here are some pictures from our journey west. i wish i could have taken MORE. if we had gotten out of the car more often i surely would have. this is a HUGE country, and parts of it are REAL pretty.
now we have arrived...
we put an offer in on a house today. i think perhaps it is entirely possible that we have completely lost our minds.
Showing posts with label photo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label photo. Show all posts
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Saturday, December 29, 2007
onward toward the future
so, big things are brewing for 2008. it's public knowledge now that we are in fact moving to seattle. it ain't no secret anymore.
we are hoping to out our house up for sale by the end of march & be in seattle by april/may. there are about 300 thousand things we need to do to make this all happen, and i feel like i am buried underneath a mountain with no idea where to start.
it's exciting & terrifying all at the same time. it is going to be a big change for us, but a big step toward our larger goal(s). a new movable type blog for me, has been put on hold. there are too many other things that are higher up on the priority list. so i will be posting here when i feel the call of the blog
here a picture from my birthday (#36, woot!) weekend in nyc/brklyn:
can you see my grey hairs? i has them! we did a little shopping at pearl river & muji, after we enjoyed the martin puryear exhibit at the moma. debbie & olivier cooked us a yummy dinner one night and the next night we ate at sea. it was a hop skip & a jump to get to brooklyn from philly, much faster then getting into manhattan. it was a really nice weekend.
now i need to get my head together and organize this mountain into nice neat manageable piles.
we are hoping to out our house up for sale by the end of march & be in seattle by april/may. there are about 300 thousand things we need to do to make this all happen, and i feel like i am buried underneath a mountain with no idea where to start.
it's exciting & terrifying all at the same time. it is going to be a big change for us, but a big step toward our larger goal(s). a new movable type blog for me, has been put on hold. there are too many other things that are higher up on the priority list. so i will be posting here when i feel the call of the blog
here a picture from my birthday (#36, woot!) weekend in nyc/brklyn:
can you see my grey hairs? i has them! we did a little shopping at pearl river & muji, after we enjoyed the martin puryear exhibit at the moma. debbie & olivier cooked us a yummy dinner one night and the next night we ate at sea. it was a hop skip & a jump to get to brooklyn from philly, much faster then getting into manhattan. it was a really nice weekend.now i need to get my head together and organize this mountain into nice neat manageable piles.
Friday, August 10, 2007
the morning after
we finally finished the kitchen last week, and we had a whopping porch sale yesterday!
the kitchen looks so great now, and it is a wonderful feeling to have it finished. josh ended up doing most of the painting (it's such a small room) my contribution was to dig through the muggy hot basement and edit all our junk for the big sale.
the sale was a big success. we moved a lot of junk and made a good chunk of change. i realized well after the fact that it was my intention to photo document the sale, and it just went by in such a blur that i totally forgot.
after the sale we cleaned up and went to go see a matinée of ratatouille, which was very cute and funny.
and then to dinner at ansill, which was AMAZING
for dessert we had 2 scoops of chocolate and one scoop of brown butter ice cream
i will post pictures of our freshly painted kitchen when i get around to taking some
i really need to take some pictures with the wide angle lens, these don't really give you any feel for what the freshly painted kitchen looks like as a whole, but i need a bright sunny day to use that lens, so these will have to do for now.
the kitchen looks so great now, and it is a wonderful feeling to have it finished. josh ended up doing most of the painting (it's such a small room) my contribution was to dig through the muggy hot basement and edit all our junk for the big sale.
the sale was a big success. we moved a lot of junk and made a good chunk of change. i realized well after the fact that it was my intention to photo document the sale, and it just went by in such a blur that i totally forgot.
after the sale we cleaned up and went to go see a matinée of ratatouille, which was very cute and funny.
and then to dinner at ansill, which was AMAZING
- seared tuna on a bed of olives and anchovies
with grilled fennel & croutons
- rabbit & pesto bruchetta
- steak tartar with a quail egg & buttery toast with purple mustard
- osso bucco "sandwich" (tender and delicious)
- bone marrow
- pork belly on a bed of white beans
for dessert we had 2 scoops of chocolate and one scoop of brown butter ice cream
i will post pictures of our freshly painted kitchen when i get around to taking some
i really need to take some pictures with the wide angle lens, these don't really give you any feel for what the freshly painted kitchen looks like as a whole, but i need a bright sunny day to use that lens, so these will have to do for now.
