Happy Halloween!!!

I have included a few holiday appropriate picture for this post. The first is the dummy that I carefully constructed in attempt to frighten Aaron when he went to his closet after a long early morning shift. Sadly it didn’t scare him as much as it made him laugh. It did however scare me when I walked in the room just now having forgotten I put it there… Oh boy… In retrospect I needed a much more goulish face…

I also wanted to include some pictures of a magnificently creepy building in downtown Tacoma. I used this building for a project in my architecture class. We have been intrigued by it ever since we first started visiting Tacoma and took the wrong turn that discovered it. It was built as the Elks club headquarters, but has since been vacant for over 40 years. If this place isn’t haunted, I don’t know what is… 

And last, but not least here are some photos of my latest creative endeavour. I painted this old dresser and replaced the nobs with some colorful ceramic ones I bought years ago from my favorites store in Port Townsend. I did the painting at my parents house months ago and wasn’t able to transport the piece back here for quite a while. I finally decided to stuff in my car and strap everything down with bungee cords and get here no matter what. It is now happily fulfilling its long-awaited dresser destiny in our bedroom.

Something different…

Well, I don’t know that I will follow my original blog intentions after all. I’m a full time student and I don’t feel that I have the time and energy to maintain the blog I had originally envisioned. I will plan on it for a future project, but for now I think I will just use this spot for a creative outlet.

Aside from struggling with a capricious nature that has decided it is no longer interested in being an over-achieving student, I have recently become addicted to baking. I have spent most of my life in open rebellion against “traditional women’s activities”, but I’ve recently become more at peace with such things and have begun to embrace the “domestic goddess” within…

My dear friend Sally taught me to knit last winter and I think it started from there. While I will probably never graduate from scarves and simple blankets, I do get a great sense of accomplishment from wearing or using something I made with my own two hands (and what I described after my first successful project “a piece of string and two wooden sticks”…)

The other day I made my first loaf of bread. It was Challah bread (which is fairly complex as it has to be braided!) and that encouraged an army of French baguettes. Today I labored over a batch of “cowboy cookies” and actually made a tray of homemade croutons! Who am I? I’m just realizing how much of a creative outlet cooking can be. I used to think I could never have the patience for it because I hate having to follow specific rules and exact instructions. Happily, I’m discovering you don’t necessarily have to do that after all! I like to substitute not-so-healthy ingredients with better ones and see how they turn out. I made chocolate chip cookies a few weeks ago with “smart start” instead of butter and they ended up being the best ones I’ve ever made! Today’s cookies though I followed pretty closely because they were a Martha Stewart receipt and let’s face it- she makes you feel like you better play by the rules with her stuff!