meet bernette, by new bff

This is my new friend Bernette.  After two of the same kenmore machines, I had it.  I took back the kenmore to Sears this morning.  Then, after thinking about it all day, I went to the local quilt store and had the ever-friendly Judy and her little dog Stitches sit down with me and go over the whole machine, all it's functions and then I just had to get it.  

I'm pretty excited about this Bernette and all the projects we'll work on.  Tonight, it will be the clutch from my "Bend the Rules Sewing" book.  Tomorrow...who knows...but it'll be great.  

Did I mention that the Bernette is purple?  It was meant to be.

hard work

Kalin and I spent the last weekend up in Grand Lake, CO.  It was more of a work weekend but also mixed with some general relaxing.  My parents are in the process of building a log cabin up in the forest and in order to make any progress, trees have to come down and clear out.  Unfortunately most of these trees are already dead thanks to a beetle.  A little beetle.  The whole drive up to the Rockies, you can see beautiful green trees plus a whole lot of purple/orangish trees taking over.  From afar, it's kinda pretty, but up close, these beetles do some incredible damage.  The trees they infect are very sickly and the only way to stop these guys is to either spray your healthy trees or hope that mother nature dips into extremely low temps to kill their larvae (this hasn't been the case in the last few winters).  The beetles are thriving and the forest will have to wait until the infected trees just fall over.  The forest will look very different within a decade.

Anyways...Kalin and I cleared out two areas (one for electrical and one for sewer).  I'm typically good for the first hour to hour and a half of work...and then I'm done or need to seriously motivate myself to just move one more log or scraps.  Kalin, on the other hand, perseveres and is still encourages me when I'm ready to give up.  In the end, with plenty of water breaks, we successfully cleared our paths and headed back to Golden.  We made a stop in Idaho Springs to eat mountain pizza pies at BeauJo's Pizza.  It was a good impromptu trip and I imagine we'll be back up helping with other jobs.  I'm sure there will always be more logs to move!  

In other news, we're still on the job hunt........

But!  We are helping out our good family friends, Rick and Lynn, with their property management company as they move out and in students at CU this weekend. 

So, we're working...just here and there and searching for jobs inbetween.

5280.

This is a Colorado sunrise outside my parent's house a few winters ago.  Right now there is no snow, but there is heat and sunshine and big, blue sky.  And I love it.  

Last Friday, my dad flew up to Seattle to help us move.  We got a U-Haul and filled it to the brim with boxes and our other possessions.  After we cleaned our apartment to immaculate conditions, we headed out east.  The first night we made it to Kennewick, WA and then drove the next day all the way to Little America, Wyoming.  Of the few times we have road-tripped through Wyoming, there are always signs for Little America that line the barren highways.  The countdown can start from 300 miles away.  But finally, I got to stay in the sanctuary off Hwy 80.  Such a funny little place that has no town nearby.  They do, though, have 50 cent ice cream cones, gift shops, 24-hr dining.  It was perfect from our really long drive that day.  So, I've officially stayed at Little America, a fulfilled dream.

Sunday, we drove and made it to the Colorado border around noon.  Home.  We dropped off the uhaul trailed that Kalin's golf was on, then drove to my parent's house for some serious unloading.  My parents could be coined as neat-freaks and now their basement has boxes, blankets, furniture and mattresses stuffed here and there.  But Kalin and I are on the job-hunt now to hopefully find a position soon so we can figure out a permanent home (hopefully close to our jobs) to put all our stuff.  

But, it's nice to be home.  I fixed up my cruiser bike and it is all clean and spiffy and ready for cruising the neighborhood.  I couldn't be happier.  

As we were depleting our apartment of all our belongings, we realized how great of a place it was.  It was close to buslines, downtown, cool hip neighborhoods, our favorite hangouts and bike trails.  It was a great "first place" for us.  Hopefully we'll find something similar in Denver to call home.

start to finish

I guess you could say that I am notorious for starting things: books, crafts, magazines, projects.  The main problem is the finishing part.  This doesn't always happen.  But, give me a two week vacation in Tahoe and I'll give you a quilt, well, with the help of Tay and my mom-in-law.  But, this project was fun and full of lots of steps, but most importantly, this project is finished.  Here is the picture to prove it along with a stupid look on my face...but you get it, right?

