{m - live happily}

Happy Birthday Tucker!

2012-02-08T22:58:00.000-08:00

Little Mr. Tucker turned one year old on Saturday.

We also had our friends Lindsay & Casey (with their two dogs) come for a visit this past weekend. We didn't plan our weekend around the dogs birthday (it just happened to work out that way), but I figured since we'd all be gathered with Tucker's furry friends, we should have a little celebration for the pup.
I mailed out an invitation to the other dogs,

I baked him a two tiered dog-friendly birthday cake (with peanut butter, applesauce, shredded carrots, and oatmeal),

I also picked up some party hats, put up a bunting banner I had made for Cory's birthday last year, and made the birthday boy a little bandana.

Yes, I am totally guilty of being that crazy-dog-mom...but it's his first birthday, and I won't ever do it again :)
He also requested a new toy...a 50mm 1.2L lens. You know, so we can make him look good in all those pictures we take of him. We gave in and got one for him, lucky dog! Here I am testing it out...

Our weekend was great! The dogs played and played and played, and boy was he tired by the time they left on Sunday.

Best first birthday for the little doggie ever? Definitely!
We also went for a hike...more on that another time.

a quilt for Kane

2012-01-15T21:43:00.000-08:00

My pile of little squares waiting to be quilted got a little smaller when I finished this quilt for our good friends the other week.

I was so happy with the surf boards & Hawaiian inspired fabrics I was able to pull together to match their little one's bedroom. I also love the parallel line quilting Cory encouraged me to do.

Kane was born two days ago, and I'm sure this will keep him warm and cozy in this cold cold (non-snowy) weather we've been having.

Mom & Dad asked if they could request one in an adult size...sorry guys!

top eleven from 2011

2012-01-02T11:13:00.000-08:00

It seems like everyone else is doing it, so here's my list of eleven best things about 2011 in no particular order...

Best new addition to our little family:

Tucker! Definitely one of the best things about 2011!

Best 2 week DIY kitchen remodel:

Still haven't gotten around to taking the "after" photos (because I still don't have everything on the walls yet, and the light fixture needs finishing), but we were able to do basically the whole kitchen from start to finish on our own in two weeks...with a 3 month old puppy!

Best birthday gift:

Tucker chewed off every single bud on my peony plant. He knew that peonies are my favorite flower, so he got me some to enjoy for my birthday.

Best chenille baby quilt:

Me and my sewing machine were busy-busy this year, but I think I was most happy with how this quilt for a special little baby turned out. I did have good intentions about sharing the process, but obviously never got around to it.
I started with three different flannels (one yard of each) and one cotton baby print. I sandwiched them all together and sewed lots and lots of parallel lines half an inch apart diagonally across the whole thing. Then I cut just the flannel layers between the stitch lines, put a satin binding on, and threw the whole thing in the wash. All those strips of flannel frayed and krinkled up and created a soft chenille.
Here's the tutorial that inspired this crazy quilt.

Best summertime hang-out:
The back yard. I get so excited getting all the patio furniture out in the spring, and so sad to have to put it away in the fall. We eat as many meals on the patio as possible. I'd have to say it's my favorite "room" in the house.

Best lunch of the summer:

Open faced tomato sammich. Nothing beats a juicy tomato, still warm from the sun, on home made bread with mayo, salt and pepper :)

Best pink & orange & flamingo themed bachelorette weekend bash:
Another thing I was always meaning to share, but never got around to it.
I threw a bachelorette party for my best friend, Lindsay. It was less of your typical "bachelorette party" and more of a "girls weekend" at Lake Chelan. It was awesome and just what she wanted. I went with pink & orange & flamingos as a theme, and of course there were lots of little details that all came together perfectly.

Best documentation of one of our many adventures:

In 2012 I really need to take a little more time to put some of the thousands of photos we take into little videos like this one.

Best use of paper + photos:

I haven't scrapbooked in a really, really long time. I thought I would document our summer in a 4x6 format, easy enough. I started with a basic mixed paper book from EliseJoy's Etsy shop, and added pages along the way. I printed most of my pictures at home (until I got the the toner alignment in our printer off...then I made weekly trips to Costco), and I threw in all kinds of little memorabilia I gathered throughout the summer months, with some journaling. It's thick, and random, and I love love love the way it turned out...and decided to go with the same format to journal my Christmas.

Best new business venture:
We've received so much support and encouragement from family & friends in going forward with a photography business. We'll be making a push to grow more in 2012!

Best Christmas photo:

Everyone asked how we got the nose to stay on the dog...we practiced a few minutes every other day or so for maybe two weeks to get him used to it. He also behaves pretty well when he knows he's going to be rewarded with treats. Yes, I made the beard & the elf hat. And the shutter opened and closed 180+ times to get this one good shot.

There you have it, it was a good year and hard to choose just 11 things. I'm ready for the next year (even though I can't believe it's here already).
Goodbye 2011, hello 2012!

Gingerbread Houses

2011-12-21T17:42:00.000-08:00

As if I didn't have enough on my plate this holiday season...I added a gingerbread house to it (make that two gingerbread houses)!

I thought it would be fun to invite some friends of ours, Brandon & Jayme, over to decorate gingerbread houses after we shot some maternity photos for them. I wasn't about to go the kit-route, but I had also never built a gingerbread house from the ground up either. I am a perfectly good baker...how difficult could it be?

We made the dough and rolled & cut the side and roof pieces one night.

The baking process took f o o r e e v e r r since there were so many batches of cookie sheets rotating through the oven baking at a low temp for such a long time. Man, did my house smell heavenly though :)
Tucker helped by hoovering up little pieces of falling dough, good boy!

The next evening I made cement frosting, and we glued the sides together. This step in the process was more challenging than I had expected. Everything had to line up just right, which was hard when working with irregular cookies. I tried to hard to cut and transfer everything perfectly, but the parchment paper underneath warped a little as they baked. Oh well, I got it to work, and I let the walls sit overnight before attaching the roof pieces. I let the roof sit while we went to take baby-bump pictures.

When we came back they were ready for decorations.

The plates cost me a buck a piece at the Goodwill...way cuter than a foil-wrapped tray and I didn't mind sending the plate home with them and not getting it back. I also picked up a good assortment of candy decor at the dollar store.

I wish I would have taken a group picture of all of us, or at least one of us working away...all I've got is the after photo of our house + dog house.

We all had a lot of fun, and I think this will have to become an annual tradition for the four (almost five) of us!

2011 favorites

2011-12-15T15:09:00.000-08:00

These are 227 of my favorite snapshots/memories of 2011. Whew, we've been busy!

I make one of these collages for the cover of my next year's calendar that I order from Costco, so fun to look back on. It was hard to make it not be all about Tucker. Other common themes I noticed were sewing, baking, gardening, friends, and photography. I'd say that pretty much sums me up :)

I get the feeling that things aren't going to slow down in 2012 either, bring it on!

Horselake Road - video

2011-11-05T22:23:00.000-07:00

We have been blessed with a really lovely fall over in our area, and we know our nice-weather-weekends are numbered...so we've been trying to get out and enjoy it while it lasts.
A few weekends ago we got in the truck with the doggie & our new camera lens, and took a short drive up a hill on the other side of town.

I don't know why, but that sentence sounds funny to me. I just can't come up with any other way to word it...because that's what we did.
We took a short drive.
Up a hill.
On the other side of town.
We took pictures and short movie clips, and then I made a little video.

I love it, I can't get enough!

Tucker the Friendly Ghost

2011-11-01T16:40:00.000-07:00

I just couldn't resist making him a Howl-oween costume...

cutest little ghost I think I've ever seen!

a new toy

2011-10-15T11:40:00.000-07:00

We finally added some new glass to our camera bag yesterday....8-15mm f/4L, oh my it's fun!

Seattle through Cory's lens

2011-09-29T21:41:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was Lindsay's wedding (which was awesome!). Cory didn't have much to do while I handled matron of honor duties and then hair & makeup the day of, so he stayed home Friday/Saturday and rode the train over for the main event on Sunday. He roamed from the train station all over Seattle with a camera in hand until it was time for me to pick him up and head to the venue to get ready.
He took a couple HDR (high dynamic range) shots...

At the market, I really like the ghost people in this shot, and I love that strawberry on the ground.

The EMP is always fun to photograph...

This one isn't HDR, but I like it just the same (look at that blue sky Seattle! -- the rain sure moved in by Monday!)

I hope to share a little from the wedding here shortly, and I know that it was almost two months ago I hosted her bachelorette party/girly lingerie shower...and I have yet to share some of the details from the weekend as well. Along with another wedding, and a maternity shoot, and a couple seniors, oh and I sewed this awesome baby quilt....

I feel like we're treading a lot of water and barely able to stay afloat right now, but in a good way. We've been busy with a couple photography "jobs" as of recent, and it doesn't look like we're going to slow down a whole lot any time soon (which makes for a busy schedule, but is fine by me!) Now we're trying to prioritize camera equipment purchases, tend to the yard as we head into fall, and find time to do laundry & clean the house!

Tucker loves the Truck

2011-09-22T19:08:00.000-07:00

Looking through pictures on Cory's phone the other day, I came across this...

He sure loooves going for car rides! Funny, because when he was a little tiny pup, he thought it was torture.
I was driving and we were stopped at a traffic light on our way to drop Mr Man off at the puppy sitters house before heading to Seattle for a baby shower and a wedding (all in one day, then home again that night, whew!).
On the agenda this weekend is another wedding...my bestest friend in the while wide world is getting married!
I couldn't be more excited :)

preserving the summer // beets

2011-09-18T17:29:00.000-07:00

Since I overcame my fear of the pressure canner with the beans, beets were up next.

We planted two different types of beets this spring...LOTS of them!

I picked (some of) them, lopped off the leafs, piled them in my basket, and hosed them down.

Into the stockpot they went to cook.

Then the peeling and slicing...

...and packing. Then the lids went on, and into the canner they went!

I had a small leakage problem, but they'll be fine. I can't believe I didn't take a better picture than the one I took on my phone to send to show off to Cory before putting the jars in the pantry.

Yum, these will be really good to have during the winter.
I canned these a couple weeks ago and I think the garden is about ready for another batch, but I might pickle them next time (my favorite!) and of course I'll make at lease one batch of borscht in the next few weeks.

the best tomater sammich, evah!

2011-09-13T16:44:00.000-07:00

Please, please, please do yourself a flavor...run (don't walk) into the kitchen and make the dough for this

easy whole wheat bread.

You can do it, a couple loafs of bread really isn't all that hard.

Let it rise, divide it into the loaf pans, let it rise a little more, then bake it until it's golden.

Slice off a few pieces and just enjoy it hot from the oven with a pat of butter...go ahead, I did!

After indulging, gather yourself and come back down to earth, then slice yourself off another piece. Stick it in the toaster on a low setting. We aren't toasting the bread, just getting it crispy enough on the outside to stand up to the tomatoes.

While that's toasting, run out to the garden and pick yourself a ripe tomater.

By the time you get back inside, your bread should be about toasty. Let the toast sit for a minute so it isn't so piping hot while you wash and slice the tomato.

Now slather some mayonnaise on your bread (the real stuff, please), a sprinkle of salt, and a crack of black pepper.

Lay your sliced tomato on the bread, slice in half, and scarf down.

Something about the still-warm-from-the-garden-tomato and it's juice + mayo + that little bit of salt & pepper, on that warm bread...my goodness, heaven on a plate! I could eat this for breakfast, lunch & dinner.

3-Day For The Cure

2011-09-08T14:21:00.000-07:00

A week from tomorrow, my Mom will be starting a 60 mile journey that will last 3 days. She's participating for the second year in the Susan G Komen 3-Day For The Cure. Last year, we went to show our support at one of the cheering stations after getting off the plane from our vacation to London.

They train and train and train all summer long. Hours and hours of walking miles and miles. She doesn't know how proud of her I am! ♥

Fundraising is involved from each participant, and although she has already reached her goal I'm sure she (and boobies around the world) would really appreciate your donation. Really, even five bucks would be awesome... that's a little more than $0.08 per mile. Net proceeds from the 3-Day fund innovative global breast cancer research and local community programs supporting education, screening, and treatment. Please check out her website and click on the pink donation button on the top left.

A Ruff Day

2011-08-25T08:47:00.000-07:00

This dude has had a pretty awesome week (until yesterday).

Cory has been gone fishing in Alaska since Saturday (he's coming home tonight with lots of salmons!), so I took the week off to stay home and have "me time" and get some things crossed off my long list of to do's. Which means that there has always been someone around to play with him and love on him...and to take care of him post-surgery.

It was poor little Tucker's day yesterday...

He's doing alright. I'm happy to report that his tail still works!

When I brought him home from the vet, he was all drugged up and wandered around the house like a zombie for a while, not quite sure what he wanted to do. I think he was too uncomfortable to sit and lay down, and he looked at me like "what happened??" He finally found a good spot to pass out underneath the bed, where he stayed for like 5 hours. I'd check on him every now and then, and he seemed happy just resting somewhere dark.

This morning I got up and went to the store for some wet food & baby asprin...mix some of that with his regular dry krinkies and a splash of water, and he forgot all about what had happened yesterday for the 48 seconds it took him to eat it. As I type this, I just heard a bark at the neighbor dog...yep, he's going to be back to normal in no time.

preserving the summer // beans

2011-08-22T22:09:00.000-07:00

We are finally harvesting bounties from our garden. Cucumbers and tomatoes have been making their way to our table, and I can't find and try new zucchini recipes quick enough. We have plenty of acorn squash & pumpkins hiding beneath the leaves of the vines, and the green beans are finally coming on.
I canned some yesterday!
Well...first, we planted them a few months ago.