Thursday, July 05, 2007
a walk in the sand (with wild ponies)
the 3rd of july was our anniversary (#2) and we have started a tradition of going camping on our anniversary (last year we went to worlds end ) this year we decided to go see the wild ponies!
we had been talking about the wild ponies for YEARS...at least 4 (jak read a book as a kid about the wild ponies of assateague which is how we knew that there were wild ponies to be seen). there are national, state, and private campgrounds in assateague (maryland) and chincoteague (virginia), i did my best to sort through all the info and determine what would be the best option for us. i settled on the camp site at the assateague national seashore and we chose a site on the oceanside that looked like it would be nice.
on monday we packed up all our gear and headed out. it was supposed to be a 3-4 hour drive, but we decided to stop for lunch along the way at a great looking seafood counter/restaurant in delaware where i had an amazing fried oysters sandwich (jak had a less than amazing crab melt) at a place we can't remember the name of. we hit a few pockets of traffic and got a little turned around here and there but we made it there finally in the late afternoon.
we have decided to be car campers. it's just plain easier. so we have a fair amount of crap that we bring with us, and this year we added a 10 x 10 screen room because of the repeated bug warnings (many many 'squitoes & bitey flies). our site was a walk in site, and we didn't have to walk all that far, but it was mostly sand which made it a little slower. 5-6 trips back and forth to the car and we were ready to get set up.
OH, the ponies!! yes they are everywhere! it's pretty great...we saw several driving in, and as the sun started to go down they came into our camp ground and even into our site to chow down on grass (and anything else they could find ) they are VERY pretty, but you are not allowed to touch or feed them, and they aren't much interested in humans anyway (except maybe our food stuffs). they are known to kick and bite, so it is best to just admire them and leave them alone.
we were one big dune away from the ocean. it's a perfect site, the sunset was beautiful, with glowy pink light reflecting off the patterns in the sand. we went for a walk on the beach, cooked up our pork chop, potato, roasted corn dinner, went for another walk on the beach, and called it a night. unfortunately there are no open fires, so there was no campfire sittin' into the night, which is one of our most favorite part of camping...that's was a little disappointing.
in the morning we discover (horror of horrors) that we forgot to pack our stove top espresso pot!! this is a disaster! but jak comes to the rescue and rigs something up from twigs/wire/aluminum foil/paper towels. it works! the coffee is perfectly tasty.
breakfast was scrambled eggs with sweet corn left over from dinner and toast. yumm. after breakfast we loaded up our bikes and drove down to chincoteague. we rode our bikes all around and (i will edit out the details about reading the map wrong and ensuing miscommunication) we ended up on the beach where we ate our picnic lunch and searched for shells. a little too much sun, there is no shade anywheres (we need to add an umbrella to our gear for our next beach trip) so we biked back to our car and drove into chicoteague where we got some ice cream and then wandered around the town until we were hungry for dinner.
we polled a few of the locals for restaurant recommendations and ended up at bill's. the food was just ok. we ordered steamed clams and half a dozen chincoteague salt oysters on the half shell for appetizers and they were quite good. for dinner jak got crab cakes and i orfered fried oysters, which were not as good as the ones i had in delaware, (but the company was excellent, so that made up for the mediocre food)
we might have been better off eating at PT pelicans intercoastal deck bar at the chincoteague inn which was more along the lines of the delaware joint, we stopped there for a gin and tonic before dinner and it was full of locals and open to the water, mostly fried seafood and chips, but i'll take that over fake fancy any day.
after dinner we headed back to camp. upon our return we noticed that the wind had really whipped up and our tent and screen room were rocking and flappin' in the wind. jak re-secured all of our various shelters and we tucked in for bed, and then the whipping wind turned into wind and rain. it rained all night. it was still raining when we got up in the morning & the sky was dark and gloomy with no signs of clearing up. jak secured a tarp over our (not really a rain shelter) screen room and i drove up to the ranger station to see what the weather report was for the day. they said it should clear up by late morning and be in the 80's, and then more wind and possible rain that night.
we made our macgyver coffee and scrambled some eggs and decided to stay. we went for a long walk in the wind along the beach. i left my flip flops at the bottom of the dune where we started our walk, and when we came back they were gone (someone stole my freaking shoes!). we searched and searched and did not find my shoes (bugger). the weather did start to clear up and we rode our bikes along all the different trails in the park (the dunes, the marshes, and the life of the forest) it was still really windy all day, which was nice because it stayed pretty cool and kept the bugs away (mostly).
