Country Village in Bothell

I don't know if you have ever had the chance to go to Country Village. It's changed over the years, different shops, places move stay in the village but move to different locations. When my daughter was little we used to go to fill the time.  It had my favorite independent fabric shop. Here I learned to quilt by hand, and to do traditional English smocking, not using a sewing machine, but the smocker with numerous needles you threaded to gather the fabric and then did embroidery stitches over. 

We (my daughter and I) would go and feed the ducks and chickens.  They also had bunnies and some other birds - doves, and occasional peacock.  It seems like most of the stores and restaurants have changed over the years.  Many of my favorites are gone.  Some replaced by something similar and some replaced by something completely different. 
We ( my hubs, my girlfriend and her hubs) went to a fund raiser wine walk on Saturday.  You pay 20 dollars for 10 tickets for tasting, and bring your own glass.  We meandered around, looked thru a shop here and there, but not enough to really offer them business. We did also wander thru the various small bites put out.  Some were delicious and some we ordinary.  But we did stumble upon the most deletable sweet shop called Susan's Sweets.  She sits out of the way, and we only found our way in as a wine vendor was set up inside.  The wine I don't remember but this woman has quite the hand for making delectable desserts. We sampled her cheesecake, pecan bars, macaroons, and chocolate.  It was incredible.  She's got to have the best deserts in Seattle.  My daughter and her boyfriend were wondering around the village as well.  They ran into us at the sweet shop. They took home a pumpkin cookie that was almost like cake, with cream cheese frosting.  We spent some time listening to music with them.  Then they went off and so did we.

We headed to the Italian restaurant to get a little food.  They have happy hour all day everyday in there bar.  But they are pretty stingy with their bread products.  When asked for another piece of  pita bread they said it would be 2 dollars. which we all snubbed our nose at.  My girlfriend was more upset than we realized though.  She took charge of paying the bill, and we'll leave it at that.  LOL.  I love my friend and she had her reasons.  The service was bad, wrong orders delivered, 10 minute wait for them to correct their mistake, with no apology, so the bread should have been a freebie for their mistake. We love happy hour, but its safe to say, we won't be back there.
I was inspired to go back another day though when its not a special event and I can browse the stores. 

finally finished!

I started this little market bag, for my daughter while she was down in San Francisco in July.  After working on it for awhile I kept thinking something was wrong with the pattern instructions because it always came out wrong.  And so I scrutinized it and decided that I had interpreted it wrong and proceeded to take out and redo. It turned out much nicer the 2nd time around.

I'm thinking I might put a little decoration on one of the handles where it connects to the bag just for some added pizazz.

 If you look at the photo to the right, you can also see a layering top I made her last summer but could never get her to decide how much she wanted the side sewn- until now.  No green is not her favorite color, but when I go to the yarn shops I get into these moods for green and if its strikes me right. Too bad little one.  I'm actually very happy with how both items turned out.  The bag is a good size for a few days worth of shopping.  Since she will be using metro and her legs, I didn't want to overwhelm her with too big of a bag.  She also passes the store on the way to and from school.

I've already started my next crochet project.  A shawl made from a peruvian cotton in pink.  It's not really what I would call lacy but its open weave.  I think it will make a great gift. The pattern is by Bernat and free through their website.

Don't get too distracted by junk on my work table.  I always have stuff out there, either starting a project and get sidetracked or storing things. like etsy baby booties there on the right.  Since I give most of the things I make away or sell, its always nice to kind of revel in their presence until they go away.  Does anyone else ever feel that way?

