Yesterday I was thinking about the 80's and immediately thought of the bands A-Ha and Depeche Mode. Who do you think of right away? Thompson Twins pop in there pretty quickly and then I visualize images from MTV of them...I was right there when MTV began and it was so cool. They had a rocket taking off as their commercial and 2 DJ's I think. There were no shows, just music. I remember one time I was babysitting and my brother Brandon came along. That night MTV was having a Madonna True Blue music video contest. That night we heard that song play over and over and over 100's of times, with different video's. I was so sick of the song but I couldn't quit watching the video's. I was 13. I would walk over to my best friend's house and we would listen to Depeche mode, breathe in incense and smoke pot. Young huh? My life was crazy back then. We also had this Indian friend Umperkosh who was CRAZY for Madonna. He was probably 11 or 12, super dark skin, new to the US with broken english. He was hilarious. I had a huge poster of Madonna in my room on my ceiling and when he saw it he shrieked like a girl grabbing his chest and swooning over her trying to touch it and kiss it. He was obsessed. I had another friend Holly that was totally obsessed with Nick of Duran Duran and copied his exact hairstyle everyday. He was a part of our daily conversations, I got to know a lot obout him. Through my brothers I was forced to be subjected to RATT and Motley Crue and such. Back then I couldn't stand the butt rockers and would give them so much shit! Now I love em

So it's summer time officially which means that the pool is up, the gardens are growing and camping is in the immediate future. Burning Man is also coming up soon...end of August.



Last week I had SO much fun at Gasworks Park rolling down the hill. We had so much fun during the day that we went back that night under the full moon and rolled down while the sprinklers were going and got soaked! I have never been so dizzy for so long! And of course we played frisbee. Everywhere we went.

(the images are too big, so right click to see the whole thing)







We saw this dog while we were there and when he ran he got long and when he just stood there he was short again. Wiener dog- regular dog. SO hilarious. I thought my eyes were deceiving me but Tanya saw it too. This was the coolest dog I have ever met. The only dog I ever saw that was a cartoon in real life.





We were drinking Southern Comfort, which is I actually think tastes disgusting...as you can see!



Haha! Not so good eh?

Night pics...










Rey had a birthday...



Flea got her braces!




And one morning we went to the beach with the bear!
















Hahahahhahahhhaaaa!!

We had a body painting event at Level 5....Miguel did the bodypainting and his brother Teggart assisted.








And the summer has only just begun

xo
Blyss

I have something I am very excited about but you'll just have to wait and see

The dishes are done dude! Show is up and I'm going to bed

It has been 3 solid days of getting ready for this show I have coming up. SOLID. I finally have all 50 (!) of my photos chosen, ordered, printed and picked up. Last night andnowmiguel and our neighbor Michael cut all my mats and got all my framing supplies ready to go...til all hours of the night while I crashed out finally at 11pm. Woke up this morning and went to work on assembling all 50 of my prints with glass, aluminum framing clips and hanging string. Holy moly, I was going to go crazy with figuring out how to de-fingerprint all the glass and how to remove all the teeny tiny specks of paper after I had cleaned them. Luckily I opened a case of glass that was pristinely clean and speck-less and it sped up my whole process a million times over.

I'm an expert now. C'mon, time me! Ugh. Never mind, how bout a nap? mmmmm....sleep.

Nope, not yet. Now we are going over to Georgetown to hang the show. Only 50 to hang, don't you worry about me!!

Our neighbors are so cool! They just called us to dinner!

Bye!

I recently submitted some of my own photography into the Seattle Weekly's amateur art expo, Artopia. I got in! Much of it will be photos you have seen in my pics section but arranged in a really cool way.

If you are local come out and check it out! My very first art show


What: Julius Horton Building, 2nd Floor Art Gallery & Open Studios

Where: Julius Horton Building, 6004 12th Ave South, 2nd Floor, above All City Coffee.

When: Artopia, June 23rd, Noon - 8:00 pm

So! I just sent off for an application to the Seattle School of Midwifery!! That feels really good

I have taken 4 years off from nursing...it's really time to start getting back into it in some way or another. I last worked 3 years in public health which I really, really loved.....helping underprivileged patient populations. I would do it again in a heartbeat for sure. I would like to learn something new though as well and have always wanted to be a midwife. I allow myself lots of time for fun and playing around, especially the last few years. I definitely deserved it. I had been in school and worked my whole life, practically. I still will, but I definitely also need to continue to challenge myself. Work hard for something that means a lot to me. It's getting to be that time. That way, I can always feel good about my self.

