Considerations of a Title Holder

"Being a Title Holder must be so glamorous!"

I thought this to myself in February and early March of this last year; today I look back at the thought and wonder who that fool was. It's not that being a Title Holder isn't glamorous understand, it is just that there is SO much more to being pretty and appreciated. It's a full time job, folks; and it's one you know you're accepting but you don't really understand how much you're committing to until about August - after Pride season is well and fully over with.

Being a Title Holder is hard work - some of the most fulfilling I've ever experienced - but it is a full time job you give a year of your life to without thought or hesitation, you donate your free time and your personal time  and you give up your privacy for a year. You are a figurehead for your community, you are a leader and an example; you are a voice of strength and reason, it's your duty to give feedback and answer questions, to educate and to empower and unify.

There's a whole lot of work involved with being a Title Holder.

And each organization's Title has a slightly different take on how they do this, what the requirements of each Title Holder are, even what events are the highest priority in their club/city/state/district.

Don't let that scare you away from the idea of competing to be a Title Holder though; there's so much more in addition to the work! There's the people you meet and the stories you hear, the lessons you learn from past Title Holders, the connections you make with your Sash-brothers and -sisters; there's the events you get to attend, the amazing growth you witness, the impact you can make. Being a Title Holder puts you in the spotlight next to amazing people and gives you the chance to shine just as bright as you dare. (And honeys, you sure better dare!)

8 months into my Title year and I'm so happy to be here now : so proud of what I've accomplished, excited about what I've yet to do.

We have fund raisers planned for January and February through-out Washington state and possibly even something in Boise. In April, International Ms Leather (IMsL) 2013 takes place and I'll be there to compete. Sir also is preparing for IML (International Mr. Leather) in the summer of 2013.

It's not always been easy and giving up all our personal time has been hard - it's always hard to be the partner of a Title Holder but try sharing a Title year with your partner while He too is a Title Holder. The house gets a little crazy.

Sometimes you just want to have a private night but you're seen by folks you know, or you've committed to an event and you just wish you could go home and make dirty noisy sex all over the house. Well... that's part of being a title holder and the upside is, as long as you save a little energy for it - you still can when you get home. Just not as noisy so you don't wake up the housemates.

We've learned a lot this year; each about ourselves, and about each other. We've also learned a great deal about our community and what we can do to help and support. We've met so many wonderful people, grown so much, and risen to so many challenges.

We also learned the importance of a good calendar and communication; we were able to set aside personal time for each of us, and for us to have time to ourselves. We discovered our family is so much larger than we two and we have found love in all the right (and unexpected) places.

There's so much you are asked to give as a Title Holder; what can't be defined or even predicted is what you  will get from it.

Looking back, looking ahead

What's been going on?

There was the Leatherwomen's Round Table Discussion with Toni Solene -Mid Atlantic Leather Woman 2012 - last Monday and this last weekend was the Seattle Men in Leather's Seattle Leather Daddy & Daddy's boy contest. We also had new representatives for the Northwest Leather Sir, leather boy & Community Boot Black appointed for the new year.

Lots of good leather-y news!

This week is the SML Leather Social on Wednesday, and Blood Sweat & Queers is this Saturday at the CSPC.

On 12/13, we'll be hosting the OutWest Leather Night AND stay tuned for the announcement of the first WSMLO fund raiser!

Bootblacking 102

In preparation for any potential bootblack to sit down with their first pair of boots, they should have some basic knowledge and a basic bootblacking starter kit.

Firstly, a potential boot black needs to know the different types of leather you might encounter. There are four main types of leather I'll be focusing on in this start session : (1) high polished boots, (2) satin polish (less shiny) boots, (3) oil tan boots, and (4) apparel leather.
We'll come back to this.

Next off, the essentials for a starter bootblack kit:

• Dauber Brush (large or small, I like both for different things)
• Squirt bottle (something with a mist/spray ability)
• Tooth brush (stiff bristled is best)
• Lots of old rags/towels for cleaning, drying, etc
• Nylons (MUST BE USED, new are too scratchy) how you get them used, is up to you
• Flashlight/headlamp (usefull, but not needed)
• China pencils (these are wax pencils you can get at an art store for >$1 each, most important colors are white, yellow and red but there are more if you want them)

Those are just the basic tools; you'll also need leather care products, polish, oil and etc...
Saddle soap (used for cleaning leather before polishing)
Glycerin soap (alt for saddle soap; if you choose this it MUST be fragrance, dye & color free)
High shine polish (Kiwi or Lincoln are standards, I use both)
Cream / Satin polish (this is a cream product, I use Meltonian NOTE : you will need a new small dauber FOR EACH COLOR you use)
Oil (I prefer Oubenoff's, but there are other brands we'll get to that)
Apparel Oil (different than oil for boots, I prefer Oubenoff's brand for this also)

OK, so now we've covered the basics of what you need.  Awesome, let's look at the basics of what you need to know to polish a boot.
First of all, you'll want to note how the boot is laced (if your first boot has no laces, you are SPOILED) and I usually use my phone to take a photo of the lacing so I can replicate it when I'm finished. Most people have a preference in their lacings and you want to put things back as you found them, this is just basic niceness for your client. After you've noted the lacing pattern, unlace the boot and take the laces out.
DO NOT LOSE THE LACES, put them around your neck, over your knee, or someplace else where they won't get lost. Once you have the laces out, you'll want to clean them too the easiest way to do this is to wet a rag and run them through it a few times, the moisture and friction will take most dirt off.
Next off, how dirty is the boot? You might need to just use water and a good sturdy towel to get most of the dirt/mud/ick off; once you're down to a managable amount of dirt, you're ready to start boot blacking.

1) You will need to wet your dauber brush AND your soap.
About the soap; I use Saddle Soap the brand doesn't really matter, they're all pretty close to the same but some boot blacks prefer Glycerin soap. I recommend you try both and decide what works best for you.
2) Using your spray bottle dampen (DO NOT SOAK) the boot; then work up a lather on your brush and start cleaning the boots! Go in small areas at first, if you're worried, and use a clean towel to wipe away the water, soap and dirt once you finish a section.
3) Once the first boot is cleaned, clean the second. Using your toothbrush and some soap, clean the top of the sole of the boot running around the base of the leather (commonly referred to as the catwalk by some).
4) Once the boots are clean, then you're going to polish.

We will cover how to polish a boot at a later date.

Bootblacking 101

There are so many classes with this title and this certainly isn't a class but I was asked several times this weekend as to what is the basics of a new bootblack kit and I desperately wanted to compile a decent list of the items and pearls of wisdom for starting out blacking boots.

First off, we'll cover the items you need in your kit.

• Super glue
• Saddle soap / Glycerin Soap (if you use glycerin, MUST be un-dyed/-scented)
• Dauber Brush (Start with a small for boots, a med for small apparel like vests, and a large for pants/coats/chaps)
• Old toothbrush
• Water bottle (Trust me on this, get a hair mist bottle from the $1 store)
• Dish for water (tupperware/plastic bowls are smart)
• Towels (hand towel or wash clothes to be retired)
• Black Polish (Kiwi / Lincoln's solid wax or Meltonian creme wax)
• Boot Oil (I use Oubenoff's LP)
• Soft cloth rags (old Tshirts cut into 4" x 12" strips are good)
• Boot brush (small or large - use separate brushes for polish & oil items)
• Nylons (used, worn in, the older and more worn the better)
• Head lamp

In answer to common questions, you can get pretty much all the leather care specific items from a cobbler. (I will update this with a list of cobblers I am aware of) Keep in mind that each cobbler will be an independent retailer so there won't be much guarantee of pricing equality - which can be very frustrating.

If you already have the basics but need to further your kit, here's a short list of other items that are great to get once you're up and going.

• Leather dye (Fiebing's is the brand I am most familiar with)
• Leather apparel oil (Again, I use Oubenoff's)
• Brown polish
• Extra brushes as needed (I like to have 2 small brushes for each leather type I work with, ie: black, brown, neutral wax/creme polishes each get a pair and then I have another pair for all my oil tan items)
• Nail brush (If that matters)
• Lots of extra rags

For plastic / clear coat boots; NEVER use a wax or oil on them. Among other issues, it will bead up and look gross plus it can damage the top film on the boot. You want to get a good pure silicone dressing (Pjur or M'Eros - which I think I spelled wrong - are recommended for it) and use sparingly. A little silicone goes a ludicrously long way.
Oh, and don't put wax polish on an oil tan to "make it shiny" - the leather wasn't prepared the same way and while it will last short term, it'll look worse later and it's a bitch to undo. Pardon my French.

And that's at least a starting place. :)

Busy busy... and soon a post about the future, I promise!

So the last few weeks have been pretty busy and not entirely in a leather way - which is OK too!

