Sidetracked from the Ragnar Relay: Meet Tail of the Yak

I ran the Ragnar Relay Race from San Francisco to Napa this last weekend.  But I flew in Thursday morning, just so I could go to some of my favorite places.

Below are pictures from my favorite store ... ever.  I've been coming here for over 15 years.  And I admit that I love that one of the owners told me on my trip last year that they will never sell online. 

Gatherings from Tail of the Yak

3" moss green double faced satin ribbon, Japanese washi tape, wooden paper clips from the Philippines.

Handmade paper & foil flowers by a local paper artist

The cutest flower pins ever

Gatherings from my other favorite store in Berkeley

And of course I must go thrift shopping, I hit the Goodwill right by the U.C. Berkeley

Handmade Italian orange shoes, love.  Can you believe they fit like a glove? $7.99 price tag.

A beautiful shirt from Anthropologie, I think I paid $4.99

Book Group Roster & Schedule: Check-Out

One of my favorite clients needed her book group's roster made up for this year's schedule and member contact information.  She loves square anything, that was pretty much her only input for the project.  I had several ideas in my mind, but I was still loving the old-book style from my recent projects.

Remember checking out books at the school or city library where they stamped the lined 3X5 cards?  We even had to sign our name on some of them.  I remember in the summer going to the old Mesa Library.  I loved the smell of the stamp and ink pads.  I loved the little manilla pockets glued on the inside of every book cover with 3X5 cards inserted in the pockets.  Why was that fun?  I don't know, maybe because the summer was so hot that office work inside seemed like play to me.  I loved to play librarian at home, with my mother's stamp supplies, I'd stamp plain white cards and papers and make stacks on the roll top desk.  I'd fuss with pencils, staplers, paper clips, rubber bands and anything else I could find that represented office work.  Then after all that fussing, I'd smile at my playmate, hand her the stack of books and say, "Thanks for coming to the library today."

I guess with this project, I was still trying to play library, this time in my grown up office.  I got to stamp 10 different dates on 15 different cards.  I got my fill of stamping.

Last year my dad gave me an old black phone, at my pleading, like the ones we use to use in our house in the 70's.  They had a rotary dial.  Do you know what a rotary dial phone is kids?

Sometimes I think about the process of doing things the long way, and feel a longing for the way things used to be.  We hand wrote phone numbers in a pocket roster book, we didn't synced them to an electronic device.  Remember typing everything, including school papers several times before you submit your final draft for your grade?  That was actually in my lifetime.  I had a typewriter in college.  But mine was one of those modern ones that had auto correct on it.  Oooooh, I was luuuucky.  Don't get me started on old processes, I feel like my grandparents when I start that conversation.  Old phones and typewriters ... I think I'll save that for a later post this week.

Post Partydom

I feel a little deflated.  I hate coming down off party month.  

"My Girl's" Sweetest Sixteenth

I've been a little pre-occupied this week as I usually get when I'm on a project.  But this wasn't just any project.  This was "Project: My Girl", my first born's sixteenth birthday celebration.  And it was a surprise, which added difficulty and an emphasized focusing when I had free chunks of time.

Now I'm not gonna brag.  No, I really can't.  I just won't do it online.  I know deep down inside, no one else cares to hear all about my daughter, well except her grandparents.  Alright, I'm gonna brag.

This girl of mine has been my friend and daughter for 16 years, and I have rights to share my personal thoughts about her, however public it may be.  She is a peacemaker.  A great student.  A friend who watches out for you.  She's tall.  She can, wants to and will play basketball anytime.  An unusual fact about Chloe is that she still doesn't have a cell phone, and never complains to us about it, in fact she has embraced the fact her parents totally belong to the "Flat Earth Society" when it comes to raising their children.  She has a great sense of humor and seems to laugh about everything, including herself.  I love that about her.  She has all kinds of friends, and she is a loyal and thoughtful friend.  And I have yet to meet one of her friends I don't like.  This weekend, a bunch of her friends gathered in our backyard to pay tribute to "My Girl".  The invites went out on Friday, the party was Saturday.  I didn't want her friends to know about the big surprise until the day before, you know how things get around and then the secret is blown?  The other factor is that tradition has it around here that a mass text goes out, and suddenly the whole high school is there, including too many kids that the person who the party is actually for, doesn't even know them 70% of them.  I'm gonna say one thing right now, Chloe's friends are about the coolest and most respectful kids I know.  We had roughly 75 kids there and 7 adults, and the house ruled of fun, amazing kids all night.

They surprised.
They ate.
They danced.
They gabbed.
They played basketball, (the sport of choice around here).
They sang.
They watched film.
They sat by the outdoor fire and shared stories.
And most of all, they supported and showed love and friendship to my girl!

Here are a few highlights from the week and the big day.  I believe there are some photographs from the scavenger hunt I sent her and a group of friends on at Temple Square downtown yesterday, just to keep her out of proximity, I may share those later if I can get some downloaded from my neice's camera.

Chloe, Elsa, Maddy, Crystal, and Holly heading to the temple after school.

Birthday morning

The decoy slumber party

I told them they really didn't want to stay up all night, I knew they had big day ahead of them, but they stayed up anyway.

Surprise!

"What the heck!", my girl kept repeating over and over again.

She was totally and utterly clueless.

She was shaking for over an hour from the shock.

My girl's friends, Tag and Max helped me big time.

You see the "Wow" factor right?

Well, it's there because of these two boys that designed the ceiling.

The spot where the kids received most of the nutritional value during the evening, NOT!

 

The candy bags and invite on display.

The handpainted birthday banner, of course, ribbons and color all over.

 

Chloe loves her grandparents!

and her Aunt Lynnie.

And her Aunt Karen.

A couple of Chloe's friends performed musical numbers before we started the movie.  I wish I had have gotten a picture of Abby Lund, who composed and sang a song, accompanying herself on the guitar.  It was so sweet.  Kramer Morton sang "My Girl" and both were a hit.  I will figure out how to download the video we got of Kramer and you can see Chloe's smile and bright eyes in the background.

I really couldn't ask for better friends for my girl.