Random Pictures

Pictures from the last few months that didn't really feel like they went anywhere else.

An old coworker of mine went out of town for a few weeks, the rest of my coworkers proceed to take that days newspaper and wrap all of her stuff in it. This was about half way done.

Joelle with her lightsaber cookies. Super cute but they didn't hold together real well.

I was helping some friends move. Also I'm weird.

Rocking Evil Shades Just Like Candy Hardcore Lipgloss.

Grandmas cat Keizi in a box, eh I though it was funny.

Randall at Mint Tea.

Delicious dessert food cart Cake On A Hot Tin Roof.

I made a star shaped tart, this one had egg, cheese, and homemade smoked tuna.

I liked this outfit, it matches my awesome hat from Teal.

Awhile back I decided to watercolor something. I've come to accept that watercolor is something I'm never going to be amazing at, but it was nice enough to do.

Arika is a Doll...

For my part of the photoshoot I put on my Black Forest print dress, and made myself a new head piece. I did my makeup and hair, and brought a Pomegranate as a prop, I called him Mr. POM he's the original forbidden fruit.

I glued cellophane to a headband and cut it down to a more manageable size.

The end result kinda looked like a bonnet, I wanted to add more stuff to it, but I ran out of time, still looked cute though, not as cool as Brennas.

I kept makeup simple. I used Aromaleigh Champagne Toast on the lids, and Drama Liner in Copper. I also used Aromaleigh Rocks! glitter in hothothot on my lips over a red gloss. But you can't really tell. Lame... Also Aromaleigh Corset blush.

I painted my nails using Sally Hansens Hard as Nails in Cardinal, with a Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear in Strobe Light over that. OMG it's so pretty you don't even know!

We did the shoot over at the Red Cross entry way, Brenna helped me tape the stars up, she also helped me cut them out. Afterwards we put the stars up next to the Heroes posters. Now have some Arika spam!

Random Pictures: Last Days of Summer

Randall, Becky and I went to the Sausage Fest (no I did not make that up), which is held on the grounds of a catholic school I often teach at (didn't make up that part either). They only have one sausage though, so calling it a fest is kinda misleading.

There are rides, games, and just TERRIBLE parking.

They looked pretty at night.

My first drink at Trader Vics, man they make an awesome beverage, I highly recommend them.

Orange slices filled with lime Jello. It looks like a murky ocean scape, kinda pretty, don't you think? Pretty tasty too, though maybe next time I'll invest in a juicer.

At a Red Cross meet and greet in Eugene. The theme was Hawaiian Luau, in fact I'm pretty sure I won Best Dressed, but no one there knows me since I'm from WA and we were just integrated. So what I think happened is someone asked who I was and pointed to me, and whoever answered said the name of the girl sitting right next to me. Of course this is all conjecture, but still... I think I won.

Brenna and I had a small tea party, and Brenna brought cupcakes, don't they look tasty?

A Red Cross Christmas Makeup

A week ago I walked into work to find that it had been decked out for the holidays.

Not something we normally do but there had been a party at the office for the volunteers and they decided to leave the decorations up for everyone to look at.

This small fiber optic tree was on my desk so I could stare at it on my down time, so cute!

That day I happened to be wearing some adorable makeup that I thought was festive and grabbed some quick photos of it.

Colors are Aromaleigh Zeus, Neptune, Retrograde, with Wizards Gold as a highlight, and Hades under the lower lash line. Isn't it cool that I managed to use all three brothers in this makeup look?

The eye is stunning, the colors look amazing together. If you have similar colors in your makeup box please try it out!

Confusing Environmentalism

The other day I taught for the Dept. of Interiors at the Fish and Wildlife Office. As I was teaching I noticed a few entertaining hand drawn posters that I giggled over, and I thought you might too.

This poster seems to be a little vague in it's message, in fact if you didn't already know that artificial light discourages the female loggerhead sea turtle from nesting it might go over you're head entirely. I like how the artist simplified the house, turtle, and ocean, but seems to have attempted Van Goghs 'Starry Night' up top. It's as if they realized they could do no better and gave up.

The kids that got away with this was genius! He thought he could get away with a simple traced fish, I mean that is most defiantly a light board trace. And then he had the balls to write with 'simple' lettering, 'Damn your power'. All while giggling behind his hand at what he was about to get away with. Some teacher probably made him add the 'save our fish!' part. It does look like an add on, but we all know what was going on in that head of his. We salute you oh crafty one!