Our first leather night with OutWest was fantastic and the next event will be held 11/8 (Thursday) from 7-9 again. While there, we got to meet a whole slew of folks we've only seen a few times in Seattle - and hopefully we'll see many more new faces next time! We haven't yet settled on how/if we'd like to do a bootblack but I am hopeful that'll work itself out pretty soon.
There was also the SEAPAH Puppy Play demo at the Cuff on the 13th, and a Sister Inquisition which was fabulous - I enjoyed both greatly and was delighted to be able to see so many more friends than I anticipated all throughout the weekend.

We haven't been out and about quite as much this month, not for lack of things to do but rather because we're starting to sit down and seriously work on the ideas for fundraisers. There's also so many other events going on that we would like to help with and I'm not entirely sure where to start. (This is the hard part for me, we don't want to feel like it's expected to give money but at the same time, fund raising is part of the title)

I am looking forward to the next few months but know how much is on the plate so I'm a little nervous too!

We had the chance to go to the SEAPAH puppy mosh yesterday and it was so much fun to see the puppies wrestling and being pups - there was even a wrestling match that included a puppy-tail pull. It was very cute.

OutWest Leather Night - Monthly Leather Social for West Seattle locals

As Washington State Ms Leather, it has been a goal to network and help the outlying groups and communities in the greater Seattle area to work together and cooperate for more leather themed and friendly events for us all to enjoy. Tonight is the first ever Leather Night at OutWest bar in West Seattle.

OutWest is the only gay bar in West Seattle at present and they are eager to have the leather community more active within their little space of heaven.

Tonight, October 11 is the first Leather Night at OutWest; this will be a monthly event on the Thursday immediately preceding Tribal Instincts and all Leatherfolk are welcome. As an added bonus, tonight will also be an SML invasion at OutWest and we are hoping to have a decent crowd out in support and to enjoy the boot blacking skills generously donated by our International Community Boot Black 2012 Ruin!

Sorry for the short notice!

Please RSVP on the event page and we look forward to seeing you out!
https://fetlife.com/events/130927/v2 OR https://www.facebook.com/events/409608162427484/
We hope to see you out tonight!

Our Next update!

I'm overdue for a post again, my bad, my bad.

The last few weeks have absolutely flown by, we've been very busy and I've had so much on my plate that I haven't even had time to sit down to write out this post. It's not an excuse, but hey, it is my blog so I'm allowed an explanation at the least I feel.

The September SML Dress Code Social was lovely and I had the chance to meet an absolutely amazing person - who until she disclosed as a Transgendered person, I would have never guessed. She is an amazing person and her desire to serve and give to the community is so abundantly heartfelt and refreshing. As Seattle happens to have an exceptionally large Trans community (both FtM and MtF) I asked what she thought of the Transitioning process as it currently stands and what sort of support there is for people, to my delight she offered her service and story as support and education for those considering and desiring to transition.

I am hoping to be able to recommend her to people who are struggling, to those seeking to Transition as well as their families and friends who may be struggling with the changes in their lives or just worried for their loved ones.

Saturday the 29th was a very busy day for Sir and I; we helped a friend move all weekend (well, when I say we, I packed glassware and then napped due to a low fever) before scooting off to the SgoL's Lube Wrestling event on Saturday afternoon. SEAPAH, SgoL, KitsapACES, SML, SboL and many other groups came out to support, represent and raise funds for charity. It looked like fun, if a little chilly for such an event.

After wrestling, we went over to Neighbors for the Seattle Empress Express Show, hosted by Olympia 41, Beverly Peters Lake. The show was loud, rowdy and fun - I love going to the drag events, they are always so ready to enjoy themselves and nobody takes themselves too seriously (usually). Despite the somber overtone of the loss of a local queen, the ladies and gents rallied and the show truly *did* go on. Sir and I laughed and sang along with the queens as they did their thing and did it well.

We had the opporunity to meet one of the Inland BDSM members from Spokane while we were out, Snow is a lovely lady and was quite eager to see what Seattle had to offer by way of a leather community. How could we deny her the experience of Oktoberfest at the Cuff and a night of Leather men and energy? It was so much fun to dance through the very full bar and watch different groups of folks celebrating and enjoying life in their own ways. After a rowdy night, we offered Snow the spare bed in our studio and she had the opportunity to meet our cat - Athena - who took a shine to her right away.

The next morning, it was more moving and then off to cat-sit for a friend who's kitties are both older and recovering from some interesting health issues - one had cancer and his brother suffered kidney failure after eating the cancer medications. So now they get their own separate feeding plans and different kinds of food too; Sir and I cared for these guys back in April/May and they were doing better after we figured out the right routine so it was nice to be asked to do it again; and it looks like we may care for them again before the end of the year. The down side of these boys is they're Bangles and talk all the time. Seriously. Loudly. Constantly.
But they're cute and sweet and I like them, so it's all good in the end.

Last week was a pretty mellow week; the first week of the month always is.
I submitted the Quarterly Report to the WSMLO board regarding our activities as title holders and Sir & I sat down to seriously start planning and organizing for our fundraisers. We have ideas and we have a lot of ideas, so now we're in the game of wittling out the non-feasible ideas and hashing out the fine details for our first fund raiser; hopefully to be held in November.

But more importantly (at least to me today) is the fact that tonight is the first ever OutWest Leather Night which I'll be posting more about shortly!

A long post about (mostly) California

The last few weeks, we've taking a bit more melllow approach to events; Sir and I have decided to try and hit a few events on the weekends but take the time to balance that with also taking personal time to hang out with friends and do private events as well. To that end, we have been taking the week days to move into our place, unpack, sort and otherwise make our home into just that.

However, we're still hitting events as often as we can. On Saturday the 15th, we joined SEA-PAH (www.seapah.com/) for a romp and play day and it was so much fun to watch all the puppies playing and wrestling and napping. Oh, the puppies napping are SO CUTE. Ahem, sorry ... I sort of have a running love of puppies.
Sunday was the monthly Seattle Men in Leather brunch at CC Attle's - one of my very favorite monthly events, the SML socials are always sure to be enjoyable and rain or shine, there's so many friendly faces. After that, Sir spent the afternoon on the Hill with a friend while I meandered northwards to join a new crafting group and I was so very happy to finally find a Kinky Crafters group where I could be myself and not worry about somebody being offended over who / what I am. I came home feeling so much more fulfilled than I had expected & Sir gave me such a big hug, telling me how happy He was that I had found a group that I was comfortable being around that could help me express my creative crafty side without the constant worry of being judged for my life choices. I am very lucky to have a Sir who accepts, appreciates and loves me for all of the crazy things I am : crafty, energetic, creative, sometimes stubborn, outspoken and devoted.

Enough gushing, though.

This last weekend, we went to Folsom Festival in San Francisco with a friend of ours who has never been. Seeing as we hadn't either, and it was Sir's birthday weekend, we decided it was the best time we could ever have to go to Folsom. On Friday we went to the Bay Area Queer Leather Happy Hour at Tryptych which was packed full of people we recognized and even more people to meet still. Among the many amazing people we met Friday night, was Ann - North American Pony 2008.
There. Are. Pony. Titles.
Just so you all understand, there was a certain level of hyperventilating fangirl in a corner at Tryptych for a while there; and then our friend went over and started a conversation with her because I was far too shy to approach. We ended up sitting together while she was eating a snack and she let me pick her brain about the community and events as well as how she got started. She invited me to join them at the Pony tent on Sunday and Sir assured me we could, if I was interested in going. This was a trick question, Sir knows I am very curious about ponies and would love to one day be His pony although we have not explored that in more than just talk yet.

Eventually we made our way back to our hotel - which admittedly was in San Mateo but just off the CalTrain line so not really too bad of a trip in and out of the city and had the chance to witness Giants (baseball) fans en masse. It was a little terrifying for a non-sports fan.

Saturday, we headed into the city early to enjoy the afternoon and discovered Super Duper Burger. I like that place a whole lot. Good food, somewhat greasy but sometimes a girl needs a greasy burger to really make the day worth it. We wandered around, I got a new belt and some sunglasses, Sir made lots of new friends when we stopped at Mix. We tried to get into 440 Castro, but it was packed so tight there was no way it would happen. So we chilled at Mix until it was time to head over to Powerhouse for the Blackout party. The Black Saturday-Folsom EVE party was insanely busy and the pre-party demo was latex; it was funny arriving in time to see them cleaning up after spraying some poor new kid with liquid latex. I found out later they didn't warn him in advance so he wasn't powdered or anything first... poor cub wasn't very fuzzy the next day, I think.
While Sir chatted with several of the other Mr titles, I had the chance to meet the cutest couple of boys from the UK who (to my amusement at least) met in Australia of all places. They were very curious about our titles and then wanted to keep in touch in case we ever visit because they'd love to take us out. A littlel later, there was what I can only describe as a gaggle of fae. It was hilarious to watch them freak out over latex, leather and anything else they weren't familiar with. By the time the flogging demo was starting, the place was literally standing room only and by the time they got to protocols, I was starting to feel faint from the heat and crowd - it was stifling! It also was getting late, so after protocol wrapped up and the photo ops were over, we made our way outside and headed home again.

