happy halloween!!

I know we won't get any trick or treaters at our place this year due to its poorly lit "dead end" street location, but that does not mean that me and Pat won't be enjoying some candy ourselves and holiday related movies. We may even drink a little pumpkin ale...

Meagan recently posted a picture of her dressed up as a bee, which reminded me that I had a very similar picture... so, I found mine and put them together. :)

[[ meagan as a bee (~'98). me as a bee (~'89). ]]

((( I will post the rest of our costume pictures from the weekend Thursday & Friday )))

sandy

I just wanted to take a minute to send everyone I know on the East Coast some good vibes, especially my sister Leah who lives in NYC. Stay safe. 

I have been reading up on Sandy quite a bit and hope that everyone has a safe and warm place to sleep tonight. It is hard to fathom the amount of devastation it has brought to certain parts of the city, as well as the other effected areas of the East Coast. Images of the waterlogged subway systems and completely unlit skyline of Manhattan are pretty intense, and that is not to mention all of the fires that have broken out. Hopefully power is restored soon and everything is up and running again in a timely manner.

In case you have not been scouring the news feeds for looks in to the disaster, here are some images I have pulled from around the web. (Images were all found via Telegraph's live feed and from ABC's live feed or photo album). <-- click on any of the links provided for more info/imagery.

[[ images from sandy in nyc, sources noted at the top. ]]

I also found a really interesting resource that displays current wind patterns across the US that is definitely worth taking a look at. Click here to view the Hint.fm website and see a live map. Ironically the pattern is quite beautiful, especially in the largely effected areas. (You can also access wind maps from past disasters on their website).

[[ a screen shot from of a wind map from this morning. ]]

weekend adventures 61 :: halloween

Here are my Halloween Weekend Adventures, I will do a large post with pictures from Saturday night later this week, this is just the preview. 

saturday
This year for Halloween, we decided to go out downtown for the first time, and chose Gypsy since it is more versatile for a large group of people. After putting a few final touches on our costume materials, giving my blonde wig a haircut, and laminating our "Waynestock concert passes" we headed up to Tiff's place to get ready. This was definitely the most low maintenance costume I have ever worn, since I did not have to do any styling to my actual hair, or get crazy with my makeup. I still put a bit of work in to my eyes though so I would still look like a girl, but to my surprise the wig was pretty easy to get on even with as much hair as I have. I will say that I did not like having bangs! Too hot, and they got in my eyes constantly. I don't know how girls pull them off, though I still think they are adorable. I will mention that I did not end up wearing the t-shirt that I made for my costume, I was feeling a little too manly in it, so I went for a plain v-neck instead, but everything else worked out well, including the ripped up jeans.

[[ getting ready with my awesome hair cap on. ]]

saturday night 
We headed downtown around 9 after taking some pictures with Tiff's homemade photo booth. Gypsy was actually pretty fun... we were able to watch the end of the OSU game when we first got there (which a complete bummer, but I will save that post for another day), and then grabbed some drinks and commenced the Halloween festivities. People were coming up to me ALL night and throwing out movie quotes, which was kind of fun, because I got to stay in character. Me and Pat also took quite a few pictures with strangers who wanted to pose with us. Since our costume reference is so outdated, I was somewhat surprised to find two girls dressed up like us there, but of course we posed for a picture with them too. I think our costumes were better... but I may be a little biased since I made everything for them... Psh.

The posible highlight of my night was when Gangnam Style came on. A few months ago, we had some friends stay with us after one of the OSU home games, and we stayed up until three in the morning trying to learn the dance from the PSY video... somewhat successfully... SO, when the song started playing, I just went for it and danced in the middle of the bar with people staring at me. I was happy when Jason's brother (who was dressed up as Popeye) ran over to dance with me. It was pretty much awesome. There was a dude dressed up as the guy from PSY too, but I never did get a picture with him, I found some of him online though... not too shabby. (If you somehow do not know what I am talking about, I will post the video soon, I promise, it is too amazing not to have its own post).

