backyard barter!

I'M BACK!  didn't realize how long it's been since i put up a post.  *cringy face*

but yesterday i went to my first backyard barter at the NW solar fest in shoreline.  what a super awesome idea and fun thing to do.  you bring handmade stuff; canned items, baked items, homebrew, stuff from the garden, crafts, whatever; and you barter for other people's items.  so fantastic!  

there were about 4 rows of tables set up for people to display the items they wanted to barter.

this wonderful woman brought kimchi and handmade bowls and cups.  i bartered two jars of my marinated veggies for the cup by itself in the 2nd row there.  this was my favorite thing bartered for!!

here's everything i traded for.  i had lots of marinated veggies and plum butter from last year to trade with:

1. worm tea (i'm gonna use it on my houseplants)
2. tart aronia jam
3. dilled green beans
4. rhubarb vanilla early grey jam
5. peach rosemary sauce
6. green chili salsa
7. oatmeal lavendar soap
8. cottonwood salve
9. a bunch of lavendar
10. matchboxes
11. a delicious brownie
12. the most awesome handmade cup

and the NW solar fest was pretty cool.  i didn't look around at it much, but i did see this sweet bus:

and GOATS!  i petted some goats!

the next backyard barter is august 22 or 23 maybe up on beacon hill.  i hope to rope a couple of people i know into doing this also.  i think both of them will love it.  yes, i'm talking about you, GRACE!  i also signed up to volunteer so i hope sarah calls me to help  out!!

i got my bead on...

when my mom was here recently, we went to shipwreck beads out in lacey.  this place was friggin huge!  mom said it was like a big warehouse of beads and she was not joking.  it. was. awesome.

i haven't done much beading in years.  after the ridiculousness of my last year of college and the bead projects i did, i was a little burnt out.  i've been working on a single loomwork piece for over 10 years now and have yet to even get halfway done.  i will finish that thing before i die though.

so, blowing some money (thanks mom and debbie!!) at the bead store for some new necklaces and earrings was a nice change of pace.  i came home and pulled out some supplies and started in.

(this is not the extent of my boxes of beads by a loooong shot)

here's what i have done so far.  some easy necklaces and earrings.

there are matching earrings for the flower necklace and the bracelet and earrings under it are also a set.

i really liked these black and gold beads.  so pretty!

 quite a while ago i put some cork board in a picture frame i had so i could easily hang up my earrings and be able to see them as well.  i've also given some of these to friends as gifts.

i finally found a long frame i liked so i could hang my necklaces.  there's all sorts of room for more necklaces!!

now i just have to get the rest of the items made from my trip to the bead store!  YAY!  

SMASHPUTT!!

last sunday was smashputt time again.  this year i went with nicole, nicole's bff cindy, dawn, grace and her man jeremiah.  it was located in south seattle in a total industrial area.  smashputt is a traveling putt putt golf/art performance piece.  it is a lot of fun!  nothing quite says fun like putt putt golf and hard alcohol.  

they had all the same holes as last year, just in a different venue and set up differently.  last year it was in the old immigration building and each room had it's own put put hole.  some rooms were larger and had 3-4 holes.  this year it was in a much bigger industrial space, so it was all in two large rooms.

the entry way was full of fake christmas trees.  some lit, some not.  it was inviting and somewhat creepy.

this hole had absolutely no use for the putter.  you dropped your ball in the top of this maze and rotated it to get your ball through.

this one was good!  there were holes in the green for your ball to fall into and then your score was whatever point was designated to that hole.  pure chance.

*giggling*

this was my favorite one, from last year and this year.  both the record players were rotating and you had to try to shoot across them.

there was a sweet couch to sit and drink yer drinks.  so we did.

this one you had to stick your ball in the catapult, align it how you wanted it to throw and stomp on the pedal to make it throw.  mine was way off.  dawn's was a hole in one.  because she's awesome.  that is just how she rolls.

disturbing kermit frogger!

there was a separate room that was just a decorated room.  i liked all the photos.

and another room set up as a room.

poops!

also from last year....i covet this peacock.  you can't tell from my digital pics, but there was only red light in this area and it was really sweet, but the flash made it look all white.  rude.

this hole was superfantastic.  it was set up like a living room and the shag carpet had a little path of green through it that you shot through and the hole was on the other side of the living room.

i felt a little bloated :)

this lamp was friggin sweet!

i loved this one!  you shot your ball into a meshed off area and it just drilled a hole in your ball and spit it out.  see?  it's drilling a hole in a ball!!

the woodwork on this one was awful purdy.

for this one, you shot into one of 3 holes and your ball went into an area where it got sliced (literally) by a power saw.

see?  that's a yellow ball on the far left!  gettin sliced!

and then there was the shooting range.  3 people got to sit at a time and shoot golf balls at items hanging in a cage.  it was loud and everyone who did it was super excited.  i took pictures.

you could mess with people on this one.  there were only two holes, one on each and and you could push a button to close one hole or the other.

yay!  another good year of  smashputt!  see you next years!!

AP bowling party!!

the AP department totally exceeded their pcard spend goal for the year 2011, so we got a bowling party!!!  even though i've transferred to a different department, i was there for all of 2011 and contributed to the pcard spend so i got to go to go!!!

it was super fun and held at the garage on crapitol hill. 

i've been to the garage before, but only to play pool so this was nice to see the bowling part of the place.  they opened an hour early for us and we rented out the downstairs bowling:

dawn, nicole, rebecca and i bowled on a lane and we had super good bowling names: superfabulous, innerdelish, peaches and sassafrass respectively.

rebecca had a little problem with her bootie, but she bowled awesome in spite of it!

it was a neat little space with 6 bowling lanes:

i'm not too sure why snoop dogg was on the television or even why the tv was there, but whatevs...

nicole and i picked out fab balls!

and i conquered the computerized scorekeeper:

a good time was had by all!

jane was kept company by beer.

we ended up with really close scores at the end of the game, and peaches wasn't even there after the 3rd frame!  she had to go get the booty off!

i like that the initials of our bowling names was SIPS.  awesome.

then the wellsfargo peeps and windi had some words for everyone on how fantabulous we did for the year!

YAY!!  that was funs!  thanks windi :)