clouds

A few weeks ago I went up to portland with my mom and curti-p. As much as I love the coast, I have to escape pretty frequently as the seasons typically consist of:
-cold-ish & wet (November to March)
-less cold & wet (April to June)
-warmish & foggy (June to August)
-warmish & sunny (August to October)

Seriously though we rarely see 80˚ around here & consequently I wind up wearing my trusty black fleece year round. With that said it was a huge huge gift to be sleeveless in portland walking around washington park with some cool kids followed by an afternoon happy hour at the kennedy school patio. Apparently Jack Mcbrayer's cousin was our waiter and he let us know that Jack is a huge fake after mentioning his special appearance at the conan show in Eugene. Oddly enough this guy was as much of a creeper as Kenneth the page. In the end I savored the sunny patio sunburn, pint of ruby & good conversation. The sun quickly left and the drive home was filled with good cloud photography.





which brings me to this:

things I love

My home watershed! the trees, the solid understanding of where my drinking water came from while living there, where it goes, hiking there, swimming there, the incredible river valley drive up and down the whole thing from reedsport to the cascades....apparently I enjoy taking pictures while driving too! Don't worry, it's mostly guessing


Spring flowers on campus... ahhhh! including the yellow peonies nearby... the season is almost upon us!


This kid!! who just finished his first marathon without much warning or training... and finishing like a champ in the photo below (grey shirt). At 4 hours and 15 minutes with an average of 9:45 per mile I feel safe saying he is pretty awesome!


salty, sweaty, sore & all smiles (for at least 25 miles of the race)


I must have walked about 15 miles chasing him around that day to cheer on him and other countless runners who were very happy to get a smile and encouragement at mile 1, 8, 25, 16, and at the finish... the guys I saw cruising by at mile 25 looked like they were flying and finished all 26.2 miles in less than 2 and a half hours!! Consequently we both took much needed naps and a very very slow walk to mcmins to celebrate with beer and pizza. nom nom nom!

<3

working for the weekend?

I'm shooting for a post a week... doable right? I suppose I don't really care if anyone every reads this, I just like have a little mini collection of photos with random thoughts. Plus I know there are at least a couple of dedicated ladies out there :)

So I've been thinking quite a bit lately about the whole working for the weekend thing. what a damn waste. that means you spend the majority of your week bummed out and you are constantly posting on facebook about how blah blah poo pooo your job is and how you got sick again and how you only want to spend the rest of your life in bed with your boyfriend and a pint of ben and jerrys.

once again it is a damn waste of air and my mental capacity to see this junk posted constantly. I'm about ready to go on a positivity campaign to get people to forget about all of that. Everyone gets sick and everyone hates their job every now and then, but it's nice to be able to focus on the good things or maybe even the humor found in the poo situations of everyday life right?

Now!! to highlight the time of the week everyone loves (because we all love days to sleep in, go on walks in the daytime, stay out late, clean our respective places of living, what i've declared as sewing sundays, drinking coffee out of the hungover cat mug...)

CONAN!!! no big deal


Hiking with Curtis & Cam (those good lookers below), baby bananas & multitudes of millipedes




Sewing Sunday, ftw


Steven's first time at the Oregon Coast... <3 my friends




Watching the sunset with Marissa & the huge swell

I know I know it's been a while, but things are generally crazy as usual. Settling in has been nice in the new place, but a few boxes remain unpacked/undecided and a few frames remain on the floors. They are starting to become fixtures in the sparsely decorated flat. I'm also slowly figuring out what exactly my new job is. It's fun and challenging, but I'm really excited to start piloting the education modules we are putting together. I'm working with some fabulous teachers :)

Here are a few updates with photos:
New plants from an very large spider plant that found a new home in my mom's library. I got it during my freshman year of college.

I love this place!



My new $20 dollar chair!


Okay so the flowers have come... where is the normally pleasant weather???


Eugene in the Spring! Curtis got a new place as well. I love the little tiny stove and general man presence. The floral couch remains but will get a slip cover soon or make a move to the donation center.




My first setting for a piloted field trip! The essence of this project is that each coastal watershed education module/unit for the project has a meaningful field experience. We are going to do some marsh plant surveys, exploration of the tideflats through digging, water sampling and looking at some flora/fauna. The sixes river pops out just north of cape blanco so we will be doing some wrack line exploration as well. When I was there a few weeks ago not only was it beautiful but we found subtidal sponges, spruce cones, neat rocks, algae and of course plastic. All in all an interesting exploration of a local small estuary of Oregon that can hopefully shape any estuary field trip in Oregon along with a student field journal and corresponding classroom activities.

Obviously I could talk for a long time about the project's aspirations :) But for now I have pretty photos.




A little trip to Bandon on the same day with lots of heavy winds, poking, photography and watching some awkward windsurfing with southerly winds.
I love these sunglasses!


my dad going out for that sweet "double dip"

winter in a flash

Really though... did we have winter? With all of the driving back and forth, learning new things, walks, lack of sewing & abundance of traveling to visit friends and family I've been neglecting my photos.

I made it up north a few times to visit with Hillary. We embarked on the usual walk, sfny pizza and the small but surprisingly interesting art museum. Portland is always on my mind and with the new flat a trip to ikea is probably in order.





These are from where I work. Mostly I sit at the computer, but occasionally I can get out on the trail system for a break, a post work walk or to help out with visiting schools. The skunk cabbage is thriving now with its large yellow flowers and soon they will be covering the wetland area.




Buddy is adjusting slowly to my frequent absence.


And this is why living in a small coast town isn't really all that bad.







Bits of the new place with too much space. yes I just said that. It still remains undecorated and mostly organized. Retrieving my furniture has become quite the task but my papers and such are waiting patiently unrolled and protected in the sewing room closet. Good things to come!





Some small handmade items for a marine biology grad and some lovely girl's birthdays. So quick and fun. I've got a mad obsession with "quilting" and stitching things on my machine. The blue ones were made with a pre-embroidered fabric, but I added to it. The crab fabric was from a remnant at ikea and the blue fabric is featured on a cotton lawn dress my mom so patiently made for me 3 years ago when my demands were high and my skills were subpar. I'm not quite sure I could even make it today. The little pouches are lined with some amy butler love flannel that I turned into a pair of pj pants. They are insanely bright and loud but I love them.


I keep finding myself hording scraps for something ambitious like a quilt but always wind up using them for lining or a new project. Someday I will commit to making a quilt and perhaps the new sewing room and the ability to leave all of it laying all over the floor will help.