Swap Partners: the partners that like to swap!

Remember that favorite things swap I sign up for? I was partnered with the talented and charming Celeste of Nebula Designs. She’s a very talented knitter and spinner. I’ve enjoyed looking through her blog at her different projects; it’s crazy to think that she’s only been knitting for a couple of years. Since I picked up knitting a few years ago I’ve knitted several scarfs, a couple baby cardigans, and a felted sheep but now I’m eager to try something a bit more ambitious this fall.

Celeste send me this thoughtful and fun package with some of her favorite things:

M.C. Esher card, a copy of The Phantom of the Opera, Swedish Fish, a small moleskine notebook, and some wool yarn she spun herself.

Isn’t it gorgeous? I love the colors. (Click on the photo if you want to see it larger.) I’m not sure what I’m going to use it for yet because I want to use it for something special.

This is what I put together for her. (I forgot to take a picture before I sent it off so I snagged the picture Celeste uploaded to the swap Flickr pool. If you’re interested you can see other packages from the swap here.)

The package I sent included a few things I picked up in Koreatown when I was in Washington (candy, a little quilted purse, and a notebook with some funny Engrish on it), some b&w prints of photos I took with my Holga, a selection of my favorite candies from See’s, a jar of body butter, and a double-cd mix of some of my favorite songs (not pictured).

I had a lot of fun with this swap–so much so that when I saw on Celeste’s blog that there’s another one going on I signed up for it too. If you’re interested in participating you have until the end of today to sign up. (Sorry for the short notice!)

Have a great weekend! N and I are going to try and squeeze in a double feature tomorrow night: I’ll let you know how it goes.

I Heart Art: Amy Ruppel

I’ve been a fan of Portland artist Amy Ruppel for several years. Ruppel’s work uses mixed media and involves layering bees wax over paper and then adding drawn details by etching in the wax. I’ve seen a few of her pieces in person and they have a wonderful depth to them.

Last year I bought a print of hers from Tiny Showcase and while it’s great it doesn’t quite capture the luminosity of her original work. But I don’t have the cash to drop on an original piece so I think I’ll have to be content with a print.

If you’re interested in her work you should check out the prints from Ruppel’s series of state animals and state birds.

I liked the Nebraska White Tailed Deer and the Washington Willow Goldfinch in particular, but there are lots of lovely pieces. Prints start at $20 so if you have a hankering to display some state pride in a stylish (and affordable!) way, look no further.

In which our author is spanked in the nude by a middle-aged Korean woman wearing a black bra and panties

(But not in that way, you perv.)

I was five years old the first time I went to a mogyoktang, or Korean bathhouse/spa. My mom and I were in Korea visiting relatives and we went to what seemed like a huge indoor pool complex where everyone was female and not wearing swimming suits. I remember dog paddling from one end of the huge tub to the other.

My next visit to a mogyoktang was incredibly embarrassing, but it was all my own fault. The summer after my freshman year in college I went on a study abroad trip to the Korean countryside (this is the trip that I first got to know N on). We stayed in a traditional village (in houses like these) and conducted an anthropomorphic survey of the area. The houses we stayed in didn’t have running water and so we rigged up some camping showers. But using camping showers in the cold morning air gets old and so some of us decided to hitchhike into the nearest town and go to the mogyoktang there.

None of the girls I went with were first generation Koreans: we were all either half or adopted and none of us had much experience with bathhouses. The other girls were more stylish and girly than tomboy me and I was more than a bit intimidated by them. So when the other girls declared that they were going to wear their bathing suits in the mogyoktang I went along. I didn’t want to be the only one not wearing one. But it was SO embarrassing. Everyone kept staring at us and I felt humiliated and vowed never to do it again. After that I usually went to the mogyoktang with the girls I was better friends with. Traumatic bathing suit incident notwithstanding, I was hooked on mogyoktangs.

The next time I was to a mogyoktang was a couple of years ago. A nice Korean spa opened up in Tacoma which my mom started going to. When N and I were up visiting I went with my mom. It was fabulous to soak in the huge tub and then get all the dead skin scrubbed off. If I can fit it into my schedule going to the Korean spa is usually one of the highlights of a visit to my parents’ house.

When I was up in Washington a few weeks ago my mom and sister volunteered to drop me off a spa while they went to a church function (and watched E). It was the first time I had gone to this particular spa and once I got there I was kind of nervous because I wasn’t sure exactly where to go. But I figured it out and went and soaked in the tubs while I waited for my scrub. (Even though I like going to the mogyoktang I always get nervous about the moment when you take off your clothes and walk naked into a room with a bunch of other naked women. But I just do it and then after a minute or two it doesn’t seem like a big deal at all.)

I didn’t like the tubs at this spa as well as others I’ve been to but the scrub/moisturizing treatment I got was the best I’ve ever had. Tana, a middle-aged Korean woman wearing the spa uniform of a black bra and panties, put on exfoliating mitts and scrubbed me from head to toe. It was so relaxing. I felt like a tiny kitten being licked clean. It was simultaneously neat and gross to see the little pills of dead skin come off.

