Bench Restoration

So my parents have had this old, metal bench for.ev.er.

I don't know where they got it from but it was sturdy and in good working order. I think my mum wanted to fix it up and put it at her house but she just never quite got around to it. So, John and I took it to ours and he decided to fix it up whenever he was bored.

The project took a lot longer than it would have if 1) I would have helped and 2) he worked on it continuously.

But since we weren't in any hurry, he took his time and finished it last week.


First he took it and sanded all the rusty bits and whatever old paint was left on it.

It was all green at one point in time.

Then he primed it.

You can see what a big difference just a coat of primer can do!

Then, I got to choose the colors and he did two coats of each so that in the end it looked like...

A super cute little Mexican bench. It doesn't match our green house at all and my mum doesn't like the purple, but I don't care. It's super cute and I like sitting outside with John on it and Noah at our feet (he's too scared to actually get on it).


I'm pretty bad with before and after photos because I always forget to take the same picture but I'm sure you can get the idea.

A Letter in Hindsight to my High School Self

Dear Valerie,
To Valerie,
To The Me That Still Doesn't Know What Awaits Her,

High school may be the scene of many a John Hughes movie but if your experience were to be filmed...it would probably be a rip-off version played on public access and edited, badly, for time constraints. High school can be the best years of your life (so said someone or other) or it can be just something you do. For you, well let's just say that you might want to work on all of your high school reunions.

Freshman Year will be the worst year, which all things considered is actually good to get all that out of the way in the beginning. It's the year you realize you're not at all sociable, that your private school education failed you, and that for all you know about sex - every one else in your school knows it first hand - not through the book that Mum bought you.


Speaking of Mum, you will hate her because of her tyrannical curfews, old-fashioned morals, and over all not-understanding-you.

It's OK, you both still don't quite understand everything about each other but later in life - it doesn't matter so much. Plus, now you can do whatever the fuck you want. Though, now you'd rather NOT stay out all night or pretend to listen to bad hardcore music.

You will FINALLY get a boyfriend but even though he's sometimes nice, he's very probably certifiable. You feel flattered to be acknowledged but there is so much more than just being with someone who notices you. As hard as first breakups can be, you get over it and though you continue to date shit-to-okay boyfriends none of them will ever be that crazy, so Future You calls it a win. Remember, not everyone can have a perfect Dean/Rory relationship their first time, besides you always shipped Rory&Jess anyway.

Rory&Jess 4eva! 

Sophomore Year yields better results all around. You have a few friends you talk to, you finally get out of remedial classes and are now taking an advanced two-hour math class. In this class you will meet a girl who could have very possibly changed your life but you were too boy-crazy and caught up in your own world to pay attention to what was right in front of you. Your arrogance and ignorance will ruin the friendship but you will forever be more invested in those who are kind and meaningful, rightly ignoring those who don't matter, which will make you a better friend to everyone you know.


Junior Year brings about new friends and your most traumatic first date ever. But don't fret, the story will provide great fodder in later years when you're trying to win a free drink at a bar.

This is the year you will sneak into the trunk of a car to blow off your last few classes of the day. You'll also get with, and break up with, and get with again, your first "real" boyfriend (meaning lasting longer than a month). This on-again off-again trend will last longer than you think.



Senior Year will be exactly like you dreamed...if you dreamt that you'd have a full course load, no friends, two freshman PE classes, and still have to take the bus home.

Even though that sounds pretty awful to you, this year you will also discover your love of movies and fall hard for a guy who has a girlfriend. Even though you're a senior, (which obviously means you're all grown up) you're still young and naive and believe that moving out of state for college will turn you from grubby, fat caterpillar to a big, beautiful butterfly.

All in all high school was a time in your life you will probably not remember too fondly. But you will survive it, have some good times, meet some good people, and end up meeting someone who has a much bigger impact in your life than you ever could have imagined because he obviously has already seen how low you can go.

How low can you go? 

This was the time of your life where your later years start. Your work in TV would never have happened if you hadn't taken that one film class. Your hard work paid off and the things you learned, albeit usually not in your actual lessons, shaped you to be grateful, passionate, and snarkily humorous. You may have skipped prom and (rightfully) decided against raising a cow, but the times you've had -or didn't- weren't things you missed out on. By not doing everything that everyone else was doing, you learned to appreciate and work for the things you wanted to do. You learned to do things because they interested you, not because it interested others.


In high school you learned to listen and believe in yourself and if nothing else, at least you've got that.

Sunday Social # 5

1. What is your biggest driving pet peeve?

1.) People who don't let you in. 2.) People who don't let you in and then switch lanes. 3.) People who drive slow. 4.) People who are in the left lane and then haphazardly merge all the way to the right to get off. 5.) People who don't creep up on a left green light. 

2. What is your biggest blogging pet peeve?

I sensor myself a lot. Also, one of my biggest fears is ending up on a website with a headline like "Look at this loser! And her shitty opinions!" So...there's that.

3. What is your biggest shopping pet peeve?

Not having enough money to buy all the things.

4. What is your biggest general pet peeve?

I am can be a bitter, angry person. If you're interested in my pet peeves, be sure to check out my Bitchin' About label. 

5. What is your most irrational fear?

I'm pretty scared of heights but I think a lot of people are. I hate, loathe, detest, am terrified of frogs and toads. Those things make me want to die. I think that's pretty irrational.

I can only stand to look at cartoonified versions of the devil's animal. 

 

Books - The Secret Ingredient to Life

I have been a book-lover forever. My parents would read to me when I was younger, and then once I learned to read, I'd read to them. I loved reading so much that my mum would sometimes use it as a punishment.

