Moving Sucks

My weekend was less than exciting. I spent it packing, moving and cleaning. Yuck. I wanted to be out fishing. Let me tell you what, moving out of a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house with a shop and a garage is hard ass work. I have so much crap. On the upside of it all though I'm weeding out alot of stuff I haven't used in ages and don't really need and I'm getting fun new things that I don't really need but WANT! I've had mossy oak in my room for years now and I was half tempted to keep it but decided it was time for a change. So I ordered brand new bedding so Im pretty stocked about it. I called it a early Christmas present to myself, which made the price tag of it all totally worth it! Tell me this isn't badass?!?!?! I also ordered the matching curtains and valance!!

Ive also found a ton of things I had forgotten I even owned too! I found a brand new still in the box rifle scope that was a gift from a friend last year, I found my body bag (a cooler for deer) that would have been handy a month ago, tons and tons of candles, just all sorts of stuff I never really unpacked when I first moved in.

Now I'm in the process of selling tons of things on Craigslist and gearing up for a garage sale this weekend so I can turn around and buy new things I'll stick in a corner and forget about!

There was a bright moment in the middle of all the chaos of cleaning and packing when the mail came and my custom made laptop sleeve arrived!!! I LOVE it! She did an amazing job! Its exactly like I told her I wanted it!!! If you ever need sleeves for you laptop, kindle, or whatever go Here

Happy Tuesday!!!

Back To Reality

Today is my first day back to reality, i.e. work. I spent the last 4 days beating down brush trying to kill my 1st elk. I had no luck. :( Opening morning I spotted 4 head over a ridge and down the hill and after hiking through the hills I finally got to the general area where I had seen them. It was apparent they had been through there not long before I got there. There were fresh tracks and droppings EVERYWHERE. I followed the tracks until they disappeared into the marsh and up the other side of the unit. It was getting close to noon so I decided to hike out and come back in the evening time to try and catch them heading back out of the brush. That didn't pan out either, no sign of the elk coming back so I hung around in the brush for a while and headed back to the junction where they had come down that morning to see if I could catch them there. Didn't find em there but I sure as hell got the surprise of my life, right where I had been in the brush 30 minutes prior there were fresh bear prints and big ol pile of crap. I decided I wasn't hanging out in the bottom of that unit anymore so I high tailed it out of there and back up to the top where I can see what in the world is around me. Now I know I shouldn't have been scared I mean for fucks sake I'm packing a 30-06, I could shoot the damned thing but I was. I'd much rather be able to see him coming from up top then straight out of the brush behind me. I definitely will be coming back for that SOB come spring bear season and I will be prepared to meet it face to face. It started getting late so it was time to head out and head home. Opening day was pretty good, spotted the herd, quiet a few deer, and evidence of a bear. I figured Sunday it would be GAME OVER.

Sunday morning I hiked back out to where I had spotted em the morning before and nothing, not even a single fresh track to even indicate that they had come back through. This was extremely disappointing. I stayed in the general area hiking up and down and all around for a few hours but decided to move on and see if I could track down another heard some where else. I spent all of Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday covering miles upon miles of back country trying to find a herd and couldn't find a damn thing. I never even saw another animal those 3 days I was out. It was crazy! I was in prime elk country and nothing. Oh well that's how it goes sometimes. There's always next year. But next year screw this general season crap I'm putting in for a controlled hunt. I will say though even though I didn't get my bull I found some prime deer locations for next fall! I also got paid time off to go hunting! Nothing better than getting paid to do something you love!

I also can't say enough about my new gloves I got the night before opener. I ran down to Walmart in the next town down because I just LOVE their hunting department! I was in dire need of some new gloves because I knew it was going to be cold. I got a few pair and of course a ton of other stuff because I cant seem to say NO to things camo! I haven't tried out the fleece pair yet but I'm sure they will be great! The Real Tree Light Weight Womans Glove was what I used all weekend long. They were light weight, comfortable, kept my hands warm and dry (ran into rain a few times), and the embossed no slip grip on the palms was AMAZING! I didnt have to worry about loosing my grip on my binos or my rifle! If you ever run across these gloves I highly recommend them, especially for the price too, I paid something like $8.00 for each pair.

And since I didn't end up with my elk I've got no pictures for you of it but I do have some of the killer views I had all weekend!!

I love living in Oregon, its gorgeous even on a cloudy day!

I will say I am SUPER glad I didn't find anything here because that hike down to the bottom and back out would have been HELL.



Here's to a bear skinned rug next year!

