Sweet Shoes!

Beautiful display, right? :) I know, I'm a pro :P

I'm sorry I'm flakey :(

Poor little blog, being disappointed by my false promises...I will try my hardest not to neglect you any longer! I'm slowly getting into a new groove of balancing the new job and the already existing classes. My film class and I had a long, long session yesterday, mostly due to the fact that I haven't been keeping up with the movies I'm suppose to watch (whoops!) and I had papers due on the first four movies (The Graduate, American Beauty, Moulin Rouge, and Taxi Driver) this morning at 9am...so, despite the fact that last night was the first time in weeks (seriously!) that there were brand new NBC comedy episodes, I was a good girl and didn't watch them...that's what Hulu's for anyway, right? In order to wake up this morning, I also went to bed semi-early, woke up at 7am to finish my papers, turned them in, went back to sleep (lol), woke up and drove over here. Poor Kyle fell asleep on the couch after finishing his papers, and I didn't have the heart to wake him up just to drive me over here. He doesn't have anywhere to go today anyway, haha.

So, of recent news...last Friday was Chris' birthday...I sent him a book and a card :) Linda bought him tickets to the Giants game in LA, so my parents/the family drove up to LA to see them while they were in Southern California. Yesterday was Claire's birthday (!) hehe...I sent her the most amazing, and perfect pair of shoes, just in case she reads this before she opens them...I won't say too much, aside from the fact that they're adorable and vegan :) I also sent her a few other lovely goodies :) Hopefully it'll ease the heart-ache...since Matt left on Monday, only a few days before her birthday :( The semi-bright side is that because of the volcano eruption in Iceland, flights to the UK were canceled, so they got to be together an additional 4 days! Yesterday was also Jenny's birthday :) Which reminds me...Jenny & Diego might be moving up here this summer! Isn't that exciting? I love our apartment, but moving into a 2 bedroom for not much more is great, and hopefully we'll move into a pet friendly place so Bambina can come up here! I miss my baby :( She'd love it up here :) Well, I'd love to have her up here, lol...she's extra nice when it's a little chilly out because she wants extra cuddles because she's cold, which makes her extra sweet (yes, she is manipulative and uses my soft spot for craving her cuddles to fulfill her selfish need for extra warmth, lol). I've also been saying for quite some time that I want a puppy...and I think Bambi could get a long with a dog (who isn't Yoshi or Fenris, lol) especially if it's just a harmless little puppy. Bambina's never really been around any dogs...aside from Yoshi and Fenris...Yoshi being a cat-hating dog who wants to kill her (seriously, he tries every time they visit) and Fenris being part-wolf and has trouble controlling his hunting nature sometimes. But, given a small puppy who hasn't been exposed to cats, and socialized to get along with cats? I think they could be friends :)

Anyway, long tangent aside...I think I had a point somewhere...hmmmm...oh, more updates! Yanira (my dear friend and wonderful fashion designer) is going to make my dress for Sahar's quinceanera! She has some great ideas, I sent her a bunch of things that I liked, mostly from ModCloth.com and she drew this out for me:

Isn't she fantastic? At my request, she's going to incorporate some lace as well :D Oh goodness, I have an obsession with lace...whether it's unhealthy is up in the air at this point, lol, but I think I'm okay ;)

Speaking of which, Sahar, my dear little sister, if you read this: please put a little more effort into your planning!!!

Unlike myself, Sahar is not one to plan things...I've been looking at 2 bedroom places for months...just to look around, get a feel for the market, lol...same with puppies...I like planning...it makes me happy :)

So, blogger world, I hope you're all having a wonderful Friday! Also, Happy Weekend! :D

So Hectic/Busy!

Sorry to my dears who read this little blog, I know I haven't posted anything in ages, but I've just been CRAZY busy with work! Yes, it's suppose to be a part time job...but last week I worked 46 hrs! lol, and after coming home from work I've just been passing out from exhaustion, I haven't had the energy to just sit down and write anything, lol. So, where to start?

