Renting out my beloved townhome

http://t.co/KO02qH7i townhome in #mesa for rent, close to #lightrail, #MCC, #ASU and freeways, owner/agent is Krystal! -- Krystal J Nelson --

Why I'm letting my hair go gray...

I turn 27 on Monday...I've been going gray for almost two years (that I've noticed) and haven't dyed  my hair since October, a few weeks before the wedding.  I even started parting it on the opposite side of my head about a week ago, for the first time since high school!  Yeah, I'm a rebel.  I was kind of worried about it at first...the first gray hair in the top right corner of my forehead, right on my part, appeared in August 2010 after probably the most tumultuous and rewarding couple of years I've ever had.  I worried it was from stress, anxiety, hormones, lack of hormones, bad diet.  I worried about worrying too much (it's my specialty :D) then worried some more.

I'll never forget the first time I noticed it...I even took a picture and posted it to Facebook so I wouldn't have to suffer alone.  It grew out about a half an inch and stuck STRAIGHT up!  Talk about obnoxious...
I told a friend.  She told me to pluck it. 
I told my mom.  She told me that's why she dyes her hair.
I told my husband (boyfriend at the time).  He said "waaah! I've had grays in my beard for years! 

Ok ok.  So I started dying my hair again.  I stopped dying it when I started college and couldn't afford to have it kept up, but I could afford it now.  My natural color is very pretty, but kind of drab with my skin tone if I don't get a little sun light once in a while.  (That's been my excuse for dying it since I was a teenager LOL.)  Working in an office made that next to impossible so aside from looking washed out, exhausted, and drab, I had a Vitamin D deficiency. Ok....time to make a major and positive life change. 

So I dyed it.
I dyed it to stop getting the "wow, you look tired" comment from my co-workers and friends.  I dyed it to stop getting the "you need makeup" from my man.  
Then I dyed it to cover the one gray hair. 

Well, my hairdresser is no longer my hairdresser and I've been too lazy to color my hair since October.  Needless to say, the gray hair multiplied and I now have gray hairs!  Even more, they are curly, course, and WHITE.  All the time I had been coloring my hair I didn't notice them slowly creeping into my scalp line, becoming ever more obvious when I pulled my hair up.  So I don't use a mirror to check out the back and underneath of my hair, sue me! 

After a little anxiety, an hour of prodding and poking through my hair to see every last one of them and counting them for Drew (poor Drew just sat and talked me through it), and reading countless articles about why I'm going gray so early, I'm feeling much better.  Turns out, I do have an underactive thyroid and am now on meds for it.  Unfortunately, the hair is already gray so there's no going back.  I'm oddly comfortable with it now though.  I've become sort of attached (I apologize) to the cute little curly hairs on my head.  Luckily I've also decided to grow my hair out and have become lazy and don't style it as often.  It looks good though.  Very relaxed and summery.  In fact, I feel more comfortable with my face, hair, and body than I have in a long time.  Just part of getting a little older I guess.  At least I still look young....I have my momma to thank for that one <3

Downtown Mesa's Spring Training Haven

Downtown Mesa's Spring Training Haven

This place is great!  Visit my page here to see this and all the happy hours I've reviewed so far.  Bookmark the page and stay tuned for more to come!  Cheers :)

Life gave me lemons...

A new friend, Sally, has a lemon tree...and with this tree, too many lemons.  I offered to take a few off of her hands to juice, then use to preserve the apples I have so they don't brown and sour while drying in my dehydrator.  Thinking I'd have maybe 10-15 to pick up I drove over to her house to retrieve my next project.  HOLY COW!  She set out a H U G E bag of lemons for me...What do I do with all of these lemons?  Well, as the saying goes, I made some freakin' lemonade, duh! 


After perusing the interwebs for a recipe I ran across a recipe for Candied Lemon Peels.   At the end of the recipe you're left with what's left of a simple syrup.   So being savvy as I am about not wasting anything I clicked around a couple more times and found a Perfect Lemonade.  The recipe calls for a Simple Syrup and uses what is left from the Candied Lemon Peel recipe.  I compared what I was making for the peels with what I read on the eHow site to memories of my mother making syrups, candies, and other yummy treats about 15 years ago (phew, that was exhausting!). 


For the next hour I peeled, boiled, drained, poured, boiled, stirred, simmered, cooled, boiled, drained, and tossed me some lemon peels.  While waiting for the peels to boil down I juiced 5 large lemons, made ice cubes, and rinsed the dust off of my glasses and pitcher.  Not only did I enjoy myself, I get to publish everything online to share with my friends and family for a little entertainment.  For a simple how-to with pictures read my post here: A Rebel's Relics.  It's pretty cool and I had a blast taking pictures in my lovely little kitchen. 

