Small Town Saturday Night

I was very homesick this weekend--yes, again--so I risked a trip to Tacoma. I knew there was a snow situation in Snoqualmie Pass, but I thought I'd be able to sneak through unscathed. Unfortunately, as I neared the pass conditions worsened and I finally resigned myself to either turning around and heading back to Spokane, or finding a place to stay over. Thus, I ended up spending the night in Cle Elum, WA.

At the Traveler's Inn. My room smelled like horse dust. From a very, very dusty horse.

I had to buy a bunch of necessities, like contact lens solution and toothpaste and beer, all of which I didn't have with me because I thought I'd be at Mom's house by 6:30. Obviously, I wasn't prepared for the possibility of weather delays. What a terrible former Girl Scout I am.

But the weather was fine on the eastern side of the state. See? Columnar basalt cliffs along the Columbia River. 

Here are the wind turbines along Ryegrass Summit on the other side of the Columbia. Doesn't everything look promising?

But the pass was all "compact snow and ice and multiple accidents due to adverse weather." Boo. This is entering the Wenatchee National Forest the next morning. 

And heading up the pass. Pretty, right? But let me tell you, the roads were not pretty. 

I tend to allow myself to get really worked up when my plans are foiled. It's annoying for others, I know. Usually when my plans go awry due to weather conditions, I attempt to get myself back on a reasonable track by thinking about Lewis & Clark or fur trappers dealing with similar weather. Something along the lines of: I could be in this exact situation but with a mule train. More often than not, this little exercise puts things into perspective. 

Still, I regret nothing! 

And I rediscovered my Hal Ketchum cd. 

Snow week...

People in Washington experienced a rare event last week...snow. It was called snowpocalypse, snowmaggedon, and any other snow/disaster pun around. I documented the four days we had snow. There's still snow on the ground, but it's the gross melty, ice, slush stuff that everyone hates. I also got to try out these new chain-alternative things called auto socks. They worked wonders! All-in-all, we got close to 2 feet in 2 days. It was cray cray.

Behold, Olympia snow 2012!

(These pictures were taken at my house, or at work at the State Capitol.)

Backyard

Bigelow (neighbor)

My car, buried.

My car unburied with auto socks on.

Nick's car.

The perfect snow outfit. We also used plastic cutting boards to dig our cars out.
You see, Olympia really doesn't get snow. We didn't have shovels.

Main road next to Puget Sound.

This is where Peanut went in the snow. Turn out, she hates the snow.

After she was placed in the snow, she sat on top of the toilet and warmed up like a weirdo.
We call this position "turkey" because she tucks her paws under like little wings and looks like a turkey.

nook, neatened

IT'S A SNOW DAY!!!!!

Let me tell you, the excitement does not go away once you reach adulthood.
 Snow days will always be the magical bonuses of winter. Love. Them. 

Even though there are various cleaning tasks awaiting my attention,
I decided I'd take advantage of this freebie day to organize a tiny area of my apartment. 

Ugh. Don't even look at it. Why am I showing you?!

This is the weird wall nook in my office. It's 17'' x 34'' and I've been at a loss over what to do with it for, um, six years. I did have some pictures hanging in there, but I a few weeks ago (after one of them fell) I decided I'd make some sort of paper collage in there. Well, you can probably guess how that turned out: never happened. So, this is what I decided to tackle--turning the nook into usable space, preferably for the crafting odds and ends which have been accumulating. 

Here. 

And here. 

I hope you realize the amount of trust it takes to reveal these junk piles. A bit. A bit. indeed. I don't have a defined (and permanent) crafting space because my apartment only has one decently well-lit area and that, my friends, is occupied. 

Yeah, succulents and Matilda. Neither will be denied their natural light and views of squirrels and magpies. 

Back to it. The ideal would be some type of shelving, right? Um, like I have random boards and a means by which

 to cut them. But wait! I do have these swell vintage nested shelves, picked up at an estate sale for $3.00.

And I have a bunch of posters from the Museum's concert series, BeGin!

And I have a tiny hammer too, see?

So, shelves: check. Background: check.

I taped up the posters. You could also use wrapping paper, or fabric, but I kind of liked the collage feel of this route. Most of the edges will be obscured by shelving, but some of the images will peek through. 

Like so. Easy as pie. Time to fill it up!

Success!!!!!!!
Craft clutter: managed.

recently, in Spokane

Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist

Got an iPhone? Follow me on Instagram: christinesuzanne I'm totally boring. Guaranteed. 

 A sunny winter's day in downtown Spokane.

Full moon rising over Spokane, as seen from Cliff Drive.

Stone structure in Riverside State Park

T. J. Meenach Bridge

Dig It! has arrived at the Museum.

I made beer-batter apple rings. Divine.

Evidence of beer!

 A tiny drift begins to form. 

tiny winter scene

One of the gifts Monika gave us contained the supplies to create a mini winter scene. A couple tiny trees, several handmade mini packages (loaded with pennies for weight, of course!), crinkled paper for snow, and a little plastic deer. I put mine in one of my domed displays. Super sweet, right?

frosty fungus

A tiny world of frosted fungi at Mom's.