Homemade Chili

This past week the whole fam-bam has been under the weather. Guess it's just that time of year. Besides the usual sloth-like activities of laying on the couch, watching movies and complaining about how sick we all feel, I decided it would be nice for some home cooked soup. Instead of the usual chicken noodle, I decided to cook up some vegetarian chili. We are big chili lovers in this house, minus Olin-- he pretty much hates food.. all food. Seriously, most picky tiny human ever. He doesn't even like the good stuff like cake or ice cream or, and here's the kicker, bacon!? I mean really kid?.... Anyway, chili. 

Ingredients (I really never measure anything so just play around with the measurements. It's pretty hard to mess this up):

2 tbsp butter
half an onion
1 clove garlic
1/2 bag frozen green beans
1 whole bag frozen sw vegetable mix (or something with some corn, peppers, beans etc. in it)
1 can kidney beans
1 can black beans
2 cans diced tomatos
1 can tomato paste
either 3 tbsp better than bouillon + 2 cups of water OR 2 cups vegetable broth (I was out of broth so I used the bouillon)

Spices (to taste):
salt
pepper
onion powder
garlic powder
coriander
chili powder
paprika
cumin

Directions:
Saute diced onion in butter on medium heat in large pot for about 10 minutes. Toss in diced garlic and saute for about a minute. Add water + bouillon (or broth) then all canned stuff and frozen vegetables. Increase heat to high. Start seasoning with various spices until suitable to your taste. When it starts boiling, reduce heat to medium low, cover and let simmer for 35 minutes. Check the thickness and taste. I always add more spices at this point because some of the flavor cooks down. If you want, cook for another 15-20 minutes for a thicker chili.

Optional: Add chese. Because, in my opinion, everything is better with a little cheese.

Pictorial process:

Mustard

One of my favorite new colors (other than glitter, yes, glitter) is mustard. When you actually write about/ take pictures of what you're wearing, it makes you more attuned to what you are actually wearing and I realize I've been wearing lots-a mustard (case-in-point: my mustard shoes). Now, I know you all just thought: 'duuuh', but I think sometimes we I can be a little oblivious to what I actually put on-- what I'm wearing tends to look much different in photos as compared to my mental image. 
What are your current favorite colors? And because I consider glitter a color, I'm open to more than the normal color spectrum :)

Dress:Target,Shirt/Accessories:F21,Shoes:Ross,Tights:Nordstrom

Fall

Ohhhh fall, how I love thee. These photos were taken a few days ago... before the rain started, but I'm still loving the change in the weather & scenery. I'm also loving these glitter flats! I have been wearing them way too much lately, but who wouldn't?! I mean, they're covered in glitter. 
Also, this weekend I went to Fashionxt (aka Portland Fashion Week). It was a great experience! First, I've never been to any sort of fashion show/week/anything, so it was very cool to actually see beautifully made clothing up close and just experience the excitement with other fashion enthusiast. Second, a few past contestants from Project Runway were there! Michael Costello was one of the designers showing the night we went. This will definitely become a yearly tradition. I'll post some of the few (verry few) pics that actually turned out soon.

Dress:Target,Scarf/Bracelet:Gift,Shoes/Neckless/earrings:F21Tights:Nordstrom

Tiny Humans & "Clocks"

So, the tiny humans current obsession is asking me what time it is, or just guessing what times it is, over and over again throughout the day. I have been trying to teach them to how to tell time, because they are so interested, via this little wooden play clock. We have 4 clocks in our living room alone (one too few I say)-- there is the light brown clock, the dark brown clock and there are two black clocks: one small, one large. Here is where the issue arises....

Tiny human #1: "Mommy what time is it on the large black COCK?" 
Tiny human #2: "Yeah, what time da big black COCK say?"
....
And so on, though out the day: 'what time does the so-and-so small/large cock say?'?

Cock: clock.

Oh, I have tried many a time to correct them to no avail. It is pretty funny though. Silly tiny humans.

Also, here are a few pics of what Olin wore while we were vacationing in Astoria-- he looks like an old man and I like it. He got to visit his best friend girlfriend Ruby and they decided to run around like "astronauts in space", slow-mo running and everything.

Anniversary Date

For our anniversary, Matt and I took a short vacation to Astoria to hang out and spend some quality husband & wifey time together.  I'm already jealous of my past self and I haven't even begun to describe all the awesome stuff we did.
First we stopped at this adorable new cafe called Marie Antoniette's Cupcake & Espresso Parlor. I died of adorableness. The inside was like a dream covered in glitter. The coffee & cupcake were also delicious. 
Then we wandered around town. And in Astoria it's not just your average wandering, every corner has some cutesy little shop or spectacular view of the river-- it's really just the most lovely town to take a stroll in. 
My mission for the day (besides reveling in the awesomeness that is my husband.. jealous?) was to thrift, thrift & thrift. We went to about 5 antique/ thrift stores in town. I swear there has been some big boom in thrift stores in recent years. Anyway, it was glorioooouuus! The stores were all filled with fun treasures and funky clothing -- we bought at least one or two things from each store. I'll try to post pics of our treasures later.
We then ate at the Silver Salmon Grille (they catered our wedding) and had the best, no for reals, THE BEST clam chowder ever. After inhaling the delish food, we, well maybe you can guess what we did? We thrifted some more!! ee! I may have a slight addiction. 
Finally we went home to find our son covered in water and mud, having a total blast -- it's basically a three year olds natural state. Matt took some pics of what I wore, then I took some allergy medicine and passed out at like 9. Best first wedding anniversary ever!

Dress/Shoes:F21,Tights:Nordstrom,Neckless:Portland Store?,Sparkly Tiara:Mill End

1 Year + 1 Day Ago

We got married! Well, exactly one year ago (plus today) we finally tied the knot after planning our wedding for 2 years. We got married in Astoria, Oregon at the Liberty Theater. The theater was simply beautiful & elegant and had been recently renovated before our wedding.

When it came to all the little details, we decided to make everything ourselves... aka: I made everything and a week before the wedding cried a lot and then made my wonderfully helpful friends/husband finish everything. I did make the guitar boutonnieres, the pumpkin favors (filled with taffy), & all the plates were bought from various thrift/antique stores. We threw a pumpkin decorating party the weekend before the wedding and all our friends helped make the center pieces/table numbers/decorative pumpkins in lieu of flowers.

The Silver Salmon Grille catered our wedding and the Brownsmead Flats played live bluegrass music. Both were from Astoria & both were amazing. My paper flowers were bought from the Ay Que Pretty Etsy site. My matron of honor, Kristine, made the delicious & very festive pumpkin cakes. My dress was bought from an adorably fancy vintage store in Portland called Xtabay Vintage.

We had looked at invitations & save the dates and had pretty much picked some out, but never really loved what we chose nor the steep prices. Matt loves puzzles and we joked about making a puzzle invite just to be a little different. I did some googling and actually found customizable, affordable options at Venus Puzzle and decided to go for it. Our save the dates and thank you post-cards were both ordered on the Apple website after being created in iPhoto.

We were hoping for a fall inspired, whimsical wedding filled with our personal touches and I truly do believe we accomplished just that. The wedding was both joyous and overwhelming and was one of the best/most memorable days of my life!