civia bike

while out and about a few weekends ago, JD and i came upon a cute little bike store filled with tons and tons of bikes.  there were bikes for all types of riders.  the ones i liked, didn't have front and rear shocks or lots of gears they had internal gears, fenders, and a basket.

aren't they so cute? 

the boxes on the front would be perfect for packages from the farmers market or just stopping by the store.  the fenders are bamboo and ultra cool.  i can just picture myself tooling around on one of them now.  (in my vision of course i am wearing a cute dress and i have a package on the front which contains flowers - more than likely that would never happen but a girl can dream can't she) 

the bikes are from a bike maker called civia and are made in Minnesota.

just look how cute the fenders and baskets are.  also they have this super flat paint which i love, i would so pick grey.  anyway just wanted to share.

jam, pickle, cure...

this is a book that i have been craving.

tonight i am canning pizza sauce from our garden's tomatoes.

(i will take pictures) 

i love canning - there is something about taking your harvest and prolonging its life.  also, i love having shelves and cabinets packed with my homemade goods, all lined up in colorful little rows. 

this year i did jam which you can read about here (the images are still missing but i will get to it i promise!  making items for the shop has been consuming all of my time - i'm not complaining mind you, i love it)

tonight is sauce but the possibilities are endless.  this weekend i will be doing beets.  i will have purple jars of beets, red jars of sauce, yellow jars of salsa, and fuchsia jars of jam.  doesn't that sound wonderful?

i don't quite think i could make it through the winter on my provisions but i am getting better at it each year.  (plus, i would need a much bigger garden than i currently have for that.)

so put this baby on my list of things i am asking for in december.

etsy treasury 1 - the big hunt

today i tried my hand at creating my first treasury 

THE BIG HUNT

since the treasuries are only up for a limited amount of time i thought i would include all the links to the shops here.  go check them out, support the handmade.

1.  rustic deer hanger  by Monkey @ Squirrel

2.  mustart curly cowl by Ayca Hoser

3.  the clockwork dogs will sniff you out  by tiny minds

4.  vintage leather shoulder bag  by Queen London's Carriage

5.  Buffalo Bill Azure Greeting Cards by mellisakate

6.  stag head on russian text by CrowBiz

7.  stag hand towels by chicpeastudio

8.  macpherson dress by sohomode

9.  the gaurdian pattern by What Delilah Did

10.  Handbound Tartan Journal by Highland Books

11.  Animal hearts by The Time is Now

12.  Ornate Blue Porcelain Deer Pendant by Poodle Breath

i had so much fun creating this treasury, i hope you enjoy checking out the shops.

Love Em... Kjoo's fiber necklace

i need, i want, i love this!

seriously can't you just see me in this.  if you haven't been go see kjoo's store it is lovely.  i want a zillion things she has.  seriously... click and go see.  love, LOVE it.

craftgawker - submission 1

yippie!!!

my modern striped towels made it on craftgawker.

i am so excited!!!  go check them out #5635.

felted hair pins

today i have been working on a new item for my shop.

(i will get back to the wedding stuff soon but there are so many other things i wanted to share with you - so until next week we will take a wedding break)

ok then i have been hard at work here all day trying to get some new felted hair pins ready for the shop.  i have been working on felting some of the balls this week but this morning i finished them up.

i am making two different types of pins, one with larger felted balls and the other with the tiny ones.

i must admit that i almost didn't want to make them into pins because i loved having all the little colored balls of felt spread all over the table.
after all of the balls were complete for this round of pins the construction began.

after all of the balls were complete for this round of pins the construction began.

here you can see the larger felt balls constructed and sitting in little rows.

here are the tiny ones.

and here they are on their card ready to go into the shop.

i should have some posted by tonight... if not tomorrow.  hope you like them as much as i enjoyed making them.

part 4 - the proposal

i can't tell you that this whole proposal story is void of drama (nor is it a short story)

but really what is a proposal story without a bit of crying? 

so it was memorial day and we went out looking for a ring, "the ring".  in the car on the way there, i am saying things like, "i don't really think i want a diamond." and "i'm really not a diamond type person." and "maybe i just want a simple band."  then we got to the store...and all of a sudden i have like 10 diamond rings on my fingers at once.  i went totally crazy, girl crazy, which i can't say i do too often.

ME: "oh, oh, i don't know i like this one... but maybe that one..."

JD:  "umm what happened to the ,"you only want a band thing".

