Update on Big Decision

SO, lately I've been considering transferring to Oregon State starting winter term '10 and enrolling in the graphic design program. I just really am not enjoying what I'm doing at Southern. Don't get me wrong, it's a great school, especially if you like to bathe in patchouli, but it's not where I want to be. I would like to transfer starting fall term but you had to have the app in by February 1st which was impossible since I didn't come to this decision until recently. Anyway, it's a lot to consider and I have some time to figure it out. Obviously I would continue at SOU until then.

**Update on update: Went ahead and with my geniusness figured out that SOU is offering a beginning graphic design class this term and I signed up for it.

Our Etsy Shop!!

Brooke and I have recently opened our very own Etsy shop! We're currently working on understanding all of the functions available on Etsy but the shop is up and running. There isn't much in there yet but we are working on creating new products. As of now our shop is a card shop but I'm sure eventually we may expand to include other items. In case you've never been to Etsy everything sold on the site is handmade. So, all of the cards in our shop were either handmade by Brooke or myself.

So please check out our shop and pass along the link to anyone you know who might be interested. The best advertising is always word of mouth!

www.bebeandjays.etsy.com

Big Decision

So I've made a big, HUGE, scary decision. I've been working towards getting my Bachelors in English Literary Studies and Spanish for the last 3 years. My plan was to then get a Masters of Arts in Teaching. Lately though I've come to the realization that I don't really want to teach. I think it would be really fun for a couple of years but the thought of teaching for 30 years and then retiring makes me sad. I think there should be more to life than working at a job you like but don't particularly love and then just living looking forward to the weekends. SO, I'll finish my Bachelors since I do like the subjects I'm studying but now I'm not sure what I want to do. I want a career where I can be more creative and I want to make things. I don't know but I have time to figure it out.

Shoes!

I found these super adorable red flats at Ross Dress for Less. Usually I'm not a big fan of the color red (actually I detest it and don't own any red clothing) or a big fan of flats but they are just so damn cute. I figure red is alright as an accessory, I guess.

Renegade Handmade

One of my coworkers turned me on to this awesome shop based in Chicago called Renegade Handmade. Luckily for us they have a website! Their online store is full of fun, quirky, handmade items.

Make It Happen

Lately I've been feeling a little stifled creatively. I work so much and then have class on top of that and when I finally get home it's usually relatively late and I just curl up with a book or pop in a film. I have a very deep affection for books so this is great but it isn't always fulfilling. A month ago I was drifting in and out of some boring lecture in class so I took to making to do lists of things I needed to accomplish. When I was finished I made a to do list of the bigger things I want to do. Not the BIGGEST things like get my degree and move to Latin America but the things I want to do now that I feel are missing. My list is as follows:

find  a studio and start dancing again

spend more time making cards 

learn to sew (Scott gave me a sewing machine a MONTH ago)

start pilates again

write my family and friends more often

start a card class and keep up with it

Putting my list on my blog is akin to saying it out loud and being held accountable because you all can read it. Thanks for the inspiration in that department Brooke. Now the big thing is just getting it done, making the time. 

Well isn't this fun...

Look what Stephen King has to say about Stephenie Meyer...

According to Stephen, “Both Rowling and Meyer, they’re speaking directly to young people… The real difference is that Jo Rowling is a terrific writer and Stephenie Meyer can’t write worth a darn. She’s not very good.”

** Gotta LOVE some good shit talking!! **

While Stephen may not be a fan of Stephenie’s writing, he understands the appeal of the series.

“People are attracted by the stories, by the pace, and in the case of Stephenie Meyer, it’s very clear that she’s writing to a whole generation of girls and opening up kind of a safe joining of love and sex in those books. It’s exciting and it’s thrilling and it’s not particularly threatening because it’s not overtly sexual.”

** I was just talking about this subject with my boss the other day. I was saying how there is sex in the book but only in some obscure very non-specific way. I attributed it to Meyer being a Mormon, but maybe she's just a prude. If you expect kids to deal with vampires and death why not just throw sex at them too? **

Super Bowl

Sorry Cards fans. YOU LOST. I basically had the most fun Super Bowl ever! We had 4 dips, 3 kinds of beer and 2 different liquors. Oh, and did I mention the CARDS LOST!!

Vinyl Decals

Deer with Antlers wall decal found at TastySuite on Etsy.


So if you look back here you can see a picture of my hideous brown cabinets. I could paint them but that would take time and possibly a nice chunk out of my rather hefty deposit. Looking into alternatives I found some vinyl decals on Etsy that I heart. A lot.

These little guys are so cute and I love their little hearts. Find them at DesignFruit


I absolutely love and adore this peacock from FreckledHound.

These fun flowers are from Plaskels. They make me happy.

Joy!

I'm feeling like I might die. Well, not really. I'm being overly dramatic but I do feel like shit. So here's some cheeriness courtesy of xkcd.  

