turning in to bonnie

As I mentioned in my Weekend Adventures post, getting my hair to look somewhat accurate was quite the extensive process... This of course came as no surprise seeing as I have a ton of extremely unruly hair. I used this very basic tutorial from The Beauty Department which showed a few pictures with a brief write up as to how to get the look at home, so this was my basis.

(I apologize for my super awkward facial expressions in all of these pictures...)


1) I started by splitting up the bottom and top halves of my hair to eliminate some of the bulk. I then took the bottom half, split it into two, and made two little pigtail braids, which Tiffany helped me bobbi pin flat against the back of my head.

[[ before starting. braided hair. ]]

2) Next came the curling process, which definitely took the longest because you have to use a tiny curling iron no larger than a quarter inch. Keep in mind that I was only working with the top half of my hair here... but just the left side took me about an hour. I was lucky enough to already own a tiny curling iron, but I think for future endeavors I will invest in an upgraded version considering mine came from Claires about twelve years ago. Anyway, for this step I took tiny sections of my hair, wrapped them around the curling iron, holding them in place, and then used bobbi pins to pin the little curls up against my head. The instructions of my tutorial specified to angle the iron towards your face the entire time, which I found a little confusing, but I did my best to figure out. Eventually with Tiffany's help I was able to get all of my hair pinned up.

[[ all of my hair curled and pinned up. ]]

3) Ordinarily you will want to leave your hair in this state for as long as possible for the best results, but since we were on a bit of a time crunch I attempted to expedite the process by holding a hair dryer over my head for as long as I could stand it, which was somewhere in the area of fifteen minutes. At this point we started taking all of the curls down.

4) After all of the curls were let loose I had to brush them out towards my face. (Tread lightly on this part, because you only get one chance at it). The instructions said to be rough, but I took a more gentle approach, which seemed to work out fine for me. If you have thinner hair you may need to rat it a bit, but at this point I looked like a lion/clown, so I was good to go.

[[ after taking out the curls. after combing them out. ]]

5) Now for the tricky part... In order to create the bob look we had to tame my hair and sort of shape the curls in to place so that they looked more like finger waves. Next Megan and Tiffany helped me fold the bottom of my hair under and pin it to the rest of my hair to finalize the illusion. You will want to use a ton of bobbi pins to keep everything in place.

6) Finally take a bottle of hairspray and throw as much of that chemically loaded hair product as you can handle all over your hair. The nastier it feels when you are done, the better your chances of keeping the hair style in tact for a night. Needless to say, I was thrilled when I could shampoo my hair in the morning.

[[ the final product. ]]

And that was that, I pinned my beret to my head, put on my dress, threw on some eye makeup and a red lip, slipped on my vintage looking kitty heels, grabbed my handgun, and was ready for action. Surprisingly my hair turned out really awesome and even held up for the night! Thanks largely of course to the help of my laaaaadies, Tiff and Megan. Thank you ladies!

historical figures party

Here are my pictures from Colleen's Historical Figures Birthday Party from last weekend. People got really creative for this one! My friends are pretty awesome...

Some of the costumes: Bonnie & Clyde (me and Pat) // Coco Chanel (Tiff) // Van Gogh - based off of this painting (Ricky) // Julia Child (Megan) // Amelia Earhart - complete with plane (Colleen) // Che Guvera - but we think he looked more like Fidel Castro (Francisco) // Charlie Chaplin (Morgan) // Prefontane (Jason) // Shirley Temple (Nicole) // Korean Jesus - whatever that means... (Sam) // Steve Jobs - there were two of them // Rosie the Riviter - there ended up being three of them (Jess & Ashley) // Pochahontas // Selena(s) // Tupac // Anne Frank // Joan of Arc // Various Cowpeople // A Banana

[[ bonnie & clyde. coco & clyde. ladies. charlie chaplin. julia child. me & korean jesus. julia & her chicken. butta! being silly in the kitchen. amelia & her plane. charlie & joan of arc. bonnie & che/fidel. group shot. rosie the riveter. korean jesus getting all rambo. we found hunter! group shot struggles. party in the kitchen. ]]   

[[ some instagram pictures i scooped up of some more costumes: rosie the riveter. korean jesus. anne frank & tupac. shirley temple. charlie chaplin. rosies. che/fidel. ]]

back in time

I am still working on editing all of the pictures from Colleen's party, but in the meantime, here are two of my favorites from the evening. I love the treatment on these, especially the one of me and Pat! And not to toot my own horn or anything, but I think we looked pretty damn good as gangsters.