ME: "oh yeah right well after seeing these i think i really want a diamond.. oh look at this one."

as soon as we walked in the diamonds had won. by the end of the day i had not only picked out "the ring" but we had selected "the diamond" too.  it was all so very exciting... that ring could be on my finger and i could be married to JD... whew it was too much.  and then we left and i raved about the ring for a week.. and then the next week and the next week.  JD hadn't realized what can of worms he had opened when he asked me to go look at rings.  it was as if he said, "i am going to ask you to marry me sometime in the future, but after we look at them and talk about marriage you can't talk about it any more..."

at first i anticipated that he would ask me to marry him the next weekend or the next holiday or the next month.  i waited, i anticipated but nothing happened.  JD's sister got engaged.  she is younger than me... i was so jealous, which is not an endearing quality let me tell ya.

so the months passed and slowly (very slowly) the idea of a proposal drifted to the back of my mind.

fast forward:  late november of the same year; we were in panic mode at our house.  JD's mom, (Karen) and stepdad (Lou or as i like to call him Bubba Lou) were coming from Texas to visit for Thanksgiving.  JD's aunt and uncle were coming up from the Portland area, and Brandon and Sarah would be making the short drive from Tacoma.  everyone was to have turkey dinner at our house.

there was lots to be done, baking, prepping for dinner, decorations, table settings... heck i didn't even have enough plates for everyone.  then everyone arrived.  we planned to go out to dinner the night before Thanksgiving to this little pizza place down in Columbia City but before we could go anywhere i need to make pumpkin rolls for dinner the next day.  without me asking, JD offered to run out and get me cream cheese at the super market (for my famous pumpkin rolls) while i prepped everything else.
Karen and i were in the kitchen chatting... i was mixing ingredients furiously. 

JD called, the grocery store was out of cream cheese and he couldn't find a glass vase like his mom wanted...  he was running to another store.

Karen was talking about JD's sister's wedding planning and all the details... i wanted to say, guess what seven months ago we looked at rings...but i didn't know what JD had told her.  i tried to hint that we had talked about marriage but she kept switching the topic back to Val's wedding.

JD still wasn't back, his trip to the grocery was talking a super long time.  i tried one more time to say that we had already had "the discussion" and were planning on tying the knot... i no longer even remember what Karen said next but all i know was that it upset me... i left and stood out in the rain in the back yard and cried for a couple of minutes.

i came back in... JD was back we finished the pumpkin rolls and took the dogs for a walk where i told him that his mom didn't like me. he told me that wasn't true and i was just reading things wrong. (this was the part of the story where the crying came in)

the week went on... we went out for great pizza that night and our house was full the next day for thanksgiving.  we ate tons of turkey, pie, mashed potatoes, and drank our share.  that evening as we were cleaning up we packed up karen and lou to head to JD's brother's house for the second half of their trip.

the next morning it was strange to wake up to a quiet house after the previous days events.  we decided to take the pup for a walk down at lincoln park to get out of the house and stretch our legs. even though it was the end of november the day was cool but sunny here in seattle.  JD suited Rainier up with her backpack for the hike even before we left the house.  i protested.... "why do you have to put that on her now, can't we do it when we get to the park...".

JD put Rainier in the back seat of the car.  i, again, protested... "why can't you just put her in the hatch where she usually rides..." he again ignored me.

we got to the park and began our walk.  it was a wonderful morning and the park was quiet and sunny.  we took the trail less traveled through the center of the park.  this trail winds through tall stands of pines and just as we entered a beautiful clearing, my sister called.  she and my mom were getting such good deals on black friday... she got toys for the boys and a tool chest for paul.  why wasn't i shopping?  it was crazy but there were deals to be had... then she continued to tell me all about everything she bought and how much it was marked down.

JD just stood looking at me... we began to walk out of the beautiful clearing.  i told becky i had to go we could talk about the deals later.  not long after we left the wooded clearing we came to a grassy area that has a bench that over looks the sound.  we made our way to the bench and sat down.

JD told me there was something he needed to tell me... he was nervous, i got nervous.  he called Rainier over and unzipped her backpack and got down on one knee. (at this point i had figured it out but i was so nervous i was shaking).  he pulled the ring box out and said some really beautiful things to me, which are too personal to share... and opened the box upside down.

he quickly righted the box and there was my ring... but all i could do was look at him.  he placed the ring on my finger and my eyes began to leak a bit. of course i said yes... then there was kissing and hugging.  Rainier was happy too i know it.

after that we held hands and walked the park for at least another hour.  i might have looked down at my left hand 20 times per minute.  i called my sister and mom to tell them the news as we headed for home after the park; they were in a toys r' us.  i told becky what just happened... she yelled it to my mom who was a few people back in line... the long lines at the store irrupted and cheered for us... hilarious since i didn't know any of them.

we went home and had champagne and relaxed... it was perfect. us, Rainier, the woods, the water, a clear morning.  it couldn't have been better.

things i didn't know then, that i know now, that help to explain the past week's events.

