Stripes of Satin

Satin stripes.  Lots of satin stitched stripes.  Three months ago I started this project and after weeks of working on it (and not working on it) it's finally complete!  I find myself both ecstatic and deflated.  On one hand I see all the little imperfections and ill spent stitches but on the other it is so gratifying to see the completion of an idea and pattern.  Cheers!

My camera has died, actually, it died a few posts ago and I have been using my phone's camera ever since.  Therefore this blog may be infiltrated with more Instagram photos.  Here goes one now.

How much does a hipster weigh? 

An Instagram of course.

So please forgive me for my square photos and in the meantime crochet this snowflake; the pattern can be found at Better Homes and Gardens.

Found

I found this lovely little girl in the thrift store today in a frame that I purchased.  I wonder where she is now.  This picture has notes on the back about what the colors should be.  Could you imagine having to manually add colors to your photographs?   I love it when I find items with notes on them, especially books with inscriptions.  It makes me feel connected.

Have a wonderful day, I hope it includes bubbles ❤.

The Many Faces of Discovery Park

This weekend I was able to experience another park of Seattle with Aaron and Sagan.  This one may be my favorite yet.  Discovery Park is a 534 acre public park with 11.8 miles of hiking trails and many beautiful faces.  Located in the Magnolia neighborhood just 5 miles away from downtown Seattle it is quite the oasis.

There were forests,

fields,

bluffs, beaches,

 spiders,

and even a decommissioned lighthouse.

It was a lovely place.  Next time there will be a picnic.

One Year

Going about my daily activities I have been experiencing many deja vu moments; most have been centered around approaching fall events.  See I have been a Seattle resident for a year now which I find almost unbelievable, but the coming of fall and familiar activities bring me back to our first fall in the Pacific Northwest.  There were memorable moments of apple picking, stumbling upon The Noble Fir of Ballard for Fresh Hop Night, hiking up to Heather Lake for our first trek through these drastically different forests or a cool bundled day on the beach at Golden Gardens.

As we enter our second year I'm reflecting on our lives here and whether this is where we want to be.  Our original intention was to live in Portland, OR where we had a stronger base of friends but opportunities led us to move 3 hours north instead.  I have no regrets about the change of plans and found in Seattle something I hadn't known I'd been missing, my connection to the waterfront.  I grew up in a small coastal town where the waterfront was a part of everyday life, then for 7 years I went to school and lived in the Appalachian mountains where my love for those mountains almost made me forget about my love for the coast.  Now I find myself on a new coastline with a new set of mountains and having a connection to both in one place is a wonderful feeling.

Am I a Seattlelite yet?  I would say no but with a sidebar of 'maybe one day'. Being a country girl city life is still a bit daunting, I miss all my friends back home and I have a hard time fighting the urge to just read a book all day when it's overcast (200 days of the year).  But Mount Rainier still takes my breath away every time I see her, new friendships are forming with time and it's incredible to have all the options a city has to offer. Slowly but surely Seattle has won my heart and as our lease ends with it comes the decision to stay or to go.  Do we give this city the chance to make us fall completely in love or move on to another possibility?  For now I'll be happy with the fact that I have a choice and I'll see where that takes me.

         

#1 Visit Alaska or Hawaii.

Visiting Alaska has been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember, and now I've finally been.  It is quite the amazing state, incredible beauty wherever you go (at least from Homer to Talkeetna which is where we were) and as much wildlife as you could hope for.  We went for 9 days, but with 20 hours of daylight it felt like 18.  I can honestly say it was one of the best vacations of my life and I'm looking forward to the next time I return.

Fall is a comin'

Getting ready for fall with my first cold weather accessory; a crocheted infinity scarf!  I used this simple tutorial  and then tweaked it a bit by going through back loops for every other row.  This made the vertical lines a little more prominent though only on one side.  It's big, chunky, and only took me one movie, yay me!  The pattern is crazy easy so it's great for any skill level.

You can never make just ONE scarf so I've started a Pinterest board for knit/crochet scarves and cowls all with patterns.  Below are some of my first pins, clicking the picture will take you to the original website straight to the pattern.  Cheers!

1.) A Spoonful of Sugar   2.) the Purl bee   3.) Shibui   4.) JennOzkan.com   5.) jimmy beans wool

#12 complete an embroidery project

The summer has been a blur and September will be here soon.  I've checked a few things off of my '26 before 27' list but have fallen drastically behind on my goal to read 52 books this year.  C'est la vie.  Today I am happy to cross #12 off my list, complete an embroidery project!  There are many embroidery samplers to help you learn such as this adorable Princess and the Pea Sampler.  My frugal self decided to go for the more basic (and free) approach of practicing stitches that I found on the web in lines.

What did I learn?  I'm really bad at french knots, I can't make them stick, they'll have to wait for a rainy day and with fall in Seattle approaching I predict a short wait.

I decided to move on to some doodle embroidery with back stitches so I interpreted  'B is for Basil' from Edward Gorey's Gashlygrumb Tinies into a hoop,

then I moved on and free handed this cute pin,

but my favorite is my pillow.  The pillow case was sewn from linen, then I drew a whale on with a water soluble pencil and proceeded to stitch.

I am satisfied that I have completed my goal . . . for now.  I'll continue to work on my embroidery and master the french knot, stay tuned.

Salad Bar

Our new salad bar.  Easy to set up and a nice way to add some interest to a fence.  Bloomsdale spinach, Buttercrunch , Forellenschluss (Flashy Trout's Back), and Deer Tongue reside in these gutters.  I can't wait to pick a mixed green salad ♥

#17 - Eat a Raw Oyster

#17 of my list of 26 before 27:  Eat a Raw Oyster

It's really quite unbelievable that I have not enjoyed a raw oyster until now.  I grew up on the Chesapeake Bay in a small town whose lifestyle revolves around the water and everything in/on it.  Whether taking a boat out for the day, having a crab pickin' or going to work on it, the Bay was a way of life for most people in my community.  So why in the world had I never had an oyster?  The answer escapes me but I have since remedied the situation!  Of course this was a west coast oyster so I'll have to reset my goal next time I visit back east and have a Bay oyster.

Mid February a friend was in town and we took our first Seattle ferry ride out to Bainbridge Island.  The trip was lovely and it seemed like sightseeing instead of a mode of transportation (I'm sure commuters have a different view on this matter).  Once there we went to the tasting rooms of a few Bainbridge wineries before heading to dinner at Hitchcock's.  Hitchcock's philosophy is localism, their service friendly and food superb.  Fresh raw oysters were on the menu a la cart and since I had recently compiled my bucket list I went for it.  I'm glad I got over my fear because it was delicious and I am looking forward to hitting up an oyster bar to try different varieties!  We went on with our meal where I tried pork belly for the first time which melted in my mouth and continued on to clams and giant octopus.  I wish I had written this sooner so that I could be descriptive but after 3 months all I can say is that everything was delicious and in the end our plates were clean.

In Seattle, on a ferry, with Starbucks coffee, could we be any more stereotypical?

Leaving Seattle in our wake.

It was gloomy downtown but sunny on Bainbridge, go figure.

Oysters!

Clean plates, the food was great.

I recommend coming in at night sometime on a ferry, it's quite stunning, this picture does not do it justice.