Birthday Adventures

Have I mentioned recently that I love where I live?  Seattle Summers in particular.  And since I have a summer birthday, I always feel like I should take advantage of the amazing weather and do something outdoorsy.  Something different, or at least different from what I normally do.  

Last year Joe and I played hooky in Seattle, one memorable year Joe even surprised me with a hot-air balloon ride.  This year was one of those happy, lucky years when my birthday fell on a Saturday.  This past Saturday to be exact. 

But recently, Joe's been absolutely swamped at work and traveling almost nonstop.  Case in point - last week he flew down to San Jose on Monday, back to Seattle on Wednesday, up to Toronto on Thursday and back home late Friday night to be here for my birthday (yesterday evening he flew out to Calgary).  So I knew I wanted to do something fun, but I also knew that it would have to be something easy.  And then the perfect little adventure fell into my inbox in the form of a Living Social trip!

The caption read "River Tubing and Beer Garden Cookout".  Hmm...  maybe, maybe not.  But the fine print was more interesting - 'Imagine taking a tubing trip down a scenic river in the German countryside, and at the end of your journey, relaxing at an authentic beer garden. Turns out you don't have to fly 5,000 miles to enjoy the vibe, simply sign on for this adventure: a river-tubing trip and cookout in Leavenworth.'  Oh and it included round-trip transportation from Seattle!

So my Saturday went something like this:

Start the day with a trip to El Diablo's, our favorite coffee shop.  Warren added a special side of whipped cream to my Mexican hot chocolate, complete with sprinkles and marichino cherry.  Yeah Warren!

Then a quick city-bus ride to meet the Living Social group, and a longer bus ride (in a really nice bus) out to Leavenworth.  The bus ride itself made the trip worthwhile.  We hit a really bad patch of construction traffic, but it was easy to ignore. Chelsea, our intrepid tour guide, led us in several rounds of trivia while the driver negotiated through the traffic with impressive patience. We might even have won the trivia game if I hadn't been a scaredy cat in the 'Final Jeopardy' round.  No living social cup-cozies for us!  :-)

Scenery along I-90 through the Cascades

stock photo from Living Social

The river was prettier than this, but I didn't want to chance my iPhone in the river with me, so I don't have any photos of my own.  Good call as it turns out because just after we pushed off we went through a nice set of ripples, with dips and waves over our heads.  Wet, wet, wet!!!!  I heard that earlier in the year, the ripples are true rapids, but for our trip they were just enough to cause some excitement. 

The river was filled with people in rafts and inner tubes, or simply wading in the shallows and the atmosphere was just so happy and festive. We were each given two frisbees to act as 'paddles' to help us steer where we wanted to go, but Joe lost one of his in the ripples.  So he acted as oarsman for both of our tubes while I lounged and enjoyed the scenery.  Yeah Joe!  (I did pitch in a few times).

We'd never been to Leavenworth before and all I can say is the scenery is gorgeous - pine trees and rugged rock outcroppings with meadows interspersed here and there.  We even saw a fawn grazing. 

One of the streets of Leavenworth - note the mountains in the background!

After the river, Joe and I ditched the beer garden pretty quick to go exploring.  The town is touristy and filled with cars.  We ducked into exactly two shops - to score chocolate for me and ice cream for us both.  At Schocolat, they offered us a pre-packaged assortment of their most-popular flavors, or we could select our own.  I opted for the later and when I was done making my selections, I asked if mine bore any resemblance to their assortment.  The young man helping us simply shook his head. 

My birthday chocolates from Joe

Wandering over to the park across from the ice cream parlor, we were just in time for a concert on the lawn, where we enjoyed German folk music until it was time to reboard our bus. 

I think the accordion player was the model for the painted cutout at left

heading up the hill to the bus

Back on the bus, Chelsea offered a choice of five movies for the trip back (Leavenworth is about 2 1/2 hours from Seattle without traffic).  The hands-down winner was "Sixteen Candles".  I hadn't seen the movie since I was a teenager myself, and Joe and I both laughed our way through it.  And before we knew it, we were back in Seattle, thus ending out little birthday adventure. 