Towards the end of the evening some of Pat's friends made their way down to us, as well as Megan and her boy, so we ended up with a pretty big group! It was a really fun night with NO drama!! Finally!! After the party we got a ride home, ate some less than healthy Taco Bell, and went to sleep. I would say that this year was pretty successful, and according to my Facebook feed... a lot of people seemed to really like me and Pat's costumes! Excellent!

[[ preview pictures from saturday: gnome. kriss kross. olive oil. hamburgler. willy wonka. garth & wayne. popeye. we found santa. ]]

sunday
After grabbing some breakfast with Tiff and stopping in to the Nike Employee Store briefly we headed out of town to enjoy the rest of our Sunday at home. It took forever because of the rain (I am very thankful to have working windsheild wipers again!) Once we got home it was sweats, hot chocolate, and catching up on our TV shows for the rest of the night.

[[ bearrrs at breakfast at the black bear diner. ]]

wayne's world costumes in progress...

Me and Pat had started picking up a few items for our costumes already, but last night we actually got going on the bulk of them. We picked up some wigs (excellent) although they need a little work still, and I started working on Wayne's signature hat, which is working out pretty well. For extra inspiration I made sure to watch the first movie last night while I was working. Tonight I am going to be putting together a few elements from "Waynestock", finishing up the hat, and fine tuning our wigs. Plus, I need to properly grungify some jeans for myself, but everything else we already had including some nicely worn in Converse shoes. Here is a peak...

[[ i made a template in illustrator. making a stencil for the hat. chalk outline. paint. waynestock tshirt stencil i made. letters. all painted. passes. ]]

My favorite line from the movie... "If she were a president, she'd be Baberham Lincoln." I hope to say this more than once tomorrow...

halloween costume '12

I can't believe that its already almost Halloween! Where did the month of October go?! I feel like I missed the entire thing... No pumpkin patch this year (unfortunately), but there is still time for pumpkin carving and a few more holiday movies (thus far I have only watched Hocus Pocus and The Nightmare Before Christmas). And I have yet to eat even a piece of candy corn, which is very unlike me.

Anyway, since Halloween is on a Wednesday (which is super awkward), everyone is celebrating this weekend instead. I figured in the tradition of my past two years of blogging, that I had better announce what we will be dressing up as this year...

Wayne's World, Wayne's World, Party Time, Excellent!
Me and Pat are going to be Wayne and Garth from Wayne's World! I am super excited! It should be hilarious!! Here is some costume inspiration... We have a lot of work to do!

[[ images from google images, video found on youtube from the first movie. ]]

((( Here is what we were last year, and the year before. )))

socal adventure :: sneak peak

I am back from my short and event packed trip to LA, but I decided not to get in to all of my adventures until sometime next week, or the following, since Halloween festivities are almost upon us, and I have yet to post anything related to one of my favorite holidays! <-- longest sentence ever! So, here is a little sneak peak of the trip via the Instagram photos I posted while I was away, real posts to follow sometime in the near future.

[[ instagram photos: siblings picture from christmas. the ferris wheel at the santa monica pier. roscoe's chicken & waffles. halloween store presidential debate. macarons in pasadena. waterbed lounging at the standard hotel. downtown los angeles. watching the sunrise from my plane at lax. ]]

i'm going going back back to cali cali

For the third time in one year I am going to be boarding a plane in Portland that is once again headed for California. This time, I am flying into LA to see my sisters!

Since my little sisters are in college together in California, I don't get to see them as much as I used to, so when my older sister Leah (who lives in NYC) suggested that we meet up in LA at the same to visit them, I of course made plans and bought my plane ticket. Although I have been ALL over the great state of California this summer I did not actually get to spend any time at the beach or in LA, so I believe that is what will be on the agenda this time around. Now that the weather is just starting to turn in to fall around here a last little glimpse of sunshine and warmer weather won't be such a bad thing.

I am leaving Saturday morning and will be back Tuesday night, blogging to resume on Wednesday (tentatively).

[[ pictures of huntington beach from a trip in april, 2010. ]]

deftones at the roseland

Friday night (10/12) me and Pat went and saw the Deftones together (finally) at the Roseland in Portland Oregon. It was an amazing show and we had great seats!

