Pacific North Wonderland: Seattle Day Two

When I was looking for places to stay in Seattle there were tons of fun options! I was really leaning towards staying on a boat, but was worried about how cold it would be. The weather ended up being GREAT but I'm glad we decided to stay in this yurt! It was in the backyard of a natural healing center, and so cool!

I should have taken a photo before our luggage got strewn around, but oh well. Isn't it neat? We loved that four poster bed too. We called it the Ebenezer Scrooge bed, and slept with the curtains closed. The ceiling has a skylight so it was filled with beautiful natural light during the day. It was heated with a little gas stove.

And there was a kitty in the backyard! Bonus!

One our second morning in Seattle we had breakfast at Silence Heart Nest. Isn't that the weirdest name for a restaurant? There had been a lot of indulgence in the previous week so we started with some fresh juice.

And finished with pancakes and biscuits and gravy. Ha! Well it is all about balance I guess. 

We were in Freemont so we walked a few blocks to pay our respects to the Freemont Troll. 

Our big event of the day was a visit to the EMP Museum. That stands for Experience Music Project. They had a horror movie exhibit, which we really wanted to see. Sadly we were a few weeks too early for the Hello Kitty one!

While we were sitting out front we saw this girl trying really hard to get a selfie with her dog. I've been there.

To get to the horror exit, which was called "Can't Look Away" you walked down this creepy red lit staircase surrounded by screaming faces. Awesome!

They had all kinds of cool props, like the axe from The Shining and the Xenomorph costume from Alien! Ah!

They had Mr. Pointy from Buffy the Vampire Slayer! And the Book of Ascension. I think we need to watch the whole series again.

They also had a Critter! The cover of Critters used to scare me so bad as a kid! I always saw it at Blockbuster when I was there with my dad. I've always been a chicken. 

They had a scream booth too, that took your photo. We learned after doing it that it was NOT sound proof.

I really loved these little booths they had to watch short films about some of the most influential horror movies. It looked like you were trapped in some dark woods, and they had a scary horror soundtrack going. It was amazing.

The horror section gave way to a Science Fiction exhibit. Woah! They had a fake star ship bridge (it was so crowded we never got to get to it) and cool props from stuff like Ghostbusters and Alien and Star Wars (and Trek!)

I'll take this little guy for my personal collection, thanks!

I loved this big display case of alien and space weapons. So cool!

The EMP just kept getting cooler. We went upstairs to the indie gaming exhibit next. 

It was full of all kinds of interesting games! People sit and play FOREVER though. The only ones open seemed to be broken in some way. I stood waiting for this cool linx game for probably 20 minutes but never got a chance to try. Bummer.

The one game we did get to play was Binding of Issac, which was so fun and weird!

There was a Fantasy exhibit too. They had weapons from Lord of the Rings, David Bowie's goblin king stretch pants, and Sirius Black's coat! They had lots of stuff from The Princess Bride, including Buttercup's beautiful wedding gown. I loved the felt aplique on the guard's costume from the Wizard of Oz. And did you know the Cowardly Lion's costume was made from real lion pelts? The sign said it was almost unbearably hot under the stage lights. 

We spent over four hours at the EMP! Highly recommend if you are in town! It is right next to the Space Needle. We didn't end up going up, but it was so cool looking!

Reading Challenge 2015 Recap

In the past couple years I've tried to read 100 new to me books during the year. I succeeded in 2014, but I only made it to 80 in 2015. Which is still great, don't get me wrong! I've set the goal to 100 again for 2016, we'll see what happens. 

Instead of telling you about everything I read, I thought I would just give you the top five. In no particular order: 

1. Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff This book is on lots of year in best of lists and I agree. I added it to my list after seeing it at the Southern Festival of Books in the fall but only just got it from the library last week. The waiting list was long! It is the story of two people in a marriage that people find enviable, and it follows them from first infatuation until death. Like in life, you find out nothing is what it seems on the outside, and no one can really know what is going on in a marriage from the outside, or even from the inside. I liked the writing style and the way things were revealed. Some people compare it to Gone Girl because the narrator switches about halfway through, but it isn't a story of murder and obsession like that one is. Highly recommend! 

2. The Magicians by Lev Grossman Someone at work told me about these because of my love of Harry Potter. I had someone never heard of this series before. It follows Quentin Coldwater who gets admitted to a secret wizard college when he turns 18. It is much darker and more adult than the Harry Potter series. I loved all three of the books in this series. 

3. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr I read this one at the beginning of the year and it has stuck with me. It is set during World War Two and follows two very different people. One a young blind French girl whose father works for the Museum of Natural History in Paris, one an orphan boy born in Germany. The narrative switches between their stories until they intersect, but not in the way you expect. I really enjoyed the different perspective on WW2 than you usually see, and this book was beautifully written. I will probably read it again. 

4. Uprooted by Naomi Novik If you are a fan of fantasy and books with magic, you have got to read this! The story is about a valley where one girl is taken every ten years to live with "The Dragon", a wizard. As you can probably guess the protagonist gets picked and goes to the Dragon's tower. It starts like this: “Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley. We hear them sometimes, from travelers passing through. They talk as though we were doing human sacrifice, and he were a real dragon. Of course that’s not true: he may be a wizard and immortal, but he’s still a man, and our fathers would band together and kill him if he wanted to eat one of us every ten years. He protects us against the Wood, and we’re grateful, but not that grateful.”I loved the mythology of this book and the characters and was kind of disappointed that it is a stand alone and not part of a series. 

