Tarnished Lady

Up at Zuma

To celebrate Jasper turning 5 months old, Matt took the day off and we hit the beach on a gorgeously sunny California day.
Before we went, we stopped off at our local library branch for a special ASL sign language story and song hour.
We have been signing with Jasper for over a month now and its really good stuff.
He knows "bath", "eat" and "wet diaper" plus "teddy bear".
Its cute to see his eyes light up when he is fussy and you sign for "eat" b/c he realizes you understand him.
The story hour was a hit. His eyes were fastly riveted on the lady leading the group.
 


He loves books and beyond that, loves a good song and is into the signing so to have all three together? Genius.



Zuma was so nice. We kept the baby covered and under an umbrella with 50 spf but wow, did he ever love the beach. We spent a lot of time there when he was in utero and could hear the sounds. His Sleep Sheep he goes to sleep listening to makes the sounds of the ocean and of whales so for him to finally be there for real was a sensory overload.





















Here are two funny clips...
one is Jasper attacking Matt's face

and another of him chattering away... Speaking of the beach, we begin his swim lessons tomorrow! Its a 10 day "bootcamp" Minnows private group lesson with two of his little friends at this teacher's private heated saline pool. I know he will be a regular little fish and love it as bathtime is a big hit at our house and his daddy was once a competitive swimmer. We are going up to Yosemite in a few weeks and will be staying at a lodge with a pool. If its indoors, maybe he will be able to use his new swim skills up there.

Papa is the best reader

Papa is the best reader, originally uploaded by Orchide.

My parents came into town for a brief but sweet visit to meet their new grandson.

To see the rest of the Flicker set pictures, go HERE.

This set HERE is from Thanksgiving when Uncle Mike & Aunt Elena came down from San Francisco.

Here is a video as well that I finally uploaded. Its from when Jasper was only 5 weeks old.

Irrelevant & disturbing surreal dreams of crawdads

I am quite pleased to say time is flying and it shouldn't be too much longer until Bebe Wombat is here.
It has gone by surprisingly quickly. Here is a bit about where I am at right now...

You are now in the third trimester, and last, of your pregnancy! Your baby's crown-to-rump length is about 9.6 inches and your baby's total length is approximately 15.3 inches! Your baby now weighs about 2 pounds 3 ounces and is going to grow rapidly during this last trimester! Your uterus is about 2.8 inches above your bellybutton.

If your baby were born now, it would have an 85% chance of surviving. Even though your baby is still not fully developed, she would be well within the limits of premature viability.

Yay for making it this far so easily!

One thing that is very trippy to say the least about pregnancy are the psychedelic dreams. Ask any pregnant woman and she will confirm this for you. Mine are so vivid and like watching an Italian film from the 60's sped up and in another language. I wake up and still feel like I am asleep. Just bizarre but an inherent part of pregnancy thanks to the hormones coursing through our body. If you think you have had strange and realistic deep dreams, trust me- you have nothing on a pregnant lady!

One of my favorite obsessions is perfume and perfume oils if not hand-blended by me than by Beth at Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab. She happens to be pregnant herself right now and due this next month I believe. I always look forward to the full moon oils she puts out and the updates of the new limited editions and have been trying to save money by not partaking right now. I could not help myself yesterday though when I saw she had created a special limited exclusive just for the Black Phoenix forum members that was inspired by her crazy pregnancy dreaming...haha.

I can't wait to receive this one in the mail. from the BPAL site: 

This was made exclusively for bpal.org members.This odd little biscuit will be live until Sturgeon Moon comes down.

Please include your forum name in the comments field at checkout.   

IRRELEVANT AND DISTURBING SURREAL CRAWDAD DREAM
If there was one thing that I think encapsulates the whole experience of pregnancy for me, it would be the Irrelevant and Disturbing Surreal Crawdad Dream. Since conception, my dreamscape has been unusually bizarre, bordering on the demented. One of my baby books told me that I'd be having nonstop dreams about puppies, kittens, and baby bunnies. Really? 'Cuz my dreams are filled with zombie-driven ice trucks that are late for delivery on my kid's birthday, masquerades where people come as themselves, a quest to cure possessed individuals (in this dream, you could tell that people were possessed by how annoying they were) by hitting them on the head with large rocks, and, of course, millions of malformed crawdads with human faces filling up numerous 18-wheeler truck beds.

