Weddings

I really love going to weddings.

I especially love going to weddings when you see how so completely very happy the two people getting married are.

And, I have to admit, as an artist, I love to see how differently the idea of wedding is interpreted. You get to see this wonderful collage of the couple's life-- their favorite friends mingling with outspoken relatives, wrapped in their favorite colors, eating their favorite foods, often in their favorite most sacred spot on the planet-- be it a family home, or a temple, or a church, or their favorite boulder looking out over the ocean.
You get this little snapshot of what is important to two individuals.  It's usually some form of tradition mixed with personal expressions of beauty, and creativity and resourcefulness and love.

Even with the most traditional weddings, you never know exactly what it's going to be.
Maybe I'm just lucky, but I feel like we've gone to so many weddings in the past few years that have truly been unique labors of love.
You know what it's like?  It's like handing out egg cartons to a class of kids, and telling them each to go home and make something.
Some kid will just bring it back full of eggs or marbles.  Another kid will turn their egg carton into a cat or a dragon.  Another kid will fill each pouch with dirt and plant sweet peas.
It's always so fascinating and beautiful to see how the framework idea of wedding is brought to life in different ways and shapes and colors and forms.
I love it.
Of course weddings aren't all about the fuss and frazzle-dazzle of the details; but I do remember, from our own wedding, all of these silly little projects unexpectedly brought me so close to so many people I love in such a fun and creative-crafty way.  It's this underhanded way of having an excuse to talk about color and fabric and flowers and food with everyone you meet, something I kind of relish in.

There were so many late sweet nights sitting with Tyler in our tiny studio apartment in the middle of a dark Seattle winter, printing out invitations, stamping birdies on the envelopes, drinking wine, laughing...  

Well, September has been full of weddings for us.  We went to two weddings in two weeks, and they were both incredibly fun and beautiful, and very different from each other.  

The first wedding was in Colville, Washington.  Our friends Nicolle and Jay got married at their gorgeous home looking out over acres of farmland.  This truly was one of the most incredible and heart warming events I've ever been to.  The entire event just exuded happiness.  I don't think I will ever forget the beautiful picture of Nicolle and Jay standing under the trees with their son, Ari, just wrapped in pure happiness to be sharing their home and love for each other with their family and friends.  And everything was beautifully hand-done.  The flowers, the food, the candles on the the driveway-- their house just glowed with all of these little projects that, you could tell, came straight from  Nicolle's heart.  Violet got to come, and she was absolutely in heaven.
  

The second wedding we went to was vastly different, but equally as fun.  Tyler's cousin Caitlin and her boyfriend, Miguel, were married in southern California over the weekend at Sherwood Country club.  (Does this place ring a bell?  It's where Tiger Woods has his own personal golf tournament ever year).  Well, it was a fabulous wedding!  Oh, California, how lovely you are!  It was a beautiful evening event  with incredible food and probably one of the best live cover bands I've ever heard.  An enormously fun party wrapped in purple roses, with dancing and, again, this enormous amount of love and celebration just dripping from every detail.  

Violet stayed with my folks for this one, so Tyler and I had the excuse to take a little holiday by ourselves :)  We went to Santa Monica and tooled around on the beach.  More photos?  Yes!  Although, sadly, I didn't get very many non-blury ones of the Caitlin and Miguel..    

Sunflower

Hello, September.  Aren't you pretty.

Sorry it's been so long.  We were busy growing a sunflower.  

We're very proud of it.  I'm not really sure why it decided to grow and bloom (most of the other flowers kind of gave up in August).  

It didn't seem to care about the glass and roofing scraps in the soil, and it certainly didn't give a fig that we only watered it every-other never.  

I think Violet is planning a birthday party for it.  I'm sure it will be quite an event!  All flowers are welcome to attend :)

Recent Parade Fun

We've had some fun parades recently!  Hope they will brighten your day (they brighten mine :)  

 Beach Findings Parade 

Painted Clams Parade 

Crabs Parade (Tyler made this one)

 Waiting-to-Hit-the-Piñata Parade 

Cat and Bear in Chairs Parade

Happy Thursday, everyone!

Love, Violet and Chowder

Camping with a 3 year old

Here is a secret:  Camping with a 3-year old is awesome.  

