New Tent

In the move last year some how we lost our camping equipment. A 2 man 4 season backpacking tent, a water filter, backpacking stove, and cookset and my climbing pack. I'm sad. We've looked everywhere and called random people, but assume we took the bin with all of it in there to Value village. Again, Sad. So Josh went out and bought a new to us, used one at Second Asscent in Ballard and we are very excited. We probably won't have much use for a 2 man tent anymore anyway, so instead he got a roomy 3 man tent with a huge vestibule. I had never heard of the brand Exped before, and it turns out they're German and have really cool designs. SO here is our new tent. Josh and a few buddies and Gertie, are heading out next weekend to try it out. Should be fun, too bad I'm too fat to go. Eli and I will stay here and hold down the fort while the menfolk are gone.

lumps and humps

So Eli has this plastic camel that he just brought over to me very excitedly and pointed to the humps. He said "baby,....baby". HMMM. We've been trying to get the idea that I have a baby in my lump of a tummy, but I think this proves we've taken a wrong turn somewhere.

Creativity Abounds

So I've been lamenting my lack of interest and motivation for painting right now and I'm finding myself making excuses about why I'm not doing it. I'm too tired, I'm not emotionally astute, I'm not focused enough, my time is spent doing other things... etc. I think when it comes down to it though, I'm scared of making something stupid and ugly. Not even so much the ugly, just nothing insightful. So there is that. I am however puting my creative impulse to work elsewhere these days. I just finished a new bag for myself last night, cause I've been carrying around the same purse since my 20th birthday. I decided it was time. There is an Amy Butler pattern that I like and am totally unwilling to spend $14 for when I can figure it out myself. So I made this one up and it is pretty close...

I used the left-over fabric that I had gotten to recover my Rotary Auction dining room chairs and am pretty excited about it. It has two secret inside pockets too.

I also have been trying to figure out where we are going to put this new baby when it shows up and am trying to eliminate stuff and economize space. So I rigged up some shelves in the laundry room where I had had a favorite painting and am going to use this as a "linnen closet" instead of the dresser in our bedroom. That should make room for a basinet of some sort. (I'm thinking I'll use the antique pram I found on the side of the road) (It sounds bad, but it really isn't.) Anyway I think Josh will probably freak out about the "ghetto" shelves, but I think they're sort of clever. Since he has forbidden cinder-block furniture (one of my pre-marital staples) I used matching file baskets and various odd drawers instead. He's still going to freak out, but it is putting the funk in functional. So there you have it, no masterpieces to be written about in years to come, but a little outlet for my creative urges.

Watermellon