After the scrub Tana had me shower to get all the dead skin off and then she put a cucumber mask on my face and massaged hot oil and milk into my skin. As she was massaging she would rhythmically slap my arms and legs and butt. That’s never happened to me during a scrub before so I don’t know if it was something to improve circulation or if it’s just something Tana enjoys. (Ahem.)

Even though I had just been lying there I was totally wiped out afterward. When it was over and it was time to sit up I almost slid off the table because I was so oily and kind of lightheaded. It was so relaxing and my skin had never felt so silky smooth. If there was a Korean spa nearby I would probably go to it at least once a quarter. But I live in white-bread Utah so for now visiting the mogyoktang will have to remain a treat for when I visit Washington.

Multi-Eyelet Chuck Taylors

My tastes in clothes have evolved a lot since I was a kid in high school but one thing that has stayed the same is my fondness for Converse sneakers. My current pair has gotten pretty ratty looking so when I saw these Multi-Eyelet Chuck Taylors on sale I couldn’t resist. I think they’re fun.

They came with both gray and black laces so you can pick which style you like better. I’m having trouble deciding which looks better.

What do you think? Gray or black laces?

Letter: Month Twenty-One

Dear E,

If you’re actually reading through these in order you’ve probably noticed that the twenty month letter is missing. I tried to find time to sit down and write it but July was a crazy month for us this year and it slipped by before I knew what was going on. I’m going to try my best not to let it happen again but we’ll just have to see. In other words, no promises!

Enjoying a ferry ride.

Before I started this letter I was rereading was I wrote for month nineteen and I am amazed at how much you’ve grown in just two months. You outgrew the clingy, whiny phase you were going through back then. You’re much more self-assured now. I think it comes from being more confident that you can communicate your needs to us now. Whereas before it was “no, no, no!” all the time you will now emphatically exclaim “yeah!” when we ask you if want something and you do.

Watching a deer at Hurricane Ridge

You love to talk. A lot of the time you keep up a steady stream of chatter but most of it is pretty unintelligible. Whenever your dad or I leave the room you’re in you quizzically call out “Mama?” or “Daddy?” but when we tell you that we’re coming right back you relax, assured.

Playing at a lake

In July we went on a trip to visit family and I was a little worried about how you would do. But you were a champ and rolled with the punches and had a lot of fun running around with your cousins. You went to all sorts of places: the zoo, the beach, several parks, a raspberry farm, a wild game farm, a ferry, several Korean restaurants, etc… and you handled it well. And except for when you came down with a cold, you slept well the entire time. It made the trip a lot easier on your parents than it could have been.

Feeding the chickens with Grandma

One of the things that stands out about the last few months is that you’ve become pretty decent company. If you’re well-rested and fed you’re a lot of fun to be around. You like to crack jokes and make us laugh. You’re so eager to smile and enjoy yourself that you inevitably bring smiles to everyone around you.

Love,

Mama

Toy Storage

We don’t have a lot of extra space in our family room and lately E’s toys have been taking over. So last week I bought this shelf/bin organizer from Target. At $59 it was more than I wanted to pay for a solution but I was caught up in a clean-up-and-declutter frenzy (don’t worry, it only lasted for an hour or two) and I wanted those toys off the floor NOW.

But this week the shelf is on sale for $39 which is a really good deal. And I took my receipt back to the store and got $20 back so everyone wins!

Mystery Solved!

So earlier this week I was really sad because I thought I had busted my Holga. I assumed something was wrong with the shutter was because half of the pictures I shot in WA came out blurred and washed out. (Before I posted them here I upped the contrast on the shots below in Photoshop to help them out a bit.)

A nephew at the beach.


Ghost deer!


And ghost buffalo.

But then I googled “Holga shutter problem” and found a discussion board where someone was posting about the same issue. And someone asked the guy if he had accidentally switched the camera from “normal” to “bulb” mode (where the shutter stays open as long as you hold down the button). As soon as I read that I ran upstairs and looked at my camera and sure enough the switch on the bottom was set on bulb. Sigh.

I had some mixed feelings: I was really happy my camera wasn’t broken but pretty regretful that so many of my pictures were affected by my oversight. Ah well. Part of the charm of the Holga is that you never know what you’re going to get and I like the way that the above photos turned out. I think they look kind of mysterious and old-timey. I might even set the camera on bulb to get this effect on purpose in the future.

But either way you can bet your pants that I’m going to double-check that switch from now on.

Seattle Holga Photos

Here are some of the photos I took with my Holga when we were in Seattle.

Nephew D at the beach.

Sister-in-law Mindy with solemn niece C.

The skyline as seen from the dock at Ivar’s Salmon House.
Eating there and feeding the ducks french fries is a family tradition. (N and I had our wedding luncheon there.)

I’m pretty sad about my Holga. I think it might have gotten banged up during the trip because for half of the rolls I shot the shutter seems to have stayed open longer than it should have and they’re kind of washed out and blurry. Some of the shots still turned out pretty cool, though. I’ll post some of them later.