Chloe’s Bucket List

We just lost our Chloe to cancer. She was eleven years old.

She was an amazing creature, and everyone who had ever met her loved her. Every time we would take her into the vet, everyone fawned over her – telling us she’s the best dog they’ve ever worked with (which I just love because they see a TON of dogs). Even the Oncologist said how pissed she was it turned out to be cancer. People were shocked that she wasn’t a puppy because she was always so excited, they tell us she’s the sweetest dog they’ve met, she has the coolest coloring (followed by “cata-what?” when told she’s a Catahoula), she’s the happiest girl they’d ever met…there are too many awesome comments to remember.

She was our baby-girl, our first pet together. We adopted her in 2007 when she was about a year old, and have had the pleasure of being her dog-parents for almost ten years.

We wanted her to enjoy her last bit of life, so as soon as we found out she had limited time, we created a bucket list for her. We were lucky enough to have almost a year to complete it. Now that it’s over, I wish we had come up with more.

Here is the short list that we came up with – and we’re pretty sure she enjoyed herself. We had a bittersweet time putting this list together – which I feel is pretty kick-ass, and she deserved a kick-ass send off from this world.

 

Eat a Hamburger

McDonald’s cheeseburgers @ Lake Geneva – Auburn, WA

Photo recreate

2009 & 2016

Taken on our 1st Wedding Anniversary & our 8th Wedding Anniversary

Aunt Helen’s House @ Ocean Shores, WA

Visit the Lake

Lake Geneva – Auburn, WA

 

Have Fish n’ Chips & a pint at an Irish Pub

Galway Bay Irish Pub – Ocean Shores, WA **

Chase seagulls on the beach

Big bro Xander (another Catahoula) @ Ocean Shores, WA

Lay in front of the fireplace, even though it’s 80 degrees outside (in July)

With little bro Decker, who also loves fire on a hot day. This one hurt Mommy & Daddy. So hot.

Ride shotgun

She loves riding next to Daddy  in the pickup.

Celebrate her 11th Birthday

This one we never thought we’d see.

So that’s it. Like I said, I wish we had come up with more.

Chloe was the best dog. Scrappy for sure (just ask the few dogs she didn’t get along with), but loveable & affectionate to the end. Below is a photo of Chloe comforting my Grandpa Carl who was dying from cancer. We didn’t know she had cancer, too…or that just a year and half after this photo was taken she’d be gone like Grandpa.

 

I miss her so much already, and I’m not quite sure how I’m going to deal with not seeing her run to the door to greet us every night when we get home from work. It breaks my heart that she won’t get to meet our baby boy who is due in March, and that he won’t know her at all. She would have been a good fur-sister.

We love you, Chloe-bird.

And just because, here are some pictures of our baby girl.

 

 

 

** Don’t freak out, Chloe didn’t want to even touch the Guinness….Rob drank it with no hesitation

 

 

 

 

 

Alright, fine. I’m a Seahawks fan.

I’m a joiner. I enjoyed the Seahawks win last night…total bandwagon fan. I think it started when my place of work (screen printing tees) was approached by Nike to do the official tees. We (meaning everyone else-I played hostess to the Nike reps), printed about 9,000 shirts in a couple days for the championship game a couple weeks ago. I took a fancy grid-like pic of the whole deal & my boss instagram’d it & Macklemore “liked” it, or hearted it or whatever (that makes me cool, right?).

So because of all the hoopla, I got excited for the Superbowl.  I loved the whole Richard Sherman thing, loved seeing everyone rally to back him up as not being a psycho.

It is very cool to see the whole “12th Man” thing in action. I’ve never seen anything like the fans of this team. My sister and her friends go to games all the time (her best friend has season tickets) or at least go out to bars to watch-and my sister always goes all out with Seahawks pride.

(my seester & Sherman)

And THEN Rob (super lucky husband) finds out his Dad is taking him to the game. To the FUCKING SUPERBOWL. In New York. In two days. Gah. I was super jealous but happy he got to go. Not jealous because I wanted to go see the game, but jealous because he was going on a trip. I got over it though. He left a few days before the game so he got to see some cool ass shit leading up to the game-including a for reals Seahawks bar (like for reals, not just for the game). Also tons of pics of all the insane support for the team.

Plus fun little things to do around the city…

So then they get to their seats. Jesus Christ.

Amazing seats, right? Most of the action was right there, too, so they got a great view of the whole damn game.

