Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Sweet Sweet Summer

I know I have been slacking in the blog department but Ive been one busy chick. I am going on 3 weeks now at the salon and things are going great!!! I'm staying pretty busy and I thought it'd be awhile for that happened. I just put my notice in yesterday at the bar, I will be done there the 25th of this month!!! Woohoo!!! I'm more then ready to be home at night!

Now that I won't be working nights and weekend anymore that gives me plenty of chances to get some Stripper fishing in!!! My boyfriend has caught something like a dozen so far and I unfortunately have none. That had better change! No longer bartending also gives me time to go camping! I have such an itch for it this summer since I only got one trip in last year. Id like to go over the 4th of July weekend but everyone and their moms go that weekend so we shall see. There is talk of a trip the following weekend on the Wilson River with some friends from the Portland area. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that plan works out. The boyfriends only criteria seems to be there needs to be good fishing and a place to put his boat in.

With it being June that means strawberry season is here!!! I made my 1st batch of strawberry freezer jam this morning, keeping my fingers crossed it sets up. If so I plan on making another batch or three since each batch I make gives me about 6 small jars and between me and the rest of my family and a few friends who ask every year for it who are a little less on the domesticated side lol, it goes FAST!

Well off to be productive in some other department! More later!

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Another creative outlet

I am soooooo excited to be getting back into the salon world!!! For those who don't know I am a licensed Nail Tech. Last fall I ended up getting extremely ill and ended up having surgery so I took some time off from my many multiple jobs. I have gotten back to all of them except for doing nails I decided it was best to not over work myself for awhile.

 Being a Bartender can be and has been a lot of fun but after so many years at it I'm starting to get burnt out. I feel like an extremely under paid therapist at times. I am ready to close that chapter in my life and get into more of a career type mode. I want to be in control of my schedule again. I want to be able to be at home more and I think nails is the way to go. Word is already spreading that I am getting back into it so I am defiantly excited about that! Cant wait to see where this goes!

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

M-A-S-O-N J-A-R L-O-V-E

Have I mentioned I LOVE mason jars! Maybe loves a little understated, obsessed might be more the right word! For as long as I can remember, back to the days when I was little and my mother canned during the summer I always thought mason jars were just the coolest thing. Right after high school I moved away and ended up in Portland, Oregon for the majority of about 7 years and so I kind of lost touch with my love for mason jars. That has since changed!

For the most part about 85% of my house is decorated in a "country life" kind of way, from my room in mossy oak camo, to my daughters room in the pink version of real tree, the deep red in the kitchen that is also carried into the living room with iron horse shoe candle holders and Montana Silversmith statues, mason jars have found their way back into my heart! I mainly use them as flower vases and have some with handles that are used as drinking glasses. My creativity has been on overdrive lately and now I make these awesome things......
I saw some on Etsy one time and IMMEDIATELY new i had to have some! When I saw the price of them I realized I was not going to pay almost $20.00 after shipping to have one, especially because I want a whole heck of a lot more than one. So after some trial and error on how to get a mason jar to adhere to a glass base I finally found the perfect way!!! I have since placed some in my grandparents store since she thought they were cool and sold quiet a few!!!! I now have them on Etsy as well and it seems like everyone and their mom is doing it as well now. Oh well, I'm in it just for fun anyways plus I'm about to add a twist to some of them no one else does. Pictures of that adventure soon to come! 

Now that I have my "high class white trash wine glasses" as I refer to them, I'm constantly thinking of other things I want to do with mason jars. Next on my list I want to get the small 8oz elite jars and make individual pies and cakes in them. Oh yeah how could I forget about this, I have stepped up the mason jar decorating in my kitchen a notch too!!! While shopping for mason jars to make the glasses out of I found a 1 gallon sized limited edition decorative mason jar that ball came out with for their 125th anniversary at Walmart. Well needless to say when my boyfriend saw it he wanted me to turn it into a VERY LARGE sized version of the glasses i make for him. I did. Picture of that soon too. Much to my dismay they only had one of those jars :(  So I spent the next day googling them to see if I could find them, just about everyone was on back order and then one of my favorite stores pulled through for me. Cableas. Not only did one of my favorite places have them they also had the option to buy them individually or in a 4 pack, I think you know what I bought! Yepp the 4 pack!!! So now they are my new kitchen canisters!!!!!

