Leap Year Scavenger Hunt

I love the idea of February 29th, a day that magically appears once every four years, like a rare desert blossom. What a special day to post Scavenger Hunt photos. Thanks to Greenthumb at Made with Love for hosting the link-up!

I didn't really get going on this until last week, and suddenly everything fell into place, starting with


2

Mr. S and I just celebrated our 20th anniversary. Here we are, the 2 of us, looking very much younger at our wedding dinner in 1996.

On our anniversary, we decided to ride our bikes into town and have lunch at a beautiful little deli, so I got most of my photos there.


Somewhere you went

The deli is in 5th Street Public Market. I remember visiting here decades ago when it was a hippie-type place with little stalls for people to sell homemade things. Now it's all upscale with lots of shops, a courtyard with a fountain, and a boutique hotel next door.


From a low angle

 
This sculpture is outside the boutique hotel. I have no idea why they put a rooster on a tree stump.


Up

In the deli, looking up at the ceiling, sort of.


Cool

Green

On the shelf

Inside

Inside the pastry case. I passed on the macarons and had a chocolate chip cookie instead.


Then on the way home, we got stopped at a train crossing. Serendipity! I had seen this building many times, but never looked at it closely.


Shape

Frame

Line

On the other side of the tracks -

Writing

There was writing all over this bus, far too many sayings to read them all. That's a chicken coop on the roof at the back, and I wonder if the white box is a compost bin.


All in all, a beautiful day out, and 20 beautiful years together!

Val



 

Idol Hands

Not working right now, but I am busy, busy, busy. Trash is being trashed. Crannies are being cleaned. Another garage sale is imminent. As I write this, Mr. S is sorting nails and screws and odd bits and bobs that must be disposed of.

I've gone through my craft stuff and have created several Grab Bags to sell - stamps, ribbons, beads and whatever.

I've kept back what I want to keep to work on over the next few months or to move with me because, really, some of this crap is irreplaceable.

especially the 3D glasses

Right now I don’t want to start a big project - I'm easily distracted and have many little things to do. But I don't want my hands to be the devil's playthings (or, hmm, I could rethink this). So I've been working on refining my wardrobe. I've started sewing the lace on the jacket I showed you here.

And I embroidered the reverse of the hat I showed you here (after I sobered up).

And I decided to make a pullover out of this stripy wrap (previously seen here and here and here, and at least one other place that I can't find, but that would be overkill anyway), so I basted the neckline together.

It does hang a little funny because the ends aren't square, but it might work. I think I like it.

Have I mentioned how much I'm enjoying the presidential campaign here in the US? No, I didn't think so. But I did enjoy the last four movies I borrowed from the library - my latest picks were all excellent! They were:

The Imitation Game with Benedict Cumberbatch
The Grand Budapest Hotel with Ralph Fiennes et al.
La Vie en Rose with Marion Cotillard
Celeste and Jesse Forever with Rashida Jones and Andy Samberg.

I know there are a lot of fans out there of Mr. Cumberbatch, but do you know who I have the biggest crush on? Rashida Jones. She's cute, funny, talented, smart, the daughter of Quincy Jones and Peggy Lipton. I mean, how cool can one short, freckle-faced girl be? She's adorable!

Ja, I tink zo.

Val

S-S-S-Scavenger Hunt

The Scavenger Hunt this month is a little different. Our hostess and ringleader, Jill (Greenthumb) at Made With Love, is on hiatus for a few months. With advancefuturetiming technology, the link-up went ahead last month - basically, we showed up at her place and made our own drinks and snacks. She just asked us to clean up after ourselves, and then she gave us carte blanche to do what we wanted for January. I made up prompts for my photos. I wanted some kind of theme to tie them together, so they all start with the letter S.


First up, SEQUEL
 

I wasn't completely satisfied with my logo cover-up that I showed you in my last post, so I changed it. Here, I've used a scrap of rather lovely fabric and glued it down to the logo. Then I glued a plastic brooch (without the pin) on top of it. The brooch came from Citizen Rosebud's shop.

I like this better, but I still need to trim the edges or add something to finish them off.

SOFT
 

I was given a lot of lotion at Christmas, and some lip balm. So I'm pretty soft right now.

SORT

Yikes! I've been sorting through lots of old clothes and shoes to see what I could jettison - I got $79 at a resale shop, which was way better than I expected! The rest went to the thrift store.

SCISSORS

Trying to work out an idea I had for embellishing a blazer. It's all pinned - see below - but I just haven't started sewing yet.

SUGGESTION

This is my suggested placement of the lace pieces.

STACK

You may have guessed there's a sort of sewing theme going on here.

SAFETY

I seem to have several of these travel sewing kits with safety pins, thread, needles and buttons.

