Laying the Foundation

My building buddy Nicolas & I are done for the season. We consider a dry Spring-Summer-dry Fall a season because in the world of architecture there are only two seasons- WINTER & CONSTRUCTION.  I officially name this building season The Season of the Bent Nails. Since I didn't write about last building season I should let you know we called that season The Season of the Valley of the Stones. The season of the Valley of the Stones was the transportation of the foundation down a shallow incline, up a steep slope then across a mountain ridge.  If I was to do this again- llamas and sherpas.  It was the two of us.  Its hard to convince anyone to do that kind of manual labor when it evolves 30 lbs of lifting our a half mile 30 times.  My historically minded friend mentioned that the entry to Stalingrad was a rock.  The city was built on a plain without a quarry & if you wanted to come into the city you needed to help build the city.  Stalingrad offered protection & commerce, I just offer beer.  

The Season of the Bent Nails was my attempt to repurpose building materials.  Some amount of 65% of landfills are filled with building materials.  My grand idea was to help the environment & my wallet but using salvaged materials.  If I have one lesson to teach, salvaged wood is good, salvaged fasteners are not.  I purchased a bucket of donated 16d nails from Habitat for Humanity.  If it wasn't for the idea of carrying them back down I would of spread them in the parking lot of the ReStore.  They either crumbled on the first stroke or the head snapped off.  ONE OUT OF TWENTY NAILS WENT IN THE WOOD. At one point I started using my most vulgar German, chucking my favorite hammer into the woods & spent the next half hour looking for it, cooling down, while Nicolas continued on with the work...laughing the entire time.

Before the explosive day hammering, my Mum helped level the foundation with me.  At one moment she told me that working on this made her want to live forever.  I like that thought & will hold onto it throughout the entire construction.  Do I know what the next building season will be called?  I'm hoping Finished but since our community in Aurora is pulling down the existing balconies to build new ones I've been eye-balling the roll-off dumpster. Chemically altered, composite decking come to mama, its the return of the Toxic-Avenger:)

Our Mini-Moon to Santa Fe

Rainy day after our wedding so we headed south to New Mexico- to more rain.  We paused at the Pueblo in Taos.  I had heard that it was lively but on a rainy day it was quite vacant.  We bought some fried bread from a women in a dwelling lined in tarps to catch the water coming through the holes in the ceiling.  The travel journal said that they live a subsistence existence similar to their ways of old.  I didn't see how that was possible with no visible crops or livestock.

We ended up in Santa Fe with our Honeymoon suite given to someone else by a computer error.  The un-named hotel did make-up for up but Nicolas will forever be steaming about it.  The next day we went to the open market at the old train station then off to Canyon Road. 

Wonderful artwork, architecture and weather.  Yes the main square is great but too touristy for us.  A more enjoyable market was in Taos where we did buy art.  We much preferred Canyon Road. We had a great stroll around asking questions, soaking up the culture.  I became obsessed with the woodwork and when I get obsessed with something, my husband gets to work trying to help me out.

It was bizarre that in a town filled with architecture so unique and localized to this one town that the people living there had no clue who provides or maintains it.  It was only by chance on a drive that we came across Sereti & Sons. 70,000 square feet filled with doors, columns, shutters, statues and fortress gates from around the world.  I would of taken a picture of every inch but I respected their request to not take any pictures.

The most non-descript building in the town was this one, the oldest house in the United States.

Alas this was just the mini-moon because Nicolas's management wouldn't allow him to take more than a week off of work.  Gracious we took a detour to the whole sanctuary in Chimayo & had a beautiful drive back to Aurora.

And so we got married...

I am a very blessed woman.  It took me a very long time to find someone like Nicolas that I would want to marry.  In fact, until I met him, love was too abstract of an idea for me to think it could be real.  It was in songs & stories but not my life.  Then he filled that word with meaning.  He has made me stronger and more fulfilled as a person.  He has made me so happy & my heart rejoices in the anticipation of spending the rest of my life with him.  I am so thankful that he took me as I am, loving me & welcoming me into his heart.  I don't deserve such love but I am eternally grateful. 

This August I stood on a mountain top feeling fat & exposed for finally having a handfasting instead of a wedding.  I took this man as my husband, promising to return his love fully as we grow together.  I promised always to love, cherish & respect him in all circumstances that may come to us. 

My sister graciously agreed to wear my favorite colour ORANGE & my new niece made her debut as my wand maid.  It has been four years now since my father passed away so it was my Mum & I trying not to trip down the aisle. 

