Wishing you all a Warm, Cozy, Comfort-Food Filled Holiday!

We made pumpkin bread for our friends and neighbors this year.

The mail man, who is willing to brave doggies and mud to drop off packages at our house instead of just leaving a "pick up at post office" card got one. The ladies at the Library got one. Our nice auto repair shop got two. And a few of our neighbors, who we know mostly as people who drive down the road to get their mail, got some -- and who now will know us as the girlies who can cook good banana bread. Heh.

We also found the real "Cullen" house as we drove around. It's hidden way back behind the trees, and is a massive castle of a thing on an unknown amount of acreage. It's fallen a bit into disrepair, but the current owner is slowly restoring it. But man -- the thing is massive, and has turrets and bridges, and a solarium. And we never had a clue it was there. Just a shock to suddenly see it appear out of no where.

And now we're going to go to the beach and watch the Christmas Sunset. Yea!

Best wishes to you all,
- Resa

Will be offline for about a week.

Hey, as some of you might know, we've had no end of ill luck getting the water running in this house of ours. And now that the weathers gone all frosty, we're temporarily forced to move. Just for a short while. But I'll have no access to the internet til I get back home, save the library, when I can get over there.

So -- talk to you all soon!
- Teresa

The Sanderson Family Christmas

Wow.
If anyone knows a link to a higher quality video of this (with sound, the one I found had no sound), please forward it, eh?

Signal Boost

EGORAVEN
An illustrated novel by Daphne Lage.

There are 6 prose pages, all topped with a lovely illustration. I was hooked by page 2. Great stuff.
(Sigh) Though dang! It is hard to wait for the next page.

Wishing you all ...

... a wonderful dinner with Friends and/or Family today.

Boosting the Signal

If you haven't yet discovered The HillyWood Show on UTube, you're really missing something. I'm absolutely blown away by the professional quality of these "home movies". They're just stunning!

Their Twilight Parody

Their Dark Knight Parody.

Enjoy!

-- Resa

Olympic Peninsula Line Men

Know that we love you. And appreciate all that you'll be doing over the next four days to keep our electricity on. Stay warm.

- - -

Yes, another storm is coming in with high winds and flooding. It's already blowing, but the main system will hit tonight, with predicted winds up to 50mph, gusts to 75. And Monday brings in an even stronger storm. (sighs) But hey, it's winter. We're prepared.

Going into town, everything was closed but the Forks Outfitters. Which is where everybody was going to get supplies. The main drag was very dark under even darker skies ... except for on bit of brightness. Dazzled By Twilight. Which was still open.

I suppose even sparkly vampires need supplies ...

Aaaaah! Hail!!!

I may not be impressed by 9 feet of rain in a year. But hail impresses me.
Which ... is almost embarrassing.
Because I've SEEN some of the hail that a few of you have to deal with.
And our hail only comes in very small, to moderately small, bean-sized pieces.
And ... well ...
And I'm going to start wearing my leather hat again.
Because it may be small, but it still bring'th the big ow'ie if you're not prepared.

Just a note to any Twlighters reading this Blog

Dazzled By Twilight is having a small contest over at Facebook. The 1000th person to join gets a prize. So, if you're interested -- Go Here.

In other news, we have gotten an amazing number of thunder storms this year. In all the time I've been here, I think I've experienced only 3 or 4 thundery storms. But this year alone, I think I've up'd that total another 5!

The Cullens should be so pleased.

Best wishes --
I'm off to eat ribs! Yum!
- Resa

I love this place.

Tonight the surf is particularly high. And that means that we can walk outside and hear the surf crashing against the beach five miles away.

I don't know why, but that just makes me so happy. I'm damn lucky to be here.

Ah Hah! First Little Storm of the Season!

We're in the midst of our first storm. And the rain was coming down so hard and fast that, for a while, it looked like a snow storm out there.

After watching it for a few minutes, I tried to get a picture. But I missed the moment. (Sighs)

I really need to get a newer digital camera one day. My poor, 10 year old, Nikon takes 60+ seconds to warm up between photos, and man! It is frustrating to be standing there, going "Com'on! Com'on! Hurry up!" at it, and miss your photo opportunity just as it clicks on.

