Growing Adventures

Weeks ago on a Saturday we went for a long walk on the Tolt Pipeline, it was a beautiful day. Later that evening we had an accident in our home. It was so incredibly horrible and frightening. He *is* wonderful (about two weeks later). Thank you to all of you who prayed and sent us so many good and powerful thoughts and prayers.

So, now, he's been himself again for more than a week. And he's smiling and giggling now. He smiles and laughs a little every time he's re-introduced to Francis the (ceiling) Fan, which he sees from the changing table. He looks so good in red that I'm planning two sweaters in his favorite deep, good red. Basic Crew and Geordie Stripe Yoke Jacket (Ravelry links).

The apple tree out front of church. I'm so excited to eat one of these this fall. Maybe enough to make a pie, or applesauce?

And this week. I made some art. A couple of pages in the journal. Got a couple more pieces of art on the wall of the studio. Need to keep doing this around the house, we have so much in boxes still.





I ran out of nails before I could finish adding the frame. Once I have this completed, I'll be posting to etsy.

Fell in love with hearts again after wandering through the Fresh Paint show at the Everett Marina on Saturday. Expect a series of these.

so in love....

...with this little man. He's awake a little more everyday. We're reading more and singing songs and following eyes and just drinking in his beauty.
Most of his collection of books thus far. (Many are on the nightstand for nightly reading). Oh my goodness the books he has received as gifts! So beautiful, I'll have to share a couple in the future. Amazing children's writers out there!
Most of his collection of clothes. my goodness there are some adorable clothes in this collection! Thank you thank you to all who have handed on such sweet items. Some fabulous new pieces and dozens and dozens of hand me downs.
A couple of photos of the vast array of wonderful meals that has been coordinated for us. The meal help has been such an important part of our developing a healthy rhythm in our house. Sleep has been so far from us so much (though we have really, finally begun to nap when he's sleeping), there has been a lot of dishwashing and laundry, and still the unpacking into the new home. Oh my goodness the meals....salmon, beef stroganoff, salads, chicken, mac & cheese, mexican casseroles, fruit desserts, a little bit of chocolate.
Thank you thank you all! The top photo is cool whip mixed with a bit of fruit yogurt, so good. The next food photo is of super good oatmeal! Makes me really sure that once little man is eating solid food, I'll be making batches of crockpot oatmeal for a quick warm breakfast on rainy winter mornings.

meme

Clearly the lack of sleep isn't helping me learn new computer tricks very quickly. I spent a few minutes yesterday trying to respond to this meme, only to have forgotten to cut and paste the actual picture mosiac. oh well, if you're interested, click on each link to see the corresponding Flickr photo to my answer to each question.

* Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr search.
* Using only the first page, choose an image.
* Copy and paste each of the URL’s into the mosaic maker over at FD's image maker.

The questions:
What is your first name?
What is your favorite food?
What high school did you attend?
What is your favorite color?
Who is your celebrity crush?
Favorite drink?
Dream vacation?
Favorite dessert?
What do you want to be when you grow up?
What do you love most in life?
One word to describe you.
Your Flickr name

1. Celeste Yawning, 2. bbq corn, 3. IMG06, 4. Lime Green Window Shutter, Red Flowers and a Rail, 5. Brad Pitt's housing project in the Ninth Ward. New Orleans. Louisiana. USA. December 2007, 6. Caffé del Doge - Latte Macchiato, 7. Riomaggiore, Cinque Terre, Italy, 8. David Lebovitz at Ici, 9. GREAT MOM [GRE8 MOM], 10. just another fantastic evening at the oregon coast, 11. creative embroidery, 12. Celestial*

blissed out

our little man has arrived. we've been happily watching him for hours and hours -- for a couple of weeks now. he's perfect.

we're moving tomorrow!

A glimpse of our new house! Yippee. All is well. We get the keys this evening. We're having the carpets deep cleaned tonight, then tomorrow morning the movers come to haul all of our belongings from this rental house to our new home! We've had things in boxes for more than four years - from when we first left Bend. Since we began packing for our move to the Seattle area we've been living out of boxes for more than 10 months! I'm so thrilled about opening up every one of these boxes to put everything in its place. And nesting. We were blessed with the sweetest baby shower and handcrafted and very thoughtful gift items for our little baby who is getting ready to join us in our new family home. Wednesday is all about finding some of the final essential baby items - washer and dryer (we had been waiting to buy a dryer until we knew if we needed an electric or gas, then we discovered that as we are chosing to cloth diaper, our washer, which doesn't have a hot water or sanitizer feature, will not work for our purposes. We also need a crib (though not as pressing, since he'll be in his co-sleeper for a good couple of months). Dresser for his room. Cloth diapers. Stroller with carseat (the midwives have been pressing for this for a couple of visits now :)). Camera. Gotta capture those special moments from the get-go. It's real! All of this amazing grace is swirling all around us and it's such a thrill.
I love this little nook for cookbooks. I think I may have culled the number down far enough to fit in here, with a little space on there for a few soft toys too.
A glimpse of the studio. (Of course, both of these photos are filled with the previous owner's items...I'll re-post similar shots with our stuff within a week or so). I love the colour of this wall, though it's a bit dark for the studio space, so it'll be painted at some point. And need a lot of super great halogen lights to really lighten up the space whose windows are under the deck.