It was a DIY wedding to an extend.  The only goth-ness was my cake topper that had us & "the kids" a La Muerte. 

Peaceful Valley Guest Ranch was laid back & provided the catering.  We took a big chance with them when in February we went to visit the site in snow shoes.  They thought I was great because I was 'stress-free'.  Little did they know that I was stressed to the tilt trying to figure out so much since most of my friends were married decades before & kept telling me none of it matters except the dress & the dancing.  There was a point that I knew rain or shine or not losing the weight or finding the perfect what-not:  I was marrying Nicolas. 

I met a great lot of Nicolas's family, he alas will be traveling to meet mine.  His folks mobilized like a platoon & were immense help decorating.

We did ride of into the sunset...except it was a sunrise towards Santa Fe for the 'Mini-moon'.

Tis the season

Taking on cookie swap like a commando tonight. All or nothing, do or die.  I agreed to go to a holiday cookie swap hosted by one of Nicolas's friends. I pulled out about sixteen cookie cookbooks from my cookbook nook & in the end decided to go with a few oldies but goodies.
I know that I should only make one batch of cookies but then I have an ulterior motive for even agreeing to go to the swap.  Last year I decided that I could only afford to make cookies as gifts. The best reaction that I got was from my bachelor friends. The universal reaction was 'what's this?'. The realization that I gave them holiday sweets was precious. It even saved one of my friendships.  So I'm doing it for the single men in my life.
I got suckered into a holiday charity last week. I got a coupon from Anthropologie for my birthday & then an email that said if I donated a used sweater I would get a $10 gift certificate. Finally the stimulus to get my nautical tea ware!  What a crock?! The $10 was a discount on a sweater in store that had to be bought on that trip....the Anthro sweaters start at $198.  So I just used my coupon for my storm in a tea cup.

 

When you drink your tea down, it gets to the ship inside that is storming around on Earl Grey. All while your holding onto a tentacle.

I'm totally into their fusion tea set they have right now. Its tea for two literally! Two siamesed teapots & teacups.

 While I'm on the subject of tea. British, rock-a-billy tea parties. The illustrations are too DIE for. Bunnies in '40s dresses having tea...brillant.

2012 Wish List

If it was up to Nicolas, my wish list would be that every form of plastic kitchen utensil I owe would be replaced by metal. Alas my wish list is long & lengthy, so here's a few things to make the season bright:

• Granberg Chain Saw Mill  A chainsaw mill so that I can cut planks of wood out in the woods with my chainsaw instead of having to bring a the generator & band saw.
• Nordic Ware Yule Log Bundt Pan  I have been jealous for years of Martha Stewart's Buche de Noel because I'm terrible at swedish rolls.
• West Elm's Ceramic Branch vase  I love everything West Elm & I love woodland themes around the house.
• My Double Body Form  Any true sewer dreams of owning a body double to make those perfect fitting clothes.
• Kitchenaid Mixer  My Mum says that they only buy mixers in my family when a woman gets married.  I don't think I can wait that long.
• A CD/Radio alarm clock is old fashion but I don't have an IPod & I don't have a cd player so I would like some way of playing music with out the loss of space.
• A sweeping cardigan
• A Pedi-egg, they just don't do pedicures as good as they used to now that razors aren't allowed in salons.

Keep on walking

Setting goals is good. Achieving those goals are better.  Sometimes you go way over your head, but then those goals can be the ones that you can't continue on with your life without doing them.  I set one of those goals a few years back.  I wanted to be able to run a marathon by the age of forty.  Lets break this goal down; I didn't say that I wanted to run a marathon by the age of forty, but that I wanted to be ABLE to run one.  I know that a lot of people make this goal but a few years ago I was coming up to a sad deadline.

When I was 19 I crushed my lower spine so badly that it took 4 years in rehab to be able to walk correctly again PLUS I developed adult asthma.  I was the kid that you could walk anywhere but why when running was much more fun. Total lifestyle changer, then the doctors told me that probably around the age of 36 I might be concerned with some issue moving in the direction of a wheelchair.  Then I met my bestie Juliet that got me involved in bellydance as a way of physical therapy.  It did great leaps....and a lot of body glitter.

