Early Spring?!

It feels like it’s spring already here in the Columbia River Gorge, as well as much of Oregon. I really feel bad for those friends on the east coast.. but I guess that’s why I stay on the west coast!

I’ve been doing tons of gardening. Yesterday I banged out almost the whole western side of the house. I don’t know when the last time someone lived here was. The gardens were atrocious! Two or three layers of dead leaves from bulbs.. So tulips or daffodils. And the roses. Oh jesus, the roses. They haven’t seen a good pruning in a few years I’m sure. I didn’t do anything drastic, but I did trim them up to force them to grow the right way. Not a big cut back, just some thoughtful trimming.

All was going fine and well until I found a mystery bulb. It looks like grass with long thin green leaves.. and then I ripped some up and they had these white bulbs. So I’m like is this fucking wild garlic? Nope. Lemon grass? Nope! It had no smells!! I have no idea what it is so I left it alone. I figure once it starts blossoming I’ll have a better time identifying it.

I should’ve taken pictures, but you know that whole not having a camera thing.

And then I stuck my (gloved) hand in dog shit and I was done. It wasn’t old. We don’t own a dog. The neighbors fenced in their yard so their dog could be let out unattended.

Fuck people who let their dogs poop in other people’s yards. Backyards no less.

Yesterday I also swept and mopped the entire down stairs, dusted from top to bottom, everything was nice and clean. I’m not a big fan of cleaning, but I think spending 3 hours outside in the fresh air and sunshine gave me a spring-cleaning kick in the ass.

Except it’s February. It is not Spring! I don’t get it but I’m not looking a gift horse in the mouth.

Lots of accordion playing! I recently took another trip down to the Willamette valley to see family and visit and my Aunt sent some more books my way to practice. So new videos of that will be coming soon to my YouTube channel.

I’m finishing up my pair of Jackalopes for my friends birthday in April. They’re watercolor and they’re turning out pretty all right! I’m happy about it.

What else? Well, I got a job offer from a local department store and I took it of course because I want a job. They sent me off Monday to take my UA and they sent me to the wrong place and I almost got lost but I didn’t and then I got hte drug test all taken care. Hahaha. I always worry that I’m going to fail even though I honestly don’t have a reason to worry. What if that one time I was standing next to someone smoking pot and I inhaled it shows up?! Yeah, dumb anxiety.

However, I also just got an email from a local PowerSport shop that I had applied to last month asking me to come in an interview. And I’d much rather work with dirt bikes and a shop than in the retail wasteland known as Big Box Retail. Guess we’ll see what happens.

Work work work!

And not even paid work!

We’ve had a few sunny days here in the Willamette valley and my sister and I used one of them to tear off the paneling on one end of the Nomad. We needed to be able to see all of the water damage that the support beams had. It wasn’t as bad as my imagination lead me to believe but it was considerably worse than what you could see with the paneling up. I mean, it’s so bad that because we removed SOME of the paneling and the dinette it’s caused the trailer to sag. The door will not close completely.

M and I put tarps over both ends to keep water off the leaking windows so that’s helping any further damage from happening but we have to wait until it’s dry to actually start tearing out beams and replacing them with dry beams. It’s not something we want to have to stop in the middle.

I’ve also been playing with my feathers! If you follow my Instagram account you may have seen a couple pictures!

 

So far I’m pretty happy with my Beta testing of designs. I have a picture of my sister wearing the blue and black one but you will have to search through Instagram for it! So the pheasant feathers I imported from California.. as in my super amazing awesome Aunt sent them to me. She breeds exotic poultry. After receiving them I washed and dried them. The dyed feathers I purchased on Etsy (but I’m not going to tell you where because to be honest I was NOT pleased with my purchase and they’re dicks) and I’m fairly certain these dyed feathers came from a craft company.

They were tricky to make and I’ve never worked with wire before. Either way though for being the first time I’ve done it I’m pretty pleased with myself. I can only get better from here!

I still don’t have a job. Which is actually pretty OK. I am receiving unemployment which is helping pay for gas and other things while I search.

I’ve started dieting again. Except this time it’s not ketogenic. It’s just you know moderation. Go figure. We’ll see how it goes! My weigh in yesterday was 156lbs. Now I just need to hold myself accountable. It’s actually a lot easier with my sister holding me accountable. Hahaha.

Until next time! ❤

Insanity!!

Just kidding. My life has been all kinds of crazy since re-entering the work place. I put in my two-weeks notice at Starbucks, so after the 11th I will no longer have to do the one thing I’m best at and the one thing I hate the most; make coffee.

Today I’m painting. What am I painting? The same ol’ crazy things I always end up painting. Here’s my work station.. and yes I call it that because it doesn’t stay this way all the time.

Painting Station

It gets the job done. You can see my paints, my mediums, my brushes, my pads, etc etc etc. The only thing you can’t see is the weird lap easel I use and my energy drink and ashtray on another tub/table to my right. I’m excited to see what comes of this 🙂