cloud 10

I love clouds. The End.

But not really. I love clouds forever & ever.

Here are some of my current faves.





Halp! Tha trailer park iz bein' being attacked by gigantical floating cotton candies w stern facial expressions! Halp! Halppp!





It's raining, it's pouring. The old man is snoring.

And who was this old man, exactly? And how sad is it that he fell out of bed? And bumped his head? And didn't wake up in the morning?

Now that's just not right. Somebody call CSI.





Racing the storm. Almost home!

But dang, that dark storm-cloud is honing in right over my place.

Figures.





One does not simply walk into Mordor!!

Oh wait, that's El Paso...

Same difference.





I sort of want to paraphrase that Pocahontas song about all the colors of the wind and all that good stuff right about now. But I'll spare you.

See how nice I am.





"I see you. I am watching you. I am the grinning jack-o-lantern storm face and I am watching yooou allll.. *cacklecackle*!"





Purdy desert view from an El Paso gal's back porch. Swoon.





BREAKING NEWS: random mushroom cloud spotted over Luby's... story at 10...





Hal! Ley loo yah!

HALLELUJAH!

HALLELUJAH!

Haaaaal... ley loo yah,

Hal... ley... yooooo... yahhhh... *coughcough snortcough*





I'm driving in my car, I turn on the radio...
I'm pulling you close, you just say no...
You say you don't like it, but baby I know you're a liar...
'Cause when we kiss.... mmm... fire...


Oh, El Paso sunsets. You are such a flirt.

home, oh erect us!

It's been awhile since I've posted pics of my home sweet mobile home, so I thought I'd share some recent ones. As you can see, wow- I actually have some real furniture (furniture that's not lawn chairs!) now. And no more clothes hanging in the kitchen ha...




The red velvet couch & chair were found tossed out on the side of a road, not in the best of shape but a definite upgrade from lawn chairs. The Heather street sign behind the sink was stolen by a couple of my hooligan sk8r friends way back in high school...




My bedroom is finally shaping up, too... nasty wallpaper is gone and I've moved much of my own stuff in. As always, my chichi Mia loves to post up on top of my pillows like the little chihuahua princess that she thinks she is...






My dressing table has somehow been developing a punk-pirate Adam Ant-ish vibe... definitely still a work in progress though, I still have stuff to unpack yet. Ugh, unpacking.




I would show you the bathroom, but, well, it's so tiny that I can't really get in there to get a photo! Anyway you get the idea...






And finally, here's a shot of the view from my back deck... I do get the most incredible freaking sunsets out here...



This place is finally starting to feel like home, and I'm looking forward to starting the new year here. May it be a good and happy one for us all.

home is where the start is

I'll start this off with a shot of the great full moon view I had recently at my new place...



There are these really great old vintage-style lampposts in the park I live in, I love them... and the other night they were lined up perfectly as if leading to the fat shiny moon in the sky. Dreamy.

So as you can tell, I am totally wrapped up in my new place right now. I spent the week cleaning, packing, painting, & preparing and I spent my first night here on Thursday (after a 16-hour-long day of moving!!) And laying my head down and going to sleep inside the box-filled, messy cocoon of my very own place was exciting, scary, disorienting, exhausting & thrilling all at once.

There is still a ton of work to be done- tiling & painting the living room, then bringing in the rest of the furniture- but for now I have a habitable space to live in and it's awesome. I am sort of roughing it, though... the gas is not hooked up yet, so I'm cooking on a hot plate and taking ice cold showers, doing it campground stylee, at least til Monday when I should have the gas connected. Also cable is not hooked up to the TV yet so I have been watching DVDs at night, and damn, I have a lot of zombie movies. All of which I have been watching so it's been like a little zombie flick marathon over here!



It's cool to look around and see some of my stuff scattered around, even in this chaotic state. And I've got my computer hooked up and internet connected, so my lifeline is intact.



My bedroom is the most 'finished' room so far, as the floor and the paint is done, and I've moved furniture in. Of course everything is all mismatched because I am working with purely donated stuff right now... as far as stuff like that goes, and curtains and linens and all that I have some nice things, only they are in storage still. So I've got this insane sort of color non-scheme going on at the moment ha. But at least it's comfy and cozy!