If you've read some of my older posts there was the break dancing incident that when I went to the doctor he brought to my attention that I was walking around on broken bones & didn't even notice.  So when I went back for my third epidural session that's when I made the marathon goal.  I will be able to feel my legs to end of my life & be able to run on them.  And up until this past year I was heading the right direction with  my little health check-list:  Complete four years of dental work to have a great set of choppers - DONE.  Get the weight back down- DONE. Get the asthma under control- DONE.  Correct my hearing lost & correct the genetic disorder of circulatory problems in the legs.

I couldn't wait any longer. This year it hurt to walk, stand or sit. So I went to the same clinic my sister went to see if it was time to get Endovenous Laser Abation of the Great Saphenous veins in both legs (to get technical).  During the ultra-sounds they condition was 3 times past when I needed it done & that both of the valves were broken.  Right there in the ultra sounds there they were just dangling around like snapped twigs & the veins were perforated bleeding into my calves.  So I scheduled the left leg for the beginning of November & the right for the end.

The most hilarious part of the whole thing is that Honey Boo Boo is my drug dealer.  The pharmacy mailed the pain cream & Valium to my apartment two weeks before the procedure.  My land lady got the package for me. Wonderful woman, single mom...but her & her daughter remind me of Toddlers & Tiaras.  One night I got a knock on the door & there was her 6 year daughter in blonde curls & pink tutu handing me a box of valium.  God bless America I presume.

The scariest part was the day after the operation when I took off the triple wrapped bandages & the maxi-pads for drainage. One of the incisions didn't close & I lost about  pint of blood in my bath tub that afternoon.  Here's the most naked shot of me on the internet:

 

My leg seven days after the operation with out the compression socks on.  I now own quite a few maxi skirts. You have to wear those hose all the time except bed & I cannot wear them under pants.  It reminds me of the women in the 70s that wore pantyhose under polyester pants. Yuck.

I have a whole week without the hose on right now, but next Tuesday. Under the knife for the right leg.

Other than that I got a sexy new tire on the truck. Went into the frame shop to work one night & they told me that corporate thinks I'm making too much so they were reducing my pay. When I went home to write my resignation letter my power adaptor died & I couldn't work on my computer until I tracked down an adaptor for an older laptop.  Good times.

Well its Thanksgiving tomorrow so all I'm going to say is that I miss you more than not having to work on Thanksgiving. - V

Day in Pompeii

Some know & some don't know the issues that I've been having with my legs the past few years.  To narrow down the story, my legs HURT & its nothing I did, its genetic.  Now that I have my home settled, I decided to get my temple taken care off too.  Anyway isn't that what health insurance is for anyway?   So I have ELAS surgery coming up next week to close down the veins in my legs & rework the circulation. One leg a month with six procedures.  Its simple to understand that I won't be doing a lot of walking until the new year.  Like a last hurrah, I've decided to see the exhibits in our local museums before I start my bedrest.  The first was a the Denver Museum of History & Science- A Day in Pompeii.

I have weird days off, Tuesday & Wednesday.  Great for running errands, not great for hanging out with friends- except my Mum though.  She's been the best companion of late (besides my boyfriend Nicolas) & spending time with her on a regular basis also means that I can help around her house.  If you ever want to choose a great person to go to a museum with, go with my British mother.  They really have dumbed down exhibits lately so that there isn't much information relayed when you go to see the special exhibits.  Shocking since they run around $26 & everyone has the History channel to help them be more informed.   The last time that we went to a museum together was for the Pirates exhibit. She was a British Sea Scout back in the '50s, so while Edgar & I were going around the exhibit she was adding in historical maritime info. After I while I think the other visitors thought that my Mum was a docent because they were following us around & listening in.

The Day in Pompeii exhibit was in two segments. A lifestyle exhibit for the first segment & tragedy in the second.  In the first segment it went over two houses & their belongings, lifestyles & culture.  My mother had been to Pompeii back in the '60s. They had current images of the ruins of Pompeii & she said that the ruins had changed quite a bit since she was there.  Back then she said it was just a bunch of stone ruins & currently they've done more reconstruction.  Is this because of an increase in historical tourism?  Anyway, the Roman sculpture was beautifully preserved.  What I thought was a good conversation piece was the Roman laundromats of the time.  I never thought about bleach before or where it came from. The ancient Romans didn't have it though they wore those white togas.  What is a naturally occurring source of bleach? Urine. First the slaves would work out the stains with a silt bath, then a rinsing bath, then soak the clothes in a urine bath to make them white.  Apparently you could find the local launder by the clay pots left outside the shops for the passerby to pee into.  Then the pots would be brought inside to the pool of pee.  I wonder about the smell & can only think of two answers. A LOT of perfume & incense or its like when you go camping, you just don't notice the campfire smoke.