The Future is Here

Today is inauguration day for those of you living under a rock. I made my way to the college this morning and watched with my fellow students as Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States. Talk about a moment. It was amazing. I wanted to twirl in circles - which I will do now. 

So now I'm ready to see what Obama can accomplish in the next 4 years. Best of luck to him. I don't envy him the decisions he's going to have to make.

Stacia's Birthday!

Oops! So I guess I forgot to post about Stacia's birthday. As I'm sure you can guess it was a pink party. I'm not a big pink fan so the only pink I own is a dress - which was all wrinkled in the back of my closet. So what happened was I agree to meet Ally at the tree to pre-funk and I have to get ready in a semi-hurry. I don't own an iron so I hang my dress in the bathroom while I shower and then when that didn't get the wrinkles out I sprayed it with water and busted out my blow dryer and blow dried my dress. Completely ridiculous. When we got to Stay's everyone was having a grand ol' time playing twister (which I won by the way) and dancing to Billy Idol and reveling in all things pink. Happy Birthday Stacia!!

My New Apartment

So I FINALLY finished unpacking my house - 3 MONTHS later!! I'm such a freaking slacker. I must say though that since leaving hell and moving into my studio I am much happier. My place makes me smile with its ridiculousness. Raf requested pictures so here you go...

This is obviously the bathroom and I just picked up my owl soap dispenser at Target the other day. I LOVE it!

This is my living room area - complete with a stack of books in the corner.

I'm not a big fan of my cupboards but I'll figure out something to do with them soon.

This is where all the crafting genius happens - cards, picture frames, magnets, randomness...

Ally's Birthday

                                                                Birthday Girl!

For my dear friend Ally's birthday we invested in party hats, Incredible Hulk cupcakes and a lot of shots! Naomi made chocolate cupcakes wrapped in foil and from there we made Ally a tin foil dress which she wore until it fell apart. Happy Birthday Ally!!

Canning

So my incredibly infuriating sister informed me earlier this year that she believed it would be better for the world if we all exchanged handmade gifts for Christmas (she took the handmade pledge). Anyway, I thought she meant we were supposed to make, by hand, gifts for each other. Apparently she meant buy gifts somebody else made by hand. So I got to work thinking about what I could possibly make by hand. The obvious choice was to make cards but that seemed too easy since my mom and sister both make cards as well. Instead I decided to embark on a jam making journey.

First off I contacted Auntie (I like to think of her as the head of the family) and she promptly sent me a packet full of recipes and books on canning. I did however notice that her amazing applesauce recipe was not in that packet. damn. I then bought a canning pot and headed down to the local farmers market to pick up some fruit. I decided on raspberries and got to work. It was really fun and I ended up with raspberry juice all over my clothes, my face and my kitchen.

I was too scared to try it so I decorated a jar with some fabric and twine and gave it to my friend Lindsay with a warning that it may not taste good. She gave it to her husband to try with the pancakes at breakfast and he really liked it, so much so that I traded him another jar of jam for some jars of organic peanut butter! Which was awesome as MaraNatha can get spendy. (It's so worth it though!)

UnAfraid

When I was snowed in on the coast I decided to pick up my mom's book club book. It is Unafraid: A Novel of the Possible by Jeff Golden. The premise is, what if the bullet that killed JFK strayed 3 inches, leaving him alive to serve 8 years as President? At first I didn't really like the book but then I got into it and couldn't put it down; even staying an extra day in the Coos to finish it. I suggest you check it out. It's a good read.

White Trash Bash!

(Britt & Casey)

As I previously mentioned my good friend Brittany had a white trash themed birthday party. I drove 4 hours to be there for the drunkenness. We drank consuelas which are basically a large pitcher full of shots and orange juice. We also sang karaoke (I was a karaoke virgin) and then went to Country/Western night at Cantina and danced and made complete fools of ourselves. Alcohol does that to me from time to time. It was basically an amazing night of drunken debauchery.

Driving home the next day I got stuck on I-5 when it began to snow and they decided to close the interstate. I then attempted to purchase chains and no Les Schwab from Florence to Brookings had chains that would fit my tires. What the hell? I detoured back to my mom's house in the Coos where I got to see my family and went to dinner for my soon to be sister-in-law's 21st birthday. We went to Puerto Vallarta Mexican Restaurant and they gave us tequila poppers and even mi madre downed one. Alcoholism apparently runs in the family! KIDDING. sort of.

It's Not Valentine's Day Yet But....

So, I don't think I've had a "valentine" other than my mom (love you) in 4 years which is fine by me because V-day is stressful and irritating and makes me want to vomit in my mouth a little bit. Today MSN has an article titled Little Things About Love. I click on it because this is what I do at work, read crappy articles on MSN but even though I'm all surly with my *Beetle Girl shell I am a sucker for sappy love movies. Here are some quotes
they had in their article:

*Yes, I have a friend who has nicknamed me Beetle Girl. He says I'm of the shit talking coastal pincher variety of beetle.

