I got this tray last time I went to IKEA (incidentally, I went back today for Christmas decorations with Pam, but I don’t have any pictures of the stuff I got today). Anyway, I love the birds on the tray – they remind me of the work of Charley Harper.

Here’s a shot of the tray in action. I was serving Mom some coffee when she was over a few weeks ago. I love how the tray totally goes with all my mismatched, brightly colored cups and saucers.

Tonight Daniel and I went to Ivar’s for some Happy Hour clam chowder. As I was picking up my pint of Mac and Jack’s, it slipped out of my fingers and I dumped the entire thing all over myself. As in, beer in my shoes, beer soaking my shirt, even beer pooling in the cuffs of my pants. The chowder and fish were delicious though, despite my cold, wet clothes.

Then we came home and Daniel threw my clothes in the wash and we played some more Age of Empires. I obviously win at life.

This post is a little late tonight, but I have a good reason. Well, a reason. Daniel and I resurrected an old computer game I loved in high school – Age of Empires II: Age of Kings. We got a little carried away and accidentally played for about 4 hours. We may have to limit ourselves in the future.

It rained all day today, but we’ve been having days (or at least hours) of sunshine too. I didn’t get pictures of the leaves this fall, but they were gorgeous. I snapped these photos last weekend, on a particularly enjoyable fall day.

I’m not sure what kind of trees these are…based on the berries, I’m guessing rowan.

Daniel and I have chosen our wedding photographer and we’re going to go meet with her and sign the contract next week!

Like pretty much everything else in the wedding, we have a very limited budget for the photographer. And have you seen how much photography costs these days?!* So I put up an ad on Craigslist with a little bit about us and our budget. Given what we could pay, I was expecting mostly amateurs and students needing to build up portfolios, but we were surprised to find that most of the responses actually came from professionals.

There were two photographers in particular that especially impressed us. We ended up choosing Electra Frye for a couple of reasons – her portfolio was the most artistic, and her package includes all-day coverage. Also, she seems really nice. We’re looking forward to meeting her in person next week. Her wedding pictures look great, but she has also done a lot of other work as well. Most of her wedding work is on her website (flash-based, so it’s a pain to get pictures to post here), and you can also have a look at some of her other work here.

*I am in no way trying to imply that photographers are swindlers. I have seen the portfolios of many wonderful wedding photographers, and let me tell you, they are artists. But like all art, the good stuff costs serious cash. As in, multiple thousands of dollars. And as important as our wedding is to us, we just can’t justify spending several thousand bucks on lovely, gorgeous photos that will spend most their time never seeing the light of day in a photo album.

all photos by Electra Frye

I found something else on Sunday at the farmers market – a potential jeweler for our wedding rings! As you probably remember, we had my engagement ring made locally at Green Lake Jewelry Works, and we were planning to go back to them for our wedding rings. But since I’m out of work right now, I’ve been looking for someplace that might be able to make what we want a little more affordably.

On Sunday I came across a jewelry booth owned by Tim Lambert, a local jewelry artist based in Port Townsend. Time sets up at the Ballard Market every Sunday, and he also sells his work through his website and via etsy. I was drawn to his booth because his work is very similar in style to the bezel-set, clean look Daniel and I prefer. He also works in palladium, which is hard to find with local artisans and small shops. Tim gave me a quick quote for a custom wedding band to fit my engagement ring, and it was very reasonable. Maybe coolest of all, Tim only uses 100% recycled gold, palladium, and platinum.

Here are a few examples of his work from his website:

Obviously right now we haven’t decided whether or not we will use Tim, but i thought it was worth it to get a little more information about this obviously talented local artist. His work is stunning, don’t you agree?

Itali Lambertini Jewelry
Tim Lambert
http://www.italilambertini.com
http://www.etsy.com/shop/italilambertini

I caught the Ballard Sunday farmers market yesterday. Actually I was just planning to ride the bus to Ballard to walk around for a while, and I totally forgot about the market.

It was a gorgeous day, sunny and just a little wet out. A perfect way to use my extra hour on the day after Daylight Saving Time ends.

