diamonds and guns

© kristine asta helgason

Summer’s pretty much here as the birthday season has begun. My boyfriend turned 23 on Thursday and my niece turned 2 yesterday. Tim took the day off on Thursday so I took him to American Firearms School in North Attleboro where we did the “Learn to Shoot” package. Neither of us had shot a gun prior to Thursday and neither of us expected that I would like it so much. The instructor was really friendly and informative and the atmosphere at AFS was so less weird than I thought it would be, it really helped me feel more at ease. And it was only 45 minutes south of Boston. We shot .22 pistols and did pretty well for our first time! We’re planning on going back for dates, our anniversary, my birthday, etc…

That night, we looked into acquiring/owning guns more for the convenience of not paying for rentals and being able to adjust the sighting than anything else. We’re not hunters and we’re not violent at all. Both of us were surprised at how easy it is to own and carry guns. After having the experience, I think it’s worth knowing how to safely operate a gun even if you aren’t planning to own one. I also think it’s well within our rights to own and carry guns. My moral dilemma is in the fact that it’s easier to own and carry guns than it is to drive and own a car. Around 13,000 more people die in car accidents than by gun per year, but you never hear about intentional vehicular homicide whereas around 40% of gun fatalities are homicides and 56% are suicides.

On a lighter note, we’ve been talking about decorating a wall of our future apartment with targets. Here are two from Etsy, if you click on the images it’ll take you right to the listings. I’m not sure why I like the crow one so much. It’s kind of morbid, but the placement of the head target looks like an eye coyly looking in my direction.

© kristine asta helgason

My niece’s birthday party was this weekend and her birthday was yesterday. I may be bragging, but my niece and nephews are such good, sweet kids that they make spoiling them justified by the big, long hugs and smiles upon opening a gift. It’s also really fun to buy toys for kids, but perhaps I’m just a kid at heart. I really love wrapping them too, even if only to have the kids wildly tear it off. I’ve had this roll of brown Kraft paper for four years and it’s only now starting to dwindle. I made the little dots by punching holes in round labels and using them as stencils. The ribbon is from a collection of vintage sewing supplies I bought from Savers a while ago. I like using rick-rack and pom-pom trim too.