Wednesday, June 27, 2007

The Full Picture


It's not very often that a picture of a band is taken in which no one's face is covered by something and everyone is smiling. But, here is the Deadwood Revival opening set (Jason, Bryan, Kim, and me) from last Tuesday at the Tractor Tavern in Seattle. Bryan, the bass player for Hot Buttered Rum played the entire set with us, learning some of the tunes on the fly, just cause he's a rockstar like that.

After the the Seattle shows, I drove up to Vancouver, BC over the weekend to see another Hot Buttered Rum show. It was a much needed personal adventure. I had the full Canada experience by having my whole car searched at the border, catching the Sky Train to go shopping downtown, and then sleeping at a marginally-comfortable hostel. The show, of course, was a really fun! I chose not to sit in with the band in order to not disrupt the flow of just dancing and smiling. I united with some random new and old friends. I slipped away to the restroom at one point, and when I returned, this picture was on my camera.

Clockwise from left is Ben, who is Zac (the mandolin player)'s cousin and who sat in with them on guitar, Andy, the band's bus driver, and John and Michelle, Butter friends who live in Bellingham, WA.

I go through phases, but I'm definetely stuck in the Butter dish right now. Next up, I'll see them next weekend again at High Sierra music festival, which we are leaving for this weekend.

Friday, June 22, 2007

Fresh Butter

One person was confused about my last post, wondering if I was opening for Hot Buttered Rum by myself. Now that would be funny, but no, Deadwood Revival had invited me to play with them for their opening set. I was just tooting my own horn.

These musical experiences feel like candy to me. After all, Butter does rock my world. And Deadwood Revival rocks my world and I'm stoked to play with them. (Mom, thank you for taking me to violin lessons every week as a kid! A topic for another post.)


Here is my favorite picture of Hot Buttered Rum.



Deadwood Revival is a duo of my friends Kim on guitar and Jason on banjo, both with high energy vocals. I'm not officially in the band, but I play with them when I can.

Deadwood opened for Butter on the first night of 2 Seattle shows. On the second night another band opened but the Butter boys invited me up to play a tune during their set. It's always interesting to go up, play a few notes, and come back down... not much chance to get my groove on or get used to the sound, but I guess that's what sitting in is all about.

Oh, and notice Erik to the the left of me. He normally plays the banjo, but when he's in Seattle he borrows Ziegy's dobro and sometimes plays it instead. Do you like his t-shirt? It says "drop steel" which is another name for dobro. It's a shirt that I designed and printed for Ziegy, who loved it so much he had one made for Erik as well. Nice shirt Erik! To the right of me, Zac tells us about the "Red Clay Halo on his head."

Although Ziegy and I are moving to Portland soon, I'm so glad I got to live in Seattle for a year. If I hadn't, I would't have become such good friends with Kim and Jason and I wouldn't be zipping up to Vancouver, BC in a few minutes to catch 2 more Butter shows this weekend.

Monday, June 18, 2007

A Great Many Things

Tomorrow night I will be opening for my favorite band. Let me just reflect on that one more time. I get to open for my favorite band. I'll be playing fiddle with my friends Kim and Jason of Deadwood Revival, warming up the stage for Hot Buttered Rum.

Life throws A Great Many Things at me. When it feels cloudy and gray, it helps to remind myself that I get to do a lot of cool stuff.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Lil' Sack


A few months back, I sewed this little handbag. All I did was by cut off the bottom of an old pair of jeans and close off the bottom with just one little seam. For the handle, I sewed on something that was orginally meant to be a headband, but I never got around to sewing on the elastic. Super easy! Since it doesn't fasten at the top, I've never used it other than to toss household stuff in it. But I recently noticed that it makes a fine lil' sack for a small knitting project. Today I carried it around like this. What am I knitting, you ask? Just wait. It's almost finished.

Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Baby Legs

Take a look at these cutie-pies. They're baby legwarmers! Baby Legs was started a few years ago here in Seattle and now they're in stores in cities wherever babies live. The girl who started them first made some legwarmers out of sleeves (or something creative) for her baby, then she started making them for friends, and now it's a business that is flying off. Aren't they cute?? (That's pronounced kee-yoot.) Baby Legs are only $12 and are a great gift for anyone who has a baby or small kid in their life. I recommend.


On a totally unrelated note, I think this whole blogging thing is really fun! For a while now, I've been reading my sister
Kate's blog, as well as Ashley, Courtney, and Amanda's blog. Only now have a realized there is a ginormous blogging community out there! I almost had an accident in my pants when I saw the 62 comments on Hello my name is Heather or the 294 comments on Crazy Aunt Purl. And all of those people who commented have blogs, and all their people have blogs, and it is pretty much an insane chain of neverending blogs to read!! I've already done a fantastic job wasting hours upon hours weaving my way through this. And many more joyously wasted hours to come!

One thing I don't totally grasp yet is the whole feed thing. Luckly Mira informed me of bloglines, and Katt, the nice girl who works up at Hilltop Yarn, explained to me today more about how bloglines works, but it's still a little jumbly to me.

Friday, June 1, 2007

Good Times (Part 2)

Everything has been feeling really fun and exciting lately. For 3 reasons. I'll save the best for last.

1 Last night Ziegy surprised me for my birthday. He took me out on a mysterious venture and we ended up at our friend's Russ and Kerstin's house for a fun birthday celebration. Another thing to remind me that I have great Seattle friends! Too bad not everyone is in the picture, but it's the best one I have.


2 It's our anniversary! He would say we started dating the night we met up at Folklife in 2005 and watched Children of the Revolution together. I'd say our anniversary is my birthday, when just a few days later, he came down and stayed with me for my 27th birthday celebration in Portland. So, our anniversary is all week long.

3 The best part of all.... are you ready for this???
ZIEGY GOT THE JOB!! That's right folks, we are for-sure moving back to Portland. He starts August 6. This is a huge milestone, as he has been chasing this job for about a year now. It's an ocean science marketing job with a Denmark company. He'll be working from home and traveling a lot. He created the position. It's his dream job. I am so proud of him! He figured out what he wanted and he went out and made it happen. I admire him so much for this, as it is not something I've ever been great at. Now, with unknown territory and a lot of hard work ahead, it's my job to be extra supportive of him. Change is in the air.

So, we have a lot to celebrate this week!!