And then we built this trellis for them to climb on. I had thought of the design and didn't really know how well it was going to work...

They took to it and started to climb!

They grew up and up, and then blossomed and little beans started to grow.

And they just kept getting bigger and bigger.

And now they're ready to harvest (some are past ready).

Yesterday morning I picked them, cleaned them, cut them...

Then I put them into jars.

Into the pressure canner they went.

I had never used a pressure canner before (only a water bath), and I was terrified. I read the instruction manual from cover to cover, and the important operating pages two or four times. I watched a youTube video. Read the instructions again. And then again. My palms were sweaty and I had the bad kind of butterflies in my stomach when I put the lid on and turned the handles to the locking position. It steamed for 10 minutes, then on went the pressure regulator, and the gauge began to climb. When the dial reached 11 PSI, the processing time began, and I monitored the stove to keep the right pressure...it was the longest 20 minutes ever!
The timer went off, then so did the stove, and I carefully moved the pot off the heat and let it depressurize and cool off. When I twisted it open, it didn't take long for these little babies to pop and seal.

That's it, only 3 little pints! I may do more in a week or so.
Yes, it was a lot of work, but I'm sure we'll enjoy them much more than store-bought during the winter months.
Tomorrow, I will do beets now that I'm more comfortable with the canner (it was that first time nervousness). We planted lots of rows of them this year with canning in mind. Beet prep is a whole lot more messy than beans.

what's up, Tuck?

2011-07-29T21:07:00.000-07:00

he hears that from me a lot.
and he loves chasing after his burger/playing fetch with it.
it kind of floats like a frisbee when you chuck it.
lately, we've been hanging out in the back yard lots.
watching the garden begin to produce.
(now that the weather has finally warmed up to summer temps)
I'm also hosting a bachelorette party/bridal shower next weekend,
so I've been planning & prepping like a crazy-lady!
(and I really hope to share some of the details with you soon)

that's it for now (I'm sure you were tired of that cake mess below)
which we were able to salvage a few pieces of...
and as it turns out, it was really really yummy even though it didn't "turn out"

dessert fail!

2011-07-18T22:52:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about this recipe for Cherry Cornmeal Upside Down Cake since the end of last cherry season.
I cleaned and pitted 5 cups of cherries, creamed butter & sugar, whipped and folded egg whites, made a caramel sauce, and baked until golden.... Then my sweet husband tried to assist in the flipping from hot-pan-from-the-oven to plate as you do with upside down cakes...and something went wrong between the pan and the plate, disaster!

I wanted to cry. I'd thought about this recipe for so long, and worked so hard...and it's dripping down my new cabinets and freshly scrubbed floor. Waaaaahh!
Of course Cory grabbed his camera for a snap, and now I wish I would have photographed it better...consider it a preview of the new kitchen debut.

our fabulous fourth

2011-07-07T15:18:00.000-07:00

We managed to get a few things crossed off our chore list on the fourth before heading off for dinner & fireworks at Cory's parents place.

Waiting for it to get dark seems to take for-ever, but we killed the time by picking cherries, nature's candy.

(longest stem, ever!)

We recently got the old 20D that had been collecting dust converted to Infrared. The cherry above is really a dark red bing, but the camera captures infrared light instead of visible light, making it look more like a rainier, crazy! We're having a whole lot more fun with this thing instead of it sitting in the bottom of the closet. I tried playing with sun flair and exposure for a bit, the sensor is totally different.

We went for a stroll through the apple orchard...

and picked some of Grandpa Bob's blueberries.

As soon as it was dark enough, we got the sparklers out and set the camera on the tripod. Here's five of us waving fire around.

Then I had to see if I could spell out my name (backwards for me), which turned out pretty good, I think!

Cory came up with this creation by waving his arms up and down while spinning in a circle.

And of course, the boys played with a few of the bigger fireworks as well.

4th of July

2011-07-04T08:46:00.000-07:00

Wishing everyone a safe & fun fourth from Wenatchee!

Not a lot going on around here today...we've goofed off the last two days, now it's time to get a little work done around this place.

summer garden

2011-07-01T20:58:00.000-07:00

This first little berry was juicy and sweet, and there are many more to come.

The blueberries are ripening.
I tasted the first cherries of the season yesterday.
We has our first zucchini tonight.
I've been waiting for this time of year!

yeast + flour = bread

2011-06-29T22:19:00.001-07:00

I don't buy yeast packets, I store the jar in the refrigerator.
And I buy flour in 25 pound bags from Costco.

Dear Canon,

2011-06-16T00:58:00.000-07:00

I know your Japan facilities were forced to halt production due to the devastating earthquakes in March. I understand that the fancy L glass that goes in those pricey lenses for your cameras takes time to make and must be manufactured in certain controlled environments. All I ask is that you pretty please get a move on that fisheye!

You've already delayed the release long enough since the original January 2011 date...now it's looking like late July. Pleeease don't make me wait any longer. Also, I do understand supply & demand, and may I also request that you don't raise the price too much, my husband's checkbook would really appreciate it!
Thank you in advance for your cooperation on this matter,
~Waiting in Wenatchee

around here lately...

2011-06-11T08:02:00.000-07:00

We've been taking lots of walks at parks along the river that aren't flooded by the high waters...wondering when Summer will finally show up.

The kitchen is almost done, almost! Half of the tile still needs grout, the main light fixture needs to be built/installed, and paint for the dining room. Then I'll share my old & new kitchen with you, I am really loving my new space!

The poor yard has been terribly neglected these past several weeks, and I can't wait to get my hands dirty again.

My sewing machine has been sitting idle for a while now too. I would really like to find some time to cut & stitch some fabric, I've got quite a few things on my list of things to make.

Lots to do! I'd better go get started on some laundry, those fun weekend chores haven't slowed down either...

on remodeling a kitchen

2011-05-30T08:35:00.000-07:00

We've been planning our kitchen remodel for some time now.
Two looong weeks ago the fun began.

We've learned a few things along the way...

1. Measure twice (or three or four) times, cut once.

2. The amount of time you estimate one step in the process to take, double it, at least.

3. Never ever assume that things were built square or level.

4. Have patience, and go with the flow.

5. Do all the work with your own two hands. You get to learn new skills and acquire fun new tools! (*see #2 about doubling your estimated time.)

6. Some nights, sleep may be more important than staying up late.

7. No matter how hard you try to keep your work area clean, your house will be a mess. Live with it dreading the deep clean that will follow...it will all be over soon.

8. Lowe's is open until 10pm Monday thru Saturday, 8pm on Sunday.

9. Be creative with meals. Everything is in boxes, you won't have much of a prep surface, a BBQ is your only method of cooking, and doing dishes in the laundry room isn't all that fun.

10. Get a 3 & 1/2 to 4 month old puppy to spice things up!

11. Set a finish date. Like your anniversary, and insist that everything (paint touch ups, light switch covers, cleaning and unpacking boxes, wall hangings...everything!) is done-DONE by then. Remind your husband of the date, and watch him work frantically trying to please you.
(*see #2 about doubling your estimated time & #4 on patience.)

12. Keep the end result in mind...all the work will totally be worth it!

around the back yard

2011-05-23T22:22:00.000-07:00

Because I got off work an hour early last Wednesday.

And because it's was almost eighty degrees outside that day (finally!)

I made myself a glass of limeaid, played with the pup, shot some photos, and enjoyed the afternoon in the sunshine.

We've been stuck inside work work working on remodeling the kitchen for over a week now...

And because the project of the evening is rolling formica onto the counter tops, which doesn't require much involvement from a second person...I found a little bit of time to actually download the memory card to the computer.

And because I'm trying to not be such a stranger around here (which isn't working out too well for me), I'm sharing them with you. Here are a few things around my back yard...

There you have it, a little bit from around the yard. I can not wait for that garden to grow. Each year it gets bigger (and better), as we learn things from our previous crops. The hope for this year is that it doesn't take too much abuse from Mr Tucker Man.

Cats & Dog

2011-05-03T22:23:00.000-07:00

We have two or three neighborhood cats that just looove to use my flower beds as their own personal litter boxes. I'm really really not okay with that. I tried sprinkling coffee grounds from our morning cup of joe, and I think it worked a little bit. I read into other remedies that I never actually tried, and we joked that to really solve the problem we just need to get a dog.

In the past several months, we've been talking more seriously about getting a furry four legged friend, we just didn't know what kind of pooch was right for us.
Several weeks ago, a friend of a co-worker brought in a litter of pups to show off how cute they were...
I snapped a picture on my phone.

There were 4 pups in the litter, three females and one big boy. We knew we wanted a male dog, and this little guy stole my heart.
We stared at the picture all week, researched Meagles, and talked about all the responsibilities of having a dog. By the end of the week we became dog owners. C'mon...look at that face, and who can resist those paws & ears?!

That was almost six weeks ago...

So far Tucker knows come, sit, shake, lay down, no, off, we're working on stay, and he's doing okay on the leash. His little internal alarm clock was set for about 5am for the first 4 weeks or so, which was a little early for me, but now he's sleeping until our alarm goes off and we're feeling more rested.

He loves hanging out in the yard and helping us with yard work (you know, keeping kitties away, pruning branches, digging an occasional little hole and whatnot). He also likes to climb on the big boulders in the back yard and watch the birds (and I think the birds like to tease him).

(yes, that little head is warm & soft, and I could just bury my face in it all day long)

Tucker is quite the adorable little ball of energy, and steals lots of attention wherever he goes.
So that hopefully explains why I've neglected the blog so bad for the past several weeks. We've also been spending lots of time in the yard busy with springtime stuff, and I've been doing some digging in my flower beds, and it looks like he's doing a good job at keeping the cats out...good boy!
I think we'll keep him.

bye bye arborvitae

2011-03-20T08:38:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was finally our first true day of yard work for the season, and it felt so good to get out there again. I've done a little bit of pruning and picking up here and there, but by this time last year, we had already been working in the yard for weeks. We'd cleared out a whole lotta pine needles & debris, moved rocks, dug trenches, laid irrigation pipe, and installed the valve box for our sprinkler system. Makes me feel like we've gotten off to a late start this year.

Our goal yesterday was to finish cutting down the way too overgrown arborvitae and rid of all of it's mess.

I couldn't find a more recent picture of the "Green Monster II"...this was taken last year when we were getting ready to build our raised garden beds, but it gives a good idea of how big it is (notice how much taller than the fence it is, you can imagine how much it's spilling over the back side of the fence...the neighbor loves that!)

A few weeks back, when it was still a little too cold for me to go out and haul brush, but before little birdies moved in for the spring, I encouraged Cory to go out and at least get the bulk of it cut down.

I kept him motivated by taking pictures and baking cookies.

He's doing good work, and if you look closely it looks like he's taking a smoke break!
I thought this picture was hilarious when I got it off the camera...really it's just a branch in the background.

Then he hauled 3 dump trailer loads away to the yard debris compost center.

A few comments about this photo:
1. I don't know what we would do without a good friend with a dump trailer.
2. That pile of rock behind the trailer is just one of many piles still piled around the yard. I can't believe how many rocks we have!
3. The tarp is off the wood pile because we burned through all of it keeping ourselves warm this winter.
4. We finally got a new TV antenna, and it looks soo much better than our old one that used to reach into the sky.
5. That tree in the upper left corner - people call them "trees of heaven," I call them "trees from hell"...because they are!

Then we were left with "bushes" and lot of open space.

Yesterday we cut (well, Cory cut-) the rest of the bushes, hauled two truckloads to the compost center, loaded a third to be taken on Monday, and raked up years and years worth of debris. It was amazing to find some of the stuff hiding under there.

You can see how much garden space we gained...that big blue drum is our compost bin, and just to the right of it is the corner of a raised bed that the Green Monster II grew almost all the way to. In the next couple of weeks, we'll rototill the soil and get it ready for planting...probably rhubarb, zucchini, pumpkins, acorn squash, pole beans, and some corn (the rest will be in the raised beds).

In true spend the day working in the yard until the sun goes down and we should head inside because it's getting dark and cold form, we got everything put away, cleaned up, and we were just in time for the EZ's "after eight" special.

Today we are planting non-veggie garden stuff...peonies, hosta, lily of the valley, and some other perennials that I hope will fill the flower beds on the back side of the house. Also, a trip to Lowe's, no weekend seems to be complete without one.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

2011-03-17T07:22:00.000-07:00

source

My favorite part about today is the corned beef & cabbage.
Meat boiled in spices, yumm....
No seriously, I really do like corned beef!
I make mine with brussels sprouts.
Consider yourself pinched if you aren't wearing green!

spring riding

2011-03-09T21:34:00.000-08:00

As the snow fell all last week, we made plans to go snowmobiling on Saturday.
We took 3 other friends along, and had a blast tracking up the fresh snow in the sunshine.

Orchards on Stemilt Hill.

I never get tired looking at fresh snow on trees...

hey, that's me!

The Columbia River & Wenatchee is back there in the distance

Doesn't that look cold?
With the wind blowing, it was!

Playing around with the remote shutter release...
He said something really random that doesn't need to be repeated.

It was a perfect day, I didn't want to come down off that mountain.

yummy yummy in my tummy

2011-02-27T09:51:00.000-08:00

Since I didn't want to do anything I had to do while waiting for Cory to finish running errands yesterday, I headed into the kitchen.
The outcome: soft pretzels, cinnamon rolls, and more ice cream (and of course, lots of dishes - again).

Pretzels have been on my list of things I want to try to make for a while, I even made it one of my 2011 goals. Cory's cousin Rochelle's post last week about her list of stuff to make inspired me to cross pretzels off my own list. I used Alton Brown's recipe, and I just used kosher salt instead of hunting down "pretzel salt"...and I'm not even sure it would have even made a difference - they were DELICIOUS!