This was a first time for us, doing a day-tour bus trip from home and I have to say that we were both really impressed.

Considering we're already about a third of the way into August, I thought it was about time I got myself back in gear and wrote a new blog post.  Time keeps flying by taking the summer along with it.  I'm stunned that it's already August - how about you?

So, what have I been up to lately?  Mainly putting together class proposals for 2014, creating samples to go with the proposals and enjoying family visits.  I mailed my submissions on Thursday and family left yesterday.  Now it's time to keep my fingers crossed.  And time to catch up on my blogging - both reading and writing.

Truth is, it's a little frustrating from a blogging perspective because I've put together a number of new projects (or at least totally new sample pieces) for my class submissions, but I'm trying to keep the particulars under wraps until I hear back.  Something I've definitely learned about myself - I'm not good at keeping things quiet.  That's probably part of why I've been so mum lately - fearing that I'd be unable to keep my mouth shut.  See, even now I'm having trouble! 

My classes from the Fusion Beads schedule

What I can share is the photos of my classes from Fusion Bead's Fall class schedule.  This time around, I'm teaching:

Fancy Fish, Sunday September 29th

 This will be my first workshop for the Fancy Fish and I really can't wait. 

Snowflakes, Saturday, December 7th 

Just in time for last minute holiday gifts, but the truth is I find myself using this pattern throughout the year in any number of different ways. 

Signups start this coming Thursday, August 15th at 10:00am. 

Fish Are Friends Reveal and Blog Hop

Today's the day for the Fish are Friends Blog Hop.  Thank you to all the members of my Design Team, and to everyone else who participated in this challenge and hop.  The goal again was to use my Fancy Fish tutorial, or another favorite fish pattern to create wonderful new creations.

Without further ado - here's the Official Fish Friends list:

 Francie Broadie - FAB Custom Jewelry

 Shirley Moore - Beads and Bread
 Bobbie Rafferty - Beadsong Jewelry
 Tanya Goodwin - A Work in Progress
 Cynthia Machata - Antiquity Travelers

Kathy Jo - KJ's Beadacious Beads

Therese Frank - Therese's Treasures

Nancy Sopp - AlaskanNancy 

Alison Oman

Amy Severino - Amybeads

Hostess: Karen Williams - Baublicious

 

Acrylic puffed oval beads as cores for fish bodies

For my own entry, I wanted to do something different.  You've already seen my Fancy Fish.  Some new, larger core beads seemed like a great place to start.  The photo at left shows one of the larger beads in comparison to the standard sized core beads I use.

Then a friend asked if I could stitch a Lionfish.    I didn't want to try to go for photo realism, but Lionfish and Scorpionfish are such fun with their spikes and plumes.  So I decided to take artistic license, lots of artistic license, and see where it took me.

My new fish is an extrapolation from my original pattern - you won't find the exact instructions for it in my PDF, but rather it is an outgrowth of the pattern.  I stitched two fish, but I think I may save the second and try submitting it to some magazines.  

My latest, very Fancy Fish - isn't her topknot fun?

Fish in Process

My New fish with one of my Blue fish

Oh, and later this week, I'll be hosting a giveaway here on my blog for some core beads for Fancy Fish. 

Alison Oman's Three Fish Friends

A couple of the participants in my Fish Are Friends Challenge and Blog Hop don't currently have their own blogs, so I'm hosting them here as guest posts. Here's Alison Oman talking about her interpretations of the design:

Three Fancy Fish by Alison Oman with peyote stitch bodies

Another view of the Fancy Fish by Alison Oman

This has been an adventure for me!! Not only am I an avid loom weaver, I'm REALLY left handed, soooooo the RAW has been quite a challenge for me....in fact, I'll admit the two fish I've done so far I cheated and did peyote for the body.

However, my photography skills are really awful - I have a point and shoot camera and the colors and beads just all meld together.

My daughter is the camera aficionado and she has had fun walking around the back yard with these three fish.

