Umm...Hi? We went to India?

Sooo...It's been 8 months. We're ready to blog again.

INDIA! We will jump back in to weblog world with a SUPER post (read: long and boring) about our recent experience in India. It was only two weeks, but it was still quite an adventure, so we're probably going to spread it out among posts that are more than one. If there end up being more than one. We'll see.

Chapter 1: India: Getting There, Dammit

We went to the India during the last week of May and the first week of June. It was Mary's second International adventure and Mike's first so, while she was raring to go, we had to baby-step it a bit for the delightfully cautious Michael.

The carefully planned and researched trip was to include five or six days in Rishikesh, India, and four or five full days in Pohkara/Kathmandu, Nepal.

Ah, hilarious.

So, we arrived at the airport, our belongings pared down to only one impressive pack and our separate small carry-on bags, and gave the woman at the counter our passports to scan. We were ready to take on the world!!

“And your visas? Do you have your visas?”

We looked at each other. Then at her. “Visas? Ummmmmmm…”

That was when Betty Eagle of Continental (that was her name. Betty Eagle. Faaaantastic.) informed us that we would NOT be going to India that day. Now, Mary, as some of you may know, is quite well known for her calm demeanor in the face of chaos. She’s FAMOUS for it, in fact. So this in no way incited tears, tantrums, panic-attacks or vicious swearing of any kind.

Yes, but on a serious note, Betty Eagle lived up to the majesty of her name and did all kinds of things that her managers would likely frown upon to make sure that this glitch was relatively painless and somewhat inexpensive. In the end, we only lost a couple of days and we only spent the money that we had been saving to go bungee jumping to buy return tickets.

…Oh yeah, Mike's Mom: We were going to go bungee jumping in Nepal. But we weren't going to tell you about it until we had successfully not died. Wasn't that sweet of us?

Anyway, we discovered that in order to get our visas, we would have to show up in person at the India consulate's office for our territory. Which was in San Francisco. California. So we hopped in a rental car and high tailed it the 12 hours up there.

...Can I just say that if we had lived in Hawaii and had the same trouble, we would have been way more screwed.

So take THAT, tropical paradise! Your morons are more inconvenienced than the morons that live on the mainland when it comes to International travel specifically involving India! Cry into your Spam, Hawaii.

In our defense: it is a common thing to receive your visa upon entering a country. It was that way for Peru and Nepal and every country Mike's globe-trotting parents have been to. So, when Mike was making travel arrangements, he reasonably was under the impression that India would be the same way. And, when we got there, dual-citizenship people were being forced to renounce their Indian citizenship in order to apply for a visa due to new Indian stipulations, so I get the feeling that India is just all sorts of wackadoodle.

Anyway, we left four days late and arrived in Delhi on a Tuesday night and were promptly whisked away to our guest house, Cottage Yes Please--popular for its proximity to the train station and probably also for its super fun name. Here's our mosquito net fort, meant to save us from all things buggy:

Which worked, as long as "all things buggy" doesn't include "bed bugs." We weren't really sure that's what they were at first and we spent our two nights there adorably calling them "Blood Suckery Guys." I think that's a little something called Self Preservation. We refused to acknowledge them for what they were until we were home. Of course, it’s been about a month and Mary’s still talking in her sleep about Bed Bugs.

She misses the false security of the net.

Good times.

Next up: Delhi. And Tales of Michael: Nervous & Uncomfortable.

To Be Continued...And: Agua!

...We haven't disappeared again. We swear. We just have been working on so many projects that we haven't had time to finish any in particular, let alone post about them.

But here are some teaser photos:

Some are old, some are new, some are currently a total disaster. Either way, we're working on it. And when we have something a little more substantial to share, we promise that we will...We're thinking November 1st might be a good day...

Emphasis on might.

Oh! Also! While you wait-- with baited breath, I'm sure-- you can check out this super-duper great etsy shop filled with other people's projects...that are much less self-serving than ours:

It's called "Water4Christmas" and it is raising money to build clean-water wells in Africa. More than four thousand children die every day due to a lack of clean water, and a group of crafty ladies have donated their time and art to raise money for this cause, so go and take a look!

Plus, their stuff is craaaaazy cute.

Better Late than Never...Right?

Sooo...we really didn't intend for it to be this long. We have been doing projects and documenting them and...not posting them. Oops. Mike was supposed to blog while Mary was in Peru, but he didn't. Although he did refinish 3 pieces of furniture, make 2 mirrors and complete countless other unexpected chores. So we will forgive him.

Anyway, we will be playing a little catch-up now. Here's something fun we did in July:

We tie-dyed!

Mary pretended that it was because we had a lot of stained white clothing that we didn't want to go to waste. So it was a practical project. But, really, it just sounded like fun. Like summer camp or something.

First, we chose our colors and got our materials together. We considered the natural way, with fruits and vegetables...but we weren't in the mood to learn something new.

Each dye bath required 2 gallons of boiled water for each package of color.

And, for the all-important "ties", we cut some strips from one of Mike's old college bedsheets.

After dissolving the powdered dyes according to the package instructions, we added them to the tubs...

(Whew! Look at that beautiful Arizona lawn!)

...and prepared our linen victims (the post-it's you see are our predecided color schemes for each garment. We're big nerds.).

We tied our designs...Mike being very careful and specific about his, Mary--not so much.

And let them soak for about 10 minutes in each color.

Then we rinsed them...

...and soaked up the extra color with an old towel...

...And hung those suckers up to dry!

We also tried a technique involving salt to make designs that Mary had learned in a costume design class...that apparently only works on delicate fabrics. Failure.


And look how nice the ties turned out! Ha!

Hooray for projects that make you feel 10 years old again! As should they all!