I've been saving this jar of mustard we picked up from Colman's Mustard Shop in Norwich when we were across the pond in September for something really really good...this was the perfect occasion. We enjoyed the pretzels hot out of the oven with and the mustard wasn't too overpowering. I couldn't believe how good they were, or how long it took me to finally whip up a batch of these. I feel like making more today...

Last week Cory requested Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls, so I made them ahead of time for breakfast this morning. This time I cut the recipe in half because the full recipe makes 6 or 7 pans of rolls, and I didn't think we needed that many. I also didn't use as much butter and sugar as she suggests for the filling, and I substituted about half of the regular white sugar with brown sugar. Oh, and I took it easy on the maple extract in the icing.

I think they turned out better this time around than the first time I made them.
Bonus: I froze the other two pans to enjoy later! :)

The ice cream...
Since the vanilla bean was sooo good last time, I wanted to make it again but with a different recipe. I tried the Brown Sugar Vanilla Bean recipe from NieNie, and of course it turned out good (it's home made ice cream!), but I think it's a little too sweet. I'm going to stick with David Lebovitz's version out of his ice cream cookbook.

I'd also like to add that this Nutella Chip Cookie recipe is ah-maz-ing. It's just really hard to get your baking time just right so they aren't undercooked or too crunchy.

Now I'm off to work on those things around the house that I avoided getting done yesterday (and maybe some more pretzels).

hello, hello!

2011-02-24T15:37:00.000-08:00

I had started this post before the last conversation heart cookie post, and obviously never got around to finishing it...so I'm doing it now, as I sit here with the rest of the afternoon to myself (because I have to work on Saturday), watching snowflakes fall outside, goldfinches peck away at a thistle feeder hanging by the window, other little chickadees at another feeder hanging in the middle of the yard, and over 20 quail cackling to each other. Yes, I have much more important things to be working on, but that stuff is for the birds.

I haven't forgotten about this little space.
There just hasn't been a whole lot to blog about lately.
I've been trying really hard to get projects I've been working on wrapped up before I start new ones.

Projects like...finally getting all my recipes in some type of manageable order, a huge project for me - hooray! (thank you delicious and a few binders & lots of plastic sleeves.) Next is all the other magazine clippings and eye candy & ideas all over the interwebs (enter pinterest, and more binders & plastic sleeves - I've got a system, and I'm loving it.)

Tackling the bedroom is the next big project...we need to install new closet doors, roll some paint, hang some curtains & sew a QUILT!

I started cutting squares a few weeks ago, and haven't made any more progress besides getting the rest of the fabric cut, I think I ended up with something like 18 patterns. Now I need to get my machine out and sew sew sew!

There has been lots of talk around here about cabinets & counter tops & a tile backsplash & a sink & ~~refrigerator~~ (delivered a couple weeks ago!) & other fun things that come along with "redoing" a kitchen.

Can. Not. Wait. for the bedroom & kitchen to be complete (probably no where in the near future, but I can see the light).

And of course, spring is on it's way...and there is a list of things to get done in the yard as well (it never ends, but I have to say I like the yard work the best).

Ooh, and one other potentially big project we've been talking a lot about is shooting weddings...?
I don't know how many we've attended over the past couple years, (10+, seriously) but the way we look at it is practice for someday when we are the hired photographer.
Maybe.
Eeek, it's someone's big day and we are the professionals and it'skindofalotofpressure and weneedtoinvestinsomemoreequipment but ohmygosh,itwouldbesofun!
"Fusion" videos are kind of a big thing in the wedding photography world, so I used Aaron & Shanon's wedding we went to in January as practice (plus I just wanted to make something really special for them).

I'm kinda digging this video-making thing.
This past long Presidents Day weekend, we took a few extra days off and went to Island Park, Idaho for our annual snowmobiling trip (and had a blast!) As soon as I get through editing all the pictures from the trip, I was going to put another video together (another project, ha!) I'll post it when I'm done....which may be in July!

Conversation Heart Sugar Cookies

2011-02-15T20:48:00.000-08:00

I baked these cookies Friday afternoon knowing that time would be a factor in my icing process (which still didn't allow me enough time for things to dry the way I wanted them to, oh well).
I use the almond sugar cookie recipe from Bake at 350.

I also made a banana cream pie that afternoon...
I'd much rather roll out sugar cookie dough than pie crust.
I hate rolling out pie crust!

The dishes aren't my favorite part either.
I'd rather eat pie.

I just made a basic powdered sugar/water/vanilla icing, but I'm going to pick up some meringue powder before I make my next batch. And I went really light on the gel-paste coloring, but the tiniest bit of that stuff goes a really long way, and I should have used even less than what I did for a not-so-bright/more-pastel color.

I tried using #2 #3 and #5 tips (shoved into the corner of a plastic baggie) for piping around the cookies, and thought the larger were easier to work with, but the #2 looks better after you've flooded the icing. (*noted for next time)

I put a dollop of icing on the cookie and spread it to the sides (and popped air bubbles) with a toothpick. I have squeeze bottles, but didn't want to deal with filling them (plus it's one more thing to clean).

After they were dry (well, almost dry...I didn't have a whole 24 hours to wait), we stamped "conversations" onto the cookies with gel-paste food coloring on a damp paper towel (while sipping wine). I got the idea from Martha, and unfortunately forgot to take pictures of the finished product.

OK, I did take one picture of a cookie that Cory made (after I caught my breath from laughing so hard).
It was supposed to be like one of those super cheezy candies from those little boxes/Facebook joke...

Ha!
Then I wrapped a few bags up all pretty for Cupid to deliver.

I hope everyone had a super sweet Valentine's Day!

WA Hwy 101 - 2009

2011-01-21T19:46:00.000-08:00

For our first anniversary we took a little road trip.
We started in Astoria at the Washington/Oregon boarder and drove north on highway 101. We had taken a trip a few years earlier and seen the northern half of the Oregon Coast, and we wanted to continue our journey where we left off.
It only took me a year and a half to put this slideshow/video together with some of our photos (hey, I'm crossing things off my picture projects list!).
A few things you should know before watching...
** My apologies for how quickly the photos change and how small the text is, I had X-# of images to cram into a 5 minute-18 second song, and this was my first go at this sort of thing.
** Yes, we have a little thing for lighthouses and stacking rocks.
** We totally lucked out with awesome weather for the whole trip!
** I wish I'd taken more pictures of the rhododendrons; there were plenty and they were ginormous and in a rainbow of colors.
** The whole trip was beautiful, can't beat forests + beaches with your favorite person!

Thirty.

2011-01-16T11:12:00.001-08:00

Aaron & Shanon's wedding yesterday was so special, and beautiful, and couldn't have been more perfect. They shaved their guest list down to about thirty of their closest friends and family (pretty tough to do), and we felt so lucky to be able to be part of their big day.

Today, my mister turns thirty!

He didn't want to do anything big. We had plans to go snowmobiling, but we got rained out. So we are spending the day at home, watching the rain pour down outside, and the Seahawks lose.
The birthday fairy made him a bunting banner, red velvet cake with cream cheese buttercream frosting, and fresh vanilla bean ice cream.
Happy Birthday Cory! ♥

**edited to add**
I pulled off a successful little surprise party with his family for dinner. I did a "baked potato bar" which was simple since we've had such a busy week, and it turned out fabulous. He's a hard one to hide anything from, he usually figures things out somehow, but he had no idea I had anything up my sleeve (totally proud of myself!)
And the ice cream...I might finish off the rest of the container for breakfast, yum!

kind of a big weekend for these two...

2011-01-15T09:35:00.000-08:00

Aaron is Cory's best friend, and he's getting married to Shanon at a pretty sweet lodge in Leavenworth today.
They rehearsed last night, and I rehearsed with my camera. Good thing, because I would hate for actual pictures to turn out like this...

Also good, is that I'm not taking their actual wedding photos, just practicing.
Should be a good time, he is so excited (and I've never seen him this way)!

quilting is thrilling!

2011-01-09T09:03:00.000-08:00

this made me chuckle...

Well, I sort of get a little bit excited about them.
I made a baby quilt for a friend a couple months ago. I should clarify that I finished it a couple months ago, (October 3rd to be exact - it was kind of monumental for me), but I had been working on it on and off for several months (since May or June or something, summertime got in the way).

She didn't want to find out if they were having a boy or girl, so I kept the color palette neutral but more fun than the typical pastel yellow & green (an excuse to buy some yardage of Cosmo Cricket!) I also used different textures of fabrics for baby (which ended up making things more difficult with stretch & pull factors - real good for beginners, ya know?)

I did basic straight diagonal lines to quilt it all together. I learned a whole lot about sewing a quilt top to batting and a backing (and then asked for a walking foot for my sewing machine for Christmas - thank you Santa!)

I embroidered "baby Hopkins" in one of the corners, and used that fuzzy material with the little bumps for the backing (I know you know what I'm talking about), and hand stitched the binding (ugh!).

Of course, I had to make a matching bib & burp cloth set to go with it...

There are many steps to the quilt-making-process, and every step I would complete I'd praise myself and feel like I was finally getting closer to finishing! Then I'd get stuck in the next step and feel like I wasn't making any more progress. I'd grumble and put the whole project away for a little while, and then realize- I'd better finish this thing before baby arrives!

I finally finished and I practically vowed that I'd never make another quilt ever again! A few months later, I find myself collecting pretty fabrics to match the new wall color I have picked out for our bedroom. Now I just have to figure out what type of block pattern I want to go with, then start cutting (easier said, than done).

zucchini bread

2011-01-05T22:46:00.000-08:00

1.1.11 - one day late

2011-01-02T15:35:00.000-08:00

It's been getting cooold here at night. So cold that the river puts off steam. The way the sunlight comes through it in the mornings is so beautiful, an I've been admiring it on the way to work and wishing for a chance to take some pictures. Yesterday morning was clear & sunny, so we put on some layers, grabbed our cameras, and headed to the boat launch.
When we couldn't feel our fingers & toes anymore, I reminded Cory that we were "makin memories!"
[click on images to enlarge captions]

goodbye 2010

2010-12-30T23:13:00.000-08:00

A Belated Merry Christmas, and Happy 2011!
I can't believe how quickly December came and went (the whole year, actually)! I stayed busy with lots of little projects (I can't believe I got so many of them finished), and I even had some extra time to enjoy the season :)
One thing I had on Cory's gift list was a calendar. I've done a custom one through Costco every year since 2006 except for last year, I just didn't get all the pictures rounded up, and I promised myself that I wouldn't let that happen again this year. I went through every folder in our 2010 archives and picked some of my favorites for the cover...I had a hard time choosing just a couple, this is how it turned out:

I didn't want to use the photos from my photo-a-day/p365 project because I wanted it to highlight all the memories; it's like our yearbook. I cropped all the images into squares and used the collage tool in Picasa. I love the way it turned out, and so does Cory. When he saw it he exclaimed "this is everything we did!" and requested that we get a poster print made. I'm thinking I'm going to have to do this for the cover every year now, and that's okay with me. It did take a little bit of time, but I think it's totally worth it.

My next project is to do something with all my p365 photos. I made it through most of 2009, and I've done a better job with 2010, and I plan on continuing into 2011. I've already decided on ordering books, I'm just having a hard time with [not quite] 365 images per year that are both horizontal and vertical, and have a chronological order...I don't want too-too many pages in the book, or too much white space, and I also want to have the date & caption in there somehow. I just need to do something, sooner rather than later.

Another daunting project is to get all picture folders from all computers and hard drives organized onto one master external hard drive. So all of everything is in [at least] one place, not scattered around in 4 or 5 different spots (recently, it's taken a little bit of digging to find certain things I've been looking for). Let me explain the problem: I don't want to file a folder away in the archives until I've run it through my workflow and deleted the bad and edited the good and it's ready to be filed away...I just never get to that part, I have no "flow!" All of our pictures end up in the "dump folder" (literally, that's what it's called), and that's where they stay, all ten-thousand + of them over the last 15 months or so (seriously).

Going through all the folders in the "dump folder" in search of some of my faves for my collage reminded me of just how busy we were this past year, and how many stories went untold in 2010 (I know there is still a big two week trip across the pond in there too). I'm not going to say that I'm going to dig into the old ones and try to play catch-up, but I will try to do a better job going forward.
We did print a few B&W 12 x 18's from our trip (added film grain & contrast):

We have all this fun & fancy camera equipment, and we aren't doing a whole lot with our photography. I want this to change in the new year! I'm feeling really motivated to get some of these time-consuming photo projects crossed off my list (before it gets really carried away and I get waaaay too far behind).

Wow!! This was basically a real wordy post explaining/complaining (?) about how I've got my work cut out for me! I think I'll be doing some editing & organizing this weekend!

gettin' my craft on

2010-12-16T21:56:00.000-08:00

I may not have cookies baked, or the tree completely decorated, or all my presents wrapped...
but I do have a cute yarn wreath & felt garland dangling in my entryway.

inspired by this garland and this wreath

I also sported this little number to our annual Christmas bash at the bank...fresh out of my sewing machine.

This is the second dress I made this year (number one). I am by no means a seamstress, but I think there is something neat about fabric + thread = something you can wear.

Woody Goomsba

2010-12-09T20:20:00.000-08:00

This video is ridiculous.
It raps about all kinds of things in little ol' Leavenworth.
You may find yourself laughing out loud, or shaking your head, or both.

I don't know who Woody Goomsba, but he reminds me of Karl in the Nutcracker Museum up there.

And while I'm talking about raps about cities - here's one about Bellingham that I saw a while back...it's a good one too!

Bundt - that's a funny word

2010-12-05T08:09:00.000-08:00

Last weekend, we went to take a couple Christmas photos for a friend and their almost two month old little boy, Caleb.

