Fashion Friday

You know, I didn't have much hopes for Fashion Friday this week.  It started out wet and rainy, and I'm still protesting this by wearing jeans.  On Monday, I added my favorite heart necklace (I love John!) and glitter headband.  Note the dreary and dark morning behind me.  boo.

On Tuesday, I hoped for a spot of sun and did a brown and black combo since bright spring color will hopefully soon take over my wardrobe.  I added the animal print hat (John said "There's a cat on your head...") and killerly awesome giant necklace.  I stood by one of my "flower" patches for color.

On Thursday, the photo is not about me, but my friend Kate.  I got to work that day and she informed me that when she got ready that morning, she thought it was a good "Shannon" outfit.  Coincidentally, fellow fashionista Sarah (not available for photo) said she was wearing a "Shannon" outfit that day too! Oddly enough, I didn't feel much like myself that day, so I'm glad my friends did it for me. 

Crafty Kitties

Our kitties have a plethora of toys to keep them entertained. I try to pick the most fun toys I can imagine.  They have feathers and bells and catnip.  One even has blinking lights!  What are you looking at, Toki?

Oh, it's Pickles.  ..chasing a rogue glue stick.

Get it!

Apparently, I don't need to try so hard to impress them.

Wordless Wednesday

Sunny Saturday!

After our rock and roll adventure on Friday night, John and I woke up Saturday with a plan! We borrowed our friend Jason's truck and went to Home Depot for some supplies and came home and John built this flower box for our lone rogue tulip.

I am so super excited about it. When we moved in, we did a total overhaul on the yard and tore out almost everything (seriously, it was bad). John built a fence and a motorcycle shed and we made an adorable garden box out of leftover wood. After a few summers of BBQs and hanging out there, we kind of lost interest. This is probably about the same time we got the big motorcycle. just sayin... priorities. On that topic, I decided this year  we couldn't take a weekend motorcycle trip until we got our yard presentable.  Our yard has been in a state of disrepair for a couple summers and the original garden box was built with non-weather proof wood and finally just kind of disintegrated.  Last year, I hired a major spring cleanup and I did fall cleanup on some of the most crucial overgrown items.  Last weekend I chopped down the bamboo that was growing out of this box area. I took out all the big weeds and while John was building the box, I hit the main sections to get all the small weeds, fluff up the bark chips, and John dug up most of the bamboo roots. Finally, I added a few more plants and the next day scattered a bunch of seeds.  At the end of our sunny day, we sat out there and had a beer.

Summer BBQs are back..

Rock and Roll

On Friday night my favorite rock star, Eddie Spaghetti, had a show in our neighborhood bar.  He can fill much larger locations, so we were thrilled that he was coming to this little venue.  We put on our concert duds and headed out for some music...



We went super early because we knew that the tiny bar would get packed.  When we walked in the door,the first person we saw was Eddie himself!  Hi Eddie!

Obligatory photos to add to the many I have from years past.

The first two acts were fantastic and we rocked out at the front of the stage all night.

rock and roll, bitches.

Fashion Friday

I objected to the gray spring weather by wearing jeans all week..  I have to admit it was almost worth the chilly weather to get to wear this giant, super soft sweater.  I bought it a couple months ago and this was it's maiden voyage.  It's kind of like wearing  a blanket and I love it.  I paired with with the standard Shannon look of a tank, belt and jeans.  To give it some flair, I rocked my current favorite flying saucer ring and a giant necklace.  The necklace is really an old belt of my grandma's, but I prefer it looped around my neck rather than my waist.


I think it's kind of funny how the combo of pose, hair and sweater in this picture makes me look like I'm rocking Crystal Gayle hair :)

Oh, come on.

I am trying to find things about spring to focus on so that I can ignore that it is mostly cold and I still have to wear a coat every day.  When these tulips started to bloom in the front yard, I decided to take their picture every day until they bloomed to document their progress!

Watching them get redder and ready to open was kind of exciting and I looked forward to seeing them each day.

