wait, homework?!

I have been editing imagery for work all day and all night. I am finally forcing myself to call it quits for now. Where did my relaxing Monday night go? I feel like this is going to be an extremely busy week based on the events of today...

[[ crappy screenshots. perpetual loading screen. photoshop really didn't like my huge files! ]]

tgiffff

Oh man, this week was intense! Things at work have been progressively getting busier and busier and I feel like today kind of kicked my ass. But, no mind, it is officially the weekend!!! And I have some fun things planned. Oregon State's Pinkout was tonight, but more on that later. Tomorrow me and Pat are taking a trip to IKEA (danger danger), hopefully we/I don't get too carried away. I love that place.

[[ sunny sky contrast. silly bright bule polish (la girl : disco - deejay) never mind the chipping. owl. ]]

"it's not like we kill people... on purpose..."

I hardly ever get any time just to myself, which is fine, because I do not really like it anyway! Leave me alone for more than a few hours and I start to go insane, I just have no idea what to do with myself. That being said... Tonight while Pat was working and everyone else was out of the house, I decided to take advantage of a free living room and watch one of my favorite movies from high school, 'Jawbreaker' (granted I was not yet in high school when this movie came out).

As far as films go, it is not a great movie. But in terms of movies for teenage girls, it is way up there for its dark dark humor. I was a little young for 'The Heathers' originally, but I hear that this movie is a poor version of that, so I feel like I should probably check it out soon.

[[ jawbreaker screenshots, 1999. ]]

My favorite things about this movie were/are:

1) The clothing: No one dresses like this in high school. They are risque with a retro vibe, and the color palates are great.
2) This theme carries over into their houses/bedrooms/cars/locations...
3) The soundtrack is not too shabby.
4) This movie is super weird and pretty messed up... what more could you want.

midweek inspiration 1

I have been thinking that I need some more regular features on here, and since I collect inspirational imagery on a daily basis, why not start by focusing on an artist or work of art of some kind that I am interested in, or want to talk about each week? And since I could really use a pick me up today, Wednesday it is. (I think I will work on the title a little)...

Today has been a beast if a day, so I wanted to pick something whimsical and imaginative. Thus I am posting about some beautiful oil paintings on wood by Marisol Spoon (who as it turns out is not one person, but a husband and wife team). I love the sort of odd portraits and vibrant colors, like you are in a fairytale of some kind. The following are my favorites.

[[ "stella of the sea". "rose". "evelyn". "a long trip to tea time". ]]

weekend adventures 16

What a glorious and relaxing weekend I had, finally! I stayed in Corvallis with no agenda at all and it was fantastic. I was feeling really overwhelmed towards the end of the week with projects, so it felt great to just kick back and play it by ear. (I do not understand that expression).



friday
After I got off work everything was seriously mellow. Believe me, I was counting down the minutes this time. I went home and worked on compiling some images from that blasted painting to post, made me and Pat some dinner, relaxed, and went to sleep. Thats it, and it was grand.


saturday
After sleeping in, me, Loki, and Pat met up with our friend Rory and his six month old white lab Harlow at a nearby field so that the dogs could play for a bit. It was crisp outside, but extremely sunny. An very welcomed weather condition in my book. It was one of those days where it just felt great to be outside, so we ended up washing both of the cars (the Subaru especially REALLY needed it). Later that night we had some people over, and the guys played many games of beer pong, while I watched. The night ended with me and Adam sitting in the living room watching 'Back to the Future' (a seriously fantastic movie), while everyone around us fell asleep. I heart Marty McFly.

[[ puppy play time! loki and harlow (white lab). she is so damn cute! ]]

sunday
Hayden and Tony played video games. Pat went to work. And I, got in to trouble... I intended to simply go to Michaels to swap a picture frame for a larger size, but I ended up next door at TJ Max buying all kinds of business for the house. Oops. I got some pretty sweet stuff though. Guest bathroom makeover is officially in the works! (evil laugh). ... But, more on that later.

[[ shiny clean sexy car. michael j. fox is a badass. decorations for my bathroom project. candlesticks before... ]]

That's about it. A nice relaxing weekend in Corvallis. I feel much more refreshed going in to this week.

snow leopard

So... I am a little bit behind on my computer updating. In fact, I have been putting this off for quite a long time. Tonight I finally upgraded EVERYTHING. It took me about five hours, partly due to the fact that I had over 2,000 images to upload from my phone. Yuck. I have a little bit more to do, but by tomorrow night all of my programs should be up to date and good to go!

