micheal?)

In one of his cookbook interviews, Misha used the word “we” several times when talking about the final scene of Supernatural. He said that would be the last scene they shoot. It seemed to imply that he was in the scene, but that could be open to interpretation.

The finale will air on Monday May 18th. The show will move to Mondays when it comes back on March 16th. It’s gotta come back either than that and go on a mini break or something, because that is not enough Mondays.

Episode 15x06

Title: Golden Time

OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS: OUT OF DIFFICULTIES GROW MIRACLES – Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) are visited by an old friend. Castiel (Misha Collins) investigates the disappearance of a local teen. John Showalter directed the episode written by Meredith Glynn (#1506). Original Airdate 11/21/2019.

Written by: Meredith Glynn

Director: Showalter

Filming Dates: 9/16-9/25

Airdate: 11/21

Photos: https://ew.com/tv/supernatural-season-15-episodic-photos/

Promo: https://youtu.be/xAD_k5l1AdA

Sneak Peak:

Castiel? Yes Jack? No

Guest stars:

Other Spoilers/info:

Misha tweeted from set in costume, so Cas.

Misha also tweeted a pic in blood spatter with two bullet holes in his shirt

At least Jensen and Jared filmed in Rowena’s apartment

This will be a witch episode- Witches will invade Rowena’s apartment looking for books. They are very powerful. Dean gets thrown into a wall and Sam uses magic to stop them (from TVGuide)

Looks like Eileen in the promo!

Episode 15x07

Title: Last Call

OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS: CLOSING TIME – Dean (Jensen Ackles) goes off on his own to take on a case. Meanwhile, Castiel (Misha Collins) has an idea of how he can help Sam (Jared Padalecki) track down God. Amyn Kaderali directed the episode written by Jeremy Adams (#1507). Original Airdate 12/5/2019.

Written by: Jeremy Adams

Director: Amyn Kaderali

Filming Dates: 9/26- 10/7

Airdate: Dec 5th

Photos:

Promo:

Sneak Peak:

Castiel ? Yes Jack ?

Guest stars:

Other Spoilers/info :

Misha posted from set in new shoes- very shiny with well tailored pants. (The next day he posted in full Cas costume, so are the shoes a one off? Another outfit with new shoes?).

Misha and Jensen made a video from set. I feel like if Jared was around he would have been in it since it was about money raised? Maybe a Dean Cas scene?

There will be a battle scene in this that Jensen mentioned he was looking forward to and we would enjoy.

After NJ Con, it appeared that Jensen returned to work, Jared and Misha stayed an extra day and then Misha went home. Misha only did about 2 days of filming.

Jensen and Christian filmed at a bar called Swazey’s. This was the fight scene Jensen was referring to.

At some point, Sam might be shirtless or we can see part of his chest- Jared had his anti-possession tattoo at the weekend convention.

Per TVGuide, Leo and Dean will have a wild night out in an effort for Dean to recapture his mojo. Dean will become the lead of a band called Dean and the Impalas, which is made up of Supernatural crew.

Osric Chau popped over to set, but he is filming on Legends of Tomorrow in the same studio. Sebastin Roche also indicated he would come by, he is filming on Batgirl. Unfortunately, neither Kevin or Balthazar will appear in this one.

Episode 15x08

Title: Our Father Who Aren’t in Heaven

OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS:

Written by: Buckleming

Director: Speight

Filming Dates: 10/8- 10/18 (no filming 10/14 for Canadian Thanksgiving)

Airdate: 12/12 (?)

Photos:

Promo:

Sneak Peak:

Castiel ? yes Jack ?

Guest stars: Jake Abel, Shoshannah Stern

Other Spoilers/info:

Jake Abel posted a script with the caption “hell hath no fury like a brother scorned”

Shoshannah Stern was spotted on set- Eileen!

This will be the midseason finale

At BurCon, Misha mentioned Dean is still acting like “a dick” in the ep they were filming- which is this one.

Episode 15x09

Title:

OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS:

Written by: Berens

Director: Singer

Filming Dates: 10/21-10/30

Airdate: 1/16??

Photos:

Promo:

Sneak Peak:

Castiel ? I can’t tell but maybe not Jack ? maybe

Guest stars: Rob Benedict, Kim Rhodes, Jim Beaver

Other Spoilers/info:

Midseason premier episode

Misha was at home for the first week of filming, and I think the second. I don’t think he is in this.

Alex and Rob were hanging out- Chuck and JACK?

Kim Rhodes posted in front of the SPN set and with her trailer- Jody looks very likely. She also had dyed hair and she has been rockin the grey for the past few Jody eps. Maybe a flashback/AU?

Jim Beaver posted from set- Bobby!

Jensen shared that in this episode, Dean will pray to Cas to “confess” why he has been treating Cas the way he has. Misha confirmed this in another interview and said tears would be shed- not sure who is doing the crying (besides me).

Episode 15x10

Title:

OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS:

Written by: Dabb

Director: Showalter

Filming Dates: 10/31- 11/12 (No filming for Veterans/Armistice Day)

Airdate: 1/23 ??

Photos:

Promo:

Sneak Peak:

Castiel ? Jack ?

Guest stars:

Other Spoilers/info :

Misha texted some local fans from set in costume about an WA election, but after the convention was promoting his cookbook all over the place. I think he filmed 2 days, max.

The story will be about Sam and Dean as heroes from the good and bad side (from MarySue)

At DCCon, Jensen shared that this a bit of a wacky episode- Sam and Dean lose their abilities to fight, Dean gets cavities and Sam gets a cold. Jensen later seemed to refer to this ep when talking to TVGuide- mentioning the Impala will get a flat.

Episode 15x11

Title:

OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS:

Written by: Davy Perez AND Meredith Glynn

Director: Beeson

Filming Dates: 11/13-11/22

Airdate: 1/30??

Photos:

Promo:

Sneak Peak:

Castiel ? Jack ?

Guest stars:

Other Spoilers/info:

Misha and Jensen made a video for a fan that I think was filmed during the first day of shooting? Not for sure. So maybe Cas?? I’d love the king of social media to post publicly in costume to know for sure.

Megan Fitzgerald (writer/showrunner’s assistant) and Emma Peterson (production office) were very excited about something in the dailies for this ep.

They filmed at a church and a park in Surry according to YRShoots.

Episode 15x12

Title:

OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS:

Written by: Bobo AND Glynn

Director: Speight

Filming Dates:

Airdate: 2/26??

Photos:

Promo:

Sneak Peak:

Castiel ? Jack ?

Guest stars:

Other Spoilers/info:

#spn spoilers #supernatural #spn season 15 #spoiler sheet

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shirleylawson · 3 years

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R&R in Scotland

May 2014

I am telling you! You could not make this shit up!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am convinced I am jinxed. Someone is stabbing a wee voodoo doll with my face on it, and the bastard is not perturbed even though I keep fighting him/her and pretending like it’s water off a ducks back, with my, "bring it on" jinx fairy attitude! And still my jinx keeps trying to break me. But it’s a weird kind of jinxed because I personally feel extremely lucky and blessed, even though the jinx still keeps throwing me shit.

My latest jinxed story is this week I’ve had in Scotland. One week today I’ve been here. I so badly needed a little ME time and to decompress. Scotland/home seemed like the answer but I can't say it' been therapeutic.

I was only here a few days when I woke up with stabbing pains in my chest and an ambulance was called by my Lesley, and the next thing I knew I was lying in the Emergency room in my pink, fluffy, panther onesie (well Lesleys onesie, but it wants to be mine)! I could see on the sphyg that my blood pressure was 250/110 , geezo I thought, didn’t know numbers went that high on these machines! Digital age eh? A lovely, lovely young 1st year resident doctor boy child, who had really just gone into third year at school surely, gave me an IV of morphine and valium that buzzed and whooshed it’s lovely, lovely LOVELY way to my limbs and head within one single minute. Onsie on, hands behind my head, laying back, sun shinning outside and right onto my little stretcher bed, life felt pretty good for about 20 minutes, for the first time in too long to remember. Lesley even managed to get an unexpected day off as ‘’carer'’ to her friend, ‘’NO SHE DOESN’T HAVE ANYONE ELSE TO GO WITH HER, IT’S ME, ONLY ME!!!’’, I heard her scream to her boss down the phone as I was wheeled passed by the paramedics to the ambulance! By the way, when you hear the mee maw mee maw of an ambulance in the distance, and you know it's coming for you, it's the freakiest shit! That was a first for me, it wasn't on my bucket list, but still, it was a first which is always a positive. But I’m lying there, in the emergency room, thinking, in my comfy onesie, where will we go for lunch I wonder. See Mr. Jinx? I really don’t care most of the time, you’re wasting all your good tricks on me really! Things don’t freak me out that much, I’ve pretty much done that seen most of it before so nope, the whole chest pain, ambulance (sorry to tell you but I actually loved the ambulance ride, I was so pleased as I’ve never ridden in one before and always wanted to see the inside), the whole taken to hospital thing was nothing really. I’ve been in more hospitals as a nurse AND as a patient than Mr. Jinxy’s had hot dinners, so he’ll need to try harder. All well, and by the next day I’m lying in Lesleys bright yellow bikini lapping up the ‘’normal’’ sun you get out of Dubai in her garden. A couple of days up North will sort me, get out of the city! So off I go…

No stress, no worries, no pain, no work, no editing, no clients, no husband and no kids…nothing! (all references are not in order of importance!) I felt quite chirpy on my drive up! I was awwwwing and ooooohhhing in all the right places at the beautiful scenery, window open, sun on my face, music on, out the car a couple of times to take pics, all well - not even getting upset that there was road works and I was jammed for an hour, nothing was a bother. I could smell Loch Lomand…I was a bit euphoric actually! The last 2 hours of the 4 hour journey, my euphoria was taking over by pain in my ankles. I was finding it difficult to use the gas and clutch pedals continuously for 4 hours because of my RA and my ankles and shins were complaining! By the time I swung round that bend that takes you into Oban, and that view that catches your breath from the top of your hill, wee fishing village, typically Scottish with it’s white houses and flowered gardens, it wasn't the view that was catching my breath... it was the agony of my ankles!! I found a place to stay pretty quickly and when I took my socks off in my room, it confirmed my suspicion. Red balloon legs and feet! I thought I’ll go have a shower, get the journey off my skin, take my meds and get into bed. On my drive up, I had stopped at a garage for petrol and also bought some cute little pink lady shaving razors, quite exited me, since I’d been here a week and had about 2 weeks of gorilla legs! So shower and a de fuzzing was waiting. When I get these flares, I get hundreds of little red, what look to me like blood blisters, on my skin wherever the flare is happening, in this instance, the legs. They disappear after the flare goes. You can probably guess what happened next! I’m drying myself outside the shower, in the guest houses fluffy, big, white bath towel and I notice my legs (and big fluffy white towel) were covered in blood! I’ve only gone and forgot about my little red occasional guests and shaved all their heads off!!! Blood!? Whatever they are, these blistery things, they are connected to a direct internal blood vessel system for sure, because they would…not….stop…BLEEDING! I get myself plugged up with around 100 wee bits of toilet paper stuck to my legs to stop the bleeding. You know, like the kind you see on mens faces after they’ve shaved sometimes? Well, same as them, but only 98 more! I was not gonna be stopped, onwards with my me time, I’m going out for fish and chips!!!!!

