I Love Coming Home

This is a post about coming home from work, being home in general and being a Pacific Northwest lover.

Garrett's Popcorn at Home?

Have you ever stood in line for an hour to buy Garrett's popcorn in Chicago? Well, my besties and I wen to Chicago and we did just that.  Their famous mix is cheese and caramel corn, aka "the Chicago mix".  It was surprisingly, finger staining, delicious.  I was at Costco last night and there this was.  It's not Garrett's but it is exactly that mix.  Kind of exciting.  

 My Amazing Nieces and Nephews!

Chloe is holding my newest nephew, Landon. He's the tiniest thing I've ever seen. It was quite funny, shortly after this Landon farted.  Chloe was grossed out so she proceeded to move him over and set him down on the couch.  She wanted nothing to do with him.  So hilarious, especially due to the fact that this girl farts on me all the time.

 Xmas card from my school, GO HUSKIES.

Okay, they probably wanted a donation.  But, this card is freaking cute! I am very proud of the school I received my education from.

 Early Xmas Gifts

Well, I didn't in fact know this was a gift.  It was inconspicuous and I was expecting other packages. I opened this package, come to find out it was one of my Xmas gifts from Ty Ty.  It is a perfect gift, but I'm pretending I don't remember what it was:)  I mean really, he should'nt be getting gifts sent to my house!  I got another Xmas gift but it was addressed to Daught Daughts Lomas, which was clearly from my besties, Renee and Mike.  Ha ha.  I haven't opened it, even though I really want to.

GLAM BAG

As you may know I do Birchbox, Petit Amuse and Glam Bag. I'm here to tell you, do Glam Bag. It is amazing every single month.  You get full size cosmetics every times.  I think I've received two per month.  Look at this amazing stuff: lip gloss, eye liner, eye shadow, highlight sheets and a base coat something rather.

 Gourmet Foods

Still trying to figure out what to do with this vinegar that I received in a Petit Amuese a couple of months back. Help please...

So totally random post, but you know how I can be.   Miss blogging with you all.  I think I'm back on the bandwagon.

Panty Droppers

I must tell you all about my bar, the reason why I bought this town house and the origin of the name and theme.  PANTY DROPPERS!  I'm sorry this isn't as non-PG as you would imagine, I promise.

There once was this amazing friend named Tim who I met in Texas.  Tim was always smiling and knew how to make everyone happy.  He had a landscaping business, which I hired to help me get my home read to sell, so he was over at my place while working on it.  One night when I got home from work, Mike (my bestie) and I were hungry.  So Tim leaves his crew and comes in, rummages through my cupboards and makes us an amazing impromptu meal.  He is the sweetest friend ever!  I've borrowed his margarita machine a couple of times for parties.  I mean, everybody needs a friend with a margarita machine, right?  Tim was so business oriented, he had the landscaping business, he was a real estate agent and also worked at this cute little Mexican restaurant.  (I say had and was, but he's probably still doing all of these things, I just haven't chatted with him in a while to know the deets.)  When he was working at the Mexican restaurant he was bartending one Saturday afternoon.  Mama AKA Jennifer and I were up at the bar and Tim made us these amazing drop shots called panty droppers.  It was 180 energy drink and three olives grape vodka.  These things were incredible and sure enough after a few I was ready to drop my panties, ha ha (not really.)  

Tim and his amazingly cute baby!

Mama and me!

So after my amazing niece Chloe was born, I decided to move back to the Seattle area to spend time with my lovely.  It was an exciting time, but unfortunately I had to leave behind some amazing friends! It's not so sad, because these friends are so real and loyal that they'll always be in my life.  

Real estate was so cheap in Texas!!  I really wanted to be able to buy something in Washington.  I fell in love with this 1970's style townhouse solely because it had a bar in the basement.  I didn't care that I have to do all of these upgrades, the carpet is disgusting, and I'll wish I had a dumbwaiter to transport items from all three levels.  When it came to naming the bar, it was a no-brainer.  PANTY DROPPERS was born.  This is deeply inspired by Tim, my amazing Texas friends that used to come to all of my parties, Rick's BBQ and some cool bars I've seen in Vancouver BC.  They have bars up there where people take off their braas.  So I thought with the amazing name inspired by Tim and his fantastic drink, we could start a new tradition.  The cover charge is a pair of panties.  The best pair that are on display came from this lady, Inga, who came over after a banquet that my parents were working at.  We had the after party at my house.  Well Inga was having a blast and happened to have a sexy short dress on.  She went into the bathroom and took her panties off!  We hung them up right away.  

