chicpea studio

mother's day - 2011

2011-05-09T16:12:00.000-07:00

mother's day gave me the chance to reflect on being a mom and how much i love my new job. i wouldn't trade being a mom for anything in the world.

it is truly amazing how one little person can change your life. this weekend i kept trying to get him to say "ma, ma, ma... or mum"... or anything resembling mom; only to get "da, da, da" in return.

each time JD would chuckle and look down trying not to rub it in on my 1st official Mother's Day.

On my Mother's Day we:
1. had a special b-fast prepared by JD
2. hit up an edible plant sale
3. went to the playground
4. had "real" Italian pizza for lunch
5. then played at home.

it was a good day. my diet didn't like it much, but boy was that tirimisu good.

Beckett your mommy loves you.

I'm so addicted - Sookie Stackhouse

2011-04-24T07:47:00.000-07:00

i seriously have a teenage reading level.

it's not that i can't read more distinguished classics; it's that these damn books are so much fun. i can't put them down - seriously. i find myself making dinner stirring with one hand and reading with the other.

i'm not talking Twilight here either (although i was addicted to those too!) i'm talking the Southern Vampire Mysteries, and Sookie Stackhouse.

i finished the third book last night....and made myself stop before starting the fourth. maybe i'll get something accomplished after Becks goes to sleep. who knows.

anyway here are the books... i heart Eric and Alcide!

1.

Out and About

2011-04-22T07:34:00.000-07:00

We were out and about a few weeks ago... momma and baby.

I love my Becks.

Homemade Baby Food

2011-04-21T12:33:00.000-07:00

in the past few months i have become a baby food making aficionado!

seriously i have attacked making food for Beckett with a verve and dedication. i decided to go the home-made baby food direction for several reasons.
1. no perservatives
2. i know exactly what's in the food
3. he just plain likes it more
4. MUCH, MUCH cheaper... LOADS.

truthfully it is worth it just for reason #4. Let me give you a quickie example. Mostly i buy organic fresh produce from a local farm stand but... sometimes especially in winter diversity is needed. So, i bought a bag of frozen organic peas on sale for 1.88 and cooked and blended them to make something like 32 cubes of baby food. Each cube is about 2 Tlbs. i figure about half a #2 size jar... if i did the math correctly that would put peas at 11 cents a "jar" full. Most baby food is something like 75 cents to 1.24 a jar. woot woot.

anyway he loves it... and i know he is getting the good stuff. don't get me wrong we still have some jars for those times on the go but making his food has been fun and a big savings. (Especially when he is eating 14 cubes a day!)

Eating In - Asian Noodle Salad with Toasted Sesame Dressing

2011-03-29T16:26:00.000-07:00

Asian Noodle Salad with Toasted Sesame Dressing

We made this the other night and it was good... so good we are going to make it again and hopefully soon.

Salad:

1 8-ounce package of soba noodles
1/4 cup toasted sesame seeds
1/4 cup chopped cilantro leaves

Dressing:

2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
3 tablespoons tamari or shoyu (soy sauce)
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1 tablespoon hot pepper oil

Optional Additions:

Fried tofu
Chopped red cabbage
Blanched broccoli

Preparation

Cook soba noodles according to package directions. Drain and rinse in colander. To toast sesame seeds, place in a dry skillet over medium heat. Keep seeds moving until they release aroma, pop and begin to change color. Remove and set aside.
Combine dressing ingredients in a small bowl; whisk together. Place drained noodles in a large bowl. Add dressing, cilantro and sesame seeds; toss gently. Add optional chopped vegetables and toss again.

We added the red cabbage and some scallions too. We also grilled up some steaks and marinated them in some extra dressing we prepared... mmm mmm good. I wish I would have taken pictures but we chowed down too quickly.
Go. Try. Love.

xoxo
wren

I'm not promising anything

2011-03-22T11:46:00.000-07:00

but i do miss you guys...
so i thought i'll just pop in when i have a spare minute and let you know what we have been up to.

it has been a wild several months but we are feeling good and hitting our stride. there have been several challenges we have had overcome and i'm sure more we will have to. but it has been some of the best months in my life.

i realized i miss telling you all (if there are any of you) about the stuff we have been doing. believe it or not we tried out a few new recipes last week and i must share with you my gourmet baby food concoctions!

here is my little man... god i love this kid.

i should get running. i don't want to tire myself out.
megan... this come back is for you. i know you missed me! ha.

xoxo wren.

when the parents are away, the puppies will play

2010-11-22T12:42:00.000-08:00

after a week in the hospital we came home to

1 eaten leather couch

2 bad puppies.

even though Rainier and Baker had all sorts of friends staying with them, and taking them for walks while we were in the hospital they wanted to voice their frustration in our absence. I believe they sensed that their lives were about to change and decided to take it out on the couch. I'm sure that Baker, Baker the trouble maker started the whole mess, however I have no proof.

so we walked in the door with our new bundle of joy to a pile of ripped leather and foam. they ate the couch down to the springs.

my parents came into town to meet their newest grandson and promptly set to work helping us finish up a few projects (which included the couch)

we started with replacing the damaged foam.

then we worked on applying new fabric over the torn leather. everyone got involved. here my dad is stapling the new fabric.

we then stretched the fabric

and applied fabric brads to secure the fabric

my mom took care of the ends

and when it was all complete we had a couch that could be used again.

i think we did a really nice job.

the first weeks

2010-11-19T12:03:00.000-08:00

the first weeks home were quite the learning experience. we were learning to understand our new little boy, and he was trying to get adjusted to this new world.

Becks loves to be swaddled and he really loves Loraine the cow.

there was lots of yawning and naps.

we introduced him to baker and rainier

(and gink too, although not pictured!)

we even got out for a few walks. how i love my little kangaroo.

Our Little Man - Beckett

2010-11-18T12:36:00.000-08:00

so this is way past due...and if you know us you already know the news... but our little man, Beckett Grayson made his way into the world on August 16th. he was a big boy weighting in at 10 lbs. 14.5 oz.

Beckett was born with a full head of black hair and is the most handsome baby i have ever met. he really is my pride and joy. the little bugger was trying to make his entry into this world sunny side up and was leading with the side of his head. needless to say a c-section was needed after 46 hours (yes you read that correctly) of labor. whew. thankfully he is worth every minute of it.

i have included some pictures from our hospital stay... i'll get you all up to date but let's take our time getting there.

from the start he loved his binkie... it was either that or nurse him constantly. we chose the binkie.

glad to be back... hope you are all well.
xoxo

Hi.

2010-09-27T11:41:00.000-07:00

yeah seriously i know i fell off the face of the earth but this new mom thing is hard. i think i'm going to attempt a come back... that is if you'll have me.

this will be my way of having adult conversations.
watch out world here i come. hopefully. ha

xoxo
wren

the next steps

2010-07-09T12:46:00.000-07:00

hi everyone. happy friday.

don't know about you but i am happy that it is friday. loads of exciting things are happening this weekend. our second baby shower is tomorrow and i can't wait to see all of our friends. a few close friends are throwing the shower/ bbq for boys and girls alike and i am so excited. i promise to share more on that later.

also JD's mom is flying in tonight for the festivities this weekend. so we will get to do some fun seattle stuff as well.

so after our visit to the hospital yesterday we have some more answers and plenty of questions. the good news is that my high blood pressure hasn't developed into pre-eclampsia. they cautioned that at some point it might but it hasn't yet and that buys us time.

so currently they are going to watch the bean and i closely. we will be at the hospital 2 times a week for non-stress tests. for those they hook us up to a monitor that monitors my heart beat and blood pressure, and the baby's heart beat, and movements. from what they said yesterday he will let us know first thing if there is a problem. they did a sonogram yesterday as well and everything looks good there... those too are going to become part of our weekly or bi-weekly routine until he is out here with us.

the news that was a bit harder to swallow is that we will be tracking my blood pressure week by week and will be making decisions based on how we are doing... which might mean induction as early as 37 weeks (umm yeah 2 weeks away) and no later than 39 weeks. i figured i was going to at least make it to 40 weeks if not the full 42.

i'm sort of panicking. i don't feel at all prepared... or ready. i feel like i don't know what to do.. ahhhh. the time difference between 37 weeks and 42 is huge and i was counting on that time to somehow prepare.

anyway we will be filling the next few weeks with plenty of doctor's visits, preparations, and nesting.... seriously let the nesting begin.

i am so thankful that we are the lowest of the "high risk" patients. i just pray i can maintain my blood pressure for at least the next two weeks... keep us in your thoughts.

happy weekend.
xoxo
wren

an unexpected turn

2010-07-07T12:58:00.000-07:00

i don't know if i posted about it before but JD and i have been planning a home birth since we found out we were expecting this little man.

we decided on a home birth for many reasons (most of which i won't get into here because this post isn't about the hospital vs. home birth debate)... to some of you i imagine this sounds crazy but to us it was the most comforting and least scary of options. we did our research, were well informed, and were looking forward to bringing our new little baby into this world in our home, where we feel most comfortable. there was going to be no rushing to the hospital, no forms, no staff, and yes, no drugs. we have been attending a home birth class with the mother of all doulas Penny Simkin and have been preparing for our chosen path.