Fish and chips didn't prove to be such a good idea either as it turned out. Spotted a lovely wee bench, right on the sea front, all to myself with a view of little old fishing boats and the cry of seagulls, perfect. I'm eating away (great fish and chips I have to say) and I make the first fatal mistake of throwing a bit of fish out on the pebbled shore for the gulls. There's an instant swarm (or should I say flock) of seagulls, screaming and fighting over this piece of fish. Once it was eaten by the most definite gang master, as he was the size of a dog, he looked over at me and I swear he caught my gaze for at least 10 terrifying seconds. He had found the food source! That was the end of it all. I was dive bombed and swooped upon, well my box of chips, which was sitting on my lap was swooped upon. I tried to swipe them away by shouting a shoo shoo kind of chant noise and trying to act as if a swarm of birds attacking me wasn't bothering me as I was now entertaining the entire pub across the road who were all enjoying the lovely evening outside, all watching and pointing at me! I made a quick decision and threw the box down and bolted. Well bolted in my hobble kind of way at the moment, which I'm sure entertained the onlookers even more. An old lady passed me and disapprovingly shook her head at me, ''ohhhh you should't have done that!'' she said. I looked around and every seagull that has ever visited, stayed or immigrated to Oban was in the 4 foot space in front of my bench, fighting and squealing, a mass of feathers and beaks. I decided to give up in this particular day and head back to the guest house to watch the football.

At this point in a flare, I would normally sigh and think well that’s the next 4-5 days gone then. Cancel clients, prepare myself to be horizontal for at least a few days, and not in the horizontal good way, and generally prepare to disappear till it was over (except Facebook of course) Nope, I was there to de stress, me time, that’s what I was told I needed, some ME time, so I wasn’t going to let a flare get in my way. Cutting a very long story short, not a good move, going out, even for fish and chips and seagull gladiator games, didn't improve my flare. To cut another long story short I hobbled my way up to the doctors surgery first thing in the morning, hoping they would take me before three weeks on Wednesday and perchance even today? My luck was in. Jinx was teasing me. Half an hour later I’m having a 4 inch needle of cortisone injected into my ankles and sent away with a 5 days supply of steroids, bliss! I hobbled back to my guest house at twice the speed of the first time. Still slower than the 80 year old couple I was chatting with along the way, but still, it was progress. I hobble past my guest house and head for the car park as my ticket expired one hour before. Is there any point on telling you what was on my car? £60 fine! Exceeding the paid amount of time parked. No, no i don’t care I tell myself, my flare feels so much better, I might even be able to drive tomorrow and leave, not getting upset, it's only money (shit) and I feel better which is more important. I go to the machine and pay enough to last till 9am the next morning. I sit in the passenger seat, door open and write the nice traffic warden person a note. I say, please don’t give me another ticket if i don’t manage down before 9am. The doctor at the surgery can confirm I’m not able to walk well at the moment due to an illness, here is my phone number, I am staying at a guest home 5 minutes away. Nice note. Should do the trick. I stick the note to the inside of the passenger window and a gust of wind blows the newly bought ticket out of my hand. I tried to grab it but landed on my knees from the car door. Kneeling on all fours, head bend back watching the ticket swirl around in the wind was the first time I thought, it really is getting to be a bit much this jinx business! I don’t have anymore change. I have a £5 note. I head off down the street to find a shop to get change. I pass a young mother sitting in her garden bench on her ipad, trying to ignore the constant moaning and screaming of her three small children playing around her. I really felt sad thinking how she’ll regret that when they leave home, and wished she had spent every second looking at their wee faces instead of an iPad. Then I realise I sound like an old granny and stopped that train of thought. First shop I pass is Farm Foods (a frozen food store) and I decide an ice lolly would be just the thing. Of course it’s a whole sale, bulk buying freezer place, so I can’t buy ONE ice lolly. I buy a box of 6 and give 5 to the woman on the bench for her kids as I pass her again. Kids are delighted!

New ticket on the car, the note is there too, I’m back in my room, legs elevated, medicated up, just watched the Italy game (world cup) and wondering what tomorrow will bring.

Start of a new week, my second week in Scotland starts tomorrow.

But all said and done, I must ask the new tenants in Rome if they threw away the dish of frozen water in the freezer with the two frozen names written on pieces of paper in it? I don’t think I told them about it and explained what it was. I told the last renters and I know it was there last summer coz I saw it, so they hadn’t touched it in 3 years. I think the new renters have thrown it away. Those two names I had in the freezer will have escaped! My spell will be broken. They will have put their jinx back on me… I’m sure of it! Although that wouldn’t explain all the jinx’s when they were in the freezer these past three years now would it? Hmmmm I don’t think this white witch spell works actually now that I think about it.

My phone has just broken, screens just gone black. I can still hear it ring or sms’s come in, but I can’t reply or answer as it’s just black. Shame I sold that new phone last week. :(

The end

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axelsagewrites · 6 years

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Dad!Magnus Bane*Daddy

Requested by anonymous:

Can you do a Magnus x child!Reader and it's the first time they call him 'Daddy' and he just melts?

Readers age is 8 also this contains slight Malec.

Also theirs pic’s of roughly what the parties based off of.

Masterlist HERE

Wattpad HERE

Prompt List HERE

Magnus Bane’s life was lavish and carefree…until he adopted (Y/N). It's not that he didn’t love them, he does with his whole heart, but adopting a young warlock who doesn’t understand the shadow world and went through a traumatic past is hard. He had adopted (Y/N) almost a year ago so to celebrate they were having a small party. Ever since (Y/N) was adopted they always called Magnus, Magnus. They actually used to call him Mr Bane but that didn’t stick. Magnus didn’t mind being called that, in fact, he hardly thought about it. He didn’t want to pressure (Y/N) into calling him ‘Dad’ or ‘Daddy’. At first, he actually dreaded the idea of (Y/N) calling him Daddy. Some downworlders who knew Magnus when he first adopted (Y/N) would joke and mock him by calling him, Daddy. He didn’t like the idea of being called Daddy because of these jokes. He thought he would have all respect taken from him in the eyes of clients and downworlders alike. Magnus had gotten (Y/N) to have a sleepover with auntie Tessa so he could set up the party. When he woke he got straight to work knowing they’d be back at noon. Magnus thought back to the first night (Y/N) spent in his flat. They were scared understandable and to calm your nerves he put on some movies. Who doesn’t like movies? It was his first happy memory with (Y/N) and kind of a tradition to have a movie marathon once a week. Because of this memory, Magnus knew how to decorate the party. He set up the living room to look like an award ceremony and the entrance to a theatre which was actually a guest room he had set up. There was a red rug going from the door to a part of the wall he had decorated with velvet curtains and a black background where you would take pictures as if you were attending an award ceremony. The main part of the living room was left kind of the same but not. He had moved the couches back a bit to allow for a bit more space and hate hung some fairy lights and some black and gold stars. There was already a disco ball for a light, (A/N:I mean it is Magnus’s flat) so that was no issue. The closer you got to the guest room where the movie was set up there was a popcorn machine and refreshment tables. The tables had red and white striped tablecloths on them. The refreshments consisted of 4 types of popcorn (Sweet, Salty, Plain and Chocolate) and normal movie food like sweets and hotdogs. He had also gotten a bartender to serve drinks at the bar which he had also decorated in red and white strips.

(Also theirs pic’s of roughly what the parties based off of.)

Once inside the guest room you would see what he hoped to be (Y/N)’s favourite part. The movie. There was a queen bed that he had put black and gold sheets on. On the wall across from the bed was the TV. He had spread some bean bags, blankets and pillows around the room for the rest of the guests who didn’t get into the VIP section aka the bed. He had hung blackout curtains in front of the windows and the room had a dimmer switch. The TV was set up so (Y/N) could play their favourite movies.

Magnus had invited a decent amount of guests. Since there was not many downworlders around (Y/N)’s age most were older which honestly didn’t matter as they all loved (Y/N). Some of the guest’s included: Raphael (who surprisingly is really good with kids), Tessa, Jem, Maia (Your babysitter during the day because of Raph’s vampirism), his boyfriend Alec, Jace, Clary, Izzy and some other downworlders he knew and kind of you. When he was making up the guest list he realised something; most of (Y/N)’s company is a lot older. It made sense in a way. Not many children were turned to vamps or werewolves and warlocks were less common than ever before. Sure there were young shadowhunters but they didn’t want to associate with downworlders. It was part of the reason Alec had suggested bring Max because they were close in age as he was 11 and (Y/N) was 8. Magnus didn’t have time to think of that though as guests started arriving. By half 11 nearly everyone was there. “Wow Mags. This is amazing.” Alec complemented when he saw his warlock boyfriend. They had only been going out for a couple months but Magnus appearance still took his breath away. He had told everyone the theme and to ‘dress appropriately’. He was in black slacks, a black glittery shirt, a red bow tie and of course gold accessories and his signature spiky sparkly hair with red highlights. Most people did fit the dress code in Magnus’s opinion. Most of the girls wore dresses and skirts while some, like Maia, opted for a nice top and skinny jeans. You could tell who would be up for what awards if it was real. In Magnus’s opinion, Alec would be the front-runner for best dressed in his blue shirt and black slacks that looked perfect on him and that Izzy had clearly picked as there were no holes in his shirt. Izzy would be up for most dangerous in her tight black glitter dress. Raphael would be up for best suit in his velvet red suit jacket, black trousers and shirt. It was quite amusing to him as the party favours were awards and he thought they matched well. The bartender was behind the bar and Magnus was pretty sure everyone was there apart from (Y/N), Tessa and Jem but that was intentional. Tessa texted Magnus saying they were coming up the stairs so Magnus told everyone to hide. The lights were off and everyone was in position when (Y/N) opened the door. “Surprise!” “Oh my goodness! This is awesome!” (Y/N) squealed. “Glad you like it,” (Y/N) turned to Magnus. “I figured we should celebrate a full year of having you here.” “Magnus,” (Y/N) said with a pointed look. “you just wanted to have another party, didn’t you?” Magnus sent a wink their way and (Y/N) broke into a smile. “Well, I’m glad you did.” After a quick glance around the room (Y/N) noticed something. “I'm not dressed right.” They whined which earned a chuckle. “And neither are auntie Tess and uncle Jem.” “Definitely Magnus’s kid,” Jace whispered to Alec while laughing. “Don’t worry about us,” Jem started. “we brought our clothes in aunt Tess’s bag.” “What about me?” (Y/N) turned to their aunt. “It's your house, isn’t it? Go find something.” Tessa prompted which sent (Y/N) running to their room. People laughed and said how Magnus had rubbed off on the child. Tessa and Jem went to get changed in the bathroom while Magnus finally opened the bar.

