Views Along The Cowroad...

Absolutely stunning views of The Cascades Mountain Range this afternoon. Just look at all its splendor!

I think this was the first School House in our valley...

Frosty Morn with the Promise of Sunshine...

Hail, Snow and a teeny bit of Sunshine...

First it hailed like crazy....

And then we got this....

And then we had some nice sunshine (sorry, no pictures there). Crazy stuff... 

Well, our vacation is over again and school will be back in session starting tomorrow. Miss. M. will be playing Ultimate Frisbee this season so say  'Hello" to the 4:30 - 6:30pm practice sessions every weekday  after school from now until May...  (plus all the Saturday short training sessions and all the actual games of course)  {not-smile}

Let Them Eat Cake!

Peg Board Fun...

For quite a few years now I have been wanting to have a nice postcard rack to display all those fun postcards in! Since I have not been able to find a suitable one here in the States, I thought I'd built my own one, out of peg board.

Peg board is usually used in the garage to hang your tools on, but I found a tiny mention in a magazine (I think it was 'Fresh Home') of someone using peg board to hang their cards on and I felt this was a project I could tackle.

Et voila, I not only made one, I made two! One with the more traditional Dutch cards and one with more vintage themed Pip Studio cards...

I bought some s-hooks and some fun little clamps and I was done. (about $20 in total) I will probably add some ribbons, flowers and other embellishments on them as well to make them look a bit less 'peg-boardy'...  <wink>

After all that was done I decided to finally use the fun vintage decals I got from Tif a while back. I added some to our Hoosier kitchen cabinet...

Yay, things are finally starting to come together!

PS We have wet snow coming down: what the...??!  

"O Canada!"

(title of the Canadian National Anthem)

Yesterday Mr. G. and I went on a road trip to Vancouver B.C., Canada. This is the location of the nearest Dutch consulate. My passport will expire soon so we thought that now was as good a time as any to drive up there and get all the paperwork over and done with. (a 3 hour drive one way...)

The consulate was right smack downtown Vancouver, in between all these buildings...

After our appointment (Which went very well for a change. Usually the bureaucrats at these departments are less than friendly) we walked down to Victory Square in Gastown.

A place called 'New Amsterdam' and right next to it was a Cannabis shop, how suiting...

On the square we had a most excellent lunch at Meat & Bread. 

Afterwards we walked around a bit and did some fun shopping at  a very strange store called 'Army & Navy'. They sold clothes, groceries, toiletries, shoes, candy you name it. We also stopped at a couple of thrift/ vintage stores but those prices were through the roof!

After a couple of hours of walking around (the weather was gorgeous!) it was time to head home again.

The following pictures were taken while waiting at the border crossing in Blaine. I love mudflats!

All in all a nice day out and it really felt we were in another country, which we were of course, but you know what I mean...  {smile}

I See The Light!

Here are some impressions of the ever changing weather over here. The light show was simply amazing!

And in all this light I caught this amazing young lady. I proudly present to you:

Miss M.!  {smile)

The Rivers Are Rising!

Picture of our local traffic camera (we have one in total!)
of one of our main roads...

Well, it has been a while (over a year I think), but our lovely River Valley is flooded once again.

Tif was supposed to come over today to do some thrifting and pottling around in another small town here in the Valley, but alas, that visit has been postponed until next week....

Don't worry about us, we are just fine. Our town might get cut-off but our house is safe. It doesn't look like it is going to be one of those epics floods, just a pain in the you know what...

In 'other' news: it is still raining! (never good for the flood-situation)

PS I just found this picture in the Seattle Times. It is taken right there in the top left corner of the first picture I placed where it says 'flooded road'. In the mean time, our other main road is now closed as well. It does look like the river is close to its crest though for this flood so we should be free of all that water again soon....

Here you see firefighters trying out their rescue boat...

Semlor....

Look what we found at Ikea today!

Yum!!!! (I've had three already)

These are cardamon buns filled with marzipan and whipped cream. Can't think of anything yummier!  {smile}

Go Huskies!

We won!!!  {smile} (79 - 70)

What a fun day out to see the Huskies play today! It was Senior Day which meant that all the senior players (= the last year students) were honored together with their parents and close relations.

Below you see the court, the seat cushions, some athletes stretching, the toss-up (I think that's what it is called?) and coach Lorenzo Lomar handing out a plague to senior Brendan Sherrer, also known as the 'Human Victory Cigar'... (too long of a story to explain here but the crowd went wild when he came out on the court!)

(Note: all the Basketball pictures were taken with my little Canon power shot, so my apologies for the bad quality)

As soon as we entered the stadium there was The Pep Band!!! (my personal favorite) First they performed in the hallways with some funky dance moves (and so loud!) and during the game they had their own stage in the stands. Loved it all! And they played fun 80's tunes as well like 'Take on me' by Aha, and 'Fat Bottom Girls' by Queen.

And of course no game is the same without the cheerleaders! Look at all their hair flying while doing the back-flips etc. {smile}

It took us half an hour to get out of the parking lot (10.000 fans!) but after that we stopped by Anthropology where I bought these lovely ceramic cabinet door knobs... (those were the only things I could afford...)

Again, a great day and a great start to the vacation!

Friday Ramblings...

