Kara_Line

Moving

2008-11-20T08:49:00.000-08:00

My blogging activities are officially moving to: http://k2peterson.blogspot.com

This blog will stay here, but without any new updates.

Catch you on the flip side!

An Anniversary

2008-11-14T22:42:00.000-08:00

It's amazing to think we've already reached a year of wedded bliss! Kelly and I enjoyed celebrating our first anniversary last Saturday and on Monday (the actual day).

On Sat. we dressed up and went to Cappos, a favorite restaurant, styled after an italian speakeasy. Kelly got to debut his new, blue three piece suit that I found at Savers for $13. (He looked amazing!) And I wore another Savers find-- with my anniversary present-- an antique pocket watch, embossed with a little bird. It's beautiful! It was a perfect pick to compliment the pocketwatch that I gave Kelly for our wedding last year.

I tried to get a good picture of Kelly in his suit. This one, taken while I was trying to rig up the camera for a timed shot of the two of us, is the only one he approves of! (Can you see the pocketwatch chain? --His favorite part about the suit is the pocketwatch pocket!)

On Monday, Kelly brought me flowers to work-- not knowing I was just about to leave to work on HIS anniversary gift. The flowers were gorgeous, with orchids that matched our wedding and bird of paradise-- one of his favorites!

Right after Kelly left, I retrieved my flowers and left too. I set-up our table with details from our wedding and reception-- lots of yellow.

The little present in Kelly's bowl was cuff links to match his pocketwatch (and of course, a french cuff shirt to wear them with).

Our dinner at home was better than eating out, if I do say so myself. We had butternut-pumpkin bisque with garlic-rosemary toasted baguette, salmon with a honey-pecan glaze and roasted brussel sprouts with ice cream and fresh raspberry sauce for dessert. I highly recommend all the recipes.

It was a wonderful anniversary. We're looking forward to the next one--- or maybe we won't wait for an excuse to celebrate!

The Coat I've Always Wanted

2008-10-22T13:46:00.001-07:00

Call me a tory, but I've always wanted a red coat.

The fact that this one is on sale right now makes me weak in the knees. It's also available in the yellow of my wedding-- but you just can't beat a red coat.

Yes, I'll Marry You!!

2008-10-21T14:51:00.000-07:00

Kelly just discovered Facebook and I received the following email*:

"We need to confirm that you are, in fact, married"?! Seems rather presumptuous of the folks at Facebook!

Yes, I would like to add Kelly as my spouse! I'm pretty sure I did that. --About a year ago!

*These pictures look great and crisp until I insert them. Any idea why?

Blackboard Stroke of Brilliance

2008-10-15T13:52:00.000-07:00

I had a good ORIGINAL idea last week, and today I logged onto my google reader only to discover that three other people almost had my idea too.

I am writing this post to share (and claim) my idea, which is this: I'm going to hang a large, framed blackboard above my living room sofa.

Housekeeping

2008-10-13T15:47:00.000-07:00

You may notice a few re-posted posts and pictures here during the next week. I'm working to combine my two blogs.

Del Sol

2008-10-03T11:23:00.000-07:00

I have committed to running this race in February.

You wouldn't know it from reading my blog, but I am a runner. I'm trying to continue to be a runner, but I'm sure not as fast as I used to be. I need to fall in love with running again. I used to love it, but now I want to sleep in the morning and be at home with Kelly in the evening. I have really enjoyed trail runs with the dog the last few Saturday mornings, but I need to take it a step further and actually TRAIN.

I'm looking forward to the relay because it's a long race (my legs total 15 miles), but not a full-marathon, which I don't feel up to committing to right now.

I'l let you know how the training goes.

Calendar Crush

2008-09-30T16:39:00.000-07:00

I LOVE this letterpress calendar from Ilee Press--- simply gorgeous! I just received mine and can't wait to get it up in my office.

This is the third year I will have an Ilee calendar at my desk to admire. I arrange the months in a gilded 20 x 24 frame so I can get the full effect.

Italy

2008-09-03T14:34:00.000-07:00

Last installment of the Europe trip. (three months later)

Italy: Milan – Holiday Inn Express breakfast does not disappoint – testimony meeting at the Milan 3rd ward - Cinque Terre – beautiful winding roads – Lucca – bed and breakfast at a beautifully restored monastery - walled city and towers – road signs in small print – Pisa - Centro and Palazzo – Firenze – Uffizi museum – Duomo – silk ties, paper and old prints – Siena – San Gimignano (epitomy of Tuscany) – poppy fields

And especially for Italy--- The Food: gelato – pizza in Pisa - handmade Ravioli and lasagna – gelato – produzione propria – olive oil – pizza al taglio - gelato – prosciutto – pomodoro sauce – gelato – gelato – gelato

The family went different directions for the last leg of our trip Kelly and I went to the Tuscan region with my sister Jeni and her husband Nathaniel. We took an amazingly scenic and winding drive down the coast and stopped at one of the five Cinque Terre towns (Monterosso).

The five cities are situated along the coast and are small enough that non-resident vehicles are not allowed in the city. We hiked in - bought gelato, walked around - and hiked back out.

Our B&B in Lucca was a restored monastary. It was a beautiful little spot. You should go to Lucca and stay at Casa Biancalana.

Lucca streets (after getting caught in the rain).

Beautiful little piece of the streets of Lucca. (I already posted these, but I thought I'd put the pictures in context.) Lucca was a beautiful, quieter city that we fell in love with. Maybe we'll name our press Lucca.

Piazza Anfiteatro in Lucca.

The leaning tower of Pisa was quite the tourist destination. EVERYONE took pictures that looked like they were holding up the tower. Now we'll be in on the joke when we see pictures like that!

The cathedral next to the tower was beautiful.

Florence!
Ponte Vecchio- bridge of shops across the Arno River in Florence. We totally have one of these at Lake Las Vegas. It's exactly the same. (Catch the sarcasm?)

Possibly the world's longest fountain at the emense gardens in Florence-- Giadino di Boboli --where we wandered for quite some time. We were just glad to find a quiet spot with somewhere to sit!

Reflected lemon trees in the gardens.

Nice texture.
These trees are straight from Where The Wild Things Are. Do you agree? They look so Maurice Sendak-esque.
Hot.

The Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore is the main duomo in Florence. We climbed 463 steps to the very top for an incredible view.

Inside the dome from the main floor.

View from the top.

Thanks Nano. (They have a wide angle lens- their pictures probably turned out better than the one with our camera.)

We went to a beautiful walled city in the heart of Tuscany-- San Gimignano. We walked around the outside of the city and enjoyed the breath-taking countryside. (I can't get this section un-underlined!)

Poppies and lavendar growing wild on our drive back to Lucca.

We saw Jeni and Nathaniel off at the Pisa airport-- and then found the restored estate that we were staying at our last night. (It was a miracle that we found it!)

On our last day, Kelly and I did our gift shopping and made one last stop for gelato. Then we drove to airport (twice-- darn italian freeways) and started a long trip home.

Nie Nie Auction

2008-08-28T12:01:00.000-07:00

Last week Christian and Stephanie Nielson were in a very serious plane crash. They are a young couple with four children under the age of six. They are in critical condition. Their recovery from serious burns will be very long and very expensive.

Today, several websites are auctioning off items for their benefit. Go here to see the comprehensive list: http://www.designmom.com/. Or, if you are able, please consider contributing to this fund that will go directly to the family http://www.nierecovery.com/.

Updates about Stephanie and Christian here: http://blog.cjanerun.com/

A Day in Paris

2008-08-25T14:08:00.000-07:00

(The 3rd of 4 installments from our Europe trip)

I heart Musee d’Orsay – You should stay at Hotel Gabrielle – Notre Dame – Saint Chappell – Paris really is filled with cafés – Opera House – Sacre Coure (my favorite cathedral) – Arc d’Triumph – the Lourve is very big – Eiffel Tower – Parisian bakeries do not disappoint, wow – nor do cheese shops - Versailles gardens

A day in Paris is worth a week at home. Well, we actually had a day and two half-days, but we did more in those few hours than I normally do in two weeks!

We traveled by chunnel to Paris-- my nine year-old sister was terribly dissappointed that we "didn't even go under water". I guess she was really looking forward to seeing fish out the window!

Upon our arrival, we stuffed our 15+ suitcases into three lockers at the station and took the train to the Musee d'Orsay. Once again, I'll save the art for other posts. This was the museum I was most looking forward to and it didn't disappoint. The building itself is beautiful -- a former train station with the ornate clock pictured above.

We stayed at a fantastic little hotel- Hotel Gabrielle (I would definitely recommend it). It was tricky to find on the first night-- just two blocks from the metro, but which way?! The 14 of us pulling roller suitcases up and down the cobblestone streets at 10pm made quite a spectacle! We were conscious of the ruckus we were making as we passed a few old Parisan men sitting outside a cafe enjoying the quiet night air. In a thick French accent, one of them shouted out, "Iz this a zuitcase race?!" My sister and I started racing and my brother invited him to join in. He replied, "Oh no, I am only amatuer!" Who says Parisians are unkind to tourists?!

Reverence at Norte Dame. The aesthetic of european cathedrals really characterizes this part of the world. The contrast between cathedrals and the chapels and temples of my own religion prompted me to think about the differences from my own beliefs and about how much we can learn from their reverence.

Street cafes. I could never resist the fruit tarts-- this one is apricot.

We had some company at our little table, not six inches from us.

Saint Chapelle was Kelly's favorite cathedral with it's wall to wall stained glass.

Regrouping on the steps of the Paris Opera House. We would have loved to go inside, but there was a rehersal in progress so we were not able to go past the lobby.

Sacre Coeur-- well worth the several flights of stairs. It was my favorite catherdral and the best view of the city.

Kelly really enjoyed this exhibition we passed as we made our way up the des Champs Elysees. I love the illustrated look of the design details-- this car was ready to see and be seen in Paris!

The Louvre was amazing. We didn't even try to see everything we wanted to -- it's just not possible, so we enjoyed one room at a time. Above is the dinning hall of Napolean's apartment.

At the Louvre.

We made our way to the Eiffel Tower and were in one of last groups to go up.

The pictures of Kelly and I on the tower turned out terrible. Here's one of Bryan and Suzi.

The next morning we got up early to frequent a local pastry shop. I would move to Paris just for the pastry shops, not to mention the rest of the beautiful city!

AMAZING.

We bought baguettes and pastries to enjoy at Versailles.

The strawberry tart was one of the best things I have ever had!

This baguette was one of the best things Caleb has ever had!

We found a cheese shop just around the corner and made purchases to supplement our baked goods.

Versailles!

Kelly loved the manicured landscapes. He was amazed that so many plants were familiar to him even though the climate is nothing like Las Vegas.

This fountain of Enceladus rising from the depths was complete with sound effects that "erupted" every few minutes.

Kelly and my brother-in-law Nathaniel turned into paparazzi.

Jeni and I looking for four-leaf clovers. It's a tradition that Jeni and our brother Bryan started on vacations when they were young.

New Additions

2008-08-20T11:00:00.000-07:00

Kelly and I have a few new additions to our home.

June's new addition was our little dog, Enzo. Enzo is a 1 year old Italian Greyhound. He's so much fun to have around and encourages (begs) me to go running every morning.

He's a great dog. We feel lucky to have found an IG that has a great personality, is (mostly) well behaved, very loving and was not expensive (Craigslist adoption).

In July, Kelly and I made a purchase that we've been considering since we had our wedding invitations printed last year. We bought a 12 x 18 C&P letterpress, 1930. The press was in Boise, owned by a former pressman. We were planning to be in Boise with family over the 4th of July and made arrangements to pick-up the press while we were there.

We rented a forklift and moving truck and between Kelly and his Dad, we loaded it within an hour. It went even quicker getting it into the garage at home. My husband is quite handy with the forklift! Having a lift that fit into the garage made a huge difference-- it was a tight fit-- if it hadn't fit the process would have been much more complicated (dragging the press with come-alongs).

Right now the motor is in the shop for a full tune-up and re-wiring. We are anxious to start working with it to try our hand at letterpress printing.

