Recreating a meal

I found (online) the recipes my sister, Briana, and I used to make a delicious Friendsgiving (aka Thanksgiving) Feast in 2004.
I don't think I am surprised by how much this means to me...but you might be.

The more I think about this meal, the deeper I find myself lost in memory:
I think of my sister; she died a little over 3 years ago.
I try to remember what I thought of her at the time, (bossy older sister? emotional?)
how I saw her, (she was older than me, she struggled with things, kind of mothered me)
how I saw myself (cooler than others? shy, but self confident at same time)
What she was up to (starting midwifery school, worked in the herbs and supplements section of The Good Earth, dating Gian)
What I was up to (taking Swedish, Icelandic, plant, fungus, and lichen classes; riding my beautiful bike to school at night for yoga and Scandinavian Choir; planning 3 month trip to Iceland; sewing all my clothes; rooftop urban garden; etc., etc., need I continue? my life was awesome)
Our house (The most gorgeous, charming apartment above an antique store on Center street, the historic main street of Provo. This remains my favorite place I have ever lived. I will always adore my 2 years there and everything about that house/apt. and era of my life. The most self discovering / self defining 2 years of my independent life. After I got past the "first year away from home" antics (daily naps and eating soft serve ice cream at all 3 meals) and clinging to my high school boy obsession ... but before Briana moved to Salt Lake and I had other long term boyfriends. This era was truly me, independent, un-tethered, and sadly I have no one with whom to relive the glory years because Briana is gone and I never had close girl friends.
Our friends (while looking to rent, we saw a beautiful old house, but some boys turned in their deposit before we did. At the time, we were so bummed some stupid frat boys (we had never met them, but they were boys so they must be jocks) were going to live in our dream house and probably ruin it...but then we found our apt above the antique store and met a bunch of cool guys at church and found out they all lived in that house we had wanted! Gian Pierotti, Jared Clark, Ruel Brown, Alan Ludwig, Chris Coy and Mike Kelly (didn't live there, but were friends) I am probably forgetting someone, sadly...All those guys are amazing artists. They actually studied art in college and are still doing it as their profession. They are all so cool and I am sure have no idea how much I love them and how much I learned from them - they are all 5-10 years older than I am and hopefully don't judge me too much for being naive and immature when I was 19-21 years old :)

When Briana died, a part of me died, too. It actually had started to die when I moved to Seattle and then when I got married. It doesn't have to be bad that a part of me died, because you can't stay the same your whole life. I can't live my whole life like I'm in college with my sister as a room mate, doing whatever the hell we want (making food, collecting old stuff from DI, crafting). Eventually that would probably have gotten stale, we would fight, need to make our own money :) want our own privacy, and we would want to marry and have kids...but both Briana and I are slow to change, and I think we felt ripped out of our comfort zones too early when I moved away and was dating Adam (my now husband).  As you age, mature, live...parts die and you re-grow, but you are different. I would say I am a better person now (more confident, friendly, realistic, less emotional, less judgmental...in a word: older) but I still miss that era and I still miss Briana and I wish I could see how she aged and changed over time. What things did she do that earlier swore she would never do..? Who would she marry? (you learn a lot about someone by who they marry) What would her kids be like and how would she adapt to motherhood, etc.?

Sometimes I feel selfish missing Briana because a big part of what I miss is the way I was with her, our memories, our "other" life back when we were young and awesome.

Links to recipes coming soon, but here are some photos:

(Salt Lake City igloo Jan 2007)

 (Provo September 2004)

 (Anthropologie July 2005)

 (Antique store apartment March 2005)

 (Antique store apartment Feb 2006)

 (Southern California December 2005) 

 (December 2006)

 (When I came home from Iceland with my new Lopapeysa Nov 2005)

Elliott's First Haircut

 He looks like a new boy. I almost cried, but it's good for kids to grow up.

Smith Rock 2014 I

 It was a marvelous trip to Smith Rock State Park in Oregon over Memorial Day. Beautiful as always, but this time warmer, drier, and sunnier than last year.

 While Adam climbed, Elliott and I wandered the trails enjoying life.

 I captured a spontaneous moment of unfiltered childhood. Elliott was hot (born and raised in the Pacific NW!) and saw a tempting water hole.

 He stopped to check it out better:

 Decided it was a safe river entrance:

 Took off all his clothes:

 Made a plan:

 Decided to "jump off a rock:"

 Victory. Dipped his toes and that was sufficient.

 Arlin amused himself by trying to pinch the grass.

Back at camp: Smith has a group cooking area and a group bivy area. It made for a fun community feel, yet kept the tent area quiet. It's also an effective way to manage the crowds - on the busy nights, there were over 100 tents, but it didn't feel unpleasant.

