weekend adventures 10

This was an extra long and extra fun weekend! Four whole days to be exact. I feel like I fit so many fun things into one single weekend that I will have to split up this entry into a few others. Therefor I will be adding more detailed entries throughout the week.


thursday (thanksgiving)
This year me and Meagan had Thanksgiving with our Mom, so we spent the day in Sherwood at my step dad's brothers... well, farm, for lack of a better word. (They have a bunch of land and a cow, so I think that qualifies as a farm). I got to see my favorite Grandma Norma, visit with my awesome little sister, and the mashed potatoes were excellent, So I can't complain. After the festivities we went back to my Moms for the night and watched "Christmas Vacation", which totally put me in the holiday spirit!

[[ meagan laughing. cow. turkey shaker. grandparents. tights. dinner aka mashed potatoes. moms cat felix. sorry. ]]

friday
After a late breakfast I headed out to pick up my friend Megan and take her to get her third tattoo! It took about three hours from stencil to completion, but I think it turned out exactly how she imagined it and I am very happy for her! I have now gone and documented the tattooing of a friend six times. Someday it will be my turn. I think people are more surprised than not that I do not have any tattoos yet. (more on this tomorrow).

Afterwards we headed over to Colleens house and met Tiffany and Sam for some drinks and silliness. It was an awesome day.

[[ tattoo parlor. work in progress. fancy drink. pomegranate seeds. ]]

saturday
I hung out at my Dads house and we all decided to go get a Christmas tree (or two in our case). One of the great things about living in Oregon is that pretty much no matter where you live all you have to do to get a tree is drive ten minutes away from the suburbs. We drove down past Helvetia Tavern to a farm and started searching. When we left my Dads place it was cold out, but perfectly sunny, but by the time we had gotten deep into the tree farm it was stormy and pouring down rain. Lucky us. When we finally found two Patty approved trees everyone was a cold and muddy mess. Either way I think we all had fun. Especially the little girls and Dest who were running around with sticks yelling out Harry Potter spells at each other in attempted British accents. I personally, took a bunch of pictures the whole time (an image heavy christmas tree hunt post coming later this week).

Everyone changed into sweats when we got back home and relaxed. me and Meagan stayed up late watching "A Muppet Christmas Carol" (one of our favorite childhood holiday movies).

[[ christmas tree hunting preview... more images coming soon. ]]

sunday
I met Megan at the mall to do a little Christmas shopping and then headed home. Traffic was pretty bad due to an accident, but I made it eventually.

And thus concludes an awesome four day weekend in PDX! I saw my family, hung out with friends, documented a tattooing, picked out a tree, and even did a little bit of Christmas shopping. Not too shabby.

monday monday

I had an amazing four day weekend up in Portland! It was much needed. More on that tomorrow and throughout the week though...

Sometimes I find that it is hard to get back in the swing of things, even if I have only been absent for a few days. Today was no exception and felt very much like a Monday. One good thing is that I have pretty much come up with a list of everything I am getting/making for Christmas this year, which puts me pretty on top of things. Now if only I could make shipping fees disappear. Hmm...

[[ dress up in my sisters fake glasses from halloween ]]

I have been on my computer all day...
This is what I feel like right now...

giving thanks.

At exactly 5pm my four day weekend begins! Yay! I am super excited to get away to Portland for a weekend and see my friends, family, and maybe do a little christmas shopping. although snow is still lingering the roads are clear and that is very good news for me. I also decided that I would rather leave tomorrow morning, that way I have plenty of time to pack and get ready before I leave. Fingers crossed that traffic is not a huge mess.

i am thankful for

-  my loverly boyfriend: I am so beyond happy that I have you in my life.

-  my family: I love and appreciate all of you.

-  my friends: I feel really honored to have such a great group of you!!

-  my job: I am so thankful to be employed and have a steady income.

-  my house: I am happy to live in such a nice place while I am in Corvallis. 

-  me & Pats biggest purchase together.

