Happy Friday!

Welcome to the weekend! Here's to happy surprises. :)

(cutest puppy maybe ever, ruby from herbie&ruby)

Outdoorsy

Want to hear something wacky? I went hiking yesterday! A friend was on the Eastside for the day and wanted to take advantage of the lovely afternoon, so off we went! I wasn't quite prepared for the snowy trail up the mountain...up I went in my old running shoes, tread worn off long ago. I'm surprised that I could make it as well with my present level of inactivity, though I was pretty sore later.

Rattlesnake Ridge is in North Bend, WA, where David Lynch's Twin Peaks was filmed. After the hike we warmed up with coffee at the diner where the detectives eat cherry pie! Kind of bizarre.

A great view accessible by an hour's hike. Heights make me nervous.

We made/bribed this little friend at the top. A very outgoing little bird with a good appetite. It could tell we're suckers.

The Weekly Cute

Mom tipped me off to this week's cute. She saw this pup on last night's David Letterman. Bailey plays dead a little differently than most. Darn cute! Click here to watch her via CBS. (thanks mom!)

Choice Bean

Ok, blog foodie tangent once again....

The cannellini bean, current bean of choice.

I have ignored the cannellini bean for too long. As a vegetarian, beans are especially important nutritionally, so this is worth a finger-waggling. The garbanzo bean has long been my go-to bean, but now I see options expanding. Cannellini's are mild and soft and compliment many flavors. They lend a sweetness to dark leafy greens, which I'm also trying to work into my diet more readily. Nathan's not much of a bean soup kind of guy, but I would otherwise make Real Simple's Stewy White Beans recipe part of my repertoire. It's a delicious canellini stew (I made mine more soupy) with greens, too! If you have more cannellini suggestions, send them my way.

Plink plink Tink tink

So I'll be sitting here in the apartment, all my lamps on just because it is generally gloomy outside. And then I'll hear something tapping within our stove's vent hood. If it sounds like 'plink plink plink' it is beginning to rain. If it sounds like 'tink tink tink' it's actually this.

hail.

We have more hail than I ever remember in the Midwest. Suddenly your rain or snow flurries will turn into little ice pellets. No big whoop, it lets up, the cars drive over it and it all melts. But c'mon, hail? And then it will stop for 3 minutes and some eerily bright sun will come out like this.

What? What is this?

For months our weather has seemed to straddle that line between Autumn/Winter and Winter/Spring. And now that it's March and we've sprung our clocks forward (which I forgot to do) it's especially unfair. What a tease! A couple weeks ago I wasn't wearing a coat and now hail! This is why people in the Northwest are said to drink so much coffee.

Hereby I enjoy drinking too much coffee and eating too many sweet breads. I need to paste up a beachy image over my desk to remember that warm weather will come eventually and requires preparation. Yes, if one would like to show her legs once the temps jump to 75 one random Spring day, she must go work out in that, that hail.

Ms. Karen Walker designed this look as the motivational source and due reward of getting one chocolate-eater's chubby winter fanny off the couch and to a gym.
want want want

Fortunately she designs nice cold weather, all covered up looks that give some comfort to those of us who have skipped the gym and instead holed up with a box of Girl Scouts' Thin Mints (another March temptation). At least we can get our fashion kicks in the winter.
Keep that hail coming!

Birthday Images

nathan's superb wrapping paper choice. and i got ratatouille!

beautiful cake

delicious cake!

thank you for my awesome red teapot melinda! so thoughtful and perfectly matching. :)


I had a lovely birthday. Nathan took me out for donuts at Top Pot in Bellevue before his classes. I spent the day relaxing and drawing and bought some fabric to cover pillows (crafting sounded like the perfect way to spend a day to myself! though I have yet to finish the pillows) We went out for Thai after Nathan's classes then enjoyed cake and ice cream at home. Nathan was so sweet--he picked up the cake and ran it home between his midterms! :D And last night I had dinner with a couple of good friends, always good conversation and fun. Not a bad way to begin 23, not at all.

Thanks everyone!
Your sweet messages and gifts and wishes are so special to me.
xo

ps...something just as special as a birthday is coming up in less than a month. anyone know what it is? ;)

Piscean

Happy Birthday to me!

Today is my 23rd Birthday. :)

I have been playing around with fish illustrations this week. A family friend is due to have a baby girl this weekend, and I've ventured to make her a drawing of our mutual sign, Pisces. I have always liked astrology though I don't know how much credit it deserves. I gave up reading my horoscope years ago, but the description of my sign is practically dead on. (I was once part of a conversation with an astrology-minded design professor, someone with whom I've spent quite a lot of time in studio. When I told her I am a Pisces, she dropped her jaw and seriously said, Now everything makes sense.)

The fish swim in opposing directions, with and against the current. We exist in space between the real and ideal, trying to make sense of dreams and what is actually around us. We are empathetic but often detached. Our greatest struggles and triumphs seem to happen in that emotional, dreamy place where no one else can see it. I really trust this description, and I return to it for guidance from time to time. I hope that I keep this in mind and can use it as an ally in building up those good qualities and overcoming those fishy weaknesses. 23 years isn't so long, but it's never too soon to start listening to yourself better.

An earlier draft fishy drawing.

I think the orange fishes are better for a baby...but I might like the first one better? What do you think?