In August - or maybe the end of July- we found some couches that we both really liked. It's a couch, loveseat and chair-- all for $300. (I heart Craigslist)

We've had some great additions this summer! This fall/winter we plan to spend some time playing with Enzo, learning to letterpress and actually spending a weekend or two at home to use those couches!

Weak Resolve

2008-07-11T15:48:00.000-07:00

Umm, can I take that all back? I just found this couch, and it's 50% off!

Framing the Question

2008-07-11T14:17:00.000-07:00

Because I recently got married and went to Europe, I've been thinking about, looking for and purchasing picture frames lately. I've noticed that I tend to be overly matchy-matchy in looking for the perfect frame. Even though I like the eclectic look, I get caught up on things going together "just so". For example, the frames and prints above (from Julia Rothman) are perfect for each other, even if they aren't an obvious and sophisticated match. It's the painted pink frames that emphasizes the "folk-art" look.

I think I might have the similar problem with finding a new couch. My husband and I are not sure what kind of couch we will agree on because comfort (his priority) and design (my priority) seem to be somewhat mutually exclusive. However, lately I've noticed a few interiors that feel put-together without being centered on the perfect "designy" couch.

Here are a couple of examples:

So, maybe I'm going about my home decorating backwards-- getting too caught up on the pieces and their "matchy-ness" , rather than focusing on an overall feel that I like. It's important to LIKE the couch, but maybe it doesn't have to have gorgeous dramatic/clean lines and perfect fabric in order to work within the room.

Euro Touro 2008

2008-07-09T17:00:00.000-07:00

** North. England and Bath/London have been updated below**

Making a tour of Europe was once considered the capstone of an education for young gentlemen of the court. I can see why. I’ve had the opportunity to travel quite a bit, but it was still eye-opening to see the extent of differences between cultures in such a small area. The diversity across Europe is hard to comprehend as an American. The US is homogenous in comparison. And, although I love the diversity of foods we enjoy in the US, nothing compares to the original. I will forever miss Parisian pastries and baguettes, Italian-made pomodoro sauce, ravioli and (especially) gelato.

It seems that everyone I know is taking some incredible vacations right now! I’ve read a lot of trip logs and seen pictures from amazing destinations, but I’m getting travel-logged out! So, I’ll to keep this short to keep you interested and to ensure it gets posted before the next vacation rolls around. Read assured that these are truly the highlights! I've divided the post into our major destinations and will start working on Northern England right. . . now!

(Note: travel posts are added in order below this post, so that they make sense chronologically.)

Northern England

2008-07-09T15:40:00.000-07:00

Dinner with the branch – ancient viking York – shopping York – Abbeys and Castles (I like abbeys, Kelly likes castles) – sheep everywhere – winding roads through the Moores and Dales – Wensleydale cheese – Preston temple – site of first baptisms – true English breakfast

Northern England was breathtaking. My favorite part of any corner of the world are the rural roads. So picturesque. (This one is going in our living room.)

Towers of York Minster

Bryan photographing York Minster

Roche Abbey-- incredible ruins of an old monastery

Roche Abbey

This is the epitome of a tourist vacation with a family of photographers. (Notice the 4 pictures being taken simultaneously, including mine!)

We visited Middleham Castle. In the struggle for power between the church and the state, the lords often torn down Abbeys (hence the ruins at Roche Abbey) to build their castles. Castles were built in a more practical and industrial style than the Abbeys, but it was cool too. This is the view of the "kitchen" through the (missing) floor of the great hall.

The English Moores have stone fences criss-crossing every hill and valley. It made me wish I could spout Frost's poem, Mending Wall. I tried to explain it to my family while we were "in the moment", but no one was really listening. So, if you are a member of my family, follow the link and read the poem! It would have been magical if we could have qouted it while we were there.

We separated for dinner because our group of 13 was too large for any of the small villages we were driving through. The five of us found a village pub where Nigel, the bartender, introduced us to Ginger Beer. It's great stuff! I'm hoping we can find some in the US somewhere.

We spent our last day up north in Preston, where LDS missionaries baptized the first members of the church in the British Isles. My own ancestors joined the church in Leeds and sailed for America from Liverpool. This is the Preston Temple, which sits adjacent to the missionary training center where my brother spent a few weeks before leaving for his assigned area in the Leeds Mission.

Bath and London

2008-07-09T15:13:00.000-07:00

Roman Baths – the Circus – London architecture is gorgeous – Big Ben and Parliament – Westminster is a rip-off, but nice from the outside – V and A Museum, wow! – Indian food – Natural History Museum – Hydes Park (with a real pigeon lady) – Buckingham Palace – Coffee houses make tired feet very happy – Wicked! – the Chunnel

Bath Abbey (next to the Baths).

The Roman Baths were a very interesting visit. Much of the original streets, plumbing and some statues, etc. have been preserved. The baths were discovered in the late 1800's (contributing to the resurgence of classical culture) and a museum was erected over the site. It's interesting to see the curation from that era that is antique in and of itself.

Angel statue in a park overlooking the city.

The Circus (above) and the Crescent were the fashionable place to live if you came to Bath "during the season". The architecture reflects the popularity of classical culture at that time. The Circus took 15 years to construct.

Parliament tower in London. It's truly a gorgeous building and so different from the White House or Capital that set the model for American government buildings.

Big Ben, of course.

At Buckingham Palace we ran into Joe, a friend from Las Vegas. He's actually moved to DC since we knew him in the singles ward, which made the whole thing even more coincidental!

Most of our time in London was spent devouring the museums. I really could have used more time at the Victoria and Albert. We really enjoyed the glass exhibit.

I really enjoyed the patterns in the textiles exhibit. (Not a good picture, but amazing design and embroidery!)

Kelly really enjoyed the ironwork exhibit. . .

And this bench in the glass area. (The lights are wireless LEDs.)

Overall, we really enjoyed London!

Photographer Extraordinaire

2008-07-02T17:00:00.000-07:00

A(nother) friend recently asked about my wedding photographer, and I thought I should post a recommendation here. Rebekah Westover was our primary photographer, and she was amazing. I contacted Rebekah after seeing my friend Wendi's beautiful wedding pictures. Two of our friends have also followed suite since our wedding.

Rebekah was fun, flexible and very talented. I'm not very good at "posing" and Kelly hates cameras, but she made us feel comfortable and we loved the results. I also felt like she did a great job of noticing what WE liked and working it it-- trees that Kelly liked (he's an arborist), my vintage jewelry and details at the reception.

Here's the link for the post with some of our pictures and the album.

Placeholder for Europe

2008-06-30T15:40:00.000-07:00

I've been neglectful. It's overwhelming to post when so much has been going on, and with so little time to organize pictures and write about it.

I'm working on getting pictures in order from our wonderful trip to Europe with my family. This is my favorite little series of pictures from the trip (of my sister Jeni, taken inside the old city walls of Lucca, Italy).

cb2

2008-02-28T08:20:00.000-08:00

These are kinda cool and on sale at cb2.

Our First House

2008-02-28T08:19:00.001-08:00

Kelly and I spent our first night in our new home. We've decided the rent for a little while longer, so we will be here for 6 months to a year. It will be just enough time to get our household organized and sort through thirty years of stuff. Kelly reminds me every day that the process will be much easier if we sell it all and start from scratch.

If you were going to ask if we are still in Las Vegas, the picture will speak for itself!

Another Great Resource

2008-01-28T14:37:00.000-08:00

Speaking of valuable resources. . . I came across another great one today. An article in this month's issue of BYU Magazine sited Marriott School's personal finance website, which I looked up at work today.

This is a great website! They have all kinds of budget and planning worksheets, family home evening lessons ( including buying a house, budgets and saving, money and marriage, setting goals and understanding credit), finance course manuals for every stage of life and all the talks you could ever want to read on the subject.

Since we're looking at houses and making the adjustment to joint spending, this is one resource that Kelly and I will definitely be using in the near future!

Live from New York

2008-01-24T13:18:00.000-08:00

So, I've only seen two operas in my life, but I think this is amazing.

The Metropolitan Opera is collaborating with Fathom entertainment to bring LIVE opera from New York to a theater near you. I love the idea of quality cultural events being accessible like that. It's the perfect solution for those of us in culture-less places like Las Vegas.

As an MPA grad and art/culture enthusiast, I always notice small towns that try to support an art museum or a library. It's admirable. I can appreciate what they are trying to do-- but it's always a constant uphill climb for funding and a quality "product". I love that the internet and other technologies make the world smaller and these things more accessible in an affordable way.

I read somewhere that more people are cooking gourmet because no matter where you live, you can have exotic ingredients delivered to your front door within the week! That's wonderful!!

What amazing things have you been exposed to lately online or at the library?

Good Eats

2008-01-14T08:35:00.000-08:00

Alright, no excuses, I've just been a terrible blogger of late. But my distractions are very worthwhile!

So, married life is great! One of the things I love most is how much I get to cook! No more feeling guilty about not being social every night of the week. No more daily church activities of one kind or another, all aimed at getting me married off. I can come home from work and stay there! (What a concept!)

I would estimate that Kelly and I ate out or got take-out 4 out of 5 nights of our engagement. Those were the most hectic 3.5 months of my life! We're really making up for it now and it's just nice!

Last week I decided that I should keep a food journal and it's been really fun so far. I wrote about the memorable cooking experiences from our honeymoon and holidays. I wrote about the famous peach cobbler from our first date and I started to record the dinner we have every day. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that it's a great way to start a journal if you're not very good at it! It's fun and easy and the things you eat almost always have to do with either the events of the day or how you're feeling-- so it often expands into a more detailed account. Although it doesn't make up for recording some of the more meaningful events of life, it does cover the basic events in a way that will make you remember what those days felt like when you read it later. Years from now, it will be fun to remember how we made caramel popcorn for the family at the cabin over New years and the time that I set off the fire alarm in an attempt to toast coconut (just last night)!

I've been doing a lot of experimentation in my cooking misadventures. I love trying new things. I love learning that the absolute staples for MY kitchen are whipping cream, an excellent olive oil and fresh pepper. We've tried new recipes from various magazines and cookbooks we got for our wedding, but sometimes I like to invent with whatever is in the kitchen. I've included the recipe for my proudest creation below:

Pecan Encrusted Chicken
This is some good chicken, but I've decided that it would be at it's best when served in a salad. {dark leafy greens with blue cheese crumbles, cranberries and apple or pears}

Slice boneless chicken into small strips (whatever you consider salad-sized)

Batter chicken in:
1/2 c Buttermilk (or whipping cream + 1 T lemon juice)
1/2 t salt
1/4 t allspice
freshly ground pepper to taste

Use a food processor to chop about 3/4c pecans into a coarse meal. (I had pecan "pieces" from Trader Joes, but I still chopped them into a finer mixture.)

Coat chicken with pecan pieces and bake at 375 for approximately 8-10 minutes (it doesn't take long).

Announcements and Flowers

2007-11-27T16:50:00.000-08:00

While I'm sharing information about the great resources we used for our wedding I want to highlight two that were great to work with, which we also received a lot of comments about.

We were so pleased with the way they turned out! The announcements were printed by Triton Ink, a 'mom and pop' letterpress shop here in Las Vegas. Tom did the actual printing on an old letterpress and his wife, Patty, helped me to polish off the design that I'd worked up. They were wonderful to work with.

Triton Ink: 702.642.6001

Our flowers were spectacular! They were done by Wendy at The Flower Affair in Orem. Wendy was so helpful through out the planning process, essentially serving as an additional wedding planner. (If I wasn't the type to do all the planning myself I would have definitely turned it all over to her.) Wendy understood the atmosphere we were trying to create with just a little guidance and did wonderfully executing it.

The Flower Affair: 801.224.1991

The Wedding

2007-11-26T14:30:00.000-08:00

Our photographers have sent a few preview pictures from the wedding and the reception. Kelly and I took the pictures of the two of us at the temple before our reception and then a few more with family and friends the next day.

http://rebekahwestover.blogspot.com/ (based in Utah)

AND

http://www.cristidamephotography.com (based near Boise)

A Day at the Lake

2007-11-21T15:23:00.000-08:00

It's official, Kelly and I were sealed in the Mt. Timpanogos Temple last Saturday. Thank you to all our family and friends who joined us and helped with the reception and other wedding events. We'll post a few pictures from the wedding once we get them, but for now we've just included a few from Lake Tahoe where we've been enjoying gorgeous weather and a nice break!