I have never actually been to a concert at the Roseland that had assigned seating, but since I literally set an alarm to make sure I got the tickets right when they went on sale we were in row AA, section AA and had no obstructions what so ever. We were pretty much right on top of the stage, which was a completely different experience than last time and a lot more fun. I was seriously shocked when I woke up the next day to find that I still had a voice left from all of the screaming and singing I was doing. I wish we were seeing them again this weekend!!

Here is the full setlist from the Portland show if you want to take a look at what they played. It was an amazing and long set! I even got to hear "Passanger" again, and Pat was ecstatic that they played "Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)", which is one of his favorites (and mine)!

By the way, I literally took over 300 pictures... so it was really hard to narrow these down! Enjoy!

[[ deftones at the roseland - portland, oregon - 10/12/12. ]]

this one time i had short hair, and a friend i called mylanta...

Freshmen year of college I was down in Ashland going to school at SOU and meeting a ton of new people. One of the first friends I made was a girl named Alena who was from Tigard. We soon became pretty much inseparable and got in to a bunch of trouble together. I am not sure if I even remember how this came up, but within our group of girlfriends her nickname was Mylanta, and mine was Chief. Unfortunately she left after the first term, and though she came to visit a few times, and I did meet up with her the summer after Freshmen year for my birthday, I did not see her much after that. 

Fast forward to a few weeks ago... I got a Facebook message from Alena saying that she was in Corvallis going to school and wanted to meet up, so last night we met for dinner and drinks at Bar 101 to catch up. I seriously felt like I was going on a girl date, because I was a little nervous considering it had literally been about six years since we had spoken in person. It was great catching up though! We definitely still get along, and I can see myself getting in to some trouble once again with this one.

Also, tonight just so happens to be Alena's birthday and I will be meeting back up with her tonight, just like old times. Happy Birthday Mylanta!

[[ pictures from freshman year at sou. ]]

look smart

I don't have time to work on the concert pictures since I am meeting a long lost friend for drinks right after work, so I am going with this for today instead. I promise they will be up by the end of the week though.

When I was at lunch with my dad and littlest sister over the weekend, she wanted to try on my glasses. I told her to look smart so that I could take a picture... I guess this is the universal sign for looking smart. Good job Dest!

[[ dest looking smart in my glasses. ]]

weekend adventures 60

I know I haven't done one of these in a while (since June), so lets have at it. This is my attempt to bring back the Weekend Adventures posts (no promisses, life happens). 


friday
After work me and Pat rushed up to Portland so that we could have some dinner before the Deftones concert. We decide to go to the Rogue Public house in the Pearl so that Pat could add the newly released Pumpkin Ale bottle to his collection. While we were there we had the best server/service ever, and I had some really yummy fish and chips (my first meal of the day, bad Jenn, bad). When dinner was over we headed to the theater to get in to our seats and have a few drinks before the show got started. I had bought our tickets online right when they were released, so our seats were amazing (and assigned), which was awesome. When we got up to the balcony there were two people sitting in them and they tried to play dumb like they thought it was their seats come to find out later that they were just trying to steal peoples... jerks... I paid extra for mine.

[[ our tickets!! ]]

The first band was super weird, and I am pretty sure that some of the members were from System of a Down which explained it all. The frontman had a pretty awesome outfit and some seriously intense dance moves. They also had a head banging keyboardist which was just hilarious. Deftones finally came on and played an amazing and long set. We were in the theatre from 7:30ish until about midnight.  I will go in to details about the show in my main post later this week. I took over 300 pictures, so I have a lot to go through, but I got some really good ones!! After the show we were exhausted so we called it a night, although it was hard to sleep because both of our ears were ringing.

