new bloggy endeavor

Hello, friends!

I have an announcement to make, and I couldn't be more excited! I've decided to open up a new blog. It's called Oh, Hopscotch, and it can be found here http://ohhopscotch.blogspot.com/.

Now, I'm not abandoning Found in Translation. I love this little blog, but I'm going to bring it back to what I originally founded it for—a photo blog. It will be even more-so a visual documentation of what's shaking in my life.

Oh, Hopscotch is going to be dedicated to my creative life as an artist—what inspires me, my own recent works, crafts, and all that jazz. I hope to bring a little bit of inspiration into your lives, too. I've already populated it with a few posts, just to pique your interest. I have so much more in the works, I promise!

So please stop on by, give it a read, and maybe even add me to your reader if you like it that much! I'd be oh so flattered. Comments help me know what I'm doing right, or so horribly wrong.

So, still friends?

Yours Truly,
Val Smith

the zipper was stuck

I warned her it had happened to me before. "Oh, I won't get stuck," she insisted. After about ten hilarious, sweaty minutes of two of us tugging on either side, the dress finally came off and our status as friends was confirmed (having not wandered off and pretended not to know her). The best part? There was no dressing room at that thrift store.

The second best part? That dude in the background that is pointing and oggling.

Is it wrong to love a $216 swimsuit?

If it is, I don't wanna be right.

Okay, I'm not really going to buy it, even though it would be the perfect reward for all the hard work I've been putting in at the gym. AND we're going on a cruise this year... But if you have the means to, more power to you. It's a Betsey Johnson, and you can find it here at Urban Outfitters.

nervous doings

So, I had to get up super early this morning. I'm having a CT scan at 7:30, and I have to drink contrast material at evenly spaced intervals (while eating and drinking nothing else). I've drank the stuff before, but let me tell you, it is nasty. It might say "Vanilla Smoothie" on the bottle. It might have a cute little picture of a vanilla flower, and a soda shop glass filled with vanilla ice cream goodness. However, they can't disguise the fact that I'm ingesting barium, and it tastes like bland liquid vanilla yogurt.

Okay, maybe I'm a little anxious. This is going to be my third CT scan in as many years, and I know it doesn't hurt (since it's without the injectible dye), but hospitals always stress me out.

Last night I couldn't settle down. I flitted around the bedroom doing everything I could to avoid laying down, and having to think about the upcoming medical test, and crazy work day that will follow. To burn off some of that nervous energy, I put a lot of thought into my outfit for the morning. In fact, I made a scale (headless) model of myself. Yeah you should witness my creative brainpower when I have something serious to apply it to!Then, just because they're cute, I took some pictures of the pugs.