The party went down well with all the guest and most importantly (Y/N). Max and (Y/N) got on surprisingly well and were running around the apartment after they got their hands on some cake.

After about an hour and a half in the living room, they went into the guest room which was definitely (Y/N)’s favourite part. Magnus got (Y/N) to go in first to see and they loved it. (Y/N) got to pick who went on the bed which ended up being themselves, Max, Magnus, Jem and Tessa. (Y/N) took a few minutes to decide though. Everyone else claimed a bean bag or spot on the floor with pillows and blankets. Magnus sat on the bed with his back against the headboard and legs stretched out under the covers on one half of the bed. Tessa and Jem sat next to each other on the other half and Max lay on his stomach with his legs going in between Tessa and Magnus, which was sort of a halfway line of the bed, while (Y/N) picked the movie and pressed play. Once the movie began (Y/N) carefully walked from one side of the room to the bed, making sure not to crush anyone or their snacks. Once they got to the side of the bed were Magnus sat they pulled back the covers and climbed in. (Y/N) put Magnus’s arm around their shoulder and snuggled into him. Magnus grinned down at the site of his child nuzzling into him. He gave (Y/N) a squeeze with his arm and they smiled up at him. “Thanks, daddy. This is the best party ever.” (Y/N) said kind of quietly although close by guest’s heard and smiled at their adorableness. Magnus’s heart melted when (Y/N) said that. Never before had he been called dad or daddy. He never thought he’d want to be called that but hearing (Y/N) say it as if it was the most natural thing in the world was amazing. “It's not problem sweetpea.” “Can we do this every year?” “Whatever you want.” Magnus smiled down at his child while they turned their attention back to the movie. After the movie (Y/N) got up to change it and when they got back sat on Magnus’s lap which he was more than happy to allow. He wrapped his arms around them, hugging them while they leaned back into his chest. Some people left after the first movie so they went from 15 to 10. It was mainly Magnus’s friends aka (Y/N) aunts and uncles. After the second movie ended a third was put on and this time they lost even more people. Raphael, Lillian (a vamp (Y/N) befriended while at the Dumort {Also the one from the books if you’ve read them}), Maia, Clary and Jace. Raphael and Lillian had gotten Magnus to make a portal to get there and back home because of the sun. Maia had to go and study and Clary and Jace had dinner reservations. When (Y/N) put on the next movie they sat on the bean bags near the front and Max joined them. At some point during the third movie, Max and (Y/N) fell asleep. No one noticed until after the movie finished. Izzy decided to take Max back to the institute since Alec was going to sleep over. Magnus offered to make a portal for her and Max then one for Tessa and Jem. They accepted and by half 9 everyone was gone. It was a good day although some people had been there for 9 hours. (Y/N) was carried to bed by Magnus who hadn’t stopped smiling since (Y/N) called him daddy. They had called him dad during the movies sometimes and he loved it. Alec noticed so when Magnus got into the living room after putting (Y/N) to bed he brought it up. “So, is (Y/N) going to call you dad from now on?” “Alexander you needn’t clean this mess,” Magnus snapped his fingers and cleaned the food away but left most of the décor up. “and I hope so. I'm actually kind of hoping for daddy. It just makes my heart melt.” Alec nodded and stayed silent for a moment but he couldn’t hold back. He’d known Jace too long. “So is (Y/N) the only one who can call you daddy?” “Oh shut up!” Magnus made a pillow fly into Alec’s face which he swatted away with a mischevious grin. “Just asking.” Magnus sighed. “I never thought I would have this. I would have a child who I loved and a man I truly love. It's more magical than I thought possible.” The pair didn’t even hear the footsteps of (Y/N) as they walked sleepily down the hallway. “Why are you two still up?” (Y/N) rubbed their eyes. “We were just talking darling. Go back to bed.” Magnus stoked (Y/N)’s hair while he said it. “Ok,” they muttered sleepily and began to go back down the hallway. Alec walked over to Magnus and hugged him from behind. “Night daddy,” (Y/N) said when they were just in earshot. “Night other daddy.” Alec froze and Magnus held back a laugh as (Y/N) continued down the hall to their room. “Don’t even Magnus,” Alec warned. “Daddy,” Magnus whispered before bursting out laughing. “Be quiet. (Y/N)'s going to bed!” Alec warned even though his cheeks were red. “I can't wait till I tell Jace,” Magnus said while sitting on the couch. Alec groaned then sighed gently. “At least they like me I guess.” He mumbled with a slight smile. “It's not too bad to be called other daddy. Well, when it's from (Y/N).” Magnus hummed in agreement. It melted his heart, he had his perfect family and he now considered himself a proper ‘dad’.

The pictures I mentioned (not mine, obviously. I wish tbh):

#shadowhunters #shadowhunter imagine #shadowhunters imagine #shadowhunter preference #shadowhunters one shot #cassandra clare #Magnus Bane #alec lightwood x magnus bane #magnus x reader #magnus bane x reader #magnus bane imagine #dad!malec #dad!magnus #Alec Lightwood #malec #malec imagine #malec one shot

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mixietrattel · 7 years

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In case anyone was wondering about my drag con experience!!!

So this is going to be all based off of memory, which is in no way completely reliable so I’m probably going to be missing a few details but basically I just want to outline my experience/what it was like meeting the queens/how the convention was set up.

So day one Kayla and I arrived around 9, and they bring all of the non-VIP badge holders to the bottom floor to wait in a giant room. They started letting us in slowly, so a chunk of the line would go up at a time. Luckily we were the second group, so when we got up to the convention floor it wasn’t very busy yet. We were planning on seeing Shea first, but most queens weren’t at their booths yet so we decided to go to Raja and Manila’s line. As we were walking by though, we saw the beautiful Serena Cha Cha at her booth. We were in a rush so we didn’t stop to say hi, but she was super sweet saying like “hi girls how are you have a good drag con!” When we got to Raja and Manila’s line it was decently long and both of the queens were there. As we were waiting though, Raja had to go to the winner’s walk for the opening ceremony. The handler said that everyone could stay in line if they wanted to wait, or form a different line to meet Manila alone. Kayla and I had both met Raja before so we decided to just see Manila. She was so kind, and when I told her my poster was going to be the first one signed with my name (I have two signed ones I bought off of her website) she went “Oh! I’ll sign the back too then!” and proceeded to write my name on the back, so I joked and said “Awesome now it’ll be all over my white walls,” and she just went “oops.” Manila was amazing though, and I’ve been dying to meet her since she’s one of my all time favorites.

Next we went to go see Alexis Michelle because she was a top priority for me and I wanted to get a specific t-shirt from her. The line for her wasn’t bad either, probably less than ten minutes. When I went to buy the shirt before getting in line the guy told me they were all sold out and I guess I looked disappointed/Alexis overheard because she paused with the guest I was talking to and told me that the artist who designed the shirt was at the con and was selling prints of it if I wanted it and told me not to worry. I ended up getting a pretty 8x10 and getting back in line. Alexis was so so sweet and we talked about when she came to my school last year and there was an alt-righter trying to speak, and counter protests, which led to a glass door of the building we were in being smashed. Good memories. Our pic was super cute and she kept hugging me, I love my Auntie Alexis.

I think we went to go try to see Violet next, but she was walking a show at fashion week that day so she wouldn’t be there for a couple of hours, so we bought meet and greet passes for $5 each that we could redeem to get into a priority line. After that we went to go see Laila. Renee Martel was running her merch stand so I chatted with her about seeing her at Rhode Island Pride and Laila’s merch. She probably had the coolest stuff and the most variety, including old prints, little pins, an enamel pin (which I bought and wore day 2 idk if you can see it in pics), and 8x10′s. Her line was decently long, and while we were waiting to meet her we ran into these two women promoting a documentary on Boston drag that Laila was going to be in. The director was SO sweet and enthusiastic, and has been working on the project for over four years so I’m definitely going to post about it when I get more information. Laila’s line took I wanna say 30 minutes and then we got to meet her. We chatted about Keith Haring and other stuff, she was really cool and is super funny.

Pretty sure after Laila we went to go say hi to Biblegirl and check out the dragqueenmerch table. Bible was just kind of chilling in this little alley between two main alleys with Rubber and Lisa. She wasn’t talking to anyone, so we just went right up to her. Bible was probably the sweetest person we talked to all day. She was asking so many questions and kept saying how she was so happy to meet fans and did this all for us. We got to chat with the guy who designed her outfit that day, which was cool. Kayla and Bible bonded over their Libra-ness aka their messiness online. I asked her to tell Soju to get her ass over to the convention because at that point it was two hours in and she wasn’t there, so Bible told us exactly how to sneak into Soju’s gig that night. Again, messy but the absolute sweetest.

After Bible we went to Bob’s line, but Bob was on break so it was stagnant for a while, which was fine. She was probably the first queen we waited over an hour for, but as a winner it was worth it. I didn’t get anything from Bob’s merch stand, so I don’t have anything signed from her unfortunately. Funnily enough while Kayla held down the fort I went to wander around the con looking for Soju who had FINALLY showed up at that point, and I kept seeing Bob literally running around in her little clown costume. I went back to the line and after some more waiting Bob came back. The line moved pretty quickly so we got up to Bob easily enough. Her setup for pictures was a little tight and she had a guy there to take pictures, so I kept apologizing for getting in the way because I had to take pictures for three people, plus get pictures myself. Bob clocked Kayla’s accent and asked if she was Canadian, then turned to me and said “now I KNOW you’re Canadian because you’ve said sorry probably a million times,” and I told her that I was from Rhode Island, and her camera guy came to my defense saying he said sorry a lot too. Bob was a ton of fun to meet.