Tahoe is more developed than we expected. Did you know there are high rise casinos here?! (--And apparently public phones in the woods!)

The water is NOT swimming temperature. A lot of the sites are closed since it's between the summer and winter seasons-- but we've found plenty to see just driving and hiking around.

We've done lots of driving and hiking and found plenty of beautiful little spots to admire. My favorite was a drive around Fallen Leaf Lake, a small secluded lakeside community southwest of Lake Tahoe. Here are a few highlights from the drive.

The views were spectacular. Many of the homes were right along the Fallen Leaf Lake shoreline (pictured above), while others clung to the canyon walls with "backyard" views overlooking this waterfall.

Another spectacular view near the waterfall:

Not a bad place to go to church! Why don't we have any chapels like this?

I became completly enamoured with this house. It's my new dream house. I love the colors and the combination of brick and stonework that they used throughout the property.

Guesthouse in back.

These are "Kara colors". Would it look as cute if the windows weren't boarded up?

The view from the dock (notice the consistent stonework).

So, Kelly. How hard do you think it would be to build a house like this?!

Is This For Real?

2007-11-19T14:47:00.000-08:00

This is the DRAFT post that I didn't bother finishing while on my honeymoon. I think it's appropriate that it wasn't finished. . .

Although I was there, and it was amazing, it's still hard to believe I actually got married last week. I'm going to wake up soon right?!

So, this is the great addition to my life. I sure am in love with him!

Upgrade

2007-10-16T15:26:00.001-07:00

I'm the luckiest girl ever.

We've been waiting for the real ring and it finally arrived on Friday. Kelly surprised me by giving it to me before we went to Utah (he'd planted some hints that he might be taking care of some ring-related business in Utah).

Last week I had a fake ring that turned my finger green. It looked like this-- except with all of the silver worn off. I referred to it as "rose gold".

I'm almost embarrassed about how really nice my ring is. But I really love it, so I'm sure I'll get over the shock of having such a gorgeous rock on my hand!

THANK YOU KELLY!!

A New Way to Fly

2007-10-10T12:06:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I discovered a new airline that is going to save Kelly and I $400 on our plane tickets for Christmas. Unfortunately they don't fly into SLC, but they fly all kinds of other places!

I'm a bit turned off by the option to pay for an assigned seat ahead of time, which also means you get to board first. (Assign seats or don't assign seats, but don't create a false sense of superiority by charging a nominal fee to choose a seat sooner!) But for $400, I really don't care

Sigur Ros

2007-10-09T08:28:00.000-07:00

My brother Craig recently returned from a mission in England and brought home a few very British things and phrases. Last time I was home we played Cricket after church!

Craig just sent me a link for this British music video. It's very Quixote-esque. Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDxMQaMqsig

{Sorry, I still can't embed video for whatever reason.}

Also, it turns out Sigur Ros is actually from Iceland.

To Buy or Not to Buy

2007-10-05T10:27:00.000-07:00

I can't empasize how perfectly this sweater matches my wedding dress. And since my wedding will take place in November in Utah, it is a highly practical item as well.

But, I can't get over the fact that the sweater costs twice as much as my wedding dress.

{Click on "Open Larger Image" if you don't see the sweater.} I wish I had a Mac, so I could post a picture.

THANK YOU NIKKI

2007-09-25T14:36:00.000-07:00

My good friend Nikki clued me into a photo site that lets me upload photos again. I'll admit, I could have at leasted posted a few times without pictures, but being engaged makes life busy and distracting!

Well, onto today's post.

I am already altering my wedding dress and pretending that I'm going to make a coat to wear with it and thinking that someone is going to sew a cute yellow dress for my 9 year old sister--- but when I found these purse handles while looking for my lace I decided that I want to make myself a purse as well! I'm incorporating a lot of antique/tarnished gold and silver into the wedding.

By the way, for further information on my "Technical Difficulties" you can click on the "Kara and Kelly" link to the right!

Technical Difficulties

2007-07-16T08:58:00.000-07:00

So, I still can't upload any pictures. :-(

Has anyone else had this problem?

I want to show you pictures of my trip to UT for Wendi's wedding, a fun weekend in San Diego, hiking Mt. Whitney, this one guy and my new nephew Caleb. However, Blogger won't let me upload any pictures from my own files.

I'll try to post a better update soon.

I Guessed Right

2007-06-12T10:54:00.000-07:00

Take the Quiz here!

I've been reading Pride and Predjudice and wondering if I am at all like these women. My conclusion was that I am most like Elinor.

Kristen, this post is for you! ;-)

The Best News Ever

2007-06-07T10:17:00.001-07:00

By the time you click on this link the page will probably look different. However, right now there is a countdown clock to the opening of the first Cafe Rio in Las Vegas, and that clock reads:

00 Months 00 Days 00 Hours 39 Minutes 07 Seconds

Emotionalism

2007-06-06T17:18:00.000-07:00

I was recently introduced to the Avett Brothers, who recently released this new album. I can't wait to get it. I tried to buy it at Borders last week, but it wasn't there. I ordered it online yesterday, but it can't come soon enough. I listened to the sample segments online twice today!

The Avett Brothers are playing in CA on 8/11 at the same great, little venue where I saw Camera Obscura. Anyone want to go?

Wallter

2007-06-03T17:53:00.000-07:00

Meet Wallter.These adhesive, paintable wall pieces are extremely versatile and sleek.

I found these while searching for retro upholstery fabric for my new chairs. Does anyone have any sources?

Broken

2007-05-31T17:08:00.000-07:00

Blogger won't let me post any pictures. I have a couple posts waiting in the "edit" pile, but I can't post them without the images.

(Past experience leads me to believe that it may work from home, but I generally only bring my laptop home on the weekends. What to do?)

Mt. Whitney 2007

2007-05-21T11:06:00.000-07:00

Just a general announcement, because I can't contain my excitement. . . I am climbing Mt. Whitney in less than 2 months.
(I just noticed we will be starting our climb on Friday the 13th.)

I will be climbing with:

Melissa, running partner
Jacque, hiking friend
Bryan, awesome little brother
Daniel, brother's roommate
Ryan, brother's friend

The photo is from Ian Parker. Nice work Ian!

Home Companion

2007-05-16T13:28:00.000-07:00

Design Mom recomended the Home Companion magazine a while back. I found a good deal on it and decided to give it a try. This month featured a re~decorate of Mary Englebreit's home and I fell in love with all of it! Click on the picture to better inspect some of my favorite elements. . .

- yellow!
- bird-pattern dishes
- busts on the bookcase
- yellow wallpaper
- peonies
- "sweets" tin
- green, art and crafts lamp
- and most of all-- the art above the bookcase (I wish you could see this better. I wish I could see this better!)

Obsessions

2007-05-09T10:27:00.000-07:00

Okay, Ann tagged me to post about five of my obsessions. So, here are a few things I am obsessed with or obsessive about. . .

COLORS
I am obsessive about color. I love colors. All of them. I honestly don’t have a favorite color, and believe that every color can be gorgeous when used in just the right place. I do gravitate towards a particular palate of colors that my friends refer to as “Kara colors”. Kara colors include muted jewel tones like those in the color wheel above.

A couple examples of my color obsession: when I eat M&M’s at my desk I always arrange them into graphic patterns using nice color combinations, I will leave books sitting on the edge of my bed for weeks if the cover looks beautiful against my bedspread, sometimes I buy fruit (pears especially) just because they will look great in a white bowl or are the perfect hue of warm-red.

FRUIT
Which brings me to my next obsession, I am obsessive about fruit. My brother-in-law observed this obsession when he married into our family. We are all obsessive about perfect fruit. If there is any question about the quality of an apple, orange or banana I just don’t eat it. There is nothing worse than a grainy apple. No apple is better than a grainy apple. Unfortunately, I think I miss a lot of decent apples for fear that they might be grainy.

DING
I am obsessed with Southwest’s DING program. I have a post-it note on my monitor at work listing the lowest fares for particular cities I am watching. I call/text people to let them know about fares they might be interested in. I have influenced at least 5 people to sign up for the program. At work, my coworkers ask me if there are any good fares during our team meetings. I went to San Diego on a whim because of a $29 fare. (It was totally worth it.) Southwest should pay me for my promotional efforts. If you work for Southwest Marketing, please leave a comment on this post and I will send you the address to which you can send the check. (Free flight vouchers will be an acceptable substitution.)

RED SHOES
I am obsessed with red shoes. One of my first blog entries was dedicated entirely to a particularly lovely pair of red shoes. I currently own 6 pair as follows: 2 pair of heels (one bright, one dark), a pair of sandals, a pair of skimmers, a pair of shiny patent loafers and a pair of red and pink pumas. These are all quite necessary.

ICE
I could not live in a world without ice. When I say I want a glass of water, what I really mean is that I want a glass of ice with some water poured over the top. I like my drinks cold and never fill my glass past the level of the ice. If I'm thirsty and there is no ice in the house I will mope (ask my sister-- who never has ice at her house). Once I'm done complaining, I'll leave a glass of water in the freezer until it's cold or I forget about it, which ever comes first!

Also, whoever invented that soft pebble ice was inspired.

Neo-Existential Prelude to Doom

2007-04-11T15:26:00.000-07:00

This week, Apple announced that they have sold over 100 million iPods. [Way to go Apple.]

To commemorate the iPod's impact on the way we listen to music, NPR played a news piece from 26 years ago, capturing public response to the release of the first personal-music technology-- the walkman.

One man said the walkman tolls a "neo-existential prelude to doom".

Ummm, what?

The Table of my Dreams

2007-04-10T08:36:00.000-07:00

My new table and chairs were the most expensive of my recent Craig's List purchases. However, I have no regrets!

My friend Reed helped me pick them up last night just before FHE. Seeing his full truck in the parking lot, someone in the ward thought it would be pretty funny if they took everything out of his truck and loaded it into their's and then dropped it all off at his house. Luckily, they decided that would be too much work, so I didn't have to go through having my brand new table stolen, albeit temporarily!

Like I mentioned yesterday, I really love the lines of the chairs. They're simple, but stylized.

Another bonus, the table folds out to become twice it's original size (Seats 10-12). The mechanisms are really well-crafted and slide ever so smoothly. :-)

I'm looking forward to reupholstering the cushions. In addition, some of the chairs' joints need to be tightened. I'll need to do a little research to learn how to do it right.

First Impressions

2007-04-09T12:12:00.000-07:00

I've always known that Craig's List and I would get a long quite well if I ever introduced myself. Maybe even a little too well! For that reason, I've put it off for quite some time, but with my roommate getting married in Aug. and taking several furniture items with her, I decided it was time.

In the last two weeks I've made the following purchases:

Cute bookcase for accessible fabric storage: $35

Desk and chair for our 1970's-style, upstairs livingroom: $30
(This is going to look great with a new paint job eventually.)

Bad picture of a nice table and 6 chairs: $400
(These pieces are older, but really well-made-- in Sweden. I also love the lines of the chairs. Maybe I'll post a better picture after I pick them up today.)

I think this has been a sucessful introduction to Craig's List. Anyone have a really great Craig's List story?

At Long Last

2007-03-23T15:00:00.000-07:00

At long last, you are getting another post.

This belated post is about my trip to Seattle for the Farrar-Rayko wedding, which occurred on March 2 (at long last!) I attended the wedding with two good friends from Las Vegas, Christy and Christina.

Here is the lovely couple just after their sealing at the Seattle Temple.

After leaving the temple we made our way over to the reception. However, since we were in Seattle, we thought it would be appropriate to stop at the nearest Starbucks for hot chocolate, and complained that there wasn't literally a Starbucks on every corner like one would xpect in Seattle. At that moment, Christina looked out the window and noticed the little red sign on the corner of the church we had pulled up next to. . . Seattle's reputation remains intact.

