Are the times getting tough? Is the road you travel rough? Wilco will love you baby

The unofficial soundtrack to the summer has arrived and it couldn't have come sooner! This will help me get through July and August. My friend Tyler and I are hoping that our legitimate purchases of Wilco (The Album) will help our boys break the Billboard Top 10 this week among all the MJ purchases. Who knows, maybe some people will pick it up based on the awesome cover art alone? In stores today....

Fudgesicles

I L-O-V-E, love Fudgesicles. They are my favorite summer time treat!


However, some Utahn's introduced Creamies to me and I instantly fell in love. I thought you could only purchase Creamies in Utah, (They are made in Bountiful, UT) until I was craving one today and I went to their website. (I mainly went to drool...) I must be living right because it looks like I can get them at a Sam's Club or Walmart in Washington!

Ben- are Creamies worth a trip up north to our closest Wally's World? :)

Etsy.com

Well, it shouldn't be a secret by now that I LOVE to take photographs! Several of the photos I've taken around Seattle and other places we've visited I've had people tell me would make great cards. On Mother's Day I made my mom and my mother-in-love (wink wink) a set of cards from the cherry blossom photos I took on the University of Washington campus. The cards got RAVE reviews.

So that got me thinking...

I looked into opening a booth at one of the local farmers markets, but that meant I had to give up every Saturday and Sunday from now until October. I contacted a couple boutiques in the area about selling some cards but I'm still waiting to here from them. :( I knew there had to be another way, especially on the WWW. One day I came across Etsy.com, it is like a virtual Pike's Place Market. Artists can post their items for a minimal fee and sell to anyone in the world. Cool huh?

I created an Etsy site, you can visit it by clicking here. Or by clicking the link on the right side of our blog. (Please know I'm not trying to guilt anyone into buying cards from me!) I am selling cards in sets of 5 for $12.00. I have 3 different sets on my site right now but will be adding more as the week progresses. So if you're interested or you need a gift for someone and this strikes your fancy check out the sight!

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I do want to say a special thanks to all of my friends and family (especially Ben) for being so encouraging and supportive as I've slowly started this new photography venture. I really appreciate all the nice comments and healthy criticisms :) I've received. They have really helped me grow as an artist and hopefully one day a small business owner. Thank you!

Balloons, Birthday, BATMAN!

We went to a rockin' birthday party on Saturday! Happy Birthday Andrew, thanks for having us!

In Memoriam

Seems like every radio and TV station is

paying tribute to the late "King of Pop."

RIP

one person's junk, is another person's treasure

Archie McPhee has moved to Wallingford! The kids I nanny for have been begging me to take them for a visit. Today is Andrew's 5th Birthday so we spent the day doing all things Andrew! Started off the day going to our favorite play gym, unfortunately it was closed, but the park next to it sufficed. Went home to for PB&J's, green beans, cheese stick, and blueberries, all things Andrew picked for lunch. Went out for ice cream, and then wrapped up the day with a visit to Archie McPhee. If you haven't ever been it's worth a visit. The store is a kid's dream come true, tons and tons of trinkets costing around .30-.50 a piece. Yes, it's mostly junk but kids love it. They also have lots of novelty toys and great stuff for Halloween.

Some of my favorite things I saw today:

Bacon Gum
A Giant Cockroach
Breakfast Floss - 3 flavors coffee, bacon, and waffle
Nose pencil sharpener- stick your pencil up one nostril and the shavings come out the other!
Finger Traps
Bird Whistle- fill the whistle with water and blow, tweets like a bird.

Hair

Here I am in 1988 sporting the same haircut I had throughout my childhood. My sister's and I often tease my mom and are totally perplexed as to why our hair was always cut like this. If you look closely, not only do I have an unusual amount of bangs, but my mom also had my sides cut. She claims it was to "keep hair out of my eyes." I think she secretly LOVED mullets and that's why I had one until I was old enough to know better! Since my mullet days I've continued to have short hair, no longer than a few inches below my chin. Except for a brief moment in high school when I joined the dance team and had to grow it out a bit. My hair has always been a point of contention with my parents, not because of the length or lack there of but the color never ceased to amaze! The crazy color days are behind me, although I'll always wish to be a real red head.

When Ben and I were in Hawaii about two years ago I decided that I wanted to "try" and grow my hair out. I've tried many times before but then get bored and chop it all off.I've been successful so far, and this blog post is mostly for me to see how much progress I've made. I know, it's a really lame post... but when you say you're going to post everyday for a month you really start stretching for ideas! February 2007June 2008July-August-ish 2008 October 2008December 2008April 2009Today

Sidewalk Inspiration

Andrew, Natalie, and I created quite the sidewalk display with some chalk today! It was a collaborative effort and I was pleased to be a part of it!

Negative Tide

The beaches in Seattle experience a negative tide this time of year. We learned that the Seattle Aquarium was sending naturalists down to the beaches on Monday during the negative tide to help explore and answer questions. It was amazing how far the tide went out revealing lots of sea life for us to check out!Looking at sea anemones, Natalie renamed them "the belly buttons of the sea!"Andrew holding a crab shell, yes just the shell. The naturalist explained that crabs molt, like snakes shed their skin. So when the crab has grown too big for it's shell a crack opens along its back and the crab essentially "walks" out. It then buries itself deep in the sand for a few days until the new shell has hardened. The naturalist said that's why you'll see so many crab shells along the beach, it's not because the crab has died it's just molted. Interesting huh?Big clam!A perfect northwest beach day!A whelk shell, that could have housed a snail or a hermit crab at some point. The small whole indicates whoever was living in there got eaten or sucked out by something else.Making "bird prints" and "chicken hands" in the sand!
A Moon Snail and a Sand Collars where it lays eggs. When you pick up this rather large snail and touch the bottom and huge strand of slime will follow! Sandy-Faced WillSuccess! Fun was had by all... even the nanny! :)

Happy Father's Day

D - dedicated, dutiful, dad
E - early riser, explorer, economical :-)
N - naturally nice
N - nostalgic, nimble
I - interesting, insightful
S - smart, stylish (penny loafers, braided belts, and back packs, trends he claims to have started)

G - generous, gracious
E - easy to talk to
O - overachiever, Opa
R - rambunctious, reassuring, rowdy
G - grammatically correct, grouchy (warts and all dad!)
E - educated, edgy

Hope you have a great Father's Day! We've been thinking of you all day! Love you!

Fremont Fair

We have lived in Fremont for a little over a year now and have been able to take advantage of a lot that it has to offer. There are great places to eat, shop, and we're within walking distance of the zoo! One thing we have yet to experience is the Fremont Fair held in June on the third Saturday of the month. It is a fair hosted by the Fremont Arts Council an organization that supports the arts and artists in the Fremont area. They have a parade every year that has been, at times, quite the controversy. It is famous for it's creative floats and ensembles, but most notably for the Solstice Cyclists. The Solstice Cyclists strip down every year and paint their bodies then ride through the parade. Ben and I decided to see what all the talk was about this year and walked down to the parade route with our friends Tyler and Stacy. It was quite the event, unlike any we've ever attended!

At one point we tried to make our way down to meet up with more friends, we got caught in the stream of the parade and Ben decided to make the most of it!

"Elementary, my dear Watson"

Looks like we have plans Christmas day... :)