Creative Outlet

Oh.. hello there :)

I'm pretty sure that my extended absence is grounds to be kicked out of the "blogging community", but since only approximately four people even know I have a blog, I'm gonna act like nothing happened.

Fast forward... I got married!!

We bought a house... A fixer upper, and one which I have been terrible about taking pictures of! I promise to put some up.. too many for tonight.

We got a doggie!

His name is Latham and we love him! It's actually kind of annoying, we are definitely those dog people.

John became permanent with the Forest Service, and I got into Nursing School! I started in January of 2012, and have been enjoying it very much, but I have also been incredibly busy. I had the summer off from school, which was the only reason I'm still functioning. I worked in fire again only this time on a fancy green fire engine! It was a nice break, but turned out to not be much of a break, so going back to school actually ended up being a break too! I'm falling in love with Nursing, I just have to get through the SCHOOL part of it. That's actually what led me hear tonight.. Today was a little stressful. I had 3 tests, and a presentation, and then on my way home I got a voice mail telling me that Latham was in doggie jail again, and it would be $20 and a verbal warning to get him back. Lake Shastina Police Department doesn't mess around with harmless, curious animals apparently. Anyway, I got on my blog to see if anyone I follow had anything new to read, and it sucked me in! Hence the new look, and a new post.. 17 months later!

Well, that's all I have in me for now. I hope to be back soon, but I can't make any promises, as you probably already know.

Megs

Happy Easter!

 This year, Easter was sweet and simple. We weren't going to have any company at our apartment, but I couldn't resist adding just a tad of holiday-ness to the fort.. 

I didn't have a dying kit, and forgot about adding vinegar to the food-coloring mix (which causes the entire egg-dying process to fail miserably). So... I got creative with some Mod Podge, tissue paper, ribbon, and blue twine! 

Don't be fooled by the yellow eggs.. they are "dyed", but not by dipping them in the solution. I ended up dropping the yellow food coloring directly onto the eggs and then smearing it around with a paper towel. Anyway, I thought the whole ensemble turned out pretty nifty- my favorite is the blue twine.. I just started in the middle and worked my way, adding Mod Podge (a lot of it) as I went, to either end. It was fun! 

AND teal rice crispy treats! They were made with some guessing and some luck.. I had half a bag of mini marshmallows that I kept sneaking into the pantry to eat, so I decided "This is enough!" I guessed at a glob of butter to melt in the pan, dumped the marshmallows in, and once they were melted just added blue food coloring and rice crispies until it looked right. I like to press the delectable mixture into cupcake pans so I get nice round little morsels. :) 

Easter Day was nice. We went to a Church we hadn't been to before- invited by some friends. New Churches can be tricky, but it was really pleasant. A good mix of traditional and contemporary, worship, and an unexpected but interesting Sermon. Then, it was down the river to Happy Camp for a BBQ (also a new Easter activity) with the family. Family makes any holiday better. It was a great day.

Happy Earth Day!!

Living in Northern California my whole life, I've come to appreciate our amazing planet, Earth. I've been surround (literally surrounded) by mountains almost my entire life, and now if I don't have mountains in driving distance, I start to go crazy. I love being able to open my front door and smell fresh air, see big beautiful trees, and hear, well... nothing (except the occasional wind and the birds that bless part of the year with their cheerful voices). I think taking care of the Earth the best that we can is really important. A lot of people agree with me, but there could always be more. A lot of people in rural places like Siskiyou County (where I grew up) are sort of turned off by the whole "Save the Earth" movement. I can understand where they are coming from, because I came from the same place.. Little towns in the middle of National Forests were a lot of times built and thrived off of the Earth. It provided them with their livelihood. For example, my hometown, Happy Camp was started because of Gold Mining, and several years later was continuing because of the BOOMING logging industry. Then, environmentalists in the big cities began to become aware of the world wide affect that logging was having on the Earth. So America (Bill Clinton specifically) decided to take it to the other extreme. Logging was shut down, and many small towns like Happy Camp began slow painful deaths, to put it bluntly. It's hard for the people living in these towns to submit to the legislatures in Sacramento, L.A. etc, when they can look in any direction for miles and miles, and miles, and see nothing but trees! Running out of trees?! We don't think so! But, none of that means that they are completely right either. I think that, like for most disagreements, some middle ground would be good. 
Regardless, the way everyone decides to live and make their own small impact on the Earth can make a difference. I'm getting so excited for some warmer weather (it snowed again two nights ago-not too much though) so we can plant our garden and I can put some flowers in front of the house! I give two thumbs up for recycling and reusing, when you can, if you can. Or, one of my personal favorites, pick up a piece of garbage that's been left on the ground- you'll be surprised how many pieces you can pick up 10 feet away from a trash can!!    

