The main living room, as seen from the door. Look, I have a real plant and everything! That painting is a real painting! 



The entertainment center houses my old stereo and dvd player, as well as a mostly-functioning VHS player. I brought all the books and dvds with me, although, uh, they don't really fill out the space that well.



This coffee table is one of the things I bought when I got here. My mom found it at the D.I. (a local thrift store) for something like $20. It's "distressed" to put it mildly, but since people are going to be putting their feet and glasses or whatever on it, I'm not too fussed.



The kitchen is quite a good size, too. I have way more cupboard space than I know what to do with, actually. I don't have a housemate yet, so I have it all to myself. The boxes of couscous and cream of wheat take up a depressingly tiny amount of space.



I found this table at the D.I. too, for $35. The chairs are on loan from my uncle, and I got the curtains on sale from J.C. Penney. Look at me, all Martha Stewart up in here! Those chairs are actually my next project- their current fabric is a depressing cheap-90's-motel-room-couch sort of a pattern, so I'll be reupholstering them as soon as I get the chance.



My room is sort of bipolar at the moment. One side of it is sort of dull and restrained-



While the opposite wall is covered in artwork and photographs from me, my friends, and my travels.

We'll see if the room equalizes in any way.



My desk, with all of the necessary acoutrements. I need like a six-port USB hub for all of this crap.



The bathroom is really the only thing that's tiny- but it doesn't really matter, because I don't have to share it with anyone. I installed that white cabinet over the toilet for more storage space, but it didn't come with a back panel. I ended up getting cheap particle board at Wal-Mart and spray-painting it green to go with the shower curtain.



It's really a coincidence that it matches all my makeup as well.



My closet's also kind of small, but hopefully that fact will keep me from buying more clothes. I CLEARLY don't need any more. :P

So, that's my apartment for now. I have a few more improvements to make, and they'll be put up here when I get them done! I will also take pictures of my FANTASTIC painting studio and the view that goes with it, hopefully in the next few days.
 

On the first day of our trip we hiked the right fork of Leprechaun canyon in the area known as North Wash. It's a very pretty, unusual, and fairly tight slot canyon, but not a difficult one. (Although the hike in was devilishly hot.) It served as a great way of introducing my younger brothers (12 and 13 at the time) to all the basics of canyoneering. The last time we did this canyon, it was a couple of feet deep in freezing cold water, so this was a nice change. It only took about 4 1/2 hours, so we had time to drive to Hite and camp out for the night at the head of our next canyon.

 

This one, known as the Black Hole of White Canyon, was significantly more difficult. It took more like 9 hours to hike- mostly because my brothers and geezer uncle were tired and had to slow down during the final walk. One thing you have to understand about canyons like this is that they are SLOW going. You may only be going four miles, but you spend so long climbing down, climbing up, swimming, jumping, squeezing, and scraping that you expend a phenomenal amount of effort. We each had at least three litres of water with us every day, and every day we had to ration it in order not to run out. At least in this canyon, we didn't have the disadvantage of heat. That water was freezing. Still, I would repeat this canyon in a heartbeat. It was utterly phenomenal.





Because we were so exhausted from the previous day's hike, we decided to do one which we thought would be easy- a short walk out to an amazing and relatively little-visited Anasazi ruin called The Citadel. We've visited it before, and it's easy to get lost going out there. This time we DID get lost, and spent a few hours hiking in the wrong location. We finally got ourselves back to our car (no thanks to our useless GPS) and drove to the right trail. The canyon had hiked much more frequently since the last time we'd been, which was a little sad. I hope it stays intact and well-preserved despite the greater traffic. If I ever see someone littering up there I swear I'll push them right off the extremely precipitous and conveniently available cliff. This hike isn't for the weak of knees or stomach, by the way. The bridge is around 20 feet at the narrowest, with a several-hundred foot drop on either side. I'd been there before and when the wind kicked up it still made me queasy.