At this point, I have to point out that San Francisco has the best idea ever: Homobile.
It's a basic cab service for short distance trips, owned, operated and sponsored by members of the gay community. I think Seattle should have one of these, even if it's only for special events. All the drivers use their personal vehicle, so the driving is better than most of the drivers down there (way better than the cabs) and they don't mind if a guy's wearing a cod piece and chaps. Which Sir was on Sunday, but not Saturday.

Sunday was very busy, we started the morning in the Castro at Miss Donna Sachet's Titleholder brunch - an apparently long standing tradition. It was amazing to see how many sashes, vests, patches, and medals there were all around us as we nibbled on eggs and biscuits. Sadly, we are tourists and the city is a little confusing but we saw other men in leather and luckily they knew where to go to get to the festival. When we got there, we were told to go to the main stage for protocols - by the time we found out the protocols were at a different location this year, we were already too late to get there. Still, we tried. Sir & I were very disappointed that we weren't able to make it but what can you do?
We headed over to see the Puppy tent and lo! There were SEAPAH puppies - a sure fire way to cheer me up, puppies.
And then there was the parade of Ponies that trotted by, proudly displaying their gear and paces. Oh ponies. See how I swoon for you.

We went to Stompers' Boot Party, over to Mr. S to pick out a new hat for Sir since we lost is Maui cap when we were in Portland for Oregon's Leather Weekend & Title contest. We also stopped by the Venus tent - although by the time I got there, apparently I had missed all the interesting events. But now I know to go earlier next year.

Eventually, we tottered back to the CalTrain and it was an early night in bed and the men watching TV while the girl passed out into blissful sleep.
Unfortunately, our trip home was dramatic and stressful; but we did make it home and are now safely back in Seattle and back to our normal day to day lives.

SlutWalk Accomplished!

Firstly, a thank you to everyone who came out to SlutWalk yesterday - it was a great turn out and the crowd had amazing energy. Thank you to each person who was a body and a voice speaking (more accurately screaming) against rape and victim-blaming. Seattle, as is the norm for young events, decided to threaten storms but that didn't slow down any of the proud marchers who came out in all shades of attire (or lack thereof) to show support and we had a decent crowd gather as we ramped up and pushed through the city center.

Marching at the front of the group with Sir and our friends who joined us, I was so proud of our city - Seattle truly is a wonderful place to live. I sometimes forget how many cities around Seattle aren't as supportive of alt lifestyle and don't consider the rights of the victims to be nearly as valid as the rights of the attacker. Whenever I remember these things, it scares me a little bit; I realize how frightening and hateful the world can be and how small a person I am and how easy it would be for something truly terrible to happen.
Fortunately, whenever I start to feel down, I just have to look around myself and at the community - we're strong and we protect our own. Like a pack of wolves, we don't like to see one of our own hurt and we fight to keep it from happening with loud howls of injustice and fierce fighting on all levels. We are strong and we are proud and we do not let fear control our lives. I am proud to be a Leather woman, to be Sir's girl and to be one of these strong people who knows the difference between what is wrong and what is right in the world.

This week is going to be chaotic for me; we have unpacking/cleaning to do at home as well as events possibly Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Next week, we leave for Folsom and I'm so very excited! It'll be my first time at Folsom and I'm not sure what I'll be wearing just yet. It should be fun either way though!

How a Leather girl becomes a Leather Woman

I talk a whole lot about what we're doing and a lot more about what we're going to be doing; I haven't talked a lot about the actual emotional journey this title has taken me on and today is the day that I want to talk about that.

In February, Sir and I had a long conversation spanning several days about the upcoming contest; I wanted to run but felt I would be the "easy out" contestant as I am a queer woman in a long term heterosexual monogamous relationship. Despite being a leather woman and identifying as such for the last two years, I thought myself a "lesser" competitor because I felt I'd be dismissed as "not as much of a member of the leather community" because I don't play with lots of people and have only had one leather partner - Sir, whom I adore and love dearly. In His ever infinite wisdom, Sir told me that I wouldn't be written off because I was a leather woman - and I was His leathergirl. Feeling reassured - knowing that Sir saw me as I wasn't able to see myself yet - and eager to be a part of the experience, I filled out the contest application and submitted my name.

The next weeks, I spent almost all my free time researching the community's history, learning names and dates, reading about my judge's panel and all their contributions to the community I love and cherish so dearly. Every page of information made my head swim - so many amazing people and I thought myself worthy to represent them? I struggled to believe I had what it would take to do our community justice. Sir and I studied all the information and talked in great lengths about what it all meant and how history had truly shaped the world we were living in that day; ironically, we also got to hear RuPaul's Drag Race talk about Stonewall and the way those days had also shaped the drag community into what it is today which had a great deal of impact on me personally.

The days rolled by and the contest drew closer; I wondered daily if I really was ballsy enough to believe I was the right person for the title and the more I thought about, the more I questioned it, the louder the leather girl in me screamed "YES!". Thank goodness for that; because when we finally got to the contest, I was pretty sure the little leather girl in my brain was crazy or lying, but I desperately wanted to do my community - my Sir - proud.

I remember parts of the contest, by only snatches of it now; it all seemed so amazing and exciting and overwhelming like being on a roller coaster. The meet and greet at DogHouse was so busy, there were so many amazing conversations and people. By the time I got home that night, it was already jumbling together and just piling into my anxiety about the contest. I questioned if I was ready, if I was capable, mostly I was afraid I'd forget my speech on stage.
That night; while trying to sleep (which really, no contestant ever sleeps enough the night before a contest, let's stop lying to ourselves here) I realized I didn't like my speech and that I didn't feel passionate about it. I sat there trying to figure out what to do, finally I realized I had one option : throw it out and start over. That was terrifying, and I cried all night thinking how hopelessly unprepared I felt. Sir held me and kissed my hair and let me be a mess, He knew I needed to just process.

The very next morning, I knew what I had to do; I had to stop trying to please the judges and be true to me. So I decided to not worry about my speech too much and just figure out what I wanted to talk about, once I had a topic, I knew the words would be easy. During my interview, it was brought home to me that my passion, my truest interest in the community was actually the community. How simple! When my world was upside down, I was scared and hurting, it was the community who took me in, who held me and comforted me, who offered advise and wisdom. All I wanted was to give back to them even 1% of what had been given to me.

That night, I was astounded when the contest ended and I was announced as Washington State Ms Leather 2012; I looked at Sir and saw such pride on His face. Giddy and so amazed by the outcome, I watched as Sir too was announced as Washington State Mr Leather 2012. We were both astounded, we were both so very proud of each other, so excited - and a little bit in denial. We could hardly believe we would be sharing a year as title holders. We woke up the next morning and there, hanging beside each side of the bed was a sash, a visible proof that we were, in fact, sharing the next year as sash-husband and -wife.
Sir turned to me that morning, His eyes very wide, and said "Holy shit, those are real. We did it."
I couldn't have said it more honestly than that.

The next months were filled with going to events and parties, helping with fundraisers and anything else we were asked to help with all while trying to figure out what we wanted to do with our year. It wasn't hard, we wanted to help the community; I wanted to focus on increasing tolerance within the community for all members and challenge some of the older (and maybe outdated?) prejudices against folks of a different gender/orientation or those older/younger/less or differently experienced. It hurt me to know we could be so harsh to our own family and I wanted to work towards breaking down those barriers respectfully and with compassion and understanding. Sir turned His attention to helping the smaller communities in our state to network, working together and sharing information and experience to help each other grow. We chose to focus on working to build the smaller groups so they could succeed and not just fade into oblivion without the larger groups ever hearing of their existence or struggles.

I have had the opportunity to meet people all over this state from all walks and an amazing array of histories; each person I meet has left a little imprint on my heart and this leather girl has never been more honored to be a part of the community. I get tired, sometimes, and feel like all my energy isn't enough but then I remind myself how a little thing can sometimes be the world-changer for somebody who you'd never expect it to impact so strongly. One day, I hope I'm that pebble in somebody else's pond.
Until that day (and for every day after it), I will work to continue to learn and grow and be the best damn girl Sir could ever imagine.

I want to thank the community - my community - for taking me in and giving me the chance to find myself.
My world is full of amazing people and experiences - and lots of gorgeous leather!

Slutwalk Seattle 2012 - Join Us!!!

