Simple Dea-lite #241

One of my many simple delights is putting my ipod on shuffle and hearing songs I haven't heard in ages. Or hearing songs I didn't know I had because they're off compilations I never really listened to. 

Yesterday my ipod decided to play this song and I instantly thought of when I first decided I liked this song. It meant something different to me. It applied to someone I knew at the time. I guess I was more sad that this song somewhat applied to him. But I still love this song, and I love the cover Jesse Lacey would do with Kevin Devine. 

Hola gato

I've had some interesting occurrences the last couple days. Yesterday the neighbors cat was sitting on the stairs outside, in a compromising position. It lifted it's head up when I opened the door, but stayed in the same position. Something like the picture below. I knew dogs licked themselves inappropriately, but really had no idea cats licked themselves "down there" also. I was totally caught off guard, then it meowed at me as I walked past, almost saying "gee, thanks for interrupting me"

via Hero Interactive

I also brought, or thought I brought, a sweater to work yesterday. I was in my car driving, didn't think about it, got to work and started walking in when I realized I brought a sweater. I knew it wasn't in my car. Somewhere between me leaving and getting in my car it must have fallen. All day I thought about how hundreds of cars must be running my sweater over in their road rage angst. When I got home I saw nothing on the ground outside. My next thought went to the stairs. No sweater. Well I guess someone saw it and liked it, so I was resolved and figured it was gone forever. When I opened the door and went to the kitchen THERE IT WAS!! It fell off inside and now I get to enjoy wearing it inside the cold office today. 

 via edwardoneill 

LnC Birthday regalos

Last week was my bestie's birthday, and this year I decided to do something special. She showed me this awesome "secret box" that's available here . I had the brilliant idea to say "That'd be so cool if I could make it for you" thinking I could TOTALLY make that. 

After I started to try, and subsequently failed I told her it can't be done. 

Seeing that I REALLY wanted to make this happen even though I said it wouldn't, I enlisted the help from the super handy, owner of tools, and 'can do anything' uncle, things started looking up. I didn't let him do this by himself, I really wanted to put my own sweat into this project. 

We used a lot of tools and my two favorites are the one shown above, an air compressed nail gun, and this amazing saw! If I had a garage I would definitely invest in one of these bad boys to do all kinds of home improvement stuff. 

 

  

Here's what it looked like before we stained, finished, and put the stencil/freehand work on it. 

I  was trying to get this project finished by Friday when I went to see LnC for her bday, but that just wasn't happening. So I made a trip to see her yesterday before she leaves for Europe. I made sure to catch her reaction as she opened the box. It's blurry, but you can see the excitement on her face. 

 

 

 

She got really excited, didn't know what to say, was beyond herself that I actually was able to do it. I told her my uncle helped me, otherwise it wouldn't have happened. Her dad came out and saw it, and even said I went to work on this one. LnC's exact words were "dude, you just built me a tree house." Or that's what the equivalent is to her. I was ecstatic that she liked it....loved it...I'm not sure, but I know she's got this appreciation for it. 

The following photos are of the final product taken that night. You may not tell from the pictures, and most people wouldn't consider it to be flawed based on general look, but I think I could have done a tad better job finishing it. Anyway, enough self deprecation right now. Here is how it came out. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Her little baby as she called it right before this picture.

I know she loves it and she'll get to enjoy it after she takes her Europe trip.

A little light

I was driving on the 134 the past two nights, and both were pretty clear, in a sense that I could easily see downtown LA, Griffith Observatory, and a few Wilshire buildings. And with all the flaws this city has, Los Angeles can be something beautiful if we open our eyes a little more. 

Via JSFauxtaugraphy 

 Almost everyday my drive to work consists of me driving through Boyle Heights, a pretty run down neighborhood. I always manage to smile when I see this elderly gentleman with his shopping cart, blue crate, and now a broken umbrella to help shade himself while he gardens in this little patch of what I think is public land. It's off of South Boyle Ave and a freeway off ramp. 

The garden happens to be seen from google maps. It's not as lush right now but still the fact that this old man, not sure whether he's homeless or not, tends this garden probably every day makes me think and hope there is more than just the city lights to this place. 

I kind of love that this is my home.

Iced coffee craziness!

I was browsing Food Gawker as I do in my free time now and recipes that look amazing I star and will hopefully go back and make some of these food creations. 

I saw one last week that I decided was easy enough not to wait and looked good enough that I had to try now. 

