Unpacking is More Fun Than Packing!

Happy Birthday, Sis!

Today is my sister Kate's birthday. She lives in Buffalo, NY, which in my opinion is way too far away. I wish she lived closer. Kate has a blog called Oh for Fun! named after a whimsical expression that our mother says. :) It was her blogging life that made me start a blog. Thanks Kate! This is fun!

Kate is always good for a laugh and, as her blog states, her writing is often over the top with fun. I wish I was as funny as her. Here is my recent favorite Oh For Fun! entry.

Kate, happy birthday! I miss you! Isn't about time for another audition in Seattle or Oregon?

Moving Along

One of my best friends, Catie P, moved away this week. Catie and I were housemates in Portland and when she left in 2003 to travel, I wasn't sure if I'd see her again. But, she landed back at our house with the same glowing light and it was like nothing had changed. Then she left to travel some more. Again, she surprised me and came back! But this time, I don't think Catie is coming back. She is going to poke around the country for a bit, visit people, and eventually end up in Asheville, NC where her family is. I've had lots of fun times and long talks about life with her. Catie, my girl, I will miss you! You are such a good friend!

Although I'm super sad that she is so far away, I hear there is great music in Asheville and I plan to visit.

While Catie is moving from Portland, I am moving back to Portland next week. Funny how that works out.

Hot Music

High Sierra Music Festival was long and hot, but fun and worth the heat and the lack of sleep. I worked on the ambiance crew which means decorating the stages and grounds of the fest. Very fun! For a jungle themed late-night stage hall, I did a lot of cutting, pasting, laminating, and hanging huge paper flowers. Also, with my friends Jen and Angela from the bay area, we made a 10-ft. tall waterfall out of pretty translucent paper and lights. I also spent a few late night hours stringing white lights from tree to tree in a grassy meadow with my good friend Lindsey. Since it is so hot at High Sierra (over 100 degress every day), the coolness of the night is invigorating.

The ambiance crew is really fun in an unorganized way.... there's a huge barn of supplies and decorations and for two days, we just tore through it and went to town! I wish I had more pictures of this. I did not hang the "I Feel Good" that you see above, but it captured how I felt at that moment.


Along with 4 stages of continuous music, there are a lot of crazy sights at High Sierra. These festival-goers are my favorite, and god I wish I was as cool as them. At night, their seahorses light up beautifully and it's fun to watch them cruise around.


There were probably 40 or so bands at High Sierra and I had my eye on the ones with fiddle. My favorite set of the weekend was Chris Thile (mandolin, formerly of Nickel Creek) and the How to Grow a Band, which I stood at front and center. They have great pickers and also a great name and I like their deisgn. At the end of the set, Darol Anger was invited to join, so he spontaneously ran to his campsite and hopped up on stage with his violin. Classic. I love that.

One of my favorite new bands is the Ryan Montbleau Band, a bluesy little troupe from around Boston. They have a dude who plays viola.

Brett Dennen never disappoints, with his soulful, fun-loving, crowd-rowsing songs.


It was really fun to see Raina Rose (above with guitar), a Portland singer who is full of positive light. I listened to her CD in my car repeatedly after High Sierra, passing through Portland for a couple days.

Here is a picture of ThaMuseMeant, a great band formerly from of Portland. The great Enion Pelta plays the 5-string violin, which I got to play at her camp. It's like a violin and viola in one. Her husband, Dave, plays a mean mandolin. I don't think you can see it in this picture, but can anyone tell me why, oh why, does he have a chinrest on his mandolin??

Believe it or not, the girl in this picture above is not me. But as I stood there trying to get a good picture of the band, I was sort of wondering if I was looking at the back of myself, with pigtails, a spaghetti strap tank, sunglasses, and a barrell clasp necklace, so I captured her in there with the band because I just liked her.

On the last night of the festival, I was well-rested and ready to GO BIG. But unfortunately, at 6PM I had one bite from a plate of unlabeled pot cookies. It was so strong that it put me to bed just as the night was starting to come alive. I was mad that it wasn't labeled! Apparently this was so it wouldn't be noticed by festival police, but my feelings are that friend's well-beings should come first and that plate should not have been innocently sitting there going "Eat me!" But oh well. Even though my fun night was squelched, it kind of makes a funny story and it was a learning experience. Beware of festival baked goods!

Listen to this craziness... Ziegy went down to High Sierra a day later than I did and ended up helping out a friend of a friend named Hannah, giving her a ride down from Seattle. They had never met. On the way, they stopped in Portland and were hanging out at Hannah's friend Emily's house. It wasn't until then that they realized that Hannah is also my old friend from Portland and the girl whose house they were at, Emily, is my old roommate of 2 years. Isn't that a fabulous connection? I screamed when I heard. I loved when people come together like that! And I loved getting to see Hannah at the fest.

Unfortunately, Ziegy's VW van did not make all the way to High Sierra and Ziegy, Hannah, Steve, and Stacey had to rent a van after it stalled in the mountains of northern California. So we rode back home in a luxury mini-van. It made for a good adventure for all and it's all covered under warranty. We kept on smiling.

Skirts and Stuff

Tomorrow we are heading to California for the fun and outrageous High Sierra Music Festival. It means I finally get to flaunt this cute skirt I sewed a while ago.


The skirt is fitted and stretchy. It's made out of spandex. The ladies at the sewing store tried to tell me that it wasn't going to work to sew on the red bobble garland at the bottom because it doesn't stretch (even if I stretched the spandex). Guess what. It worked! It's stretches wonderfully!


These are little hair ties. They're just strips of spandex and decorative yarn and they're about six inches long.


Actually, I've kind of gone crazy the past few days. Here's another skirt I made. The little blue guys hanging down are more spandex. I like the way that they hang straight and don't wrinkle.

One thing I learned: Spandex + hot glue gun = happiness and fun

I also just finished sewing the curtains for our VW bus that is going down to High Sierra. We'll be gone until next Monday night. Back with a lot of musical and creative inspiration of course.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.