Weekend Get Away: Columbia South Carolina

As you can see,  I am terrible at selfies with another person

Going over the Nuesse River

On a whim, Tyler and I decided to go to Repticon! We decided Thursday and Friday after work we were off to Columbia South Carolina. This was our first weekend get away since we moved from California to North Carolina in July. We drove about 5 hours and crashed at our hotel.

The next morning we had a lazy start. Taking full advantage of the breakfast buffet in our Hyatt hotel, I loaded up on goodies then we went back to our room to eat and get ready for a fun filled day.







We had never been to a repticon so we were repticon virgins, having no idea what to expect but also hoping we wouldn't be let down, Tyler and I drove over to the event center. When we went inside we were overwhelmed with vendors selling, snakes, frogs, lizards, frozen reptile food, live reptile food, etc.
We wondered  the vendors for almost 3 hours. We went on knowing we didn't need nother pet (we have two cats in Oregon with my parents and two bearded dragons here with us) but it was so hard to not buy a baby chameleon! I have decided I want a chameleon, and his name shall be Pascal. I have a thing for Disney.





























































So we didn't buy any new pets but we did buy some pet supplies and I held a giant yellow snake! I am pretty sure this is the first snake I have ever held. Go big or go home right? 

And Tyler held a two year old alligator. Then a lady cam up behind him and stared petting the tail. Well baby alligator did not like that and it opened its mouth and started and started whipping its head around. Tyler did a good job and still has all his fingers.

There were some none reptiles, this is a sugar glider

After wondering table after table and knowing we shouldnt get a new baby, we went back to our hotel to eat some Chipotle that we picked up. Hotel + Chipotle + Netflix marathon of Friends = Great Afternoon. So breakfast was hotel buffet, lunch was Chipotle, but what was dinner? Melting Pot! YUM! Tyler made a late reservation at The Melting Pot. We had not eaten there in over a year so we were do for a fondue date night for two.
We were going to shop at a mall before going out to dinner but about 10 minutes in the mall Tyler and I had some angsiaty with how many people were inside. We quickly left the mall and drove to the melting pot. So, you make it to the restraunt early and dont want to wait inside. What do you do? Play Netflix on your phone and pretend you are in the drive in theater! Seriously, this has probably been one of the sweetest memories thus far in our marriage. I love that Tyler and I can turn a 5 inch screen into a personal theater, plug the phone into our car and we were set. I think we watch two episodes and then went inside for dinner. And yum yum yum! I need to find a fondue pot so we can have fondue at home.

Dinner lasted until about midnight, maybe later, all I know was it was late but so worth it. We had a great waiter, yummy food and a cozy corner booth just for us.
Even though our get away was two days driving and one day of fun, I loved every minute of it. Making time for your spouse and doing something different than the weekly routine is a way to reconnect with you love and make new memories.



Ruddimangirl

Roses and Rust

This last Saturday I went to a shabby chic event at the local fairgrounds here in Shasta County. I went with my father in law Bob, he and I are very similar in our hobbies and ideas of fun. So we hit I5 and drove south a half hour to Anderson CA in hopes of finding a treasure that called our names.
When we arrived t the fairgrounds there was absolutely no parking. I have no idea how they decided that the amount of parking was suitable for a fair ground but it was not. We drove around a few minutes until I decided to follow people leaving the event and catch their parking spot as the left. I pointed to one lady who was leaving, she saw me and motioned us to follow her! I am glad she could read my mind, and soon after we were parked and ready to shop.
After handing over a five and one dollar bill I got my rose hand stamp and was ready to find that treasure. There were many vendors, all with a myriad of teacups, old windows, frames, yard art, industrial art, jewelry, handmade soaps and more. We ended up not finding a treasure that screamed our name, but we saw many projects that we could do and decided to try to recreate them later with our own flare.

(I wanted this teapot. . . .now that I think about it, it was screaming my name) 

Awesome bird feeders

(Jack stand lighting, I am going to have to get my husband to help me make one.)

So I may not have bought anything, and now that I dream about that teapot I probably should have forked over the 15 dollars and taken it home. How did I pass up on a 15 dollar bedazzled teapot?! Oh well. Once we finished shopping the vendors we went outside and looked at vintage trailer campers. I need one, I love to go camping but if I had a vintage air stream or just a tiny camper I would be in heaven. I just love the idea of decorating a tiny space and making it a home away from home. 

