Ahoy, La Jolla!

So I am lucky enough to work for company with a location in La Jolla California, where they want to host training. Luckier still, that the hotel that they typically put everyone up at is booked and I get to stay at the Grand Colonial. What a lucky girl I am, I ended up with a room with a view.

Insta-sista

Even though Washington experienced nowhere near the cold snap the rest of the county endured, we did have a couple frosty mornings. Other than the possibility of icy roads, I enjoy a little frost. Everything looks incredibly magical when enveloped in a nimbus of ice crystals, don't you think? 

Malibu-ya

Okay so this really isn't a "Handmade Home" post but I didn't have much time this weekend to make since I was lucky enough to have my mom visiting...

Best of Aerial Views of Water

Source: Unknown 

Summertime and the living is easy; and there is nothing difficult about looking at aerial shots of water either. Over the summer I have found myself more and more drawn to looking at images such as these. I think that water is just so facisnating (more so living than chlorinated), and mysterious. So naturally I love to gaze down at it from above and examine it while daydreaming.

Also, lets just throw this out there, I love these because they look like little aquatic dioramas. I am not ashamed of that truth more on that later...

Home and Away: Wish I Were Away

This week has been stressful for the Nicolai girls, and I'm betting we're all wishing we could get away for a spell. I'm feeling particularly deprived of all things oceanic at the moment and would love to take a trip to Washington's rocky coast, even if it's only 38 degrees and windy as the dickens. I'd also happily plant myself in an aquarium right about now. Nurse sharks, anyone? Anemones? Jellyfish?

I mean, these pictures are nothing compared to Catherine's shots of jellyfish and other invertebrates from the Monterey Bay Aquarium, but still. I guess what I'm saying is if my tired eyes had to look at anything else this week, it'd be some moon jellies. Hands down...

Malibu Merit Badge

Sometimes you need to give something special to someone special. For Catherine's (very late) birthday present I made her a Malibu, CA merit badge; because when she visits she's so good at Malibu-ing...

Insta-sista

Last weekend we went to Pismo Beach to have some fun in the sun with the Gillespies (and Ottos)

Lincoln City shells

One thing I've always loved about the ocean is the little bit I get to take home with me and cherish all
those days that I'm landlocked. On my recent trip to Lincoln City I found these ocean floor treasures!

tossed and found

Green bottles and containers 

Oil, Alcohol and Drugs

I ran across these intriguing photos on The Etsy Blog yesterday. They're the work of Barry Rosenthal, a photographer out of New York, who creates collage photographs of found items. From his website: The Found in Nature series is created using plastic objects, garbage, plastic waste and detritus found on beaches polluting our water and land. 

You probably know by now, I'm always game for plucking interesting items from around the high tide mark, and if it helps clean the beaches...well then, that's a terrific bonus. Way to tidy up, Mr. Rosenthal! 

Disposable Lighters, Beach Haven, NY. 

Tampax, Brooklyn, NY.

Combs, Beach Haven, NJ.

There's something about these photographs that makes me feel very quiet. Does that make sense? I just think about all the things we've created and discarded and how they've had a life beyond their intended purpose. The unexpected life of objects beyond us. It's like getting a glimpse at a secret world. And really, everything that comes out of the ocean is mysterious, yeah?


View more of Rosenthal's mesmerizing work on his website: Photobotanicus. 

Instaweek: California Edition II

The beach at Crystal Cove. It's bizarre visiting a beach where people are
actually laying on blankets in swimming suits. Does that ever happen on
Washington beaches? Um, no. Never. 

The main reason we chose to visit Crystal Cove? The tide pools!!!! There were
anemones, barnacles, hermit crabs, mussels, starfish, and all manner of oozes
and slimes. I found a giant loose barnacle, which I thought was uninhabited,
and snatched it up. Turns out, there was a live barnacle inside. It poked its
beak at me, and I squealed and threw it back in the surf. That's how I roll.

The sand and mudstone cliffs on Crystal Cove. I messed around with chunking
off a few pieces of rock and splitting them layer by layer, but then a lizard
startled me, and I thought I was going to get stung by a beach bee.
So, investigation abandoned. 

The very bee!

Catherine read Jaws on the beach. She told me not to take a picture of her face--
it was that kind of a day--but you can see a tiny bit in the lower right corner.
Ha-ha! Your face in your face, Catherine!

I found this intriguing collage among some beach debris. The white bit is
actually a kelp bulb which has been hollowed out and bleached. 

A bit of colorful seaweed. This was everywhere: white and pink and green.

Look at all these lovely layers. Monika and I examined them a bit while
Catherine read Jaws and kept the ants away from her rellenitos. 

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Dollar-dollar skills, ya'll.

