Pumpkin Carving

I grew up in this small country-ish town in northern San Diego that is pretty much known for its Indian casino and Nate’s Butt Farm…during October. No lie, in the 15 years that I lived in Valley Center, I probably visited the butt farm a total of maybe 3 times. To everyone who isn’t familiar…it’s not really a butt farm, the place is called Bates Nut Farm. Nate’s Butt Farm is funnier though. Pumpkin picking is something I mentioned I wanted to get done back in that "Ahh Fall" post...and now, here we are :]

Anyways…I took my cousin to pick some pumpkins at Bates. That in itself could have been a mission. The pumpkin patch opens up for business late September and is pretty much a nightmare for all the locals who live in the area. Why? Because there is one way in and one way out. When ALL of San Diego county makes a trip to this small town, traffic piles up and it takes about 2-ish hours to get through at peak hours. I made sure to avoid this and showed up right as they opened, wandered a little, tried to find a huge pumpkin but failed, so settled for the small guys. Check it.

I made the princess do some hard labor.
Sorry for the back problems you'll have later in life.

The patch of big pumpkins. All were either lopsided or ugly. Whomp.

So we settled for some small guys from the piles of pumpkins.

"HAY RIDES!"

We got out of there before it got too busy, hit up the grocery store for some tools and stencils, and then headed home to carve! Umm…carving with a stencil was muchhhh harder than expected. I gave up after like 10 minutes and decided to freehand it. Whatev.

My finished product :]

No lie…pumpkin carving was hard. I struggled for like 15 minutes before I got the hang of it. I think I was over it the second I started because I was tired from hitting up the patch in the morning. But I liked the way it turned out. Definitely worth all the work.

I got myself an extra pumpkin because I was attending a pumpkin carving party with the girls a few days later. We got together, ate some chili, drank some wine, and watched pitch perfect. Ashley had never ever seen Pitch Perfect so we were scrambling finding somebody to go get it for us. We called Marcus but he wouldn’t because he was being lame. Chelsea should have grabbed it because she lost at “nose goes” but Ashley hubs ended up doing us the favor. Poor guy was probably in hell the whole night with Chelsea and I screaming at him while he was hiding. Here’s some pictures of that memorable night!

My pumpkin! Which was another free hand because
I didn't even want to pretend like I could use the stencils.

Top Left: Marty. Top Right: Ashley.
Bottom Left: Caroline. Bottom Right: Chelsea.

It turned out to be a fun little evening, definitely good to get a break and hang out with the girls instead of doing lame-o homework. What do you think of our pumpkins?  Are you pro stencil or anti stencil?

That’s all folks :] Have a great Wednesday!

Angry Balls

So a few weeks ago I mentioned that one of the things I was looking forward to this fall was drinking "Angry Balls" so this thirsty Thursday I will break down the recipe for you folks...

What you'll need:

Angry Orchard Cider & Fireball.

Pour a bottle of Angry Orchard into a cup as seen below...

Measure out 1 shot of Fireball Cinnamon Whisky and pour it into your glass full of Angry Orchard

That's it! Angry Balls. It's been one my regular drinks for like the last month, and as long as the cider is on the shelves...I'll keep drinking it. No idea who to give credit for on this invention...but thanks to Natasha for letting the CLAMS know about it! If you try this out, let me know what you think! 

In other news...a couple of weeks ago, some girls organized a littles and bigs pair up thing so some newer bloggers can ask questions and get some help from a more experienced blogger, and I totally signed up. Not because I want more followers, or people to read my blog...mainly because after a year of blogging, I only know how to post content and don't really know my way around the actual blogger site and how to take advantage of everything it's got to offer. So I'm hoping my partner, Jess over at Living On Sweet Tea, will be able to help me out. She's already pointed a couple of things I can work on, it's just a matter of finding time to get it done :] Anyways, back to my partner...here's a little intro on her!

I'm Jess! I'm currently living in sunny south Florida where I soak up as much sun and salt water as possible. In 2009 I was married; by the end of 2012 I was divorced. This is my story of dating shenanigans, happy hours, and living a life I never had the chance to. Let me tell you something, doing it as an adult is a whole nother' story. 

