Where in the heck are you?

It's taken me a while - moving is HARD - but finally I have a spare moment to post some photos of the new place in the Seattle area. Here is the house we rented - sight un-seen, by the way, via phone and email (thank goodness it turned out alright!):

Out that front door, across the driveway, there are trees, a steep ravine and a creek:

Out back, this is the view from the deck and from the bedrooms upstairs (this is the best part of the house!):

There you have it. I will post more soon.

It's official, we're moving to Seattle. I am very excited. I got an opportunity to transfer with current company. I will be doing the same kind of work - HR - but will work at a much bigger site and will be learning all about unions... I'm really excited for something new. Craig has already had one offer from a community college in the area, so it seems all is going according to plan. We met with the realtor yesterday in Reno to talk about selling the house and I, for one, was thrilled to learn that she thought our house was worth more than we paid for it! Great news in these times! Wish us well that all goes well on that front.

We have been busy! I finally got my photo editing software to work again so I can share some photos. I have been spending as much time as I can in the art shed.... I sure am going to miss that.... we will have to look for a new house with a studio... I gave the little encaustic to my parents. I was pretty mad at myself for painting it on a wood plank instead of some better artist material. I really like the way it turned out, but the wood warped. I think I will paint another one on a better board....

My folks have moved to Michigan and the picture was inspired by a photo of Ella that I took last summer while we were visiting them on Lake Huron. It seems only fitting that it should live in their Michigan house....

Ella has had a fun year with the Girl Scouts and earlier this year participated in the Father and Daughter Derby. It was so fun and soooo cute! The girls derby cars sure looked a lot different that the boys (except for the ones that were clearly made by the dads!). Ella got her grandpa to help cut out the car and her Dad helped decorate it. I can't remember how she placed in her races, but she sure had fun.

Fred and Ginger are doing ok... getting older like us all. Fred is hard of hearing and can't see very well either... we are sneaking up on him all the time without meaning to!

Well, summer has finally come to our neck of the woods, so I am off to enjoy the day.

Hello Blog

What the heck happened? Last time I posted it was almost Halloween! I have thought about posting several times - to share my little valentine's day paintings or photos from a trip to SF, but for some reason I lost my photo management system on on computer and I just have not figured out Photoshop... I'm so lame. Who has time to learn something new like that these days! :)

Things here have been quite busy. I have been traveling quite a bit with work and I am so tired of it. Hopefully, something will work itself out soon - before I am so burned out I am past the point of no return.

We have our fingers crossed that we will be able to move to Seattle this summer. There is a good chance that something will open up for me with my job and Craig is applying and interviewing at some of the community colleges there. Keep your fingers crossed.

Ok, I'm off to download some pictures.... maybe. If I can I will share some.

Busy, busy...

Last Friday was the Fall Festival at Ella's school. It was her first chance to wear her Halloween bat costume that we made together. It turned out pretty cute, if I do say so myself! I just love fall!

I've also been putting the art shed to good use lately. Christmas presents, anyone?

Stress Relief

Life is so stressful right now. Seems a lot of things are just up in the air for us right now.

Another good day in the art shed

It's still hot here, so I got out to the shed early this morning and stayed there until about noon. It was so nice to spend some time there. I got my encaustic stuff all fired up and for the first time in the shed I goofed around with the wax! I just love this stuff! I created this little Crow King and started another one of a jellyfish that is looking pretty good so far.

Last night I was watching an episode of "So You Think You Can Dance" that was saved on the DVR (I know, say what you want, I like this show. I also like "Project Runway".... Unlike "America's Got Talent"and "Dancing With the Stars" these people are true artists and really do have talent. Say what you like about that..) and this kid who was trying out had on these really awful pants (if you watched you know the one's I mean).... it seems this is his his thing, looking for and wearing what he called "bad pants". I just thought that was such a funny thing. I thought, what a great idea for some little collage pieces. Bad Pants! These ones are acrylic paint, paper, buttons, paint marker and pen. More to come, they were quick, and fun and look so funky and much better in person.

One in, one out

I just love the weekends. Yesterday was a busy day, but busy in a good way... not like that craziness during the week. We did some shopping - I love new clothes. I got to do some scrapbooking - I worked on getting some pages done from our trip to Michigan and Chicago this summer. Here are a couple I managed to get done:

The dogs got haircuts:

Ella LOST a tooth

and, we found Honey Crisp apples at Whole Foods - they're organic and so, so yummy.