My Account of the Clackamas Town Center Shooting

It started off as a typical Tuesday. I was going to go to work with Shane, but instead I decided to play hooky and ask Adrey if  she wanted to go Christmas shopping, instead of waiting until Thursday. So off we went, around 1.30 I think. Me, Adrey, and her four month old daughter, Ella.

We started the day going to Ross...with insanely long linces... I kept thinking maybe people had the day off from school off or something because there were so many people out. Then we stopped at the bank, and headed to the mall.

We started out by parking at Macys. Walked through there and then made our way to Forever 21. Went downstairs, and decided to get coffee from the Starbucks inside Barnes and Noble, except that we were at the window part of it (still in the middle of the mall) I had bought my coffee, Adrey was ordering her hot chocolate, and the barista was in the midst of making it when we heard the shots fired.

We heard one shot, then two and everyone just froze for a second. Perhaps thinking something had dropped or fell, or a balloon had popped. But they just kept coming. I saw a look of terror on Adrey's face and we all started running.

We ran as fast as we could through Barnes and Noble and out the door. The gunman was defiantly right behind us. As we ran I could hear the shots getting louder and closer. All I could think about was trying to block Adrey and little Ella from getting shot, since they were in front of me. Thankfully Ella was in a baby carrier, instead of a stroller. As people were just arriving at the mall they were trying to ask us what was going on, and since the gunman was right behind us I simply said "run like hell"

We ran all the way across the parking lot to Claim Jumpers Restaurant. Then we saw the first squad car. Followed by at least thirty or forty more. There were over 100 officers and four swat teams, helping to escort those who weren't able to escape. Many stores closed their gates while the people hid in the back rooms.

Two people were killed, and one injured before the gun jammed, and then later fixed itself and the gunman committed suicide. He fired sixty shots, and there were 10,000 people at the mall. Its by the grace of God that so few people were hurt. It was also the grace of God how our day turned out. After coming out of Forever 21, instead of getting coffee I was going to suggest to Adrey  that we go to Bath and Body works because I wanted to look at the candles. Had we done that, instead of get coffee like I suggested...we would have been right where the gunman's rampage started!

 The mall is still closed and will reopen tomorrow, where they will hold a vigil. Even the surrounding stores and offramp from 205 is blocked off as well as the max and bus lines.

I have so much to be thankful for!!!

Neighborly Christmas Gifts;-)

Gift ideas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Christmas Ideas

Here's just a few ideas for wrapping, gifts, food, etc.

I Love Fall

Here's some things I love about fall!!!

Of course I loves these candles from Bath & Body Works. Leaves, Cinnamon Nut Bread, and Hot Buttered Rum are among my favorite scents. I also love Farmstand Apples!

And they gave me a coupon...woohoo.

I also love flannel shirts. These are my faves. The top is from Vans, the middle Goodwill (Sean White) and the bottom is from Fox Racing;-)

And these are my top nine fall nail polishes. Clockwise from top. OPI How's it Snowing, Sonia Kashuk Chocaholic, Savvy Outrageous Orange, China Glaze Trendsetter, Nicole OPI I'm a Belieber, NYC Sidewalker, Zoya Dree, China Glaze First Mate, and Nina Love Struck.

Stud Earrings

Recently I've been obsessed with stud earrings. I like them for when I'm at work and they are not in the way. Anyway, here's a few of my favorite pairs.

Top row: XXI, Fred Meyer, XXI
2nd row: ebay, XXI, XXI, XXI
3rd row: XXI, ebay, ebay, ebay
4th row: ebay, ebay

All of these I spend no more than four dollars on. All the ebay ones were $.99 free shipping!!!

Smore's bars!

1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 king-sized milk chocolate bars (e.g. Hershey’s)
1 1/2 cups marshmallow creme/fluff (not melted marshmallows)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light. Beat in egg and vanilla. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder and salt. Add to butter mixture and mix at a low speed until combined.

Divide dough in half and press half of dough into an even layer on the bottom of the prepared pan. Place chocolate bars over dough. 2 king-sized Hershey’s bars should fit perfectly side by side, but break the chocolate (if necessary) to get it to fit in a single layer no more than 1/4 inch thick. Spread chocolate with marshmallow creme or fluff. Place remaining dough in a single layer on top of the fluff (most easily achieved by flattening the dough into small shingles and laying them together).

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until lightly browned. Cool completely before cutting into bars.

PS-I doubled the recipie for a 9x13" pan, and got 3 of the hershey bars. Worked perfectly!

Questionaire

Here's a silly questionnaire to get to know me better...and to waste time. LOL.

Favorites

1. Color: orange
2. Food: seafood
3. Season: summer
4.TV Show: the twilight zone
5.Movie: gone with the wind
6.Band: brooks & dunn
7.Book: (besides the bible) redeeming love
8.Outfit: sundress
9.Vacation: cabo san lucas
10.Animal: horse
11.Scent: perfume Angel by therry mugler
12.Drink: milk and lemonade
13.Famous Person: jesus
14.Sport: swimming
15.Hobby: crafts
16.Number: 12
17.Beauty Product: nail polish
18.Restaurant: ya hala
19.Store: target

This week in photos.

Must. Do. Now.

I so need to try this!

Thrifty Thursdays

I'm sure you all know by now, that I love thrift stores...and it really doesn't help that I work at one. LOL. Oh well, you win some and loose some, right? Hehe. Anyway, I may be biased, but I think ours has the best prices in town. You can check out the fb page here. 

