It's been a while...

A year in fact.

Let me get you up to speed on what's been going on. When last we talked I was a suffering from a little bit of seasonal effective disorder, or sad, for those in the know. Well, coincidentally, I am having that same problem now! Methinks a pattern I smell.

But I digress... in the past year I have done a whole lot of nothing. No crafts at all. This can almost entirely be attributed to our tiny apartment where my sewing machine is in it's case in the back of my closet along with everything else I own that's crafty.

I have decided to make a vow to do some crafting for the Holidays! Maybe it will get me out of my funk and crafts are a great personal (read cheap) way to tell loved ones that they are loved ones. Yay!

While Christmas crafting I will be no doubt watching our favorite Christmas films. Check it.

Christmas Vacation - I don't care what any snobby bastard says, this is the greatest ever.
It's a Wonderful Life
Santa's Slay - My husband's favorite and I have to say that I dig this one too.
Home Alone
Trading Places
White Christmas

Stay tuned for news of crafts!

Husband Less

I am less one husband for the next 48 hours. He's off in Los Angeles for work being very important and I am home with the dog and cats eating Totino's Party Pizzas and making button bouquets.

For the 4 of you who read this blog, you know that I made button bouquets at my wedding and encouraged you to take them home as favors. Well! Our good friend Adazoe owns Pop Up Shoppe on NW 23rd and wants to start selling my bouquets! So I've been hard at work filling her first order of 6 bouquets. When I bring them in we're going to talk price point. I have no idea what that means, but it makes me tingly in all the right places. How exciting!

I've been so inspired by this vote of confidence from Adazoe, that I've opened my own Etsy shop! There is nothing for sale in it yet, but I'll let you know once there is. I plan on selling the bouquets (obvs.) and also bookmarks, magnets, eyeglass sheaths, embroidered what nots and whatever the hell else I can make. I love being crafty but have pretty much run out of room for stuff in my house, so why not sell my craftiness to the masses?! Huh? Huh? I know, right? Genius.

Shauna's face in this picture says it all.

It's way too early to tell you what my Etsy shop name is and give you the URL, but trust me when I say that the name of my shop/business is super clever and Brad came up with it. He's a smarty.

Yay for stuff!

The Grand Canyon: Bush Style

Bush Meets Bush

Brad and I are going to visit the Arizona Bushes, Eric and Angie for a whole week! To illustrate my excitement, I played around on Polyvore for an hour.


We're going to the Grand Canyon, a spring training game, shopping at Fashion Square, record shopping in Phoenix and we're going to eat some succulent (that's for you, Brad) Mexican food. It's all going to be fabulous. The best part is, we'll be spending all our time with our best friends!

Hallelujah, holla back!

OK OK, One last thing!

I was ill this week and when I stayed home from work I watched all 3 seasons of Arrested Development.



TV on DVD is great for when you're stuck on the couch AND Arrested Development is great for any and everything.

I saw an "I Miss the Bluth's" bumper sticker a couple weeks ago and it made me want to tongue kiss the person driving the car. But we were at a red light and I didn't want to risk the light turning green mid-frenching. Oh well, maybe next time.

Overwhelmed

1. Spread Scott's Turf Builder w/Moss Control™ on the:

Side Yard

Back Yard

Front Yard

2. Dig up the daffodils that are in what used to be a flower bed and move them to a spot that makes more sense for us.

From here
and here
to here

3. I also need to dig up those rocks that are in our front yard and do...something with them. They don't belong there anymore.

4. Finish power washing our multiple walkways.

I washed all the moss off them last weekend and you can totally see where I sprayed. Tacky.

5. The ubiquitous laundry situation.

My hamper always seems to look like this.

6. Organize my craft area.

I don't even know where to begin.

11. Give sweet Bosley a bath.

I can see the stink lines swirling off his head.

7. I need to dye my roots.

Shockingly, I'm not a natural platinum blonde. Oh my!