The second part of the exhibit started with a time elapsed computer animation of the day that Mt Vesuvius erupted.  It was AWESOME (speaking as one that enjoys apocalypse movies)!  I always thought that it BOOM volcano erupts & crazy lava flow kills everyone. Nope, it took a good 24 hrs & most of those killed were so because they thought it would pass like a bad rain storm.  The falling ash & rocks went on until they were driven to the second floor of their houses & when they made a break for it the heat & poisonous gases killed them. Most of the bodies were found on stairwells. 

After the video you entered out to the room of body casts.  When discovered, all of the bodies has since decayed away millenia ago, but there were voids where they once had been.  Anthropologists of the time pour plaster into the voids to get the casts in the exhibit.
 
This is when the children in the exhibit started crying.  One next to me actual told his grandmother, "I don't want to be here anymore. Take me out of here."  That's the power of history for you.

Halloween 2012

Happy Halloween everyone!  I'm spending my halloween this year completely different- I'm staying in. My boyfriend has to work; I'm going to start a medical procedure in six days so I need to conserve on cash; I didn't complete my brilliantly planned costume; my sister & brother-in-law are at a wedding in the Dominician Republic so I'm puppy sitting for them.  All the equation to stay in & hand out treats to the kiddies in costume.
I did do the annual haunted house tour.  This year Juliet suggested that we do sister houses. The 13th Floor is connected to the Undead then for a discounted price you can also go down the street to get into the Asylum & Zombieland.  Haunted houses are not your neighborhood firemen productions that we grew up with anymore.  They are big business & with them big price tags. $42 for the combo but when you show up the wait in the line is over 2 hrs so ofcourse you purchase the upgrade to the VIP line. It was partially worth it; Undead was first & had a lot of actors, more then I've seen before. Zombieland & Asylum were a disappointment, just a tradition haunt.  13th Floor though was a treat. First an elevator to an attic walk with yetis & other huge anamitronics but the best were seeing two phanamechnics that I've always wanted to see.

First was the swamp walk, the concept is to have the guest to think that they are walking waist deep in a swamp with alligators & a swamp thing around you.  All done with 3 foot air tubes (think like the bouncy castles)in a path. The illusion is assisted by fog & lasers to make a glowing green ooze.
The next was a vortex tube. A cylinder that you walk through with random lights spinning while you go up a ramp.  By the end of the ramp your balance is off & you spend another 15 mins walking outside through the haunt feeling off balance.  I got my instructions from one of my favorite haunt websites.  http://www.instructables.com/id/Vortex-Tunnel-Halloween-attraction/

Denver County Fair 2012

The Denver County Fair is a new event for Denver, this being its second year.  I'm embarassed to say that though my two friends Andrew Novick & Dana Cain put on the Fair, I didn't make it to the First fair:(  But this year the events looked too intriguing to miss.

On the art & crafts side my ATC group had a booth set up, the Denver Handmade Alliance had a booth.  Then there was the Geek section w/ the Steampunks and since it was the Zombie beauty pagent you had patrols of guards from the Umbrella Corp there.  Charlie Phoenix was frying up some cereal. But what got me there on a Saturday evening was the Gothic & Lolita Tea Party.

Subculture aside, I believe that two aspects of the Denver County Fair make it unique from any other fair.  The fact that this is in a metropolis, the booths dedicated to urban homesteading & GOATS were very interesting.  There was Kate Armstrong to teach about urban foraging; the GrowHaus to learn how to grow plants and fish together in a recirculating soil-less system; DUG an urban garden right down the street from Nicolas's in Aurora; Plant a Row for the hungry got me motivated. Then there was the DenverBee...I believe that tending an apiary leads to higher conciousness. Don't you? Hand outs, handouts, handouts! I now have the knowledge on the laws for the Cottage Food industry....very important for next month with my plans for Park(in) Day (more on that to follow).

Its great how my friend's annual Pancake BBQ can become an entire fair event.  Fantastic!

Miss you more than the henna cracking on my arm. 

Hello world! Here comes my hats

Few of us are blessed with the hat head. Hat HEAD, not hat hair. Yes, when you have a hat head, practically any hat looks great on your head. At an early age I fell in love with hats. The Easter bonnet that we would by every year. The sun bonnets that became so popular with Little House on the Prairie and Holly Hobby. Shopping at Harold's for wedding hats, an entire floor of hats! I would choose a hat & pick an outfit to go with it.