And if you're in the PDX area, it's on 31st & Sandy BLVD. And, when you buy from Teen Challenge Thrift Store, you are helping put some great young men through a Christian program to help them get off drugs and alcohol. So, it a win-win! 

I have an obsession with jars lately, The jar with the cork, I actually bout at an estate sale for $1.50, the rest I got at TC for $.99 each.

I also picked up this great, really old looking coach pin for $1.99

And this random fox tail for $1.99...which I don't know what I'm going to do with yet. Haha.

I also got this great heat box thing, that has great velvet lining for $.99. I think it's supposed to be for a ring maybe...not that I plan on proposing to anyone in the near or distant future, but it's cute.

I picked up this napkin for $.59 Again, no plans for it, but I liked all this cool gold and gray flowers.

I also got this wad of necklaces for $2.99. You can't see it from this picture, but I really wanted the wishbone charm that's on it.

Here's a strip of lace ($.59), and a pillow case ($.99). I have no plans for the lace yet, but I'm going to try to turn the pillowcase into a scarf. I've really been wanting a leopard print scarf...and what better way!

I also got this OPI nail polish. I forgot the color. But I got it for $1.99. It's a great bright reddish orange!

Awesome Ebay Finds

So, I ran into this ebay shop called Gone With the Wind. And being my favorite movie, naturally I was curious. Of course... I don't understand the correlation with the title, but whatevs. It has great and cheap  costume jewelry. 

You can find the store here. 

I got all four of the items pictured below for under $15 with free shipping. And..it came to me in a week, which was really surprising since it's all from China. 

Anyway, just thought I'd share!

Homemade Vanilla

Scroll to bottom for recipe.

As we all know, pure vanilla extract is super expensive...but if you make it yourself it doesn't have to be! And you can make a lot at a time.

All you need is, a glass bottle, three vanilla beans, and some alcohol (either vodka, rum, or bourbon)

(for those of you are freaking out right now because of the alcohol, don't worry because you are using this in really small doses, just like you would regular vanilla extract, and they alcohol content will cook out of your recipe anyway.)

Anyway, I purchased a vial of three madagascar vanilla beans for $8.99 at Penzey's spices here in Clackamas...however I'm sure you can get them at more places. Online would probably also be a great place to get them. As for the alcohol, you can pretty much use whatever you want because you won't taste that much of it anyway.

You'll need to take the vanilla beans and slit them all the way down with a knife, that way the flavor will infuse the alcohol. Then pour in your alcohol, and that's pretty much it. It will need to sit for at least three weeks, giving it a good shake every few days.

The vanilla beans will be good for approximately one year, so you can keep pouring in more alcohol up until that time, waiting about two weeks each time you use it again.

I hope you all enjoyed this!

Gift Idea

So sometimes I have a hard time deciding on what to get people for birthdays and holidays, etc. I came across a really cool photography blog and this girl made books for her relatives...so I thought it was worth a shot! It seems like it was pretty decently priced too. 

The website is called blurb, ie www.blurb.com 

I know that you can also make books through shutterfly...however I've never compared the two of them before. 

Anyway here are the results of my book. I got a 20 page 8x10" paperback book.

Some Random Jewelry of Mine

Okay, so here's a collection of some jewelry I have...most of which I did not make. If you like to see what I make, and see you can find it here at Bittersweet Bling. Or you can shop here.

These I got at forever 21 a couple of years ago for about $2.80

Last summer I was obsessed with watching biggest loser, and one of the contestants, was wearing earrings VERY similar to these. Unfortunately, the website is no longer open;-(

I found these at Powell's Bookstore on Hawthorne. I think they were around $10. But they're so adorable, little tiny origami paper cranes.

I found these lovely coconut earrings (which are a pain to put on) at a place down on Hawthorne ST called "The Gold Door". They were $5.

I found these when I worked at Goodwill, but I can see on the back they are Joan Rivers brand, which I think you might still be able to get from QVC.

Here's some of my favorite studs. The yellow rosette studs you can still get for $3.80 here at Forever 21. The come in yellow, black, and pink.

The red rhinestone cluster studs were also from forever 21, however I don't see that they are available still. But here are some that are quite similar. Or you can probably do a google search for "rhinestone cluster stud earrings"

The blue daisys I got on sale at Fred Meyer, however since they have a really crappy website, you can't buy them online. (I'm pretty sure they are Great Northwest brand)

The glitter, button, and saftey pin earrings were all made by me!

I picked up these great feather earrings on sale at Target.

These also came from Powell's on Hawthorne. They come in all different shapes, sizes and colors. I really want the ones that are a bicycle, and a lotus flower.

These are also from Fred Meyer, Great Northwest brand. I think I paid $6 for them.

Of course they don't have these on the website, but I got these at walmart. They were around $3.50

I love this pocket watch necklace. I think I paid $20 at the Powell's on Hawthrone.

I got these lovely gold tassle earrings at Forever 21 for about $2.80

And if $265 isn't pocket change to you, then you probably won't be getting yourself a Marc Jacobs rose gold watch either. This one I got on sale at Target for $12.99

This came from Forever 21 for $7.80. It's comfortable and stretchy. It's also available in black, blue, and yellow.

I got this set of bangles from walmart. It was $5.50 for the set of 18 of them. I got the gold set, but they have silver too!