Santa Has Come to Town

Today was Christmas. Usually when I think of Christmas I think of waking up, snow on the ground, being chilly as I run to the living room to get my stocking. Well that was not so this year. In Colorado, we had no snow. What is this!!! I can't believe it! How is it supposed to feel like Christmas when none of these things happened. The sun was shining and the sky was BLUE! Craziness!

My family did not wait for the snow though. Christmas went on as planned. It never once felt like Christmas today. I woke up at my Mommy's house and opened my stocking and waited for Grandma to show up so we could open presents. I got some pretty cool stuff including a hoodie and t-shirt from the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop which is from the TV show,Pawn Stars; Loveland High sweat pants; heat blanket; candy and such; Andrew WK CD; socks; razors; and a Marilyn Monroe calendar. My sister Megan was over with her baby Charles and her boyfriend Anthony so we took lots of family pictures as well.

After the celebration at my Mom's house, I went over to Dad's where the chaos seems to be increasingly stressful. I opened yet another stocking, ate dinner, and open presents with the family as planned. Some of the presents I received included a drill press, dapping block, pliers, elves, and lots of hammers (tools were what I mainly asked for). So my Dad's side of the family has this tradition of how they always play this game where you wrap a gift SUPER tightly and use oven mitts to attempt to open it before another person at the table rolls doubles. It is an intense game! Especially when my sister Nikki is playing because she is really competitive. She uses lots of sound effects when she is ripping open the present; it is quite entertaining.

*Well now it is time to rant because frankly, I have been too nice in this blog. I need to bring some attention to the HIDEOUS leggings that EVERYONE seems to thing is flattering to ALL body types. Well whoever told you that was lying!! Leggings are flattering to no one and really, I am just going to put it out there, I don't want to see your cellulite and fat rolls. I really don't! I don't care how fat you are or how skinny you are; leggings are just disgusting! Please stop wearing them everyone!

I hope everyone had a fabulous Christmas because I know that mine went alright.

Christmas is Coming Soon!

The holidays are arriving quickly! I have been spending lots of money to get my family and friends the presents they deserve. On Thanksgiving lots of family members were asking to see my Christmas. Since I have many levels of family, I need to have multiple lists. I have promised to put one one my Christmas lists on here so that it is easily reached.

So here we go....

1. White Christmas the movie

2. 500 Days of Summer the movie

3. vintage Christmas things like ornaments, elves, Santas

4. lockets

5. Some Like It Hot the movie

6. Brass mallet

7. rawhide mallet

8. sheets of metal (copper and brass to make jewelry)

9. Warped tour Colorado tickets (2)

10. Visa gift card

11. Kid Cudi cd with "Erase Me" on it

So there are just some ideas. Keep in mind, I like things from thift stores and flea markets.

Well I have already set up my Christmas trees and they look amazing. I also went to a White Elephant party and ended up with a badass coconut pirate! It is AMAZING! Hope everyone's holidays are going well. Eat lots of cookies!

Nostalgia Corner

As some of my friends may know, I once found a half carat diamond ring at my friend's antique store, not knowing that it was real, and bought it EXTREMELY cheap!!! I found out that this cocktail ring that I had bought was a real diamond was when I was going through my mass collection of jewelry, picking out the less desired items to sell in my dad's store. I brought them to the Funky Monkey (My dad's thrift store that he used to own) and asked my step mom, Gwyn, if she would perhaps price them. She did. And oh boy could I have only imagined that that ring would be real!!! I took it to a notable pawn shop and had the ring checked out. The owner, who was also my dad's friend, said that the ring was worth about $600!!!!! How crazy right!? Well to get on with the story, I sold the ring back to my friend who owned the store who had originally sold it to me. I got $400 store credit which has lasted me around five months. I ended up getting quite wonderful things during that time. But with the last $25, I had to spend it all. I ended up getting a vintage angel for the top of the tree, a Carnival glass hen- n- nest still in the box, and my intense juicer from the 1930s! I think that I made out like a bandit! I however, have ranted for days about my magnificent juicer to classmates at school, my family and friends, and well as co-workers. They did not seem as impressed as I was though. I ended up buying a four pound bag of oranges thinking that I would have a pitcher or so on freshly squeezed orange juice. However, by the time that I had cut all of the oranges in half, squeezed every last drop of juice out of them, the juice filled nothing but ONE glass!!! How depressed I became when I found out that that was the case with juicing things. I wonder if in the 1930s there was more juice in the oranges rather than today because of all the preservatives that we use now??? Just something to ponder. Oh well, I suppose it will make a fine decoration piece.

"Ruldolph the Red Nose Reindeer...Had a very shiny nose..."

Christmas is approaching rapidly and I am feeling as I don't have enough time to get the best decorations possible, everyone's presents, as well figure out how I plan to celebrate it. Surprisingly, the parents haven't started asking for the special separated lists of what I want for Christmas. However, I have started to make the lists just to get a head start.
Today I went to an estate sale!!! AN ESTATE SALE in November!!! What a miracle!!! I walked in the door and the room to the left was FULL of vintage Christmas decorations. I personally, always try to look for the 1940s- 1950s felt knee-hugging elves. They are usually at EVERY estate sale I go to that has vintage decorations, has these. I walked all through that room but I did not once see my desired elves. My mom and I decided to take a gander at the rest of the house, of which I didn't find anything in, and I just had to go back into that room and try and find one of the DAMN elves! I finally found one of them, in a bag, full of some crappy ornaments of which I didn't want. I walked up to the lady running the sale, explained my prediciment and she sold me the elf for a quarter!! It will go nicely in my collection of elves.
Well wish me luck in my adventures to try and find some bad ass decorations to use for the upcoming holidays! I will post some pictures after I decorate.