I'm sure you all know what I mean.

Yesterday my daughter, andnowmiguel and I were in the Fremont Solstice parade I was actually only in it for the very beginning and then hopped back in right at the end. My daughter got really uncomfortable with all the strangers coming up to her and taking pictures without even asking her. She's camera shy anyway so I didn't blame her at all. We had a fun time anyway. I'll have pictures soon.

xo
Blyss

I had the best day yesterday. Sat in the sun and played in the pool, lounged around in our swimsuits drinking Gin and tonics with my sister Brook, andnowmiguel and my brother Jeremiah. Man...I LOVE those guys!

































Sometimes a day can pass in a blink and others can go on forever....that was yesterday, a perfect day that slowed down time, unpacked it's bags and moved in to the Days to Remember Hotel.

xo
Blyss

ps
You want to know something?


A) Yeah, yeah!! Give it to me! I want the facts, just the facts!!

B) Ooh a story, I want it juicy! Details, details!

Oh man, I saw the Beastie Boys at the Sasquatch festival on Saturday!! It is so crazy to think that I have been listening to them since I discovered License to Ill when I was 14 years old! They put on such a hot show and they're so funny! I really wanted to see them here in Seattle on Friday but I guess it sold out in like 14 seconds or something, but it was in a super small venue which would have been really, really cool. Anyway, they were decked out all styly and crackin jokes to each other the whole time. Rarrrrrrghhhhh! I love em!! They played a combo of brand new stuff mixed in with a couple super classics and a lot of Paul's Boutique.







(remember to right click on an image and click 'view image if you can't see the whole frame on your computer)

cool eh? Oh and if you love their music now, JUST WAIT til you hear their new album coming out soon. All instraMENTALly.....ssssoooooooooo good! My favorite song they played was one I had never heard before that is going to be on their new album. It's pretty amazing how they keep re-inventing themselves in such a completely original way that makes you want to terrorize the sound apart with the whole of you. mmmhmmm!

What's grosser than gross?

Hahahahhahaha! Gross huh? Wait! There's more!

A new discovery! Ghostland Observatory!!!!!!!!!!! They make me wanna boogie and bite you!!!!!!!!! They were there also. We found them playing after we dug into garbage cans finding and collecting cans to recycle and turn in for free goodz Yes, there I was in my bikini top under the hot, hot sun with andnowmiguel. He dug 'em out, I sqweeeeeshed 'em! Got scratched in the process



In return we got a skateboarding dvd, an Inconvenient Truth book, stickers and a

. Weird. But cool

So the weather on Saturday was warm and really nice. Not too hot, not too windy. The concert was sold out actually. We went with our friend BriooooooooOoo and his little muffins and my seester and her 4 leetle muffins. And of course I brought my one so very awesome, not quite so little, muffin. It was a campin' extravaganza. We have the sweet spot that we keep going back to, right on the water and totally free. Not to mention that hardly anybody knows about it so it's pretty much the same people every year and hardly any at that....and NO! I won't tell you!

Anyway, the concert was a lot of fun and we ended up waiting til the last minute (that would be me) to buy our tickets so we picked 'em up from a scalper at the show for $125 a piece. A lot, huh! But worth it. They had been going for $200 but I charmed him with my beedy beedy little eyes and we made off like beastie bandits. Luckily!

Ozomatli sounded great too, I hadn't seen them for a long time. Also good was Neko Case who I love.










After we finished RECYCLING (woohoo!), we cooled off in the refreshing mist area And then again and again and again and again all day.

Lots more concert pictures so only click if you're not dial up or have a lot of time to waiiiiiiiiit.

Before we went to the show on Saturday we all hung out by the water and played around. It was a beautiful day all day. We were going to go again to the show on Sunday but were hit with the biggest wind storm I have ever been in. This coming from a girl who LOVES the wind, that's saying a lot.

I just couldn't leave my sister with 7 kids and ditch her without a car or help and it's a good thing Miguel and I stayed because the wind lasted all day and night with gusts of almost 70 mph!! It would almost knock me over at times. We couldn't set up the barbeque and 2 of our tents gave out. Luckily we brought a couple of spare tents because we ended up really needing them. My sister has 2 year old twins and they were having a hard time of it so she needed to stay with them in the tent at all times which made for a long day for her. Miguel and I worked hard re-assembling, feeding kids and problem solving though we did get a nice nap in the middle of all of that.

