About a month ago, we were involved with filming two ad spots for the jeweler we worked with for our wedding rings. Greenlake Jewelry Works is an awesome locally-owned and operated business. They make all their jewelry at their Northgate location.
If you know us, then you know how much we are in love with the ring we designed for Melissa’s engagement/wedding ring, and also how much we loved working with these guys. Bryan’s ring is pretty sweet too, but much much simpler.
Always happy to promote our favorite jewelers – here’s the video on KIRO TV’s website. (I couldn’t find an embed code w/permission to use, so check it out there!)
Penny asking us how our ring design process went
Categories: Around Town
Tagged: custom jewelry, engagement ring, greenlake jewelry works, tv ad, wedding ring
Begonia lept into my life October of 1997. She weighed maybe 2 pounds, didn’t know cats were supposed to “hunt”, and had no sense of balance – always falling off the back of the couch.
She was a wonderful kitty. She always has energy, loves to play – when she was younger I’d catch her climbing the curtains when she forgot I was home. A favorite playtime thing when she found you in the kitchen – getting rolled up in the floormat like a fruit roll-up. Well mannered, didn’t really beg, she was the pretty girl who would cozy up on the couch to watch you go about your day.
Eleven years later, my future husband moved in. He was allergic to my furry friend who snuggled me all night through. We tried keeping the house clean and windows open to help keep her dander down, but he was REALLY allergic. After over a year of us trying all these things, he went to the doctor to get tested. Turns out, Bryan is super allergic to cats and living in such close proximity with one was only making it worse.
A few times, Bryan would wake up with his throat swollen. The doctor assured him it wasn’t threatening, but still, would you want to live like that?
Last fall, Begonia moved to my dad’s. I am still sad about my kitty moving out. Sometimes I wake up in a dream-state and can feel her snuggled into the crook of my knees. I miss her finding us on the couch and coming in between us for some attention, or how she’d wander around talking to me.
I love you, Boo.
Furry-belly Boo on our bed
Boo checking herself out
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: kitty, cat, begonia, boo, pet animal, long haired, furry friend
February 3, 2010 · 1 Comment
Portland is a beautiful city. I love driving around and checking out the shops and restaurants, buildings and bridges. Our last visit took me across the St. John’s Bridge for the first time. Until Sunday I had only admired its gothic arches and pale green from afar.
Bryan has some friends that live on the East side, up in St John’s neighborhood, so I’ve heard about the great parks and cute shops in that area. (Stiles, if you’re reading this, we’re sorry we didn’t call.) It was a little removed from town, probably comparable to our West Seattle neighborhood. The houses were a mix of nicer to “need some love” and overall feeling was relaxed, chill.
There is a park around and under the base of the East end of the bridge, it’s beautiful and grassy and great for sledding in the winter, picnics in the summer, and general enjoyment of the outdoors.
Just another reason I continue to love Portland.
Categories: Around Town
Tagged: city of roses, oregon, portland, st johns bridge
Bryan likes to group things together to make this phrase: ______, everywhere!
This last weekend, we gathered at Allyson and Kelly’s house for a baby shower in honor of Steph and Casey. A joint shower: the girls would drink champagne, snack on cucumber sandwiches, cheese and chocolates, while the boys went on a pub crawl. It was a very fitting way to mark the approaching addition to their life.
Every baby shower I have been to has some sort of contribution/gift to the expecting mother. For Stephanie, sister-in-law Allyson and her co-hostesses had asked each person attending the shower to submit a photo that would be added to a book for the to-be child. It was such a fun way to share friends and family with a child through storytelling.
Here is ours. We wanted to add more color than just a photo, so here is our rendition of “under the sea with the Ripkas”.
Under the Sea: a baby shower gift
Categories: Crafting
Melissa recently finished creating a brand new website for Bryan’s old company Built-e here in Seattle. It’s nothing much to toot her horn about but definitely an upgrade from the old site, which you can visit here.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: built-e, freelance, html, seattle green building products, sustainability website, website
So far the new year has been a dry, warm one. I’m sure people who don’t partake in snow sports are enjoying it rather much. The weather has been pleasant enough that we have had our windows cracked to bring in fresh air, and I haven’t felt cold. I can usually sport only thick wool socks through the winter and I am wearing summery thin ones.
We went to Snoqualmie Pass yesterday, we were itching to get out and make some turns. When we left Seattle it was clear and sunny. Driving out east on I-90, we soon encountered fog and it stayed with us until we arrived at the Pass. Alpental is where we decided to go since the other areas can get crowded on the weekend.