Third Thursday Wine walk

I just recently found out that locally we have what is called a Warehouse Wineries Wine Walk every 3rd Thursday.  For 20 dollars, you bring your own glass and then there up to 30 participating wineries that offer tastings.  Some offer only 2 tastings maybe a red and a white and others offer  up to 4.  So its quite a variety of what you can find there.  Along with the wine tastings some local restaurants also offer "small bites" which run 1-4 dollars for anywhere from a slice of  pizza, to pasta, smokehouse bbq etc.  These are just the right size to pair up with certain wines- for taste value AND to help hold the inebriation down.. LOL  
My girlfriend and I went yesterday, and had a hoot of a time.  We ran into a group of school teachers who teach in her dept. at school several times.  We also found 2 chocolate vendors who paired up with some wines that were extraordinary!
If you live in the area, they are going to be doing this at woodland park zoo on the 27th and also at Country Village Aug 28th. We already have plans to go with our husbands for to the Country Village event.

Inspired but stuck

Our home still has not sold but the real estate agent assures me, its still not close to the average days on the market before sold. mls seen here The home next door sold after 270 days, They had planned on taking it off the market in August, and it sold August 1st. It's good for us, instead of having 2 homes side by side on the market, but I wish mine had sold first.
I'm ready to be decorating.  And I have ideas but I can't move on them yet. I've never settled into this house.  I gave up most of my style when I moved here.  I had and eclectic style with a yearn towards traditional English before.  Now I have builders beige, but nice touches of granite, cherry cabinets, and various tiles. 

I love summer, and all of my summer decor except for 3 little candle holders are packed away.   I like sitting on the patio or deck, listening to music, feeling the breeze and enjoying the flora .  I have always had a fondness for White wicker like this set on the right.
My husband is not of the same mind though.  He actually detest it, but I'm not really sure why. Someday, I will have a couple pieces of this on my new deck or patio. 

I want color back in my life, with walls that take notice because they are a rich color of green or blue, or even a brown.  My prior home had Teal in various shades, in the main living area.  The family room which was also a daylight basement was done more in cabin colors with the honey golds, reds, navy blues and green.   The trend when we moved was to do Dark red walls in dining rooms and living rooms, also using dark dark browns on the walls. I kind of fed into this, but find I never committed to it.  I kept thinking I would paint some of these colors, but I just couldn't commit the time and effort into this house.  So now, yes I'm ready, and if anything, my only issue is that I love the cottage look in summer, with white white walls and light soft colors of mint green or faded blue jean with touches of bright red or yellow.  I'm ready for a project that doesn't involve packing boxes or taking things to the salvation army. 

Week in review (part 2)

McAllister Tower , Ems summer digs

Sunday, NO BF.  He caught and early flight home.  I'm still unsure why he would spend 300 dollars for a day and half.   Daughter and I looked through adds trying to find housing, and sending out all kinds of emails for room shares.  By the time we got ready and out, breakfast was long over everywhere. 
We hopped the F line down to the union square. Here we went and grabbed some light breakfast. We went to Macy's after that so I could get a light weight jacket.  Then we decided to try and go look at a couple of residence housing places that are like dorms.  One is right on Turk and near the police station and past the opera house etc.  During the summer alot of the students stay here from the dance school.  It's clean and has most of what you need, including being furnished with bed and desk, and shared kitchen &  also have laundry on site. Although a lot of students stay here its not all students. 
We went to check out a second one, but the front desk person wasn't at the desk so we couldn't get in. and decided we would hit again on Monday after emailing them.   For dinner we headed to the Crab House.  My daughter went here with friends.  It was delicious.
We shared an appetizer and then had crab enchiladas (these were the best) and cioppino.  The crab needed to be cracked for the cioppino so it was extremely messy, but the tomato soup with it was surprising spicy.  We set next to a table of 4 Italian college age boys, who had the appetites of Seals, and the manners (at least some of them) of wild boars.  With about a 150 dollars of crab legs on their table among other things, one of them continuously burped his satisfaction of the feast.  One of them kept looking over at my daughter in embarrassment every time this occurred.  Lets just say the croaking was not pretty.
Em and I made our way through the pier looking around a bit, and listening to the street musicians.  We realized it was getting late, and needed to grab the F line back to the hotel.  So we headed over there.  I think it was the last one for the night, and it was a ride well worth the 2 bucks! 
The coach was so crowded, and each stop a few more would try to squeeze on.  The driver who extremely joyful, finally shouts out repeat after me " WE will we will rock you", and then demands a beat.  People start stomping and clapping, and singing.  The driver says at every stop. Whoo whoo, you 're on the party bus.  What ever happens on the party bus stays on the party bus.  Finally we are all so crammed its worse than any sardine can.  Then she has to drive by a stop because no one was getting off and there just wasn't room for any more bodies.   People had video camera's out filming all of this, and singing, and one guy was singing in Italian.  It was pretty awesome. 

