October 2015 Favorites!

Hey guys!

So if you know me at all, you know that I watch YouTube more than I even watch TV. There will be days when I don't even pick up the remote, but there is never a day that I don't go on YouTube and watch whatever daily videos that I'm subscribed to.

Recently I've been noticing that a lot of YouTubers do a "Monthly Favorites" video. First of all, I am under no circumstances starting a YouTube channel. I don't have the patience for that kind of job, nor do I have a thick enough skin to deal with the kind of hate that goes on from subscribers, plus my social anxiety would likely make for a pretty boring channel. However, I do have a blog. It's not a big blog and I am by no means famous. I think like five people read my blog, and they're basically all family members. BUT the entire point of this blog is to let you guys into my head and into my life so that my family and friends back home know what's going on with me. If you follow me on things like Twitter and Snapchat, you may already know some of this stuff, but since most of you don't, I would LOVE to share some of the things that I come across that I fall in love with each month.

Let's do it!

THIS MONTH'S FAVORITES: 

These pillows!

I've been wanting new couch pillows basically since we got this couch because the ones that it came with were such poor quality that the seams started shredding within the first month we had them. Then we struggled to find pillows that we both liked and that weren't going to put us into debt (have you SEEN the prices on throw pillows?!).

Our couch is obviously brown so we needed colors to go with that and we just happened upon these pillows within a week or so of each other.

The greenish ones are from Tuesday Morning ($9.99 each) AND THEY ARE SO VERY SOFT OH MY GOODNESS. The design is a velvety texture and they're beautiful.

The purple ones are from IKEA. The pillows themselves ($2.99) come separately from the pillow covers ($9.99), which is cool because then we can switch it up later if we want to without breaking the bank.

High five, IKEA!

This food processor!

I've been wanting a food processor for a long time. We "had" a "food processor" (it was a blender attachment) and that just didn't cut it for me, so Patrick did a lot of research and ended up landing on a super powerful food processor with a crazy long warranty (I think it's seriously like a 30 year warranty), which, to us, is worth the price that we paid, especially since we have been on a low-carb diet and have been making a lot of our own veggie-rich food at home. We have used it quite a lot and we love it! Do you need any food processed? Come on over, I'll help you out.

This comic!

If you've read my First Anniversary Adventures blog, you'll know that I'm a little bit obsessed with my new signed comic from Patrick. I will seriously find myself wandering around the house and being drawn to it. I'll pick it up and put it down several times a day and I've probably already read it at least a dozen times in the 6 days that I've had it. There is even a new tattoo idea in the works based on the comic because it means so much to me.

This typewriter!

Seriously, who wouldn't love a vintage typewriter? If your answer is "no one" or "not me", I have concerns.

These bookcases!

We have two. The other one is in Patrick's office.

Patrick has a LOT of books and honestly, most of them aren't even on shelves. Thank goodness we have extra storage here because we don't have enough room for all of our books to be out on display (I probably only have about 1/8 of the size of his collection). His office was looking pretty insane because things that would normally go on a bookcase couldn't because we didn't have enough room, so we invested in our own sanity and bought a couple of bookcases from IKEA. Now I basically have my own bookcase and I'm thrilled about it. I have to show off my J.K. Rowlings and S.E. Hintons, you know?!

This tablet!

This item comes with a story. I have a hand-me-down tablet from Patrick, but I've been in the market for a new one for a while now because that tablet was heavy, took forever to charge, lost a charge really quickly, and just didn't run very smoothly. I kept doing my research and ended up finding a tablet that I really, really liked and was absolutely perfect for me and Patrick was planning on purchasing it for me for Christmas.

Magically one day we popped into Best Buy so that I could physically see the tablet and hold it and get a feel for it to make sure it was what I wanted. When we were there, we found that there were none on display and we had to ask the manager if he had any in back. He did, it was a "returned" item (or so we thought), and he brought it out for us to see. It was over $100 off of the original price because it wasn't brand new, in its original packaging, and didn't come with the accessories, but nothing seemed wrong with it and we jumped at the opportunity to save $100+.

Unfortunately when we got home, I found that the home screen image had somehow burned into the screen itself and we had to take it back (we hadn't seen it in the store because all we were able to see on the tablet was the completely blue "register" screen, and you could only see the burned image when the screen color was lighter, like if you were to open a white email screen). That's when I realized that-- duh!-- the item hadn't been returned, it had been the display item.

