Train Through the Trees

Wandering around the city, I always discover new things.  While walking to a clothing swap, my roomate Dan and I found train tracks through the forest while foraging for a shortcut...Reminded me of the video game the Deer God, on a level when the deer has to jump over the moving trains...Eventually we hit the park on the other side and walked up green and grey hills to bright colored tents to swap!

Forest of Photos...Woodsy Weekend

Howdy, forest friends!  Life has been good to me lately.  I've been savoring these slow days of simple pleasures this month, as I just got a new teaching job that I start next week!  Gotta make the most of these days while I can...

I hosted a little craft party at the park on Friday.  I wanted to try making edible terrariums I had seen on My Paper Crane, since my mom sometimes sends me chocolate rocks from Arizona.  My forest friends and I had fun making the tiny worlds in jars...

I used some of the decorations my mom got me for my birthday last year, like this sugar squirrel!

On Saturday, Ol' R came home with an antique pump organ from 1913!  We had ourselves a party that night, as we all gathered round to play songs on the organ.  The best part?  The organ is going to be gifted to Jesse and I as a wedding present and we get to keep it in our room!  Looks like my resolution to learn piano this year is being changed to pump organ!

Ol' R also got me a new squirrel bowl for my collection!  I got the large one in the lower left at Motherlode Thrift, then started finding the smaller ones over the years.  I received the cookie jar and bowl for Christmas from Jesse and his sis-in-law, & the new one I got from Ol' R has a grey squirrel and a teal inside...how unique!

At the end of the party on Saturday night, we went outside to hang out with our new critter friend, This lil' raccoon has been living in our backyard for four days now.  He took my laundry off the line and made a bed out of it!  We give him a few scraps at night.  (Please don't lecture me on feeding animals, I already know how to do it properly.  I have had to lecture others about it.  The streets are hard for animals these days, and someone needs to provide a safe space for them.)

All in all, it was a great weekend.  Sunday mornings I cook a big breakfast for everyone and we all pile up on the couch to watch old tv shoes like the Beverly Hillbillies or Have Gun, Will Travel but I don't really take pictures of that because his dad's area of the house is messy.  Just imagine us all sitting on a couch cracking up!

Life Lately...

We recently acquired two accordions for our growing musical instrument collection.  

We went by a local dairy farm to pick up milk and saw a cute horse sign...

We were given a free keyboard with our accordions, and we already have three keyboards!  I decided to make cute forest keyboard with washi tape, woodgrain con-tact paper, and stickers!

Made cookies with my cousins for Halloween.  Although, I didn't exactly stick to the Halloween theme, haha.  These cookies were fun to make, but a little too much fake food for me to eat!  I made my cousins put them in gift bags to give their school friends.

Last but not least, we've been playing a lot of Hyrule Warriors this week!

Foresty Friday is Finally Here!

This week was kind of crazy. Our entire street was being repainted and we had lots of workers coming and going.  Our room has a large glass wall facing with doors that lead to the backyard.  With so many people out in the yard, I kind of felt like an animal in a zoo.  Exhibit A of the forest blogger, if you will... 

 Oh well, it was still a wonderful week.  How was your week, friends of the forest?

Our door used to be light brown, and now it's a drab olive green.  As soon as we noticed it, Jesse, Ol' R and I all turned to each other and started singing "What's behind the green door?" by Jim Lowe, then busted out into laughter.

We went to the forest to escape; flying kites, running on logs, climbing trees...

Got a mysterious moose package from Ol' R.  Inside is a vintage moose bottle of perfume!

My friend Johnny gave me this awesome air command patch to add to my collection!

Reading green books is one of my favorite ways to unwind.  

As long as the plot has something to do with the forest, I'll read it!  

Forest of Photos: Day to Day Life

Today was a nice day.  I...

Studying geology while eating candy rocks my mom sent me!

Listening to some of my favorite records...

Life Lately...

It's officially spring today, though it feels more like summer already...

March has been mushroom madness month.  Mushroom recipes, mushroom cocktails, growing our own mushrooms on stumps, identifying mushrooms...

Finally found some stamps so I can send mail to all my forest friends and family!

Found a cool patch...