in which a BSJ is nearly complete

I've finally finished a Baby Surprise Jacket. And oh, how I *love* the BSJ! I'm so going to knit more and more of these. It was difficult to get through (I've started one three times), but I pushed through and did it! And then just to push my luck I knit the baby booties that match. Next I'm going to knit another BSJ and booties in fingering weight yarn.
I found the saw and framed two and a half of my paintings!
Went to a sketch crawl at Molbak's with a great group of artist friends. It's long been a goal of mine to do more sketching, and this day really got me jazzed about it. (I've even started sketching in pen! Next stop, washing colour in there). I took dozens of photos of the gorgeous plants and displays. This is my favourite cluster. Isn't it so artfull?
They had our favourite Alphabet cards, I took a picture to remember that they had them here, so we could go back somewhere closer for them (we registered for them at Merry Go Round in Bellevue).
Love this jolly Buddha. We still regret not having purchased two awesome Buddhas in Berkeley. We bought one for our friends housewarming gift and have never again seen such a great one. This one at Molbak's also doesn't compare to the beauty of the sitting Buddha we bought for J & B, the hunt continues.
My favourite planters in the place! I love the texture, the uniformity, the natural wonder of it. Love, love.

*And* my iPod and iTunes are talking again! Yeah! All in all a great day. (Oh, garage sales today - more baby clothes and toys, no crib still. However, we did find a push mower with basket for just $15, and we'd been just about to order one from Costco for $89 (plus tax)! Yeah us!

Whirlwind

View from the guest room of our soon to be home.

Oh my gosh. This is such a crazy time in our lives. Moving 5 miles is proving to be *much* harder than we thought. I think probably because we a bit focused on bigger things. Birth classes. Reading about birth (and being a mom). And, the re-packing the items we've had out of boxes for the past 9 months. I'm *so* excited about getting into this house, getting things unpacked and in their proper places and creating the great bedroom for Sparky and his birth (that's in chronological order - in order of significance Sparky's birth is way on the top of the exciting list).

I packed my little Japanese saw and really needed it out, so I'm actually opening a few boxes trying to find it, I know it's right near the top of one of them. I had to squish it down when I was squeezing the flaps of the box together to get the tape on. I really want to finish off a couple of the bigger paintings I've done lately. The lattice is so long, it would be much easier to move in smaller pieces.

My iPod is acting up. So not thrilled about that, because I love it, and really rely on it for listening to my various NPR and art podcasts in the morning while making my latte and other morning rituals. It's not "listening" to me when I want it to pause, or connect with iTunes on my computer.

Researching cameras, because my little camera has such lag time that I know it'll be really frustrating trying to capture our little man's adorable-ness. Great recommendation came for the Canon XTI. Found one at Costco, but think there might be one less expensive elsewhere. Anyone know of a great source for cameras?

i love them so...

gosh i hope i can grow these at our new house.

i do love a blurry image now and then.

a random meme (because i can't resist 'em)

A meme from cosymakes:

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?
ten years ago we lived in a fabulous intentional community in Bend. I had the most perfect job for me and had two months off in the summer every year for tootling around and selling my art.

2. What are 5 things on my to-do list for today (not in any particular order)?
start baby surprise jacket
library – return and pick up reserved books
call moving companies
food coop for goat’s yogurt, watermelon, strawberries & fresh ground peanut butter
finish felted box

3. Snacks I enjoy.
fresh fruit and veggies
popcorn – old-fashioned, stovetop with butter & salt
a bit of cheese (aged cheddar or goat) & wheat free crackers
dark chocolate
rice chips

4. Things I would do if I were a billionaire.
endow scholarships at PSR, WOU, and COCC
start edible gardens at every school yard I could.
buy handcrafted everything.
create an intentional community.
spend a week in an ocean front cabin in Cannon Beach (every year).
spend two months traveling in Europe -- Paris, various Italian, Greek & Spanish spots.