-  the health of myself and those around me.

-  mashed potatoes, green beans, turkey, and most importantly... pumpkin pie!

-  so many other things that i will not bore you with. 

[[ HAPPY THANKSGIVING ! ]]

snowww

Last night it started snowing in Corvallis.

1) It is amazing that it is already snowing (and sticking) in November. 2) I have high hopes that I will get plenty of time this year to play in the snow based on its early appearance. 3) I really need to get some snow gear asap. 4) I cannot decide if I like this or not.

On one hand: I love the snow! It is beautiful, especially in the mornings when everything is so still and silent. Snow also brings along fun activities like snowball fights, attempting to build a fabulous snowman, or catching snow flakes in your mouth and singing the "if all the rain drops were lemon drops and gum drops" song.

On the other hand: this morning was my first ever experience driving in the snow, and though I only slid around a little bit when forced to break, I am pretty much terrified/super nervous about driving home to Portland for Thanksgiving tomorrow night or Thursday morning (I have not quite decided yet). Pat will be going to see his family in Bend, and taking the Subaru, so I will be forced to take the new car, which handles a LOT differently. I guess I just have to wait and see what tomorrow brings me.

In the meantime, here are some lovely snowy pictures I took today.

[[ branches against the snow white sky. tracks. frontyard. backyard. three. road. ]]

weekend adventures 9

This weekend was pretty solid. I got in a movie. Some drinks. A winning football game. Delicious breakfast with friends. And some super cozy footie pajamas.



friday night
Me and Pat drove up to Salem to see the new Harry Potter movie at Cinebarre (as i mentioned before). The theatre was pretty damn nice. Every other row of seats in a traditional movie theatre was taken out to make space for tables for your beer and food. There were even servers who walked around bringing you everything so that you could stay put. Me and Pat got a pitcher of Rogue Dead Guy Ale and some chicken strips that were actually pretty delicious. The other thing that was pretty cool, aside from the sweet vintage movie posters hanging up in the lobby, were the short films (often student work) that played before the movie rather than advertisements.

Personally I was a little lost during the movie, not having read The Deathly Hollows previously. Pat seemed to like it, though he says they left out like 13 chapters in the beginning. I am on Order of the Phoenix right now, and plan to catch up and then see the movie again for some new perspective.

saturday

There was a home game between OSU and USC in the evening, so me and Pat were on campus all day working. The day itself was pretty uneventful work wise, but OSU FINALLY came out to play and we beat USC 36-7. 

[[ movie theatre. reeser stadium. one heart. i found balloons. ]]

sunday
We got up 'early', well earlier then I wanted to, and drove up to Albany to meet our friends Brad, Alia, Nate, and Alicia for breakfast at a diner style restaurant that had some seriously crazy french toast on the menu. Me and Pat stuck to omelets, but the other boys each got the peanut butter honey french toast topped with a corn flake crust (I believe). It was seriously epic. I had one bite and felt like I ate an entire piece of cake! My menu choice was delicious though, so it was well worth the drive.

After breakfast me and Pat went to Fred Meyer for some actual things we needed, but ended up coming home with some animal footie pajamas (inspired by Sam Lee)! I am not sure if I included a picture or not since he was pretty illusive at the time, but Sam was a panda for Halloween, and ever since then I have wanted to get my hands on the onesie he wore. Finally we found them, and I went home with a very comfortable frog version... (I am a really big little kid).

[[ icy sunny morning. pat and toby. faux stone wall, so cheesy, but i love it. breakfast restaurant. frog. succulents. ]]

HP 7

Super excited its Friday! Even though I am working the game tomorrow, I still get to sleep in a little bit this weekend, and that is something to be excited about. also, as soon as I get off work me and Pat are heading to Salem to grab some drinks and go see Harry Potter And The Deathly Hollows Part I (longest movie title ever) at Cinebarre, which is an over 21 movie theatre and bar. Awesome. Come on 5 pm!