My daughter at one point was trying to help us move blankets and tripped over a piece of re-bar sticking out of the ground, cut her foot and then got a really bad nose bleed immediately after. The wind was making the blood go everywhere and the babies were crying and she was crying....yeah, that was a little hard. We got her all fixed up though and my sister ran to the park with all the kids to give them a deterrent of just staying in the tent all day. The park location turned out to be just as windy though so she came on back, but first stopped at the corner market and heated up a bunch of warm food so that was good at least. In the end we found a location to move our tents and blankets on the other side of a big cliff and out of the wind, right as it was getting dark. The two older kids and Miguel and myself went back and forth getting 3 tents with warm bedding set up and then helped all the little kids and my sister over. They were all pretty cold and wind shocked by the whole thing by that time but warmed up and fell asleep super quick after getting out of the wind.

The reason we waited so long to move over to that spot was that for one, there was a big sign that said 'absolutely no camping beyond this point' and also because we just kept thinking the wind would let up. We would have just packed up and gone home only one of our group's vehicles was at the concert and there were too many of us to fit in the van. Anyway it must have gone on like that for 12 hours or more. When it was all over, though it was pretty crazy at times and uncomfortable some of the time also, everyone agreed that it was at least a crazy adventure.

Longest post ever maybe...? Someday when I I'm old and my memory isn't what it used to be I'll be happy I took all these pictures all my life. Hope your computer didn't put up a fight.



I sure would like to thank the nice person who sent me the beautiful, hardback book, 'Treehouses of the World'. I love it! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

xo
Blyss

It's been a while and I have been taking pictures like crazy of the places I have been so Be warned...this is a VERy photo intensive journal update!

The Lightning in a Bottle festival in Santa Barbara was such a beautiful event. I can't believe all the amazing music I heard in such a short time. Gamelon X, Bluetech,
Novatron, Bassnectar and Kid Beyond!!. You should really definately check out the Kid Beyond link, he can do incredible things with his voice!

And the trees at this festival!!!! It was such a different experience having all of these huge trees surrounding us and amidst us all. A differrent kind of playa experience and with so much more music. On the playa I miss so much because there is just so much art and music out there and then throw in all the people I know and love and only see on the playa and then throw in all the people I don't know yet but want to....there is a lot to experience.
























My brother Jeremiah...









Nova!




Bob and I...

Chermoya!!
























My brother and I,


**All pictures taken by andnowmiguel and/or myself.

I went to the farmers market today and bought so many veggie and flower starts. I had actually planted my garden before I left for Peru but the soil must be pretty depleted because very little of what I planted actually grew. Also I know that seeds grow better if started indoors or in a greenhouse but I thought I would just try it out and see what happened. So anyway, next week I get to re-prep and enrich my soil and then plant again. I am also going to put up my pool next week. Yahoo

I was going to go see Pan's Labyrinth at the movie theater today but rented it instead and am going to watch it and sit by the fire that Miguel just made for me. That will be better. And anyway we went to this really cool little place in West Seattle called Husky's deli and got grilled panini sandwhiches to go...and pickles! And pickled okra! ...Which I shared with a pack of 7 or 8 super cute boys on their way home from a birthday party. They were probably like 12 or 13 years old, trying to figure out the city bus fare and how much change they would have and fighting over what kind of chips they would buy with the $1 left over. Such cuties, we ate okra together and talked about pickled pigs feet. nice Moving along... we also got 4 differrent kinds of hot sauce and gourmet brownie mix and gourmet asparagus soup mix. MMmmmm! I have been on such a food kick lately. I actually have always loved to cook but lately I have been pouring through my Santa Fe and Soup cook books for good recipes. That was a good deli.

ok! Hope the pictures uploaded ok and if you can't see them because they are too big, right click to see the full image.

Also, Miguel asked me to marry him. Life is crazy and now we're engaged! Only...we already got married by the pope on the playa who I always swore was naked but who I realized after finding a picture, was actually clothed! I guess I was imagining him naked like guys do with nuns. Or something.

xo


Blyss

What better way to transition into being home again than to fly to Santa Barbara for the weekend, camping and dancing at the Lightning in a Bottle festival? Excellent

Also, check out this great green website, Tree Hugger.

If you like my Navy Girl set and would like to see it go live, or if you haven't seen it yet but would like to ....Click here!!. Staff will be re-reviewing sets in the next couple of months so please leave a comment on the set itself if you love it and want it to go up.

xo