Gah.
But hey! Decent little storm! Pretty steady gusts in the high 40 mph. And rain too! What fun!

Yeee Haaah!

Ah, our first Special Weather Statement is in. So, it's official. It's Winter.

Luckily, it doesn't look too bad. Just lots and lots of rain, some flooding, and winds between 30-50mph. Which is fully do'able.

And on the off chance that Mother Nature pulls a fast one, and we get unexpected high winds -- which happens once or twice a season -- we have all the required LED emergency lights, extra candles, firewood, food and drink. So we're set.

I'm actually a bit excited about it. The weather just hasn't been wild enough for me this year ... Heh.

Raw Salmon and Dogs

It's fishing season again in Forks, Wa -- heck, when is is not? And we stumbled upon some raw salmon waste leftover from someone's fish cleaning. And so, a reminder -- raw salmon can be deadly to dogs.

I speak from experience, as we lost a dog to Salmon Poisoning just that a few years ago, after someone dumped their salmon waste near our home. Something, I'm sure, they never imagined could be harmful. And so, that is the reason for this post.

Please come, Fish in Forks. But be careful of how you dispose of your fish waste.

A Murder of Crows

The other day while I was reading, I kept noticing something flying back and forth by the window. Looking closer, I saw that it was crows. A lot of them.

So I went outside and it was actually some several HUNDRED crows.

They were scattered all over the yard all around the house, perching on fence posts, in bushes, and in every tree. They didn't seem to care much that I was out there either. I looked at them, and they looked back, with their unfathomable, little bead black eyes.

Kinda Creepy.

Well, today I looked out and there they were again. Less this time, probably under a hundred total. And this time, I grabbed my camera and went outside and they all fled. Dammit. I wanted a picture!

So weird.

It must be the Sparkly Vampires.

Spider Plant Babies and Beta Fish Tip

If you have Spider Plants, you'll have Spider Plants Babies. It can feel kinda like an invasion, with new babies sprouting out in every direction, looking for a place to set down roots.

So, what to do with them?

We've tried planting them all in small plastic pots, but there were too many. And we didn't want to throw them out, because that just seemed mean.

So finally, we packed them all into an extra fish bowl and filled it with water. We wondered if they'd "drown" or rot from being under water, but they loved it. They've now been in that fish bowl for months and are still going strong.

About the same time, we also tried putting a few plant babies into another fish bowl with a beta fish. And it works wonderfully. The plants seems to make the beta fish tremendously happy, providing him with plenty of places to hide, and he seems to enjoy snuggling amongst the roots at night. And the plants with the fish are really thriving, I suspect from pulling nutrients from the fish's waste.

So, there ya go.

Cheap, but realistic, Vamp Fang Tutorial

Interested in making your own vampire fangs? Well, now you can! It looks really easy ... now to just find some Friendly Plastic ...

You Absolutely MUST See This Page!!!

3-D Sidewalk Chalk Drawing by Julian Beever! Really, you will not believe your eyes! His Anamorphic Illusions section is truly mind boggling!

Egads!

I just realized that I missed SUPERNATURAL last night!!!!
...

Yes, I do realize that this isn't news. But still -- dangit!

Bella's Birthday Bash seems to have been a success.

There were far more booths there this year, and I had a lot of fun finding a few trinkets for some friends of mine. And the town was over-flowing with excited folks, which made things very endearing.

I did, however, nearly get squashed by a car though. Which put a temporary kink in yesterday's fun. I had been using the cross walk, when out from of one of the street businesses came a white car, very fast, turning into the street and right through the cross walk, and missed me by about a foot.

I have no doubt it left an impression with them. As I saw the look on the person's face as she blurred by, and the soft curse word she gasped out when she realized how close she'd come. It left an impression with me too.

But - hey, it's a beautiful day, and I'm still here to enjoy it.

And ... The Uncle's house has Twilighters swarming the field next door. It's been like that all day today. Whoops, howls, growls and "Edward!!"s echo the air, and from the look at it, mock baseball games and picnics. It's ... a good thing that the Uncle likes the Twilight series. Heh.