[[ screenshots from the movie i found online ]]

geometry

Oh my! This week is going by incredibly fast!!! I can't believe it is already Thursday night. I have been super busy at work, which makes my 8:30-5 over in a snap. I can't complain. It doesn't hurt that Megan was able to sneak on Skype and we killed some time talking about tattoos, one of my favorite subjects.

Also, today I wore this awesome sweater from F21... it is navy and grey, super cozy, not too tight, and I love the geometrical-ish pattern on the side. However, even a sweater is not enough to keep me warm outside, it was pretty chilly out. I pretty much always carry a scarf around with me these days (mostly that green one right there), and my hooded leather jacket was perfect for outside time today.

[[ killing my last five minutes at work today. ]]

grenades, wine, and a book.

One of my least favorite things is when a new video game comes out... let me be more specific... when a new shooter video game comes out that Pat is interested in. I get the pleasure of listening to fake explosion sounds and Pat yelling to his friends "What the *%$# I totally got like five headshots, how is that guy still standing!?" All night.

Thanks to Call of Duty, I have not exactly been able to enjoy much company from the boys this week... So in order to feel somewhat constructive, I poured myself a glass of wine and decided to FINALLY revisit "A Lion Among Men". I have been sort of reluctant to read it because it fills me with memories every time i pick it up, and I sort of feel as though it is my last real connection to Johni. I am not really sure how to explain it, but I am hesitant to actually finish the book... although last night I read about 60 pages unintentionally. I think I will try to finish the section that I am on tonight, but I am not sure if I want to move on much further past that just yet. Soon though...

[[ canas feast wine. pasta with chicken for dinner. book. halloween candy. ]]

weekend adventures 8

I wouldn't really say that this weekend was as eventful as I had hoped, due to the fact that I had to be at Reeser Stadium at 8:30 in the morning on Saturday and only really got Sunday to myself. but at least I got out of the house a bit more this time. Either way, I am really looking forward to Thanksgiving weekend for a change in scenery.

saturday
It was cold and rainy out all day long, and I was extremely happy to be working inside on the Club Level with heaters and everything. Although, just to ensure warmth I was wearing leggings underneath my pants and two pairs of socks (I could have used three). My older brother Nick, Dad, and two of his friends ended up getting club tickets to the game, so I got to see them which was awesome! I always miss my family when I don't get to see them for a while... especially my Dad and sisters. Unfortunately they were not able to wait around afterwards at all, so it was a short visit. After the game me, Tony, and Pat were all so exhausted we decided to just put on sweats, drink some beers, and watch Tom and Jerry Cartoons... which were in Spanish... for some reason.

sunday
We went to breakfast at the newly reopened Tommy's (again). I think it has become our favorite breakfast place in town since the others seem to be overpriced and dropping in food quality. It definitely hit the spot and made sunday feel more like a real weekend day. My friend Megan had come to town to go out with some friends on Saturday, so on Sunday i picked her up and we drove to Eugene to run to the mall for a bit. This worked out really nicely for me since I absolutely had to get there and was dreading going alone. I had bought some Oxfords at Forever 21 a while back, and though they were completely perfect, they were a little too big, so they had to go. :( As usual I ended up coming home with some new goodies though, including a purse (on sale) that I had my eye on for a long time, and some earmuffs, finally, which have now been destroyed by Loki. When we got back in town we were sleepy and decided to climb into my bed and watch 'The Sweetest Thing', which we used to always watch in high school. Admittedly it is a pretty terrible movie, like seriously terrible, but it always makes me laugh and think of past adventures.

[[ cloudy drive to eugene. ]]

bad dog !

So... yesterday i FINALLY found some perfect white fuzzy earmuffs after searching aimlessly for a million years, (seriously, i have been trying to find some since last year). I was so excited when I got home from shopping that I wore them around the house for a little while. This morning when I left for work I noticed that it would not be that cold outside, so I left the earmuffs, along with my gloves, safely tucked away on our tall glass table by the front door.