[[ a small preview of the deftones show: roseland sign. us excited. opening band. where we were sitting found on someone elses instagram pic. the show. ]]

saturday
We had crashed at my moms place since she lived the closest to all of our Saturday plans, so after visiting with her for a while we ran a few errands at the mall and then went over to our friend Lee's house to watch the OSU game. The game was really really stressful but we caught a big interception at the end and won! We are now 5-0 for the first time in 73 years, which is huge. After the game we had plans to go out and meet some people downtown but this plan sort of turned in to a disaster and me and Pat ended up eating dinner super late at North 45 after wasting a ton of time. The night was not a total loss though, we did end up getting to spend a few hours with Fran, I was not a super happy camper though.


sunday
We ran a few more errands and then met up with my dad and littlest sister for some lunch at a restaurant called Old Chicago that I used to work at right after high school. I think I had only been in there one time since I left, so it was pretty entertaining for me. It is really hard to get one on one time with my dad, so any time I can confine him to a booth to talk works out pretty well for me. When we were finished up we said goodbye and then drove out to Carlton to pick up some wine. Of course we ended up tasting and buying more wine, before heading home to open a bottle and eat some dinner.

[[ foggy drive home saturday night. folin tasting. seven of hearts accidental reflection of us. ]]

deftones koi no yokan tour

If you have been following my blog for a while or know me well you probably understand that I have a strong love for the Deftones. So far I have only been able to see them twice, but last time was an amazing adventure in which me and Megan stood in line for several hours outside of The Crystal Ballroom in downtown Portland before their April 15th show to get our very own autographed Vinyls. Although I got extremely sick as a result, it was definitely worth the pay off, and the framed "Covers" album is now one of my most prized possessions. The concert itself was amazing as well, and I was so excited when they started playing Passanger, a song that I dedicated my entire term of Expressive Typography to in college. (Previous Deftones concert posts I & II).

The only thing that put a damper on the show was the fact that I had bought the tickets for me and Pat only minutes before he found out that he had to go to Canada for work the very same day just hours before the concert. Not to mention that the first time I saw them was also a concert that me and Pat were supposed to attend together, the Taste of Chaos tour back in 2006, so we have not had luck thus far.

Which brings me to my point...
To my excitement and surprise about a month ago Deftones announced a new album and upcoming tour to begin in October 2012. Of course I rushed to their website to view the dates and locations and was pleased to see Portland, Oregon listed near the top. I bought my tickets seconds after they went on sale for their Roseland show which is on October 12th, and this time, the two tickets are for me and Pat! We finally get to see them together after two failed attempts!! Yay!

And the icing on the cake? The Deftones have been nice enough to release two songs from their upcoming album for fans to sample, and I am liking what I hear. Pumped!




Here is a preview of Tempest via Sound Cloud.

I will not be posting tomorrow since I have to rush up to Portland for the show, but you can bet I will have a ton of pictures of it next week sometime.

iphone 5

Its here! Finally! Once again I have a real phone, the new iPhone 5 all shiny and ready to play with... I mean... make phone calls with and check emails...

Since my iPhone was crushed by an intern at work, I ordered the new one and have been anxiously awaiting its arrival at my doorstep. In the meantime I had been using a loaner Blackberry which was just not doing it for me at all. So, when I finally got a shipping notification last week that my phone, was leaving China and would be arriving at my doorstep today, I was ecstatic! Admittedly, I have been checking the tracking all week.

It took me a while to get everything set up, but then again, I am kind of a perfectionist. Luckily, Pat did a full back up of my old phone in iTunes, so all I had to do is plug it in and run a restore to get all of my contacts, calendar events, and photos back. Plus, when I reinstalled my apps I was really pleasantly surprised to find that all of my user information and pictures were saved in them as well! Of course, installing over 2,000 songs took a while, but one thing I noticed right off the bat is that this thing is FAST!

Seeing as I just got it operational, I have not been able to play with all of the new settings yet, but here are some things I have noticed so far (keep in mind that I had an iPhone 4 before, not a 4s, so there are quite a few upgrades for me):

- Siri is not only hilarious, but really smart, and very helpful as a hands free option. You can ask her to text for you, read you your messages, or find a location for you and direct you there, all of which should really come in handy when driving. I even asked her "How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood." to which she responded, "It depends on whether you are talking about the African or European woodchuck."

- The new phone is a LOT faster, whether you are running apps, looking something up on the internet, loading a complex website, or taking pictures.

- The speakers are a LOT louder.

