Been awhile, travel, plans failed, things won, hanging on in the current.

First Happy Halloween! Blessed Samhain! 

Hi, its been awhile and a lot has happened. Months have passed and I haven't really thought about blogging or keeping up with other's blogs, no offense to anyone. We've been very busy and sometimes I've felt like I was swimming against a many different currents. Lately, however, I'm kind of hanging out in the water, holding on to a rock, waiting for things to pass before I venture out again.  Today especially, I'm a bit apathetic. Or maybe numb and meh is a better way to describe it? Doesn't really matter, let's get to all the stuff!

Summer saw a lot of changes within my house. Amanda's (a,k,a Selene) parents moved out and a friend moved in. Said friend was dog sitting- or rather, I was dog sitting because said friend was working. Said friend also got two rabbits and eventually brought her cat and dog to live here. The dogs we were dog sitting finally went back to their owner after much stress, barking, half trampled garden, and accidents on my floor. 

Further into summer, I was a guest panelist at our local anime convention. I did a panel on the history of Bento boxes and another on Oiran vs. Geisha. I actually flew solo on these, which I haven't done in a long time. It was terrifying but fun and I would love to do it again next year and have some ideas for other panels. 

We held our own Tanabata festival at a local park and about 40 people came. We had a little Japanese festival food, some Japanese games, music, some activities entering on Japanese lore and mythology, and finally a nice wishing ritual at the end.

I broke out in hives from the sun and on the very day our roommate went to the ER because her arm went numb and she was suffering from severe pain in her neck and head, I got heat exhaustion from running another friend around town in the summer heat with no air conditioning in our car. The air conditioner quit and that made the rest of the summer errands miserable. I have never done well in the heat. 

I also started a support group for local pagans with disabilities and while the group is new and very small, I am happy there is some interest. 

The end of September took me back home to Kansas. I wanted to visit family before heading to Tulsa to help Amanda;s cousin move up to Washington. My Mother's health is declining and she's as OCD as ever. We think she may have had a stroke right before I flew down but she was so worried about the hospital bill that she checked herself out and wouldn't let the hospital run any tests to see. I was not happy. That could have aided in getting her disability which would get her the health insurance she needs. My Dad is overwhelmed and depressed. I did enjoy spending time with my parents despite the sad and aggravating stuff.  My mom wouldn't let me help much around the house and stopped me when I would try. We spent more time watching shows and movies.

I also visited my cousin Shi-chan. I missed and miss her so much. It was so nice to spend a little time with her. We played cards against humanity with her boyfriend and had pizza and just talked. 

Visiting Grandma went without saying and spent several days at her house. Grandma's in her 90s and her health isn't the greatest. She was really upset that we couldn't go out and do as much, but I didn't care. I was happy just spending time with her. We talked. I went through some things she wanted me to go through and took some she wanted me to have, although not much- there are reasons I don't want to get into right now. 

Next up was heading to Tulsa to get Cousin Kat. We drove 4 days in a Budget truck towing her car behind us. Or rather I drove and you know what, even the weather radar lied about snow in Montana- or was it Wyoming... Anyway it said the area we were driving through was clear, but it wasn't!

We made it home safely.

I had about two weeks (okay honestly, I'm not even sure if it was that long) before Amanda, her parents, and I were on the road to Seattle. We went to visit some family and do some 'harvest activities'. Which meant we loaded up to go to a big farm that had various actives and a pumpkin patch. Honestly it was beautiful and rainy and I enjoyed hanging out with the family.

This was one of the trucks decorated at the farm. 

Amanda's parents

 

Amanda and I

Since Amanda has her moot on our anniversary, we spent some time alone together in our hotel room. Nothing too exciting, just hanging out drinking coffee and tea while watching scary movies in bed. We also got out to do a little shopping at Uwajimaya and Diaso Japan in the international district. We went to Daiso in Bellevue as well.  And we went to the Tsubaki Grand Shrine of America for an afternoon. I really do love that place. The Shrine is tucked away in lush trees and green and sits beside a river. They've added a few more things since we were last there too. 

View of the main Shrine Building

Fox Guardian and a view of the river

Two of the main Shrine deities-  Sarutahiko-no-o-kami, and Goddess, Ame--no-Uzume-no-Mikoto. Ameterasu is enshrined there as well. 

We also saw Zombieland 2 and did some sorely needed clothes shopping.