After the previous day's hike, we drove up to Bluejohn Canyon in Robbers' Roost and camped overnight. My very tired brothers stayed behind in the trailer the next day while the rest of us hiked Bluejohn. This was probably the most difficult hike of the trip. We were already pretty sore, and this was a 10 hour hike, about half of which was spent slogging through very soft loose sand in the heat of the day. I'm not sure I would attempt this canyon again without being in MUCH better shape. Even though I ended up setting the pace for most of the trudging by keeping my head down and walking like a robotic camel, my quads were barely up for the final ascent at the end of the day. It was worth it, though. What a gorgeous canyon. Lots of dead things in the water.






Everybody was so bushed on the last day that instead of hiking Alcatraz as planned, we hung out in Little Wild Horse. This canyon is beautiful, and very popular with obese tourists, children, and the elderly. There's hardly any difficult climbing to be done, with a lot of photo ops for your time. There's also a little ledge that's very handy for goofing off on rapell, and we took turns doing little tricks for an hour or so.





It was a nice way to end the trip, and we were totally exhausted by the end of it. I only wish I had been more in shape, and therefore able to do more canyons while I had the opportunity. I guess when I get down to UT I'll have to find a student canyoneering group willing to take an enthusiastic amateur along for the ride. :)

 One of the things I loved best about visiting my grandparents was their home. It may not be the most minimal or the most organized of places, but they have a lot of really excellent stuff. The location is also fantastic. After a long, winding drive up a mostly brown and grey canyon, you come across a little oasis of green- a golf course, a campsite, and a bridge crossing a little creek. It's rare to find places like this in Utah, unless you're looking for them. My grandparents were, and they bought the property long before they were able to build. Their house is fairly new; built in the past 10 years or so.
 

The yard and exterior are gorgeous. (Click on photos for larger versions)

 

My grandma collects garden frogs, accidentally- she bought a few of them, and now people give them to her. As a result, the porch/deck/portico/stoop/veranda/lanai has a lot of personality and charm.



The interior is just as rich in color and rustic detail. I dislike the word "rustic" in general, but it's pretty appropriate for this house.



Two of the major tenants of the house are these bison heads (Frank and George). In Utah, at least, you're allowed to hunt one bison in your lifetime. My grandparents have bagged one each. They've also shot an elk apiece, but I don't have photos of those heads. I'm not a fan of hunting, but I'm not going to object to my grandparents going about it in a legal sort of way.

I also took a few (very poor) shots of my room while I was there.



It's very difficult to see in these shots, but the furnishings in the room were gorgeous, feminine antiques. On the wall opposite the bed hung a prizewinning quilt that my great-grandmother made in the 1940's, with a floral pattern similar to that on the stained-glass lamps. Also in the room were an old television with a Singer sewing machine base as a stand, wicker chairs, and a few original Norman Rockwell magazine covers. I only wish I had taken some more pictures! You can't even see the wonderful vintage paper dolls in the picture I DID take!

I'll be glad to be down in Utah, actually- hopefully at the next opportunity I'll be able to take interior shots of my Grandpa's other home in another area of Utah. It's a historical site called the Joseph Wall Gristmill, built at the end of the 19th century. I won a Reading Rainbow book contest at the age of 5 with a story about this place. I got a signed certificate from LeVar Burton and everything!



Ah, Reading Rainbow. Good times.

My recent trip to Utah.

This trip began only a few days before mothers' day- so one of the first things we did when we got to Springville, UT was to visit my great-grandmother's grave.



( Read more )



( Picture Heavy, oof. )



( Lots of pictures of relatives )



( Both small )



( And big. )


My family's kind of fantastic. :) I hope to see more of them soon.








