Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Catching up to the 21st century.

Guess who's joined the 21st century?

That's right, us! We finally got a microwave after not having one since October.
{So I looked at the date on a previous blog post where I talked about getting rid of the microwave and I for SURE thought we haven't had one for over a year, but it's only been a few months. What the hell?!}

I know there are tons of people out there who think microwaves are the devil and OH MY GOD IT WILL KILL YOU but I'll take my chance. It's a whole heck of a lot cheaper to put my leftovers in a microwave for 30 seconds instead of heating up my gas stove and dirtying extra pans.

As I've said before, I'm so excited to be able to warm up my rice bags to heat my little toes! 


And as a bonus, the front of the microwave is so freaking shiny that it's practically a mirror, meaning it gets to show off fingerprints and dirty dishes. 

Monday, March 28, 2011

Airstream

Today has been a sad day. Family issues are never fun to deal with, especially when they leave you so heartbroken that you just want to crawl into bed and cry all day.

Luckily, there have been a few fun things today that have elevated my mood slightly. 

Since I decided to go to nursing school, Vince and I have been considering what we want to do, living wise. Our house we have now is wonderful and perfect in pretty much every way that we need. It's close to the woods, has tons of space, a big fenced backyard for the dogs, a washer and dryer...everything that we want in a house. Except the price, it's so expensive! When I go to school, I plan on going full time and hopefully cutting back on my work hours to 30/week instead of 40. That means that I will be getting paid less, meaning there's no way Vince and I will be able to build a substantial savings account, which bums both of us out. 

What I really REALLY want to do is buy something like a trailer, deck it out, and find some place with hook-ups on the edge of the forest. I doubt it will ever happen and we'll pinch pennies in our current house, but a girl can dream about THIS. {Seriously, click on the link and go through the slideshow!} This guy bought an old Airstream trailer and remodeled it and I LOVE it. Seeing this is so inspirational and I would freak out if we could live in a small space like that and just focus on school and riding bikes. 

{Photo via Apartment Therapy < click there for more photos}
{Link found via Yes and Yes}

It was also fun to sit and redo my blog. Sometimes I just want a change, and it makes more sense to change my blog than do something crazy like paint my walls or re-arrange my whole house.

You like?

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Salutary Sunday


Whew, I can't believe another week of my life is gone! It seems like it went so quick, yet dragged on for ever. I worked last Sunday for a friend, so I worked 6 days last week, which explains the 'dragging on' part.  

I made a few things for my Etsy shop, made some good food, and hung out with family, but other than that I haven't done too much this week.

Some food we made was delicious gluten free onion rings, shrimp tacos, and bacon covered hot dogs. HEART ATTACK WAITING TO HAPPEN.


*****

When I was at Walgreens on Friday picking up some meds and for some reason I had the urge to buy some bright and pretty nail polish. I love popping over to the blog The Dainty Squid because she always has such fun nail colors! {And hair colors. I really miss dying my hair shades of blue, pink, and every other color.}

For this week, I settled on 'Blue Me Away' blue, and I love it!


I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear and I only needed ONE coat. I was shocked. I'm used to having to put on like 5 coats to have a color this vibrant. I knocked my fingers on various things while it was drying {I'm too impatient to just sit} so it messed it up a bit, but I cleaned my house a LOT after my nails were dried and it didn't chip like I expected it to. So I definitely recommend this stuff. 

I also got a couple other colors, and I'm excited to use them!


Did anyone do something more exciting than me? Let me know!

It's naptime for me...

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Etsy

The official launch date for my Etsy shop is April 1st, but if you like IffyInklings on Facebook you can get the link and a special 10% discount code to go shopping now!!

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Love her.

So some of you have read about my strange body {read: long torso} so you know my dilemma. Well, guess what?

An awesome lady named Janna Lynn, who blogs over at SheWearsCrazyWell, is doing a giveaway, and it's for a dress that is custom!




Well, there are 3 items to choose from, but I want the dress! It means I can tell her my torso is long, and IT CAN BE MADE LONG. <--- = me freaking out.

So I'm telling you about her because it gets me extra entries, NOT because I want you to go enter. Well, I guess you can go enter. She's a pretty awesome gal and anyone would be stoked to own some stuff of hers!

Head over to her wonderful spot in the internet world and check her out!

