A Surprise Trip to Tacoma

So the trip to Colorado was amazing, but the trip home was pretty rough. I realized, before we even boarded the plan in DIA, that I HAD to see my boys. Luckily, my schedule was flexible enough this week that I could take Monday and Tuesday off work - especially good since I worked 52 hours last week and really needed some extra rest time! Of course, one must always go through the dark in order to get to the light. In my case, this meant 21 hours from getting up in Fort Collins Sunday morning until finally pulling up in front of the house in Tacoma at nearly 3 am Monday morning. The last 3 hours were especially exciting, involving driving through fog from Portland to Tacoma with the windows open, music blasting, and eating ice cream in an attempt to stay awake. I can't even remember the last time I've seen fog, let alone driven in it!

It was all worth it, though, when my mother-in-law woke me up around 10 am Monday so I could join my special little guy for lunch at his school for the very first time this year. On the way out of the house, I had to stop and admire his "Mini Me" from Open House, who found a permanent home on the room of his door.

Cute, right? I was pleased to find that school lunches have improved a LOT since my elementary school days, and then enjoyed joining Monkey's first grade class for a lesson on sight words and a trip to the library. Have I mentioned that Monkey is now attending the same elementary school my husband went to? You know that's adorable! I got some work done Monday afternoon and then, when both the boys got home, we enjoyed a big spaghetti dinner (courtesy of my ridiculously talented mother-in-law) and a rather over-competitive game of Monopoly. We made it a whole hour before we all got bored with it!

Then there was the matter, of course, of a certain little lady who I like to call my very best friend in the whole entire world. Aaah, Tay! We met in college, she was one of my housemates senior year, moved out to Virginia with me when I was starting grad school - and just HAPPENED to meet the love of HER life at that same university! - and is one of my few friends who has lived in as many states as I have in the past 12 years. The only downside to our combined wanderlust? Tay and her wonderful hubby are now living in Honolulu, so we don't get to see each other all that often. In fast, the last time we saw each other in person was at their wedding, in summer 2007. Let's have a visual flashback, shall we? And yes, my hair was slightly orange ;-)

I got a call the week before that Tay was flying to the mainland to visit her parents but - alas! - she flew into SeaTac the day AFTER I flew to Denver. Luckily, her visit was long enough that we could schedule a morning together on on Tuesday before I had to drive back to Portland. So I decided to finally devirginize Tay's toes - yay! Pedicures! We went to the best little nail salon in Tacoma and, coincidentally, the same place where my darling husband devirginized my own toes nearly a decade ago. Of course we had to be nerdy and take pictures to mark the occasion. First, Tay looking lovely and not nearly as nervous as I was my first visit here:

...and then me, with my legs that I'm only realizing now are kind of scary white. Man, I guess I really did depend on that Texas sun to keep me from turning vampire-esque!


The nail ladies were getting annoyed that it took us so long to pick colors, I think. Tay settled on a dusty rose-ish pink, very girly, very her :-)


I've had gray toenails for the last month (I know, so stylish, right?) and was going to try the olive green, but was advised against it as "too much like gangrene" by my darling friend. Instead, I settle on my old faithful - dark red. Call me crazy, but I always try to get a dark or bright oclor when I go for a pedicure, like something I wouldn't be able to put on neatly myself at home, you know?

We quite literally can (and have) talked for hours. One thing we agreed on that really stuck with me, though, was this: We haven't seen each other in person for four years and yet, when we are together, it feels like we see each other every day. That, my friend, is true love. I love you, Tay :-*

Old, Angry Guitar ---> POOF! ---> New, Happy Clock

Okay, so, confession time: While I am a board-certified music therapist and dance instructor by name, I have a strong wannabe complex when it comes to visual arts. I would never call myself an artist, but I somehow feel more...alive when something evolves in my hands. Sewing, painting, quilting, baking, collage, graphic design...you name it, I'll try it. Not that things always go smoothly - remember when I sewed my finger last Spring? Ouch. Seriously, ouch. But less than a week later, I was back behind the wheel (of my sewing machine) and ready to create again. Major crafty nerdiness, right here, people!

