Spring has sprung upon us - let the games begin!

Can't begin to list all the stuff we've been working on in the past several weeks. I took another trip to California, this time to visit the Stanford School of Medicine for a couple projects we're kicking off; we've been digging dirt, pulling weeds and cutting grass like crazy, prepping for a huge vegetable garden; we participated in a foosball tournament, at the invitation of our neighbors - Anja walked home with first place, Alan with third; I've been pulling together family gifts for our upcoming trip to Pennsylvania; and I've even made some progress on my dollhouse project. Sadly, I don't have photos of any of it! Soon I will post more photos of the trip to San Francisco from earlier this month, and if the rain holds off I'll maybe even get a few shots of the yard!

Hair Gel, Bubbles and Flavored Ice

Last weekend Mike and I traveled up North to the Skagit Valley to visit with family, celebrate (belatedly) my mom's birthday, and partake in the annual Tulip Festival. After checking out the street fair vendors, purchasing some great earrings made from an Aboyna wood burl, we went to Susanna's house for a carne asada dinner. Mike, ever the indulgent uncle, agreed, quite willingly, to let Aidan and Vanessa "do" his hair... with red, green and blue hair gel... on the living room couch... in his new shirt.


On Sunday, while Mike went for a bike ride (in training for the Seattle to Portland with Pops this July), Mom and I managed to get the kids away from the computer and outside for shaved ice and bubbles. Aidan kept saying, "this is a great day, Nonny". It was.

San Francisco

I've been a busy traveling bee...
Week before last I was down in San Francisco with my colleagues to soak up design inspiration for 3 days. We stayed in the quaint and historic Stanyon Hotel on the edge of Golden Gate Park... friendly staff, great location and wonderful continental breakfast and tea time - downside: twin beds, one hard pillow, thin 1904 walls.

Regardless of my lack of sleep, we still managed to see an amazing number of places. Among those were:De Young Museum

California Academy of Science

Japanese Gardens

Federal Building


Contemporary Jewish Museum

Oh, I'm gonna getcha...

Mini House

We bought our house in 2005, and have been working steadily, albeit slowly, on it ever since. However, I've decided that I need a little more "instant gratification", so I've begun a new house project; one that's in 1:12 scale.

You are my sunshine, my only sunshine...

A treat... the weather this weekend was indeed a treat. Mike and I have both been so busy with work these last few weeks, that when the weekend rolls around we have to dig deep for motivation to work on the house. For the next 6 weekends we have plans, so to wake this weekend to sunshine all day long, seems like a blessing (if I believed in such things).

We spent all weekend in the yard: digging vegetable beds, re-sodding, weeding and mowing. Our goal is to grow, grow, grow this year so that we can eat, eat, eat frozen veggies all winter. Since our hard work really just amounts to squares of dirt, I figure photos aren't really needed - just use your imagination.

Our reward/cherry-on-top is a steak dinner with spicy sweet potato wedges and salad, followed by ice cream sandwiches.

Calling all Tomatos

For Christmas I gave my sister Sara a tomato pincushion for a present. By strange coincidence, a classmate of her boyfriend Bobby has been putting together an art show of tomato pincushions - so mine was included! I recently made another tomato pincushion at a crafting bee with my sister Susanna, which I think turned out even better than my first one... sorry Sara, you can always trade up.

Shim away, my man

While I've been reading, beading and generally wasting time with clay, Mike has been working on framing the half-wall/railing upstairs. He's encountered a few setbacks with the railing, as the hole for the stairs was not cut so that it aligned with the windows - he's not looking forward to the amount of "shimming" that awaits him.

Happy Birthday Rebecca!

Last night we rung in a new year for Rebecca at the Noble Rot. After spending the previous weekend attempting to make a necklace for a present, only to find that it was in fact quite ugly, I then turned my attention to clay vegetable magnets - cuz who couldn't use a magnet or two.

Here's to a great year Rebecca!

No time for projects - unless reading counts?

Well, it's been a slow week for projects, because it's been a busy week for everything else. In addition to being slammed at work, hitting the gym, eating, sleeping, etc., I also got two really good books from the library that just needed to be read. I've added them to my recommended reading list on the sidebar - well worth checking out!

A Beaded Forest

A little more from my crafting weekend...

... expanding on the bamboo coral tree pendant with some other coral and rock chips. These are still works in progress, as I purchased a few more beads to add to these and will post photos soon of how they're progressing.

Crafting Bee

On Saturday Susanna and I spent 7 hours at a crafting "bee", organized by a co-worker of hers. While most were working on scrapbooking, I brought up materials for beading and sewing pincushions, while Susanna worked on creating art pieces for Aidan's room.


Even though I don't have kids, it was none-the-less an amazing luxury to spend the day solely working on craft projects. We took a break for food, and to hit the art store for more supplies.



We finished off the day by making art books with Aidan and Vanessa. Vanessa filled the first couple pages with poems within minutes.