Back home we held a Book-or-Treat at one of our local libraries. Basically, we did a Halloween pot luck party and told people to bring books they didn't want anymore. We had two tables full and lots of people brought tons of books like we did, some only brought a few, but I think everyone went home with something fun and new to read. The books that didn't get chosen were donated to the library. 

Since then I've gone to the gym, cleaned, had some bad fibro days, and have been trying to keep moving. I am tired, still don't have all my meds yet (waiting for one to be done at the pharmacy), and hurt. But today is Halloween and there are a couple of Day of the Dead celebrations we're going to, one for sure. And tomorrow Nanowrimo starts. I was excited for that. Right now, not so much, but I am hoping tomorrow I won't be so apathetic. Maybe the little Halloween get together will help tonight!

October/fall shenanigans

Amanda didn't want October, our Anniversary, or even Halloween to be uneventful this year and I think she was also trying to erase some of the negativity I still have left over from last year and our wedding disaster. I mean let's call it what it was, a disaster. Nothing worked out right and I was hurt pretty badly and still haven't managed to really get over it. Even with all the good stuff that did manage to happen around our wedding, all of which I am incredibly thankful for, I still have a hard time with the bad. Moving on. 

So, we both planned some stuff to do. Amanda's was more successful and exciting than my idea. I don't think she really liked mine too much. I wanted to drive up Mt. Spokane for an afternoon and see what we could see, explore a bit. I thought it would be fun to find places to have picnics and sit in nature, forest bathe, and so on. She was in a mood that day and when we found out that to go up was going to be ten dollars for a whole day, she was less than thrilled. Mostly because a discover pass is thirty dollars and gets you into all the Washington State Parks for a whole year. So, we turned around and came back down. 

But at least on the way I got to see a few things I didn't know were out and along the way. And I got some cool art reference photos.

On another day during October, Amanda got a groupon or something for tickets to go on a Haunted lake cruise on Lake Coeur d'Alene. Our friend Fiona was coming for a visit, so we went to pick her up and went to the lake early. I put my foot in the water to see how cold it was and decided swimming in the lake in October would be great for thirty seconds and only if I had a nice warm car to run to with hot cocoa waiting for me. 

I love how clear the lakes are here compared to the ones back home in Kansas. 

Rock!

I thought this view was really pretty and managed to catch the sun beam.

A picture of the Coeur d'Alene resort from the boat.

One of the lovely sunset photos I got.

I thought this one was very gloomy and pretty.

And my camera still didn't do the blazing pink in the sky justice.

A zoom in shot.

Some fall trees 

A pretty leaf.

The Twins took us to Silverwood for our anniversary and because they really like going with us. It was a lot of fun and I did get some pictures and even some video, but I think they are all over on my Instagram. Meaning, I was dumb and deleted them from my phone. 

Also during the month we went to see the Hobbit house in town. The owners of this big house and the little Hobbit house put on a free Halloween "come and see" and partnered with some trick or treat group that, if I remember correctly, does a safe neighborhood kind of thing. Anyway it was free to go to and you could see the Hobbit house for free with a donation of a children's book for needy kids.  We took a couple and it seemed that a lot of the people who came did the same.

This is a poster for the group they were collecting the books for.

A ring wraith, this guy managed to sneak up and scare the crap out of me twice! 

Just some of the cute decorations. In fact, each decoration had a little story to go with it. We didn't realize that until after we had seen the Hobbit house and I was cold and worn out. There were a lot of people and we stood in line for quite a while, both of which are hard on me. 

And here is the little Hobbit house. It is so cute and yes, that is a dragon above it.

a barrel!

I loved this metal door decoration they had.

I wanted to get more pictures of the interior and take more time to look around but there was still quite a long line behind us and I wanted to let the kids have time to get in and see the place. It was getting late and a lot of the kids were little, and we all know how cold, tired kids can get cranky. 

Some of the outside. I loved all the little decorations. 

Moving on to Halloween...

Here is some of the Halloween decor we had in our house

Amanda found what she calls her 'opera singer' at walmart this year. It's a tree topper and we kept it out to put on our Xmas tree.

We had candles aplenty and I decorated two jars I found at the dollar tree, not that you can seem them that well.

I found this pretty Witch tree topper at Ross. I've always wanted a 'pretty' witch. People seem to think that witches needs to be green or old or look like creepy old ladies, but that's not the case. So when I saw her for a reasonable price, I snatched her right up and brought her home. She too, was kept out and is hanging out in the office. 