Here are some of my favorite misc. images I found while sorting:

[[ "everything is going to be ok" hot air balloons on 34 on a very important day. birthday bouquet from my love. seaside oregon over the summer. literal kid in a candy store. birthday bouquet version two, this one was a bit more... natural? beautiful crisp fall day in corvallis. apples. megans monster mash monster plush edger?, made by colleen. ]]

Ok, it is seriously bedtime. My brain is fried.

j & t

Sorry I did not post anything thursday or friday, my week got a little out of control busy. I meant to post some pictures of the painting that I did for Tiffany earlier in the week, so here we go now. Unfortunately I have pretty terrible pictures of it from my phone because I could not get to my camera at the time. Sad day. Hopefully you get the idea, and even more hopefully she likes it. I had to include my wrapping job at the bottom because I was pretty pleased with myself. P.S. It felt great to be painting again.

Have a great weekend! Hopefully I can get caught up on sleep/cleaning/relaxing, things I have been seriously neglecting lately.

happy birthday tony

I was going to show off my painting today, but it will have to wait. Today is my roomate Tonys birthday, and we are getting things ready to have a few people over and surprise him with dinner, drinks, and of course cake. Hopefully he likes it.

Here is a card I made for him... 

I didn't quite have time to finish it off how I wanted, but you get the idea.

weekend adventures 15

Last weekend was short, but i packed a lot of fun little activities into it. There was a lot of driving. A torrential downpour. An extensive cheesecake hunting. Downtown misadventures. An accidental... date night? Antique shopping. And dinner with Pats family.


friday night
Friday was not eventful. I was home in corvallis frantically trying to finish up Tiffany's wedding gift and get to bed soon enough to get up early with little consequence. This did not happen. Though I did complete her gift, which was after all, the most important part of my evening. More on that tomorrow.

saturday
Tiffany's Bridal Shower was in the afternoon at her parents house in Gresham, which by the way is sooooo far out there, I seriously thought we were driving to another country! I got up early (with not much sleep), got ready, and headed to Beaverton to pick up Megan, and a cheesecake. Little did I know I was about to have a 'super fun' adventure. According to Tiffanys sister Alicia, I was supposed to bring a cheesecake and some cherries to the party... This turned out to be no easy task. Me and Megan visited and called about eight different grocery stores throughout Portland, Beaverton, and Gresham before FINALLY finding the cake right before the party only to discover that someone else brought one already. It was highly entertaining however running around all over the place in the rain, in dresses, trying not to get soaked. I am sure we looked like idiots sharing our tiny umbrella while cursing Paula Dean for stealing Oregon's cheesecake surplus (the most logical explanation for the lack of cake).

Moving on... the shower was really nice, there were little snacks and lots of little dogs to play with. One in particular I wanted to steal. So cute. Tiff got a TON of kitchen items, a beautiful robe, a Shakeweight, and some Snuggies for her and Jason. Megan got her a super sparkly scrapbooking album (I noticed that you do that when we were first hanging out, hopefully you still do!) and I gave her my painting.

[[ tiff. cake cookie. group. ]]

saturday night
Me and Megan met back up with Tiffany and her fiance Jason for a drink and some silliness before deciding to go downtown and get some drinks. It was POURING and extremely windy. We parked as close as we could to Vault martini bar, which was NOT close, and then braved the trek to the bar. Unfortunately it was filled with... lets say, not really our crowd... so we took off and decided to head over to the East side for something a little more mellow. We ended up at a bar called The Sapphire Hotel. It was really cute and little, decorated with lanterns, peacock feathers, and minimal lighting. After we were there for a while though I noticed that we were literally the only non couple in the place...... so maybe it was our date night? I wonder if they thought we were on a date... silly. It was a perfect mellow Saturday night though.

[[ sapphire hotel menu. bar. frame. red. ]]

sunday
I packed up my stuff, grabbed Megan, and we headed back over to the East side to hit up the vintage shops on Hawthorne! I have been wanting to go again for a really long time. We both got some goodies. I picked up a poster (soon to be framed and hung in my entrance area), a dress, some sweet necklaces, old Life magazines (for my dad), a birthday present for Colleen, a pair of Oxfords, a souvenir for Pat, and a sweet vintage colored glass candy bowl for my nail polish stash! Finally we took off and I headed to Salem to meet Pats family for dinner, and that was pretty much my weekend. Not too shabby.

