New Tangent

I've recently read the book Craft, Inc by Meg Mateo Ilasco and am now excited about starting up my own thing using my handy dandy crafting talents. The book outlines what you need to do to begin your own bona fide business and also tips on how to keep it going. Also for Christmas, Curtis, my husband, gave me a book on printing by hand. I think I am going to dive into the world of screen printing. Of course, I don't know thing about it but I've read a book and searched on the internet and also have a few printer friends who I think can help me out.

All the possibilities of what I want to do have been swimming in my head for a couple days. I want to connect with my dog friends so I think I will start with graphic images of dogs, specifically Samoyeds. I have been thinking of stationary ideas and thought (for a brief moment) of designing pedigree sheets to write your dog's "family tree." People hand these out all the time at dog shows and why not do it with style? I'm not quite sure how successful that will be given the ease of computers and printers. Anyhow, I thought stationary and cards would be a nice start for this new venture. Today it dawned on my that I could print fabrics and then make a bag or maybe a garment from the printed fabric (not an original idea, I know, but I doing baby steps here).

I don't know, we'll see where it goes.

As far as us, we have been living in WA for a full year! We still like it despite the troubles we've had and the inability for Eastern Washingtonians to handle snow, but all-in-all, I think we may stay around for awhile.

Time Flies

Whew! Half a year has slipped away from me as my husband and I are growing accustomed to the Pacific Northwest. Figured it was time to blog again.

Lots has happened. Still at my newspaper job. Don't ride the bus anymore, 3 hours and 3 transfers are too much! I work 4 days a week to make up for not riding the bus. My car was broken into once and the tires stolen off of it. We moved to a new apartment shortly after. One of my good friends left on his deployment with the Navy, won't get to see him again until October but his wife is moving out here next week. It'll be great having another Nebraskan out here.

My in-laws came to visit in the beginning of June. My husband and I tripled our knowledge of Seattle and the surrounding area showing them around. We had no idea where to take them, but they came prepared with places they wanted to see.

I found a wonderful church and have started to go to the small group study for young adults to meet more people my age. Ummm....

I got to go to my first dog show since moving out here. I wasn't competing because I don't have a dog out here, but it was still nice to go. A couple people I knew were there and I got to make a few new contacts. It was strange going to a dog show and not knowing anyone. It was one of the largest shows I've ever been to, about 2500 dogs. I plan on heading home in October for the Samoyed National. It's in Kansas and hardly ever in the Midwest, so I figured I should go because Mom will be able to go too. I can't wait to get a dog out here and start showing 'em.

My husband has decided to change careers and he is aiming to be a Washington State Patrolman. It's exciting and scary at the same time but I support him. Don't like the idea of him being shot at but I would rather he be happy at his job. He goes for testing in September.

That covers the big stuff, I think. Oh, the kitties got fleas :(

Updates

Wow, so much for trying to post each week. It's been busy around here. I have secured a job as a graphic designer with a newspaper. It's pretty awesome. I like my work and the people I work with. The crappy part is the commute, about an hour by car or two and half hours by bus. I drive half the week and ride the bus the other half to save on gas. I'm pretty excited about getting a job in my field. I was beginning to wonder if it was possible to break into the Ad world.

A visit home to Nebraska is in the works for my brother-in-law's graduation. Pretty excited about getting to see everyone and to fly again.

The apartment is coming together slowly but surely. Managed to find a desk off craigslist for cheap and saved a couch from the trash to make my own. Couch covers work wonders let me tell you.

We bought a new car since my husband sold his before we moved out here. We also had to get Washington driver licenses and register our cars. That was an adventure. Things work quite differently here than back home. Eventually with lots of questions and speedy emails, we got everything settled and are now officially residents of the State of Washington. We even voted.

Hopefully soon, we can even start to explore Seattle. We haven't gotten a chance to even go into the city except for when I change buses during the week. I want to go to Pike's Market since we missed it last time we were there in June. I am looking forward to the all the farmers' markets too.

One last update, the website I have been wanting to make hasn't went anywhere. I've kinda put it on the back burner. It'll be done, someday I hope.

Sweet Seattle

We made it! We made it to Seattle. We pulled in the morning of Christmas Eve and my husband's job put him to work right away on Christmas morning. A little bummed by that, but they needed the help and they were the reason for us making it to Seattle. The trip was long and we got delayed a couple of times because of weather but we are happy we are here and have already started to explore. Oh, I should apologize for basically omitted the entire month of December from the blog but we were crazy busy making plans and getting all the loose ends tied up. Nothing against the month, actually it's one of my favorite.

We just found an apartment and we will be moving on Monday. In the meantime I have been job hunting and making inquires. I have had one interview since getting here and it went pretty well. The people there were great and have offered some more contacts and introductions to get me started into the ad world. It has been awesome seeing everything fall into place!