[[ bonnie & clyde. coco chanel, julia child, bonnie parker. ]]

weekend adventures 68

Last weekend me and Pat headed to Portland for my friend Colleen's annual costume birthday party. I had such a great weekend, even if there was a lot of commuting and I only got to see my friends for one night. It is a bummer that we don't get to see each other all the time like we did when we were in college, me especially since I live the farthest away, but every time we get back together its like old times. Love you guys.


saturday
We wanted to get a fairly early start, so we packed up in the morning, got ready, and headed over the Hood Pass towards Portland. It was a gorgeous day and the scenery was beautiful, so I didn't mind the three hour drive over. Pat had made plans to meet up with some friends, and I had some errands to run at the mall, so he dropped me off with my friend Megan and took care of his business while I took care of mine.

[[ weather changes heading over the hood pass for portland. ]]

When we were finished shopping Megan took me over to my friend Tiff's place, and we started getting ready for the party. I had to go through this pretty intense process to get my hair "short" like Bonnie Parker's hair was, and added some fingerwaves as well, which took forever. (I will dedicate an entire post to this with a how to later). The rest was easy, minimal makeup, red lips, dress, gun, good to go. Of course all Pat had to do was get dressed and he was ready, I didn't even have to buy him anything new for this costume aside from the gun!

Megan came over before we left so me, Pat, Tiff, Megan, and Jason rode over to Colleens together and partied for the rest of the night. I will post party pictures separately because as usual, I have a ton of them. There were a bunch of really good costumes! Everyone is so creative! Here are a few little teasers...

[[ historical figures party: preview group shots. ]]

sunday
I wanted to meet up with my dad while I was in town, so in the morning me and Pat packed back up and met him, my step mom, and littlest sister at The Thirsty Lion in Tigard, which has surprisingly really good food. It was good to visit with them for a few hours before heading home. The rest of the day was spent going back over the pass, and then relaxing for the rest of the night. It was a really really quick trip, but definitely worth it.

happy almost birthday colleen!

Tomorrow me and Pat are heading to Portland to celebrate my friend Colleen's 5th annual Birthday and Costume Party. Happy almost birthday Colleen!! I am excited to see you and everyones costumes tomorrow night!

Here is a little preview of our costumes from past years.

[[ year one - superheros. year two - monster mash. year three - robots. year four - spirit animals. ]]

some day, they'll go down together they'll bury them side by side...

My friend Colleen's birthday party is coming up, and as usual she is having another costume party! Me and Tiffany helped her start this tradition back in college, and this year she is going with the theme of Historical Figures.

Here is some of my inspiration...

[[ bonnie parker and clyde barrow. faye dunaway and warren beatty. ]]

Can you tell who me and Pat are going to be?

Bonnie and Clyde! I am super excited about this one! I have been wanting to do it for Halloween, but it is always so overdone... I am going off of costumes from the movie with Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway from 1967, as well as off of actual black and white photographs of the real duo.

To prepare, I watched the movie twice while Pat was out of town, and I thought it was really interesting. I especially liked it when Bonnie recited her poem "The Story of Bonnie & Clyde" towards the end of the movie, indicating that she knew that death was eminent at this point, but did not try to flee Clyde's side. The real Bonnie Parker did in fact write this poem in 1932 when she was jailed, and it was published a year later when found at their abandoned hideout along with many pictures. The movie makes you really sympathize with the characters and think of them in an almost Robin Hood like manner for fighting the big banks, but in reality, their crimes far exceeded simple bank robberies and a few accidental murders. Either way, the unique story of these young Texas natives trying to escape their own poverty, falling in love, evading the police on many occasions, and of course the nature of their gruesome end, certainly makes them some of the most famous "gangsters" of the time, and thats why I chose them to be our historical figures.

