My heart goes out to those in Japan and those who have loved ones in Japan. I was in the middle of a pity party when I read about the devastation via twitter (see it's good for something) and immediately was put in my place.

The Earth is far more powerful than we give it credit for. I wish more people would take the time to realize that when these things happen. Don't get me wrong, I understand why humans get our first thoughts, but maybe we should also think about why all of these earthquakes might be happening. Not enough oil between the layers? Shifts in weather patterns due to gas emissions somehow affecting the ground and then the plates shifting due to unexpected temperature shifts? Maybe the plates weren't meant to carry such weight that we have put on them with skyscrapers and freeways and such... I am by no means a scientist (no kidding) but I feel like if we keep raping the planet, she's going to keep raping us (as well as all of the animal kingdom in those areas). I don't believe that God is punishing us, I don't think it is that personal. The Earth has to take care of itself one way or another and it is going to react to changes that are brought upon it. I'm just as guilty as the next person, I won't be living in a mud hut anytime soon, I won't be selling my car and traveling by horse or foot... I'm just wondering if maybe we shouldn't seriously reevaluate the things we can. I feel like this is so important, no matter what political party, no matter if you love or hate money. All I can say is, you can't take it with you when a hurricane comes through or a tsunami hits or a blood vessel pops unexpectedly in your brain. Republicans and Democrats alike (as well as all other parties) definitely have something at stake here, their livelihood. I know I'm standing on a soap box here and that's so not what this blog is generally about, but this is something I think about A LOT and it just baffles me completely that my 1 + 1 = 2 logic isn't the same for all humans...

I guess before I get too lost in my thoughts of mother earth and how we should work with her instead of against her I will get back to the point and say that times like these are very humbling for so many reasons. I have my health, I have more than enough stuff, I'm going to be okay.

Again, my heart goes out to all those deeply affected by this natural disaster and I hope for the best possible outcome for all involved.

With a heavy heart
xoxo

Not exactly "Monday" Mayhem

Since Monday was given to my birthday (!!! how I love my birthday) I decided today would be "Monday Mayhem." Here are some of my pins!

A goal of mine, to become this flexible (and strong).

Want iphone badly, waiting for iphone5... might get this case :)

Love love love blankets right now! Obsessive. Keep looking for new ones. Especially milled wool ones. Pendleton and now Beacon and Esmond!

Oh my goodness, so cute! AND I now found a blog in Spanish to read! Going to be a challenge but I'll work through it!

Love these polaroid coasters. I've been ignoring my cameras since I've been here (so silly since portland is amazingly photogenic) and must take some shoe shots. Love them.

Couldn't agree more.

Do you have a pinterest account? If so find me and let's share pretty pictures!

xoxo

25 before 26!

So now that a day of being 25 has gone by it's time to share my 25 before 26! I know that I already did 25 things last year but I like odd numbers best and want to do 25 again. This year the combination of my goals is really reaching but I think that's going to be a good thing. Reach for the moon and you'll at least end up among the stars right?! Here's to putting thoughts out into the universe!

1. Save $$ to participate in 4 month photography program in Argentina ($10k by August 2012?!)

2. Complete 1 year of Master's degree (Teaching credentials?)

3. Get hot air balloon tattoo drawn

4. finish 2 blankets

-Shay's baby blanket

-Unicorn Sparkle(bottom)s rainbow blanket

5. Learn basics of photoshop

6. Buy and paint Native American paint by number

7. Find perfect pair of vintage glasses, heals and little black dress

8. Write 30 letters

9. Spend a week waking up early (before 8 am) for reasons other than work

10. reach 50 readers on blog

11. Join or create a group

12. Date older dudes (and attempt to not date younger)!

13. Keep accurate log of $ to the dollar for one month

14. Read 5 self help or informational books

15. Read 10 for fun books

16. Watch 4 Spanish/Argentine/Latin films

17. Read 1 book in Spanish (allowed to be a kid/teen book)

18. Have a conversation in Spanish (more than just "hi, how are you, bye")

19. Go on 3 dates

20. Throw a party

21. Rent my own place

22. 100 pictures project

23. Go to dance/exercise class once a week

24. Pay off credit card 

25. Acquire a Canon Rebel!!!

Phew, what a year this is going to be! 

xoxo

25 before 25 comes to an end!

Can I just say I LOVE birthdays. I am so sad that mine is over in 6 minutes! Not going to lie, it's been great. Some new experiences and some great friends. My day consisted of cooking myself breakfast at 3 am (stayed up late and was hungry) then reading, going to sleep, sleeping in, getting ready, going to the mall, spending a bit too much at Forever 21 (all but one piece are basics, so I'll wear them out), getting some pizza, trying to find my Betsey perfume... learning it has been discontinued (so I found it online pretty cheap!!!), checking out J.Crew and not being impressed with the store...