You can also see the stink lines coming off my head. Though, I think I should do the yard work before I bathe myself...but am I really going to do yardwork? Eh. It's possible. I better just stay stinky all day in case I decide to do something. Good plan.

I got tired of taking pictures, but I also need to:

8. Finish spray painting some brackets for a shelf we're going to hang under a kitchen window. The shelf is for the cats as all are window sills are so narrow they aren't able to enjoy the sunshine like they used to in our apartment.

9. Sweep and vaccum. Much like laundry, this is always on my list of things to do.

10. The bathroom smells like an old folks home, so I'm thinking I need to clean it.

Can I do all this in one day? Probably, if I start now and don't stop until night time. But we have guests coming over for dinner so I should probably focus on the inside stuff. Plus, I have no supplies for the turf builder project and I kind of feel like I should make Brad do that anyway. I get stuck with all the inside chores so he should have to do all the outside chores. Now, just to clarify, when I say "I get stuck with" I mean that I don't think Brad does a good enough job, so I have made myself in charge of them. It's a blessing and a curse to be such a thorough cleaner.

I love being a homeowner, I really really do. But wow oh wow. I definitely understand why my dad was so grouchy on the weekends in the spring. There's so much and it never ends. I have no idea how he did it all and had 3 kids to deal with.

Now, enough blogging! The time for action is upon us!

Extreme (or not) Home Makeover!

Hey everybody! It's been a long time since I've posted here so I thought I'd drop all you kids a line.

I've got some pretty cool, I think, home projects planned for the very near future and I thought I'd share them with you. First of all, since Rob has moved all of his office stuff out of the office and into his Man Den, I get a craft room. That's right. A room all to myself and my crafts and my brand new sewing machine! I'm going to paint three of the walls pink and the fourth a mint green. The mint green will also be put on the kitchen walls. The pink is called Garden Glory, and the green is called Turquoise Tower.

It'll be the two where my finger is pointing. Yes, I know it's probably pretty obvious. But there might be someone out there who wouldn't get it.

Anyhoo, I'll be painting the bathroom and bedroom as well. They will both be a light gray called Snowglory.

Now, I know these colors probably don't look right to you, all computer monitors are calibrated differently. But you get the idea. All the rooms will have white trim as well.

I'm having a hard time getting ready for all of this, especially in the craft room. It's such a mess in there, and I have absolutely no desire to get in there and clean it, pack it up, take down the shelves, putty up the holes in the walls and actually get the paint. The painting is the exciting part to me.

Another thing I'm SUPER excited about is marmoleum. Marmoleum was pretty big in the 60's and 70's and is making a comeback today. Not only does this stuff look great, it's eco friendly. It's made with natural materials and is installed with solvent free adhesives. AND it's allergy and asthma friendly, which is great for me. If we didn't have original hardwood floors in all the rooms except the kitchen and bathroom, our house would be a marmoleum showroom. The only problem is that there's sooooo much to choose from.

This is kind of what I'm leaning towards. Something sort of neutral. I like scrabble and print. Not the papyrus white. But there are also colors like these (below) that I want too!

I could sit here all day and talk about how awesome marmoleum is but I'll stop here. I will say that if you have any thoughts on what color you think I should do in the kitchen and/or bathroom please feel free to let me know!

And with that, I'm out!

Happy Valentimes!

Well in the Bush Wifedom, it was a solid Valentine's Day. Brad isn't a sentimental guy, but he really did a good job this year of pandering to my wussy side.

In a romantic and very cute move on his part, he bought me begonias. The lady at the flower shop helped him pick these out. He told her he know I would want something I could plant in the yard of our new house. He really hit the nail on the head.

Next, he got me a piece of lemon cake from Starbuck's. I've included a picture I found using Google image search. I don't have a picture of the actual slice he got me because I inhaled it pretty much immediately after receiving it. Booyah.

Last, he got me this sweet Simpsons Valentine's card. It says: "To My Wife...Honey, I love you even more than TV..." He wrote real sweet things on the inside, but I'm not going to tell you what it said because that's private. Get outta here you vultures!

