A day up north

We're having a bit of the Indian summer around here - I have no idea why it's called an Indian summer but I think it just means unseasonally warm for the time of the year. It was 80 plus degress Fahrenheit.

I had plans to go see Tania. She lives up north. I haven't seen her in a while and she invited me over to see the new digs and possibly learn some lampworking. I got to a late start and ran into a lot of traffic and decided to take the scenic route - by the beach and through the Presidio. For once, it was a great day and I had my camera so I took advantage of both to capture the day.



According to Google map, she is approximately 60 miles from here but since I took the scenic route, it was probably a little longer. For the most part the drive was just fine until I reached closer to Petaluma/Santa Rosa and then it got a bit busy. Once past Santa Rosa, I had to drive west and I was sure I was headed the wrong way - I had followed the instructions Tania gave me but all I could see was vineyards and fields. I kept thinking where has she moved to? the sticks? If I hadn't called and checked, I might have turned back to make sure I didn't miss my turn.

She has a really nice place - a nice cottage feel - the details are just great but it was also a nice size. She showed me around a bit and then we walked downtown for lunch - yes, we walked just a few blocks and there it was. It's a nice town with pretty homes and interesting architectural details - I would just love to live there - well except for the heat and the commute and um the country and er spiders. Still love it though... well minus the spiders (can you see that I have a phobia here).

We had lunch at a Thai place and then walked around and checked out the stores. We went to a yarn place and picked up yarn - yes, I bought yarn. L wants a new cap and I picked up some very nice yarn to make a few caps. We also stopped by the bead store and the Pottery painting place that also has classes on fused glass (Tania was interested in getting information to take a class). To top it off we went to Screaming Mimi's for ice-cream and then walked back.

Back at her place, Tania demonstrated how to make a glass bead and then I got to try it. It was very interesting to make one for myself. That's me concentrating on the flame and bead. I am wearing the UV protective glasses - they make seeing the color of the work a bit difficult but being that the glass is molten, it's pretty much orange and I probably couldn't make out the color anyway. I put down a layer of white glass first and then a stripe of purple. While the stripe was not perfect, the bead is round! I had figured that my first one would be distorted but it was not.




Tania had made some caps for the Cap Karma project - I had her model them for that blog. Talked crocheting and knitting and the blog and who knows what else - oh yes, and stamping, flickr and wists......

Can't believe how much we squeezed into one day. By the time I got to leaving it was late and I had a long drive ahead of me.

Managed to stop at the Legion of Honor on the way home and took one last photo for the day.