A Cute Caterpillar

The other day I saw a caterpillar in the forest known as the tobacco hornworm (Manduca sexta).  He was crawling around on leaves and stems.  What I loved about this caterpillar was it's green color and horn.  The horn made it seem as though it were a unicorn caterpillar!  You can spot the difference between the very similar tomato hornworm with this trick: the tobacco hornworm's white stripes are straight like cigarettes, while the tomato hornworm's are v shaped like vines on a tomato plant!    Unlike other caterpillars, this particular species does not go into a cocoon for transformation.  Rather, he buries himself in the ground!  When they are done evolving, they become a beautiful brown moth the color of tobacco!

Weekend in the Woods

We went for a walk in the woods on Friday and saw a beautiful brown velvet moth that kept landing on our hands, heads and let us take pictures of it.  It was butterfly mating season and we saw red and yellow butterflies too!

Experimented with a new nail technique using dead bugs...

On Sunday morning, I made Jesse and his dad a sausage log cabin for breakfast!

Forest of Photos: Oh, What a Week!

Wow, what a week.  I did a lot of work, tested out the new bike shed with a trip over the hills and through the woods to coupon, went to a guitar factory party, listened to new music, studied french, & so much more!

We went to a party last night for Ol' R's work....it was right in our hometown and boy were we surprised when it turned out to be a huge event!  Tons of free food, cake pops, backstage tours, and we even got to see a few good bands.  Definitely not a typical Thursday night!

Speaking of music, I made a playlist for every day of the week:

Monday Morning - Tales of Justine

Ruby Tuesday - The Rolling Stones

Wednesday Morning, 3 AM - Simon & Garfunkel

Sweet Thursday - Matt Costa

Friday I'm in Love - The Cure

Just some of the pins I wore this week.  I like to wear that Nintendo DS one so people will know I can play with them!  I like the Beatles one since it is square, it looks like a miniature record album!

Went to the park often this week, since Jesse leaves during the day now I have to use a tripod and mirror to take daily outfit photos at the park now. I got bored and decided to take a tree shadow shot...

Made a small to-do list pad for myself, if you want it, head over to my Pinterest to download it!

Forest of Photos: Fall is Almost Over...

 

Well, there certainly are a lot of leaves on the ground in the forest these days... I only ever wear yellow in November, just like the trees do.  I made a shirt for one of my favorite bands, Woods, with iron on paper and a yellow shirt for the dollar store.

 

The first semester is almost over, I made a fall leaf folder for my new work...

Got a cozy wool blanket from the thrift store for cuddling in the car (we drive an old vw bug with no heater)

 

Used our yellow wall for photoshoots in the last week of November before we paint over it with green!

Forest of Photos: Last Leaves Fall...

 

Well forest friends, in just three days I will be bidding adieu to summer and saying hello to autumn.  I'm enjoying the last of the green leaves.  I had to take a series of macro photographs for my photography class....it's cliche but for one of my photos I took an extreme close up of a leaf, one of my favorite subjects.

 

Ol R' got me some miniature squirrels from a yard sale, I made a ring with one.  I've got one left, saving it for a special project...

 

We've just been enjoying the nice cool weather and making music together.  I don't play many major instruments (just panpipes, tambourine, bongos, ect...) but I write great songs and Jesse can play any instrument and sound like a composer....I keep trying to get him to play more so we can start a boyfriend-girlfriend band...we have a few songs written and can get a gig easily....we just want to make more..

Forest of Photos: September Instagram Faves

Whew, been so busy this week!  I got  a cheap new phone I use only for instagram these days.  These days my life is a whirlwind of photography classes, thrifting, painting our room green, homeschooling, badminton, gardening, building, making mix tapes, Jesse's new job, watching tons of interesting films,working on building this business back up again, enjoying the very last weeks of summer, making a bike trailer, and so much more!

Forest of Photos: Start of September

 Well I've been pretty busy since school started.  New classes, a new homeschooling job, and a new blog get this season off to a great start.  It's almost fall, and I am reading vintage books on cloudy days, thrifting at cheap stores, playing music, and living life.  

 I joined eco club at my community college!  Trying to make people go green and stuff.  I have never been in a school club, so we'll see how it goes...

Mushrooms popping up on the front lawn let you know that autumn has almost arrived!

A Trip To Disneyland

 

I went to Disneyland for a family reunion and got to meet Merida from the Disney movie Brave!

23 & I'd Rather Be a Tree

Happy Birthday to me, I'm 23 and I would much rather be a tree...