that was until this week... my blood pressure is still up which puts us at a place where we are more than likely going to risk out of our home birth option... we will have to deliver in a hospital. for us this is a major game changer and a dramatic switch to our thinking. i have been pretty upset about it for the past few days and am trying to come to terms with this new picture in which our baby will be born.

we are headed to the hospital tomorrow morning for some more testing to see if we are dealing with anything more critical than hypertension. i pray that all the tests come back negative and that we are only dealing with a minor health problem. they will make sure that the little bean is doing well... (as i type right now he has the hiccups.!)

i know that home birth might not be "the option" for all of you.... and i am only happy to do anything that will keep my little boy safe and happy. but i too need a bit of time to grieve for the labor and delivery we wanted to have and now won't. i'm not good at radical changes so finding out that we will now be doing a hospital birth weeks in advance is probably for the best. this way i'll be able to put my thoughts to how i want our hospital labor and birth to go.

i'll let you know how things go... in the mean time keep us in your thoughts.

xoxo,
wren

the 34th week of pregnancy

2010-07-02T11:08:00.000-07:00

i am finding that with almost every week, or every two weeks in pregnancy something new comes up. sometimes it is amazingly awesome, like feeling the baby move for the first time... other times not so much fun.

this week is more along the lines of not so much fun. above and beyond feeling quite big and immobile, my blood pressure was high at my last mid-wife appointment. (insert not good news here). so they did a blood draw which came back fine but i now have to go have my blood pressure taken every 2-3 days. they are worried about pre-eclampsia.... urgh. so keep your fingers crossed... prayers are welcome.

i am just trying to stay relaxed and calm and not get stressed out. (something i'm not very good at) this weekend JD and i are just going to take it easy and hang out around the house. i would like to take a drive, maybe up into the mountains to enjoy a little nature this 4th of July weekend, but we will see.

a cool thing that happened at the end of last week is the little bean started getting hiccups. at first i thought he was just moving at a very constant rhythm... but nope hiccups. how cute huh? i guess he is practicing for the big first breath he will take in a little while.

i'm not good with the pictures lately huh? oh well. happy 4th everyone. hope you all have a wonderful holiday weekend.

xoxo
wren

2 day weekends

2010-06-28T13:22:00.000-07:00

so this week we reach the 34 week mark... which means that we only have 3 more weeks till the baby is considered full term and 6 weeks until our due date.

this weekend i realized that 2 day weekend just aren't long enough for me to recharge after a long work week. friday night i basically had a melt down from just being too tired. JD is the best, doing everything he can to make sure we are ok. all of my anxieties bubbled to the surface and boom, breakdown.

saturday and sunday JD worked incredibly hard on finishing up the boxes for the living room. we finished them last night (and by we i mean JD). tonight i will get to load them and put our living room back in some assemblance of order. they look fantastic and will do wonders for storage in our house and organization.

other weekend highlights included setting up a bit more of the nursery. we now have the crib mattress and i even put sheets on it. the room is starting to look so cute. we need some color along the black wallpaper wall. i think a mobile over the crib will help and i was thinking of making a super colorful bunting to hang along the wall.

i have been super hungry for smores, but since we have put a stop to our camping expeditions this year i haven't had the opportunity to enjoy one in quite some time. so this weekend after a great bite to eat out we came home and i improvised. i broke up a chocolate bar and put it in the bottom of a oven proof dish... then added ripped up marshmallows and tossed it in the broiler. (watch closely... the marshmallows can get brown pretty fast). we then enjoyed the yummy goodness of smores out of the dish spooned onto gram crackers... yum.

other than that i went to my second prenatal yoga class then promptly came home to nap. it doesn't take much these days to make me tired. in fact if i could i would crawl under my desk now and sleep.

xoxo
wren

sweet sweet friday

2010-06-25T11:43:00.000-07:00

ahhh i can't tell you guys how happy i am that it is friday.
by the end of the week my back has had enough of sitting in an office and i need the weekend.

this weekend we have lots of little stuff planned. i want to get into the nursery and continue to get things set up. our gardens need lots of love and weeding. i think i could spend the entire weekend weeding and still not be done.

also we got two of the boxes for the living room installed last weekend and they look amazing. this weekend we hope to finish the other two and get them installed... oh how this will dramatically change the feel of our house!

i am too excited. i promise i will take pictures and share. as you can tell by my infrequent postings, by the time i get home the last thing i want to do is sit down at a computer again. my back is not having it.

have a nice weekend all... maybe we will even have a bit of sun up here in the pacific northwest. wouldn't that be novel?

xoxo
wren

The Nursery 2...

2010-06-23T07:24:00.000-07:00

The NURSERY

thought i would add the additional items i have posted on to our nursery scheme so you can get the over all effect.

so far this is what we've got going:

1. wall paper - The Fir Tree - Ferm Living (this is up on one wall only)
2. crib - Gulliver - Ikea
3. rug - Hogan, Teal - Crate & Barrel
4. animal photos - Sharon Montrose's etsy shop
5. ugly doll - Moxie - Ugly Dolls
6. moose hook rack - Sprallig - Ikea
7. eames rocking chair - design within reach
8. awesome, cool, pillows by me - see them here
9. lova, bed canopy - ikea
10. puzzle taxidermy, by me - see them here

not a bad start... more to come. i plan on taking actual pics of the nursery once it's ready but it isn't quite there yet. maybe the middle of July.

back to the rat race

2010-06-22T12:17:00.000-07:00

hey everyone i'm back.

sorry i didn't have anything set up for when i was gone but that takes more planning than i'm capable of right now.

so i plan on writing about my trip back to PA later, but for now i thought i would share a story about my return. i can't tell you how happy i was to get off that plane. i was happy about it... my little in utero bambino was happy about it... we were happy about it. the best part; seeing JD. it has been at least 4 years since we have traveled apart and i'm grateful for that.

as i came up the stairs from the airport tram, there he was smiling and cute. i blushed. it was wonderful to be back in his arms. we made our way to the baggage carousel and we stood with his arms around us (the bean and i) waiting for for our bags to magically shoot out on to the belt.

while we were waiting JD told me of our families latest accomplishment. it seems that while i was gone Mr. Ginkgo learned that he could hunt and very proudly brought his fresh kill, a rat, to the porch to show us his personal victory. that was the good part of the story. the bad part, is that JD didn't know that Gink had put a rat on the porch and he left the pups out. before he could get outside to do anything both dogs had rolled in and on the dead rat and munched as much as possible. needless to say, i was very happy to have missed not only this part of the story but the baths and sick puppies that were a result of the rat find.

the night after my return, right before bed, Ginkgo was making quite a racket in the mud room trying to show me something. at the time i thought he just wanted a little treat or more food so i dismissed his meowing and went to bed. at some point in the wee hours of the morning there was quite a disturbance in the house (which at the time we thought was the cat playing). the disturbance caused both dogs to run, no sprint, from the bedroom barking. JD shut the whole operation down pretty quickly and directed everyone back to bed.

that night, i don't think Rainier slept from that moment on. she was continuously walking up and down the hall whining. oh i was seriously going to kill her. no matter how much we directed her to lay down, within minutes she was back out to the living room whining. i even closed the door and that didn't stop the whining.

we awoke the next morning with little to no sleep and quite the grumpy attitude. as i was putting breakfast together Rainier continued her whining at the front door. finally JD had, had enough. he went to her and begged her to show him what all the racket was about. he began to move the few items we have behind the door out of the corner. my yoga mats were moved, then the pups chuck-it, and then... it became clear why Rainier was whining. there in the corner, behind the stuff, was one dead little mouse. it seems that the racket the night before was our killer Ginkgo getting that little mouse he had been trying to tell me about the night before. Rainier and all her whining were just trying to alert us to the dead little body hidden in the corner.

the little mouse made it's way into the trash outside and things returned to normal inside. it's too bad we didn't figure out our pet's language the night before, we could have gotten more sleep. but next time let's hope we will know better.

i think Gink was all... "Welcome home mom... here's a little mouse present just for you." thoughtful don't you think? ha.

puzzle taxidermy

2010-06-09T16:16:00.000-07:00

you all know how i love stags right?

that is a given if you have been reading this blog for any amount of time. i have been wanting one of the many options of wood stag heads for our living room forever but the price has not allowed me to own one.

so when we found out we were having a little boy, i of course wanted to include a stag in one way or another. so there we were, JD and I out dinking around one day when i found a 3D wood puzzle of a stag. oh i was so excited.

then the stroke of genius hit me, or maybe it was JD. what if i put the puzzle together, cut off it's head, and mounted it to the wall. YES.

so with that in mind i planned a trophy wall for our little boy's room.

1. step 1 order the puzzles.

2. put them together then cut off their heads.