Here's some of her links so you can stalk her just like I have and see how cool of a girl she is! but when you stalk... #dontmakeitweird

Twitter

Instagram

Bloglovin'

Welp. That's all I've got for you guys. Booze and a new friend. Both are worth checking out! Make some Angry Balls while you stalk Jess!

Happy Thursday everyone :]

Favorite Holloween Movies

Not sure how I missed the info on this link up on Kayyy's blog last week, but her and Jasmine are hosting a favorite Halloween movie link up today...let's participate!

Anyone that knows me for real, knows that I'm not a fan of scary movies...which is pretty much 99% of Halloweenie movies. So me posting for this link up might seem a little silly.

Halloweentown. Because it's a must watch. This movie was too good. And something that defined my childhood. Or part of it at least. I was 10 years old when this DCOM came out, and I still remember how frightened I was by all of the crazies in it! Haha.

Double Double Toil And Trouble. Back in Mary-Kate and Ashley's golden days. I couldn't tell you what this movie was about now...all I remember is a midget dude that lived under a bridge was the one that helped them through most of the nonsense, right. I don't know. I used to love this movie. Time to search for it on Amazon, own it, and reminisce.

And thaaaaaat's about it. I seriously am a lame-o when it comes to Halloween movies. I have seen a handful of scary ones like Saw, Paranormal Activity, The Ring, The Exorcist, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, umm...Cabin Fever, the Strangers...I think that's all of them. Not to include Scream and the Scary Movies because those scared the crap out of me too even though they were supposed to be silly...not for this girl.

Anyways, sorry this was a fail of a post. What are some of your favorite scary movies? Maybe I'll consider them as suggestions and have a movie marathon so I'm prepared for next year!

Little Big Town & Keith Urban

HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY FRIDAY! [Yes, I am watching Duck Dynasty as I type this]

Today is a good day. After a few hours of work, I'll be headed to the Jason Aldean Concert. I'm super excited about it because if his show is anything like it was last year...it will be nothing short of amazing. Unfortunately, this is the last show of country concert season for us San Diegans...or at least for those of us that aren't going to Zac Brown Band in a couple of weeks.

Anyways...tonight's concert is setting the mood for today's post. Let's talk about the last country concert I was at: Keith Urban.

Keith is one of the HUGE reasons I bought the mega ticket earlier this year. It guaranteed me tickets to Jason, Luke, and Keith. I'm not too in love with Keith Urban's looks, as most of his fans are...but I do love his music. His opening acts were Dustin Lynch and Little Big Town.  

Of course...we started off with some tailgating. 

Some of my favorite people <3

What's a post without a selfie?!!

After a few hours of that, it was time to go in...that in itself was a huge mess that's too lengthy to explain.

After running around like crazies, we all met up inside the amphitheater. We ended up missing Dustin Lynch...I assume, since we didn't see him. 

We caught some of LBT singing Tornado.

Also saw them sing Boondocks! If you listen to this video, you'll hear how much of a mess I was between saying bondukes instead of boondocks which had me highly amused, the spaceship launch sound boop boop boop-ing is totally me, and that chaaaaahooo, me too. Sorry. Ha!

Once it was time for Keith, I took off from my friends to get a better less obstructed seat...check out some vids:

You Gonna Fly-

Sweet Thing-

I wandered back hung out with the group, and then saw Emily take off...so I totally followed. Keith was leaving the main stage and making his way to the lawn!!!!! There was a small stage towards the back and he performed for us. I got 1 song recorded before my phone died...check it.

It was an amaziiiiing concert, and a great time despite the couple of hiccups we had. So far it's been my favorite show of the season. Way to go LBT & Keith Urban. 

This post was brought to you by Jason, Keith and Sarah over at Venus Trapped In Mars. Rules changed a while ago and posts weren't limited to sports, but now you could write about anything you're a fan of...country music and Keith! Boom.

Make it a good day folks! I know I will :]  

Falling Into Fall

Remember when I said I’m never doing gift swaps ever again…I didn’t stick to that. This was a fall themed swap that looked more promising than the other ones I’ve done considering the number of people that signed up. Hopefully the odds would be in my favor :] They totally were and I had an awesome partner in Lauren over at The Peanut Program but the swap proved to be a little more difficult than I thought. I found it difficult to get to know Lauren because most of my time was allotted towards school, homework, observations, and tutoring. Big fail on my part, but hopefully I came through on my gift…

Most of my stuff was from my favorite store ever, World Market.