- Resa

Water Rationing in the Rain Forest

From the Peninsula Daily News:

Forks officials last week asked residents to cut back on water use because city wells are about 30 percent below capacity.

It's been an unusually dry summer in Forks, normally one of the wettest towns in the United States.

Rainfall is about 23 inches below normal so far this year — and water use may be higher, too, because of thousands of visiting "Twilight" fans.

The Forks Visitor Center registered 55,600 guest book sign-ins in the first eight months of this year.

It had 18,700 for all of 2008.

Forks itself has only 3,200 residents.

Heh.
When I heard about the rationing in the local paper - The Forks Forum -- they only blamed those 23 less inches of rain this year. But I'm thinking it's the added 55,600 people we've had this year so far. And the main Twilight festival has yet to appear. And the hotels are already booked up. So, I'm thinking ... SCARY!
Heh.

Another good reason to go with a rain catchment system, eh?

The Cullens got in a little time playing baseball last night.

And it looks like they may get in time for another game this afternoon.

We don't often get Thunder Storms in Forks, Wa. I've only seen a hand-full in the last 9 years up here. But our house got rocked by one in the middle of last night, that seems to have fried the outlet we plug our computers into. Fortunately, our computers were unplugged.

In other news, I made another Twilight Plant Pot -- this time as a commission for my friends Jennie and Keesha. It's a Jasper Pot, and only up on RC-ForksWA currently, but I hope to have time to get it up in my main gallery soon.

Since I know Twlighters read this journal now and again, I should mention that the DAZZLED BY TWILIGHT store and tour company has taken over one of an old, closed restaurant to reopen it as the TWILIGHT LOUNGE. It's a giant building, and I have to wonder if they intend to have some kind of smallish Twilight Convention there on Halloween or at the opening of New Moon.

Along with this, Forks has one very small theater that has been closed for about 20 years. News is that somebody -- possibly again DBT -- is fixing it up so that residents and tourists can see the movie in town, instead of driving one and a half hours to Port Angeles to see the movie there. Lemmie tell ya, that would be nice!

Whoo -- a reopening of a restaurant and possibly our old theater! Jobs and movies! This rocks!

Gotta run. There's thunder! Gotta go see!

- Resa

You Ain't Seen Scary 'til You've Seen Mad Llamas.

I think I've mentioned that we have cows occasionally. In fact, the punks ate my strawberries the last time that they were wandering through our yard. Cows seem to want try everything -- tree leaves, bramble stalks, and yes, strawberries. ((Sighs.)) But hey, strawberries are tenacious, and they're starting to come back, but I suspect I won't get fruit this year.

We also have a rather good sized pack of llamas that live in the field with the cows. We don't see them often, as that field is VERY VERY LARGE, but they come be periodically, I suspect to tour the territory.

They've never been friendly beasties. The pack leader is very quick to make motions that suggest power spitting if I don't stay very clear of the fence when we go walking. But lately? Lately he's been in a mood. He charges the fence no matter how far we are from it when it spots us. And hisses and stomps and throws his head around. And ... damn, but he's a scary bugger! And often, he's backed up by a few... er, "second in commands?" who stand behind him and glare at you too.

We'd been wondering why. And found out yesterday, as we were driving into town. Out there, in the the meadow, no longer blocked by brush was the llama pack. Now sporting several new baby llamas. Heh!

So, I guess I can understand the crankiness.

I'm cold.

After several hot days in the 80s and 90s, and many weeks in the high 70s, Forks Wa has decided to drop back down to the 50s.

Yeek! I'm FREEZING! But I absolutely refuse to use the woodstove in Summer to heat the house. No. Nope. No way! And, how in the heck did I lose my adaption to cool weather in just a handful of days? I am ... so ashamed.

In other news, Forks had 16,000 Twilight visitors last month. Which was twice June's numbers and almost as much as all of last year's Twilight Tourists. And since Forks sports only about 3500 citizens, it's been interesting.

