Beading

"Sew" I'm not an organized beader. I simply lay my beads out on an old cookie sheet that has a lip around the edge to keep all my beads contained.

They don't look so pretty inside an old stained pan . . . but it works.

And then I take a strand of fire wire and just start stringing them up.

It's sew simple and I always end up with something useful. This is my version of a croakie and I can even wear it to work.

Plus, I never lose my glasses with this strand of beads keeping them hanging around ;D

Passionflower

Passionflower has been used as a calming herb for anxiety, insomnia, seizures, and hysteria. 

My husband and I were on a walk this weekend when we saw this vine that had exploded all over the chain link fence. We had to stop and look at it. It was sooooo beautiful. I snapped a few photos and when we stopped at Portland Nursery, I asked what flower it was.

"Passionflower," the clerk said pointing to his shirt.

Yep, a passionflower was printed on the front of his jersey.

Serendipitous.

Pictures from our Trip

Driving into a Forest Fire

Have you ever driven into a forest fire? Well we sort of did. Just last week. We were heading over to Leavenworth, Washington via Goldendale when I looked up and saw

At first I wasn't sure what it was but then I noticed the helicopter

Carrying what looked like a giant bucket.

I turned to my hubby and said, "It looks like we driving into a forest fire."

He said, "No, if it was a forest fire, they'd be turning us around."

Well, I whipped out my camera and snapped a few shots as quickly as I could--which wasn't too fast because I was looking around for someone flagging us down to tell us to turn around...or something.

But no one did and so we drove past this frightening looking site. It wasn't until later that we heard it was a major forest fire that involved over 17,000 acres. The fires were so bad on Sunday, we had to drive up to Seattle and around to come down on I-5 because both passes were closed.

It's a scarey thing to think we came that close to a fire and didn't even realize it until we were driving past it.

Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat

While we were in Leavenworth, Washington we went to see a musical. Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat was loosely based on the bible story of Jacob and Joseph. Joseph's brothers are jealous of him and conspire to kill him but in the end they decide to sell him into slavery.

Because Joseph can predict what dreams mean the Pharaoh promotes him to an adviser and Joseph's life is changed.

In the end, his brothers have to come to him for food and beg his forgiveness.

In the musical, the story is performed with a lot of humor, dance and songs. The songs vary in theme going from Elvis style to Western to rock and roll.

All-in-all it is a fun family way to spend an evening outside under the stars listening and watching a lot of talented people perform.

PaddleBoarding

I tried paddleboarding this weekend. I expected it to be like kneeboarding...difficult but it wasn't. It was actually really easy.

I started out on my knees on the paddleboard. Then I floated around a little bit until I felt comfortable. After I felt comfortable, I stood up...carefully. That was the hardest part. Then I simply paddled around the pond...or man-made lake. I paddled around for about an hour. I did fall in once, when I was paddling into the wind and trying to turn around real fast. Then I swam for the board and pulled myself back on top. Then I had to stand up all over again. And I paddled around until my swimsuit dried off.

Paddle Boarding

So tomorrow I'm going to try it. I've never done it before. I've spent many years doing watersports: kneeboarding, wakeboarding, waterskiing and innertubing but never paddleboarding. It looks relaxing ... if you have a good center of gravity and balance but I've always been more of a strength type athlete not a flexibility and balance type gal :( so we'll see how this goes. Has anyone ever done it? Have any tips for me?