Last Day of September

Moo

I've been curious about MOO since the first time I read about this company. I finally decided to
give them a try. For once Tom would have business cards we wouldn't have to cut out ourselves
with x-acto knives.

Although MOO offers many well-designed templates, of course we had to design the cards
ourselves. MOO works quickly, and when the finished cards arrive in your mailbox,
getta loada the packaging!!

Even if your cards came back printed in purple instead of gray, it would be immoral to complain
when the cards are packaged so beautifully.

All cards are printed on both sides unless you don't wanna.

For Tom's card we chose a stock called Luxe. It's super sturdy––composed of 3 layers of
paper. You choose the color for the inside layer. We chose yellow-orange.

A close-up of the cards from the side.

It's so exciting when your cards come. When you pull the box out of the mail and turn it
upside-down to cut it open, a golden sticker stops you for half a sec––and you decide to
order 5,000 YAY! stickers next time around.

The discount is a standard 10% Facebook MOO code, though I notice today everything at MOO
is discounted 25%. MOO uses 4-color process––not flat Pantone colors, so I was a little
concerned about the solid areas––and the type too. But we're happy with the printing.

The wild thing about MOO is something we didn't even wade into, which is that you can design
the backs of the cards as many different ways as you like. In other words, we could have set up
the cards so that we had 200 different card backs for the same price. Perfect for an illustrator.

Ocean Beach near Fort Funston   6:18 p.m.

Soon after, the fog rolled in and we missed seeing the blood moon.

Jumping-for-joy Clouds

Ocean Beach   6:01 p.m.

Happy Birthday, Eric

We miss seeing the leaves change when fall comes, but look at the sky!

First Day of Fall

Driving home from Chino's

What Else I Did On My Summer Vacation

Tom and I drove up the coast to Sea Ranch. There was a little store by the gas station in Valley
Ford––The Wool Mill––that sold things made of wool. Bedding, clothing, rugs, cupcakes.

Tom only took four computers on vacation this time. I took my watercolors instead of my
computer and painted like crazy.

We entered the woods.

We walked along the trail that runs for ten miles by the ocean.

The Sea Ranch Lodge is a very nice place to stay. But we had to stay in a house because Tom
wanted to cook.

There was jazz Thursday night at the lodge. The singer reminded me a little bit of
Mose Allison.

Being that I had dug my swim suit out for Lake Tahoe, I took it along to Sea Ranch as well.
Tom came up with an old swim suit, too. Most days we were the only ones at the pool
and sauna. The pool's heated by those solar panels you can see at the bottom left of the photo.

I love the colors in the dressing rooms.

There's a tiny sauna for women at the top of the steps. There's a
bigger one for girls and boys downstairs, and that's the one we used.

This is the house where we stayed. There's a great little shop in Gualala
that sells Marimekko, and Tom bought me a new dress.

And don't faint, but here's my new Marimekko apron. I wear it not to cook in, but to clean up
after other people cook––and to paint in.

We did miles of walking. Here's a poem the Cricket read to me about walking when we were
at Lake Tahoe.

On our very last day it rained. We hadn't seen or heard rain in so long, we were stunned. 

When I texted msmasmushly about the rain, she wrote back, "Oooooooh - fireplace going?"
Is she not a genius? Tom immediately built a fire and I texted back, "Of course!"

Lots of watercoloring done by the end of the week.

Back home again on our own beach. Tell me again: Why did we go on vacation?

Learning to watercolor with real water

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Eeeeep!

I'm attempting to post from my iPad using the wonky blogger app and in the process deleting post after post.

Wait! Maybe I've figured it out now, though I have no idea how to make the photos smaller. Here's Cricket and me at Tahoe right before I dropped my phone in the lake.