So we’re doing the printing again for the Seahawks Super Bowl Nike Extravaganza…by we I mean everyone else and I played dress up:

So yeah, super proud to live in a city with such awesome fans that support their awesome team. I might even go watch the game in public with my Sister and her Super-Friends.

Go hawks!

(did I just say that?)

Rubia de los Muertos is down!

Blonde of the Dead is taking a mother f-ing siesta.

I’m taking a wee bit of a break from painting.  I’ve been working on these Day of the Dead portraits for almost 3 years now, and have done almost 50 portraits in that time.  I think it’s time to rest. I found myself just churning them out and not really putting myself into them, which sucks for me because that’s why I started-I loved painting them…now I don’t.

I’ll still do them occasionally, if someone really really really needs one…oh and RubiadelosMuertos.com is down as well, so email me if you need me: rubiadelosmuertos@gmail.com

Adios mother f-ers!

Oh, side note…I hope to be blogging regularly too…to my two followers…one of those being my sister. Word!

Grannie’s Cocktail

WTF Grandma?

 

 

 

via Twisted Vintage

Stencil FTW

About a year ago, I got the great idea to redecorate my bathroom. It was a stark shade of off white, and it felt so sterile every time I’d be dropping a deuce or showering. I wanted warmth while I pooped.

So I painted two walls a rich chocolate brown. Not poop brown, chocolate brown. My intention was to paint a tree branch with birdies on the main wall, in a bright green to match our towels. I decided that painting free hand would take too long, I decided to make my own stencil.

You can read about my failure here.

Here’s a picture of what became of my bathroom wall (which by the way is still looking like this after a year-I gave up):

Today I found an awesome new blog to follow: Lemon Tree Creations.

Among her posts of great home decor and craft ideas, was this post, showcasing her addition to her bedroom, a pretty white peony above her bed.

Did she free hand it? No. Did she make her own stupid stencil out of paper? No. Crafty bitch here bought a stencil from Cutting Edge Stencils. Shit. There’s a retailer of stencils out there? And a SHIT TON of branches with birds?

Balls. If I’d thought about it, I would have looked for this. But I didn’t. I have a one track mind when it comes to crafting. If I think of completing a project a certain way, that’s the way it has to be done.  Hence,

The real kicker is the price. The stencils are super cheap! Like $16-35 cheap! There are of course more elaborate ones that are more pricey, but the ones I’m looking at are $34! I probably spent more than that on the paper combined with my time and energy wasted.

Next time I get a grand idea to do something big like painting a fucking tree on a wall, I will look for alternate ways of my original plan.

Screw you, wall.

Fall just came in my mouth.

I ate this:

And washed it down with this:

 

(Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Tart + Hot Caramel Apple Cider=omfg fall)

Black Veiled Bride – a review

Yesterday I walked by Hot Topic, and saw this band, Black Veiled Bride, had vomited merchandise on the front of the store. I did a double take, because the photos were rigoddamndiculous.

So because I don’t have the thought to let each be their own, here is my review of them. Or their looks, anyway.

What the living hell is that?! I know the 80s are back, but this is like Goth and 80s Hair Metal had an ugly baby.

Are they dudes? Chicks? Their name implies they are women, so let’s take a closer look.

Definitely a dude. Or a really ugly chick.

This has to be a chick. Or I guess it could be one of those androgynous boys that wants to look like a girl (Justin Bieber).

This one’s so hardcore he’s taking a shit DURING his photo shoot. Guy.

This one looks like a manly chick, but there’s no boobs so I’m going with dude.

And then the last one…

Well that’s clearly not female OR male. It’s the kid from Jumanji!

See?

So they are a band of 4 dudes and a monkey. Rad. I bet their music is terrible. I won’t include their music in my review because that doesn’t matter much. Thanks for reading!

La Femme Accident

Major credit to anyone who knows the origin of the title, by the way. OMD forever!

I just found out about the coolest car…no, THING ever:

The Dodge La Femme

“Unveiled in 1955, the Dodge La Femme was Dodge’s appeal to the female driver of the late 1950’s.”

Holy shitballs isn’t it pretty?! How did I never know about this?

The 1955 model came with a stylish rain cape, fisherman’s style rain hat and umbrella. Additionally, buyers were presented with a “stunning shoulder bag in soft rose leather…fitted with compact, lighter and cigarette case.” How rad is that?!