After working all day I got home only to find that not only had Loki shredded a bunch of paper (a new habit for him) making a big mess, and taken Pat's very expensive headphones out of their travel bag, leaving them on the floor (some how without teeth marks thank goodness).... He had also completely eaten my earmuffs! :( Sad day. He completely chewed them up and ripped them apart, which also means that he climbed up to reach them off the glass table. That, along with the chewing, is a super big no no. Sad jenn. Bad dog.

[[ rip earmuffs. weird histamatic colors. ]]

brrrrrr

I think I underestimated how much of a wimp I am when it comes to cold weather. I really need to invest in some good quality gloves, not mittens, and most importantly (since I have hand wear to tie me over) earmuffs!!! After all, it is hard to wear a knit hat when your hair is up like mine is now.

I found some really cool gloves that have a special material on the index finger that allows you to still use your iPhones, or other touch screen devices with the gloves on. This is a true necessity! I also love the idea of getting some cute leather like gloves for when i want to be a little bit more fancy. Finally, I cannot help but look at wool coats, even though I have two already (a black and a grey one). A white or patterned version would be nice to add to my collection.

[[ COATS: "caught on guard coat" - modcloth. "purple plaid majesty coat" - modcloth. "all warm and cozy coat" - modcloth. "first snow of the season coat" - modcloth. GLOVES: "classic leather gloves" in purple - urban outfitters. "zipper trim leather gloves" in black - target. "echo 'driver touch' wool blend gloves" in taupe, chartreuse, and lacquer red - nordstrom. "merona ruffle glove" in purple - target. EARMUFFS: "winter bloom earmuffs" in evergreen - modcloth. "ralph lauren cable knit earmuffs" in white - macys. ]]

I am not sold on either of these earmuffs... they are both a little on the pricey side, and I would prefer a nice grey. However, I am leaning highly towards a pair of the special touch screen gloves from Nordstrom in one of the following colors, and either of the leather pairs from Target (which are much more affordable than the Urban Outfitters version). The coats I just think are adorable... I am not sure I can justify buying one of them at the moment, though the white or black and white checkered versions would make great additions to my closet.

date night

I wanted to break up the week a little bit, so I suggested a little date night...  After work me and Pat headed over to Big River for some dinner and drinks, it was delicious. We were even lucky enough to score a spot on the cozy couch next to the fire! I got a Greyhound (of course), Pat got an 'El Toreador' which consists of habanero vodka and passion fruit. It is such an interesting combination of flavors, and pretty much Pats favorite. At first I hated it, but the spice sensation is growing on me. We also shared a gigantic chicken salad. I think we need to have nights like this more often for sure.

[[ pat drinking his cocktail. greyhound. fireplace. ]]

book collection.

Me and Pat started collecting the special additions of some classic books released by Barnes & Noble a while ago. At this point we have almost all of them. Although I have read some of these copies, I must admit that they are mostly for display based on their interesting designs both individually and as a series. I think this is starting to be a problem though... there are so many amazing redesigns and I want them all! Like these F. Scott Fitzgeralds by Penguin Classics! They would look so pretty on a bookshelf.

[[ beautiful redesigns of f. scott fitzgeralds classics. i want. ]]

P.S. I would like to wish a very Happy Birthday to my Step Mom Patty!! Thanks for always being there for me and Megs when we really need you. (I highly doubt she will look at this, but I thought it was worth noting).

little things

I feel like sometimes it is easy to get caught up in the monotony of the ever returning work week (especially with the weather taking a swift turn for the worse) and forget to instead focus on all of the little things that make you happy throughout your day/week/month/year.

As I left my house this morning, admittedly running late as usual, I was not exactly feeling excited to embrace the cold and get to work. With the weather being under 50 degrees I climbed into my car, turned up the heat, and started the short drive to work in a less than eager fashion. To my surprise I hit every traffic light on the way at the perfect moment and made it to the office in under two minutes (literally)... It may seem like a little thing, but the fact that I did not have to slow down to a halt due to a mini van with no turn signal, or someone bravely running across the street barely escaping oncoming traffic was an awesome change of pace. It instantly put me in a great mood, and I decided to allow myself to focus on the little things that made my day great instead of focusing on being tired, cold, or bored at work.