Future kids: Will I like them?

Sometimes I wonder if I will like my future kids; my daughter{s} in particular. Of course I'll love them, but will I actually like them?

There's a lot of kids in my life, wether it's at work, the grocery store, friends kids, etc. Some of them are ASSHOLES. Seriously, I feel like tripping them and laughing as they fall because they totally SUCK. I think a lot of the bad behaviors {like punching, being extremely rude, back talking} are partially the parents faults, especially in the 4-10 year old range before they are heavily influenced by society, but sometimes they just suck either way.

While I hope I can raise my daughter well enough to be nice when she's younger, I really truly hope that she is not 'popular' in middle/high school. By 'popular', I mean the girl that is nasty to everyone else, has all her 'groupies', and thinks the world revolves around her and her friends. I don't want my kid to be a loner, per se, but I want them to know that they aren't particularly badass. Horrible to say, but so what. 

For those of you that weren't popular, that popular kids were pretty sucky, right? {For those of you who were popular, you're all shaking your heads shouting, "No I wasn't! Liar!"} They were the ones that would judge you for outrageous things like having small boobs or holding a nerdy boys hand, {true story: this girl called me a slut in middle school, before I had even KISSED a boy, and she had hickeys on her thighs and was bragging about it...!}, would make fun of you for farting but when they fart say it's a 'natural bodily function', get sweet cars for their 16th birthday, and were just fake in general. If I have a daughter and she's like that, my god, I don't know what I would do. 

I know one way to curb that behavior would be to not buy my kids any 'designer' crap. No American Eagle or PacSun {is that place even cool anymore?} until they can pay for it themselves. Straight up Goodwill for them. I was a Goodwill kid and guess what? I turned out ok. Those popular girls that I went to high school with? They still have their boobies hanging out, their skin so tan they look like they're from the Jersey Shore, and their hair is so blonde it's blinding. 

Another way would be to make them right the bus or walk to school. I don't remember any cool kid riding the bus, do you? There's also something humbling when you miss the bus and have to walk the 4 miles home.

I like to think that I don't judge those popular girls, and maybe I do, but I just feel bad for them. I see their pictures on Facebook {creeper} and I know that they aren't as happy as me. How can you be happy when you're constantly worrying if your boyfriend is going to cheat on you, if your boobs are big enough, if your make-up is messed up or if you haven't tanned in OH MY GOD 2 DAYS? I'd prefer my kids to not worry about that kind of stuff growing up.

I'd also like to not have to relive my nightmare of those bitches.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Change.

{Doesn't everyone need a picture of themselves like this?!}

After reading Danielle's post about 'One week to be a better me!' I was inspired. I'm pretty sure I'm inspired by like 99% of her posts though! 

I decided that I'm going to try and do some weekly goals for myself. I will share them here occasionally but I'm excited to focus on small goals!

Here are some for this week:

{1} Wake up earlier than normal. Vince usually wakes up with the sunrise, naturally, and I'm so jealous of it. On Sunday morning, I was woken up by the dogs barking non-stop in the backyard, so I had to get up and let them in. For some reason I didn't go back to bed and went and turned on the TV. When Vince was done going to the bathroom {the reason I had to get up in the first place!} we snuggled and talked and it was really awesome. When we do that at night, Vince ALWAYS falls asleep and our conversations are kind of half-assed because we're both so tired. So I'll try to wake up with him and get an early start to my day.

{2} Continue to eat small amounts of sugar. I know I can't be completely sugar free, but I know I need to cut down on my sugar intake again. Just one treat a day, unlike the 2 or so I've been having. 

{3} Make a couple pieces of jewelry a day. I tend to come home, immediately get on the computer, and then I'm done for the night. I'm so unproductive after that! The past couple days I've been really inspired and wanting to work on jewelry, and I just go straight into my craft room. It's been wonderful to see how productive I've been!

{4} Read more books. I'm a reader and always have been. I definitely don't go a day without reading part of a book, but I know I should spend even more time reading than I currently do, instead of watching TV. I really wish I could just get rid of our cable, but Vince likes his FuelTV!

{5} Finish the laundry. I have SUCH a horrible habit of doing laundry and then putting the clean clothes back into a basket instead of folding/putting everything away. This leads to me putting those clothes into a pile on the floor because I have more clean clothes that need to be put away. So at the moment all my clothes are clean, but I have like 6 loads to put away! Dreading. It. 