Our Grand Opening on Saturday went amazing! We honestly had at least 300 that stopped by...the Seattle Animal Rights Group had their meetup at the store as well. What's even greater is how many articles have been written about the shop! Sadaf didn't even need to advertise, everyone else already did so! I could overhear so many people saying things like "I've been waiting for this shop to open for months!" Everyone was so excited for it, and excitement spreads! We had free vegan chocolate samples that everyone was all over...and there was belly dancing at around 4pm, and boy were we busy...I won't disclose real details, but we made a LOT of money :)

Anyway, I was just enjoying my morning coffee when I realized that I hadn't updated this in a while, I'll post pictures from the grand opening a little later :) I have to get ready for work :)

Rosemary Red Potato Soup

you will need:
1 carton (or can, or the equivalent for homemade versions) of Vegetable Broth
1 carton of plain soymilk
8-12 red potatoes (depending on size)
1/2 a whole onion (chopped)
4 garlic cloves (crushed)
1 tablespoon of rosemary
3/4 tablespoon of thyme
a pinch of  salt
a pinch of pepper
1-2 tablespoons of corn starch (or baking powder)

It's really a simple recipe...you wash and cube the red potatoes...throw everything (minus the soymilk, rosemary, thyme, corn starch, salt & pepper ) into a big pot. Turn the heat on high to get things boiling, then after about 5-7 mins, simmer it at a medium heat for about 10 mins. Add the rosemary, thyme, salt & pepper and let it simmer for another 5 mins. Add the soymilk and give it a good stir to check the consistency. If you'd like it to be thicker (I sure did) add a little cornstarch until it's thick to your liking. Tah-dah!

[I enjoy most of my soups with a little bread or something to go along with them...we just bought some everything bagels at Costco, so I toasted a bagel and used it with my soup :) Kyle decided to heat up some of the garlic naan we also had at home, I had a bite of his, so that is also recommended :) But, of course, this soup is delightful and I enjoy it without anything extra too!]

The Chocolate Shoebox

It's a work in progress, but I think it looks good so far, don't you? :) Sure, right now it might just be a nicely painted room full of boxes, but soon it'll be much more than that :) The grand opening is on Saturday, so the next few days will be busy, busy, busy. Today Sadaf was running in and out of the store, always returning with more boxes, lol...I assembled a nail polish stand, and assisted with the assembly of a chair (not the one pictured) and some interior designing, lol :)  Is it weird that I'm already so in love with this job and the owners? lol Brandon's such a stereotypically neurotic teacher :) He talked to himself the entire time while he was on the computer, lol, and while assembling chairs, how silly :) and Sadaf is like feels like a friend I've had for years :)

Not too much to say about today, I spent the first half of my day sitting in front of a little room heater reading a book and signing for packages, then I was helping Sadaf unload the van, Kyle brought me a PB&J and helped set up the wifi/unload some boxes :) Pretty good day if you ask me... hehe.

The battle for a proper night's worth of sleep...

I love my honey bear, (hmm, I've never called him that, but maybe I will, it's cute) but that boy sure has done a number on my sleep patterns!

I've always been a night owl, but I considered that falling asleep around 1am or 2am...3am maybe at the latest. Ever since Kyle has been in my life, he's drastically altered the way I sleep, mostly because he has the weirdest sleeping patterns, lol. It all started when we were dating, with the sneaking out at night, taking naps during the day...but once we moved to Seattle, things got pretty crazy. This past week I've been staying up until 5am, and sleeping from 5-6am until 2pm-ish...which just won't do anymore, I start work tomorrow, at 9am...so ever since Friday I've been trying to regulate my sleeping...normally I can just stay up all day (like I mentioned in my previous post) but this regulating period has been going weird. I tried staying up all day Friday-Saturday, but I couldn't make it...I'm PMSing so I was grumpy all early Saturday morning, and despite Kyle's best efforts, I passed out on the couch around 9-10am...he got me into bed, I woke up around 2pm feeling bad for being grumpy and mad at myself for falling asleep. We were getting ready to go out, Kyle said he was just gonna lay down for a little bit, I do a some cleaning, and he falls asleep (he's also impossible to wake up, lol).

