Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin Carving

I carved my pumpkins tonight instead of grading. 

It was my first time carving pumpkins alone and 

the cats' first time carving pumpkins at all. 

They were fascinated!  

It was a lovely evening. 
Instead of my traditional cat pumpkin, 
this year I branched out and carved two cats in one. 

Tomorrow you can see them all aglow... 


Now I have seeds roasting in the oven...they smell amaaazing. 

Thursday Happy Thoughts

Just dropping in to share a few Thursday Happy Thoughts. 

Not included in this list: I'm SO HAPPY tomorrow is Friday! 

1. I love this cheap wood DIY from Lowe's!  

2. Best Halloween costume ever. Source unknown. 

3. My first ever Le Creuset dutch oven!!! 

My mom took me shopping at the outlet on Saturday 

and this was my early birthday present :)

4. I love the wall in this attic. From Apartment Therapy. 

5. Pretty leaf pumpkins! Source. 

music + announcement

It's Music Monday, so I'm making a special announcement in song form. 
Please listen to this song and guess what I'm about to tell you... 

Did you guess? 

I'M GOING TO ENGLAND!!! 
I've been there four times, but there is always more to see. 
I fly out WITH MY MOM AND DAD on Thanksgiving! YAY! 
My brother will be in Chicago and my mom is celebrating a special birthday. 
I managed to get the four days after Thanksgiving break off. 
I have never used any miles so I had enough to cover my ticket. 
Basically, the stars aligned. 
This is happening. 
I'M SO EXCITED!

confessions of a cat lady

How long has it been since I posted about my cats? 

I could figure it out but instead I'm just going to believe that it's been 

long enough and I can post about them now. 

Last night while chatting with two of my besties 

it was brought to my attention that I no longer have funny dating stories.  

I responded with "I don't need men, I have cats now". 

Yes, those words actually came out of my mouth. 

And now I am posting it for the world to see. 

Do you know what this means? 

I AM OFFICIALLY A CRAZY CAT LADY! 

You probably already had suspicions, but now it is confirmed. 

Back in the olden days when AOL first came out, 

my dad helped me come up with a screen name. 

Guess what it was? 

HOLUVSCATS 

You should know that HO refers to my initials. 

And I still luv cats. 

I have no shame. 

The end. 

Pumpkin Cake

This week's Recipe Tuesday is perfect for Fall: 

Pumpkin Cake

Ingredients: 

2 c. sugar

3/4 c. oil 

1/2 c. unsweetened applesauce 

1 t. vanilla 

2 c. canned pumpkin 

4 eggs 

2 c. flour 

3 t. baking powder 

2 t. baking soda

1/4 t. salt

1 t. cinnamon

1/2 t. each cloves, allspice, nutmeg 

Step 1: Grease a bundt pan and preheat the oven to 350. 

Mix together dry ingredients in a small bowl. 

Step 2: In an electric mixer, combine oil, applesauce and sugar. 

Blend in pumpkin and vanilla, then beat in one egg at a time. 

Gradually beat in flour mixture. 

Step 3: Pour batter into bundt pan and bake for about 45 minutes, 

or until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool 

on a rack before removing from the pan. 

Optional step: Mix together some milk, powdered sugar 

and cream cheese to use as a glaze once the cake has cooled. 

Enjoy! 

Lemolo

This week's Music Monday features another local group: 

(photo from the KEXP blog) 

Lemolo

A huge thank you to Kelly C. for telling me I would like them. 

You were so right! I am actually obsessed. 

You can download Whale Song free as it was one of KEXP's 

song of the day downloads back in January.  

Or you can just watch these videos. Enjoy! 

Thursday Happy Thoughts

Thursday Happy Thoughts 
This week I'm keepin' it simple. Three things! Enjoy. 

1. This paint by number wall mural. 
I love the scene and the colors she chose! More photos here. 

2. This song. It spontaneously played before the badminton 
match today and I had flashbacks to 1) Andriana and Jesse's wedding 
(unofficial theme song) and 2) being a dorky little kid at Skate King. 
I would request this song and then skate around by myself with my arms 
out just like MJ in the video. You know, with the flowing white shirt? 
Yeah, I was pretty awesome. 



3. Ok speaking of dorks, I am loving the new show 
The New Girl! I finally started watching on Hulu and decided 
to get Tivo again because I'm hooked. 


The end. Thanks for reading! 

Bryan John Appleby

If you read through my Thursday Happy Thoughts 

you probably could have guessed that I would choose 

this particular individual for Music Monday... 

(photo source)

My obsession with Bryan John Appleby hasn't let up! 

I must be early on the train because currently there isn't even a 

wikipedia article about him. How am I supposed to stalk an artist 

without a publicly edited biography? Geeze. 

Having listened to both albums about a million times by now, 

I can safely announce my absolute favorites from each. 

His newest release, Fire on the Vine, is fantastic. 

However, two songs stand above the rest in my humble opinion... 

First: Noah's Nameless Wife. Gah. Heartbreaking. Please listen: 

Do you see what I mean? The little gosling who's three of a kind 

and doesn't get on the ark and can't fly? All the little children who 

don't get on the ark either?? If I think about the lyrics too much 

I just can't handle it but the song is so beautiful I can't help myself. 