That was also the night we passed the shooting on the way back to the hotel where a nightclub had a private party and it was kids between 13 and 17 but some had managed to bring guns.. Of course innocent bystander visiting from Germany celebrating her 50th b-day and anniversary, was killed.  Oh yes, this country and its guns... priceless possessions that can't even be taken when you claim bankruptcy now.

out side the Wipe Out

we looked through more housing stuff.  We thought we early enough to get breakfast so we headed out to the F line and back down to the pier.  We  were past the ferry building and  not down to 39.  I was ready to just go to Denny's down there.  It's not on the pier but a couple blocks up.  The power went out on the Cable line, and we were stuck. After 15 minutes of no return of the power ( and listening to the mews of my daughter- "I'm hungry,") we hopped out and walked the rest of the way to Wipe Out for lunch on pier 39 it was berfore Denny's,  haha.  They have mixed reviews, and I grew up in Southern Cali, and this in no way resembles the surf shacks that served food that I remember. However, these guys have the best fish tacos I've ever eaten.  Even the ones in Kauai at Dukes didn't match these.  The fish is grilled and the sauce is a cream sauce with jalapeno.  Got a salad with it and it was the perfect mix.  

We then went back towards the housing residence we wanted to check out.  She was really happy with this one. It's on the fringes of the tenderloin/civic center area but is all students from different colleges.  Its a few blocks from the Conservatory of music and about 8 blocks from the Dance Conservatory.  It really offers a nice interior environment.  It has large shared kitchen , laundry area, exercise room, music practice rooms, a large communal area with TV, pool tables, ping pong etc.  Overall its the most like regular college dorms.
We have put in and application and wait to see.
Dinner was over at Boudin in the bar upstairs.  They have good happy hour. 

skeleton man. weird but amusing

Then we strolled down and had to make her obligatory visit to Ghirardelli.  Something about the awesome sundaes with overwhelming chocolate.  WE compromised and had a strawberry chocolate, since I'm not the chocoholic she is.
Monday I was glad to be going home.  We walked to the hotel around the corner for breakfast, they were less expensive and had a better menu.  Then back to pack and take the Bart to the airport. 

The week in review [part 1)