Now, what did I do for him? Well, I married him! Isn't that enough?! Just kidding. I got him a Wii Motion thingy for our second WiiMote. We have one already, but we needed a second one so we could play Wii Resort together...as a couple...aaaawwwww...

I also got him a manly pair of boxers from the Gap.

Last but not least, and my personal fave, I made him soft pretzels shaped like hearts.



I guess these were more for me than for him, because I love soft pretzels, but I thought it was a cute idea. I got the recipe here. They're really good, but I recommend the generous application of butter (as stated in the recipe) once they're out of the oven. I tried to use olive oil and it just wasn't the same.

Hope everyone had a good V-Day!

Cat Show!

On Saturday, the 6th my friend Katrina and I went to the Portland Classic Cat Show. Neither of us had any idea what to expect. I suspected it might be something like Best In Show, but maybe less regimented.




When we first pulled up, I mentioned that I had no idea that so many cat people drove Ford F-150’s and Dodge Rams. Turns out they don’t. There was a gun show right next door to the Cat Show; which made for some hilarious photo ops of big dudes walking past the Cat Show sign holding rifles. I tried to get my cell phone out in time to take pictures, but it was too late.

Speaking of the Cat Show sign, here’s Katrina posing next to it:

It doesn’t get much fancier than that. After seeing this sign, I worried that this might end up being a crapfest and that I’d be calling animal services by the end of the day. Then we walked in to the hall and I was proven wrong.


It just goes to show: never judge a cat show by it’s hastily spray painted sign. There were so many different kinds of cats that I'd only ever read about in my nerdy cat books. In fact, I finally got to see Sphynx kitties in real life!


There were a ton of Persians there as well, which made for some good cat ogling.




Then there was Ringo, my hands down favorite:

His owner was wearing a sweet Hawaiian shirt and had the shiniest mullet I’ve ever seen. I think it may have been a wig.

Overall, the Cat Show was a great success in that I was extremely happy and fascinated the entire time. I don’t really care about all the ribbons and the judging and the money that these people spend on their cats. If that’s how they want to fill their empty lives, that’s their deal. As long as their cats are healthy and happy, I can't really complain.

Brad and I were discussing how we should start a cat show for rescue cats only. Not really sure how that would work, or what the point would be, but it’s a nice idea.

Treasure!

I found this on my work computer. It must be from the lady that worked here before me. Her work ethic was clearly just as powerful as mine.

Enjoy!



THE BEACH DREAM



I stood watching my wife standing between the drapery and the window overlooking the beach. It always makes me proud to know she belongs to me. She is so beautiful and competent. Since my marriage five years ago, my house and affairs are in perfect order.

The early years had been difficult in some respects. Her opinion of proper behavior and decorum were sometimes at odds with mine. One of the biggest contentions was her hair. She has very curly black hair and I insisted that she wear it up and pinned securely. In the end she saw I was right and conformed to my ways. Then everything was as it should be. She did not smile very much but I think living at the beach can be a bit depressing with all the fog and such.

As I stood watching her, I noticed that her face became slightly flushed and looked out the window to see what she saw. A man was riding past. All I could see was a blur of a form and coattails billowing behind and then he was gone into the fog.

I called her name and she turned quickly looking back over her shoulder at the waves and the departing fog. We resumed our usual routine.

On the 8th of July 1875, I returned home in the middle of the day that was not my custom.

She was standing in the same place, looking at the beach with her hair flowing down her back. I chastised her and insisted she put her hair back up. She stared at me for a minute, smiled a dazzling smile, and ran out the door towards the beach with me following her.

It was not long before the fog engulfed us and I had to stand still to hear where she was. All I could hear were the sound of hooves and a rush of air as the horse and horseman passed me. I twirled around calling her name and there was no response.

The fog began to lift as the tide came in and all I could ever find were her small footprints going into the water.