The produce selection was amazing. I love the colors and the gorgeous display at this vendor’s booth.

I don’t even like cauliflower, but I want some of those purple ones!

Of course, the best thing about taking a walk around town on a Sunday morning is the dogs! I met a new best friend patiently waiting for his owner to come back from shopping.

I love critters so much!

We had a very chill Halloween last night. No trick-or-treaters, as usual, which is kinda lame. On Friday night we carved pumpkins and last night we had a few friends over to watch an appropriately Halloween-y, but not to scary movie. We saw Låt den rätte komma in, which is a Swedish movie about vampires and first loves. (Thankfully, the movie had very little else in common with Twilight.) Then we went to bed early, and enjoyed the extra hour of sleep. The end.

I’m going to try to do NaBloPoMo again this year. To try to keep myself going all month, I’m telling myself all I need to do is post a new picture every day. Hopefully with bonus words next to it. We’ll see how it goes.

So, we ended up choosing cake topper llamas based on the results of the poll. (Also, check out the comments on that post for an interesting side-reason that helped with the decison.)

The llamas came and they were adorable.

That shot looks like a hipster album cover. You can’t see it from that angle, but there was a slight problem. Both llamas faced left!

The effect was not very romantic. The llama on the left was just kind of staring creepily at the one on the right. They look like they should have The Police as their wedding band. Or maybe they’re just line dancing. Either way, something had to change.

We decided to make a slight adjustment to one of the llamas. It wasn’t pretty. In fact, it involved holding a llama head in boiling water and then brutally twisting his neck with pliers. But in the end, everyone came out ok. The llama on the right (we’ve decided it will be the the Daniel-llama, since he’s a little taller now after having his neck adjusted) looks downright proud, just like a llama should.

They seem happy now…but what they don’t know is that there’s still a hot glue gun coming for them sometime in the near future. Be afraid…be very afraid!

So, I’m on the hunt for a new job, because I need more hours than my current boss can give me. I’ve been sending out resumes every day. It’s obviously a hard time to be seeking a job, but I know there are jobs out there and I’m trying my best to get one. That’s why it’s really frustrating to realize that ads on Craigslist that look like they’re for legitimate jobs turn out to be scams. Case in point:

I responded to this legitimate-looking ad:

A firm seeking an assistant to the Office Manager

Duties Include:
- Answering Phones / Directing Calls
- Filing
- Various Paperwork
- Misc. tasks as required by the Office Manager

Skills Required:
- Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint & Outlook
- Ability to multi-task
- Strong attention to detail
- Strong Customer Service Skills
- Exceptional written and oral communication skills

And I immediately received this email back:

Dear Applicant,
Thanks for your email and enquiry about this Job. I have gone through and I must say I am impressed. However, the position has been filled up by an earlier applicant because the position was needed urgently.Nonetheless,the position of Representative is still vacant and from what I observed,i think you can handle this job.I felt i should let you know this instead of posting it on craigslist for someone else.

I am also a marketing and sales representative,I want to employ you urgently as my representative to handle certain aspects of my job till I return from a business trip to United Kingdom. You do not need any fund collection or accounting experience to execute this job.

BELOW ARE THE DUTIES YOU HAVE TO TAKE UP UNTIL MY RETURN:

1. Make some minor calls and sometime attend some short meetings.
2. Receive funds from my clients
3. Disburse fund to my numerous clients either by Bank Transfer,Cashier Check, Business Check.

REMENURATION
You will be entitled to a 10% on every fund collected and disbursed.Get back to me with the following information if you are interested in this position.
1. Full name
2. Full mailing address
3. Contact phone number
4. Name and address of referees

IMPORTANT:
This is a part time Job offer,this means that it does not affect your present Job.All you need to do is to check your mail regularly.
Otherwise, I must thank you for your time and my sincere apology if I wasted it in anyway.
With Regards.
Yours faithfully,
John Fisher.

How disappointing. (In case it doesn’t look like a scam to you, read this). It makes me wonder how many other applications I’ve sent out to essentially fake businesses.