I threw in some interesting coffee flavors since she mentioned one of her favorite things to do is enjoy a nice cup of brew. The Texas Turtle coffee is actually something I’ve had before at work and liked a lot! I also included some handmade cards from WM which I seriously love. I justified this inclusion and some fun pencils as she has been working on an office make over [Check out how great it looks! Totally Pinterest worthy!] and so the cards would add to her stationary and can be used as thank you’s, for gifts, or a pretty presentation for a gift card. The pretty pencils are meant to liven up a pen/pencil holder for her new office. The earrings you see are also from WM and got those because she mentioned she likes the color turquoise so there ya go. The purple gives it a little pop! Last but not least, there were some Jasmine travel size face/hand wipes that I included because after having mine for a while, I have found them to be very useful and great smelling! I didn’t stick to the fall theme like at all, other than my box decoration, but guess who forgot to take a picture of that?!! Me. Oh well. Hope you liked everything Lauren!

Let’s move on to my awesome gift…

Shout out to me for my sucky photo!

Scarf Detail!

Lauren caught on about my love for skulls. It’s totally a random love I have, but something I can’t deny. Haha. She included a skull scarf that I can’t wait to wear [once it gets a little bit cooler] and a cute little skull that is meant to DIY makeover, so I can't wait to do that and put on my bookshelf! Also included was some nail polish that I couldn’t wait to put on, and a Halloween skeleton thing that is currently sitting on the corner of my desk. And a head band with a cute link design that I can wear with a messy bun! That's been my hair do of choice for like the last year, so lately I've been embracing head bands to pretty that up. She wins at sticking to the fall theme as well as getting cool stuff I love! I can’t wait to start working on it on the skull!

This was definitely a more successful gift swap than the ones I've done before. Thanks again for the gift Lauren!

River Float

So one super cool event that I left out of the “life lately” posts a couple weeks ago was our river float. It’s something I had never done before and felt like it deserved its own post.

Right after Rascal Flatts we headed home and packed up Marcus’ truck with everything we’d need for the float/weekend and hit the road to Vegas.

 

I think we made it in about 4.5 longggggg hours.

We hit up the grocery store at 5:30 am and stocked up on our lunches and drinks we’d be taking on the hike/float.

It was probably 6:00 am by the time we finished and made it to Marcus’ friends place. We took about an hour or so to pack everything in backpacks, cake on the sunscreen, and head over to another house to meet everyone that was going on this float. There were probably about 15 of us and we headed out to the Colorado river near the Hoover Dam.

Once we got there, we unloaded the backpacks full of floats, booze, food, water, and climbing gear our of the cars and headed off on our [3-ish hour] hike to the river. It was super intense and but kind of a lot of fun repelling down rocks, jumping over little streams. It wasn’t too difficult until we hit like the last 1/3 where the drops off the rocks were bigger and we has lost traction in our shoes from the streams we didn’t make it over. I think at one point I hit my head on a rock because it hurt for most of the float. Unfortunately, I don’t have pictures of this hike because I left my phone behind. I didn’t want to risk losing it or dropping it in the water. Just trust me when I tell you it was fun. I actually think I liked that part more than I did the float.

Once we got to the bottom of the canyon we had hiked, we took a little break and began to inflate our floats. After like an hour of that we were ready to hit the river…or so we thought. Apparently it’s common knowledge that the water is FREEZING. Sitting in that for 4 hours was not pleasant. We all tied our floats to each other and began floating down the river…except we had some assistance and were pulled by a boat who was occupied by a couple in our group who chose to fish instead of float. Smart. We kind of just chilled in the floats…tried to fall asleep because I was exhausted but couldn’t. There were a couple of exciting moments when Caroline had to jump in the water after we lost our beach ball and camera, but it was mostly floating. There was one wake that caused Marcus’ float to pop and he couldn’t party anymore so he had to jump on the boat. About an hour and a half later, I kind of got over the cold water and floating so I gave up my spot to Marcus and chose to be in the boat for the rest of the ride back.

The boat pulling us!

Lime getting back into her float after getting the beach ball!

