Stars & Bars Cutoffs

I've been seeing various red, white & blue attire popping up lately, possibly because the 4th of July is rapidly approaching, or perhaps everyone just really loves Merica right now. I pick the latter of the two.

 I scored some pretty sweet shades that fall under that category. 

But the tip of the patriotic iceburg was when I saw Monica rocking a pair of shorts she had found at le Tarjay.

Being that I'm cheap and stubborn. I refused to go buy them, because I knew I could make em myself.

I present to you: my DIY stars & bars cutoffs.

Sunday after Family Breakfast I had my mom drag out a box of old jeans that she had saved over the years for craft projects.

I attempted to squeeze my notsotiny toosh into a bazillion and twelve different pairs, and finally landed on some real fashionable wideleg white capris. Meow.

And immediately took scissors to them. Out came the craft paint and I set to work.

 I got a little giddy when I saw the red stripes coming to fruition. Yea, that's how lame I am. At least I can admit it. Heck, once the other side had a coat of blue I was blowing up Instagram with pictures!

I patiently waited to add my stars, and now... I present to you... probably the coolest pair of shorts I have ever made (Sorry 6th grade home ec teacher, the plaid boxers we made come in a close 2nd)

Tonight I am working on a pair to send to miss Melissa Jo! Spreadin the Merican' love my friends - that's what it's all about.

 

Mixer & Mingle Friday: Pab Me

A while back, somewhere in the middle of a post I threw in some comment about using PBR as a mixer. And suddenly no one cared about any of the other SUPERIMPORTANT things I said, and only wanted to know more.

It's cool, I'm not mad. 'MERICA.

I don't really have specific recipes for yah, but I can share what are favorite go-to's are!

It all started when I was drinking a Dailys Strawberry pouch and it was just way too sweet for the 90 degree day. I searched our cooler for something to dilute it, and came up empty handed save for a few PBR's. Whatever, I thought, it couldn't make it any worse!

Truth: it made it SO much better!

A few weekends after that we were out boating one sunny day and I was beer'ed out. I grabbed the bottle of Pinnacle Orange Whipped and added some into my beer.

Hello, genius.

Pabst Red Ribbon

1 Dailys Frozen Strawberry Daiquiri pouch

+ 1 can of PBR

Hillbilly Blue Moon

1 can of PBR

+ 1 (or 2) shots of Pinnacle Orange Whipped

White Trash Sangria

1 Daily's Peach Daiquiri Pouch

+ 1 can of PBR (also really good with Bud Light Lime)

PB-Arrrrr Pirate Punch

A glass of someone else's rum punch

+ 1 can of PBR

I like to call it the Sprite effect. It really loses any 'beer' flavor when you add other alcohol to it. It's honestly becoming a favorite mixer.

And if that's not classy, I don't know what is. 

(I wrote about some other brewtails last summer - you can check those out here!) 

*Also, drink responsibly. beer + liquor could get ugly real quick. Don't be dumb.

 

Something to laugh hysterically at.

A few years ago I bought fake glasses from Forever 21. For two reasons mainly,
a) i wanted to feel smart and b) they were $4.(and if you haven't realized I'm the queen of spending money on dumb crap, you haven't been a loyal blog follower for long enough)

I'd wear em here and there. They became a fun little accessory and if I strategically wore them places like Whole Foods or Barnes and Noble people probably really did question my IQ (in the good way)

Yea, well apparently karma doesn't think that shits funny, and she's all "oh you wanna play dress up little girl? ha watch this"

So after getting caught squinting at my computer monitor one too many times, a coworker bullied me into scheduling an eye appointment.

And now I need glasses. Real ones. With lenses and a prescription. Ew. Four eyes.

I deemed myself Too Good (read: too broke) for the glasses offered at the doc's office, and turned to the interwebs. Whit showed up with an entire list of places for me to check out.

Lo and behold, one of them, Warby Parker will send you up to 5 pairs to "try on" before ordering. for free. Free glasses to play in? I'm down to clown.

Clown being the keyword here. Enjoy:

(Clearly, I'm back to the drawing board. Unless there is a comic book convention I can wear one of these options to)

The real stinger: LT was trying them on the other night, and looked like he walked off the pages of GQ. Figures. 