We wanted to go see Fame after Bob, and on our way I spotted Soju and her team off in a little empty area alone. I quickly yanked Kayla and our little group over and ran up to DS, because I was wearing my Soju shirt and had been DYING to say hi. When Soju saw me/my shirt she got so happy and pulled me into a hug. Then she turned to DS and told him to turn the camera on and all of the sudden she was interviewing me. She asked a bunch of questions and was super sweet, it was really surreal getting to talk to her in person. I didn’t get a picture with her though, so if she edits me out of the episode I’m going to be a little pissed.

After Soju we got in line for Fame and it was.... a mess. We waited for Fame for probably two hours. The line kept getting mixed up and people were jumping in and out. Plus, Fame was in a really heavily trafficked area and had an open setup, so a lot of people were stopping to take pictures and confusing the crowd. By the time we got to Fame we were pretty irritated, but nothing makes Kayla happier than Miss Fame so it was worth it. Fame recognized Kayla immediately so the two of them chatted for awhile, and I snapped a million pics but none of them turned out fantastic. I didn’t chat with her as much but Kayla was having her Laganja moment so I didn’t mind. Fame’s line took so long though that the convention was winding down to a close. We didn’t really have time to go meet another big queen, and I really wanted to see Joslyn who was nearby so we decided to make her our last queen for the day. We went over, and though you didn’t HAVE to buy anything to get a picture with her I really wanted a print so I got one anyway. Joslyn looked adorable but we didn’t really talk much as she was having too much fun dancing around to the music playing. We got a pic though, and Kayla got a video for one of her friends saying Happy Birthday. After that we just left the convention and went home. Day 1 was kind of stressful because the amount of queens was overwhelming, plus the lines were all ridiculous. Even though we both love Shea and Trixie we knew neither of those two were options to meet.

Day 2 we got in around the same time again, and I saw Michelle Visage in line for Starbucks which was a little surreal. Also, Meatball was wandering around dressed like Jackie-O so Kayla got a cute pic with her. We had a list of maybe five queens we wanted to see, and Naomi was up there so we hopped in her line first at like 10. Her people said Naomi would show up at 11, and since the line wasn’t too bad we decided to wait. Naomi got in at 11:30 though, and we still had the passes to go see Violet but she had to leave at 12. So I told Kayla she should just take our Violet pass and go meet Violet with two of her friends already in line, and I’d meet Naomi instead. If I made it in time I would’ve joined them at Violet’s, but it didn’t look like it would work out that way. I ended up talking to a guy in line though, so I wasn’t left completely alone. Brian from Soju’s show was the guy taking pictures for Naomi, so when the person in front of me was taking pics I got to talk to him a bit. When it was my turn, Naomi was so gushing with compliments and incredibly sweet. She told me I was beautiful, and she loved my hair, and all this stuff that was making me blush. She looked stunning in person too, so I was just a mess. Our pic together was probably my favorite from the whole weekend, maybe tied with Bob’s.

Kayla really wanted to meet Laganja and Gia next, and they didn’t have a line because they had closed it off for a break, but decided to stay longer. It cost $30 to meet them, so Kayla was the only one who wanted to do it, plus she got two cute t-shirts so it was worth it. I didn’t really hear what they talked to Kayla about because their camera guy was helping me edit my manual camera settings to better fit their specific lighting setup. He also gave me his flash attachment for my camera, so the pictures turned out really high quality. I didn’t talk to them much though so I don’t have a lot to say, Gia looked STUNNING though (no pun intended).

We got in Peppermint’s line next, which also took over two hours. The wait times were ridiculous, and even though they worked out some kinks by day two the queens kept having to leave their tables so lines would halt for twenty minutes at a time. Kayla and I just hung around in line, and got the same 8x10′s. There were these two little kids who both got Peppermint’s fans who popped them for her, and she was so enamored with them. She kept dancing with them and talking to them, it was adorable. When we went up Peppermint remembered Kayla from the awesome scrapbook she did, so Peppermint was talking about how much it meant to her and holding onto it. Pep had her own camera guy, so we both took pictures. Then I went up and Peppermint was incredibly sweet. I don’t remember exactly what we talked about but she just gives off such a good aura. So did her whole team, they were all so warm and inviting.

After Peppermint’s line we were kind of done with waiting for big queens. Aja’s line was a mess, Shea was charging an intense amount of money, we didn’t even look at Kim’s line. Even Bible had a decent line of people to see her, even though she didn’t have one yesterday. We decided to wander around to see what queens had shorter lines, and after searching all weekend we finally spotted Kimora’s booth. There was no one really there, and the setup was confusing because it was technically one booth split down the middle, one half Kimora’s one half Cynthia’s (who was not present at the time). Kimora was talking to a handler, and it seemed like they were getting ready to leave so I asked the guy behind the table what was up. He said they were going on break and they’d be back in fifteen minutes. I asked if we could wait in line and he looked super confused and said sure, we could wait at the table. We ended up being the only ones there and they left, so we just kind of hung out while she was on break. She didn’t take too long, and seemed really apologetic about making us wait. Her voice was super hoarse too, and she had a water bottle, which was probably why she had to go on break. Kimora was definitely the nicest Ru Girl we met day 2. She told me she was obsessed with my outfit, and we bonded over our love of wearing black. She apologized for her weird booth set up, and we talked about how odd the setup of the convention was. After her the whole day seemed kind of lame because she was just such a bright spot and just the best to talk to.

Kayla and I decided to go back to Bible after that, and waited in line for a few minutes because we’d rather have someone we could talk to than wait two hours for another big queen. Bible was again so cool and chatted with us for a while. We also had to retake pictures because our first day ones did not look so cute. It was just a reminder that drag really isn’t just Ru Girls, and sometimes your local talent is just as if not more interesting.

The convention was almost over, but Kayla had friends waiting in Fame’s line so we went to go join them. Kayla bought another print and I decided I’d rather just take pictures for Kayla, and stopped over at Shea’s booth to pick up a t-shirt that I really wanted. Fame’s look was even more stunning the second day if that’s even possible, and the wait was definitely better the second time around because we joined people instead of standing there the whole time. After Fame I tried to track Soju down to say hi again but the lights were getting shut off so we decided to leave.

Overall, I would say Drag Con was one of the best weekends of my life. I got to finally meet Kayla in person, and was surrounded by a community of people I felt safe and accepted in. There’s no way to really describe the surreal feeling that occurs from being around so many of your idols in one place. Both days when we left and were riding on the subway, our passes dangling from our necks as we were surrounded by normal people again (more often than not staring at our strange ensembles), we kept asking if that was real, because it honestly felt like a dream. Of course there were a lot of downsides. It was expensive, disorganized, the lines were eternal, the lighting was homophobic, and we deprived of food and water all day. Hopefully next year they can sort things out better, and more queens will come since it won’t be so last minute. Maybe with bigger names like Adore, Katya, Willam, and Alaska the Farrah line will be more accessible. I’m honestly counting down the days until Drag Con NYC 2018 is announced.

#this is sooooooo long and mostly for me to remember but basically my weekend experience!!!#drag con

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coconutseaways · 7 years

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July 10, 2017. Back in Horta. Crazy party weekend!

