Georgia On My Mind

Hey Y'all!

Sorry it's taken me so long to get this post up, there's something about editing a ton of family photos, then picking through them to see what goes here on the blog, what goes on Flickr or Facebook, who gets tagged, etc. that I find daunting, so I freely admit... I've been dragging my feet. We're all guilty, right? 

So! We went to Georgia last week  a couple of weeks ago, it was a quick trip to visit family and get a peek at the deep south. We visited Augusta (where our family lives and where my niece is stationed at Ft. Gordon), and Savannah. Since we were only going to be there for 3 days, and mainly to see family, I knew we'd barely get to skim the surface, but as per our usual style, we crammed it in. 

It was so good to see my nieces again! Alex has been serving in the US Army for the last three years, and almost 2 years ago, Ana moved to Georgia to be near her. I love & miss these two. Our first day in Augusta, Ana played tour guide and we visited the downtown area, along the river (she tells me those houses back there are in South Carolina, not Georgia) an old cemetery (love those!) and cruised around some of the older, beautiful neighborhoods of Augusta. It's hard to get good photos from the backseat of a moving vehicle though, so instead I just soaked it in.

I really liked the look of this little old house and tried to get a good shot, but again... moving vehicle. Bah. 

Now, that's what I call four wheel drive! Living in the breadbasket of California, I'm pretty used to seeing all sorts of large farm equipment, but generally, not on the highway. Something that struck me about Georgia, was how green & lush everything is, and from what I understand - year-round  It's so pretty, there are so many trees, so much open space. Very unlike California. Not that there's not a lot of open space in CA, there's tons, but unless it's landscaped, or irrigated, the wide open spaces of my beloved home state aren't green, or if they are, it only lasts from March to mid-May when things heat up and everything turns brown. 

Savannah! We only had one afternoon, so we did the best we could and walked everywhere downtown and along the River Walk.

A cookie bigger than his head. Yes, my husband was in heaven.

Alex was in heaven too, this kid loves candy! We found some great stuff at Savannah Candy Kitchen. 

Alex & Ana goofing with my camera.

My first glimpse of Spanish moss,

What an eerie and beautiful plant. 

Commemorating the 250 year anniversary of the founding of the colony of Georgia and those Georgians of Irish ancestry for their contributions. It was not lost on me that Jaime & Claire made their first landfall in the United States in Georgia at the end of Voyager, I kept daydreaming about them as we passed along some of the older parts of the city. Such a nerd.

The gaslights along this stretch of buildings was very pretty.

Sean and I... and a rouge photobomber.

The Savannah Cotton Exchange

I love this kid. 

Another stumble upon that we encountered was The Lady & Sons, Paula Deen's restaurant! We weren't hungry for a full meal, and we didn't have reservations anyway, but I thought maybe we could grab a bit of desert, and seeing as how we were in the peach state, I wanted something like that. I got a piece of peach cobbler, and Ana got a bit of the Gooey Butter Cake to go. I had high hopes, I mean, Paula Deen! Unforch... is wasn't very good. Bummer. 

But girls, I ate alligator!! And ya know... it wasn't half bad, but I don't care what anyone says, it does not taste like chicken.

The River Walk in the evening was lovely, and this guy, wow, he could sing!

We took a ghost tour! Most of my pictures are rubbish, but I managed a few, like this one of our (hunky) tour guide, Don.

And this one of Sean getting the jeebers! All the lights on the EMF detector lit up. Hehehe... It's silly.

Speaking of silly fun, the last place we visited in Savannah was the Moon River Brewery. What's so special about that? Well, lemme tell ya... Ghost Adventurers! We love that show, those guys can be so corny and scare the pants off of themselves, they filmed an episode at this location. Although... sometimes I admit, that show gives me the creeps, but it's all in good fun.

All in all, it was a fast blast, we wished we could have stayed for longer, but we had to get back home to our little critter family. The only things I didn't get to do that I had hoped to was have tea somewhere poshy and visit a historical plantation. Ah well, next time! 

Hope you enjoyed a few little vacation pictures! Now back to crafts n' tea & stuff!

oxo,

Lisa

A Weekend In Portland

Well hello!

I'm back and I'm ready to blog (cracks knuckles menacingly), and boy do I have a lot to catch up on, but first, HI NEW PEEPS! I see there are a few new people following along, so to you folks, hello & welcome!

