Elliott January 2013

Making New Year's Breakfast:

 Sword fighting with Dad:

 Dinner Time:

 Just woke up:

 Popcorn and movies!:

 Duck egg quiche at Dad's work:

Black Market Bakery

 My mom's acquaintance/friend opened a new bakery store front, which I was excited to check out on this trip to California. It is at The Camp, a healthy/active lifestyle group of stores in Costa Mesa.

Bike kitchen!

 I was too enamored with the construction of the display tables to photo the actual baked goods...

The owner's husband made these beautiful tables of wood stained black and white subway tiles.

 Everything was delicious! consult the menu for an idea of what she makes, but it's a mix of the basic bakery items and several inventive twists, plus plenty of packaged delicacies and bread to take home or gift.

Grandma's 80th Lunch Cruise

 

My Grandma Nancy turned 80 last week! Happy Birthday!

Isn't this a beautiful high school graduation photo? Nancy looks so pretty and the way the portrait was posed and photographed is far more flattering than what I remember in high school.

Elliott and I flew to my parents' house in California for Grandma's party and to spend time with my family.

My mom and her sister, Carol, planned a beautiful surprise lunch cruise around San Diego Harbor with family and friends from my Grandma's life. The day was gorgeous with sunny 70-75 degree weather, the surprise worked, and everyone enjoyed catching up and celebrating Grandma.

 Our group, waiting to board:

 Nancy arrives!

We had three tables reserved for our group on The Hornblower Champagne Brunch Cruise:

Elliott devoured the fruit:

 

San Diego in our wake:

 Boats are exciting places for toddlers! The safest place was the stairs:

 Candice and her childhood friend/neighbor, Natalie:

 Mom, Candice, Tess, Thom:

 My Mom with her brother, Hap, and sister, Carol:

 Saying goodbye to the birthday Grandma:

 Some of my cousins - Elise, John Paul, Elizabeth:

 We got a ride in a bike taxi!

 After the party, we met with some family friends who also live in San Diego. Nick and Alex grew up on the street next to us and have children about the same age as Elliott. 

New Year's Snocation!

After Christmas, but before New Year's Eve, we took a 4 day ski trip in our Argosy (aluminum motor home). We woke up the day after Christmas and decided we needed a ski vacation, so we started packing and prepping the RV, but by the time we left, it was 2 am! We arrived at Steven's Pass RV lot at 3:30 am! We then had two full days of skiing and one day of snow shoeing before we drove home. We had planned to go for 5-6 days and ski at two different places (Steven's Pass and Mt. Baker), but our furnace broke, so we cancelled the second location because they had no electricity to run our space heater. 

The RV lot at Steven's Pass was so much fun! I totally recommend it to anyone - it had a friendly, neighborly atmosphere since everyone was on a ski vacation, as opposed to actually living in an RV as their primary home. At night, most of the RVs had Christmas lights on their dash and there were fire pits to roast mallows.

The RV lot is right next to the resort, so you could get to the ski lift in a few minutes walk. Here is Adam, rolling out of bed to get the first runs!

Elliott did not take to the snow very well. It was difficult for him to walk and his clothes weren't warm enough. I will be better prepared next time!

 At night, we ate dinner (duck feast leftovers), roasted marshmallows from my mom's s'mores kit, and watched "Legends of the Fall." I had never seen it before, and it had been many years since Adam had. We loved it! It is our dream movie, hahahah!

 20 feet of home sweet home!

 On our last day, Sunday, we snow shoed up to a lake - nothing too far, Elliott was not "happy and warm."

 It was a beautiful clear day, here it the gorgeous view on our trail.

Then, Adam got the Argosy revved up and we headed home:

Christmas Penguins

Elliott and I (mostly I) made some penguins for Christmas. I think they are pretty cute, so I wanted to share:

I only have these photos because I already mailed them away as gifts. They are made from t-shirt scraps. After stuffing the penguins, but before I stitched them closed, I added a little bean bag at the base to act as a weight so these penguins can stand on their own.

Happy Winter, Merry Christmas!

