El Hogar, Mi Hogar

Jess was headed to Spain for a week to climb not long after TJ. Really, you can train anywhere.

I think I was able to just do this one…

I got the opportunity to visit Tijuana again this spring. I went down with UPC’s high school group as part of the work crew. I’ll do pretty much anything to be able to visit this place that holds a huge part of my heart. It was great to get back to the orphanage – which has changed so much in the years that I have been visiting. We built five houses and there was one family in particular that grabbed onto my heart.

This was a house for a woman named Isabel and her son Daniel (aka Dani). Her parents and family (who live across the street) were beyond hospitable and Abuelita made us, by far, the greatest tamales I have ever had. So very hard to leave but also a good reset to my own life. It has been almost a month since we came back and a lot of things have been bubbling to the surface – good things, things that need dealing with. I owe so much to this place…

On the roof getting the house water-tight(ish).

Jess and I had to find someplace to climb. Here we are on the roof getting a traverse in.

Check out that… foot work?

Jess giving it a go.

TJ 2012 Work Crew. Can’t beat these gems.

I got to spend a week with one of my favorite people in the world.

I may or may not have driven into a huge rut in the road. Jefe wanted to call for help but I was sure we could dig out. Which we did… phew! But then I had to tell everyone… whoops.

Ok, typically we say “do not touch the dogs” because they can be a little disease-prone. However, I am a HUGE sucker for puppies. See the aching look on my face. I wanted so bad to cuddle this little guy!

One chiquita who just loved to be loved. All she wanted was “up!”

Jess, Andrew, and me after a hard day’s work. Well, a day’s work at least.

Some of the incredible kids who live/play at the orphanage.

Green paint attack.

I’m SAILING!!!

A friend has been taking us out on his boat and it’s been like heaven. There are few things that touch my soul more than sailing. I grew up on the water and hope to spend my later years cruising the world. In the mean time, this sort of thing will have to suffice.

LOVE this girl! After a morning climbing this is just the thing to wrap up the day perfectly.

Carson trying to get Travis to really smile. It worked.

We are cute.

Summertime

I don’t think I have ever been as excited for summer weather as I am this year. We have had such a kick-ass spring and I am hoping this carries into the summer months. A couple of shots from last summer chillin’…

Sitting on the porch with a book and a bottle.

Sitting in the backyard with a fire and a beer.

Tinkering

When my roommates ask me what I’m going to be doing tonight it has become a fairly normal response for me to say, “I’ll be tinkering…”. This involves addressing my ever-growing list of projects. I have been utilizing “The Boys’ House” and their ski friendly work area to do my waxing and edge work for the past year or so. One of the things I wanted to get in place this winter was an area to work on my skis at my own dwelling. I got this in place for the winter but couldn’t be bothered to brag about it until now.

So, based on what I had been using at Travis’s house I came up with my own variation of the design. I wanted to make it completely removable, but solid when mounted. I also wanted it to fit any size of Dynafit-mounted skis. My next goal is to create an additional middle brace that will work for my alpine bindings. I have all summer for that though…

I simply drilled a hole in either side of the center brace for the binding pins to click into.

I used an old work towel to pad the post soas not to ruin my unscathed topsheets – ha.

The two end braces are hinged so you can get the binding mount in place and then flip up the additional braces.

Here you can see the binding attached to the center brace.

I use standard clamps to hold each brace to the work bench. This allows for quick adjustments and I can completely remove the setup when I’m done leaving my whole bench free.

More projects to come! Here are the bindings I have collected off all the old skis I have been gathering over the past few months. I’m working on something to do with these as well as a chair design for the skis.

An assortment of bindings removed from all of the old skis I have been collecting over the past few months (see future post on my ski adirondack chair – once I make it).

I Am (Trying to Be) a Designer

I did my undergraduate degree at Seattle Pacific University. Ever since I was young I wanted to go into a creative field. However, when I got to the decision point I chickened out. College is a tricky place. I was surrounded by “young Christian professionals” or, at least, people who were on that path. And it scared me to not be heading into an “acceptable” field by my classmates’ standards.