The seed for this particular project was planted back in June via this picture I found on Pinterest. Gorgeous, right? But where to get guitars no longer worthy of playing but totally worthy of upcycling? [Sidenote: Aah! First non-clothing upcycle project! Exciting :-D] I kept my eyes open on Freecycle and Craig's List for the next few weeks, scouring the 'burbs of DFW for an old, angry guitar, but came up empty-handed. Huh, I thought. Guess I'll have to wait for this project. And I shelved the idea (pun somewhat intended) and moved on to other things, like, ooooh, I don't know, being offered and accepting a new job, packing up the entire family and moving 2,000 miles back to the Pacific Northwest? Yeah, that pretty much kept my mind off my crafting guitar-less status.

So imagine my surprise when, several weeks ago, my amazing boss asked me to oversee the inspection of five old guitars with a repairman, hoping that two of them would be worth fixing up to be used as spares in our clinic. Hmmm...whatever shall we do with the three others? I wondered out loud. Trade-in, donate, recycle...yes! Recycle! I'm in! After getting the go ahead from my boss, I called my Dad and informed him, "Power up the power tools!" Yes, I totally said that out loud. I'm nerdy like that :-D

So here's the old, angry guitar on our kitchen counter, waiting to be loved on...

...as well as a display of the tools of the guitar-upcycling trade - clock mechanism kit, AA battery, strong wooden ruler, and a box cutter. Fancy, yes?

So first I removed the broken strings

Looking pretty naked without the strings, huh?

That's me, loosening the bridge with a butter knife. Oh yeah, we keep it high-tech at our house!

Then Dad flipped over the guitar...

...I marked a rectangle in Sharpies (key for removing the screws holding in the bridge and installing the clock mechanism)...
...and Dad drilled some lead holes.

Several slices across the varnish to cut out a rectangle...this looked like so much fun, I totally swiped the boxcutter from Dad pretty much as soon as I put the camera down, hee hee!

Ooooh, aaaah! Like a tiny door into the music-making magic ;-)

So then it was time to deal with the ugly, varnish-less mark where the bridge used to be...

I'm not gonna lie, using the power-sander was super-fun, but a little hard to control. I ended up going with the old school hand-sanding method. Exciting, I know ;-)

First coat of paint on...

...and after the second coat, we have a golden guitar, courtesy of Martha Stewart Crafts Multi-Surface Metallic Acrylic Craft Paint in "Copper"

Golden guitar, freshly varnished...still a little gooey, though

I wanted to come up with something pretty and guitar-ey to accent the numbers. I nosed around and found some origami paper within the boxes of still-unpacked office supplies, borrowed a guitar pick from my Dad to trace, grabbed some scissors and, voila! Paper "guitar picks" - colorful and free!

Glue sticks are so useful for things like 1st grade art collages and attaching paper accents to guitars...

Clock mechanism installed, guitar picks attached...

...numbers attached...

...and another coat of varnish for like-new guitar clock shine!

Next, it was time for test placement for the flourishes

...yup, even up on the fingerboard!

The flourishes seemed a little...stark, so they got a fresh coat of Martha Stewart Crafts Multi-Surface Metallic Acrylic Craft Paint in "Rust" to make them blend in a little more

Finally! It's done! (and my room needs to be cleaned, clearly)

So here's the final product, mounted above the door of one of our offices. Have I mentioned that we are housed in a building that's about a century old? Sooo Portland vintage!

Here's a pic to give you a little more perspective. Nice, right? Okay, so maybe pretend that the white cabinet has been cleaned out and the little CD stand isn't actually there...

The view from below...those extra nails will be removed once I figure out a better way to attach the neck of the guitar to the wall...any ideas?

Oooh, did I mention the best part? There are still two guitars patiently waiting to be upcycled - stay tuned for Parts 2 & 3 of this upcycling adventure!

Get It Out & Get Back On Task!

Some random thoughts gathered from the depths of my brain while working from home this morning:

1) Hummus tastes really good on scrambled eggs. Especially Trader Joe's hummus. Who knew?