{6} Work on training the dogs. They're assholes. Seriously. Izobel is getting in a bad barking habit because of the other dogs in the neighborhood, and Roxanne just wants to kill our neighbor dog, Star. I think Vince and I need to let them know who's boss! 

So those are my few goals for the week. It's a 'big' list of goals, but they are certainly short and simple!

What are your goals for the week? Blog about it and let me see or leave a comment!

Don't Forget...

...to enter the giveaway for these earrings!

It ends tonight at midnight! You know you want them, so head over and enter. ♥

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Joy of Luck

So, you may know that I absolutely LOVED the free online class I took last month, Joy of Love. Well, the lady from Willette Designs is offering another free class, Joy of Luck! And of course I signed up for it.

This was a one week class, which is nice. I've posted 4 days here, and will post the last 3 days on the final day of the class. 

During the last class, I learned how to use my camera completely manually {except focusing, but I'm working on it!} and it's been so awesome to do. I never really edit my photos now, except maybe cropping, so what you see is what I took!

Day 1
It's cool to know how to properly take a picture inside, and not be able to really tell, either. For example, the first day of class was to take a picture of something we take for granted everyday that we're lucky to have. I took a picture of money inside the bike shop Vince works at, with no windows around.

{Click all photos to make them larger.}

Day 2
The second day of class we were supposed to take a picture of something green that is around us in honor of St. Patty's Day! I had picked up an assortment of Jelly Belly's today and thought, 'Aha, there's green ones!' I took a picture of the mixture of beans, and also one with just the green ones. I think I like the mixed picture better. What do you think?



My favorite Jelly Belly is the Pear or Pomegranate. What's yours?

Day 3
The assignment was to take a picture of something that brings us luck. I don't necessarily think that a certain thing brings me any kind of luck, but I thought I'd go along with it. I was going through an old keepsake box of mine, and came across some old jewelry I used to wear. I was a very very strange girl, and used to wear super crazy stuff such as 8 watches on my arms, yes 4 ON EACH ARM. And they were 'awesome' ones like from the Burger King happy meals. An old boyfriend had given me this key and said to never lose it, as a joke, but I put it on a string and wore it for like a year and a half! There string eventually wore off and I never put it back on...


Day 4
We were told to take a picture of our 7 favorite material things. My favorite material things are all food though! So here's a pictures of one of my favorite foods, french fries from Diablo Burger.


Do you want to sign up for the class? The past days can still be sent to you with the tips and assignments! Click here.

Salutary Sunday


No blogging for me recently! It's be crazy in this here house of mine.

I'm slaving away for my Etsy shop, and I'm excited to announce that it's opening April 1st! {Yes, April Fools Day!}

I have a couple of exciting things planned, so I had to have it opened by then. Meaning you'll have fun jewelry to look at! {And buy, ya?}

What did I make this week?

Well, I made this little boy happy!

{He couldn't see because the sun was too bright...}

My 'baby' brother Will turned 6 on Friday, so Vince and I took him out to pick up his present and get some lunch at Subway. He said that he wanted a foot long like Vince, but needless to say, he did NOT get that. It sure was funny, though.


I think he is the cutest little man in the world and is so incredibly smart. I remember realizing when my other brother Connor was 'smart' and it's such a fun experience being an older sister. One day Connor, Pam and I were talking and Connor said that he was 'puzzled' about something. Puzzled was a word I had heard before but it wasn't a word that was really used in my house and since he was probably only 8, Pam and I just turned to each other and were like, 'Wow, that's a good word to explain how you're feeling!' I bet that doesn't seem like a 'smart' moment to some people, but I guess you had to be there! 

Will, on the other hand, uses big and complicated words all the time, unlike any other 6 year old I've met. It's so fascinating to hear him tell a story and have it be so detailed. He's such a joy to be around and Vince likes him to. When we were walking around Will just grabbed his hand and it melted my heart! It  was so adorable.

{Note to self: countdown from 3 before you take the picture.}

For his birthday present, he picked out a ZhuZhu pet and 2 armors for them. 

