Like a million fans cheering us down the road....

I love things that look like other things. As we were taking a break by the side of the road, I kind of felt the fence was giving me rockstar fingers.

Happy Last Thursday!

Thank you to everyone who came out to Last Thursday and stopped by my Pasty booth! I hope that you had a fun night and am so glad that you stopped by. I met a bunch of fun, friendly people and got a lot of people looking at me with a little sparkle in their eye after passing the table. I hope that some of them are coming back to check out the Etsy page. Speaking of that, here is the link:

strippylongstocking.etsy.com

Since this blog is updated regularly with pictures and stories and happenings from my life, this link won't always be right up there. It will, however, be over there on the right so you can always get there from this page. Feel free to check in here on a regular basis ffor my blog posts and you are welcome to read back as far as you are interested to learn more about me.

If you have questions, want to talk about any custom orders or need to make pick-up arrangements outside of Etsy, please email me at strippylongstocking@gmail.com

Thanks again for stopping by and I will see you again at next month's Last Thursday!

Last Thursday!

The last Thursday of each month hosts an event on Alberta where the galleries and shops have little festivities and vendors can set up tables to sell their wares. I am super excited to say that Strippy Longstocking is going to have a table of pasties today! I am meeting up with very good friend, jDUCT, to learn the ropes and have some fun. I have been working hard creating an adorable inventory of booby flair and am hoping to meet some folks who want to gift thier friends with something fun that will make them giggle or (eek!) surprise their significant other with something unexpected. I am looking forward to a fun afternoon and so is my assistant, Pasty Cline. I found her waiting for me, dressed and ready, just a few minutes ago.
Wish me luck today! If you are a Portlander, come down and say hi!

Wordless Wednesday: Homesick

Dear Johnny Depp,

Wanna put on our Mad Hatter costumes and go grab a beer?

We can talk in riddles and play pranks on unsuspecting passersby...

Think about it.

Love,
Shan

Father's Day!

Two of my favorite pictures of me and Dad. Culbertson Trail Ride: 1990 or 91...
Taking me down the gravel road aisle to give me away to JJ, 2006.

People are Crazy

Not everyone will like this song (probably including Husband) but I do. It reminds me of all the different people we meet when we head out and find ourselves in a small town watering hole. We have had some really fun times talking about everything under the sun with people we're likely to never see again. What if we met the old guy in this song?

Wordless Wednesday

Hooray for Tease and Tone!

Shoes!

Sometimes when people see my closet, they ask how many pairs of shoes I have. I don't know. I've never really seen a reason to count them. Plus, how do you count them? Boots and shoes would have to be separate, and I would have to include costume footwear in its own category (glitter boots, sequin pumps, blue suede hooker boots? I mean, yes I own them, but its pretty rare that I go in there in search of them when I'm getting dressed for dinner...) and what about some awesome old pairs of hand-me-downs that my mom has given me that I just don't wear very often? They're like antiques. What about the shoes in my hope chest from when I was younger? My first heels (polka dot), my America Converse, my Dinosaur Converse (Conosaurs... hee hee)... They are shoes, but more about keepsakes than stuff I'm going to wear. What about my pointe shoes?! I save them, but I don't really plan to wear them anytime soon. and what about my regular dance shoes, they shouldn't really count. I mean, I can't exactly wear them outside of the studio or performances. and what about the character shoes and spare pair of running shoes I keep at the studio? and what about my hiking boots and moon boots? They don't even live in my closet. What about the old pair of running shoes that I keep in case I have to wear a pair of shoes that might get ruined? It hardly seems like I should count them... so those are all the ones that I don't really think I should have to count, you can imagine that I have plenty that would count. (PS: If you are a size 6-6 1/2, no, you can't come over.) I will count 3, because there are 3 that were added this week. Note that its not normal for me to add three pairs in one week... I was walking through a resale store that just happened to be located between my car and the coffee shop and these $12 lovelies jumped onto my feet and wouldn't let me leave the store without them...
Then a few days later, I noticed that my running shoes were just done. After 9 months of 20-25 miles every week, plus teaching dance in them, they had no more spring in their step, and the sole was completely worn out. Like, my sock almost touched the ground. So, new running shoes... Which reminds me of a funny story.. When I was checking out, the gal said "ooh, small feet! I see so many women come through here with like, 9's or 11's.. I feel sorry for them." I found this funny because a) it was totally unsolicited and random and b) it reminded me that my mom and grandma always told me that women with small feet were well bred. Easy for my grandma to say with her size 4 1/2s....

