Hobbies

You are currently browsing the archive for the Hobbies category.

Today Randy, Jack and I drove down to the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve near Half Moon Bay to go tidepooling. We had to wait for low tide which was close to 5pm and when we got there it was foggier and more crowded than we anticipated. We managed to walk out a good ways and see quite a few bright green urchins, some starfish, and teeny crabs. I was hoping to see a little more wildlife, but given that it was cloudy, it made it harder to see down in the water. Nonetheless it was a fun trip and I’d be willing to give it another try on a sunnier day. Thank God for our outdoorsy “mandals” though because the rocks were uber-slippery! Here are a few shots I got:

urchin

starfish

tidepooling

shoesmandals

K: Haha, mandals. Tidepooling looks like fun! Did Jack try to eat the sea urchins?

Tags: , ,

A: Letterboxing

Picture+16

Have any of you heard of letterboxing? I just read about it from this post. At first I thought it sounded sort of “Dungeons and Dragons-esque,” but then I read more about it and realized it’s sort of like a giant scavenger hunt! I love maps and clues! Even if all I am finding is a stamp, it’s something to do in your boring neighborhood. Here is what letterboxing.org says about it:

Letterboxing is an intriguing mix of treasure hunting, art, navigation, and exploring interesting, scenic, and sometimes remote places. It takes the ancient custom of placing a rock on a cairn upon reaching the summit of a mountain to an artform. It started when a gentleman simply left his calling card in a bottle by a remote pool on the moors of Dartmoor, in England.Here’s the basic idea: Someone hides a waterproof box somewhere (in a beautiful, interesting, or remote location) containing at least a logbook and a carved rubber stamp, and perhaps other goodies. The hider then usually writes directions to the box (called “clues” or “the map”), which can be straightforward, cryptic, or any degree in between. Often the clues involve map coordinates or compass bearings from landmarks, but they don’t have to. Selecting a location and writing the clues is one aspect of the art.Once the clues are written, hunters in possession of the clues attempt to find the box. In addition to the clue and any maps or tools needed to solve it, the hunter should carry at least a pencil, his personal rubber stamp, an inkpad, and his personal logbook. When the hunter successfully deciphers the clue and finds the box, he stamps the logbook in the box with his personal stamp, and stamps his personal logbook with the box’s stamp. The box’s logbook keeps a record of all its visitors, and the hunters keep a record of all the boxes they have found, in their personal logbooks.”

Click here to find out where letterboxes are in your area!

Tags: , ,

Just kidding :) No Beavis and Butthead here, but I am talking about one of the best tailgating traditions born in the south: Cornhole! I love playing cornhole. I love it so much that I decided to make two personalized cornhole games for my guests to play with at the wedding reception. My dad built all of the boards for me and I did all of the painting. I thought they turned out fabulously and they were such a big hit with the wedding guests. I even let two of my bridesmaids take a set home with them. I of course kept one, which is now at home with the parents who have become quite the cornhole enthusiasts, (don’t ever challenge my dad to a game of cornhole, he’ll demolish you and get a lot of joy out of it). Sigh, there’s nothing like kicking back and playing a game of cornhole where all you need is a drink in your hand and the motor skills and hand eye coordination of a kindergartner.

The boards!

The boards!

Guests enjoying themselves :)

Guests enjoying themselves :)

My work in progress

My work in progress

If any of you are interested in some personalized cornhole games, contact me and I’m sure my dad and I would love to hook you up! Happy first day of college football!

A: Yes!! Those are my favorite sports, the ones where I can have a drink in the other hand. It’s the perfect game for party guests. No one ever has to put down their champagne. We could make cute corn baggies to match the boards too.

Tags: ,

Sunday when the tide is low, I think the hubby and I are going down to a marine reserve to do a little tidepooling for our labor day weekend. We bought these rugged outdoorsy sandals a few months ago and haven’t been able to break them in. Frankly I’m not really the type to wear such “mandals” but I’ve tried climbing on rocks barefoot and with tennis shoes and it’s no fun going home with bloody feet or wet stinky socks. So mandals it is! It’d be pretty sweet if I could get some photos like these I found on Flickr.

tidepoolsTalk about a great color palate inspiration.

Tags: , , ,

football
Weeeeeeeeeeee! College football season is officially in swing! I’m such a happy girl :) There was absolutely nothing better about living in the south than getting up on a Saturday morning and getting ready for the big game at school, or the games on TV all day. That’s one thing that I miss terribly about the south. I love college football, maybe that explains why most of my friends were always boys? College football is no big deal up here, tear. But Jeff and I plan to head on over to Brother Jimmy’s to catch the ACC games. Brother Jimmy’s is awesome! It’s a bar basically dedicated to North Carolina sports teams. Duke and Carolina Alums primarily frequent there, but you’ll see the occasional Wake or State fan too. I’m pretty sure I’ll be the only Elon fan there, but that’s no surprise. So stoked for the long weekend and some great football!! Anyone have any exciting plans this weekend, or are there any games you’re particularly looking forward to?