Gah, went to go re-read the article from yesterday to verify this on the Fork's Forum newspaper, but the article seems lost. But I can say for certainty, that it did seem EXTREMELY busy in town these last few weeks. Our one traffic light was quite over-whelmed. And I suspect we might really need a second one. My cousin Jatina, however, counter-suspects that the town will riot if anyone suggests another one.

Well, yes. She may have a point. We Forksters like our tiny, teeny towny. And two traffic lights is far too ... ahem "Southern California".

Pots and Plants, Deer and Eagles

I grew up in the lowland deserts of Southern California. In a parched dry little town that never saw snow, broiled in the summer, and gathered to it's breast very little rainfall. It was a flat, hot, and mostly treeless place. And I used to dream of forests and cloud covered skies, where things would be green and cool and vibrantly alive.

And so I find myself here in Forks, Washington. Where instead of a couple of inches of rain a year, I can get that in a week. Even stranger, as I told my cousin just the other day, I've adapted so neatly that I would have sworn that last month only had an inch or less of rain ... when it actually had 5.6 inches.

How the heck did I miss 5.6 inches of rain? And here I thought it'd been a rainless, sunny-full month. Jeepers -- don't I even consider it rainy until we have a full foot these days? Gah!

When I first moved here, I found the rain nearly mind numbing in it's continuity. I remember thinking that it NEVER STOPPED. That out there, somewhere, surely someone was building an Ark.

But that wasn't an unusually rainy year at all. That was just Forks. And now ... I hardly notice the rain at all. I don't even use an umbrella. Isn't that just bizarre?

In other news, I was quite excited to see several bald eagles in the last few days, and many many deer. The deer are even a bit cheeky. Refusing to run from my car as I slow down to look at them eating leaves and grass by the side of the road. I have even had to, on occasion, stop my car and get out, to coax the little buggers out of the street, when they decide to just stop in front of my car, probably chuckling silently to their little deer selves. Stinkers.

And, I have one new pot out at the Twilight, "Cullens' Baseball Field". It's nothing earth shattering. Just a pot painted black with a red apple on it, sporting a cherry red petunia. I plan to start on two new pots in about a week, of Alice and Jasper, to add to my slowly growing stash of Twilight plant pots out there. It may take a while to get them all, but eventually I'll have a full set. Maybe even Jacob, in his own little pot, sitting a bit off to the side and looking forelorn and lonely. Poor wee wolfy.

And lastly, I have many more bookmarks up now in my gallery. Which you can find HERE.

Best wishes, and have a wonderful day!
- Resa

Happy Happy Cows

Because I know the person who owns the land just next to where the (Twilight) "Cullen's Baseball Field" is supposed to be, I have good reason to be out there fairly often.

And I was out there again yesterday to see how my Edward and Bella plant pots were doing. I am happy to report that both Edward and Bella's painted faces are holding up quite well under Fork's rainfall so far. However, as I drove up, I realized that the "baseball" field was occupied. Not by sparkly vampires, but by escapee cows.

Now these cows are royal, little stinkers. It's a rare day in spring that they don't fly their coop, and wander all about the area, sneaking into people's yards far and wide, sampling strange, new grasses. And this time, they had their new babies with them, and I couldn't help calling out to them, calling them "sweeties" when I got out of the car. Because hey, fuzzy baby cows. How could I not?

They turned to look at me as I did so. Watching me as I wandered over to my pots to groom out the dead flowers. Then suddenly, one cow seemed to become terribly taken with me. It was a lady cow, a big ol'girl, with a very pregnant tummy. She turned joyfully, seeming to practically dance on her tip toes, while making tiny, happy moos at me -- before dashing in my direction, like some gigantic, treat-expectant puppy, seemingly over-joyed to see me.

Now, I don't know a heck of lot about cows. But I do know that they weigh about the same as a small car. And this small car was on a collision course. Would she crash into me? Was I misinterpreting territorial aggression for "joy"? And even if I was right, could she stop in time? How graceful is a cow when her tummy is so large that it's wobbling on each side as she ran?

I paused and considered my options. I had wandered a fair pace from my car. Should I dash behind one of the trees? They are quite big enough to stop a car, and keep standing. This was a possible plan.