3. once i had the glued together heads i mounted them to wooden plaques that i had bought at Michael's and sprayed with a black lacquer paint.

wa-laa a trophy wall.

for the little man's wall we bagged a trophy

STAG

MOOSE

WHITE RHINO

and BISON

awesome right? i know i love them and i think he will too. my dad told me i'm going to scare the baby... come on a little puzzle taxidermy hasn't hurt anyone right?

this weekend

2010-06-07T09:55:00.000-07:00

if you live around the seattle area, you know how we haven't been able to escape the rain as of late.

i mean we did have sun on saturday, but one day out of 10 isn't enough for almost the middle of june. we were so tired of the rain yesterday that JD and i decided to have a PJ day. we woke up and never, not even for a minute, got out of our pj's.

we watched movies (3), had breakfast, lunch, and dinner all in our pj's. the most ambitious thing we did was sort through our books to decided what we could part with for resale. i even napped for a few hours, cause apparently laying around watching movies wasn't restful enough.

today i could crawl back into my pj's and go for round 2. one would think that with the amount of lounging we did yesterday that today i would be ready to take on the world. but again it is raining and grey outside, which makes me want to curl up and nap.

hopefully this trip to PA later this week will hold the promise of sunshine. i certainly need some. hope you had a more productive weekend than we did... if not hope you are feeling restful.

a dress for a wedding / shower

2010-06-03T15:35:00.000-07:00

this weekend my goal was to find a dress or dresses that i could wear to my friends wedding and to our first baby shower.

i am headed back to PA to visit family, go to a wedding, and get showered by my friends and family back east. yep all of that in a whirl wind trip of 5 days. i didn't want to spend a lot on a dress and i wanted to be able to wear this dress to work for the remainder of the summer. so the brief search was on.

i checked in a few stores and found that most of what i found had to be order online so here's to hoping that they look good once they come in.

for the wedding: ( i ordered 2 dresses maybe i will keep both, maybe one.)

my options are these:

A.

both of these lovelies come from Target. they had far more affordable choices than other stores and i didn't want to spend a ton cause who wants to spend a ton on maternity wear?

for the shower i picked up a full length sun dress. i couldn't find the color i actually bought which is grey and black with the tie dye rings. (it's shown here in aqua). it too is from Target.

i need to hem the long dress. no surprise there cause i'm so short. but i hope they work out...and i hope there is some sun shine cause this NW lady needs it.

book review - The Help

2010-06-02T12:36:00.000-07:00

so i just finished reading The Help, by Kathryn Stockett

must say i loved it.
i loved the characters, the story line, just all of it.

i really gravitate to books with strong female roles and this one didn't disappoint. i even laughed out loud on several occasions. it is one of those books i had to leave at home so i wouldn't be tempted to read during lunch or while taking a break.

the book explores several womens' lives, black and white, during the 1960's in Mississippi when racial tensions were high. it was a beautiful book that will hopefully continue to help people see past racial, social, or religious differences.

so go out and pick it up. it was a good one.

memorial day weekend

2010-06-01T12:04:00.000-07:00

hope you all had a great weekend. we had a WET, WET weekend here in seattle. it just wouldn't stop raining.

we made the most of it however, and made a huge push on the nursery... getting things set up and in their place. it made me feel a whole lot better at the end of the day sunday, when it actually looked like a room.

finally we got a bit of a break from the rain yesterday afternoon and the sun came out. we threw some meat on the grill, baked up some brownies, and had a few friends over for beers in the yard. ( i drank water, don't worry). it was nice to have some sunshine on our faces after so many overcast days.

hope you all had a nice relaxing memorial day.

JD's Birthday

2010-05-30T07:21:00.000-07:00

yeah i know i am behind in sharing photos... but what else is new.

this year for JD's birthday we celebrated home with a baked from scratch chocolate cake and lasagna. last year we started a family tradition that the b-day recipient gets to pick dinner and cake.

this is me concentrating very hard to get the cake just right. baking and all the precise measuring isn't my strong suit. JD just watched, laughed, and took pictures of me stressing about the cake.

thankfully they came out wonderfully... and we didn't have a fiasco like last year. the chocolate cake recipe came from martha, as did the icing you can get it here.

this is my cute man with his new biking back pack on. the fur babies and i got that for him as part of his present (you can't open a trip... and he needed something to open)

the finished cake. the icing wasn't my favorite but at least i tried. i think the cake came close to martha's.

and here is my happy birthday man. last one in his twenties. ahh what a young pup.

Pillows for the nursery

2010-05-29T07:17:00.000-07:00

a while back, while over on Bainbridge Island, we visited one of my most favorite fabric stores and picked up a Japanese car print that we thought would be fun for a little boy's room.

since then i have been itching to make pillows but have been a bit leery about installing a zipper. let's face it pillows in a kids room need to have a zipper because sooner than later, they are going to need washed.

thankfully my daily blog reading came to the rescue with sew katie did's post on installing an invisible zipper. thank the sweet lord. so i took her tutorial step by step and waaaa laaa two awesome pillows to go on one very sweet eames rocker.

1. i cut the front and back panels and the muslin for reinforcement. one thing i didn't think about when selecting the fabrics for the pillow is that i used wool for the back of the pillow which had much more stretch. the muslin helped to keep the wool in shape and from stretching too much.

2. then i sewed my front and front reinforcing together.

3. then it was time to position the zipper... gulp.

4. with one side of the zipper sewed it was on to aligning the other side and sewing it.

5. align the sandwich of pillow, pin and sew.

6. the big reveal - i am so excited about how they came out. i was amazed i could sew a zipper. you see, i am self taught in the sewing department and reading instructions isn't my strong suit. thus zippers have been a struggle in my previous projects. but these pillows, they turned out amazing. thanks Katie!

a gift from my parents

2010-05-28T06:00:00.000-07:00

i have a hard time accepting a substitute when i get something in my head.

let me explain... i get ideas so specific when looking for something, that i have a hard time picturing anything else in their place. this happened to me when picturing the nursery. i immediately conjured images of me with the bean sitting in an eames rocking chair. i knew the color, where i would place it in the nursery, and it just "fit" my vision for the room.

but then their was the problem of the price tag.. gulp. even though the price was high, sometimes you just want something. i couldn't get it out of my head. i found a pretty good deal on the chair and was debating splurging on it when talking it through with my mom. we decided that sometimes you have to just go for what you want and that anything else would have been just a substitute. then she said she and my dad would buy the chair for us, because sometimes you should get what you want, not just what you need.

our chair hasn't come in yet but i am so excited i can hardly stand it. AND i made new pillows just for this chair in our little nursery. thanks mom and dad. JD, the little bean, and i are really going to enjoy our new chair.

Community Supported Agriculture - CSA

2010-05-27T10:51:00.000-07:00

since getting pregnant we (the collective we meaning JD and I) have been taking a hard look at what we have been eating.

no, i'm not just talking about cutting back on processed foods and take out, but really looking at how we are getting our food and where it's coming from. what we found, is that it is hard to just live simply and enjoy food with no added hormones, modified genetics, or pesticides.

in every case we would have to pay more, to eat food, that simply came from nature without all the added crap. one way we have always supported our food needs is with our back yard garden, but we wanted another way to supply our food needs.

so a few weeks ago we joined a local CSA (community supported agriculture) farm. this way we are getting organic produce that is local. the best part, it is delivered to our house every other week before we even get up.

this is a picture of our first box. the farm we selected, Full Circle Farm, is local to the Seattle area. the other cool thing they do is work with other organic farms on the west coast so we can get a larger variety of fruits and veggies during the winter and spring when not much is in season here (note the tomatoes in the picture).

so far everything has been delicious.

i thought i would also share some other links with you on urban agriculture.

The dirty dozen and the clean fifteen - if you can't buy all organic this list helps you to know which fruits and veggies you should buy organic and which don't matter as much. They even have a cool print out you can throw in your bag and an app you can download to your phone.

Seattle's Urban Agriculture zoning changes - if you live here in the City there are a few changes to the zoning code that makes urban agriculture easier. if they pass (and i hope they do) each of us could now have up to 8 chickens in our back yards!

Vertical Farming - have you thought about vertical farming in urban areas as a way to combat hunger and malnutrition? if not it's worth your time.