So I'm doing homework, I go in to wake him up so we can go to Costco around 5pm, and I end up falling asleep (gosh darn our incredibly comfortable bed!). I wake up around 7pm and so does Kyle...we failed staying up...so we tried again. We did some homework, watched some movies, played some games. 9am today I fell asleep again,  I woke up at 1pm, Kyle was still awake, we were watching Bill Maher's show on TV, Kyle started looking drowsy, I even told him maybe he should take a shower to wake up...he denied being sleepy, and is of course, now asleep on the couch.

We fail, epically, lol. Luckily, I'm still sleep deprived, and I will not fall asleep again! Until tonight, hopefully sometime around 10-11pm.

I'll let him sleep a little longer, I made myself lunch (Chikin Nuggets, apple slices, and yogurt...lol) I'm simultaneously doing laundry/dishes...and I have some Poli-Sci hw to do...hopefully we'll actually go to Costco in a little bit! :) I also wanna go out and find a little something for Chris' bday (at least a card, lol) and a nice sweater for my first day at work tomorrow! :)

[did I mention how incredibly excited I am for work? hehehe]

Friday, I'm in Love!

Tonight started out horribly...about an hour and a half before our movie (Sherlock Holmes) started (I found out Crest Cinemas charges only $3 for the movies, all the time, everyday! Right now they have a bunch of movies that I've been wanting to see, but we don't go to the movies in order to save monies) I decided to take a shower. Kyle was playing a game, but he only takes a minute or two to get ready, so that was fine. I got out and was getting ready, my hair and I were in an epic power struggle (the back of my head never curls correctly) :[ and suddenly it was 7:30...the theater is 15 mins away, the movie started at 7:45, and I hate missing the previews. We should have given up on the movie then and there...but we're optimistic people, lol.

Kyle got our snacks together...he made Cheerio PB balls & grabbed some fruit snacks (yes, we're 5, lol)...I put my boots on and we headed out. It was farther away than we thought, and the parking lot and the over-flow parking lots were all full...it was 8pm when we finally were walking to the theater. We already knew that we missed Sherlock Holmes (walking over to the theater, Kyle started saying "I missed Sherlock, holmes" in his "ghetto" voice (LOL) and once we got to the front of the tiny theater, we didn't see any movie times up anywhere, and there was the window where you buy tickets, but the money exchange part was blocked off by a wood plank...the teenage girl inside pointed to the door...we awkwardly stood there said that "we were just looking for movie times"...then we discovered no movies were showing until after 9...so after mumbling he said I guess "we'll come back later" and we left. It was incredibly awkward, lol lol...so we probably won't be back there for a while :P

We were already out and about, so we decided that we'd just do something else...we ended up going to the Twin Gardens restaurant, it's like 5 mins from our place and it was number one on the Asian fusion list on Yelp. It turned out to be better than I expected, for no particular reason, but we missed it when we drove by it the first time, parked in the backyard, and it doesn't look like much from the outside, lol. But the interior was nice, the art and decorative lamps surpassed the checkered floor (red and white, lol) and fifties looking tables...the booths along the window looked a little more normal, haha...but the food was good and the Thai tea was the best I've ever had :) I had the Szechuan Eggplant & Tofu, Kyle got the Pad Thai with tofu...mine turned out better than his, it reminded me of Eggplant Delight at Sala Thai in SD :) His Pad Thai was missing bean sprouts, didn't enough green onions, and didn't have much peanuts in it...but it was still good :)