2) Varnish takes a reeeeeally long time to dry. Or maybe it's just 'cause I'm impatient to finish this project so I can take it to work and tell y'all about it! Aargh!

ps: This is not the brand I am using, but don't you *love* that it's called "Extreme"(!!!) varnish? LOL

3) This is my 101st blog post! I had no idea - thanks, Blogspot, for letting me know :-)

4) So, most of my adult life I've thought that I totally hate clothing, but I'm coming to realize that I only hate clothing in other parts of the country. In Portland, where the status quo is sort of a relaxed, hippie-ish, organic cotton vibe, getting dressed for work is becoming far less irritating. It also is involving more skirts, leggings, and upcycling stodgy old pieces of clothing. Yay!

photo credit

5) I've discovered the *perfect* Christmas gift for all of my (local) friends on Pinterest! Here's your hint - the packaging will look somewhat like the picture below. Speaking of, I'm addicted to Pinterest - et tu?

6) While my DFW friends are sharing stories of shorts and air conditioning, I got to wear a sweater to work yesterday. I'd forgotten how much I *love* wearing cozy, comfy sweaters and feeling the crisp Fall air in the Pacific Northwest on my face - yes!

Okay, then, all random thoughts out of my head and into the blogosphere. Let's get back to work!

A Tale of Three Tees

Do you ever get the itching to just...create? Start feeling restless and need to feel something under your fingers, something you can manipulate and make it entirely new? Repurpose and reuse and realize how something in your imagination can become real when you use your own two hands?

Yeah, me too.

I got the bug for tees to skirts after seeing a pretty young thing tooling around downtown Portland in what looked like the most perfectly broken in jersey skirt I've ever seen. Casual, comfortable, and oh-so-chic. I'd show you a picture, but I haven't gotten quite so comfortable in Portland that I'm ready to accost strangers with my Blackberry yet - maybe a few more weeks before I give that class act a try!

So I did what any happy crafter would do - As soon as I got home, I jumped on my computer and Googled my butt off! Check out some of my favorites from the dozens of tutorials I perused:

Melissa @ Sew Like My Mom shares her adventures in Shirt Skirts - uber-cute!

Destri @ The Mother Huddle suggests using and old undershirt for an Easy Elastic Waistband

Mandy @ Sugar Bee Crafts made Easy Knit Skirts for herself and her two adorable daughters

Ashley @ Make It and Love It constructed a Skirt with Yoga Style Waistband from a shirt

...and finally, Cathie @ Domestic in the City nearly got me off-task and onto about 101 t-shirt makeover projects!

Utilizing tips from all of these tutorials, I confidently headed off to Value Village to find my tees. I had a liiiittle too much fun in the men's department - my initial pull included 17 tees. A few too many for an initial experiment, even as less than $4 each. I had to get serious: first, I lined up the tees in order of price. Second, working from least to most expensive, I made some tough decisions. Red tee with gangsta, tattoo-style imprinting? Amazing, but at the high end of the price range. Black tee with studded copper-colored design? Gorgeous, but I had doubts about it hanging nicely with that much weight on one side. In the end, I narrowed it down to three tees: #1 was a nice, plain purple generic tee; #2 was a deconstructed green tee from Old Navy with an orange, tribal print on one side of the chest; #3 was periwinkle and featured lyrics from a Steven Curtis Chapman song. Total cost for three new skirts, including the use of two worn-out tank tops already in my closet? $8.97.

Tee #1 Before
Man, I really need to learn to hold my Blackberry still!

Tee #1 After
Quote from my Step-Mom: "I would SO wear that!"

Tee #2 Before
I almost kept this one as a t-shirt - it looked so comfy!

Tee #2 After
Deconstructed, reconstructed, and soft as a newborn's insteps

Tee #3 Before
Cover your heart in lyrics

Tee #3 After
The lyrics are upside-down to y'all, but perfect for me to remind myself:

we are the treasured and the prized
we are the apple of God's eye
we are the ones who fear his name
we are the children he has claimed as his
we are the ones God sent his son to rescue

we are the ones to keep the rocks from crying out
we are the voices that will shout his praise
we are the sons and daughters of the almighty God
we are the children of God

So I'm Back...Sort Of?

It's been a summer of changes, that's for sure. I had an amazing job offer in Portland, Oregon (my home town) - really, it would not be an exaggeration for me to say it was my dream job. How many people can say that about a job offer at age 30?? I'm just saying...so going with that thought, as well as considering about a thousand other details, my dear husband and I decided it was time to pack up and go. Yes, we left our beloved DFW behind and shipped ourselves back to the Pacific Northwest. Hard to believe it's been 12 years since I left Portland for college and...here I am. Here I am. Just me.