Where to start with this one? How about the huge wording so you realize this poster is about owls, but it takes you awhile to find the actual owl in this picture. Go ahead, look for it I'll wait.... Have you found it? Good. Now what is the owl doing? If you answered going down the crazy slide at Six Flags you may want to have a trusted friend check you for the crazy. Didn't you realize this was a Burrowing Owl? You didn't? Well it says so right on the poster, can't you see it? It's... well, it's... Hmm.

OH! Right there's between 'This', and 'Owl?' how could you miss that! *chuckles heartily to herself*

What's that, you're pretty sure Burrowing Owls do not dig huge mazes in the dirt like a colony of ants? That's crazy talk, as you can see from the poster they certainly do.

I think this was meant to rhyme, but it falls short. Probably because some politically correct teacher made their students add the word 'help'. Believing that somebody somewhere would be dumb enough to read this poster and think, "Dragonflys will protect us from West Nile? Hallelujah!" And then perhaps this one true idiot would foster a Dragonfly army and lead them to the edge of a swamp to do battle with the evil Mosquitoes, where he would then contract West Nile. And in this death throws he would curse Dragonflys for not protecting him, and the poster that lead him astray.

So yeah, Mr. Teacher, thank you for helping us prevent natural selection.

Oh the puns, the puns!

I had to save the best for last, this little guy is 'stumped about where to live'. Could it be because he's not certain WHAT HE IS. He looks like a pet of the monsters from 'Where The Wild Things Are'. His, what looks like naked, and freckled body seems to suggest a warmer climate, while his furry head tells a different story. The vaguely human face suggests apartment in the ghetto but most managers have policies against renting to science experiments gone wrong. Even the message is up for grabs, his slumped ears seem sad, but his wide, dark, cavernous grin seems to be in support of homelessness.

Ilwaco and Astoria

For my work I travel all over SW Washington, sometimes that takes me pretty far away from home. Ilwaco is a small coastal town near Long Beach about 2 1/2 hours away from where I live, there are several fish hatcheries, wild life reserves, and canneries near there. It's in Washington but the quickest way to get there is to cross over the bridge from Longview into Oregon, and then cross back into Washington from Astoria.

The coast was very cold, wet, and windy, but I decided to stop and take pictures of some of my favorite spots to share with you all.

I love this old school, it looks like something out of Silent Hill. I'm dying to do a photo shoot there, but I'm pretty sure I'd get arrested for it.

A cute tiny little church. I have no idea if it's still in use, it seems too small for a congregation. But it is a very small town.

The bridge back to Astoria, it's very long. They decided to build it in this spot because the river is very low here, you could walk across parts of it and it would only come up to your ankles.

Back in Oregon, Astoria is the home of a surprising number of films including Overboard, The Black Stallion, The Ring, Free Willy, and my personal favorite The Goonies. I like the old decrepit spooky houses. They've probably been left alone for several years, and the ocean air makes the paint flake in interesting ways.

The spooky effect gets ruined when you realize how nice the houses around it are.

Then you get houses like this, that while looking well kept are still quite unfortunate. Seafoam with salmon trim and white accents, blech! Also there's a bright orange VW Beetle parked in the driveway.

I believe Astoria had a large Finnish community at one time, there are sections of the old neighborhood with Finnish restaurants and bars. I thought this Finnish Sauna from 1928 was the funniest, apparently saunas are a birth right in Finland. If there was a large Finnish population this was probably a popular gathering place.

National Lolita Day part 1

Without Glasses...

Good morning folks. National Lolita day started out as just another day for me, as I had to work.

With glasses, now you don't have to choose.

Still wishing to celebrate, I went to work in very simple punk lolita style with black wet look leggings and the not as poofy purple dress I made Heather for the last meetup.

The place I worked was Legacy Salmon Creek Hospital. The facilities are nice, but getting there with all my Red Cross material was not lolita friendly. To get to this conference room you have to park in the parking garage, walk across a skybridge, go up a floor and then walk to the opposite side of the building from the elevators.

And I did this with 4 bags of adult mannequins, 2 bags of infant mannequins, 1 student first aid kit, 1 instructor box, my instructor bag, and my purse. Needless to say the next morning I hurt.

Here are some Steves lined up for you.

And myself pretending to be a Steve.

Here he is, lined up and ready for CPR.

And again having CPR preformed on him!

Rose works in the cafeteria at the Hospital so I got to have lunch with her, she wasn't feeling good, and didn't know it was National Lolita day so she wasn't dressed up..... yet!