Second: Honey Jars. An old man who's wife has died. 
I could only find a video recorded in a classroom 
(p.s. how sweet is it that Bryan does classroom recordings??) 
so you'll need to turn the sound way up... 

"I read that old men will see visions 

and young men will follow dreams 

and I believed it when I read it 

I see your face in everything. 

And now your honey jars are frozen 

and in the window your books have browned 

and there's too much room inside our bed 

I think I'll join you in the ground." 

Haunting and beautiful. I can't stop listening to/singing this song. 

It's another one I can't think too much about or I'll start bawling. 
But so. damn. beautiful! 

Ok I'm making this sound like the album is depressing but truly it's not! 

Many people who know me well have commented on how mellow 

my music collection is. I like me a sad song, what can I say. 

Thus, these are the favorites I have chosen. 

You can buy the album and listen to the upbeat ones. 

And because I think it's a good idea to post a video three times 

on my blog, my favorite song from Bryan's first album: 

Halloween Porch

 Yesterday I spent some time cleaning up the garden 

and decorating my porch for Halloween. 

 I mainly used pumpkins from the farm. 

 I also used a wreath I made Friday night 

(ecause I'm cool and do crafts at home by myself on Friday nights). 

It feels much more festive around here. 

Pumpkin Hunting

Today was an absolutely gorgeous Fall day. 

A-Ha and I headed to Bob's Corn bright and early to beat the crowds. 

There was a low fog and a chill in the air, 

and we had the pumpkin patch to ourselves. Perfect! 

I bought a wheelbarrow full of pumpkins and corn. 

It was nice to catch up with my good friend I don't see enough of. 

Time to decorate the porch and make some corn chowder! 

Thursday Happy Thoughts

It's been months...but it's back! 
Here are my Thursday Happy Thoughts...

1. Pretty yarn wreath. This is part of a tutorial that ends 
in a fancy crocheted wreath, but I think a simple yarn-wrapped 
one is more up my alley. Project time. 

2. Walking to school. I had my physics class at UW 
this evening and I was able to walk there and back without 
getting too hot, cold, or soaked. Perfect! 

3. These pretty Thanksgiving plates from West Elm.

4. Bryan John Appleby. I'm obsessed right now. 
He's local so many of his songs aren't available to listen to online. 
I LOVE this song of his and I know I've posted it before, but oh well! 
Other songs to look for: Noah's Nameless Wife and Honey Jars. 
Both songs make me cry because they are freaking sad but SO beautiful. 

5. Elsie's tutorial for stump coasters. I want to try this! 

6. Having a discussion with my students 
about which of the Step Up movies was the best. 
We all agreed that the rain scene in Step Up 2 was pretty epic. 

7. These gorgeous fabric feathers! 
100 Layer Cake has a tutorial. I love everything about them. 

8. I am SO in love with this dress from Modcloth. 
Confession: I ordered it already. I couldn't help myself. 
The colors, the print, the style...I love everything about it! 
It will be perfect paired with sweaters and boots or moccasins for Fall. 

9. This dorky awesome deer sweater. 
Confession: I did not order this. But I covet thee, sweater. Truly.

10. Having my weekend homework done 
before the weekend is even here. Last night was a productive evening. 


So many things to be happy about. 
I have some estate finds to post about this weekend, too. 
Stay tuned!

Ozette Triangle

It's Wilderness Wednesday for the first time in a long time! 

Kate and I celebrated the first weekend of Fall by backpacking. 

We headed over to the Olympic Peninsula to hike the Ozette Triangle. 

 After a lot of driving and a few detours 

(Dungeness Spit, adventures on one way streets in Port Angeles...) 

we arrived at the trailhead in the late afternoon. 

Here we are with all of our crap. Yay! 

 We hiked 3.3 miles through woods and marsh until we finally hit the ocean. 

From there it was another 3.1 miles along the coast. 

We did not anticipate the difficulty of this section - 

lots of rolled ankles and near-death experiences as I slid 

on rocks and seaweed constantly and came too close 

to impaling my head on a boulder while falling. 

Other trip reports didn't say anything, so maybe this is a personal problem? 

 Sandstone became my best friend thanks to its aid in traction. 

There was also some gorgeous honeycomb weathering. 

Oh, rocks. I love you. 

 I led us on a few frantic searches for petroglyphs. 

None of my leads proved successful. 

Thanks to these wild goose chases and the difficulty of the terrain 

it was dark by the time we finally reached camp at Sand Point. 

We pulled off at the first sign of a campsite and set up. 

 By this time we were too tired to cook. 

Fortunately we had instant dinner available... 

cheap champagne and chocolate cake! 

Well deserved. The ocean waves lulled me into a peaceful sleep. 

Until midnight...when the storm hit. 

Wind, pouring rain, and waves crashing. It was loud. 

By the time we emerged in the morning the rain had somewhat subsided. 

The outside of the tent was soaked by the inside was dry! 

 This was the view from our campsite. Beautiful! 

After exploring in the morning we only found one other tent in the area. 

Everyone else steered clear of the storm...weird. 

Here we are after the three miles back to the car. 

We were wet and tired. I was recovering from yet another fall. 

We had a long drive back through sun and torrential downpours. 

It was a fantastic trip and I'm so glad we did it!

For more information on this hike, I recommend WTA.