Ugh. Now there’s another car to add to my list of classics I want to own someday. And by list I mean my head full of pretty old cars. Someday I’ll own a classic car, probably not a La Femme, but I will still wear a stylish raincoat and stylish rain boots in it.

Bieber

So what the french hell is up with this Justin Bieber horseshit? Even the Belgians know about him. I shit you not, I hung out with some tonight and they were all up on the Bieber front.

I walk into Hot Topic and see him/her everywhere, then he/she’s all over the internet now…what the hell is up with this kid?

Is that a comb forward? That hair is TERRIBLE. So terrible if I saw a kid with it in person I’d go fix it.

Man, I wanna hit that. As in take my fist and punch it in the poop face. The world is ending if this shit is popular and considered normal. Is that a fucking CARDIGAN? ON A DUDE?! F that. I’ve had a few beers.

BIEBER HAS A MANGINA!

Craft Uprising

So I’m stuck at home with a broken leg. Actually, I can drive, so I’m not completely stuck, but for the most part, I’m at home and bored out of my Goddamn mind.

Enter crafts.

I make jewelry, and I have for over a year now. I don’t have a style, I just make what I think other people want, and hope people will buy it. So far, this has worked for me. Now, however, I’m starting to get that “f you, i make what i want” attitude and just making what I want to make. Enter Lola the skeleton girl:

I think she’s just flat out gorgeous. I really didn’t think that many people would buy this jewelry, but holy shit! It sold out so fast! I sold them at my booth at a local arts festival, Artopia in Seattle.

The best part is WHO bought them. Mostly old ladies. Seriously. A couple normal skull wearing types, but one middle aged lady with a canvas tote with kittens on it bought 3 pieces. It was crazy.

So now I’m thinking about making Lola my signature piece and just making other jewelry to supplement it, as needed. Except I also bought this cameo, which is wicked awesome:

Speaking of Octopus-ses, Octopi, what the f ever you call multiple octopusses, shit. I’m getting a new tattoo this week. Right now I have a mermaid on my right foot, and now she will have a pretty Octo-lady friend on my left foot.

Isn’t she AMAZING?! She won’t look exactly like that since it has to fit on my foot, and I may have wide flat feet, but I don’t have Yeti feet. So she’ll be a little more compact, but beautiful nonetheless.

BACK TO CRAFTING

The first craft I took up since the leg break was making cell phone pouches. I know I already blogged about my foray into sewing, but whatever. Listen to it more. So what actually happened was that I bought a pouch from an Etsy shop, got it, it didn’t fit my phone. Balls. So I ripped it apart, figured out how she sewed it, and made one Droid size. And now that’s what I’m making, Motorola Droid sized cell phone pouches.

I’m trying to use really rad fabrics, not just flowers and shit. I do have some flowers and shit, but mostly cool stuff. Like camping pinup girls.

And my favorite, Day of the Dead. Again, the skull thing…I had two older ladies buy these pouches at the festival, then my MOTHER IN LAW, who is (in no disrespect) kinda yuppy, chose a Day of the Dead pouch for her new Droid. LOVE IT! I’m spreading the dead!

So then I had all this scrap fabric and needed something small to make. Enter coffee coozies. First off, I never thought I’d own a glass coffee cup mug, let alone with a homemade coozy on it. Now I own both, and make the latter.

I really didn’t think it was anything but practice, but now people are ordering them, so shit…gotta get better at top stitching, whatever.

And NOW I’m making laptop bags. My husband needed one for his new laptop, so I made him the cell phone pouch only bigger, and it works just great. I’ve tweaked his pattern and made one for my laptop, and it’s pretty rad, if I do say so myself.

And I do say so myself, because it’s good to have faith in yourself and love what you do, so yeah, my shit is awesome. And now a ton of people are going to see it, because I’m doing a giveaway in August thru a popular giveaway blog. I’ve been loading up my Etsy shop with as much shit as I can cram in and have it still look good.

So here’s my dilemma. I make like a gazillion things. Okay, four things, maybe five. Is it ok to have all the different things in one Etsy shop? Or should I have one for sewing, one for jewelry, one for my artwork, etc? It’s too much work to have two shops now, so I really don’t want more than that. But does it look jumbled, messy…? Go check it out and tell me: Lazy Susan’s Finery & Frippery.

And to end my rant, here is a picture of a kitten, and a link to Meowmania. Enjoy!

Try not to poop from the cuteness.

Kisses!

Susan