Bee's are needed - if you haven't heard about colony collapse around the world and the devastated bee population you must have been living under a rock. we can all do our part to give bees ample choices for food and shelter. this is just one site that offers bee condos (as i like to think of them).

just a few things to think about on this thursday.
what are you doing to eat local and organic? anything you would like to share?

about 11 weeks to go

2010-05-24T13:52:00.000-07:00

it is amazing how quickly the weeks keep slipping away.

one weekend after another. one task after another. one inch in belly diameter after another.

i can't believe my 3rd trimester is here... the 1st trimester crawled by. i think it's because i couldn't eat anything other than cereal and peaches out of a can without fear of getting sick. the work days were the worst, clawing my way through the hours just to get to five o'clock so i could go home, eat, shower, and sleep. only to get up and do it all again the next day.

the second trimester was so much better and had all sorts of new firsts. i gained some energy back which did wonders for my sense of accomplishments. i out grew my "normal" clothes which was a challenge for me if you remember this post. but during this second trimester the most amazing thing happened; i felt my little man move for the first time. we were sitting on the couch watching tv, some particularly exciting Friday night when it happened. i was sure i felt a little punt. then two days later the same thing... then later that week again and again. it was through each of those little movements that i fell deeper and deeper in love with this little being who i have yet to formally meet.

it was also during this second trimester that we found out our sweet "bean" is a boy. a boy... a boy. oh boy. each week he grew and i grew and before i knew it. wham.

the third trimester. i don't know what to think about this third trimester. like clockwork with week 28 i grew more tired again. my belly expanded again and in a big way (i'm talking whoa). bending over to pick up stuff, put on socks, and tie my shoes has gotten much harder. sleeping, has become harder because of the increased size of my belly and the number of pillows in our bed.
on the other hand i get to feel our little boy move about a whole lot more. we are finally working on getting the nursery all set up and this whole thing is certainly becoming a reality. i can't complain really, if not for the lower back pain, i've had it pretty good. the rapid change is quite weird... but in 3 months i will get to meet my little man... and all of this will be so worth it.

the nursery...

2010-05-21T15:02:00.000-07:00

The NURSERY

even though we don't yet have anything to go in the nursery, we have at least started planning it out. i thought i would share with you some of the items we were thinking of including and get your thoughts...

also i have some projects i have been working on that i would like to share with you shortly that i have yet to post on. they are awesome though, like genius awesome. (well at least i think so)

i figure i will continue to add to this picture as i reveal the other projects.

so far this is what we've got going:

camping the dungeness spit

2010-05-20T12:31:00.000-07:00

a few weekends ago we went camping.

(man how time flies these days)

we went with some friends out to the Dugeness Spit for a little camping fun. we were prepared for the evening chill, (it being the first weekend in May and all) however what we hadn't counted on was the wind.... and boy oh boy, was it windy.

JD and i were in charge of Saturday night's dinner. we wanted something simple yet yummy for our fire roasted feast. so we went with kabobs!

the veggie ones ( green and orange peppers, yellow and red cherry tomatoes, onions, and mushrooms)

and the meat ones (chicken and steak)

the meat was marinated overnight and throughout the next day in the cooler.

while i was working on the kabobs JD was making home made fire starters.

to make the fire starters he had been collecting used egg cartons, dryer lint, and sawdust. (yes somewhere in the house we had a can or a bag of saw dust just waiting for this occasion) he filled the egg cups with lint and saw dust and then poured melted paraffin wax over the lint and wax. once the wax set up he cut them into individual fire starters - brilliant.

the Dugeness Spit is about an hour and a half drive from Seattle, not including the 30 minute ferry ride. we got there before lunch and set up camp.

our friends had arrived the night before and set up their tent mansion you can see on the left. we have the little 2 man tent on the right. we discovered during this trip that is would probably be our last in the two man tent. JD and I, plus Rainier and Baker and a baby belly made for some cramped space. next year with the little man and his gear we are just going to need more space.

after setting up camp we decided to go for a little walk, which somewhere along the way became a 3 mile hike.

thankfully the sun was warm and we had some fantastic views.

we even got to see some animal life that day including a coyote, heard of elk, a crazy large ant hill, a big brown salamander, and a bald eagle.

that evening we sat around the camp fire as close as possible to ward off the chill of the wind... and ate dinner and smores... yum.

sometime during the night the wind subsided and we all were happy to be a cramped little warm family in our tent. i will seriously miss that little tent and all the fun outings JD and i have had in it over the years. when we made the move out here that tent was our home for over a month... but now our little family has out grown it's convenient size and i guess it is time to move to a larger model.

the nursery floor

2010-05-19T11:11:00.000-07:00

remember like a hundred years ago when i told you we finished the nursery floor?

well we really did. we still have EVERYTHING else to do in the room but it now has a floor at least.

yeah... some people have time to stage their "finished" photos before taking them. not us. ha. these are action shots of the progress of the nursery, no trim, the wall paper isn't done, no kiddo decorations, no curtains...

the list goes on and on. we at least have a look in mind, but more on that later.

still here ( i swear)

2010-05-12T12:56:00.000-07:00

i'm just exhausted...
i've been burning the candle at both ends for the past couple of weeks and it has caught up with me. i am now having trouble staying awake through work. zzzzz...

last night was JD's b-day and guess what i didn't mess up the cake. pictures sometime i swear.

this weekend we planted the lower garden and got another one of our gardens almost ready for planting. one step at a time.... ahhh yes.

hope everyone out there had a wonderful mother's day. i know i did! even though our little boy isn't "here" yet JD thoughtfully had presents for me from our gang.... i'll share soon.

i promise!
xoxo
wren.

a campin we did go

2010-05-05T11:37:00.000-07:00

last weekend we went camping..

and since then i can't seem to get caught up with anything let alone you...
it makes me sad. so i appologize for being a bad blogger.
thought i would share a baby bump photo from this past weekend. when JD showed me this photo i was more surprised than anyone i think... wow look at that baby belly.

that is some crazy stuff...

as a side note the tent i am standing in front of is ours... yep it is too small. but more on that later.

xoxo
wren.

San Francisco surprise trip!

2010-04-30T07:49:00.000-07:00

i must say that i was so, so proud of myself for being able to keep this San Francisco trip a secret from JD. i'm not great with secrets, especially when it comes to keeping them from my best friend. so it was ultra hard not to spill the beans. that said: I DID IT!!!! and he was so surprised.

the trip was a quick one but we got to see tons of SF (most of it by walking it!).
we flew Virgin Air which was pretty fancy. they were pretty personable (which is rare in flying these days) and had fancy ipod like seats and satellite tv viewing.

on friday we met up with a college friend and perused the city.

this was taken from the tippy top of nob hill... then we walked down. urgh.

on our walk down the hill we made our way through the colorful china town.

we eventually made it to the ferry building where we had a wonderful lunch on the water. after living here in seattle, i can't imagine living without water. it is just so peaceful even when hustling, bustling with ferry traffic.

while making our way through the city we even managed to find a Steeler's Bar... oh yeah baby.

here we go, steelers, here we go!

friday afternoon we walked up through north beach and down to fisherman's wharf... then it was back to the hotel cause after 7.5 miles of walking i needed a nap. that evening we had a delicious meal and i even indulged in a few sips of red wine with dinner. ( i know, i know save the speech for someone else... after 6 months of being pregnant and not having any alcohol i doubt a few sips of red wine is going to hurt.)

saturday morning we drove across that famous bridge... what's its name again? oh yeah the Golden Gate Bridge... ( seriously i hope you know i am just joking) i got a bit obsessive with the photography.

we had breakfast in Sausalito then walked along the water enjoying the sunny morning.

by the afternoon we had made our way down to the mission for some amazing tacos and a stroll around the neighborhood to check out some of the beautiful murals.

and this is apparently what i need to prepare myself for in the next few months!

we even checked out some lucha libre masks...but i couldn't talk the boys into street wrestling

on sunday morning we ended our trip with a cable car ride... cause how can you visit San Fran without seeing the city via cable car?

it was the perfect way to end the trip.
i hope you enjoyed your surprise b-day weekend JD. you deserved it and i'm glad i got to tag along and share it with you.

roller derby

2010-04-29T12:58:00.000-07:00

did i tell you we went to the roller derby a few weeks ago to see the Rat City Roller Girls?

oh my god it was fun. we had a blast. i think that next year, when i'm not pregnant, i'll try out. i mean what could be more fun than skating around in a circle hip checking people?

the finished kitchen!!

2010-04-29T11:28:00.000-07:00

woot woot.

i know this has been a long time in coming but here is a picture of our completed kitchen.

no it's not the best light i know... but i haven't thought to take a photo after work and i've stalled long enough.

you can see our new dishwasher installed (boy do i love that thing) and all of our beautiful white dishes (from crate and barrel) on display.

i still need to resolve where to put our coffee / tea mugs that didn't make it onto a shelf. over all i LOVE the new kitchen... LOVE IT.

what do you think?

we're back

2010-04-26T12:09:00.000-07:00

yup we are back from our trip to San Fran...

and boy oh boy am i tired. we did a ton of walking and got to visit so many neighborhoods along the way. i got some great shots which i will share with you later this week.

a few things to get you caught up on:
1. the pups and kit-cat did great with their new best dog sitter stef. Rainier and Baker even got to go to the dog park. we walked in the door last night to 2 tired, happy pups.

2. i swear i walked 15 miles at least this weekend. 6 months pregnant + 15 miles of walking = one tired lady.

4. the baby boy is now strong enough to kick and make my whole belly move. JD could even spot the kicking from across the room!

5. the blind side is a great movie. we watched it last night and i highly recommend it.