No Valerie, you CANNOT read today! Go clean your room!

Books were also a prize. If I got good grades I'd get to actually buy a book, instead of just borrowing it from the library.

When I was in elementary and middle school I loved reading non-fiction science books. Anything in the 500s I would devour. Ancient Egypt, the pyramids, Rome, space, spiders - I'd read to learn and better understand all the things I couldn't comprehend.

Beautifully made by: Maggie Appleton

Then I discovered the Young Adult section at Barnes and Noble. My dad and I would go and treat the place like a library; reading books and magazines while my mum went shopping. I'd pick a book from the shelf, then sit on the floor - or if I was really lucky - one of the well-worn sofa chairs and read for hours. Then, the next week I'd do it again until I finished the book. Rinse and repeat.

In high school I became a library volunteer, shelving and scanning the books that people brought in. This meant that I had usually already read a book that was assigned and had help from the librarians if I had any questions on a paper.

My book-nerdiness continued in college where I worked both at my college library and their bookstore simultaneously. And just two years ago I got a job for the city working at one of our many libraries. (Though I have since then quit.)

Visit SAPL to borrow books! 

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that I've read a lot. And I like to read a lot. My goal in life is to get as big, if not a bigger library than Belle's.

This is my heaven. 

So, in the upcoming weeks I will tell you my Top 10 Favorite Books. Each will have their own post and a link to Goodreads but I will end up putting up the full list here for ease.

If you have any books I should read - leave them in the comments!

Sunday Social # 4

The questions this week are all about your Top 5. You would think there would be only 5 questions but you get a bonus.

1. 5 songs you'll listen to the rest of your life.

Satan and St. Paul by John Fullbright  * Before the Devil Knows We're Dead by Turnpike Troubadours * Gaston on the Beauty and the Beast Soundtrack * Wolf Like Me by TV on the Radio *  Sunshine by Atmosphere *

2. 5 things on your bucket list. 

 Skydive * Scuba Dive *  Go on a Volunteer Vacation * See the Northern Lights * Go to a drive in movie 

3. 5 celebs you'd love to hang out with for a day

Robert Downey Jr * Christoph Waltz * Jon Stewart * Chris O'Dowd * Tina Fey

I think, especially if I got to hang out with them all at once, it would be a complete riot. We'd be laughing and talking and they all seem so easy-going.

4. 5 things you always carry in your purse

I actually hardly ever carry a purse anymore. But when I do have one I carry: 
Driver's License * Debit Card * Lipstick * Phone  * Bobby Pins

5. 5 books on your reading list

The Fault in Our Stars * The Dark Tower Series * The Handmaid's Tale * Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe * The Lord of the Rings Series 

6. Share the last 5 pictures on your phone. 

Literary Junkie Link-Up # 2

Last month was my first link-up to the Literary Junkies. I love the idea so much that I decided to keep up with it. So here are this month's questions - all about the old-school paper. 

1. What are you reading right now? Tell us about it!

Right now I'm reading my first Neil Gaiman book - Anansi Boys. 

I've been reading it for a while because I've been busy with Noah, work, and trying to clean/paint/and garden our home. But so far I'm really liking it. It's easy to read, engaging and even laugh-out-loud funny. 

2. Divergent, Hunger Games, or Twilight. Which do you prefer and why?

I haven't read Divergent but want to. I am currently on the library waiting list at number 25 or so. But I have read The Hunger Games trilogy and I absolutely loved it. I read each book in one sitting and found them to be fully formed and complex. I love Katniss and the situations she has to face. I love that even though she's strong she's not always strong. Sometimes she does break down and that doesn't make her any more fragile or girlie or whatever - she's multi-dimensional and Peeta is the greatest. 

3. TV Series Based on Books: they start out very close to the book to draw in the fans but then will start to separate themselves by changing things and adding characters. What are you thoughts on this?

I actually had to Google TV Shows based on Books because I wasn't sure which ones I've seen and read. Turns out...not many. I loved Dexter (based on the books by Jeff Lindsay) but haven't read a single book. 

I watch Gossip Girl (books by Cecily Brooke von Ziegesar) as a guilty pleasure but have never picked up any of the books in the series.

 I understand why they have to make differences from the book to the big screen but when they divert too much from the original it can get annoying to the book-fans. 

4. You've just been recruited to help a movie studio bring your favorite book to the big screen. What's the movie and who are you choosing to play the main characters?

One series I love - The Jessica Darling Series - is hilariously funny, snarky, witty, and smart but I don't think a movie could ever do it justice, no matter how much I wish otherwise. 

I think any book by Sarah Dessen would make a good chick flick. I can see This Lullaby being a great rom-com.

The Truth About Forever a good high school coming-of-age movie. 

As for actors and actresses, I seriously don't know. 

5. Going back to the above question, do you keep it word for word the same or do you use this chance to change little things you thought would make the book better?

I think it would be very difficult to keep any movie-based-on-a-book word for word. There is always something you have to cut out for time constraints...unless you do a BBC mini-series version. But I would not change the overall direction or ending of the books because I think they're perfect for the story and could be shot perfectly for the movie. 

6. After you finish a physical copy of a book do you keep it for a reread, put it on a shelf to collect dust, donate it to Goodwill, or do you just not purchase physical copies of books?

I love buying books. I kept all my English Lit textbooks. I always scour Goodwill, Salvation Army, and Library Sales, but recently I've only been borrowing them from the library. I love owning books because I can highlight them, write in them, get food on them without worrying about it. But we don't have enough wall space for a bookshelf to fit all the books I have and wish I could buy. That said, if I see a book I know I love or have been wanting to read for a while I will definitely try to find it at Half Price or somewhere cheap.