thanksgiving part I :: petersons

Alright, since I have been forced to take a little break from blogging, I will be spending the remainder of this week catching up with event posts for a few of my Thanksgiving and long weekend adventures.

On Sunday 11/20 me and Pat drove up to Salem to his Mom and Roger's (step dad) condo for an early Thanksgiving dinner. We met up with his little brother Hayden, step brother Chris, his girlfriend Mandee and their son Maddox who is almost a year old and was highly entertaining the entire time. Dinner was delicious (especially the mashed potatoes) and his mom even bought a pumpkin pie, just for me! As always, I was too excited to eat and completely forgot to capture the meal. Leftovers Monday were not too shabby either.

Below are some pictures of the evenings festivities...

[[ table, i forgot to take a picture of the food like always. wine. illusive baby images. why do they all love this so much? hello there. ]]

broken laptop part II

Hello again, I promise I have not been ignoring you on purpose.

Unfortunately things have not improved in regards to my computer around here. I went to the Apple store Friday afternoon and my trip did not go like I was hoping. They told me that the entire LCD display would need to be replaced and quoted me a $310 charge, (assuming nothing else was found wrong in which case the price would go up). I reluctantly agreed, signed some papers, and left my computer with one of the employees. While driving back to Corvallis, I called Pat to discuss, and based on the fact that my computer is five years old and my pretty much dead battery also needs to be replaced, (another $125), we decided that the best thing to do is to buy a new MacbookPro instead of putting more money in to this one. Thanks to mi familia and the little neighbor girl I was able to get my computer back today after work, but I am right back to where I was last week... laptop and external screen. Again, not ideal.

So it looks like before the week is up I will be making a very large purchase I was not expecting. Though I am sad to give up on my current digs, it will be nice to have a brand new shiny computer that can actually keep up with me. Still... sad face.

[[ sad face. critical condition. ]]

I will try to get back to normal blogging this week, I have a lot of little adventures to share.

broken laptop

Sorry for the silence, but when I got to work yesterday morning and opened up my laptop, per usual, the screen did not turn on. Nothing has changed in that regard thus far, so it looks like I have to take my poor little laptop to the doctor, and I hope can even be fixed (on the cheap). I have been reading about some screen issues on older MacBookPro models, and mine seems to fit all of the symptoms, so I hope that it is within the time frame for the free imaging chip replacement program. I will be taking it to an Apple store up in Portland Friday to find out (*fingers crossed*).

I hate to even utter the word replacement since this baby put me through college, established my identity as a freelance designer, and even kept up with me for few extra years, but it may be about time...

This is what I am working with right now...
My laptop and a monitor borrowed from work. Sweeeeeeeet.

[[ broken laptop. ]]

extras

This week was a bit of a blur, and as happy as I would like to be that it is the weekend, I am afraid it is not much of one since I will be working the football game all day tomorrow. The good news is that this is the final home game of the season! Initially I had plenty of time to work the games and make a little extra money, but with a new freelancing venture keeping me busy, I would like some free time for myself.

For today I have a few pictures from last weekend that I did not put in my Weekend Adventures post. First are silly pictures from the Pocketbooth app. on my phone that me and two of my sisters took while waiting around at my little's cheer competition. Next, me and my little sister went over to my friend Tiffany's house briefly on Sunday and had to stop and take some pictures of these awkward lawn decorations... potty anyone? (We are weirdos). 

[[ silly pocketbooth strips. ]]

[[ potty time? ]]

new goodies from modcloth!

I have been eyeing the "Bear Bottle Opener" from Modcloth since they first posted it months and months ago, but sadly it had been out of stock. So, when I got an email saying they had it back I jumped online to order it! Of course I could not just buy one little bottle opener without a few other things now could I? I also got an awesome t-shirt with narwals on it and a cuff bracelet to even out my order.

I just got my package complete with adorable packaging and a free gift (little Modcloth pins)! I am super excited to wear my new goodies and install my opener, everything looks great in person!

[[ my modcloth goodies. ]]

midweek inspiration 28

A video for today? I think yes.
Thanks Portland. You're the best.

By Lance Page. For more information go to pagefilms.com.

roller skating for panda's birthday

A few weekends ago a bunch of us went out roller skating to celebrate Sam Panda's birthday. Since he never reveals his actual birthday, or age... no one really knows how old he is now. But, if I had to guess I would say 27 since I know he graduated high school two years before me. 

First we met up at Colleens house for dinner, but me and Megan were late so we just had a drink and mooched on some leftovers. As a gift I got Sam a super sweet panda necklace from F21. He wore it the whole night as his panda medallion. Next we went off to Oaks Park for some skating. I fell, but only once. Finally we ended up over on the East side sitting outside of a little bar (who's name I can never remember), drinking some beers, and playing some games. I also got Pat a new Rogue bottle for his collection, Voodoo Doughnuts Maple Bacon Beer. 

[[ sorry for the low res. ]]

[[ panda present. birthday cake. oaks park. herro. sam. eastside. me/tiff. shuffle board. spray paint. tiff/morgan/colleen.  tiff/jason. tiff. ]]

weekend adventures 44

This weekend me and my family celebrated my step mom's 50th birthday party. Leah even flew in for the weekend from NYC to surprise her!

saturday
I was really excited about the prospect of sleeping in for once, but my plans were quickly stomped on when I realized that I needed to be ready to go at 9:30 for Meagan's cheer leading competition in Eugene. Poor Pat even had to get up early to take me to the freeway where I was meeting my parents. I was super excited to see Leah though since I had not since the beginning of July, so all was well. We got to Eugene pretty quickly, picked up my little step sister Jenna, headed to Springfield for the comp, found seats, and the madness ensued.