after our bike rides we went back to camp and made some lunch and then went down to the beach to sit and read our books. the wind was still blowing like crazy, and it was much like being in a sandblaster. along the surface of the sand you could see a cloud of sand grains blowing along... i wrapped myself in scarves and tried to ignore the 35 mph wind gently constantly pushing and enjoy my book. that lasted only so long before we retreated back to our camp site, where it was only slightly less windy. did i mention that it was windy? and that the sand was going everywhere. everywhere, including a mini dune that was forming in our tent.
we decided that maybe it might be best to pack up and head home. we had to be out by 11am the next morning anyway. so why spend another windy rainy night sleeping in a sandy tent? we lounged a little longer reading our books and then started to pack up. we made some sandy soup for dinner and packed up the rest and left.
we stopped for ice cream along the way so that i would feel less sad about missing (because now they were closed) all of the farm stands that i wanted to stop at on the way home to buy sweet corn and tomatoes. we made it home in a record 2.5 hours (the last hour in the pouring rain). we both took desperately needed showers and passed out. happy anniversary.
CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO ADVANCE TO THE NEXT ONE
we had been talking about the wild ponies for YEARS...at least 4 (jak read a book as a kid about the wild ponies of assateague which is how we knew that there were wild ponies to be seen). there are national, state, and private campgrounds in assateague (maryland) and chincoteague (virginia), i did my best to sort through all the info and determine what would be the best option for us. i settled on the camp site at the assateague national seashore and we chose a site on the oceanside that looked like it would be nice.
on monday we packed up all our gear and headed out. it was supposed to be a 3-4 hour drive, but we decided to stop for lunch along the way at a great looking seafood counter/restaurant in delaware where i had an amazing fried oysters sandwich (jak had a less than amazing crab melt) at a place we can't remember the name of. we hit a few pockets of traffic and got a little turned around here and there but we made it there finally in the late afternoon.
we have decided to be car campers. it's just plain easier. so we have a fair amount of crap that we bring with us, and this year we added a 10 x 10 screen room because of the repeated bug warnings (many many 'squitoes & bitey flies). our site was a walk in site, and we didn't have to walk all that far, but it was mostly sand which made it a little slower. 5-6 trips back and forth to the car and we were ready to get set up.
OH, the ponies!! yes they are everywhere! it's pretty great...we saw several driving in, and as the sun started to go down they came into our camp ground and even into our site to chow down on grass (and anything else they could find ) they are VERY pretty, but you are not allowed to touch or feed them, and they aren't much interested in humans anyway (except maybe our food stuffs). they are known to kick and bite, so it is best to just admire them and leave them alone.
we were one big dune away from the ocean. it's a perfect site, the sunset was beautiful, with glowy pink light reflecting off the patterns in the sand. we went for a walk on the beach, cooked up our pork chop, potato, roasted corn dinner, went for another walk on the beach, and called it a night. unfortunately there are no open fires, so there was no campfire sittin' into the night, which is one of our most favorite part of camping...that's was a little disappointing.
in the morning we discover (horror of horrors) that we forgot to pack our stove top espresso pot!! this is a disaster! but jak comes to the rescue and rigs something up from twigs/wire/aluminum foil/paper towels. it works! the coffee is perfectly tasty.
breakfast was scrambled eggs with sweet corn left over from dinner and toast. yumm. after breakfast we loaded up our bikes and drove down to chincoteague. we rode our bikes all around and (i will edit out the details about reading the map wrong and ensuing miscommunication) we ended up on the beach where we ate our picnic lunch and searched for shells. a little too much sun, there is no shade anywheres (we need to add an umbrella to our gear for our next beach trip) so we biked back to our car and drove into chicoteague where we got some ice cream and then wandered around the town until we were hungry for dinner.
we polled a few of the locals for restaurant recommendations and ended up at bill's. the food was just ok. we ordered steamed clams and half a dozen chincoteague salt oysters on the half shell for appetizers and they were quite good. for dinner jak got crab cakes and i orfered fried oysters, which were not as good as the ones i had in delaware, (but the company was excellent, so that made up for the mediocre food)
we might have been better off eating at PT pelicans intercoastal deck bar at the chincoteague inn which was more along the lines of the delaware joint, we stopped there for a gin and tonic before dinner and it was full of locals and open to the water, mostly fried seafood and chips, but i'll take that over fake fancy any day.