Per the Slutwalk website, "We will meet [Noon, Sunday 9/9] at Occidental Park, march north on 4th Ave, and rally at Westlake Park."

Are you considering marching - or planning to march - and looking for a group to march with? Washington State Mr & Ms Leather 2012 invite you to march with us this coming Sunday to support the Slutwalk cause! Join us to help stop rape-mentality and victim blaming. Calling all leather (and kink) friendly and more individuals to meet with us at Occidental Park at 11:30am, bring your Pride and spirit and dress however you feel comfortable (all sluts should show it proudly!). No signs or chants needed.

See you there!

Bi-weekly posting - boots, a blue chicken and more

So apparently it's easiest for me to post about every 2 weeks during our home time - being out of town, ironically, makes it easier to blog since I have time in the car during the trip to write everything down and talk with Sir so I can get His take on things as well.

Whew, let's see what's been going on the last few weeks...

On August 16, the Seattle Men in Leather (SML) invaded Linda's Tavern in gear for an evening drinks, food and good company. We saw several folks we hadn't seen in a while - including a dear friend and previous Washington State Mr Leather. We had a funny moment when he realized we were BOTH title holders - I guess he though Sir won and I was just along for the ride, as it were. When he suddenly made the connection, the look of utter pride on his face made us both so very happy to have seen him out that night. It was just such a great moment to know our dear friend, whom we look up to and admire, was proud to call us successors in the title.

August 18 was a lovely summer day, overcast but warm with enough breeze to breathe. We headed out to JoostGaard where there was much lovely lounging and chatting in the grassy front yard, a very fluffy blue chicken, delicious BBQ beef ribs (yummy!) and enough boots to have this girl swooning for days and days. We had the chance to talk with a lot of friends, new and old, and were advised of a wedding for two good friends which made Sir and I both so very happy. It's great to know that there's so much love in the world around us!
I was given the opportunity to boot black, first one pair of delightful white boots, then a lovely pair of saddle brown Fluevog boots (which left a lovely but sadly short lived) impression over my right breast. So pretty... And then the boots kept coming! I was able to set up an actual stand in the garage and got to boot black all night long so folks could enter the house with their boots on. While I played with polish and made boots sing, Sir got to chat with more folks and work out some of the logistics for our upcoming fundraising but I'll talk about that more in a few minutes.
After we left the party, it was over to the Cuff to see the SEA-PAH puppies! We got there and sadly there was only a few puppies who had been able to make it out but the night was very busy and they seemed to be having a lot of fun just milling about so that was nice to see. I bumped into another friend of mine and we ended up going out on the dance floor and making general silliness of ourselves enjoying the music and good energy of the night.

The rest of the weekend (which is to say Sunday) was spent recovering from the sun and mosquitoes - ewww.

This last week didn't start out with a lot of fun for me; I got food poisoning on Monday night and was laid up all day Tuesday as a result; on Wednesday we grabbed dinner and headed over to the SML Dress Code social with a SEAPAH invasion. It was wonderful, I got my boots blacked by Paul and play with puppies all while admiring handsome men in leather all around.

Friday was a quieter night, Sir and I met up at a local watering hole near my work where we had a bit of dinner before going to a Farewell party for a good friend of our's who is moving to San Francisco for at least a year, if all goes well. It was a nice mellow party at a coffee shop with lots of his own art hung for sale and viewing before he moved, and I got to sit and chat with a friend for a while, just enjoying the quiet of the night.

Saturday was a very easy day where I spent most of it sitting in the yard - or in bed - and knitting while I waited for information to roll in regarding the upcoming NW Leather Weekend and tried to write bios for myself and Sir. Writing a bio is hard, it's harder still when it's your own! We finally gave up on the bios Saturday evening, got up and dressed and went off to DivaStomp at El Norte in Lake City. It was a nice event, though a bit crowded for the venue. Sunday was a nice enough day, cooler than I like but hey that's Seattle for you and we got to go out to another event and hang out with some friends for a while.

But on to other things of more interest and import : This weekend is the NW Leather Weekend (http://www.nwleatherweekend.org) and I hope to see you all out during the weekend. It's shaping up to be absolutely amazing with fantasies and performances and raffles and/or auctions for amazing items. I hope to see you all out!

Oregon State Leather Week/Contest

So we're back in Seattle as of late last night from a fantastic weekend in sunny, sultry Portland, Oregon. I have only been to Portland as an adult a total of two times now, which I do realize is a very sad fact since I've lived in Seattle my entire life. It's a very pretty city, and both Sir and I are guilty of saying how very pretty all the different bridges are on multiple points throughout the weekend. Portland is one of the quietest, cleanest cities I've ever been in. Then again, there's also very few children (by percentage) within the city so that might have a lot to do with it...

Anyway, we left Seattle around 12:45 on Friday afternoon and arrived in Portland around 5pm, I would estimate (traffic was a true nightmare on Friday). We were hosted by a member of the Portland Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and her wife, two very funny women I have to say; it was nice staying in a house, not a hotel for once, it didn't feel so impersonal to walk in. I hate how sparse and bare hotel rooms always feel.
Well, we arrived and took a few minutes to shower off the trip and get ready for the meet&greet at Embers. Fortunately, we were only a mile or so from the location, so we walked over on Friday despite the heat because we didn't know if there would be parking available. Among other things, there was a cycling race going on downtown so we got to watch that as we walked by.

Once we reached Embers, we immediately felt better. For starters, they had AC! On the less shallow end, there were leathermen and -women everywhere we looked - many we knew and many more we didn't yet know. I'd like to believe we got a chance to meet everyone who attended by the end of the weekend but if we missed anyone, it certainly wasn't intentional. The meet&greet was delightful, they had a rather unique idea for the auction and did a Vegas style blackjack table room. For a donation, you could purchase a buy in and then use the "funny money" to gamble, or you could just buy the credit towards the auction. At the end of the Vegas period of the night, all players were encouraged to count up their winnings and then bid on items in the auction with their winnings.
There were several really awesome items donated to the auction including a cigar/humidor set that Sir and I both wanted rather badly but it went for well over what we had to spend (I bought in $200 of auction credit and increased that to around $900 before the auction) - selling for $1200 or more. I can't remember the final bid on this one, sorry. As disappointed as we were, there was another item that I actually wanted far more: a set of Women's Engineer boots, size 6, donated by Oregon State Bootblack 2011 / International Mr. Bootblack 2011 Nick. I am happy to say that I did win the boots and for a lot less than I expected them to go for since I apparently was the only size 6 in the room. With that in mind, Sir & I won an aftercare/body care kit including a bath salts set, a bar of muscle aches&pains soother and a body spray that I think actually smells really good (for a change haha!).
As the final item of the night came up, Sir and I pooled all of our remaining bidding funds and were able to win a private bootblack session with Nick. We'll still have to sit down and negotiate how that will work, but it was a busy weekend and we'll have to work on that a little later on in the month, I think.

After the auction wrapped up, it was time for a final drink and then some socializing before we headed back to our host house to get in some sleep.

On Saturday, Sir & I met up with one of his friends for brunch. We chose to try The Stepping Stone Cafe, which reminded me of Beth's or The Hurricane - but with less food poisoning involved. The food was fantastic, the service was friendly, but it was very loud and extremely busy. If you ever go, I suggest grabbing the homemade biscuit - it's huge and delicious! After brunch, we went back to our host house and hung out for the afternoon before heading back to Embers for the contest.
We had figured out that the Portland Streetcar ran very close to our host house the night before and decided to take it back into town to grab dinner before heading to the contest. As luck would have it, we made the standard mistake of tourists and missed our stop by nearly a mile. By the time we backtracked and managed to grab dinner, we were getting close to contest time but we managed to get there in time to find seats and say hello to a few people.

The contest itself was really amazing, if very quick - there were 2 contestants for Mr, 1 for Ms and 1 for Bootblack; they all had very short but poignant speeches, clever and quirky pop questions (and answers) and the fantasies for both Mr and the Ms contestant were all very well done and displayed how varied and interesting our community truly is. I always wish Bootblacks got a fantasy too, though I do understand that asking them to have a technical and a fantasy would be far too much work for them to complete in the weekend.
Due to some minor technical difficulties (which the tally masters handled superbly) we were asked to say a few words while the counts were completed along with a few other folks who had announcements or were visiting. I was sad to hear that the brand new sex-positive center was opening up for it's first event on Sunday night - when we would already be on the road home again. But don't worry, Portland, we'll be back!

At this point, I want to extend another congratulations to the just stepped down title panel: Oregon State Mr. Leather 2011 Tarsus, Ms Leather Ms Tracey and Bootblack 2011 Nick. Their year was amazing and the first year Oregon has had a Bootblack title - you three left large boots to fill. Thank you for your commitment and your passion.

