new game!

My favorite animation company, Amanita Design, has made a new game for kids called Questionaut.


I just played it for two hours!

Carvin'

Stamp carvin' (or "printmaking") is my new interest.



It's really fast to turn drawings and tracings into reusable stamps for ink and paint. Linoleum blocks come in different sizes and the carving tool can be bought at art stores.


Adam made a bike stamp.


Briana made a logo stamp for her friend's midwifery business.

This Marimekko print gave me the jar idea.

I'm going to make more.

Party at the Cabin!

My older sister Briana came to visit me in Seattle for 5 days...and the next day my dad and younger sister Candice came.

Party at the cabin!

To start the two week fest I drove to eastern Washington to get Bri and we stopped at the Ginkgo biloba petrified forest. Amazing to think that Northern America was forested with Ginkgo trees which now only grow natively in China.


Lunch buffet at Flowers!


We went on the Underground Seattle tour and heard crazy stories of the white people who settled the area and some history of the downtown. It used to be called "Duwamps" and was built mostly of wood. After a big fire it was renamed Seattle and was built in stone.


The water pipes were wood and parts of Seattle still used wood pipes in the 1980's!



Brigham Young's brother?


Then my Dad and Candice came and we ate these pastries:


bad idea at 7:30 AM.
Candice is starting as a Freshman at UW, so she is here to stay.



We drove north to Anacortes and happened to be there for Fidalgo Bay Day. Very educational and there were free oysters and clams.



Also, we found the elusive huckleberry! (see previous post)




Ahh, the Pacific Northwest...


Here we are over Deception Pass.

Seattle Critical Mass

Yesterday was the last Friday of the month, meaning five thirty finds me and Adam in downtown Seattle for the Critical Mass bikeride. It was my first Seattle critical mass and it was great, we rode all over downtown and let a lot of people know this is a biking town and they should join in...or at least drive safely around us.



We had a police escort, too, since last month's ride ended in a bad driver-biker mixup. (a driver wouldn't wait for the mass to pass and drove through the "corkers" barricade, running over two bikers, endangering the mass of riders, and causing some of them to react in defense).
See wikipedia for more info on Critical Mass in general and for a short summary of the July 2008 conflict in Seattle.

Bonus finds: two piroshki's and a location for free bread behind a bakery :)

mini frogg

Is this a mini frogg?



I think so!

Ithaca

I went with Adam to visit his family in Ithaca, New York. It was nearly a family reunion with Adam's sister Andra and two kids George and Oliver in town from Seattle as well as Adam's brother and sister-in-law Shay and Tirzah and their daughter Adelaide in town from Beijing, China.

Here is everyone on a boat tour of the Thousand Islands area.



It was great to meet Adam's family better and I really liked Ithaca. We ate delicious, fresh food, went to outdoor concerts and dancing, played with kids, and went kayaking....



...boating, and swimming in Cayuga Lake!



(did you know there is a Cayuga duck that lays black eggs?!).

We also went overnight to Thousand Islands, which was beautiful and I swam in the St. Laurence River.
Here are pictures of some of the other things we did:



We went to the Ithaca farmers market and ate veg food!



We saw the colorful block prints by Silk Oak. I got a vegetable bag and flower shirt.



We saw Addie's "pirate eye"



On the way to 1000 Islands we went to a farm.
The goats were holdin' down the fort.



future goat-herder:



The Barlow Family:



One of the Thousand Islands?

Declaration

A long time ago, some funny people made a funny ad that represented my life, in a way.



I thought about this picture a lot this summer as I was packing and sorting through things in Utah and taking my last BYU class ever, American Heritage.



I did my best, but looking back probably could have done better.



Here's my bro Ian and me moving to Seattle!! Thanks Ian :)






Everyone should move on a full moon.

Seattle!

Hello! I live in Seattle! I've been here for a while but I am just getting around to posting about it.



First off, it's great here. I love it. It rains and storms but since it is summer there are also a lot of hot sunny days. I live in a little wooden attic like a cabin in the city--just where a mushroom girl should be.



I get nearly everywhere by an appletree-and-blackberry-lined bike trail. I work three days a week in a mycology lab :) and the other days I explore the town, buy food, and hang out with Adam.


There is every kind of food you could want here. I loved the Eritrean food served on a 16'' diameter sourdough pancake/plate.



When you live in Seattle, you get more visitors. I have lived in my house for 3 weeks and I've had 4 sets of visitors. You are all welcome to stay! I have 4-day weekends, we can hang out!

(above) Eli visiting and cooking with me and Adam.
(below) Matt and Joe, my friends from high school!!! It was so so fun to hang out with you guys, thanks!


Plus, there are tons of cool outdoor places to go camping, climbing, swimming in lakes, sailing, etc.


Here is me and Adam playing 'our favorite game' at Lake Wenatchee.

write me if you want to visit!!!

regrets...

dang, I wish I had named my blog "like a bat out of hell."  

Isn't that the best phrase?

I moved

hello, I moved from my provo house on the fourth of July 2008.

I am now at my sister's house in Salt Lake until next week when my brother and I rent a 10 foot moving truck and drive to Seattle.  I'm sewing and making books, does anyone want to hang out and visit before I move?  contact me :)