1.  the grocery was not out of cream cheese.  JD had used the opportunity to go pick up the ring.  it took longer than he had expected so he had to concocted the story on the fly. had I not been so adamant about not going to the Olive Garden for dinner the night before, or refusing to go shopping at the mall (both which are within walking distance of the jewelry store), then the entire "cream cheese" incident could have been avoided.

2.  Karen, JD's mom, knew what was going on... so as i was trying to steer the conversation towards marriage the night JD was running around getting "cream cheese", she thought i was suspicious and wanted to throw me off the trail.

3.  The ring was stored in Rainier's back pack the morning of the hike.  So as i tried to protest that she shouldn't be wearing her pack for the walk JD was worried how he would hide the ring.

4.  the hatch of our car had champagne for after the proposal... i kept trying to put Rainier in the back for the ride down to the park... but then i would have seen the bottle and would have been suspicious.

even though i tried my darnedest to mess up JD's carefully planned proposal (unintentionally mind you)  it turned out wonderfully.  i wouldn't' have wanted it any other way.

i now had my ring, with my dimond, and was engaged to my man... let the wedding planning begin!

we interupt this broadcast...

to let you know that i will have to finish the proposal story tomorrow!

yeah, yeah i know how many of you were just waiting on bated breath.  i don't have the right photos i wanted to have today...and it is an important story and i don't want to rush and mess it all up.

in other news... we're going to see pearl jam... !!!! woo wooo..
so tonight = pearl jam... tomorrow = proposal story.

Part 3 - living in Seattle

sorry  i didn't post all weekend. we were celebrating our first anniversary here in seattle and were preoccupied with each other and our weekend.  more on that later but back to my story. (our story)

ok where was i... yes, seattle.  after we arrived here i very quickly became homesick.  i am super close with my family and that 3,000 miles was very intimidating. there wasn't going to be sunday bbq's at my mom's house, no stopping by for a birthday celebration, holidays were even up for debate.  i questioned my choices... why had we decided to move so far away?

within the first month it was apparent we were going to need to get a seattle family and fast.  we were keeping ourselves busy with new jobs and volunteering but friends need time to grow.  we needed a family fast so we decided on kittens.

(warning this post has some adorable kitten and puppy pictures... )

one sunny weekend, the month after we arrived, we made our way to a kitten
adoption.  that afternoon bamboo and lotus came home with us.

lotus is the white little kitty and boo is the tabby. 

both kitties were underweight and were sick, so we started them on medicine and several formula feedings per day.  within the first few days bamboo was getting stronger but lotus was still so delicate.  then on afternoon she got really sick.  we rushed her to the vet but once we got there they told us she had distemper and couldn't be saved... i cried and cried.

i continued to cry that evening but JD wasn't going to see me unhappy or have bamboo be raised an only cat.  he called the non-profit where we got the kitties and that evening bamboo's brother ginkgo came to live with us.  i should say at first i wanted nothing, nothing, to do with ginkgo.  i know that it wasn't his fault that lotus was sick but i wasn't happy.

but after the first evening that little cat had won my heart.  and so it begun, our morning routine of eye drops, ear drops, squirting saline up their little noses.  both cat boys had pink eye, ear infections, and upper respiratory infections but we weren't going to let them be sick.

after a few days they were looking much better...and within a week they were quite spunky and a bit bad.

boo ready to pounce on me.

ginkgo on the bed ready to attack a toy

the cat boys making themselves comfortable where ever they wished

 these two really are the best of friends and brothers!

three years whipped by quickly in our little apartment and we had decided to make the big leap - real estate!

in july of 2006 we bought our first house... and 8506 became our new project.

we now had a yard, and what does every yard need?  a puppy!  you are right... so a few months later rainier became part of our family.

two kitties are good...but two kitties and a puppy are better.  so we began looking and talking about dogs and what breeds did we like.  were we going to buy a puppy or get one from a shelter?

the answer came to me a few days after christmas on a saturday morning while perusing craigslist.  a family had gotten a christmas puppy only to find out, several days after christmas, that their son was allergic.  the puppy had to find a new home and immediately.

i emailed the family and JD and i were in the car within a few minutes.  that night rainier came home to be part of our ever expanding pet family.

rainier, my little grizzly, not long after we brought her home.

rainier chillin with her pops.

playing in her first snow ever.

