There is a Season, Yarn, Yarn, Yarn.....

....and as counter-intuitive as it is, the hot summer months are our busy season! Everyone is getting ready for Fall and Christmas and, as a result, we get frantic last-minute orders that need to be started right away! Since Mom is still down in SoCal, I have done my best to pick up the slack for Tanglewood Fiber Creations. I have been plying non-stop in my afternoons after work and any time during the weekends, so I would have enough to fill orders. Courtney and I spent five and a half hours working at the St. Helens house, getting yarn packaged with labels, then filling customer cubbies and making out invoices. There are seven boxes in the back of my truck, waiting to be mailed to anxious customers.
One of our spinners requested that I post pictures of the finished yarn, since all she sees are singles going out and not the finished product. Well, here you go!

This is some Calypso Cove and Winter in Cashmere/ Silk setting in my sink.

Lots of Cashmere/ Silk in Newport Rocks and Columbia GORGE-ous, drying over my shower curtain rod. I had both fans going underneath in an attempt to get them dry before labeling them the next day. Without a washer to spin them out, I got mixed results.

Some finished skeins waiting for label sleeves...


Here, Courtney is skeining away, writing down yardage....

...and here is the finished product, ready to be invoiced and packaged up!

Joe Cocker and Steve Miller!

I know, I know, it's been a long while since I've updated, but the world never, ever stops for you to catch your breath and such is the case with my blog. However, since it was a three-day weekend, I managed to find time in between going up to St. Helens on behalf of TFC and doing laundry to download some photos. Chronicled below is the Washington trip that Jan, Neil, Erica, Ginger, and myself all took on the first weekend in August.
This first photo is the view from the rest stop. The whole drive out to George, Washington (isn't that name just ridiculous) was beautiful and the weather couldn't have been better. Anyone who has driven through the Gorge to Washington knows what I mean. You follow the river toward Eastern Oregon until cutting over to Washington, watching as it meanders from your right side to your left side then up, up into the hills to your final destination. There were many wind surfers and boaters out on the river, taking advantage of the perfect weather. Here are a few shots of the view from the speeding RV.


Our first road stop. Jan and Neil tasted wine while Erica and I got ice cream cones and poked around.

A view into the cockpit....There was much agreeing, then disagreeing with the GPS, turning around, then circling again in favor of the original direction once we got into town....

Erica and Ginger hanging out in the back, newly designated "kids area".

After no small amount of excitement in the camp ground (finding a suitable spot, setting up "camp", making dinner, and finding the bathrooms), we were relieved to find our seats and this spectacular view of the Gorge.

The stage with it's magnificent backdrop...

A view of the "non-assigned" seating area. It was like one of those ancient Greek theaters, with grass-covered benches carved into the hillside.


The Steve Miller Band...

We retired to the campground, pleasantly sated from rock and roll to a cool, inviting RV and very enthusiastic Austrialian Shepherd. I alone braved the portable showers that night and fell gratefully into bed afterward. The last thing I remember before drifting off to sleep was the sound of Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band playing in the background, eminating from someone's car stereo.
The next morning dawned bright and cool and we had a leisurly breakfast of egg sandwiches and juice before breaking camp and heading home. We stopped at several fruit stands on the way home and bought peppers, tomatillos, corn, vanilla extract and candy from the various stands. It was fun; I got everything I needed to make taco meat and Jan bought corn for that night's dinner.
Here is Erica and me goofing around, yet again....

Food porn shot for Mom (she loves heirloom tomatoes)...

An industrious Jan shrewdly picking out only the best tomatillos....

After stand number three, the day began to really heat up and we decided to make for home, stopping only to make lunch in the RV, then hit the road again. We all had a great time and my only regret was that Mom couldn't go, as originally planned. She would've had a great time. On the other hand, I wonder how many TNNA interns got to see Joe Cocker and the Steve Miller Band during their summer work program. I'm betting, not many. :-)

Perserverance Continued...

I saw her. She's tiny and yellow and still there. She peeks out from between the mirror and mirror shell until I start up the car, then she disappears to ride it out. A new web appeared this morning, unbreakable and glistening, even at 70 mph....

The Many Adventures of Becky and RaNita

RaNita is my partner in crime...and my ally in this crazy environment we work in. RaNita was hired three weeks before I was and, as a result, we have learned how to navigate our way through the BrucePac trials and tribulations together. Her problems are my problems. My victories are her victories. We share the same varying levels of loyalty and sense of duty. So, as two employees who have decided not to live and die with BrucePac, we decided early on to try and enjoy what we could throughout the day. Lunch in the park instead of the break room, walks to the post office, the occasional trip to Goodwill and The Red Bench to find priceless treasures are crucial in our attempts to make it through the week, to break up the monotony of office work. Sometimes, we get off early on Fridays, which pleases both of us enormously because then we can plan extravagant outings without having to worry about getting back to work. Fridays are the days for long lunches, trips to the bank, and excursions into the otherwise unexplored territories of Silverton and the surrounding areas. A couple of Fridays ago, we got off at one in the afternoon and decided to treat ourselves to a trip to Silver Falls. RaNita had been dying to go for a while and since the weather was perfect (not too cold, not sweltering), I agreed wholeheartedly that it was time to go hiking. So, off we went with me driving along winding roads, whizzing past field and forest towards the falls. Here are some pictures I took while walking along the trail.

