Online Shopping

I think, that since I bought my first winter purchase (a sheepskin on which to sleep) online, I have been growing increasingly more addicted to the special kind of gratification that comes with online shopping. 

Never having to step foot in a store is a certain benefit for starters. Not having to travel at all to get a new product is another. 

But honestly, probably the best thing is getting something sweet in the mail (that you may or may not have forgotten about ordering). Sometimes, just getting something new that is really cool is enough to perk a person up. So, in order to curb my online spending habit, I've decided to make some of the things that I want from online (or my own versions of those things). Now, if only I could send them to myself.

Lately, I've been looking at a whole bunch of different U.S. state prints. They've ranged from road map print in the shape of a state to highly stylized geometric state approximation. Some have little symbols for different terrain. Some, list all of the cities of note in the state. They are (excuse me, I'm already sorry) all over the map in style. 

What I like the most about them is the idea of getting all of the states that I've lived in collected and having them as decorations. Here is what I have for myself.  

 Virginia

Delaware  

I'm obviously unfinished since I haven't even started Oregon yet.

Mail

Sweet, sweet, snail mail. USPS why would you ever, even think about closing? Yesterday, I got these bad boys in the mail. If these aren't going to make me mad tips at work, I don't know what is...

Tiny Blackberry Earrings

So cute

Shout out Chrissy for thinking of me when you saw these. Firstly, I love them and secondly, another girl with a cool earring collection just started working with me and these will totally best her! Nehehehe. I win. Thanks to you.

On the fritz

My computer thinks that he's on his last leg. Little does he know that he's going to last me for at least another year and a half.

He's been practicing his death rattle for the past couple of weeks. First he gave me a blue screen, which two of my room mates referred to as "the blue screen of death" but then one of them somehow brought him back from the brink. And that was good. But then last night, as I typed to you, you very devout readers, about a breach in my healthy (and temporary) diet, the screen went completely black.

I had my Mac desktop for 5 years and never had any of this sort of problems so I am pretty much completely in the dark on this (as my computer wants me to be). Luckily, I have a collection of technology minded folk in my life some of which have been navigating the infested land of computer zombies for quite some time.

On a more positive note: I'm going as Cruella Devil for Halloween and I am slowly but surely amassing all of the appropriate pieces to make an awesome costume. Today I searched long and hard and finally found a good faux fur coat (which I plan on reselling after Halloween). I also, found a really cute hand mixer while I was out and about which is a totally different thing that I'm excited about. I, in a stroke of money wasting, costume oriented focus, ordered red boots online that shall serve me both during and after Halloween if I have anything to say about it. If I can't re-wear them then they're being resold too. I'm trying to make as much back as possible on this costume with plans to resell at least the coat, the dress and then maybe the shoes. Dressing up can be a bit expensive.

How about you? Do you have any fun Halloween plans that you'd like to share with me? Any diet disaster stories? Any suggestions on how to keep my hair standing up like Cruella's for a whole night? How do you feel about the fragility of laptops or the loonieness of microsoft? Feel free to use the comment section of this blog or some other electronic means to communicate with me about any of these topics and more.

All the best.

Date night

So, as I mentioned last post I was getting ready to go on a date with a man that I met at the Restore. I forgot that you all might enjoy hearing about how it went. So here, a little but hopefully not too late, it is.

This was my first date ever with a stranger. Up until this point I have only ever gone out on dates with people that I have spent at least a few hours with in a group setting i.e. : a show, a friend dinner, a series of runs, or just regular friend hang out time. But, when I met this guy at the restore and gave him my number, I decided, in with the new and all that jazz.

We started off the evening by biking over to North West Portland for sunset to see these famous birds, the Vaux Swifts, all fly together in this crazy conglomerate to a chimney where they roost. Here's a post with a picture of what we watched.

After that we could have gone our separate ways but we decided to get some food. So, we went to a strange sushi bar where the sushi chefs make these little plates of sushi and put them on a conveyor belt for you to pick up if you want what's there. We tried a variety of things that I've never tried. Salmon eggs, sea weed sushi, spicy tuna rolls were all on that list of new things. It was a pretty fun and certainly novel experience.