It's nice to surround myself with things that remind me of people that I love. The side tables belonged to my sister, and she also gave me the beautiful red lamp for my birthday one year. An angel and a wooden chest that are sitting on the tables were given to me by my Grandmother. The angel is a reminder of my Mom, the chest used to hold my Gramma's letters & keepsakes when she was very young, now it holds my jewelry.



And I also got the bathroom in my bedroom painted, tiled & cleaned up. It doesn't look like much yet but just remember how atrocious it was before... *shudders* I look forward to my first HOT shower in it! :P



So me & the critters are getting settled in and are happy in our new home. I'm so so exhausted, I have scrubbed and cleaned so many little nooks, crannies, and surfaces that I feel like I am getting to know every square inch of this place-literally! It's taken days just to get to the point where I can eat, sleep, shower and move around comfortably, and still lots more work to do, but it's a good kind of exhausting. And it's so very quiet out here at night, peaceful and still. I am loving it so far.

I haven't been able to do much online than a quick scan of emails and such, I've been super busy and then, super tired! Trying to catch sleep when & where I can. So if I have been MIA that is the reason why. But hopefully I'll get things in hand soon, and get back to my regular life & online routines. I'm looking forward to the housewarming party! *grin*

almost home

When I got to my new place yesterday afternoon to do some work, I found this in my backyard and wondered if I should start worrying:



Is it just me, or does it look like it's ready for a coffin??! But no worries- it's just something the gas company is doing in my backyard, no idea what exactly, but I'm pretty sure it involves gas lines and not dead bodies (I hope!!) 0.o

So this is what my place looks like right now, TOTAL disaster area! Mostly though it's just stuff that we're working with to renovate, so it will be cleared out soon...



Yeah, I have clothes hanging in the kitchen right now. What, you don't? Ha no really, it's because there are currently no rods in my closets (painting etc) so this is where they stay for now...



Here is the brand new flooring we are putting down, in the first room we finished, the master bedroom. I love it. Man I hated that ugly wallpaper though!! *shudder*



...so I painted over it! Here is a (HORRIBLE) shot of the new wall color, which looks absolutely nothing like the actual wall color (just look at the difference in the tile color between these two pics and you can see just how OFF the color is in the second shot) I'll have to get a better-lit shot to post when I am finished because it's actually a great color- a sort of red-based gray/brown, almost like burnt cinnamon (though for some reason here it just looks pinkish, and it's not pink at all!) Very warm & cozy and just dark enough. And no more ugly wallpaper yay.



Here are a few shots of my awesome views from my new place. It's so wide open and peaceful out there, and the sunsets and skyscapes are just spectacular. Expect lots of sky shots from me after I move in!





If all goes well I will be spending my first night in my new place on Thursday and I am beyond excited about that. I'll definitely keep you all posted.

And all posts on the progress of my very first home (I'm a homeowner!! OMG) can be found here, fyi.

movin on up, to the east side

So I haven't posted anything about my move yet, because... I haven't moved. Literally. I have been sitting frozen- in the exact same position- for a month now. Somebody call Guinness Records!! Haha. But seriously, I haven't moved into my new place yet and I am sooo antsy I could just about climb these walls.

Last time I wrote about it, the mobile home had yet to be moved to the lot. Well after a day riddled with a string of unfortunate events (!), my gigantic snail shell of a home finally made it, and we've since been working on getting it fit to be lived in. It was really awesome to get my new key, I did a little dorked out dance and everything.



The biggest problem with getting it done (man I am such a pottymouth I almost used another term there, one that rhymes with sockrock I need to get ahold of myself!! LOL) so far has been getting the water & gas lines hooked up. I never knew that hooking up a mobile home was so damned complicated but yes- you have to have certified people to do certain things, and there are ridiculous amounts of permits, and inspections, and blah blah blah and it turns out all of this takes forever and is a great big pain. During this whole process I had this crazy trench around my place for weeks and I had to tease my overprotective Dad that he was secretly setting up a moat around my mobile home. I kept asking him when the alligators were gonna get there...



Until this Trench Of Doom was filled in, we couldn't put the air conditioning in (as it has to be installed up against the side of the mobile home) And so you know there was no way I was able to move in yet- not with our crazy-hot Texas weather.

