How to Create a Henna Tattoo

My son's dear love, Aparna, is from India. A few weeks ago, at a weekend house party at our beach house, Aparna brought several henna cones and offered henna tattoos to all the ladies. We had so much fun designing and drawing our tattoos -- we all felt so special!

Aparna, who is a software engineer, is always saying that she hasn't a creative bone in her body, but I realize now that she is just being humble. She created beautiful art for everyone. When she asked each of us what we wanted, we searched the internet for inspiration, then described what we liked, while she sketched out the concept on scratch paper. Once a design was settled on, she transferred the pattern to skin, using a blue ballpoint pen, since any exposed blue ink will wash off easily later.

How to Make a Travel Farkel Game

My dear friend sent me a game of pocket Farkel recently. I had visited her on summer vacation this summer, and she attempted to teach me to play.

I loved the compactness of the pocket game, but was concerned that the plastic zipper bag would not hold up to the chaos of my handbag -- you seriously never know what I might be carrying around... scissors... craft knives... who knows?

Our New Beach House Cats

We adopted two cats this summer. I was scrolling through our local Nextdoor forum, and noticed that someone was looking for a home for their cats, as they were soon to be moving. I was a little shocked, at first, after all, who leaves their cats when they move? When I clicked on the posting, I understood.

Syd and Leo each weigh over five hundred pounds. They are not easy to move. The owners had moved them several times, but they were getting older, and it was time to find the cats a new family. I called them and made an appointment to meet the cats in their Seattle courtyard.

Working on the Beach House Path

It's been quite a while since I posted any beach house updates. We continue to plug along with projects, but we try to balance work weekends with resting weekends and entertaining weekends.

Each year we improve the beach path a little bit more. When we first bought the house, the path was only inches wide, and full of holes and random hidden driftwood logs to trip us up. I think I spent as much time face down in the dune grass, as I did walking down the path!

Creating Art With Beach Treasures

If you drag home lots of shells and sand dollars from your beach vacations, here is a project that is fun for both kids or grownups.

We spend a lot of time at the beach on the Pacific Northwest coast, and have collected baskets and baskets of shells and sand dollars. I adore them in their natural state, but also love the idea of using them to create art.