award winning alpacas

When Catherine and Nicholas visited and we went to Green Bluff to see the alpacas at Supersuris Ranch, I took these photos of all the amazing ribbons. I can't get enough of the colors.

Like the cake says...

Catherine turns 27 today! Happy Birthday, sister dear!!!

You don't have to be 14 to be into nail art!

That's a fact. I did however learn how to stamp my nails by watching a 14-year-old girl give a tutorial on youtube. She was most helpful. About a month ago I purchased some nail plate kits on amazon. Don't ask. It just kind of happened. Anyway, when they arrived in the mail I realized I didn't know how to use them. I went to youtube and found out I had forgotten to order the stamper that goes along with the nail kit. Big mistake. So I went back and ordered that too. Now that I have all the pieces, I can show you how it works.

The finished product!

Let's start at the very beginning (God, now I just want to watch the sound of music).

In the beginning, there were plain nails.

You pick one color to use as the base or undercoat.

Then you pick a color that will stand out over the base coat.

I decided to pick a pattern from plate 212 (who cares really?)

Paint your undercoat color. Check.

Then you paint the design with the accent color.

You have to scrape off the excess from the pattern.

Then you take the stamp (that you surely remembered to order)
and pick up the pattern.

See, this is what it looks like. No get prepared to transfer it to your nailsssss.

It'll be really messy at first.

Keep on trucking.

After you repeat the above steps on every nail, you apply a generous top coat.

Then you're pretty much done. I wasn't wild about these two colors. They're a little boring-snore if you ask me. I've done a few others that I really like. Everyday I reapply the top coat. They last for about 5 days, which isn't bad in my opinion.

PS I think it's hard to photograph nails/fingers without it looking creepy.

STAMP YOUR NAILS!

Hello, bordello.

Or more appropriately, bordello museum, which would make it, of course, a defunct bordello. Wow, those two words are super-depressing together. Not that an operating bordello is something to get ecstatic about, but what do you picture when you read defunct bordello? 


Something along these lines, perhaps?

The ladies stayed for four months at a time and then
moved to another brothel. A sex worker circuit, if you will.

I bet it is.

All this was left by the ladies. Not the mannequins and packing peanut- simulated bubble bath, but everything else. Yes, that includes sheets, Mr. Bubble, and lingerie, which the mannequins now wear. 

So, yeah. This is the Oasis Bordello Museum in Wallace, ID. Catherine and I went for a visit last Saturday. It was...creepy. Honestly, I don't know what I expected. Well, I think I expected it to be creepy in a way that didn't actually creep me out as much as it ended up creeping me out. Creepy-funny, not creepy-think-about-it-while-trying-to-fall-asleep-and-being-incredibly-disturbed. It was so very much the latter in this instance. 

The bordello operated until 1988--it stopped because the FBI set up shop in town to investigate the crooked sheriff. But before all that came to pass, the ladies of the evening made a tidy profit (around a 100K/year, according to our guide) serving up to 40 gents a night. All right, calling them gents is bit of a stretch. I believe Catherine called them dirty husbands...as in, "Can you imagine your dirty husband getting his paycheck and going there before coming home?" I think we all can. 

The dirty husbands entered through this door. 

While Catherine had the good sense to ask about condom usage--there were regulations in the 1980s, but they were not enforced--we really wanted to know about the doctoring. There was a weekly exam and blood work, but we were skeptical about the regulation of this, too. And what about the STDs and pregnancies from the unenforced condom policy? Good questions, which we did not ask. Not because we were shy (we did ask to have the sex menu decoded and now know what the half and half option entailed), but because we got the sense our lackadaisical guide would not know the answer. We preferred to come up with the answers on our own--our imaginations are quite thorough.  


However, we couldn't come up with an explanation for this. 

It's just an extra mannequin leg. Whatever. 

I can sum the experience up thusly: it was like going to the 4H tent at the county fair and seeing the cow with the visible stomach (You know, the window?). It's a learning experience, but it's also gross, and somehow sordid, and really doesn't seem as acceptable as it once was. 