after dinner we headed back to camp. upon our return we noticed that the wind had really whipped up and our tent and screen room were rocking and flappin' in the wind. jak re-secured all of our various shelters and we tucked in for bed, and then the whipping wind turned into wind and rain. it rained all night. it was still raining when we got up in the morning & the sky was dark and gloomy with no signs of clearing up. jak secured a tarp over our (not really a rain shelter) screen room and i drove up to the ranger station to see what the weather report was for the day. they said it should clear up by late morning and be in the 80's, and then more wind and possible rain that night.
we made our macgyver coffee and scrambled some eggs and decided to stay. we went for a long walk in the wind along the beach. i left my flip flops at the bottom of the dune where we started our walk, and when we came back they were gone (someone stole my freaking shoes!). we searched and searched and did not find my shoes (bugger). the weather did start to clear up and we rode our bikes along all the different trails in the park (the dunes, the marshes, and the life of the forest) it was still really windy all day, which was nice because it stayed pretty cool and kept the bugs away (mostly).
after our bike rides we went back to camp and made some lunch and then went down to the beach to sit and read our books. the wind was still blowing like crazy, and it was much like being in a sandblaster. along the surface of the sand you could see a cloud of sand grains blowing along... i wrapped myself in scarves and tried to ignore the 35 mph wind gently constantly pushing and enjoy my book. that lasted only so long before we retreated back to our camp site, where it was only slightly less windy. did i mention that it was windy? and that the sand was going everywhere. everywhere, including a mini dune that was forming in our tent.
we decided that maybe it might be best to pack up and head home. we had to be out by 11am the next morning anyway. so why spend another windy rainy night sleeping in a sandy tent? we lounged a little longer reading our books and then started to pack up. we made some sandy soup for dinner and packed up the rest and left.
we stopped for ice cream along the way so that i would feel less sad about missing (because now they were closed) all of the farm stands that i wanted to stop at on the way home to buy sweet corn and tomatoes. we made it home in a record 2.5 hours (the last hour in the pouring rain). we both took desperately needed showers and passed out. happy anniversary.
CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO ADVANCE TO THE NEXT ONE
Thursday, March 15, 2007
sxswi recap
i was a terrible photo journalist on this trip. i hardly took any pictures at all, and the ones i did take don't really have any people in them, and aren't necessarily conference related at all...and i have most definitely taken better austin pics in general, i guess i just wasn't in the shutterbug mood. here are a few of the better ones. you can see the set over at flickr.
i think it might take me a few days to recover form our little tejas adventure. all in all i would call it a success, i will attempt to elaborate more once i have detoxed and can think again...
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
happy new year
i really had a lovely holiday. it was a non stop go go go, eat eat eat kind of thing, and i polished it all off by getting head cold. but all in all it was a very nice time.
more link-o-rific details than you probably care to know (for posterity & my own reference):
incoming
3 hour delayed flight (which meant 5 hours of wandering the airport)
by the time we arrived & were between the sheets it was 5 am to our body clocks. what a way to start a family marathon. over to my mom's house in the morning where we started hooking up her new computer. my favorite coffee joint for mandatory caffeinated beverages and croissants. that afternoon we ran some errands on the ave: mj feet (where i bought some fabulous cozy tights), the u bookstore, and tru value. then we met all our aunts, uncles and cousins for a big chinese food feast. then we went shopping at whole foods for sunday/monday dinners & had a lovely dinner out with p and a at volterra.
xmas day
presents in a big blur & then an eggy breakfast. charlotte's web with the young'uns. we were all of the same opinion (booooooo-ring). dinner of (appetizers: more cheese & pate with cornichons, and assorted olives) prime rib, braised fingerlings, brussel sprouts braised in heavy cream, and salad, with an apple pear crisp for dessert.
the day after
hung out with the kid's until they left for the cabin. thai food for lunch. went thrift store shopping (goodwill, value village & thriftco). i am so glad we went to the thriftco, because that is where i found a hardly used complete GOCCO set for $5.99!! if you don't know how amazing this is wander over to ebay and see how much these things are going for these days. i am always looking at them, but i can never justify the expense. after all that excitement we went over to lora's to visit and ordered some pagliacci's for dinner.
