Kamiak Butte and Steptoe Butte

Took a drive to Kamiak Butte in Washington between Palouse and Pullman. At Kamiak there is a 3 1/5 mile hike to the top and a 1/2 mile vista trail where you can see the fields of the palouse


The hike is a steep one to the top but going down is a breeze on the switch back trail. Hmmm wonder why didn't do that to begin with.





The Fields that you can see for miles and miles are fertile growing lands.



But the views are fantastic. Here you can see to Steptoe Butte to the left between the trees.


Our Dog loved it. Duncan met many friends along the trail as well. Very dog friendly. Actually family friendly lots of camping a great play are for the kids. Nice real toilets and picnic grounds








After climbing to the top we decided to stop at steptoe Butte on the way home since it was only a few miles out of the way.





A view from the bottom looks small doesn't it? NOT Its a twisty road to the top that is very narrow. Thankfully no cars passed us going up. There are no guard rails ahhh scary indeed.




But when you get to the top you can see for a long ways. And its very pretty when the fields are in bloom. hmm can you say that about grass?? no matter.

Unlike Kamiak though there are no forest to go through, no hiking and no flowers along the way.





















A view of Kamiak Butte from Steptoe. Its the wooded mound in this picture






Was a great weekend for a hike and to see something new pretty much in our own backyard. hopefully tomorrow I can get some pictures of the wildflowers up.

I have been tagged

Ok kirstin has tagged me and I have to post 7 things about myself and then tag 7 others

1.) I love Old "b" scifi movies
2.) i have flown in an f-16
3.) I once was kicked out of a bar for dancing on the table
4.) i proposed to my husband
5.) i am short - 5'1"
6.) I love to travel and hope to see the world and all the states 22 I think was last count
7.) I find things like this hard to do.

tagged:

melanie - http://mynee.typepad.com/mynee/
louise G http://kardkrazy.blogspot.com/
JOAN B http://www.paper-and-ink.blogspot.com/
colleen http://web.mac.com/cschaan1/iWeb/Site/Distinctive%20Touches/Distinctive%20Touches.html
marina http://stampingmarina.blogspot.com/
ally http://www.rubberrambles.blogspot.com/
erin http://erinkcreations.blogspot.com/

wow great way to view new blogs this could be addictive

Japanese gardens

Spent a couple hours in the Japanese Gardens at Manito Park. It was a bit of a cool out but it was japan week and there was an Aikido demonstration that was going on as well as some other demonstrations like Japanese flower arranging, bonsai trimming and brush painting. (note no pictures of any of these because i didn't get permission to post them need to remember that next time)

The gardens are full of beautiful scenery and peaceful feeling. Created many years ago with the help of a sister city any stop to Spokane is not complete without visiting there or at least some of our Manito gardens.
The waterfall is on of the most prominent features as any true japanese garden would have.


The Bridge is another feature that is very striking in the gardens.


Below the bridge is a pond full of beautiful Koi.



There are many other features to this garden that I will have to share later when I can get some shots without so many people there.

Palouse falls

It was a pretty nice day on Saturday so we headed out on a little adventure. About 2 hours away is a place called Palouse Falls. If you didn't know it was there you would never know because its hidden behind many vast farm and open range land. But its gorgeous. And in the spring its awesome because it is a bit cooler in the summer it gets very very very hot.

here is a link to the national Parks official website:
http://www.parks.wa.gov/parkpage.asp?selectedpark=Palouse%20Falls


the pictures aren't the best I broke the golden rule of taking pictures when you are not suppose to during the middle day but well thats when we were there. would have been awesome to say for sunset but it was a long day. We had a great picnic listening to the sound of the roaring falls.


this is a view from the observation spot. Note the outcropping of rocks to the left of the waterfall and from the left of that and up an area as well.

To get closer to the falls you have to go around the large rock that was to the left of the falls this is shown to the right here about 2 miles. and to get to this spot you have to climb down....


this !!!!!!

this is a view from the outcropping of rocks scene from the observation point which is seen here to the left on the cliff , well barely seen.
we got as close as the edge of the rocks

view of the out cropping of rocks up close
my husband thought this was the funniest sign and took a picture of it. but then he took a serious of shots at different telephotos of me taking pictures and hmmm I guess I was pretty close to that edge.



all in all great day of hiking and its so beautiful. Now to sort through the 250 photos that the two of us took to decide which ones we will actually print for the scrapbooks.

photography and scrapbooking

Duncan one of my favorite photo subjects

Saturday and sunday was an all day long seminar by George Lepp ( http://www.geolepp.com/ ) an awesome photographer and speaker. Had a great time and learned lots. One of the biggest things I learned was I know nothing Seriously though it did inspire me to learn more.

