Frida Kahlo

Since Day Of The Dead is coming up, we decided this year we will  go to the Hollywood Forever Cemetery again. Its so much fun, everyone dresses up, theres music, food , so much to see. Im going to be Frida and Tom will be my Diego and hopefully Nick and Steveo will dress up as well. So I did the test run of the hair and its not hard at all so this should be a breeze. So much to look forward to.

My pretty Wedding dress

It's exactly what I wanted. I love it, I'm getting so excited now. I know marriage is just a piece of paper, but its the idea of the ceremony and being surrounded by all the people we love. It's just so beautiful and touching and I am actually getting teary-eyed just thinking about it. I'm not even a teary-eyed type of girl but this means so much to me and I love Tom with all my heart and nothing has felt this right for me. It is one of the few decisions that I have made without second guessing myself.
I love you Tom!!!!!!!! I cant wait to be Mrs. Murlless!!!

Tamarack Beach Resort Carlsbad, California

On the computer in the massive bedroom.

The hallway and Steveo reminds me of The Shining, all he needs is a big hotwheels and a creepy voice that says Redrum...

View from our balcony.

My Grams timeshare has so many memories. I have been coming here since I was a little girl. I would swim in the pool for hours like a fish. Play ping-pong in the Rec room and check out Video tapes to watch. One year Elizabeth and I were here, cant remember what we did though. I remember Jeremy Tysor, Emily Kanoski, Quico, my sister, Tom, and James all spending time up here. Then Sam and I stayed here alone one year, we drank wine, dropped acid and walked down to the beach where he got down on one knee and proposed. One of the most beautiful magical moments of my life. Sean came with me one time and we fought, and then made up, fought some more. Now I come here with my family, Steveo spends hours in the pool, we play ping-pong, check out DVD's, sit on the balcony and have enlightening conversations, repeating the cycle once again. With this being our last week of freedom until school I hope to make it exciting and all sorts of good for my boy. (oh yeah, Nick said he wanted to spend his last days of freedom with friends playing video games) I get it, I respect his wishes, but still wish he was here.

Mission San Juan Capistrano

Im really starting to favor Bobs house to ours. Nice weather, ocean view, cool shops downtown, The Mission. Just so much to do. Steveo and I went to the Mission in San Juan Capistrano, just 10 minutes from here. To me it was beautiful, and exciting. I love old buildings, they all feel haunted, but in a good way, kind of like cemeteries. Steveo was bored after the first 10 minutes but he made friends with a fish. They locked eyes and stared at each other for a while. Maybe I can go back alone and spend more time there. I do love my alone time to explore.

Yucca Valley Drive

Around 7:30 this morning. It was hot, humid, but the cloud formations were pretty enough to make me forget the crappy weather.

Bobs house

flowers, so pretty

lychees

new dress

chinatown

Finished chair

new coat of paint

old seat cushion, ewww

Nick got bored up here so he's staying with the grandparents. Steveo and I are working on the house, going for walks downtown to get ice cream and today we drove to Chinatown in L.A. Its only an hour drive from here. I bought a new dress, a parasol, Steveo got Dragonball Z figurines and we got Lychee's, (weird Asian fruit) We got home and I finished up a project I had been working on. I took a table and chairs and reupholstered the seats and added a new coat of paint. I figured with the weather being so perfect, we could eat on the porch. For the first time Steveo and I were able to pick flowers from Bobs garden and put them in water. I love how everything grows out here.

Tree Hugger

How ironic that Im such a tree hugger/lover, but live in the desert where we have NO trees. Palm trees dont count, there like the diet tree, or the anti-tree tree. Anyway, went to the Redlands cemetery to sit under the prettiest one there and felt the cool breezes. I could have taken a nap if it werent for the ants killing my nature high.

New toy

Oh yeah, been drooling over her for some time. My new Canon EOS XSI. Me loves her. I took her out today to shoot the boys and even got some good action shots. There will be more to come.

Thrifty Bitch part 2

As I said in my last post, I wanted to do what I could to make Bobs house look more organized and modern before he returned from Afghanistan. So Steveo and I went thrifting  and I found a mirror. 14 bucks later I brought it home. Went to Home Depot, bought sand paper $3.15, primer $3.45, red spray paint $3.95. This was my first attempt at remodeling anything and I'm rather impressed with it. It was an ugly brown with lots of scratches on it, but pretty easy to smooth out with the sand paper and primer. After that dried, I applied 2 coats of red spray paint and set it out to dry. Then I took some of my Acrylics out and added little swirls and dots. My only problem now is, I want to keep it here, afterall, it looks very Asian and thats plays into my whole Zen/Asian home decor.

Thrifty Bitch

Went to Yucca Valley, stopped at some cool thrift stores, found a beautiful scarf. I know its not scarf weather, do we ever have REAL scarf weather down here? Doubt it, still I had to have it, the material is so beautiful, reminding me of an Indian Sari. Here are some photos from the day.

Peacocks

I go through phases. Lately, its all about peacocks. I love the colors, and they are just beautiful to look at. So today, I got out the acrylics and painted the day away. If I could own peacocks, I would. As organized and neat as I tend to be, I could see myself being an animal hoarder. Its scary, but I could be that weird cat lady if my allergies werent so bad. But if I were to be an animal hoarder, my animals of choice would be Chihuahuas, hairless cats, meerkats, kangaroos, pygmy goats and lots of peacocks. We would all co-habitate peacefully until animal control and the men in white coats seperate us.

Have I mentioned I hate summer?

Even though I had mirror tinting professionally applied to my bedroom sliding glass doors, its still not enough. In a desperate attempt to keep it a little dimmer and a little cooler in my bedroom, I put up sheets. Tacky? Yes. Dont care.
This bedroom is about to get straight up ghettofied this afternoon, with tin foil. When I am done with this place it will resemble a crack den. But, it will be the coolest crack den in town, with one ceiling fan, and two little fans on each side of the bed. One day, I hope to live in a place where 120 degree summers dont exist, and neither does snow in the winter time. Maybe Ojai, or Portland, or Longmont Colorado. Thanks mom and dad for raising me in hell.

Playing with chemicals

Who says canvas's are for paint only? I learned by spilling alcohol (not the kind you drink) on acrylic paint, it does weird things. It takes some of the pigment out and when it dries, you can see the difference where the alcohol was because the color fades. Also, if you take any acrylic paint or water soluble "Mod Podge" and slather it on an image, then slap it face down onto the canvas, the image will transfer onto it. So after taking newspaper, old books, and one of those religious candles and using the images along with paint, I made my first mixed media artwork. Also, I sealed it with clear nail polish too. Yay. Cleaning up was a hassle but worth it. Im going to let Steveo try it on another canvas next and see what he comes up with.

Road trip to La Jolla

Well my logic went like this: If its 105 degrees here in the desert, than it should be about 85 degrees at the beach. I know I could have just checked the weather online but that requires to much time. So long story short, it was freezing, hello 68 degrees, not good. So not prepared for cloudy cold weather. At least Nick and Steveo didnt let the cold bother them and they still had fun in the water and building then destroying sand castles. We also went into a cave that was wet and slippery but well worth it when you get to the end and see the water and the Sea Lions. And anything IS better than 105 degree weather.