And also - I'd like to say congratulations to the new 2012 title holders : Oregon State Mr Leather 2012 Danny, Ms Leather 2012 Michelle and Bootblack 2012 Sammy. We eagerly and wholeheartedly extend to you our warmest wishes and support. Should you need anything, please let us know, our dear sash-brothers and -sister.

After the contest was over, Sir & I drove Sammy up to the celebration after-party at the Portland Eagle where we had the chance to oil a pair of leather shorts Sammy had won during the auction the previous night. We spoke with a lot of interesting people, I got the chance to actually chat with this years American Leatherwoman, Trinity - what an amazing woman! By the end of the night, I was wilting a little from the busy day, but had truly enjoyed every minute of the whole day.

We woke up late on Sunday and headed over to the brunch, fortunately there was plenty of time before they started the awards for the community. It was wonderful to meet the people recognized by Portland as their honored persons for the year and the stories of some of these individuals were heart warming to hear.

Our trip home was long and stressful due to a few engine hiccups (my car is grounded), but we are safely home in Seattle now and looking forward to the next chance we have to visit.
I still owe our hosts spanikopita too...

Well gosh, I have been remiss in my blogging duties as a title holder this summer. I apologize and ask understanding in that it's not that I don't want to talk to you all but more typically that I *am* out talking with you all in person and that's just such a rush, I can't even describe.

My last post was July 5 and a lot has happened (and changed!) since then. So I'll jump right into trying to make all my partial posts make sense yes?

Starting off with the week after the 4th, we went to a Run with a local Leather family with some of my very favorite people in the world. I should give the preface that this particular Family was some of the very first Leathermen, -women, -family I'd ever encountered and it was their positive reinforcement and examples that set me on the path I am walking today. It is very easy for me to say that without their influence, I wouldn't hold this title or be doing the work we're doing this year. And so I must expound how much I love them all and respect all their input and advice.
The run was a blast, as it has been every year we've been able to attend. With a pool, BBQ, and lots of fun play apparatus to fiddle with. I even got to pull out my boot black kit & show it off to a few folks and work on a few pairs of boots before the night was over.
We also got eaten alive by the mosquitos out the long house. (I had welts for nearly 2 weeks!)

The following week was pretty hectic as we were starting to seriously move into our new place (yay!!!) and then on Friday, it was straight down from work to Tacoma to see my own Leather Family. We got to see them, hang out and have a great night of geekery and then curl up in bed for a few hours of rest before Tacoma's Pride Festival.
Unlike previous cities we'd been to, Tacoma no longer has a parade/march but instead gets a festival in the middle of the city center. Seeing random pedestrians try and figure the event out was a little amusing, I must admit. We had a lot of fun in Tacoma, saw a lot of people we know and even got to meet a few we didn't. Eventually, with heat and sun starting to take their toll, we headed home to Seattle for the night.

We woke up bright and early on Sunday (well, it was early...) and got ready for driving halfway across the state. I make it sound worse than it is, Bellingham is a lovely city situated near the BC border and set in a valley with a breath-taking view of the Bellingham Bay. It was cool but very muggy on Sunday, and the wind didn't help matters overmuch on that front; but I didn't really mind so much as it was at least a little relief from the heat of the day before.
The parade got started with only a few hitches and one stray dog. It wasn't an overly large parade group but what they lacked in numbers, may I say that Bellingham made up for in energy, exuberance and sheer tooth-and-knuckle Pride in their identity? It was an amazing experience - and an honor - to march amongst them and share our support with the community there.

We wound out the weekend with a stop into Mallard Ice Cream - if you're ever in Bellingham, you have got to try this place. I remember going with a friend who lived up there for a couple years for school and their varied selection (they make all their own ice cream and rotate the flavors) always made me giddy. I had Yerba Mate and was bouncing for the rest of the day from the caffeine.
Whoopsy!

We were scheduled to go to the Coronation of the new Boise, ID Court's Emperor & Empress but our car broke down the night before we were supposed to leave. It was with great sorrow (and not a few bouts of tears and tantrums in the lead up) that I finally called our hosts and advised that we weren't going to be able to make it out. Fortunately, nobody was upset with us - though I'm still disappointed.

As we were unable to make it to Boise, Sir and I started looking at the calendar and realized that the Kitsap Pride Festival was going to be on Sunday 7/22 so, as we couldn't be in Boise, we decided to suck it up and not throw a pity party at all but go to another Pride. I am so glad we did, too. We took the bus from our house to the Seattle ferry terminals, jumped on a ferry and enjoyed a nice hour long ride across the sound. If you're not familiar, the trek is long and rather non-eventful but it's almost always pretty.
Upon arriving, friends in the Kitsap ACES picked us up and trollied our grateful butts to the festival. I cannot say it enough, these small events are amazing - and this year Kitsap crowned their first Mr. & Miss Kitsap Pride; I am sorry we missed the competition but the entire day was sunny and warm and full of happy people. The support from the surrounding community was absolutely wonderful and I can't wait to go back out to Bremerton again soon.

On Tuesday 7/24, Sir surprised me with the news that we'd been gifted tickets to San Francisco for that weekend to be able to attend the International Leather Sir/boy and International Community Boot Black contests. I could not have been more excited to be able to support NW Leather Sir Jim Drew, NW Leather boy Dan and NW Community Bootblack Ruin. There's so much I could talk about on this, the entire trip was just mind blowingly amazing.
We flew out Friday morning and a dear friend who moved down to California a few years ago came up to the airport to collect us. As a side note, if you are wearing makeup with glitter in it, wash your hands before you go through TSA. Glitter reads as explosives on the new scanners, apparently. (me rolling eyes at TSA here) We got a hotel room last minute and took a little time to unwind from the flight and change into more comfortable gear for the first night of the competition. Night #1 the Sir/Boy jocks and speeches, and we got to see a lot of booty and hear quite a few amazing stories of growth and discovery.

I do need to stop here and say that both Sir & I were blown away by the Florida State Leather boy, Rick - at 70 years old, he only recently found the community and his passion wasn't just visible, it was palpable. I found myself on the verge of tears as he spoke about his life and joy in finding his path. One day, I hope somebody finds me half as inspirational as I found his story.

After the first night of the contest, we went back to our hotel and just curled up. Travel is hard, yo.
Saturday morning, we got up and headed over to the Bootblack "testing" - all contestants were lined up and working on boots of participants and attendees of the contest whilst being observed for their interactions with their clients. Coinciding with this was the silent auction (Sir found himself a pair of amazing chaps with a an even more amazing story) which was a lot of fun and there were a lot of really cool items.

We took lunch after the auction / boot black observation ended; Sir had a new pair of chaps and freshly polished boots to show off, after all. I, mean while, located a bookstore that had several different translations of the Illiad and the Odessy - a set I've been meaning to pick up and read for years. I couldn't say no to a 40+ year old set for $20.00 hardbound. In fact, I may have had a minor spaz out in the shop over them; but they happily went home with me.
Back to the competition for the final portion that night : Sir/boy fantasies and Bootblack speeches; we had a lot of fun watching all the fantasies and I'm still not sure what my favorite was. There was the police fantasy, or the Pigs in Space variation... but really I loved the story of how the Southwest (Tuscon, I think?) Sir and his boy first met and the Northwest fantasy (I will not spoil this because I want to see it done this month at the GLPW Leather weekend). Ruin was one of the last speeches and there was no question for anyone in the NW region who heard her speak, she nailed her speech.
Sadly, Northwest didn't get all three titles (yes I know, that would be asking for too much, but one can always hope) BUT - I *must* send my congratulations to Ruin for being recognized as our International Community Bootblack 2013!



During a break in the contest, I had the fortune to meet Glenda Rider (Owner and co-producer of IMSL) in person. We'd had a few online correspondences but it's always such a pleasure to meet the leaders and elders in the community - they have so much information, insight and experience to share. We should all be so lucky to absorb so much in our lifetimes! Sir & I were invited to her after-party, and were very happy to be able to accept.
I had expected that Glenda would like to get to know me a little better, as a state title holder, to get a feel for me in case I was intending to run for IMsL 2013; instead, she told me she'd invited me up to ask me to consider running (in case I wasn't) and now I'm really in a pickle kids, it's admittedly too early to commit to the idea of running for IMsL but at the same time, how could I not want to? This year so far (all 4 months of it) have been such an amazing, mind-blowing, stunningly fantastic experience. I have met more interesting people, experienced a wider array and depth of personalities, events and situations than I could have imagined. There's so much to still think about.