Storm Season Is Here

One thing I absolutely love about living in Oregon is the fall storms we get. They can be pretty wicked! The first official storm of the season came over night and waking up to the wind and rain this morning was actually peaceful to me. I wanted so badly just to stay in bed and listen to it blow, unfortunately duty called and that meant getting out of bed at the wonderful time of 5:30 a.m. When summer reached to an end and school season had returned I was dreading the 5:30 mornings that came with it. It was so nice to sleep in a few extra hours during the summer, it was almost like I was back in school. Unfortunately it's not me, (I didn't time warp back but how cool would it be if I could) it's my mini me. She started the 1st grade this year and so far is still loving it! I believe a good education is vital, hence why we get up so damn early to get ready for school. I chose to send her to a school 35 miles away because of their academics. If I could afford the commute I would up and move to Elkton in a heart beat. The town is so tiny but the members in the community are amazing and everyone gets involved with the school and its going ons! Amazingly I don't have to commute there at all unless I want to. They are a charter school so they have kids that come from all over and there are enough kids between Elkton and Reedsport that there is a bus that comes to town at 6:40 am and brings them home at 4:45 pm. Not only is she getting a great education (did I mention shes at a 2nd grade reading level) but it works great with my schedule. She doesn't always ride the bus either, my neighbor whom is also a close family friend is a teacher up there so she takes her and brings her home for me most days. She has come out of her shell so much since I transferred her up to Elkton and I have been so pleased with how much she has grown I hope to be able to send her there until she graduates and if for some reason they ever change their boundaries I WILL move just so she can still attend.

I love how I initially started blogging with the idea of storms, fall, and comfort food and got side tracked into going on and on about Keelie's school. This however is nothing unusual for me I will start a conversation/letter and talk about 10 million other things before finishing what I originally started to say. I have dozens of "ooooh look something shiny" moments in a single day, keeps my life interesting I think. So back on to what I initially set out to blog about. I was uber excited about the weather this morning and decided it called for soup for dinner. I first set out to make clam chowder but realized all the clams we had dug over the summer were frozen as a brick so I decided I will make that this weekend, my next idea was venison stew!!! Ive already eaten a good portion of my deer so why not stick with it and make some stew! I haven't had venison stew since I was a little kid at my grandparents house. Which reminds me forget using a recipe out of a book I'm calling grandma! I'm glad now that the venison too was frozen because I want my grandmas recipe!!! Comfort food with a dash of nostalgia! Then came idea # 3. Chicken and Dumplings. My mother makes the best ever and so I picked up the telephone and dialed her up, unfortunately for me she was sleeping. I brought her home from the hospital this weekend and she is still working on recovering from her whole ordeal which could be a book in its own. I decided my mom is one of the best cooks ever and has even worked as a chef in a 5 star restaurant and shes been self taught no schooling, nothing, just trial and error. I hardly ever see that women use a measuring cup either, it baffles me how she can make things over and over again and its always just as good if not better and never use the same measurements. Anyways back to what i was trying to get at, since I'm her off spring I'm hoping the cooking skill is in the genetics! I already know I can bake up a storm, I love baking and am awesome at it! Just saying! I decided to be like my mom and just throw some things together! So as we speak I've got chicken and not yet the dumplings (that will happen when I'm finally home) cooking in my awesome camo crockpot at home! If all goes well and it turns out as good as I am thinking it will I will post the recipe. If it takes like hell I am taking no claim to it, the garbage disposal will get it and "take out" will be waiting before anyone knows i even attempted to create a dinner!

Oh and one more thing, y'all have to try this!!!! I love anything pumpkin and when I saw this in a magazine at work I had to order it! Pumpkin Pie Liquor!!!!! It is trouble in a bottle!

Hugs,

Redneck Princess with a Twist

So I figured my first post should be about, well ME! Give y'all a little insight about who I am and what I do.
I will start off with I am in my mid and I'm stretching on the mid 20's. I grew up in a small town in Oregon population approx 6-7 thousand, and as much as I hated it growing up I love it now. I left my hometown about a week after my 18th birthday and headed for Montana. I was born there but left when I was still a baby so I thought it was time to go back and check it out. I LOVED it there but after a few months grew home sick and headed back home. Or at least that was the plan. I stopped in Portland on my way back to see some girlfriends of mine whom I had grown up with and were going to school up there now. Needless to say I never made it back home,

For the majority of about 7 years after high school i stayed in the Portland metro area. Let me tell you at first it was a complete culture shock. I grew up in a at the time 2 stop light town, now there is a whopping 3!!!! I had never heard of Coach, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, or any big named designer really. I was used to getting from one end of town to the other in a matter of minutes not hours. We didn't have 24 hour anything, the town shut down at dark basically. People went downtown, to clubs, concerts and events for fun on their weekends. My group of friends and I hung out in the local grocery parking lot on Friday and Saturday nights for fun. I know it doesn't sound fun but some of my best memories of my friends happened in that parking lot. there were times that we would get kicked out of a certain stores lot and wed just move across the street for the night! Now we didn't always stay in the parking lot, it was more or less a meeting spot since it was smack in the middle of town, if you were bored all you had to do was drive by and there would always be someone there and it would just grow from there. We would head to someones house, out to the dunes, or up into the hills and just have a good time.