Bon Appétit!

Brewery coming to Mesa's downtown Main Street

Brewery coming to Mesa's downtown Main Street

I am proud to announce that a brewery is going to be near us in Downtown Mesa.  This excites me...I love that commerce is coming to the area, tax dollars will be earned by local and visiting patrons visiting the area, and of course, the beer!  The spot is perfect (just chatted with peeps last week about how the area will explode with the lightrail extension).  So Booyah!  When it opens you can be damn sure I'll be there to review the happy hour, and I'm hoping they add a kitchen so we can have a snack with our beer that doesn't involve Chex Mix.  Nothing against Chex Mix, just don't like sharing with dirty hands LOL.  Cheers!

Downtown Tempe rolls out high-tech meters

Downtown Tempe rolls out high-tech meters

My jaw just hit the floor. Some of these meters along Mill Ave have been there for a few months (way to be slow, if at all, ABC15) but now they're expanding operating hours until 10pm Monday through Saturday. For people who don't plan ahead that is awesome. For the rest of us who rely on getting the awesome spot out in front of Robbie's or across the street from Rula Bula this sucks! Fortunately the free lot is still free but it's a longer trek in the cold New Year's air or scorching summer heat. Of course this will force us to use the Metro Light Rail more, and help our waistlines. Tempe, word of advice to ya, if you have people complaining about available parking, add public parking and help local companies and multi-unit housing in the Mill Ave District area offer parking at affordable rates to local patrons. No sense in scaring people away by charging $20 to park for the day or risking a ticket if they don't watch their meters (even with the phone option). Tsk tsk City of Tempe. Where are your priorities? Oh that's right...cash flow...

Selling Out

I sold out a little today...I signed up to "Monetize" my accounts on blogger. I'm not ashamed though, a girl has to make some dough and be a little creative from time to time to get the bills paid. It's part of my new journey into writing, sharing, creating, and eventually, earning a living doing what I love. The best part is I'm finally happy with myself. The person I have always been gets to overpower the person I was hiding behind in order to "get by". Not to be cliche but I am taking the bulls by the horns and it. is. awesome! March is also my power month so I expect to have continued success in my endeavors through the next 30 or so days. Then it's birthday week, Vegas, and my lovely husband Drew is turning 30! I'm very excited to share this awesome time with everyone...so stay tuned :)

A New Location, Same Ol' Vibe

A New Location, Same Ol' Vibe

Follow the link to my newest article and head out to Mesa for a burger and pint :) Cheers!

This picture makes me happy. Today is about half as good as the day we got married. We just helped Drew's mom close on a house in Chandler, I'm getting ready for school, following my dream writing and making as many steps as possible to reach all the amazing dreams I've been thinking about for my entire 26.9 years. Oh yeah, and March (my power month) is coming!! I'll be 27 in 28 days, my husband will be 30 in 32 days, and we're going to Vegas baby :D So bring it on life...maybe not everything all at once, but I know I can handle whatever comes our way this month. Now, I just need to find a little more time to embrace my creativity in between all of the other things I'm working on. Off I go now! My herbs are almost dry, I have apples to cut and prep, and appliance shopping to do with mama Liz. Oh, and happy hour is at 4.

Exploring career opportunities...from my laptop

I'm official! I had an article that I WROTE all by myself published on something other than my blog or Facebook (click here). It may not be the most lucrative part of my career yet but my dream is on it's way to coming true. The best part about having something of mine published is the part where I feel like my life is finally going in the right direction, minus a few bumps and dead ends for a change. Don't get me wrong, I get the importance of the wrong turns and fender benders along the way, but it's so much easier to breathe and enjoy my little successes when I'm not caught in the hurricane force crosswinds life has a tendency to offer.

Uh oh, Pinterest has captured me

I'm pretty sure I'm the only person who will look at it, read it, and/or enjoy it...but I'm enjoying the HELL out of pinning me, myself, and my favorite things on Pinterest. A friend introduced me to it before the wedding, and I refused to let it get a hold of me. Well it's late now, I'm up, can't sleep...and what do I find? An "invite" on my FB profile from a Beck sister, so naturally I click. The rest is history. I've been sucked in to sharing how i feel about various nouns and verbs on the interwebs. Not sure how people will react to it...kinda care but kinda don't...I am honest. I can't hide who I am and how I feel. I'm glad I feel. I've been numb. I never wanna go back there. So stay tuned, it could get interesting! Oh, and feel free to like and share what you like. I care.