Conversations

(So this was supposed to be posted yesterday, and apparently I forgot to actually schedule it! oops!)

Abbey: Hey would you want to go with me to my family reunion in California?
Ashley: I'd love to, that sounds like fun. Where in California is it?
Abbey: I don't know.
Ashley: Northern or Southern?
Abbey: Well I know when the whole state was burning they had to move it to the Redwoods. We go camping at some lake.
Ashley: The state burns every year, this tells me nothing.
Abbey: Well it's further south than the Redwoods. I think it's in Southern California.
Ashley: Really? I wonder where. How funny would it be if we just surprised my parents one day. Is it Lake Arrowhead?
Abbey: I don't know.
Ashley: Maybe Lake Elsinore?
Abbey: I really don't know.
Ashley: Well find out! If we're close enough to my family we could totally surprise them!
Abbey: That would be hilarious. I'll find out.

Later:

Abbey: We go to Trinity Lake. Where is that?
Ashley: I have never heard of it. *Googles it* Hahahaha!! Oh wow. Yeah it's north of Frisco. That isn't exactly close to my family. Oh well. When do we leave?
Abbey: Well how much farther is it to go to where you're from?
Ashley: Well Frisco is an 8 and a half hour drive, so maybe 9 hours-ish. Oh Google says 10 and a half. Ha! Not the way I drive.
Abbey: That would be kinda fun you know.
Ashley: Wait, are you serious?
Abbey: Yeah! I like driving and I didn't really get a chance to meet your family properly.
Ashley: I am actually going to scream if you're serious.
Abbey: I am! It'll be fun, we'll go to the reunion and leave and head to your house. Besides, you don't start your job until the week after, and I am totally free that week too. Let's do it!
Ashley: AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!

Later that day via text message:

Ashley: Hey Micheal, so I am planning on coming down as a surprise, would you help me organize people, be my inside man?
Micheal: I can throw a kegger.
Ashley: ... I'll call Chelsea.

Two Days Later:

Laura: Yep, I leave on Monday.
Ashley: So sad! We'll have to try and make trips to see each other! I'm going to miss you!
Laura: Me too! My aunt lives in Victorville so hopefully we can sync visits sometime and hang out then!
Ashley: Oh yeah! I didn't tell you either, I'm going back home as a surprise! No one but Micheal, my dad, and Chelsea know! I'll be there from the 17th-24th! For Gracie's Birthday and Father's-
Laura: Wait, what dates?
Ashley: the 17th through the 24th. Why?
Laura: because I am visiting my aunt from the 20th-25th!
Ashley: It's like the universe wants me to be in California that week.

Surprise! :-) Today I am off to go have lunch with Laura and her mom. This has been a good week.

See Spot Two Piece

See Spot Two Piece- Made by me

Bag- Vintage, thrifted

Shoes- K-Mart.

Confession time: this was a lot more flattering in my head than in real life. But here is the story anyway.

My mom has had this fabric in her stash since I can remember. Delaney made an apron out of it for a 4H project, I'm sure my mother made various things from it as well, but there is still like 30 yards of it. When I was home for Christmas I grabbed some to make a dress to wear to Disneyland. I intended to make up another one of these dresses, but something went wrong (I don't remember what) and I decided to scrap the top part and just make a skirt, but then the skirt was too big and the blouse too small.... Needless to say I did not wear this to Disneyland. I actually think I tossed the top in the trash out of frustration, but it somehow made it's way into a box that was sent to me. So both have sat in my fabric stash until now. I decided to go ahead and make a two piece for versatility/I didn't want to do too much seam ripping. I took the skirt in, the blouse now fits, so all that was really needed was to finish the hems of top and re-insert the zip on the skirt. Somewhere along the line I decided that making the top into a crop top would be a good idea. Here's the thing, I look terrible in crop tops like this apparently. I don't mind it too much, and I will wear it, but in hindsight this wasn't my brightest idea. 

I do like that it's a two piece though, and that the top is just long enough that I can tuck it in (luckily I made the skirt super high waisted!) and make it look like the dress I intended for it to be. Also, I have almost no printed skirts or tops (my wardrobe got really weirdly boring over the last few months somehow) so this does fit the bill there! It's been kinda fun to come up with new combinations with these two.

And apparently I cannot get my top back on in 10 seconds.

Buñuelos

One of my favourite places to eat in San Diego is El Indio. My parents discovered the place while they were in college and I have been eating there my whole life. They serve Mexican-Indian food, and are seriously one of the most delicious places in the world. It also happens to be where the Taquito was invented (Which if you go to Taco Time in Oregon they call that a burrito, which is what my father thought was a burrito until he moved to California... so many things wrong with that.). If you ever happen into San Diego I definitely recommend El Indio, especially the Enchiladas, which are my favourite!

As a kid my favourite thing was when my parents would pick up a take home bag of their chips and another of the Buñuelos. Buñuelos roughly translates as 'doughnuts,' but these are actually fried flour tortillas covered in cinnamon sugar. Oh! They are heavenly!! One bag is never enough and in my family they always are gone too quickly. A few days ago I was seriously craving El Indio (frankly I'd have taken any good Mexican food at that point!), so I decided to make myself some Buñuelos. These are ridiculously simple to make simply take some flour tortillas and cut them into your desired shape, heat up some oil in a frying pan, and fry the tortilla pieces until they are golden brown on either side. Transfer the fried tortillas to a bag full of cinnamon and sugar, shake, and voila! I should warn you that they are terribly addictive. I ended up bringing a bag of them on our road trip last weekend. They were gone far too soon. In fact I think I shall whip up some more right now...