6. although i enjoyed a great trip with my wonderful husband, i'm happy to be home.

there is something i need to get off my chest

2010-04-24T07:06:00.000-07:00

well actually there is something i need to get off (and on) my chest...

but i digress.

as you all know we are expecting, and with pregnancy comes an growing and expanding belly. as everyone knows the belly isn't the only thing to grow with pregnancy, yes i am talking about boobs.

as the months roll by the belly grows and so do those lovely girls. some ladies, less endow in the chest area love the new addition. for others, like myself, who were already "set" in the chest area, the additional size isn't all that much fun.

let me explain... it isn't so much that i mind my boobs getting bigger. in fact, i hadn't noticed much of a visual change. i did notice how ill fitting my current bras had become.

since i had tackled my fear of shopping for maternity clothes a few weeks ago, i felt that buying a bigger bra couldn't be that big of a deal. (WRONG)

first i went to a maternity shop, because that's logical right? need a maternity bra? go to a maternity shop. the helpful lady there told me a bit about the types of bras they offered and that i should try on a bunch to see what would work best.

then as she turned to help another customer she added a few qualifiers:
1. "oh when looking at the sizes know that these bras all run about a size small."
2. "we don't have a DD our sizes go to an E."
3. "oh and there aren't any sizes above E."
4. she then should have added... good luck... snicker snicker.

let me translate that for you... if you normally wear C shop for a D. if you normally wear a D shop for an E because there is no such thing as a DD. and then of course you will be shopping for at least a size above what you normally wear cause your pregnant!...

so if you normally wear a D... and you need a size bigger, an E in this case... the bras run small so look for a size... WE DON'T CARRY.
wtf. how is it a shop that is to cater to growing female bodies doesn't have bras above "normal sizes"? i was pissed.

i left feeling like a large cow or something. on my way out of the shopping complex i stopped by another famous bra company to find that they too didn't carry anything "that big".

you know what people F U. i shouldn't have to feel bad about the size of my boobs. if you hadn't noticed i'm pregnant and they are going to get bigger.

i gave up my search that day and went home to pout. i guess i will try it again sometime soon, but now even when your pregnant you have to conform to these manufacturer imposed limits of what is normal. i would venture a guess that there is a large part of the population that doesn't fit, quite literately, into these ridiculous limits.

i shouldn't have to feel bad that my body is changing to accommodate this new little baby that we are so lucky to have.

oh crap... it's warm

2010-04-23T07:27:00.000-07:00

those were the words out of our mouth tuesday night when we opened the freezer.

all those frozen berries, home made pesto, and meat were thawed. the fridge wasn't cold, the freezer wasn't cold. CRAP. a broken fridge was all we needed. JD didn't know at the time, but our San Fran trip was quickly approaching. there certainly wasn't enough time to shop for a new fridge. plus, where were we going to come up with the money?

originally we had thought the freezer door had been pushed open and started to thaw... but tuesday night it was apparent the entire thing was no longer working.

i immediately started to have a breakdown. there were too many variables... shopping for a fridge, the big surprise san fran trip reveal, fridge delivery, scheduling a repair person, and now no fridge for the dog sitter. urgh. my head was exploding.

thank god our neighbor has a freezer chest that had room, so we took most of our freezer contents up to their house. that move alone, saved us a few hundred dollars in meat and frozen fruit. i returned home to start cooking a few of the things that didn't make the trip to their freezer so, we could eat them before they want bad.

i immediately got online to compare refrigerators but JD said he could fix it. he ran a few tests on the fridge and he felt he had a pretty good idea he would be able to fix it. not that i doubted him, but how many people do you know that can diagnose a problem in an appliance and then fix it without the help of a repair man? where do you get parts for these things anyway? by the time he had it narrowed down to a specific part it was too late - the stores were closed.

so tuesday night we unloaded the fridge items that wouldn't be able to survive into a cooler in the middle of our kitchen and covered them with ice.

soon after i revealed the san fran trip because the fridge stress was just too much and we needed something to look towards. we went to bed excited for the new trip and worried about the fridge.

the next day JD found the part and $86 dollars later, he was at home behind the fridge for the second day in a row. he had some crazy wiring diagrams and a headlamp on... i didn't interrupt. he meant business. about 30 minutes later i heard my fridge kick on... i looked down to see the look of triumph on his face. i opened the freezer door, the air blew cold.

he had done it... he fixed the fridge and all before our trip. the food was saved and in an unexpected bonus both the freezer and fridge got a much needed clean out.

i'm lucky to have such a handyman... he fixes appliances. yeah i would say that's a little hot. ha.

JD's early B-day surprise!

2010-04-22T07:52:00.000-07:00

Since this is JD's last 20 something birthday i wanted to do something memorable.

so a few months ago i began thinking... and thinking hard about what to get him. he has done such a great job the past couple of years on my birthday. this past b-day you can read about here, and the birthday before that i got Baker.

so i got down to business and decided to plan a surprise trip to San Francisco! so we are taking off for a long weekend... i booked tickets, a hotel, a shuttle, arranged things to do while there, worked out schedules with friends who live there, all without him knowing a thing.

the whole trip was revealed when i gave him a Moleskine City Notebook of San Fran. at first he just looked at the notebook then at me then back to the notebook. i could see that the early birthday surprise wasn't coming together for him so i squeeled... "we're going to san francisco for a long weekend... pack your bags." and then he looked at me like i had 2 heads. "Really? Like for real?" he said...

ha yes total surprise!

so we will be off frolicking this weekend. don't worry someone is staying at the house with the fur babies. i will be sure to take lots of pics.

the fence is complete

2010-04-21T11:33:00.000-07:00

the fence is finally done

and let me tell you i couldn't be happier (and neither could the pups)
we finished up the fence and after a weekend of freedom the pups agree that the fence was a good idea. this weekend it was beautiful here (70 and sunny). while we were working on the flooring in the nursery i left the back door open and Rainier and Baker ran in and out as much as they wanted. they took turns sleeping in the sun on the back porch, laying in the grass, and then coming inside to see how the work progressed.

at the end of the day we got a lot down with minimal interference from the dogs, and they had big smiles on their faces from the amount of time they spent running around the yard. it was a win, win situation.

i think the fence turned out nicely. i can already picture the future trellis green with wisteria. (ah yes one step at a time. there are only two of us you know.)

don't you think it looks better?

the short side...and a little detail. now we just need a little landscaping and things will be shaping up.

hope your week is going well... !

Eating In - Avocado Toast

2010-04-20T10:22:00.000-07:00

eating in - avocado toast

iknow it has been a long time since i have done one of these. truth isi really haven't felt like cooking lately, but i have been meaning toshare a strange sounding breakfast with you for a while now.

please let me introduce to you... avocado toast.
iknow most of you will read this post and think... "ewwww i am so nottrying that". but let me just tell you this is good (and yes i thoughtthat before i was pregnant. this is actually a modification of arecipe JD saw in a Men's Health magazine and he introduced the idea tome. i too was skeptical until i tasted it.

hereis a picture of our breakfast this weekend. a yummy egg, fruit salad,and avacado toast. i'm so excited we still had an avocado in thefridge for this morning (we had avocado toast again... yum)

Avocado Toast

1 avocado
2 slices of whole wheat bread
2 laughing cow wedges
honey
garlic salt

1. toast the bread and spread 1 wedge of the laughing cow cheese on eachpiece (the original recipe called for cream cheese but we substitutedthe laughing cow and we like it better)

2. place thin slices of the avocado on each piece of toast. we use 1/2 of an avocado per piece.

3. drizzle toast with honey, sprinkle with garlic salt.

waaaa laa. yummy toast. i know what you are thinking... "waitsprinkle with garlic salt and drizzle with honey?" but yes.... thesweetness of the honey and the savory of the salt really make theavocado toast shine.

try it i dare you.

(oh and if you do try it, let me know what you think - k!)

the weekend wrap up

2010-04-19T13:12:00.000-07:00

let me start by saying... oh my god am i tried.
yesterday we worked our buts off installing the wood floor into the second bedroom (what will someday be a nursery) from 8.30 am until about 10.00 pm yesterday we worked. thank god JD cleaned out the room on sat... or we never would have gotten it all done.

i did take pictures but was so tired last night i could hardly drag myself from the shower to bed.

the good news is that the room looks like a real room. we have all sorts of touch ups and all the trim work to do... but with another week or so of steady work we could be ready to move some furniture in.
(note that we don't yet have any furniture to move in...but hey who's counting.)

the not so great part of the weekend is that we are now living with stacks upon stacks of stuff in the living room that came from the second bedroom. we have over 20 linear feet of books... a stack of boxes of books as tall as me... and countless other things. urgh. until we build our storage boxes for the living room wall i think we will be living in stacks of books.

i must remember to just breath... one step at a time.
photos of all sorts of stuff coming soon. unless i fall asleep early again tonight.

me and my baby belly

2010-04-15T13:05:00.000-07:00

this is me with my baby belly... oh, almost 2 weeks ago.

let's just say since this photo the belly has continued to grow.

now that i look down, i would say that it has continued to grow at a rapid pace.

this week, i think that our boy must be adding significantly to his size and weight cause i am starving all the time. last night i ate dinner and could have eaten again an hour later...

( i should say i didn't eat a second dinner. geez stop judging)

update... update

2010-04-14T11:13:00.000-07:00

no pictures today... just a quick update about what has been shakin around these parts.

sometimes i forget that i can post without pictures so here goes.