So we get up there, and the parking lots are probably half-full. The lift lines are nearly empty and we got on the first chair with only four people in front of us. The snow didn’t really feel icy down at the base, but as we approached the top we could hear the people skiing down were dealing with some serious hardpack. Yikes!
At the top of chair 1 was a blanket of ice: everywhere. But the sun was out! We skated over to chair 2 (I was deathly afraid of falling and breaking limbs at this point) and in our sunny chairs we started getting excited about the snow. Sun makes everything better! Plus we had a cool view of the valley below and could see all the way to Rainier.
From Chair 2, we could see a blanket of fog below us.
I’ll spare you the details, but making our way down from the top of chair 2 was miserable. All I wanted to do was get to the bottom, and I was super bummed that we went all the way to the top of the darn mountain. I wanted to be down at the bottom, in the safeness that was our car. I didn’t want to be risking my life on my snowboard!
From Alpental we decided to check out the rest of the resort. Figured why not, we’re up there and we only took one run so far so might as well see what else is going on? Well, let me tell you this: we took one run from the Silver Fir chairlift at Ski Acres and got back in the car. The way they had groomed the hill it was as if big teeth had crunched through the ice pack and it was the most uneven surface.
The beauty of Snoqualmie Pass is how close it is to Seattle. We were only away from home a few hours and had the rest of the day ahead of us to do whatever we wanted. And now we know: don’t go back up to the mountain for snowboarding until we get a decent amount of more snow!
Categories: Activities · Outside
Tagged: alpental, seattle, skiing, snoqualmie pass, snow, snow sports, snowboarding, winter
I have noticed that as I get older, time goes by faster and I have a harder time keeping up with all I want to be involved with. Time with family and friends becomes more precious and my time is consumed by keeping up with day-to-day activities and planning the fun times. No time anymore to let things just happen, it sometimes seems!
Has another year almost passed? Did we get to accomplish all we were hoping? I know I did. Let’s list a few.
In 2009 …
- Bryan started a new job in February
- We got married in May
- We had our first home project: painting and new carpet over the summer. This involved lots of cleaning/purging, and trips to Goodwill. That sure felt good to get ride of physical things we were clinging to.
- We grew lettuce and herbs on our patio – didn’t have to buy lettuce for months!
- We hiked the Enchantments in early October
- We discovered new surf areas in late October
- Melissa found time to knit not one, but three sweaters for babies/toddlers
- We celebrated several friends getting married
- We rode bikes on Alki and through Lincoln Park, many times
- We explored the North Cascades, camped in the snow by Mazama
- We dined on delicious dinners on our patio while soaking in the sun
- We discovered our love is always growing for each other, whether we’re paying attention or not
… all of these things, as well as fitting in quality time with family and each other.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: 2009, memories, new year, reminiscing
I don’t get into tv shows much. In fact, I can’t think of the last show I was so addicted to that as soon as one episode finished, I was already thirsty for the next. That’s how Mad Men is. I think it says something about me even blogging about it. That’s how big this show is to me!
I can’t put my finger on what it IS about the show that I love so much. Those characters aren’t very happy – their lives are practically falling apart with each show. The main character is dark and full of enigma. His wife is very 60’s-poster-gal. Maybe it’s all the fashion and gadgets from the era that I love – I can’t imagine wearing the bras from back then!
Well, like I said. I don’t know what makes it so enthralling for me but I’m stuck. Season 4, disc 1 arrived in today’s mail and we won’t be home for two days. I’ll be looking forward to it the whole time.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: netflix, tv shows
Every year I like to make something for Christmas presents. It gets even better when I can make one thing multiple times and take care of many gifts.
I saw the pattern for these on the PurlBee blog and have been eyeing them for a while. They are such a simple project and having the measurements and instructions laid out made their construction a breeze.
Check out the instructions on the PurlBee. They say it takes two hour for four towels; I found that keeping the iron on while sewing made this possible.
Categories: Crafting
Tagged: sewing crafting dishtowels
Not in a long, many years can I remember being able to ski locally so early. Around 50″ of fresh, we were on some of the first few chairs to load Hogsback. After three runs I could feel the effects of office life on my legs. Having so much time off means that much more catchup for my body.
Opening day at Stevens Pass - Big Chief chairlift
We rode a solid four hours before breaking for snacks. There weren’t really lines so everyone was tearing the hills apart. Coverage was the same as mid-December usually sees and almost every patch was shredded. We weren’t the only ones to also hit up the wooded zones – yes even the trees were in deep powder.
Ah, ski season, how I have missed you. Welcome back!
Categories: Activities
Tagged: snowboarding
