ohgraciepie blog posts

Before This is Thirty Something, came Ohgraciepie. Here you can find all my past content and search for posts that you just can't stop thinking about.

Tatertots & Jello Shots

December 22, 2010

I have been cleaning a lot.
I have to clean a lot because I have a lot of “items” , not sure what to call it all.
Junk… stuff..things..belongings…articles.
Things I have had for a few weeks & things I have had for as long as I can remember.

It is weird how there are certain material items you just have to hang on to.
I thought everyone had as much stuff as me, until I moved to California and between Rindi and I, we filled from floor to ceiling an entire full size Uhaul.

When I told people we were getting a Uhaul, the constant response was ” Why can’t you just load up your car and drive down?!”
This blows my mind… how could ANYONE pack up their lives belongings into a car a move 1400 miles away? I could fit all my clothes and some shoes in my car maybe. No where near the items it would require for me to make a home for myself in a new place!

First of all I had a new mattress, that was NOT getting left behind…that wouldn’t fit in my car… so I would have to rent a trailer, so might at well go all out and get the damn full size semi truck and take it all!
So, we did.

Over the years of making new friends and helping people move, I have discovered most people have far less things than I do. I come with a lot of baggage…. literally.

Anyway, so much of my stuff consists of collections.

I have been collecting things for a long time.

It started with stuffed animals and figurines, then onto a music box stage, snow globes
( anyone remember the San Fransisco Music Box company store that used to be in Southcenter mall )
flattened pennies, postcards and pogs.

Then it moved on it, dishes, teapots, cookware, frames…
The list goes on, I get hooked and I can’t have just one.

For the last 8 years I have been collecting vintage Pyrex dishes and mixing bowls.

I grew up with these in my mom’s kitchen but I always hated them. The colors were totally 70’s because they were all wedding gifts to my parents.

Then I discovered they also came in pastels and I needed them all!

Here is some of it in the kitchen that I use on a daily basis

I started collecting Tea Pots in the 6th grade after my parents came back from a trip and my mom brought me a tea pot as a souvenir. After that, I kept getting more and more.
I only have a few displayed in my kitchen right now while the rest of them are still boxed up in the garage.
I need a china hutch for them all I think.

When I was in college I became infatuated with religious figurines and art. Not the serious kind… the fun kind. Fun religious art? Yes, religious Kitsch!

What is Kitsch you say?

Kitsch (English pronunciation: /ˈkɪtʃ/, loanword from German) is a form of art that is considered an inferior, tasteless copy of an extant style of art or a worthless imitation of art of recognized value. The concept is associated with the deliberate use of elements that may be thought of as cultural icons [1] while making cheap mass-produced objects that are unoriginal.

So I started collecting Marys & vintage wall fonts: see below

Here they are in action

Some of the Marys

Then I started on Cake Pedestals

And vintage Jewelry Boxes

What do you collect? What is your oldest collection that you still have today?!

* Collections, put it in your pocket ,Save it for a rainy day *

200 Jellyfish & A Funeral

December 20, 2010

This Friday was my work holiday party!

It took place at the Seattle Aquarium and we had the whole place to ourselves.

Steve and I had a great time.
Due to my diet right now I couldn’t partake in all the wonderful food and drink but I made it through the night.

There were 3 different food stations set up around the room, each with a different theme.

There was salmon and steak, Caribbean jerk chicken and sugar cane shrimp with sweet potato fries and Asian noodles and Thai curry. Also an open bar and a dessert buffet.
Unfortunately, most of this was not on my diet plan. So I had some steak and raw bell peppers from the Asian station! Followed by black coffee for dessert.

Kinda sad.

I’m working on it.

More on my diet in a later post though. I want to see how I do through the holidays!

Anyway, I wore a dress that I had gotten last Christmas. I am actually wearing it in our Save the Date photo cards we sent out last year for the wedding.
This year, it was sliding off of me!

Here are some pics of Steve and I being stupid.

This is a huge tunnel of Jelly fish!

Scuba diving with my steveyfish

We got to watch them feed the Otters!

Me as a Jelly fish

I swear the flash washes me out, I’m not this pale

On Sunday Steve and I went down to his home town near Lacey.
We had a memorial to attend for a high school friend of his that passed away this month.

He was born with cystic fibrosis and lived his entire life with it.

Originally with a life expectancy of only 21, he made it to 26.

They played a slide show with photos of him growing up and photos over all the years of his life. It was very inspiring that he fit so much into his short time.

He knew he had to live life to the fullest and it seems that he certainly did.

I am glad that he was a friend to Steve.

It really brings meaning to “Don’t sweat the small stuff”
There are so many more important things in life.
Sometimes we loose sight of that!

As promised, here are some photos of the bedroom!

This isn’t the new bed, we still haven’t put it together since we don’t know when we will be moving in the future.

I do have one of the new bedside tables in there though!

Also

I am so glad this week is Christmas!
I am excited for festivities…. and cheese!

