52 Tuesdays: Favorite Thrifts #6

What: Bocce Balls
Where: Fremont Sunday Market
Level of Love: 8 out of 10

I love these bocce balls for two reasons. One. Bocce ball is flippin' awesome. Two. They're just like my Mom and Dad's set that I grew up playing with. Nay, that I learned the art that is bocce ball with. The only reason I gave them an 8 is because the set is missing the small ball needed for play. I've since thrifted a croquet ball to use, but it would be nice to have the full set.

I have been secretly (okay, not so secretly...) hoping Mom will give me the set of my childhood someday. Which, she probably will, because she's cool like that. But, until then, I wasn't adverse to buying my own set as long as they were just like the one's Mom has. Because a girl's first bocce love is her bocce love for life. So, I kept my eye out for an awesome vintage set whenever we were out and about at such places. One Sunday, this set jumped out at me among the tables at the Fremont Sunday Market (it's a bit of a flee market, craft fair, food fair type of thing). There they were! It's the sort of place where there generally aren't prices on things, so I tentatively asked how much they were and joy of joys the price was right! The booth owner also proceeded to ask me what they were(!) and I gleefully explained the art of bocce to him. Apparently he had gotten them at an estate sale and hadn't the faintest idea what they were.

I feel it is at this point that I must confess I might not actually know the art of bocce. You see, I know the sort of bocce we used to play in my backyard. Which, now that I am grown, I admit is probably not the official way to play bocce. But it sure was a heck of a lot of fun. Here's what we'd do. Me. Mom. Dad. Each of us has two bocce big balls each. Mom always had yellow of course, Dad always had green, and I can't remember what color I'd always pick. I think I waffled between blue and red. There was one smaller blue ball between us. We'd all stand in one spot of the lawn and someone would get to throw the little blue ball. You could throw the little ball wherever you wanted in the direction of your choosing. When throwing this ball, the goal of our family was to toss it in a really, really difficult spot. Like, in the woods to the side of the lawn, or down the hill that slopped toward the lake, or just really far away. It was preferable if no one could see the little blue ball once it had been thrown. There was more mystery that way. Then, we all got to take turns throwing the big balls toward the general direction of the small ball, with the aim of having one of your big balls be the closest to the little ball. Even better would be actually hitting the little ball. You got one point for being the closest and two points for actually hitting it, regardless of if you ended up being the closest or not. Whoever was closest also got to be the one to throw the little ball next. We picked the number of points we wanted to play to, usually depending on how much daylight we had left. There are so many good memories tied up with playing bocce ball in our backyard. If you've ever been to my childhood home, you'll know that it's on a hill of sorts and the yard is divided into three levels with some pretty substantial slopes in between. At the top level is our front yard and driveway, and the bottom level ends at the lake. We had so much fun rolling the bocce balls down those hills! I remember more than a few times when we were worried we'd lost our bocce balls forever into the lake or among the leaves that covered the slopes between each level. It was common for us to work our way down the levels...then have to work our way back up! This created a situation where we would hurl our big bocce balls as hard as we could up the steep hill only to have them come rolling down to our feet.

So, there you have it. My bocce ball story. I'd love to hear if anyone else has any bocce knowledge or memories to share! Do you play like my family plays? Or are there actual rules to follow? These little bocces just got their first play of the year yesterday when we had our first 60 degree day in Seattle!

What I've Worn Lately

As I mentioned here, I've been trying to (re)figure out what I like to wear, and one way I'm doing that is by making an effort to take some photos of my dressed self. Especially when I feel like I've made a bit of an effort to put an outfit together that I feel good in. The goal is to feel good in what I'm wearing, to figure out what that is exactly, and get rid of clothes that don't fit with what I like.

So.

Here are some blurry photos of stuff I wore out of the house lately. They're blurry because...well...one thing I have figured out already is that I'm sort of awkward in front of the camera? Apparently it helps one who is taking pictures of oneself to make erratic movements right before the end of the self-timer on one's camera.

 

 

52 Tuesdays: Favorite Thrifts #5

What: Mid Century Dresser / Buffet
Where: Salvation Army, Sodo, Seattle
Level of Love: 11 out of 10

Much of the furniture in our home is thrifted, so it's about time I featured one here. This piece was something we had been hunting for awhile, so it was extra sweet when we finally found it. We knew we wanted something mid-century (yes, we caught the Mad Men bug) that would hold our record player and have plenty of low profile storage. Our apartment has very little storage and we have a lot of hobby related gear that needs to be accessible but still out of sight (I'll admit it: three of those six drawers are full of yarn). It had to be something with a pretty simple shape, too. And although we wanted mid-century we didn't want crazy mid-century that we'd get sick of in a few months. Even though we were ready to spend a little more for something extra special, we still didn't want to pay too much. That was the trick here in Seattle. There are plenty of really, really beautiful, perfect mid-century pieces at vintage furniture stores around the city. And they're ridiculously expensive. I wanted to thrift my own. Not pay five times as much for one someone else had thrifted, polished, and placed in their pretty shop window. These things are too sought after in these parts. While home in Wisconsin last summer, my heart hurt a little bit to see a whole gorgeous bedroom set in a lovely little shop in Wausau for about the same as just a dresser in Seattle, and know I couldn't possibly take it home on the plane with me (if you happen to live near Wausau - I highly recommend this shop btw). Okay. Rant about people who thrift things and mark them up to ridiculously high prices just because they can: over. Back to the dresser! We found it one weekend, just sitting there ready to be picked at the Salvation Army. I hovered over it while Kevin got the salesperson to come over and put a big 'ole sold tag on it. We weren't sure it would fit in the backseat of the car. Well, I was sure. But I'm always sure and I've been wrong about these things before (if we ever go to IKEA together, don't believe me when I shrug and say it'll all easily fit in the trunk, no problem). The salesperson was definitely unsure. He was a flat out disbeliever I'm sure. However, we gave it a go, and miracle of miracles it fit perfectly!!! We all felt so triumphant, even the salesperson, who I distinctly remember sharing a congratulatory handshake with. The dresser was $40 - definitely one of the higher priced thrift store items we've ever brought home, but 11 out of 10 worth it.

Churchill Family Yurt Tour 2013: Wallace Falls

The Churchill Family (Seattle extension) is going to dedicate as many of their summer weekends as possible to the yurt tour. What's a yurt you ask? Good question. It's a rustic cabin of sorts. They vary in their rusticity. Some could probably be called cabins (sush, they're yurts) and other are like fancy tents. Here are the yurts that exist in Washington State Parks. The goal of the Churchill family is to visit them all. It's kind of like a pub crawl. Except you stay in a yurt instead of going to pubs. And you go hiking and stuff instead of just getting sloppy drunk.

Stop #1: Wallace Falls

This was a few weekends ago. Wallace Falls is about an hour north east of Seattle, which made it a pretty quick trip for us. Although it turned out to be a great weekend, the weather didn't quite cooperate with us. We arrived early afternoon on Saturday to rain. We got settled into our yurt and decided to try to do a bit of hiking on the Wallace Falls trail in spite of the rain. It was a pretty light rain, we had rain jackets, and figured we'd be in the woods most of the time. We weren't the only one's giving it a go, either, as we met several people on the trail. But. Then it started to really rain about 15 minutes into our hike. We looked at each other and I think we both realized we were a lot wetter than we thought. Drenched, in fact. So, we decided to turn around and try again the next day. It was a good thing we did, too, because it turned into a full downpour, with a pretty chilly wind, and we were soaked by the time we got back to our yurt. We hung up all our wet things, crossed our fingers our essentials would be dry by Sunday (Kevin realized he'd only brought one pair of pants. Typical...), and spent the rest of the daylight hours warming up and reading in the yurt. It continued to rain all night, but our yurt had a little covered porch where we could sit and make dinner on our little propane grill. It was too wet or a campfire, but we had a candle. It was actually quite cozy to be in warm sweaters on the cool porch listening to the rain. Also, there was Prosecco, because what's better than a bottle of sparkly when you're on a yurt tour? Dinner was grilled brussel sprouts (favorite veg ever!!!) and salmon with Girl Scout cookies for dessert.


Sunday, we woke up early to more rain. Poo. But, what did we have to loose? We decided to hope for the best, and if we got soaked, we could just jump into our warm car and head home. So, we set out with dry clothes (don't worry, Kevin's things dried and he didn't have to go pants-less after all) on the trail to the lower, middle, and upper falls. The rain wasn't coming down too hard when we started and when we got in the woods it was very manageable. The trail was probably one of the most beautiful we have done yet. It followed the Wallace River most of the time, which was just rushing from winter rains and the start of the snow melt from up above. The forest in this part of the state was also very lush. Green and mossy and emerald colored wherever you looked.

Then, as we continued up the trail, we got a real treat. Snow.

At first just little bits on the ground in the shadowy parts of the forest. Then, as we hiked up from the middle falls to the upper falls the rain we had at the bottom turned into a full on snowfall. It was absolutely beautiful! There were a few inches on the trail at that point and it covered the treetops. Although I love the climate in Seattle, I do miss the Wisconsin snow a little bit sometimes. There's just something so magical about big, fluffy flakes of white filling your vision and building up wherever they fall. In addition to the snow, the falls themselves were also spectacular. Much bigger than we were expecting them to be and so powerful with the high water levels. Yes. Stop number one on the Churchill family yurt tour was a success.

 

Exciting Announcements from the Warmest Part of the House

Drum roll please...

I'VE STARTED WORKING FROM HOME!

Full time. As in every day. As in, I have two hours of my life back every day and an extra $50 is my pocket every week (that's the length of my (former) commute and about how much I was spending on gas). I don't tend to use caps very often because to me it's like you're shouting at people when you do it, which is generally not very polite, but is also totally appropriate in this scenario (apparently I also use lots of commas when I'm excited). Bear with me here, I'm going to do it again...

IT MEANS I GET TO DO THIS DURING MY LUNCH BREAK!!!!

That's me sitting by our little gas heater in the warmest spot of the house, knitting. I'm working on a special project for a very special aunt (love you Aunt Sue!) in the requested Green Bay Packer colors. I haven't made a scarf in awhile and am please with how quickly this one is flying off the needles. Sometimes a girl forgets how satisfying a simple 1x1 rib can be. 

In other news, I'm not the only one who likes to sit in the warmest spot of the house. Sweaters like to hang out here, too, while they're being blocked. 

This ones name is Boreal and she's also for a very special person: my Mom! She's a bit overdue since she was meant to be a Christmas present; but, from what I hear, the weather in Wisconsin is cooperating with my less-than-punctual knitting habits and it'll still be cold enough for Mom to wear her for awhile this season. Thank you very much Wisconsin.