After the party, a friend of Sir's took us to her place for the night as we'd only booked the hotel for one night. She drove us back into town the next morning and we got to go to Up Your Alley. It was hot, sunny, and there was a lot of nearly (and fully) naked men all around. Sadly, only a few women but hey! I'm an equal opportunity admirer, so that's alright too. On the down side, we forgot sunscreen so I was a little pink around the top and Sir - bless Him - had decided to wear chaps & a codpiece out... so His tan lines are really impressive now!

Luckily (ironically?) our flight was delayed so we made it home without too much trouble.

On Wednesday 8/1, we got to attend a monumentous event : "Sistory-25 years of Sisterhood in Seattle" - which was an amazing event held at the Lobby Bar on the hill and was a celebration of the reforming of the Mother House as well as a general history of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. (Did you know the Mother House of Seattle was the 2nd US house founded? And the 4th in the world?! WOW!)

Sadly, I did not get to attend this year's 2nd annual Seattle SlutWalk because we were packing and moving things from storage to the new place.

For those not in the know, Paradise Unbound just opened up last night. Check out their site for more info!
http://www.paradiseunbound.com/

Which leads up to today: today is a mellow day, tomorrow will be as well. I am working long days this week so we can leave early on Friday to make it down Portland for the Mr & Ms Oregon State Leather contest. (http://www.blackoutleather.org/OSL%20&%20OSB%20Page.html)
I will get to meet another of Sir's good friends and also I get to meet a Sister I've had on my facebook for 2 years but never personally met. YAY!

A Change of Pace

So in a little twist of irony, I realized late Tuesday night that I had the calendar wrong for the dates on Bellingham. The plus side of this, of course, is that at least we didn't miss it but I had it listed a week early.

Dear Seattle, 
What does a Titleholder do when she finds herself suddenly free for a weekend in her own city?

- There's so many events on the 14th but I've only got 2 items on the agenda this weekend. 
Do we go to my friend's birthday bash which will be a lot of people in a small area with children around OR do we go to the run we've been invited to which will be adults - and leather adults at that! - and maybe even a pool? 
Decisions decisions...

As it turns out, we're in Seattle this weekend and then next weekend we'll be trumbling on down to Twysted Tails Haven for a nice evening with the Family before we zoom over to Tacoma on Saturday morning to march and enjoy the festivities. Which will be a treat - aside from Seattle, I've never been to another City's Pride Parade before this year and I'm excited to see what Tacoma turns out.
On Sunday, we'll be driving up to Bellingham and marching in their Parade as well, of which I am the most fantastically please about. Both because I didn't muck it up and we miss it and also because I love the city of B'ham for all it's quaint little WTF-ness.

I'm actually really relieved to have another week off from Pride events though only because it gives me time to get my boots and gear and prepped and maybe even some social time here in Seattle - something the last couple months seems to have been lacking.

Today though, I will be working and then going home to do some laundry and clean up a little more before the weekend. After that, Sir & I get to sit down and work out what we're doing for the next month for our Titles and also for us. 
Personally, I'm hoping to see a date night on the agenda. :)

The Lead-Up

Summer is here and in full swing in the Pacific Northwest. This is not something one can tell by simply looking out the window on most PacNW days - for example today I can see some blue on the horizon and a nice big blog just a little ways from my office but the gray in the cloud directly over us makes me doubt I'll stay dry all day.

That being said, summer is Pride season and event season in general. The number of invitations for events has increased recently and I hate having to decline an event because they all sound so amazing and fun! On the other hand, we've got so many cool things to do but still have managed to find time for ourselves which has been utterly lovely.

We took last week off - our one week of break during Pride season - and had nice quiet date nights at home and hanging out with friends who we haven't seen as much as we'd like due to all the travel and events. This week we're ramping back up to hit the next few events on the calendar.

Big events of note : 7/8 is Bellingham, WA Pride and we will be driving up either early on the 8th or the evening of the 7th and stay overnight but we haven't confirmed that just yet.
7/14 is Tacoma's Pride and I'm hoping we'll get to go down and see my Leather Family, maybe even stay with them for the 13th and visit and have all sorts of fun before going out to the parade on Sunday. As usual, I've not confirmed a single thing.

And then the big finale for July is the 21st in Boise for the Imperial Court's coronation event. We are very excited to get out to that.

For now, here's a couple of pretty pictures from the Seattle Pride!

Seattle Pride 2012

WOW! 
What an amazing weekend, despite the rain we had all Saturday day. (Of course!)

Sir and I went out on Friday after work in the hopes of getting to meet Ms. Sharon Needles at the Broadway Grill but the show was much later than they implied on their promotional materials. I was very disappointed but also falling asleep on my feet so we had to leave before Sharon arrived.

We decided to just go home and call it a night and curled up in bed while the rain rolled in; as I mentioned, it was pretty ugly out on Saturday when we left to go up to Cal Anderson Park and meet up for the Leather Pride Picnic. It was very disheartening to stand in the wind & rain and know that the forecast said more of the same for Sunday. I wasn't looking forward to marching in the rain again but if that's the way it would be, I'd just wear rubber pants again and make do with it.

After an hour or so in the rain, enjoying conversations and a very yummy hot dog, Sir and I decided to head home and recoup before going out for the night. Wouldn't you know it but around the time I peeled of my wet clothes, set my boots by the heater to dry and curled up to get warm, the sun came out and the temp started to rise as well. 
Sir and I decided to take a nap and warm up a little before deciding what to do for the evening. After a few hours of snuggling, we realized neither of us felt like going to the play party being hosted by GLPW before a parade and the other play parties would also make us feel odd to be there and not have a scene so we talked and decided the idea of curling up and just sleeping lots before the parade sounded like the best option. It was delightful to just stay in and snuggle.

We got up bright and early Sunday, got ready and drove out to Seattle. Lo and behold, we found a parking spot right near the Cuff so we parked, paid for the day and then grabbed our Block Party wrist bands before starting for Downtown. 
And can I just say that I love how Seattle Downtown is literally down the hill from EVERYTHING? It makes getting there on foot a simple matter of tumbling downhill with grace, style and not a little good fortune.

We got down to the sex positive / kinky / leather contingent with lots of time to spare; so much so that we got the chance to run around and see some of the other groups - which was totally fun before starting out ourselves. First rolled out the SEA-PAH Puppies group - oh those tails a-wagging was so cute!!! Then there was the SgoL group, what a pink group to follow! After that came the remainder of the leather contingent including Sir & myself as well as the GLPW group and title holders.

We started marching and wow, just wow! 
There were so many people on the streets - which was a really big change from marching at Spokane or Boise where it felt like the entire crowd was in the parade but it felt like the crowd was smaller than last year, but who knows. It was my 3rd parade in 3 weekends... 
The energy was great and getting to march with so many other leather lifestyle titles and community members was such a blessing. I could not have asked for a more lovely day, or for a better group of people to get to march with. Despite the heat, I couldn't help feeling ecstatic as we waved and cheered and posed for random photos. (Some of which were emailed to us and are awesome!!!)

After the parade, we stopped and posed with the GLPW & Oregon state title holders (including International Mr Bootblack!!! squee goes the fangirl of all things made of pretty leather) for a couple of posterity-photos before we marched ourselves across the City Center park and caught a bus back up to the Hill for the block party. 
I wish we could have stayed in the park longer but I was in a corset & we were both in leather and there was no breeze or shade to speak of when we got there so we opted to just head upHill.

The Cuff block party was crazy! We got there pretty darn quick and it was already filling up fast when we got there. So after a cocktail and a quick tour of the area, we settled into a corner and started enjoying the weather, the music and the crowd. After a little while, and while in conversation with a friend, I admitted my leathers have only ever been cared for by me - mostly because I'm always working on leather when other people are too. So Shawn, bless him, decided as soon as we finished our drinks he was going to get his kit from the car.

I got my first ever boot blacking, and was treated to my pants and vest also being treated. It was lovely and as I stood there under the truly summer sun, I couldn't help but just bliss out and enjoy the experience. I also was a bashful little girl over the entire thing and it made me giggle and skip after. I've officially had my first boot blacking and it was SO MUCH FUN!!!

We stayed until the sun started to make my head hurt (that is what we get for forgetting our SPF) which was into the early evening. Sir and I decided we'd like some real dinner and a bit of shade so home we went and that was Seattle Pride as Washington State Ms Leather 2012.

I am glad to have this weekend off from Prides but excited to go to Bellingham next weekend. Bears!!!

WSMsL2012 - PrideTrip days 8, 9 and the final 10

Friday ended up being a ton more fun than I think either Sir or I had expected it to be. We got going to a slow start and drove around the town a bit, looking at all the amazing Model A's that were all over the Riverside of Boise. After that, Sir took me yarn shopping.

Sweet joy! Fiber, fresh to my fingers and blissfully unaware of it's precious import to me. I got some Malabrigo lace & some Debbie Bliss fingering. I was only going to get the Malabrigo but Sir told me that I could have both and made me nearly cry in the store I was so happy. I am a very lucky and loved little knitter.

