Perfect for Valentines Day, eh?! 😉

It’s that time again… Maven Mall Monday! Take some time to take a gander around The Ravin’ Maven Mall. It’s running a little low on merchandise, but the good news is that there will be about a half dozen more goodie gems listed this week! And for those few Mavens who messaged me about the charming owl parasol, well, it sold last week to a lovely lass in Texas. #newlovinghome I will keep my eyes peeled (hot beaver dam, that expression always gives me the heebie-jeebies!) for more fetching parasols & umbrellas, so not to fear! But, for now, something perfecto for Valentines Day coming your way…!

This Monday’s featured fun find is this DEAR little Voodoo doll Voo-Doo Friend “Heart Robber” keychain! Since when can a Voodoo doll be adorable? Since NOW! This cutesy keychain is sure to make you grin! This delightfully sweet little Voodoo doll is a “Heart Robber”. Are you seeking love from another? Heart Robber will steal his or her heart for you and make them fall in love with you. ::smirk:: Be sure you are ready! (Note: This is NOT a toy. It should not be given to children under 6 years old. Pins can really hurt!)
Continue reading »

A painting I sold at one of my art shows. The proceeds went to Yéle Haiti Relief. 🙂

Tonight we’re hosting a birthday bash at our digs for Darling Hotbuns! I’ve ordered 2 ice cream cakes from Coldstone Creamery — a devils food cake & a chocolate peanut butter cake (DH loves peanut butter flavored sweets!), 6 gourmet flatbread pizzas from Bella Monica restaurant (2 margaritas, 2 mushroom & herb, & 2 spinach & tomato), & all his gifts are wrapped (I’ve asked all the partygoers to bring playful, comical gag gifts)! Darling Hotbuns ran out to run an “errand” earlier, so while he was away from the digs, Mini Maven & I decorated the WHOLE house with purple, blue, & black 40th birthday decorations — there are even signs on the lawn so the whole ‘hood knows. ::knavish::

But when HE arrived to his party surprises, he had a SPANKIN’ NEW computer for Mini Maven in tow!

Um, he won. ::snicker::

Continue reading »

Mini Maven decorating our Pepto pink cartoon character Christmas tree in 2011 🙂

Even though it is Valentines Day that is right around the corner, I’m going to hark back a bit and talk some more about Christmas (as I did in the last post about the geek gifts I got Darling Hotbuns this year).

I love holidays! If I had to pick a favorite, it would be Halloween, but Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa would be the second runner(s) up. As of the moment, Mini Maven & I are not religious people, but we respect all religions, and I mention this “moment” because she’s so young that it could change for her someday. I, of course, am giving her the right to choose whatever belief system she wants to adopt, no matter WHAT it is, and even if it is nothing. I am doing this by educating her on all religions. You name a holiday in any various religion or culture and we’ve explored it in *some* way, even if just through books, but we try to practice one or more traditions each holiday’s turn. It’s a fun way to celebrate, not just a holiday or event, but a culture and its people. Even so, by heritage we come from Christian-based families. My family were Protestants and Presbyterians, and her father’s side were Irish Catholics. For me, you could just as easily say they were Montagues & Capulets, Greasers or Socs, Humans or Replicants, it really doesn’t mean anything more to me than a family history I did not continue to carry out. (DH’s family were also Catholics. Of all of us, none of us turned out to be what we were born into.) By no means does this mean I am not a believer. But by no means does it say that I am. I choose not to discuss religion or politics with more than my invulnerable powwow of constant pals who deserve to know my deeply intimate views. What I DO believe in is educated opinions & beliefs, secondary to honor, respect & acceptance of everyone’s personal ones. I don’t care a crumb what Mini Maven comes to believe, but I care profoundly that it comes from a vast, wide, diverse knowledge. So an integral part of this, especially as a young person, is knowing & understanding the history & reasoning behind all holidays that are celebrated throughout this shared world, and never finding the one she chooses to subscribe to as being superior. In that case, if she believed we were all derived from a unicorn who spontaneously was born to a pious pegasus and a celestial centaur on Uranus, it would only be ridiculed by me should she use it to ridicule someone else’s faith. I’d rather raise a flaky, fruity zealot than an intolerant misanthropist, but Plan A’s focus is on a well-rounded individual!