Sorry it's been a little while! Ok July 5... It was another great Airbnb experience. We had a lovely Italian couple, Cristina and Andréa, who are campers and hikers. They have spent a few days in the Azores already, camping for a couple days and then finding an Airbnb to take a break. We picked them up in Horta and took them across to Madalena, Pico. We anchored and had a nice sleep except the church bells ringing every hour. And then the ferry first thing in the morning blaring his horn quite unnecessarily haha. But they said they had a great sleep. They brought sardines to bbq for supper and they were delicious. I made a salad and we had some coleslaw left. Add a bottle of wine and we had a lovely meal. The next morning we just had jam and fresh bread rolls for breakfast with a a glass of orange juice...after our coffees first of course lol. They just wanted something light because they had another busy day of hiking and camping ahead of them. We took them to shore and said our goodbyes. They were awesome. Very sweet and intelligent. Mike and I went for a snorkel shortly after they left. I tried to get some footage but the water wasn't very clear. We did find a couple "Venus Ears" which have the mother of pearl inside and little holes that go around the edge. It's in the shape of an ear of you hadn't guessed. I will post a pic of our collection. Then we decided to sail out of Madalena and head for Velas. The guys in Horta port authority told us there was a race from Horta to Velas on Saturday (July 8) and that is was gonna be a big party. The weekend was the 30th annual cultural festival and was going to be a huge celebration. We had a great sail over, perfect wind strength and a beautiful sunny day. My heat rash has finally cleared!!! I can actually be in the sun without feeling like I'm going to scratch my skin off. Now I am still dealing with about 8 mosquito bites on my feet which are lasting longer than I would have hoped. But still yay! We arrived in Velas and checked in. I really like the harbour master here in Velas. He's a cheerful guy, very nice and speaks very good English. He's always smiling and helpful. It makes our experience so much more enjoyable. I think It's my favourite place so far. Anyways he reiterated the festivities that we heard about and we went out that evening. Thy were doing a cultural song and dance performance in traditional clothing. It reminded me of folklorama. But folklorama is pg rated. These guys know how to party. A row of beer shacks, selling sangria, beer and shots for €1. Everyone has a drink in their hand as they wander through the streets. We went to the "Bamboo Bar" and I had a real caipirinha, not the watered down stuff I've had at folklorama. This drink tasted like tequila and was strong. I only needed one haha. As we were walking around we saw all these pieces of paper scattering the road. They were little blank white squares. We came upon a Dutch woman who explained that you buy 50 rolled up papers for 1€ and then unroll them hoping to win a prize. They do it as a fundraiser for local groups like the church choir and other things like that. Such a cool idea, although I'm not big on the littering. Like everyone throws their garbage on the ground and in the water. It actually kills me to see it. Even in the harbour, they are throwing cigarette butts left right and centre. And smoking is so popular here, so there's a lot of butts. But It was still a great night. We retired early compared to everyone else who i could hear still going around 3 AM when I woke up. Friday we went for an awesome hike up the island. Sao Jorge is one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. We walked up the steep roads and got the best views down toward the water. Wow. I took a picture of Mike and I and couldn't believe how tanned my face was. I posted a comparison of us from 2 months ago almost exactly...wow! My face is so brown. I love it. I wear 60 on my face all day but that sun is strong. Anyways we made it up to the big grocery store that we didn't know was there. They had a lot better fruit selection then we were able to get in Horta before we left. I got more peaches and my red plums. And huge red peppers. Like 2-3 times the size of the ones we have at home. And they are so cheap. It's so cheap I love it. I just want to have a fridge full of fruit and veggies. Yum yum. We made our way down back to Velas, down the steepest road I've ever seen. A road that cars actually go up and down. It was bloody steep as Mike would say. That night we got to see some live music. A group of about 5 guys and they all sang. They were great. Again we called it a night before everyone else. I guess we are not partyers like the Portuguese. Saturday July 8. We see the start of the SUP race that is from Sao Jorge to Pico Island. Probably about 10 miles. What a crazy distance. They had a couple escorts in motor boats in case anyone needed help. The wind was crazy gusty and our anchor had dragged a bit. Then some guys came out and told us they were setting up for a jet ski race and we needed to move the boat for a few hours. Mike and I probably lifted anchor like 6 times on Saturday. We had a hell of a time getting a good bite in a spot that was out of the way with the crazy wind. It was a pretty exhausting day and we weren't able to get on land all day. Finally after the competition was over we moved into our final spot and dropped anchor for the last time that day. Then I remembered that they were doing a bull run at 6 PM. it was now 7:30. I felt bad that we missed it because I knew Mike really wanted to see it. That was the whole reason we were coming to Velas this weekend in the first place, before we found out it was a festival weekend. We went to the centre of the festivities and watched a parade of nice old cars, and then motorcycles and then quads. It was loud but good. Then a marching band came through and we chomped down hamburgers from one of the food trucks. Oh it was so good. We came back to the boat and I heard the party going all night. Today was another sunny hot day. The wind wasn't as bad thank goodness. We went for a nice walk to the beach area and got a few nice pics. We came back to the boat pretty soon and hung out. Mike went to spear us a fish because we had yet to catch a fish for us to eat. Even though we ran a line all the way across the ocean and I fished in Nova Scotia. I did catch a tiny thing in Horta about a week ago but we threw it back and stopped fishing because we were just catching the same little guys. He did spear us a nice junk of a fish, and he put it on the rocks for a minute while he went back into the water. Well not two seconds later a bird came and stole his catch. Haha bad luck. I picked Mike up in the dinghy and rowed is back to the boat. Then we had cucumber, cheese and mayo sandwiches, since we had no fish haha. We were just hanging out when I noticed a lot of people were gathered on the pier. It wasn't the bull run, but it was a bull fight. Mike and I rowed over and had a great view from the water, along with a bunch of other boats. 4 bulls in total. The first and the last one were the best. They would chase people toward the edge and the people would jump off the pier into the water to dodge the horns. The more people that had to jump the louder the crowd cheered. They were trying to get the bull to run in the water and they almost got one of them, but it managed to keep its footing on the edge. I'm glad none of them ended up in the water. I felt bad for the bulls already and that would have been worse. But the crowd enjoyed the show and it was nice to partake in the festivities. Although, I really don't get the point. Clearly a macho guy thing haha. We enjoyed seeing the bulls nonetheless and I was happy Mike got to see his bulls lol. This evening we have had major progress! We caught our first meal! Haha. Mike pried off a few limpids off the rocks and we used heir meat as bait. We ran our two fishing lines off the dinghy while one of us rowed. I caught one of the cute blue and yellow fish and we let him go right away. They are small skinny fish. Then Mike caught a flat bony fish and we let that go too. I figured we would just end up catching and releasing because we were having no luck. Mike caught a small silver fish and let it go. Then he caught a nice size brown fish. This was a keeper! I was getting no bites while Mike kept getting strikes. He caught another silver fish and this time we kept him. I'm glad we did because I think the silver one had more flavour then the brown one. But the brown one had a lot more meat. Before we finished I had caught 2 brown and one silver and mike had 1 of each. We had 5 fish for supper. Mike gutted them while I prepared a sauce to coat them in before BBQing. I started the rice and we finally had our first free meal! It was delicious! Like I said I enjoyed the smaller silver fish more. But the brown guys had a nice chunk of meat on them. I think we both feel very accomplished and satisfied. The more fish we can catch and eat the better. Meat is cheap here but it's not free compared to the fish. Anyways it's the wind down of the festival and we are heading back to Horta tomorrow to pick up our next guest. A family of 4 from Belgium. These guys were our second booking and I think we are going to have a great time with them. They want to do some sailing which means a little extra cash in the pocket. I might even be able to sell a couple keychains or bracelets since there are two kids 11 and 13. It all adds up. We have had our hot chocolate night cap and are off to bed. Loving these islands more and more everyday. The more familiar we become with them the more I enjoy it. Knowing where the best fruit or baked goods are. It's a nice insider feeling. It's been a month since we've left Nova Scotia and I'm not looking back haha. I'm staying with the sunshine as long as possible. Don't forget to follow our Facebook Page at Coconut Seaways and our Instagram @coconut_seaways.

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jackdylananderson · 6 years

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A Great American Roadtrip: Grand Canyon to Vegas

January 6th, 2018

We woke up in good time, grabbed some McD's breakfast burrito's and hit the road up towards the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.

Two things of note: First, we couldn't believe the scenery through here. Arizona has like 4 different terrains: Forest, Red Rock, Desert-like and what I like to call "wheaty and tumbleweed-y."

Second: Despite the fact that I thought I had already seen the Grand Canyon on a trip with my sister and grandparents, I was wrong. That was some canyon in Texas. So all of a sudden, I was pretty excited to see this grand old thing. Spoiler alert: this canyon was a lot bigger.

We had a couch to surf in Vegas that night, so we were pretty efficient with the Grand Canyon trip. But man. That canyon was BIIIIIIG. As big as Texas and taller than Jordan. Way taller than Jordan.

I had no idea that canyon was so dang HUGE! It goes for miles, man!

We hiked a spot pretty far down and at this point we both feel like accomplished hikers and very sore from hiking Sedona the day before. And this particular hike was fairly steep. We took some pics and got too close to the edge. I mean, seriously, Jordan would take a stupid jump twice and then realize right after. "Oh shit dude. That was kinda a bad idea." No shit, Sherlock.

His best one was after we raced back up the hike--a foolish, foolish competition wherein I won second place. His legs are too damn long!--We found another spot to get too close to the edge and take a dumb pic. I started going down to get even closer and I realized I wasn't quiiiiiiite tall enough. Jordan hops down and, not realizing his momentum, flips and slides down some gravely rock about a foot and a half from the edge. What a dumb. Upon being down there, he realized it wouldn't be easy back up so I head back up from my middle spot.

Jordan. 6-foot-5 or something Jordan. Too long, too tall Jordan, hops up and does the classic tall guy athletic move and shoves himself up. I gotta say, short guys are more coordinated. Jordan is inching and swinging and maneuvering and swaying and turning and I swear to the deep, deep canyons below if he doesn't turn right he's gonna have a shit-ton of momentum falling down and he seriously might fall to the depths. He slides his arm up and re-positions his body slowly and next thing you know he's back up to my level. What a dumb. I don't think he had any idea of how close I was to instagramming his death.

So we got the hell out of there. Oh, did I mention we saw some elk? We did!

We trucked it to Vegas, which is the greatest sentence I've ever written. We made it in time to this Kristie's place (Couchsurfing) who invited us to a surprise party. The theme was nerds so me and Jordan looked in the car and di our best. Unfortunately, I was more of a natural.

This party was good, friendly fun with undertones of what their parties were normally like. Everybody was telling us of topless summer parties and we got swingers vibes like crazy. I can't explain it. It was in the air. Alcohol was everywhere and this was no place for kids. There was even an Instagram location tag over the pool! "Mandalay Shark Bay" or something. There was a drunk wife feeling too good so we decided it was time to hit the Strip.

Another house guest (”Frenchie”), me, Kristie and Jordan.

We actually find free parking for not too terrible of a walk. Jordan looking swag. Me looking dapper in none other than the jacket I found at that abandoned Route 66 spot. You know the one.

Jordan, being the king of walking up to anyone and sparking up a conversation, trades a couple smokes for a blunt. Pretty soon, we got passes for free cover and limo pickup for a strip club later.

We hit up some casinos and honestly I don't have the money to spare and I'm not fresh on my card games so I'm out. Jordan spent what felt like a good 10 minutes explaining craps to me, but I didn't process a word of it.

Jordan jumps in and with the swells of Ocean's 11's Vegas Casinos in my subconscious, I go into con artist mode. No I didn't do anything. I just stood behind Jordan 5 feet at all times look suspicious as hell. Sunshades fully on. I'd constantly be rotating my head and making super long eye contact with anyone I shouldn't be even glancing at. Occasionally, I'd put my hand to my ear and say, "Yes, we have the target" or "Copy that, Code Blue".

None of it meant anything, but they didn't know that. Pretty soon, I was Jordan's security guy, ending all sentences in "sir" and holding on to his phone while he played Black Jack and Craps.

Jordan was smart and left up $60 which meant, yup, we beat Vegas. Pow.

Well, he beat Vegas, but hey, without his security detail, he would've stayed in the game longer and lost it all.

So Jordan calls our ride. Next thing you know we're limo riding to the strip club. Deja Vu. Dang it. The same one we have in Nashvegas.

Now I'm no connoisseur of strip clubs. Like any grown young man, real women and Julianna Guill online videos suffice for me. But my second venture into a strip club was fascinating. Big (bigger than me), curvy women coming up and "wanting to talk". Hah, right. What they wanted was for me to buy a lap dance. Nope. The drinks were expensive, so I wasn't even paying for that.

Stripping pays shit. And the stripping was shit. Strip clubs are basically lap dance clubs with the occasional backroom sex upgrade. Pass.

I had like 6 or 7 or 9 women come up to talk to me and I can't tell you how fun it was with the shoe being on the other foot. Grown attractive women coming up to me, only for me to have to politely decline. Or, me being me, ask them what kind of music they listen to and then tell them all about the beats of Bob Dylan.

I had picked out one whom I might buy a lap dance from. When in Rome. She was thin, blonde hair, red thong. But I kept losing her.

Finally a younger, smaller girl named Dutchess comes up. I'm getting ready to annoy her, but she flips on me and laughs and goes with the bit. And, no I don't know what I was saying, I never do. But she's cool and Jordan takes note, too. We talk a little bit. She's got a boyfriend, she's going to school and this helps pay the bills. Solid. And she has a real smile. And a real nice smile.

She said it was her time to dance on stage soon, but she was shy about it. Bullshit. But we coached her anyway. Well not in choreography ("Do that one with your tits out!"). But in confidence and comfort. Little stuff I had learned from doing standup. She thanked us for our notes and hit the poles.

It was nice. A good, smile goes a long way and frankly, I like petite girls, so sue me, I enjoyed it. Maybe she was kinda shy after all, but she found a nice groove. Damn, I really shoulda got a lap dance from her.

Rule 11: GET A LAP DANCE, DUMMY.

We rode back to our car by limo and got the driver and newbie to take a couple pics. Weird part was, the dude took a while to take the pic. When Jordan got back to him, the guy immediately got out of the photos app and back to the camera app. Weeeeeeird.