On our way home, I asked if we could stop at a thrift store that I always drive by, but have just never been in. The Philadelphia House is a Christian run thrift store in this cute little old yellow house, and 95% of all donations go back to the community. There was sooo much STUFF stuffed into this little house, but we quickly moved through each room, spending a little more time digging through kitchen stuff. I brought home a cute little Nordic Ware Bundt pan in perfect shape for under three bucks. (Score! I've been wanting a bundt pan for a while now.)

Of course I put it to use the next morning...we had Joy the Baker's poppy seed cake (it was muffin-ish enough for breakfast) with just a plain glaze on it. I cut the recipe in half since my pan is only 6" and it baked up perfectly. I think we are going to be good friends, me and my little bundt pan.

Best Friends since 4th grade

2010-11-29T19:07:00.000-08:00

Our roles will be reversed sometime within the next year, and I couldn't be more thrilled!

Happy Thanksgiving

2010-11-25T08:05:00.000-08:00

Took this video of the feathered friends in our back yard flocking to the feeder yesterday. We figured we'd feed them since it was 3 degrees when we woke up (THREE degrees!)
I'll be scarfing down just like them later this afternoon. :)
Have a good turkey day! Gobble-gobble!

apple pecan sticky buns & some yard work

2010-11-21T21:03:00.000-08:00

[So, I started this post back on November 7th, didn't finish, forgot about it, and somehow two weeks managed to slip by...eek!]

Yesterday morning (ahem, like fifteen mornings ago), I woke up early and couldn't get back to sleep. I tossed and turned, and thought about the next morning being daylight savings time...and whhhy can't I ever sleep in, just once?!

I did what any normal person would do whose husband jokingly reminded her the night before that it was the first time in several weeks that there wasn't any type of home baked dessert in the house...I got out of bed, and headed for the kitchen. I opened a packet of yeast, mixed it with some warm water and flour, and let it sit and rise for a while.

I rolled it out, sprinkled it with cinnamon & sugar, chopped up some pecans & an apple, made a caramely sauce to pour all over the top...and around the time I was wishing I was just waking up, this is what was in my oven:

Good morning, delicious!

I knew we'd need something to fuel us for a day of yard work.
Not the maintenance/upkeep type of yard work, like yard-WORK-yard-work...which we haven't really done since we finished the patio in the spring, and I was totally NOT looking forward to it.
We had a little retaining wall-ish thing to build in the corner of the yard where it slopes by our irrigation filter. And then mounds of dirt to flatten out and rake, and gravel to spread.
Of course I didn't take a before picture, and I can't find anything in the archives to compare it to, but here's the during:

and the after:

One small project to get accomplished before it gets cold and snow comes, accomplished!
Next spring we'll straighten out that grass line and I plan on a garden of dahlias in that there bed of dirt.

[It's amazing what a difference two weeks will make. I was breaking a little sweat helping with this project the other weekend...and this weekend we have that white stuff on the ground.]

Feil's as Fallon & Fey

2010-11-01T22:12:00.000-07:00

We went to a SNL themed Halloween party over the weekend...we showed up as Jimmy Fallon & Tina Fey from the Weekend Update.

We dodged raindrops and jumped in puddles (seriously, jumped) on the walk back to the truck, and we had a fabulous time!

Welcome November, I can't believe we have just two short months left in 2010!
I hope to maybe be checking into this space a little more often from here on out.
[fingers crossed]

photos at the fair

2010-10-10T11:58:00.000-07:00

3 or 4 days before leaving on vacation for two weeks, we decided to enter some pictures in the Chelan County Fair...you know, just for fun.

Because it would be fun to go through folders and folders of files to pick a few of our favorites, and it would be fun to edit them and order 12x18 and 16x20 inch prints, and it would be fun mount them on foam core...

to fill out the entry forms and to take them to the fairgrounds...

to find out the next day that we didn't win anything (which was fine), but we heard that the photos that did win certain categories weren't all that fabulous...

So instead of packing like we should have been doing Thursday night, we drove out to Cashmere, paid the fair admission to see what the judges thought were better.

I didn't see what they saw, but oh well.
I thought maybe we'd have a chance at the people's choice by the end of the weekend.

The people voted on "Busy Bee," which is the name of the photo I entered up there of the bee on the apple blossom. Hey! The people liked me!!
There was another photo titled "Busy Bee" (seriously, what are the chances?), and I'm not sure how they determined which "Busy Bee" photo was the winner, but it wasn't mine.

Oh well, we did still have fun!

sew, I made some things the other day....

2010-10-02T07:44:00.000-07:00

I didn't take a good detailed picture of the finished product, but it's a quilted table runner. I pulled out some of my fave fabrics from my stash, cut 2-inch strips, sewed 'em all together, then added the border. Ran the whole thing with the batting through the sewing machine a few (ahem, several) times (this part seemed to take forever!), and attached the backing.
Here was my inspiration:

I also made a couple other little things that are part of a baby gift for a friend. The entire project isn't quite finished yet, so I'm not going to spill the beans before I give it to her.

Also, the soup! The roasted veggie minestrone I talked about making on my sick day...I didn't want to stand and chop all the veggies, and roast the zucchini & mushrooms (or crank my oven up to 500* for that matter), and peel & dice tomatoes (we came home to a plethora in the garden and I'd rather use fresh than canned)...so I didn't make the roasted veggie minestrone. I made cauliflower soup instead, which I've made before so I knew it was simple and delicious. And it was. And it hit the spot. And I made the roasted veggie minestrone two days later. And that was good too. I told Cory that I'm starting to feel a little bit like the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld.

feeling a bit under the weather

2010-09-28T08:47:00.000-07:00

I came home from work early yesterday because I wasn't feeling so well...when my alarm went off this morning, I felt even worse. Instead of bringing whatever nasty germs I have around other people, this is what I'll be doing from the couch today:

1) watch morning shows like Regis & Kelly and The View

2) do some catching up on my Google Reader

3) enter Pioneer Woman's 50D giveaway, because another new camera (for me!) would be excellent

4) think about making Roasted Vegetable Minestrone for dinner tonight because soup would be good and I've got fresh veggies in the garden, but it seems like a little too much work in the kitchen for a sickie like me (we'll see how I'm feeling later this afternoon)

5) go through some pictures from the trip, we finally got all the memory cards unloaded and there is close to 3000 images...oof!

6) finalize all the editing of pictures from cousin's wedding and get her DVD in the mail

7) start on doing the same for another wedding we went to this last weekend (yes, the day after we got home)

8) mentally get into fall mode. I knew when we left, that the season would change on us by the time we returned home...and it sure did! Time to change the decor in the house, there are several things to get done in the yard, and my mind is buzzing with ideas and inspiration for indoor wintertime projects (making a list of these things of course, my head is too achy to be moving about trying to get things accomplished)

9) September is national sewing month, and I've got a few projects to finish...so depending on how I'm feeling later, I may be sitting at my sewing machine

10) spend the rest of the day dreaming about tea and scones with clotted cream....
(*image above from Peacocks Tearoom in Ely)

We're home!

2010-09-27T16:30:00.000-07:00

We're sorting through 2 weeks worth of photos from the UK, Amsterdam & Paris, unpacking, doing laundry, and trying to get back to a normal routine. I'll be back soon to talk about our travels...

Hello September!

2010-09-09T18:39:00.000-07:00

I started this post over a week ago...on September first, actually (how did it get to be the 9th already?)
Now we are trying to get everything crossed off our "to do before we leave for London" list, and finishing this post is one of them. I didn't want to leave you hanging in Lake Chelan when we'll be across the pond exploring the UK for the next two weeks.
I also want to let you know that I had good intentions for the rest of August. I did, I really really did! I had visions of posting updates several times a week, and telling y'all about all the busy things we were up to...and then the time slipped away as we were onto our next thing. Good intentions I tell ya...they were there.
So, August in a nutshell:
My cousin got married...Mr & Mrs Terrien!

The wedding was at her parent's summer home in Orondo, and they have a cherry orchard, so cherries were worked into the theme of the wedding. Those are cherries on their glasses hand painted by a talented family friend with their names & the date on the bottom.
I'm still working on getting around to editing all the pictures...I'll post an album here when that happens (but don't hold your breath!) In the meantime please enjoy this video of the girlfriend of another cousin fighting for the bouquet (Becky won!):

Their rehearsal happened to fall on the anniversary of my other cousin's five year wedding anniversary, which is the wedding that Cory & I met at. The rehearsal dinner was held at the same place as that wedding too. I'm not sure if that makes much sense to many of you, but it was kind of neat...we even ended up staring at the sky and watching for meteors just like we had done five years before.

I could not find a thing to wear to the wedding, (her color was purple, and I wanted to match -of course). I searched high and low when we were in Seattle and I was ready to throw down bucko bucks for something, just something that was the right color, and fabric that I wouldn't roast in the 95*+ heat in, that was summery but formal enough for a wedding. And then if it met all the criteria, that it was in my size, please! No luck, so I hit up JoAnn for a dress pattern and some silky-like purple floral material & linen for the lining. I spent a good chunk of my early August evenings measuring, and cutting, and pinning, and sewing. I did get some help with the invisible zipper in the back and the hem on the bottom from my sweet mother in law, but it was pretty fun to say that I made my dress when people commented on it! :)

Aside from pretending to be a seamstress, I've been spending lots of quality time with my sewing machine working on other projects...a travel purse/pouch for our trip, a baby quilt for a friend due in a few weeks, a bib & burp cloth set for another friend who just welcomed a baby girl to their family.

When I'm not sewing, I can be found in the kitchen. The other weekend I made 3 batches of raspberry jam, a few jars of pickles, and 7 pints of diced tomatoes. We're also trying to eat up lots of zucchini, cucumbers, and beets from the garden. Anyone have any good recipes for zucchini? I've been shredding or dicing it and freezing it in 2 cup bags, since that's how much most cake/muffin/bread recipes call for. And now I'm officially on the hunt for the best pizza dough recipe - we've been grilling lots of pizza. Oh, and fresh peach ice cream is good stuff!

A couple weeks ago we went to the NCW Fair in Waterville. Of course we brought our cameras along and we went on a tour of the wheat fields and hunted for old barns.

Perhaps I should share more pictures from this adventure when we return from our trip...we had a lot of fun and got several interesting shots that day.

Paddle boarding.

Have you heard of it? You stand on a giant surfboard, and paddle. The concept may seem kind of lame, but once you are on the thing it's pretty fun. I've only been once, but Cory has been going quite often with a friend. It's a really good work out, and I found it to be pretty relaxing to row along.

I think that's a pretty good "in a nutshell" list of what we've been up to.
The next day and a half we are getting packed and taking care of a few last minute things before taking off for two weeks! The other evening I was revisiting the London Quick Guide on Decor8 that I had bookmarked a while back...getting excited!!
I hope to maybe post a picture or two from over there, just to show you how much fun we're having :)

Lake Chelan - Viall Summer Vacation

2010-08-17T20:04:00.000-07:00

my last post I said I'd share the photos from our visit with LindsayLoo & her family in Lake Chelan last week...so here are a few (because really, that's all I took).
**Please excuse the poor image quality, they are SOOC and resized down to blog-size. I haven't done a whole lot of editing to any photos recently because I'm holding out for when we get Adobe Lightroom (which is amazing, by the way), but between a new camera, and a big trip planned, and a few other expenses we might wait several more weeks before splurging a few hundred $ on photo editing software.

The drive up there.

I love this one because I look a little crazy (why am I standing like that?), and she has a crispy sunburn (typical after the first day of vacation), and it just reminds me of when we were about 12 years old.

Pretty girls.

Silly girls!

And then came the entertainment...

She sang and danced for a good 10-15 minutes, such a little ham she is...too cute!

camera's first adventure

2010-08-11T17:27:00.000-07:00

We did get out on a little adventure with the new camera the weekend before last...went for a drive on the Chumstick Highway through Plain & Lake Wenatchee (kind of in the Leavenworth area). It POURED down rain, so we did more driving than stopping for picture taking. I think I decided that I'll let Cory keep "the monster" and I'll stick with my little Rebel for just a while longer because that thing is too big for me.

oh, and the mosquitoes are thick up there...we got eaten alive!
Mosquitos: 14 / C&M: 1

Last night we headed up to Lake Chelan for a visit with my bestest friend Lindsay and her family on their annual vacation visit. Her four year old neice, Sofia is quite the little entertainer. Haven't downloaded the pics off the camera yet, but I'll be sharing soon.

cooking in my kitchen...

2010-08-08T10:13:00.000-07:00

The other night I cooked my little tail off, before I knew it the time was midnight and dishes were piled on every counter. What I made:

Looking at the finished goods now, it doesn't look like I really did all that much, but I assure you that lots of chopping, and measuring & mixing of ingredients, and cooking of brines, and simmering of sauces, and tempering of custards went into those jars.

bread & butter pickles with some of the plethora of cucumbers coming out of my garden
pickled beets (again from the garden)
custard base for ice cream. I infused it with a whole lotta mint (from the garden) and I'll add mini-chocolate chips to it after it freezes in the ice cream maker.
pizza sauce (again with tomatoes from the garden)
pizza dough for pizzas on the BBQ (if you've never made your own pizza dough and cooked it on the grill, you must! - it's super easy, and delicious. Tomato + Basil + Mozzarella is the best!)

I also wanted to make some type of strawberry cake, the choices were P-Dub's Strawberry Shortcake Cake and Joy the Baker's Strawberry Cake. I asked Cory to help me choose based on just the photos. I didn't tell him anything about where I had found the recipes, but somehow he knew exactly who had made each one. Those two ladies are my fave's and I think he has learned that most things I bake (or talk about baking) have come from them. Funny that he knows which based on only the photos.
Of course he wanted the more difficult, more time-consuming-to-make option of the two, but he knows that the Pioneer Woman never disappoints, and she didn't (I'm thinking about a piece right now for breakfast...)
I still want to try Joy's boxed cake mix & strawberry jell-o version.