The pay-off for finishing things is a good one--I need to keep this in mind more often.

pack it up, pack it in...let me begin

When it comes to packing, i'm crazy.  Like off my rocker, crazy.  But that means I'm getting the job done.  I lose track of time and my sanity in the end.  

About every summer for the past six or seven summers, this is what I've done.  Packed. Moved. Unpacked.  One more time is do-able.  I've made that drive to and fro Denver to SB seven times and once drove Kayla back to Denver from Seattle.  With all these credentials for cross-country moves, I'm going to suggest that this be the last.  To stay in a place for more than a year will be a record at this point.  Let's make it a goal.

Once our belongings find a final resting point at our to-be-determined permanent address I think we'll keep them there.  I'll even invest in some home decorations and wall paint to make it official.  I promise.

So, here's to a bit of packing to go.  And some sort of permanence in the future.

california adventure

Our initial adventure started in San Jose then a drive to SB for a wedding, than a visit to LA and then a few days in the sleepy town of Twain Harte.  Our trip wrapped up with a two-week stay at the Tahoe Cabin.  Kalin and I were the first to arrive in Tahoe.  We found the cabin in it's winter hibernation form.  The shutters were on the windows, a massive amount of twigs crunched underneath our feet all over the deck.  The pollen also settled a layer on top of it all.  After turning on the water and electricity and doing our best to sweep up all the debris we opened the cabin.  A few days later, the Lundquist crew came up and the days started to fill with lots of sun, boating and delicious food.  

Keith, Kalin's Dad, Taylor, Kalin and I drove down south to Emerald Bay for a mile hike down to the Vikingsholm cabin that is part of the California State Park system.  It is this funny scandanavian designed "castle" that looks into the bay and directly to the one island in Lake Tahoe.  The lady that originally lived in the place built a tea house on the island.  Today, all that remains is the foundation as it was burned and vandalized.

The view from the trail head:
some amazing gnarled trees along the hike:We made it to the bottom (sis-in-law taylor) and Vikingsholm in the background:The falls just beyond Vikingsholm (it has that christmas card potential...)
Taylor, her friends Anna and Lu and myself woke ourselves up early for a hike to above the cabin for a view that looked out over Agate Bay and Carnelian Bay.  The scrapes and scratches from the shrub was definitely worth this peaceful view.  Although, because we forged our own trail, we ended up a bit far away from the cabin on our way back down.

This is looking toward Nevada in North Lake Tahoe.
Each year, everyone carves their name into the rock, this is the new addition, next to Kyle (bro-in-law) who's in Africa right now.

The community of Agate Bay goes ALL OUT for the Fourth of July.  We decked ourselves out in garb and walked about.  The parade ended at the pool with a tasty barbeque.

A Peep and Grampy in this one:

This trip was truly a blessing that we will remember forever.  It's the last real summer vacation of our lives.  Now, it's time to focus on the next phase in our life.  But it's going to be good.  It will mean living closer to family and also in the near future celebrating our one-year anniversary.

dear seattle, don't take the sun away

We've made it back home today to the comforts of our own place.  Soon, we'll start to call Colorado "home".  But today Seattle welcomed us with some cloudy skies, then some raindrops, and then finally some sun (thank you!).  Above is a picture from two years ago on our first trip together to Seattle.  It's when we both decided we should call it home for awhile.  

I'll write more about the rest of our trip in a day or so, but I'll get some pictures on here first to provide a more visual representation of our trip (and to divert attention away from my poor grammar).  

But we're back, safe.  Kalin's bike has been mysteriously stolen.  Sad.  We were planning a few bike adventures in these last few days here.  If the route can be flat, we'll try to get the beach cruiser up and running so we can venture together.  And we wish the person well who stole it--that they ride it daily and are burning multiple calories as well as increasing their daily exercise routine because they have a new bike.