Learn to chase it.

Source: tumblr.com via Chelsea on Pinterest

So... how'd you two meet?

You all keep inquiring on where the heck LT came from, ask and you shall receive my friends!

So here's the thing, I refuse to make my Twitter private. Protected. Whatever it's called. Partly because I think it's just plain silly. Also partly because it's connected me with a lot of people I know through other people. And I love that part of it.

With that being said, I get a lot of random new followers. Like a handful every week. Sometimes it's just spammers, sometimes its mutual friends. So one day back in the opening scenes of 2012 when I had the email come through informing me of a new follower I saw 'Indiana' and 'racing' on his profile and figured it was someone I had met in passing.

At some point a DM convo was struck up in which we were trying to narrow down our 6 degrees (which ended up being the million and twelve mutual friends we had) and when he threw the flirty "you look familiar, I think we've met" out there, I shut him down with a "nah, but I can pretend we have if it makes you feel better"

He was quick with his words and had a good sense of humor, he somehow managed to hold my attention. When 144 characters weren't enough the DMs graduated to text messages. A lot of them. Like, every day. About important things and nothings and most things in between.

Then one day in March he was flying back from a race in Florida, and asked if I would be interested in hanging out? (I live like 10 minutes from IND) Gasp, meeting someone off the internet?? I'm pretty sure I said no at least 6 times.
Especially after I learned his flight wouldn't get in until like 1030 that night.
He wouldn't accept my no for an answer though.
So I warned my friend Whitney that if she didn't hear from me by 8am the next morning to call the cops and tell them I was probably cut up into a million pieces in a dumpster somewhere, I proceeded to accept his offer to 'chill'.

Our epic first "date" if you want to call it that, consisted of awkward 'hi nice to meet you, welcome to my house' hugs, a Matthew McConaughey movie, and us both falling asleep on my couch not even halfway into it.  We woke up to my 6am work alarm and the credits rolling and I sent him on his way. With a little bit of a crush and a bad case of bed head.

My drive to work was consumed with thoughts like 'Who is this character and where did he come from?' 'He does have an awfully cute smile though. Thank god he wasn't some internet predator on bath salts coming to eat my face off ' 'What was his name again??' (kidding on that last one, sheesh)



So now you can all stop asking where he came from. And you can point fingers and laugh because I swoop my men on social networking sites. Naturally, instead of telling people we met on Twitter, we stick with the "met through mutual friends" line.

The Truth

I got into a Rainbows and Butterflies, Kittens and Unicorns conversation with my sweet girl Al earlier today. I don't think we all necessarily try to paint the prettiest picture, but maybe you all are like me and just don't like to ruminate on the ugly side of life. You come to it, you conquer it, you move on.


The truth is, owning a home alone is hard. Not just financially, but physically and mentally. Every bill that comes in, any thing that breaks or needs fixed, all the projects I leave half-finished because I lack time, money, or just plain don't have the skills. It's been a huge adjustment going from living at home to being alone. Mowing grass, laundry, dishes, cooking, grocery shopping, everything. It's tough when there is no one else there to help you out.


The truth is, I don't like to rely on others. I hate that feeling. I don't like having to ask for help. I'm way too stubborn, and a lot of the time it just makes things even harder on myself. 


The truth is, I get burnt out on my job. Sure the industry is a blast, but I work my ass off all the time and it's still not enough. And a lot of time I still don't feel like I quite 'fit in'. 


The truth is, part of the reason I never mentioned LT before on here was because I didn't think he'd be around for long.  And when I started to realize he might, I panicked, and tried my hardest to push him away. Because I've still got it in my head that falling for someone just leads to heartbreak.


The truth is, sometimes it's a little daunting to look around and realize a lot of people your age are either climbing a corporate ladder or establishing families.


The truth is, friends are constantly coming and going from my life. Friendship is hard to maintain, it's not like high school where you saw each other 1st, 3rd and 5th period and at lunch in the Commons.  We're all going our own paths and struggling to figure out how to make schedules mesh up or find halfway points.


The truth is, I spend money I shouldn't on vacations because they are my vice. My peace of mind. Sure my 40year old air conditioner is ready to die any minute now but I figure in 20 years I'll have better memories of that week in the Caribbean than that time I sweated my butt off with no A/C.