off to portland
packed up our goodies and picked up my mom for breakfast. after driving by several places that were closed we ended here. then on our way to the freeway we decided to hit the greenwood space travel supply co. where we bought a few items for the good cause and resumed our journey south. we arrived in PDX around 3 in the afternoon, checked into our hotel and went directly to powells where we bought a decent map and a guidebook. we had some deep fried fishy snacks and microbrews at jake's & poked around the pearl before heading back to the hotel where i started surfing for interesting real estate, restaurants, and other assorted information. we ended our day with a cocktail & a late night snack at the hotel bar: doug fir
1st day
we discovered stumptown and caffinated ourselves & then we wandered a bit in the hawthorne/belmont area. we drove around to look at some real estate in the sw, checked out the new seasons market (VERY nice grocery store, why don't we have anything like that here?) and from there we wound our way to the NE in search of autentica
which was closed for lunch. we ended up around the corner at la bonita, which was plenty yummy. we were now in the alberta/killingsworth neighborhood and did some shopping:
office - a GREAT little shop with lots of fun paper products. bolt - a beautiful little fabric shop, where jak bought me a yard of deep red wool felt out of the remnants basket. after that we headed back to out hotel 'hood & looked in at hippo hardware. for dinner we went to lovely hula hands & then went back to hawthorne for dessert at pix, back at the hotel we stayed up way too late watching "one hit wonders" on VH1
2nd day
stumptown again. more shopping around the pearl. obilation paper and press is heaven. cacao has an amazing selection of chocolates, we sampled some fluer de sel caramels and 2 different blends of drinking chocolate (which spoiled our appetites for lunch entirely).
canoe has a great selection of beautiful designer-ly things and lots of neat stuff for under $10. we had sushi for lunch (because we were all hopped up on coffee and too much chocolate, which rendered us unable to make any decisions or think straight, we ended up at a run of the mill unremarkable sushi place) after lunch we went to the japanese garden
by that time it was very grey and starting to drizzle...and it was cold. i have been to the garden in the early summer when it is SPECTACULAR, i have to say that in the winter there's just not much to see. that evening we drove to salem to meet lindsey & harley for burgers and beers at boon's treasury. back at the hotel and snug in bed my throat started feeling scratchy & my nose was feeling stuffy. this was a bad, bad, no good sign
last day
i woke up sick and feeling like crap. packed up and ate a nice big breakfast at doug fir.
checked out of the hotel. enjoyed one last latte @ stumptown. back to powell's for some airport reading. drove over to council crest for the view, we had wanted to make it over there for sunset, but it just didn't work out weather & timingwise. slurped big steamy bowls of thai soup for lunch. poked around a great little zine-centric bookstore called reading frenzy. not knowing quite what to do with ourselves for the remainder of the day we decided to go see a movie at the very cute cinema 21. i highly recommend anything and everything pedro almodovar does. we grabbed some burritos on our way to the airport and thus our northwest adventure was concluded
outgoing
we were on a red eye home (departing at 10:45pm). a red eye flight is usually pretty miserable under the best of circumstances, but being sick made it extra miserable. we didn't sleep at all & felt utterly zombified by the time we got home.
a complete set of pics over on flickr on my fancy new pro account (that i finally succumed to paying for)
more link-o-rific details than you probably care to know (for posterity & my own reference):
incoming
3 hour delayed flight (which meant 5 hours of wandering the airport)
by the time we arrived & were between the sheets it was 5 am to our body clocks. what a way to start a family marathon. over to my mom's house in the morning where we started hooking up her new computer. my favorite coffee joint for mandatory caffeinated beverages and croissants. that afternoon we ran some errands on the ave: mj feet (where i bought some fabulous cozy tights), the u bookstore, and tru value. then we met all our aunts, uncles and cousins for a big chinese food feast. then we went shopping at whole foods for sunday/monday dinners & had a lovely dinner out with p and a at volterra.
xmas eve
more food shopping in the morning. drop josh of for computering. ferry kids and groceries home. back to mom's and then all of us over to the house to help prep for dinner. e,s,m,l & h join us for a delicious dinner of (tuna, cheese, and pate appetizer) salmon with creme fraiche & caviar yumminess, fingerling potatoes, salad, and chilly lime pie for dessert.
