Category Archives: Lifestyle

Hanging Out a Yaquina Bay Light House!

Good evening!

Today is day 3 of our camping trip on the Oregon Coast, and we are having some serious fun!! 😉

This morning we got up and all got together for a breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausage, and pancakes – I almost felt as if we were at IHOP!! LOL! 😉

Taelynn, Aaron, Jason, and Gavin

Aaron, Gavin, & Taelynn

After breakfast the kids headed over the the playground with Uncle Jay-Jay and Alice and I proceeded to head back into the tents, Alice, so she could ward off a tummy ache, and me to help calm my girls – too many kids, waaay too much attention!! HAHAHA! That is the price they pay for fame!! 😉

Alice, Paul, Gavin, Me, Taelynn, Jason, & Aaron

After accidentally falling asleep while reading, I awoke to find that everyone was gone!! DARN-IT!! I didn’t want to miss anything!! That is precisely when Jason walked up and we decided to take the girls for a walk and then get our Yahtzee on, I think we officially tied, which is a good thing bbecause neither one of us wants to hear about it the whole rest of the day!! *WINK!!!*

Aaron

Gavin

Taelynn

Finally Alice, and her brood got back from their trip to the candy store into town (WHOO! HOO!), and we got it together, took the girls for another quick walk, and then decided it was time to go get some serious picture taking, and playing done over at the Yaquina Head Light House!!

Jason dropped me off a ways up the road so that I could take pictures while I was walking down to where everyone else was waiting. Then We proceeded to walk down the 100 steps or so to get down to the waterfront. The beach there is a rocky one, which is a bit different for us than our average smooth sandy beached, but it was beautiful!! and muscle shells were plentiful, so the kids were happy to start collecting them!!!

What a GREAT day! I am have sun-kissed cheeks this evening, and everyone is happy, and having a great time playing games before dinner!!!

I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings!!

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

Day Two Camping at the Oregon Coast!

Good evening!

We have had such a lovely day today. This morning, at about 4 in the morning, I am only guessing at the time seeing that we have no clocks or actual knowledge of time while we are out here, I hear a light pitter pat on the outside of our tent , and then it gets increasingly faster and faster until I realize what I am hearing, it is raining. I LOVE it!! It is not the oh-my-gosh-we-are-going-to-be-soaked kind of raining, but a nice light rain that just makes everything nice and damp when you wake up in the morning! It was very pleasant!

After dozing back to sleep, until the sun finally made an appearance, I got to do some nice quiet reading while my sweetie toodled around our campsite, setting up this, whittling that, and pretty much just have a good ol’ time!! After our respective quiet time activities, we decided to leash the girls up and take them for a walk around the camp grounds. That was fun, and the girls are getting better and better at being leashed, and not freaking out when strangers walk by! I can tell that they are having fun too!!

For lunch today, since Jason and I have had some trouble with our wood being too green to burn, we decided that we would head into Newport for some lunch, and we made it to the Chalet Restaurant. They have THE BEST fried chicken sandwich with sweet and sour sauce that is just DELICOUS!! My mom and I used to love sneaking away for some quality conversation together and we would go and partake in this delightful, but albeit sinful sandwich creation! I have been telling Jason about it for years, but this is the first time that he has ever had the opportunity to eat one, and his verdict is that, “it was excellent”. He can be a man of few words, but how right he is!

Ok, so back to the camping! Beverly Beach has some of the most intriguing trees I have ever seen. I am not sure what kind they are, buy their trunks are all gnarled, and mangle-ey! They look like something out of a Grimm’s Fairytale or something. They are quite breathe-takingly beautiful. I have live in Oregon for more than half of my life, and I have never seen anything quite like them before. That is what the majority of the pictures that I am sharing with you today are of!

Well, my sister, Alice and her family, all got here later this afternoon! I wasn’t sure they were going to make it, and I am like a worried mother-hen when they are on the road, I just want everyone to get here safely and soundly so we can start having fun together!!! It was so good to see everyone, and especially to see how big our nephews have gotten since last we’ve seen them, which was last Christmas!