After that we could have split up. We'd been out to see this amazing natural phenomena and we'd had dinner but then we went to get a drink from a bar. So, we bike back from the North West of Portland along the riverfront in the evening which could have been a date in and of itself it was so beautiful. We stopped at a bar that I pass all of the time on the way to the restore but that I'd never been to (in with the new eh?) and had a drink. He can only drink a glass of red wine because he has some liver problems but I did learn that he owns a distillery, makes whiskey, and makes specialty mead such as, fig mead and blackberry mead which is pretty awesome.

After this the night was no longer young but since I'd told him about the big persimmon trees, blackberries and roses that we have in our yard and about some of the stuff I've been doing in my room as little instillation pieces (some close ups shown below) I gave him a brief tour of my house. Then I kicked him out. It was pretty close to 1:30 in the morning at this point and I was so sleepy.

Tea bags stuck to this piece of wood I have leaning up against my wall

Close up of some tea bags.

Still, in the end, my date ended up being a seven and a half hour date. At least next time we hang out I won't be on a date with a stranger.

Things, Things, Things: We live in a material world

Well, since I've returned to Portland I've pretty much worn at least one thing a day that I brought back from the east coast. Here are a few of the treasures that I picked up back home

Earrings that I stole from Mom. They were broken so I replaced that top bit. That's why they're mismatched.

A blouse that I bought at Rumors, a Richmond Boutique.

Another pair of stolen earrings

A book that my friend made. It honestly didn't photograph very well but is awesome.

Tonight, I have a date with a boy that I met at the restore. Well, nothing is set in stone, but I think there will be a date tonight and I'm planning on rocking some of my east coast fashions.

Shout outs to Mom for hooking me up with all those sweet earrings, to Rumors for being such a positive and steady Richmond force over the past few years, to Terrance Edwards who designs sweet products which you can find at here, and to the Habitat for Humanity Restore for bringing people together.

Working woman

Hi guys,

As you who have read my recent posts or talked to me on the phone, as of late, will know, I am honing in on some job opportunities. I've got an ice cream shop waiting for me, I applied to a restaurant were a friend of a friend works yesterday, and I'm constantly sending out the ol' resume to jobs I see on craigslist.

Well today, I was out, shopping at Target to get some sweet boots on clearance for my potential jobs & interviews when I got a call for just that, a job interview. So, tomorrow, I have a job interview for another hostess position. And, I have a clean and fancy pair of shoes to wear to that interview. Who's excited? (Hint they write a blog post three times a week and live in Portland, OR).

I also, may have a friend of a friend come out and stay with me sometime. Soon, that would be great as I miss these friends and would love to see a member of their group.

So anyways, I have a feeling, that you're about to be reading blog posts from a real working woman instead of this partially employed approximation of a working woman you've got posting now.

Wish me luck on getting one of these jobs!

New Kicks

Yesterday, I hit up the new Goodwill in my area.

Turns out it was a Goodwill boutique which means it has fancier more selected products and less deals.

Even though the lack of a half priced tag color for the day did sadden me greatly, I still managed to walk away from the store with a pair of sweet new shoes, a pair of tennies to tread with if you will, and that greatly improved my day. Here's a quick pic I took last night before my camera died.

Sweet new Kangaroos. They even have a little pocket to put your cash or whatnot!

On an equally exciting but less title worthy note: I also purchased some lactose free ice cream a couple of days ago and have been living an excessively cold and delicious lifestyle ever since. Shout out mix ins: Peanut butter, cocoa powder, Reece's Candy bar, & Banana

Under There

Two things.

Thing number one: My room is now almost twice the size that it used to be. Yay!! There used to be a bunch of stuff being stored in the space where my bed now is and now there is just a bed! I love all the space.

Thing number two: Out dryer's broken so these are all of my socks and underwear draped about my newly available space.

Socks! Yay! I have so many warm socks! Thanks go out to you guys for all the warm sock I've accumulated over the past few Christmases.

Underwear hanging on thumbtacks on my wall

Socks and underwear draped on desks, lamps and every other non-floor surface in my room.