One thing that happened when they excavated this freakin' trailer-tributary was that all these itty bitty little frogs came out and have been kicking it, hoppity hop style in & around my yard. Super cute little frogs!



My yard is spacious, and really peaceful. It's gonna be strange to go from living right in the crowded, always-noisy Central heart of El Paso to the wide open, crazy-quiet East Side desert. I'm gonna get some amazing sunsets out there and I plan on putting up a bat house to hopefully attract some of the adorable batsies I see flapping around at night out there.



There's going to be a wooden deck out here in the back and everyone is already joking about me out there in the rocking chair with the corncob pipe. Ha, ha.



To bring it up to date, my dad got the first air conditioner in today and is installing one more tomorrow, and after that I can start moving in. Which means that right now I am wracking my brain over paint colors and other such stuff while trying to ready myself for moving the estimated, oh, one ton of stuff I have to move from here to there.

So... who's gonna come down and help me move?? :P

hallelujah!!!!

Omigod you guys. I HAVE A MOBILE HOME!!!
Yes! Finally! It finally happened!

I am beyond excited. After all of our bad luck, we stumbled onto this incredible find- an MH that has been sitting there- VACANT- since 1998. We found the owners, who don't even live in El Paso, and they were sooooo happy to sell it (they've been paying rent on that space for 10 years!!), that they drove all the way down here over the weekend to finalize the deal. Woot.

Anyway, this is it:

Since it's been abandoned & vacant for 10 years (which is actually perfect for me if you think about it- it's a Lost Destinations trailer, ha), you can imagine there's A LOT of cleaning to be done. But it's 80 x 16, 3 bedrooms, 2 full baths... and it came with a washer & drier, a refrigerator, air conditioner, and 2 brand-new toilets still in the boxes.

It's gonna be fabulous to get in there and redo this place myself. I already have so many ideas for it- I am thinking of an eclectic mixture of mid-century kitsch and gypsy wagon glam, with lots of color and personality. I'll definitely be posting the progress of my first real (non-rental) home here. In fact, I may have to start a 'mobile home chic' blog, since I have yet to really find one anywhere... *wink*

Thanks to everyone who performed rituals to the Trailer Park Gods on my behalf.

Now I have to go collapse with excitement. 'Scuse me.
*shrieks*

mobile homeless

Major frustration on the mobile home front right now. I have been learning a few things.... #1: decent pre-owned mobile homes are a bitch to find. And #2: a large percentage of people that own mobile homes are completely insane in the membrane.

Seriously.



Here's an example. We met an agent who had a mobile home for sale in our price range. He took us to see it, and the innocent-looking little old lady that lives in it was walking us around, showing the place off, pointing out all the benefits, and basically trying to sell us on it. It wasn't in the nicest condition, but after some consideration (my Pops can fix lots of stuff- he's superhandy- so that's not a total deal-breaker), we decided we wanted to take it. We left the deposit in check form. Few days later, she asked for the full amount in cash. And we brought it over to her... only to find that now the lady is refusing to sign the papers. So we go home confused. A few days later the agent calls her, to see where her mind is at about the deal... and she puts the park manager on the phone, who starts yelling at the agent asking him why he's trying to 'force this lady out of her home' and to 'take her trailer away'..!? So now the agent is also confused. We told him forget it, and got our check back. Later we checked out another home for sale in that same park, and the lady that lived there told us that this saga of the crazy lady selling/not selling her trailer has been going on for a long time. Apparently we're not the first people she's done that to, it's some kind of ongoing thing. So.... *cuckoo!*

That's not the only weird one either. We've explored buying 3-4 others so far that have had some seriously strange owners who did and/or said some seriously strange shit. Practical & serious prospects are difficult to find. Just like with men eh.

Needless to say, I am still mobile homeless.

I'm kind of about to explode from impatience. Especially now because we have already secured the lot where we are going to put the trailer (when we find a trailer, ahem) So now I can drive by and see this nice, big (cause it is really BIG for a mobile home lot, bonus)- yet empty- lot. My smartass Grandmother suggested I pitch a tent there. Ha ha.