We spent the evening playing at the park, roasting our hotdogs over the open flame, while the kids all kept playing musical chairs while trying to avoid the campfire smoke in their faces!! LOL! 😉 Then my sissy , Alice, and I ended up making a trip into town so that she could pick up some last minute, forgotten items for their campsite. Sounds familiar, I did the same thing yesterday – there must be something in our genes that make us similar that way!!!

Anyway, I am off to go have some more and s’more fun with my family – HAHAHAHA! Get it?? Ok, no worries! I have no plans to quit my day job!!

Have a FABULOUS evening!! 😉

We Are Officially Camping!

Good evening!

Well, we have made it to Beverly Beach, and after a couple of hours futzing around, we finally made camp! WHEW!!! I love our version of roughing it!! We have two queen size air mattresses, fully loaded with all the trimmings!! Comforters, fuzzy blankets, high thread count sheets, and goose down feather pillows. The works!!! Does that make me spoiled??? 😉

That is alright, I will take spoiled any day!! I work hard for this mini vacation!!! 😉 Anyway, Jason is totally in his element, being my outdoorsy man and all, and our two girls are shivering and not really sure what to do with themselves yet, but as soon as they saw that the tent was up, they knew EXACTLY where they wanted to be (they have camped with us enough times)! They want to be snuggled up in bed!! That’s my girls!! 😉

I just LOVE camping with Jason!! He is such a hoot! He is constantly making me laugh, and he lives to be of help, so he likes babying me, and I like letting him! He is pretty much in charge while we are camping, which is almost a complete role reversal from our normal, everyday lives. Maybe THAT is why I LOVE IT SO MUCH!! Thank you, Honey, for taking such good care of me!! 😉

We weren’t planning on it, since I did bring so much reading material from home anyway, but Jason decided that since we WERE AT THE COAST AFTER ALL, that we just had no choice but to go to our favorite little used book store in Lincoln City. It is Robert’s books, and to say it is little?? Well, not so much! It is actually HUGE, and I could literally spend all day there looking for all sorts of reading treasures!!! So when he suggested it, I had a fleeting moment of but, honey, I already have all of these books, and then stopped myself mid-thought and said, “Sure! Why not?” and so we stopped!! Thank you, Love, for knowing what mamma really needs!!! 😉

Anyway, we are out camping, but forgot a “few” things, of course, and so we have driven the 15 or so miles to the nearest Wal-Mart to pick up those “needed” supplies! I am sitting in the car, keeping the girls company, or are they keeping me company? It is hard to say! It is starting to drizzle outside, which is fine – we knew it would, so we are absolutely prepared, being true Oregonians and all!! You have to be ready for any and all chances of rain!!

Work went pretty well today! I had gotten a HUGE assignment done and off to my end user today, which made me feel good. It has also given me the freedom not to worry about the office so that I can just relax, stay in the moment, and just enjoy our trip!

My sister, Alice, and her family will be joining us tomorrow a little after 4 pm. I can’t wait!! I really miss seeing my adorable little nephews!! They know all about their crazy Aunty Chrissy and her ever-present camera. It is something that my family just pretty much humors me with, because I am almost constantly taking their pictures!!! I think they secretly like it…I’m just sayin’! 😉

Anyway, we are going to head back to the campgrounds, and take our girls for a nice walk, before crawling into bed so we can get up nice and early in the morning!! That is one of the BEST perks about camping – it is perfectly acceptable to live without the presence of clocks of any kind. Time is an illusion, one that quickly becomes a non-factor when we are on vacation together!! Oh, SWEET BLISS!!!

Until I chat with you again tomorrow…

Have a FABULOUS evening!!

A Tuesday Art Night!

Good evening!

I know I told you that I was going to try and post pics of the new pendant I made, but unfortunately it was very cold in the room it was drying in, and apparently needs more time to dry, so I am not going to mess with it this evening!

In lieu of that, I have decided to share a picture with you that I had taken a couple of weeks ago that I had taken while I was out on an artist date with myself! I have not been able to stop thinking about this art work for some reason.

This artist’s art intrigued me right away because the theme for her work for 2010 was “Fearless” and if you might remember that is a word that is becoming near and dear to my heart. The artist’s name is Dayna Collins.

These paintings are all on display at Venti’s in downtown Salem – you know my favorite little bistro to have dinner on my solo artist’s dates!!!