After finding a real Starbucks and enjoying our hot chocolate, we arrived at the reception. . .

The bride looked lovely. Lisa's dress was made from silk she had purchased while in India (assessing public health programs). Here she is showing off the pretty shoes that go with her pearl pin (see below). Jacob showed us his pretty shoes too.

The reception was fantastic by LDS standards! We had dinner, people stayed and talked, there was dancing that lasted for longer than 15 minutes and included more than 15 people! This is my favorite picture of the evening.

This is a less-dramatic picture of the dancing.

On a less wedding-oriented note. . . Seattle as a whole was quite enjoyable. I was thrilled to be reminded that it is spring every where outside of Las Vegas. (LV does not have spring. I think this is just my perception because there are no bulb flowers in LV. For me, spring is marked by the appearance of crocuses and daffodils; without them it's not really spring.)

In addition to the weather, we also enjoyed Seattle's food and shopping. We hit a sale at Anthropologie and found great restaurants for lunch (Pagliacci's in Bellevue) and breakfast (a little cafe on 5th Avenue). I enjoyed this Chihuly sculpture that we happened upon at Lincoln Square in downtown Bellevue. We almost missed it! ~A good reminder that it pays to look up every now and then!

I'll try to get back to posting as usual, but this promises to be an insane summer at work. . .so we'll see.

Chemistry

2007-03-09T14:52:00.000-08:00

At work today I got to see our new, state of the art water quality lab that opened yesterday. It was impressive. The Principal Microbiologist told us about all the various tests, processes and reseach underway. I was most impressed by the six "dishwashers" for sterilizing glassware. They print out a reciept that documents the heat, chemicals introduced, duration, etc. My dishwasher doesn't do that.

I also spotted the following items that I would really like for my own use. . .

I really want a tape dispenser like this at home. I found the tape online, but it's only available in bulk (in other words- expensive).

These labels are lovely and very multi-purpose.

This oversized flask would make a great decanter or fishbowl.

I would use one of these lovely little stoppers to stop the top of my oversized decanter.

Who knew there would be so many lovely finds in the chemistry lab?!

Some Beautiful Things

2007-03-01T08:49:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I was lazy last weekend and I didn't take any pictures. It was great though, trust me. My roommate Melissa is now married and the sealing and reception were both beautiful in all the important ways. (And she was beautiful, also very important.)

I also got to see my sister this weekend (who is looking beautiful just a few months after having her second child). Jeni and I appreciate the same kinds of beautiful things-- so whenever we get together we play show and tell to share all of the loveliness we've encountered, produced and purchased since our last visit. This time was especially funny because we had less than 2 hours until I had to leave for the wedding so we were cramming it all in. I was pulling things out of my suitcase and she was gathering them from around the house.

I gave Jeni some lovely cupcake papers for her birthday and promised a cakeplate would soon follow. She gave me a few fun books, my favorite of which is The Sweet Life: Reflections on Home and Garden by Laura Stoddart. The illustrations are perfectly lovely and it is full of little gems such as:

"There is no furniture so charming as books, even if you never open them, or read a single word" - Sydney Smith

"Woman has no seduction for the man who cannot keep his eyes off his magnolias."

You should check it out on Amazon, go to "Search Inside" and click on the "Surprise Me" link. You'll be pleasantly surprised.

P.S. Happy Birthday Jeni!

An Ideal Weekend

2007-02-21T13:32:00.000-08:00

The trip to see Camera Obscura in California was pretty fantastic.

We stayed in 5 star accomodations with the Febi's (best hosts in the state of California) who took us down to Santa Monica on Saturday morning for breakfast at Jinky's Cafe. They also made us great homemade Roscoe's chicken and waffles on Sunday morning and packed a 72-hour kit worth of food for the drive home.

In return for their generous hospitality I helped Jared with his homework.

. . .which was actually pretty fun! (Who knew I would miss Excel?)

For those of you who really want to see how the Febi's are doing, this is the picture that came out clearest (of course). As you can see, they are as good as ever. (I am concentrating on soaking up their awesomeness.)

On Saturday afternoon we took off on our own and spent some times soaking up the California sun. One would think we wouldn't be that impressed with the weather since Februarys are beautiful in Las Vegas too. One would be wrong because we don't have a beach on which to appreciate the warm-February weather. (Rachel~ this is what distinguishes Nevadans from West Coasters-- a coast.)

While on the coast, Lauren got a bit excited and threw sand into Rachel's bag.

They totally got into a huge fight over it. . .

. . .But they reconciled their differences. . .

. . .Because we had a concert to go to (after some shopping at H and M's and a fantastic Italian dinner with an Italian waiter and free refills).

The best part about seeing a concert in California is the lack of smoke. Notice the lack of smoke in the following pictures. Then notice what a great time we're having and how great the concert is.

The other ideal part about this weekend is that we came home on Sunday and still had another full day before returning to work.

The best part about Monday was that I didn't do much at all (hence no more pictures). I did get some cool old folding chairs at the Savers sale for $1.00 a piece and played a mean game of Scattegories at FHE. And with that, my weekend was complete. It was great. I am still basking in it's greatness.

Stay tuned for weekend at the wedding in Provo!

I'm Ready to be Heartborken

2007-02-15T09:03:00.000-08:00

I really HEART this video.

I'm going to see Camera Obscura in LA on Saturday and I can't wait. I hope they do the 'Singing in the Rain' dance at the concert!

Of Montreal

2007-02-14T10:50:00.000-08:00

Rachel, Megan and I went to a concert yesterday that was really cool. . .until it suddenly became really not-cool. So we only stayed for half of it. I want to blog about the event, but it was not appropriate for all {any} audiences.

The real irony is that we thought the event started at 8pm, so we had waited 3 hours for the band and protected our spot in the front and it turned out that the best part was the sound check we heard at 8pm.

Some other good stuff:

- Discovering the Art Bar (great little venue)
- The 15 year olds (maybe annoying, but at least we had some entertainment during the wait)
- Boys with really pretty hair and striped scarves
- The excellent opening act (wait, oh yeah, there wasn't one)
- Free water
- The guy taking pictures of the playlist with everyone's cameras
- Keeping our spot because "it's probably going to start any minute"
- Guitars with butterflies on them and unicorn pins
- "Come disconnect the dots with me poppet" still in my head
- A friend to leave with (thanks Rach)

Upgrade?

2007-02-08T15:31:00.000-08:00

Holzkontor is a German company that sells computers built out of wood. Pretty amazing.

I wonder if the guy who makes the wooden computer keys likes his job. It could go either way, really.

Weddings of 2007

2007-02-05T09:27:00.000-08:00

It's just barely February and my wedding outlook for 2007 is already quite full:

2/24 Melissa and Rick, former roommate and good friend
3/2 Lisa and Jacob, former roommate and good friend
3/10 Birgit and Nate, good friend whose dress I helped make
5/5 Makenna and Ian, cousin
5/5 Natalie and Jack, cousin
6/9 Wendi and Ben, best friend
6/23 Richie and Rachel, cousin
6/? Branson and Kate, cousin
7/? Placeholder for two friends who cannot yet be named
10/? Bentley and Meredith, cousin

Modify

2007-02-01T17:45:00.000-08:00

I made a great find last week! Modify is a mid-century modern furniture store right here in Las Vegas (and not 5 minutes from my office). Their complete website isn't up yet, but I'll let you know when it is.

The store's inventory is of high quality and at various price points. The store owner, Maria, volunteered to email me about new floorlamps and buffets as they came in. She will also work with you to mix and match sets, lamps and shades or to recover furniture with fabrics from her retro/vintage collection in the back.

If you are in Las Vegas soon you need to get off the strip to stop in at Modify in the Art District.

Calendar Year

2007-02-01T17:32:00.000-08:00

I purchased this letterpress calendar set from Ilee Papergoods and have not regretted it for one second. It came in a cd case so you could flip through the months, but it just looked so amazing all spread out that I had to frame it. The picture is terrible (from my cell phone) but you get the idea. I'll take a new pic after I get it hung.

I got the frame at Aaron Brother's 1 cent sale (buy one, get second for $.01). If you live near an Aaron Brothers I recommend that you watch for the sale; I have purchased several frames guilt-free this way. My best advice for framing nice pieces is to purchase a too-big, standard sized frame for $30-$50. Take this frame into a small custom framing store that is willing to cut it down and re-assemble it. This will only cost about $20 if the frame fits in one direction. You get a custom framing look for less than $80!

Quickie Project

2007-01-30T14:33:00.000-08:00

I started a quick, one-evening project right before fhe last night. I recently found an acrylic container with a fantastic shape, but it needed a little something to accentuate its fine figure.

I decided I would use it in my bathroom and retrieved a few items to use as color references. It was fun to mix the color and experiment with the paint. I have a forray into the art world with these two lovely ladies coming up. I'm quite excited about it and getting out my paints just underscored my enthusiasm.

It looks pretty good after a few coats of paint. I’ll give it a nice glossy finish tonight and fill it with hygienic tchotchkies tomorrow.

Unfortunately. . .

2007-01-25T16:23:00.000-08:00

These lotus flower lights from Graham and Green are so beautiful. The chandelier is breathtaking and I really love the centerpiece version of the black lamp. (Have you ever seen a centerpiece/lamp? I love it!)

Unfortunately. . .
- Graham and Green only ships within the UK
- The low black lamp is out of stock
- The smallest lamp costs 185 pounds (and the dollar is not doing well against the pound!)

Maybe I’ll find one at Savers in 30 years.

Try This

2007-01-17T17:03:00.000-08:00

Random Stripe Generator

2007-01-10T16:43:00.000-08:00

The Nevada - Las Vegas Chapter presents:

BYU Mens Chorus Fireside Sunday, March 25, 2007 at 7:00 PM

The wonderful BYU Mens chorus will be performing 2 firesides in LV on March 25th. Times and locations are pending. Each fireside will be approximately 1 hour. Hosts are needed to house the 210 men Sunday evening. Call the chapter coordinator if you'd like to take a boy home after the fireside!

For some reason, I don't think they mean me. . .

Calendars

2007-01-09T16:28:00.000-08:00

Due to a very busy calendar at work, I haven't had a chance to post about my post-Christmas travels. So, I'm sharing my Relief Society calendar to get something new on the blog (and because I'm quite excited about how it turned out).

This how I spent my evening on Friday. After a whirlwind holiday season, I was more than content to hole up and play with fonts, colors and kerning.

(The jpg image turned out a bit fuzzy, but the first time I uploaded the image it turned teal and blue instead of red and brown. I have no idea how it did that!)

Christmas 2006

2007-01-01T12:00:00.000-08:00

Well, Christmas vacation is almost over for me—but not quite. I thought I’d post about Christmas now, and then follow with the after-Christmas events when I return from vacation.

Every family has memorable Christmas traditions. In my family we have had little, one-serving boxes of cold cereal for breakfast on Christmas morning for three generations. About ten years ago, my sister and I started a new Christmas breakfast tradition when we gave my Mom placemats for Christmas. We decorated for the cereal breakfast instead of leaving the placemats wrapped under the tree. Every year since then my sister(s) and I have gotten up early and transformed the dining room for Christmas morning. Each year is different and we’ve been going for several years now.

This was my first year doing Christmas breakfast without my sister Jeni. She spent Christmas with her in-laws this year. My sister-in-law was also out of town, so the breakfast was executed with my sisters Suzanne (14) and Emily (8). This was Emily’s first year to help with the breakfast. She was thrilled to be involved! When we went to the store she told all the employees how she was helping with Christmas breakfast this year. Thinking in terms of food, the store employees always asked what we were making, to which she cheerfully responded, “It’s nativity” (the theme for the year).

Without the extra hands and inspiration, this year wasn’t quite as over-the-top as usual, but it still turned out beautifully.

The overall view:

The lighting wasn't fantastic for the picture, but the navity looked so lovely with the bottom light on the chandelier shining down over the star.

Some details:

Th star is made from gold foil wrapping paper (from Target). It turned out wel and looked quite metalic.

We bleached the fabrics to give them a faded look and added some detail with bleach pens.

I found this pretty little pear-shaped dish for .75 cents at Savers.