Here we are briskly walking towards the falls along the forested path...

You come to the stream before getting to the waterfall itself and RaNita patiently waited for me while I waded in the cool water taking pictures.


Here is a couple of views of the water from the trail that winds from the right side, behind, then to the left side of the falls. See the Salmon Berries? They were all over the place and added a strategic pick-me-up to a certain fat kid hiker...



Another Friday afternoon adventure: the Strawberry Shortcake Stand in Kiezer. This place is an awesome combination of country grocery store, fruit stand, gift shop, plant nursery, and garden. They also boast the best seasonal shortcake stand I've ever been to. The first time we went in early June, we had the classical strawberries. However, this time we decided to take advantage of berry season and had the Mixed Berry Shortcake. God, it was good. We sat at a shaded picnic bench and enjoyed the breeze and flower garden. We came back to work totally blissed out, only to turn off our computers and go home. Yeah, Fridays are good....

The fruit: blackberries, cherries, black raspberries, marionberries, blueberries, red raspberries, gooseberries, figs, and many more I had never even heard of.



I don't need to tell you how good it was....

Lynyrd Skynyrd

You know, when one thinks of a "Knight in Shining Armor", perhaps this isn't the stereotypical picture that comes up. However, after the other night, Mr. Bill Bereskin will always fit that description for me!
Getting stood up/ ditched is never fun, especially the night before the concert you were both supposed to go to. The most demoralizing part, of course, is raiding your little black book, trying to find someone who will drop everything to go with you. I must admit, my little black book is more like a sheet of notebook paper with a couple of scribbled names on it...so depressing....
Anyway, I called my trusty friend Adrienne for some advice. After a few minutes of flipping through her much more extensive mental Rolodex, she mentioned Bill. Our conversation went something like this:
ADRIENNE: "Call Bill, he'll go with you."
ME: "No way, he lives all the way in Philomath! I couldn't ask him to drive all the way up here cause I'm a loser and don't know anybody!"
ADRIENNE: "Becky, c'mon, don't be like that. Bill will totally go with you, that's just the kind of guy he is."
ME (miserable): "Oh god, you're probably right, but I feel like such an asshole for even asking him to come all this way..."
ADRIENNE: "Don't be a dork. Call him."

And so, of course, I called. And, of course, Bill was the hero he always is and totally had pity on me. He drove from Corvallis, to my apartment, picked me up, paid for dinner, then accompanied me to the concert. I won't say that he was a perfect gentleman, cause that's not how Bill rolls, but I will say he was the perfect companion for this little adventure; we had a great time. In fact, I think I had a better time with Bill than I would've had with the person I'd originally asked. So there you go....a big gold star will go next to Bill's name on the sheet of notebook paper. :-)

Portland Saturday Market

Another adventure at the Portland Saturday Market! This time, I was with Jan McMahon and her niece who was in town from North Carolina. After walking through the market, getting something to eat (mmm...lamb gyro and Tillamook Triple Chocolate ice cream...), we decided to get henna tattoos in a moment of whimsy!

Here I am with my hand underneath the lamp, letting the artwork dry.

Jan was next up and decided to get her astrological sign.

Finally, it was Amy's turn in the hot seat.

Here are the finished masterpieces. We had a great time and I hope Amy is planning her next trip up soon!

Poppies will Put Them to Sleep....

One of the benefits of working in Silverton is that once off the freeway, there are many, many cool things to see on the way to the plant. One of Oregon's major exports is grass seed and nursery stock, most of which is raised in this area. So, every day, I get to drive passed fields and fields of flowers, berry patches, green beans, shady orchards, green corn, and shimmering wheat. I risked life and limb on a narrow road to quickly snap these pictures. I was keeping one eye out for a farmer enraged by my trespassing, so I'm afraid my pictures just don't do justice to the bright, shocking color of these poppy fields.

Pink, White, and Red variety mix...


Red Poppies....


California Poppies. Believe it or not, these fields were actually even more spectacular about a week before I took the pictures. Since I have to fit moonlighting as a photographer in between my "real" job, it was the best I could do.


I'm not sure what these are, but they were very pretty. Can anyone enlighten me?