thanks & giving:

the holiday weekend has revolved around much eating & gathering as fitting for the thanksgiving season. the girls chat in the kitchen: i spent the day awaiting orders (like carefully placing apple slices & place mats), while the professional (my mother-in-law) buzzed about the kitchen.

the whirl of dinner smell & kitchen action did more than excite the dog… see our little peeper over there on the porch bench?

he got bolder as the afternoon wore on!

meanwhile, the men congregated in front of the black friday newspaper adds and football.

here are just a few shots of the days eats & greets…

our 4 day weekend concluded with a night out to see a full fledged 80’s “rock opera” in columbia city with blythe & david. it was some mash of the band queen meets lord of the rings. hilarious. :)

oh... & here’s a parting pic of our little thanksgiving voyeur…

new project:

sneek peek....

business trip:

in the wee hours of last thursday morning i flew to baltimore for a recruiting event at the national swe conference! … in thinking about this post i must share this thought: i never thought i’d find myself at an engineering conference of my own accord, and even less, as an engineering recruiter at that!.... i felt as though i was the lone secret righty in a sea of left-brainers. infront of an interview panel, they seem to be in many ways just as predictable as us rightys; flushed, wringing their hands and offering the occasional nervous giggle. :) i don’t consider myself a particularly intimidating person, and in all reality i was the intimidated one- you should have seen these resumes! yikes! it got me thinking…hmm. what have i been doing?!

the evenings were occupied by a couple pleasant dinner outings with my hiring manager, fay, and one adventurous trip up the eastern coast to Philadelphia to visit the headquarters (!) of my favorite store. after a 2 hour drive and 45 excruciating minutes looking for an inner city parking spot i arrived! once parked, i managed to get lost on foot to a near hopeless degree (dang useless iphone gps!) before arriving at their door half an hour before closing time. here are a few shots:

in baltimore i also managed to squeeze in a few minutes at an architectural salvage place i found through this site. the store was an early 1900’s brick gas line pump house & incredible. (sorry for the few blurries!)

the trip concluded sunday morning with a trip out to frederrickson md to visit dear friends, mike & stacia & their littles. (incidentally, it was a hours long drive! i didn’t know you could drive an hour & still be in maryland! –that just tells you how skewed my east coast sensibilities are!) it was a deep blessing to be in their midst, sit in the pew at their church & chat over breakfast. god is good. :)

in the midst of fall:

(ah! i wrote this post at the end of october & somehow it never got out of the draft gate! so here's a little look back to the start of the fall...)

oh, october, where have you gone? it has been a fairly hum-drum month in the lloyd household, or perhaps is has just settled down to a new norm as compared to the upheaval of the move and the crazy busyness of summer. either way, there is a certain calming predictability that has settled in in the past few weeks and it has been a somewhat comforting source of pattern & order: wake up in the dark, drive to the sterile office cube, count down the hours until 4:15, & eagerly await the after-work activities.

the most brilliant event to happen has been watching the full flush of fall well up and wash over the city. it has been the most brilliant fall in recent memory. perhaps this is merely due to the time we have taken to deliberately make note of it’s magestic arrival...


we have fittingly taken part in a few fall festivities which have included a late night trapse through a corn maze. our group had the option of going for the “haunted” option, but after 45 min in line hearing the screams and intermittent chainsaws we opted for the “un-haunted” version. with the thick fog, new moon, and absence of a flashlight, it was scary enough. :)

my latest crafty urges were invested in costumes for the “reformation day” party thrown by our parish group. i went as the rough draft of martin luther’s 95 thesis (um... i couldn’t think of a female connection to the reformation…and i have an affinity for costumes fashioned after inanimate objects), chad went as the church door the thesis was nailed to. :)

then scattered about throughout the month have been the various concert goings of us two dinks, which have included chad’s van gross & the gypsies concerts at the mars bar, justin timberlake cover night, no less! & a night out at the triple door main stage to see jubilee with cassie.

we’ve also taken part in “a day in the life of a wedding coordinator”…. it has given us a new found respect for our dear friend blythe. here is a pic at the event which was done up in the colors of fall & chihuly glass:

last but not least, i must comment that the house hunt marches on! if it is falling apart, mold infested, 80 years old, pre-foreclosed & in seattle, we’ve probably seen it! :) we go out again this afternoon… the forcast is for a 90% chance of heavy rain; it is getting down to the few, the determined, & the desperate… & it is all good news to us buyers!

100 things:

no pictures today. i started this list a while ago and finally came about to finishing it. some of the things are sadly out of date, though most will remain true for a very long time to come. :) thought it was a neat idea...

