Skunkboy's Summer Hair Idea

As usual, whenever I get on the computer I find myself blog hopping and checking out Pinterest rather than doing what I logged on to do. And more often than not, as soon as the screen lights up, I actually forget what I logged on to do. Eh. But last week, during one of those moments, I ran across this super cuter summer hair how-to on the Skunkboy Creatures blog. I've tried it twice now, it's so adorable, and so so easy too. An added bonus, I get a ton of compliments and people think I spent a lot of time on my hair.
Instead of lace or ribbon, I decided to use a leather strap in my braid. I didn't think it would blend in so well, but it's barely noticeable. It's definitely something fun you can experiment with, different colors, materials and different sized braids too.

 

Outfit:

Dress- H&M

Poncho- thrifted

Earrings- Fuego

I still have three days to record from my Seattle vacation. Check back soon to share the rest of my journey!

-XO

Seattle Day Three {part two}

Last I left off with our fabulous Seattle vacation we had finished up our lunch at the pub. Now it was time to venture off towards the Space Needle, after paying a whopping $24 to park for 4 hours. Ouch.

My  List:

Scrapbook Store

IKEA

Pikes Place Market

Space Needle

Kell's Irish Pub

A Cupcake Shop

A Hike

Tacoma

Thrifting 

Before leaving Crystal's place that morning I had mapped out various cupcake shops in Seattle, hoping to find one along the way. I have never been to a legit cupcake shop, we don't have such things in little 'ol Reno. I wanted to take Celeste to a bakery for a treat her first day of kindergarten a couple years age, and I had a heck of a time finding that! So as we were driving to the Space Needle, Crystal spotted The Yellow Leaf cupcake shop. Screech, we're there! 

 

Cupcakes are made fresh daily, and there's always some pretty unique ones to choose from too. Celeste and I both went with the orange cream. Crystal had a red velvet whoopie pie, and her son Cavan had chocolate, Chloe had Raspberry Lemonade. We thought they were so delicious we took some to go too. I chose salted caramel and Celeste went for chocolate. Crystal took home coconut, pancakes and bacon, espresso and margarita (with tequila).

Bellies full, we headed back to the car and continued to our destination. Spent another $9 to park. My wallet is crying now. I hate spending money with nothing to show. We walk over to the Space Needle and start snapping pictures from the park below. Celeste begs to go up. 

"I thought you were afraid of heights" I say.

"Not anymore, since I went on an airplane," she says.

Oh. Okay. So after to trying to convince Crystal to go up too, Celeste and I headed up just the two of us. It was pretty cool, and I recommend everyone does it at least once. How often do you get such an amazing view of such a beautiful city?

On Saturday

This weeks project Monday challenge was to document a day. Similar to last weeks, just takes as many or as little photos to document a day in your week. I decided to do Saturday. Saturday was an impulse. I think it was Thursday I mentioned  we should pack a picnic basket and spend the day lounging on the beach at Tahoe. Considering there is still snow atop Mt. Rose, we decided it might be too cold to swim in Tahoe's icy waters. So I suggested Pyramid lake, then we could bring our dog, Penny, and she could swim too.
When I was visiting my BFF Crystal in Washington she asked if we had taken Penny swimming yet. She said she loves to swim. Crystal's family was unable to keep Penny when they moved so we took her in. She is totally part of the family, and Chloe, Crystal's little girl, loves that we are taking care of her doggy.
So at the last minute, as I whined about yet another year might be going by without camping, we just decided to do it. We dropped down the moolah and just got our butts in gear. I've always loved camping, and used to go all the time. Every summer as a kid, every summer as a teenager, pretty much up until I had Celeste. Then I was too apprehensive about camping with a little one, and I have a hard time leaving her with anyone, so now that she is old enough, we took her on her first camping trip. (This is funny, because as I write this I am having flashes of my baby brother crawling through the campsite because he was too little to walk.)

 

I picked up a lot of trash when I was out there. I always do. I feel so sad that some people are like this. I love this place. It is so beautiful, and I have been coming here since I was a kid. And I never remember garbage being everywhere. Celeste helped me pick up some trash too. Hopefully we counter acted something!

Seattle Day Three {part one}

Our third day in Seattle was an exciting one. I had made a list of things I wanted to do and see while there, and on day three we did most of it.