[[ awesome car. sequin pants. magazines/book i bought. urkle. awesome chest i will be replicating soon. vintage shop. tea set i should have picked up. dick tracy. my new necklaces: scissors, grenade, birds, chain. polish bowl. souvenirs. boo, bridge. sunbreak. ]]

Since seeing my polish/candy bowl in action, Pat has forbidden me from purchasing any more nail polish... yea right.

monday, sun-day

I had a pretty awesome weekend, I feel like I got a ton accomplished, and I am really excited to post about my Sunday adventures, and my art project for Tiffany I had been working on all last week. Hint, it was a painting... the first one I have done since Johni passed away, and it felt great to be doing it again. Today work was really busy though, so I will be posting my weekend adventures tomorrow instead of tonight.

I was surprised to see the sun conquer the clouds for a bit and make an appearance today after the endless days of rain we have been having. I could not help but snap a few pictures.

[[ sunbeams on 2nd street. ]]

time crunccch

Sorry, this is going to be a short post... Tomorrow is the bridal shower for Ms. Tiffany Williams and I have a lot to do finishing up her present. *wink* I wish that I could post my progress on here, but she absolutely reads this and I do not want to spoil anything.

My Friday night goes as follows:

- listen to loud rock music.  - paint.  - design.  - print.  - package.  - wrap.  - take care of super sick boyfriend.  - clean.   - pack.  - sleep.

Not very exciting, I know, but I have to get up early and get my ass up to Portland. Tomorrow will make up for it though, I get to see my two best girlfriends at once and I have a free night... who knows what kind of trouble I will get myself into. Lots hopefully.

(check out the sweet wrapping supplies I found at the dollar tree!)

[[ hint. sparkles. paper. bow. ]]

Alright, back to work.

nice threads.

Earlier this week I came home to find a giant F21 box with my name on it!! Granted I had ordered all of these items myself, but I was still excited. Thank you Christmas gift cards. Its not a terrible thing to be hard to shop for.

A few things are definitely going back to the store when I am in Portland this weekend... I feel like they have the most spastic sizing ever. I don't think that online shopping is tremendously kind to anyone. Though, I did recently do pretty good at Urban Outfitters when I was online shoe shopping for Tiffs wedding. Side note, I normally hate graphic tees, but the hoodie on the top right says "these are our glory days" and for some reason I just love it!

[[ giant box. "these are our glory days". the pile. seagulls. grey oxfords. sunglasses. buttons and stripes. hello. ]]

cleaning house, and finding treasure.

Me and my laptop have been through a lot together since I got it in... lets say, 2007. I have a couple external hard drives that I load everything onto when I need to clear out some space, but I have not done a full overhaul EVER. So, since the end of last week I have been going through seriously thousands of files, deleting, organizing, and cataloguing them properly. I have now freed up 40GBs of space, 31 just today. All I have left to do is document my Safari bookmarks, and I can wipe this baby clean and start over with Snow Leopard and Adobe CS5. Yay! It is about time.

Anyway, while I was going through all of my pictures and images saved in the hugely messy "Inspiration" folder I had on my desktop, I decided I should put a few things up on here. Some of these artist absolutely deserve a full post to themselves. (coming soon ??) I apologize that many of the sources are unknown... I have been saving up imagery for years without paying much attention, shame on me.

[[ sources unknown unless otherwise noted below. *'s below indicate that the artist will be getting their own post soon. ]]

 - "Z" - by Jessica Hische on her project Daily Drop Cap *

 - Ferris Wheel Image (title unknown) - by Alice B. Gardens (found on Creature Comforts)

 - Web Page - by Andres Yeah

 - Bone Girl (title unknown) - by Audrey Kawasaki (my favorite painter thus far) *

 - "The Shining" Movie Poster - by Moxy Creative *

Some of these others I am determined to find the sources for! ...but for now, I need to eat some dinner. 

(side note: I think something like this may need to be a weekly feature...)

harry potter?

Quite a while ago Pat started listening to the Harry Potter audiobooks. I made fun of him because I thought it was really silly to be listening to a book instead of reading one, and Harry Potter at that. I have now officially eaten my words completely.

I initially resisted the Harry Potter obsession due to my little sisters constant attempts at impersonating a british accent, and based on my impression that this series was for children after the first movie was released back in 2001. Therefor I never really had any desire to read any of the books... until the story started getting a bit darker, as evident by the films. Then it sparked a bit more of my interest.