my name is lauren.
my parents named me after lauren becall.
i don’t know why, but her pictures are glamorous.
i am half japanese & half caucasian, all sorts.
people always ask me about that.
sometimes i don’t feel like i belong to either ethnicity.
i have really green eyes.
but they disappear when I laugh or smile big.
i always tear up when I laugh.
i never grew very tall, i round up to 5’-1”.
sadly i am terrible at wearing heals.
i fit just under hubby’s chin.
he likes that.
i married my high school sweetheart.
we are still in love.
he is amazing.
he likes chocolate, i like fruit, and it all works out in the end.
i didn’t know i had curly hair until i was 17, i thought it was just frizzy.
at one time i was convinced i had dark brown hair.
i live in seattle. my hair is black
i rejoiced at the discovery of the flat iron.
i was born in escondido, ca.
part of me will always be there.
the smell of geraniums will always remind me of my grandmother.
i am an only child.
i am just like my dad.
he inspired me to pursue architecture.
i call my mom daily
we are very close.
i wish they didn’t live so far away.
i want to have a big family.
i love inky pens and swing jackets with large buttons.
i love the look of cursive, even illegible cursive like mine.
i have mastered architectural lettering.
i use it when i am not being lazy.
i am entirely right brained.
i work in an engineering department, how did that happen?
i am ever visual.
i won’t watch scary movies.
they become embeded in my imagination &it is not worth the trouble.
i have a short attention span.
i have a hard time finishing a project.
i love starting them.
i am constantly overwhelmed by the creativity around me.
i am an artist.
i have yet to settle on a medium.
i constantly misplace my keys, purse, cell phone & work badge.
i will keep track of my kids with one of those kid leashes attached to my person somehow.
i love oversized glass hurricanes.
i’m inspired by william morris, the smell of soap & dessert wine.
my limit is 1 drink.
cosmopolitan, heavy on the juice please.
we drank escencia on our honeymoon & it always takes me back there.
i have the most golden memories of backpacking in europe.
i will do that again.
i love vintage dishware.
i have a vast collection of jadite.
i use it every day.
i love lamps with drum shades.
i listen to bands that don’t exist yet :)
i can’t sleep with the blankets all mussed up or the closet doors open.
i have vivid dreams.
i work at a bland beige cube under fluorescent lighting
i have a count down at my desk.
i hope to start my own venture.
my favorite color is green, it has such depth.
i have an old soul.
i have never pierced my ears.
i have had 6 surgeries.
i can feel the weather change.
i like simple clothes and patterns.
i like brights and neutrals, not much in between.
but i look for shape, proportion, and texture before i consider color.
i love both brie and a sharp English cheddar.
i recently discovered a love for kalamata olives.
my voice is not recognized by any automated telephone system.
i grew up in an acapella church.
i have new appreciation for mid century aesthetic, though only in tasteful doses.
i have an eames chair on my porch.
i use it as a decadent plant stand.
james taylor speaks to something in my childhood that i will never loose.
something about sour grass, paper bark trees & drippy sand castles.
i love to travel.
i aspire to be an expert on the antiques road show.
i now live in a attic in seattle.
i love the greenness.
i love celadon pottery.
i put black pepper in everything i eat.
i don’t boast about my cooking skills.
we eat out a lot.
once i got on the wrong plane and flew to the wrong city on accident.
yes, it could happen to you too!
i have a houseplant named earl.
we have a ’72 mini, his name is paulo.
i have a name picked out for my future dog and goat, as soon as i get a yard big enough for the two.
i am blessed by a few very dear friends.
i like car trips, but i fall asleep easily on long drives.
i’m saddened by the lie of relative truth and the people it captivates.
i know we live in a fallen world.
Christ Jesus is my Lord and Savior.

not it:

out bid!!

the competition bid more than the asking price -in this market! strike 2... well, there is simply something else out there. we just rest on the Lord's daily provision and know he is ever faithful.

love again:

could it be?

after the one that got away, i was promptly assured that it was no good for us any way and that “something else will come along.” well folks, here she is:

mug from the street looking north

photogenic, no? she is in leshi & by far, more than we thought possible in our price range. could it be “the one”? she’s been on the market for over 140 days and has dropped over 140K!

livingroom (currently being used as a bedroom by the owners) -look at the cool fireplace!

her finer points:
she’s massive!! a nice large corner lot perfect for a garden, and running kids & pets . she would accommodate a m-i-l and it would be located on the side rather than underneath in a daylight basement. she is in need of some serious interior primping (my specialty!). 2 blocks from a park & an elementary school. safe, gorgeous neighborhood. :) space for a lauren studio! fireplace. high ceilings. 1900.

her not-so-fine points:
she might need a new roof in the next few years…, electric baseboard heating, no kitchen (for our part of the house), a portion of the future m-i-l kitchen has a bit of a slope to it. :(

ok, but all cons aside, i hesitate to admit i am becoming a bit smitten! when i got back to my desk i sketched up this plan from my vague memory:

however, “stop right there!” says hubby. we still need to do some number crunching! the question of the week: ...should we offer?

our prayer is that the Lord blesses us with the strength of faith we need come what may. we know He is sovereign over our lives and will direct our paths be it, house, this house, or no house. may what ever happens be a testimony to His glory and mercies.

....please keep us in your prayers!

bigger than a bread box:

when i was little and would get in the middle of a guessing game, i would always start with this question, “is it bigger than a bread box?” …funny, i don’t think i even knew what a bread box was, or how big it was. all that to say, this weekend started off with a surprise!! a trip to tahoe!

once there we “found” my parents!!-surprise #2! together it was quite a full birthday weekend! food for the soul. :) here is a smattering of the our busy weekend which included, lots of food, sight seeing, rafting the truckee (an old time fam tradition) and, of course, uno:

good bye lovely attic:

in parting here are a few after pics of our strangely empty home… in memory of the times we have lived and loved in this little tree house...on top of a house.

our’s was the gable on the top. (the second floor bay on the left was our first apartment .)

my garden deck & hard knock eames chair we found in the living room when we moved in 2 years ago.

and where are you now? other than our pods which were uneventfully trucked away tuesday, we are blissfully a pair of transitory vagabonds …eagerly awaiting our next touch down…