2 kitties and 1 puppy later we were content... we missed our human family miles and miles away but we had plenty to keep us entertained.

a year later JD asked me to go looking at rings with him... it was memorial day 2007.

the trip to seattle

even before we officially began dating JD and i had talked about moving to seattle. 

he had visited seattle once before when staying with his uncle in portland and really made a connection to the city.  i too had visited portland once before; during a road trip with a girl friend.  after graduating we got in her little red jetta and drove 10,000 miles in 5 weeks.  on of our stops during that drive was seattle and i fell in love immediately.

the plan was always JD, his friend from WV, and I would make our way out here after he had graduated from school and eventually get an apartment together, so we could share the costs of living.  things started to change with this plan not long after it was made.  JD and I started dating and the friend from WV chose to stay in WV.

even though we were dating we had decided to keep our relationship a secret.  it seems a strange decision now, looking back on it.  but at the time we were in the same program, we had the same professors, his x-girlfriend was in the program, we had the same circle of friends...and we didn't want to deal with any drama that might surround us coming out as a couple.  so the first few months we would arrive at parties a few minutes apart or leave the bar idependently only to meet up around the corner.  i must say it was fun being the only ones in on our secret and it only added to the new romance. 

we had talked and decided that we would still try and make a go at moving out to seattle.  i was set to graduate in december and JD wasn't going to graduate until may but we figured 6 months was no big deal.  i was going to make the move upon graduation and he would follow a few months later.  in October of that first year we made a secret trip out to seattle together; he was gathering information on his thesis and i was interviewing for jobs.

this collage i put together so that we would always remember our first trip to seattle together

that week was amazing.  we explored the city learing the neighborhoods and the lay of the land while really learning a lot about each other.  we returned to school and within a month the secret was out and the drama began.  this part i am going to skip over because the whole situation was childish... as december approached i decided that i would wait till JD graduated in may to make the move out to seattle with him.

we left in early june with no jobs, no place to live, and a meager $1,500.00.  we packed all of our belongings (most of them being books) and shipped them off.  then we got in our saab with our camping gear and headed off.

we drove from PA to WA over the course of a week and a half, camping each night and stopping to see the sites as we made our way across the USA.

here we are at Blue Earth

hiking in the badlands

setting up for the night - an everyday routine

watching the bison roam

making it to the columbia... ahh WA

proof that we made it.

once we got to Seattle the hunt for an apartment began.  we finally after a week and a half rented a hotel room so that we could get properly showered and have a nights rest in a bed.  we also needed the internet to look for a place to live.  a friend's aunt was kind enough to let us crash in her house for a few days while we looked for living accommodations cause driving out of the city to camp every night had it's drawbacks (ahhem... smelling of camp fire).

after a few days we found it... our new apartment.

the courtyard of our apartment.

it was wonderful... we signed the papers we were excited.... the draw back; we couldn't move in for another 2 weeks.  so back to the tent we went.

by this time we had a pretty good repertoire of campfire cooking.  quesadillas, spaghetti, baked potatoes...  i love camping but by this time was so tired of living out of a tent.

one month of tent living was more than enough for me.  we tried to fill our days with small exploratory trips around the area so that we were making the most of the free time we had.

then came the day we could move into our new apartment... we moved in, we painted, we went to ikea.

it was ours.  we had a new home, 3,000 miles away from everyone and everything we new.

but we were home.

our story began in rome

in celebration of our one year wedding anniversary, coming up on the 20th of this month, i thought i would tell you a story about a boy and girl, how they met, and fell in love.  (friends of mine that are reading this and just snickered - yeah megan i'm typing to you) just don't read for the next week... k.


k... so this week i will be focusing my blog posts to our story, how we met, how we ended up in seattle, how he proposed, the planning of the wedding, and some awesome wedding photos.  i doubt that i will get it all wrapped up by sunday, which marks our 1st year anniversary but it will be close enough.


our story has a controversial beginning,  and it starts thousands and thousands of miles away when we were studying abroad in Rome. (insert ahhh sound here).  

this is the pantheon - my favorite building in rome (if i HAD to choose one)

i had finished my bachelors of architecture degree the year before and was continuing on at the same school working on my master's of architecture degree.  as part of my studies i went back to rome to work on my thesis as well as help teach a class on the cartography of ancient rome.  JD was in rome, as part of the school of architecture, but he was there as part of the bachelors program.


i was the only masters student there, which wasn't an issue because i was good friends with several of the undergrad guys.  in fact i lived with three of them, but that is another story. 