So, over the summer I started listening to each of the seven books chronologically while it was a bit slower at work. I JUST finished the second part of the last book 'Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows'. 1) I currently feel like the biggest nerd ever. 2) It was soooo good. 3) I would definitely listen to the whole series over again, in fact, I might at some point. 4) I am kind of sad that I finished it, that must mean it is good. And 5) I would absolutely recommend the Harry Potter audiobooks (as read by Jim Dale) to anyone who has some time to listen to them.

My apologies to Pat. ♥

[[ harry potter box set. and yes, pat does own this. i bought it for his birthday. ]]

P.S. Sorry Edward/Jacob lovers, I'm still NOT into Twilight. :)

weekend adventures 14

This weekend was super relaxing because I had no where in Portland to run off to. It felt kinda nice to stick around at home for a few days.

friday
A few months ago I had met up for dinner with my friend Laura from my days in Ashland at SOU (here & here). Friday night she sent me a message letting me know that she was back in Corvallis and that we should meet up again soon, so I called her up and we went out for drinks and pizza at Crowbar downtown. It was really fun catching up some more. We had sort of lost touch after a bit of a falling out back then, but obviously, we are both completely different people now. It is weird to get back together with someone like that because it is almost as if no time has passed. Makes for an easy 'new' friend. Anyway, we had a lot of fun and ended up going back to my house to play some games on Hayden's new xbox Kinect, which is super fun by the way. Unfortunately I got a little bit too in to bowling and ended up scrapping the leather off of my favorite pair of boots! :( :( :(

[[ me/laura then: 2004. laura now. my ruined shoe. me on saturday wearing my new oversized menswear shirt from h&m. screenshots of me and pat playing w the kinect. ]]

saturday
In an attempt to recognize one of my New Years Resolutions I started organizing some seriously messy areas of our house, like the 'vacant' but not so vacant bedroom we have yet to rent out. It took me all day, but it is a lot more organized now. I still have a long way to go though with all of my art supplies which can no longer be stuffed into the hall closet. I need an office again... bad. After all of that, we had some people over, most notably Pat's friend Adam who we had not seen in a while, along with Megan, who I convinced to drive the hour down to Corvallis at 10:30pm! Now that is a friend. We ended up having a lot of fun. :)

sunday
Sunday was a super lazy day. We had biscuits and gravy, courtesy of my lovely boyfriend (delicious as always), watched movies, played games, went to sleep. The end. Super relaxing. Just what I needed. In fact, today I actually feel refreshed for once.

new years resolutions

Everybody thinks about them... this year I decided to write some of them down. Let's see how well I do with numbers two and five. I have a few more plans for the future as well... but they all involve me working towards a niche of my own, so I will group that in with number 10.


First off, and most importantly:
- Always be good/true to myself and others. ♥

nye @ the nines

To celebrate New Years Eve 2011, me and some friends decided to get a suite at The Nines hotel in Portland and party in style. There were some minor mishaps, but it turned out really well and was a ton of fun! We started up in the suite, and then made our way down to the lobby for the party being hosted by the hotel. I had made up some mustache champagne glasses for the occasion, and I think they turned out really well. We had a ton of noise makers as well as huge "2011" balloons, which are now sitting in our back room. We drank champagne, danced, ran around, bumped into some people we had not seen in a while, laughed, and partied. Not a bad way to ring in the new year.

Here are some pictures from the party:

[[ keep calm and party on. mustache champagne glasses. sam. pat. jimmy/pat. group. me/tiff. megan mustache. dancing. kissy face. megan/tony. polish. elevator mirror. jason/tiff/me. "J" champagne bottle. sleepy pat/tiff. balloons. ]] 

Happy New Year!

new toys!

I got some pretty sweet gifts off of my Christmas list this year, here are some of my favorites:

From Pat

1) Juicer. I have been wanting a real restaurant grade juicer for forever so that I can make myself delicious greyhounds at home! It works like a charm, and we have definitely been testing it out. 2) 'Tattoo Mystique'. One of the books I asked for. It has really interesting visuals, I think I will be coming back to it for inspiration pretty frequently. 3) Clover planner by Poketo. I love having planners to physically keep myself organized. This one is the perfect size, I love the organization, and it has the most charming little illustrations throughout each page. Thanks babe!