Hoooo Wouldn't Love These Faces??

Owls make me so happy...

I think they are one of the few animals that are still adorable, even after they're full grown...

They are actually amazing predators, but I think their huge googley eyes and the fact that they can turn their heads basically completely around, make them more interesting than intimidating. Plus, how many people have you heard of that were eaten by owls? None.

Owl probably love them forever! :)

P.S. My posts will probably be very inconsistent for the next month or so.. I'm officially in "crunch-time" before the Wedding!!!

Ketchup!!!

Okay, no time for apologies!! This is going to be the last 11 days in fast forward.. Ready, set, GO!

We went snow shoeing for the first time. It was A LOT of fun, and also A LOT of work! More than we had expected. We dressed like there was 3-6 ft of snow everywhere and it was 35 degrees.. because there was, and it was. Amateur mistake. We were stripping off clothes and sweating our pants off in the first 10 minutes up the mountain.

 The sight at the top was well worth it though. We had a view of Lake Siskiyou (where we're getting married in less than 2 months!) and all of the snowy mountains around us. Also, lunchtime had been determined to be at the top, so that was another big plus. 

It was cool to be the first anything to make tracks in the snow. It was so quiet and peaceful. (John wanted to add his artistic flair to the pictures.. hence the stacked apples)

My projects have been coming along very nicely. I'm having to prioritize now though, since it's getting down to crunch time before the wedding! I'm trying to get everything I can done before we go back to work at the end of this month/beginning of next month. I can't believe how April just snuck up on us. Yeah, it's April already! I know, I didn't believe it either.

These are going to the the guys' ties for the wedding. I wasn't going to sew them, but I couldn't find what I wanted at anything near an affordable price, AND I already had the pattern... so I decided, "Why the heck not?!" I was really happy with how it turned out- maybe my best sewing yet!

This was SO funny! I made red curry for dinner. I am most definitely still learning to make curry, and may have used a smidge too much curry paste, or else about 5 cans too little coconut milk. It was so so so SO spicy! I am pretty big on self preservation, so I ate hardly any and downed around 3 glasses of milk. John, on the other hand gets into these intense competitions with his dinner, and thinks that he must let dinner know that he is in charge and will prevail in the end. He was drenched in sweat. I was laughing my butt off as I watched it drip down his face and neck. It looked like he had just gotten out of the shower. He was making noises that only a person in significant pain makes, but would not stop until the first, AND the second bowl was gone. He showed that curry who was boss.

Sewing these curtains was so easy! Before, the closets' insides were just open to the public, which anyone who reads this will know was driving me crazy! It took me about one evening for each. They definitely aren't professional, but they work and they look pretty freakin' good- if I don't say so myself! (I don't get that phrase.. is it "if I do say so myself??")

I bought this little guy when I went to Disneyland with the fam last February. It was just a plain wooden stain color with the Mickey's engraved. I didn't like the color of the stain, so I decided that I couldn't go wrong with RED! I don't have a before picture, but it's definitely better.

I actually didn't take a "before, before" of this. It was kind of a navy blue and teal sanded dealio- looked okay, but I set it up against the wall for a couple of days and just knew it had so much more potential to live up to. Now it's like a little square ray of sunshine when we're doing dishes. 