JD was in the class that i taught and through the semester, while in rome, we became friends.   certainly, it wasn't a love at first site scenario.  JD was dating another student at the time and it took me at least a month to realize what a nice person he was.  

that's us in the picture, exploring some ruins

we had all gone out as a group on several occasions and with each occurrence i became more and more aware of where he was, what he was doing, and who he was talking to.  then one day it hit me, what was i doing?  he was such a patient, kind, and good looking guy who was in a relationship he wasn't happy with.  that's when it hit me... i liked him, i really liked him.  by the time i really figured it out, it was the end of the semester and we were headed back to the states, me to PA and JD to his mom's place in Houston.  

after the semester ended and we came back to the states we stayed in touch at increasing rates.  as the summer progressed we chatted online more, we found more excuses to call, and eventually he left his girlfriend.  yes, I know, again the beginning of our relationship sounds scandalous but really it wasn’t.  JD was, and still is, the kindest most patient, person I have ever met.  his girlfriend, at that time, was not well suited for him and took advantage of his easy going nature, to say the very least.  but enough about her….  we returned to school the following year, I was in the last semester of my graduate studies and JD was finishing the last year of his five year, bachelor degree.  there was a week, when we returned to school, that I thought that I might have been looking for more in the relationship than he was and that we were destine to remain just friends.  thankfully after a week of dates, we ended one with a kiss that told me that we were headed down a road that would lead to much more than friendship.  (yes you read that correctly 7 nights of dates no kiss i thought for sure i was confused about what was going on, but JD was just shy and didn't want to rush things).

us traveling in switzerland with a group.  i'm in the fashionable pink hat; jd is on the far left with the sheep skin jacket.

(seriously we walked to the beat of our own fashion drum back then)

In the months that followed we became inseparable.  he truly is the ying to my yang.  i can be quite emotional and impatient, but not JD, he quietly stays the course keeping me on track.

while in rome one night right before the end of the semester JD and i snuck off to have dinner together.  we both played it off as quite casual but i consider that dinner to be our first date.  we ate at due colonne and i can't tell you if the food was any good but i certainly enjoyed the company.

i started making these collaged shadow boxes for JD sometime the first year we dated.  the one above was so that we always remembered that first dinner.

the new chicpea studio look

last night i thought i would have more time than i did.

it seems that i always have more things planned to fill my evening hours, then there are hours.  last night i had some sewing projects in mind, i wanted to make and can some sauce, with the tomatoes from the garden, and i wanted to write this weeks special blog posts.  but instead i got home and did dishes, did laundry, cooked dinner, did more dishes and more laundry.  i did get a bit of embroidering done for the new line of napkins i hope to post later in the week... but no blogging and no sauce.

so instead of jumping into the special posts i had planned; i wanted to tell you more about the process of getting my new face lift.... well the blog's face lift.

i had been thinking about a new look for quite sometime but all of the options for templates out there are quite overwhelming.  i stumbled onto Rainy Day Templates via a blog i read and was so excited.  i loved not only one of her templates but many; so many i couldn't decide.  i cant' tell you how many times i stalked that page; pouring over each template and considering the pros and cons of each. 

 

after quite a bit of stalking i decided on her amelia template, with quite a bit of personal modifications.  i was worried when i emailed her with my questions and all my alterations that she wouldn't be willing to modify her template that much... but guess what?  Ellie was more than willing.

this is the original template i started working with.

 

and you guys can see what it has been modified to become!  all of the images are my own, of our house.  (if you are reading on a reader jump over to see the new design vs. what we started with)

i can't rave enough about Ellie and how easy she was to work with, and fast!  i am super thrilled with my new blog layout and page.  the whole look just fills so much more in tune with what i wanted chicpea studio to be.  so if your blog needs a new face lift and you use blogger* go to Rainy Day Templates.  believe me you will be happy you did.

* fyi... she only does layouts for blogger... which is most of the reason i switched!

vacation / summer wrap up

i swear this will be my last post on our vacation.

but i had a few more photos i wanted to share with you before i close this one out. 

 

the sea oats on the dunes

foam stuck to my feet

 

the waves at dusk

 

the pelicans flying overhead

 

our house with all the beach towels hanging to dry

 

and our cute family after a dinner out.

thanks for spending the week with me at the beach.  i have something very special planned for the rest of the week here... say tuned!