After the yarn, we went over to Joe's Crab Shack and I got to have a bucket of steamers! Snow crab, Dungeoness crab, and lots of shrimp as I couldn't have the andouille sausage. Also potatoes and sweet white corn. It was so delicious and I couldn't even finish it, so I took it back to the hotel and popped it into the fridge.

Upon sitting down, we both realized it was a nice day and we had a lot left to do before we could go out for the night. So I pulled out my boot black kit and dragged a chair onto the balcony of our hotel room along with both pairs of Sir's boots and mine as well. I put on my iPod, jammed out to Daft Punk's soundtrack for the Tron sequel and started onto Sir's knee high boots. Cleaning and drying them with care before starting the process of applying the polish and working it into all the forms of the boots before brushing them to a soft polish. I was very happy with my work thus far and accepted a beer from Sir before picking up His jump boots.
I needed a bolstering swallow of it to face the daunting task ahead of me - I haven't worked on those boots in a while, and Sir wears them nearly every day. So I grimly started cleaning them, one at a time and having to go back over spots time and again to get the grime and dust out. Once they were clean, I let them sit for a few minutes while I debated what to use. I started with touching up the wear points with a bit of dye and then carefully glued down the patch that snagged somehow...
In the end, I started with my standard two body coats of Kiwi black. It fills in the cracks and wear points well and gives a nice warm shine to the boot when polished. Then it was time to pay special attention to the toe caps and heels. I told myself that 3 coats of Lincoln's would do the trick but 4 coats went on and they still just couldn't pull a shine together. Gritting my teeth, I carefully added the lucky coat #5 and suddenly I had glittering shine in my hands. Sir came out and said He was very pleased and they looked fantastic so we moved them inside to let the polish harden before he would wear them in the parade the following day. (Seeing how it *was* 80 degrees, this made since)
I meanwhile sat down and started on my boots. I'm glad oil tans are so quick but my poor boots were THIRSTY. I cleaned them and then had to oil them twice to make them happy! I suppose I deserve it, I've been so busy I haven't given the pretty leathers the attention they deserve. My vest still needs to be cleaned and oiled... hrm.

Wish I had a form bodice...

Anyway! After boots, I jumped into the shower and then we started on our outfits for the evening. The plan was to meet up with Jezabelle and DVana at Lucky Dog to carpool to the Burlesque show, so we couldn't play the go back and get things game - but we did anyway before we forgot things, of course. In the end, we still got there in plenty of time and were able to find a nice spot in the front for the show.
Also, Fatty's has 32oz super beers. I couldn't resist a giant ice cold quart of ShockTop Belgian White. :) It was amazing.

The Burlesque show was entertaining and the head of the show is quite adorable. Also, her perma-lip color really was perma-... I scrubbed for 10 MINUTES to get it off. That thought makes me wonder if my left tit is scrubbed raw instead of sunburned as I originally suspected.

But I am getting ahead of myself.

After the show, we went outside and had the opportunity to wave hello to some Queen-shocked Mormons. I've never seen muggles aperate before, I will just say it this once. I know it's probably horrible of me to be so amused but they truly weren't sure what to do because one of us happened to ACTUALLY BE A WOMAN. Oh it was priceless!
Once we had our fill of tormenting the normals, we made our way back to the car and drove back over to Lucky Dog for the Leather Night. It was a lot of fun but there wasn't very much leather to be seen which was disappointing but not unexpected - their community has almost disappeared although there were several people who quietly expressed interest/desire to have the community regain a foothold. We are both hopeful (Sir and myself) that we can help this happen but regardless of who is responsible, I'd love to see Boise get a Leather community again!
After we both realized it was time to get going so we could get enough sleep to be able to march in the morning, we headed back to our hotel room. A few friends stopped by and brought some beer to mellow for a little before we all decided it was sleepy bed time and said farewells and good nights.

Saturday dawned far too early and far to bright for me; I woke up with a migraine-esque haze on the horizon. We both tiredly crawled out of bed and made for showers and then dressing for the parade. I got eye liner in my eye and then all over my eye lid so called a quit on make-up for the day, rinsed my eye with lots of cold water and Sir laced me into my leather dress. Then I remembered the allergy drops for my eyes and did my best to not look like I had the startings of a shiner from the stupid eye liner causing my eye to get inflamed and red and angry. Fortunately, the eye drops did the trick and it was sunny enough to keep my sunglasses on the entire time. On the unfortunate side, however, I was suffering from heat sickness before the parade even began being so small and garbed all in black leather.
We were lucky to find water bottles in one of the first aid stations at the beginning and Sir got me a lemonade and pretzel afterwards. The actual march of the parade was amazing, at one point we turned and could see neither the front nor the back of the parade for blocks in both directions and the parade ran on and on and on... there was such a huge crowd of marchers, it was amazing. Ironically, I don't think there was anybody left in the city for the size of the parade. Which sort of makes it all that much more amazing.

The parade wound from the steps of the capitol building all the way to the park on the other side of the city. The park was large and beautiful and fully of such amazing colors. There were walking rainbows everywhere - it was so fantastic and surreal.

After I had to call it quits and head back to the hotel, Sir called a cab and we slunk back into our hotel room to take cool showers and snuggle under the covers for a bit while we just shook from all the energy. We were elated and exhausted all at once and agreed to set an alarm and get some sleep. So, snuggled together although very sore, we let time slip past for a little while. I got up first, needing to eat, and pulled out some left overs. (Remember Joe's?)
I had a wonderful snack, sitting on the balcony in the summer heat and gnawing away on my sea-spider (as Sir lovingly calls crab). After that, I very carefully washed all the seafood off and snuggled back up with Sir who laughed and called me the eater of death; I guess I'm okay with it, as long as I'm His death eater. (I know, I'm a dork)

We got up eventually and got ready for the After-Pride Party at Lucky Dog and made our way over. I was hoping to boot black and set up but nobody had leather or was interested so that was a little disappointing but otherwise the night went really well and was a lot of fun. We even got to go over to a private party and chat with a lot of really cool people before calling it a night and heading back to bed.

We got up a little later than expected on Sunday and hurried down to the continental breakfast room for waffles, bagels and yogurt before going back up to pack and do a final once-through before loading up the little blue Leather Bug and starting for Seattle.

We stopped in Yakima for lunch at Black Angus and then I got to drive the last leg of the trip. I was disappointed to watch the temperature consistently drop from 85 to 54 degrees before we reached Seattle. Still we got into town early enough to stop and see a good friend and unwind from the driving before heading back to our dwelling to unpack.

We slept heavily last night and I woke up knowing I was not ready for work; so I took the later bus in and left a little early today so I can make up the time later in the week when I'm feeling a little better.

But yes, that has been our 10 days of Pride travel; I have had so much fun and truly do feel really refreshed. I am looking forward to Seattle's Pride this week, Vancouver is next week - which I don't know if we'll hit or not yet, and then in 3 weeks is Bellingham.

And then we'll hopefully be back out to Boise for coronation at the end of July. :)

WSMsL2012 - PrideTrip days 6, 7 & 8

Wednesday night was fun!
I was craving red meat of the side of a cow variety, so Sir consulted a friend we've made here in Boise about a good place for BBQ and such. They recommended Goodwood and so we went out there and it was delicious! I had some of the very best beef ribs I've ever had and I ate way too much and it was delicious.

Sir says it's OK that I indulged because I was able to decide on food quickly and easily, so He feels it is a reward to let me eat my fill when this happens. Since my body likes to play guessing games about what to have for dinner, this was a big deal. Haha!

After dinner, we went to Pitchers&Pints for trivia; which we did OK at but that's not really surprising. Trivia is not my forte anymore, but I am alright in trading that in for more interesting hobbies like knitting.
Which reminds me, I have a shawl to block on this trip...

After trivia, it was back to our hotel and crashing for some well deserved snuggling.

Thursday, we got up and met up with a couple more new friends and went to the Boise Zoo. The Butterfly exhibit was a ton of fun (and I got a lot of awesome photos!) but no butterflies landed on me sadly. After we got to see lots of different animals, feed some goats, snag a couple photos of a very undignified snow leopard and coo over a baby wallaby, we decided to head back into town. A quick stop at the store and we got back to our hotel to find that the Vancouver, WA Model A club is in town for an "A Rally". Model A's. All over Boise.
Sir and I want to find a couple who would be willing to drive in the parade and let us ride in the back. I haven't yet mastered my "Princess Wave" so I need to practice before this happens.

We ended up staying in last night and just watching a couple episodes of 30 Rock and snuggling and wrestling and giggling. Well, I giggled. It was a nice night off and we both slept quite well.