Rule 12: Vegas is sketch, dude.

We got to the car, all safe, and headed back to the older lady's place where we would crash for the night.

#roadtrip #on the road #vegas #travel writing #couchsurfing

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bunnymcbunnister · 4 years

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SPN Season 15 Spoiler Sheet, update 11/11

Hello! I finally had some time to clean this up a bit. I am going to make a separate post about old episodes if anyone wants to reference the past. I also pulled out some general spoilers that have already happened to keep this shorter. It’s getting to be a monster with length.

As for updates, we got some nuggets from Jensen and Misha while promoting their latest projects. No pictures yet for ep 5 because of the holiday. Also no description for 7 yet because there will be a week off for Thanksgiving. Hopefully JaxCon will have some juicy updates like DC did. Under the cut!

DISCLAIMER: This is gathered info from various sources. This is not confirmed information. Stuff in this WILL be wrong. Don’t take this too seriously. This is for fun.

General Info (oldest to newest)

There is hope to wrap up some Wayward Daughters storylines in the back half of the season

They are adding a whole extra day to filming to do the final scene. They will film the final scene last. (Implies logistics- lots of returning people?)

Brad Bucker used the word “romance” when asked about Sam and Dean’s arcs. Did not specify who.

In an interview, Kripe indicated that the series ending would have “peace” for Sam and Dean

There will be a special tribute ep, not clear if its one of the 20 or additional

Misha will be in 15 out of 20 episodes this season

Also according to Dabb, Jack is still in the empty and “he’s not coming back in the near future”

Cas’ deal with the Empty may come up later in the season.

Dabb intimated that Chuck was inherently responsible for killing Mary when asked how the boys would respond to Jack.

Sam’s wound from the equalizer gives his powers/an advantage of some kind (per TVGuide)

Jack will be a critical part of the ending of the show

The cage/Adam is looking like it will be coming up for midseason

Shaving People, Punting Things: https://youtu.be/azTwku2uosA

According to the MarySue and other interviews, Sam’s bullet hole will give him a connection and insight to god- like a tin can telephone string.

In the cage, Micheal and Adam have formed a working relationship (MarySue)

Dean and Amara’s connection will be explored

There will be a bunker themed episode (MarySue)

According to Misha (Cinablend) Dean and Cas will have discord up to ep 8- which is the mid-season finale.

Episode 15x05

Title: Proverbs 17:3

OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS: RICHARD SPEIGHT, JR. DIRECTS – Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean’s (Jensen Ackles) routine case turns out to be anything but. Richard Speight, Jr. directed the episode written by Steve Yockey (#1505). Original Airdate 11/14/2019.

Written by: Yockey

Director: Speight

Filming Dates: 9/4-9/13

Airdate: 11/14

Photos: http://www.ksitetv.com/supernatural/supernatural-spoilers-photos-proverbs-17-3/198575/

Promo:https://youtu.be/4Jo1--7WqHA

Sneak Peak:

Castiel? No Jack? doubtful

Guest stars:

Other Spoilers/info::

This will most likely be Yockey’s last episode.

Matt Cohen was around, but I imagine he is following directors to prep for his own debut directing.

Scenes were filmed in the bunker and in a wooded area. A woman could be heard screaming in the outside scene.

The bible verse referenced is: “The fining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold: But the LORD trieth the hearts.”

The preview indicates werewolves.

Episode 15x06

Title: Golden Time

Written by: Meredith Glynn

Director: Steve Boyum

Filming Dates: 9/16-9/25

Airdate: 11/21

Photos:

Promo:

Sneak Peak:

Castiel? Yes Jack? Not sure

Guest stars:

Other Spoilers/info:

Misha tweeted from set in costume, so Cas.

Misha also tweeted a pic in blood spatter with two bullet holes in his shirt

At least Jensen and Jared filmed in Rowena’s apartment

This will be a witch episode- Witches will invade Rowena’s apartment looking for books. They are very powerful. Dean gets thrown into a wall and Sam uses magic to stop them (from TVGuide)

Episode 15x07

Title: Last Call

OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS:

Written by: Jeremy Adams

Director: Amyn Kaderali

Filming Dates: 9/26- 10/7

Airdate: Dec 7th is what Christian Kane tweeted…. But that is a Saturday. Dec 5th maybe?

Photos:

Promo:

Sneak Peak:

Castiel ? Yes Jack ?

Guest stars:

Other Spoilers/info :

Misha posted from set in new shoes- very shiny with well tailored pants. (The next day he posted in full Cas costume, so are the shoes a one off? Another outfit with new shoes?).

Misha and Jensen made a video from set. I feel like if Jared was around he would have been in it since it was about money raised? Maybe a Dean Cas scene?

There will be a battle scene in this that Jensen mentioned he was looking forward to and we would enjoy.

After NJ Con, it appeared that Jensen returned to work, Jared and Misha stayed an extra day and then Misha went home. Misha only did about 2 days of filming.

Jensen and Christian filmed at a bar called Swazey’s. This was the fight scene Jensen was referring to.

At some point, Sam might be shirtless or we can see part of his chest- Jared had his anti-possession tattoo at the weekend convention.

Episode 15x08

Title: Our Father Who Aren’t in Heaven

OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS:

Written by: Buckleming

Director: Speight

Filming Dates: 10/8- 10/18 (no filming 10/14 for Canadian Thanksgiving)

Airdate: 12/12 (?)

Photos:

Promo:

Sneak Peak:

Castiel ? yes Jack ?

Guest stars: Jake Abel, Shoshannah Stern

Other Spoilers/info:

Jake Abel posted a script with the caption “hell hath no fury like a brother scorned”

Shoshannah Stern was spotted on set- Eileen!

This will be the midseason finale

At BurCon, Misha mentioned Dean is still acting like “a dick” in the ep they were filming- which is this one.

Episode 15x09

Title:

OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS:

Written by: Berens

Director: Singer

Filming Dates: 10/21-10/30

Airdate: March 16th?

Photos:

Promo:

Sneak Peak:

Castiel ? I can’t tell but maybe not Jack ? maybe

Guest stars: Rob Benedict, Kim Rhodes, Jim Beaver

Other Spoilers/info (newest to oldest):

Midseason premier episode

Misha was at home for the first week of filming, and I think the second. I don’t think he is in this.

Alex and Rob were hanging out- Chuck and JACK?

Kim Rhodes posted in front of the SPN set and with her trailer- Jody looks very likely. She also had dyed hair and she has been rockin the grey for the past few Jody eps. Maybe a flashback/AU?

Jim Beaver posted from set- Bobby!

Episode 15x10

Title:

OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS:

Written by: Dabb

Director: Showalter

Filming Dates:

Airdate: 10/31- 11/12 (No filming for Veterans/Armistice Day?)

Photos:

Promo:

Sneak Peak:

Castiel ? Jack ?

Guest stars:

Other Spoilers/info (newest to oldest):

Misha texted some local fans from set in costume about an WA election, but after the convention was promoting his cookbook all over the place. I think he filmed 2 days, max.

The story will be about Sam and Dean as heroes from the good and bad side (from MarySue)

Episode 15x11

Title:

OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS:

Written by: Davy Perez AND Meredith Glynn

Director: Charles Beeson

Filming Dates: 11/13-11/22 (?)

Airdate:

Photos:

Promo:

Sneak Peak:

Castiel ? Jack ?

Guest stars:

Other Spoilers/info (newest to oldest):

#supernatural #spn spoilers #spn season 15 #spoiler sheet #castiel #dean winchester #Sam Winchester

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vincentbnaughton · 7 years

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That Time We Thought The Bedroom Would Simmer For A While, And Then Bam.

We mentioned some recent master bedroom movin’ & shakin’ on this week’s podcast, so we thought a post full of photos was in order for anyone wondering how it’s looking these days. Pretty much everything in our bedroom was purchased while we were living in our second house, so after moving here in 2013 stuff just kinda landed where it landed and whoop, there it was. We painted. We hung frames. We made a few sporadic dresser swaps, and then we repainted. But the anchor pieces like the rug, the bed, the armchair, and most of the other furnishings pretty much remained the same. More recently we got a super on-sale chandelier and swapped beds with the guest room and it felt like the room was nicely settling into feeling “nearly-done.” Basically, we were fully expecting to go back to ignoring this corner of the house for at least a few more years.

And then it happened. A total bedroom curveball. My friend texted me a gorgeous picture of a rug she came across in a local consignment shop. YES, A CONSIGNMENT SHOP. And I fell hard. It hit me like a ton of bricks. Rug love at first sight. I’m pretty sure you could have seen little cartoon angels flying around my head holding bow and arrows when I ran up to John with that dazed-looking cheeks-flushed expression and said “remember how we’ve always said it would be nice to have a plush wool rug in the bedroom someday!?” And thankfully, he remembered. And he agreed that it looked promising enough to go check it out in person (and smell it, because John was wondering how a consigned rug might smell).

We love a flat weave rug – and have a bunch in our house – but ever since we discovered our love of plush wool Turkish rugs, we’ve been talking about how if ever there were a spot to add one more, it’s the master bedroom. It just feels like the ultimate place for something thick and cozy underfoot. Plus, that soft green flat weave was something we bought back in 2011 for our last house’s living room, so the size wasn’t perfect for the bedroom (it wasn’t as long as the space, so it didn’t extend quite as close to the closet/bathroom door as we’d prefer). But it couldn’t have been that bad because we lived with it for nearly four years this way.

Back to the new rug. It was miraculously the perfect size (around 12 x 16′) and didn’t smell at all (hallelujah!). And because it was a one-of-a-kind find at a consignment store, we knew it wasn’t going to wait around for us. Cut to John standing there grinning with it on the dolly, ready to be loaded into our car.

And guess who muscled that giant wool beast up the stairs? That’s right. This married couple (*points to selves with thumbs*).

Once we got it into the room I pretty much did the Macarena with excitement. It might just be my favorite rug of all time. I mean LOOK AT THE DETAILS! The COLORS! The SHAPES! The SHEER AMOUNT OF CAPS LOCK I’M USING TO DESCRIBE IT!

There are tons of other rugs I love a whooooole lot in this house (I’m looking at you dining room, bonus room, and living room), but this new bedroom edition just feels extra special. So shh, don’t tell them. And don’t cry for the old rug Argentina! That green flat weave sold in less than an hour on a local buy-sell board on Facebook and is currently living her best life in a neighbor’s house.