A: I think Randy already told you we’re thinking of going to the Cal/Maryland game. We’ll be watching the Wake game on TV tomorrow. I wish I could get as psyched as you are about football season, but I think I’ve become prisoner to the west coast and its college sports apathy. I sometimes miss it though. But not enough to move back :)

Tags: , , , , ,

Sorry for the delay, I actually finished sewing my skirt last week, but hadn’t had the chance to take photos of it. It turned out pretty good! As long as no one examines the seams up close at least. It’s good enough to wear which is all that matters to me. But now that I’m finished, I don’t know what kind of shirt to wear with it. Originally I was thinking some sort of gray since there are gray specs in it, but now I’m not sure. Shoes too! Help? Thoughts?

skirt1

skirt2Sorry it’s blurry!

K: Dang girl! Look at those calves. Get it.

Tags: , ,

Sweet golf course

Sweet golf course

Yup, you heard it right. This weekend, Jeff and I attended the Barclay’s Golf Tournament in Jersey City with our friends, (shout out to Ashley and Griff), and Ashley and I totally got checked out by one of the golfers. Granted he was old, with stark gray hair and wearing really ugly pants. But he liked us. Watch out hubbies! Anyway, the golf tournament was quite the little adventure. We walked at least 5 miles while we were there, (yay workout!), got within 5 feet of Tiger Woods, (I thought Jeff was going to jump out of his clothes from the excitement and I kept having the urge to sing Eye of the Tiger whenever he would walk by us), heard several exclamations of “GET IN THE HOLE!” and “YOU THE MAN!” and the weather couldn’t have been any prettier. We technically weren’t allowed to bring in our cell phones or cameras, but of course we broke the rules, brought both in, and got some killer pictures of Mr. Woods. We had to do the sneak attack to get pictures because officials were swarming everywhere to swipe away any cameras…lame. Such a weird rule. But yea, for my first golf tournament, I’d say that I had a blast! Especially when we got home and I realized that Jeff got tons of sunburn and I got none :) Victory!

We scream "country club couple"

We scream "country club couple"

It's the eye of the tiger and the thrill of the fight!

It's the eye of the tiger and the thrill of the fight!

No big deal

No big deal

Tags: , ,

lgfp1738+truffle-shuffle-the-goonies-poster

I normally hate forwards, but this one was funny enough to post. Enjoy:

Random Thoughts of the Day:

I wish Google Maps had an “Avoid Ghetto” routing option.

More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can think about is that I can’t wait for them to finish so that I can tell my own story that’s not only better, but also more directly involves me.

Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you’re wrong.

I don’t understand the purpose of the line, “I don’t need to drink to have fun.” Great, no one does. But why start a fire with flint and sticks when they’ve invented the lighter?

Have you ever been walking down the street and realized that you’re going in the complete opposite direction of where you are supposed to be going? But instead of just turning a 180 and walking back in the direction from which you came, you have to first do something like check your watch or phone or make a grand arm gesture and mutter to yourself to ensure that no one in the surrounding area thinks you’re crazy by randomly switching directions on the sidewalk.

That’s enough, Nickelback.

I totally take back all those times I didn’t want to nap when I was younger.

The letters T and G are very close to each other on a keyboard. This recently became all too apparent to me and consequently I will never be ending a work email with the phrase “Regards” again.

Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn’t work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically fix the problem. Every kid in America did that, but how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards or FAQ’s. We just figured it out. Today’s kids are soft.

There is a great need for sarcasm font.

Sometimes, I’ll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what was going on when I first saw it.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , ,

dressmaker

DRESSMAKER 3000 aka "The Baby Blue Beast"

skirt1

My skirt is the red one

OK so I’ve been working on a skirt for a couple weeks now – i know i’m slow. But I finally got all the pieces of the pattern cut out and began sewing on my DRESSMAKER 3000 yesterday. My friend Shannon (Hi Shannon!) was nice enough to get me started and show me how to use my sewing machine. After a few thread tangles, some hits and misses, and some needle mishaps, the random pieces of material began to take the shape of a skirt. However today, while working on the other half of my skirt, I realized I maaaay have cut the pieces too narrow. Like you have to be either a 000 or an 8 year old to fit into it. POOP! I was so concerned about it looking too big and dumpy, that I cut it too small and only a skeleton’s hips could fit into this thing. Soooo, now i have to go back to the fabric store and cut out 2 more panels. GRRR. That’s my least favorite part too, cutting out the panels. Hopefully once I do all that though, I’ll actually be able to wear the skirt. Fingers-crossed.

So without further ado, here is my skirt progress!

skirt

Tags: , ,

Look at mii!

 

Look at mii!

 

I’m not kidding. It creeps me out. I mean, I guess I’ve been a bad wii fit user and haven’t actually used it in like 3 weeks, but still, when an inanimate object asks me “Where have you been!?,” things are just a bit weird. I think it’s mad at me. It greeted me this morning with, “Well, if it isn’t Karen!” I think it was giving me a little attitude and mocking me. But I certainly showed it who was boss when I proved I had lost 5 pounds since my last session with the wii. So ha! Take that creepy electronic stalker. I’m a big girl and I can lose weight without you, (sticks tongue out).

A: That’d be funny if it really did have an attitude. That should be an application you can add. The Wii Bitch. “Someone looks like she’s eaten one too many cupcakes.” “How do you ever expect to get into those skinny jeans looking like that?” “Honey, your muffin top is hurting my eyes.” “Say it with me, CELLULITE.”

Blog Widget by LinkWithin

Tags:

« Older entries § Newer entries »