Little Brown Owl is coming along swimmingly. I can’t wait to get it officially launched. My friends and family, I bet, are a bit tired of hearing about it, but soon there will be visible proof of my hours of invisible work. Stephen has been so supportive and helpful with all the back end crap that goes into starting an online store. I’m so thankful for him. Anyway, I just wanted to give an update to those who were wondering, “what the heck is happening with this?”. Thanks for the wonder. I will be producing the goods soon.
Author Archive for shan
Coffee and good conversation. What more could you ask for? Today was my third day at Peet’s Coffee and Tea in Downtown Concord. I’m sure everyone knows feeling that I have right now… information overload and an overwhelming sense that I missed something?? Ya, I know it will get better, but wow. I forgot how hard it is to start a new job. It’s been a while since my brain had to retain and implement that much in such a short time. Really though, I don’t give it enough credit. I am having tons of fun; I can’t complain about getting free coffee, and my store is full of the most interesting people that I’ve had the pleasure to meet in a long time. It’s refreshing to find that there are real people out there (outside my friend and church bubble). Sometimes it’s easy to forget that.
Thanks to Jenny and Sharon, Jimmy and Danielle, and John for visiting me. It was a good day.
Every once in a while, one needs to go into the woods and simply breathe. This last weekend, I was able to for a few days. Steve and I went to Kirkwood Lake with a couple friends camping. The weekend was dirty and relaxing, a great combo. A bit surreal at points though. There’s a Girl Scout camp across the small lake who, at night, you could hear singing and playing musical instruments. It was kind of a creepy feeling to be sitting in the middle of nowhere hearing the sound of a flute coming out of the trees.Rosa had her first swim lesson. She ended up loving the water. Little chipmunks helped themselves to her kibbles and I filmed a guy jumping from the top of a tree into the lake. I was amused.
But my favorite part was when we climbed this huge mountain of rocks to watch the sunset. It felt like you could see the whole world from up there.
So, I know it’s been a while since I’ve written. But I asure you, it’s not because of the lack of content. no. no. I’ve been terribly preoccupied. Which is no excuse. I’m loving life and all it’s strange-ness. So now that I’m not working full time, I’m now working overtime with all the projects and stuff I love to do. It’s been amazing. To give you a quick peak, I’ve been volunteering a bunch in our library at church; creating posters and advertisments to promote it’s weekly features. I’ve also been working with a couple of friends to create a monthly publication, zine thing, to distribute locally. My hope is that it will promote community and give people a bit of art to look forward to each month. Also, I’ve been preparing to head up a Drawing 101 class starting next month. It’s a bit daunting, going back through past stuff I’ve learned and trying to figure out how to teach it myself. I’ve never taught a class in my life, so it should be an interesting experience. And last, but not least by any means, I’ve been working on Little Brown Owl. It’s going to be a website to sell crafty stuff that I make at home. So, that means, I have to make stuff to sell as well. Awwwwhhh! Craziness, but I’m having so much fun doing it. On top of all of that, I just got a part time job at Peet’s Coffee here in Concord. So, needless to say, my schedule is now over flowing and it’s exciting.
Happy as a blue bird. Busy as a bee.
Welcome to Portland. Home of good beer, community and, of course, the Steens. I don’t think I realized how much I really missed Eric and Stephanie until we headed for home this morning. Our visit was so much fun! They have a great apartment that’s close to a bunch of great pubs, old theatres and little shops. Stephanie has a great job as a Marketing and Communications Coordinator and Eric has been diving head-first into his art. It was awesome to see Steve and Eric reminisce about old times. They are still so similar in a lot of ways. This road trip has been the highlight of my year. I’ve discovered that I thrive off of seeing new things; I suck at throwing a frisby; I feel extra small standing next to the ocean; I am beginning to appreciate a good IPA; and visiting old friends is what life should be made of. We’re home now, planning our next trip…
Fun at The Red Light (vintage second-hand clothing)… AWESOME STUFF!
