Fall

I love fall.  Its my favorite time of year.  Unfortunately in the Pacific Northwest, fall is not as it is on the east coast:  leaves changing color, chilly but sunny days, pumpkin patches, etc.  Here, fall is a mixture of rain and chilliness, with very few trees that aren't evergreens mixed in.  You have to take fall weather where you can find it and appreciate it when it comes. 

Today I made fall inside my apartment with pumpkin pie biscuits for Atticus.  They smell delicious!

Some even puffed up like pumpkins!

"Everyone must take time to sit and watch the leaves turn." ~ Elizabeth Lawrence

Back from the end of the world

Back from Long Beach.  And I am very glad.  I'm tired and a little cranky and all I want to do is sleep for about 18 hours.  But, because life is life etc, I will instead attempt to remain awake for the next 6 hours and instead will give you all a picture tour of my last several days...

We got to visit the top of a mountain (I would call this a job perk)...

The contrast on my camera phone isn't the greatest, but those ARE treetops you are seeing.  Looking out onto the water with more land in the distance.  The blurriness at the top is fog/cloud cover.

Good thing we had permission...

Where we stayed...

The dunes....

Which lead to the beach...

Long Beach is not a swim in the ocean or play in the sand type of beach.  Its cold most of the year, and the water is dirty.  There is no reason for beachcombing, as there are no seashells of any sort.  Just mainly seagulls and therefore lots of old feathers and seaweed.  The main reason for going there would be camping and fishing etc. 

People drive on the beach there too.  I still marvel at it.  I would never ever ever do that. 

The basic point of Rod Run is people who own/restore/etc hot rods all come together and show off their cars.

You can't go 500 feet anywhere on the peninsula without seeing some sort of hot rod... (most of these were taken out a car window)...

People also flock to the area just to watch the cars go by.  They line the streets for miles...sitting (and drinking) all day long.  Just watching...

While we were there, Marka and I went to the Ilwaco street fair.  Well, "street fair", which was about 25 tents long.

This struck me as beyond hilarious...

I actually bought a homemade candle from a local Astoria, OR company, along with some home-made dog soap.  Poor Atticus has no idea what I have in store for him when I get a chance. 

I also got some of the following...

MMMM....homemade kettle corn popcorn. 

All in all, I had a good time, but I was more than ready to come home...finally reuniting with Atticus who was cooped up in a kennel all weekend...

"Hope is but the dream of those who wake." ~ Matthew Prior

To the end of the world

"You can't have everything...where would you put it?" ~ Steven Wright

Stress headache

I actually have one, but this blog post won't be about that.  Its just I can never think of a title.

Here's some randomness from the past several days....

This spider made a web on my porch that I ran into every morning the past two weeks when I took Atticus outside.  You would think I'd learn.  These spiders will be everywhere INSIDE shortly.  *shudders*

Atticus was pouting one day.  He didn't want to come inside so I could leave.  He was enjoying the sun.

I started my brother Jonathan's birthday present.  I know, I know....my last two birthday presents will be like a month late, and Jonathan's will be early.  Life's unfair.  But anyways, Atticus kept invading my space, wanting pets etc.  So, everytime he made me put down what I was doing, I picked up the camera and took our picture.  He grew tired of it after round 3.

If looks could kill...

One day of work, then off to Long Beach!

"Because I know twenty minutes of a toothy grin is worth a buck fifty in clear tape." ~ indietutes blog

A trip to the underworld

So recently I started venturing outside of my comfort zone.  My friend Sarah gave me a little nudge, I just had to take the first (and second...) steps. 

Today was step three. 

To make a long explanation short, I joined a board-gamers group.  Now, that sounds innocent and fun and pretty simple, right?  Well my friends, let me tell you...there is an entire underworld of people you could not even begin to imagine exist. 

Everyone has heard of gamers, right?  Video gamers, etc, who spend most of their free time immersed in video games and dicussions of video games etc.  They go to conventions and expos and hang out with other gamers.  Apparently, there is a whole other world.  Of BOARD gamers.  Who knew?

And no, they're not sitting around playing Monopoly or LIFE.  They're playing 3 hour strategy games.  And they're playing to win.

I went into all of this not knowing what to expect.  Which is good, because I would have been wrong.

I played insanely complicated board games with about 15 other people for 7 hours.  (We were divided into smaller groups).  There was just absolutely no preparing for this. 

These were my first two games:

It was a testament to all the people I was with that they did not question why I am taking pictures of game boxes with my phone.  Apparently, among them, what set me apart is my lack of board-game history, not my need to take pictures of everything I do. 

I wish I could put into words everything I heard and observed today.  These were nice people, completely accepting and patient with me, willing to explain the ins and outs of the games.  We even sat for about a half hour at one point and they educated me a little on their underworld.

But, all in all, these people are probably considered geeks to everyone else.  The one person I sat  beside, who tended to rock back and forth in his chair (!), talked about how he took the championship at one of these games (the name escapes me).  Someone else asked, "at the con in Seattle?" (Apparently "con" is a word attached or left alone to mean convention.  For example, at the comic-con = comic convention, you will find comic enthusiasts. I'm a little sad that I know this). 