Elliott's 25 days of Christmas

Elliott needs new toys and he doesn't know what Christmas is...so I decided to give him a new toy every morning in his boots (he LOVES his boots).
I figured there was no need to wait 4 weeks to give him everything on one day because not only would it be toy overload, but it would mean 4 more weeks of him being kinda bored.
The toys are small, cheap things from Value Village (Goodwill) and he loves them.
Day 1- mini hatchet
Day 2- tractor
Day 3- plastic cow
Day 4- dump truck
Day 5-tambourine
Day 6- fire truck
Day 7- plastic bear
Day 8- light up sword
Day 9- plastic axe
Day 10- kids rake
Day 11- plastic horse
Day 12- plastic horse II
Day 13- ? I forgot...
Day 14- scissors
Day 15- ambulance
Day 16- mini piano

PRFM Holidaze 2012 report

The Holidaze Punk Rock Flea Market was a success!
I almost had a mini freak out when it looked like all the good booth locations were gone...but I found one at the bar, and since I only had food this year, it was a great booth space.
I sold out of everything but the orange marmalade and one pack of orange mallows, which I gave to Adam :)

 This year I had orange marmalade, pomegranate jelly, orange, vanilla and peppermint marshmallows, and chocolate peppermint cookies.

 Andra and her family came to visit!

With my marshmallow money, I scored two red wool coats! One with a big fur collar for me:

 and one with white trim for a little girl - mine, or maybe a niece?

 This dark green wool beauty is from Value Village (my closest Goodwill-type store). It is floor length AND hooded. 'Tis the season for wool coats!!!

Punk Rock Flea Market Holidaze 2012!!!

The PRFM is back for the Holidaze this Saturday in Seattle! (photos from summer 2011, summer 2010, holidaze 2010)

I'll be selling sweet treats to eat and give such as: Orange Marmalade, Pomegranate Jelly, Marshmallows (peppermint, orange, vanilla), and chocolate peppermint cookies. See you there!
Here is a flavorful invite:
"Get your stocking stuffed at the Punk Rock Flea Market! The often imitated but never duplicated Punk Rock Flea Market returns to the Underground Events Center just before the holidays to sell you all the whatnots you can shake a jingle bell at. On December 8th, from noon to 8pm, the Punk Rock Flea Market appears as if by magic at the Underground Events Center in Belltown.

For seven straight years the Punk Rock Flea Market has been proud to be Seattle's least predictable and best-loved flea market. More than 50 peddlers, canvassers, cheapjacks, and solicitors pile into the dark corridors of the Underground Events Center to sell an enormous variety of arts, crafts, comic books, belt buckles, bike parts, jewelry, vintage clothing, fine furniture, stereo equipment, jams and jellies, bras and panties, cakes and cookies, tools, magazines, records, musical instruments, zippo lighters, walking shoes, smoking accessories, and untold riches of punk rock paraphernalia. As if Andy Warhol held a combination police auction and neighborhood swap meet.

While shopping you will be offered scrumptious mostly-healthy handmade food and will be surrounded by live and bottled music from all cultures known to humankind.

The market opens to the public at noon and goes until well pasty sundown. The PRFM is an ALL AGES event. Bring the kids, bring your Mom, bring the whole damn crew. And did we mention that it’s still just ONE DOLLAR to get in? What have you got to lose?!?

As always, the Low Income Housing Institute, aka LIHI, has generously loaned the Underground Events Center to the PRFM for the day. LIHI is a non-profit organization that builds homes for homeless and low-income people all around the Puget Sound. Once expenses are covered, all additional proceeds go to LIHI. More info about them at www.lihi.org.

Try your luck, take a chance, spend a buck, buy some pants. Nothing sold will come with a warranty, nor is there a return policy, but for those with a sense of adventure and tightly crossed fingers, there WILL be bargains."

Christmas Season is Here!

It has been far too long since I've posted, and it's not because we have nothing to show! It's just the opposite - way too much going on, so, no time to post.
I have a goal to post all the remaining stories from 2012 before the end of the year. Get ready for a lot of reading!
Elliott is 15 months, says about 30 words, will attempt to say almost any interesting word he hears, climbs and jumps off everything, loves to copy Adam, and melts our heart every day.
Here is the latest sneak photo from today:

This was a few min after he was near hysterical with hunger: crepe break!
He is sitting on a box (that he usually jumps off). I've noticed that he prefers to sit on little things like this as opposed to sitting on the floor or sitting in a full size chair. I need to get him a mini table and chair, he would love it!

A few crepes later, he was satisfied enough to busy himself playing again...but I found one stowed in his dump truck!

house musician

Elliott is in love with the banjo and he plays it like a stand up bass. I finally got a video of it because, previously, he'd stop as soon as he saw the camera.