Nary a bunny nor kitten to be found.

Par for the course during pregnancy? For me, it is.

An irrelevant, disturbing, and surreal scent: red currant, green tea, red musk, Hawaiian ginger, benzoin, vanilla, coriander, squash blossom, and blueberry.

Hahaa! I completely relate Beth and I can't wait to be slathered in blueberry musk.

 

sweet

sweet, originally uploaded by Orchide.

Oh yes- we had such a wonderful time up in the mountains for our wedding in June Lake. Here (above) we are in Yosemite the very day before the Tioga Pass was closed due to snowfall.

Our goal of keeping by the lake & in nature just relaxing with some hiking thrown in there and sharing that with our nearest & dearest was definitely accomplished.

The run-down:

Tuesday.

We drove up with my parents from LA, stayed in the quaint little cowboy town of Bishop the first night to acclimatize (its at 4000 feet so is a good halfway point to June Lake's nearly 8000 feet). We had a dinner then hit the pool at our teeny motel to refresh ourselves and shake the memory of the 100+ degree weather back in LA.

Wednesday.

We arrived to June Lake the following noon and checked into our lakeside cabin and settled a bit before jaunting off to ancient prehistoric saline Mono Lake. Wow- the wind was surely kicking up and it was cold which worried us as our wedding was meant to be lakeside at dusk a few evenings later.
We grabbed lunch at the Gourmet Magazine lauded Tioga Pass' Mobil Gas station which I have written about before on here- mmm- had yummy fish tacos then went back to our cabin to meet n greet Matt's family. We all had a spaghetti supper together and called it a night.

Thursday.

The next day, it began snowing a bit- eeeps!- and more of our guests rolled into town. I had a wee moment of meltdown (i.e. shed some tears) until our parents came to the rescue and got to talking to the cabin owner as to other options for an indoor wedding. She got on the phone to the neighboring lake's community center and managed to book it for us one night in advance (on a holiday weekend no less!) and to hook us up with her daughter who is a private chef and a wedding planner!

She put together in 24 hours (during a snow storm) a supper for 22 (including 4 vegetarians) of flat iron steaks with mushrooms, garlic vegetables and twice baked potatoes(vegetable napoleon for the veg heads), preceded by buffalo mozzarella mixed baby green salads,  and then as per my request, a chocolate wedding cake with blackberry. She took care of flowers, made a bouquet for me, hired a waiter to serve us, took care of wine and champagne. All we had to do was to show up and bring our music! Whew- what a relief.

With this taken care of and set up, we (along with Matt's family, Carrie, Kim & Buffalo) went up to Yosemite for the day which was a good thing as the very next day it was closed due to snow. We first ate again at the Tioga Pass Mobil Station- had fantastic mahi mahi burgers dressed with avocado chili creme and flaky onion rings.We then had a gorgeous trek down into the Tuolumne Grove, saw some beautiful deer and spent some time at the various lakes and waterfalls before heading back to June. Kime, Gaby, Fran & Darcy/Greg showed up this night too as well as my sis and her fam and my brother Michael and my sil Elena (staying just a door down).

Friday.

The following day was the wedding and we awoke to more snow to our delight! Matt & I both had sinus head colds so we had a group breakfast in the cabin then retreated to our bedroom for the day to focus on writing and perfecting our vows and uploading our music playlist (lots of dreamy Twin Peaks-y tunes as the lodge hall we were doing it in had wood paneling and a moose head on the wall and overlooked the lake and snowy mountains- very picturesque) for the supper followed by a leisurely nap. Darcy came over and gifted us with facial supplies and Kim came by to let me do some wedding jewelry shopping from her wares. I was so happy to have some Kim Faith around my neck and finger for the ceremony. It pulled it all together.