I love watching vintage movies just for the hat design. I love walking through markets & having stall owners go into their special stash for hats that work only on me. It was only nature that I would be drawn to make my own. I exhausted myself in trying to find instruction or workshops or even a textbook. Bless old ladies that pass on information. Eventually I got the knack of it started wearing them out and the weirdest thing happened- people liked them. My most memorable experience was at the Cherry Creek Art Festival. I went into a milliner's stall to look at her hats, put mine down on the table to try one on, a lady came up next to me, tried on my hat & asked the milliner's price! I was overjoyed and embarrassed at the same time.

My year of 'why not' all came with direction this summer. A thirty requests for my hats plus a friend lending me free studio space plus the Holiday Handmade equals action. I started with a few proto-types that I thought the general public would like. This way I would have something to muddle around in my mind while I worked on the Pret-a-Porter outfit. Once that was done I would do final designs for the Holiday Handmade submission...it was in the end of October like the last year.

Pret show was September 16th; September 17th I downloaded the prospectus for the show & I was in shock- the submission date was moved up to September 26th!! I spent every night in the studio working, not on final hats but mustering the proto-types to be presentable for photos. Good photos were a must, the prospectus laid out that the submission would be better if I had an Etsy site. So I hired a photographer & started searching for models. Oh models....I could only get one scheduled by the deadline...so we got creative and I too had to do some modeling:) These are some of the proto-types that are on my Etsy shop. My sister joined me & created some knitted baby hats that are adorable!

Pret-a-Porter 2011

Third year on the Women In Design team for the IIDA (International Interior Designers Association) Pret-a-Porter competition. Each year has been a different experience. The first year I was part of the team through a proxy. We discussed the design over phone & visit. I came up with sketches for the headdress & the team chose which one I would make. Then I worked in my cabin in Estes Park. Didn't see the final couture outfit until it was coming down the runway to win Best in Show.
2010 year was a devistating year. I was one foot in the team and one foot out. The outfit was in constant flux. I made some paper flowers but that was all for that year. The show was two weeks after my father's death. We didn't place that year.
2011 is my year to be involved. Its my 'what worse can happen' year. I'm glad that I did because this year the IIDA upped the anti. The competition still only allowed 25 teams but the attendance to the show has increased so it had to be moved from the Exdo Center in the warehouse district to the Denver Center of Performing Arts (DCPA) Ellie Caukins Opera House. We were expected to create outfits that would fit the bill of an opera house. On top of that, the IIDA wanted 70% of the outfit to be in the Pantone colour of the year- Honeysuckle. I love designing in warm colours...but the Pantone colour Honeysuckle is not honely-like at all- its hot pink!
Our distributor was Kimball Office Furniture. Hot pink office furniture! Tough but the WiD team figured it out. We did our digging and not many operas have good female role models, not something that WiD wanted to put our name on. So we did some reinvisioning in our design Steel Awakening as Madame Butterfly with empowerment. A form exposing dress with stylistic kimono sleeves. The base of the dress was representative of female sexuallity in Japan. Only female ghosts got to have a libido (as a demon) ancient Japanese could only tell these women were ghosts by the lack of feet; they moved around on a cloud. The obi belt made from braided macrame was to be holding a torso encompassing lotus that was formed from wood veneer. My headdress was formed out of task chair seat cushions.
Six weeks before the show the materials we chose for the outfit were still coming in. The main piece was the lotus cage that needed two 4ft x 8th sheets of veneer. What showed up us a stack of 8in x 10in sheets of veneer. A phone call was made to the IIDA & they allowed us to come up with an adjusted design & sketch. A couple days later we had a new design and we won the bronze.

Day Three A Day at Home

I now understand all the complaints about teenagers. They really do only think about themselves. I had plans for Friday, but on no, they went by the wayside when they informed me that there was no school today. (Yes I did check with the school. I'm no substitute teacher!)

Thank goddess for the track coach. He still had practice at 7:30am. Which meant after picking up the girl from practice I raised the dead (the boy) and we went out to brunch at IHOP. Then to the DMV to get the driver's examination manual then back to the house.....for the boyfriend's arrival. Yup, the 15 yr old girl is dating...a senior. My first thoughts as he came through the door- I can take him down.

