Sunny Sunday

A sunny Sunday. A hike on Cougar Mountain in Issauquah.

 The view from the top. That's Mount Baker in Bellingham in the background.

My hiking partners, Soren and his mom Mara.

 A great day.

A trip to Fabric Crush

I've been wanting to get back into the sewing mode and just as luck would have it, I stumbled across a lovely new quilting blog Tallgrass Prairie Studio. Well, it's not new, but new to me. And the luck continued because as it turned out Jacquie was in town to visit a friend and do a little talk at Fabric Crush. The store had recently moved from Magnolia to the Wallingford Center and I had been wanting to check it out. It was as if the Sewing Gods were putting this out there in the universe for me. 

So of course, I had to appease them. And I went. And I loved it. Both the store and Jacquie and her fabulously beautiful, yet simple modern style quilts. Take a look.

Jacquie and her quilts. If I was a better blogger, I'd have the names of these patterns she designed, but alas, I am not. They sure are pretty though!

I especially loved this salavage quilt. These are the salvage edges of fabrics she's used over the years. Isn't this a great creative way to use all of the fabric?

Ohhh...ahh...it was like a fireworks show for the quilting fans in the room as we got to look up close and touch all the pretty fabrics. So fun and inspirational!

Rebecca + Scott

It's official....they're now married!

The wedding party...in all seriousness...

See...totally official and some seriousness....

And a lot of fun!

Oz Vest*

Project: Oz Vest

From: Natural Knit for Babies & Moms

Yarn: Plymouth Select Worsted Merino Superwash in someshade of blue that I can't seem to remember.

*I'm not sure what it was about this project, but to say it was hell is truly an understatement. It looks so easy and quick, and maybe it is, but for me, it was freakin' miserable. I had to restart the damn thing about 4 times because I kept messing it up and getting off the pattern repetition. I managed to sew the vest together all crooked and twisted. It took quite a bit of time to figure out how to get it undone due to my super skills of weaving ends in. There was a lot of hard work that went into this sweater. And even some blood, sweat and tears. And quite a bit of profanity. But this fu$#^&*% sweater is done. Thank God.

Easter Treats

I love Easter. I always have. I'm not sure why, I've never been able to pin point why its do dear to me. Maybe it's the all the spring flowers that are beginning to come up in my favorite shades of yellow, pink and purple. Maybe its the promise that spring is really just around the corner. Or maybe its just another excuse to eat chocolate and other good food with family and friends. Whatever the reason, I hope your Easter was a lovely one!

Some Easter Flowers

Our friends Jon, Sara and their dog Tug look for the beers the Easter Bunny left in our yard.

The Hubby was the big winner finding most of the beers.

For dessert I tried something new, a raspberry blackberry custard. The thing I loved about this dessert was the fact that is was made in the blender!

Isn't sweet how Martha watches me?!

No, I’m not going crazy, it’s for the tourists

In my last post I mentioned our road trip through the Olympic Peninsula. Well, if you’ve read any of the Twilight books you no doubt know, that’s the stomping ground of vampires and werewolves, at least according to Stephanie Meyer.


You have to give credit to the small town of Forks for trying to make a few bucks off of these books. Everywhere in the town is some sort of Twilight sign; hotels welcoming Twilighters, specials for Bella Burgers, etc. You can also visit not one, but two Dazzled by Twilight stores in town (if you’ve been to Forks you know how small it is so to have two of these stores is pretty amazing.)


Even Jacob’s stomping ground of La Push is in on the frenzy. La Push is even smaller than Forks mind you. As you enter the town, the little restaurant has a Pepsi banner that reads “No Vampires Beyond This Point.” You can also grab a coffee a Jacob’s Java. The town store is decorated in Team Jacob mania. Edward need not apply.


But the thing that had me doing a double take is the fact that as you drive into a town there is a house and separate garage that was painted red, complete with an old trailer in front. At first I thought, no….that couldn’t be. That place looks just like the scene of Jacob’s house in New Moon. As we drove out of town I looked again. This time I realized I wasn’t crazy, it was painted and designed to look like Jacob’s house. I knew this for sure because the Twilight Tour bus full of people was pulling in the driveway.


*For you Twilighters out there, I apologize for the lack of pictures of all of this stuff. I wanted to stop and take some but the hubby just shook his head and kept on driving. He claims to be on Team Mike Newton.

Weekend Get-A-Way

This past weekend the hubby and I took a little road trip to the Olympic Peninsula. We had lovely weather on Saturday and drove along the coast. We are so lucky that within a few hours of our house we can drive to the beach through and old growth rainforest.

The beach at La Push with a big storm blowing in.

The Hubby sitting at the base of the worlds largest Cedar tree. It was really freakin' big.

We stayed at the Lake Quinault Lodge. It’s charming, beautiful and pretty much perfect. With no t.v.’s, cell service or internet access it was just what we needed to unwind. This is the place where folks hang out with other guests in a big lobby complete with a fireplace, over stuffed leather couches, games and a bar. Once again, it was perfect.

Getting a little reading time in and enjoying the rare spring sunshine.

My gin & tonic and my view.....ahhhhhh.....

 

Sunday greeted us with the typical spring rainforest weather (wind, clouds and rain). Not being the uber serious hikers, we opted for drives instead of hikes. We continued to drive along the coast up to the Sul Duc Hot Springs Resort. We were in our own cabin which was a nice treat after enjoying the hot springs.


Monday we woke to snow in the mountains, fog and possible some of the worst sleet/hail I’ve seen in awhile, once again scraping our hiking plans. It did make for some pretty scenery however.


While we weren’t able to do a lot of the hikes that we wanted to try, we’ll be heading back for sure since it was such a lovely vacation!