It turns out that that was the only one of that specific tablet that they had in store because Samsung had, for some unknown reason, done a very small release of these tablets and then discontinued them. I was disappointed because I felt that we had missed out on a potentially great deal (tablets are not cheap by any means)... Until we realized that they sold refurbished ones on the Best Buy website! We ordered one (for the same price we paid in store) and took a chance on a refurbished item. I'm pleased to say that I've had NO issues with it so far and obviously, since it's in this blog, I love it. Again, this is an early Christmas present.

This tablet case!

Please excuse the bendy lighter in the background. I like candles.

How cool is this case?! When I had finally settled on a tablet that I liked, I immediately started looking at cases. I knew that I wanted a folio case that came with a Bluetooth keyboard, because I truly use my tablet more than I ever pull out my laptop (unless I'm writing a blog post!), and I settled on this one. Then when we got the tablet a few months early because it was such a good deal, I knew I had to get a case. I'm the biggest klutz, and a tablet is NOT the type of thing you want to be clumsy with. The case has a magnetic, rechargeable, detachable Bluetooth keyboard, a little elastic tab to put a stylus in (which I happened to already have), a little prop up stand on the back, a magnetic closure, and the tablet screen turns off when you close the case. Cool, huh?! Again, this is an early Christmas present.

Gel polish!

As you can see, I clearly got the best colors available. They're so pretty!

I have gotten super lazy about doing "girly things". I don't do my makeup more than once a month, I haven't been painting my nails or toes, and I almost never do anything with my hair other than put it up in a messy bun. At 23, I'm already tired of how tedious it is to be what society considers to be "feminine". That's not to say that I don't like doing these things, it's just that I have better things to do. So I haven't painted my nails or toes for at least six months (longer, I think, probably more like 9 or 10) because I hate when it chips and I have to remove it or pick it off almost immediately, which means my nails get gross and dry and they peel, and I hate waiting for it to dry. Long story short-- I don't have the patience to paint my nails every 4-7 days-- sometimes more often.

What I do have time for, apparently, is going to a nail salon to chat with some of the nicest women I've ever met so that I can get my nails done with gel polish! It's fun, relaxing, and I get my nails done!

I've been waiting to try gel polish because I know it lasts for a crazy long time and I have to say, I am so glad I did.

When Patrick and I were in Vancouver, WA this past July, I went for a massage and I made Patrick go for a mani/pedi. He ended up finding a super cute little salon in Vancouver and it's definitely worth the drive! So this time around when he finally had time for another pedicure, we made an appointment for me to have gel polish done on my hands and toes. I'm in love with it.

The third day I had the polish, I carved an entire thirty pound pumpkin and did lots of dishes by hand (as a result of the pumpkin carving) and still the polish didn't chip, which normally it would. I'm so glad I decided to do this and now I'm considering investing in my own gel setup, however the polishes aren't very cheap so in order to have a variety of options, it may be better to just go to the nail salon so I don't have to spend hundreds re-stocking my nail polish collection.


That's all for this month without making this post too crazy long! Stay tuned for my November monthly favorites sometime in the first week of December!

Lattin's Cider Mill Adventure!

Hey guys! As promised, I'm super excited to share with you images from our trip to Lattin's Cider Mill!

After living in Michigan for 21 years, just a short drive from fantastic cider mills like Parmenter's, I suppose you could say I was spoiled in some ways by the quick and easy access to cider and donuts every time the leaves started to fall. Even if we didn't make a huge outing of it, every year, without fail, my family would always make our way to the cider and donuts so we could munch happily for a couple of days, even if it meant we just drove up the road to Wilson's Barn.

Moving to California meant that I lost this connection with cider mills (and, quite frankly, with the different seasons since California is so mild. No crunching leaves there!). For two very, very sad years I went without any semblance of the fall weather that I'm used to and no cider and donuts. It's a pathetic way to live, let me tell you. Californians have no idea what they're missing.

However, now that we live in Oregon, we do live within driving distance of a real cider mill! Unfortunately most "cider mills" in Oregon are actually breweries for hard ciders and beer (because beer and coffee are both really big around here-- shhhh, don't tell the Oregonians that I don't drink either of these things), but we were lucky enough to find a real cider mill in Olympia, Washington just a couple of hours away!

After a lengthy car ride (which was worth it!) we arrived at Lattin's Cider Mill and found that it was much more than we had been expecting! In fact, being the cider mill aficionado that I clearly am (as all southeast Michiganders are), I would go as far as saying that it was even better than any cider mill I've ever been to! Gasp! I know, I know, I'm a traitor. But you'll see why!