Knock Off

I saw this image floating around tumblr last spring (from ASOS) and fell in love with the black and white skirt.Actually I thought it was a dress and determined I needed to make a dress like this. I had some black and white striped cotton and bought a yard or so of black knit jersey and some wide elastic for the waistband and bodice. And it sat in my stash until the end of January.

I started making my version. The skirt was a simple gathered two rectangles of fabric skirt with I attached to the elastic waistband. I didn't really have a pattern that would have worked for the top so I made my own. This is where I got frustrated and it has sat in a pile of UFO's until the weekend before Spring Break. I ended up packing it to take with me to the coast that week, wore it to the Air Museum, washed it when I got home, and it has sat in my closet since. I really do like it. Actually these photos make me like it even more, but for some reason I just tend to glance over it when getting dressed in the morning. in my head it's a lot less flattering so I pass it by. But I think that needs to change, because this really is a very lovely and fun dress to wear. I feel like a ballerina in it, which in  my book is never a bad thing.

Forgive the mess please, that was all the nonsense I hadn't packed yet! I think I brought more with me on this trip than I did when I went back home for Christmas! As I said there was more to our camping trip than meets the eye, but you'll have to wait for Wednesday to find out what. Not everyone has discovered the big secret yet. I ended up tossing this dress in last minute (because I had SO MUCH EXTRA ROOM. Which is a total lie.) and I am pretty happy I did.  Oh and you get to see a peek at my bedroom! I'm hoping to show you a little more next week, but this is definitely my favourite corner, which is good since it's where I sleep each night!

And I am off to continue enjoying my little secret. Don't worry it's killing me not to tell you all right now!!

Evergreen Air and Space Museum

I just found this post that I never posted! So enjoy while I am camping this weekend!!

Unfortunately my camera battery died so these are all crappy cell phone pictures.

Little known fact: I do not get dizzy. I absolutely love fast, spinning rides at amusement parks (those terrifyingly sketch Flying Saucers, those are my favourite! When I was a kid I'd flip upside down on the little pad you lean on and scare the daylights out of my mother), and I can spin in circles for days without falling over or getting dizzy. My dad is the same way and so are a few of my siblings are as well. My dad informed me when I was little that this weird useless talent could allow someone to become an Astronaut. This was right before we went to some museum back home about flight and space (all I really remember is the boy I had a crush on got me in trouble and I pouted the rest of the stupid filed trip. In case you're wondering, if the boy you like when you're 8 dares you to leap over a bunch of pipes with him, he is not going to do it and will let you just run off by yourself so you get in trouble. Lesson learned). Up until that trip I had it in my head that I was then going to be an astronaut. I was already widely fascinated by Astronomy, so this was definitely my career choice. For about a week. One taste of freeze-dried Ice Cream and the deal was off, but I do still have a soft spot for space related things. So during Spring Break Laura and our friend Jordan, his sister, and I all headed to the Evergreen Air and Space Museums. We ended up spending about 5 hours between the two museums. Jordan began volunteering as a kid there and still does sometimes so he got us in for free, and it was a blast (pun unintended)! It may have also helped that the day was absolutely gorgeous only two days after the Snow-pocalypse of 2012.

Jordan!

Outfit details:

Cardigan- Target

Dress- Made by me, I'll be posting about it next week!

Bag- Van Husen at my grandmother's insistence, turns out it's one of my faves now!

Socks- Target?

Keds- gift from my parents.

I love that there is snow under the solar panels on the roof. So hilarious! 

Cute old Docents 

This was our table at lunch! So cool!!

Death Star!!

Piece of the Berlin Wall. I was having fun pronouncing all the German (Magic Flute warped me forever) and attempting to translate it. Fun and Berlin Wall should not be used in the same paragraph. It was legit super cool to see though.

 Vintage Space Suit!! reminds me of some of the Tomorrowland costumes from the 60's.

I love hoe much like Aliens these space men look...

This is one jet engine thing. It was huge.

Moon Rock.

When I read The Hunger Games, this is what I envisioned all of the hover craft to look like. This is actually a jet hover-craft thing. I am clearly up to date on the technical terms for machines.

Did you know that space rocks are primarily made up of Iron? Well they are, they are also cray-cray heavy. That first one weight like five pounds.

These plaques outside the museum show the solar system. Pluto was still among them. Poor Pluto.

Then we went to the Aviation Museum!

I thought the signs on the bathrooms were adorable

Inside the Spruce Goose!

The Goose herself

Yummy ;-)

They had a ton of WWII era air craft and vehicles which kept me interested for hours!

The radio inside one of the WWII era planes

Well hello there.

Russian Aircraft

My camera couldn't get a full picture of the Spruce Goose. The thing was HUGE!

Beautiful 1920's era commercial airplane. The interior was to die for. Jordan told me after I raved about this one that he knew it would appeal to my Hipster side. -_-...

Nazi Airplane and a model of the Spruce Goose.

WWI

The upper level of the museum has a Gun collection and the best view of the Spruce Goose. I am not really very interested in guns, but they had some very beautiful pieces there. The detail on some of the older ones were just amazing! 

If you ever happen to be in Oregon and have a day to kill I definitely recommend the Museum. There is something for everyone and the gift shop is pretty great too ;-)!