My Weekend.

What a really nice trip I had. It was an all-day-Saturday, very tiring, emotional event. My brother & sister & I traveled in the morning by the light of the moonlight. (Yes. THAT early.) At the top of Snoqualmie Pass we made a stop---as is our family tradition whenever we travel this way. Mostly we have to pee anyway, but even if we don't, we get out to ooh & aah & enjoy the beauty. (The top picture was created using Tiltshift Maker. It makes "miniatures" out of your pictures. Thanks Rachel at One Pretty Thing for sharing this!)

My sis & I had to pee so bad, but when we walked into the women's bathroom & heard a MAN coughing-- we RAN (!) out of there as fast as we could. HAHA! After the man walked past us, we BURST into giggles. Look at the view from the bathroom!

In the parking lot, beside us was this HILARIOUS sight. It's a car rack shaped like a giant foot wearing a giant flip-flop. On the side it reads "My Bunion is Burning". And, sure enough, I noticed the large painful protruding bunion. HAHA!Seeing my dad in the hospital was quite hard. But it gave me such relief to be with him. He was quite loopy from all the drugs. We did have a lot of laughs! And I can't wait to tell my dad all the funny stuff he said when he gets all better. The hardest part was leaving my parents. My mom is able to stay at the Fisher House there. What a NEAT home for families of veterans & those in the military. I'm VERY impressed & happy that she has an extremely comfortable place to stay. I was hoping the snow would fall so hard that the mountain passes would close & we'd be trapped in Seattle. But that's not what happened. Bummer.

On our way home we stopped at the Alpental Ski Lodge at the top of Snoqualmie Pass. We played in the snow & had a GREAT time! I didn't want to leave. This is the bridge that leads to the lodge & all the skiing. We didn't ski or snowboard, but had fun anyway. I only wish we'd packed a sled!

On top of the bridge we saw the most beautiful view of snowy trees, & a stream running underneath. Giant snowflakes were falling from the white, white sky. It was so magical & wonderful & lovely & magnificent. And, of course, my simple point-n-shoot camera can't explain it well enough either.

A fire-pit was set up outside. What a cool place this was. I loved watching all the tiny skiers bundled in turtlenecks, puffy winter pants, stomping clumsily around in their ski boots. Reminded me of winters with my family when I was a kid.

I was given this link by Nic & thought I'd share it with you: A project called Spirit Jump connects a person battling cancer with a gift giver. A small act of kindness to lift someone's spirit. It could be a card, something handmade, anything really. I think this is so amazingly neato. Click the 'Spirit Jump' link to read more about this super cool idea!

A Weekend Away...

I'll be gone this weekend on an adventure of sorts. My sis & bro & I will be leaving at 5 in the MORNING (?!!!?!) tomorrow on our way to Seattle (a 3 1/2 hour drive on a good weather day) to see our dad, who just had surgery. Cancer sucks & it's definitely taken our family on a little ride. The rollercoaster kind. And I hate rollercoasters.

Despite our reasons for traveling, the 3 of us are very excited about hanging out (without spouses or kids) & just being together. We're all in our 30's now & I can't even remember the last time it was just "us". Maybe never?

The mountain passes have been closed due to weather & avalanche warnings. Thankfully they've opened up & we can squeeze on through.

Thanks so much to all my blog friends, Etsy friends & Twitter friends who've sent prayers & well wishes. It really means a lot to me--& to my family.

And you better believe I'm packing a GIANT bag of crafty things to do. (**To view one of the projects I'll be working on, see & click photo up top**) Although, me + cars usually = sleepy girl. I've always been that way. My sis has already said she's planning on keeping me awake the WHOLE time. But 5 AM??!! Hey, maybe I'll get a random burst of inspiration at that time----a morning hour I rarely see. I doubt it though. I'm pretty sure I'll be in some sort of daze or tired stupor. Or sleeping with my eyes open just to appease my sister.

I'll be back Monday.

Happy Weekend!

Rockin' it Crafty-Style for Pops!

I recently realized that I didn't get pictures of all the Christmas goodies I made for the holidays. I was SO down to the last crafty seconds makin' stuff. Literally. I finished up the last gift an hour before our family gift exchange. There was no time for photos.

So, THIS go-around I wanted to show off what I got my dad for Christmas. My pop works at the family auto mechanic shop as the service writer. I visited him yesterday for a mini photo shoot. He wanted some fingerless gloves to work in. (Little did he know they are SO in!) I got the gloves at Home Depot. They're just the cheapo pack of 6 brown pairs of jersey gloves. I knew he'd be gettting them thrashed & dirty & that's why I went that route. He got the pirate skullie pair & the hammer pair for X-mas. For his birthday at the beginning of February, I made him this nuclear pair. It's sort of cool AND a joke at the same time since our back yard is pretty much the Hanford Site. (Plutonium manufactured at the site was used in the first atom bomb. Oh, & another jolly historical fact: 53 million gallons of high-level radioactive waste remain at this site--the most contaminated nuclear site in the United States.) Doesn't that just make ya chuckle?

The gloves are made the same way I make my cupcake aprons, using iron-on fusible sheets & stitching around the edges.

So, that's my show-n-tell for today.

REMEMBER: Today at 3pm I'll unveil (even though you've seen 'em) 2 cupcake prints in the shop! UPDATE! The prints are in the shop now, in a new "Cupcake Prints" section in the shop!

P.S. I'm out the rest of the day to work on learning how to make a zipper pouch for my February goal. I indeed have all the supplies--even a zipper foot already hidden in my stash at home. At least that's what the man at the fabric store told me I had. In his "yes" reply, he didn't even look up from what he was doing, so I'm a little nervous...