Growing up in a small town I hated it or at least I thought I did but looking back I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. When I left home I had the "I hate this town, there's nothing here for me" mentality. I do wish I wouldn't have gotten so home sick though because I absolutely loved Montana. In the 7 years I was in the Portland area I went to school three times, business admin, medical assisting degree and then beauty school. It was at school for medical assisting I was dubbed "the redneck princess" and a few times they even called me an "over achieving redneck princess" I studied A LOT and wasn't happy unless I made good grades. I graduated with a 3.89 GPA, I hate to admit but I was disappointed it wasn't a 4.0.  The girls I socialized with at school were all except for 1 who was a lot like me were all pretty city. They thought it was hilarious when they found out what I was really like because they all had pre conceived notions about me and not one of them was even remotely close to who I really was. I still remember the day i was given my nick name. We were in phlebotomy class I had just walked in donning my newest "baby" my very first Coach bag! The girls all thought it was hilarious that I loved fishing and rodeos and couldn't wait to go home on weekends and ride yet here i was decked out in scrubs, my hair and makeup done, wearing a John Deere sweatshirt and carrying a Coach bag and that's when one of them go your like a redneck princess or something. The name stuck after that.

Now I should probably back track a smidge. I started Medical Assisting school right before my daughters 1st birthday. Yepp that's right I have a daughter who is 6. She is my pride and joy and a spitting image of me just with red hair. Personality to boot. She's just like her mama. She loves to fish, go shooting ( she has her own .22 single shot rifle), camping and I think is slightly more obsessed with horses then I am. I suppose though her insane addiction to horses is my fault. During a day down on the waterfront in Portland during the Rose Festival she saw pony rides and wanted to have one, well one turned into two and that quickly became like five if I remember correctly. I came up with this crazy notion to get her into riding lessons after that since she liked it so much. She was 2.5 yrs old when we started this venture and were still going. I'm thinking and secretly hoping this will be a life long interest of hers!

Now fast forward. I am living about 25 miles south of where I grew up, in an even smaller town and I love it. I have my moments where I miss the city but realize I'm happier to visit it then to live in it. If I want to fish I'm just minutes away from the ocean and the river, same goes with camping and four wheeling its just minutes to the mountains or dunes. I am in my element and this is where I will stay. People tend to joke from time to time that I'm a little bit of a city girl now but I tell em I'm country with a twist! I have an obsession with shoes, boots and flip flops mainly, purses, perfume, anything in mossy oak and real tree camo, and John Deere. The newest thing to jump up on my roster of things that make me happy is make-up. Ive always worn make-up and had bunches of it around but it was never really an obsession until now. I am an ETSY junkie! I am always on ETSY looking for fun new things or things to inspire me.

So now to why I started this blog. I have another blog that I haven't really kept all that up to date and decided I wanted to take a slightly different direction and for me I do better when I start from scratch. My daughters dad will even back me up on that one. He always thought it was funny when Id cook from a box because even with detailed instructions clearly marked on it I can sure mess it up but make a meal from scratch and its amazing!  So back to my ETSY addiction which is a big part of my inspiration for the new blog. I happened to stumble upon the eyeshadow world there a few weeks ago completely by accident and I cant seem to get enough of it! I ordered 10 new shadows from this awesomely cool company on there called Concrete Minerals and they should be here any day! As soon as they arrive you can bet there is going to be a post about it. I'm going to be doing alot of review posts on my awesome finds, as well as posts about whats going on in my life in general, crafts I'm doing or have done, even toying with the idea of a theme for Mondays, Manicure Monday. Id have a new manicure to post every Monday for you to see and possibly a polish review to go with it since I'm always on the hunt for awesome new polishes!


This is a copy of the 1st post I did on my very first blog. I had a generalized idea of where I was heading with it but then at the same time I didn't.
** I decided that 2011 was going to be MY year, the year I really put myself out there!! I feel like it's time to broaden my horizons and do things I wouldn't normally do, because they fell outside of my comfort zone. Life is to dang short and if this 2012 end of the world hype really is true then Im going to live 2011 like there really is no tomorrow. I've got tons of ideas and things I want to do and accomplish this year and I am starting them with this blog.

I never thought I would want to start a blog but in the few weeks I have had this uber creative streak in me that I would like to think its been inspired by the holidays and because of 2 people who mean a whole heck of alot to me, my daughter Keelie and my cousin Alyssa. Keelie is my 6yr old ray of sunshine. That girls can light up a room like no one I know. She's always got someone laughing with the things she says. I like to think she's a little version of me with her own twists. She loves to paint and draw, I almost think she's better at it then I am. Her imagination is unbelievable, she can keep herself entertained for hours playing with her barbies and horses sending them on adventure after adventure or wearing one of the many different dresses or tutus she has pretending shes a princess and since her favorite color (right now) is purple that's where half of my blog title Purple Tutus comes from. Now for my cousin, that girl was truly something special! For those of you who don't know me and even those that do but are new to my life, Alyssa passed away a year ago this month. She has been on my mind constantly the last few weeks and I think thats a big part of the flame thats been lit under me. You could travel the world and go on one crazy adventure after another without ever leaving where you were with Alyssa. She had the wildest imagination. Alyssa also had quite a thing for Regis, Jay leno, and Pink Flamingos the inspiration for the other half of my blogs title. **

If you want to check that blog out just click here.

I could go on and on and on but I won't bore you to death, at least not yet!