We showed up holding hands to the hall and went right into the ceremony under the moose of course! My dad said our vows right after Darcy read our selected passage from the I Ching. It was short, very lovely and made our mamas cry. Then we ate and had fun. Ended up back at the cabins round the fires talking, laughing, popped down to visit our pals a few cabins down until midnight or so.

Saturday.

Got up in the morning and since 5 people had left for home (Darcy/Greg had another wedding to attend up in Seattle the following day if you can believe!), it made our group smaller (we were sad to see them go of course) but cozier...just perfect for a daytrip out to these remote natural hot springs Matt & I always heard locals talking about. My parents went up to Bald Mountain with my sister's fam and Mike, Elena and Christian chose instead to do a "hard hike" (their words- eeps) so it was myself, Matt, Carrie, Kim & Buffalo. It was snowing pretty good now...everything blanketed in white...but we figured these hot springs were used mainly in winter as a respite by the skiiers after they came off the mountains so this is how it should be done. I wasn't planning on getting in except my feet b/c of my being pregnant but the water was tepid and so I shucked my togs  along with the rest of us and got right in. Pure heaven!

This place was down a few miles from a green church off the beaten path, then past a few cow guards and up a dirt road then a 1/4 of a mile walk on a wooden boardwalk to the middle of a field. Only one couple was in there- lovely people from San Fran- we all bonded and got silly, did mud facials, watched Buffalo cavort in the fields in between dips, sipped some Maker's Mark (except I of course) cracked open especially to celebrate our nuptials by our new pals. Then we headed into Mammoth Lakes to Matt & I's favorite local sando shoppe run by this excellent Aussie chef Hot Chicks. We had delicious tri-tip dip sandos with pepperjack cheese. MMM then headed to the market to stock up for a final night Grill Fest!

Matt and Buffalo got plenty of ground beef, bratwurst, buns, corn in the husk and lovely veggies to marinate and skewer along with beer for anyone who wanted to drop by and we settled into Mike & Elena's cabin (had to switch for our last night which was a nice change) and got the indoor wood fireplace going as the snow came down outside.

Matt's local clients and our friends Danna and John stopped by after spending their day down in Bishop for the annual Mule Days Festival. They hung out for a bit and gave us the best gift basket...so nice. As the snow came down, Matt got the grill going outside. He was feeling so much better (haha he joked that it seemed all he needed was to get married to fix his cold) he was loving being out there in the elements. Mike & Elena came back, took showers after their nearly 7 or 8 hour sojourn up an icy mountain. They even saw fresh bear tracks- yikes- then joined us in our relax. Carrie, Kim and Buffalo came over with more eats, we sat around the fire and listened to mellow Led Zepplin, was a perfect final night. Carrie even baked us all delicious chocolate chip cookies.

Sunday.

We got up and packed sadly then said goodbyes to the lake, our cabins and my sister and brother and their fams. Mom, Dad and Matt & I drove down into Mammoth Lakes for some tasty Irish Pub fare at Ye Aulde Dubliner- perfect as the snow was really coming down. We all had huge bowls of steaming potato leek soup and shared chips w/ curry and handmade Irish sausage pastries. Warmed us up and we hit a few of the upper lake resort areas for some last minute photo ops before leaving. So gorgeous!

Up at Lake Mary, Crystal Crag, etc. it was a magical fairy tale of pure white and trees and little lakes everywhere. When next we come up, I wanna stay up there! We drove back to LA snacking and listening to an old radio play of Hitchcock's The 39 Steps as we came down. Made great time and got into LA in just 5 hours!

Unpacked then took Mom & Dad for some Vietnamese pho at our favorite Silverlake spot. We shared  fried rolls wrapped in lettuce and a steak/shitake/shrimp crepe for starters. They had bowls of the ginger chicken soup, I had lemongrass steak and shrimp cold noodles and Matt the rare steak and fennel soup. My fortune at the end said I would have a long and fortuitous marriage, can you believe? Then we took them on a wee driving tour of the Victorians in our neighborhood and Elysian Park as well as a downtown drive-by Matt's work.

Monday.