New Ink

December 17, 2010

This Tuesday I started on my new tattoo. I have been wanting this specific one for a long time and it always ended up on the back burner. I try to make adult decisions and unfortunately a tattoo doesn’t completely fit into budgeting needs all the time.

As you may have seen in a previous post, I came up with a drawing that had numerous items surrounding the Virgin Mary. I wasn’t sure how it would all fit on my arm but I took the drawing into Easy Choppers tattoo to see what they could come up with. I ended up working with Keahi, the owner.

He took my drawing and created an amazing collage, if you will, incorporating everything I wanted and somethings I didn’t even know I did.

After meeting with him 3 times to see the sketch and make minor changes I finally started.

Here it is

Inspiration for Mary’s finished face

I love the old school style of it.

It took about 2.5 hours to get all the line work done. I have another apt at the end of the month to get the color added in. I love it. It’s exactly what I wanted ,but better.

Obviously its following a hot rod theme with the tools, engine and gas pump. We added in some pin stripe detail which goes perfectly with my sugar skull design on the opposite arm.

I must confess it was the perfect dress

December 9, 2010

I realized I never posted anything about Steve’s company party from last weekend after all that talk about finding the proper undergarments for it!

The party was at the Hyatt Regency in Bellevue in their Ball Room.

Even though the attire was semi formal, there was quite the assortment of outfits there.

From short cocktail dresses, to long formals and pretty much everything in between.

I was happy with my choice to wear the plum gown.

Even more exciting was that I wore high heels and Steve was still taller than me! It makes me happy every time! Gone are the days of short men. Thank Gawd.

Here we are

Yeah my hand is super awkward like this lol

The company put us all up in rooms in the hotel, so we were able to spend the night there as well.

The next morning we stopped by the tattoo shop who is working on my sketch for my sleeve.

I was able to see what the rough draft looked like and it was FKING AWESOME.

I can’t wait to get started on it. He did an amazing job of taking my drawing and style and working it into a kickass design. I am so happy!

Its a little of this

and a little of that

And some of this

Hey you woodchucks! Stop chuckin my wood!

December 8, 2010

This weekend we chopped down mother nature so that we could enjoy some wilderness inside our living room for 3 weeks.

Steve and I met up with my sister and her boyfriend and went to a tree farm out in Issaquah to find the perfect Abies procera.

(that’s a noble fur, for those of you that don’t speak tree)

Unfortunately Noble furs are ridiculously $$$. So we got this one instead. I don’t know what it is… but it was $52.00 and we had a $5.00 off coupon! Win!

If i pretend to be busy taking photos, I don’t have to work

I did however help decorate, that’s the fun part!

Here she is!

And the fireplace

And the console table

While I was taking pics, I decided to give you a tour of the house.

Not all at once though. Sorry, gotta keep you coming back somehow.

I bet you were all wondering what the house of a pie baking, cake decorating maniac looked like.

Well, wonder no more. I will show you!

The living room- I think the antlers need some lights.

I should make holiday hats for this guy and change them out.

On the dining room table

My collection of vintage religious Christmas figurines… not sure how I started collecting these… but they are fun.

Some of them I found in my grandma’s garage a few years ago after grandpa passed away and we were cleaning the place out.

This man was a hoarder FO SHO.

We pulled out 7 coffee makers and 3 thigh masters and multiple sets of skis,among other things.

Anyway, I found a box with a few of these inside with some cloth and paper… which i later discovered was a rat nest and it was full of droppings… Don’t worry I washed these off before putting them in my house. Lovely.

Is your house all decorated and ready for the holidays?!

Steve is putting up the lights outside tonight! I guess I should toss out my pumpkin that has been sitting on the front porch since Halloween….

Spanx you very much

December 3, 2010

Over the weekend, I tried on my plum dress for Steve’s holiday party. It fits… like a glove… somehow, considering it’s a size 10 and that’s not what I wear. Its like sisterhood of the traveling dress or something. Anyway, there is one slight problem with it.

I need to wear something under it to smooth things out a bit.

I’m sure no one else could tell the difference but I want to feel good in it, so I decided it was time to invest in some Spanx.

I have never bought or worn a pair before.

Usually if I have clothing that required spanx, I deam it too small and don’t even bother wearing it!

This dress isn’t too small, it’s just a material that would look much better on me if I have something holding the bumps all in. So I started my search at Kohl’s. Of course everything was on sale. Love that place! I tried on about 5 different styles and settled on one with shorts. No lines to worry about and it goes from under my bust line to my thighs.

Trying the assortment on in the dressing room however was a feat in it’s self. I felt like I was strangling myself trying to get them on.

The final product of a girl in spanx is usually “Hot” , the process of a girl getting into spanx is a ” Hot Mess”

I brought it home and wanted to try it on with my dress to see if it did the job. Steve was in the room watching me trying to get into this contraption. It was so embarrassing, I told him not to look. It was like cramming my entire lower half into a band aid that is 3 sizes too small…. but once it is all in place… glorious!

Look at these before and after photos! It really does wonders!

A house and a Sweater…. who farted?