I mean look at that stove!! How can you not want to bake scones in the forest with that stove? It even had a matching mini fridge of the same blue. How ever, this camper was so tiny there was no closet of a shower, just a closet of a sink and toilet. But I could live with out a shower if my future camper had a stove like that.

Hey look, it's my father in law Bob. Hi Bob! So I dont like the tacky pink zebra pillows, and I would probably pick a different shade of pink on the cupboards, but its still a pretty darn cute camper.

Thank you Rust and Roses for a lovely Saturday, some great ideas and visions of me cooking on that adorable stove. 

2014, A new year and a new outlook.

So it is January 1st 2014. Every one is going to be making resolutions to become more healthy, loose weight, have a more positive outlook, and so on. I never liked making resolutions, partly because I am only 22 and never really understood that you could pick one that wasn't about working out. Now that I am married, a military wife and living in another state than most of my family, I like the idea of a new year to "start over." The last few months haven't exactly been smooth sailing with my husbands job and very soon things are going to happen that will test both of our strength. So 2014 is going to be my year, my year to be strong and believe in myself. I will make the best out of everyday, I will take time to do the things I love like scrapbook, I will be confidant in myself, I will be the best me I can. 2014, I will rock you! :) 
I feel like I started out my new year pretty well. Today I worked about 3 hours on a craft for a friend who just had a baby. I do not do much painting and I decided to take on a new craft where I paint on a canvas. It looked easy, pinterest made it look easy. . .(pinterest lies) But I am happy with the way it is turning out! I still need to do another coat of paint, and possibly add some sort of filler shape on the bottom on either side of the weights. The blank space on the top is saved for a foot print from the baby.

While I worked on my craft, my husband worked on a new model car that he bought yesterday! He loves model cars but with his job lately he hasn't had much spare time to tinker with them. He is currently working on a 1/12th scale model of a Mustang. He seems to be enjoying putting it together and painting it as realistic as possible, he is all about the details. 

He finished step one, building the engine, today of twelve steps, he spent about 3 hours on one step. I am not sure I could have that type of patience.

Our first dinner of the new year was beef broccoli and fried rice. It is one of our new favs. I found the beef broccoli recipe on pinterest and tweeked it a bit since it was originally intended for the slow cooker but I like to make it in a woke. The fried rice is actually a recipe my husband came up with and is very good. Hmm I just realized everything in the picture is pampered chef accept the silver spoon and whisk :) Helps to have a mother in law that used to sell P.C. 

Well that is an overview of my first day of this new year. I hope, no I will keep this positive attitude and I will make the best out of each day. :) Cheers, and Happy New Year!

Tips and Tricks: What to do with perfume samples

So you know how you get all of those perfume samples in magazines? What do you do with them? I think most of us open them, sniff them, wrinkle our nose and throw them away. After throwing away so many of those potent rub on samples I decided their must be some way I can use them.

I have been wanting to try one of the new "Stick anywhere" air freshener for my kitchen trash can. But I am cheep and do not want to spend $6 dollars to make my trash can smell better. So I decided to take one of those rub on samples and tape it to the under side of the trash can lid and see if it will help with the smell. So far it seems to be working. I am not sure how long the perfume smell will last but I have three more samples waiting to make my trash can smell like designer perfume.  

The Story of Toothless

It looks like my last post was about our new pet Toothless. Unfortunately our little Toothless passed away after a few weeks of owning him. We decided to try again with a new baby bearded dragon, but once again the poor little guy didn't make it after a few weeks. It was really hard to see both of them have a short life and not so pleasant deaths.
My husband still wanted to own a bearded dragon and started to do a lot more research on what it takes to own and care for these exotic animals. After a few weeks of researching he found a breeder of bearded dragons. Before we had just bought the lizards from a big box pet store (not a very good idea). When you buy any exotic animal it is best to buy them straight from the breeder, you may pay more but you are paying for that persons knowledge of care. Many pet stores do not use the correct lighting or feed the baby lizards the correct food.
Here is where our story of Toothless number 3 gets exciting. The breeder we found lived in a different state, so how would toothless get to use? By mail of course! Toothless was a healthy 6 month old mix between a citrus and a red gala bearded dragon. He came over night in a small brown box with stamps all  over saying there was a "Live Harmless Lizard, Keep Warm."

