Bekah at the bank

Today Bekah and I went to the bank and opened her savings account. It was pretty interesting since they had her sign her own papers. She did it though, and now has an honest to goodness interest bearing account :)

So since she had filled up her piggy bank, we allowed her to have $5.00 of it to spend on whatever she wanted. She spent a full hour in the toy store and couldn't decide on anything. So she made the choice to just save the $5.00 until she found something she really really wanted. Yay!

Good mail day!

Lookie lookie what my friend, Bounmy, made and sent to me in the mail!!! I have been coveting these since I saw her making them last winter (not THIS specific pair, mind you)! They are so cozy and I love the colors which will be so cheerful in the middle of winter. Thank you a million times, Bounmy! I love them!!!

Adventures in geocaching.

One of the things we did last week on my blogging hiatus, was a 4 mile hike in the woods down an old logging road. Well the cache was supposed to be 1.6 miles in, 1.6 miles back and we did a lot of extra walking thanks to our coordinates not really bringing us to the exact spot. That part wasn't so fun, but the rest of it was!

Rebekah chooses a walking stick for the day (lost at the end of the trail when she set it down to dig through the geo-treasure...but quickly replaced by another).

There were actually 2 caches down this road, one was at .6 miles which we also had a little trouble finding, I think we need more practice! We did prevail and find that one eventually too.

And they're off!

At about one mile in, we saw elk! This was the best picture out of all of them, unfortunately. But he was COOL! There were 3 females and a baby as well.

A little further into the woods and we start seeing these HUGE stumps, look at the size of these things! I can't imagine how old that tree was when it was cut down.

Once we got to the end of the trail (and then turned around because we didn't NEED to go all the way to the end...oops), we found the cache and the old graveyard that was mentioned in the cache listing. I could have spent a lot of time tending to this old graveyard (it was in need), given more time and energy. I think there were about 15 to 20 head stones, all the way back into the 1800's, and one as recent as 1997. Very interesting!

Once again, geocaching takes us places we'd have probably never seen in a hundred years of poking around on our own, gotta love it.

P.S. If you haven't already, don't forget to sign up for the give away on yesterdays post!

Another give away!

Well I am back, and I've been working on some super fun and cute resealable, fabric baggies. This falls right into the catagory that I love most called "tree hugging, earth friendly, environmentaly safe, and freakishly adorable"....what? It's a catagory.

Ahem. Anyway.

Here they are, the 3 baggies you are wanting to be lucky enough to get your little paws on. Just leave a comment on this post and Friday evening at 8:00 PST, I will use random.org to select the winning number.

If you just can't wait or don't want to take your chances, I have finally set up an etsy shop. More on that later :)

GOOD LUCK!

A minor brick wall.

I'm going to take a week off from blogging. I've been pretty faithful on the daily blogging up until a couple of weeks ago. Now I find myself playing catch-up way too frequently.


I'm going to give myself permission to take a break. I'll be back on Sunday. Hopefully with some good posts and updates. Thanks for staying tuned...

I wanted to share with you the chocolate chip cookie recipe I've been using lately.

I'm running a little low on butter and won't be going to Costco until Monday. I have A LOT of vegetable oil, which I hardly ever use. So I went online and searched for a cookie recipe that uses oil. This one has been great, so if you find yourself low on butter....

The Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie

Sorry guys, there are just days where I have nothing to say. I'm baking cookies and preparing for a campfire tonight. Cleaned house all morning, it was quite a thrill.

Rebekah says: It's not, we will we will rock you.

It's we will we will ma-ra-cas.

I blame Dora.

Watch Ashley get a stick at the very top of a tall stump while we were caching yesterday (it wasn't the cache, she just wanted to see what it was).

Favorite geocaching shot from yesterday.

LaPush Rocks!

I think Grandma would love this beach!

The beach at LaPush

Our friends, Jim and Vicky offered to take us up to the beach at LaPush, about a 2.5 hour drive up the coast from us. Let me just say it was worth every minute of that beautiful drive.

We had to stop off near the rain forest for a cache, of course...it was Jim and Vicky's first. This picture of Grant and Jim was taken on the trail to the cache. I wish the pics at the cache would have turned out better but it was in a dense moss covered forest and the lighting was not cooperating at all.

Just outside of LaPush is the town of Forks, made famous by the Twilight movie and books. I am not a fan (never read/watched it) but it would appear I am in the minority as the town was flooded with people celebrating Bella's birthday. All restaurants were packed so we snuck in a bite to eat at a gas station Subway.

On to the beach at LaPush. Something about a low pressure system 60 miles off the coast made the surf pretty volatile so we got a good show from mother nature. Rangers were down on the beach warning people to stay back. I think it made it even more beautiful.

The beach there is FULL of rocks, cool flat oval rocks that made me want to gather up every last one and take them home. More on that in my next post.

Rebekah played and played and played some more. She loves to spend time with Vicky and Jim since she hasn't worn them out yet.

She's growing so fast. I sometimes think about the memories she'll have of playing on the ocean beaches as a child. If these days will stick with her into adulthood, or if it will all be a blur because it's going so quickly.