My  List:

Scrapbook Store

IKEA

Pikes Place Market

Space Needle

Kell's Irish Pub

A Cupcake Shop

A Hike

Tacoma

Thrifting

We started out by heading to the Pikes Place Market, a popular tourist destination as well as a local favorite. We walked through Post Alley and put our gum on the famous bubble gum wall. Celeste isn't allowed to chew gum, but I let her do this. It took a great deal of coaxing, and maybe a threat, to get her to be rid of the gum and put it on the wall after she chewed it. We sampled smoked salmon at the Pike Place Fish Co. (where they throw the humongous fish), we smelled fresh peonies at the floral vendors, sampled peaches and tea. We bought some dark chocolate covered Rainer cherries from Chukars Cherries. We saw the first evah Starbuck's. It's also the longest line we have ever seen at a Starbuck's, so we didn't go in.

 

Then we headed to Kell's Irish Pub for lunch. I just thought it would be cool since it's haunted, and I love that sort of thing. Crystal and I felt like we had a celebrity siting after seeing the owner that was interviewed on Ghost Adventures.  The food was pretty delicious though, and, keeping with pub style we had some beers and the kids had root beers!

Seattle, Days One and Two

Day One: This was my six year old daughters, Celeste, first time flying. She was excited to go on a plane, but scared of being up so high. I admit I was nervous too, because I hadn't flown in over a decade. It's just not that affordable. For me.
So after we took off and were looking out the window the flight attendant told us we were flying over Pyramid Lake. She looks down and says with a quiver in her voice "mommy, we're really high up. Lets go back down." So cute. I just hugged her and told her it was too late for that now. We were really lucky to have great flight attendants who told us all the sights we flew over and gave us extra cookies.
Once we touched down in Seattle and stepped out onto the tarmac I could feel the moisture in the air immediately, for a desert dweller like myself, it was awesome!

Is it a car, SUV, or mini van?

We collected our luggage and headed to the rental car booth. Once inside my rental car, which felt like it was a mile into the parking lot, I had a heck of a time just figuring out how to open the trunk! After like 10 minutes, and almost going to ask for help, I got it. I brought my GPS along with me, plugged it in, grabbed the room address out of my luggage and started the engine. But my GPS wouldn't turn on. Great, I thought, the airport xrays killed my GPS. I went back to the booth and asked how much to rent one. $13 a day. No thanks, I'll buy a new one. But I still needed to find my way to my hotel in a city I've never been to.
I don't have a good data plan, 'cuz I'm poor, so I used my phones GPS to map out the route, wrote it down on a piece of paper, and finally left the airport. Geez, so much for smooth sailing. We checked into the room. Unloaded our luggage, and I checked the phones GPS again to find my way to a store to buy a new GPS. Let me tell you, cell phone GPS takes you some strange ways, but I managed to navigate my way through Seattle with my written directions only.
Once I had a new GPS I used it to find somewhere for us to get a bite to eat. One of the closest places was call Hideaway Cafe. I chose the "family" option on the GPS. We walked in and it was like a gambling hall, with a full bar, poker tables, and maybe a couple dining tables. Celeste and I looked at each other, tired, hungry, and probably lost, and left. We finally found a place called Shari's, it was like a Marie Calendars style place, no biggie. After that we called it a night!
Day Two: Today we do what we came to do, see my best friend. It was so nice to see her, it's been almost a year since she moved to the Seattle area. Her daughter Chloe is only a few months younger than Celeste, so they're good buddies too. Crystal and I met in our freshmen year of high school, truely awesome friends are so hard to come by, and even though the miles separate us, we are determined to not let our friendship dwindle. But it's totally her turn to come and visit!

Their doggy Bone

I plugged her cars address into the GPS, and left. She lives about 30 minutes away from where Celeste and I were staying. I was at a very confusing junction where the freeway separates into three different freeways when the GPS died. What?! So I exited and pulled over. I fumbled with it, but couldn't get it to turn on. Finally I used my phone again, took some crazy, but very beautiful back roads to Crystal's house. It is so pretty there, a far cry from the sea of brown I see everyday. I can definitely see why some people choose to trade in sunshine for such amazing growth. I could deal, for sure, I just love growing things, and I love green landscapes, so to be like I am in a permanent camp ground would be amazing.
First thing we did after hugs and hellos was check out her local scrapbooking stores . I buy most of my supplies on line, because stores here just don't carry what I want, and while I have asked, they claim people just don't demand the brands I like. Lame. So I was very excited to get my hands on some goodies with out the added charge of shipping. Plus, scrapbooking is one of those things that Crystal and I did together, and now we do it all by our lonesomes. She also showed me all of the pages she has done since moving there, I wish I could have shown her mine!
After this we headed to another place we don't have in Reno, but we should, IKEA! I first went to IKEA  few years back when visiting my little sis in southern Cali. I told Crystal of it's amazingness and even tried to convince her to drive over the hill to Sacramento with me to go. You would laugh at how I strategically crammed a cube shelf into my car because it is like triple the price in Reno. Well Crystal is addicted now too! I picked up a few little things I could fit in my bags (paper holder, curtains, and their super yummy lignon berry preserves), we also picked up the makings for swedish meatballs and headed back to her place and made dinner. After dinner we played a lovely game of Pretty Princess.