[[ wandering around u of o campus. architecture building. lunch. comp. ]]

I always like to see my little doing what she does, and doing it well I might add since her stunt team took second place in the finals! However, after a few consecutive hours of the same routine over and over again, madly cheering parents behind me, and a complete overload of peppiness, me, Leah, and Jenna had to take a break from it all. We decided to drive back in to Eugene to walk around campus a bit. I was surprised how similar the campus is to OSU (where I went to school). I think the experience was really surreal for Leah who graduated from UofO something like five or six years ago. We even walked through the architecture building where she spent all of her time and snapped a few pictures. Next we went for some lunch at a little gyro place (yum!), and then stopped by the bookstore so that she could pick something up for her boyfriend Adil. 

[[ meagan performing. me and leah entertaining ourselves while waiting. 2nd place! ]]

After enough of a break, we returned to the competition just before the final rounds got started. By the time awards and everything were over it was 9:30 and we were all super hungry, so we headed to a near by P. F. Chang's before the long drive back to Portland. When we finally got to my Dad's place everyone was super tired and passed out.


sunday
We were having a brunch for Patty with all of her (crazy) family, so by the time I got out of the shower there were already a million kids running around and screaming. Deep breath, bagels, socializing, football, playing with baby Landon, meeting little step-brother's girlfriend, looking through old pictures, everyone leaves, ah, normality. It is really exhausting having everyone around at once. By this time it was getting later, so everyone regrouped and we went over to the east side for a birthday dinner at Laurelhurst Market. It was delicious, though very expensive. I got the chicken and was definitely impressed. Along with most people Pat had a steak. For desert we had an apple tart, pumpkin bread pudding, and some sort of cheesecake (which I hate, but everything else was amazing). We also tried numerous appetizers most of which I cannot remember to name. One of note was bone marrow... yes, you read that right. The look and texture was not much for the senses, but I will try everything once, and I have to say... on bread, it was surprisingly good (though gelatinous).

[[ brunch: tabbi/jayden. baby landon. leah/landon. johnny's old poster. he makes the best faces. ]] 

[[ dinner: patty/dest. leah/me. nick/johnny. jenna/leah. meagan/jenna. ]]

After dinner we all said goodbye and went our sepperate ways, Leah and Nick to the airport, me Pat and Jenna heading south, and everyone else back to my Dad's. After dropping Jenna off back in Eugene and backtracking we were home and sleepy, thus bringing our weekend to an end.

11/11/11

Today is 11/11/11! Pretty fancy huh? As a long time "believer" of making a wish at 11:11, I wonder if it is double luck to wish on 11:11, 11/11/11?! Ok, that is enough of that. Seriously all I am posting about though, it is a pretty amazing date after all. :)

It's 11:11, make a wish! 

[[ i wish for... ]]

glitter shoes :: diy

I started seeing some DIYs popping up on Pinterest for homemade sparkle shoes, so I figured my Princess Peach Halloween costume would be the perfect opportunity to give it a try. 

As far as I am concerned, there is really no right or wrong way to do it. I used Modgepodge, thick gold glitter, a sponge brush, and some setting spray for when I was finished. I did not find mixing the glitter in to the glue to be helpful, instead I believe that using the glue and then sprinkling the glitter on top might have been an easier route. (I sort of combined the two). But, no matter, they turned out exactly how I would have wanted them to! (It would have also been smart to spray paint the shoes gold and then sprinkle on the glitter while they dried). Oh, and do not fret if you get started and they look clumpy and terrible... it takes several coats, but I promise, every time one dries they will look better and better. 

The shoes I used had been purchased a long time ago at a Ross and never worn, so they were the perfect trial candidates. I think this project cost around $15 total since I had to buy the spray, glitter (on sale), and a new tub of modgepodge, but I have plenty of left overs. 

[[ diy glitter shoes! ]]

midweek inspiration 27

K.I.S.S. (keep it simple, stupid)

Feeling these today. I am super busy. These are super relevant. They remind me what I am working for.
Alright, time for a little bit of a breather before bedtime...

[[ part of my collection off of pinterest. ]]

1. "Do Good Work" - Milton Glasner, by Jay Roeder, found on typeeverything.com

2. Don't Forget To Be Awesome, from Super Swoon

3. "Stay Hungry Stay Foolish" - Steve Jobs, found on Pinterest (original source unknown)

4. It'll Be Okay, by Cash Cow aka Jaclyne, found on typeeverything.com

.

have you hugged your dreams today ?

Sorry for my absence yesterday, there are a lot of big things going on in my life right now that are biding for my time. Good big things. :) I will post more details when I can, but lets just say that I am finally building up my portfolio with some real projects.

And on that note... back to work. I will have more time for blogging throughout the week.

[[ my mnkr shirt. ]]

"have you hugged your dreams today ?"
(why yes, yes I have)...

saturday :: halloween party

I finally have the last installment of this years Halloween posts (minus one little DIY I will save for later).

This year we spent Halloween up in Portland at our friend Brad's house party instead of doing things ourselves like last year. <--- click here to check out last years costumes. 

Me, Pat, and Tony went as Mario, Luigi, and Princess Peach. Megundo was her own version of Foxy Cleopatra from Austin Powers. Brad and Alia were beat boys slash walking Adidas advertisements. And I am still not sure what Nate or Alicia were supposed to be. There were lots of other random people there too in various amounts of clothing, pretty standard for Halloween. 

Now, on with the pictures!

[[ pictures from halloween party 10/28/11. ]]

friday :: 80s night, halloween style

As promised, here are the images from Friday nights adventures in Portland at the Crystal Ballroom, nerdy style. (For the full and lengthy story, refer to my post from yesterday).

[[ 80s night pictures. 10/28/11. ]