And lastly, my BFF is getting married and I am going to wear a red dress that she likes and I needed good shoes to go with it. and today, I just about tackled the UPS guy when he drove up to deliver these......
So if you must know, I have at least three pairs of shoes. oh crap, I just talked about other shoes a few days ago.... so at least 4 pairs.

oops

I totally forgot to blog yesterday. In my defense, it was a busy day. Before I went out for a super long jog in my new running shoes, I had to clean the tanks. That means siphoning water and bottom debris out into buckets, carrying said buckets out to the yard to dump them, scrubbing the algae, replacing the filter media, fixing anything that needs fixing and then refilling the buckets with fresh water and chemicals and dumping them into the tanks. (Two tanks - 125 gallon and 70 gallon, a 5 footer and 4 footer, respectively) Lucky for me, I have a helper....
Admiring her work after everything is put away....

Wordless Wednesday

and then there was one....

Remember this? A couple weeks ago, I saw the little family had shrunk to about half the original size. I felt pretty sad for Mama Duck, but the little fuzzy babies were so cute, and this was probably a more manageable number to keep track of. Last Thursday, I saw a hawk swoop down and pluck one of the babies from the water. OH NO! Those of us that saw it screamed at him, but he just flew off to snack on the poor baby while its mom and us observers watched in horror. The next day, she was swimming around with the two remaining babies and if I would have been able to, I would have scooped them up and brought them home to the backyard, where I would set up a kiddie pool under the grapevine so they'd be safe from the stupid hawks. Yesterday, I saw her swimming around with only one little baby, who was eating up everything in sight, probably trying to grow big as fast as possible.

Good luck, little duck.

Dance Video!

It's been a while since I posted a video from my Tease and Tone class, and so that you know I'm not the only one in this household who likes to dance, here's Johnny!


fine print: John does his own choreography and does not attend Tease and Tone.

The smartest thing I've ever done...

Whoa, wow. What is it, Shan? Was it going back to college? Moving to Portland? Quitting that job? Taking that other job? Leaving that one guy?

It was buying two pairs of the same shoe.

Once upon a time, I ordered a pair of shoes from Victoria's Secret and when they arrived, I realized that I had purchased the best shoes EVER. So I ordered another pair for the day that the originals wore out. Those shoes traveled multiple states and were worn with skirts and jeans and shorts. To work and for play. Hiking and in the water and on the motorcycle. I called them my 4-Wheel Drives because they went everywhere! I also called them my Rocket Dogs because that's the brand. The originals went the the repair shop once and lasted a long time. So long that I forgot I had the second pair... until I just found them in my closet the other day. Plan to see me in these until they wear out too. If I find them again, I'll buy another pair.

Wordless Wednesday

Little Black Kitty update

I was almost certain that once it got warm outside, our little housemate would be spending most of her time outside in the sun. Not so. LBK has not only completely moved inside, but has surprisingly high demands for one who used to live outside and survive on whatever the neighborhood provided. She won't eat wet cat food and instead must have tuna (which we gladly give her because come on, tuna is good). Ironically, she only likes the cheapest brand of dry cat food. She won't drink water out of her water dish and instead, chooses to drink from the watering can in the kitchen. While she doesn't hang out outside as I imagined she would, she most often chooses to go outside when nature calls rather than using her litter box. This is one of the best cat traits ever. She also loves to help John watch tv. She's decided though, that the couch alone just isn't quite what she's looking for and will choose to sit on an overturned pillow. If no pillow is overturned, she'll paw at us until we provide one for her. This has led to her latest nickname, Princess Kitty.

When no people are available, the kitty bed is perfectly acceptable.

Happy Hunting

We went out to the woods this weekend for one last shot at the short mushroom season. The weather was amazing, there were mushrooms to pick, and we had a fabulous time.
When picking mushrooms, you spend the day walking around in the woods...
After picking mushrooms, you have a celebratory beer that has been chilling in the cooler all day...
Then you "road hunt" by looking for mushrooms visible from the road as you drive out.
Then you drive back to town, take a shower, and go to the bar. victory.