Monkey Boy & Daddy are currently living up in Tacoma, Washington, where my dear husband got a job. Being an elementary school teacher and given the ridiculously bad job market in the Pacific Northwest (much worse that Texas, we're finding) it is truly a God-send and an answer to our prayers for him to have a position. There is much to be said for a paycheck and benefits, especially with a small Monkey around. It has definitely been a challenge to our marriage and our family life already in the three months we've been here, but we can do it. We are committed to doing it - I think that's what makes the difference. That and Skype, which Monkey has endearingly nicknamed "PING!", as in, "I'll PING! you tomorrow, Mommy!" My boys are currently living with my amazing Mother-in-Law, who is retired and cares for Monkey before and after school with lots of love, lots of homecooked meals, and lots of cousins coming over to play. Monkey has taken to his big extended family like a fish to water.

It's still pretty surreal to me, in every aspect of my life, actually. All the commuting back and forth to Tacoma (about a 2 hour drive) isn't helping much with getting myself mentally centered either, I think. Most mornings I wake up and I have no sense of where I am - Texas? Washington? Oregon? No clue. I've been having some issues with insomnia (it's HARD sleeping in a bed by yourself after years of co-sleeping!), so it's a good thing my Dad & Step-Mom have an awesome cappuccino machine. Oh, did I forget to mention that? Yup, I've moved in with my dad and step-mom. Luckily, they have a big house in the West Hills of Portland, so I have my own space and they have theirs. My room, which is seriously about half the size of our apartment in Dallas, has an attached full bathroom and is in the daylight basement of the house. A daylight basement, I've learned, occurs when a house is built into a hill, so one side of the room is window-less, facing into the hill, and the other is fully above ground. I have a huge window and a sliding glass door on the above ground side, the latter of which leads onto a deck with a hot tub and has steps leading down into the woods, where a creek runs about 200 yards away from the house. Yup. Tough gig, living here. Not too say there aren't challenges, though: I haven't lived with my Dad since my parents got divorced in 1986 - when I was 5 years old. I've never lived with my Step-Mom, but luckily she and I get along like peanut butter & jelly. I'm blessed, I know. How many adults get a second chance to get to know the parent who wasn't allowed in their childhood?

Why yes, I *am* that girl who will hold up traffic in order to take an awesome picture while commuting! My husband finds it hilarious when I refer to Mt. Hood as "my mountain" and burst out with Portland colloquiums such as, "Look! The mountain is out today!"

Sooo...How You Been?

I know we haven't talked in a while. If it makes you feel better, I've been neglecting my flesh & blood friends, as well. I'm sitting here enjoying some silence (well, minus the air conditioning unit outside my window) while Husband and Monkey Boy are doing the weekly grocery run. They volunteered. Score! I am torn as to my opinion of their return, though: On one hand, I enjoy the silence. On the other hand, I have chai and no soy milk, so they really are necessary for me to have my morning tea! Of course, once they are back, there will be no silence in which to enjoy my tea. Sort of a Catch 22...

I'm also installing the software for my new phone. After 3 years with my last, cute little phone (I have issues with change, clearly) it started acting funky a couple months ago, so after much thought and research I ended up getting a BlackBerry Torch. Ah, yes, my first smart phone! And yes, I realized I'm a little behind the times, but that's cool. Technology is much more exciting to me when it's a personal accomplishment, not the trendy thing to do.

So here is Hint #1 for the big changes that are coming: The smart phone will be very useful for me professionally.

I will end this morning with a favorite quotation shared with me by a college professor back in the day (more than a decade ago now - man, I feel old! LOL):

...and we can just consider that Hint #2 ;-)

The Times, They Are A'Changin'

Some big changes are brewing around here and, if you're anything like me, you don't like waiting for your suprises. Like all the changes life brings, there are good points and bad points to our upcoming adventure, and I just have to keep reminding myself (and the husband and Monkey Boy) that we are embarking on this particular path in an attempt to better our future, even though it means giving up things that we love today. Whatever my lot, you have taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul :-)