So while the big brother chaperoned them watching the LOTR. I got to spend my afternoon going from my perch in the kitchen to checking on them to make sure no hanky panky was taking place. It was miserable!

Atleast by 6pm their father came to pick them up and take them for the weekend. A whole weekend free to wander the state!

Day Two Downtown

After the kids went to school I hung around the house for a little bit. To my discovery, its good to do this because the sun comes out around 10 and it puts you in a cheerful mind to start the day.

For some reason I remembered something being in Bellevue. So with my trusty Prius and GPS, off I went. There is the Museum of Doll Art in Bellevue but I had already been. Then there's the high end mall- not my bag. The only place that I would go into would be the Din Tai Fung restaurant, pricey though. I was hungry & this excursion was seeming meaningless when I saw the smoke billowing out of a nearby Airstream.

The Skillet Street Food is yummy. It travels around to different parking lots daily. Edgar & I argue weither or not these are just gentrified roach-coaches but I liked Skillet. They serve Duck Burgers!....but I just wanted the Poutine. Poutine for those have never had it is Cheese Fries Canadian style. This was the first place that I had seen it in the lower 48. What you get is hand cut fries; herbs; a gravy that has chedder & parmasean tossed over it. You have to wait a bit for the fries to cool down so the cheese can melt into the gravy. YUM! I also bought a gift for my brother-in-law from them, Bacon Jam. You can see where they are at daily at their website: www.skilletstreetfood.com

Next on to SAM! I had never been to the Seattle Art Museum. Mainly because my visits were short or business related or with friends and those situations don't coexist with long, quiet strolls through museums. The SAM though is not really a big museum so what takes the longest is trying to find parking. Its really near the Pikes Place Market so there's plenty of lots. The old GPS lost my confidence when it told me to go right onto a one way street!

The exhibit to go see is the Nick Cave: Meet me at the Center of the Earth. Its not THAT Nick Cave of the Bad Seeds legend. Its the sculptor/performance artist that made costumes that represent the sounds that they made when dancers moved in them.

I loved the fur suits. They were the coolest ones in motion.

But I have to agree with the remainder of the visitors. The sweater bear was awesome! I got this picture shot done right as the guard told me, "No photos in the special exhibition."

This exhibit had an adult colouring book that I wanted to get for a friend who was just diagnosed with cancer, but $36 is too much for a COLOURING BOOK. So I went across the street to a little paper store call de Medici Ming. A awesome fine paper store where I got her (and myself ofcourse) some brillant metallic watercolours. On the walk back to my car, I popped into another new store called Paper Hammer which is an independant printing press shop.

Wish Trip to Seattle came True

I've been desperately missing the Pacific Northwest with my only way of quenching would be a walk outside with wet hair followed by a viewing of Twilight or Northern Exposure. Simply LAME. I have no options to go on a vacation in this economy unless by a miracle......and one happened.

My friend Jessica's husband works as an audio engineer for a radio station. The station decided to broadcast from Ireland for St. Patrick's day. They paid for the two of them to go & needed someone to watch their teenagers to make sure they didn't go feral. Someone with no ties, that could up and come at a moments notice, that LIKE their children.....me.

I've never lived the mommy lifestyle but aparently from 7am til 3pm I have all the time on my hands to do whatever I want. With a Prius and a GPS I have the chance to see the sights that I wanted to see that never had the chance to in previous visits & to visit old favorites.

I'm in part blogging & also listing some things plus places for my friends that will be coming to Seattle in the weeks following. This is recon baby!

Day ONE:

I would fly into Seattle just to go to their International Market. A Nipponophile like me goes gaga over Uwajimaya. A supermarket focused on Japanese products. Most 'asian' markets are Korean so this is special. Based downtown, near the King Train Station, it is centrally located and near to Pioneer Square. If you are going over to the Underground Tour. Walk a couple blocks for lunch in their market. You know when you are in the neighborhood when you see the dragons climbing the telephone polls.

http://www.uwajimaya.com/

You don’t have to eat there or buy any of their cool bento goodies (like I did). You could go just to spend hours in the attached bookstore- KINOKUNIYA!!!! I wanted to buy so many books. But I bought the Christmas issure of Gothic & Lolita Bible…was tempted by a wall of fashion & music magazines…then theres the tons of craft books! Sigh, the temptation is great there.

www.kinokuniya.com

Pioneer Park is not as interesting as it used to be. Most of the stores have closed due to the economy. There are two together that I worth popping into. On the corner is Diva Dollz. You can’t miss the great windows. www.thedivadollz.com

The inside is a scrumpsious as the windows.