From Dad

1) Remarkable Top. Super slouchy and comfortable long sleeve top that reads "Hello Again". So comfortable and an instant favorite. 2) Peacock Tights. I have had my eye on these for a really long time, so happy to finally have them in person. I have yet to take them out for a spin though. 3) Cave Cadence Satchel. I love love love this purse! It is a little smaller than I expected, but the coloring is amazing. It matches everything. (labeled "from: Santa"). 4) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles DVD. I found this one in my stocking. My dad/step mom thought it was hilarious. I used to love these when I was little. Such a tomboy. 

From Mom

1) Cannon Powershot Camera. The one that I asked for! Finally I have a point and shoot of my very own that actually works... (I have had some major issues in the past). Hopefully this one lasts. 

From Meguenther

Megan surprised me with some great xmas gifts over new years weekend. 

1) "J" mug. She picked this out without even glancing at my Christmas list! This girl knows me. Now all I need to do is buy myself the matching "P" mug. 2) 'Encyclopedia of the Exquisite'. This book is not only pretty informational, but also very well designed. It contains little sketches that mimic those of the early 1900s (my favorite style)! Thanks Megan my love. Your present is coming soon I promise!!!

Thanks everyone!

weekend adventures 13 :: Christmas

For Christmas, as usual, Me and my little sister Meagan head over to our moms house for Christmas Eve dinner and gifts, and then venture over to my dads for PJs, a little sibling rivalry before bed, and presents in the morning. Not that we ever actually stopped with the whole Santa Clause thing, but it is back in full swing now that we have Dest, which I highly enjoy.

12/23 - 12/26


thursday night (christmas eve eve)
I went with Pats family over to his step brothers house to see him and his girlfriend Mandee's new born baby boy Maddox. Let me just say that infants freak me out a little bit because they are so small and so fragile that I have no idea what to do with them. Right when we got there Mandee sort of shoved him into my arms, so I really had no choice. I have not been near a baby that new since my little sister was born... but seeing as I was in fourth grade the only thing I really remember about that was being unimpressed by her lack of playability. Maddox has the smallest little fingers I have ever seen, so I was pretty much in awe of that. To my surprise Pat actually (completely willingly) scooped him up and held him for a long time. It was a little bit precious. After dinner I had to take off to my moms.

friday (christmas eve)
I celebrated Christmas Eve at my Moms house with my little sister, Grandparents, and step dads family. I got my camera (!) and me and Meagan played around with it for a solid hour taking silly pictures of ourselves. I gave both my Mom and Grandma Norma the paper ornaments that I made and I think/hope that they really like them. After a while we took off to Dads place to meet up with everyone and open our Christmas PJs, one of my favorite traditions. For their Christmas gift, all of us kids had been working on a re-write/illustration of "The Night Before Christmas"... we were probably up until about 3:30am finishing it up.

[[ naughty list? being silly w the little. i surprised meagan with my old ipod touch, she was super excited. ]]

saturday (christmas)
I woke up to an extremely excited Dest trying to coax me and Meagan out of bed to open presents. Everyone made it downstairs eventually and the rest is as follows: Stockings. Locate santa gifts. Open other presents. Take lots of pictures. Clean up the mess. Jump in the recycling bin to pack it down. Make a big breakfast complete with mimosas. Hang out, relax, and watch movies all day. Awesome multi-course dinner. More movies. Exhausted. Sleep. I got a lot of the things off of my Christmas list, and some amazing extras, but more on that later...

[[ presents. dad reading our christmas story. leah & jenna. patty & dest reading her new 'cookbook'. cherry pie. hot chocolate. christmas dinner: butternut squash, cornbread, crab cakes, salmon, steak, and veggies. pumpkin pie. ]]

sunday
I slept in, for once, It was glorious. Then after eating mashed potatoes for breakfast, (I couldn't help myself) we all went downtown to do a moderate amount of shopping and go to dinner. We went to a restaurant called Irving Street Kitchen courtesy of my Grandparents on my dads side. It was one of the most amazing dinners I have ever had! Not only was everything delicious, but out server was extremely knowledgeable about the menu and brought me one of the best mixed drinks I have had, after I simply described to him that I wanted something with gin, and do not like sweet complicated drinks. I am really excited to take Pat here sometime in the near future, because I think he would really love everything about it! Especially the most amazing fried chicken I have ever tasted. Then it was back to Corvallis.

[[ irving street kitchen. delicious gin drink. best fried chicken ever. decor. rainy portland street. coffee ice cream/chocolate cookies. butterscotch pudding. ]]

I hope that you had a Happy Holiday celebration as well. I will speak more about my new goodies tomorrow. :)