Humboldt State University

Part of our trip up north always includes a trip down memory lane to visit our alma mater. We met at this university, married a couple of years later, and then I was pregnant the whole last year before I graduated in 1985. It really seems like an eternity ago that we lived up there. Our good college friends live there still, so it makes it fun to combine two visits.
One of two really cool old movie theaters in Arcata. Last visit in 2008, this one looked like it was shut down and neglected, which made me sad, as it was so neat inside and fun to go on a rainy day. When we drove by this time, it was completely overhauled and looking quite shinny and transformed.
This photo was taken with my iphone so it isn't too great. This entrance was not this fancy when we were going to school! I really like how it looks now.
This is heading up to the front of the school. Off to the left, but not visible, is a small house turned into offices. It use to house the financial aid office, where I worked for the whole time I went to school, under the work study program. Good times!
View of the library
This is the quad, with a new addition of a clock tower and elevator. I would have loved that elevator my last year there, when I was hugely pregnant with Nicole!
This is "Founders Hall." I believe it is the original building when the university was founded. It sits at the highest point of the campus, and if you had an eight o'clock class in this building, it was not a good thing!!

This is the view from Founders Hall. In the distance you can see Humboldt Bay.


I use to love these windows, and would sit in the hall while waiting for classes to start.

Courtyard of the hall.
Going back down to the other part of the campus and visiting the..........
art department, where I spent my whole time.

This was not there when I was going to school. I would have loved sitting here during a break!
Many hours in this room....Art history slide room, now I'm sure it is all digital.
Since I did most of my upper division units in Art history and museum studies, this is where I spent the other half of my time. Many fond memories of doing installations and gatherings here.
This department holds a special place in my heart as well, because the other work study job I had was in the costume shop. I learned so many interesting techniques while constructing all those costumes!
We were happy to see the library looking all spiffy with this new cafe in it. Last time we were there in 08 it was looking pretty shoddy. Now it looks fresh and new and boy would this have been nice to have back then!
I love the lushness of this campus. Being by the coast, helps this place constantly stay green and magical.
We saw evidence of fall embarking. I love my alma mater, and I'm so happy to find her this time with her sunday best on!!

Hope you liked my campus tour :)

Retro Friday: Candid Shots

These two photos are some candid shots that my dad took, that I really love. I love them because I remember that day very clearly. It was a very hot summer summer day, and my dad was clearing out poison oak from our yard. I sat out there to keep him company, with I'm sure chatty little girl comments. The dress I'm wearing was my favorite little summer dress, and I remember wanting to wear it almost everyday! The hat was my dad's. I remember feeling quite special that he let me wear it, while I watched him toil away.
You can tell how hot it is with all that bright sun in the background! The area I grew up in was always beastly hot in the summer, like 112 degrees could be quite common for several days.

The one thing I remember about that day, is my dad sweetly asking me If I was his girl over and over again. Until I would giggle and say yes, yes I am your girl!

I meant to slip in another post on my trip yesterday, but I ended up doing a lot errands that took me away from home. I'll do the last one very soon, and until then, have a very nice labor day weekend. We plan on just hanging out at home, how about you?

Retro Friday, One

Keeping with the time line, I decided to have these first birthday pictures of me as the newest post. My birthday is in October, but I thought I would pull these out anyway. I have a sequence of these pictures that my dad took, and they are some of my favorite photos of me for many reasons. The first being how my mom made this little birthday as special as she could. She made this little cake without a mold, and I think it is a pretty darn good attempt. Just think if blogs existed then, she could have done a tutorial on how to make a bunny cake!
The other special thing about these pictures for me, is the fact that she also made my dress. I love how the sweet yellow dress matches the icing on the bunny cake! There is no doubt that I got a lot of my cooking and sewing talents from her. She loved to cook, and sew. I was such a homebody as a kid, that I would watch everything she did. She sometimes didn't have a lot of patients to actually let me cook as a kid, or go onto her sewing machine and try it out, but just being by her side and being and observer, I picked up a lot from her. When I was in high school I decided to take a sewing course, and it wasn't until then, that she let me use her machine. Once I got to use it, there was no turning back! I made many creations once I was set loose on it.

Thanks mom, for giving me the love of cooking and sewing.

Also, thanks to my dad for giving me the love of photography, he has such a good eye for composition I think.

You both would have been great bloggers!

Happy Friday to everyone. I'm almost done with the linen dress that I have been working on. I can't believe how long it has taken me to make it. I went through two spools of thread, and had to go back for more yesterday, to make the button holes! Soon there will be a post on it!

Two anniversaries

Isn't this little heart cute? It was part of a treat at Chez Panisse, on our Valentine dinner. Because a post without pictures is boring, I thought I'd put a couple of shots of our evening in here, while I blog about the fact that it was a year ago today that I was getting my hip replaced. Seems like it just happened yet not. I'm doing very well with the hip, and have few problems or pain. Just the back every once in a while, but I can't complain otherwise. A year ago, I couldn't even imagine feeling better. My doctor told me that it takes a full two years to heal from this surgery, and I hope that this next year things feel even better. I sometimes feel the tightening of the scar tissue around it, and a slight movement of the ball and socket, but when all the ligaments fully tighten, I hope this is more minimal. If you would have talked to me about 6 months ago, I would have still been not happy , and wondering why I even did it! Now things are starting to feel much better, and makes me feel so much happier.
Next anniversary was for my blog. On February the 12th, my blog turned three! I love looking back at the very beginning when I wasn't sure where this blog was even taking me. When I started, I wanted to keep an on line scrapbook of sorts, of my life. Then I started meeting great people on here, and then in real life. The lovely Valerie who writes the gorgeous blog "un arc en ciel dans le lavabo," was so much fun to meet, a few summers ago. Other kindred spirits that I have been communicating with, have been so delightful to chat with on here, and I hope you know who you are ;) Now with the opening of my soon to be Etsy shop, my blog may take another turn in a whole new direction. I can't wait to see what happens.

Speaking of which, I have completed two items, and I'm very excited to cut out some more pieces very soon. It hasn't taken me that long to make these items mind you, just too busy of a February. Very soon I hope to have a mini collection to put in the shop. I can't wait to show you what I have been working on.

I don't think I will ever give up on this blog, even though there are days that I have nothing to share, because I still think at it's core, it will always be my scrapbook of memories.

How many times has your blog changed in concept, and how long have you been blogging? I would love to hear from those visiting my little space.

Raise your virtual glass of Champagne and wish me good luck with another year of blogging, and new things on the horizon.

CHEERS!!!