Stay tuned to see what else I come up with for these babys!!!!

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Liquid Gold!!!

I must say living in the Pacific NW can be quiet depressing through the fall and winter months but now that the sun has been out a few times in the last few weeks including today's cloudless bright blue sky I am in quiet the creative mood!!

I finally after five months of procrastination cleaned out the spare bedroom! Everything I haven't wanted to deal with since I moved into this place has been literally thrown into this room. It was a scary sight, the day I opened the door to of course add yet some more to the collection and watched a pile as high as me tumble over i decided time to get to work so I can actually have a space devoted to my crafts! It took me two days to weed through it all and even made a goodwill and a dump run to finally have a clean, organized work space!!! Now I just need to get my cricut expression and sewing machine which are still in the original packaging opened and put em to use. Did I mention I have no idea in the world how to use a sewing machine, this should be interesting to see how the first time goes. Lets hope that theirs no sewn together fingers or hospital trips, I am after all the most uncoordinated person in the world. Ive mastered tripping over absolutely nothing!

Once I get a few more things put together in my craft room I will be sure to post some pictures. Ive got so many ideas running through my head again. Tutu's which I've already created a few, headbands and bows (my new current obsession, which my daughter is thrilled with!), mason jars, mason jars, mason jars!!! I freaking LOVE mason jars! I have tons of ideas for them! I even ordered a camo dip kit so there are going to be all sorts of camo covered things coming soon!!!! Stay tuned for pictures!!!!!

I'm off to enjoy this beautiful Oregon coast sunshine! Lord knows it'll probably be gone tomorrow!

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

I'm just that skilled...

I had quiet the interesting week last week to say the least. Thursday night I locked myself out of the bar and in the smoke room. It didn't take long for the word to get out that I had done it but thats fine by me because I am totally owning it. I actually think it's pretty dang funny! How does someone lock them selves out of the bar and into another room? I still don't know how it happened but it did and all I can do is laugh. So now your probally wondering how I got out.

After realizing the keys were inside and so was my phone it dawned on me I was screwed and it was time to try and get tricky. I spent a good hour trying to pop the lock on the door with the open sign out of the window but that didnt work it was to flimsy and just broke into pieces. After there wasnt much of the sign left I moved on to trying to pop one of the plexiglass windows of the smoke room out, no luck there either. I decided ok turn the other open sign back on and wait and see if someone drives by and try and flag them down and have them call the boss. After 15 minutes or so I realized chances of this happening not so good. Where are the cops doing drive bys when you need them? I was about to give up. I pulled up a chair and sat there for a few minutes contemplating the fact that I was going to be stuck in this room for at least 8.5 hours before someone came to work and could let me out. At that moment panic struck. No way was I going to be stuck that long. Thats when my mind switched to what window are you going to take out. I weighed my options, did I take out the window on the door back into the bar? No it was double payned and would probally cost me a whole new door. Ok next option, how about one of the windows on either side of the door? Well the window to the left is pretty big so that won't be cheap and the window to the right just didnt sound to good in my mind either even though it was much smaller. So I turned around and weighed my options as to which plexi window to take out and there were quiet a few to choose from. Finally I decided on the last window in the corner that way if it had to be boarded up for a few days it wouldn't look as bad as if I took one out in the middle some where. Now that I had made my decision how was I going to break it? When I was trying to pop one out I realized they were alot strong then I thought so I most definatley wasn't using my fist because well A. It probally would hurt some what and B. with my luck id end up cutting my wrist and bleeding like a stuck pig. So the chair it is. I picked it up and it went through the window with ease! I climbed out and and never felt so relieved in my life!!!