SEE

See! It's nearly invisible - and has been waiting for use since the '60s!

STICK

A "voodoo" doll I was given long ago. I use it as a pin cushion.

And, breaking away from the sewing theme -

SCULPTURE

At our local art museum - the head is sculpted out of Sotheby's catalogs!

Check out the other scavengers here. Happy scavenging!

Val

I Hate Logos

Happy New Year! I haven't checked in here since before the jump (ha ha, using trendy online jargon - incorrectly), and I don't have a huge post or anything major to report. I've been busy sorting and purging and shredding (photographs of old boyfriends, incriminating tax returns, communications from the Mothership). But I also managed to do a little tiny bit of creative work - I customized a logo'ed handbag that I bought in October.

You got a glimpse of it here.

It's a lovely bag, rich dark-red leather, cross-body strap as well as a shorter strap, and just enough pockets and space to keep me organized and content. Except I hate logos.

I vowed to cover this glaring advertisement in some way, to personalize my purse and show Liz where she can shove her shiny vanity plaque. So I did this:

I took the flowers off a hat (seen here) that I had added them to. I rarely wore the hat, so it's now gone to St. Vincent de Paul's thrift shop, and the flowers are here, attached with embroidery thread and a tiny bit of glue.

 Of course, after finishing, another great option presented itself. My mother gave me this:

It was purchased on our family trip in 1964 (which I wrote about here). The badge would fit sideways over the logo, and I'm tempted to try it. The original adhesive might not hold, but I'm sure I could make it stick with some E-6000. Still haven't decided about this.

Anyway, I've been "doing" a little embroidery. The quotes mean that I'm mostly thinking about it and getting ideas. Now that I've said it publicly, I'd better follow through!

Val

End of the Year Scavenger Hunt

You're expecting a wrap-up of 2015, aren't you? Here's the condensed version: longest temp job ever, longest summer ever, documentary produced and shown locally on PBS (you can see it here). That's nothing compared to what 2016 holds in store - selling up and moving back across the pond!

But let's not get too far ahead. It's still the holidays and all, so let's just chillax and do the year-end Scavenger Hunt. Thanks as always to Greenthumb for hosting!

Guess what our list consisted of this month -- lots of holiday-themed prompts, so you get to relive Christmas! I took some of the photos on my recent beach retreat in Newport, Oregon.

This was in a gift shop window -

JOY

If you go to Newport, DO NOT get a hotel on the bay, where the sea lions hang out. They are very, very noisy!

TOGETHER

Our (artificial) Christmas tree at home. The extra-bright lights in the middle are were the only original lights still working. They've blown out now, and it's nicer with fewer lights.

TREE

I remember this crow ornament from as far back as I remember Christmas. I don't remember it ever having a hanger; it always just sits in the branches.

ORNAMENT

Decorated light posts by the beach, and unbelievable blue sky when I arrived in Newport.

LIGHT

Christmas-surround!

CHRISTMAS

In a different shop window -

SPARKLE

I decorated these little tins and filled them with chocolates for Christmas gifts. You can see more here.

GIVING

Is it any wonder my clothes are tight?

FOOD

Staying in bed to read and drink coffee. And then tea. And have some cookies. So, yeah, tight clothes.

RED

I seem to have missed KITCHEN, but here's my WHATEVER. This sea bird looked like a rock until I walked by and it brought its head out from under its wing.

And squawked at me.

Now we've relived Christmas, time to celebrate the New Year.  

 Happy 2016 - spread peace, love and understanding!

Val

All shall be well

Are you ready for Christmas?

Is Christmas ready for you?

We don't go overboard with shopping and activities, and I've actually got time to enjoy Christmas - I'm no longer at my temp job! Since the weather is horrible, I'm sort of hibernating and taking it easy. And when I say "taking it easy" I mean l-a-z-y. Here's my typical To-Do list:

TO DO:

 brush teeth

I got a sudden inspiration from Pinterest when I saw that an Altoid-size tin holds six Dove chocolates. Groovy, I thought, I'm gonna make some little gifts for my book group! After all, I had PLENTY of tins to work with.

So I pulled out some old Christmas cards I'd saved, and some washi tape, and voila!

Then I decided to make some for the various people who will be at our Christmas dinner. (Our extended family this year will include my sister's stepson's partner's father's girlfriend - did ya get all that?) I had a few more old cards, and more washi tape, and some ribbons and stuff, so this time I made them into hanging ornaments.

Each one holds six chocolates.

The best part is that there are chocolates left over for me!

Wishing you all happy holidays, and sharing the wise words of Julian of Norwich:

"All shall be well, and all shall be well,
And all manner of thing shall be well."

Val