Lattin's Attractions:

• Farm animals that you can feed by hand
• Lots of local vendors that sell great things like hand-made jewelry, bags, and candles
• Food trucks
• Bounce houses (for the kids)
• Fresh local produce
• Apple fest!
• A huge store filled with homemade artisan products such as pies, soups, canned goods (real canned goods, aka stuff preserved in jars), etc. 
• A pumpkin patch
• A corn maze
• Animals for sale
• CIDER. AND. DONUTS. They have regular apple cider but they also have blackberry apple, raspberry apple, and strawberry apple cider! They were all great!

We met up with Patrick's sister and brother-in-law, Renee and Jake, for the fun times! We had a wonderful time with them feeding the animals (I tried it and found that it was horrible because I already hate goats and sheep, but they're the easiest to feed, so I gave Patrick my animal food), shopping around, having lunch, and picking out pumpkins. We also brought home some fantastic produce and snacks!

Please excuse the captions on some of these. I downloaded them from my Snapchat Story and there is no way to remove the text.

Ducks for sale! They were selling ducks, chickens, and bunnies here! Very tempting!

Turkeys, aka future dinner (but it's okay, turkeys, I don't like how you taste so everyone else can eat you and I'll just have the Thanksgiving sides)

Gobble gobble!

These chickens were my favorite because they popped their heads through the fence with no concern for whether or not they would get stuck-- and it did look like they were stuck because their feathers would fluff out around the fence holes! Plus all they cared about was food (like me) so if they saw that paper bag with the food in it they would all freak out and run head first towards the fence to be the first to stick their heads out through the holes. Chickens are really dumb...

Our tractor driver for the ride to the pumpkin patch.

He photo bombed us. 

Here I am, trying to take a nice picture, and Patrick is trying to attack me. Typical.

Photo courtesy of Renee Navarre

At least Renee and Jake look great!

Photo courtesy of Renee Navarre

The amazing candle that Patrick bought me while we were there! I wish we had gotten the larger one because I've been burning this one down so much. It smells sooooo good! They don't have a store yet because they're still a very small project/company, but you can find their Facebook here. They've assured me that they will do mail orders, woo! 

Much to the surprise of Patrick, Renee, and Jake, there was a LOT to do here and we had a fantastic time! We will definitely be going back here annually! The best part is that every single weekend in October is applefest, but the mill and store are open year-round! CIDER AND DONUTS FOREVER! 

*I'll be doing a post on my fall/Halloween decorations very shortly. This post was already quite long! 

October, November, and December!

Hey everyone! Once again, I have been a slacker on the blog-front. We've had such a busy couple of months that now that we finally have some down time, neither of us feels like doing anything productive. This post is going to be a bit of a two-parter in order to keep it short and to give proper spotlight to some of the events. After the new year, I'll even have a third post to share with you! Hooray!

Without further adieu, let's get started! 

Apartment Update:

We do still love our apartment, as I made it clear in my last post. However, we've discovered some new irritating quirks about it-- namely, our neighbor(s). We have discovered, through great pains, that our upstairs neighbor is very overweight and very heavy footed. There is only so much our complex is willing to do about the situation. Specifically, they want to move us to a top floor (third floor) unit in order to prevent the same thing from happening should we move to another first floor or even second floor unit, but I'm being stubborn about it because I don't think we should be punished when we aren't the ones causing the issue. I think that any other person who moves into the unit we're currently in would have the same problem, and I'm not willing to trudge up two flights of stairs for the next nine months. So we are suffering through our iron-footed neighbor, even though the noise is cutting into our sleep and into Patrick's work. The paintings on our wall rattle, as do the glasses in our kitchen cabinets, and we can tell where he is in the apartment at all times. It's terrible. I'm waiting for the day that plaster starts to fall from the ceiling and he just tumbles into our living room. 

October:

October was CRAZY! There were eight Rocky Horror shows scheduled from October 4 through November 1. At the end of the month, we had shows three nights in a row-- one in a different state! The 4th was in Menlo Park, the 17th was in Menlo Park, the 18th was in Cloverdale, the 24th was in Pittsburg, the 25th in SF, the 30th in Reno, the 31st in SF, and the 1st in Menlo Park. Because of Patrick's work schedule, we were only able to make it to six of the eight shows, but it was a blast! I especially had fun doing the Pittsburg, Reno, and Halloween shows. I learned a new skill (doing spotlight), and in doing so I finally found a place on cast where I am particularly useful, because I am really bad at memorizing prop cues. 

