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…

attic chapter:

closed. …sigh. after 4 years we no longer call tree-lined, 17th avenue “home”. three saturdays ago our merciful friends sacrificed backs and quadriceps to move our heavy belongings down the three flights of rickety stairs to the three pods parked in the driveway. bundled up one by one our furniture marched down stairs to the tune of a series of grunts and strains. tragically, i was so wrapped up in “directing” the move that I neglected to get any great action moving pictures!! rats! all i have are a few mid packing photos here:

do other people manage to packup their house in a more graceful manor? i ask you: how?
i was, however, very prepared for the cubes! in planning for the main event i had high hopes that upon closing the doors they would somewhat closely resemble this:

a sketchup model consisting of properly dimensioned renderings of every piece of furniture we own!(note the rug!)

detail of box 2: kitchen island, l’s desk, night stand, billy bookcase….

alas became more of a general directive rather than an easy to follow step by step formula. i think this potential case of over-the-top ness was the direct result of some residual arch schooling angst.

also photo worthy, the parting of a few treasured, though dilapidated, architectural models…sigh… i think it was only healthy that they go.

a heart breaker:

residential eyesore to every other person, but to me…it was too good to be true. this house sold today, so it was not in the lord's plans for us… somehow it still hurts… and i mourn an opportunity lost… and try to console myself with the sovereignty of his providence.

i told myself i wouldn’t do this, i wouldn’t set my heart on it…somehow the more i prayed the harder it was to see anything else… my faith can be so weak. my god is so patient.

the cheese has moved:

ever since i my freshman year in college my mother has used this term when referring to any major life change.

last saturday evening chad & i were taking a much needed afternoon nap when i awoke to hear someone at our door. bleary eyed, we went to the door to greet our new landlord and his wife. polite & smiling he proceeded to tell us that he is raising our rent 15% (!!!) and…the kicker… we will be asked to sign a year-long lease as of september 1st!! the following smear of “we know you’ll understand…” and “….with the rising demand for rental units….” was all a blur. he complimented us as “very clean” and left smiling and nodding/bowing. as i watched his head disappear down the stairs i slumped to a sit on the door step, my eyes tearing up. we cant sign a one year lease!…. the cheese has moved. we need to be out in 3 weeks.

suddenly, our musings of “we’re tracking the real estate market” have shifted into “we are in the real estate market.” after crunching numbers of the past three days we finally met with a loan officer & real estate agent last night. game on.

breakfast & birds:

i must offer up a tribute post to hiroki’s, our favorite seattle coffee & pastry shop. Here is Saturday morning’s breakfast: chad’s grande iced moca & & berry custard roll and lauren’s quiche lorraine with brioche toast crust. mmm…

on crafty note: here’s a few pics of my latest project, a mobile for baby ezra. the little bird bodies were such fun to stuff & perch. hope he likes it. :)

birds on a line…er, branch

an epic saturday:

we’ve been up to quite much!

we couldn’t have squeezed one more thing into our saturday! and now that i’ve undertook a recount of this long series of events -i am amazed we did as we did! go team lloyd! the day started quite early for a typical saturday morning. (i couldn’t sleep on friday night, i was too excited!) after a trip to hiroki’s we went to a great garage sale in ballard where I came away with some really cool fabric scraps. (post to follow on the resulting projects this spurred!)

fRom ballard we drove south for the main event, spencer was waiting in auburn for a ride home! he fit, windshield to hatch in the c-rv. on the way back we stopped by the vast land of ikea & picked up a few pots! (to feed l’s deep need to expand the reaches of her potted garden) after ikea & because hubby had been soo gracious to wade through a garage sale, rug warehouse & ikea- we stopped by to walk the greenwood car show. the car show went on for seeming miles, and did i mention that it was 92 degrees? but we still look pretty good yeah?

note the minis in the background?

we visited the mini club, samoa, proudly making a 25-car united front at the show, and oogled at hundreds of other cars all gleaming in chrome & pride. i enjoyed a bit of inspiration from the various hood ornaments mounted like self-proclaiming oscar awards.

badges & hood ornaments of various vintage

after walking the (+10!!) blocks of the show we straggled our was back to our uninspiring, though happily rug-filled car and headed home worn out & sunburned. …and you would like me to say that the day was done, right?!

no… we now have to muscle a 200lb rug down the street (why we didn’t park closer? -i don’t know) and up the three narrow flights of stairs to our little oven of an attic. ;)

…now i wish had pictures of the epic rug battle…i wish i could offer you a dramatic play by play of that excruciating trudge…but alas my writing skills will fail to convey the shear magnitude of this accomplishment. …let’s just say that it was way heavier than we had anticipated… and now, 3 days later, we are still groaning over the strain! of course, in my delirium, as i stooped rattling under the weight of spencer, my reaction was to buckle under an extreme case of the giggles- only making matters much worse. tears streaming down my face and a stomach cramp from the laughter -i think i gained composure about 2/3rds of the way up… we finally make it to the top, dripping & suffering from sun + rug burn. long story short(er)… we tumbled into bed at about 11ish after playing jenga with (almost) every piece of furniture in our house.

here is a glamour detail shot


before & after shot of living rm. dk brown pottery rug was now adorns l's "office." these
pic's do not do spencer justice, he really makes the room seem much more spacious.

before & after shot looking the other direction. (standing at mud rm door)

needless to say, we slept like rocks that night...and woke up as stiff as robots the next morning!