Hit the hay and got up for breakfast at the Brite Spot before getting them off to LAX then Matt & I headed to the Arclight to catch a matinee of Indiana Jones. After, we gorged on Thai at our favorite Thai Town joint (lots of shrimp chili/basil noodles, garlic pepper chicken over rice & roasted duck as well) before going home and crashing.

What a super wedding week! Thank you everyone who thought of us and shared a bit of yourselves. It meant so much. We had a blast and can't stop smiling. xo

Here is the link to all the best of the snaps we have collected so far on my Flicker page's wedding album- still waiting on Kime's to be reformatted (she made me a mac disc which my pc can't read) and will add right in- please feel free to take a peek and leave a comment there!

Now I am off to work on our thank you notes for all the generous gifts (prezzies, honeymoon registry funds to help us get to Indonesia next year- yay!, plus the lovely cards and words...everything).
We are so thankful & touched to be blessed with our wonderful families and friends.

Sugar cane, blackcurrant & musk, oh my!

Headed up to Black Phoenix last evening for the Sugar Moon Brick & Mortar Lunacy full moon party where the dress code was: Liberatores! Et tu Brutus?

The Liberatores is the name the assassins of Julius Caesar gave themselves so we were asked to bring out our tunics and togas and commemorate the Ides of March.

This gave me a flashback to my 10th grade English teacher who taught me a love for Shakespeare along with letting his class "kill him" in a drawn-out fun toga-wearing yearly event each Ides of March. I remember being excited for his class after hearing about it from my older brother.

Back to the full moon though, my goodness, was she ever so beautiful as she rose up into the sky? Did any of you see it? Seriously, as we drove Valley-bound in the quickening dusk and came around a corner, we both exclaimed at the same time upon seeing the firey orange full moon hanging low before rising. It was soooo vividly orange early on!
I picked up a bottle of the irresistible Sugar Moon the name of March's full moon.
If you missed it...

SUGAR MOON
No way to see him
on this moonless night ---
I lie awake longing, burning,
breasts racing fire,
heart in flames.

Sugar cane, blue musk, mahogany, black orchid, black currant, violet, blackberry leaf, teak, strawberry, and dusky rose.

This oil is perfection- ahhhh- what I have been waiting for!

I also scored bottles of both Lunar Eclipse & Love's Philosophy- limited ones that were back-ordered for the last few months and with good reason. Yum.
Lunar Eclipse was made specially for last month's eclipse event and I couldn't wait to get my paws on it. Better late than never...

LUNAR ECLIPSE
Skoll the wolf who shall scare the Moon
Till he flies to the Wood-of-Woe:
Hati the wolf, Hridvitnir's kin,
Who shall pursue the Sun.

Red musk, black currant, violet leaf, wild frankincense, lavender, black orchid, Darjeeling tea, vetiver, red moss, myrrh, Moroccan spices, blackened fruit gums, and tobacco.

Upon applying, the first impression is the tobacco and the myrhh but that quickly dries down to the red musk, the blackcurrant, violet leaf and a little bit later, the black orchid and the lavender come into focus. I love tea scents and am such a sucker for anything earthy with vetiver or moss and to add blackcurrant into the mix, I am one happy girl. This is a special oil.

Love's Philosophy for your poetry lovers is part of the Valentine's/Lupercalia series of oils based on famous love poems and represents Shelley.

LOVE'S PHILOSOPHY
Percy Bysshe Shelley
The fountains mingle with the river,
And the rivers with the ocean;
The winds of heaven mix forever,
With a sweet emotion;
Nothing in the world is single;
All things by a law divine
In one another's being mingle; --
Why not I with thine?

See! the mountains kiss high heaven,
And the waves clasp one another;
No sister flower would be forgiven,
If it disdained it's brother;
And the sunlight clasps the earth,
And the moonbeams kiss the sea; --
What are all these kissings worth,
If thou kiss not me?

  Vanilla, saffron, and cream.

This is light and sheer and sooooo beautiful. The saffron gives it a depth it needs.
Here's to gorgeous full moons and even more gorgeous perfumes...

The above painting is Moonlight's Children by Jeanie Tomanek.