Last weekend seemed to go by pretty quickly.  Flew down to San Fran Friday, and rode the Bart from the airport to the hotel.  I was staying in the civic center area, because my daughter was staying in the same area- McAllister Tower of the law school.  It was her first experience of living in a high rise. She was ensconced on the 19th floor while another good friend was on the 15th.  The sky room was the 24th floor, and they could take meals up here. 
I had wanted to get in early enough to catch the show Friday night, but not being familiar enough with the area where the theatre was, I was very hesitant to try and get there halfway through it, carting a weekender bag on top of it.  So I headed to the hotel instead.  I was surprised by the room, as I managed to get a free upgrade and was on the executive floor for the weekend.  I chose this hotel because it had a pool, but we never seemed to make it out there.  Always back to late to use the jacuzzi at night, and too chilly in the mornings.  However its location to metro stops and the Bart was "most excellent" as bill and ted would say.
Friday, I ended up eating in the hotel the bar was small and should have been more pleasant but the bartender was one of those, who didn't feel he had to serve you UNTIL one of the hotel managers camped out in there.  HAHA. However they didn't have any of my new favorite liquor for summer which is Firefly tea or Sweet Carolina tea ( its vodka infused with sweet tea)  mix it with some lemonade, and its just like an Arnold Palmer with a kick!  then I had a dry and tasteless turkey BLT.  adding mayo or guac or even mustard would have helped, but  the key word is HELP, I couldn't get the restaurant guy back in there to ask for some.
Saturday, I googled the theatre and bus routes, and headed over a little early.  Ended up walking past the Urban food market store, as well as the dance studios where my daughter had been working all summer, and finally hit the bus to the theatre.  I believe there may have been a quicker way than walking 8 blocks to the bus, but it wasn't a bad walk.  Once at Z space, I ran over to the Coffee Bar and had kind of a brunch- creamy tomato soup that they make and a Limonata Pellegrino.  YUM.   grabbed a coffee to go over to the theatre and wait.
While at the theatre ran into my daughters room mates parents and we chatted for awhile. Oh did I mention her boyfriend was there?  I'm really not sure, WHY when these kids have limited funds he would spend for a ticket to basically fly down for one day.  This isn't really that big of a deal. 
Show was really interesting, but I did hear from our friends they weren't used to this kind of modern.
My daughters group did a 19 minute excerpt from Robert Moses "Lucifer's Prance".  I would like to see the whole thing someday.  Its a pretty amazing piece. She was in a few other pieces too, all interesting to watch.
Once the show was over and the students all say good byes to each other we needed to head over to the tower to get her luggage.  This is where I started to get grumpy.  The boyfriend, decided he should monopolize my daughter.  This actually started at the theatre.  As we walked up the street they continuously walked 20 feet in front of me.  I had planned on this being a weekend for my daughter and myself.  (This young man has spent almost every weekend at our house since October 09, and much of any vacation too.  Its rather difficult and intrusive sometimes.  He stays in a guest room, but I'm not all that approving of him anymore.  Prior to this, he was a relatively nice kid, but hes' done somethings that make me less than impressed with his ethics.  Henceforth I would prefer they are not together so much.)  So we made it to the tower, grabbed the luggage, and walked through the civic center to the other side where my hotel is.  After dropping off the luggage, we decided dinner was necessary.  They chose a place in Haight Ashbury called the Squat and Gobble.  They make crepes filled with some less than traditional fillings as well as breakfast crepes.  I had the Mediterranean crepe as did my daughter.  It is delicious, filled with feta, eggplant, squash, kalamata olives I think.  It was perfect.
After a quick stroll through the rest of the street, we went to Amoeba records for a bit.  Then grabbed a bus back to Union square.  By this time I was getting chilled, and had realized that I didn't pack a jacket- so with 10 minutes to spare to closing, ran into Westfield to try and find something that didn't cost a weeks worth of pay.  Unfortunately that didn't happen.  As a last effort to do something ran up to the movie theatre but nothing great there I hadn't already seen also listening to BF say he can't really afford a ticket.  We headed to Borders and they are serving a miraculous Carmel apple cider.  That was pretty delicious.   Funny here the BF had plenty of money to spend on coffee drinks.
It was getting late, and I have learned over time, walking in certain parts of the city is not desirable. having to go thru the tenderloin this late isn't Hot on my top 10 list of things to do. I had told them I wanted to take the bus back, but of course BF just really wants to walk (personally I think he was too cheap to put the 2 dollars up  for the bus),  His naivete is ridiculous.  A street person tells him he wants to shine his TENNIS shoes.  So he sits there and starts talking with him.  At this point I was ready to take off and say you're on your own.  Em says "he's too nice, to just say no" and I'm like he's too dumb.  Someday he will be mugged, I'm fairly sure.  So after 10 minutes he comes over and says "Can you even shine tennis shoes?"  ARRGHHHH.  I made a comment this is one of the reasons I don't like walking out here at night.  I also have a sacrum that slips out of place, and have adjusted a couple times a month but if walking alot it can be a constant pain from misalignment.  My feet were swollen from eating take out foods with more salt than I normally have along with being on my feet for over 12 hours. And again, they start in on the walk several feet in front of me.  By the time we got back to the hotel, I walked straight into the shop there, and bought some Motrin.  I had seething anger and pain running in my veins.  I got in my room and headed to the bathroom.  Where BF says" are you OK?"  REALLY you are asking me this? "No I'm not dammit. My feet hurt, my back hurts, I don't like walking through the tenderloin at night," (Left of the reply "You 've monopolized my daughter, I've been feeling like I"m Asian and required to walk 20 paces behind the husband or something.)" Yeah I'm freaking great," and shut the bathroom door.  When I walked out he was leaving, although he asked if he could stay for awhile prior to that.  After all he was going to have to take the Bart to Oakland because he was too cheap to pay for a youth hostel in town.   Whatever.  After he left, and the Motrin and a hot shower washed away the city  and the anger, I was finally able to relax.  The rest of the weekend went much better.  Which I will post in 2nd post here.

