So… about 11 months ago, a little girl came into our lives. She sparks up every day, but lately she’s gotten a whole lot more mobile! She’s doing the Zombie walk! Go ahead, google it, zombie baby… there’s all sorts of hilarious videos on You Tube of little babies walking with their chubby little arms outstretched, and zombie like grunts coming from their mouths… It’s hilarious.

So here is our little zombie….

Doing her walk!

My grandmother recently taught a Shibori Scarf dying class, she’s an expert at all things dyed! We stopped and visited her on the first leg of our California Road Trip, and got a quick lesson on Shibori and prepped a silk scarf for dying!

Last week she dyed it (since we were only there for one night, one end in red & the other black, the scarf acts like a wick and soaks up the dye)and  popped it in the snail mail to me! Here’s what it looked like when it arrived…

After some untying…

And washing…

And drying…

Sucess! The scarf is ready to wear!

I’m ever so proud of my first Shibori Scarf, although it’s a little pinker than I had imagined! I guess that means I just have to go order some scarfs and dye and try again!

Well, we’ve done it, almost made it to the weekend! I’m taking my coffee break at work, (data verification) and contemplating how the first week back after vacation is always the hardest. Somehow we always forget to schedule in that extra day at home before work starts. You know the day where you do all those important tasks (lawn mowing, laundry, cleaning, dishes, washing the babe…etc…).

So, every night we’ve been playing catch up on those fun activities! Oh Joy!

We also started going through our vacation photo’s and this is one of my favorites from the San Diego Zoo. A baby flamingo, apparently they are born gray and gradually get their pink as they age.

I hate to say it, but I’m a sucker for a challenge. I can’t say no to a game of Scrabble. I can hardly say no to anything.  So, when I heard about the Bike Commuter Challenge, I knew it was going to be getting my exercise this month.

http://bikecommutechallenge.com/

It’s simple, who can get the most people to ride their bikes to work? Each day in the month of September, every team member logs their bike trips to work & home, the team with the most riders/miles/calories burned wins! Doesn’t get more fun than that. And lucky me, I now live a mere 6 miles from my workplace (before we moved I lived more like a quarter of a mile), just the perfect distance for a bike commute.

Now we’re almost to the end of September, and I’ve biked 60% of the day’s I’ve worked this month!!! Not to bad! Before the challenge, I hadn’t ridden once! And I do cheat, I take the bus for free in the morning, then ride 6 miles (mostly downhill) home (I would hate to arrive at work all stinky,  we do have a shower, but are lacking the curtain).

There are some crazy kamakatzi’s who’ve biked 100%, now I can’t feasibly do that, but I’m still having fun. And isn’t that what matters?

This morning (actually earlier this week) we left Yosemite National Park, it was a breathtaking visit. My jaw literally dropped as we drove into the park! Two days of fun, friends and hiking (with babies). This was the view as we drove out of the valley this morning.

Vacation! At last. I’m always amazed at how much work it takes to get our small family away! Not to mention the extra work at our real jobs, in order to be gone. There’s so much packing, gardening, cleaning and prep to do, but it’s all worth it!

We are now on the eve of our 2009 summer vacation (and yes, it’s almost fall, but we tend to take late in the summer trips (not as hot & less kids out once school starts)). So, tomorrow we’re off….

A California road trip. Stops will include, Great Grandma’s House, Yosemite National Park, Grandma’s House, San Diego Attractions(zoo!), Great Aunt’s & Uncle’s & oh so much more!

See ya in a week!

P.S. Birthday was FABULOUS! Lots of family, food & FUN! Below are some photo highlights of the action packed day!

Three kinds of cake (2 versions of flourless chocolate(recipe testing was in progress), and one delicious carrot cake) and 6 rousing rounds of Happy Birthday! With that kind of kick off,  I think it will be hard not to have a great year!

IPHONE!

So tomorrow is 9.9.9, otherwise known as my BIRTHDAY!

My (a little early) present from my partner was a beautiful, majestic, glittery black, beautiful IPHONE! It’s an amazing piece of machinery… Can you tell I’m in love with it? Well I am.

Wishing all a happy 999…..

Here’s a little of what we did this past Labor Day Weekend!

Pear Harvest Time.

A Day trip to Crater Lake National Park.

So. My weekly 10 second check of the Arts & Crafts section of our local Craigslist has been validated! I am now the proud owner of a Mr. Button Bench Press button maker! How much you ask? FIVE DOLLARS!

So, either something is broken, it’s missing a part or it was just one happy crafster contributing to another happy crafster!Either way. I’m ecstatic! I’ve dreamed of button makers, every year around my birthday, I always look at them, and dream (but they are so darn expensive) of hours spent pressing buttons.

After a couple of hours of internet sleuthing and talking to the Badge-A-Minit company, I deduced that it wasn’t an old retro Badge-A-Minit, but actually a Mr. Button! Thanks in part mostly to this website and their great photo’s of old button badge makers! So, now I’m just a UPS ground shipment away from making my own buttons! That is, if I can figure out how it works!

Here are my first few ideas about button slogans…

Vote for Pedro.

Eat Local.

Grow your own food.

I Love Cheese.

Monsters are actually nice.

Walk your dog.

Peace.

A couple of years ago I took my first transcontinental journey to the infamous Japan! While there we (my hubby & I, and friends) visited temples, shrines, friends & even got to enjoy a Japanese wedding! On one of our days in the Kansai area we traveled out to a Cosmo Festival (basically a field full of blooming Cosmo’s, apparently every year they alternated their traditional rice crop with Cosmo flowers or another crop to put those good nutrients back in the soil), it was my first experience with the flower (that I can recall), and it was Amazing! There were thousands upon thousands, fields of every color, and mixtures of every color. Some short & some taller than me!

Every spring since our visit I’ve planted Cosmo’s, this year I planted a whole long row in my back yard of orange ones… and every day, when I look out my window, I think of Japan and our dear friends there.