My swap with Marcus was perfect timing because the boat was due by 4:00 and at 3:00 the float still had about 5 mile markers left to travel at a rate of 2 MPH, lol. We pulled them for another 30 minutes and let go at 3:30 which was when they were SOL. The floaters had to paddle in using oars, arms, and feet…all while being a little boozed up. Haha. As much as I would have loved to see that, I’m glad I wasn’t there. Once they got in earshot of those of us on land, we could hear them and Marcus' singing even though they were still like a quarter mile away.

We finished up the float at like 6:00, headed home, ate some grub, and passed out.

It was a super cool thing to do, and I’m excited for next year! BUT I might choose to bring a jetski [anyone have one?!!] and pull the float instead of being stuck on it.

New Bookcase

So…I’ve kind of had an empty corner in my bedroom since we moved into the crack house this summer and for the last week my mind has been obsessed with adding a bookshelf. I’m still in the age range where Ikea furnishings are acceptable but was torn between that and a DIY pinterest project that was actually inspired by Kelley's coffee table! The only thing that kept me from going the DIY route was the wood crate things were only available online and I wanted them at my home ASAP. I was doing a Target shopping trip and came across a bookcase the perfect size and was more affordable than the one I had seen at Ikea…so boom, impromptu Target purchase!

I love pinterest and all the beautiful craftiness inspiration that it provides. Here are some bookcases that I loved!

Love the clean & organized look this has!

So pretty!

Flowers were a must have for me!

Photos!

Something that I had to include were the 3 old school cameras I own! I couldn’t wait to display those :] The couple of autographed baseballs I have from Joba Chamberlain and CC Sabathia made the bookcase also. What I didn’t have…books. I totally overestimated the number of books I own, so this fall I’m on the hunt for some to fill it with actual literature instead of junk. It's still under construction, but this is what we're looking at now...

Let's break down each shelf

Top shelf includes a DIY vase and some fake flowers, because I don't have the money to constantly replace dead real ones, and a "birthday bitch" headband Lime and Chels gifted me with on my 25th birthday. First shelf down we have some books on the top left...The Hunger Games trilogy and WTFO in both paperback and hardcover :] In front of those books is the first vintage looking camera, a Nikon something or other. The middle of the shelf is an empty picture frame for a photo I haven't printed yet and it sits on top of some cute handmade cards I got and totally love from World Market! The right side of that top shelf has the CC and Joba autographed baseballs which sit on my small collection of baseball books including a baseball roadtrip guide gifted by my friend Anna, Derek Jeter's "The Life You Imagine", and "162" by Steve Melia which tells the story of a dude who went to ALL of the Yankees games [home AND away] back in like 2011.

Second shelf down is a little more boring, to your left you see a black empty photo box, textbooks I couldn't sell back, and a mason jar with a silver glittery skull sitting on top of a pile of red glitter. I paid too much for that thing, but I love it.  

Shout out to my Yankee Stadium wall decor that I got for like 60% off!
Thanks for the heads up on that Marcus :] 

The middle shelf has some more books, including my 1st Chicken Soup For The Soul book from like 7th grade, my AUTOGRAPHED Lauren Conrad book, LA Candy, and book 5 of 7 in the Harry Potter series. In front of that is 2 decks of cards that haven't been used for like 7 years, and a film developing canister. Back in high school [and 2 weeks of college] I took a photo class where we had to develop our own film and print our own pictures using darkrooms and chemicals. It was legit my favorite class and the developing was my favorite part of the entire photo process! Moving on, next to that you see a super legit accordion Polaroid camera. Hey Ya! Last but not least, some middle school and high school yearbooks and "textbooks" which were sheets of paper bound with that coil binding thing. Oh and another photo-less frame.  

Last but not least...well least for now since they're so bare, the bottom two shelves. I ran out of books and cool stuff to display.  2nd to the bottom we have 2 super [kind of] rare Stonewall Brew bottles that I took from the Beerfest event I volunteered at. There's a cool story behind it, which makes them potentially valuable...so I took them. My last of 3 cool vintage hipster cameras, a Cannon something or other, the last of 3 empty frames, and a CLAM ticket book! I got these for my friends a couple Christmases ago and had my super talented friend Alma paint over the lame cover. It includes some of our favorite things! Bottom shelf is empty. Sad face.

Welp, that's it. What do you think? Anything I should add? What about book suggestions?!! HP is at the top of my list, and the Lauren Conrad beauty book but I can't really think of anything else. Let me know what's up.

Happy Tuesday kids!