Here we go!

ooh, almost there!  Maybe tomorrow!

and then, someone came and picked them. Lame, stranger. Lame.

Wordless Wednesday

Bar Art.

PBR-igami.

*by the talented Jen

Fashion Friday

Here's a step out of my comfort zone!  I tend to wear outfits that place my belt on my hips to best flatter by build.  When I first put this outfit together, there was no intention of belting it at all. It needed something to pull it together and I think the belt was just it!  I like that it turned the bottom of the shirt into a peplum.  I also loved the color combo of tan with the turquoise jewelery.  I wish I had a shot that showed how perfectly my purse matched other than the sliver of strap on my shoulder.   As my mom would say, it looked "sharp."

Sometimes creepy is sexy....

and I love how the sun makes it even better by being a natural strobe light. total score.

Wordless Wednesday (photo by JJ)

As seen on my daily commute across the bridge...

Spring!

Fashion Friday

I am super ready for spring and summer outfits, but it's just still so darn cold out!  My solution to this was pairing bright, fun colors with leggings and warm boots.  My day started with someone telling me I looked liked a ballerina, which always makes me happy.  I love this skirt.  I got it years ago when JJ and I were in Ashland at a little resale store called Avante Garb.  Clever, no? 


I was having the happiest day yesterday and was trying to seek out the bright and cheery in all my travels.  I tried like everything to take these pictures by a beautiful pink tree in the neighborhood, but my little 6 inch tri-pod just couldn't do it and I'm not quite brave enough to set up my photoshoot using someone else's recycling bins..   Spring is still trying to spring in our yard, so I settled for our tiny patch of daffodils...

Oh, happy day...

I love today.  I feel awesome after teaching Body Blitz this morning.  Being a teacher is cool and I love that these girls get up early to join me for some serious sweating.  Now as I sit here at my desk, doing a job I love, I look out my window at the sun and clouds (normal in Portland :)) over our beautiful city.  I will leave work a bit early today and go home to a beer and  some music while I clean up the house and relax..  I'm so thankful for everything in this wonderful life of mine.  If the sun comes out for good, I'll probably open the door and get this:



Also, i wanted to post this picture after yesterdays Wordless Wednesday :)

Wordless Wednesday

A perfect weekend

We got up early on Saturday and stopped for coffee on the way to pick up our rental car (A Mercury Milan, which we gave 4 stars!) and drove through sun and rain with a couple stops to browse the antique stores and outlet mall until we ended up here:

The weather at the coast was gorgeous and we didn't even need jackets. The waves were huge and fun to watch come crashing to shore. As usual, there were seagulls aplenty:

and we were ready for adventure!

We made our way into Newport, where we stumbled into our good pal, Chris.

After a couple beers, we went back to the hotel to settle into our room, John hopped in the pool, and we got ready to head out for dinner...

And inevitably, a trip back across the bridge to the brewery for the evening..

We did stop to watch the gorgeous sunset...

<3
We hung out at the Rogue with Chris until the lovely Sam was done working and then the 4 of us took off for a night of Karaoke. We've done this before and as usual, it was epic. Epically bad if you were one of the poor souls who had to hear us sing....

The next morning we walked out along the shore to enjoy the nice weather.

We explored the rocky terrain and watched a couple boats head to sea for the day.

We stopped for some lunch and a beer and took a whale watching trip before heading back home. We saw plenty of whales but as usual, the boat ride is definitely the highlight of that adventure.

Even though John had a huge allergy attack on the way, we had a nice drive back to Portland and a lovely evening tucked in back at home. Bliss.

Happy Hour!

In honor of a bunch of closely timed birthdays, we did a work happy hour on Friday...  The latest photo for the Charlie's Angels wall..

This side of the table = photo pros.

This side of the table = not photo pros....

totally cute though.

At the next bar, these guys showed up.  Shots for being late.

group shot.  Shortly after this, we smartly headed home for some Kinect bowling and packing for a weekend of adventure.  Stay tuned!