{Thor on the left with new armor, and the new Drayko on the right with the new armor.}

They are these little automated hamsters that battle each other and make crazy sounds. He is OBSESSED with them and knows all 8 of their names, the names of their armor, etc., and always like to recite them to you. He also likes giving you little quizzes and asking which is which. His mom, Pam, knows almost all of them, too! Haha.

He now has all 8 hamsters and armors and it building the track they play in. He loves them, and he told me that he was 'so excited that his stomach hurt' when we were buying them.


{Side note: I've always been made fun of for my 'Chinese eyes' by my brother and sister. I never really had eyes that were similar to my family, and they are always so small when I'm smiling and are a little poofy. Whenever I talk about my eyes with Vince, he denies that they look squinty, but a teen at the library asked me the other week if I was Chinese! These pictures definitely show how squinty they are...}



Tuesday, March 15, 2011

House Love and Etsy

I'm sitting here working on putting my little Etsy shop together and watching the show Income Property on HGTV. Is that anybody else's favorite show?

The gist of the show is that a cute guy with a Canadian accent comes and remodels an area of someone's house that is being rented as an apartment, such as the basement or the upstairs. The homeowners have to pay for the entire renovation, BUT, they have an experienced guy who knows what he's doing design it. 

I must say that that is something I really really want to do, own my own income property. The couple on the show right now have a mortgage of 2,200 a month. They live on the main floor, rent their upstairs apartment for $1,000 and once the basement is renovated, they will rent that for $1,000 as well. Do the math. $200 A MONTH FOR THEIR MORTGAGE PAYMENT. What. The. Hell. 

How awesome would that be?! It makes so much sense to do that. I think I want the first house Vince and I buy to have an apartment to rent out. 

Anyways, Etsy shop. Whoa. I know. I'm finally working on it. 

So far I've put together the boring things such as shop policies, about me, etc. I have most of the pictures I need, but I want to take pictures of the necklaces on people. {Meaning, the ladies I talked to need to tap into their model because I'm coming for you soon!} 

I also need to write up the descriptions and take measurement of the jewelry. I also need to make more jewelry! I'm going to make some more earrings and bracelets, since I already have about 10 necklaces.

So, if you like my jewelry, keep an eye out! 

I'll also be having my own give-away once I open, too. ♥

Monday, March 14, 2011

Give Away!

Want to win some awesome earrings made by ME?!


Head on over here to Peachy Keen {a blog that I adore} and enter the giveaway!

Free earrings, woot woot!

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Salutary Sunday


What did I make this week?

At the moment I am working on a tote/bag for my friend/coworkers birthday.


She said that she had fabric to make the bag but didn't know how to do certain things, and didn't have time. I told her to bring it in and I would sew it for her!

The fabric is BEAUTIFUL. I love it. The true color doesn't show in the picture, but I'll take a better one when it's all finished. It has embroidered flowers on it:


So far I have the inside and outside done, I just need to work on the straps and the flap that she wanted. Meaning, I'm almost done!

I'll try and finish it tonight, but I'm going to play basketball and have a BBQ with some friends. It's been SO nice recently that there's no way to stay inside all day.


I've also made some new buttons for my blog! I know my original button is on some peoples blog, but if you prefer one of these, go ahead and grab one. Let me know if you do. ♥












And lastly, I've painted my toenails. They look black, but it's a really dark purple.  You know what nail polish means? Warm weather!


Also, you should like me on Facebook! I'm trying to get to 25 likes so that I don't have a bunch of numbers, I can just have my name. ♥




What about you guys, anything fun being created this week? Or anything fun happen?

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Saturday Love: Jerome Edition

So a week ago, last Saturday, my friend Veronica and I took a little day trip down to Jerome, AZ! It's a little over an hour away, but Veronica and I talked the whole way, so time flew by!


We first went to the Jerome State Historic Park. It's at the top of a hill, and you look out over the vast area of nothingness. You could see the Peaks in the background though!


It cost $5 to get in, and was a fun little museum. I guess it used to be a guy named Douglas' house and it showcased some of the stuff that he owned, as well as other mining stuff, since Jerome is a mining town.

When we first walked in, we saw one of those machines that squashes a penny. 


So for $1.02, we got ourselves 2 flattened pennies!

Then, we came upon this beautiful tea set. Can I pretty please own this?


We saw other random things throughout the house...