Then there was some printing at Kinko's (or Fedex Office as they like to call it now) of a receipt proving I did, in fact, renew my license even though it is nowhere to be found. Yeah mail! 
After that it was time to pick up Nicole for the festivities! I arrived at her work a tad early and was on the phone so I missed meeting a pretty hot customer... oh well. Boys. I then tried on some vintage frames which were AWESOME! One of my wardrobe goals is to find a really good pair of glasses (of the prescription kind) because mine are at the end of their life. After that fun we rushed to the BINS to dig dig dig in dirty stuff to find treasures. (I promise promise promise I'll do a bins post soon!) I'm not going to lie, I have been collecting bits and pieces of things for Unicorn Sparkle(bottom)s which I'm excited to send! 
After our dirty dig we met up with Bryan and MikeD. at Mio Sushi (DELICIOUS!) and had some good laughs. We finished the night with Swirls frozen yogurt and because Nicole casually asked if I needed a candle for my cup of fro yo the nice nice guy gave me it for free! Super stealth Nicole! Speaking of Nicole, I'm mentioned (and get a birthday shout out) in her blog today! Go read it!


Wow this is getting a little more wordy than usual... well, I figure now is the best time to recap on my 25 before 25! So here it goes:

1. I got not 1 but 2 tattoos!

4. Moved out of state, wooo back to Portland!!! Didn't think this was going to happen maybe 2 month ago but I do not regret my decision!

5. I finished not one, but THREE blankets (the last is not pictured here, it will get it's own post later!)

6.I took (and posted!) 100 flickr worthy pictures

Sets

8. Finished 8 (way more than 8) for fun books

Titles

9. Finished 2 (and then some) self help books

Books like: He's Just Not That Into You, If You Have to Cry Go Outside, What Color Is Your Parachute? and more.

12. Paid off a huge chunk of my credit card! (and then put some money back on, THEN, like a good girl, used a portion of my tax return to pay a lot off again!)

Thanks mom!

14. Made 3 collages (and then some)

16. Finished my paint by numbers!

17.Took a road trip.

20. Figured out next career goal (I'm pretty sure.)

25. Went horseback riding.

11. Finally road the Spectrum Ferris Wheel!

What I didn't quite make it to:
2. Swimming with sharks 
7. Crochet scarf/cowl. (Going to do that this year, or just make more blankets!)
10. Cook for someone at least once a month. (This one started out great but then just fell to the wayside.)
13. Volunteer: not sure where yet but it's out there (I did get started on this one, I am going to be working with the Rose City Rollers hopefully, helping them with fundraising and such!)
15. Paint a picture (do other paint by numbers count???)
18. Go on a hot air balloon ride
19. Get off my medication for anxiety. (While I did lower my dosage for a while I was not in a position to completely leave it AND I actually switched to a different kind which seems to be working very well.)
22. Take a photography class (Still working on getting this going, need to get a place to live and such first though!)


What else I managed in the 12 months of 24:
Did the second tour of Hearst Castle (my third time touring, but did the second tour in the sequence)
Toured the Winchester Mystery House
Made extra collages
Unloaded a couple carfulls of stuff to goodwill and resale stores
Completed Elsie's Blog Love Course
Signed up for and participated in the e blogger conference Indie
Watched an awesome and amazing 1 year old one day a week for a couple of months!
Got attached to said 1 year old, oh how I miss him!
Added several cameras to the collection
Left my job
Made a banner for my blog!
Took lots of pictures!
Organized pictures in iphoto
Started my pinterest boards
Took pictures of my dear friend Christie with her super duper spiffy camera!
Moved from Encinitas to San Marcos to Carlsbad to Chula Vista to Portland
Had my very first technical boyfriend after high school
Watched all episodes of Desperate Housewives to date
Signed myself up for a pen pal list!
Started the Gunslinger Series
Changed blog over to Click Click Corey
Read a manuscript for a friend, so great!
Attempted to blog every day for a month
Watched the first season of Mad Men
Watched first season of Pretty Little Liars
Bought some amazing dresses
Thrift shopped like a nut once I arrived in Portland
Saw Chels Dog and Knife Fight Ruby for a weekend on my way to Portland


This year was great and hard at the same time. I was really emotional due to stressing about the future and trying to go off of my anxiety and depression medication. There were days where I left bed for maybe an hour or two because everything would make me want to cry and I could feel this hollow ache in my chest. It was hard on those days to find anything to be awake for. Looking back those days seem so distant even though there were maybe a month an a half ago, I'm happy to say I have so many good memories from the year (and the past month) that I don't feel the pain of the hard parts anymore. I've been growing a lot and (hopefully) maturing  too. Not to say I don't act like a kid from time to time (in the last month I've had at least 7 strangers comment on how excitable I am haha), but I'm getting really comfortable with who I am and what I want to do. I'm totally and incredibly excited for the future and this next year! My only emotional goal is to still feel as young as my elders tell me I am. 


Up next... 25 before 26!!! 


xoxo

Birthday Wishes

My birthday is coming up and I'm excited as always. Of course I have a little wish list going... here tis!


Stuff for my closet:

The perfect heel. Too bad it's out of stock and I can't find one close enough to make me happy.

perfect sneakers!

perfect little black dress

perfect brown boots (and some in black too)

small (easily wrappable) brown belt

cute wool socks

Practical Things

Food Processor

External hard drive

Money! Or Virgin Mary stuff... but really money.