5. Places I have lived

Singapore, Australia, Alaska
Oregon, New York, Wisconsin, Washington
Berkeley, San Mateo, Seattle area

6. Jobs I’ve had.
baby sitter, house sitter
hostess at a couple of restaurants.
boutique clerk
Student Government executive
self employed artist with odd jobs to pay the bills
residence hall director
director of community education centers
bead show class coordinator
development office administrator

7. Peeps I want to know more about:
I love participating in memes, but don’t like to call others out…tell me if you participate though, I love to read memes too.

i heart garage sales

Still searching for a crib and dresser to go in the baby's room. Went to a big neighborhood garage sale this past Friday and then on Saturday went to a huge churchyard rummage sale. Scored all this stuff (from all of these photos) for about $30. Also got a sweet wooden stool I forgot to photograph. Lots of baby items, including a sling just like what we've been looking for - the sling alone would have been $40.
I ran out to this sale and had to get the car back within a half hour because C had a wedding in Seattle and needed to leave by 10:30. The church yard sale started at 10. So I rushed through and scanned the area for baby stuff - headed there. No crib, no dresser, no bookcase, not many baby clothes, but I picked through the toddler boy stuff grabbing everything that didn't have huge logos on them (no GAP, OLD NAVY - those are quite abundant) also, for now avoiding the cars, trucks, etc. Found a lot. Then toward the books, walked past the craft table. Nothing of interest there. Found piles and piles of books, noticed a woman with a Costco bag -- what a great idea! Wished I had one of those. I do keep about 6 canvas bags in the car, but didn't think to bring those with me to the sale. If I hadn't been on a tight timeframe I would have spent another 10 minutes or so in the books area, there were a lot of children's books.
So glad that I finally fixed the camera/computer connection issue. Totally by trial and error, but I'm finally able to use the camera again!
Hard to photograph a baby sling. I'm so thrilled about finding this. We haven't seen one like this in any of the stores we've been to, but I've seen them online from $40 - $80.
We also need a bookcase for the baby's room. Finding lots of great books and puzzles too. I even found a Babar book! (I loved them as a kid, because of Queen Celeste).

moving sale

posted some things to etsy...

going to keep putting new things up regularly, i'll be sure to let you all know when they go up. and hey, if you are into etsy and ever do treasuries on etsy...please find something of mine to put up there. totally hoping to be able to do the stay at home mom thing!

blessings.

we have house!

Amen and Amen.
photos later.
(so much bantering of worth and inspection stuff and *time*)

so
thrilled.

moving sale on etsy to come soon.

i have some commissioned wedding jewelry to make first.


oh! and speaking of wedding stuff.
did you hear the good news?
the supreme court of California recently said - Yes, two adult people should be able to marry! Amen and amen to that too!
Let the ceremony and party planning begin for those many couples - and their family and friends.

Zapp Application!

Yikes.
Wow. I've learned a great deal in the past week or so as I tried to apply for the Fresh Paint show on the Marina in Everett. Apparently there is a wave crashing on the art show shores -- this application process online. I think there is potential for this actually making the whole process easier for artists and event coordinators. However, I'm too overwhelmed with the huge learning curve that I was up against (on deadline, of course, because frankly *a*lot* is going on in our lives right now, so I couldn't just sit down to complete this thing in one sitting, which for me makes the learning curve steeper and deeper).

So, I'm wicked proud of myself.
And.
I hope I get in.
We'll have our a bit over one month old with us at this his first art show!
So, celebrating tonight with some sparkling stuff and leftover Mongolian Grill.
yum.

Two of the photos I uploaded for this application are above (had to send one photo of my booth and three photos of my artwork - that was definitely the hardest to decide).

Art Journal, ATCs and 4 x 4s

Come on in, we'll have a cup of tea, share our favorite art supplies and create in each others journals this afternoon.
A couple of pages of my notes from ArtFest. I was trying to be free with drawing and writing without thought to the look while in my classes this year. I like how they turned out.
I love to use my hands when painting -- and then it's so much fun to make prints of my hands (and photographs) rather than washing all that great colour off. I made a lot of prints of my hands page after page in my art journal and am in the process of filling out the rest of the page with other colours, quotations, journaling and more.
Really enjoying drawing the buddha -- and still painting the mandalas.
And the shrine shape that I draw into bird cages now and then too.
Side One of my contribution to the Dorm 202 Fatbook (ArtFest)

And now, back to the paint!

and now there are three...

...as we grow and learn about this baby we are about to see. I am so in love with Sparky (as he's due in July). And I love making these mandalas. Another two this size in the works down in the basement studio.





Yesterday was so beautiful. We went to interview a birth center. Loved it. Booked it (last one in for July, apparently there's a baby boom in the Seattle area this July). Most important baby thing done! Then we celebrated by driving out to Snoqualmie Falls. It was so sunny and beautiful, and then a bit of hail and rain, but mostly it was so sunny and beautiful. I do love me some mountains, especially with a dusting (or more) of snow. A glorious day all around.

craziness...

...and *so* beautiful! I love this little side garden and the sculpture. (All these photos are from yesterday, it's quite sunny and dry today - so far :))
Before church and the snow is coming down in big fluffy chunks.
love the rainforestyness of this basketball hoop.
The apple tree is budding...will this snow be a problem with apple production? I really hope not. I'm looking forward to picking an apple before church each morning this early fall.
my footprints to and from the apple tree.

More Mandala painting going on. Love them. Will post more photos soon.