Ok now I'm out, how in the heck do I get back in to the bar? I had just locked all the doors before locking myself in the smoke room or so I thought. It dawned on me the kitchen door was still wide open but as my luck has it is behind a very tall fence. I tried climbing it with no luck since its got the plastic slates weaving through the chain link. I finally realized my only option was to call the boss which I was going to have to do anyways to explain the busted out window. Where was I going to call him from the bar down the road was already closed, everything else around was too seeing as it was 1:30 in the morning. The cop shop was really my onlt option so I hoofed it the few blocks to the police station. Once I got there I had to explain what happened so I could use the phone and I think they got a good laugh. Got a hold of the boss man told him what happened and no it wasnt an April fools joke and I dont think it really dawned on him till he got to the bar because he asked me where the pile of glass came from, after telling him the story again all he could say was "Ohhhh".

Fast forward about 9 hours. I went back down to work to talk to the boss and the window had just gotten finished being replaced!!! Apparently according to Casey, the handyman, I chose the worst window to break. He said it was the hardest one to put in when he built the room because it was at an angle. Whoops! He adviced me for future refrence which window to take out incase I ever do this again which knowing me is quiet possible! I was terrified it was going to cost me a bunch since plexi glass isnt all that cheap. Thank god we had some left over from the original build and it only cost me labor!!!!

I have heard so many jokes about being a blonde its not even funny. Everyone keeps asking me how I'm going to one up myself on this stunt. I tell 'em I have no idea but I don't doubt in the least that it'll happen!

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

The Queen of Procrastination

The queen of procrastination came to town and stuck around much to long. It's time she gets over thrown and I get back on this little bandwagon.

I have been so flipping busy it's ridiculous and I'm only going to be getting busier. Currently I am working 7 days a week. 2 days a week at the grandparents store and 5 nights a week slinging drinks at one of the local watering holes. So with this 60+ hrs a week I'm working where in the world I am going to find time to be little miss artsy fartsy is beyond me but I'm sure as heck going to make a full blown effort.

On top of trying to find time to do all these crafts I have planned out in my head and let me tell you there are dozens, I am also trying to get back in to a salon to do nails again. I must be freaking crazy. Apparently I think I am super woman and am capable of running on zero sleep and loads of caffeine. HA we shall see how long this one lasts.

While I am on the subject of being crazy and ideas, lets just throw this one out there to for those of you who don't know. I have this wild ass idea to some day give raising bucking bulls a try. I know what am I thinking right? Honestly I haven't got the slight idea other then I want to do it, and do it I shall! I've had  this crazy notion to do it for quiet a few years now but I have just always thrown it in the back of my mind and just dreamed about it not knowing quiet how to go about it. Well that's all started to change, and it's all because of a sweatshirt!!! I just happened to be wearing my PBR sweatshirt, and no its not Pabst Blue Ribbon thank you very much, try more like Professional Bull Riders!!! Anyways, I had a gentleman come into the store who I have seen on occasion since I started working for my grandparents and he just happened to ask me where I had gotten my shirt from. I told him I got it at a PBR event about 4 years ago. One thing led to another and he said he raised bucking bulls and currently has 5 of them that are in the PBR!!!! NO FREAKING WAY!!!! At this point my excitement level has sky rocketed through the roof and my dream is right there in the front of my mind!!!! I told him about my crazy ass dream and he said that when I am ready to give 'er a go to let him know and he will help me out!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHH (insert super excitement here) no freaking way!!! So after he left you can only imagine I kinda did this little happy dance and squealed like a little kid on Christmas morning! Maybe my dream isn't so crazy after all, wait I take that back it is most definitely crazy. I mean come one now bucking bulls really? There sure as heck aren't some cute little puppy that your going to ooh and ahhh over these things can seriously kick some a$$!! Who knew my dream could actually become a real reality for me!!!!! I knew that was my favorite sweatshirt for a reason!

It shall be interesting to see where this goes!