Oh! Speaking of cakes...if you've got a plethora of zucchini coming out of your garden, you should make this cake. You must make this cake! Pleeease make this cake! It has zucchini & pineapple in it, and the frosting calls for low-fat cream cheese and only 2 tablespoons of butter...so it's practically healthy! I think it's like carrot cake on crack, and Cory likes it better than German Chocolate (which is his all-time-fave, even though this cake doesn't have any chocolate).

I baked mine in two round 9" pans to make a layered cake instead of sheet cake, but do it in a 9x13 baking dish and you can just eat it right out of the pan (which makes the recipe even easier!)

Happy Baking!

oh snap!

2010-07-31T00:10:00.000-07:00

Cory has been saving up all his extra money (literally, pennies) for a new camera.
I have him the "go ahead" because I may secretly want a new camera...
(not quite sure if it's his or mine?)
And I was getting tired of hearing about the cool features daily.
And after officially booking our tickets to London in September,
we figured we'd want a new camera for the trip.
And then B&H put it on sale, so that sealed the deal.

Hello 7D!! Holy-geez this thing is fancy!
Waaay too many buttons and functions and settings and options...
Add a battery grip and a big lens to the mix, and you've got one heavy piece of equipment.
I think we already nicknamed it "the monster"
I'll let him figure out how to operate the thing (he's reading the instruction manual and playing around right now), then I'll steal it after he shares his wisdom with me :)
I can tell you that I'm already loving the HD video this thing shoots, the 3" LCD screen on the backside, and that the ISO goes up to 12,800 baby!

We MUST go on a little adventure this weekend!

thunder rolls & lightening strikes

2010-07-28T22:45:00.000-07:00

We've been really busy lately, hence the 7 week hiatus.

Tonight I was going to take some time and get you call caught up on what we've been up to (seriously, I was...I had a post all started and everything), that was before we ran out the door at 9:00pm with our cameras & tripods to drive up a mountain to take pictures of lightening.

I figured the blog could wait, it's not too often we have the chance to photograph this stuff!

That's been my excuse with anything blog-related for a while now...we've been having too much fun with life.

I'm sorry for such a long absence. I know this space has suffered from terrible neglect recently and I hope to change that soon...it's just so hard to come back to blog-land after being gone for so long.

almost mr & mrs

2010-06-08T22:34:00.001-07:00

Brandon & Jayme's wedding is on Saturday. We are in charge of their "guest book" and they want a huge photo mat to sign with a photo of them inside to frame and hang on their wall. We've been trying to schedule a photoshoot for about three weeks now, because they want the photo to be in the boat on the water. The problem is...we would either get rained out (we've had a lot of rain over here lately), or it would be too windy (which isn't out of the ordinary), or the evening wouldn't work with one of our four schedules. Tonight the weather was as good as it was going to get, so we went down and snapped some photos. They have lots to choose from (something to the tune of 200+), but I think this is one of my faves:

And then Brandon went for a tow (because you can't take your boat out and have such nice water and not go for a tow...even if it's fa-reez-ing!)

And then he tried doing a surface 360 and fell.

And then he hopped out pretty quick!

2010-06-06T01:27:00.000-07:00

ballerinas

2010-06-05T10:12:00.000-07:00

this is our ballet trio.

Miss Anna-our instructor, Kerri-a big inspiration, and moi.
We've all hung out together every Wednesday evening since September.
Thursday night we had our end of the year performance.
Totally different than the organized productions I was a part of growing up, but still totally fun.
It has been 8 years since I've been on stage (or in pointe shoes)!....Well, we've been practicing the pointe shoe thing for several weeks now.

Here I am behind stage getting in the rosin box (it adds some stick to your shoes so you don't slip - which would be a bad thing), and warming up my feet a bit.

We were Oysters in the ADPA Summer Ballet Showcase which showcased excerpts from "The Dancing Mermaid" (ooh, that sounded really fancy).

We did lots and lots of bourree's, and wore fake eyelashes, and buns with hairnets, and I'm pretty sure our dance got the loudest applause! :)

June 2nd

2010-06-02T21:54:00.000-07:00

seriously, it's already the second of June?
I'm not quite sure where the last 3o days went,
but I'd like them back, please.
I was meaning to tell y'all about our visit with Miss Ree.
And I was meaning to tell y'all about the tulips.
And I was meaning to update y'all about how our grass grew.
And I meant to tell y'all about a ton of other things....
But somehow the calendar won.
I feel like the calendar is kicking my butt, actually.
Monday marked our second anniversary,
and today I am closer to 30 than I am to 20.
Time is flying by, but we are enjoying it.
The other evening we were looking through our picture archives from the last two years, mainly at the progress of the yard.

Here, Cory is mowing the lawn on Memorial Day weekend, 2008
(actually he was just stirring up dust trying to keep the weeds down).

and here I am mowing our lawn with our new Honda mower, same weekend 2 years later (ok, really I'm just posing with the new mower before mowing the lawn...but I did mow it!)
We discussed who got to mow it for the first time, from here on out it will be who has to mow it...and I think I know how that will turn out ;)

We've still got a little bit of work to do with the bricks on the edge of the patio, but here's how it looked as of Sunday:

Since then, Cory got my big blue stripped umbrella down from the attic of the garage and hung a string of outdoor lights around the corner. I could sit and watch the birds and hang out all day back there.

Here is a look at how it has evolved over the past 2 years or so....

july 2007 - back before we knew a patio space even existed

may 2008 - unburying the patio, cutting back a little of the green monster

feb 2009 - cutting more of the green monster and tidying the rest of the yard

may 2009 - discovering more HUGE glacial rocks and removing stuff over the hill

july 2009 - rockery in place, BBQ pad & stumps removed, everything is cleared out for the most part

Then we took the rest of the summer off. It's funny when you look through the folders of files and it says "wakeboarding/wakesurfing/on the water/more wakeboarding..." It was too hot for any real yard work I suppose.

We resumed work early this spring, as soon as the ground was thawed. On our to-do-list in a nutshell:

remove stump from shed and repair foundation & wall.
cement work (a few different projects in different areas).
dig trenches for irrigation.
install irrigation system.
level & till up the soil in the yard.
rake & drag to prep for grass seed.
build raised garden beds & haul in soil.
haul in base gravel & sand, and lay pavers for patio.
cut pavers, set pavers.
ask ourselves 852 times why we made the decision to extend the patio with pavers instead of just pouring cement?
dig in bricks to edge pavers.
mortar in bricks so pavers don't shift.
admire all the hard work that went into laying the dang pavers and be thankful for the decision we made to extend the patio with pavers instead of just pouring cement.
plant stuff and watch it grow.
sit back and relax.
oh, and mow the lawn every week or so.

We are pretty much at the end of that list, and it feels oh-so-good.

May 1st

2010-05-01T08:20:00.000-07:00

seriously, it's already the first of May!?
ohmygoodness!wherehavethepasttwomonthsgone?
Oh wait, I know...We've been working in the yard every weekend for the past 10 weekends. Except for the one a couple weeks ago when we went to Seattle to pick up some pavers (for the back yard - so I still consider it "work"), and meet P-Dub

(which really deserves a whole post of its own)

and then to Mt Vernon to snap a few-seven-hundred-or-so photos of tulips

(which also needs a separate image-only post of its own)

So with all of our business I must admit that the poor inside of the house has been neglected and finding time to clean has not been top priority. Ok, it's not that bad...I've been keeping up here and there, but some things are seriously starting to pile up around here. I read this article, Finding Time, in my Sunset magazine the other day, and I'm using it as my excuse for not having everything spick n' span. I feel like posting it on the fridge! I've been trying to find a little more me time lately, focusing on things that truly make me happy and feed my soul. The other night we headed down to the carnival (Funtastic is in town for the Appleblossom Festival) with our cameras & tripods to take some long exposure shots of the rides, and it was waaay more fun than doing the dishes (they just had to wait 'till morning).

This weekend is Appleblossom, and we still have work that will get done, but we are going to take it a little more easy. We told ourselves that we deserve a little rest after all of our weekends of hard work. All of it paid off on Tuesday when the man from VitaGreen showed up and gave us a lawn.

We can't walk on the grass (well, the almost grass), and we don't have anything major that we have to get done this weekend...just lots of little projects. Lots and lots and lots of little projects, that we'll have plenty of time to get done while the grass grows in for the next several weeks.

So for this weekend: Cory got talked into running the 5K this morning when we were at a bar with some friends last night. So after that, we plan on visiting some nurseries to scope out some plants, plant my veggie garden, hopefully finish the patio we started last weekend, do some festival stuff...and not clean the house :)

busy busy bees

2010-04-17T08:36:00.000-07:00

Sorry I've been MIA for a while. Easter was a few weeks ago, I know. We're busy little bees, but hey that yard is looking good! Irrigation works, we have a dogwood tree, I transplanted a peony plant that was given to us as a wedding gift (favorite flower, ever), river rock & stepping stones are spread on the side of the house, built and secured 4 4x8 raised garden beds, and the ground is ready for hydroseed after one more raking.
And we've been playing with our cameras :)
...more on that later.

Happy Easter!

2010-04-03T22:05:00.000-07:00

Well the weather cooperated with us today and we got the front yard tilled x2 (back & forth in two directions). We couldn't believe how many roots we are still pulling out from the gigantic tree that was cut down a while back. We had just a couple time-outs to chain up the big ones.

There was one casualty...Cory stepped on one of my daffodils while maneuvering the beast of a rototiller and getting it turned around. Doh!

He quickly whipped out his pocket knife and plunked them in a plastic bottle from the recycling bin and filled it with water. Good save!

We did our Easter egg thing after dinner tonight. Tomorrow morning we head to church, then home to tackle the back yard, that is- hoping we are still able to move tomorrow. My back and legs are dead from being bent over all day picking up rocks & roots, and Cory's arms are felling jello-ish. One thing is for certain...we will be enjoying some ham at the end of the day!

seriously?

2010-04-02T12:20:00.000-07:00

we are rototilling this weekend....

happy things

2010-03-30T21:42:00.000-07:00

buttermilk.
I've always shied away from recipes that call for the stuff, but I must admit I've discovered a new love. I've made several things with it and plan on several more, and I just have to tell you that Martha's best buttermilk pancakes recipe really do make the best pancakes.

birds.
The quail start calling and the chickadees really start chirping just before dusk, and it puts a smile on my face. We can't seem to keep their feeder full...we keep filling it, and they keep emptying it.

fresh berries.
I bought my first box of strawberries of the season, the yummy juicy flavor isn't quite there yet, but with a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkling of brown sugar I didn't really care.

modern family.
Seriously hilarious show! If you haven't seen it yet, you must tune in.

morning commute.
I've been loving the reflection of the train in the still water of the river when it's sitting on the tracks and the way the light hits Saddle Rock when I cross the bridge. A good way to start my morning. I've been thinking about photographing this, but there are no good/accessible vantage points.

yard work.
We've been making good progress, but it's getting hard for me to find motivation for the hard-work stuff...I just want to plant things and watch them grow (and we are still weeks from that).

This was after 39 wheelbarrows of gravel, and then we got rained out.

It will pay off though, soon enough.

A happy thought....

good burgers & frigid waters

2010-03-23T17:03:00.000-07:00

Last summer we tested out all the burger joints between Leavenworth & Chelan (well, all except for two, we made it to 8 out of 10) in search of the BEST burger joint. We called it "BurgerFest 2009" and we ordered the same thing at each so we could compare apples to apples, er-- "burgers to burgers," and we filled out a scorecard I had made.
(Still working on getting the mini book completed - slacker!)
EZ's Burger Deluxe was the winner!
Let me just tell you a little something about EZ's...it's the BEST! They have "tightwad Tuesday" and you can get their gigantic deluxe burger for $1.99/$4.69 for the meal.
I worked a half day today (have to work on Saturday), so Cory took me out to lunch...guess where we went?
You can also "eat great after 8:00 for $2.88" which is a little late, but that is about the time we get all the tools put away and get showered after working in the yard on the weekends...so guess where we've been the last two Saturday nights? You get a burger (we add Tillamook), choice of fries/tots/potato salad, & a drink...such a deal!
Aaand it is sooo delicious, they have the best sauce!
We took our EZ's to a park down on the water today, it was maybe 60* or so - a nice day to sit on a bench an enjoy a burger & fries. Around the corner walks two high school-ish-aged kids with towels. We munched on our fries and wondered what on earth...? They walked down the ramp to the dock. She stripped down to her bikini, and he was wearing a speedo! They chatted amongst themselves for a few minutes, and we tried to figure out if they were going to sunbathe or go for a swim...what are they doing?
Then they walked about half way back up the ramp, held hands, and ran for it. They jumped out of the water just about as fast as they went in. I shivered for them. Now they can say "we jumped in the river in March." Yes, the mighty Columbia on the 23rd of March (and I think you are crazy to jump in the river sans wetsuit in June!)
Oh, and this reminds me -- I saw a wakeboard boat with someone in tow the other weekend, and I was a little bit jealous...until I thought about how cold the water must be! I don't care if you are wearing a wetsuit, spring is just arriving and that water is fa-reezing!
Some people are just crazier than me I guess.
I think I'll wait for the weather to warm up just and bit and for that ice cold snowmelt to pass thankyouverymuch (but please summer, hurry!)
We finished our burgers, snapped a picture, and went about our merry way.

