Where am I?

In case you're wondering, I never post here anymore.

I'm always on ShannonSews. That's where I post. I've started integrating more personal things every once in a while rather than trying to keep up with two blogs.

XO

Six years

Rod and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary Saturday. What better way to celebrate than a day at the beach?

Not wanting to spend the whole day in the car, we opted for Mukilteo Lighthouse Park (about 30 minutes away), with views of Whidbey, Camano, and Hat Islands, the Port of Everett, Mt. Baker and the Olympic Mountain Range.

Since the ferry terminal is right at the park, we saw ferries coming and going across the water to Whidbey Island.

When we first got there I wanted to take an anniversary picture. So I propped the camera on a log, set the timer, and ran.

Attempt #1:

Attempt #2:

Attempt #3: (our favorite. I had to photoshop this one. It was so tilted it made me seasick.)

Trains chugged along the seaside

Lots of comings and goings

The day started out a little gray and we weren't sure whether we'd get a few rain showers, but luckily it cleared up and was sunny and quite warm by about 2pm.

I had to launch myself to get on and off that rock. Luckily there were no action shots. haha

Since the lighthouse was open, we decided to take a little tour.

Nice view from the top

After coming back down, we toured through the grounds, gift shop and boathouse

At this point it was about time for lunch, so we walked over next to the ferry terminal and decided to share a 5-piece fish and chips and cup o' chowda from the ever popular Ivars.

Sorry for the weird angle. I was trying to hold the camera & scoop a bite of chowder in a very small booth. The fish and chips were SOOO good! I'm not usually a huge fan of fish and chips, but this was amazing. Wow. And the clam chowder was delish as well.

And what better way to top it off than a yummy bulging swirled chocolate/vanilla cone?

With our stomaches nice and full, we headed back over and walked on the beach to find a good place to put up our feet. The flowers were so pretty on the grounds.

(why do I always make him pose for photos like these? He's such a good sport)

I've always loved tug boats. Reminds me of a book my mom used to read us as kids.

Ah. Perfect spot. We settled here.

Of course I had to take one of those hand-held crazy shots.

And before we knew it, it was about time to head back.

I love seeing the lighting change with the sun's shift. Colors get so much richer. I would have liked to take more pictures with this newly found lighting, but alas, it was time to go.

What a wonderful anniversary at the beach with my sweetheart. It was nice to get away and just be together.

Six full, enriching years have passed...here's to many, many more.

xoxo

Estate Sales and Homemade Pretzels

It's Monday again. The weekends always go too fast.

Saturday we had fun going to a few estate sales. It's my new favorite thing to do. The best sales are the ones where you can walk through the house and look through literally everything. I enjoy the older homes where you can sort through 50+ years of odds and ends. I'm hoping to stumble

upon some great vintage fabric one of these days.

It's a strange feeling knowing you are looking through someone's life. Everything they used. Everything they collected. Everything they wore. Some things are still in packages, waiting to be used...I feel a sense of respect and am also reminded what we really take with us when we die.

I found this oval mirror. The frame is plastic so it won't be too heavy to hang on our wall and was a perfect find at half price, for just $2.50.

I plan on doing a little mirror makeover like I did with this one we found at a thrift store when we first moved here.

And after a hard day of estate sale-ing, I thought it was time to bake up a batch of soft homemade pretzels...

They were so easy with just 5 ingredients (1 being water). They did require a little elbow grease, since I kneaded and rolled them by hand, but they were a tasty treat for a Saturday night. I got the recipe at Sisters Cafe, a site highly recommended by Natalie.

Here is the recipe (copied from their website)

Soft Pretzels

1 1/2 cup warm water

1 pkg yeast (or 1 Tb)

1 Tb sugar

1 tsp salt

4 cups flour

Add sugar to warm water then sprinkle yeast on top. Let float for a minute then stir to dissolve the yeast. Let sit for 10 minutes as yeast activates and starts to foam. Add salt and flour and knead 5-10 minutes; adding more flour as needed to reduce stickiness. Divide dough in to 12 pieces and roll each piece into a long rope or “snake”. Twist into pretzel shape and place on nonstick baking sheet. Make an egg wash with one egg and a Tb of water, lightly beaten together. Brush pretzels with egg wash then sprinkle liberally with Kosher salt. Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes or until lightly browned.

