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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The Myth of the Omnipotent Bill of Rights Pillow.

Did you know that Catherine and I both went to Eastern Washington University as undergrads? Well, it's true. And during our time there we did end up in a class together a time or two...actually three. Dream come true for us: nightmare of weirdness for everyone else in the class. Well, probably. There was this lovely Russian boy who cordially referred to us as The Sisters! Which we loved. No really, we did. 

I think Catherine would agree that the best class we ever took together was on U.S. History. Not only did we learn a lot in this particular class, but we also developed a huge nerd crush on our professor (who must remain, sadly, nameless). To set the crush scene: he was geekily cute, knew everything about everything, introduced us to The Southern Poverty Law Center, integrated youth slang (think props and trippin') into his lectures, and had asthma. Just like Teddy Roosevelt. Le sigh. 

We even named a stray cat visitor after our professor. True story. After the cat leapt into the air for like 15 minutes of playing with a toy in our living room, he got all wheezy. He was only a visiting cat. We let him in on the sly because we weren't allowed to have pets in our rental, even though the girls in the duplex next door did. Travesty!

Anyway, all this came to mind when I decided to mend the corner of my pillow. It's needed mending for the longest time.  Side note: I find it really difficult to take care of these tasks. In fact, I called my mom after sewing two buttons back on a jacket (one of which had been MIA for two years). The purpose of the call: to brag about finally sewing those buttons. Congratulate me already!

Catherine made me this pillow based on some of her notes from the aforementioned history class. She hand-embroidered it all and included the lined paper, date, and a little error from her notebook. Isn't it amazing? It's a total tribute to our professor and the knowledge he imparted. Oh man, just thinking about it makes me want to get the giant whiteboard out of Mom's garage and write study topics about William Tecumseh Sherman. Do you want to, Catherine? 

See those darkish spots? They're loose feathers. This pillow has been loved and loved and loved!

Instaweek: California Edition I

Monika's hot air balloons were hanging over the sink.

Here's a little sampling of our California adventures...

Wolf on the Wall.

First and foremost, let me apologize for the blue tint to these first couple pictures. I didn't realize Ben had changed the settings on the camera. Whoops. 

This is my Wolf on the Wall project. The name came about when Ben and I walked up the street to where all the food trucks hang out in Burbank. As we waited in line, we peered into the antique shop behind us and saw a picture of a wolf on the wall. For some reason that turned in to the thing to say, and this project was born...

California, here we come!

via Counting Graces

Soon to be sistering it up in Burbank and its environs!! 

Bright young women, sick of swimming, ready to stand!!!!!

Yup, you guessed it! The sisters are heading to Disneyland. Now, Monika goes all the time, and I've gone twice in the last 2 years, but Christine hasn't been there since high school Girl Scouts (yeah, she was one of those.) The 3 sisters haven't all been together at Disneyland for like 22 years!  Check out some old school Disneyland with the Nicolai's!

Favorite picture...EVER. We re-created that picture once. It was awesome.

Those OshKosh's are amazing!

Look how happy Monika is that I get to meet Donald! Oh wait, she's actually being a bitch. Typical 7 year-old Monika.