Some of the "lifers" had a group slack line:

 and bean bag toss:

 Beautiful, dry sunsets...rare for us in our wooded Woodinville.

dip dye from April 2012

Yes, from 2012 that is how behind I am in some aspects. Actually, 2 years is not bad considering I still haven't made a photobook or printed any of our wedding photos from 5 years ago :(

I had high hopes for this dip dye experiment (check out BZR's heavenly tights) but was disappointed with the results, intended to do more, had to clean up, packed them away, and life moved on. Now, I am considering using the small shibori test strips for lavender saches and I still like the pink sweater, glad I found it again. This experiment was a lesson in appreciating what others make by buying their products rather than reinventing the wheel trying to make your own...I have bought a few pairs of BZR tights now.

Aluminum Windows

Our firehouse has (5) 4'x4' single pane windows with aluminum frames. They are divided in half horizontally and the lower portion opens outward. My plan is to paint the frames black as well as the wood casing/sill (soon to be installed) and narrow (3/4") trim. 

Like so (pic from Schoolhouse Electric catalog):

Currently, we have 1 frame still coated in nicotine (previous occupant was a smoker); 1 scrubbed and ready to paint; 1 painted.

Nicotine build up on aluminum frame (identified by my mother, of all people...):

To clean nicotine off a window frame, I wiped with acetone (worked very well), then sanded with metal sand paper, then wiped with acetone again.

Before and after of acetone wipe:

To paint aluminum frame, Adam taped off the window glass and sprayed first with a layer of matte black spray paint, then 2-3 coats of "hammered metal" black spray paint.

We actually aren't "finished" with any of the windows...because we still have to paint the part that opens and the outside. Baby steps.

We just got the slider framed, too!

Arlie and Ezzie

Grill Man

Today was a good day. 

We went to the library and checked out several Little Bear books. It was the first show Elliott ever watched and I think we have seen them all...so time to read them :)

Then we rushed home and our carpenters installed a few more boards for our shiplap hallway. I LOVE how it is looking. Even though I am not installing it, I have put so many hours in already. Each board is at least 2 hours of work, plus all the dry times between coats, so it takes me about a week to get 6 boards since I mainly work at night when kids are asleep and house is clean. blah blah blah. (I haven't kept my blog up to date on our firehouse remodel, which is sad, but I will start now.)

Then, kids napped while I painted, sanded, stained ship lap. We rode bikes outside. The weather is nice and spring-y so Elliott and I grilled veggie burgers for dinner. Adam is working late.

We have a million things to do*...but I'm slowly making progress and I'm happy.

*I need to paint 32 more shiplap boards; scour the nicotine off 3 aluminum windows and paint them before tomorrow. I don't think that will happen, but I'll get started :)

Post Publish update: Adam and I stayed up until 4 am arguing, cursing, moaning, scrubbing, and painting one of the windows. It was somewhat successful...but still not sure if we will re-do it. In an attempt to speed up the process, too much spray paint was added without the proper wait time and a couple sections are goopy. Originally I wanted a black/blue window, frame and sill/casing contrasted with white trim...but we went with a black. It will match the house better since our floors are black and we will have a lot of metal. It is a "hammered metal" black spray paint, so it has texture. Some parts of the window look really good. 

I seem to frequently squeeze 2 or 3 days into one day.

More photos from the day:

current tabs

I have a problem with tabs...meaning, I always have a million tabs open on my internet browser. Right now, I have 19 tabs open, and here is a selection of them:
Typical tabs: Gmail, Gcalendar, Remember the milk lists.
Martha Stewart Cinco de Mayo recipes like enchiladas, tortilla and black bean pie, cilantro rice.
Dottie Angel's flicker photostream.
Day Out with Thomas - just found out about this and thought Elliott would love to ride a real train.
Index of all Thomas & Friends trains. Elliott has no idea this even exists. He is going to devour it tomorrow!
Northwest Railway Museum has a Santa Train!!!!! and they run normal trains every weekend. How did I not know about this?! There is a Mother's Day special next week: Mom's ride free when accompanied by a paying child :)
...and then a purely personal indulgence: Icelandic National Costumes. Nothing about family dinner, or child entertainment...but all about me sewing myself a traditional Icelandic outfit.

It's almost 1 am and I wasted a few good hours of sleep (or painting ship lap) but somehow still feels worth it.

Valentine Cards

I spent early February adjusting to my new life with 2 kids and making Valentine cards with Elliott.

We used printed paper, colorful envelopes, alphabet paper and washi tape.

Meanwhile, here is Arlin:

Aunt Candice

Candice came to visit! It was so epic we have only a few photos....

I wanted to leave this next photo out because I am having skin issues...but I'm trying to not be that vain.

We mostly spent time together while helping me get my life back on track (clean out the refrigerator, clear out my closets, exercise, etc.) Candice babysat the 2 boys one morning, we made the pilgrimage to Cafe Besalu in the rain, and we made Raspberry Blood Orange Bars (like lemon bars...) Delicious!

Here is Elliott in the morning before Candice came. (I spy the dried apricots that gave him stinky toots).

And here is Arlin, yawning: