A few of Dad's collections

I visited Elgin at the end of September and took the opportunity to take a few photos of my dad's various collections. This is just a small sampling, he has a several other small collections in his series of Wunderkammer.





Various lovely ammonites, some from me, along with other fossils (like petrified wood).



Shiva Lingam stones.



Phallic stones, all found on beaches during his travels.

New Year's Eve 2012

Some photos I took around my parents' house on New Year's Eve -- we went to a nearby(ish) Japanese supermarket to pick up supplies and made our own sushi, something we've done a few times before that's always really fun. My mom got me the baboon sculpture for Christmas, and my father hand carved the two Santa figurines several years ago. The Space Needle collection is one of my father's more recent endeavors (they are all vintage figurines from various years).

Whidbey Island hike

Saturday we hiked ~5 miles of bluff and beach on Whidbey Island. It was a gorgeous day and an insanely scenic hike. Fort Casey, a decommissioned naval fort, is also on the island so we wandered around its bunkers and cannon turrets for bit as well. I collected a handful of awesome rocks from the beach -- I've never seen a beach that had such a huge variety of rock types and colors.
[more photos]

moving in

This has been a very hectic week. Our things were finally delivered on Wednesday after even more delays -- many pieces of furniture arrived filthy somewhat damaged, and one whole box was stolen. The stolen box contained our PS3 and Mac Mini (and possibly other things we haven't realized are gone yet), hence my assumption it was stolen. I really hope the van line reimburses us for those things. It honestly didn't occur to me that any of our stuff was at risk of theft. The whole concept of a move is that we give them basically all of our stuff and they take it from point A to point B -- all of it. Turns out they also freely steal from people. I guess that was naive of us to pack two expensive things in one box... I suppose lesson learned.

We are finally in our new place, however, and most of our small items came through really well. We've been working all day on unpacking and arranging and have made awesome progress. More pictures when we get done!

more bookhou

I am a huge bookhou fan. Please see my past bookhou blogging here -- I have multiple pouches and one sling bag by the super talented Arounna.

Bags are one of my weaknesses. I have... a lot of them. I'm especially a sucker for tote bags but all styles are great. The combination of design/art/function all into one super useful everyday object is really interesting to me. The industrial designer in me can't get enough.

My most recent bookhou acquisition is the zip tote in the rain print with a waxed canvas bottom. It's the perfect size, and Arounna even customized it for me by putting the leather straps on the exterior with double rivets (thank you Arounna!). I have been taking it everywhere.