 I was home that day while Tyler was at work. I left Toothless in the box partly because I wasn't sure how big he was going to be and I wanted Tyler to open the box since Toothless is his pet. When Tyler got home it was like Christmas opening the box and seeing what was inside.

Because bearded dragons a reptiles and cold blooded, he needed a source of heat. He was shipped inside a box in a clothe bag full of shredded paper, and had a few heat packets in side the box next to the bag. I wonder what people thought as they handled the package and realized that it was warm and had stamps saying there was a lizard inside. Are animals shipped in the mail very often?

When we pulled Toothless out of his bag, he was so colorful and a bit sleepy after taking a plan and road trip over night and most of the next morning. We put him in his cage under his heat lamp to warm up and get some energy. It is kind of crazy to think that these pictures are almost a year old. Toothless is now full grown and has a fun personality. He loves to take baths and he snuggles with my husband in the evenings. I never though I would be  reptile person, but Toothless has stolen my heart. :) 

We Bought a Lizard

I think we all look forward to buying the big newspaper stuffed with all the black Friday ads and sitting at the table or on the floor and browsing through each add. We see things we need, things we want and things we only dream of. Well this year my husband was looking through the ads and found one from PetSmart. On the front page it said "Bearded Dragons 50% off!" 

Tyler has wanted a lizard since he was a kid, his dad had one when he was little but it had a sudden death ad they never replaced it. So Tyler could not pass up this bargain. Now most people buy socks or technology items on black Friday. Not us. We were at PetSmart around 8 in the morning to buy a bearded dragon. 

At first I was not sure I wanted a lizard, some of them look really creepy! But the beardies won my heart and now we have a third member to our non human children clan.

Now onto the name of our lizard. Tyler says he wants a dragon but since that is not possible we got him a bearded dragon. We both love the movie How To Train Your Dragon and the main dragon Toothless.  So Toothless it is! We aren't sure if Toothless is a boy or a girl yet and you can't tell until they are bigger but whatever it is I think Toothless id a great name.

And here he/she is! Toothless is about 6 inches long but very little considering his tail is more than half his size :) It is going to be a fun adventure watching this little guy grow up and have his personality come out. Welcome to the family Toothless!

Making Candles From Left Over Wax

I have been collecting wax from my pillar candles that burn out but still have wax left over for a few months. I love to burn candles, I have a few going almost every day. Yesterday I decided to make some candles with my left over wax and small glass containers I have. The small containers came from tiny candles I got from Ross and the bigger ones I picked up at a yard sale empty. 

First I started by cleaning out the containers and drying them.

Then I picked off the sticker on the bottom of the wax and cut out as much of the left over wick as I could.

To melt the wax I used a pot that I will NOT use for cooking. It is hard to get all the wax off of the pot and I do not want waxy food

I turned the burner on very low. If you melt the wax on to high of a setting the wax will start to evaporate like it would if you were burning the candle. Low and slow is the way to go :)

As the wax was melting I prepped my candle making station. I laid down tin foil in case I spilled and space out the containers. I bought wax coated wicks that come with the medal thingy on the bottom. I placed the wicks in the containers and waited for the wax to finish melting.

After I poured some wax in I let it set for awhile. At first I tried to fill the whole thing on the first go but that caused the wick to move around or lift off of the bottom. Also I found that the wax will sink in in the middle. I do not know why but the sides ended up much higher than the middle. So my solution to this is to fill the container in layers.

As you can see I spilled some wax. But the tine foiled saved me. I let the wax cool and I was able to peel the wax off.

If you let it cool all the way it comes off really easily.

Now I can put it back in the pot and melt it.

One last little trick I discovered is to dip the medal part of the wick in melted wax and then place it in the center of your container. This will help keep the wick from floating up and around as you pour in the melted wax.

And here are some of the candles I made :) For less than 3 dollars for 12 wicks I am a happy crafter. Next time I will try buying a spool of wick and the medal thingies and making my own wax covered wicks.