I must speak a bit about Ricks BBQ.  This is where I met many of my amazing Texas friends.  It was this small little joint right by where my house was in Carrollton, TX.  The first time my sister and I went in there, people took us in. They made us feel like family and there was no looking back.  I ended up making several friends there.  So many in fact, that I was just back in Texas a couple of months ago for a wedding reception for my Rick's bestie.  It was our Cheers.  We'd go out every night of the week!  Thursdays were our favorite, TANK TOP THURSDAY!  

I happened to end up with this beauty of a sign which will forever remind me of the good old days.

One night there were power tools left on the bar, so I of course decided to unscrew this historical photo from the wall. It now resides in Panty Droppers.  Cheryl (red-headed slut), Clayton (#1)'s dad and some other regulars.

Just remember if you're heading to my pad for a party, you head straight downstairs to Panty Droppers an hopefully you brought your cover charge.

Delicious Treats, Oh Yeah

Petit Amuse
Don't get me wrong it is quite fun to get makeup and beauty products in the mail, but one thing that trumps that is receiving gourmet treats!  Petit Amuse has only let me down one month thus far, every other box has contained some amazing treats.

Have you ever wanted to have a boozy peanut butter and jelly sandwich? Well, me neither but thanks to this ice wine jelly I got to experience it.  It was absolutely delicious and so boozy.  What a unique experience.

Truffles!  There was a peanut butter one, espresso bean, almond and mint. They were delectable.

This is legit nougat, not the kind that we believe is nougat from a Snickers. It was delishy bomb. I haven't tried the honey yet, but it makes a great addition to my pantry.

Funny Stuff
Mondays are kind of lame; but that is why you have to laugh at random things like...

"If Peeing Your Pants is Cool, Consider Me Miles Davis."  This was what I automatically thought after I was climbing on the roof and got soaking wet.  It brought a smile to my face to cheer me up on a Monday.

Ornament Swap = Owls Galore

I was lucky enough to take part in this amazing Ornament Swap put on by Tutus and Tea Parties. Go check out all of the swap posts here.

My swap partner was Kim from A Vintage Fairy and she hit the nail on the head with my gifty gifts.  I LOVE OWLS.

First of all, she did a bad ass job wrapping this. The whole thing was coated in tape! Ha ha, it was a blast trying to get it open.  My excitement was high, so I was fumbling around.

A homemade owl ornament, a super cute owl necklace and a felted owl pair ornament. This girl is amazing!

Thank you so much Kim!!  These are so me.  I love swaps!

Painting Birds, Drinking Beers

Bridget, Daylon, Dre and I ventured to yet another Corks and Canvas Event.  Daylon and Dre were first timers; that's always nerve-racking and exciting.  This event was unique because it was held at a brewery instead of a winery; Pyramid Alehouse to be exact.  They said we could have wine and I told Bridge that if she ordered wine I would judge her, knowing full well she would never do such a thing.  We're beer girls.  I WON!!  They do a drawing at every event, and my name finally made it into Lisa's (the owner) hands.

Freaking Dre got new fancy brushes with grippers!  Advantage much?

Bridge and Daylon enjoying the moment.

Paintings in progress.  Dre gave his bird a little blackbird friend.  All the painting ladies were so impressed.

Posing with our final pieces.

After Party on the Choo Choo Train - The Orient Express has the most amazing red chicken curry ever!  It's one of my favorite happy hour, pre-party, after-party and whatever occasion spots.  The bartenders are always super cool, funny in fact.  And there are always worse singers then you belting out Karaoke from one of the private rooms; and you are never the drunkest person in that place.

Loves at the Orient Express (my favorite Seattle hangout) .

In the next frame Bridget totally slipped me the tongue...

Mom already has dibs on this painting.  She said it reminds her of both my grandmas.  Yay.  They were bird lovers.

I still can't believe I won!  What a fun night.

Seattle Sounders Ole!

Daylon and I trekked through the sideways rain to go see our lovely Sounders attempt to make it to the finals.  They had to wine 4-0 to win, which was a pretty big task.