She also wrote a poem called "The Story of Suicide Sal" before her own story with a similar feel. Check them out they are really interesting.

I also found some pretty sweet editorial inspirations while I was looking around online. Here is one by Aram Bedrossian (which is my favorite) and another by Peter Lindbergh.

10 below

Me and Pat just got back from grabbing dinner with his dad and step mom at the restaurant 10 Below in the basement of The Oxford Hotel downtown. They have a really interesting space and I can never help snapping a few pictures when I am there. Tonight was my first time actually sitting down for dinner here, and the salmon I ordered was definitely tasty, although perhaps a little underwhelming. Since they switch out their menu constantly I would really like to go in sometime for a drink and some appetizers to get a better understanding of how good their food is. The drinks however are always very unique and delicious.

[[ 10 below. ]]

greetings from the air

I get to pick up Pat from the airport today! I am super excited to see him and am extremely thankful that he doesn't have to travel for work all the time anymore. I am also thankful that I woke up feeling much better this morning than I did yesterday. It looks like my sickness is over just in time.

Earlier this week Pat texted me this gorgeous picture. He had to fly Redmond - Seattle - Phoenix - Huston, and snapped this shot of Mt. Rainier in Washington from his plane ride over. Such a clear picture!

[[ mt. rainier from pats plane ride to huston. ]]

weekend adventures 67

Last weekend Megan came to visit me despite my sickness, and although I started to feel not so great again on Sunday, we had a pretty good Saturday, and I was definitely thankful for the chance to get a girls weekend. 

friday
I was supposed to head downtown to celebrate my friend Sierra's birthday, but since I still wasn't feeling great I decided to stick around home instead. Megan got here around nine and we just talked and relaxed for the rest of the night, nothing too exciting, but with Pat being gone all week, I definitely appreciated the company.

saturday
We got up in the morning and sat outside for a little while since it was so nice out. I got in the hottub for a little bit and then we made a quick breakfast and headed in to town. I had to go to TJ Maxx to get something for a costume I was working on (more on that later), so me and Megan messed around in there for a while.

[[ sunshine. breakfast. some pretty sweet finds at tj maxx. ]] 

Next we headed to Boneyard so that I could grab Pat a growler of his favorite beer and some other goodies to surprise him with when he came home. There was a brewery event going on all around Oregon called Zwinklefest, so we actually got to go back into the brewery and taste a few beers they normally don't have out as well. I felt bad Pat was missing out, but I figured that the beer, a tshirt, and a wrist band would make him feel better. When we were all done we headed to 10 Barrel to grab some lunch. The two of us shared a taster tray to try and refresh our memories on which beers were decent and came up with a few winners. I am not a huge fan of their beer but the food their is great.

[[ enjoying ourselves at boneyard while picking up some presents for pat. lunch at 10 barrel. ]]

Megan had wanted to check out a little boutique downtown and go to Goodies to get some chocolate, so we headed over there next and then made our way to a cute little bar I was introduced to the weekend before called Velvet. It reminds me a little bit of The Doug Fir in Portland, but much smaller, and they have some pretty unique drinks there. I got one with Yerba Mate and vodka that was delicious. We had some time to kill so we lounged there for a while watching snowboarding videos downstairs, and then headed over to Old Mill to check out the Bend Winterfest.