Tomorrow is the day!

I am so excited to go on my trip tomorrow and see my daughter.  I'm hoping I will make it in time to catch part of her performance at the theatre.  I know I will see Saturday's show but she's much more excited about her Friday night performance.
If you are in San Francisco, I would suggest going to see the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance's show. Its Friday evening and Saturday matinee. I attended this last year and was amazed at the performances of these students.  They have been studying for 4 weeks intensively, and start with choreography the first week. I know that one of the pieces my daughter is doing is 19 minutes long, and they get it to perfection. 

We will hopefully get some housing issues settled while I am there too.  I'm disappointed that the school does not have a dormitory nor is it involved in helping students get roommates and housing for fall.  Since students audition and come from all over, it would be helpful to develop this service. It wouldn't take them that much time to develop a relationship with a few places and cross reference in coming students. Maybe after this year I can encourage them to do this..=)

Well back to packing and making sure the house is clean just in case someone wants to come by and take a look at my house!!

What a difference a day can make!

I am in shock, still from my afternoon of working with the kids.  I usually teach Friday afternoons.  When I get my group or groups of kids, its usually one of the last classes of the day, AND the last class of the week.  So usually they are a bit tired, antsy to go home, and right now I'm working with middle school-ers, and often feel like hari-kare would be a good alternative. I don't in all honesty know how academic teachers do this age group day in and day out.  I'm fortunate to have a class that is active and involves physical activity.  However, when you have a class of 27 kids and a quarter of them talk & talk& talk& and you tell them to stop, and they keep going, and You make them do things like jumping jacks to  wear them out more, they still talk.  These are the children I would like to bring duct tape in and use it liberally.

But due to travel plans for the weekend, I needed to change my class schedule this week.  So I taught the last class BUT it was on the first day of the week.  It's absolutely astounding the difference.  They were quiet, listened, participated without complaint. I was able to get through the whole workout without having to threaten, or cajole.   And I can't wait to see how they act on Friday for the teachers who usually have them on Monday.  It should be very interesting.

Movie time.

Monday my husband had a dental appointment and used it as and excuse to take the day off.   So we headed to the movies.  Salt with Angelina Jolie was out.  We liked it, its very thrilling, lots of intense action.  Some of the reviews have not been so kind, referring to it a a large budget to blow things up, and the script was written on post it notes, but I do have to say its deeper than that.  After seeing Inception the week before, which is also intense with some interesting subtleties, I thought it was still a good flick.

On of our friends just returned from several weeks in Germany so we headed to the movies with her today.  Surprisingly we saw Dinner with the Schmucks and it was MUCH MUCH better than anticipated.  We laughed so hard, and you do need to stay all the way thru the credits for the last little bit.  We were the only ones in there, when we were surprised by this little bit.  I am not a big fan of Steve Corel but I know many others are.  I am slightly amazed he got some of the lines out with blowing it. 

So if your looking for intensity and espionage, see SALT.  If your looking to lighten your mood and have a good time, see Dinner with the Scmucks.