I’ve enjoyed playing with the iPhone app called Brushstroke. It’s a pretty versatile app for adding water-color / oil painting effect to photos.
These are three shots I took in different cathedrals on my birthday trip to France, with a little post-processing with Brushstroke.
Notre Dame. Paris:
Cathedral Notre-Dame de Chartres. Chartres:
Sainte-Chapelle. Paris:
After her graduation last month, Julie spent a week in Zihuatanejo, Mexico with a friend – a well-earned treat after 2 1/2 years of hard work. She brought us back this painted, wooden bowl as a gift. She painted it herself! And, I think it’s beautiful.
She packed up her things and drove back to Washington State this week and is now back in God’s country. She starts her dream job next week and has a limitless future ahead of her. Well done, Julie! We miss you already.
Ever heard of Zihuatanejo? It’s a town on the southwest coast of Mexico. I’ve never been. I only know of it from Julie’s trip. And from the movie The Shawshank Redemption. Great movie! Anyway, at the end of the movie, after Andy escapes from prison, he finds his freedom in this beach town and his buddy, Red, meets him there in the closing scene, after making parole. Great quote from the flick: “Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.” Amen.
Today Mom and I headed to Seattle Center to see the amazing Chihuly Garden and Glass museum. Fran, Aaron and Colleen joined us. It was an amazingly clear, sunny day. We also went up in the Space Needle to see the 360 degree view. I took too many pictures to share here, but will leave you with a few.
I went for a walk this morning… down to another bay on the sound. This pod of orcas live here year round. I was hoping to find the real ones, but these will have to do. You can get a glimpse of the fall color that is popping on this first Saturday in November.
Fran and I also managed to get away for a round of golf this afternoon. I’m glad I brought my clubs this trip. Definitely worth it.
Also, I see that wordpress has added a widget and some links to help get out the vote. I sent my absentee ballot in this week. Get your vote counted on Tuesday…
Last year five of my girlfriends and I went on a trip together to San Diego and had a really great time. We said we’d try to make it an annual thing. And we did! This year’s destination: Washington D.C.
The fall weather was beautiful. We rented a townhouse on Capitol Hill just south of Lincoln Park – about a mile and a half walk to the Capitol buidling. What an amazing place to live.
The Highlights:
We walked about a hundred miles (!), mastered the Metro, and took in some amazing sights. We visited the Library of Congress & National Gallery of Art, and their outdoor Sculpture Garden. We took a 3-hour Segway DC Monuments & Memorials tour with CitySegway (I highy recommend them, and our wonderful guide, Ray). We caught a showing of the Broadway musical Evita at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. We drank a couple barrels of wine. And danced the night away in the townhouse. We we sure crammed alot of fun into a 4 day weekend.
The Eats:
– The night we arrived we ate at the highly touted Spanish tapas restaurant Jaleo (2 blocks from the Archives metro station). This madrileña gives them a bleh and a thumbs down. Service was ho hum, their traditional tapas like gambas al ajillo were not traditional at all… (made with red, spicy pepper sauce with no garlic!). When we complained, the waiter said they’ve changed the way they prepare them now and we should have ordered them traditional if that’s the way we wanted them, even though that’s how they were described on the menu. We shared a pan of lobster paella which tasted like new orleans dirty rice made with a burnt roux. Sorry José Andrés, you let us down.
– for breakfast the next day, Friday, we ate at the Madison Cafe atop of the Library of Congress’ James Madison Memorial Building. What a great, unassuming breakfast stop, with reasonable prices. Spectacular view of the Potomac, but apparantly you’re not supposed to go out on the patio unless accompanied by the Capitol Police (oopsie).
– for lunch on Friday’s sightseeing marathon (seriously, Laura’s pedometer said we walked about 23 miles that day!), we happened upon a really wonderful farmer’s market/outdoor food court in the Federal Triangle – Capital Harvest on the Plaza. In contrast to last night’s meal, the paella I got here on a paper plate was perfect and the real deal. They are open Friday’s through the end October.