 

 

                                          I bought a few things this week-
 

 

And although I spent a cumulative amount of less than $60 this week, I still feel terrifically paranoid about ordering things online. You'd think that someone who owns as many Threadless T-shirts and Amazon-ordered DVDs would not have the hangups that I do, but I can't help it- I'm utterly terrified of buying things online. I'm never quite sure of how they're going to look in person, how they're going to fit- I feel similarly about ordering things from catalogues. I think that's why I like thrift stores so much- it's a non-threatening shopping environment with some of the diversity of the internet, but you get to TRY EVERYTHING ON. As someone with a peculiar body shape- (5'4", 38"/28"/36", in other words, a short hourglass) I have a really hard time knowing how clothes are going to look until they're actually ON my body. Books are a different thing entirely- a book generally arrives looking like a book, and Miss Kate Beaton's work is always extraordinary- but clothes... Clothes are sort of scary. We'll see how this order ends up. It's from a wholesale vendor, so that adds another layer of uneasiness. 

I sold a few more pieces of art! I'm WAY too pleased with myself about it, too.
 

 

                    Posted a few new things to my Etsy account-

I've been working on a large intaglio plate, which I hope to print proofs of soon. Actually, I've been working on this plate as well as an even larger one, which I printed last semester but was never happy with. I've been open-biting it to remove some of the extraneous detail, and hopefully when it's printed I'll be able to see if it's at a point where I can build up dark tones once more. Aquatinting is fiddly business!

I've also been seeing a lot of this-


Which  just means I've been riding a lot more often. The mare I'm working with is technically my brother's, but when I do ride, she's very fun to work with. She has a short attention span and can be really frustrating, but odds are when you're riding her, she looks a lot better than she feels. She has HUGE movement and is very scopey, but just hasn't quite gotten her brain in the right place yet. 

She's mostly black, but in the summer she bleaches out and goes reddish if her coat's not cared for. (That makes it really fun to tack her up- black saddle with a white saddlepad, white breeches, and a black jacket? SO SHARP.) Generally, she's a really flashy, really fun horse, and I'm glad I get to work with her this year. Over the past weekend I took her to a schooling show where we worked hunters and jumpers 2'6" to 2'9". She hasn't been to shows much so I didn't want to push her any higher when I wasn't sure how she'd react- but I was pleasantly surprised by how steady she was. Hopefully she keeps her brain for the rest of the summer!

I might go ride her now, actually...
 

Omegle.com  is a very interesting place.





It's a messaging site that provides complete anonymity. A connection is made by a machine based on when you click in, and it pairs you up for a conversation with an utter stranger. There's no signing up, no strings attached. Just you, a stranger, and a blank space for a conversation. 

Granted, not all of these conversations are worthwhile. About half of the people I chatted with were Chinese, with only marginal knowledge of the English language. They may be great people, but the language barrier is a challenge when you don't want to spend much time communicating your thoughts. You can choose the path of the totally silly, or the genuinely heartfelt. One person asked "how do you like your eggs" and I immediately answered "out of a chicken and into a creme brulee", for example. Of course, about a quarter of the time, the stranger yells  "HAVE YOU A BIG DICK" and then immediately abandons the conversation before you can explain that, in fact, you are in possession of a moderately sized uterus instead.

On the other hand, some chattees get a little too attached. A lot of people will ask ASL? (age, sex, location) right away. Most people don't get annoyed when you decline sharing information, and of course they'll never know if you lie. I did try to be polite and listen well, just as i would in a conversation with any other stranger- but don't be afraid to ask questions out of the blue. You just might get some interesting answers.



 

"Palouse" is not only a wonderful word, but a gorgeous part of Eastern Washington. I was at a horsemanship clinic in Colfax, WA, yesterday, and took these photos out of the car window while on the way back. It looks much more verdant and vibrant by the time June rolls around, and positively golden during August and September. Still, the landscape's interesting even at its brownest!











I fiddled around with them in Photoshop a bit- some of them were discolored from the specks and smears on the car's windows. The rest can be found at my Flickr set. Hopefully I'll get up to more photo-taking shenanigans this year on various trips and vacations!

I have some new stuff at my Etsy!


 

I've been both busy and ill for the past few days, so I haven't had much of a chance to update here. However, I managed to get a few new listings up on Etsy, so I'll share those in lieu of more interesting things on the internet. (And there are a few of those, I can tell you!)

And the rest can be found here.