I'm going a little way back for this post, just to early September when I had the opportunity to take a quick weekend getaway to see some friends. Friends, who to this point had been bloggy/internetty friends, that is, we'd never met face to face, but we're as tight as any girlfriends! We chat online about all manner of topics nearly every day for the past couple of years, I already felt like I knew them and vice versa. Also... they're stitchy/crafty rock stars!

From left to right is me, Tara, Pam & Shannon otherwise known as The Mistress T, Kittykill and Gigglymama! (HI GIRLS!!) These girls are just as terrific as I knew they would be, as though there was ever any doubt.

We'd kind of planned a low key weekend of relaxing, talking, visiting, stitching and such. Welp, we never got to any stitching, but we did eat really well and see lots of very cool stuff. Pam and her hubby, Mark were excellent guides, they took me all over their wonderful city. 

Saturday morning we started with breakfast and a little shopping. We took this picture for our friend, Ellen. Yay unicorns!

Hey look, it's one of Portland's famous Horse Rings! 

AND BIGFOOT!

I took a TON of pictures, so I've taken the liberty of making some collages so as not to bog you guys down, feel free to click any of the pictures to see the large version of any of these photos.

The International Rose Test Garden

The Oregon Holocaust Memorial.

Visiting the memorial was a very deep and humbling experience, as it should be. This is the first time I've had the opportunity to visit any Holocaust memorial, it was profoundly moving for all of us. It's very hard for me to express properly, so I'll leave it at that. 

We visited a very cool old cemetery, we discovered we all LOVE old cemeteries. And not in a creepy, emo way. Just an old, historical love for them. 

Whoa.

That's my maiden name... it's always a little unsettling when you run across one of those.

Next visited the Side Street Gallery which was featuring Pam's Sugar Skulls.

T

This was such a great place, eye candy everywhere, good shopping too!

For dinner that night, Pam & Mark took me to The Kennedy School. This was the neatest restaurant I've ever been to, a converted, historical elementary school. It's so cool! 

Two drinks, one mouth. Drinking problem? Nah...

The Kennedy School is full, to the brim of art, there are murals everywhere, here are some of the ones I liked best. 

Here's my favorite!

And they let'cha walk around with your drinks, too... neato!

Sunday had us going to a birthday celebration for one of Tara's Beastie Grrlz, Delia. Dog parties are fun!

Several of dog park, doggy friends came to celebrate Delia's 1st birthday, we watched them scamper around and play ball, and watched every one of them roll on a mysteriously attractive (and I'm guessing stinky) spot on the grass. Dogs and stinky spots go together like peanut butter & jelly. Am I right?

Speaking of dogs! Let me introduce you to the girls's kids, these furry friends kept me company, made me laugh and made it easier to be away from my own fuzzy brood.

First up the birthday girl & her sister, these are Tara's dogs,

  Betty & Delia

And the Pedersen Pups!

Lola ~ Pete ~ Jujube

I had such a great time up in Portland, meeting my friends in real life was so awesome! I can't wait to see them again. Lodi isn't as great as Portland, but ladies I'll show you the town and we'll paint it red if you decide you need to see Northern California, teehee!

Coming home was nice too, look who was waiting for me!

Lola & Boz

I think they were happy to have me back home.

♥

I hope you've enjoyed coming along with me for a little bit of Portland, like I said I've got a lot of catching up to do so come back soon because I'm hoping to get several more posts published this week, better late than never I say!

How've you been friends? What's shaking in your neck of the woods?

oxo,

Lisa

Good Times In LA

Hi Guys!

I'm sorry I've been away so long (once again). Right after my last post, I went to southern California for a couple of days to visit with my bestie and see my pal Ellen. It was a great, laid back trip, but the last couple of days I was there I started not feeling so well, which continued for a couple of weeks once I was back home. Oofa. It's no fun feeling run down and generally crappy. I hope you'll forgive my absence, my dear friends!

I have so much to share with you, things I was working on before the trip, and things have worked on since then. But let's start with a little vacation! Everybody likes vacation photo's, right? Right? Hello?

Lol...

(Pay no attention to those Flintstone feet)

I put my feets in the ocean, y'all! 

Welcome to the beach, no fun allowed! The Ocean, brought to you by Arrowhead Natural Spring Water.

Ahh, that's the life...

 Melissa made me scrumptious dinners, this was my favorite!! 

This was some kind of magic turkey burger on a bed of lettuce, topped with jalapeno cheddar, blue cheese crumbles and avocado. Oh lordy, I'm drooling at the memory. 