The truth is though, I'm tough. I grew up watching strong-as-hell parents who never let anything set them back. They started with little and built the life they wanted, and that's where I'm headed too. No matter how many truths I struggle with, I guess the only one that matters is knowing I can handle it.
 

23rd.

I found $44 this morning, so even for a Monday today can't be all that bad. My phone kissed the asphalt this morning and didn't crack, again, not so bad for a Monday.

Do you realize we've had 23 weekends already this year. That means 2012 is dangerously teetering on the edge of halfway gone. I'm ok with that though, 2012 has been good to me so far. Only one of those 23 weekends has been bad, and that was the one spent in the children's hospital when we learned of Liv's cancer. 22 out of 23 isn't bad!

Pretty mellow weekend around these parts. Full of furry coons, fast cars and family time. And I loved every bit of it!

 

 

So What Wednesday

Link up with Life After I "Dew" if you wanna dish too!

So what if this happened yesterday. God I love my parents. Hahahahah

 

Little Letters

Dear Neighbor,
I still find it hilarious that you think I travel a lot for work (guess I really never am home). While I appreciate your gracious offer to mow my lawn for $40 a week, it took everything in me not to laugh in your face. What kind of ganja are you smoking?


Dear Squeezable Applesauce pouches,
I realize it may be a little odd that anyone over the age of 24 months eats you. But you really are a pretty handy snack. Overpriced, for sure, but delicious. 


Dear hipster from the Food Truck Fest on Friday night,
Where in the WORLD did you get your dinosaur embroidered pants? I'm beyond envious.


Dear LT,
Oh hey, you discovered the blog. Hope you enjoyed seeing your face plastered on it. My followers love you already (that's code for dont F this up).


Dear PBR,
Should I stop right now and question what my life has become if I am addressing Pabst directly? Anyways, Dear Pabby... thanks for becoming my go-to mixer. I don't know how you do it, but you sure do make vodka even tastier.


Dear Mikey,
I would totally cheat on you with Marc. I'm sorry but his chrono's are growing on me. I was once a dedicated MK girl, but times are a'changin.


Dear plants,
It's funny, before I bought my house I had all these visions of frolicking in gorgeous gardens I tended. (go ahead, pause and reread that)

HA.

Who has time for that? I can't even remember to water plants that sit on a windowsill directly above my kitchen sink. Sorry I mass-murdered all of you.


Dear Adam Levine,
Hi. I miss you in my life on Mondays. That's all


Dear Niece,
I want to think that you were carrying around a shotglass saying DRINK DRINK last night simply because it seemed to be a small-person-sized cup to you, not because of something you picked up from your Aunt Chelsea. Please don't prove me wrong.

 

Introducing LT

You all are eager little beavers. I post this long, enticing story about my dating life and all you all pick up on is the slight comment hinting at a new fella in Miss Chelsea-ville.

Well, you're right. There is a new fella, we lovingly refer to him as LT around these parts.

(And yes, I did blur his real name out.  Nobody likes stalkers)

If you follow me on twitter or facebook you've probably noticed the increase in racing events I've been attending. Blame it on this fella.

He's pretty cute though, so I'm not mad about it. I think I'll keep him around for a bit ;) 

Mixer & Mingle Fridays : Tag Alongs

Summertime means picnics, cookouts, pool parties, baseball games, and all around patio drinking. You know what goes well with all of those events... libations!

Let's raise our hands if we enjoy lugging 4 different bottles to our neighbors house just to make a round of cocktails...

Anyone? Anyone?

Didn't think so!

So, I'll let you in on a little secret - there are all sorts of delicious pre-mixed, ready-to-drink options. Wanna know some of my favorites?

 You already know my love for the Dailys pouches. I rave about them all the time.

 I'm a whiskey girl. I love my Jack & Coke. But these aluminum premix bottles make it SO easy to throw in the cooler!

 How bout a little Jimmy in a can?!

 Pink Lemonade + vodka in a tiny plastic bottle? Ok, pull my leg

And for all you SkinnyGirl loves - SkinnyMini's! Comes in a plastic bottle, is that not adorable.

Who says beer has to be your only tag along option!?