xmas day
presents in a big blur & then an eggy breakfast. charlotte's web with the young'uns. we were all of the same opinion (booooooo-ring). dinner of (appetizers: more cheese & pate with cornichons, and assorted olives) prime rib, braised fingerlings, brussel sprouts braised in heavy cream, and salad, with an apple pear crisp for dessert.
the day after
hung out with the kid's until they left for the cabin. thai food for lunch. went thrift store shopping (goodwill, value village & thriftco). i am so glad we went to the thriftco, because that is where i found a hardly used complete GOCCO set for $5.99!! if you don't know how amazing this is wander over to ebay and see how much these things are going for these days. i am always looking at them, but i can never justify the expense. after all that excitement we went over to lora's to visit and ordered some pagliacci's for dinner.
off to portland
packed up our goodies and picked up my mom for breakfast. after driving by several places that were closed we ended here. then on our way to the freeway we decided to hit the greenwood space travel supply co. where we bought a few items for the good cause and resumed our journey south. we arrived in PDX around 3 in the afternoon, checked into our hotel and went directly to powells where we bought a decent map and a guidebook. we had some deep fried fishy snacks and microbrews at jake's & poked around the pearl before heading back to the hotel where i started surfing for interesting real estate, restaurants, and other assorted information. we ended our day with a cocktail & a late night snack at the hotel bar: doug fir
1st day
we discovered stumptown and caffinated ourselves & then we wandered a bit in the hawthorne/belmont area. we drove around to look at some real estate in the sw, checked out the new seasons market (VERY nice grocery store, why don't we have anything like that here?) and from there we wound our way to the NE in search of autentica
which was closed for lunch. we ended up around the corner at la bonita, which was plenty yummy. we were now in the alberta/killingsworth neighborhood and did some shopping:
office - a GREAT little shop with lots of fun paper products. bolt - a beautiful little fabric shop, where jak bought me a yard of deep red wool felt out of the remnants basket. after that we headed back to out hotel 'hood & looked in at hippo hardware. for dinner we went to lovely hula hands & then went back to hawthorne for dessert at pix, back at the hotel we stayed up way too late watching "one hit wonders" on VH1
2nd day
stumptown again. more shopping around the pearl. obilation paper and press is heaven. cacao has an amazing selection of chocolates, we sampled some fluer de sel caramels and 2 different blends of drinking chocolate (which spoiled our appetites for lunch entirely).
canoe has a great selection of beautiful designer-ly things and lots of neat stuff for under $10. we had sushi for lunch (because we were all hopped up on coffee and too much chocolate, which rendered us unable to make any decisions or think straight, we ended up at a run of the mill unremarkable sushi place) after lunch we went to the japanese garden
by that time it was very grey and starting to drizzle...and it was cold. i have been to the garden in the early summer when it is SPECTACULAR, i have to say that in the winter there's just not much to see. that evening we drove to salem to meet lindsey & harley for burgers and beers at boon's treasury. back at the hotel and snug in bed my throat started feeling scratchy & my nose was feeling stuffy. this was a bad, bad, no good sign
last day
i woke up sick and feeling like crap. packed up and ate a nice big breakfast at doug fir.
checked out of the hotel. enjoyed one last latte @ stumptown. back to powell's for some airport reading. drove over to council crest for the view, we had wanted to make it over there for sunset, but it just didn't work out weather & timingwise. slurped big steamy bowls of thai soup for lunch. poked around a great little zine-centric bookstore called reading frenzy. not knowing quite what to do with ourselves for the remainder of the day we decided to go see a movie at the very cute cinema 21. i highly recommend anything and everything pedro almodovar does. we grabbed some burritos on our way to the airport and thus our northwest adventure was concludedoutgoing
we were on a red eye home (departing at 10:45pm). a red eye flight is usually pretty miserable under the best of circumstances, but being sick made it extra miserable. we didn't sleep at all & felt utterly zombified by the time we got home.
a complete set of pics over on flickr on my fancy new pro account (that i finally succumed to paying for)
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
whistle while you work
WHAT IS A WHISTLE STICK?
this weekend my handsome and talented husband made me a "whistle stick", which in many ways resembles a christmas tree, but it is made from copper tube and dowels, and is reusable!
this weekend my handsome and talented husband made me a "whistle stick", which in many ways resembles a christmas tree, but it is made from copper tube and dowels, and is reusable!