We ended our evening with dinner at the Kalaloch Lodge. A beautiful place to eat with amazing views of the ocean. Rebekah was a very very very good girl considering what a full day she had and how tired she must have been. A dark picture of her buttering her own roll, but I wanted to include it for memories sake. An amazing day, all in all.

Ashley's boyfriend and other two friends came to visit her from Kent so she wasn't able to come with but I hope next time we go she'll be able to join us.

Puppy Love

Skirt for Bekah

Yesterday I was feeling a bit under the weather, so I didn't feel up to assembly line work in the studio. Instead I started cleaning up in there and ran across some scraps from making bibs that were not big enough for any of my other projects.

So I asked Rebekah if she liked the fabric and if she wanted me to make a skirt for her out of them.

I had this pattern from Pink Fig Patterns and decided to tackle it. I am not a clothing maker, it intimidates the hell out of me if we must be honest. It took me all afternoon and into the evening but I am really happy with the results. Next time should be easier.

And....AND....it twirls!

P.S. I did NOT pick out that shirt to go with the skirt...no, Rebekah did that all by herself.

bonus points for good humor

Ashley wanted to use my studio to alter a skirt she doesn't wear any more. So tonight I had Rebekah set up in there using her computer and I told Ashley maybe she wants to use the studio while she is babysitting.

Grant and I leave and Ashley has fun poking around in the drawers and cupboards, I gave her free reign on supplies.

When we get home Ashley relays the following conversation she had with her boyfriend on the phone....

Ashley "I'm going to use some bias tape"

Ashley's boyfriend "what's that?"

Ashley "it's kind of like fabric ribbon"

Ashley's boyfriend "oh, I thought maybe it was tape with it's own opinion"

Juggling act

Oh look at that, I missed another day of posting.

Yesterday in the morning I baked 3 loaves of bread, a made from scratch chocolate cake AND frosting, and home made yogurt. In the afternoon we went down to the beach again to soak up the sun and fresh air and give us all a little exercise. In the evening we went to the neighbors for a rock tumbling lesson and a movie...now you know why I missed blogging yesterday.

Today I was in bed until afternoon with a migraine and spent the better part of the afternoon trying to shake off the migraine aftershock. I did get out to the studio but didn't find myself to be very productive.

This evening Grant and I capitalized on a couple hours of owed babysitting, and we went down to the marina to find a cache that was not rated for children (rough terrain). Afterwards we walked along the jetty and enjoyed each others company and the serenity of the ocean.

That's it...my life in a nutshell these last two days. Not so much on the excitement scale!

More beach time. Today was cold (okay...50 something), rainy and windy. The tide was up and the waves were crashing. Perfect! We headed out to Damon Point with Jim and Vicky for some beach combing. They've been here much longer than we have so it's nice to hear their knowledge about the area.

Heading down to the beach from the parking area.




Our standard Mother Daughter shot. I should round up all of the pictures of Ashley and I taken in this fashion, that'd be kinda fun. Grandma, aren't you proud? She's wearing gloves! Don't get too excited, they belong to Vicky and Jim made her put them on....hehe (sorry Ash, love ya!).





There is a rainbow in this picture, it's really close to the horizon. I know it hardly shows up but it was cool to see in person. Ashley spotted it first, not sure I would have seen it without her pointing it out!

Check out those waves breaking on the right hand side of the picture. Not as big as winter waves, but they were the biggest we've seen so far.

Bekah bean wearing big sisters hat and carrying her back pack. She LOVES the beach combing.

We were out there about two hours. When we got back, I baked up some cookies and we went over to Jim and Vicky's for hot cocoa, popcorn, and a movie. Needless to say I didn't get much work done but it was a nice break!

I also managed to forget my dear friend, Josi's birthday today....Happy Birthday darlin', I'll bake you a cake when you guys come up (what's your favorite?).

I'm not sure if she's OCD or just inherited the "Martha gene". This is how I found Rebekah's crayons on the floor while she took a break from coloring the other day....

The other day when we went to the beach, Harvey enjoyed his first off-leash time since we've had him.

He ran...

and ran.....

And then on the way home? He slept!

Our motley crew~ Ashley set this picture up after my lame failed attempt, she's got a real eye for photography. I would have not thought of using the angle she did. I love it though!

This is my new computer background!

I'm behind

I am behind 2 posts for the year. So here is an extra one for today, which means I will still be behind but only by one post!

It was a busy day of running errands, baking bread and cookies, and continuing to find places for stuff we've hauled back from Kent. So when 4:30 rolled around and I looked at the bright blue sky and I heard the surf pounding in the distance, I was considering going out to the studio to get some work done.

But I know these days are fleeting. Everyone has warned us that Ocean Shores is gray and rainy and windy in the winter (never mind that we come from the land of 30 degrees below zero, blizzards, and snow up to your hind end until the end of March).

So I rallied the troops and loaded them in the car for that 5 minute drive to some beach therapy. It made the day and I am SO GLAD we did it. We had the beach to ourselves and it was a glorious afternoon!

Why Rebekah needs to be sleeping in her own bed.