[[ velvet. ]]

A band that me and Pat used to see in Corvallis called Stairway Denied was playing and I really wanted to see them, so we braved the cold. They are a Led Zeppelin cover band that actually plays like them, violin bow, "Moby Dick" solo and all. Of course they were great as always even though they played a pretty short set. After them an all female ACDC cover band came on and I really wasn't in to it. The band itself was pretty good, but their lead singer kind of ruined it for me. We also ran in to Sierra and some of her friends, so we stuck around probably a little bit longer than we should have, but eventually surrendered to the cold and called it a night to avoid getting frostbitten toes. Megan had also been pelted with a can of some Dutch Brothers energy drink by the radio team running the show... yea, probably not a good idea to throw full cans into a crowd of people from two stories up... nice going. She pretty much saved both of our faces by raising her arm which ended up taking the full wrath. Sorry Megan, but thanks for looking out.

[[ stairway denied. bend winterfest. ]]

sunday
It was gorgeous and sunny on Sunday so we sat out on the deck for a couple of hours. Foolishly I thought I was hot and took off all of my layers which resulted in my flu coming back full force a few hours later... but it felt good for a while. We relaxed, painted our nails, went in to town to grab some food to make for dinner, cooked, and watched Ten Things I Hate About You, you know, girl stuff. After dinner Megan headed home and I pretty much went right to bed.

2nd hand soldiers

Last Saturday I went out downtown with my coworker Amy to check out the band she decided to hire for her upcoming wedding. They are a local band called 2nd Hand Soldiers who keep it primarily in the family. As far as I can tell, the lead guitarist is the father of the singer, and their nephew/cousin rocks the base. Of course there are a few other members as well.

I thought they were pretty damn good. They seem to play a lot of different genres with an overall reggae feel. I particularly liked their adaptations of "Seven Nation Army" by The White Stripes and "Zombie" by the Cranberries. Of course there was some Bob Marley thrown in there, but more surprisingly was their version of "Hit Me Baby One More Time" by Britney Spears, which, with some good guitar and drums was not half bad. My guess is that the singer instigated that one... I would definitely check them out again.

Sorry for the not so great picture, it was pretty dark in there and I am not in to using the flash on my phone unless I absolutely have to.

[[ 2nd hand soldiers in bend. ]]

happy valentime's

Today is Valentine's Day, Pat is in Huston for work, and I am sick, working from home, and watching old 30 Rock episodes... yep, it is about the same as last year. I think I have a curse. Oh well, better luck next year. Happy Valentime's!

smith rock - extras

Here are a few pictures Tony took that didn't make it in to my first two posts. I love the candid one at the bottom of me and Pat, we never have any pictures together like this. Thanks Tone!  

[[ at the summit. sunset on the way out. ]]

[[ candid, me and pat taking it all in. ]]

smith rock state park - part II the way down

Yesterday I posted my pictures from the way up to the summit of Smith Rock, these are those taken on the way down and around. 

We had taken the Misery Ridge trail up the rock and rested along the summit to take pictures for about an hour before deciding to head down along the backside. We continued to follow Misery Ridge down around Monkey Face (another rock formation) and along the Crooked River. Our trip down was not quite as steep, but it was a little unnerving since we were walking right along the edge and could see the river far below us. This side was also covered in shade and was extremely muddy and slippery. Once we got around Monkey Face we took the Mesa Verde trail the rest of the way down with only a few slip ups and near falls. Towards the end of this portion there was a small cave area with several unique rock formations that people had added to by placing pebbles in stacks along it. Me and Tony added our own before continuing on along the River Trail, which took us next to the river all the way around to the front of the rock where we had started.

We were pretty tired and hungry by the time we had looped back to the front and were excited to grab some dinner. Unfortunately we still had to hike up the trail called The Chute to get to the parking lot, which was an additional 500 feet up. I was so exhausted that this part was pretty much torture... The entire trip took us about four hours to complete. Overall it was an amazing day, and I can't wait to go back!

[[ misery ridge trail. taking a rest along the edge. the crooked river. monkey face on the way down. tony attempting to climb. the rock shrine. colorful rock formations. walking along the river. rock climbers. climbing the chute. mt washington and the sunset. ]]