5. Carry On by Rainbow Rowell I love everything by Rainbow Rowell, and this novel is my favorite. This is the story that is talked about in the book Fangirl (one of my favorites from last year, read that one too!) fleshed out. It is the last book in a series of Harry Potter like (sense a theme? haha) books. Even though you haven't read the rest of the story, the way it is written makes it easy to follow. Here is part of the blurb from the jacket: "Carry On is a ghost story, a love story, a mystery and a melodrama. It has just as much kissing and talking as you’d expect from a Rainbow Rowell story—but far, far more monsters." The story relates in some ways to Harry Potter but is very different. This book felt like it was custom made for me! Another I will reread for sure. 

If you use Good Reads, add me here and let's be friends! I love seeing what other people are reading and getting recommendations that way.

Archie McPhee!

While browsing for photobooths in Seattle on Photobooth.net I found out that there was one in the Archie McPhee store. I love using that site, not only because I love getting strips from real (not digital) photobooths but lots of the time they are located in cool places I wouldn't have found otherwise. Archie McPhee is a huge producer of novelties, if you have been in a small gift shop recently, you have seen their products. The store was SO FUN and we were in there for close to two hours! I had to give them their own post.

They had TONS of different animal masks, I'm sure you've seen the horse ones. They seem to be everywhere! It was a week before Halloween so they had lots of costume stuff out, and you could take it in the photobooth! We did a strip of us as a squirrel and a rat.

Travis as his favorite animal, the humble pigeon.

The animal paws made us laugh so much! They had horse hooves and pigs feet. Here I am as an alluring lady horse. Gorgeous!

There was so much fun stuff, it was hard to decide what to bring home. I probably should have gotten on of those unicorn horns for the pugs.

So many little weird rubber things. I love those "finger hands." 

Archie McPhee seems to be kind of a haven for creative weirdos. If you are one of those, you should read this post on Secret Fun Blog where Kirk visits their head quarters. I found it really fascinating.

Definitely bought some of these...

And you know I bought a vintage Laika the Space Dog snow dome. 

Need a 6 ft cardboard coffin? Only $34.95!

They had a big selection of weird stuff you could use in art projects. Like these cute taxidermy eyes. They had rolls of caution tape you could buy by the yard. Bigs of all kinds of little plastic containers. Rolls of holographic vinyl.

There was a huge stack of these bins full of tiny stuff. Kid me would have gone CRAZY over this stuff. Adult me spent maybe too long deciding what to get. I ended up with some weird little plastic witch charms.

Thought I was tempted to buy a tiny tube of Aim toothpaste. 

We ended up with a pile of weird stuff, mostly gifts (that pig foot didn't come home with us, but I thought about it) and then headed on our way.

Archie McPhee was such a fun store, I'm so glad we were able to go when we were in Seattle!

This Year I...

...made a Spock tribute jacket when Leonard Nimoy died.

...got a Beyonce tattoo (and got tattooed more than TEN times)

...went to Louisville to see RuPaul Battle of the Seasons and went antiquing

...saw one of the best shows of my life, all girls singing 60's girl group songs for Galentine's Day

...started a huge purge and got rid of bags and bags of stuff, including most of our books

...put the pugs in their raincoats whenever I got the chance

...discovered the awesomeness of Game Galaxy and went several times

...went on so many dates with the cutest boy I know

...got a Totoro kigurumi for my 30th birthday

...went to Dollywood for our 7th wedding anniversary

...got attacked by a giant octopus

...went to not one, but TWO car shows (surprisingly fun!)

...and my first scooter rally

...went to Rock Island a BUNCH and got kicked out once

...went the to grand opening of Funtown Mountain (then watched it crash and burn online)

...got BFF tattoos with our friends who live in California

...found a puppy in our backyard who now lives with Crystal and Marc and I love her

...went swimming SO MUCH and had the best summah ever

...went to lots of waterfalls

...and swimming holes with my unicorn float (RIP)

...somehow got tickets to see Dolly live and lost my mind!

...went tubing in the rain

...lots my glasses at Sliding Rock (worth it)

...went to Dollywood in the summer too

...went on many boats and swam in many lakes

...took Priscilla swimming

...sat under a waterfall

...thought we were going to lose Phyllis

...went whale watching and saw a pod of orcas

...visited the Pacific North West and fell in love

....ate SO MUCH vegan food in Portland

...pulled out my trusty witch getup for Halloween

...and rang in the new year dancing in my kigurumi with good friends

2015, what can I say. It started out real strong, my early schedule (off on weekends, and by 12:30 week days) combined with my BFF being self employed meant I spent a lot of the year hanging out and swimming with her. I also spent a lot of time stressing about work. The summer was my best ever, leading into a fall full of mishaps and disappointments and being suddenly unemployed. Vehicles breaking down, uncertainty about the future, health problem after health problem for the dogs.
I like looking to the new year as a starting point. 2016 will be better for me. Good lookin' out 2015, I was ready for you to be over.