Curious Bird

1000 miles later...

After a five day trip down South to lovely Virginia (Charlottesville, mostly) and then on to North Carolina, we're home once again. The trip was lots of fun and quite a whirlwind of activity. We saw everyone we planned to see, although we didn't get to explore any real nature in the form of camping since we overplanned a bit on this trip and simply couldn't squeeze everything in. Actually, it got pretty cold where we intended to camp and camping in the cold pretty much means going to sleep at 8pm in order to get warm and not have to be five inches away from a smokey fire. We'll get up to the mountains once Spring comes. It's coming, right?

Highlights of the trip:

*O Suzannah in Charlottesville {great shop, but I can't seem to locate a website. darn}
*Artichoke Pate' with toast points
*a ton of great fabric was scored
*AND a new sewing book
*a visit to Carolina Thrift
*listening to this, this and this on the drive.
*seeing babies and hearing plans and names for two who are very much on their way.
*being able to invite faraway friends to our wedding {in person}

Well, that's it for now. I have a few photos on flickr with more to come. 

Be well,
leya

hop.skip.jump.

waiting for the G train. photo by D.

The boy and I spent the weekend in New York. It was a really impulsive trip,  but as always it was loads of fun getting to catch up with friends and do a little tromping around the city. Now that we're  home, all I can think about is how much work I need to get done (the owls are still taking over my living room) and how tired (and broke) New York trips tend to leave me. {I'm not complaining, I'm just sayin'...}
I'll be back soon to bend your ear and hopefully upload a few photos I snapped this past week. Until then, check out a few things I'm currently digging:

jenny's smock skills
spring slip-ons
flickr toys
cute
love this (there's a story)

turbulence is not my friend

 
jeff in bushwick

Hello there,

The boy and I made it home yesterday and we're happily settling back in. The plane ride early yesterday morning was not my favorite airplane experience, so it's good to be firmly planted back on the ground here in Philly. Have you ever experienced stormy weather turbulence in one of those small planes? If not, I hope you never do, and if so, you probably understand why I'm bringing it up. Geez, that was harrowing...and the fact that it took place on a 6:30am flight made for an even more sensitive stomach. I'm still sipping peppermint tea...
The weather in the Rockies is pretty serious right now. My friends just emailed me to say they and their dog are stuck at a hotel in western Kansas trying to find a way back to Olympia. Send them some good traveling love if you have any to spare. The whole trapped in the snow thing worries me immensely. 

You're probably wondering what the heck the above photo has to do with anything. Well, the answer is nothing. Its just my friend Jeff in Bushwick and I like it. Actually, my computer crashed last week {yes, I'm still whining about it} so I'm using Dustin's old IBM Thinkpad with very little access to photos.
Speaking of crashed computers, we are resolving the issue and I'm quite excited about our new purchase {no more whining, I promise}.  Of course it hasn't arrived yet, but its coming and I'm tracking it every step of the way.
This will be our first Mac and we're looking forward to it.

Lastly, before I jump back in to unpacking and reorganizing after a wondrous christmas, I wanted to say THANK YOU regarding all the amazingly kind and supportive comments about the question being popped, the ring and our future big day. Dustin has felt very good about his ring choice after seeing several of the comments. And once again I've felt such a sense of community and friendship from people I may never meet in person, it's really amazing. We are excited and can't wait to begin planning our quirky wedding celebration.

stay warm and bring in the new year with a bang!
happy 2007,

leya

seems like so long ago

While organizing some of my photos, I stumbled upon the ones from our move a couple of months ago. It's funny how such big (exhausting) days can be overshadowed and forgotten when you throw a summer camp into the mix. Sheesh.



There's nothing better than a beautiful sky when hauling everything you own down the highway.

Hello our new home state.  I hope we like you.
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When Dustin and I go on long car trips we usually try to come up with some silly game to play. During this particular trip, the game was called: find ridiculous, arbitrary and utterly out of place signs. Lucky for us, I had my camera. 
The runner-up:

Somewhere in Virginia.

The winner:

Somewhere in Pennsylvania.

I highly recommend this game. You really never know what you might find.
More soon, friends.
L.

goodbye camp, hello philly

I can hardly believe it but my summer camp adventure has come to an end. What a fantastic five weeks spent with great friends and wacky teenagers -- definitely my best camp experience yet.  Today, after packing up the kiln and sports equipment, and shutting down the camp kitchen and main office for another year, D and I landed back in Philadelphia where tomorrow we will move into our new digs and settle in -- this time unpacking, which sounds exhausting...I'm surprisingly still very motivated. A new place in a new city, how very exciting.

In case you're curious, Mortimer and Motown made it through summer camp too. We had somewhat of a close call during the last week of camp when Mort decided to sneak out of our cabin spending a night in the wilderness and leaving  me in tears for several hours. It worked out okay after he returned the next morning with only a few burrs stuck in his belly fur. He came back just before a camp wide search party was assembled. I can only imagine what kind of critters he met that night...Dustin called my attention to the fact that the owls (there are several around camp) probably could have mistaken him for a bunny....eeeeek!