Pre-Game Party Time - We got off the bus in Chinatown and it was of course my thought to check out a bar there, you can't go wrong with Chinese restaurant bars.  They always have the stiffest drinks.  I think Daylon was a little skeptical, probably for good reason.  As we're approaching there was a very obvious drug deal going on; they didn't seem at all worried about hiding it.  This place was chocked full of crazies and homeless people.  We weren't the only soccer fans in the bar, but probably the only normal ones.  Oh wait, we're not normal, what am I saying?  We had our drink, played some pull tabs and proceeded to throw the pull tabs onto the ground, because that is what everyone else was doing.  After the Chinatown bar, we headed down to Pioneer square.  We found a non-busy place called Double Header; unfortunately it wasn't busy because the service is terrible.  The lady just walked by us and proceeded to put away glasses, talk to other people.  Lame sauce, we finally got a drink.  Some lady in the bathroom told me that the reason that bar got it's name was because it was one of the first places in the area to get both a men's and women's restroom.  I haven't verified, but I like the story.  After Double Header, we walked by several other super crowded places and ended up at the bar that was attached to the Courtyard Marriott and it was HAPPY HOUR!  This place was quite possibly a little too relaxed however it was super cheap and they had amazing appy's for us to snack on.  SNACK ATTACK.  Because we had a doozy of a night the prior night, this place may have made us a bit sleepy ty ty.  But, nothing that the roar of the Sounders fans, the rain in our face and more beer couldn't handle.  We woke the F up on the walk, well more like a walk-run, over to the stadium.

Double Header, beer drinking time.

I've seen peanuts on the floor but pull tabs?  A bit weird; not sure what kind of marketing strategy this was.

Well, the marketing strategy obviously worked , we played some tabs.

Hummus plate with Kalamata Olive dip.  I LOVE cucumbers.

Garlic fries.

Jalapeno poppers; one of my faves.

Game Time - Go Sounders!!

They scored right after the first 10 minutes!!  They really were dominating.  

After they scored, Daylon and I both thought we were having an earthquake.  My beer was shaking so violently and spilling all over my shoes and purse.  It was pretty incredible.  I love Sounders fans.

We got new hats, matchy matchy.

 The Sounders ended up winning 2-1, it really was an amazing game.  The refs did make some bad calls, Galaxy got their goal due to a handball in the box and a PK.  I would argue (don't kill me Sounders fans) that the ref made bad calls the effected both sides.  And even if Galaxy didn't get that PK, would we have scored 4 points??  I'm not so sure.  My biggest complaint is that people are all upset, but we WON!!  Why can't we be excited that we made it this far and we won??  Let's be mad about the point system and the equation to get to the finals.  My 2 cents, for whatever it's worth.  Daylon and I decided last night that we were going to look into season tickets for 2013.  I put down a deposit on two seats; I'll get to select them in December.  I'm not usually the biggest sports watcher, but all the games I've gone to this year were so much fun.

My favorite part about Sounders games is the $10 beers!  Bwahahaha.

Mustache Bash - Al-Bal's Parties are Epic

It was my sisters birthday party last night; we all threw on dirty raper mustaches and partied it up at the Soundview.  For those of you that don't know Soundview Tavern in Everett is pretty trash-tastic.  You are sure to see tweekers, dancing guy, homeless wenches, and a lot of really fun drunk people.  There were a lot of people with legit mustaches; ours were only fakers.

 

Stache cakes!  It was actually quite difficult to do mustaches. I'm not the greatest artist as you can tell.

My sweater for my beer!

Left my phone on the table and Ivy and Doug decided to take a wacky picture, ha ha, so tame!! They could've been a lot more evil.  I'm surprised Tyler didn't steal my phone and do something crazy.

Now that's better.  Oh Doug.

Photo bombed by SMELLY!  Gotta love it.  Stop staring at my crooked tooth:) 

Slushy after a shot.

Daylon's going to kill me for posting, but Ryan had to make an appearance.

Robert having fun with Davonne's blinged out 'stache.

The next day.

I love my Chloe girl.  

We went to the Best Western to sleep but continued to have fun, well most of us. Alison was of course passed out. Daylon's parents weren't there to tell him no.

Davonne reminds me of Jamiroquai.

Looks like she is saying something very profound that requires hand motions.

Father Christmas showed up.

The birthday girl.

Look they're little fishies...Disgusting.  Apparently my grandpa likes to eat these, okay.

Chloe:)

It was really great seeing everyone last night.  I met a whole bunch of new Lowe's people that my sis works with.  Got to see so many of my faves: Smelly and her new fiance, Ryan and Mercedes, Daylon, Bridget, Slushy, Ty Ty, Doug and Ivy, Davonne and Brandon, Nelly, oh and dancing guy of course.  I'm sure I'm forgetting someone.  

Mom and dad are packing for Mexico, I'm so freaking jealous!  Mom was doing a runway show of all of her shorts, tank tops, swim suits and swim suit covers.  Way to rub it in my face.  Then dad just did a fashion show of sunglasses, ha ha.  We picked the ones that made him look like Terminator.  "I'll be back."