Category: photos

More photos of the salt flats than you ever wanted to see

I’ve been enchanted by the salt flats ever since I first saw them so getting up close and walking around on them was definitely the highlight of the (13 hour!) drive to Oregon. E had a lot of fun running around and sampling the salt.





We were just there but I’m already trying to come up with an excuse to drive the 100 miles from my house back out to the salt flats. They are awesome.

Recent Holga Pics

When I drive to the store or gym I pass this rundown boarded-up house with grazing horses. I never drive past it without feeling a pang of regret that I didn’t bring my camera. It’s surrounded by tract houses and 100 ft from the freeway but I like how this tiny pocket of land seems locked in a bubble of rural decay.

Well, last week a storm was rolling in and the sky was darkening nicely and I said enough is enough and turned the car around and went home and got my Holga. These shots are my favorites from the roll.



I’d love to go back with my Holga and some color film and my tripod and take some shots around sunset but that will have to wait until I get a new tripod: E broke mine last week. *sniff*

Me and My Dad

Yesterday the high temp was 80 degrees! I’m enjoying the spring weather but both E and I are sneezing like crazy. Allergies aside, spring and fall are my favorite seasons here in Utah because summer is too darn hot and I hate shoveling snow in the winter (I’m afraid growing up in in WA state has made me somewhat of a delicate flower when it comes to extreme weather). So I guess I better man up, double my dosage of Claritin, and enjoy spring while it lasts.

I’m still going through the last batch of old family photos I scanned. Here’s a picture of me and my dad that I had never seen up until now.

This picture cracks me up. Don’t try and tell me we aren’t both rocking our respective hats because I WILL NOT BELIEVE YOU.

My Parents Were Awesome

I am getting seriously addicted to scanning in old family photos. The only problem is that most of them are still in a cardboard box at my parents’ house in WA. I’m trying to get my Mom to bring them down in batches when she comes to visit but she’s kind of hesitant to travel with them which I understand.

Have you guys seen My Parents Were Awesome? It’s pretty great. Once I finish going through these photos I might submit a couple of them.

Their wedding portrait.

I love their expressions in this one.

A Dirty Little Secret

I’m a little embarrassed about it, but I still bathe E in the sink even though he’s almost two-and-a-half. Granted, I special ordered this deep sink when we were finishing our bathroom because I thought it would be handy for bathing babies/puppies. I like how E’s up at waist level and how I save water compared to filling a tub. But I do think it’s starting to become a tight squeeze.

It seems a little weird to me that he still bathes in the sink but I’m probably being hypersensitive. As long as I switch to the bath tub before he’s three his psyche should survive without any permanent damage, right? (That’s what I’m telling myself, anyway.)

With a Little Help from My Friends

Do you remember how much I loved this band jacket Stella McCartney did for Gap Kids? Well, my super seamstress sister-in-law Miranda did. She made E his very own marching band jacket for Christmas! And she didn’t just make one, she also made a jacket for her son L (I know, I know–her sewing skills are insane).



Aren’t these cousins cute together? L is two months older than E to the day and they love playing together. L’s coming over for a few hours today and I’m sure the two of them will have a great time tearing apart my house. E loves L so much that whenever it’s time to say goodbye E cries and cries.

But at least now he can look stylish while he cries.

Spice Cabinet: Update 2

There’s no woodworking class tonight because it’s spring break (SPRING BREAK, woo!) but I thought I’d post the photos from last week’s class so I’d be all caught up. I was getting kind of discouraged and moped around the shop a bit complaining about what a pain making the diamond-patterned panel was. But then it came together by the end of the night and I went home happy.

The long skinny checkerboard panel. The issues is that I need a big square panel of diamonds rather than squares and this panel is too skinny to cut a square out on the bias.

I cut the corners off the rectangle and rearranged them to make a panel of diamonds. This method gives me minimal waste but was a real pain to figure out exactly because I’m horrible at geometry (my instructors were a lot of help).

I applied glue to the edges and used tape to clamp them together (please excuse my characteristically tidy workspace in the background). This blue painter’s tape works well for this purpose because it’s a little stretchy.

I found this piece of mahogany to use for the box of the cabinet and to border the diamond panel on the cabinet door. It’s hard to tell from this picture, but it really is stunning. Mahogany usually has a very tight grain so to find a piece with dramatic grain like this one is fairly rare.

I cut two pieces of mahogany for the sides of the cabinet and marked where the dadoes (or grooves) for the shelves will go.

Then I cut the dadoes with a panel router.

Next week I need to sand the diamond panel, cut it to size, and glue on border of mahogany. I also need to work on getting the cabinet box put together. Since I missed two weeks of class when I was out of town I don’t think I’ll be able to totally finish this project before the end of the semester. But if that’s the case I can hopefully finish it in the fall. My spices have survived this long without a posh cabinet to call home so I think they’ll make it a few more months.