Work Work Work

As I've mentioned to most of you independently, my sewing ventures having really been picking up, getting bigger and more exciting as of late.  Business on my etsy site is pretty steady and growing slowly; additionally I'm participating in a huge pre-Christmas sales event called Crafty Wonderland, which is hosted at the Oregon Convention center every year.  Seth and I have gone to the last two, where we've mostly purchased consumable goods (caramels, booze, fancy hot sauces) but where I've also purchased some more gifty type items like lotions and kitschy mugs.  Aside from one woman who hand dyes vintage slips and nightgowns I haven't seen any lingerie there in the past, which I think will make me a good fit and a popular stop.  Anyhow, my days have been busy planning and producing product for the event, which happens Dec. 13-14.  I'll have a week and a half to finish preparing when we return from Thanksgiving, so it's definitely crunch time from now until next Monday, when we board a plane Philadelphia bound.  In fact, the only reason I have time to sit here and type this is because I have to let this lavender dye sit on my head for another half hour at least before I can head to work.

That's right, I said head to work.  As in, go somewhere.  

I started renting a studio to work out of, and it's been an amazingly refreshing experience so far.  I was losing my mind and driving Seth's to the brink working so much from our bedroom.  There were too many days when I didn't leave the house, and falling asleep and waking up looking at my work was stressing me out like nothing else.  Oh, and the distractions.  I found that I can't work if my laundry hamper is full, if the floor needs to be swept, if someone is down in the living room laughing at something funny that I'm missing...

a somewhat unimpressive photo of my new space.  more to come...

So so far, so good.  My time in the new studio has been monumentally productive, and I can actually stop thinking about it when I come home at night.  I'm also excited at having a more professional space because it means that I can invite custom work clients to a fitting and know that it will be a professional experience, which opens me up to a different bracket of clientele.

That's about all for an update right now, aside from the following photos of pretty things (my lovely friends included).

101 to 1 (old news)

I found some old photos from earlier this year that I had meant to make a blog posting of, but forgot.  In the spring Lenny began a stint on a boat out of Sausalito, and Seth and I drove him down to the Bay Area.  We had hoped to surf along the way, but the weather was atrocious and we were on something of a tight schedule.  We did stop during a dry spell at this little trail that runs about a quarter mile downhill from 101 to a beautiful cove, all to ourselves just as it has been the other times we've stopped here.  Watched the surf boom in and were glad that we weren't in it.

Through the Redwoods

Harbor seals, disguising themselves somewhat successfully as rocks.

Surfboard for Alyssa

Seth's latest project was to build a surfboard for me, which came out beautifully!  I've only had one opportunity to ride it thus far, but it was a fantastic transition from the board I've been using.  I thought that, being shorter than the board I had before, it would be more difficult to catch waves but I found it just as easy, and much easier to manage in the water while dodging the waves I wasn't riding.    Hopefully I'll get to take it out to play again tomorrow!

If you look closely, you can see that the resin around the fin boxes perfectly matches my lavender hair!

sccs #001

Exciting morning for Seth yesterday, as he made his first exchange of surfboard for cold, hard cash!

Seth with Adam, who commissioned this board at the beginning of the summer, and was extremely excited when he picked it up yesterday.  He should be out in the water with it today!

Spec sheet for Adam

Update:  Seth got an email from Adam, which I thought I would include here:

Hey Seth,

Just wanted to let you know how phenomenally the board performed today!! Just some random thoughts from the session in no particular order...

Conditions were pretty clean most of the time - anything from waist to head high sets.

It paddles super well, especially for its length. Later drops are also no problem thanks to that flip in the nose. On the wave, it's super fast when I want it, and is nice and responsive/maneuverable as well. Lets me go top to bottom and get some more aggressive turns in! It felt really natural right from the very first wave. It was pretty cool not having to think about how to surf a new board, all I had to do was just get up and go - didn't really have any foot placement issues at all.  

It's really everything I could've hoped for, and I can't thank you enough for putting so much effort and creativity into the shape. You'll have to give it a session sometime soon, because it's an absolute blast!

Glacier

Well, Seth and I returned on Tuesday from our trip to Glacier National Park.  What we had planned as our big, 10 day summer trip turned into something of an "outdoors light" situation, which is what prompted the slightly early return.  We went to Glacier by train, having ridden through several times on our cross-country trips to visit home, and used the shuttle that runs the East/West road (nearly the only road) that crosses the park.  Our hope had been to hike from West to East across the park over several days, and then slowly make our way back to the West Glacier train station by way of the shuttle.  However, they had an unseasonalbly late snow this year and the Continental Divide was still snowed out, making a long West/East traverse a no-go with the gear we had.  We did some beautiful day hikes (though they were busy), took a kayak out on Lake McDonald (something new for us and probably the most solitude we got on this trip) and met some absolutely lovely people.  We're definitely hoping to go back sometime when we might be able to do the type of trip that we had originally envisioned, and perhaps even a more extensive trip through Montana, as the small taste we got of the culture there was intriguing and fun.  We're considering this something of a recon/planning trip for our return, so without further ado, the visual intel:

First Day: the dock at Lake McDonald, layers of the jagged Rockies behind

Also on the first day, we hiked up to this lovely Chalet.  You can book a room here (at least 6 months in advance, please); it's one of two hike in only Chalets in the park.

This is what it looked like on the way up.

...and this

...and this.

and this is what we looked like at the top.

not bad for a bus stop, right?

Day two: out in the middle of Lake McDonald for a picnic lunch.  We rented the kayak overnight, and were able to take it out two more times: once for sunset and again for a quick morning paddle before we returned it.

Day four: (three was kind of a wash of planning/failure) hiked up to a lake, of which there were no good views, but there were good views on the way.  This is one of them.

Bear grass flowers (and Seth being silly in them)

Day five: we got some inclement weather so Seth and I rode the shuttle over the the East side of the park and back.  This is what it looked like over there.

...and this.  Check out the banding on this thing!

Staying dry while literally in the clouds, snapping a photo out the shuttle door.

For our last couple of nights we moved to a smaller campsite with great access to Lake McDonald's pebbly beaches (and no generator noise)!

Big Sky Country over the lake

On our last day we did a less popular hike (no vistas) which allowed us some solitude, and a walk through this lovely meadow.  The trail otherwise wound through the woods paralleling the road, meaning that we got to hike it one way and grab a beer at the lodge afterwards!

Dress for S

I've been so busy with sewing and enjoying the summer, the blog has been greatly neglected as of late.  I keep meaning to do a "catch up" post, but in the interest of getting anything up, here are some photos of a knit dress I just finished for Sarah:

Dad Visit Photos

We had a blast last month when Dad came to visit: spent most of our time eating and drinking our way through Portland.  He got some pretty great photos while he was here, and I thought I would share a couple of my favorites, for those of you who haven't had the chance to see them.

Triple selfie in the park, on one of the warm beautiful days we were lucky enough to get during Dad's visit

Below: a comical but great series of Sarah and I out at one of our favorite Indian eateries.