1. this weekend was great we got tons done and i took a bunch of pictures for you for up coming posts. bad news is that i have yet to sit down at the computer to download them.

2. the fence is complete!... and we all enjoyed happy tired pups lounging about in the sun this weekend.

3. my sister finally had her baby... 2 weeks late little Chloe Mae came into this world on Monday afternoon. she was 8 lbs. 13 oz... a big, cute, healthy baby is all we could have asked for.

4. i had a fierce migraine tuesday night that made me go to bed while the sun will still up in the sky. thankfully it was gone by wed AM.

5. i opened a new etsy store, Blue Poppy Seed. cause hey what else do i have to do? you can check it out here. i now have a place to upload all of my graphic design invites that keep me up at night. i currently have 3 baby shower invites listed but more to come soon... i just have to get my little fingers working as quickly as my brain.

6. i have been so hungry this week. i think the boy is having a growth spurt or something cause i can't seem to eat enough. from here on out, i think i'll call him bosco until he's born and his name is revealed. ha. well maybe not. i will have to think on that one.

hope everyone is having a great wed... remember after today we are more than half way through the work week!.

xoxo
wren

the fence part 2

2010-04-09T07:00:00.000-07:00

the fence project continues on, and on, and on.

so the posts are in and painted... next step cedar slats.

(hence the large pile of cedar scene here on our saw horses)

this is the lesser shown side of the yard.

here you can see the posts in, trimmed to size, and painted a lovely shade of black.

oh... wait check out that cedar... nice.

(missing yet is the actual gate, and some slats on the left hand side.)

now back to the side of our house affectionately know as our staging ground.

the posts are in and painted black... nice.

and look-ie there... now they have cedar. sweet.

oh.. and this is my cute husband.

(i know it looks like he does all the work cuz he is always the one in the photos... but really i help too!)

here is the almost finished fence, minus the gate.

the tall posts will be the front of the trellis.

more posts will be needed to create the trellis obviously. but we take things one step at a time around these parts.

the new fence

2010-04-08T16:44:00.000-07:00

so i mentioned that we have been working on a fence

(for what seems like forever now)

it all started with holes, concrete, and pressure treated posts.

since the neighbors felt the need to rip out all the vegetation between our houses we felt the need to add something back to block their house.

not only will we eventually have a fence but a trellis too!

and then we can say good bye to their lovely facade.

we don't like the look of pressure treated wood... so i painted it black.

excuse my awesome outfit but hey... they are work clothes baby.

tv - what i'm watchin

2010-04-08T13:39:00.000-07:00

have you seen this show parenthood?

i think it's hilarious.

you should watch.

some home page changes

2010-04-07T17:02:00.000-07:00

today has been a crazy one here at work... no time for blogging or posting pictures of our new fence. what is new around here, are some pictures on my blog home page of our little family... you can find pics of me, JD, Rainier, Bamboo, Ginkgo, and Bake... the little man will surly join the crowd in August.

i also added a "currently reading" area... it is always fun to see what others are into. i have a few other things in mind to add to the page but it hasn't happened yet.

i'm sure a lot of you read daily with reader.. so click on over and see my cute little family.

love to hear your thoughts...

xoxo,
wren.

our little man.

2010-04-06T13:04:00.000-07:00

i want to share something very exciting and personal with you all...

this is our baby boy's adorable little face.

(he is in side profile for those of you who aren't accustom to reading ultrasounds)

so yep... we're having a BOY...

secretly i think JD was a bit relieved.

i am so excited... operation nursery is about to kick off this week and we are wrapping up a fencing project that i will post about later in the week.

lots of things going on.

just wanted to share. hope you all are having a great tuesday.

walk about the neighborhood

2010-04-02T15:58:00.000-07:00

since we knew the rains were on there way (in a big way i might add) to the seattle area, we took a long walk the other night. we stopped and smelled the flowers and tried to find a couple minutes of piece in the day.

we looked at white flowers

and pink ones.

the pups took a minute or too to check see what a little girl was playing with in her yard.

i loved these little yellow pom poms... anyone know what this plant is?

the blossoms are amazing right now. let's hope all this driving wind and rain doesn't knock them all down.

our new mantel

2010-04-02T09:41:00.000-07:00

sorry about the doom and gloom earlier this week... i know no one wants to read about tragedy everyday. so in an effort to lighten up the blog this week and try and find a silver lining.. i give you our mantel project.

with all the other stuff and baby excitement around here let's just say projects have dropped off the list.

we have made an effort to finish up a few things and because i have been a bit more tired than usual JD has been handling the bulk of the projects. this one, although we put off for some time, couldn't have been easier.

we wanted to install a mantel on our freshly furred out fireplace so that the tv wasn't the only item hanging there. for the mantel its self, we went to the re-store here in seattle that sells used building goods. you never know what you'll find because the inventory changes daily. on this particular day we found a laminated beam for $6 that would work great for our mantel. we used the same steel brackets that are used in the kitchen for the open shelving, to secure the mantel to the wall.

here you can see our mantel all decked out for easter. (don't mind the wires, we are having a sound issue with the tv that should be solved soon and then - no wires!)

although i didn't get all the easter decorations out i did want to break out my little chick collection. they do make me happy.

here you can see all the little chicks standing at attention.

the egg shaped chicks, JD and i made a few years ago with some wood eggs from Michael's and some paint. after we painted on the chickies we spray polyed them. we have a whole family.

(oh yeah and you can see the mantel up close here too)

the paper chick decoration you see in the background is from my grandparents, given to me the year my little sister was born.

chicks in the coral - could that be cuter? and how about that sequin bunny and chick?

all the little soldier chicks in a row.

tweet, tweet. happy easter.

the last couple days

2010-03-31T12:44:00.000-07:00

i have to tell you that the past couple of days have sucked. everyone in our house has felt the sadness of the death of our little Bamboo.

on monday i awoke to find my eyes swollen to the size of a puffer fish from crying the entire day before. JD didn't object to staying home and taking a personal day, which i greatly appreciated. we all needed a day to spend together and try and move forward and that is just what we did. we hung at home all day while the wind gusted outside and the rain poured down.

you might think it silly, but all of our pets have been affected. Rainier cried all day sunday around the house and tried to guard Bam, growling at anyone who got near him, when we were trying to bury him.

later sunday, we tried to get out of the house for a little bit to think about something else and Baker had a puppy anxiety attack. usually he is happy to have a cookie and his bed, and has no problem when we leave. on sunday he started shaking and howling and doing anything to get us to stay. he wouldn't even take his cookie. we stood outside the house for several minutes to see if he would quiet down but he had himself too worked up. we ended up having to go back in to help calm him down.

Ginkgo has been the worst. he has been spending much more time with the family now that his brother is gone. he takes turns sitting with us inside and going outside sitting on the porch just waiting for his brother to return home. he hasn't attempted his usual wanderings of the neighborhood. he just switches from inside time to sitting in the back yard waiting. he has also mostly abandoned their sleeping spaces to sleep on our bed. it just breaks my heart every time i see him sitting outside. i can't imagine what he thinks.

to help complicate things both dogs got sick in the middle of the night on Monday. JD was the most amazing husband, getting up multiple times to clean up the mess. by morning Rainier was feeling better and ate her breakfast but Baker wouldn't eat and he wouldn't even take a cookie.

we left for work, worried about the possibility that maybe the dogs had gotten into what Boo had. we ran home at lunch to find them both awake, but Baker now had some hives. we let them out and gave them water. Bake ate plenty of grass and we headed back to work. when we got home last night Bake was feeling much better. he ate a full dinner and the hives were gone. he did get sick in the middle of the night last night as well, but only once, and he had an appetite this morning for breakfast as well as cookies.

JD, being the best husband thoroughly searched the yard (and the neighbors yards) last night for anything that that might have made all the pets sick. he went through all the planting beds and along our fence and even crawled through the bamboo to find nothing.

i wonder if they all might be responding to stress and anxiety. they know i've been upset and maybe that is making them feel worse. i don't know what it is but i am ready for things to settle down and get back to as normal as they can be this close to the death of a family member.

thanks for all your emails and comments. they are all greatly appreciated.
truly.. thank you.

Bamboo 2004 - 2010

2010-03-28T17:17:00.000-07:00

Bamboo, (Bamboozler, Bam, Boo) 2004 - 2010

i hate, with all my heart to write this.

i would love to tell you this isn't true, but i can't.

this morning when Boo didn't show up for breakfast JD went looking for him and found him dead at the side of our house. we're not sure what happened, he was just there, cold.

we buried him in the back yard under the service berry tree. i haven't stopped crying yet. i loved that little cat with all my heart; we all did. i don't know what Ginkgo is going to do. we let the pups down into the yard so they could say their goodbyes. Rainier smelled Boo and then started crying immediately.

Boo was a wonderful cat... and not just a cat our buddy.

this picture is one of my favorites when we first got him and lived in the apartment... how i would love to hold him again.

we ran a few errands today and all i could hope for was that he was on the front porch when we got home. he wasn't.