Narcisa was hanging out on the kitchen table with me on Halloween night. This was before dinner and after our trip to the Campbell house here in town. They were a rich family and their house is a historical point of interest and museum. I didn't take my phone with me so I will just have to go back and get pictures another time. It is a beautiful Victorian era house and I pretty much want live there. But back to my house...

My friend Felicia gave me this cute cat and we set him on one of our pumpkins!

Amanda's luminary made from card stock, tissue paper, and a big pickle jar. We made them with our friend Rachel two years ago.

Here is mine. 

I had made little cauldrons for friends for something that got cancelled. So we enjoyed them over a couple of days.

I really liked this project and want to do it again, especially since I know how 

I did have more candy in them, it was just under the cotton candy. 

And here is me, I was a demon. I had black wings, my horns, and had done my make up.

This was just a beautiful display at Fuego in the mall. I loved the masks and would like to use them as inspiration for making some of my own. I've made a mask before and really loved it.

One day I went to work to see Amanda and took a picture of one of the halls in the old chronicle building. I love the decor.

This is a poster Amanda got me of Shiro from Voltron. It was done by Missy Pena and you can find her on twitter.

This was the very last bit of the Halloween Season activities. We went down to Moscow, Id to visit the twins and also go try out a spooky escape room at Puzzle IQ. What we learned was that I will look in a bucket of icky water and know there is something in but not put my hand in and make someone else do it. That Amanda moves stuff she's not supposed to, and that when they say look at everything, Amanda and I take them very seriously and go as far as taking apart furniture to look for clues. LOL! They told us we didn't have to take apart the furniture. Also, that the Twin, Amanda, and I actually make a pretty good team when doing this. We each find things the other miss. So we managed to do the escape room without a single hint with 16 minutes to spare. The total time we were allowed was 45 minutes. It was a lot of fun and needless to say, we are hooked. We've been looking at other escape rooms around, checking prices and themes and such.

Lastly, on a more recent trip down to visit the twins, we stopped in Potlatch, Id. Along I 90 there is a little dinner called Dad's Diner. It didn't used to be called that. Back in the 1940's my Grandmother's Dad's cousin worked out in the area and his wife worked in the diner. At some point the cousin died and eventually his wife bought the diner and ran it for many years. That was the cup "Ireland's Inn" that was in another blog post. Anyway, her son, my Grandma's cousin, apparently still lives in Deary. Which is kind of cool. The family doesn't own the place anymore, but it's really neat to see where my family has been and walk where they walked. 

Haunted Humpday- Coffin remote tray- I'm sort of jumping in because I actually crafted a little bit this week.

Recently, I decided to start squirreling away some money for the things Amanda and I need or want. I need things like underwire replacements for bras and I want to buy an embroidery machine. I also want to save up and get an air conditioner for the bedroom and have a down payment for a new-to-us car. We'd also like to make some repairs and improvements to our house. But in the more upcoming savings deaprtment, I have been saving for Halloween. We haven't really been able to do Halloween shopping and since this is really the time of year that Torrid USED to have decent clothes in my preferred style come out (before the GAP bought them-assholes) and stores come out with decor or things to make decor that fits my decorating style, yeah, we or well, I decided to save a little. Of course, I told Amanda what I was doing and she was for it. 

So, on a day she had off and I had off, we decided to take a trip to Joann's and we found a few small things. The trip was mostly geared to window shop and research the texture and feel of what fabrics I want to use for some costumes and clothing later on. But we made it out of the store with a few little things. I'll get to the rest of them in a later post, this one is about a remote tray. 

I found this coffin tray and knew it was coming home with me. The embellishments, above, were coming home with me too. You can never have too many of those. 

I also knew this pretty holographic star and moon paper was coming home too. I've had a sheet of this before. Its a vinyl, sticker paper you can find in the scrap booking section. 

I was thinking of making the coffin a shelf or open shadow box, but decided against it while I was painting it with black acrylic. I sealed it after it was painted with a clear polyurethane spray. 

After the polyurethane coat dried, I measured and cut the sticker paper and had Amanda put on the bottom inside of the tray. She, for some reason, can apply that kind of paper much easier than I can. 

To finish it off, I used the black embellishments on the rim and added my remotes. Its silly, but works much better than the caddy I had the in before and its easier to move from place to place. When we get our sofa back, we're going to put this tray on the ottoman or a side table.

 Unfortunately, that's all I have for today. 

I'm going to make some tea, go a round with my netti pot, and go watch something from the warm, cozy comfort of my bed.

Hope everyone's Haunted Humpday was great!