jeliza

The progress on the house finally feels like we're moving past baby steps into actual momentum, and just having so much more floor clear makes it easier to breathe. I'm about to go into serious production mode for GeekCraftExpo on the weekend after Thanksgiving (tickets are $2, and with that there will be proper crowd control for covid-ness). Whether I can implement the buttload of new ideas I have is up in the air (so. many. ideas. Most of which involve learning new painting or woodworking skills oops) but I think at least the boxes will be added to the inventory. Thanks to y'alls gentle pushes, I finally have a proper online store! I'm trying to add new things every week without letting it overwhelm the rest of my work time.

I went out to North Carolina to help R get the final heavy things that really need two people lifting out of her POD. She got covid AGAIN when she moved out there, and still fatigues easily, so big chunks of moving in had been really stalled. I think some of the momentum from getting that apartment put to rights carried over to coming home.

Waynesville, NC is very pretty, especially with the leaves turning, but I would have difficulty living there, I think. Fiber degrees are really damn thin on the ground these days, though, so I totally understand why R is making it work.

My birthday present for the year is that I get to take off for a few days and go to a spa/art workshop/etc someplace that's fun and where a massive bathtub is available to relax and recharge and get my introvert-artist on. However, I haven't really found any workshops that are matching up well with my inclinations and/or available times to be away.

My restrictions:

• Within a 4 hour drive of Seattle, 5 maybe. Probably not much south or Portland or north of Vancouver/Victoria


• Soaking-class bathtub required (not necessarily jetted, just deep, hot tub is acceptable substitute) which probably means bnb or vrbo, not big chain hotel, and inns quaint enough to be bathroom-down-the-hall are out. (My pinboard for this trip has all the bnbs pinned with their bathroom images, instead of bedrooms or whatever. Priorities.)


• a few fun things to look around at/do that are accessible even if I am having a need-a-cane day -- art galleries, museums, funky artsy neighborhoods, quaint boardwalk, etc.


• Reasonably short distance (driving okay) to some nature I can hang out and sketch in. Forest, beach, etc.


• I like the off-season, but it isn't a deal-breaker; I'd like to go sometime between now and October.


• not Long Beach.

Probably some of these are negotiable if a cool art workshop can be substituted, but .... I'm finding very little that is my cup of tea out there, in the land that is neither Somerset Studio-esque nor Intermediate/Advanced Realistic Painting.

I've already done a bit of looking at Coupeville, Port Townsend, Port Angeles, and Whidbey Island, though most of those becuase of associated art workshops that didn't work out, and a teeeny bit at Portland.