Searching for rental houses in Southern Oregon has not been an easy feat. Down here I've found there are code names for rental house listings on Craigslist or property management company's sites that I thought I would share for entertainment and educational purposes:
Cottage- Tiny, shack that may or may not be attached to a home, but is for sure a dump
Updated- The shag was replaced within the last five years with dark brown carpet, but there is still floor-to-ceiling wood panelling
Quaint- No style or architectural design what-so-ever and usual has been preserved in the 70s era
Cute- All the glass is still intact in the windows, but we cannot promise there is paint on the exterior
Inexpensive- Still shockingly spendier than Portland
Duplex- Yes, the people next door are crazy, loud, and wave Confederate flags
Freshly Painted- We had to in order to cover up the water spots on the ceiling
Great Neighborhood- Anywhere that is not West Medford
Quiet Neighborhood- Anywhere that is not West Medford
Close to Shopping-Close to Wal-Mart or the Dollar Tree
Country Living- There is no way you are getting internet out here, not even Hughes Net
As long as your listing does not contain one of more of these, you may be in luck and have found a suitable shelter. I think we might have :)
There are few things I love more than cute accessories and I am so delighted of this new discovery in Southern Oregon.
I recently attended an Open House for Wreckless Photography and during the event I scouted out some adorable hair pieces made by Diana of Lady Like Designs.
Right now she has 21 variations on her Etsy site and I must admit I want to splurge on all of them. But, here is the one I settled on first. A romantic dusty rose colored design with antiqued leather and an elegantly knitted flower.
Many of Diana's designs incorporate fun unexpected color combinations and feathers. All fasten to your hair snugly with a metal clip or pin.
I also heard a rumor hand warmers in the the making... perfect for the upcoming seasons.
Photography by Kristy Behrs of Wreckless Photography who has new big accomplishments of her own like opening a beautiful natural light studio in a historic building in downtown Grants Pass (pictured). This airy space is going to be an amazing setting to her talented eye.
This weekend was the epitome of spontaneity and that means many blog posts are coming out of it.
On Friday we pulled up the schedule for the Ashland Independent Film Festival, saw a 12 o'clock showing, got in the car making it just in time to be let into the Varsity Theater to see Obselidia.
Synopsis: Believing he's the last door-to-door encyclopedia salesman in the world, George decides to write The Obselidia, a compendium of obsolete things. George believes that love, among other things, is obsolete. In his quest to document nearly extinct occupations, he befriends Sophie, a beautiful cinema projectionist who works at a silent movie theater. Sophie believe that nothing is obsolete as long as someone loves it. When they interview a reclusive scientist who predicts 80 percent of the world's population will be obliterated by irreversible climate change by the year 2100, the two must fact the question, if the world is going to disappear tomorrow, how are we going to live today?
I couldn't have written anything I agree with more than this review from Variety, "From the striking title cards to the beautifully composed visuals and unusual collected items that litter the protagonist's home, Obselidia has the look of a hand-crafted piece, something meticulously sculpted or painted in an artist's studio."
After the showing, Diane Bell, writer and first time director, got up in front of the audience for Q&A. Previously a yoga instructor in Barcelona, Diane moved to Los Angeles to pursue writing. After feeling dissatisfied writing Hollywood horror movies, Diane started working on Obselidia with inspiration from encyclopedias and climate change. Filmed in 17 days, on an extremely low budget of $500,000, and casting literally off the LA street, Obselidia was a Sundance Film Festival selection. This showing in Ashland is only the second festival the movie has been involved in, but plans to participate in film festivals in Texas, Florida, and in Diane's home of Edinburgh, Scotland are next up for the indie film. Hopefully the film gets picked up so more can enjoy its message, but if not, Diane and her husband, Chris Bryne, talked about taking the film a more viral route.
While leaving the theater, a woman asked me what movie I saw and I responded with my favorable recommendation of Obselidia and how impressed I was with my first visit to the film festival. She too saw the film and said it was movies like that which bring her back year after year to the Ashland Independent Film Festival. Next year, attending the film festival will not be a spontaneous event in my Friday, but rather a planned out trip to catch as many wonderful films as I can.
Obselidiawill have one last showing at the festival tonight at 6 p.m. I cannot urge you enough to go see it. For more information go to http://www.ashlandfilm.org/.
If you miss its last showing tonight, or want to follow Obselidia success, join the facebook fan page.
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I can't believe I am posting this picture, but if you can't laugh at yourself...
Prior to this weekend I have never been ice skating. When I heard Ashland had an outdoor rink in Lithia Park my eyes lit up!
When I first got to the rink I was so excited to see the handicapped children enjoying ice skating. It was so heart-warming to see them skating around the ice with their walkers and huge smiles on their faces. I was so touched I even took pictures of them. Then Chris informed me that those walkers were ice skating training tools and they were not disabled children. My idealized dream died, especially when this kid started ramming his sister with his walker causing her to fall.
Here we are- Joe, Bonnie, Chris and I! No one fell, technically, although the wall did run into Bonnie. :)
The boys were getting pretty daring with their "jumps." If that is what you can call lifting your skate 3 inches off the ground. Not quite a triple salchow or lutz, but mighty close!
After hitting the ice for an hour we were ready to warm up at a local pub with peppermint patties (hot chocolate and peppermint schnapps=the staple of my holiday diet) .
The Ashland ice rink is open daily through the winter. They even have night skating on the weekends. I had a fantastic time and I want to make it a yearly tradition!
We recently got back from our second wonderful trip down to Grants Pass. Our first day there we hiked the China Creek Trail. We thought it was 5.9 miles... come to find out, that was just one way. The creek was fun to play in though and I did make a friend out of this crawfish Chris found.
Okay, maybe he wasn't really my friend. He didn't seem to like being taken out of the water.
We also went to the farmer's market. I think the Grants Pass farmer's market is awesome. Take this little girl for example, seven years old and she is an amazing violin player. She was fundraising for violin camp. Seriously, how cute!
On Saturday night we attended Chris' friend Nick and his now-wife Michelle's wedding. Here is the cute couple! Like I said before, I love wedding dancing! I love this picture of us girls. They are so fun.
I did catch the bouquet, but then I tried to pawn it off on Rachael :)
After the wedding, we hit the town (funny thing to say about Grants Pass) and went to JDs, a local pub for some game with magnetic slidy things. I have no clue what else to call it. Chris and I lost anyway.
Then Chris and his friend Chris played Safari Hunter! haha. But, I threw this picture in mainly because I didn't take a good one of him at the wedding all dressed up. Doesn't he look great?!
The next day we went out to the Illinois River to hang out and swim. Gorgeous, huh? I think Grants Pass has unbeatable summers.
This dog made me laugh.
That is Chris jumping off a rock!
We were so devastated we had to come home that we drowned our sorrows in margaritas! Isn't it huge? We polished off two of those bad boys :)
Like always, I can't wait to go back. I like the small town life, the amazing weather, the river, visiting friends and family. It doesn't get any better for me!
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