You may also be noticing a couple of other changes in the wide shot – namely the wall behind the bed. This rug’s bolder, more colorful, and larger scale pattern made it much more of a focal point than its soft green predecessor. So when we rolled out the new rug, the frames on the wall felt kinda jumbled and crazy all of a sudden. Like Lady GaGa in a meat dress next to Bjork in a swan costume. Why? Because the frame wall used to be the focal point with a more subtle rug playing backup. But with a big bold rug in the room now, two focal points were fighting for attention.

So we took all of the frames off the wall and tried out a few “calmer” pieces instead. After buying something the instinct might be to go buy a ton of other stuff to go with the exciting new item, but one of my favorite things to do instead is just to play around with what you have. Sometimes you just have to shift a few things around the house and a few rooms end up looking and feeling fresher to the tune of zero more dollars spent.

The winner was this painting that used to hang above John’s desk in the office (we bought it right off of the wall at a ski house we rented a few years back). I may stain the frame to match some of the other woods in the room, but for now it’s doing the job of complementing – not competing with – the new rug. And from afar it looks surprisingly similar to some of the gold frames we added to the other side of the room (more on those in a sec).

And now in the office there’s a mirror we already had hanging where the pink painting used to be – which is nice because it reflects the light from the two windows across from it. There’s no better feeling than running up and down the stairs with things and trying them in other rooms until the crazy puzzle of “I need one thing for this room and another thing for that room” is solved. I’m serious. I LOVE that weird challenge feeling. It’s like Supermarket Sweep, Home Edition. Come to think of it, that would make a pretty good game show. Stop laughing. I’m serious.

And I know you were worried about where all of our family photos went (JK, nobody cares about family photos unless they’re their own family). We found a few other places around the room to hang some, and I moved some into the guest room above my sewing desk. It’s not as many as we used to have on display, but I think we’ll survive just fine without having 20+ photos of ourselves in a single room anymore.

I reframed the photos in our room in these gold frames that I already had stashed in the guest room (they’re my favorite gold ones from Target that I’ve also hoarded for the beach house). They created a nice little grid above our wood dresser – an antique hand-me-down from John’s parents that had been in the closet. We just swapped it for the white dresser that used to sit here since the wood one looks so nice with the rich new rug colors.

In rearranging our family photos, we realized we’re waaaay overdue for printing some updated ones (so many of a tiny baby boy and a toddler girl) so we sent a few new 8 x 10″ pics to Target so we can finally update these frames. It just feels like you “notice” pictures again when you change them out, so this bedroom update was a nice kick in the pants to get on that.

The other side of the room still has the gradient dresser we painted back in 2011 for our first book (yes, we have no shortage of dressers in here!). Also, can you tell John is asking Burger why he’s always walking into our pictures like he owns the place? You saw him up in the bed squishing all of our pillows a few pictures up too, right? Dude, is ALWAYS ready for his close up.

The Samantha French print above the dresser (she’s one of my favorite painters – here’s her Easy shop) is one we’ve had for years, and we FINALLY got it properly framed! It was actually a birthday gift from John, who sent it off to a framing company called Simply Framed and they made it look so much more legit and lovely with a nice chunky white frame and a perfectly sized mat. This isn’t a sponsored mention or anything (he paid for it, and we love it). It’s not as cheap as finding a ready-made frame at the store (it was about $120, with a coupon code) but it looks so expensive and well done when it comes back to you. Finally feels like the frame is doing the print justice.

It’s hard to tell in the pic, but they even emailed us to say “do you want the mat to go right up to the edge of the print or would you like it to be spaced around a quarter-inch away so the penciled title and signature are visible?” We were so glad they suggested that because that little detail that makes it feel much more professionally done and polished.

So that, my friends, is the tale of a bedroom that we thought was going back into dormancy for a few more years, but was propelled into an accidental-but-surprisingly-thrilling makeover, thanks to a rug switch and a whole lot of other free furniture and accessory swapping.

Oh, and that picture above captures one of the cooler things about the rug – see how it looks faded in a few rows? The lady who owns the consignment store said her friend who vends rugs said it’s not truly faded in those areas, it’s a different looming method and type of wool that they use for those parts so the little water-color-like effect is something they intentionally add when they make the rug. Cool, right? I love how layered and soft it looks with those strips of blurrier colors.

And yes, I totally daydream about moving those windows over so they’re centered. Except they would look wonky from the front of our balanced brick colonial, so I guess I need to leave them where they are and DEAL WITH THE FACT THAT MY ENTIRE LIFE CAN’T BE SYMMETRICAL. Maybe adding one more curtain panel on that left side and extending the rod would cheat things a little and make it less noticeable? Might give that a try sometime.

But so ends our new tour of the bedroom. I’ll leave you with this performance art piece by Burger, entitled Dog Leaves Bed.

And for anyone wondering where we got things in the room, here’s a big ol’ list for you:

bench / faux fiddle leaf fig plant / chandelier / curtains / curtain rods / night stands / swimming girl print / gold frames / similar pink painting / similar duvet / similar bedside lamps / similar dresser / similar tallboy dresser / similar chair / similar floor lamp

You can also always find our room’s paint colors and sources for everything in them right here.

*This post contains affiliate links*

The post That Time We Thought The Bedroom Would Simmer For A While, And Then Bam. appeared first on Young House Love.

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additionallysad · 7 years

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Why We Returned Our Mail-Order Foam Mattress http://ift.tt/2kz3fgu

If you’ve been anywhere near the internet in the last couple of years, you’re probably well aware of a new generation of mail order mattresses: Casper. Leesa. Tuft & Needle (just to name a few). They’re these affordable foam mattresses that ship straight to your door, magically unfurl on your bed, and promise an improved nights sleep or your money back. Having been bombarded with that message for months (years?) we decided to jump on the bandwagon… but quickly second-guessed our decision. And so the “Is this The One?” mattress spiral was born.

Let me preface this by saying that I’ve been hesitant to write this post. We generally don’t like to spotlight products that don’t work out for us, because – especially in the case of a mattress – it’s a lot about personal preference, not some flaw in the item itself. But earlier this month we kinda broke our own rule by podcasting about our lukewarm experience with a Roomba we bought from Costco (btw, thanks for all of the feedback from all you Roomba-lovers and Roomba-just-likers – we have a podcast update coming soon!)

And then last week our friends Chris & Julia shared their own experience with two mail-order mattress brands. Their comments section made me feel less crazy for not loving ours, so I decided not to bite my tongue any longer – just in case anyone else is wondering if these things are as magical as their marketing made me believe they were. Again, this is just my humble experience, so take it for what its worth.

Why A New Mattress?

Our old mattress was 7+ years old and we were feeling less and less satisfied with our night’s sleep. It was a mail-order mattress itself actually – just a denser latex that arrived in three boxes, didn’t expand, and required a bit more assembly. So yes, clearly the Stone Age when it comes to getting your mattress in a box.

A few years ago (back in our second house) we were feeling the need for a softer surface, so we added a padded mattress cover to it. That helped, but we needed more, so on went a thin feather bed. And eventually another. Yes, at some point we were sleeping with three layers of padding in pursuit of the sweet spot of supportive yet sink-in-able.

When we moved into this house 3.5 years ago, we ditched most of the pads (they were constantly sliding around) in hopes falling back in love with our old mattress in its pure form. It was still too firm, plus it was starting to show impressions where we both slept. So last year we finally decided to it was time to go, Especially after googling the normal lifespan of a mattress and reading 7-10 years. Yup, for us that was right on the nose.

The First Purchase

We actually went the “traditional” route first. On a whim one day, we walked into one of those stereotypical mattress stores and before we knew it, the saleswoman had us curling up down the rows and rows of showroom mattresses. I have to say – it was extremely fun. So many options! So many pillows! So many loud plastic covers to keep shoe dirt off the bottom of each bed!

As much as we love hunting for a deal, we sometimes get this surge of “why overcomplicate this for ourselves?” and before we knew it, were signing papers to have our “sleep-tested-five-times-in-the-store-and-we-liked-it-best mattress delivered the following week. It was a Sealy Posturepedic Hybrid (meaning half-foam, half-coil) and I it was around $1100 after a $100 rebate. I felt a little bit like a sucker (you know I love researching things to death) but I also felt extremely ready for a better night’s sleep. Mattress excitement was in the air. It was palpable. I live on the edge, guys.

(Forgive the poor iPhone photos in this post – since we hadn’t planned to blog about this, all we have are a few random shots I snapped to show one of our friends)

The mattress arrived. We hopped onto it ready to be enveloped in luxury or whatever, and instead, both of us thought “is it supposed to be this firm?” “We LIKE firm but it didn’t feel THIS HARD in the store.” “UH OH.”

We called the saleswoman and she assured us that we needed to give it a couple of weeks or more to break in, so yes, it will feel a little firm at first. But it was a tough pill to swallow considering our eagerness to have a mattress that we loved with a capital L.

The Switch

After a couple of weeks, I was beginning to enjoy the new mattress but Sherry wasn’t fully convinced. The saleswoman had extended our return period to test drive it (thanks to our initial impression/freaked out call to her) but the clock was ticking. So this is when we took the leap and ordered a Casper mattress. I’ll admit we didn’t do a ton of research beyond confirming what we had heard in their marketing by reading the overwhelmingly positive reviews on Amazon. It was about $250 cheaper than what we’d gotten at the store, so we were poised to save some money by returning the Sealy – and we liked the idea of getting to compare two mattresses and then being allowed to just send back the one that didn’t make the cut. Seemed error proof. Plus, my childhood cat was named Casper so… win-win-win?

When it arrived a few days later, I could feel all of the hype coming to life in front of my eyes. I can’t believe there’s a mattress in that box! Woah, we’re watching it expand before our very eyes! Although, unlike all of the bloggers before me who documented this process with clever GIFs and time-lapse videos, I just shot one of these terrible, rainy day pictures.

The Disappointment

We wanted to love the Casper mattress, but it was hard to deny that it fell noticeably short of the store-bought one. The first reason was:

Thickness. This will sound dumb, but the Casper felt very thin on our bed. The new Sealy was 12.5″, but the Casper was just 10″. I know it doesn’t sound like much, but it was a difference we could see and feel (we would scrape our legs on the bed frame because it squished when we sat up to get out – and we were sleeping noticeably lower than our nightstand all of a sudden). We could’ve gotten a thin bunky board or something, but we couldn’t get over the overall feeling of meh.

That wouldn’t have been enough to return it, but reason #2 was:

Firmness. The all-foam Casper felt incredibly soft to us. You sunk into it in that way that feels awesome at first (kinda like that initial leap into a good hotel bed) but then you quickly realize you’re not being supported in the right places. I know I’ve said we were hunting for something softer than our existing mattresses, but Sherry and I still both like a fair amount of support. We could both tell from the get-go that Casper wasn’t firm enough, but we gave it a couple of nights just to be sure. And believe me, we were sure.