My brother Bryan made orange scones to go with our cereal breakfast. They were a hit, especially with a drizzle of orange icing. I made another batch the next day!

Gocco I

2006-12-19T14:29:00.000-08:00

I've been anxious to experiment with my new gocco machine for some time now. (It's one of the many projects that I can finally start now that the dress is done.) I made a few of these contact information cards for my brother who will be coming home from his mission this year.

When most people undertake gocco projects their pictures are of rows and rows of drying cards. I, however, only turned out 3 sucessful pieces (of 20 or so). The rest were missing most of my brother's name and some of the other text. My diagnosis is three fold--

1- The directions say to remove the image carefully, but after I burned the screen I opened the machine and the image stuck to the sticky mount area and came right off the screen.

2- Maybe I shouldn't have used the riso fabric ink on paper, but I wanted the red color.

3- Maybe the lettering was just too small.

I'm going to try enlarging my image a bit and burn a new screen tonight. Hopefully it works this time. I only have one screen and two bulbs left on hand.

Gingerbread Penthouse

2006-12-19T13:55:00.000-08:00

For F.H.E. last night we had a repeat of a popular activity from last year: gingerbread house-type structures. My group (some of whom are pictured below) created a gingerbread highrise. Josh recently moved to LV from NY and reported that it looks quite authentic.

Obviously, our gingertower was impressive, but we weren't the only creative geniuses present. I must say I admired this stadium as constructed by Christy Cropper & Co, LLC. Notice the giant helmets at the entrance and the firework lights (similar to those you will see in the Valley of Fire, NV or at Fats Pizza in Provo or next to Tiananmen Square in China).

Other gingerbread creations included:
- LV temple
- LV wedding chapel
- 2 forts
- A campsite
- A true-to-life house with plumbing and wiring (made by a couple of engineers)
- Igloo made of colored waffle cookies
- A house that looked an awful lot like Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Water

We also had one regular old house professionally constructed by a chef who had brought along extra tubes of colored icing and his complete set of knives for the task.

I hope his becomes an annual tradition.

Kaiizen is for the Kids

2006-12-06T17:25:00.000-08:00

This is Josh.

Josh is co-founder of Kaiizen, a non-profit organization that serves an orphanage in Baja, Mexico. Every few months, they coordinate service projects and activities at the orphanage for 100 or so college students to participate in.

Josh moved into our ward and told us about Kaiizen. Having recently seen some of the needs in Mexico, my friend Wendi and I immediately volunteered for the next trip.

We left after work last Thursday and pitched our tent on the Baja sands sometime around 1am. We were glad we brought the tent along as it was definitely cold both nights.

There were about 150 people in the group (mostly from Provo), sharing the 35 or so tents you see below.

After breakfast the next morning, Wendi and I went down the beach a little ways, exploring the shoreline. We stumbled across a treature trove of lovely purple sea urchins. We carefully wrapped a dozen in muslin strips (from the dress I'm working on) and safe guarded them in the car for the rest of the trip. I can't wait to see how they look in a simple white bowl.

We left about half of them where we found them. They were up pretty high above the water line and we wondered how they all got there-- must be global warming lowering the ocean.

After packing up camp we headed to a "more better" beach to soak in the Mexican sun and organize all of the presents and supplies for the orphanage, etc.

Lovely shot of the birds flying south. (Thanks to Wendi for all of these pictures that were obviously taken with a much better camera than mine. Basically, all the good ones are hers.)

At the orphanage, we divided into groups. We were on the card-making committee for a little while and then went into town to purchase rice and beans to distribute with blankets made by EFY kids.

This is the open lot adjacent to the orphanage where we pitched tents for the second night. On the left you can see a corner of the "guest house" where some of the group stayed.

Wendi and I, however pitched our tent in a lovely spot under the canopy of a tree similar to the one in the picture. The spot turned out not to be so lovely when it turnd out to be directly downwind of the bathrooms in the guesthouse. Also, a rooster crowed from 2 or 3 am unil the sun came up. Wendi threatened to shoot it. It was obviously not afraid of her, since it called her bluff for another hour or so.

Back to the day's events... That evening we hung out with the kids for a bit and then held a Christmas celebration. I was impressed with the coordination that had gone into the Christmas activity. (the Provo kids did all the work. We LV folks were somewhat out of the loop for the planning.) There were four presents for each of the kids. They were specific to each child, but all comparable so no one received too much or too little. The group also purchased an X-box for the kids which they received at the end of an elaborate Christmas story telling.

After the stories, Santa Claus arrived and each of the kids recieved their gifts. I helped a little boy named Omar with his. He received a remote control car, cool shoes and two pairs of superhero pajamas. He "flew" around the room like Superman for the rest of the evening!

On Saturday, we split into groups again. We were part of the caroling group with the rice, beans and blankets. We drove to a small community with several make-shift houses hanging to the steep hillsides. We dispersed into small groups of 5 or 6 and loaded up with bags of rice and beans and tall piles of fleece blankets.

We shared our goods and some spanish Christmas carols with people on the street and at some of the homes. I was worried that they wouldn't really appreciate these American kids walking around "benevolently" handing out things, but everyone we met was so kind and glad we had come and were happy to visit with us.

I think I worry about that too much in general. I assume someone is probably busy or would think it was strange if I stopped by or gave them a small gift. People are almost always grateful when you genuinely share a part of yourself.

In that spirit, we made a couple new friends. These boys had a great time paling around with Jacob and flirting with the girls. They liked one blonde in particular. The taller boy asked Jacob to tell her he was 18.

We had sandwiches at the school after we returned. This is the crew that spent the day painting the school buildings and the mural behind them.

This little girl was more adorable than you can imagine. She loved the attention and hugs. I wished I spoke spanish about 147 times on this trip, but even with the language barrier there were a lot of ways to contribute.

We were pretty much spent by the time the afternoon rolled around. Once the projects were finished we waited for Josh to finish whatever business he was attending too. It took a while and Jacob and Wendi both fell asleep. I got bored and wandered off to find Josh. I found some homemade tamales instead! They were amazing.

After a quick stop at a taco stand, we raced back to the beach so we could catch the sunset. (Josh and Wendi literally sprinted across the bridge to the beach.)

Jacob and Wendi getting caught up in the zen of the moment.

(Actually, the best thing about this picture is that it wasn't posed. I caught it as they were both about to flex for the camera.)

For those of you within a few hours of Provo (or Mexico) you should check out Kaiizen and consider coming with th group in February or May-ish. You won't regret it.

Coming to a Blog Near You

2006-12-04T14:28:00.000-08:00

Watch this spot for a good post about this. (I'm waiting for additional pictures)

ISO50

2006-11-28T08:44:00.000-08:00

I really like the work of Scott Hansen. He blends retro and trendy in a way that fits my tastes quite well.

Most anything in his shop would make a great Christmas gift for someone with good taste. --And it's all on sale (20% off for the holidays).

Please excuse Kara. She has been. . .

2006-11-27T15:26:00.000-08:00

I have neglected my duties as a blogger for quite some time now. My problem is that I’ve committed myself to making a wedding dress for a friend in my ward, so I feel guilty spending time on anything else. It’s coming along, but too slowly for my liking. I’ve decided that most projects have four stages. Of course, the intensity of the project makes a big difference on how quickly I advance through these stages.

INSPIRATION: I’m really good at this part. This is where most of the fun happens and if I am sufficiently enamored with the idea, I might just make it through the remaining three stages.

DESIGN: I’m talking about the technical part of design (as opposed to the creative part). Turning your ideas into a workable pattern is often the most difficult part of the process. This is especially true for complex projects (for example, a wedding dress with 20 pieces making up the bodice alone~ aghh!).

EXECUTION: By the time the pattern is designed, the actual execution is boring. I’ve already made this dress two times over in muslin and the thrill of working with the actual fabric is cancelled out by the fear of cutting something wrong and running out of material. (I am currently on the verge of this step.)

ENDURING TO THE END: After the project finally takes shape, it’s hard to be patient enough to complete all the finishing work—careful hems, hand-stitching the lining into place, hooks and eyes, etc. At least knowing that this dress is for someone else will help me make it through to the finish line.

Anyway, just thought I’d let you know what I’ve been up to and promise to write more soon.

P.S. Go Cougars! I followed the second half of Saturday's game via text messages, and then watched the final play on YouTube.

Get Out and Vote

2006-11-07T13:47:00.000-08:00

I Heart Nevada Day

2006-11-03T11:22:00.000-08:00

I'm sorry you all don't get to celebrate Nevada Day. My three-day weekend was fantastic! Wendi and I celebrated Nevada Day by going to Arizona.

Wendi's cousin is working on her dissertation on the Navajo Reservation so we went to visit her. While there, we ate and moteled on Route 66, saw the Grand Canyon, fell in love with Flagstaff (and decided we need to move there) and visited Canyon de Chelly. Most of my pictures are from Canyon de Chelly because it was absolutely stunning. Also because I forgot the extra batteries for my camera. Perhaps I will post a few more pictures from the other parts of the trip after I get some from Wendi.

Here is the Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon reminded me of a quintessential 1950's family vacation. There's the typical National Park Service visitors center and rangers giving tours. There are several overlook areas where you can park your station wagon, go take pictures of the view, and then move on to the next overlook. The South Rim also has the Grand Canyon Village complete with a shower house, laundry mat, general store and a small library.

My favorite part was the couple who were dressed to the nines for their visit to the Grand Canyon. She was wearing black coat with a hug fur collar, black slacks and high heeled boots. The Grand Canyon is a classy place.

Canyon de Chelly (du-shay) is more my speed. (Despite the shocking lack of people in heels!) I recommend that you put this destination on your short list of places you need to see. Here are a few pieces of photographic persuasion.

We stopped at several spots with ruins, petroglyphs or ancient Anasazi trails. Our guide, Tommie, knew a ton about the area, the history and many Navajo traditions/practices.

Don't you wish that was your car? Next time I will bring my Subaru and it will love me for it.

This is Wendi, taking what is- I'm sure -an equally beautiful picture. There was literally breath-taking beauty in every direction and around every corner.

See what I mean? We hiked to an overlook area. Our guide told us that his mom used to take this route (up and out of the canyon) to the bus stop to get to school every day! I was insanely jealous.

Tommie told us that Navajo tradition explains the stains on the canyon walls are the blood of the three-horned monster that created the canyon when he gored the earth, trying to kill the Navajo who had used the gopher's tunnel to sneak up on him and shoot him. (The Navajo got away.)

A little advice about Canyon de Chelly:

1- Go in the spring or fall. Photographers (including Ansel Adams) come from around the world to photograph the canyon at its peak. If you want to see incredible color (as pictured above) go around Halloween.

2- You cannot go into the canyon without a guide. The National Park Service charges $65 for the day (I can't tell from the website if it's per vehicle or per person.) I really enjoyed having a Navajo guide. They charge $20/hour per vehicle if you bring your own vehicle (4-wheel drive required). Our guide was Tommie. He said his website is called MummyTours.com, but I couldn't find it. We werreferreded to him by his "cousin", who was already booked for the day. It sounded a little sketchy, but this is common. As we drove into the canyon a woman leaving the canyon stopped us and asked if we would take some keys to her niece at a certain ruin. It's a small community.

3- Plan to spend a full day. We spent 4 hours in the canyon. We drove around a lot and saw a lot of different places, but when I looked at the map, I was surprised to see that we had only seen a small portion of the canyon. Overnight camping trips can be arranged. I would definitely go for that-- you could drive around to see a lot on one day and and do some serious hiking on the next.

4- Our guide mentioned races that are held in the canyon. Cool! After an internet search I have discovered that 5 and 10k's are held throughout the year and hosted by the Navajo Nation, but I didn't see anything on the Navajo Nation website or the Nation's Parks and Rec site. Hmmm.

I'm Seeing a Pattern II

2006-10-18T17:00:00.000-07:00

This weekend I went in search of curtains. I didn’t find exactly what I was looking for, but I found a lot of other great deals! I also found several really nice patterns, as mentioned in the previous post-- so, here are the rest of them.