I have always loved photography but never knew more then just point and shoot. Even as a child I liked taking pictures and loved keeping them. As an adult I took some but it wasn't until I had a child that they became even more important to me. about 10 years I discovered scrap booking and then I started to take even more pictures. which has put me about 10 years behind in my scrap booking as well. Then came the digital camera a couple of years ago and well then I took even more pictures.




two of my scrapbook pages from when I was in the Air Force and received an incentive flight on a F-16






All of this has lead me to the point where I want to not only take pictures but take good pictures and share them. I don't necessarily want to make it a job because well that'spretty competitive and I would rather just enjoy the art.

So off to learn more I go. Taking this seminar was my first step. Next I will take a two day class this month. then I think I need to find more about adobe photoshop because it seems that is about as important as a darkroom would be to a film photographer. Someday I may have time during the day to take classes but unfortunately my job is during the day and that currently supports my hobby.



A couple of my favorite shots from Canada near Banff.

virtual stamp night - travel theme

Had an awesome time playing in a virtual stamp night this weekend. there were so many challenges that we had 45 minutes to create something with. I did most of them but not all of them. split coast stampers rock!!!!! really pumps up the creativity and a time crunch is always fun. sometimes there is a goober and sometimes you come up with something brilliant either way you push yourself to learn something new. here are the ones I played in:

Postcard: downloaded a map of the usa and then stamped that truck by stamps in motion and stamped the words out using ctmh stamps.


Faux stitching: the way back is linen stamped by stampin up was orginally going to have that as the background but looked to plain. the holes took a bit to punch and then go from one to the other with white gel pen but was fun. house mouse stamps colored with h2o's


ID tag: this was fun I like this one. house mouse stamped and water colored. the words are an old stamp I got from somewhere for free, since I have been stampmouse for 10 years now I thought it was appropriate. distressed and added the ribbons. just had to add the charm but the hole is really small so had to use wire that was the most time consuming of my 45 min. time limit.


Faux postage: this is my favorite of all the cards. downloaded the template for the stamp took a peice of transparency and cut a small hole to go inside one of the stamps and used my psx westie stamps (love those westies you know) and added him then stippled red using a mask over the dog. added the wordsworth saying to it and layered. oh the footprint is psx too.



Room with a view: fun card to make but took me a bit to figure out. wished I would have used glossy and stippled more but ran out of time. wolf on front is stampin up stamped in black and stippled brown. will probably add happy birthday to it and give as a male card.
Inside is all stampscapes except the water. Basically this card is a 8 x 8 square folded in half then half again cut up one side and trimmed a bit to fold under. this folds up to be mailed as a 4 x 4 card. add the ribbon and it ties nicely

What do you wear on vacation: had fun with this I am tank top and jeans kinda gal so went with that the card opens at the top part (simply mounted on the blue) added a tag with my dream of wearing that yellow polka dot bikini that will NEVER happen. stamps by stampin up (flowers), jeans pocket by judikins and bikini by paper salon

Wax paper resist: fun challenge take wax paper fold and crunch then iron on glossy. then rub ink on paper. stayzon used for sun (stampin up) and corners (stampin up)

Popup with bright flowers: ok hated what I did because didn't like the colors and a goober but ran out of time to redo it. all stamps stampin up. complicated insturctions on this maybe will redo it again sometime and give the instructions

pastel resist: hated this one too so added the fish brads and saying by stampin up. jelly fish stamped with versa mark and embossed in clear then colored with pastel chalks which I am not fond of. we used regular paper not glossy on this


there you have it thanks split coast stampers for an awesome time and thanks everyone for taking a look.

Looking for spring

The sun was shining this weekend though it was still a bit on the chilly side so hubby and I took off on a little walk near the river. With dog leash in his hand and camera in mine. In search of a little exercise and signs of spring.

We ended up walking for about 2 miles to my surprise I made it that far after several months of being cooped up in the house nice and toasty. And I did find a few signs of spring as well.

Buds on a bush were starting to appear
and little yellow wild flowers speckled the ground with a bit of sunshine.But arriving at home I looked down to see in my own flower garden sprouts of my allum starting to come up.

