American Flag Shorts

After a long hiatus from blogging, I'm back with a quick tutorial.  I made these shorts for the 4th of July and received quite a few compliments.  Sure, the fireworks and independence day has passed, but they're still pretty fly shorts.

Supplies:

Shorts

Foam brush-one for each color

Paintbrushes (for small parts and touch-ups)

Red, White, Blue, and Sparkle paint

Painter's tape

Foam stars

Show on Netflix

Blogs to read while paint dries

1. Stick the star on

2. Paint around stars

3. Use small brush to get in between points of star that foam brush missed

4. Space out painters tape on other side to create stripes

 5. Begin to paint white

 6. Finish painting white stripes

7. Cover white stripes with painter's tape

8. Red stripes in between white (covered with painter's tape) stripes

9. Tried sparkles first.  Too light so decided to use the paint brushes to paint white stars

10. Paint all stars white.  After they dry, put sparkle on top

Finished product

The shorts on

Cheesy, mirror picture, but the only one I have of me actually wearing the shorts.

Bicycle

I'm officially a member of the bike-owner club.  I am beyond pumped.  Today I went and grabbed some sushi with my friend, Nick and then afterwards he dropped me off at our local bike shop to rescue my bike, which I have yet to name, from layaway.  Obviously, biking in the gym and biking outside are really, really different so barely 3.5 miles later and my back was sweating and I was ready to go home.  After Nick "dropped me off" at my house, I bugged my little sister to take some sweet shots of me on my new beauty.  Enjoy my lameness.

 Awkward, hunch-y, excited, pure joy picture

No hands!

 Just lovin' up on my bike

Have to love my face in this last one, I was trying to quickly plank on it...epic fail

I actually have some really cool crafts, recipes, and life things to share.  I'm hoping life will mellow out a little and I'll have some time to throw into this blog soon :)

Cat House

The main floor of the house was pretty unique and definitely some place I could picture myself.  Then we headed upstairs.  The entire top floor was carpeted and reeked of cat piss.  Disgusting, wet, cat piss. I almost threw up...and that's when all the bad things began to emerge.

So I'm not any closer to home ownership.  The guy has my phone number, price range, and things I'm looking for so he'll be on the hunt and I'm lazily on the hunt.

Since I didn't buy a house, I felt the need to purchase something.  So I bought a bike!  It's beautiful and I'm picking it up next week, so I'll post pictures when I have it in hand (it has a basket!!).  Prepare to be jealous :)

House Hunting

I've been talking about moving out of my parent's house for a few weeks now.  I'm 23 and decided that maybe it's time I have my own space.  Nothing had really been decided or 100% when my friend Branden's roommates' girlfriend got pregnant and he found himself in need of new place to live.  We were tubing and decided that we're both pretty chill people, so why not co-habitate?

Now, it felt like things were suddenly in motion.  He gave me his particulars-cost, bedroom layout, location, and I began the hunt.  I found out that the perfect apartment for us...did not exist.  Last night, we were out grabbing a drink and he told me he threw our names on a couple of waiting lists, so it was up to fate.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am perhaps the biggest believer in the fact that everything happens for a reason.  Good, bad, horrible, wonderful...it all happened to lead you somewhere, or turn you in to someone, or to prepare you for something.  I was driving around when I stumbled upon this house that was for sale.

Partially as a joke, partially out of actual curiosity, I checked the website for more details and quickly fell in love with the charm of this home.

Claw foot bathtub?  Yes, please!

Stainless steel appliances

Sunroom...needs to be redone, but doesn't need too much


Wood flooring

I have an appointment on Monday to meet with the realtor and take a tour.  Reluctantly, my dad agreed to come and take a look with me to make sure that I wouldn't be completely getting hosed if I ended up buying the house.  Branden has already agreed that he would be fine living in a house, and likes its proximity to downtown so that would mean I'd still have two rooms open if I end out buying it.  I'm really excited for the possibility of getting a house.  The price really is great, and I don't think I'd have any problem selling or renting it when/if I leave town in two years.

Farmer's Market

Today was the first time I managed to make it to our local Farmer's Market.  Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the market, just of my pup wearing his new collar.

It was Crookston's, my pup, first time out and about.  He kept pulling on his leash, but for the most part, did pretty well with handling the crowd, noises, and smells.

Crookston with old collar

Crookston was followed around my a little boy who kept petting him.  While he dealt with it calmly, he did keep giving me "make him stop" eyes.  I thought it was kind of adorable because any time we'd take a corner and the little boy was in the same row, he'd run away from his grandpa to come say hello again.

Another interesting moment consisted of a girl about my age coming up to me and asking me where I bought Crookston (he's a rescue).  Evidently, her sister's dog looks exactly like him and is the same age.  She took out her cell phone and showed me pictures and, sure enough, the other dog looks like Crookston did before his haircut.  She took a picture of my dog to send to her sister and then went on her way.  About ten minutes later, the girl returned with her boyfriend, mom and dad.  They all wanted to pet Crookston and even called the sister to tell her that they were petting Toby's (the twin dog's name) duplicate.  It was all pretty humorous.  I really do think that dog people are the best people.

Crookston with new collar

Hopefully, Crookston and I will be able to make it out a few more times before the end of the summer.  Next time I'm hoping the vegetable selection will be better and I'll leave with more than a dog collar with mustaches and kuchen.