Our living room is turning out to be black and red. I found these pillows and the sheet to make into a throw for our white couch. (FYI, JoAnns is having a great sale on great throw pillows right now.)

This shower curtain was $1.99. I’m planning to use it as a sheer layer for our living room windows with heavier black drapes on top.

I found a complete, as-good-as-new full sheet set (including pillow cases) at Savers for $6. Someday I will have my own house with a spare room and these sheets will go on the bed.

This here is a great summertime table cloth, purchased at Savers for $2.99. I love how busy the pattern is. It will look so fun with plain white plates on it.

This one was my favorite, although it was hard to take a photo that does it justice. It’s a dainty little curtain for my laundry room. ($ .99 at Savers)

I also purchased a few non-decorative items. . .this fabulous shirt and some red shiny shoes.

Although I didn’t find any bedroom curtains, I made a decision yesterday (after a helpful sister-consultation). I am going to purchase some of this fabric and use it in combination with some other fabric I already own.

For those interested in browsing more beautiful fabric prints. . . I found the dogwood print here. They have several fantastic collections of beautiful fabrics you won’t see at JoAnn’s.

I'm Seeing a Pattern

2006-10-17T16:53:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was a weekend for great patterns. It started out with a lovely package of gift wrap I received on Friday. I ordered the paper for a project to go in my room, which you will see here upon completion. Actually, just one sheet is for the project; the others are to save for design-worthy friends/occasions.

The paper arrived nicely packaged and with a personal card. (I’m impressed.)

I was very pleased with my purchases. The bird print is for my project.

These were purchased at an affordable price from Broadway Paper. Thank you Oh Joy for the suggestion. The rest of my nicely patterned weekend will follow tomorrow. (I hope)

Ten Days Late and Ten-thousand Dollars Short

2006-10-12T16:24:00.000-07:00

I came across a little gem today: Scotch’s Most Gifted Wrapper. We all missed the deadline to enter the 2006 competition, but considering this is the 10th annual wrapping contest it will probably come around again next year.

Reasons to apply:
- Brush-up on your creative writing skills with the 100-word essay
- Spend a day wrapping gifts, who doesn’t like wrapping presents?
- See your name on a national press release of a Fortune 500 Company
- Free trip to New York
- $10k, or at least $250 if you are a finalist

If you aren’t actually skilled at wrapping, you should nominate someone who is. You will win $1,000 if he/she is crowned America’s Most Gifted Wrapper.

The Know-It-All

2006-10-04T15:42:00.000-07:00

Today I received a request from half.com to review a book I ordered about a month ago. The email was amazingly timed within a hour of my finishing the book, and since I thoroughly enjoyed every page, I decided to acquiesce and wrote the following review:

If you know how to read, this book is a must-have.

Have you ever noticed there's some pretty fascinating stuff in the encyclopedia (with an awful lot of less fascinating information mixed in). This book gives you a good percentage of the highlights, as well as laugh-out-loud-funny anecdotes from the life of a guy with the patience/gumption/insanity to read it all. All 33,000 pages of the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Believe it or not, this book is actually a page-turner. Somewhere between A-ak and Zywiec, you start to relate to this self-effacing guy (who, in reality, is probably 3.7 times smarter than most of us) and become genuinely interested in the success of his quest.

On another level, The Know-It-All is like the Krispy Kreme’s of its kind, allowing you to watch the process of its creation as the book itself unfolds. Its transparency is both insightful and endearing. The writing process takes you into his office, on the NY Subway and to a personal interview with Alex Trebek. It culminates with a visit to Britannica headquarters, which sincerely fascinates you by the time you arrive there in the book.

I recommend this book to everyone.

A Successful Conclusion

2006-10-03T14:17:00.000-07:00

A belated report on the sucessfull conclusion of my DC adventures:

On Friday, my training concluded at noon and we enjoyed a casual lunch at a great little restaurant called the Stardust. {I liked the typewriters and old suitcases sitting in the corners. The mannequins, however, were a little creepy.)

After lunch I was free to make the most of a lovely afternoon. I took the Metro to the Corcoran Museum (my former place of employment) and enjoyed the familiarity of getting off at the same old stop, emerging on the same old corner and making the same old walk down 17th Street The security along Lafayette Park (in front of the White House) is tighter than in 2003, the beautiful Old Executive Office building is under renovation and my music source has been upgraded from a discman to an ipod, but so many other things are just the same. For instance:

5 T-shirts for $10
Gorgeous Magnolia trees
Cosi’s sandwich and coffee
Steam coming up from the Metro
Green copper roof of the Corcoran
Sociable mix of tourists and professionals
Pretzel man on the corner

The current museum exhibits included a good photojournalism exhibit and a modernism exhibit with many pieces I really liked and several that I really disliked. I will spare you the tedium of explaining the many pieces of art that I didn’t take pictures of.

After my tour of the museum and a visit to the office there, I made my way to the EPA–West building where my friend Shari works. We did a little shopping at H&M’s until we were able to join her sister Laurie and then made our way to the National Portrait Gallery. We only had time to see the third floor, but I’m glad we started there, because we would have missed the beautiful vaulted gallery space rotunda of the newly restored building.

I really liked this sculpture piece. (This is the largest of three pieces.)

And this over-stimulating map of the U.S. Most of the states flashed various pictures of scenery and cityscapes; the Idaho pictures were all of potatoes.

After the Museum closed, we made our way up to Dupont Circle for dinner. I had forgotten what a trendy part of town Dupont is. I don’t think I’d ever been on a Friday night; it was definitely the place to be. I don’t understand the concept of getting all dressed up for dinner on a Friday night—especially as trend in the urban areas—who has time to commute all the way home, get all gussied up, and then go back downtown?

We had to wait 45 minutes for our table at Lauriol, but the good Mexican food was well worth the wait. I ordered an El Paso Combo, and the waiter mistook “El Paso” for “Muscles”. Luckily the mistake was remedied before a steaming plate of muscles arrived, because I wouldn’t have been too thrilled about that after the 45 minute wait for a table!

On Saturday, my friends Wendy, Jocelyn and Jocelyn's friend met me at the Eastern Market to fulfill number two of two of my unfulfilled DC experiences. Jocelyn had an early haircut appointment, so we opted for breakfast at Bread and Chocolate, rather than the traditional market affair. I wasn’t disappointed though; who can complain about eating at a place called Bread and Chocolate?! We had some wonderful home-made yoghurt/fruit/granola and of course, the apropos hot chocolate.

Here’s Jocelyn and I at our early-morning finest. (I woke-up 10 minutes before I was supposed to catch the shuttle to the Metro, and Jocelyn was on her way to get a haircut.)

After breakfast Wendi and I wandered around the market. I was disappointed to learn that the vintage apron woman was not there that Saturday, but Wendi and I both found several good cards at the imported card booth, thanks to a recommendation from Jocelyn.

After the market, I stopped at Old Town for Five Guys and a thrift store stop, were I found a great little sweater and red leather belt. (I really maximized my time that morning!) After the quick shopping I hurried back to the hotel, stuffed the sweater in my already full suitcase, and caught the shuttle to the airport.

Thanks to all my wonderful MPA friends for a great DC visit. It makes me want to come join your ranks.

Our Nation's Capital

2006-09-21T18:44:00.000-07:00

My work has brought me to DC this week. This is very fortunate, because DC is probably my all-time favorite city. It is good to be here.

The highlights thus far included:

1- Dinner at the famous Charlie Chang’s in honor of Ann. We ordered the Crispy Beef, but I’m sorry to report, it was not up to its usual crispy beef-ness. The rest of the meal was delectable, followed by a lame fortune, which is not even worth repeating.

2- Church at Colonial 1 on Sunday. It was fun to see many familiar faces, but surprising that almost half I knew from other places—not from living in this ward three years ago. Mormondom is a small world. I also learned a lot at church, one memorable lesson was the parable of the ribbon as told in Sacrament Meeting by the RS president. The moral of the story was people are worth more than ribbons.

3- I enjoyed a lovely evening in Old Town with my old roommate Sara. We did some shopping and ate an adventurous dinner of tappas. I enjoy tappas a lot, but some of these were not what we had anticipated. The dessert, however, was more than anticipated. It was divine.

4- G Street Fabric. Until yesterday, this was one of my two unfulfilled DC experiences. (Stay tuned, for the fulfilling of two of two unfulfilled DC experiences on Saturday.) A big thanks to Shari for helping to make my life complete. My G Street purchases were modest, but fabulous.

This lovely jade and brown wool doesn’t show up very well in the picture, but it’s great and was only $8/yd. I’m going to make a skirt and use the blue floral print for the waistband lining. There should also be plenty of fabric left to make a matching headband and clutch.

I couldn’t resist this gorgeous silk. The photo really doesn’t do it justice. I didn’t want to spend the money to get enough to make a dress, so I settled on a scarf. It is perfect scarf fabric!

5- After the G street trip, we stopped at Panera’s. We have Panera’s in Las Vegas too, but a little Panera’s is always good for you. As we were pulling up to the restaurant, I saw two beautiful girls in light pink dresses and headscarves. They were about ten years old and both of them were twirling and watching their dresses swirl around them. It was a beautiful moment and I tried to quickly sneak a picture, but I forgot a flash would be necessary after dark. This is what I got. You can see a pale pink haze on the right of one of the girls getting into the family minivan. Oh well. Those moments are hard to capture.

Tonight I finally went to the Mall. I will never fail to struck by the sights that greet you as you emerge from the Smithsonian metro station.

The funny thing about the Mall is that I take the same pictures every time I come. I do like to people-watch, but my candid people shots never really turn out, because I don’t have a camera so expensive that it allows me to avoid looking like a stalker and still get good pictures of total strangers. So here are some of the usual shots:

Flags at the Washington Monument. This time I got some shots at dusk and more after dark. Now I just need one at sunrise and I’ll have every possible lighting scheme.

Speaking of people on the Mall, the Mall is full of runners. I always feel embarrassed when I visit in my regular street clothes. I want to tell every passing runner that I’m a runner too, but I had to bring my camera, and then there’s the whole sweaty metro ride thing and, you know how it is. But I don’t. As I was walking between memorials, four guys about my age ran past me. One turned back and yelled, “Hey, are you under cover?” They had probably just visited the Spy Museum and learned that there are more spies per capita in DC than any other city, but I shouted back “Yes” anyway, because I am an undercover runner. I think he could tell.

My actual purpose for this trip to the Mall was to see the WWII Memorial, which was under construction when I lived here in 2003. These are the pictures of this memorial that I expect I will take on each return visit.

Ha ha.

This shot is pretty cool.

The Lincoln Memorial will always be my favorite spot on the Mall. My Dad has a picture of the Lincoln Memorial hanging in his office at work. He took it while he was working at the National Archives, during which time my Mom was expecting me. Even though my Dad already captured it perfectly, I always take that picture when I come to visit Abraham Lincoln. (Dad's is a bit different and the lighting isn't as good, but I always try.)

As I left to walk back to the Metro, it occurred to me that DC is like Christmas. During those weeks between Thanksgiving and December 25th, my heart is more tender than usual. I am often struck by the joy of the season and I feel my own convictions with a greater, deeper poignancy. For me, DC is a beautiful and poignant city.

Red Shoe, Blue Shoe

2006-09-14T08:24:00.000-07:00

I know I really shouldn't be one to speak about teenage fashion trends (since I have been guilty of layering two pairs of color coordinated socks, back in the day). But I saw an amusing sight this morning on my way home from my run. A high school student was walking to the bus stop with one black shoe and one red and white shoe. They were two completely different types of shoes, one with a much thicker sole, so he had an interesting saunter going on.

Call me old, but I don't get it.

The Higher Law

2006-09-08T15:14:00.000-07:00

I just started a New Testament class on Thursday evenings. Yesterday we learned about the higher law and that we are to live with a pure heart, not just pure actions. The teacher emphasized that ill feelings towards anyone, for any reason, separate us from the spirit.

At the beginning of the hour he had asked everyone to write down the name of someone who had offended them or who they might consider an enemy. At the end of the class, he challenged everyone to contact that individual and make amends. He even said those who are noble among us would act on this challenge. Luckily I had arrived to class late, so I don’t have to forgive anyone. My friend Wendi however, had written down Osama Bin Laden. Anybody know where he can be reached?

