Kimberly KG

I guess he likes me.

My youngest is thriving in college but he’s so busy that we haven’t done a family call in a couple weeks and the last text from him just said “wonderful, thank”.

He’s coming up so we can see a play this weekend though, so I guess I’ll let it slide. Ha!

@re5et.bsky.social These are fun. github.com/sjpiper14…

Maker Skill Trees! What a cool idea this is. https://github.com/sjpiper145/MakerSkillTree/tree/main

Last Saturday, Matt and I went to the Portland Winter Light Festival. I hadn’t been before and didn’t know what to expect. My takeaway: A nighttime Maker Faire meant to cheer you up in the dead of winter. There are installations spread around Portland, but we went to just a couple locations. Tonight is the final night for this year.

World Trade Center

There were many fun and interactive exhibits here, both inside and out. This is just a small subset.

The dragon on the south waterfront was very cool. The fire was hot from where we were standing, I wouldn’t want to be standing right underneath it.

Pioneer Courthouse Square

This was probably my favorite installation. The lights subtly changed colors.

I love the community spirit in Portland. I didn’t take any good photos of individual costumes, but people are lovely and creative.

Another display here was a door that had a different scene behind it every time you opened it. Sometimes you were looking at a beautiful nebula and other times, there was a dinosaur running at you. My photos didn’t do it justice though.

Creativity, color, fire AND community. What’s not to love?

@gryphondreamer.bsky.social Hi friend!

Finished reading: Tiamat’s Wrath by James S. A. Corey This book was more exciting and I like where we’ve landed now. Excited to read the final book in the series next. 📚

I filled my time this weekend with some sewing. I had been wanting to make a bag for my daughter to hold some of her art supplies for a while. I didn’t remember the pattern/steps well so I did an experiment first.

I made several mistakes on this first one, but it turned out well enough. It’s missing the tabs though.

This is the bag for my daughter. I’m happy with how it turned out. (She was excited when I sent her the pictures too. I suppose that’s what matters! Ha!)

Then I thought I’d make this tiny one with cork, which came together really quickly. I haven’t sewn with cork before. Is it usually very, VERY thin? The bag is adorable, but I think I’ll remake it with interfacing so it feels a bit more solid.

Some Bluesky threads that helped today:

Multnomah County Office of Sustainability

Lincoln’s Second Address

Leopards

I need a word that means “Task that’s annoying to do at the time you’re reminded of it”.

Examples: Kindle needs charging, just as I’ve snuggled into bed to read. The backup camera needs to be cleaned, right as I’m ready to get on my way.

Does this exist? Can we make one up, if not?

Finished reading: The Familiar: A Novel by Leigh Bardugo 📚

I listened to this as an audiobook. I enjoyed both the story and the narration.

2025! Is January 8th too late to wish someone a Happy New Year? I say no. Happy New Year!

The holidays were lovely. Both kids were in town for Christmas and there’s always a lot of laughter when they are around. We watched some good movies (The Holdovers and Klaus stand out most) and some not so good movies (Red One, eek!). We also watched the series Nobody Wants This which I turned on looking for something non-serious to watch while stitching and it turned out to be so good, I restarted it and watched it all the way through more than once. Apparently my son had told us to watch it before, but I hadn’t. I’d rewatch it again today if I could, honestly.

To get out of the house, we went downtown to see the big Christmas tree in Pioneer Square and to see the Gingerbread House display at the Benson hotel. I’m planning to do this again next year, it was a good way to get into the spirit of the season.

As has become tradition, we rang in the New Year with the neighbors. I highly recommend becoming friends with the people that live all around you.

We’re in the part of the year that reminds me that I live in THE NORTH. (Relative to my own past.) While the sun is out it’s generally flooding all rooms with southern facing windows, regardless of time of day. And yet, the nightlight I finally put in the upstairs hallway hasn’t turned off once!

We purchased an older, low-mileage Subaru for the daughter. She’s graduating this year and will likely move out of the small walkable town she’s living in so it was time. She drove it up to Whidbey Island for New Years and then drove it down to her place in time for school. It should be a great car for her. The son borrowed my vehicle to head back to school early (he wanted some time without the roommates in his apartment) so I’m getting to experience life with only one vehicle between my husband and I. It turns out that it is really easy if you work from home, eat leftovers for lunch every day and the neighbors are the people you spend most of your time with. On the other hand, after 5 years of working almost exclusively from home I’m usually anxious to get out of here. Perhaps having the need to have 2 vehicles is more aspirational than current reality.

January 1, 2025 marked 3 years that I have been sewing or stitching something daily. Most days I spend just 20 minutes or so, but I’ve learned a lot and it’s often a nice way to work through any of life’s frustrations. I have fabric picked out for a few bags I’m really exciting to get started on.

I’m continuing to volunteer for the woodworking guild this year. Figuring out how to organize several classes each month with instructors and assistants through some mechanism other than email is a goal for 2025. If you have suggestions, please send them my way.

Finally, I started learning Svelte and SvelteKit over the break. Matt and I have a couple projects we’d like to collaborate on this year and I don’t know the tools he’d like to use! I’m impressed so far with Svelte and I’m really looking forward to building something with Matt.

Currently reading: Tiamat’s Wrath by James S. A. Corey I’m anxious to see how the series is wrapped up. 📚

Some exciting professional news. We’ve been working on a new product at work and while there’s still lots of work to do, today we publicly announced the waitlist.

Surf Social

Seeing posts like this make it all worth it. Ha!

My son got home today (end of first term of sophomore year at college is this week), immediately announced he was starving and then fell asleep as soon as he had food. Some things never change, it seems. 🥰

Matt set up some fun LED lights on the house that can be controlled with the WLED app. Our Sunday evening gathering enjoyed the different settings, but the littlest ones were most excited.

PDX airport getting some love here.

If you’re in PDX over the next few months, definitely visit the Exquisite Creatures event at OMSI! We went a couple weeks ago and I’m planning to go back with the kids soon.

Not the best photo, but it represents pure joy. The blanket on the left covering kid #1, the blanket on the right covering kid #2 and the two kitties on my legs making me extra, extra warm.

Happy Thanksgiving! Both kids are home so I’m happy as can be. The daughter brought her cats who have been helping us cook all day. :) They’re adorable as you can see.

The Onion continues to bring me joy.

This evening Yuri Kobayashi presented at the monthly Guild of Oregon Woodworkers meeting as part of a series of educational opportunities on steam bending that she’s put together for the Guild.

Her presentation was a piece of art itself, with poetry woven throughout. She wrapped up the evening with three simple demonstrations that made steam bending look so fun and easy.

Yet another item for the list of things I haven’t tried, but would like to, it seems.

Some sights around the neighborhood on a recent walk. This is my favorite time of year in Oregon.

My son and a friend of his took a short roadtrip (his first as an adult) to go see redwoods in Crescent City this weekend. Of the photos he shared, this is my favorite. Ha!

Currently reading: Persepolis Rising (The Expanse, #7) by James S.A. Corey 📚

Looking forward to reading books that are not part of a series when I get through these next 3 books.