The night was salvaged with good food...and now I'm gonna pull an all-nighter in order to get my sleeping pattern normal by Monday, lol. We stopped at QFC ground up some Ballard Blends (think global, buy local!) bought more creamer, some biscotti, and we're all good to go! :) The goal is to not fall asleep until 10pm tomorrow...I'm pretty sure I could make it on my own, but the coffee is a nice backup plan :P


Watching the Graduate & American Beauty is on our to-do list for our American Film class, so it'll be a fun movie night :)

Working Out the Details

Last week I was sitting around thinking about how much I fail at working out/exercising...sure I go running when it's "warm", or at least sunny, out...but that isn't all the time! I want consistency! I plan to spend the majority of my summer in a bathing suit, and, well, I wasn't in shape prior to moving up here, and I can guarantee you it's only gotten worse, haha. Cold weather makes me want to snuggle on the couch and watch movies all day, rarely does it include going out. To be honest, I think it's from a long-time "weather" conditioning from my mom! She NEVER drives in the rain unless she ABSOLUTELY has to, she's afraid of doing so...and because we've always spent rainy days indoors, I'm just used to wanting to drink tea and hide under blankets all day...which would be fine...if I wasn't planning on looking remotely good in my new bikini!

But I do plan on spending my time in SD on the beach tanning (you have no idea how badly I need to tan, my skin color is this weird ...yellow-white color! I look sickly) lol
And I plan on spending the rest of the summer at the beach up here! :)

So, back to my point...I don't want to sign up at a gym because memberships are expensive, and I don't like people "watching" me while I work out. Yes, I know that no one would actually be watching me (hopefully) but I'm really out of shape, lol, so I'd rather not publicly embarrass myself! That's when I thought about getting Wii Fit...yes, I've seen the parody and was amused by it...but I don't really have any other options!
After looking into it a bit further, I discovered that everyone raves about EA Sports Active...so I bought it off of Amazon, and it got here today! My bathing suit at Forever21 also just became available today, so I think it's a sign, lol.

I made my profile, did the first workout under easy, and I have to admit that I like it, lol. The running, squatting, arm reps, and cardio-boxing, etc. were all fun...I was having difficulty with the in-line skating, but only because I didn't do tricks every time I went off the ramps :/ but overall, I burned 74.4 calories, which was more than the projected 66 calories :) It had a good warm up and cool down, and I definitely broke a sweat...and I'm actually looking forward to working out again tomorrow...

I'll start the official 30-day Challenge tomorrow...and I guess we'll see where I'm at in 30 days! Wish me luck :)

Love

Some Day, You'll be Mine:

The More Collage, the Better!

 

Another two of my collages :)

[yes, I am having fun with these!]

Woohoo!

Such a great Sunday!
First, Happy Easter to all who celebrate it! :) I hope your day was full of Jesus-lovin' and chocolate bunnies!

Second, I'm officially employed! Woo-hoo! So, back stories are necessary because one day I'll look back on this entry and think to myself, "aww I remember that Sunday!".

So, last Wednesday I saw an ad on Craigslist that stood out among all the other ads (even the previous ones I've seen that I thought sounded good for me) it said they were opening up a vegan chocolate shoe store (The Chocolate Shoebox) 4mins away from my apartment and that they were looking for someone vegan-minded who had some retail experience.