I'm a skeptic when someone says this is the "perfect thingy thing ever" because everyone has their perspective on what might be perfect. So I decided to try out this recipe titled "Perfect Iced Coffee" Partially because it looked promising using coffee ice cubes, and partially because who doesn't want to prove something wrong? 

So I brewed a pot of coffee, let it cool down a bit, and poured the coffee into an ice cube tray. I put the coffee pot in the fridge to get cold. 

The next morning this is what I got. 

My ingredients....

Final product

My verdict: 

This is THE PERFECT ICED COFFEE! The coffee ice cubes are a genius idea. It doesn't water the coffee down and you end up with more coffee rather than some watered down crap. I also like the use of the syrup rather than sugar because it mixes better in the cold coffee, unlike sugar. 

I will note that I forgot to eat breakfast and got the jitters about an hour later, but that is my fault. The taste was amazing though, and I'll definitely be figuring out other things to use my coffee ice cubes for also. 

Playing catch up

Lots to catch up on, been doing a bunch of stuff lately. 

Some of it more minor, while some a little more major. I've been doing some minor craft projects but haven't taken pictures of them. I will post them though. 

I've recently made a mirror vase, bedazzled pens, painted some frames, and started a project for my friend. 

This weekend felt extremely long, but also felt accomplished. I got things done that needed to get done, and started things that needed to be started. 

Friday: 

I went to the Oinkster with Bill and they forgot to give me my peanut butter and jelly cupcake. I forgot about it while eating my amazing meal, but later remembered and felt a light tug at my heart. We headed to the Verdugo Bar after that where Tino and Joey showed up and we had a great time. 

Saturday: 

Joey stayed over, and we went to help clean their old apartment (Tino's OFFICIALLY living with me now) and then headed to IKEA. See Tino and I like collecting movies I guess because we have too many. We bought a short bookshelf, fits less than we thought when we got home, but it looks really nice. And now all the DVDs are organized to my liking. We got ready, Monique came over and headed to a friends house for Leo's bday. That was fun, but we were all tired. 

Sunday: 

Went to my Aunt/Uncle's house for this new project I'm working on and to hang out with them. My cousins only have a couple weeks left of summer so time spent with them is precious. Spent all day there, but a lot of work was done. My uncle is awesome, he can undoubtedly build anything.

Saturday's adventure

Saturday I went to visit Malinda. We went to the Redondo Beach Pier. Had a lot of fun. Bought some salt water taffy, some other candy for Tino, and craved every piece of fried food available. Settled on an ice cream and shared jalapeno pretzel. 

It was beautiful out, not quite sunset. 

 This is a cute no fishing sign, I liked it. 

We went back to Mal's apartment and her roommate grilled some fish and corn. On the ride back to her place I brought up Mal's delicious peanut butter and jelly muffins. So she ended up making them.

It was a lovely night. The rest of the weekend was slow and uneventful. 

I did however get Netflix this weekend and am beyond stoked for it. I used to have it, and now I get to spend lots of time deciding what to watch next. I can never be bored again!

I am me, you are you and we're both happy

When I eventually have children, and they start going to school, they will have the prettiest pens in school. Thanks to me! I will bedazzle them like I bedazzle my pens now. 

Okay so if I have a boy I won't bedazzle his pens, but that's okay, I'll still bedazzle mine. 

I've noticed lately, and probably only because I've spent some time, or have been reading things the younger peeps have been saying, that people are more often than not being discouraged from becoming who they want to. It's all about what you should be doing, or what you should look like, and who you should date. Why aren't we allowed to make our own decisions anymore? Why can't we say 'Hey, I want to move to Spain, I'm young and have no reason not to...so I'm moving to Spain.'

Instead we receive comments like, well what are you going to do there, how will you live, what about me? And I think why not, I'm supposed to make impulse decisions now and make mistakes or how will I learn anything? Plus now's as good a time as any right? 

If that's what's in your heart, if that's what you feel then you should do it. 

We continually get told we can't do things. What happened to the good ol' phrase "You can be whatever you want to be when you grown up" 

Most of us haven't grown up so why do you put us down when we haven't exceeded your expectations of who knows what? 

I realized when I do have kids, which will definitely be far into the future, I won't discourage them from doing what they want. If they decide they like to draw on the walls with crayon, I'll apply white wall paper and give them a canvas. If they want to dye their hair purple and play in the mud and do things kids are supposed to do, I won't stop them. 

And in return, they will learn that it's okay to be different, it's okay not to look the same way everyone else does, and because of that they won't be so quick to judge and put down people like so many are willing to do just because we're different. 

Embrace your individuality.