I've had such a great response from the fish and as the local art gallery is having a show called "Fish" in July I'm working on a piece that is inspired by your fish designs.

-Alison

A Walk on the Beach

The point at Golden Gardens - normally all this sand is underwater

Sunday, my husband and I managed to sneak away from all of our various obligations for a short while and go for a walk along the beach.  It's been ages since we managed that - I think maybe even last year which is simply sad, considering how close it is. 

The cool morning air and lightly overcast skies made it perfect weather and meant that when we arrived the beach was still relatively empty.  And at low, low tide!  Seattle's beaches don't have the cool, huge rocks that make tidepooling such a delight in other places.  Instead, our beaches have lots of little stones and a few big ones, scattered here and there.  With the tide out, the first thing you see is lots and lots of bright green sea lettuce and eal grass, but if you look more closely there are all sorts of hidden surprises. 

I thought I'd share.

I love the lines drawn in the sand by the retreating water

The floats in this seaweed look just like crab claws

A sailboat anchored just offshore - I'd love to go sail in it!

More lines in the sand - organic patterns, yippee!

Sea stones

pilings from an old pier - normally they're underwater

barnacles on on of the pilings

I found a crab hiding underneath this rock.  Love the textures!

Doesn't this remind you of a bezeled cabochon?

a perfect seashore still life

another texture shot - makes me want to do a freeform piece

encrustations

these mussels are about the size of my pinky nail - tiny!

A dungeness crab's molted shell

It just makes me want to break out the beads and start playing!  Oh, and in case you're wondering - the beach is Golden Gardens, just a few miles north of downtown Seattle in Ballard. 

Fish Are Friends Blog Roster

Can you believe it's already July 7th?  This year is flying by!  June in particular.  Now that my schedule's finally calming back down, I hope to catch up on blogging over the next week or so.  But first, just a reminder:

Next Saturday is the Fish are Friends Reveal and Blog Hop.  Are you ready?  I'm definitely working on it this week.  Since I've been so absent lately, I thought I'd better post the list of whom I believe is participating, including my fabulous design team:

Fish Are Friends Reveal and Blog Hop

Saturday, July 13th

(list updated 7/12/2013)

    Francie Broadie - FAB Custom Jewelry
    Shirley Moore - Beads and Bread
    Bobbie Rafferty - Beadsong Jewelry
    Tanya Goodwin - A Work in Progress
    Cynthia Machata - Antiquity Travelers

Kathy Jo - KJ's Beadacious Beads
Therese Frank - Therese's Treasures
Nancy Sopp - AlaskanNancy 
Alison Oman
Dolores Dwight 
Amy Severino - Amybeads
Eleanor Pigman - Eleanor Pigman

If you don't see your name on the list and you want to be in the Blog Hop, please let me know so I can add you!  Remember to send me your blog address if you have one and make sure that you give me a way to contact you via email.  

If you don't have a blog and would like to participate, no worries.  Simply send me pictures of your beaded fish along with a brief write up and I'll set up a guest post for you on my blog.  Here's a sample of a guest post from February's Choose Your Own Adventure challenge.  

Also let me know if you're on the list by accident.  :)

Happy fishing!  

Fancy Fish Design Team

Thanks to everyone who left a comment expressing an interesting in joining my Fancy Fish Design Team.  I'd meant to announce the winners on Friday, but was down for the count with a migrane, sigh. So, without further ado, here they are:

    Francie Broadie
    Shirley Moore
    Bobbie Rafferty
    Tanya Goodwin
    Cynthia Machata

I will be sending all of you individual emails with your download links, but feel free to get in touch with me directly.  Bobbie, Tanya and Cynthia - if you are still interested I will need your postal addresses to send you experimental color kits as well. 

If you weren't chosen for the Design Team, but would still like to participate in the Blog Hop, I have both the tutorial and kits available in my shop.  

Just let me know that you want to participate in the Blog Hop and I'll add you to the list.  I'll be publishing the Blog Hop list a little later this week.