I had a last minute house/cat-sitting gig this weekend, which means I ended up with a bunch of idle time. I spent that time re-watching a few episodes of The Walking Dead--I'm trying to decide if I hate it...I still don't have a clue--reading Catching Fire (which, of course, I love), and thinking someone was going to murder me. Pretty standard fare for all my house-sitting adventures...

super-nerd, from the sea

It's no secret that the Nicolai sisters are enraptured by all things oceanic, seaside-al, and tide-rific. A couple of those words are made up, as I'm sure you noticed. My friends Mike and Manda (who are soon to be wed!) sent me a little Christmas package with a couple treasures inspired by the sea.

A narwhal finger puppet. I'm more than a little obsessed with narwhals. 

And this octopus, which has a secret power.

Or maybe not so secret, as you may have already surmised.

That's right: crazy eyes. 

Yes, there's nothing better than squeezing cephalopods to make your Christmas merry and bright!

Amateur oils.

What's this...?

Good question.

Definitely an eye.

A possible signature.

Obvious sea creature.

Cuttlefish.

Christine loves cuttlefish, so I painted her one for Christmas. I didn't name it, but she probably should.

Malibu Barbie

I'm visiting Monika in Burbank. It was supposed to be rainy and slightly chilly today, but guess what? It wasn't. We decided to head to the beaches of Malibu and search for treasures, and boy did we find some.

This is just a preview of the kind of treasures we found!

I told Christine that we saw a shark...and I wasn't totally fibbing.

urchin business

Monika promised me a trip to Malibu expressly to harvest recently deceased sea treasures. 

Yes, I am talking about sea urchins. 

We each filled a large ziplock bag with these beauts.

Large and small, they were everywhere.

And because we were really only concerned with urchins,

we didn't spend too much time looking at other stuff...um, like the ocean.

Or this stellar sandstone formation.

Ok, we spent a little time, but we were way more concerned with the urchin intake.
You know, into the ziplock bag, into our purses. Yes, a purse full of urchins. Two purses, actually.
And all on the sly. Ben was none too pleased when we unveiled our urchin bounty and then proceeded to set them out in the front yard to "dry"--a process which mostly involves being swarmed by the giantest flies you'll ever in your long life see. Also, the smell is something I will never forget. Let me tell you, we Nicolai girls have smelled a lot of dead things in our time, but sea urchins may just take the cake as the deadest smelling things ever. Yowzers. Seriously, yowzers. 

These are my urchins at Mom's house in Tacoma. They are "drying" on the back porch.
They made the plane trip home double-ziplocked inside my purse.
Bruno ran away when I let him smell one. Smart cat. 

bee's knees

Um, I was going to write a post apologizing for not posting as frequently as I ought, and within this post I was going to level an accusation at Monika for also contributing to blog stagnation, but then she went and posted last night and my blame deflection tactic is all scrambled to hell. 


Oh well, how can I expect to sustain any degree of frustration when she wrote about a topic near and dear to my heart? Bee carcasses! I only wish I'd discovered this interest in bees pre-2004, say around the time those bees moved into the wall of our garage. There was a mountain...well, a hillock of bee bodies available for the collecting and only slightly covered in pesticide. All tumbling out from behind the drywall, mounding up behind the boxes of Christmas wrapping paper. Such a pity.


Also, how can I be mad at Monika who, like me, hesitates before picking up a public puppet? I just can't fault someone with that kind of instinct. Mom, on the other hand, dives right in.

Marine Puppet Theater at the Ty Warner Sea Center

I think they're acting out a scene from Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus. Obviously, Monika is playing Debbie Gibson's part, and since there doesn't appear to be another lady in this film--why would there be?--that leaves Lorenzo Lamas to Mom. Sorry, Mom.

Santa Monica

Also known as: the place we saw Kevin Spacey! Yup, we did. Monika spotted him on the Santa Monica Pier. The sighting was confirmed by me, Mom, and Ben. That means it's legitimate. You have to admit, that's a decent way to cap a California trip. I believe this was also the night Ben showed Mom his latest music video, the one I kept humming the entire weekend, and the teaser video for the new Beastie Boys album + video. What?! Yeah. Let's talk about: Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, Jack Black, Ted Danson, Jason Schwartzman, Rainn Wilson, Susan Sarandon, Stanley Tucci, Steve Buscemi, Elijah Wood, Seth Rogan, Danny McBride, Will Arnett, and Chloë Sevigny? And the Beasties. Future us's are complete idiots.  Fight For Your Right: Revisited. Watch it!

Santa Monica Pier

I think we're all on the same team here, and that's the "no pie, no sledgehammer" team. Have you watched the Beastie Boys video yet? I'm going to watch it again right now.