Again, I feel bad knocking this mattress that lots of people clearly love – but I can say that we were VERY impressed with the customer service. The return process was super simple and the people on the phone were very kind and understanding. And since they can’t resell a used mattress, their business model is to contact a local charity so they can come pick it up for a family in need. I KNOW. So we can’t say enough nice things about the PROCESS of buying the mail-order mattress. But sadly as for the mattress itself – we just weren’t a good fit.

The Conclusion

The story has a happy ending. Having seen that the grass isn’t always greener, we flopped the Sealy back onto our bed and decided to give it another chance (we still had a couple of weeks left to test it). And sure enough, it gradually softened up and now we’re both pretty darn happy with it. My only hesitation in gushing is because it doesn’t have that dramatic “sink-in” feel that we wanted (and felt in the store), but I think this process taught us that we actually don’t sleep well on a mattress with noticeable sink in the long term anyway (I have to push with some effort in the pic below). So while part of us “misses” that cliche plushness, we know we’re getting a good solid night’s sleep and there is zero soreness in the morning (which was occurring when our old foam mattress started to sag, and when we tried the Casper, which was just too soft from day one). For us, I think that hybrid combination of the foam top and coil support is a really good mix.

And, this may sound like we haven’t learned our lesson, but we’re considering some of the mail-order mattresses for our beach house. Their more affordable price point is certainly enticing considering we’ll probably need 5 (!!!) plus having them delivered directly is a plus. So I’ll still be paying close attention to reviews and everyone’s thoughts on these puppies. Just because that Casper didn’t work for us doesn’t mean we’re off the mail order mattress train entirely. Although we’ve also been VERY happy with The Original Mattress Factory mattress in our guest room that we’ve had for a few years now. Sherry’s mom says it’s more comfortable than a fancy hotel mattress. So that’s also a beach house possibility for sure. The plot thickens…

PS: I’ve mentioned this on our podcast, but I highly recommend the “Mattresses” episode of another podcast called Surprisingly Awesome. They go behind the scenes of the mattress industry to see why its such a confusing shopping experience (when it probably doesn’t need to be). Their conclusion? “You probably want to spend more than $800—below that there are some good mattresses, but there are also a lot of bad ones. And anything you spend over around $1,500 is probably not gonna get you that much better of a mattress.” Who knew mattress talk was so interesting?!

The post Why We Returned Our Mail-Order Foam Mattress appeared first on Young House Love.

#additionally sad home renovations

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vincentbnaughton · 7 years

Text

That Time We Thought The Bedroom Would Simmer For A While, And Then Bam.

And guess who muscled that giant wool beast up the stairs? That’s right. This married couple (*points to selves with thumbs*).

But so ends our new tour of the bedroom. I’ll leave you with this performance art piece by Burger, entitled Dog Leaves Bed.

And for anyone wondering where we got things in the room, here’s a big ol’ list for you:

You can also always find our room’s paint colors and sources for everything in them right here.

*This post contains affiliate links*

The post That Time We Thought The Bedroom Would Simmer For A While, And Then Bam. appeared first on Young House Love.

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vincentbnaughton · 7 years

Text

Why We Returned Our Mail-Order Foam Mattress

If you’ve been anywhere near the internet in the last couple of years, you’re probably well aware of a new generation of mail-order mattresses: Casper. Leesa. Tuft & Needle (just to name a few). They’re these affordable foam mattresses that ship straight to your door, magically unfurl on your bed, and promise an improved night’s sleep or your money back. Having been bombarded with that message for months (years?) we decided to jump on the bandwagon… but quickly second-guessed our decision. And so the “Is this The One?” mattress spiral was born.

Let me preface this by saying that I’ve been hesitant to write this post. We generally don’t like to spotlight products that don’t work out for us, because – especially in the case of a mattress – it’s a lot about personal preference, not some flaw in the item itself. But earlier this month we kinda broke our own rule by podcasting about our lukewarm experience with a Roomba we bought from Costco (btw, thanks for all of the feedback from all you Roomba-lovers and non-lovers – we have a podcast update coming soon!)

Why A New Mattress?

The First Purchase

We actually went the “traditional” route first. On a whim one day, we walked into one of those stereotypical mattress stores and before we knew it, the saleswoman had us curling up on row after row of showroom mattresses. I have to say – it was extremely fun. So many options! So many pillows! So many loud plastic covers to keep shoe dirt off the bottom of each bed!

As much as we love hunting for a deal, we sometimes get this surge of “why overcomplicate this for ourselves?” and before we knew it, were signing papers to have our “sleep-tested-five-times-in-the-store-and-we-liked-it-best mattress delivered the following week. It was a Sealy Posturepedic Hybrid (meaning half-foam, half-coil) and it was around $1100 after a $100 rebate. I felt a little bit like a sucker (you know I love researching things to death) but I also felt extremely ready for a better night’s sleep. Mattress excitement was in the air. It was palpable. I live on the edge, guys.

(Forgive the poor iPhone photos in this post – since we hadn’t planned to blog about this, all we have are a few random shots I snapped to show one of our friends)

The Switch

After a couple of weeks, I was beginning to enjoy the new mattress but Sherry wasn’t fully convinced. The saleswoman had extended our return period to test drive it (thanks to our initial impression/freaked out call to her) but the clock was ticking. So this is when we took the leap and ordered a Casper mattress. I’ll admit we didn’t do a ton of research beyond confirming what we had heard in their marketing by reading the overwhelmingly positive reviews on Amazon. It was about $150 cheaper than what we’d gotten at the store, so we were poised to save some money by returning the Sealy – and we liked the idea of getting to compare two mattresses and then being allowed to just send back the one that didn’t make the cut. Seemed error proof. Plus, my childhood cat was named Casper so… win-win-win?

The Disappointment

We wanted to love the Casper mattress, but it was hard to deny that it fell noticeably short of the store-bought one. The first reason was:

Thickness. This will sound dumb, but the Casper felt very thin on our bed. The new Sealy was 12.5″, but the Casper was just 10″. I know it doesn’t sound like much, but it was a difference we could see and feel (we would scrape our legs on the bed frame because it squished when we sat up to get out – and we were sleeping noticeably lower than our nightstand all of a sudden). We could’ve gotten a thin bunkie board or something, but we couldn’t get over the overall feeling of meh.

That wouldn’t have been enough to return it, but reason #2 was:

The Conclusion

And, this may sound like we haven’t learned our lesson, but we’re considering some of the mail-order, foam mattresses for our beach house. Their more affordable price point is certainly enticing considering we’ll probably need 5 (!!!) plus having them delivered directly is a plus. So I’ll still be paying close attention to reviews and everyone’s thoughts on these puppies. Just because that Casper didn’t work for us doesn’t mean we’re off the mail order mattress train entirely. Although we’ve also been VERY happy with The Original Mattress Factory mattress in our guest room that we’ve had for a few years now. Sherry’s mom says it’s more comfortable than a fancy hotel mattress. So that’s also a beach house possibility for sure. The plot thickens…

PS: I’ve mentioned this on our podcast, but I highly recommend the “Mattresses” episode of another podcast called Surprisingly Awesome. They go behind the scenes of the mattress industry to see why it’s such a confusing shopping experience (when it probably doesn’t need to be). Their conclusion? “You probably want to spend more than $800—below that there are some good mattresses, but there are also a lot of bad ones. And anything you spend over around $1,500 is probably not gonna get you that much better of a mattress.” Who knew mattress talk was so interesting?!

The post Why We Returned Our Mail-Order Foam Mattress appeared first on Young House Love.

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vincentbnaughton · 7 years

Text

Why We Returned Our Mail-Order Foam Mattress

Let me preface this by saying that I’ve been hesitant to write this post. We generally don’t like to spotlight products that don’t work out for us, because – especially in the case of a mattress – it’s a lot about personal preference, not some flaw in the item itself. But earlier this month we kinda broke our own rule by podcasting about our lukewarm experience with a Roomba we bought from Costco (btw, thanks for all of the feedback from all you Roomba-lovers and non-lovers – we have a podcast update coming soon!)

Why A New Mattress?

The First Purchase

As much as we love hunting for a deal, we sometimes get this surge of “why overcomplicate this for ourselves?” and before we knew it, were signing papers to have our “sleep-tested-five-times-in-the-store-and-we-liked-it-best mattress delivered the following week. It was a Sealy Posturepedic Hybrid (meaning half-foam, half-coil) and it was around $1100 after a $100 rebate. I felt a little bit like a sucker (you know I love researching things to death) but I also felt extremely ready for a better night’s sleep. Mattress excitement was in the air. It was palpable. I live on the edge, guys.

(Forgive the poor iPhone photos in this post – since we hadn’t planned to blog about this, all we have are a few random shots I snapped to show one of our friends)

The Switch

After a couple of weeks, I was beginning to enjoy the new mattress but Sherry wasn’t fully convinced. The saleswoman had extended our return period to test drive it (thanks to our initial impression/freaked out call to her) but the clock was ticking. So this is when we took the leap and ordered a Casper mattress. I’ll admit we didn’t do a ton of research beyond confirming what we had heard in their marketing by reading the overwhelmingly positive reviews on Amazon. It was about $150 cheaper than what we’d gotten at the store, so we were poised to save some money by returning the Sealy – and we liked the idea of getting to compare two mattresses and then being allowed to just send back the one that didn’t make the cut. Seemed error proof. Plus, my childhood cat was named Casper so… win-win-win?

The Disappointment

We wanted to love the Casper mattress, but it was hard to deny that it fell noticeably short of the store-bought one. The first reason was:

Thickness. This will sound dumb, but the Casper felt very thin on our bed. The new Sealy was 12.5″, but the Casper was just 10″. I know it doesn’t sound like much, but it was a difference we could see and feel (we would scrape our legs on the bed frame because it squished when we sat up to get out – and we were sleeping noticeably lower than our nightstand all of a sudden). We could’ve gotten a thin bunkie board or something, but we couldn’t get over the overall feeling of meh.

That wouldn’t have been enough to return it, but reason #2 was:

The Conclusion

PS: I’ve mentioned this on our podcast, but I highly recommend the “Mattresses” episode of another podcast called Surprisingly Awesome. They go behind the scenes of the mattress industry to see why it’s such a confusing shopping experience (when it probably doesn’t need to be). Their conclusion? “You probably want to spend more than $800—below that there are some good mattresses, but there are also a lot of bad ones. And anything you spend over around $1,500 is probably not gonna get you that much better of a mattress.” Who knew mattress talk was so interesting?!

The post Why We Returned Our Mail-Order Foam Mattress appeared first on Young House Love.

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