About

Hi, I'm Rachel.  I write this blog from my home in the DC suburbs.  I grew up here.  I swore I'd never come back. Not only did I end up here after I graduated from college in 2002, but I bought a house here in 2008.  I intend to document our home improvement projects on this blog.  It's slow going.  Two Four years later, and we still don't have any have very few pictures on our walls. We DO have plenty of piles of dirty laundry and unwashed dishes, though.

I share this house with my husband, Larry, and our two dogs, Gravy and Banjo. After nearly ten years together, Larry and I finally got married in 2013. We eloped to Hawaii and got married on the beach at Waimanalo Bay in Oahu.

                                                              Photo by Dallas Nagata White | D'amour Pacific Photography.

I am passionate about greyhound rescue.  Gravy is a retired racer.  He now spends most of his day sleeping in one of the four dog beds that adorn our house.  He often sleeps in the cockroach position.  It looks like this:

Banjo is a coonhound mix who was picked up as a stray and rescued from a high-kill shelter in Georgia.  He now spends most of his day barking at the mailman and licking his balls (actually where his balls used to be).

They say you shouldn't blog about your dogs or your meals.  I blog about both. 

I'm an avid home cook.
When I was a kid, I was told I was a picky eater.  This pissed me off. 

When I was eight, I stopped eating meat for over a year after my dad brought home a beef tongue.

Now I eat almost everything.  I love licorice, goat cheese, coconut, and black olives.  No one else seems to like these foods.  I'm not sure why.

I've eaten elk, ostrich, octopus, alligator, shark, and rabbit, but I still wish I was a vegetarian.  Also - still no beef tongue.  Blech.

I post recipes on a food blog I share with friends - Vicious Dishes.

I like art.
I have a degree in architecture, though I wish I had pursued a career in art.  I sell my art in my etsy shop, Funnelcloud Studio.  I've sold a few pieces, so I guess I can officially call myself an artist now.

I'm a bit of a jack of all trades when it comes to art.  I like any creative project and I've tried all sorts of media.  If I haven't tried it, I want to.  I've always been strong at graphic design, drawing, and photography.  I stick to selling art that you can hang on your wall in my shop (mostly screenprints, lino prints, and illustrations right now), but I've made glass beads, enameled jewelry, stained glass, and I'm teaching myself to sew right now.  

I want to learn ceramics.  I also want to learn to blow glass.  Take a minute to get those dirty jokes out of your system and don't worry, when I do, I'll be sure to chronicle my blowing lessons on this blog.

I take pictures.  Lots of pictures.
My love for photography started when I finally got a digital camera. The year was 2004. In 2006, I started taking a photo every day and posting them on a daily photo blog. I kept at it for nearly four years. Somewhere during that time period, Larry surprised me with a DSLR (a Nikon D40) and my love for photography grew even stronger. In 2010, I decided to discontinue Funnelcloud Photo and start a new blog that included both photography and writing. In 2011, my beloved D40 died because I wore out the shutter. A week later, Larry surprised me with a new DSLR - a Nikon D7000.

I still take a shitload of photos, but now there isn't the pressure to post one every day.  I take a lot of photos of inanimate objects, food, and nature. Basically, anything that doesn't move. I also take a lot of photos of my dogs because they aren't camera shy and they're never worried about their hair being messed up. I stink at photographing people.  This makes me sad, as it is the people in my life that I wish to document.  






At last count, I had over 28,000 photos on a computer that is less than two years old. I think I might have a hoarding problem.

A few more things:
I bite ice cream.  You read that right, I eat it with my teeth.  My friends say this is wrong and that I am not allowed to eat ice cream in front of them.  My parents bite ice cream, too.

When I was in eighth grade, a teacher announced in front of the class that one day I would win a Pulitzer Prize.  It was mortifying.  And also one of the best compliments I've ever received.  And also ironic, considering that 17 years later, I can hardly even come up with an interesting and coherent paragraph to write on my blog.

I like my wine red and my beer hoppy.