“Scarlett! Look at me! I’ve loved you more than I’ve ever loved any woman, and I’ve waited longer for you than I’ve ever waited for any woman.” —Gone With the Wind

“The best thing you can do is find a person who loves you for exactly what you are. Good mood, bad mood, ugly, pretty, handsome, what have you, the right person’s still gonna think the sun shines out your ass.” —Juno

“We’ll always have Paris.” —Casablanca

“I love that you get cold when it’s 71 degrees out. I love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich.... I love that after I spend the day with you, I can still smell your perfume on my clothes. And I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night.” —When Harry Met Sally

Etsy Find

I just found this dress at Etsy. I love it! I love the print and the ruffles and it's just cheery. It was handmade by a designer named Ananya and you can check out her blog here.

Brooke's Wedding Plates

My sister Brooke is getting married and she wants an assortment of different plates for her wedding. I have been thrifting for her and this is what I've found so far. I have 3 of the plates that are in the middle.

Here is the cutlery I found. A bunch of really neat knives and what not. I have duplicates of some but just took pictures of one of each design.

White Trash Birthday Bash!

One of my best friends from high school is having her birthday party next week in Corvallis and I cannot wait. It's a theme party where everyone has to dress up in their white trash best (not hard for those from the Coos) and go to dinner at a Mexican restaurant and then go drinking and dancing at the bar - on Country Western night. It's going to be so fun. I've been brushing up on my line dancing skills. Woo!! I will post pictures at a later date.

I almost forgot...

My mom, sister and I had our annual card making extravaganza. My friend Lindsay came and joined us for some card making fun. We sampled some local restaurants and went wedding dress shopping for Brooke and thrifting. Southern Oregon has some good thrift stores! We made a lot cards which I am now selling for $5.00 each. :)

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree...

Last night my friend Rhino (Ryan) brought over a mini Christmas tree that he cut down and we decorated it and then went to the Creekside Pizza Bistro for some pizza and beer. I don't like the color red so my tree has brown and gold ornaments. I'm not sure if you can see it but near the top is an ornament Rhino got me for Christmas that has a snowman head and his body is a NY Jets football. SO COOL!!

Goodbye Pasta!

My dear dear friend Matt left for a new job in Colorado on December 1st. It was a sad day for all of us so in saying good-bye we all met at the tree for one last fireball shot. yuck. Leave it to Matty to like the most disgusting shot ever concocted.

Catch Up Time not Ketchup Time

So I FINALLY uploaded my photos from the last 3+ months onto my computer. I had lost the cord but found it while moving. So where I live there is craziness that happens every Halloween. This town LIVES for Halloween. The Plaza is a crazy madhouse party til the wee hours of the morning. Last year I saw a drunken man in drag laying on the sidewalk in his own vomit. The cops don't care because they're too busy getting their pictures taken with girls dressed up in slutty police officer outfits. Fun times for all. Anyway, this is my favorite costume I saw this year.

New Apartment

So today I finally started moving my crap into my new apartment. I've had the keys since Nov. 1st but have been too busy (lazy) to move anything. I had been sleeping on a pile of blankets on the floor since I am avoiding my old apartment. Today I finally moved my bed, dresser, desk, card making desk, hope chest and rugs. Yay me. Now I just need to move my massive collection of clothes and shoes.

We Did It America!

This is long but amazingly inspirational.

Eve of Election Day

I cast my ballot today decidedly more excited and hopeful than when I cast my ballot 4 years ago. Last time there was not a candidate I believed in, nobody to cheer for and to get excited about. Although I started this election year as a fervent Hillary supporter I am now excited about our future under the Presidency of Barack Obama. He was not my first choice but it's obvious to see that at this time he is the right choice for America. In the last week I've heard of 5 friends that have been laid off from work, our economy is in turmoil and we have doubts about our future. The hope that we seek is finally here. I spent hours upon hours working on my ballot. I treated it as though it were the most important school assignment I would ever have to finish. I know tomorrow night I will be up until the wee hours of dawn watching election coverage with a pot of macaroni and cheese in my lap; not only because it is one of my favorite past times but also because this election counts more than any other in recent history. This is the one that is going to return hope to Americans. This is the one that will restore our futures.


*Unless of course you all vote for McCain, then I'm disowning you and moving to Mexico.

Quiero

So my sister turned me on to this awesome site with handmade items and I fell IN LOVE with this clutch. For anyone who doesn't know, I love peacocks. They're beautiful and colorful and I love them so much so that I have a peacock tattoo. If I were to have a mascot, they would be it. Anyway, this is beautiful.

My tattoo is a Sailor Jerry design done by Steve Fuller at Triple Six tattoo in Ashland, Oregon.

Annual Card Funness

I am getting excited for our 2nd annual Christmas Card Making Extravaganza! In anticipation for the event I made this card, to make sure I wasn't rusty.