I LOVE (vegan) CHOCOLATE & SHOES! and I have retail experience! So I called them up, left a message, and two days passed by without me hearing from them. I started getting a little antsy worried that maybe I should have left more info about myself in the message, all I said was that I was interested in the job, my name, and my phone #! I was also really tempted to call them back because maybe my message got lost somehow, or maybe they weren't listening to the messages. But, Friday afternoon I got a phone call :)
The little phone interview went phenomenal, have you ever just clicked with someone and decided mentally that you'd be great friends? That was basically what happened, lol. I was told at the end of the conversation that I was a top contender because I sounded sweet, and because she could tell we clicked too, so she (the Physician) said she'd talk to her hubby (the English teacher) and get back to me within a few days if they wanted to meet me in person. I was so happy because I felt like it went really well, I plopped myself down on the sofa and told Kyle all about it, within 10 mins she called me back and asked if I could meet up with them sometime this weekend! She asked if Sunday around 2:30 was alright, and I said yes :) I was super nervous this morning getting ready, but really excited because I felt like I pretty much had the job...I got the call back, I got the face-to-face interview, so I just tried to be as confident as possible. Kyle came with me, for moral support, lol, and to drive me, the neighborhoods get a bit tricky when you don't know them really well, and parking can be such a b*tch! I could barely parallel park my little corolla...that'd never happen with our Jeep, lol, I'd totally f-it up...so he drove...we actually drove past it, backtracked, and he walked out with me to help me find the place :)

Mr. English teacher was standing outside of the store, and so we walked over to the coffee house where his wifey was waiting, after saying "Hi" and introducing herself, she told me I was just as cute as a button (I knew this was going to go fine from this point on, lol). So I told them a little bit about myself, gave them my resume, we talked about me, we talked about the store, I found out a little bit about them, they married recently and spent their honeymoon in Morocco (neat, huh?) and they're now opening up the store as their side project. They're really looking for someone who can commit to the store/the company, grow with the business, and later help them out as being the manager and eventually vice president. They liked that I'm a photographer and do graphic work, as well as the fact that I have a journalism background. Also, the fact that the majority of my retail work was in the shoe department at Target totally helped! Basically, I'm the perfect fit for them skill-wise, and personality wise. They think I'm sweet and even-tempered, friendly, and bubbly :) They like that I'm a foodie because they're foodies too and they even promised to keep me well fed, hehe. Oh, and went they asked if I had any pets and told them about Bambina sadly not being able to move up with me, they even told me that their cat is going to be the unofficial mascot for the store, and that she can be my temporary pet :)

I'm so incredibly excited to start working with them, this is kind of what I was looking for in a job, and the hours are great, it's close enough that I could bike there, the pay is good, and they're really nice :) I'm really looking forward to seeing where this path takes me :)

In other words: yyyyaaaayyyyy!

p.s. to celebrate we got subway which we snuck into the movie theaters (we saw Hot Tub Time Machine and it was better than we expected!) yes, we snuck in the entire meal. I'm not even kidding, a foot-long sub, a bag of chips, and our big soda, all fit in my purse and I didn't even have to take anything out, nor is it a big purse! lol! life is goooood :D

The Olympic Sculpture Park

A storm was on it's way in yesterday, so we were freezing our entire time at the park...but these pictures were worth all the trouble. Today's such a rainy day, luckily I can take time to finish up the rest of the collages and maybe re-attempt sculpting (I'll explain in another post, lol).

For your viewing pleasure:

*As usual, please don't use my images without asking permission or giving me credit, please and thank you!*

Recap

It is now Thursday, April 1st...no, this isn't an April Fools related blog post, sorry, lol...The only reason I'm mentioning the date is because it's been quite a few days since I've posted anything, so what have I been up to these past few days, you might wonder...

Aside from enjoying my Spring Break with lots of down time, and the other time looking for a job...I've been working on a collaborative project with my talented friend MPG :)

Basically, I made (and am still making) collages on my computer, and he will attempt to recreate them in real life for both his class, and for my white wall's benefit (I get to keep the final project, hehe)

They aren't necessarily done quite yet, and I've only done two so far, but I'm awfully proud of them, so I thought I'd show them off here :)

The first one is Roy Lichtenstein inspired (lol, obviously) I took some elements of some of his pieces and traced them in photoshop, and made them my own, but you can still tell that they're his, hehe...the second one was all me...well, sort of. The main lady is Ms. Zooey Deschanel, and the little lady in the bottom right hand corner is just one of the pin up girl photos I have sitting around :)