Next day Melissa & I got to go visit Ellen's show, Flesh & Fiber at The Hive Gallery in downtown Los Angeles and see her gorgeous work up close. Tiny, tiny stitches, people. Tiny. 

Stitchy hero, right there! I lurve you, Ellen! 

After our visit to The Hive, Melissa and I took the train across town to visit with Ellen for a little bit at The Pop Tart Gallery where she had organized the first of several yarn bombing meetings in preperation for a brand new show she's curating called Home Is Where The Needle Marks. Show opens this weekend, so excited for her! If you're in the Los Angeles area, GO! SEE ART! It's good for you.

 Awesome people tried to teach us how to knit.

Aww, Mel, you've really got the hang of that!

 You show that yarn who's boss!

Me? I'll just sit here and tie knots and be a goober (as per usual).

I was a little star struck to be honest, do you know who that is sitting there next to me?? That's Rachel McKay! EEEEEEPPP! I've stalked, I mean, "admired" her work for a long time. She's was so super sweet and awesome and excellent. Girl crush. Hi Rachel!

The next couple of days we played it pretty low key, like I said, I wasn't feeling too hot. We mostly sat & talked, you know how that goes when you get face to face with a friend that lives so far away, the hours just fly. We spent one whole day stitching (that'll be in my next post, stay tuned!). It was great, I've never taught anyone how to embroider before, and while Mel's already got the basics down (you should {and will later this year!} see what she's making!) I got to show her some different fancy stitches. Good times.

So yeah, those were the highlights of my mini vacation. Wonderful friends, great food, fantastic art, stitching and stitchy hero's. What more could a girl want?

Want to see what I stitched whilst in the City of Angels? Come back shortly! I'm writing that post next!

I missed you guys! I'll be visiting you soon!

oxo,

Lisa

The Magic Christmas Kingdom

Ho~ho~howdy!

Wow! Where did the last couple of weeks go?? Well my dearies, that was an unintended bloggy break. The weekend of my last post I got down to some serious business in the craft room, and I've been a busy little elf ever since! Can't share everything just yet (you know how that goes this time of year) but trust me, I've been working hard and I have lots of other tricks up my sleeves. Last weekend was different, we ducked out of town for a quick, but jam packed, magical trip...

Disneyland!

I've always, always, always wanted to go to the Magic Kingdom during the Christmas season, when the entire park is decked out in its holiday finery. If I had a bucket list, Disneyland at Christmas would have been on it.

I took approximately one bazillion pictures, which I will not forcibly subject you to (much) (although, if you'd like to see lots more than what I'm posting here, I've made a set of this Disneyland trip over on my Flickr account, which can be found here. I think there are just over 100 photos in the set, and belieeeve me, that was trimming it way down from what I actually took! You are move than welcome to pop over and have a look. Please feel free to leave a comment or two, I love comments, and I love Disney memories so share, share away!) but I thought I'd share just a few of my most holiday-ish shots here with you today.

Small World, lit up like the sun. This picture doesn't do it justice.

We were only at Disneyland for about a day and a half, so we really had to move, but in that time I think we did and saw, and rode everything that we wanted to, some things even more than once.

Spinning madly.

The Grand Californian

Victorian carolers in the lobby, truly wonderful.

(note the kiddies in their stripy Christmas pj's, adorable!)

Jack, The Pumpkin King as Sandy Claws. In case you didn't know, the Haunted Mansion is completely re imagined for Christmas after the much beloved Nightmare Before Christmas, it's an astounding transformation. One of the highlights of my trip to be sure.

Me & Pluto

Stealing a smooch.

Hanging out near the castle... can you see the snow topped peaks? About 1/2 second after this picture was taken, guess who walked up behind me? None other than my favorite mermaid, Ariel!! She must have been on her way to meet Prince Eric or something, because she was walking superfast!

It was wonderful. The only thing I wished was different was how soon we had to leave. I could visit Disneyland at least once a month for the rest of my life and be a happy camper.

I look forward to visiting again, and again... and hopefully sooner rather than later!

Again, there are LOTS more pictures here, get yourself a cuppa and come over for a visit. Let's continue our conversation over on Flickr.

I hope you've enjoyed a peek of a few of the Christmas goodness to be had at the happiest place on earth! So tell me, have you been during the holidays? What's your favorite thing about Disneyland? Do tell!

oxo,

Lisa