The Blasting Room Studios

Wow! What can I say about how amazing my day was?? I mean I got to go into The Blasting Room Studios in Fort Collins. How cool is that? The reason I ventured down there was because my old English teacher Mr. Tim Hanauer, was recording his newest CD there. By the way, is that not the coolest thing you have heard? A teacher that is a recording musician!!! His songs have even been in t.v. shows, the movie I Hate Valentine's Day, a GMC commercial, and I am sure more to come! How amazing?? Well anyways, he thought that I had already been to the Blasting Room Studios before but I hadn't so he gave me a tour of all the rooms and things inside. It was quite fascinating. After the tour came to an end, we went back to Studio B to finish mixing with Andrew Berlin. How crazy to say that I spent two hours in the Blasting Room with Mr. Hanauer and Andrew Berlin while they were mixing an upcoming CD! Andrew Berlin is a person who is always mentioned in CD covers and things, I didn't believe that I would ever meet him! He is VERY nice by the way! One of the bigger bands that have recorded at the Blasting Room is Rise Against. I personally LOVE Rise Against and just the thought of them once being where I was at that very moment made me so excited! I mean really, just think about that for a second. I was talking to people who have met them as well. Wouldn't that just be amazing to meet them?? I believe it would be. I sat on this red faux suede couch in Studio B listening to Mr. Hanauer's songs over some super expensive speakers. It was great! Mr. Hanauer even asked me opinion on if he should just release an EP, a full length CD, or two EPs. I told him that he should do a full length CD because I like them much more. The day was out of a dream, I couldn't have "Dreamed a Better Way" if I had tried! If you ever get a chance to go down there, definitely do! You won't regret it.

A Night in Old Town

So tonight I went and hung out with my friend Shane. It was pretty awkward to start with since he was super hyper and we were at a park but then we decided to go to Old Town. If you don't know what Old Town is, it is the strip in town that has the bars, old buildings, lots of people usually, homeless people, and cool shops. We parked under Safeway (my favorite place to park!) and walked around. We decided to stop in a coffee shop called Starry Night and inside they have a giant painting of Starry Night by Van Gogh! It is pretty awesome I must say! Afterward we thought be better get some chow because we were both starving! Shane decided that the best way to get there was to run in front of the oncoming traffic to get to the other side of the street, I ran with him and decided to wait until the cars passed on the other half of the street because for some reason becoming street pizza was on on the agenda tonight. On the other side, we stopped in an Asiany store (Maybe Tibetan or something I can't remember) and I ended up buying this awesome bracelet that is handmade, Sterling silver, and has accents of turquoise and coral in it. It was quite pricey as well but I didn't seem to mind as I brought it up to the cash register and I pulled out my debt card. Gotta love buying things on a whim! I don't regret it at all! Shane bought some stuff as well. After that we headed over to Lulu's and ordered food. We weren't as hungry as we thought we were so we took most of it to-go. Shane forgot his to-go box in the bathroom and I gave mine to some homeless people on the sidewalks of Old Town. Although we left pretty fast we still got fortune cookies! My fortune read, "Somewhere, deep inside, we all can fly." Not sure what that has to do with anything. Well that's all folk! Here are some pictures of my bracelet and myself and Shane in front of a cool statue by Lulu's.

What A Wonderful Day With My Friends

Today I thought would NEVER come! I mean I was so anxious to see my buddy Kyle that I could barely wait until noon to meet him at Steph's house. The plan of the day: head to Steph's sister, Dee Dee's house and celebrate Kyle and Carly's birthdays. When I got to Steph's house they were so excited to see me that they both gave me a bear hug and giggled. Well the giggles were mainly from Steph. We hung out at the house for a half an hour or so and then Kyle jumped in the driver's seat of Steph's car and we all packed in and drove away. The drive was basically all of us just catching up because we haven't talked in a few months. Our car- full arrived and was greeted by the dog Missy, Bridget, Caiti, and Dee Dee! Later followed by Kyle's grandparents Rose and Marv. Food was in plentiful piles and mounds on the counters that just called you in. I ate SO many radishes. Soon after we arrived, we changed into our swimsuits and headed out into the pool! The water was beautiful and super clear! For the rest of the time, more family arrived, we all visited, and eventually when all the energy was drained, we headed home.

When I spend time with Steph and her family I begin to realize how much I want to enjoy the simple things in life. I want to have a calm house, a garden that is full of beautiful vegetables and fruits, maybe even some flowers. I want to not take life so seriously and become a less jealous person that just enjoys everything. I would love to have antiques and vintage things on shelves that will fill my house, that I can tell people who ask about each item. I could get used to a life like that!! Today was great! Each member of Kyle's family treats me like I am actually part of it. In fact.... don't tell but, someday I hope to be actually part of it....

I miss Kyle dearly when he is gone but enjoy the moments he is here.