As I've mentioned before, we've taken to sleeping in, all snuggled together which has been lovely but sadly we don't get to do that anymore, as we have to be up early tomorrow for the Parade & festival and then Sunday for the drive home. Be that as it may, we had a late start again today and are currently working on what to do today while I've been writing up this entry. Once we figure that out, we're going to clean up our hotel room a little and head out for the day.

Later there will be a Burlesque show and then Leather Night at the Lucky Dog Tavern and then tomorrow is all day Pride! YAY!

I should put on some pants now.

WSMsL2012 - PrideTrip days 5&6

So we started out our day deciding to have lunch before we got too busy in the titles & opted for some Italiana Americana (otherwise known as the Olive Garden) before heading over to Lucky Dog Tavern for happy hour.

After a drink and some good conversation, we headed over to the Boise BDSM Flogging Class and got to listen to the experiences of others in the community I've not met before - which is always fun for me! Then Sir & I had a short bit of flogging time for us before wrapping it up and heading back into town.

We got into downtown and went by the Balcony for the Pride Bingo contest being hosted by the Imperial Court here, and then joined them as they moved to Lucky Dog Tavern for drinks, socializing and karaoke. We opted to skip the karaoke segment of the night and had a lovely time chatting with different folks we've met since we got here.

This morning we had a lazy start and ended up out at the World Center for Birds of Prey outside of Boise; we got to go on the tours and view the different birds before heading back into town to recharge a little before tonight. Yay!

WSMsL2012 - PrideTrip days 3 & 4 (Sun & Mon 6/10-11)

I didn't get a chance to post yesterday so I'll pick up with Saturday night.

Let's see, I had a nap and then we went to the Suki Anna Inn for sushi & teriyaki. (They have swordfish nigiri and it's fantastic!!!) After which, we walked but up to Irv's and had a drink before meeting up with Savannah SoReal & a new friend Johnny to hang out. After the drag show, we were back to the hotel to grab our play bag and drive out to the play space for the Inland BDSM Community.

We arrived to find them completing a St. Andrews Cross for their space; I was told that since they had invited state Title holders to their play party, they had felt it necessary to have equipment in case we wanted to play.
Needless to say, we were both very flattered.

After some chatting, I admitted that I had never experienced wax play and was very curious. Sir decided that we should watch the wax scene that was being planned and I was invited to join in. I got to play with some of the paraffin wax for a bit and then I got to wax the stunt-bunny's belly button. The look on his face was AMAZING.
Then I got to try wax play for the first time. I can't say I didn't enjoy it, but it wasn't my favorite thing and triggered some nerve issues low in my back. Sir and I agreed we should get some soy wax candles and try actual candle-drop wax play some time as opposed to using the pre-melt method. I am definitely curious to try again!

Once our scene finished, Sir helped me clean up and then offered our host (and my belly button wax victim) the chance to break in the St. Andrews Cross. Two hours later, the cross was sufficiently broken in and our host was a happy stunt-bunny to be sure.
And so ended our Saturday night; we wrapped it all up and drove back to our hotel. I accidentally left my blue bunny ears headband at their space but decided to will it to the stunt bunnies (specifically Trolly) as I have a white pair back in Seattle.

Sunday. Day 3.
We slept in - by a rather impressive bit - before making our way back over to the Satellite in the early afternoon for a nice bit of brunch & drinks. I had French toast for breakfast, and the mimosa was really the best compliment ever. After brunch, we walked next door to Irv's for a drink; I was still heavily dragging from sub drop & just a bit of exhaustion so I left Sir there and made my way back to the hotel for a nice relaxing nap.

By the time Sir got there to wake me up at 6:30 to get ready for our dinner-date, I was feeling much better. We got dressed up and went down to Spencer's (the Steak & Chops House inside the Doubletree) which was fantastically good food. Our waitress was very nice and the place was very quiet so we took our time and enjoyed our dinner.
We had a porterhouse steak - Sir let me have the larger portion of Filet Migon while He enjoyed the New York - and 6 onion soup. Sir got their house special hash browns which included bacon and cheese and such while I got spinach seared with pan-fried cherry tomatoes. It was delicious.

After dinner, we went back up to our room and had a nice quiet night in while we just blissed out over good food and each other's company.

We woke up this morning and realized we had still not had any luck getting in touch with the Tri-Cities area so we re-considered our plans and started checking on Fetlife for any other information. We confirmed there is a group in Tri-Cities and we even had been recommended a bar to check but as it turns out, it isn't open Monday or Tuesdays. At this revelation, we decided it would be best to either take another night in Spokane or to head directly to Boise. In the end, we decided on Boise and jumped on HotWire to find a hotel. Fortunately we got a fantastic deal on the Shilo Inn in the Riverside district so we jumped up, finished packing everything else up we had to do and loaded up the car.

After checking out, we jumped on the highway and were on our way!

The drive from Spokane to Pullman (our first pit stop) was very scenic and peaceful. For being stuck in a car for a couple hours with nothing but hills and fields and the occasional tiny little township for variety, it was actually very refreshing for me!

After Pullman, we turned towards Lewiston and began moving almost truly south through the scenic terrain of Idaho - we had actually opted to take a different route than Google suggest at first because it wanted to take us south-west before pulling a U and going back south-east; we took I-195 to US-95 to ID SR55 all the way into Boise.
There were a couple of delays with road work running for stretches up to 3 or 4 miles of one-way one lane roads but even that didn't actually slow us down because we got into Boise by 8pm local time (which is 6.75 hours of actual driving, instead of the expected 7.5).

Boise is muggy and warm, even at midnight last night it was very muggy. I don't mind overmuch, but it's a big chance from the cool dry weather we saw in Spokane.

We checked into our hotel, changed out of our driving clothes and into casual leather dress and hit the only gay bar we could find listed (which also just happens to be around the corner and less than a mile away) - the Lucky Dog Tavern. Lucky us, the local Court & community was out and having a night of fundraising with a poker game to start of Pride week here in Boise. What fun!
We had a few drinks, socialized, grabbed dinner, socialized some more and eventually called it a night to return to our hotel room and crash.

I have to say, for all our concerns about a 2 start hotel, this is much more what I'm used to and actually is very comfortable. (And there's a continental breakfast every day for the win!)

So I'm going to go enjoy my bagel and apple before we get ready for our first full day in Boise!

WSMsL2012 - PrideTrip day 2 (Saturday 6/9)

Day 2 of our Pride Trip has gone swimmingly thus far, despite fewer tweets. Sorry about that - I've been busy.

We got up this morning and got ready for Pride, as it turns out, the forecast for today was a high of 54 and rainy. We opted for rubber instead of leather pants as a result and suited up. The staff here at our hotel is AMAZING and the bell hop drove us up to a local diner since it was POURING on the way.

Satellite Diner is really good, but they were very busy this morning and our food took so long that we basically inhaled breakfast and then quite literally ran to the parade staging grounds. Which turned out to be a good thing, it gave us the chance to meet the Inland Northwest BDSM Community & Pasties&Paddles groups that were marching in Spokane's Pride Parade.

It was really great to see another aspect of the community and get to interact with them, talk with them, hear them and see them celebrate their part in our great big kinky community. It made me so very happy, I really couldn't have had a better day!

The parade ended at the park and we had a great chance to meet with more of the local community and found out about another show tonight to hit, plus an invitation to a local play party that we are both really looking forward to.

And so, after a quick nap we are about to run out for dinner before more socializing. Yay!

WSMsL2012 - PrideTrip day 1 (Friday 6/8)

If you're not following me on Twitter, you really should go read up on the progress of our trip thus far.

I also realize I need to be writing about the title a little more, just to keep it all real in my own head. So to start that new change off, I'll be taking a little time out of each day for the next week to blog about our trip to Spokane, hopefully Tri-Cities, and Boise for 2 Pride events and maybe a few parties and/or fund raisers!

We decided to forgo the Pride events in Olympia & Portland for those less represented at by the Western Washington title holders. Being state title holders, we felt it was better to represent on a state-wide scale. (Also, I'm very glad NW Leather Sir Jim is in Anchorage this week representing)

So yesterday Sir picked me up at work around noon and we ran a few last errands before I drove us out to Issaquah for lunch at XXX RootBeer because Sir had never been there and then it was off to Spokane! (there are lots of tweets with & without photos already up from last night)

We decided to hit Irv's as it was the only gay bar we could find listed in Spokane and it turned out to be a lot of fun. I was surprised that my brain had decided that Spokane would be "just like Billings" but at the same time, I've only ever been IN Spokane for a stop over, not for a stay.
After the bar, it was late and we were tired so back to our hotel we wandered (with a few snide remarks about our outfits but fortunately my wit was sharp even that late).

And now, Sir is out of the shower so it's my turn.

More later!!!