Well, one of my most recent artist’s dates I was enjoying my dinner there, I picked up a copy of the Salem Weekly. I was pleasantly surprised to see an article in there about Dayna and her art. It seemed rather serendipitous, to say the least. Dayna is a mixed media artist, and these pieces came about because she was afraid of drawing, and more specifically, she was afraid of drawing faces, so she knew that drawing faces was exactly what she was going to have to do if she was going to overcome this fear. Something that I myself am trying to do with my own artful endeavors! 😉

Well, I am very glad that she did, because I have thoroughly enjoyed looked at her paintings. There is just something unique about them that make you want to smile!  I also found out by reading the article that she actually hosts Artist’s Way Creative Cluster, and now I am intrigued to look into that and see what all that is about, and if it is something that I might be interested in being a part of!!

Oh, the creative possibilities that open up right in front of your eyes if only you are open to seeing them!!!

God is good!!!

Anyway, I am going to toodle my booty into bed and get a good night’s rest!!! We are heading out camping for a long weekend tomorrow, but no worries, I am still going to take some opportunities to blog while I am out – so you won’t miss a thing!!!

Have a FABULOUS evening!! 😉

A Random Monday!

Good evening!

It is a picture perfect beautiful day outside this evening! I have spent a good portion of my evening up in my art studio. I have been busy dabbling, as I have a tendency to do! I am trying so hard to be an artist that in all honesty I am just frustrating the heck out of myself!

When I got home after work tonight, I decided that I was going to make a few charms for a charm bracelet that I wanted to make, but the soldering gun that my sweetie and I had picked up is just too low of quality and doesn’t get nearly as hot as it needs to be to work properly. So, that will just have to wait a little longer until I get that jewelry soldering gun that I should have gotten in the first place – save money on the unimportant stuff, splurge on the things that you will need at your disposal for as long as possible! Lesson learned! 😉

I tell myself!
“Ok, I am not going to get frustrated, I will just have to try something else.”

So, I decide to get out my resin and try my hand at making myself a motivational charm for a stacked necklace. My resin charm didn’t turn out exactly the way I had intended, but it is upstairs setting all the same, and I will know in the morning if it is something that I will be willing to wear! But from initial thoughts on it – it won’t be perfect, but it will be something I can work with. It is only my first resin piece after all!

I am just LOVING the idea of making some jewelry. I think jewelry is so unique and can really express a person’s unique style so well, and it is something that, in the past, I have been pretty good at! Plus, I just LOVE beads, wire, soldering, hammering, the idea of metal smithing – because I have never actually tried it before, and I love the way that each piece turns out! There is something very gratifying knowing that you have made something that you see someone else wearing!

I really want to perfect some of the techniques that I am learning so that I can make some really cool personalized gifts that I will be able to give away for Christmas presents this year! I know that all of the women in my life will LOVE that! I hope!! 😉

You know what would be my ULTIMATE dream…besides a happy family, and owning that farm that my sweetie and I always dream of…it would be to have a way to make a living doing something creative that feels like I am honoring my authentic self – isn’t that just a novel concept??? Sometimes I am very envious of those people who have walked away from their corporate jobs and are fulfilling their lifelong dream of making a living doing what they love. If I could incorporate jewelry, art, words, people, flexibility, and fun into a career, I would be as happy as a clam!!! Anyone hiring for anything like that right now??? LOL! Let me know, will ya?! 😉

I am a firm believer that God provides for you everything you need, at exactly the right moment, I am just impatiently waiting for my moment, I suppose! 😉

Anyway, I have finally come down for the evening, and I have decided to watch a couple of quick episodes of The Andy Griffith Show before I climb into bed for the evening while reading a little of my most current book, I Am Number Four, by Pitticus Lore. It is pretty good, in case you were interested! 😉

Have a FABULOUS evening!!

ONE LAST THING: I will make sure to take a few pictures of my necklace in the morning, and share them with you tomorrow! 😉

Motivational Quote of the Day!

Here is your motivational quote for today!

“Develop interest in life as you see it; in people, things, literature, music – the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people. Forget yourself.”
~Henry Miller

Have a FABULOUS afternoon!! ;-)