Future Valentine's Day Presents

Found these online somewhere and loved them. So friends and family be warned, you'll probably be getting these as presents in February.

31 Things In 31 Days: Burn Stuff

So I burned that entertainment coupon book that I got for free off craigslist. I BBQed it really. My mom had to help me light it because I was having the hardest time getting it to catch fire. Give me a pile of logs and I can start a fire but a tiny little book was too much for me.  

31 Things In 31 Days: Go On a Picnic

I made chicken salad sandwiches and my mom bought some Pringles and we took our friend with us to Caswell State Park and had a picnic. It's been really rainy and windy the past couple of days but today was gorgeous! We had a great time eating and talking and walking around the park. 

31 Things In 31 Days: Eat Spam

I don't remember the last time I ate Spam but I do remember that I didn't like it. So I thought I'd give it another try. I fried a couple slices, smeared some BBQ sauce on them and made a toasted cheese and Spam sandwich. It was actually pretty good. 

31 Things In 31 Days: Finish Eye Collage

Last April I started a collage made up entirely of eyes that I had cut out of magazines. Yes, it's taken me a year and a half to finally complete the project. I'm super happy that it is finally done. It's gorgeous and I'm in love with it. 

Rusty came over one night and I made him help me. April 2009

In the middle of things. May 2009

Finishing up the last corner. October 2010

Totally done and hanging on my wall. The canvas is really big, 40x30 inches.

31 Things In 31 Days: Discover New Music

I asked a few friends for some suggestions on new music. My friend Jeff has amazing taste in music and responded with a long list of people to check out. My favorite was The Avett Brothers and this song "I And Love And You."



Some others I have downloaded and am listening to because of him are The Beautiful Girls, Fruit Bats, Silversun Pickups, Anya Marina, The 88.

My friend R.J. told me about Seasick Steve. A country blues singer with a really cool sound.



I am always looking for new or interesting bands or singers to listen to. Feel free to send me your recommendations.

31 Things In 31 Days: Go Night Swimming

Jacky and I went for a late night swim in the river last night. The river was really high, really fast and really cold. Freezing cold. We didn't plan on staying in it very long anyways but when we actually got in the water, and body parts started to become numb and then loose feeling, we quickly got out. I'd say we were in for more than 1 minute and less than 5. But it felt amazing!

31 Things In 31 Days: Make Ice Cream

I love making my own creations when making homemade ice cream. This time I wanted something Fall flavored. I call this creation Nutty Caramel Apple. It has buttered pecans, walnuts and almonds, cinnamon apples and a caramel swirl. I think it is incredible!

31 Things In 31 Days: Create a Life Sized Portrait of Myself

Jacky and I rode our bikes across town today and I brought along some sidewalk chalk to do my life sized self portrait. We stopped along the bike path, right by the skate park, and I broke out the chalk. Jacky traced my body outline and then I added all the details. Fingernail polish, a Barbie butt chin, my birthmark. I think it turned out pretty good. 

31 Things In 31 Days: Get Something For Free Off Craigslist

In my area, most of the things in the free section are furniture, dirt or kittens. I don't need any more furniture, have no use for dirt and my dad won't let me get a kitten. So I had to be creative. I finally stumbled upon a listing for this used entertainment coupon book. I figured that I could cut out any coupons that my family or friends might want to use and then use the book to cross off another one of my goals, Burn Something. So stay tuned for that excitement. 

If anybody local wants any coupons (most of them are buy one get one free) let me know. But they do expire on November 1st. 

31 Things In 31 Days: Memorize Something

I had the hardest time deciding what to memorize because I wanted it to be meaningful, maybe useful and actually memorizable. My mom and Lori convinced me to memorize the Gettysburg Address. It was surprisingly simple to learn. The language is a bit different in some parts and took a little longer to memorize than the rest of the speech. But I managed to memorize it in about a week. My mom helped me record myself reciting it. 

365 Updates

I went back and posted a bunch of 365 photos that I had taken back in February and March so if you're interested go check those out. You can do that by clicking on the February or March tabs on the sidebar.

31 Things In 31 Days: Turn a Book into a Secret Case

I got the idea and instructions to make a secret book from this blog. It was really easy to do.   

Lori and I bought books from the used book store that are part of a trilogy. She got the black one and I got the red one. 

Cutting the pages out did take a bit of time and made quite a mess though. I broke a couple box cutters during the whole process. Oops!

The finished book with some important stuff in it.

31 Things In 31 Days: Do a Guerilla Art Project

This is a little clue to my guerilla art. And all you're going to get!