It has only taken me an additional four years to figure out that, not only is this what I want to do but that I can actually try to do it. I started taking classes last fall at Seattle’s School of Visual Concepts. And I am loving it. It’s a place geared toward professionals and taught by professionals. My instructors have ranged from an Art Director taking a break from her 20+ year advertising career to be with her young kids to a type instructor who actually created a commonly used typeface.

It gets tiring trying to maintain my activities (yes, I understand this is a very first world problem…), take care of my pup, work full time, attend class, and do homework each week but it’s totally worth it. Or, it will be! I’m going to try to put some of my work up soon – stay tuned.

The posters up around the school are quite clever. This is one of my favorites.

Love. My. Life.

Lately life has been… challenging. So many things are good for me but work has really been getting me down. I don’t mind the work I do, but drama had been stewing and at the end of the day, I am not in the industry I want to be in. I was feeling quite overwhelmed by the whole thing and generally just wasn’t feeling much of anything. I haven’t worked on any projects really for a few weeks, haven’t skied in over a month (yes, this is going to mess up my year 2 turns…) and was bumming about design as well.

Last week I had the opportunity to go back to TJ and visit an orphanage there that I have come to regard as a bit of a second home. To borrow a phrase from a friend, it was a good reset for me. I came back to work with a good mind to separate myself from the drama that goes on there and have felt a bit more enlivened. I get to see one of my best pals tonight in San Francisco for the first time since February (or was it January?) and I got to hang out with some seriously cool people last night.

Oh. And my dog kicks ass. Life is good.

Hanging with Jess and Andrew (and Julie for a short time) was a great Thursday night. Thank goodness for Andrew's monkey arms...

Koa. Regal, as always.

 

Flower Girl

I have spent a large part of my life trying to figure out why my mom likes to be in her garden so much. It’s a lovely space, sure. There’s a pond and little pathways winding through interesting foliage and well-placed (and not overdone) garden art. I have always loved relaxing back there with some classical music, a dog or two and a beverage of some sort. But that’s the extent of what I have liked to do.

My mother has a love for and an ability to foster plants in a way that few people do. Not only does she have the knowledge but she has the patience as well. None of these things were appealing to me for a very long time. However, last year I found myself in a situation that facilitated gardening. I ended up gardening not for beauty as much as growing something for consumption from seed to mouth. Some things worked, some didn’t and I believe I learned how to do something that comes naturally to me: I learned to be patient.

Some seeds didn’t even sprout. Some seeds sprouted then died before I got them in the ground. Some miraculously survived and I had beautiful sunflowers and abundant zucchini (note these are particularly hearty!). I ended up buying some starts as I couldn’t get past seeding on some things and then I would patiently watch them grow, sometimes survive, sometimes die and I couldn’t always figure out why. It was such an interesting process as I was watching life in a different way and enjoying it for once.

The house we live in now is set up such that I won’t be able to do any gardening in ground but I have a lovely little spot to do some potted fruits, veggies and herbs. I have started off with some starts (I just don’t know that I have seedlings in my wheel house at this point) and I’m excited to see where it all goes.

I really have found a thoughtful and joyful place in even just looking at the nooks and crannies of plants that I have around me. Plants that I get to care for and learn about and hopefully help to thrive. I recently got an Orchid to have at work (I need these little pleasures there too!) and I am so content just looking at it. The flowers literally sparkle in the sunlight and I love it. I have heard Orchids are quite hard to maintain but here’s to hoping!

My little pal looking out the window getting some rays!

Such a beautiful and complex creation.

16. Do a Hut Trip

This last week I was able to take six solid days off of work. Coupled with two weekends, I have been out of the office for ten days and have skied six of them. Along with five pals I dropped the pup off with Uncle Mike and headed to Keith’s hut a couple hours north of Vancouver, BC. After a small “shit we are in the wrong valley and have been skinning for two hours” mishap we arrived at the hut, stoked the fire, ate some pizza (yes, pizza) and headed out for some blower turns.

As usual, Travis made a great video of the trip. Enjoy!

