well it has been a long, stressful week, but it’s official now – we have a freakin’ rad place in portland!!!! it’s a 2 bedroom with all brand new appliances (including a dishwasher, yeah!) in a great area (near powell + 37th, walking distance to the clinton st area and division and other neato stuff, including a trader joe’s) for $650! holy crap portland is awesome. my brother who goes to uci and lives in an apartment with 5 guys in irvine couldn’t believe it because that’s what he pays for his one room. wooo!!

we’re turning the master bedroom into a shared studio – half music/recording studio for him, half crafty awesomeness for me! so leethal will quickly be growing, expanding into new territories, i can’t wait! and the bathroom is perfect for developing film, so i’ll be doing a lot more of that! oooh so much excitement! i have so many rad decorating plans and such…… now we just have to get through the next 5 days of hellish moving nonsense…

the time has come… we leave early in the morning for san francisco, where i’ll be shooting a wedding on sunday (no, i don’t normally shoot weddings, but it’s a college friend, so it should be fun). then on monday, up to portland we go to find a place (any leads??) until we fly back on saturday night. we spend sunday cleaning our apt and last minute packing, pick up the budget truck early monday morning, and head up for good!! so we’ll be moved in by the night of the 21st. yeah!

sooo… if you happen to make a leethal order between now and then, i won’t be able to ship it out until after that day (tuesday the 21st). the no shipping sale is still happening through the end of the month, but shipping will just be delayed for a week and a half.  and, i’ll be trying to get online everyday (i’ll need to anyway, to check craigslist for apts), but i might be extra slow at replying to emails due to moving craziness.  it’ll all be over soon, then i’ll be crafting it up like never before in pdx!!

i finished my moving mix! it’s very specific. it’s about living in califonia my whole life, deciding i want to try someplace new, making plans to move away with pete, choosing portland, finding a new home with him, a bit about adjusting to the new weather, and optimism about the future, with tints of sadness about leaving my family (a feeling which has greatly increased over the last week). it was interesting to watch the mix evolve, i’ve been gradually putting it together for over a month… oh, and i shoved in as many bands as i could from portland (or the more general pacific northwest), sticking to songs that fit.

1. california – mates of state
2. california uber alles – dead kennedys
3. why you’d want to live here – death cab for cutie
4. let’s get lost – elliott smith
5. motion suggests itself – pavement
6. here we go – jon brion
7. goodbye california – jolie holland
8. goodbye song – the moldy peaches
9. portland, oregon – loretta lynn
10. movin’ on up – the jeffersons
11. portland – rainer maria
12. a place called home – pj harvey
13. i feel like going home – yo la tengo
14. far away, by my side – peter bjorn and john
15. you’re my only home – the magnetic fields
16. where love goes – the robot ate me
17. and it rained all night – thom yorke
18. come wind come rain – vashti bunyan
19. modern girl – sleater-kinney
20. float on – modest mouse

(the cover is a photo i took in the stumptown coffeeshop, with an added “moving to portland” coffee, priced 8.07 as in august ’07)

i can’t make music, but i can make mixes!

goodbye, goodbye, california
goodbye to your waving trees
to you succulent wind
and all my friends
fare thee well
goodbye

-jolie holland

thank you so much to everyone who has helped me out with moving costs by ordering from my store, or by telling others about the sale. i really superduper appreciate every single order, you’ve all added a nice much-needed chunk to my moving fund!

sorry posting will continue to be infrequent and short throughout this moving period. no project tutorials for a little while. but once we’re settled in portland, i’m sure the new environment will inspire many neato posts…

it wouldn’t be right for me to go into any detail in this public blog, but there has been a kind of crisis in my family which i have no experience with, and no one to turn to for advice on how i can help. if there is anyone reading this who has helped a loved one through an addiction recovery, i would be grateful for suggestions. i have read that knitting/crochet can be a great thing for recovery and, being a crafter, it makes perfect sense to me. i want to make him a crochet package (because i think crochet is easier to learn, from my experience) with a hook, some yarn, and a how-to book, but i don’t know if he will take it seriously or give it a chance. my email is leethalkoala at yahoo dot com.