*Soft pretzels just aren’t the same the next day. They are still good but not as soft and fresh tasting. I’ll tell you a secret though… brush them with melted butter, sprinkle on Parmesan cheese, and toss them under the broiler for a minute and you have a delicious cheesy pretzel snack! Yum!!

*Sunday we had 2nds and tried their recommendation to put them under the broiler. With a little cinnamon and sugar they were mmm mmm good.

Google yourself

I am so tired right now that I don't have the energy to get riled up but all I can say is, "Oh my nightmare!"

Have you googled yourself lately?

I just did. In google images.

I shouldn't have.

It's called humiliation my friends, humiliation.

Although my personal blog is supposed to be unsearchable by the search engines, my settings changed somehow. And now I have pictures of myself all over the internet when you search for my maiden name.

And they aren't just ordinary pictures, they're the ones I took with the Twilight figures when we visited Forks. Hello. Remember me from high school? College? I'm 40 and I take pictures with Twilight character cut-outs.

Be careful what you post. Because pretty much anyone who wondered about me is now scared they ever wondered about me.

I changed my privacy settings back to what they were supposed to be, but the pictures are out there. Haunting my self-esteem. If only I could reel them back in. Oivay.

38 washcloths

38 handmade terrycloth and flannel washcloths.
This is what has consumed most of my free time the last week and a half.

And just this morning, when I thought it was safe to sit down, I received an order for a white shabby ruffled pillow case. Not too shabby -haha (no pun intended).

Looks like this girl will be sewing again this week.


Between these orders and my inventory out at Remlinger Farm, I'm keeping pretty busy.


I'm looking forward to this summer where I can focus on the business full-time. Pretty exciting!

Did someone steal my song?

I posted this on my music blog, but since I never post anything there and pretty much no one goes to that blog, I wanted to bring it here...because I need some feedback.

________________________________________________________________

I don't know if it's just me being paranoid, but when I heard the beginning to the song, The Lonely, by Christina Perri I instantly thought of my song, Why Aren't You Gone. Almost the exact same lyrics in the first phrase, and the tune and arrangement of that same phrase are the same.

Also, throughout her song, I also noticed similar phrases that I used in my song, Back Before the Day. Am I just paranoid? It's a little haunting, since she wrote her song after my songs were posted on youtube...not to give myself that much credit, but is it just a strange coincidence?

I looked up info on "what if someone steals my song" and I found an article discussing what to do and a link to some music cases that have gone to court, with clips from their songs.

Will you do me a favor and let me know what you think?

Listen to her song, then listen to my song, with specific interest in the first line (which is repeated throughout).

Christina Perri's song - The Lonely

My song - Why Aren't You Gone

Just an eerie coincidence? Maybe. Maybe not.

Let me know what you think.

It's okay if you think I'm totally off the mark, I just need some other opinions.

Daycation: Destination - Ocean Shores

Are you sitting down? You won't believe it, but in Seattle today the sun actually showed itself. I know, I was shocked myself.

And after being rainy and gray for days and days and days...it was seriously like the heavens parted.

So instead of sitting inside all day on this, SUNNY DAY and last weekday of my spring break, we headed out for a 3 hour drive to the Washington coast to see the sun bounce off the ocean.

(I remember as a child coming to this beach and seeing this rock wall entrance to Ocean Shores and being so excited to be there)

It was in the 50's but with the wind, it was still quite chilly.

I love walking in the soft sand. It was like butter under our shoes...if it had been warm enough we would have gone barefoot...but not today.

I could just sit all day and watch and listen to the waves roll in, one after the other.

There were lots of people flying kites of all colors, shapes and sizes. Next time we'll remember to bring a kite.

And there were even people riding horses...I've always thought it looked so romantic to ride a horse on a beach (but I'm a much better watcher than rider)

I love the tall grass that grows by the ocean, gently swaying in the breeze.

After a while, the cold wind had finally made our faces and ears hurt, so we headed into town to walk around for a bit. And, of course, we had to get a cheesy shot or two.

And before we knew it, it was time to head back.

It was great day to get out see the beach. Hopefully the sun will stick around long enough so we can do it again soon!