- I have not been able to play with the camera a ton yet, but so far I have noticed that the clarity on the back camera looks a lot better, and the panorama capability is pretty sweet and I can see myself using it a lot. I have heard that the upgraded lens works a lot better in low light as well, which I will test out this weekend.

- Obviously, its thinner, taller, very lightweight and extremely sleek. In fact, without a case on this bad boy I am almost afraid to touch it unless I am sitting down! Not to say that it doesn't look sturdy, its just that I have a track record of being extremely clumsy... and also paranoid...


Now all I need is a to pick up a case this weekend, and I will be all set! I was sad to see my other phone go, and not pumped about shelling out the money immediately for the new one, but after being without one for a month I know it was well worth it. Plus, I finally have something before Pat does, (mwahaha). 

c & g wedding invitations

I think it is first worth mentioning that this post is long overdue, but when we decided to stop by the hop farm this weekend, I knew it was finally time to take some pictures of these. 

Last spring (2011) I began working on some custom wedding invitations for a coworker and her fiance who were getting married in July. This was my first wedding invitation suite and I was really happy with the way that it came out, as were the bride and groom.

The wedding took place at Chateau Rogue in Independence Oregon which is a beautiful farm property owned by the Rogue Brewery. When me and Pat visited for the first time a few weeks ago, we understood the appeal for the summer wedding, especially for these two, who are very outdoorsy.

[[ custom wedding invitations for cassie & garrett meigs created by me. ]]

The hops growing in giant vines around the property became a large inspiration for these invitations, as well as the rustic elements from the farm itself. The tag line "Hitchin' at the Hopyard" was created by the groom, and set the pace for the overall design. Vintage scientific illustrations of the hops were used as a visual piece throughout various elements of their wedding day. For the invitations themselves, I took an etching and colored it to match their palette. The fonts used were meant to evoke the casual farm spirit of the property. I also illustrated a vine like boarder to organize various elements, and make the "C & G" logo. Since Cassie, the bride, is a GIS analyst, she created the map which I worked in with directions on the back of the invitation.   

An economic footprint was an element that the bride and groom wished to keep in mind when designing, so we used specially ordered 100% recycled papers, and chose a local and sustainable printer to take care of the production. The returned RSVP cards were used as decoration for the ceremony as well, which provided them with a second life. The envelopes were specially ordered kraft paper to match the set.

Lastly, custom glasses were created based off of the invitations which served as place cards, glassware for the evening, and finally take home favors for the guests.

the rogue hop farm II

The first weekend of September me and Pat sort of stumbled across the Rogue Hop Farm for the first time much to Pat's enjoyment. Since we didn't have any plans this on Sunday, we decided to take our friend Rory and stop by once again since it was a surprisingly gorgeous and warm day. It was amazing what a difference a month made on the scenery! Literally almost all of the hops had been harvested, and those remaining were beginning to dry out, where as last time there were rows and rows of lush green hops everywhere. (Here is the first post to compare).

We did find some other fun areas that were not explored last time though, such as a little beach area towards the back, the "brew and breakfast" and Voo & Doo who are two pigs we met. Harlow even gave one of them some kisses, although I think she was a little frightened by their squeaking at first. There were also a ton of chickens, roosters, and turkeys wandering around the farm that Harlow had a bit of fun chasing, and I got some decent pictures of. The turkeys were enormous. Finally, there was a garage sale going on, so not only did Pat get to fill his growler with some Aluvial One Hop Ale, but the boys also split a case of Mom's Hefeweizen with Rose Hips.

[[ hop vines. corn hole. naughty harlow. pat in his rogue shirt. brew. game. punkins. farm equipment. huge turkeys. sign. river. brew & breakfast. voo & doo. harlow makes a friend. snouts. happy pup. ]]

I also remembered to bring the wedding invitations that I designed over a year ago with me to photograph on location, since the wedding was held at this venue. Originally I was planning on putting the materials in the hop vines for the pictures, but since they were bare, I found a barrel to use in the background instead, which still worked out pretty well. It definitely added the rustic farm vibe I was going for, and bonus points (I think) for being photographed on location. I will post these tomorrow.