Now that that irrelevant backstory has concluded…

Continue reading »

I think it’s nearly impossible that any good geek or never-failing nerd hasn’t already heard of Think Geek, but this store is a staple here at the What’s Ravin’, Maven? headquarters. I know that I’ve said it before, but on top of my Darling Hotbuns being infinitely smart, virtuous, creative, talented, fortuitous, wonderfully waggish, uniquely uncommon, beckoning, hunky, magnetic, seductive, & H O T (<– was that enough adjectives for you?), he is also a great, big, gigantic GEEK. I am telling you, we were made for each other — that one puzzle piece that fell out of the box at birth and suddenly it showed up in the most peculiar of places, but at the very perfectly precise time! After we met for the first time, we spent an entire (looong) week *just* talking before trying out a date. We would talk for incalculable hours (via phone, e-mail, text, instant messaging (absolutely no lulls!)) ALL DAY LONG…… at the flash the alarm went off & before we ever rolled out of bed it began. We had a bevy of things to talk about, but none more than when we both discovered the other was geeky! I remember that moment like it was 5 minutes ago… I asked him what his favorite dystopian science fiction books and films were. In nothing flat, he asked, “Do YOU have geek in you?!” This created a Niagara of feverish nerd symposium between us, and the deluge has never stopped. Beyond instant physical attraction, THIS was what made us both ferromagnetic — CLANK!! — causing a wicked high coercivity. We haven’t been able to demagnetize for more than a few hours since. ::flutter:: I have had relationships in the past with men who were mega geeky, successful & brilliant. I have had relationships in the past with men who were rugged, strong, & protectively alpha. I have even had mere weeklong relationships with gorgeous, alluring model-ly men before I couldn’t take another nanosecond of them nattering on & on about whey protein, boxers verses briefs, & Ferrari Testarossa’s. I felt dimmer upon leaving dinner, as if they were Brain Cell Vampires, suckering me into a lobotomy with their chiseled chest & bleached Chiclets’ beaming. But I have NEVER had ALL of those characteristics in one lone person — beauty, brains, courage, vindicating, AND all-out, full blast nerd. I have never found my perfect(ly coined) Renegade Geek. Well, not until now. #lovetothenthdegree

Continue reading »

A sunshiny dame can never have too many floppy hats! That’s a Angelika Frangelico motto.

Well, I’ve listed my 3 favorite accessories to you over the last month:

1) Sunglasses

2) Rings -&-

3) Hats

So, I’ve covered my mania over sunglasses & rings in previous posts — now I have none other left to prove than my preoccupation with HATS! Yippie skippy! Nothing says “Angelika Frangelico’s roots are showing” like a good, gleeful hat. Yet, no matter how many weeks of re-growth I have going on up there atop the think tank, I simply love wearing them! Darling Hotbuns always talks about how he looks dreadful in hats and this positively pangs me — I would & could NOT make it! That would be like putting a vat of cookie dough in front of a preschool and telling them they had to have rice cakes for snack time, or parking a Suburban-sized kennel of kittens & puppies in front of my house and asking me not to rescue them all. No! Wait! It’s like having a catapult rigged up in the back of your truck right at the moment you have an Andy Dick celebrity siting…… at a stop sign…… with two passengers in ski masks! It would be an impossible life for me if I couldn’t wear hats. Impossible, I tell you — this is a world crisis we’re talking! Alert the FBI, CIA, all battalions, FEMA, my hairstylist! Seriously, though… They make me warm & gooey on the inside, like a Boston Cream donut. (I think my blood sugar may be low. Let us just pretend it is so as to explain my (*ahem* every day) behavior. #alwaysblameitonamedicalcondition)
Continue reading »