Eric’s coaster collection.
We headed out from Johnny and Alyssa’s house on Wednesday morning and spent the day away. We headed up the coast to Patrick’s Point. This is a place that holds a lot of memories for me… family camping trips, school field trips and such. We hiked up Wedding Rock and then checked out the Yurok Village of Sumeg, a group of houses that are buried in the ground, then hung out on Agate Beach for a while. It was a beautiful day. Stevie and I stopped at Crescent City for the night and we are heading now to Portland to visit Eric and Stephanie.
A cliff on Wedding Rock.
Yurok Village of Sumeg
Agate Beach
Working from the road, well, from Agate Beach.
A herd of elk that we saw from the road.
Yesterday, we drove up highway 101 to Arcata. The trees and mountains are beautiful! It’s hard not to take it all for granted. I’m trying to soak in everything. A bit of the way was smokey because of the fires in Mendocino County, but we soon past that and the drive was great. We stopped off by the road to check out an old road that headed up the side of the mountain. It was kinda creepy… like Blair Witch creepy, so we just took some pictures then headed back to the car.
We’ve been having a great time with Johnny and Alyssa. The weather has been beautiful and today we went to the river to take a dip and enjoy the wildlife. The water was freezing. Alyssa spotted a bald eagle. It was great. Tonight we did some hiking in Trinidad had dinner at a great restaurant in Arcata. Our plan is to just wing it for the next couple of nights while heading to Portland. I love road trips.
We’re finally on our road trip! Last night, we stopped in at Santa Rosa to visit some old friends Dave and Amanda. It has been so much fun. We had a beer at Russian River Brewery and then out to dinner. Later, we hit up this great beer garden where we got a free magic show from a local magician, Ron Blair. Amanda spotted him across the way and Dave asked him to do some tricks for us. It was amazing! This morning, I’m sitting in Coffee Catz, an awesome coffee shop in Sebastopol where Amanda works. She’s roasting coffee and we got to watch and learn a bit. So interesting. Next, we’re headed up the coast to Johnny and Alyssa’s in Arcata.
Outside of Coffee Catz, there’s a small tree with a sign asking people to fill out a tag with what you’re grateful for and hang it on the tree. I’m grateful for “Friends and road trips.”
Freshly roasted coffee smells soooo good!
I was first introduced to Frida Kahlo’s work when living in San Diego couple years back. My sister-in-law showed me her work and I’ve loved her ever since. Not only is her work amazing, but she has a crazy life story. If you live in the Bay Area, I would recommend checking out her upcoming exhibit at the SFMOMA. It opens June 14th. They’re doing this thing where you have to pre-reserve a ticket for a day and time to ensure that there isn’t an overload of viewers in the gallery all at once. Even if you are already a member, you are required to pre-reserve a complimentary ticket for these purposes. I think this is a genius little trick to make the experience a bit more enjoyable for everyone. Go to www.sfmoma.com to get your timed tickets.
To tell you some about Frida Kahlo, she is a Mexican artist who began painting in 1926, while recovering from a near-fatal bus accident. She paints in a folkish style. Of her 143 paintings, 55 of them are self portraits, and often have a symbolic portrayal of both physical, and psychological wounds. It has a certain dark edginess to it. I really love her work. Here’s just a few examples…
Ok, this has been a very event filled weekend. It’s now Monday morning and I have to get back to business. However, I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to tell you all about what went down yesterday. I went with my good friends Jenny and Yvette, Jenny’s husband, Joe, and my husband, Steve, to get my tattoo…finally! Jenny and I have been talking about going together for a long time, so we made it happen. She left with a very sweet tattoo of Aramaic words on her back and arm. It was our first experience, so we were a bit anxious at first, but found out it’s not as bad as I made it out to be in my head. Don’t get me wrong, it hurt, but it was also quite bearable. We went to Temple Tattoo in Oakland, California www.templeoakland.com. The place was very clean and friendly and I’m very pleased with how it turned out!
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