Went to check out fun things like rototillers and gravel & sand - which are the next things we need for our yard - so that we can get it DONE - so that when summer does get here and the river is warm (ahem, it never gets warm...just not as cold) we don't have major yard work to do - and we can go out and play on the water.

plantings

2010-03-19T23:39:00.000-07:00

peony

dogwood

weeping cherry

hydrangea

lilac

asparagus fern

spiraea

lavender

I'm noticing a pinks & purples theme here...not intentionally planned that way, I suppose that's just what I'm drawn to.

Irrigation

2010-03-11T23:12:00.000-08:00

not much motivation for blogging lately, here is how we've spent our past 2 weekends...

Cleaned out the shed, to clear a pathway to the stump of a tree that needed to be dug out when the excavator comes

A tree grew straight up the side of the garage, and fell in a windstorm a few years back, with the roots all uprooted on the inside and was never really taken care of. The roots started to sprout, you can see the dead shrubbery behind The Monte (the other day a neighbor asked if that car came with the house, I told her it came with my husband).
See the tree back there peeking through the jungle?

(photo circa 7/2007)

We took all the scrap metal from the shed up to Burts metal recycling in Cashmere. So much fun to chuck stuff off the tailgate, and thankful that we didn't have to worry about scratching up a brand spankin new pickup! :)

Prepped the "drain box for the source." Those are the exact words Cory just told me when I asked him what that "valve thing under the green round thing" is called - it's for the source.

mapped out our irrigation plans...

There is that stump.
Cory loooved playing with the marking paint, while he played with it, I took the opportunity to photograph our quail habitat

a quarter of a mile of 1" PVC ready to go in the ground

Cory brought the excavator home Friday afternoon and the boys got right to work, (I busted out my tripod again)

Saturday morning we enjoyed Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls for breakfast before going out to play in the dirt.

When our trenches were dug, we laid & glued lots'a pipe (a constant, 5 zones, and a drip line)

Then we hooked a hose from the house to the filter to test things out since we have to wait another four weeks or so before the irrigation/ditch water is turned on

Still lots of work to be done before any little seedlings will make their appearance around this place. We are doing a little rain dance hoping to get things settled in a bit.

This weekend you can find us out playing in the dirt, at Lowes, or the home & garden show.

::edited:: weeks ago we had all the proper people come out and check everything out to make sure that we were okay to be digging around. Our system isn't new development, we are expanding on an already existing irrigation line that is fed by the irrigation district (not city water) that previously ran through the yard.

Decay

2010-03-08T11:36:00.000-08:00

Photo club meeting tonight, the theme this month is decay...

Again, my apologies for being a terrible blogger, we've been busy busy bees. Maybe a post about the progress of our yard later this week sometime. I'm tired, and sore, and have to figure out a way to show & tell without boring you too much.

a couple non-related items for your Saturday morning

2010-02-27T07:49:00.000-08:00

The ballet class I've been attending weekly since September started with 3 ladies, was down to 2, and is now up to 5, and we are working on a piece for the annual performance in May.
I saw this image today, and I'm thinking about digging out my pointe shoes for class next week.

source, via sfgirlbybay

It poured. down. rain. yesterday.
All. day. long.
Not the drizzly type of rain. The really big wet drops of downpour rain. All day. It didn't let up.
Our front yard looked rather swampy when I got home, so I pulled out my tripod and tried a few things...

Didn't really turn out exactly how I was wanting, the camera wouldn't want to focus in such low light with a ten second exposure, so I had to turn the porch light on, which looks like a flash (I'm not a fan of flash!), and took the effect out of the picture, but I tried. And trying to take better photographs is something I want to work on, so I was happy I busted that tripod out at least. Oh, and a car drove down the street during those ten seconds, so I thought that was neat.

Of course, today the mountains are full of snow. Even the low hills around here are capped white. What a better day for a snowmobile ride, right? Oh wait, I have to work...but Cory is going. Lucky duck. He felt bad that I wouldn't be able to go and asked permission, and I said go! It's not like we can really get much work done in the mud-bogged yard today anyway. Excavator comes next weekend and there's some stuff I still want to get picked up and moved before everything gets leveled. He can take care of that this week.

We had salmon with asparagus and au gratin potatoes last night, and it was really really good.
I'm going to make my merlot pot roast again tonight, we tried it back in January and oh my goodness!! I modified a couple of things in the recipe, but the main idea is to load the pot up with mushrooms, and you can't really go wrong with a bottle of wine as cooking liquid. Should be good after a day of snowmobiling, right?

Gotta get ready for work, have a wonderful weekend!

Quail Friends

2010-02-23T21:50:00.001-08:00

source

We have some big overgrown arborvitae trees, that are more like gigantic messy twenty-foot-tall bushes out back (you can see them all back there in the corner in the picture on the previous post). Eventually, they will come down, and maybe be replaced with yummy lilac or something...but that is not in our immediate plan of action.
So the trees will stay, and so will the quail that call it home.
Yep, quail!
Genus: Callipepla / New World Quail
Species: Callipepla californica / California Quail (it's their state bird) or Valley Quail
...I've been researching :)

I really liked this diagram for some reason, source

Quail live in large family groups of 10-200 birds called coveys. The covey residing in our old nasty arborvitae is about 45 members strong. It's fun to watch them march over the big boulders and across the street, one after the other...they keep coming, and coming, and coming...

New World quails nest on the ground in a shallow depression 1-2 inches deep, lined with stems and grasses under a shrub or brush pile. They like their habitat to be broken and scrubby with access to cover and food...definition of our arborvitae.

"In the spring, these ground-nesting birds lay 10-15 brown, spotted eggs in a shallow grass-lined scrape. The young are born precocial. This means that they are born self-feeding; they do not rely on their parents for food. Just 10 days after hatching, these youngsters are able to fly when in danger. These ground-nesting species must develop quickly because of their vulnerability to predators." --fundwildlife.org
I love the fuzzy little babies!

"As ground dwelling birds, their short and powerful legs are well adapted for terrestrial locomotion. They can fly rapidly, but only for short distances. When alarmed they prefer to run, flying only as a last resort." --source. Wikipedia has a similar description..."Although they are capable of short bursts of strong flight New Word quails prefer to walk, and will run from danger (or hide), taking off explosively only as a last resort."
When 45 of these birds take flight, it's loud!

"The California Quail’s head plume, or topknot, looks like a single feather, but it is actually a cluster of six overlapping feathers." --allaboutbirds.org
Hmm, I didn't know that!

I'm so happy we are able to provide such good habitat for our feathered friends. Even though eventually our overgrown arborvitae has to be cut down (there is no way to salvage it and just cut it back, it's gotta go), but I'm hoping to lure them to stay with some of their favorite seeds. Give them food, water, and cover, and they will come (or stay, hopefully). And realistically, they will be safe in their home for probably the next year or so.

Such cute little creatures!

a perfect Sunday

2010-02-21T19:19:00.001-08:00

Start the morning with my mondo mug of coffee.
[I love my weekend mug, it's extra big.]
Can't go wrong with a fried egg, melted cheese, a couple slices of bacon on an english muffin with some mayo for breakfast.
Oh, and some orange slices.
[I can tell a difference between Fred Meyer and Haggen brand muffins, and FM are so much better!]
Out in the back yard we go to dig in the dirt and pull pull pull out crabgrass, it grows deep.
[Have I mentioned that our back yard is huge, and filled with crabgrass? - It is huge, and it's filled with crabgrass!]
Cory grilled up some hot dogs on the bbq, we enjoyed them while basking in the sun on a boulder.
[We also went on a picnic at a park last Tuesday. A picnic, in the middle of February! The weather has been gorgeous around here lately.]
More digging in the dirt, raked up sticks & twigs, moved more rock, and leveled out piles of dirt.
Load up 3 bins & 2 wheelbarrows full of debris in the back of the truck to take to the dump trailer at the shop.
Drive to the shop and unload debris.
[Last weekend, we loaded an entire trailer full of debris, and we paid a hefty price to get rid of 1.5 TONS of mainly pine needles!]
Take a detour on the way home to spy on other homes landscaping designs, trying to get ideas.
[I'm so happy the days are staying lighter longer...]
Shower, dinner, plop down on the couch and watch the Olympics, and probably some cake in a little bit.
I already know I'm going to be tired and sore tomorrow, and the blister on my finger really hurts!
[Next weekend will be a similar story.]

I thought I'd share a photo taken after our progress from last weekend.

All that dead scruffy stuff is crabgrass. We don't really get along too well. The orange circle marks the septic tank...don't want to run into that thing with the excavator. And notice all the rocks!! When they developed our neighborhood, all the large-glacial-sized-boulders were dumped in our back yard to create a rock garden. True story. We also have smaller baseball-sized to basketball-sized rocks piled all over the place and have yet to figure out what to do with them all.
We are working on getting everything cleaned up to start with a clean slate.
There is still so much more work to be done, but it has come a long way from where we started almost 2 years ago.

another long weekend...

2010-02-15T21:05:00.001-08:00

I decided to take Friday off from work, to make my weekend 4 days instead of 3 (President's Day...gotta love the banker's calendar - it's also national gumdrop day, I'll betcha' didn't know that!) Of course those 4 days have been packed, and we are feeling pretty beat, and I'm really not wanting to go back tomorrow.
Just a quick rundown of what we were up to...

:: Friday ::

Dust, vacuum, bathroom, laundry...all that fun household chore stuff
Bake champagne cupcakes for Valentine's day

Deliver cupcakes to the ladies at the bank with Cory, then a date to Lowe's.
Went to look at those Chevy Traverse car/suv/crossover things...you know, the "big girl car"? Ended up falling in love with a brand spankin new pickup for the same price, and came so close to buying it. Seriously, I can't tell you how close...and then we thought about certain little things we'd have to change about our spending habits when we add a car payment into the budget, and we decided the truck we've got is just fine. Then we spent the whole rest of the weekend talking about how nice it would be to have a brand spankin new pickup.
Went out dinner with Brandon & Jayme, love them!

:: Saturday ::

Drive to Leavenworth in search of snow for Cory's cousin's senior pictures. We had taken most of her pictures back in September, but she also wanted a "winter wonderland" type photo...and since we never really got any huge dumps of snow this year that gave us a good opportunity, we thought we'd go seek it out before it got too late and all melted away.

I think it was too late, it was pretty melty and non-winter-wonderland-ish, so our hunt just turned into a nice Saturday drive (which would have been so much better in a brand spankin new pickup).
Yard work. Dig up crabgrass & boulders, rake debris, level out dirt. Move woodpile & split wood.
Mount our TV antenna on the house, finally! (it's been on this pole sticking out of the ground with rocks piled around it all this time).

:: Sunday ::

Yard work day II. Move more boulders, pick up sticks & branches and rake more debris into many piles around the yard to be taken to the dump. Wish we had a trailer available to us to just load everything into instead of moving it twice (oh well, we are one step closer, and we'll get a trailer this week). More wishing for a brand spankin new pickup to tow the trailer with.
Valentine's dinner at Dan & Sally's - delish!

:: Monday ::

Drive to Winthrop to snowmobile with Annie & Brian & Brian's dad.

The snow had a crust to it, and it seems like we spent a good amount of time digging and re-digging out one of the machines that just couldn't handle the powder under the crust.

Still super fun and good to see friends. Load the sleds back on the trailer, and visit around the fire for a bit before driving home again home again jiggity-jig (too bad it wasn't in a brand spankin new pickup, I'm sure it would have towed that trailer reeaal nice).
Oh, and we've been watching a bit of the Olympics in between.
Next weekend there will be more yard work...and the next...because the first weekend in March we've got an excavator coming to dig trenches for our irrigation lines, and then grate the front & back yard and make it nice & flat and ready to plant grass...and there is lots of prep work to do between now and excavator weekend.
We're exhausted, and I don't want to think about all that now.

weekend in pictures :: two weeks ago

2010-02-12T10:58:00.000-08:00

it was the first weekend of the boat show, I went on a little adventure to Bellingham instead (which was soo much more fun!)
I went to Treasury of Memories for some goodies, and took some pictures with my new toy.

we are in the Wenatchee photo club, and the theme for the February meeting was "wet"...what better place than Bellingham to snap a few wet photos...

I worked my way back down to Seattle, doing lots of shopping along the way. I was finally able to hit this antique store in Mount Vernon that I've been eying for a while, just haven't had the chance to go inside.

And it was a good one...I found all kinds of little goodies and a new favorite pink pyrex bowl.

Cory and I went to dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory, before meeting up with Lindsay & Derek for the rest of the evening.

Of course, we ended the night at Dick's.

oh how I love her!
a very fun weekend filled with all my fave people, indeed!

random things

2010-02-02T20:30:00.000-08:00

This post isn't going to have the photos from the weekend that I talked about yesterday, but I felt like I owe'd ya'll a little something. So a few things I've been meaning to talk about...

I'm not sure if I mentioned that my "jewelry tradition" piece for Christmas this year was a Lisa Leonard necklace. It looks a little something like this (except for the initials are m & c, of course)

Good job Cory! :)
I love it, and I'll take one of everything that she makes, please.

I also got the Anthropologie catalog over the weekend, and I'm loving this necklace

aren't you cute, pretty little bow.

and this photo...

I'm not so crazy about the belt, but the chicken pattern is pretty adorable, and I love love love the lacy back drop...will you please find your way to my dining room table?

ooh, I like this lace too...

Cory drove to Seattle today for more of the boat show, and Wiley's, and a tour of the Hyperlite factory with a friend and his brother. They left early this AM, and are on their way home right now, so I'm just sitting here waiting for them to get home, watching American Idol...
Wishful auditionist: "You've gotta be kidding me, I'm a great singer!"
Simon: "No, you're not."
You gotta love that show.