Boo and Ginkgo are litter mates, brothers. they have always taken care of each other, now i just don't know what Gink is going to do. I don't know what i'm going to do.

A few things about our Boo:

Boo loved to drink water from the faucet.

He would brave getting in the shower with you for a drink of water.

Boo had a sensitive stomach and we bought special food just for him.

Boo once jumped out our 4th story apartment window... and when we got home hours later he was sitting on the ground at the base of the apartment building meowing back and forth with Ginkgo who was in the window.

Boo loved cat nip.... he was crazy for it. He would roll around in it and go wild.

Boo loved to sit behind the door in the bathroom, next to the heater. If you left laundry there you were sure to find him all balled up asleep.

Boo was our buddy, our friend, and he is greatly missed.

He would have been 6 years old in June.

i wish with all my heart i could have him back....

i hope he is in a better place and one day i will get to see him again. it wouldn't be heaven without him.

8506 - progress in the kitchen; open shelving

2010-03-24T13:17:00.000-07:00

the kitchen progress continues.

we now have an inevitable time line for all our house projects - August 10th (otherwise known as my due date.) the other weekend JD and i sat down to make a list of all the little projects we want to complete before the baby gets here.

we came up with 35 projects. some of them were huge too like - remodel the bathroom. i have only 20 weeks to go, so that is more than on project a week.

the moral of this story is.... not everything is going to get done. realistically, the majority of the list is not going to get done. but we are going to do what we can and the kitchen is priority number 1.

with the trim around the window complete we were free to move onto the shelving. first we laid out the shelving and brackets with removable chalk dust on the wall.

while JD started installing the brackets, i unpacked the glassware we received for our wedding. i have enough to open a restaurant! all the glass ware received a good scrub and was ready for it's new home.

by the end of the evening the brackets had made their way onto the wall to await the shelving the next day.

changing body - my baby bump

2010-03-18T07:07:00.000-07:00

i know i touched on the subject last week... but

wow pregnancy.

JD and i are so super excited for this new baby... what i didn't expect is how i would feel about this every changing body of mine.

starting last weekend the baby apparently needed room, a lot more room. i awoke one morning to find much more belly then i went to bed with. exciting right? well, i sort of found it terrifying. the shirts that fit just yesterday wouldn't button, the jeans i could zip somewhat were not budging, and i was finding all around dissatisfaction with my closet contents. i think the worst part of it was that although my belly was growing it wasn't big enough to be an obvious baby belly and i thought i might be perceived by others as just have gained a whole lot of weight.

you might laugh at the thought of me, standing in front of my closet, on a the way to a baby shower, trying to find something slimming to wear. however, at the time this new revelation coupled with a large influx of hormones didn't make for a particularly fun situation.

so to my rescue came JD... he not only helped me to find something to wear at that moment so we could leave the house, he promised to help me shop for some new clothes as well.

again, you would think the idea of shopping for a bunch of new clothes would be really exciting, but i found all the long shirts, and big panels intimidating and weird looking. i mean who finds that stuff "cute" or fashionable?

thursday, after work, i gave it my best try. 25 min into the shopping experience i found myself in a dressing room with a pair of full panel jeans on and a more forgivable cotton shirt. i was unable to determine if this was what the clothing was to look like. was this really me standing there in maternity clothes? i really wasn't sure if this was what i wanted, so i stayed in the dressing room at least 15 minutes until JD got there. when he got there, he came in, and with one little move everything changed. without saying a word to me he came in and looked at me with a smile then looked down at my ever growing belly and put his hand on it. i could see how happy that growing belly made him... and that made me realize how silly i was being. (though, it didn't hurt that he told me i looked beautiful.) he could see through my expanding size to that little baby safely growing inside.

from there we went to another store and this time, picking up those weird jeans and elongated tops was a lot easier. i found a few things that even made me feel good about my growing bump.

i have yet to fully embrace this new growing belly of mine, but we are becoming more acquainted on a daily basis. i think each day that it becomes more apparent that this is a baby belly the better. for now, i'll keep trying to love my growing form. i'm sure that the ultra sound on monday will help me to remember just why it's poking out there so.

i found some really cute things... i share them later this week.

a quilt for my mom & dad

2010-03-17T11:07:00.000-07:00

i have been quilting for about 2 years now.

even though i have tried all sorts of little projects, i had never tackled a full size quilt until this year.

i decided last fall that i wanted to make a quilt for my mom and dad for christmas. i wanted to give them something that had a lot of meaning, time, and love put into it. i worked with the colors my mom had already established within their bedroom and chose a complementary palette.

i wanted a pattern that would fit within my parents' country home but had clean, modern lines at the same time. for the pattern i chose the flock of triangles pattern from the denyse schmidt quilts book.

here are the final results.

i am so proud of my first queen size quilt and the way it turned out. i truly loved the way it turned out. i even signed and dated it on the back. I hope they love it... because it really was a labor of love.

8506 - progress in the kitchen; window trim

2010-03-16T06:43:00.000-07:00

the work on the kitchen continues.

the next step was putting in new shelving but the window needed to be trimmed before we knew where to place the shelving.

step 1. remove paint debris on window. years worth of messy trim painting left the window covered in the remains of the past trim colors. JD took care of the mess with paint thinner which worked remarkably well.

step 2. (this one you don't see) have all the trim ready to go... we are using fir and did 4 coats on all the trim.

step 3. (and this one took all day) install the trim. we boxed out the sash and installed a deeper sill which will be nice for flowers in the summer.

step 4. clean up

one little piece at a time the kitchen is coming together... now onto laying out the shelves.

marination - i'm obsessed

2010-03-15T07:00:00.000-07:00

i love marination....

while out and about in seattle we found this gourmet food truck

and it comes to my neighborhood on saturdays.

oh how i love thee.

they offer Hawaiian and Korean curb cuisine that is the bomb. i really could eat here every saturday, but that might just get a bit insane. i can't stay away from the beef tacos and JD loves their little pork sliders. we keep thinking of trying all their other offerings but can't help but crave what we love. they are always on the go so check out their web site and find their latest spot.

(dear people at marination if you want to send me coupons for free food.. bring it... i will preach your gospel) ha

the weekend

2010-03-14T18:40:00.000-07:00

the weekend is good for:

going to the dog park.

as you can see Rainier tires before Baker who makes it his sole mission to run the entire time.

sewing baby quits for friends

this little quilt is for my friends, Jana and Kevin's baby boy... due to make an appearance in the next few weeks.

and going to the movies

can't say it was my favorite... but the 3d coolness was entertaining.

what the?

2010-03-11T13:36:00.000-08:00

so this week has been quite something for many reasons.

1. work has been a bear and by the time i get home, i eat dinner, watch some tv, and go to bed. last night i sat at the computer with two camera on my lap intending to download last's weekends photos to share with you. then i sat them back on the desk, put on my pj's and laid down on the couch. sorry.

2. i now have an indistinguishable baby belly. the little bambino has decided to make quite an appearance. i swear from saturday night to sunday afternoon my belly grew before my eyes. last week i fit into this cute little button up shirt and on sunday there was no way i was getting those buttons buttoned. i think that tonight i am going to try and shop for maternity clothes (which scares me). this might sound crazy but the thought of buying clothes that look so big freaks me out completely. Sat. night JD and i were out and walked past a maternity store, he offered to come inside and help me find a few things but i couldn't go over the threshold. am i the only one here? so tonight i will do my best to find a few things that will cover my ever growing bump.

3. the pups have been crazy. i don't know if there is something going on with the moon this week but the dogs have been off the hook. baker has been so hyper, beyond his normal dog self. there was a puddle of drool when we arrived home yesterday from where he sat and waited for us. normally i wake him up when i come through the door. rainier has caught the urge to spend all of her waking hours outside. so no matter if you just returned home from an 1.5 long walk within minutes she is at the back door whining to go out again... ahhh thank god fencing in the back yard is high on the priories list. this morning we let her out back only to see her sprint out front and down the street. she is so lucky that A. i went to get her and not JD and B. that the car slowed down in time when she ran across the street.

well i need to get back at it. thankfully it is thursday which means only one more day of work before i can get some rest.... ahhhhh

handmade - baby shower gifts

2010-03-04T13:41:00.000-08:00

baby gifts!!!

A good friend of mine had a beautiful baby girl a few weeks ago. i thought i would share with you what i put together for their shower. guest were asked to bring handmade, eco friendly products for the new baby girl which was a wonderful incentive to sew something up and make some purchase on etsy.