Inside they sell vintage inspired shoes & dresses with fabulous corsets to put over them. I didn't have over $128 to spend on a pair or a dress but I did have the amount for a fantastic Burlesque inspired cocktail hat. Its a heart with an arrow through it. Ofcourse my battery died when I went to take a picture:( Another time I presume when I have the entire outfit done.

Next door to them is Utilikilts. Kilts for the construction work. Or like their motto goes, "We sell Freedom."

www.utilikilts.com

What caught my attention is the New Rocks. Every goth man this day owns a pair but I had never seen them in brown & tan. Apparently you'll never see them either unless you shop at their store. The owner knows the owner of New Rock & only makes them for Utilikilts. Their like the usual New Rocks but with a suede like on construction boots.

That was my couple of hours. Until tomorrow!

The Break down of Break up

There's that feeling that something is not right in your life. I haven't had the best couple of months. My Dad's illness has been solid. He was getting better in the hospital but then he was having secondary illnesses. Kidneys took him to the ICU; sleep medication made him sleep walk then slip & crack his head open; infections; getting out of the hospital for four days only to go back in. I want him to get better! There was still that feeling... the airport that I worked on in Alaska won an AIA Honor Award & was published in Architectural Record only to not have my name on it as one of the designers. There was still that feeling...driving home one icy night, my truck fishtailed & a kid in a car behind me hit me & spun my truck around on the highway. He was constantly calling me to not report it so he didn't get in trouble with the parents. There was still that feeling..

I went away for a couple days to the mountains to help my sister with her wedding planning. I told the boyfriend where I was but he seemed to have no concern. When I got home I decided to go out that evening. He was out at the same club but one of his friends asked me why I was there when he told him that I was not coming out. I was standing 10 feet away from him. I let him know that I was there but it was almost like I wasn't as I watched him holding every other woman than me. It sucks when you realize that you're the only one in the relationship. So I called it off with him right there. What a sad evening to be escorted home by a gay man who buys you flowers in an attempt to make things better.

Other then your own depressed feelings is having to tell the mutual friends. The ones that know you both as a couple. I only told a few so they would be in the know, but they always tell others like it was a wildfire. They do say two things, either they have been waiting for you to break up or they are sad too & don't want you to be. MY friends are of the later & were saying consultations like, "That's really sad Victoria, I knew you really liked him." HIS friends were awful! HIS friend's were making comments like, "You should of known when you started dating him that he was the bimbo of the crowd." or "You deserve better. Your like Yale & he's not even stupid." or "Tie down your girlfriends, he's single." or the worse being "Its sad that you broke up because one of my favorite personal traits about him was you." His FRIENDS! And I feel even worse because every comment that came out of their mouths I was defending HIM.

The reaction from friends is annoying but common. I was sitting at a table of girlfriends who were regaling me on how bad their own boyfriends were in bed. Freudian but point taken, I won't even talk to their boyfriends. The 6am text messages from girls wondering if their boyfriends were flirting with me. The questionable texts from men. The phone calls from other men wanting to take you out on a date even when they know that your feelings for the ex are not dead yet.

The only good thing about breaking up is finding out which friends are the good ones. The day after we broke up I went out with a girlfriend. We were eating a late dinner when in walks the ex..with a girl. General break ups involve an armistice period in which neither of you date to let emotions cool. Its not even 24 hours & he's onto the next girl. They're meeting up with mutual friends of ours. One of the friend's comes over to my table, he & my girlfriend are the crying & I'm numb. Terrifyingly numb. Like-I'm-Dorian Grey-&-scars-inside-will-be-revealed-to-revert-me-to-a-flesh-eating-zombie-kind-of-numb.

Obviously the lack of sleep has given me too much time to think. I have reviewed past relationships to discover that my recovery time has a mathematical formula. Take the time that I was in that relationship & divide it half to get the sum of time that it will take be over him. So could someone save a dance for me in six months?- V

Cakes, cakes, cakes, cakes

Back story- This summer I was the baker at the Cheley Camp's Boys Camp. One of my varying baking duties was to bake little cakes for the campers on their birthdays. This included the frosting & decorating. Not really in my bag of tricks & I felt mounds of guilt when it came time to give them the cakes. What is more dissapointing to a child away from home on his birthday than an ugly cake? They tasted great but I would have accidents like my "Peach Detox" cake. The kitchen only had three colours of food dye so if I wanted to get exotic I would need to mix my own colours. One day I decided to make a peach & lavendar polka-dotted cake. I accidentally grabbed the wrong colour when mixing the lavender & made drab green.