Speaking of singing, Michael Bublé is coming to the KeyArena April 3rd.

and I kind of want to go (especially since I got jipped out of going to the Olympics in Vancouver, and U2 in June). I'm just saying...

Alright, I've got a few things to get done with the rest of my night.
Maybe a weekend in photos later this week.

Monday, I loathe you...

2010-02-01T18:45:00.000-08:00

the only happy thing in my day, was that it's finally a new month.
Hello February!
Well, not really "finally" because January just flew by, but we are just that much closer to spring, right?
Oh, and then my day got happier when I got home from work because 1) I was home from work, and 2) there were flowers from Cory that greeted me on the table when I walked in the door, just because.

And then I remembered that the Bachelor is on tonight. I don't know if I've mentioned that I'm a big fan of Jake, but I am.

Have you seen the new Terrain? It's basically the GMC version of the Traverse. You've seen the commercial...

Love that little girl. It's surprisingly cheap for what it is. I'm not saying we're buying a new car any time soon or anything, but this little vehicle has been talked about a lot lately.
"I want the big girl car!"

We had a really good weekend. I have a couple pictures to share, maybe tomorrow if I don't put it off. Hey, that would be some kind of record since I've been such a slacker lately!

Hello, hello!

2010-01-27T20:39:00.000-08:00

January 27th, eek! Where has the month gone?
I wish I could say that I've been crossing things off my to do lists like its nobody's business, but that's not the case. Just haven't really made this blog space a real priority.
So what have we been up to in the past few weeks?
Work, and work.
Shooting guns.

Playing with friends.

Doing tricks on my snowmobile.

A little yard pick-up once the snow melted.
Projects here and there around the house, including dates to Lowe's.
Aaaaand that's about it.
This weekend is the beginning of the Big Seattle Boat Show. Treasury just happens to be having a Valentine open house on Saturday, and that sounds like a whole lot more fun to me. Hmmm...boat show, or Bellingham? I choose Bellingham!

neat things

2010-01-16T11:08:00.000-08:00

ever wonder what your type is? I'm courier. Find yours here.
(the password is "character")

if you like calendars...you should check this out
if you like labels...check these
both free, neat & neat.

a neat blog I'm crushing on, notebook doodles

sammy seagull, you are adorable!

make a pretty pattern
neat to play with patterns, and colors, and sizes, and opacity and such

I just ordered myself a new neat little toy....

Fujifilm Instax 7S. It's like a polaroid, but it shoots out cute little credit card sized photos. I thought I was going to get one for Christmas, but I guess Santa didn't get the memo (don't know how that happened, cause it was like #1 and BIG with *stars* & smileys :) on the wishlist)...so I had to take things into my own hands. I found a good deal with 50 films & free shipping on eBay, and when you check out you can choose to add a donation to the Salvation Army to provide aid to Haiti...very neat. Can't wait to get my little hands on it hopefully sometime next week!

I've had thoughts of blogging this past week, but that (obviously) didn't happen. Cory left yesterday for the "guy's trip" to Island Park to go snowmobiling again. That leaves me home alone, and it's a 3 day weekend. So...I'm packing my things and heading to Seattle to spend some quality time with my bestest friend in the whole wide world. Who knows what kind of trouble we'll get into, but I do know that it will be epic and Dick's cheeseburgers will probably be involved! Tomorrow morning- home made cinnamon rolls that I rolled out last night, yum!
Happy Weekend!

one little word : make

2010-01-10T08:27:00.000-08:00

Alright Ali, out a entire dictionary of words to pick from, I choose "make" as my one little word for 2010.
And I'm talking about more than just the creative make, (although I hope that 2010 is filled with lots of that too). I'm talking about the "do"ing and productive or prioritizing kind of make. But I didn't like the word do or productive (not inspiring enough), and prioritize seems like too much of a challenge and not as much fun.

make - time for each other
make - pretty things
make - memories
make - more time for prayer
make - the bed on more of a daily basis
make - more effort to keep in touch
make - new recipes
make - lists (one of my favorite things to do)
make - more scrapbook pages
make - the house tidy (eliminate piles)
make - stuff with fabric
make - sure the ironing pile doesn't pile up so bad
make - tasty treats for my sweetie
make - plans for the yard (to make trenches for irrigation, to make raised beds for a garden, to make a patio out of bricks...)

Many things to make in 2010.
I've also got my list of goals to get up here sometime soon too!

We're home!

2010-01-03T09:12:00.000-08:00

After a day of driving, 5 days of riding, and another day of driving...we are finally back home from Island Park!
And a fabulous time we had indeed.
I think we rode a little over 200 miles total. The trails had just a few bumps here & there (and everywhere!) And not quite as much snow as we are used to this time of year, but we got a good amount a couple of nights, so it was fun to play in the powder.

I needed the time away so very much. No internet was such a good thing. No email. No blogs. No facebook. Instead, I spent my time downloading all of the pictures from the day to the laptop and editing them a bit in Picasa (getting the color & contrast right on snowy pictures is the worst!) Between 5 people & 10 cameras, I felt like if I didn't stay on top of this daily, the picture organizing & editing process would have been more overwhelming. Which means I would have probably put it off until sometime next year (kind of like our pictures from the last trip). So, my goal was to stay on top of it, and I did, and I can happily file our photos in the 2009 section of the hard drive. A good feeling for the new year.

Now, off vacation-mode and back to reality...I've got things to do today!

pack Christmas decorations away (I really don't want to take the tree down, ours was so pretty this year)
loads & loads of laundry (5 or 6 piles/loads are scattered on the laundry room floor, from just the 2 of us...how does that happen?)
finish editing snowmobiling pictures (I have like 10 more photos to go, seriously.)
pick out pictures from the 2009 archives for my 2010 Costco calendar (I've done one of these for the past 4 or 5 years, and slacked on getting it ordered this year...need to get that done!)
list of goals for the new year (I have my list just about complete, and if I post them here I will feel like I'm being held more accountable)
make dinner (trying more new recipes is one of the goals, and I'm starting tonight)
2010 blog banner (because it says 2009 up there)
catch up on emails and favorite blogs, oh boy! (this morning, as I slumped onto the couch with the laptop with my mondo mug of coffee, I took a deep breath as I opened my email and google reader...I'll save that for later this evening)

Ok, I'm off to tackle that list!

DIY Christmas stuff to remember for next year

2009-12-26T11:20:00.000-08:00

These links have been hanging out on my computer for quite some time. And now that Christmas is over, it's time to file the ideas away and hopefully I'll remember to revisit them next year.
Because next year I'll have more time to start and complete projects.
Yep, more time. (Insert wishful thinking here.)

So here are a few projects that caught my eye this season...

yarn wrapped trees

more yarn wrapped trees

pretty pretty pinecone

felt bows

felted candy canes

felted sweater stockings

vintage doily snowflakes

different doily snowflakes

marshmallows, you belong in my coco

adorable gift tags (for marshmallows)

felt ball ornaments

felt ruffle wreath

plastic baggie wreath

Alright, time to pack it away for the season.

We leave tomorrow morning for our annual snowmobiling trip to Island Park, and I have some things to get accomplished between now and then. Stuff like digging out all of our gear, and laundry, and packing, and cleaning. We'll be driving back home on January 2nd, and I'm not promising any posts while we're down there, so I'll see y'all after the new year!

Christmas Funnies

2009-12-18T19:09:00.000-08:00

you seriously need to check out the Sketchy Santa website

and these creepy singing elf guys

and this Christmas light display is hilarious

when I saw this, I laughed!

2009-12-16T18:16:00.000-08:00

ha, story of my life!
my apologies for the lack in posts (as per usual)
i've been busy trying to keep track things to remember
and more importantly, trying to cross a few things off my list!
(when I have the time to do it)

tonight, is ballet.
tomorrow, mannheim steamroller orchestra.
friday, annie + brian & bear.
saturday, work.
then, just a few more days till Christmas!
...and then Island Park for 5 days of snowmobiling :)

its fffreeeezing!

2009-12-11T11:44:00.000-08:00

It has been clear & cold here all week.
Like almost hurts to breathe cold.
Like can't see the water underneath all the steam coming off the Mighty Columbia cold.
Like freezes your hot water pipes cold.
Yes, no hot water. I went to turn the shower on yesterday morning to get a couple of drips, and then nothing. The cold water ran fine. We had plenty of cold water. So I had settle for a "bum shower" with a pot of hot water on the stove. Thank goodness Cory found the chill in the pipe, and we have it thawed out now, and we have hot running water, and I got to take a real shower this morning.
It has been a long, cold week. I'm so happy the weekend is almost here...I'm on my lunch break now, and then just a few more hours at work.

And a happy weekend to you!

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

2009-12-08T21:26:00.000-08:00

On Sunday we set out to hunt for the perfect Christmas tree.
I think Cory had a "Griswold family Christmas tree" moment when he spotted one half way up the mountain. He wanted to hike up to check it out. In the snow. With saw in hand. How was he going to carry it down? I don't know. There he is on the left, the tree on the right, and that hill is a lot steeper than it looks.

Luckily that one didn't make the cut. We ended with the one that I had originally spotted from the road.

No, we aren't putting that whole thing in our living room. Just the top part, but when you cut the tree you have to cut it at the base.
Mission accomplished.
We hot home and dug out the lights to put up on the outside of the house. Cory had another Clark W. Griswold moment while trying to put up said lights. The little plastic hangar thingies that go on the gutters were brittle from the cold, our hands were like little popsicles, he had the bulbs pointed up, and I like them pointed down. So he had to start over (after a small tantrum).

The lights are up, the tree is still in the garage (it will come inside and get trimmed this weekend). Now we are sitting here, watching probably my most favorite movie of all time. Keeping warm, sipping on hot cider with a splash of spiced rum.

For your Friday viewing pleasure

2009-12-04T11:58:00.000-08:00

If you like the Muppets,
and you like Queen,
and have about 5 minutes to spare,
you should watch this:

Pretty cute. Some parts get a little carried away, but still cute how they used the characters.

Happy Friday!

I'm feeling the urge to deep clean, & organize piles that have been building around the house, and then dig out the Christmas decorations this weekend. Along with several other "must do" items on my list. We'll see how productive I am...

Saturday.

2009-11-30T20:37:00.000-08:00

Wrapping:

Ikea:

Hoggie:

Dick's:

Our Saturday was pretty jam packed, there were a lot more stops along the way, but these few photos pretty much sum our day up.

My apologies for such a long absence again. Just got busy doing everything else, and haven't made time for this little space.
I'm so excited for the Christmas season. Lots of fun little projects I want to finish. Key word, FINISH. I'm good at starting, but not finishing.
Hey, I realized today that I am almost done with my shopping. Yep, done...(almost.) Just a few more easy things, already picked out, just have to pick up. Then wrapping. I'm excited about the wrapping. I decided to go with kraft again this year, with fun colored ribbon inspired by Cosmo's Jolly by Golly (see spools above).
Ooh, and on that note...I was introduced to Eskimo Kisses, Joyride, & Merrymint in person on Saturday at Impress. Love. Love. Love!

Good Morning, Sunday

2009-11-22T08:46:00.000-08:00

Why is it that when you stay up late on the weekends, and you reeaally want to sleep in the next morning...you can't? There you lay, wide awake, before the alarm would usually go off during the week. And then when it's time to get up and go to work during the week, it seems almost impossible to make yourself get out of bed in the morning.
That was the case for me this morning. Again. Just like it is every weekend. And I can guarantee I will hit the snooze at least 4 times tomorrow morning.
Up & at 'em! That's what my Mom would always say when she'd try to get me up for school (my getting-out-of-bed-in-the-morning problem goes way back...she used to say I'd sleep through world war 3.) Since I was awake, I thought I'd get a start on my day. So I made French Breakfast Puffs for breakfast. Thank you Pioneer Woman, they are delightful (trying not to drop cinnamon & sugar on the keyboard.)

Then onto the mess of websites that has been slowly growing on the computer all week (there's just so many good things to look at!)

How cute is this apple?

How funny is this necklace?

How clever are these pillows?!

How spiffy is this clock?

1000 Awesome Things...this is a pretty awesome list!
I am the master at #665! :)

I came across a pretty neat project via hula seventy...52 strangers. What a beautiful project. I don't think I could walk up to a stranger and ask if I could take their picture, all up close & personal. Maybe one for the back burner.

I've had my eye on Elsie Blaha's custom journals for quite some time, just never wanting to dig through pictures to choose the ones I would love love love to see on my cover. But I will. Sometime. Looks like she does an excellent job, and I can always use another journal to fill with lists.

aily drop cap has been floating around the interweb for some time now, and really I'm just putting it in here because I wanted to test it out. Pretty neat, eh?

Made Ali's mac & cheese the other night...delish! I think the leftovers were even better, after it had time to sit and get happy for a while.

I totally have a thing for Christmas stockings. I see all kinds, all over the place, and I want to make them. Of course, I don't, because I would have quite the collection of stockings, and displaying might be an issue. And I would probably require that they are all filled Christmas morning...and Cory probably wouldn't like that very much. I love the idea of using old sweaters, although I would choose to do mine a little differently...good inspiration.

And for some more holiday crafts I wish I had time for...

This morning (when I woke up so early) I looked outside and saw snow on the low hills around us, now the sun is beginning to peek out, but I'm still loving this rainy picture today.

We're off to the Festival of Trees (why they have it before Thanksgiving, I do not know - but I'm not missing it!). And then to see Ped, a 7 foot long bronze foot...some new art down at a park that I've been wanting to go visit. (In other words, avoiding watching the Seahawks get creamed.)
Happy Sunday to you!

oh, Martha...