30 Before 30

So, Lauree encouraged me to consider my “30 Before 30″. The 30 things I want to do before I turn 30. Let me start by saying I absolutely don’t like the idea that I am actually turning 26 this June and I will actually be within reach of 30 (pause for wave of nausea).

Everyone bitches about getting older… and I’m just like everyone else. I don’t want to grow old. I want to stay in my mid-20′s forever. I have learned a lot of life lessons and I don’t know if I want to learn any more. I am not excited about the wrinkles on my face, but that’s not what REALLY gets me down. What scares me is not being able to do the things I want to do. My body started failing me around age 15 when my knees started going from soccer. Skiing hasn’t helped and my back, neck, and shoulders have jumped on the “let’s hurt Galyn” ship. Everyone ages. I get that. I just don’t want to.

Unfortunately, the Creator did not consult me in the beginning and time will inevitably follow me throughout life – so I might as well (start to) embrace it. So, I am going into this with a hopeful mind – this is not a last ditch effort at doing the things I want to do – this is simply a stepping stone to my 30′s where I’ll have more experience and more financial stability to do even MORE things that I want to do.

Here we go…

1. Pay off all my debt

I have student loans, a car loan, and …. to pay off. It’s completely reasonable that I can have this all off my back in the four LONG years between me and 30.

2. Build a microhut

This is to commence this spring and I cannot wait to see it through to fruition!

3. Summit and ski something on a different continent

Patagonia, Alps, etc. I don’t care. Just something big and something new!

4. Ski in Alaska

5. Lead trad

6. Have a design job

7. Be able to do 20 pull-ups straight

So, this might not be a big deal to some people like my cross-fit buff coworker but I can BARELY pull off three or four on a real good day.

8. Kiss someone under the Eifel Tower

One of my many secret dreams. Ever since I visited Paris years ago I have dreamed of this simple romance (simple aside from the fact that Paris is 6,000+ miles away…). I was there with my best friend in the world… but sorry, Jake, you didn’t fit the bill!

9. Bungee jump

10. Sky dive

11. See the Grand Canyon

12. Ski Mt. Rainier

13. Sunbathe topless in Europe

14. Get at least 2k moonlight skiing

15. Travel to New York

16. Do a hut trip

Probably in Canada? I’d like this to be at least a week long. Multi-hut? I don’t know. I need to define the specifics on this…

17. Sleep in a rock ledge or hanging bivy (and do the climb that necessitates it)

18. Find jeans that actually fit

19. Do a brewery tour in at least 5 states (besides Redhook)

20. See really truly BLUE tropical water

I have always always always wanted this. I was born in American Samoa and grew up hearing about it but only spent 22 hours there. Ever since I can remember I have wanted to see that blue water on white sand. Maybe even snorkel in it?

21. Visit Disneyland OR Disney World

As an adult this time – I went to both as a youngster but have very faint memories.

22. Circumnav Vancouver Island on a sail boat

23. Become competent in the Adobe Creative Suite

24. Do Vegas

25. Take a photography class

26. Go to a bar and order the most expensive glass of whiskey

27. Ride RAMROD

28. Get a new tattoo

29. Have a six-pack… abs, not beer

30. Go camping alone 

Microhut FEVER!

I am planning on making the trailer purchase within the next month or two and I cannot canNOT CANNOT WAIT! to start building our microhut (this seems like a more appropriate term as it really will be a Microhut… not a true Vardo). I love hunting around on the interwebs for tiny living ideas.

What the hut really is a precursor to, however, is my future home. I have dreams of building a “green” tiny(ish) house and I have ideas here and there of what it will look like. This is not something that I want in my near future but I hope to work toward building my own tiny home way down the road. I see the Microhut project as an opportunity to experiment, learn, and explore what I really want and what really works for tiny living.

While perusing for efficient living ideas I ended up on a wonderful site… Free Cabin Porn. I pulled off a number of images that have sparked interest. So, if you’re interested in cool cabin style ideas, this is a good way to spend a few minutes. Here are some of my favs…