On a more serious note, the evening reminded me of a quote that I couldn’t quite remember. I went home and found it in my old notes.

“The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried.” - Google mostly attributes this to GK Chesterton

I will try harder.

Purse II

2006-09-06T08:44:00.000-07:00

Here's Nicole's purse (fashioned after the one made for Nancy). It took me a while to get around to finishing the hand stitching, but it turned out cute.

While I'm thinking about it, in the afore-linked post, I promised to post a picture of the great gift I received from Nancy for my birthday. Here it is.

Nancy made this out of entirely recycled materials including a piano and some great salvaged paper. She's pretty much awesome. Nancy and her sister just moved back to Utah for school. Both of the Miss Steeles will be missed terribly.

POOL Report

2006-09-01T16:46:00.000-07:00

So, we got to go to the POOL tradeshow. It was definitely worth the work to put together the little proposal (and that was fun in and of itself). We handed out some magazines, restocked the magazine shelves in the magazine lounge area and saw a lot of pretty cool stuff while browsing around. I didn’t bring my camera with me, but wish I did. (The above picture was brought to you by the letter ‘C’. C is for Christy Cropper.)

Here are some of the things I wish I brought a camera for:

db clay: These three guys make wallets out of gaffer tape. They started out using duct tape and have made, literally, thousands of duct tape wallets. They are very cool. I encourage you to purchase one. I believe I am going to purchase the "This Sky" wallet to someday give to a lucky guy with good taste. (If you know/are a lucky guy with good taste, let me know and I will consider his/your credentials.) The wholesale price is just $25 with a min. order of 12. If you want to order 12+ wallets I will email you the form. (Can you tell I think these guys are cool?)

U.S. Artisans: I really liked the suede ballet shoes. They are classic mary-jane style and look absolutely comfortable. The shoes are not cheap, but their major selling point is that they are entirely hand-made in the U.S. Cool. (And the designer was really nice and has an appreciation for pearl buttons. How can you not like someone who appreciates little pearl buttons?)

Report Shoes: Several nice shoes at nice prices, although the owner wasn’t as nice as pearl-button girl. Some of my favorites of the nice shoes I saw aren’t on the website yet, but check out tab 6. I think I might need some red "Avants".

Preloved: Although I can claim Canada as my home and native land, I am quite upset that these folks only have stores up north. Their emmo* is to deconstruct vintage clothing and create one-of-a-kind pieces available for purchase in their Canadian stores. If you are planning a trip to Vancouver, Toronto or Montreal, you should definitely look them up. If you are not, you should check out their website anyway.

JW Los Angeles: Some of their designs were nice, but I was particularly enamored with a particular lace fabric they used. I think I will email them and ask if I can purchase a few yards for a particular white dress I’d like to make. (An FYI to lucky guys with good taste: This particular white dress is not that white dress; I’m not the kind of girl who plans or sews anything prematurely, although I occasionally purchase gifts prematurely -- such as wallets and sweet retro ties.)

Thank you ReadyMade.

* I know that ‘emmo’ is not actually a word and that M. O. stands for mode of operation, but I think ‘emmo’ would be a terrific word. This marks the official beginning of my crusade to encourage general use of this word.

Winning Smiles

2006-08-26T19:05:00.000-07:00

I enjoy the magazine ReadyMade very much. (Maybe not quite as much as the photo above would suggest, but a lot.) Yesterday I received an email inviting subscribers to help out at an indi-clothing tradeshow in Las Vegas next week. What’s not cool about that? I’ll tell you—there’s no way I can’t work next week. However, I decided it was worth a shot, just in case they could use a hand after 5pm.

The email requested 100 words explaining why your “winning smile” and savvy style should be selected as one of five volunteers to attend the show. I decided to skip the words and go straight for hard evidence. (See the final product below—it references the magazine’s website.)

Mostly it was just fun to play on Illustrator. I don’t get near enough creative time at my job, so even if ReadyMade doesn’t need any evening help, it was just fun to use those creative juices.

Also, thanks to Wendi who used her creative juices by staging our impromptu photo shoot.

The Plush Vacation

2006-08-24T16:40:00.000-07:00

I’ve been preparing to defend a grant application the last few weeks (5 months, really) and so I haven’t been the best blogger of late. However, last weekend I took a break which was much more blog-worthy than the politics of water system grants.

My friend Wendi and I joined our friends in Mexico for a plush weekend. I say “plush” because it was plush. Everything was plush—carpets, couch, shower, and a bed more plush than I had imagined was possible. (I honestly untucked the sheet so I could see what kind of bed this was and possibly invest in one for myself.) Outside of the house the sand on the beach was plush, our meals were plush and I bought an antique necklace and earrings, which were not plush, but fantastic and only 200 pesos. Needless to say, it was a nice weekend.

This is where we were.

Amisdt all the plush surroundings, my absolute favorite part of Mexico was the taco stand where we had lunch in Rosaritto. I was hoping I would get to have some fantastic Mexican food while in Mexico. My experience has been that the farther one is from Mexico, the worse the Mexican food gets. Utah Mexican is decent. DC Mexican, not so much. The least Mexican-Mexican I've ever had was in Moscow. So I was looking forward to having Mexican IN Mexico. At least for lunch, my theory held true. It was easily the best taco I've ever had.

On the way back to Nevada, Wendi and I spent a day in San Diego. The highlight of our trip was visiting the LDS temple. They are all beautiful, but this one is stunning. For those of our faith, I would highly recommend taking the time to attend a session here. It was wonderful.

After the temple, we met some friends at Mission Beach. This was no easy feat as it took at least 30 minutes to park, but was worth the effort. Being familiar primarily with Florida beaches, Wendi was amazed by her first encounter with a pedestrian freeway running along the beach. She took lots of pictures, which I don't have. After the stroll along pedestrian I-5, We arrived at Mission Café with only minutes to spare before they closed at 3 p.m. (who wouldn't want to work here?) and had a delicious lunch.

A friend pointed us towards Old Town when we asked about little thrift/boutique-type shops. It wasn’t what were looking for, but we ended up at the nearby Mormon Battalion Visitors Center and got to watch the new Joseph Smith movie, which I have been trying to fit into a Utah visit for a while now.

We didn’t get to experience a ton of San Diego flavor, but concluded it’s just all the more reason to return again soon.

Run Against Terror

2006-08-11T09:04:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was one of my early morning run days. My alarm went off at 4:30 a.m., and I half-consciously heard the BBC announcer saying that British police had averted a serious terrorist attack. I actually thought, “Oh good, I don’t need to go running this morning afterall”.

All you would-be terrorists watch out; Melissa and I will be back next week, running against terror.

Birthday Bash

2006-08-03T16:31:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we celebrated Evan's birthday. He turned the big 3-0. (Just kidding, I'm not positive which birthday it was, but it was a number less than 30 and greater than 25.)

This is Evan {and Nicole}.

This pretty much sums up the evening. It is an awesome picture.

Here's a picture of what Christy really looks like.

This picture is an accurate portrayal of what we were doing when we weren't eating cake and ice cream.

We are happy for Evan and excited for ice cream. Unfortunately, Melanie did not make homemade ice cream for this occassion. Fortunately, someone chose some store bought ice cream with chocolate in it.

Do not disturb: Project Runway in progress.

Project Runway in real-life.

You might think this is an out-of-focus picture of Brent, but you would be wrong. This is an almost-in-focus picture of Tyler's "experiment" involving a cup of water tied to a balloon and hung from a ceiling fan. Tyler was preempted before he was able to test his hypothesis.

Happy Birthday Nancy

2006-07-31T08:40:00.000-07:00

My 'old friend' Nancy recently told me,

"I love meeting new people and finding out that you're old friends."

Yesterday was Nancy's birthday and I wanted to give her something just right {especially after she had set the bar so high with her gift to me last week-- she made a beautiful wall hanging made entirely out of recycled materials including parts of a piano. Sounds interesting, eh? I will post a picture of it soon.}

On Saturday, we had a sewing morning, which turned out to be a wonderful collaboration of ideas, advice and a bit of sewing. It was so much fun that I just kept on sewing after everyone left and the result was this adorable little purse for Nancy's birthday.

I turned out perfectly, and I didn't even have a definite plan in mind when I started it-- it just kind of made itself. I wish every project turned out so well! Happy birthday Nancy.

Here's the tag.

A Job Well Done

2006-07-27T12:07:00.000-07:00

I just saved my company $15,000.

No, I did not identify an inefficiency in one of our processes. I just made myself some lunch—or, should I say, I tried to make myself lunch. The directions on my box of rice instructed me to coat the rice with olive oil and heat for 4 minutes, stirring once to ensure uniform heating of the grains. The water was not to be added until the next step (I thought this was odd and re-read the directions twice).

After 2 minutes I opened the microwave to stir the grains for ‘uniform heating’, and was accosted by a cloud of smoke. I slammed the microwave door to keep the smoke from escaping and notified Facilities about my little situation. They came right up and took the whole microwave outside.

Andy, the Facilities Maintenance Supervisor, informed me that I saved the organization $15,000 with my quick response to avert a temporary evacuation of the building. He was duly impressed that I had never left the microwave during the two minutes it took to thoroughly fry my rice and burn a whole through the tupperware. (Not leaving your cooking food is their cardinal rule of microwave use.) I always thought they were a bit anal about these little microwave fires. Now I know it’s because a little microwave fire costs $15,000.

I can hear our secretary re-telling someone the story right now. Maybe my manager will send out an email recognizing my contribution to our organization’s safety-culture. After all that hard work, I’m ready for lunch. I’m going to Arby’s.

Post Script: As it turns out, in reading the directions three times, I somehow missed the words MEDIUM POWER written in all caps.

Thank You Muchos

2006-07-21T17:36:00.000-07:00

This is a shout out to several good friends and great family. Thank you for a wonderful birthday. I appreciated all the well wishes, e-cards, e-bouquets, phonecalls and text messages. A stressful day at work can be quite fun with so many little pleasant interruptions!

After the work part of the day was over, things got even better. I had several friends over to help make and help enjoy some delectable dinner. This is the twenty-eight year old me with my delectable dinner.

My friend/running partner took these pictures for me during the festivities. She is very nice and didn’t want to interrupt anyone by using a flash so some of the people are a bit blurry. While most of us were dishing up our delectables, Evan was fascinated by a magazine. It must not have been very interesting though, as Nicole appears to have fallen asleep.

Nicole and Caleb (pictured—kind of) bought these party hats at Savers for the occasion. Pink ones for girls and sports ones for boys. Rudy, who is the only person you can really see in this picture, wins the MVPA for the evening (most valuable party attendee). He is surprisingly handy in the kitchen and wields a butter brush like a natural. Rudy can also tell you when your salmon is done, or over done.

The lovely Nancy and Lissa deserve a particular thank you for washing so many dishes! (No I did not make Nancy wash dishes with a dislocated shoulder, I don’t know how she does that.)

Moe, Bryce and Caleb with a miniscule camera. You can also see the new Moleskine I received from Christy behind them.

A good one of Christy, Lissa and I.

Christy has a tradition of doing ‘big-lips’ in pictures. She loves big-lips because she always looks beautifully seductive but all her non-polynesian friends tend to look a bit ridiculous.

Thank you all.

And just for Ann, here is the best recipe of the evening:

I think I’ll call it Savory Lemon Salmon
3 lbs of great Salmon
1/2 c Sour Cream
1/2 c Mayonnaise
1 – 2 Lemons
3 t Chicken bullion (2 or 3 cubes)
1 T Rice wine or white vinegar
Green onions or chives
Salt and Pepper

Lay salmon cuts in a pan greased with olive oil. Lightly cover with salt, pepper and plenty of fresh lemon juice. Dissolve chicken bullion in the vinegar. Mix in sour cream and mayonnaise. Spread cream mixture over the salmon. Top with diced greens, slices of lemon and whole peppercorns.

Bake at 350 for 20-30 min- remove when fish is flaky.

What Would You Get?