2009-11-17T21:29:00.000-08:00

I know it may be a tad bit early for some, but if you need a little holiday inspiration...head on over to Martha's Christmas workshop. So many cuuute things! Also, check out the craft-of-the day. Makes me want to decorate (but not for a few more weeks) and make all kinds of pretty things.

felt snowflake coasters

yarn wrapping ribbon

cupcake paper carnations

zipper flowers, seriously.

lump of coal boxes, ha!

hand made wood grain wrapping.

Enough for now! Have a good rest of the week!

there's something about Sundays...

2009-11-15T09:59:00.000-08:00

where I can sit in front of the computer while Cory sleeps in and waste the entire morning away looking at foodie blogs. I usually end up with tons of cookie & cupcake recipes for some reason :)

The other day, I did get my flag picture.

*Note to self: take mondo flag pictures on a windier day, and bring your wide angle lens.

And I'm close to finishing my yarn wrapped wreath & felted acorn project.

Wrapping the yarn was a lot longer process than I was anticipating, I think it took about 2 & a half hours the other night, but I'm super pleased with the outcome. I have a blue birdie that will make it's nest somewhere on the wreath, with the acorns around it, and a pretty velvety type bow at the top (that I have yet to find).
Even thought it doesn't make for very decent photographs, I love that winter sun that streams through the windows in the morning.

Well, Cory's up now, and he just delivered my morning jug of coffee. I'm going to sip this down, then get to work on my Sunday chores, then I'll probably bake something.

this is going to be a long post...and a little random...and lists seem to be a common theme

2009-11-11T11:22:00.000-08:00

Destination, Grand Coulee Dam.

That's where we went on our Sunday drive the other weekend.
I didn't mean to leave you hanging for so long, I'm not quite sure where the past week and a half went. I had intentions of posting about our adventure last Monday or Tuesday, but obviously that didn't happen.
We got in the truck and drove drove drove, up and over Badger Mountain (looking back over the Wenatchee Valley).

hmm, strange road.

We arrived at Dry Falls and munched our lunch. This golf ball sized grape is the biggest grape I've ever seen, took 3 bites to get it down!

Then we explored Dry Falls a little.

That is a place you could easily spend the whole day exploring, but we had places to go! More driving driving driving...to Grand Coulee Dam.

A view from the backside.

11,975,521 cubic yards of cement = largest concrete dam in N. America

I'd like to see the lazer light show they do at night sometime.

I love how the whole big place is built into the rock.

I squealed with delight when I found acorns all over the ground...

I gathered as many acorn caps as Cory would let me...they will be used for a project I've been wanting to make lately (more on that later).
The moon was out and oh so pretty as the sun was setting on our way back home.

It was the perfect Sunday. A few more pictures from our adventure found here, and this is the ground we covered, we made a big figure-8:

I have the day off from work today, in honor of our country's veterans. There is a monster of a flag flying on the pole at Banner Bank, which I plan of taking a picture of. Every time I drive by it, I think about how I want a picture. Today I'm making it my priority. Another thing on my lengthy list of things to accomplish today (besides making a cheesecake, I really have a taste for cheesecake - random) includes making a pretty yarn wreath using this tutorial, and acorns that I've been felting using those caps I scored at the dam. (click images for sources)

Also needing to come up with a design for our Christmas cards sometime soon, so I can get crafting. Have you seen the USPS stamp set for 2009?

Love that happy reindeer.
Now that Halloween has passed, the holiday season is upon us, and I have a feeling the weeks are going to fly by. Also on the list is to start compiling a wish list (I like lists!), gathering gifts, decide on a wrapping paper scheme (because I like all the gifts to look like a coordinated collection under the tree - don't ask). And then little Betty Baker appears in the kitchen. I love holiday cookies :)

On the baking topic...I don't know how I ran across these adorable cookie monster cupcakes, but I thought I'd share. I love the ones with the broken cookie crumbs.

Once I found the first set, I had to look for more...love that Elmo!

Did you know what Sunset magazine had a blog, Home By Sunset (it only makes sense, everyone else is doing it). Did you also know that Amy Butler has some pretty new bath towels, available at bedbathandbeyond.com for $14.

They don't really go with my bathroom scheme, but they sure are pretty. I love all of her patterns...makes me want to sew.

I really like this "to do" list idea (...another list!) Age minus a year = number of things to do before your next birthday. Since I'm already just about half way to my next one already, I can make my list half as long, or get a move on...or just wait until my next birthday cycle so I can have the full year to work on crossing off items on my list (plus that will give me time to work on making my list, right?)

Hey, U2 is coming to Seattle June 20th...tickets go on sale Monday. Am I a little excited? I think so! Oh, and the CMA's are on tonight. Out of all the award shows, I think that one is my favorite.

Speaking of shows to get excited about...I wish I had a ticket to the PNB Director's choice. Looks amazing, here's a peek:

and another, and another, if you are interested.
If that's not inspiration for my class tonight, I don't know what is.

And a little story about a tragic event that happened last night...
Cory wins. I had close to a bajillion windows & tabs open on the computer, the collection has been growing for a while now. He has been telling me for days (or maybe closer to a week or two, or more?) that the computer needs to be restarted. Yeah, yeah...I'll work on it.
With some of my time after work yesterday I was honestly working on bookmarking the sites I wanted to revisit, saving images that were inspiring to me, I had this blog post started about a few things I wanted to share with you...
Overnight the computer restarted itself. Website overload. I use Mozilla, and I can usually "restore previous session" when I reopen the browser, and all my sites magically pop back onto the screen (and then it takes 5 minutes for all of them to load), then onto my regularly scheduled habits. Not this morning. Nothing. They were all gone. He wins. Then I remembered what he had told me the other night as he was reminding me about restarting the stupid thing, "Oh Michelle, you will never reach the end of the internet." Errrr!
Oh well, I guess I have to be over it, it was kind of my fault and I knew it would happen eventually (...but I had such good looking recipes just waiting to be printed and tried!)
I guess, if that's the worst thing that happens today, then things aren't that bad.

I'm off to take my picture of that monster flag, and for items for cheesecake and my yarn wreath.
Happy Veteran's Day.
Thank you, to all the brave men & women that have served, are serving, and will serve our country.

Sunday drive

2009-11-01T19:31:00.000-08:00

Hello, November! I'm so glad you are off to such a nice start!

Today was a gorgeous day, of course there was stuff to do around the house, but we decided to go for a drive instead. We packed a lunch, left around 11:00, drove about 250 miles, and returned home just after 6:00. Thanks to daylight savings time, that extra hour was nice this morning, but I'm really not a fan of darkness before 5:00.
I have some editing to do with our >180 pictures from our little adventure, but here's a hint of our destination...

trick or treat!

2009-10-31T17:22:00.000-07:00

A treat from Cory...jack-o-lantern toast before work this morning.

Cory carving...we got a new keyhole saw at Lowe's last night.

We grew it in our one-pumpkin-patch.

My jack-o-lantern wanted to dress up as an owl this year.

Happy Halloween!
We'll be handing out candy to kiddos that come to the door, eating cupcakes, and watching the poor Cougs play Notre Dame on national TV while listening to it on the local radio station for their commentary, and then game 3 of the World Series.

more of that cleaning up windows & tabs & stuff...

2009-10-29T21:31:00.000-07:00

(click on photos for sources)

Found a new website full of random photos from Flickr photostreams. Subscribe to feed? Yes please!!

I think I might not carve a jack-o-lantern this year, but put a mask on my pumpkin instead. Thinking about an owl, with inspiration from Martha:

& The Long Thread:

& JoAnn:

I'm loving this newspaper leaf garland...so pretty.

An idea to keep in the back of my mind because I love the simplicity & know where I can find a few walnuts...

I'm thinking about taking up embroidery. Finding the time would be the hardest, so maybe not. But you can seriously make the prettiest things out of floss.

This calendar project is very very cool. Check out the video of the making. I kind of want to photograph my own set of letters & numbers.

That's it for tonight.
I just finished frosting some Halloween treats, bedtime now.
Yay for Friday!!

hello, we're still here

2009-10-28T21:10:00.000-07:00

I think I can finally say that my sickness has passed, Cory's illness came and went quickly...mine stuck around longer (of course). Thank you for all the well wishes! Now I have a cough that sounds like I've been smoking for 20 years, and I don't think it's going to go away anytime soon. Oh well, I guess I'm going to have to deal.

Hey, you know what I heard today? Only 57 shopping days...joy! (totally sarcastically)
Also, snow is coming...North Central Washington is under a winter storm watch through Thursday. Right now we're watching a snowmobile video (getting motivated to pull off all kinds of maneuvers). Cory worked on my sled today getting it ready for the season & modifying the accent colors from red to orange (because when it comes to Arctic Cat, orange is better than red), and it matches my gear (and we all know how important it is to be matchy-maychy).

Is anyone else extremely happy that the Phillies whooped the Yankees in their stadium in game 1 of the World Series tonight? I might be, just a little bit. And that Cliff Lee, amazing 9 innings he pitched, and struck A-Rod out 3 times :)

Not a whole lot else to report about from here, just wanted make an appearance since it's been a while. Still working on final touches to the exterior paint job. Hung some more drywall in the garage last weekend. Ooh, scrapped almost 2 pages (it's been forever)! Trying to get a few other projects finished and crossed off the list.
Have a good rest of the week!

sick. again...x2.

2009-10-21T12:21:00.000-07:00

sick.as.a.dog.sick.
the kind of sick where your entire body aches, even your eyeballs.
the kind of sick with cold sweats.
the kind of sick with a splitting headache that feels like your head is going to explode.
the kind of sick that keeps you in bed for more than 22 hours straight (with a couple potty beaks).
the kind of sick that keeps you home from work for 2 and a half days now.
the kind of sick that the encouraging doctor at the clinic tells you you're about half way through it, to get rest, keep up on the fluids, alternate taking aspirin & ibuprofen every 2 hours...and if we aren't feeling better in 2 or 3 days to come back for a visit with mention of some swine thing.
Cory has it too.
We're doing our best trying to take care of each other...it's almost pathetic around here.

another saturday...

2009-10-17T11:12:00.000-07:00

I successfully wasted my morning away sitting in front of the computer (again), with my orange & white pokladot mondo-mug of coffee (made by Cory, again), catching up on emails & my GoogleReader, and drooling over foodie blogs.
here are a few new ones I marked as fav's:
everybody likes sandwiches
sunday suppers
joy the baker
Now I'm trying to find the motivation to get outside and do something today.
Cory has been working hard to get the house painted for the past few weeks (lots of prep needed to be done). With lots of help from his mom masking off the doors and all the windows on Thursday...this is what the house looked like when I got home from work...

(notice the SNOW up on Mission Ridge already!)
Now window box trim needs to be put up & painted along with the rest of the trim on the house. That's what he'll be working today. And I'll be working on getting the rest of the garden cleaned up, and pulling more crabgrass in the back yard. Oh, and cleaning up paint chips.
And then I plan on making something delicious for dinner, and baking cookies :)
Have a great (productive) weekend!

my day off

2009-10-12T22:13:00.000-07:00

enjoy my morning cup of joe, perfectly cream & sugared by my hubbs, in front of the computer
make paper pumpkin (left), inspired by the one on the right I had found a while ago on 2peas (but don't remember exactly where)

start some laundry
bake chocolate pudding zucchini muffins
assemble Mom's lasagna
change the laundry
clean the kitchen 'till it sparkled*
more laundry
clean the bathroom 'till it sparkled* (except the tub...I hate doing the tub, and Cory does an excellent job, so I saved it for him...how nice of me, right?)
dust & zip the vacuum around
quick trip to JoAnn for some fabric (for project), and Stan's hardware store for spray paint (for project)
gross Cory out by munching on Corn Nuts all the way home :)
laundry
work on my project...spray paint old chair I sanded & primed yesterday
finish painting doors of hutch we painted yesterday
paint exterior & trim color swatches on the house
(yes, lots of painting...)
clean up garage
rescue poor freezing plants from outside
move painted hutch back into it's place in the dining room
quick trip to Fred Meyer for some new hinges (I already got the knobs...that was our mission when we scored the lockers a couple weeks ago)
return home to discover I got the wrong kind, bummer
dinner time
finish laundry
iron mountain of clothes while watching DWTS and pricing out new trucks just for fun :)
enjoy some golden oreos & chocolate milk...we switched it up!

p365

2009-10-11T09:56:00.000-07:00

I'm really losing steam on this take a picture everyday thing...but I'm keeping with it, the pictures just seem to be terrible lately.
The other week, Poppytalk did an Autumn Color Week. I thought this would be an inspiring little challenge...so I decided to join in on the fun. It was a huge challenge, and not so inspiring to me. I blame it on the sun setting earlier and not having as many hours of daylight. It's a lot harder to take good pictures when it's dark outside. I finished out the week anyway, just to say I did.

monday, yellow:

tuesday, green:

wednesday, orange:

thursday, brown:

friday, red:

See, terrible pictures (except for the fire one, I like the fire). More proof in my finally updated album up there on the left.

Cory has been playing along with this project all year long too. After asking "have you taken your picture today" the other night, Cory informed me "I'm not going to be doing this again next year...just so you know...)

things to be happy about...

2009-10-08T20:23:00.000-07:00

fall leaves turning (isn't that arrangement beautiful?)
a date with my hubby on Saturday (he asked me out the other night, it was really sweet *blush*)...probably to Leavenworth for some Oktoberfesting!
fresh pressed apple cider from Cory's uncle, Tom
stocking up on mayo because chicken divan season is here!
these colors from Cosmo Cricket's Jolly By Golly line...I think I have my Christmas color theme for the year.
flannel sheets & heated mattress pads
items on the "to do around the house" list getting crossed off
tomorrow is Friday, yay! :)