Thursday, August 30, 2012

Up-Cycling

I keep getting tempted into buying clothes (I went to Tagret yesterday and when checkout time came I literally had to put back three dressies that I had carried around the whole store), of which, I definitely do NOT need any more of! My closet is full and on the brink of overflow. I live such a tough life, I know. Anyways, I really want to start only (finality scares me) mostly just buying thrifted, used or vintage clothing. I love the idea of up-cycling or reusing/repurposing clothing instead of buying new. I found this dress at goodwill for about $5, found the neckless at a garage sale for $1 and paired them with other items I've had for forever.
I also happen to be in the process of dying my hair. I'm going, going, back, back to blond.. err you get the idea :)Pics about that process coming soon.


Dress:Goodwill, Sweater:Target, Shoes:F21, Neckless:garage sale

Monday, August 27, 2012

Recovering From Our Vacation

Warning: I complain a lot in this post. I didn't mean to!, but after re-reading everything, I realized I was a bit of a whiny-Wendy or cranky-Cathy or some other sort of slightly annoying name/person/alliteration.

This past week I feel like I've been in recovery mode. Our vacation was fantastic, but it wasn't exactly the reprieve from life that I though it would be. Vacations, at least our family vacations, tend to be fun-filled, exciting & activity packed-- relaxation doesn't ever seem to play much of a part. 
So, this week its been really hard to focus on, or want to do, well, anything. Blogging, work, housework, tiny humans... whatever, I just want to sleep & read books all day. I guess if you count avoiding all those things & whining about not accomplishing them as activities, then I really accomplished a lot! In short, me = bum. 
For whatever reason today I finally awoke from my post vacation slumber and became a functioning(relative term) human! Hooray! We actually have been doing quite a bit (more than sleeping & reading) this past week and I did some photo documenting to prove that, yes, I did in fact put on more than just pajamas this week... I may have even utilized my brain. 

We went to the Street of Dreams in West Linn. The houses were great, don't get me wrong, but why build huge houses, with such detail and expensive amenities, in a suburban neighborhood on tiny lots? These houses would make me die from envy, if the neighboring homes weren't like 5 feet away from them. It was still fun looking at such opulently decorated million dollar homes and pretending that one day (after you win the lottery) you could totally have this 15' X 20' closet, or two separate laundry rooms that are both bigger than your current kitchen, or even that elevator! Who even uses stairs when they're that rich anyway, right?










Olin Painted:


And we converted this little nook in our stairway, to his reading/ spy on the neighbors area.


I made this pillow case:


We had a garage sale. Note to self: garage sales are not fun. Both Matt and I have never had a garage sale and were pretty excited to sell some stuff/ make some monies... turns out you just sit a lot, haggle everything down to $1 & are left with a ton of leftovers. I don't much like craigslist, but it's way easier than this garage sale business. 


Then Matt made sushi for the first time. First batch was a little sloppy, but tasted great. Second, third, and fourth batch looked pretty & still tasted delish!








This weeks goal: be better about blogging consistently so I don't make such a hodge-podge post. Also, more doing, less complaining :)

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Leavenworth, Washington Part II

The concluding pictures of our Leavenworth adventure!

Adorable farm/ family activity center, Smallwood's Harvest:







A few examples of our meals/ the fine Germanic cuisine. I cannot believe there aren't more food pics! I guess we were too busy gorging our faces to stop for pictures.


I swear we only have time for board/card/competitive games during vacations. Sad. And I won of course. 



Some of the things Olin did included rock sitting, building a "train" of pillows around our cottage, hiding behind a chair, & covering himself in dirt:


See!!? We did NOT need to buy these things! Although, I am weirdly proud that these were some of our ridiculous vacation purchases.





Beautiful Lake Wenatchee:






Taylor Bridge forest fire on the drive home. It burned over 23,000 acres and destroyed 30+ homes. I've never been this close to such a large & destructive fire. We definitely had that whole morbid curiosity thing happening-- it was such a sad thing to witness, yet we couldn't take our eyes off of it.


Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Things Tiny Humans Do

Take a nap on mommy:

Make a birthday card for their friend future girlfriend:

Got to said friends future girlfriends birthday party:

Yell at & touch this sound/ touch activated globe-ish thingy (technical terms people) that we found in grandmas "storage" room, aka: place where totally random things get put, are forgotten about and/or are never seen again:

Monday, August 20, 2012

Leavenworth Adventure Part 1

Vacation time is officially over. Back to reality means actually showering, not spending copious amounts of money on food/ crap we don't need (no, seriously, we did NOT need that tiny nutcracker that looked like a nurse OR that robot riding a bicycle) & no more gorging on deliciously unhealthy food. Mostly, the end of a vacation means then end of total sloth time, for me at least. I now have to use my brain again and having a half naked tiny human running around outside, covered in dirt is no longer socially acceptable (well, most of the time anyways).
It's time again to start working, cleaning, blogging and taking care of that other little tiny human (my nephew). And I actually think I'm ready for it. While we finally had a REAL vacation, as in: a full week of lounging and gluttony (side note: I looked up gluttony, just to make sure it was spelled correctly, and one of the definitions was "informal piggishness" haha, soo accurate in this case) anyway, while it was SO necessary to have informal piggishness time after this very stressful past year, it is nice to come back to reality with a refreshed point of view and a realization of how truly blessed we are.
Corny, I know. 
So, we drove to Leavenworth, Washington. It was about a 6 hour drive (with stops) from where we live. I was a bit worried about Olin and the long drive, but he faired better than we did-- on the drive home Matt & I were a hot, cranky mess (more about that later). 
Leavenworth is this adorable little Bravarian style town in eastern Washington, nestled in these beautiful Alpine hills. In the 1960's the rerouting of a railroad line and closure of the local mill resulted in the town being on the brink of extintion. But, the entire community came together and in a last ditch effort decided to turn the town into a Bavarian style tourist destination. It was completely remodeled into a Bavarian style village.
I was a bit skeptical about visiting such a literal tourist destination, but when we got there, it was just too adorable to scrutinize. The town and even surrounding towns were very quaint and the surrounding mountains were literally AWEsome. This is really a place that should be visited in the winter, however. I could only imagine how fantastic the town would be all lit up with christmas lights and snowed in. We will for sure come back during winter time... eventually... after we recover from post traumatic spending/ bank account depletion disorder. I also suffered from some serious house envy; all the Bavarian style homes in Leavenworth and the vacation homes that surrounded the local lakes and the ones scattered along the river threw me into a jealous fit of rage. Hah, okay so it wasn't that bad, but if I ever win the lotto, one of those little adorable homes WILL be mine!
Per usual on any vacation, we took a ridiculous amount of pics, so I will start with the car ride there, some of the stops along the way & some of our adventures around town. Then I will post again with the conclusion of the trip. Enjoy!





Darth-- our navigator:


First stop, The Dalles in the Columbia River Gorge:







We rock at family pictures
Final destination, Leavenworth, WA:



Our little cottage house (there was construction going on all around town):



It was CRAZY hot the whole trip