Indeed spring is around the corner.

stamp room completed

yeah the mess is all cleaned up now. after having to wait to get cabinets due to the previous ones being discontinued I finally found something close to what i have at office depot.

here are my pictures

almost there

the stamp room is really coming along I have all the stamps put away into cabinets in catagories: words/alpha, background, animal, flowers, landscape, trees/leaves, people, travel, holiday, stampscapes, rubber stamp tapestry and misc. now I just have a few misc boxes to weed through and find spots for.

I have 3 boxes full of stamps and stuff to ebay as well. hmm more money for something else new? or prehaps pay off the cabinets I did get.

hopeing to get some pictures posted as soon as I finish that last bit of stuff this week.

finally a space that is so much tidier and more organized.

stamp room reorganizing

I am so excited. Today my husband and I went out and bought 3 pieces of furniture for my stamp room from office depot. a tall cabinet, paper sorter and a smaller cabinet. I have the best husband in the world, he puts up with my hobby and my mess.

Putting the pieces together became a big chore. the sorter was easy and pretty fast. the tall cabinet was missing instructions and door handle and had an extra bottom piece. the smaller cabinet had no hardware and no screws.

so I called office depot who were VERY helpful mind you both boxes were factory sealed still not been opened previously. After about 5 calls back and forth we decided that we would bring in the cabinet that had no screws or hardware and they would switch it out with the floor model (yeah no assembly) and then they removed the hardware from the floor model to put on the tall cabinet.

After this I started the moving around of stuff. I have too much stuff that is for sure.

I have all the stamps put away and my paper. now I have piles of other STUFF what to do next. Showing my 16 year old son look at the progress he laughs and says yeah whatever you say. bratty kid. lol

well off to bed then to start on the rest of my project tomorrow.

swaps

I did it, I signed up for my first split coast stamper swap. And its a biggie. USA atc swap. Everyone picked a state and makes an atc representing that state due in about 6 weeks. When done we will all have one from each state. That means 52 atcs to make but at least they are small.

I haven't decided what I will do with them when I am done. Maybe put them in their own binder. Another idea I have had was to make a scrapbook of the states and they would go PERFECT in there. decisions decisions.

My state is vermont since my state was already chosen. I hope to do a stamp scene for it. In my head it turns out perfect now to put it to paper.

I have been doing lots of atc's lately they are small and fun. How about you?

cold season

I haven't posted in a week shameful. But I have good reason.

I was sick at the beginning of the week and my son has been sick all week long. He has missed a week of school thank goodness tomorrow is a day off and he only has makeup days. Must be the early crud going around.

I did get a couple things done in my stamp room and put a few things I no longer need or use on to ebay. And brought home some boxes to do more sorting this weekend.

catchup

I have been bad not posting here. just been feeling a bit under the weather.

Went and saw the blue man group one night. they are awesome if you ever get a chance to see them do so. Great drumming and visual effects.

Wednesday night was stamp club night with my demo Sharon. she is awesome. we made 3 fun projects and I spent some money of course.

this weekend I must I must get my birthday cards done.

photos

uploaded all 500 pictures to a photoworks so that I can get some prints made when I chew off my arm and send it to them for the cost. LOL

I choose about 50 to put on my picturetrail site as well

thats one goal for the week done.

now to accomplish the rest of my goals

catching up

Funny how you look forward to a vacation and then get home and you need another vacation to catch up on everything else.

house is cleaned well mostly. My stamp room is still a mess and after doing some virtual stamp night challenges with split coast stampers its a bigger mess. The bills are mostly paid and mail is checked. There is now food in the house and almost caught up on my sleep.

So what next?

oh pictures thats what. Took a ton of photos of my trip and have a few uploaded to the picturetrail site
http://www.picturetrail.com/photos/stampmouse

now I need to order the paper copies and add to my piles and piles of scrapbooking. Only about 10 years behind, of course thats the ten years that I discovered picture taking was fun and doubled or tripled the amount I take.

goals for the next week. work on my stamp area at least one night, catch up on birthday cards and do a little stamping.

back from vacation

Well back to the grind after a nice long 3 week vacation to Florida to visit family and a week long cruise to the caribbean.

Have lots of catching up to do. It sure felt good to get some downtime though.

And it was considerable warmer then then at home. But going from 60 to 80 degree weather to 30 and BELOW is shocking to the system.