It is not only Friday today, but it is also the beginning of our Winter Break: a whole week off!  {smile}

Master C. is on his way to Whistler, a Canadian Ski resort about five hours north from here. He was invited to come along with one his friends and family for a three day skiing trip: not bad at all! He certainly deserves some R & R with the ginormous school load he has been experiencing this year...

Miss M. is at school enjoying some kind of festival and of course Mr. G. is there to observe it all. (that's his job) They should be home by eight or so tonight so that leaves me with another four hours or so to go....

We have received free tickets to go and see The Huskies (University of Washington Basketball Team) live tomorrow in Seattle so that should be fun. I am not a fan of the game at all but I love looking at all the cheer-leading and the bands playing. That is such an American thing and it always leaves me with a big grin on my face!

--  *  --  *  --  *  --

In the mean time you can see that I've been working at the blog lay-out again! Hope you like it? It is funny, but after about two or three weeks with the one lay-out I get kind of 'itchy' and I feel something new needs to be 'born'. I guess that's what you call the creative process....
(The little book in the header is of the reading method used in The Netherlands when I grew up, eons ago...)

The photo above, which doesn't have anything to do with anything, was also created yesterday during that creative process. I added a 'gradient map' (doesn't that sound uber fancy?) and a linen texture, which I am rather fond of apparently. (this blog's background is also that same linen texture but in a different color, texture by SKC Photography) The font is called 'Ribbon'.

The typewriter we found in Eastern Washington a couple of years ago for $25: what a bargain! Mr. G. cleaned it with q-tips (= wattenstaafjes in Dutch) and it looks like new. I think it was made in 1925...

So, enough chit-chatting for now. I am going to pour myself a drink to celebrate the upcoming vacation. Hope you all have a nice weekend/ vacation and I will 'talk' to you again soon!  {smile}

Finished Dress...

Cardigan and boots from thrift store
Skinny Jeans from Target

Tadaa! I finally finished the dress and actually wore it already yesterday!  {smile}

I have to get used to the bright pattern on me, but overall I really like it. In this photo you can't see the fun puffy sleeves but they are really fun.  <wink>

I needed something 'fun' yesterday, because that is when Mr. G. and myself had our first official meeting with our school's college counselor for Master C.! (he is a Junior now = 11th grade) And even though everything seems to be going right on track, which is how you want it all to be, it did really make me realize that in just a little bit over one year he will no longer be living in our house: Nooooo!

He will be doing a college tour in California with our school in early April and we will be setting up some local tours in our own state here as well as in possibly Oregon. Exciting times indeed!

Breathe...

February 14th...

I had just posted the picture above, when I received this lovely picture of myself and my nephew (taken two years ago in Pike Place Market) from my sister. I love it so much, I just had to share it with you!  {smile}

Busy Saturday Morning...

Wow, that was both a creative and a physically exhausting spurt I had this morning!

I've been unhappy with this house since we moved in three-and-a-half years ago. It is mainly the wood trim that is driving me batty but also the rounded walls which makes it very difficult to paint. (everything is connected) Otherwise the house is wonderful, has lots of light and lots of room which is what we needed with two growing teenagers... 

Over the last few years my taste in furniture has changed quite considerably as well, but we don't have the funds to change all that out. Since we will not be moving in the near future (Miss M. won't graduate from High School until three years from now) I thought I'd better row with the oars that I have (a Dutch expression) and change some things around...

It started with measuring all the furniture involved and then I went on to draw a true to scale drawing. Yes, I can do that! I actually took a class in drafting about ten years ago and boy, what a handy skill to have!

And then came the big move around. I had the boys move the couch (it used to be where it says 'apothecary' in the lower picture, underneath the ginormous cross-stitch) to its new position. 

They then had to leave (they ran for their lives!  <wink>) and I started emptying the two bookshelves from the TV room and moved all the books to the front room. Thank goodness Miss M. had awakened in the mean time and was in very good spirits (remember, a teenager so that doesn't happen very often...) and she helped move both the books and the bookshelves!

This is what it looked like mid-way:

And this is what it looks like now:

Wow, quite a lot of work but I feel much better about it for now. We have two living rooms in this house and this front room only gets used by Mr. G, what a waste. Hopefully I will spend some more time in there now...

Here is the view towards my sewing area. So, to summon it all up: this area is where we have all our darker (mainly Sri Lankan from the time we lived there) furniture and in the kitchen/ TV area I'm planning a much lighter and more of a (mid- century) modern look.

PS: Look what I found in between all the books! I don't remember from which year this is but it looks at least 9 years old. How sweet and just in time for Valentine's Day!  {smile}

Ramblings...

Some thrifting...

Pretty Tulips...

How many pictures can you take of a squirrel?

A pretty bird (Evening Grosbeak I believe)...

And a dress update...

After parading it around, Miss M. asked ( in a nice way I must add): "Are you actually going to wear it???"  <wink>

Yes, it is the weekend at last!  I am so ready...

PS Friday's musical choices:
1. "Lip up Fatty" by Bad Manners
2. "Love to love you/ I feel Love" by Bronski Beat & Marc Almond
3. "A Girl called Johnny" by The Waterboys
4. "Sheep" by The Housemartins
5. "One it Ten" by UB40