WHAT IS WHISTLE DAY?we are not religious, but we do use the holiday as a good excuse to go and visit my family in the northwest where we like to take advantage of the good cheap thai food and cute kids that are related to us and are good for snuggling and squishing. my family celebrates the generic american gift giving holiday version of christmas, which is to say there are presents and there is food and sometimes there's a movie and there is always plenty of liquid cheer, and a few swedish twists (such as the christmas eve appearance of a fat dude in a red suit) but i am getting off track. since jak and i have been together i have been trying to make something of a winter holiday celebration that sort of makes sense for us.
one of the things that i like about the holiday season is the light. the days are shorter, the nights are longer, and i like the warm glowy ambiance of christmas lights and candles.
the other part i like is the food. i like to celebrate special occasions with special foods (who doesn't?)the solstice (the shortest day of the year which always seems to land a few days before christmas) seems like a sensible thing to build a celebration on/around. i am not a pagan, or particularly new age in any way, i really just wanted to make something up that incorporated the things that i like about the holiday season, i want(ed) a way to make the season and the celebration meaningful to me in a way that doesn't revolve around shopping or church.
DECORATIONS
i have a collection of ornaments that i have accumulated over the years and i like to hang them up, but i don't like the idea of all the trees that are wasted each year (even thought i love the smell) so i asked jak to make me something (that something is now called the whistle stick).
i have quite a few sun, moon, and star ornaments, so that kind of works with the whole moon/solstice idea, but there are also some monkeys, so i guess they need to be worked into the mythology of whistle day somehow.
it was fun to unpack all my ornaments (which have been boxed up for about 6 years or so) i had forgotten what was even in there. all the various boxes that the ornaments were packed away in were cool too. who else out there remembers ice cream that came in boxes like these?
FOODthe food part takes care of itself, we usually have a dinner with our philly family before we depart for the northwest, and while in seawa we usually split up the cooking duties with my brother, my favorite part is the cheese (especially roquefort) and i always make sure there is some pate, conrnichons, and plenty of yummy red wine. everything else is gravy.
a few years ago then i first started thinking on this was when i was obsessed with we like the moon we somehow associated the moon with the solstice and winter and decided that we would call it "whistle day" which has something to do with winter and the solstice and the moon and singing rodents who like spoons more than the moon because they are more use for eating soup. so, i'm thinking that we need to work a traditional "whistle day" soup into the mix.
LIGHTS
this is the first year that i have done anything in the way of decorating the house. last week i got the idea to make some origami balloons and put them over christmas lights. i thought this was a brilliant idea because i have many, many extra special pretty origami papers that i "save" because once you make some origami what do you DO with it? i didn't want any of my special paper to go to waste i wanted it to be enjoyed somehow. i decided that i would buy a string of lights and make origami balloons shades and that way i could enjoy my origami for years to come! i was so excited! it was a bit of a trial to find plain white lights with white (instead of green) electrical cord, i had to go to 3 different stores before i found some and then it took me 2 days to make 100 balloons (my OCD at it's finest) but the results are BEAUTIFUL!
it has been hard to get any really good picturesit has been so dark lately
but i will keep trying
whew, that was a long postThursday, November 30, 2006
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
as promised
here are a few pics of our newly
reorganized
redecorated
reformatted
casa
ever so slightly blended for your viewing convenience
living room to the right
living room to the left
dining room to the left
dining room to the right
reorganized
redecorated
reformatted
casa
ever so slightly blended for your viewing convenience
living room to the right
living room to the left
dining room to the left
dining room to the right
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
appetizer
since i am not sure when the house
will be done enough to take pictures...
here are some details as an appetizer:
will be done enough to take pictures...
here are some details as an appetizer:
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Monday, October 16, 2006
ART BUGGY DERBY CHAMP
we went
he raced
he won the grand prize!
it was a very exciting day
and the weather was perfect for racers and spectators alike
here are a few images to commemorate the event:
racers ready!
the second heat
resting before the final race of the day
some final repairs
in pieces...
SOME OF THE COMPETITION:
he raced
he won the grand prize!
it was a very exciting day
and the weather was perfect for racers and spectators alike
here are a few images to commemorate the event:
racers ready!
the second heat
resting before the final race of the day
some final repairs
in pieces...
SOME OF THE COMPETITION:
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