2006-06-20T08:50:00.000-07:00

You may recall that I am being trained to be a professional water taster. After 40+ hours of training and a like amount of practice, it was determined that our group was prepared to take the final exam. (Yes, there is a final exam for water tasting. They are quite serious about this stuff.) The exam lasted 4 hours and consisted of several tasting and smelling sections and a written portion. We all passed, which means that we have become “highly calibrated instruments” –as our instructor, Roy, puts it. (My highly calibrated nose is currently picking up some foul aromatics. I hate it when people microwave strange foods early in the morning. It’s bad enough at lunchtime.)

Strange as it may sound, the exam actually was kind of challenging and I was quite surprised to learn I received the high score for the group. Roy told me that it is tradition to send a gift/award to the high scoring panelist and that I should think of something he can ship to Las Vegas. He hails from Boston—so if I want anything Bostonian, this is my chance to get it. Does anyone have any suggestions? (Roy said Red Sox paraphernalia is a popular pick and that he once shipped lobster from Maine—too bad I don’t like lobster.)

What would you get?

Copy This--Part II

2006-06-09T09:00:00.000-07:00

Utah copy centers in the news: Angler Marc Anderson of Pleasant Grove caught a record setting fish over the Memorial Day weekend. The muskie weighed in at 31 pounds, 11 ounces and was 49 inches long with a girth of 23 inches.

Utah fishing rules require that witnesses be listed on the Record Fish Certification. The rule also requires that fish be weighed on certified scales. In the case of Marc’s record catch, the witnesses were two very surprised and shocked employees of FEDEX/Kinkos in Ogden who were the only ones that Marc could find with a scale big enough to weigh the fish!

Copy This

2006-05-22T16:48:00.000-07:00

At lunch today I stopped by my local FedEx Kinkos to drop off an order, which I felt was pretty straight-forward. . .

1- Cut the magazine down the middle
2- Laminate the front and back covers
3- Put a black spiral binding on the whole thing

Michael, my service representative, proceeded to fill out the order form on the computer/register at the counter. He asked for my name and phone number (okay). And then spent at least four minutes filling out the job section—which consisted of quite a lot of typing. When he printed out a claim receipt this was the only order-specific information that was on it:

Kara Wilson
Front and Back covers $2.49
Binding $5.48
Sub-total $7.97

I really think he was emailing his girlfriend while I was standing right there! What could have taken so long? What was all that typing about? And why does this job cost eight bucks? That’s a total rip-off and you used up my valuable lunch break time.

I miss my Kinkos at home where my neighbor John always helped me. I miss Cougar Creations at BYU where I never spent more than four bucks to get my Conference Ensign bound. I miss living in a town where there are copy center choices.

What do you miss about Utah Valley? I know there’s something—even you diehard anti-Provo-ites miss something.

The Race Is On. . .

2006-05-19T12:27:00.000-07:00

The other day, my friend Wendi and I agreed to have a blog-off about a funny moment we shared in the car on the way back from the temple. She has posted an entry as a guest contributor on All Things Cropstar, maintained by our mutual friend Christy, who was also present on this occasion. I am a day late, but I have not yet read Wendi’s entry and am now recording my own version of the events.

Catch Me If You Can
I am sure you all remember the game of chase from your elementary school playground. The third grade girls would lure the boys away from their games of kickball or soccer to be chased, and then conveniently caught by the boy they thought was cutest.

My third-grade-self did not get the memo. I distinctly remember the pride I felt in being the only girl on the playground who the boys could not catch. (Imagine my surprise, when my obviously superior sprinting abilities did not prevail against the other girls at the Field Day races.)

The other day, some friends and I were reminiscing about those playground days, and I discovered that I wasn’t the only girl who thought the goal was to actually out-run the boys and avoid capture. As all of us are still single (and going strong), we concluded that this early form of coquetry might have relevant application to adult life.

Some of the most amazing girls I know are single. They’ve been out there playing the game of ‘chase’ for quite a while and have yet to be ‘caught’ because they keep out-running all the available guys. Most boys take one look at these girls and conclude that either they can’t catch them, or aren’t willing to put forth the effort it would take. Unfortunately for the boys who are willing to make an attempt, amazing girls are also skilled in executing effective evasive maneuvers, such as serving a mission or moving away for a terrific internship or job opportunity.

The difference between my third-grade self and all the amazing girls I know is that they now know the goal is to be caught–they just aren’t willing to sacrifice the equally important goal of running their hearts out. We’re not trying to avoid capture—we’re just waiting for someone to come along who can keep up!

I think the world of you girls, and I think you deserve far more credit than you know. Not that life is a race, but if it were—you would be winning!

Workplace Conversation

2006-04-25T17:10:00.000-07:00

One of our interns just pointed out to an African American co-worker (twenty-something student from LA) that his lotion “for medium skin tones” was not formulated for those with medium skin tones, as he had supposed—but was made to darken the color of those of us whose skin tone is less-than-medium.

He read from the back of the bottle that, “you will begin to see a subtle development of color within several days.” After a good laugh my co-worker added, “Oh well, I didn’t like it anyway; it’s all glittery”.

Additional note: my camera is fixed, I picked it up on my lunch break today. :-)

I Believe in Spelling

2006-04-07T09:46:00.000-07:00

I realize that spelling is not everyone’s forte, but for some people misspellings are inexcusable. Is it too much to ask that those who are my superiors on the organizational chart should be able to spell?

Recent offences:
Sign posted on the copier: “Mashine Broken”
File name: “Team Calander”

Feats of Great Thrift

2006-03-27T17:21:00.000-08:00

What’s the old pioneer adage that is quoted regularly in Relief Society? “Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.” I always feel guilty when I hear this admonition because I know full well that, although I have plenty of stuff already, when I come across that perfect _____ that is just so me, and only costs $___, I am going to purchase it. The good news is that I love thrift stores; so the number that follows the “$” is generally less than 20.

In spite of my compulsion to purchase, I do feel a great sense of satisfaction when my shopping is in harmony with the wisdom of my pioneer ancestry. Last Saturday, I attained new heights of thriftiness when I hung curtains in my kitchen. I am really proud of these curtains because they are quite chic and probably the thriftiest thing I’ve ever made.

The top layer is a retro pre-fab lace curtain purchased at Savers. The green under-layer was also a Savers purchase. It started its life as a tacky tablecloth with a funky lace border. I purchased it for the lace—to tack on the edge of a tank-top, for layering (see image 1). At Christmas, the lace-less tablecloth turned out to be the perfect color for our Christmas breakfast décor, a Wilson-sisters tradition (see image 2). And finally, the tablecloth was the perfect size to cut in half and sew onto the back of the aforementioned lace curtains presently hanging in my kitchen. I love them.

(pictures to follow soon)

MONK-E-MAIL

2006-03-21T17:00:00.000-08:00

Click Here for the best e-card you've ever seen. They can be personalized for anyone and any occassion.

I hate to tell you about these e-cards before I get a chance to send you one, but they are too great not to share!

Enjoy!

The Best of Times, The Worst of Times

2006-03-21T12:04:00.000-08:00

The good news: I ran 13.1 miles on Saturday.

The bad news: I didn’t run 13.1 miles very fast.

The good news: I saw several people I know, some from out-of-state!

The bad news: I only saw my out-of-state friend in passing (during the race) and didn’t get to talk to him afterwards.

The good news: I have a few pictures from the race organizers and my friend Belle (to be posted at a later date).

The bad news: I look funny in the pictures taken by the event organizers--very determined, to the point of looking ornery!

The worst news: The reason I didn’t take any pictures of my own was that my camera won’t turn on. It makes awful grinding sounds and has difficulty retracting the lens.

The not-so-worse news: My camera is still under warranty.

The best news: I had a great time and plan to run this course again.

Kara on the Line

2006-03-17T15:36:00.000-08:00

I'm running a race tomorrow.

Today at lunch I was reveling in the Friday-ness of the afternoon. It suddenly dawned on me that if today is Friday. . .then tomorrow is Saturday-- which means my race is tomorrow.

Although I've known it's been coming for a few weeks, I was immediately nervous and dreading those last ten minutes on the starting line, waiting for the gun. This is a feeling that anyone who has ever found themselves on a starting line of a long-distance race will be very familiar with! I'm sure you sprinters out there get nervous for your races too, but do you spend up to 30 minutes ON THE LINE? It's the best and the worst part of running!

I'll let you know how it goes and post some pics next week.

My Darling Clementine

2006-03-14T17:15:00.000-08:00

A most interesting article at slate.com theorizes that naming-trends are driven by socio-economic levels, with today's high-end names becoming tomorrow's trendy names of the masses.

I don't think my name has ever hit any top ten list, but I was disappointed to see a few names I like (and would consider using should the occasion arise) on the list of up and coming names.

I hope they don't up or come.

The Long and Winding Road

2006-03-13T10:32:00.000-08:00

I took a trip home to see my family this weekend. The weekend was great and worth the drive up—but I’m not so sure it was worth the drive back. The trip usually takes about 5 and a half hours in normal weather conditions. The conditions last night were not normal.

Sunday afternoon’s weather report predicted mostly clear skies and roads, so I was surprised when the storm continued to worsen. I was traveling 20-40 mph (speed limit 75) and saw several cars off the road—and nearly ended up in the median with them. It was my own fault. I know better than to brake while changing lanes on a snowy road, but I saw 4 cars off the road ahead and my immediate response was to both slow down and get in the far lane. I started sliding across the freeway at an angle and was saved from getting stuck in the median by a mile marker, which has left an impression on my car. (I’ll post a picture of the damage after I get the car washed—luckily, the dent isn’t very bad, and would be hard to see in a picture before it’s washed.)

In addition to the weather, my driver’s side windshield wiper stopped working, and I had to pull over several times to clean off the windshield so I could see the road.

I had anticipated getting home around 11:30pm, but was grateful to finally be home at 2am. Needless to say, I had some difficulty staying on my toes during our 2 hour staff meeting this morning. That’s not too much of a problem though, since our manager does all the talking for the first hour and 45 minutes of meetings.

Survival of the Fittest?

2006-03-10T09:02:00.000-08:00

Clark County, Nevada hosts an annual tournament of champions called the "Corporate Challenge." This involves pitting teams of pasty white paper pushers against one another to determine which company/agency has employed the least-weak individuals. Sports range from horseshoes to soccer, including a track meet for which I competed in the mile last year.

At the Water District, employees and their family members are invited to participate in a T-shirt design contest for that year's Corporate Challenge logo. At 4pm on the day before the deadline, I decided to enter the contest because designing a logo sounded more interesting than any of my actual assignments. Besides, the winner receives $50 and free shirt, not a bad deal!

The fruits of my efforts (a play on the District's logo) can be seen below (left) alongside the winning design. It appears that the rules of natural selection breakdown when we promote people with bad taste to positions of power.

(The colors are not quite right.)

Boots and Boats

2006-03-09T17:40:00.000-08:00

To the lovely ladies who have commented on this blog to date:

Your skills of persuasion amaze me. I have actually considered purchasing a $250 pair of shoes as an inheritance for the children I will certainly have once the boots secure me a husband. These cowboys boots are obviously superior to a pair of ruby slippers! (sold at Christie’s for: $600,000)

You have altered my entire boot-life-paradigm. Amazing! Your finely-honed skills lead me to question why you are all working in the public sector. With the exception of Ann, we may all be working far below our potential.

As it is, we do work for Uncle Sam and are political junkies to some degree (especially Ann). Therefore, I would like to abruptly change the subject of this entry and pose a political question:

In what ways do you see the port security issue as similar/different than airport security?

(Please do not be dissuaded by the suspiciously short-answer-exam sound of this question. I am just perplexed by the issue and thinking about writing my congress-people—but I want to make sure I’m not missing something or misinformed before I do.)

I have been surprised that congress (purportedly with strong constituent backing) is moving so aggressively in a direction that seems to be so counterintuitive. Isn’t port security the larger issue, which remains ridiculously insufficient whether a company in Dubai purchases the right to park a few boats in our harbors or not?

Thoughts anyone? Insight?

If not, we can just talk about red cowboy boots.