December 1, 2010

A lot more work has been done since I last posted about Steve’s parent’s house.
I wanted to share some photos from last weekend when we got some snow!
The show must go on, no matter what the weather is like, unfortunately.

The logs are getting placed to hold up the beams that will run across the length of the house.

Here the beams are all in place.

Steve and me nailing brackets.

This is in the main entry inside the house.

This is upstairs on the loft

And the snow starts

But they continue to work!

And play.

I wish it was done so we could have Christmas there this year!!! I can’t wait!

This week is Steve’s district meeting for work. The company combined it with the Holiday party, so I get to come too! It is at a hotel in Bellevue and it is semi- formal attire.

I have had this dress sitting in my closet for about 3 years now and I have never worn it. I found it at the Rack and it was about 1/4 of the original price. I thought it might be a little too formal, but maybe not , since there aren’t any embellishments on it at all.

It is by Laundry. Here is a pic of it.

Mine is plum color though.

It is so comfortable! I am excited to dress up.

I still need to find something to wear to my company’s holiday party though….

I could always go the ugly sweater route…

This is my favorite because it has a cat and turtleneck… although I am partial to a Dickie

Awww such a sweat couple.. but what is she wearing? A sack made of felt? That’s just ridiculous!

I like the bare chest.

And while browsing for sweaters I came across this… its pretty awesome.

Good Day Sir.

Like a rock

November 27, 2010

There comes a time in one’s life when it is appropriate to toot one’s horn.

Now is that time.

Last night I had a dream that Chevy sent me another check for $500.00. I was so excited. I woke up this morning and while laying in bed I thought about how awesome it would be if that really happened. I doubted it would though.I am more than happy with my current money I have received thus far. I shouldn’t be greedy, after all, I didn’t even really DO anything to get this money in the first place. I signed some papers, that’s about it.

Steve and I went to my sister’s house this evening for Thanksgiving. Due to all the ice my family was unable to get together for Thanksgiving on Thursday so it was postponed till Friday. It was small, just my family and Steve’s parents.

We watched national Lampoons Christmas Vacation

” The shitter was full”

And Garfield’s Christmas

” If I’m not back in an hour send a banana cream pie”

And Claymation Christmas

” I want a waffle with extra butter”

These were all movies my sister and I grew up on. Classics from the 80’s no doubt.

After that Steve and I headed home.

Originally we planned to stop at our friend’s house to try out the new Kinect they bought.

We have been considering buying one, but want to do a test run first.

I wasn’t feeling amazing though, kinda stuffed, food coma-ing and well… lets face it… gassy. Yeah, I went there. So we decided to go straight home.

On the way in we checked the mail.

As I walked to the box I thought, wouldn’t it be awesome if I got another check in the mail!?

As I take out the mail….. I notice the envelope on top is a check..to me…from the talent agency.

NO WAY!

I jump in the truck and rip it open. At first I thought it said $240.00.

Which honestly is what I was expecting, if anything.

Then I REread it… it was $2445.00!

HAHAHA Are you kidding me?

I’m still kinda in shock.

TOOT TOOT

EDIT: This morning I went throught the rest of the mail I tossed aside when I opened the check.
I discovered a 2nd check for $655.00!
Bringing the Chevy Commercial total to $4100.00!

Hair today Part deux

November 27, 2010

On Wednesday night I hit the salon to start on my journey to blondness.

We discussed taking small steps in order to not stress out & fry my hair.

I chose to do highlights that we will continue to lighten at each appointment as well as add more of them overall each visit.

Here I am with a ton of foils in my hair waiting to be done cooking.

After taking the foils out, we added a neutral toner. The lightening didn’t take evenly since my hair is still a little darker towards the ends vs. the roots.

After adding the toner, it made the color more consistent.

Leaving me with these caramel tone highlights

I understand this is a “process” I am going from one extreme to the other. Not only that, the black wasn’t natural , it was a dye, which takes much longer to rid my hair of before it is even physically able to begin to bleach out.

I also realize that it will take many visits to get my entire head done if I am doing foils and not an all over bleach and tone. With that said, I am a little disappointed with my current results. I am not sure if there is anyone to blame, or if it is just the chemistry of my hair but I feel like visit left me with a very “mild” version of what I had in mind for this appointment.

When I heard I was getting medium to wide foils put in, I suppose I imagined something more like this

And that’s totally not what my hair looks like!

Am I way off base here?

I have taken my hair to hell and back and in much less time than this appointment took me ,and for much less than this costs for that matter.

I don’t know if I just need to be more patient and it’s my hair that isn’t cooperating. Or if my stylist doesn’t quite understand what I want or what I am willing to commit to.

I feel like maybe she is apprehensive about being more aggressive, due to the fact that most people want their hair to look as natural & normal as possible. I am really not one to be scared to take a risk with my hair though. I know exactly what I am asking for and what I am getting myself into.

I feel like no hairstylist believes me when I say that though!

It’s just hair…. it grows back. If it looks bad, I’ll dye it again, if I can’t dye it, I’ll cut it off.

I’m really not that worried about it!

I just want what I want and I want it now!

Opinions?!