Getting Political

There's a house right across from the post office with a fence on which they post political signs.  With mid-terms coming up it's all about the local stuff.  And in our small town located in a valley of small towns that means that some of those signs are painted on plywood using hardware store stencils. 

 And look a "Tara"!

I will add two more bits of information:
1. The candidates with "homemade" signs in this photo also have fancy, professional signs in other places around and at least a couple of the candidates with fancy, professional signs in this photo have "homemade" signs elsewhere.

2. The day after I took this photo another sign was added to the fence. It appears to have been printed with an ink jet printer and covered with plastic of some sort, but not covered well enough to keep the ink from running around the bottom edge.

In conclusion, I really like this. It makes me happy.

Driving

I wonder if I'll stop getting carded now that my license photo is slightly less unflattering?

Since I finally got a haircut and can achieve a non-hobo look when desired, I finally went ahead and got my Montana State Driver License.  Well, I don't actually have the license proper, but I have a temporary, paper licence and holes punched into my Oregon license that spell out "VOID."

Yup, I'm an organ donor. I hope everyone considers being an organ donor, too, annnnnnd then does something to make it so.

What I really wanted to show everyone was these cool maps they have behind the counter at the Stevensville branch of the DMV.  The top one is labeled "Out of State Transfers from 3/23/2009 to 6/17/2013" and if FULL of pins, one from each person who has moved here and gotten there new license at the Stevensville office. There is supposed to be one for Eric in the heap of pins stuck into Portland.

The bottom maps is labeled "Out of State Transfers since 6/17/2013" and I got to watch a red pin go into Portland for me.

That 70s Bathroom: A Few More Details

It has been awhile since any kind of redecorating or remodeling has gone on around here and it is going to be a little while longer until anything of any real consequence goes on in the house.  That said a few fun, new things have been added to the upstairs hall bath in the last couple of weeks.

How we last left the foreign toothpaste collection.

First off, I filled the two remaining empty frames (above, lower left) with more of the foreign toothpaste collection plus one more frame.  Next time I'm in Portland, I'll need to pick up either 2 or 5 more of these Ikea shadow box frames, because there are more tubes to be framed and there will always be more foreign toothpaste.

Left frame: from left Gibraltar, Germany, South Africa. Right frame: from top Vietnam, Thailand, China, China.

I'd like to have 3 frames arranged vertically here like one column from the other arrangement.
From top: Russia, Spain, Kosovo.

The toilet in that bathroom doesn't flush, shall we say, thoroughly. I had a similar issue in my house on 80th Avenue and that was caused by the wrong hardware being installed in the tank by a previous owner.  I think this is the same issue, but I am neither ready to tackle it nor ready to pay a plumber to tackle it.  So, I thought a sign would help everyone who uses it leave the bowl as they found it. [wink] 

I wanted this to be both subtle AND obvious, so I thought hung over the wood paneling rather than the painted wall AND right by the toilet handle would achieve those goals. Time will tell.

I'm not a lady who usually likes to thumbtack or tape things up, so I mentally went through my stash of small frames AND remembered this little beauty that I picked up recently at a thrift store.  Not only does the profile mimic the *Ikea framed mirror on another wall in there, but the finish ties right in with the other antique brass finishes. Not to mention it has a certain 1970s home decor vibe reminiscent of Home Interiors, Inc. of which my grandmother was a leading sales person in her heyday AND loyal fan through all her days.  Practical, humorous, and nostalgic is a winning combo in my book... er, bathroom.

I was tempted to embroider it, but printing it meant it would be complete within minutes rather than possibly-never. I thought the semi-old western-y font seemed appropriate for our location as well as the vibe of the room.  There is no glass because the frame originally had a mirror in it, which lead to a whole other reason to giggle while deciding where to hang it.

If you'd like a reminder of just how far this bathroom has come and all the excruciating details of the transformation from actual-80s to retro-70s decor check out these posts:

*That 70s BathroomL Phase 1

That 70s BathroomL Phase 2

That 70s BathroomL Phase 3

SUPER SPECIAL THANKS TO THESE FANTASTIC FRIENDS AND FAMILY FOR THESE FANTASTIC TOOTHPASTE(S): Cousin Bud, "Cousin Sal," Eric, Lisa, Sandy, and Ellyn. 

Full Measures

Going back in the time machine before April Fool's Day finds our hero fishing the Missouri River with Osprey Expeditions guiding him to some big ol' rainbow trout!  I'm told that he caught this first one within 60-90 seconds of putting his fly in the water the very first time.  Bigger, wigglier fish followed but were not captured by the camera.  In fact, both Eric Fs (see caption) caught at least eight fish and all but a few were between 18-26" long!  That's his story and he's sticking to it.

The guide and owner of Osprey Expeditions, Gary Fritz, is the father of one of Eric's employees whose name is also Eric.  Yup, Eric Fischl and Eric Fritz; I guess that lead to some confusion on the river.  I'm told that it was pretty windy on the river which is why our Eric looks like he's smuggling his catch home in his coat.  This trip was purely catch-and-release.

Speaking of inches, I got about 14 of them (the equivalent of half to two-thirds of a Rainbow trout) cut off of my hair and have sent that off to Children With Hair Loss as a donation.  I had not intended to grow it out for that purpose again, but I just kept not getting it cut... for 34 months.  I LOVE having a reasonable amount of hair again and even tried a new color this time.  Still brown - what am I, crazy? - but I went from nutmeg to cinnamon.  So spicy!

I chose CWHL because they take color treated hair, but unlike the organization-we've-all-heard-of CHWL never charge the families of the children with "medically-related hair loss" for the wigs.   Of course, there is still a lot of expense in making these wigs, so even if you can't donate hair I hope you consider a monetary donation; every little bit adds up!

Foolin' Around

HAPPY APRIL FOOLS DAY!

Pretty much the only non-creepy clown around, Ms. Mavis.  Seriously, she's less creepy in person.

Once I spotted the red clown nose in the 50% off bin at Michael's, I knew Mavis had to have it.  What I couldn't believe was that between the two of us neither Eric or I had a rainbow clown wig!  That's not like us at all. Lucky for me, my friend, Denise, had part of one left over from a project and our mutual friend, Lisa, guilt-ed her into sending it to me!  YEY FRIENDS!  YEY GUILT!  The rest of her outfit was cobbled together with materials at hand, mostly scraps and remainders from other projects.

Something about this great, big , bushy beard makes Ramon look kind of cranky. That's how you know it's an April Fool's joke, because Ramon is the cheeriest guy there is.

We also didn't have a bushy, ginger beard for Ramon, if you can believe that.  I did have orange yarn in my stash, though. YEY STASH!  The hat was picked up from the Goodwill bins a few years ago & has been in the costume box waiting for the right occasion.