Here are the little things that made me happy today...

[[ allowing myself to purchase a non fat latte from across the street. being greeted by a boyfriend and a chocolate lab who were both happy to see me for lunch. being able to seamlessly toggle work with... other 'work' using my hot corners. re-watching modern family season 1 with pat on my lunch breaks. playing with some new fonts i downloaded. the cinnamon broom i bought from trader joes which makes my entire living room smell amazing. yummy clam chowder for lunch. listening to "the goblet of fire" all day at work. the fact that this work day went by quickly. ]]

Thank you cooperative traffic lights. Today was a good day.

weekend adventures 7

Like i mentioned on friday, I did not have anything planned for this weekend... so I pretty much just hung out at home and relaxed the whole time. It was pretty nice, although I do not think I would know what to do with myself given another weekend in a row like it. Unfortunately Pat had to work at various sporting events the whole time, and was not able to share my relaxation.


friday night
While Pat was working I started on the last season of Project Runway, which I completely missed when it was aired over the Summer. (It is hard for me to watch "girl" TV shows or movies since I live with so many boys, so I have to sneak them in whenever I get a chance to myself). I only made it through the 3rd episode, but I was feeling pretty fulfilled. Thoughts so far: 1) I think it is awesome that there is constantly an aspiring designer from PDX! 2) I really like the style of the girl this time, I would pretty much wear all of it gladly. 3) She seems to be way too full of herself, which is unfortunate.


saturday
My Saturday was spent catching up on a little cleaning (since our room has a tendency to become messy throughout the week via me throwing clothes everywhere), re-watching Californication with Hayden, doing some "reading" (book on tape) of Harry Potter in preparation for the new movie, and sketching out some ideas for paintings and design projects to play with in the future. I know that does not sound like much, but it did feel like I got a decent amount accomplished for a day at home. Me and Pat even made a delicious dinner! Bacon wrapped scallops. I always forget to take pictures of our pretty food though, I just get so excited to eat it!!! I really need to get better at this.

[[ californication. hot cocoa mmm. rainy backyard. raking. leaves saved for my little project. candle. loki enjoying lots of attention. rough sketches for upcoming projects. ]]

sunday
It was cold and windy and rainy outside and all I wanted to do was curl up in a blanket in front of the fireplace and drink hot chocolate. Instead, me and Hayden braved the weather to rake up some leaves. Super fun stuff. I did collect a few pretty leaves, and I have a small project in mind for them to make our living room look more fall festive (as inspired by cashmere and cupcakes). Pat was so happy with our raking that when he got off work he made us hot chocolate! And since I have no fireplace, I curled up next to some yummy candles instead. It was a pretty good weekend at home.

tgifff

Today work sort of crept up on me and it was not very enjoyable. But now the weekend is about to begin and I am pretty excited to just relax. I literally have nothing planned for once, which means I will probably not know what to do with myself. My goal is to at least work on some sketches for a painting of some sort. I have a ton of ideas, but have not been able to get myself motivated lately, so fingers crossed I can get something together over the next few days.

[[ the fabric in the background is from some sweet lacy pj shorts i bought a few weeks ago. polish (la girl - matte blue twilight). ]]

halloween pictures

Going through my pictures from the Halloween party, I am realizing that I did not take as many good ones of our awesome decorations as I should have! But I do have some pretty good ones of me and Pat...  Enjoy.

[[ me & pat aka sherlock holmes and dr. watson, with our fabulous mustaches. decorations. megan sharing my mustache. the kitchen. front room. puppy. the outside of the house. ]]

( Side note: I completely forgot to wear the black lace fingerless gloves I bought for my costume, oops. Sad day. I will have to work them into some other fancy outfit I suppose. )

baby shower.