So...I'm still very scattered and am nowhere near getting my camp photos up on flickr, but below I'm posting a few of my favorites with more to come very soon. Enjoy.







we got a kiln this year and it was amazing. I made a wonky little dish and quicky became addicted to the whole process. I don't have room for a wheel in my new apartment...or I would already be saving up.






closing ceremony on the last night.


me and my best lady.

More updates soon. Ah...it feels good to be back.

rest

Hello there,
Thanks to a nearby cafe with WiFi, I managed to find a little time to drop in and say hello before camp starts tomorrow. Yes, tomorrow. Eeekkk.
The above photos pretty much sum up my life the last few days.  Bliss. I couldn't think of any better way to spend my time before greeting 200 wacky teenagers for a month of high energy summer camp fun. This time tomorrow will be slightly more hectic. That's okay, I'm ready.

More soon, my friends,
L.

mountain mama

Our Great Smokies adventure was perfect in so many ways.  We camped and made a new friend who was camping nearby. We swam everyday in clear and very cold water, and I even worked up the nerve to jump (with total grace -- see below) off a not so high rock into that water (I'm scared of heights...and not so keen on ice cold water either). We ate very well (thank you aluminum foil,  coffee press,  and most of all,  fire,  you're the best). We took long hikes on beautiful trails.  But best of all, we did what we wanted for four days straight -- no work, no moving stress, just fun. It was Bliss.

 

more soon, friends.
l.

living out of a suitcase no more

Hello friends! I'm officially back from Philadelphia and Art Star. We rolled into the driveway late last night after spending ten long hours on America's highways. I have always loved a good road trip, but somewhere along the way I forgot how exhausted they can leave me.  A little more rest would suit me just fine.


So....Art Star was fantastic even though it didn't look so great in the beginning due to heavy rain and lots of wind. (Thank you Mitsuyo for loaning me the canopy, I would have been a little crazed without it.) Luckily the downpour stopped, I was able to set up, and the lovely supporters of handmade goods came out to play. My favorite part was getting to cross paths with several people I have become friends with through blogging and/or curiousbird.com
Sue, Mary Beth, Linda, Rebecca, and Joy to name a few.
I even had the pleasure of meeting readers I never knew were out there reading.
I really appreciate those of you stopping by to say hi.

In case you're curious, here are some Philly highlights since we had several things to accomplish in addition to spending two glorious days at Art Star.

• We found a place to live! The process was very exhausting -- think rain, bad directions, too little for too much money, etcetera,  BUT we found a place we like -- it has it's issues (all of our places do) but the location is sweet, I will have a studio space, and sunlight pours in, so all is good.
• We had numerous wonderful dinners with friends.
• Trader Joes
• I ran smack into an old friend from San Francisco. He lives in Boston now and was visiting Philly making it all the more strange. We had drinks and caught up. I love it when that happens.

Okay, now I must do laundry and regroup before settling back in to my routine. Only three more weeks living in North Carolina. I can feel the stress starting to build a little.

Take Care,
L.

Hello Art Star...

Mixed Media Collage 4x6

After a ton of posts about Art Star, the day has finally arrived for me and my sweet sidekick to load up the wagon and have a little craft bazaar roadtripin' fun.  The two mixed media pieces above will be there along with others and lots of stuffed owls, patchwork pouches, log cabin pillows, tons of bags made from snazzy vintage fabric and my newest endeavor, hand-printed cards.

I'm really looking forward to meeting those of you who will be there (both selling and shopping) so please drop by my 10x10 space and say hello. You can find me all day Saturday and Sunday
-- just look for owls, lots of color, a tall guy with a beard, and you're sure to find me.

I'll be back with lots of photos and a complete play by play next week. 
Until then...

bon weekend,
L.

Sweet Vacation Bliss

Back from the mountains and dying to say hello. Thanks for all the photo comment sweetness while I was away. It made my day to get back from nearly a week away from the computer (not complaining) and see that Motown had worked his photo magic once again-- he's such a camera ham.

North Carolina is one beautiful state. After this vacation, I'm a little sad to be leaving behind such Blue Ridge loveliness only a short drive away. I mean, I knew it was nice and lush and home to a great mountain range (each of these aspects really appeal to me) when I moved here two years ago, but never fully appreciated how truly amazing it is until now. It holds its own in terms of natural beauty, it really does. I prefer mountains to beaches and have always loved the Pacific Northwest and various places in New England (Hudson River Valley whoop whoop) but after spending the last week in western NC, I might be making room for another favorite mountain spot -- Asheville and the Blue Ridge Mtns (and Boone too) are all so sweet. And BLUE Ridge is such a great name for those mountains -- I happen to love the color blue and seeing it reach toward the sky in shades ranging from steele to baby is well worth riding in the backseat feeling a bit green while on the twisty Parkway. In case you're wondering, I do not work for NC tourism, I just returned from a blissful time at a mountain cabin and felt like sharing. 


More soon, now I must go unpack.
L.