Our Pittsburg show even got its own article, which you can check out here. Claps to our amazing cast and especially our directors for getting through the craziest month most of us have ever experienced! 

Spotlight selfie! I really just love this outfit. I wore it to at least three of the Rocktober shows.

Our Janet (Victoria) and Colombia (Diane) posing with their fans!

Our very own "age ambiguous dancing tree"!

YMCA

Patrick was a mouse (duh!) for Halloween! Actually, he was Karen as a mouse from Mean Girls. We spent weeks looking for the perfect dress, wig, and shoes so that he could look the part but not be as... revealing as the character was in the movie. 

I did his makeup for the night, which I am incredibly proud of (it is screen accurate). He makes a real pretty woman, if I do say so myself!

I don't have any good photos of my Halloween costume on actual Halloween, however here it is a few weeks previously at our friends Mandy and Brook's Halloween party! Can you tell what I went as?

In the midst of Rocktober, Patrick and I were also travelling quite a bit. Lately he has been getting business in places that are reasonable distances away, which means that he can drive and I can go with him. In October we were in Burlingame (just a few miles from where we used to live, but too long of a drive for Patrick to have commuted every day), then we went home for a night, then drove straight to Vegas for a work-related convention, and then we drove straight from Vegas to Reno for the Rocky Reno show. From Reno we drove home and we finally got a short break (from work, not from Rocky, as we still had two more shows). Shortly after that, Patrick flew to Texas for work, and when he got home we went straight to Disneyland! Our Disney trip will be in a separate post because it really was magical. Probably the best trip we've ever had. Our Vegas trip will also be in a separate post because there is so much to include! 

The view from our room in Reno

November:

Most of November was spent with me at home and Patrick travelling. Not a whole lot happened worth mention except for Thanksgiving. This year, even though it was just the two of us, I was determined to have a full Thanksgiving dinner like I would have had with my family in Michigan. So, Patrick let me cook for once, and I made a very successful Thanksgiving dinner. Having been the first time I've ever made an entire meal by myself, we were both really impressed with the job I did! 

Our Menu:

• Ham
• Mashed Garlic Redskin Potatoes
• Green Bean Casserole
• Sweet Potato Casserole 
• Cranberry Sauce
• Rolls
• Pumpkin Pie (purchased from Safeway because it was a last minute item... Silly me, I thought having Sweet Potato Casserole was kind of the same thing, but someone complained)

December:

Shortly after Thanksgiving, I was hit with some news that I knew was coming but it took me by surprise all the same. My mother moved and all of my stuff was still at the old house, and when I called her and asked if she had gotten all of the things I had asked her to grab for me, she hadn't. I don't mean to say that I don't trust my mother, but if those things are the only things I have left back in Michigan, I wanted to make sure they got to a safe place before she moved out. So when I found out that she has to be out of our old house in very early January, I knew I had to go back to get my stuff and make sure the job was done myself. Only a week away from when I would fly home, I booked a plane ticket and started to pack. I was lucky to even get a ticket so close to the holidays, and had I not gone back when I did, I would have been travelling DURING the holidays, which would have actually been impossible as there were no flights left. And so I went back to Michigan on December 7 and returned to California on December 17 for a quick, pretty disappointing trip home (which I won't get into here). I did get to visit with a few people and some family and I got to go to the Detroit Zoo, but I'm hoping future trips will be better!

Ella is now five years old!

Christina is now eight!

Me and Zach's Corn Snake, Arbok

A tiny bird that flew into my grandparents' sliding glass door. He was quite dazed and needed some love. (P.S. Rest assured that most of these pictures are of animals, because I love them more than humans)

Seafood pasta, compliments of Chef Grandpa! I can still taste it, and it is so, so good.

Babcia! My favorite woman :) I love you!

Hatching butterflies at the Detroit Zoo! HOW COOL!

The most majestic animals on the face of the earth. Look at those beauties.

Obligatory hippo picture!

Coming Up:

Our outlook for the new year changes almost every day, it seems. Patrick's work schedule is never definite, and often he will be sent to any number of places at a moment's notice. We do know that we will be spending Christmas day together, and then Jackie and Dan will be coming over on Saturday and we will do Christmas with them. New Year's Eve will be spent with our Rocky family at our annual NYE Rocky show, but the coming months are really up in the air as for trips, travel, or events. Of course, we do look forward to spending as much time as possible together!