Woooo birthday wishes!

Only 4.5 days until my birthday!!!

xoxo

The Books of February

While I didn't read nearly as much this month as last month I did get a few books read. Just today I finished a book I started last night but I think I'm going to count that in March books. I'm sure the suspense is killing you. 

Until then, here are the books of February:

Started in January, finished in February:

I loved this book. It was cute and fun and there were sad bits too. I initially almost didn't buy it because it was about a baby but Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird really impressed me so I decided to take my changes. Thank goodness I did! She's becoming one of my favorites for sure.

I started, middled and finished in February:

I have to be honest, I often judge books by their covers. There are so many classics that have such bland covers. I saw this and a Wuthering Heights with an equally impressive cover and finally decided to dig into Jane Eyre. I was planning on reading the book for a while anyway, it just so happened that that specific cover made me want to read it sooner than later. I'm honestly thinking about starting a Jane Eyre collection due to the fact that there are several very pretty covers for this book.

As far as the story went... I enjoyed it immensely. I didn't want to put it down and I didn't ever get bored with the writing. The best part was the day I started reading the first page my sister sent me a message saying she was reading it for her English class. Funny coincidence for sure. 

Found this at Goodwill and decided it must be bought. I love Neil Gaiman. I started reading him when I god a book titled Good Omens which he co wrote with Terry Pratchett. One of my all time top favorite books. I'll probably end up doing an all time favorite books here in the next couple of months now that I think of it. Anyway, I recently also read Neil's book American Gods and enjoyed it so my curiosity about Coraline and my love for Neil Gaiman came together and I purchase the book. I read it a couple of nights ago to the sound of rain in a still night. Perfect background really. I really want to see the movie now.

Slowly (to me) but surely I am making my way through this series. The next book will take me and pass me through the middle point! I LOVE these books. I shied away from Steven King for so long because I thought all of his stuff was scary and would give me nightmares (I'm quite prone to them or I was due to having a VERY active imagination). I'm so glad my friend Nick told me about these and I picked them up. I'm attempting to read at least one a month which means I should be done with the series by the end of June. We shall see.

I highly recommend the series. The first half of the first book takes a little time to get into (at least it did for me) but after that they are so hard to put down. Action, suspense, gunslingers, different worlds. Epic trials. So good. 

and finally, 

the one I started but didn't finish

I wanted to like and be inspired by this book so very badly. I wish I could have found justification to stick with it past the half way point. I was going strong in the beginning getting a third of the way through and some of the things, well, even most of the arguments being made I could relate to or made sense to me. But then it started getting redundant and I really started questioning it and resisting what he was trying to say. It was when he said people shouldn't be held responsible for their actions their pain-body or their ego's should that I really disengaged from the book. I took some positive things away from the beginning but I highly doubt I will take the time to ever fully finish the book. I have promised myself that if the going gets really tough with a book or if I struggle to get through even half of it I can stop reading it and pick up the next book. I feel guilty every time I do this but I just don't have time for things I don't want to read. There are so many things to explore, I don't want to waste my time and get to the end and wonder  why I wasted that much more time on it. If I feel strongly enough that I NEED to read it before I die I will pick it up again.

And here ends The Books of February. It's looking like I'm still on track for the 52 in 52 book challenge!!! This month I just barely made it! Even if I hadn't I did read NINE books last month so I guess I have some wiggle room but still. I didn't want to commit to this challenge but here I am thinking about it all the time all the same!

What books have you been reading? Have you read any listed here?

xoxo

Monday Inspiration Mayhem

I've been figuring out things with this blog. All positive but I've been neglecting the normal posts which makes me feel a tad guilty. I have been enjoying life though, so at least there is that. I came down with a cold and it was a brutal one at that. But today is the start of a new week and here are some of my favorite finds from pinterest and my bloglovin blog list...

I have been meaning to give my hair some more attention lately. I'm lucky enough to have it look decent pretty much all the time (because of the color and weight due to length keeps it pretty straight) but I would like to put a bit more effort in every once in a while... I want my curls to look like this soon!

learn how!

best I could do

I have tattoo fever and no money to help it die down. There are so many things I want and not enough money to make them come true. This tattoo below is one I have wanted for years now. I like the placement this lady picked. Going to have to think of a creative place when I get mine!

as close as I could get

As if she doesn't inspire me enough, Elsie's new dress line is to die for. These are my favorites from her Spring line which goes on sale tomorrow! Do I have money for these, no. Am I really sad about that. Well, yes. Very. But I can dream about them.

Lastly, my dear friend Nicole mentioned wanting a scarf she had posted a picture of on her blog. She asked if I could possibly create something like it. I just saw the picture today and indeed I can! The uniformity of the squares and the tightness of the stitch is going to be hard to come as close to but I'm going to give it my best effort and hopefully we'll get a great piece!

It's so rainy and gray here but it makes the colors of painted things pop so I'm not upset. Tonight is a trip to the bins with the aforementioned Nicole. I LOVE me some bins scavenging. There will be posts about thrifting soon!

xoxo