Celebrating Life: Guy Fawkes Day-5th of November

Hello there all,

Who has heard the wonderful rhyme "Remember, Remember the 5th of November.."? If you have not read it before, I strongly suggest reading it here. I'll admit that I was not familiar with the verse until the 2005 movie V for Vendetta. However, I now look forward to every 5th of November to celebrate the day. England has been celebrating Guy Fawkes Day for years. To brief up on your history nerdiness, click here.

Guy Fawkes is scaled into a new dimension of complexity where he is now the face of rebellion such as with the group Anonymous. I have been enamored with rebellion and stories of it since the Little Mermaid days: Ariel rebellious teenager that just wants the hunk. It. All. Makes. Sense.

I like to celebrate Guy Fawkes Day, but I don't celebrate it for the traditional concept of thwarting rebellion but with the celebration of rebellion. It is all V for Vendetta's fault. Honest.

Plus, it gives me a reason to watch this awesome movie and get into the spirit of it. I love finding reasons to celebrate each day, and it just gives me a little something special for November 5th.

Here is the Like the Season's way to celebrate Guy Fawkes Day:

1.) Watch this.

2.) Read this.

3.) Burn things: candles, fireworks, bonfires, wood fires, etc.

4.) Drink delicious warm drinks

5.) Think how wonderful it is to live in a place where I can be my rebellious self.

Stay rebellious,

Autumn

Vote! Vote! Vote!

Hello there all,

Just sending you a friendly reminder to become informed and get out there and vote. I am not going to tell you how to vote (however, I would definitely give you some informed answers if you would like :)) What is important is for people to get out there and make their voices heard. As Oregon does not have a poll system, the Mister and I voted weeks ago, and the anticipation is getting to me!

Let's rock this democratic process ya'll! Hope that I'm not going to be the only goober checking election results every five minutes tonight.

-Autumn

Birthday 2014

Hello there all,

Another year lived, another year older. I am now the big 2-8. Yes, I know that it might sound old OR young to you, but I have to say that I cannot believe that I am 28. It sounds so incredibly close to 29 which is deadly close to 30. Growing up, I never thought that I would be shaken by getting close to 30, but here I am slightly freaking out. I still can't believe that I have fooled others into believing that I am an adult. However, I promise you that I am the dictionary definition of an adult, but I am still not a grown up. How could I be a grown up? But I am a little frightened that my young self might think I am. How did I get here?

Anyways, this is how I celebrated the glorious day:

Ate some delicious breakfast noms with my love at Pine State Biscuits.

Some beer sampling at Growler's Hawthorne.

Did an obscene amount of thrifting. We made away with some amazing deals today, and I mean ridiculously amazing deals. It was some of our best work.

The Mister surprised me with a sweet scavenger hunt. Here are some of the clues.

Ate nachos and drank delicious beers at Migration Brewing.

All in all, it was a wonderful day full of memories, love, thrifting, and good food. It makes me a little more excited to be bringing on another year and more accepting and grateful for the years that I've had. It even brings a little excitement for the years to come. However, I don't think that I will be growing into the grown up title anytime soon.

Cheers to another happy year,

Autumn

Beer Pick: November 2014

Hello there all,

Just here with this month's beer pick. This month, I am paying homage to one of my favorite Oregon breweries: Fort George. This beer is all of the deliciousness of a stout with some slight hints of coffee which is perfect for this time of year. It is something that you will gladly have warm up your belly because it is just so scrumptious.

Fort George has a special place in my heart because it is the first brewery tour that I went on. Additionally, the Mister and I went to Astoria (home of Fort George) on our first trip together as a couple. In that cute little coastal town, it was where I realized that I loved that kiddo, and I've been doomed ever since :).

We got a growler fill from our favorite fill station in Portland: Growlers Hawthorne.

No, I have not been sponsored by Growlers Hawthorne or Fort George. My taste buds are the only things that sponsored this.

Autumns up (like bottoms up...get it?),

Autumn

DIY: Homemade Laundry Detergent

Hello there all,

There is something that I love about this whole homesteading movement that is sweeping around. We are almost regressing and going back to the way things our grandparents did things. I love that because we are recognizing the purpose of why past generations did what they did: it worked. We are losing some of the craftsmanship and quality by our recent streamlined processes. Additionally, we are being horrible to our bodies, our wallet, and the environment.

One way that I have been embracing this homesteadiness culture is that I have been making my own homemade laundry detergent for the last couple of years. Yes, I know how granola I sound right now, but it legitimately works! Also, it is waaaaay cheaper than laundry soap which can get expensive.

You only need three ingredients and a couple of kitchen utensils. These ingredients can be found at any grocery store, and you can use the Borax and Washing Soda in a million different recipes for homemade cleaning products.

                                      

Ingredients:

• Borax
• washing soda
• 1 bar of soap (I usually use bars of soap that I find in the health and beauty section which smell delicious to give my laundry a nice smell, but I have read multiple people suggest Fels-Naptha which can be found in the cleaning aisle with laundry soap).

Supplies:

• Food processor or grater (I recommend a food processor if you can because the grater kills my hands)
• measuring cups
• Airtight Container for storage
• Bowl (optional)

The steps:

1.) Break your bar of soap up to put into the food processor and pulse it until the soap chunks become broken down into finer pieces. If you are using a grater, grate away your bar into a bowl.

2.) Measure out one cup of Borax and one cup of washing soda.