So this is my lot:



It's pretty big, and even though it's basically at this time just a bare dirt lot- I LIKE that about it. It's a totally blank canvas. I can lay down some sod, some pavers, some rocks, a bbq grill... do some gardening, add some flora. And my dogs are gonna love that yard. My chihuahua will feel like she is exploring a whole new continent, she'll be prancing around like a little conquistadora. It's out in the desert... so the sunrises, the sunsets, and the stars are gonna look spectacular out there too.

Oh and does anybody know where I can purchase some pink flamingos?? I seriously want some. Wouldn't they be perfect in my yard?

Also, that Shady Oaks graphic, at the top? That's a poster I found at allposters.com, and I am totally planning on buying that sucker, framing it, and hanging it up proudly in my BOO (that's Base Of Operations in Shadyspeak) Won't it look freaking CUTE?



P.S. I know I've been slacking on the blogging. The lack of comments & feedback here tend to discourage me, cause I tend to equate no comments with= no readers, so then I start to blow the blog off. I shouldn't, I know. It's just hard for me to get motivated. I know people usually say 'write for yourself' and well, I do... just not in blog form! (I have a lot of private writings) I was just really eager for it to be more interactive here by now... *blows raspberry* Ahh well I've also been a bit down in the dumps lately anyway, and sometimes I don't feel like writing (or talking, or transmitting Morse code haha) too publicly when I'm really down because I even turn myself off with the negativity. Usually I immerse myself in Introvertland... drawing something or reading something or writing something (privately), but it might be beneficial to write here more often. Who knows.

I've had a stream of bad luck these past few months that just knocked me to my proverbial ass, so I've been laying low and licking my wounds.
But I'll get it back together soon. I'm sure of it.

trailer trash treasure

I always knew it would happen.
Maybe it started way back when I played with my Barbie Star Traveler Motor Home circa 1976, pretending my Barbies were carefree, travelin', trailer-livin' gypsies. Or maybe when I developed a fetish for those shiny shiny (ooooh shiny) silver Airstreams I'd see glinting through the trees here & there in the campgrounds we frequented back in the day. Or maybe even when I spent summers traveling the country living in my grandparents Southwind RV motorhome- which we all officially adored and referred to as Big Mo.
Or maybe it's just my Italian gypsy blood.

But somehow, some way, I always knew I might end up living in a mobile home. And now it looks like that intuition may just become reality- I might be purchasing & moving into a mobile home!



The plans we had been making to convert the garage were besieged with roadblocks and problems- at the rate it was going, it was going to take half a year if not longer to get things going on the construction. An opportunity came up to buy a mobile home, which costs- holy moley- a lot less than a lot of cars cost, I had no idea! So we started thinking about the idea... I don't think I had ever consciously considered it before... but it didn't take long to realize the benefits that could be had by becoming a trailer-livin' woman.

And NO I don't mean the kind of 'benefits' that are suggested on the covers of these crazy old books, goodness gracious! *blush* By the way I dunno what the deuces is up with these books, what the Hell?? I didn't know there was a whole trailer-tramp subgenre of literature out there but there ya go, learn something every day. I thought they were kinda hilarious, and the tag lines are so ridiculously camp, tee hee.



This afternoon I drove to the trailer park (am I being un-PC? Should I be saying 'mobile home community'? Ah screw it *wink*) that I may potentially be moving to... and admittedly I wasn't sure what to expect. The place was pretty nice, though- clean and quiet, with lots of trees lining the winding roads that curve through the park (I totally dig that)... I felt at ease, I felt like I could be comfortable living there.

Visions of crazy-painted gypsy wagons and pink yard flamingos have been floating through my head all day.

I love the idea of having the privacy of my own place... my own place, because yes, I would own it. I love the insanely low price of mobile home living ($240 a month, with some utilities included!) I love that I'd have a yard for my 3 Hellhounds to scamper around in. And maybe this is weird of me, but, I love mobile homes. I have always been fascinated- since I was wee- by homes mobile & motor, the extreme efficiency with which every little centimeter of space is used, the freedom to move the thing if you ever want to, and the allure of a snail-shell home that travels with you.



If I do end up going mobile, I'll be posting about my trailer park trials & tribulations here for sure, so stay tuned. And hey, no trailer park jokes from the peanut gallery please! (like I am gonna be able to escape those, groan)