Hair Bow

I am determined to figure out how to make myself one of these. I know I'm super late to the game on the whole Lady Gaga thing. But wow. This hair bow is awesome and I feel like I'm crafty enough to make this happen. Right? Right? Also, big ups to Princess Pony Party Amazing! for writing about Lady Gaga and making me laugh my ass off.

Also, I did a couple things to the house this weekend that I need to do write-ups on, but I don't have pictures yet. I feel like writing about my crafty projects without posting pictures of at least the results is a waste of my time and yours. So! Soon ye shall see some new posts on crap I did at my house. But not now. Now you will help me figure out exactly how to make a bow out of fake hair. Yes. That's what you'll do.

Or maybe I can use my own hair? I have super thick hair and I could make a mini bow using what god gave me. Yes, maybe that's the answer.

If I get this figured out you can be sure I will post pictures.

For now, please do enjoy:

Boompa

This is a picture of a picture (photo by my dad) of my Boompa (paternal grandfather) when he was a little boy. Boompa is the cutie on the right. My great uncle Bruce is the cutie on the left. The handsome man holding them is their daddy, William McKinley Robison. William was a detective in Los Angeles in the 1930's. Before that he was a cowboy in New Mexico. Pretty badass, huh?

Been thinking about family a lot lately. I'm a lucky lady.

Bosley and the Cats would be a great band name.

As the partner of an avid record collector and music buff, I have found my own interest in music slipping over the last few years. You might think that the opposite would happen, maybe I’d get super in to music and music collecting and my husband and I would happily spend hours in record stores together. Not so.

Brad and I have such different taste in music, and he is so domineering with his music choices, that I usually just let him have full control of the stereo. The only time I get to listen to my own music is on my 10 minute drive to and from work and for the couple hours on weekend mornings when he is still sleeping. Maybe I’m in the mood for Peaches or maybe I’m in the mood for Dolly. Chances are, I’ll be listening to Madonna and Tina at some point on a Sunday morning.

I used to spend so much energy and so many damn dollars trying to stay on top of what was cool. Now I just listen to my old records and dance around the house with Bosley and the cats while Brad is still sawing logs. Or, if he’s awake, I try to ignore the fact that Brad is listening to Pavement for the 100th time and I go about my business. Not that I don’t like any of Brad’s music. He’s introduced me to a lot of cool stuff. He’s also introduced me to a lot of dude music that I could really do without. Mothers of Invention? Yeah, no.

There are certain current artists that I know I love and when they release something I will make a point to purchase it. Peaches newest album kicks ass and so does the Yeah Yeah Yeahs latest release. I just don’t go looking for new bands to like. They have to be dropped in my lap.

If a friend wants to burn me a CD they think I would like, that’s great. I just don’t feel like putting in the money and effort it takes to find new music when I know I’ll rarely get the chance to listen to it. This might bother some people, but eh. I’m cool with it. I’m a lazy person and making sure I know about all the good music out there sounds like a lot of work.

If you’re a total music nerd or you want to be hipped to stuff you should be listening to, you should check out Brad’s Stallion Alert blog. He’s going through all his albums one by one and writing reviews on them. He’s a writer/editor by trade, so it’s quality stuff. Even if you don’t like or don’t know the album he’s writing about, it’s still entertaining. He has a way with words, which is why I fell in love with the doofus in the first place.

Since Brad is such an avid music collector, for his birthday this month I am accompanying him to The Eugene Record Convention. I have no idea how long we will be in that meeting room in the Hilton flipping through records, but I get the feeling it will be long enough to constitute the 2 hour drive to Eugene from Portland and back. So, to keep myself occupied I’ve decided to make a list of cheap records to look for so I can try not to get bananacakes with boredom while Brad spends our mortgage payment on more music.

When it comes to cheap records, I’m always on the lookout for Madonna, Tina Turner and Dolly Parton. Are they any other artists that have been around for a while that I need to own? I’m looking for records that would be in the dollar bin, not stuff that I have to drop 20 bones on. I’m already thinking I should be more aware of Dusty Springfield and Nina Simone…is there anything else I should look for?