31 Things In 31 Days: Fly a Kite

I found an old kite in the garage and walked down to the park near my house. I looked up the wind before I left and it was strong enough for flying a kite. Except when I got there and tried to actually fly the thing the wind died. I must have looked like a fool throwing up the kite over and over again only to have it fall back down immediately. I was about ready to pack it in and go home when I strong burst of wind came by. I quickly threw the kite in the air and it took off into the sky. It lasted a couple minutes before crashing down again. 

31 Things In 31 Days: Put Together a Puzzle

When I was in Idaho at my sister Lori's we attempted a super difficult murder mystery puzzle. The puzzle doesn't have a finished picture, you're supposed to put it together and then solve the mystery from the clues in the puzzle. It was pretty ambitious of us considering we only had 2 days to do. Needless to say we didn't finish before I had to leave. Lori said she would continue it though. She is the puzzle master anyways. 

Back at home I did this 300 piece Little Mermaid puzzle ALL BY MYSELF! It took a little over an hour and was actually super fun to do.

31 Things In 31 Days: Put on a Facial Mask

Saturday morning I put on peel-off facial mask. I love these because they are a blast to take off. 

31 Things In 31 Days: Bike the Entire Bike Path

I love my little black and gold BMX bike to death. And I love riding it everywhere I can. Before the weather turns bad I wanted to take it for a spin down the bike path that goes through my town. The beginning of the trail is really close to my house so I started from there and met Jacky at the next cross street. We stopped to try and find a geocache along the path but we didn't have any luck finding it. Jacky's sister lives near the end of the path so we stopped there for some water. All in all the whole trip was almost 9 miles and took about an hour and 45 minutes. I wanna do it again!

31 Things In 31 Days: Pull a Prank on Someone

Some of my best friends, Sky and Heidi, live in the same city as my sister Lori. So while visiting Lori I decided to do a prank on Sky. He loves the TV show The Office. A lot. If you're a fan then you know about the stapler in jello prank that Jim pulls on Dwight. I knew that would be the perfect prank to pull on Sky. My brother-in-law works in the same office as Sky so Lori and I knew their schedules and could pretty easily get into the office and steal the stapler and then just as easily sneak back in and place the jello. It did take a little planning, some lying and sneaking around, a bunch of jello and two days, but Lori and I pulled it off and it was awesome!

I watched a YouTube video for instructions on exactly how to do the stapler in the jello. It was really simple. 

The finished product in Sky's desk drawer.

How we left the office so it wouldn't be really noticeable.

From the thrift shop across the street you could see right into Sky's office. So we used it as our stake out location and to watch the whole thing go down.

Here comes the boys, walking back from lunch...

In the second window from the left you can see Sky sitting at his desk. He was on a phone call when he saw the jello and started busting up laughing. When he got off the call he called everyone into his office and they stood around laughing and starring at it. No one even touched it. Sky even left it in his desk the rest of the day and all night.

Another funny thing is that Sky put a device on my brother-in-law's computer hard drive the night before that would make Halloween-type noises every time he made a sound or movement. So Lori and I kind of avenged him with the jello prank without even knowing it. 

31 Things In 31 Days: Take a Nature Hike

My parents and I went to Idaho to visit my sister Lori, brother-in-law Kurt and niece Brooklyn. Since we were so close to Yellowstone my mom insisted that we go for a couple days. It was absolutely gorgeous. The weather was perfect even though it was the beginning of October in Wyoming and the last week of the season for the park. While we were there we went on many nature hikes. Mostly to see the thermals. They are my favorite. 

Kurt, Lori and me walking around the Fountain Paint Pot Trail.

Mud Pots. These were really interesting to me and almost mesmerizing. I could have watched them for hours.

Dad, Brooklyn and Lori walking along the boardwalk.

Mom and Lori consulting the brochure about the geysers and how often they erupt.

Biscuit Basin. This was right by the Firehole River and was incredibly beautiful.

Castle Geyser. Where we sat for 2 hours waiting for it to go off and then realized we did see it go off. Only it was a minor eruption instead of the expected major eruption.

Porcelain Basin. This place is other-worldly. Freakishly barren with loud steamers and colorful geysers. This photo is just a small portion of the valley.

This is only a snapshot of what we did while in Yellowstone. I have a ton more pictures and stories. Maybe I'll post more later. 

Girls & Boys

Signs on the restroom doors of a pizza place I went to in Montana. Took me a second to understand. Then I had to take pictures.