You think it's going to be really hard and horrible--  that it's going to take too much planning and that your kid won't sleep, and that she'll be falling in rivers and getting eaten by bears and bugs, and that she'll throw tantrums the entire time because she'll want to play in the fire and eat poisonous berries.  

Well, at least that's what I thought.  

But then, as we were getting ready for the trip, I started to notice how excited V was getting--  just completely consumed with excitement, in that way that is, I think, unique to kids.  She was excited to drive a long long way and listen to music in the car.  She was excited to sleep in a brand new sleeping bag in a tent and pack her own little tote bag of toys and animals to bring.  She was excited to have a camp fire and toast a marshmallow and brush her teeth under a tree.  

I think maybe this is what separates taking a 2-year old camping from taking a 3-year old camping--- 

They are able to anticipate and get excited.  There is this mental capability that exists that just isn't there in younger kids-- they are suddenly so interested in adventure and learning and exploring, and understand basic activities (like sleeping and eating and cooking) as facets of life that can be thought about and done in different ways (like the idea of cooking our dinner outside over a fire basically blew her mind)--and this is what camping is all about, after all, for any of us.  

Well, maybe luck was with us, but really everything went so incredibly well.  Violet spent the entire trip having fun making leaf bathtubs for her my-little-pony, and finding stumps to climb.  She slept legitimately well (ok you guys, she slept until 7:15 one morning; that's a good 2 hours past her average wake up time at home). Maybe it was the 4 mile hike?  Or the residual comforting smell of campfire smoke in her sweater that she wore night and day... I don't know.  It was like some perfect dream that I never imagined could actually happen.  And she took it so seriously.  --Like she knew we were out of our element (or maybe finally in our element?) and didn't get into trouble one spec.  

She was just this little fun person, wanting to help out the whole time, and enjoying her vacation away from home.  And I think Tyler and I both got this flash of how great things are going to be as she grows older and we get to share more and more of the things we love in life with her.   

Rescuing Bert

Man, we had a great morning.  --Completely unexpected considering V woke up in the middle of the night sad and crying, and then was up for good at 5:15 AM with a cold.

Violet spent much of the morning hiding her Bert (as in Ernie and Bert) in wooden A-B-C block towers.... and then having the mom or the dad from her dollhouse rescue him in very elaborate scenarios.
I don't know why I found this so funny and fascinating--  I just couldn't stop watching.
Is there something about being sick that brings a kid down to speed, just enough to have them focus in on imaginative play in this sort of loopy intense way?  That would explain all the awesome creative stuff she did while we were [sick for 10 weeks] in India...!  Or maybe it's just the general feeling of wanting to stay home and lay low that brings it out.
Anyway, whatever--  it's an awesome silver lining to her having a cold!

Hourglass Footwear and Dissertation Fun

First of all, sorry for the neglect everyone.  I realize I haven't typed a word since June, but there is good reason for that!  This seems to have become the summer of enormous endeavors!  Tyler is teaching four days a week at the university, PLUS is working like an army ant to get his dissertation done.
Do you know what writing a dissertation is like?
It's like nothing else.
...It's maybe a little like starting a business.
Which is another thing that is happening this summer (more on that in a second).

Writing a dissertation is this incredible process that involves research and original thought--
--so much to the point where you become a bit of an expert in your field of study
--so much to the point where you can (and are expected to) actually contribute something original and clever to the world of thought regarding your topic.  I don't think there are many of us who have ever actually contributed something completely original and new to this world in the way that you are expected to do when you write a dissertation.  It's nuts.  And he is working hard.  And I am proud of him.

Anyway... With Tyler WorkingWorkingWorking, I've been playing full time mommy this summer, and also trying to get a few other things done (which, with a 3 year old, is basically like trying to climb a tree while its being pruned of all its branches).  But that brings me to the other huge endeavor that is swirling around this summer....

...Let me introduce you once again (now with a full fledged running website,) to Hourglass Footwear.
This thing is happening, and let me warn you, it's BIG.  Lisa and Kira have done the most incredible job getting this thing going-- within our first week we've gotten tons of attention, even (today) an article in NW Beauty Magazine! We've all been painting our hearts out, and I am constantly in awe of my fellow artists.  These ladies are the tops.  Really, they are remarkable.
Here are a few of my own designs-- and keep your eyes open; there are more in the works!

Cat Scratch Fever

Garden Party

Put a Bird On It! 

Cherry Bomb

Kiss the Bride

Holly Golightly

With A Twist