Luckily, Cow-Lady seemed to take notice of my fast back-peddling toward my leafy barrier, and stopped. She looked at me with confused brown eyes for a moment, then threw her head up and made three long, loud, mournful sounding moos. And cows came out from behind everything. And then, she turned, and went down the road toward home, with her fellows trotting behind her.

Whoo -- I have my first thing up on Ebay!

I've used Ebay in the past to buy stuff -- usually used books. As I love collecting books. Particularly hard backs. But this is the first time I've ever tried to sell anything, so yay! It's now official. Now up on Ebay is my Twlight Print and Post Card set! Whoo!

I'd hoped for a "Buy Now!", set price auction. But you're not allowed to use that until you've sold several items, and you've proved yourself to be a honest seller. So, I've set up a Print/Post Card set with a starting bid of $10, and free shipping. Which is considerably less than the price now listed on my website. On my website, just the print is going for $13 -- postage included. So hopefully, I'll get a bite.

And, here we go. I figure, even if it doesn't sell, it should at least draw more attention to my website and art gallery online. And that's always good.

In other news: It's raining here in Forks, Washington.
I bet you're so surprised. Heh.

Yay!

Today was fun for me. I was out at the "Cullen's Baseball Field" (it's next to a piece of land someone I know owns) just in time to see a car drive up, and people ooo and ahhh over the new Edward and Bella plant pots.

I stayed discreetly away while they took several pictures of the pots. Close ups, far shots, shots with them in the pictures, and even a couple of the "Caution!" sign too. Heh! I loved that!! After they left, I did a small victory dance in my head, and pondered what else I can put out there later on. It's just such a rush to see people get so excited over something you've painted.

You know, it really is fun living in a town that's hip-deep in a fantasy novel. And it's been kind of a kick seeing what other people have done or crafted to take advantage of this. Like the Forks outfitters selling official employee name tags with Bella's name on it -- I thought that was terribly clever. Or how now, on the road leading out to the La Push, Quileute Indian Reservation and First Beach, there is a warning sign stating that "No Vampires Beyond This Point". Hah!

It just tickles me! I mean, I loved Forks, WA long before it was anything but a small blip on a map. And now, everybody loves it.

Heh.

-- Resa

Alrighty then -- my first official post here!

So, I've been busy, art-wise. I've done a few commissions, and been working on a set of art pieces/prints to have ready to go for "Bella's Birthday", or Stephanie Meyer's Day in my town of Forks, Washington.

My most recent commissions were of a Fire Dancer and a Hula Girl. Be fore-warned that they may not be work-safe, as they do contain some nudity. But I'm particularly happy with how the Fire Dancer came out.

I really need to try my hand at more work that focuses on the use of light and shadow, as I find this really fascinating.

Twilight-Wise, I've done several pieces of art. My main piece is my black & white drawing, "Intoxicating Love", which is now available through me as a 8 1/2 x 11 print on cardstock, as well as post card packs of 5 or more on my Forks/Twilight page. The original art is also up for sale, as well as the original pencil I did for the piece.

I've also tried my hand at a couple of Jasper book marks. And a set of plant pots featuring Bella and Edward that are now sitting out by the official "Cullen's baseball field". I've also recently added a sign out there too, which I've posted on another Forks/Twilight gallery of mine, since it's not officially "art", but still hopefully amusing if you're a fan of the Twilight books.

And lastly, I would love to do more of my famous bookmarks. If you'd like one done for you, I'm currently charging $20 (which includes US shipping). You can find more information on my Art4Sale page on my website.

In other news, we're waiting on a storm this evening here in Forks, WA. Spring storms are usually pretty tame, but we have candles and snackies just in case.

And I have been busily attempting to learn wood-working. So far I have successfully made one saw horse, and one less than perfect saw horse. Tomorrow I hope to attempt my first bookcase. If it comes out slightly better than shabby, I shall be thrilled! Cuz anything less than a complete disaster just means I can get better at it. Yay!

Hope you're all having a safe and wonderful evening.

-- Resa