The hook and hot pads are the stars in this picture. They are having to share the spotlight with another project that was unfinished at this point.. you'll see the finished product soon. I loved these hot pads. Found them at World Market, which I also love. The hook is actually a World Market purchase as well. The hot pads match my pretty red Kitchen Aid mixer :) Thank you Nancy!

 
Finally, the damage that my 2nd Bridal Shower brought down on our tiny apartment. So many wonderful gifts and the party was SO fun. Different than the one with my girlfriends, but in a good way. I'm so blessed to have so many people that love me! I also feel blessed to have ladies in my life that can throw awesome parties! I love celebrating :) Don't worry, everything has been cleaned up now, and the house is back to normal. I'll have the rest of the "before and after" project pictures soon.

I hope this post didn't leave anyone unsatisfied.. but it's past my bed time, so I must bid thee good night!

Oh Oregon!

I want to apologize to my 1.5 followers... (1 of which is currently somewhere deep in the Utah wilderness, and will be until late May.. She's actually my beautiful Maid of Honor, Alyssa, who loves the outdoors as much as I do.. She's on an Immersion Trip (left on March 17th), where her and about 20 other nature-lovers are learning to be "Professional Outdoor Enthusiasts". I'm sure she's been doing some awesome things, and by now is probably smelling equally "awesome" :P Love you Lyssa!)... Anyway, back to my apology. I haven't posted in awhile- not because I have nothing to say, but because I've been doing so many fun projects! I'm actually in the middle of about 4! Some home improvement, some wedding, but all fun. I finished one project earlier this week, but I will have to wait to post it since it is a surprise for certain viewers of this blog. So, here is something from last week I didn't get to share...

After Part I of the "Mount Shasta Storm of the Century" (that's what I'm calling it), there was a small break in the weather, and we decided to go see our friend, Scott, in Ashland OR. Ashland is such a cool town! It's full of character with lots of fun shops and places to eat, AND it's the home of the famous Shakespeare Festival. We went up to watch the Illinois basketball game- we ended up spending the night catching up and getting to hear Scott narrate the stories of his experiences. Scott is one of the best storytellers that I know, and he has the best stories. The next day John and I ran 10 miles on this really great trail along a creek that ran from Ashland all the way past Medford if we had wanted to. After wards we went with Scott to find somewhere to eat. We found a delicious little Mexcian restaurant that we were all very satisfied with. Afterwards we wandered around down town and I found an adorable little sewing shop that I fell in love with!

I wanted basically everything in the store, however, I restrained myself and only bought two of these little bags of scrap fabric that they had on sale. Fabric scraps can come in such handy! (such handy?) 

Our friend Scott, and his humongous beard! 

He was being helpful.. and tour guide-ish.. pointing is a sure way to be helpful.

It was a great trip, and nice to get out of the house. That evening, we arrived home and were welcomed by "Mount Shasta Storm of the Century, Part II". For now, back to my projects!

First Day of Spring!?

  I suppose Mother Nature's sense of humor could be funny.. to some one.. at some point.. maybe. We did not find it amusing today, while we watched Spring being buried under 20 + inches of snow!! While we sat inside and looked out the window in disbelief, John put it into perfect perspective.. If this were the beginning of Winter I'd be pumped! But it's the first day of Spring, so it's really just annoying.

My 22oz Klean Kanteen (the taller of the KK's you can buy) was the best point of reference I could find.. apparently I was in a hurry, but you get the point.

This was the point in the day that we were attempting to embrace the situation.. I thought that building a huge tunnel system in the front yard was just about the best idea I've ever had. John wasn't jumping on board. He insisted that he was a professional tunnel-builder and that the snow was too wet and we wouldn't get very far. I think this may have been only a distraction so that he could implement his own plans...

He got to use a snow-blower for the first time.. Using a new piece of equipment literally makes him feel like a Super Hero, so I'm pretty sure it made his day. 

Shout out to Naomi Fitz! She is to thank for my improved picture posts! She is wonderfully artsy and has an amazing eye for all things artistic. I can always learn something new & cool from her : )