Oh my god, I know I am terrible about posting Halloween pictures of me and Pat this week!! I PROMISE I will put some up tomorrow. Right now I have to run out the door to a baby shower for Pats step brother Chris and his lady Mandee. They are having a little boy, and we got him some awesome baby Beaver gear. It is pretty much the most adorable thing ever!

[[ mesh jersey romper. jr. bennies. long sleeve romper. sweat pants. ]]

día de los muertos

I will be back with Halloween pictures tomorrow, but I wanted to talk about a completely separate holiday today - Day of the Dead, since it is the last day of the celebration. I am not Hispanic at all, but I have a deep appreciation for the nature of this traditionally Mexican holiday. Not only is the imagery associated with it amazingly beautiful, but the meaning behind it is something that I think should be celebrated by all.

[[ part of a day of the dead colored pencil project i did in freaking high school (aka, a million years ago), we had to pick a holiday to base our work off of... i was the only one who picked this one. ]]

Please excuse my ignorance if I have some of this information incorrect. To my understanding, Day of the Dead is a three day celebration (beginning at midnight on october 31st, and going on through november 2nd) where families come together to honor their deceased friends and relatives by decorating their graves, enjoying their favorite foods, sharing stories and prayers, and leaving offerings behind. Though it seems to me that there is some mourning involved, the events are primarily a celebration of the lives of the dead. Religion aside, I appreciate the idea of acknowledging the dead publicly in a happy light, rather than avoiding the subject, like we seem to do here. I believe that there is a lot to learn from many other cultures.

Here are some beautiful 'La Catrina' illustrations by Stella Latwinski lovelovelove. I really want to try to paint something inspired by these! They are seriously amazing.

I am currently drinking a freshly squeezed Grayhound for you Ms. Keller. I even used an entire juicy grapefruit. ♥

weekend adventures 6

Halloween weekend did not necessarily go off as planned... but regardless we had plenty of drinks, lots of friends over, the decorations looked amazing, and our costumes turned out pretty close to perfect, so looking back I can't complain too much about the overall outcome.


saturday [halloween eve]
Game day. The alarm went off at 6:30 AM (no thank you). We were at the stadium by 8. It was a great game though, OSU dominated the scoreboard, literally dominated it. I was able to get home by 6, unfortunately there were some intoxicated visitors there making it very difficult for us to finish setting up for the party, so I started getting a little stressed out right off the bat. It didn't help when people started showing up two hours early! Our friends are always late, so I figured 9:00 meant more like 10:30, but this time it meant 7:30 to some. Not a huge deal, except that I had not even started getting in costume, and I have this tendency to want everything to look perfect before people show up.

[[ down on the field during the game. ]]

Once I got downstairs everyone was at the house. Rory even brought over his baby white lab Harlow to play with us!!! (So adorable I could hardly even stand it). Against all odds, I think that me and Pats costumes turned out pretty damn good.Ii love seeing my little dress up plans come together! Here is a blurry preview of our costumes, and some friends in costume... I will post the actual pictures of us and the house later this week.   :)

[[ alia & harlow (pumpkin/flight attendant). tony (fat lady). colleen (sushy roll). nate & alicia (???/army brat). fletcher (nerd). whitney (purple parrot - legends of the hidden temple). megan (tom cruise - risky business). brad & alia (pilot/flight attendant). ]] 

sunday [halloween]
We got off to a slow start on Sunday, but eventually made it over to the recently reopened Tommy's restaurant for some breakfast (delicious by the way). The rest of the day consisted of a lot of cleaning. Megan decided to stay the night and helped me redecorate the porch and entry area for trick or treaters. Unfortunately the only one we got was Hayden, pats little brother. It was kind of a bummer, but I had fun. We even dressed up again, sort of. Megan put on some antennas and big aviators to be a bug, and I put on some cat ears and drew on whiskers with eye liner.

Halloween party post coming soon...