I was determined this winter to take a cake decorating class at Michael's to learn SOMETHING that would make my cakes better. My sister, over booked already, decided that she really wanted to take it too. So we signed up and had our first class on February first. In just that one class I got all the answers to my common mistakes without even having to ask them. Our instructor is fabulous! (I dread courses that take up half of your evening during the work week & then leave you with unanswered questions.) The first week was all about the three consistencies of frosting, how to properly bake a cake and torte it, and how to frost a cake...all of which I had been doing wrong.

The second week we needed to purchase our tools & prepare either a character cake or an 8 inch cake. The beauty of taking a class with your sister is that we each can do one of the projects & share supplies. Let me tell you, cake decorating is not cheap! $12 for a cake tin the shape of Wall-E!? How many Wall-E cakes are you really going to make? You can tell that I was going to do the character cake, so I wanted a tin that I would use various times. I ended up purchasing the sphere mold. My plan was to do a fishbowl.

We tag team shopped for an entire week, every evening. She would print up 40% coupons for Michael's and Hobby Lobby & we would each buy one thing at that store at a discount. Then there were all of the cake baking & frosting ingredients. Frosting is a foreign food to anyone that was raised by a mother who was on Weight Watchers in the '70s. She & I hovered over an freshly opened container of shortening like children raised buy wolves around a telephone ringing.

The next problem with cake decorating is who in the hell is going to eat all of this cake?! My sister volunteered us to deliver our week two cakes the next day to a Bake Sale for Haiti. Wonderful way to get rid of cake & help the survivors EXCEPT THESE WERE OUR FIRST CAKES EVER! That meant we had to perfect what we learned in class that very evening. To top it off, my sister promised one of the ladies at the bake sale that I would make a gluten-free cake for her to buy. Catastrophe! I added too much water to the batter so it bubbled while it baked removing all of the cake release. I beat the shit out of those molds trying to get my cake out & ofcourse one side broke. I was scurrying to get another cake mix & character tin....luckily I have a compulsive shopper as a sister & within the first week had purchase 10 cake molds. I just grabbed the star & had a slightly warm cake ready for class. In all we stayed up til midnight decorating the cakes with star tips. I did three cakes- the star cake & two halves of the spheres. One was broken so that one we gave to my sister's coworker for free.

The star cake
The broken cake that I did as a flower cake.
You can't have a star without a moon, perchance a quarter moon?
My sister did the torted 8" cake that was a lesson how to transfer images with piping gel. It has a rainbow on top- aww:)

My sister is more intense about this class than I am. She has the crazy notion of doing her own wedding cake! In search of practice she volunteering to do the birthday cake of her friend's 7-yr-old's birthday. She said she wanted a Penguin from the Littlest Pet Shop. I did the design & drawing, my sister made the cake & the crum layer. Then we frosted it together.
It was a smash at the party. So much so that were asked to do another...FOR MONEY!

Miss you more than buttercream on the lips- V

Shit I'm Diggin'

New Year's Eve is swinging around again. I cannot spend another NYE at home, I must get out! So sweet to hear that my old friend Tim is DJing at a club that night PLUS there's no cover charge. Yes! One hitch, its a masquerade ball. I get my duckies in a row & make some phone calls...voila! I have my Rococco dress back. (What? Don't you have vintage costumes laying around in various cities at friends' houses?)

I'm thinking about revamping a powder white wig that I have & start surfing the web for inspiration. I told Jingles that I would never do two type of wigs, stacks & afros. (Ofcourse, guess what most people ask for..) Today I found inspiration o'plenty. Kathleen Marie, you are a goddess! Her Antoinette Atelier blows my mind.







Yes. I love the 'pirate' wig the most too. Though on a tangent, the eye patch disturbs me. Everytime I see sequins hearts I think of the birthday gift of pasties that Jason sent me that I regrettably opened at the office. *Cringe*

At the Antoinette Atelier site she also sells wrist cuffs, couture outfits, and shoes. Here notes on this pair were "Never wear in the rain while fleeing a revolution. Leave them as your legacy."
Miss you more than $454 wigs & $2000 dresses, V