"No", the person beside me replied.  "At the (something)-con in Columbus."

Yes, he meant Columbus, Ohio.  Which interestingly enough, segued into conversation about how board-gamers in Columbus seem to be fairly organized etc.  Everyone at my table agreed to this.  Except, of course, for me, who was still stuck on the word "Columbus". 

The only thing I could compare it to in any certainty would be the documentary my brothers just forced me to watch - The King of Kong.  If you've seen it, you might know what I'm talking about.  Well, the King of Kong, minus the sweet mullets. 

After hearing the words "No, the con in Columbus", the words "I should get back, my girlfriend is going to be worried about me" I would have originally voted the least-likely to hear out of this same person's mouth.

Thats how this whole day was.  One surprise after another.

Oh, and you should know.  I took 4th (out of 5) at Endeavor, but 2nd (out of 5) at Steam.  I didn't completely embarass myself after all.

And you can bet I'm going to be there next time. 

"Life's too short for chess." ~ Henry James Byron

sometimes thinking of a title is the hardest thing

Its been a long week.  Mentally exhausting.  Its going to be more exhausting this week too.  I get to go to long beach again to dispatch though, for which I am very excited.  My very good friend Marka is going with me.  I'm pretty determined it will be better than last year. 

I've worked on some projects too. 

My friend Katie's birthday presents are done.  She's coming to visit me the end of this month (woohoo!!!!!!!!), and I wanted to make sure I was ready for her! 

(Katie, if you read this blog, LOOK AWAY NOW!!)

Totally fun and frilly apron.  Inspired by this post...

Of course, what would one of my aprons be, if not reversible?

This is what I'm most excited about though...

A lovely leather purse!!  Inspired by this creative lady, but modified because I dont have a leather punch or leather string and really didn't think I wanted to go that route anyway. 

I used sashiko thread instead. 

And Mom - look at that big button!!!!!!

Its so cute, I want to make one for me. :)

This is the inside...the black and white fabric is actually two cloth napkins that I've had for what feels like forever.  The purple fabric doesn't match it at all, but I needed something to tie in all the purple thread!

Ah yes, and here's Atticus, my unwilling bag-model...

My brother Andre's present is just about done.  That literally took me almost all day.  Between laundry and his doofermajig...thats all I did today.  Oh yeah, and I broke my seam-ripper while compiling parts for his present.  How on earth does one do that?  Apparently I'm too aggressive with thread sometimes.

Thats about it. 

I really hate this new Blogger editor.  I think it should be easier to post pictures and words.  I mean, really?  How difficult is that?  Blargh.

"I had to order it because I wanted to say 'beaver' to a prisoner." ~ AJC

The big reveal

I just realized this is post 101.  I should have done something fancier for post 100.  Oh well, a post about Atticus and dog biscuits pretty much sums up my life most days. :)  Apparently other blogs do big giveaways and special things at milestones, but since I know and have met all my followers but one (Thanks for following me, Resweater!), its kind of weird to do something big.  However, since I just organized about 3 pounds of scrap fabric you're welcome to ask for the bits and pieces I like to call "too big to throw away but such a weird shape that I will probably never do anything with them". 

Anyways, that aside, I also should probably have lead up to this "big reveal" in a series of posts with snapshots and sneak peaks and something else.  Maybe a mention of one of my sponsors.  Oh wait, now I'm getting a little sarcastic.  I think I understand how the blog world works for the most part, but I"m here just to show a little bit about my life and what I'm up to and hey - if you like a project I did, I'll totally talk about it and tell you where I got the idea, and heck, even where I bought and what I paid for the fabric. 

I feel like I'm getting off track. 

Lets go back to the reveal.

First, a picture of the birthday card...just because I like it.

The card combines thread-sketching and sewing fabric onto plain cardstock type cards.  I gave credit to those ideas in a previous post, so I'm not going to do it again.  I'm lazy.

My "S" is a little wonky, but its REALLY REALLY difficult to do curves on my sewing machine. 

Okay, now...

* drum roll *

Introducing....Sarah's birthday rag blanket !!!!

Way cuter in real-life.  I realized when I was looking at the pictures I accidentally had lingerie in half the photos, so I was limited with what I could use.

Up close...

While I'm basking in a "project well done" mode, lets take another look...

I'm not even going to mention the back that I messed up a little, or the fact that this is about 6 inches skinnier than originally intended because I cut something wrong.

And its on my bed sideways, because I have a king size bed and I wanted it all to show up.  So technically, the stripes are supposed to go horizontal across the bed, not like I have it.

It was totally worth the blister I now have on my thumb-pit.

Anyways, whew.  Getting to the post office will be my next challenge.  Actually, finding a box, the first challenge.  Post office, second.

Sorry to spoil the surprise for all of you, I just couldn't wait to show it off!

"Ignorance is NOT bliss when educated people are subjected to comments like YOURS." ~ Punkinhead, a KitsapSun commenter