Do not rent a room here. 

The term for cow windowing is cannulation, by the way. Did you think you were going to learn that today? I certainly didn't. You're welcome. 

lady business

As in ladybugs. That's right, I discovered aphids on my lettuce, basil, and tomato leaves this year. No good. On the upside, I found a local purveyor of ladybugs. So, I ended up with 1500 ladybugs, which I decided to release in two separate batches. If you haven't had the pleasure of releasing roughly 750 ladybugs, let me tell you it's a bit of an adventure...especially when you add the fact that ladybugs should be released in the dark (they're more sluggish and inclined to settle in and lay some eggs before departing). The other thing is that you're going to end up carrying hitchhiking ladybugs to bed and work. Just accept it.  

This one came to work with me. It crawled inside my printer.
I was like, "No, no, no, no, no!" No worries. It emerged unscathed. 

The ladybugs hang out in this mesh bag, which is kept in the fridge until you're ready to put them to work. 

They go everywhere: pots, watering cans, hands, hair, and so on. 

But they also find their way to some actual plants. 

Hooray! 

Lucky for me, the second round of ladybug release took place while Catherine was visiting. She was initially resistant to participating, but once the ladybugs woke up, she took over and released them all. And I only found one ladybug in the house afterwards! Let that be a lesson to you: release ladybugs with a sister. 

Wild and wonderful

When Catherine and Nicholas visited Spokane a couple weeks back, they came bearing gifts. 

Gifts in the form of plant oddities!

A lovely lithops. You may remember how I coveted Catherine's lithops.

And an air plant! A Tillandsia bulbosa, to be precise.

The bulbosa portion of this plant's name comes from this particular section--why, it's the bulb, of course.

Right now, it's green as can be, but when it blooms, the leaves will turn
cherry red and have lavender flowers. Most excellent!

I've decided it will live beneath this bell jar--between its weekly waterings, I mean.

And I'm particularly fond of its graspy, reachy, I'm-going-to-get-you feel.
Perhaps best illustrated in the following picture.

Uh-oh. This looks like something that would happily creep onto your face while
you're sleeping. Mayhap to steal your dreams? One can never tell when
dealing with plant oddities. They're a fickle bunch.

This little acorn of mine...

I collected an acorn cap from Catherine and Nick's backyard last year. Actually I collected three. Papa, Mama, and Baby Acorn. Pictured below.

I always planned to use them for some type of craft. Maybe the big one would make a little felted pincushion. The middle one might become the top of a ring. But the tiny acorn...what to do with that? Hmmm. I decided its petite and woody loveliness might just be perfect at the end of necklace. Good idea, yeah?

So, I picked up a few necklaces on clearance at Macy's with the express intention of dismantling them for parts. I busted out the needle nose pliers and went to work pulling off the clunky bits.

Um, I don't really have an pictures of that. I haven't really trained myself to document my projects step-by-step yet. But what I did was this: I made a couple holes in the top of my tiny acorn, inserted both ends of the chain, and fastened them together with one of the rings I'd pulled off the necklace. Then I felted the bottom of the acorn and glued it into the acorn cap. Voila! Acorn necklace!

And this particular acorn necklace was destined for Catherine's neck...it was a birthday present. Hooray!



Countdown to Birthday: Birthday!

The sisters can't eat cake together this year, but we sure can enjoy looking at pictures of the cake Mom made Catherine last year. It makes me want to play with the cats during a power outage (and also eat some scrumptious carrot cake). Hey, let's light the kerosene lamp and roast marshmallows in the fireplace!

The little birdies were used on birthday cakes when Mom was little. This is their second appearance on the blog. What was their first, you ask? Why, it was the inaugural post! 

Many happy returns of the day, sister!

This image is from the collections of the
Minnesota Historical Society and
may be found on their website.

Countdown to Birthday: Day 7

Ok, so I actually only have one or two pictures of Catherine beyond the age of like six. I just didn't have time to look through all the pictures when I was in Tacoma. I know! Birthday countdown ruined! But it can't be helped now. I've decided to push on to present day. Without further ado...