Can you see why I'm breaking this down into multiple posts? I do tend to ramble a bit, but I really thought my poor GPS fiasco was a relevant and entertaining portion of my trip....oh and it continues

Day three Pikes Place Market and Space Needle, check back soon!

Little Braids

Today I am going to work on my Seattle post, but I may break it down into a couple because my ramblings my get a little of track and therefore lead to a ridiculously long post! But in the meantime, I have a scrapbook layout to share. This is based off the sketch on the Cosmo Cricket blog last week.













As you can tell by my fabulous pictures, my daughter adores it when I do her hair. (That was sarcasm) It never lasts longer than 10 minutes and shes undoing what I've done, so a lot of the times I snap pictures. Picture her throwing a fit, me getting camera, coaxing her to let me just take a good picture, then you can take down your hair. *sigh* Someday she will keep it in, right?


Sources:
patterned papers: bazzill, cosmo cricket
borders: cosmo cricket, sassafras, doodle bug designs
label/journal tags: scenic route paper co, sassfras
letters: american crafts, cosmo cricket
brad: my mind's eye
flair: american crafts

Hello there.

Oh my. I arrived back home from Seattle on this past Monday. I had grand illusions of editing and posting my photos right away. But then I went to work. And it was a disaster. Quite literally. My manager had planned to cover my vacation, but then she was called away out of town on other business. The department had coverage for two half days, then four days of nothing, so I came in to a pretty big mess. Sweeet. Just what everyone wants to come back to after a vacation. Icky. Needless to say, I have been busting my ass to try and catch up, on top of normal duties, and after work, I am all tuckered out. Even though I have wanted to stop in and post, it has been hard to do anything but put my feet up after a long day!
So I have so much to share with you about my fabulous time visiting my best friend in Seattle, but, I am going to save that post for the weekend, when I have more time. Today I'd like to share this week's project Monday. Which was actually for Tuesday, June 21, the first day of summer. The summer solstice. The longest day of the year. If I hadn't been so freakin' tired after that first day back at work, I would have crammed in a lot more. The project was to document how much you did on the longest day of the year.
so:
woke up at 3am, at work by 4. yippee. what a mess.
leave on my lunch break at 8:20ish to pick up Celeste and take her to Boys & Girls Club.
Find out they don't have her in the system, wait to talk to lady.
Back at work 9:20ish. Yay, now I get to stay even later!
1:20ish off work. Pick up a few groceries, home by 2:30
Head back out to another grocery store


Stocked up on plenty of fruits for healthy snacking, I was a bad girl on vacation.
Picked up Celeste at 4
Head home and put away the rest of the groceries.
We watch some ghost stories.
We fall asleep. (oops!)
Make me a Malibu and OJ
Make some shrimp skewers with sweet thai chili sauce and cilantro and throw them on the grill, serve with coconut rice




Make oven smores for dessert

In bed by 9:30
Phew!
Isn't it crazy how little things can just suck a day away? How about you, how did you rock the longest day of the year?

What's in my Bag for the Airport

I've never done a "what's in my bag" post before, but I have seen them on other blogs and think it's a super fun idea. I'm not as resourceful as others, but I think it's fun to peek at what other ladies deem necessary to carry with them everywhere they go. For the airport, I have a very light haul. I haven't flown in over a decade, so I wanted to make sure everything went okay at the security check point.

1. Hobo International bag- I've had this bag for yeeeaars. Whenever I travel I love this bag because it is so roomy. I can hold everything I need with ease.
2. Wallet from Rue 21- love these wallets because they are only 2 for $10, so I can have a wallet to match every bag!
3. Handmade Marketplace- a book to read on the plane. Have you read this one?
4. Burt's Bees Lip Balm
5. My phone
6. Sunglasses- I always go for the cheep ones, no biggie when I sit on them! These ones are from Forever 21
7. A book for Celeste to read on the plane
8. My sketchbook
9. My luggage keys