3.) (Optional) Mix all of the ingredients together in a bowl.

4.) Put all ingredients into your airtight storage container. I pour all ingredients into my airtight container and shake it around to mix it. Who wants to mess up more dishes? Plus, this gives me a reason to Salsa Dance with my growler.

5.) Store the container wherever you prefer. When it is laundry time, measure 1-2 TBSP of the detergent for each load. 

What homemade cleaning products do you make? If not, what has been stopping you?

-Autumn

DIY: Felt Sign

Hello there all,

After the many hours of perusing Pinterest that I have invested, I always come back inspired for new things to do. One thing that I love to pin are beautiful quotes or sayings that I would like up in my house as art. Recently, I came across this and knew that I wanted to create a sign. With the ridiculous amounts of felt that I have laying about, it only made sense to make the sign with felt.

What you'll need:

• two varying colors of felt: one for text and one for the background
• fabric glue/tacky glue
• hot glue and hot glue gun
• stick
• string
• pen

Let's do this:

1. Decide on the quote that you like. When you have it decided, you will need to cut this out of your text felt. You can do this a couple of different ways: print off the text that you like, cut it out and use those letters as stencils; you can free hand what you want the text to look like; or you can use a projector to project the text onto the felt (this is what I did). You will also want to cut a thin slice of felt that is slightly longer that the width of your background felt.

2.) Take your background felt and fold two corners in until they meet. You will cut off these two corners. You should be cutting off the two triangles that are made while folding the corners in. Your leftover background felt will leave a point.

3.)  Next you will mark where your plan to put the stick on the back of the felt. In order to plan this, you will need to look towards the top and fold the fabric over the top of the stick with room for gluing it down.  This will show where you will lay the stick, mark the bottom of where the stick lay.

4.) Cut little slits along the line that you just drew. These should be every so often and be as long as the width of the felt strip that you cut from the text felt. It will vary in the look you want, but I did one slit about every 1/2 inch.

5.) Weave the strip of text felt through the slits that you cut through the background felt.

6.) Place the stick against the line that you drew on the back of the background felt and fold the background felt on top of the stick. Hot glue the stick and fabric together to encapsulate the stick into the fabric.

7.) Using the Tacky Glue, glue the text onto the front of the piece of background felt.If you want the line to be straight, you can use a ruler, but I didn't use one :).

8.) Wrap the string around one side of the stick making sure that it is secure. Take the same string and wrap it around the other side of the stick. You can use some hot glue to keep it from unraveling. Make sure to leave some room, so you can hang it later. However, you should wait a short while before hanging it so all the glue will dry.

9.) Marvel in how awesome you are.

Craft Flaw: I messed up when I originally made this, and I wanted to share what I did to make it better. When I originally wrapped the string around the stick, you could see the hot glue, and it was a hot mess. So, I just went through and re-wrapped each side with the string. This time, I just tied the string to itself instead of using hot glue, and it is staying pretty well.

Now, it is time for you to go make one!

-Autumn

Listy Listiness: Thrift Store Shopping

Hello there all,

Most who know me are aware of my undying love for thrift shopping. Growing up, I was always afraid of others knowing that I thrift store shopped because I felt like their were negative connotations associated with thrift store shopping. I didn't want others to think that I wasn't as call as they were. However, these days, I LOVE to thrift store shop, and I don't care who knows it. The truth is that thrift store shopping is such an amazing resource that I love sharing the practicality with others because I think that it is a smarter way to shop.

Why thrift store shop you ask?

1.) Treasure finding- When you go thrift store shopping, you find those diamonds in the rough. You find those things that have such wonderful potential and you save them from a doom. One man's trash is another man's steal :). You also have the opportunity to have something that nobody else haves. Many items that are found in thrift stores are vintage pieces or handmade items that you are not going to find at a department store. These are the items that have character and that bring some fun to your home and wardrobe.

2.) Bargain Hunting- I cannot count the amount of times that I have found something that I wanted at a thrift store for a fraction of the cost that I saw it at a department store. The amount that you can save on items when purchasing it at a thrift store is remarkably low. Shopping at thrift stores just makes sense financially.

3.) A Way to Live Greener- The American society is so disposable, and it is a bit unnerving. However, this is a way to save items that could be thrown away. You are saving items from landfills, and you are getting items at the same time. SCORE! It just seems crazy to walk through a store looking for something like picture frames when I know that there is a plethora of them at thrift stores waiting for a home. If I buy them at a store, I am just creating a demand for more manufactured goods instead of keeping the used items in circulation.

4.) The Adventure- You never know what you are going to find and that is part of the fun! You may not have known that there was a Jackalope penny bank out there, but you definitely need it! Shopping at thrift stores creates constant adventures because the selection is never the same.  There is a remarkable amount of ugly items, and it is also fun to see how eek worthy some things are.

5.) Keep the Creativity Flowing- There are infinite amount of tutorials of things out there calling for new uses of things that you find at thrift store. You also encounter things that with a bit of sprucing can be a beautiful item. It may just need a bit of paint, cleaning, or ingenuity to create something new and functional for you. Yes, it can be difficult to visualize certain items into new uses, but it is a creative process which can be very fun.

6.) Community- Many thrift stores are in collaboration with a non-profit that may assist your community. By shopping at this thrift store, you are also assisting the organization that it supports and in a way giving back to your community. You don't get that at department stores.

What do you love about thrift store shopping?

-Autumn