{{Top left to bottom right: a shelf that was in a little room, lights from the train tracks, an old soda machine {it was huge!} and a gargoyle that reminds me of the tattoo on Vince's leg}}


{One of the MANY signs that were in the hallways. What does it even mean?!}


{This was another one that was a little weird, because people may have died on that stretcher. The old crutches looked so uncomfortable!}


{There was a dark room that had lots of rocks in it that naturally glowed.}


{The bathroom was HUGE and BEAUTIFUL and BRIGHT. I wish I could have a bathroom like that, it was so darling. And the entire wall was just storage.}


{Cute little pathway and old mining carts.}


{I LOVE old buildings.}

There was a lot of other things throughout the museum, but you should just go check it out yourself!

After the museum, we drove up to the little downtown area, which is just on a couple big hills. We immediately went and ate at a restaurant called Grapes. I couldn't find a page that had their menu online, but it had things like soups, sandwiches, amazing appetizers and salads. 

{EDIT: My awesome friend Ami found the link!! http://grapesjerome.com/menuscroll.html }

I called before we went and the lady who answered happened to be gluten free and said I could eat almost anything on the menu! When we got to the restaurant, she also happened to be our waitress! I was excited. There were SO many things I could eat, like almost 50 things. I've never ever had so many options, even at a dedicated gluten free place. All the sauces, even the FRIED mozzarella sticks were safe to eat! They didn't fry anything else in that oil except rice stuff. I was stoked.


I'm going to warn you now, if you ever go there, you will think about the foods for WEEKS.


{Excited for food!}

Veronica and I shared a portobella mushroom and I have talked to Vince about it everyday since then. I want him to try it so bad, I know he'd love it!



{I order a Rueben without bread, and Ver got a Swiss Melt.}

Did I enjoy my meal? Here's your answer:


{These are a couple of the stores we went to.}

The House of Joy was such a FUN store. It's an old brothel and has all sorts of pin-up memorabilia, Russia stuff, and tons of vintage trinkets. I think Melissa Misfortune would die in that store!

Veronica and I loved the Magpie simply because there's a blackbird on the sign! There was a jacket in that store that I would love to own someday. 

Fool on the Hill was such an awesome shop, possibly my favorite clothing store. Everything was funky and they sold fabric there too. I bought a yard of great fabric for $3 that I can't wait to use.
Veronica got some fudge that had marshmallows in it from Copper Country Fudge. They couldn't guarantee that it would be gluten free so I didn't eat any, but it looked so freaking good!


We also went to a few of the galleries and a place that had the most amazing ceramic arts. I wanted so much of that stuff! I was nervous I was going to break something though. 

All in all, it was a good day. 

Friday, March 11, 2011

Creek Day


Today we went to the creek, about an hour from our house. On the drive there, I was worried one of the dogs would throw up because we took the switch backs. I get nauseous, so I expected the dogs to. We were about 5 minutes from our destination and I said, "Yay, good girl Izobel, I'm so happy you didn't throw up in the new car!" And not even 30 seconds later, I look back at her throwing up neon yellow puke. AWESOME.

Once we got out of the car and cleaned up the throw up, it was wonderful! It was 75 degrees down there, perfect for hiking around in. The water was FREEZING because it's all snow runoff, but the dogs had fun swimming in it. 

Izzy stayed on 'shore' most of the time because it was her FIRST TIME swimming. She was still a little nervous to swim more than one foot from the edge, it was so cute.


Roxanne was having a blast chasing the ducks though. We were getting a little nervous because the ducks would fly down stream, and it turns into a tiny waterfall and the water flows VERY fast. I don't know if she would be able to swim well enough to keep herself above water. The last time she chased after the ducks I thought one of us was going to have to jump in after her, she was getting so tired and started to panic because she couldn't get to shore. She made it, luckily.


Though he may look like such a tool in this picture, he's really not. Those sunglasses are awesome to wear and keep out the sun, but he looks like such an ass in them!


Vince doesn't really like the color of Roxi's new collar, but I LOVE it!


Vince kept playing with his hair and making them be sideburns. I kept laughing at him and he didn't want me to take a picture of them, but I did anyway. They're his 'wings'! haha


And this is his hair without the hat. does anyone else agree he needs a trim! {Or shave!}


Dead leaves.



Oh, ya know that new clean car we just bought? It's not clean anymore.