– for dinner on Friday night we ate at the fabulous italian restaurant Graffiato (a short walk from the Gallery Place/Chinatown metro stop). Now this was a great meal! The service was fantastic. We tried nearly everything (watercress salad, caesar, mussels a la vodka, potato gnocchi, homemade pasta, white house pizza, and even more that I don’t recall) and came away wanting more. Delicious!
– Saturday morning we walked to the nearby Eastern Market – a historic indoor/outdoor food and arts market and a hub of the neighborhood on Capitol Hill. We bought ingredients for our planned dinner-at-the-townhouse later that night. The menu: spinach soup, grilled salmon steaks, asparagus risotto, green beans with lemon vinagrette and goat cheese. We outdid ourselves!
– for brunch on our last day, we headed to Le Greniere, a fantastic french bistro on H street, about a mile walk from Union Station. Their weekend brunch menu has a great variety of delicious choices. My croque-monsieur could have fed 2 or 3. 🙂 excellent service and brunch menu. We were all thankful for the walk afterwards.
And then, *poof* it was over. Til next year!
Some of the sights:
The afternoon was filled with family stopping by to see mom and aunt Ellen. Rebecca and Aaron brought some shrinky dink paper… an arts and crafty kind that you decorate and then put in the oven to shrink and harden. We made lots of doodads. These that I made are destined to become keychains…
How?
You can buy the sheets of paper. Google sez #6 recyclable plastic can also work, but I haven’t tried that. Make sure to use permanent markers, and allow for 3x or 4x shrinkage. Punch a hole before shrinking, if you want to make into a keychain. Bake at 325-350 degrees for less than a minute. They will ball up and then flatten out again as they shrink. I put them in the oven on foil with a little flour or cornstarch to keep from sticking to the foil.
On the way back from taking Monte to the airport today, i stopped in Tacoma to go to the Museum of Glass.
I enjoyed this interactive exhibit with dozens of lighted letters, just waiting to spell something.
On the way home I checked out a few different vantage points. This is a shot of the old (left) and new (right) Tacoma Narrows bridges. Mt Rainier is lurking behind the old bridge.
We went to see War Horse tonight at the Bass Concert Hall. I was more taken by the intricate, life-sized horse puppets than the overall story. But, it was opening night, and was well done.
Anchoring out tonight with Lori and Dave on Camelot, and Kurt and Kevin on Dancer.
While we were driving home last night from Louisiana we watched the temperature drop from the 70s to the 40s in a matter of minutes. By the time we got home it was freezing in our neighborhood. Spring is only 17 days away, but it’s a tad chilly here!
Tonight I joined Doray, Laura, Irene and Ann for dinner to celebrate Lori’s birthday. Back home in time to wait for the rain and sleet to come in from the west. I hope it lingers over the lake.
An interesting chandelier from Justine’s tonight:
The weather this winter has been a roller coaster of sunny-and-70s then sleet-and-20s-and-30s. About three or four turns so far and one more on the way tomorrow. It was a beautiful day today, so I threw open the windows and took a walk through the greenbelt.
Along the way I came across this rock and saw a face in it (sort of). If i squint a bit i think i can make out Jay Leno…
I finally got around to framing a print that I bought on my last visit to Pike Place Market in Seattle. The artist is Leone Ardo.
Monte made the frame out of western red cedar. It turned out nice, I think.
Today Laura and I went to the Austin Empty Bowl Project event. It is a fundraiser for organizations that feed hungry children in the area. Potters donate bowls, food vendors donate soup, musicians take turns entertaining the crowd, and tons of Austinites show up to make it all work. $20 gets you a bowl of your choice and a delicious hot bowl of soup. It was great! This is the one I brought home.
I took the day off, and Monte and I made a trip to South Austin. You may be familiar with the “Greetings from Austin” mural. It was first painted in 1998. It only took me 15 years, but I finally got down there in August to see it myself. When I did, i saw how deteriorated the mural had become. Here is a link to the photo I took back in August. Since then the building owners raised money to restore the wall behind the mural and repaint it. They started the renovation about a month ago and just finished it. Below is a photo of the brand-spanking-new version that I took today.
Sheila365 
