Treasures From The Sea

This is one of those glass floats that I keep leaving really early to go find... I have only found one... I baught this one... to paint on and sell... but until I get some glass and tile medium its hanging in front of my window making me happy

These are all bottles that I have collected from the beach on my walkes... I want to fill them with sand from all the beaches Derick and I go to.... Becca I put these up mostly for you ; )

No Hair November

Well... apperently some people celebrate no hair November... Derick is now one of those people... the Mohawk was just a brief stop along the way!Wood!

First Snow

Yes its true... we have already had our first snow! This was super early November... I woke up to SNOW! It was only a light dusting and melted by afternoon but it was still exciting... here are my little pansies and ornamental kale in my garden
This is looking off my front porch down the street
Here is Kona out on her lead in the back yard
It snowed all day but it just didnt accumulate... this is looking out my studio window later that afternoon, I thought the bright fall leaves with the snow was kinda cool!

Halloween

This was the 13th/14th combined Halloween party
I once again I Marilyn Monroe and Derick was..... a boxer... hmmm... he wore a hoodie and gloves... he figured this out the day of I think... this was our conversations leading up to the event...
2 months out-
Lisa: Derick what do you want to be for Halloween? I can help?
Derick: I don't know we will talk about it later...

1 month out-
Lisa: Derick what do you want to do for Halloween? I can help! We could do something together!?!
Derick: um... I don't know we will talk about it later...

2 weeks out-
Lisa: well I am going to be Marilyn again... let me know what you want to be and I can help you
Derick: I don't know... we will talk about it later

1 day out-
Derick: What am I going to be for Halloween Lisa?
Lisa: I dont know sweetie what are you going to be? ARGGGGHHHH
I made these creepy witches fingers for the party!
14th Wood pumpkin I carved with an f-16 complete with missiles...
Derick waiting for trick or treaters... eating a power bar... classic
Me and Kona waiting... some of the Japanese kids were scared to come up because they were afraid of Kona. Japansese kids come on base by the hundreds on Halloween to get American Candy
Another one of my pumpkins!
View of my sliding glass door from the outside! I love my sea glass mural and my skull cutouts.

Giant Jellyfish Infestation

It was a moderatly stormy day on the beach...
This is the same beach that I found the body on... the waves had been really high and I had hopes of finding a float... and I needed to face my dead body beach issues and go back to prove to myself that there would not be one this time... so I went... Kona and I
Kona wore here blue bandanna... its her favorite one... she thinks she looks sexy in blue... I agree... this is a float... but its a lame plastic one... I found tons of the plastic ones... even a cool lime green one that turned out to be pretty heavy and I didn't want to carry it 6 miles back the the car...

anyways... I didn't find any floats but I did find dead bodys... dead giant jellyfish bodies!!!! the same giant jellyfish that canceled my salmon catch... I must have passed hundreds of them on my walk...
and i found a fridge... I did carry that back to the car... not
I also found a couple of those squid lights that I have mentioned before... they have these big lights on the squid boats to attract the squid at night... this is actually a kinda small one... and they wash up intact... I cant even take a light bulb out of the socket intact...
and here is a giant jellyfish... it is HUGE!!!!
They were bigger then Kona... yes I can now see how an infestation of these would break the salmon nets... CRAZY

Rokkasho Salmon Festival

This is the Salmon Festival at Rokkasho... it was slightly disappointing cause we could not actually catch the salmon this year... more info about that later... anyway this is on the way into Rokkasho... need a map... no worries its painted on the side of this fish... good luck!anyway here is box of salmon... just hangin out...
Squid hung up to dry... very Japanese...
Grilling squid... ughhh... I just cant bring myself to try it.. its the whole freaking thing... maybe if it was just a peice... not the whole thing...
There were a bunch of booths and this one had cherries hanging from it... notice the little picture of the octopus dancing...
A Japanese lady getting Kona kisses... she found them surprisingly enjoyable
Cooking yakisoba... yummm....
This is how you get dessert... perfect little cones...
Crazy old noodle man... this was soo cool to watch... and then you could buy the soup with these noodles he was making next door!
The little stage area where they had the grill your own dinner habatchi grills... super classy when they wrap the seats in black trash bags
"Salmon catch cancellation notice

Because of an unusually heavy infestation of GIANT JELLYFISH in the ocean, the boats could not go out to set the nets to catch live salmon... the weight of the jellyfish would break the nets"

WHAT!!!! AN INFESTATION OF GIANT JELLYFISH!!!! hmmm... that sucks...
Sad faces.... this is where we were to catch the salmon... but it wasn't to be!
But I traded my ticket for a dead salmon... hmm that doesn't quite as glamorous as a live salmon caught by hand...
Watching the guy clean the salmon for us... those are all eggs...
Kona had a great day!
And we ended the day watching Japanese dancing in the little stage area!
All my awesome salmon fillets packed away to be frozen for later use! I feel like a took a big step today in conquering my fear of fish!

Shinto Shrine and Pagoda

After we went apple picking we found this super cool Shinto shrine with an awesome pagoda. This was the road to get there... it was the smallest road yetHere is the painted billboard map of the area
Walking up the stairs to the shrine was like walking up to heaven with the sun in our faces and all the leaves on fire!
It was gorgeous... I am in love with fall in Japan
And I am in love with ginko trees.. they turn this awesome gold color in the fall

This statue was amazing... my camera batteries were dying or else I could have gotton some better shots... I love all the moss and lichen all over him
Jokey and OAR with a samurai suit... WOOD

Tons of Tori gates
And finally the pagoda!