(like i would do anything else)

at the time of the shower we didn't know if the new baby was a boy or a girl. what we did know were the nursery colors were curry and white... i took that and ran. for the new little babe i whipped up a baby quilt that would work for warmth over the baby in the stroller or even for a make shift changing pad on the fly.

i used white and curry fabric mixed with an adorable fish pattern that added pops of orange and red. the pattern i laid out by eye and then extended the pattern and exaggerated it when quilting the blanket.

i loved (LOVED) how it turned out... a bit more free form than the other quilts i have made in the past and much more me. it's hard to see here but i quilted the blanket with curry colored thread so it would be a subtle accent on the white fabric.

in addition to the quilt i picked up few other items on etsy.

this super adorable little fawn teether has been a favorite of mine forever. the etsy seller little alouette has quite a selection of organic wooden baby items which are to die for. i am making a list of things i need from this shop for my little one on the way. seriously, they have so many lovely things i don't know where to start.

for the last (but not least) part of my gift i purchased a little eames rocker t-shirt from tiny modernist. my friend is a fellow architect and design junkie so i knew the little eames rocker wouldn't be lost on her. the little t-shirt was absolutely adorable and worth every penny. the new mommy loved it.

it was great to go to a handmade shower... now how to hint to others that i would like handmade things too! (hmm maybe i just did)

a turning point; MEAT

2010-03-04T12:09:00.000-08:00

last night was a huge turning point for me in this pregnancy

last night marked the first time since december (yes i said DECEMBER) that i could walk into the meat department at the grocery store. for the past 4 months i would walk to the end of the isle cover my nose, divert my eyes, and run into the next isle. i didn't look or smell for fear that if i did, i would loose it in the grocery store.

let's face it... no one wants to see a dry heaving person, pregnant or not, in the grocery store where they are shopping for dinner. so, since december, JD has been our meat shopper and meet preparer. once the meat started cooking i was fine for the most part. to be completely honest, he really helped with food preparation for most of the first three months since my belly didn't really like food at all.

so there i was last night, in the meat isle, standing with hamburger and chicken in my hand and then it came to me.... wait i have meat in my hands and i don't feel the need to run out of the store for fresh air! yippie...

oh the little joys in life... i can buy meat again. now if only i could pick up dog poop, then i could take the crazy dogs for a walk by myself again. well maybe that isn't such a bad thing!

this weekend - a walk on the trails

2010-03-03T07:02:00.000-08:00

saturday morning we awoke to sunshine, which is a treat for a weekend morning the last day of February. we decided to make the best out of it and took the pups for a walk in the trails by our house.

rainier and baker led the way

it is so easy to forget how beautiful it is here when i've been sleeping the last few months away. look at my good looking family on the hike.

the cute family

here's a picture of me and the bug, cleverly concealed within a growing belly bump out for a stroll. i must say when we got home the bug and i did some resting on the couch while JD made a major house renovation push. but i'll save that for later.

my ever growing belly bump from above

happy hump day all.

i won - The Handmade Marketplace...

2010-02-26T16:38:00.000-08:00

i won, i won. oh i am so excited.

Sweet Paul was having a giveaway and i won.

this has really just made my day.

our latest purchase

2010-02-26T16:04:00.000-08:00

after living in our little house for the past three years, this president's day i made one of the most exciting house purchases of all time - a DISHWASHER!!!

now i know some of you are rolling your eyes... and saying things like paleezzz... but i am seriously excited about this. in the list of house hold chores, there is always one chore that you absolutely hate to do. for me it's cleaning the bathroom and folding socks. i know that they need to be done but i seriously dislike doing them. for you maybe it's making the bed, or running the vacuum, or dusting? for JD doing the dishes is the "thing" he hates to do. this is an ever so inconvenient chore to hate because it is one of the few that need done daily.

for three years we have battled with a sink full of dishes... that is all about to change. i got the call today that our dishwasher, a bosch, is ready for pick up. oh... am i excited. our new stainless appliance is pictured above. isn't it sleek and modern. it is supposed to be really quiet too which is important in a house like ours that shares the kitchen with the living space.

so guess what we will be doing this weekend??? yep installing a dishwasher!

i'll let you know how it goes. have a great weekend. anyone have any really exciting plans?

birthday presents

2010-02-25T13:54:00.000-08:00

my 31st b-day (in december)

i thought i would share with you the other awesome presents i got for my birthday. it was hard to compete with the news that a little baby was on the way but JD did a great job.

first of all i got a surprise dinner at Dahlia Lounge, a Tom Douglas restaurant here in seattle. the food was great and the atmosphere was relaxing and comfortable. i thoroughly enjoyed my dinner and then was slipped an envelope with tickets inside...

the tickets inside were for the Seattle Symphony! every year we have lived here in seattle i have wanted to go to the Seattle Symphony Holiday POPs show. it sells out sooooo fast we have never gotten tickets. that was before this year... JD got me tickets for the show! AND, AND... to make it even better this year it was the Seattle Symphony, presents Holiday POPS with Cirque de la Symphonie.

Yep they had aerialist, jugglers, dancers, and the most amazing strong men. they all performed while we listened to holiday favorites played by the symphony. it was amazing! bliss! i had a complete blast.

if a baby, dinner, and the symphony weren't enough, JD got me the sweetest silver bean necklace ever.

he got me this little baby from Monique Leon Jewelry & Metals on etsy. isn't it darling? this necklace is all about new beginnings, good luck, mystery and promise. he couldn't have picked a better time to give me this little bean huh?

my 31st birthday was a great one... even though it was almost 3 months ago i still wanted to share my day with you.

hope you all are having a wonderful thursday.

we even have a bit of sun here this afternoon. hope the dry weather can hold up for a dog walk tonight.

2009 yearly round up: November - December

2010-02-21T12:14:00.000-08:00

2009 November - December

November - finally fall was in full swing. i got a chance to share with you my new halloween decorations, our halloween costumes, and we attended a pretty serious pumpkin carving party. i loved having my parents in town and posted about our wonderful visit and all the two different hikes we took while they were here; one just down the street at lincoln park and the other at Twin Falls. we continued to work on the house and with a pretty significant push we advanced the mud room; installing flooring, adding cabinets, and filling the much needed storage. then there was that $900.00 vet weekend... and Bamboo in his little blue collar.

December - i sort of fell off the face of the earth in December. i started off strong with a lighting update on the house and pictures of our picture rail... then, well, poof. sorry about that but whoa was there stuff going on. i was working on a number of christmas presents that i will be able to share with you in the next few weeks and there was my birthday... i didn't even post about my presents. shame shame.

what really threw us off track was that JD and i found out we are going to be adding another member to our crazy family. (a BABY... a BABY.... we are going to have a BABY)

we were obviously still trying but i had talked myself out of the possibility that i could be pregnant. i did that so that when i found out that we weren't, it wouldn't hurt so badly. then, the first week of december while doing our monthly pee on a stick test the most amazing thing happened. i wasn't even paying attention... then i looked again. two lines? two lines? wait what does two lines mean? it can't be real... but it was.

that week we went to the doctors for confirmation and found out, on my birthday that we were going to have a baby, we were going to be parents. pretty sweet birthday gift huh? last year i got baker and this year a baby... JD is going to have a pretty hard time competing with that next year!

i fell off the face of the earth because i was trying to get my head around the fact that we were going to have a baby. that coupled with fear, panic, excitement, and perpetual morning sickness sort of stopped me dead in my tracks. thankfully though, now at almost 4 months... i am feeling much better. i will have to share a story or two about my bout with morning sickness, but for now i am happy to share the news with you all that sometime in august we will have a new little bundle of joy to share with the world and that is the best news ever.

2009 yearly round up: September - October

2010-02-19T07:57:00.000-08:00

2009 September - October

September we were back from vacation with the family and feeling tan and refreshed. vacation was great. we went lady crabbing, ate shrimp on the deck, and even had lots of time for fishing. this month i really threw myself completely into my new etsy shop chicpeastudio. i was so excited to put together my first treasury, feature etsy artists that i love, and work on projects (lots of projects) for my own shop.

as our first anniversary approached i felt myself feeling really nostalgic and i wanted to share JD and i's story. i started with how we "met" in rome and then moved on to our move to seattle. after the move our family grew quickly with the fur balls and we bought a house. i sort of abruptly ended the tale after the story of our proposal. i had planned to show you all of our handmade wedding details and photos and share our first anniversary but somehow the end of the month ran away from me... then it was too late. now i think i will have to get back to our tale here soon... and share our wedding day. it was to perfect not to! let's put that on the agenda for this year!

October i was a bit MIA. that happened because my parents were visiting from PA at the end of the month and we were in the great push to get our list of projects completed. the end of the month began the rainy season here in seattle which means i hid inside and begin cooking (apple sauce and dinners)... both to warm the house and welcome in the new cool season.

2009 yearly round up: July - August

2010-02-18T07:00:00.000-08:00

2009 July - August

July was a bit all over the place. the month started with an amazing camping trip to Kalaloch Beach on the Olympic Peninsula. if you haven't been the Olympic Peninsula is unlike any other place in the world and i highly recommend it. i don't know if i would recommend camping with 7 dogs but it is an amazing place.

my obsession with So You Think You Can Dance began and i got homemade strawberry and raspberry jam made. JD and i bumped up our curb appeal with a new front door which we had been moving around our house since February. Seattle saw record high temperatures of over 100 degrees... and we didn't even have a fan! (can you say melting) this year i will be buying fans as soon as they hit shelves... i've learned my lesson.

July also brought with it the hope of a pregnancy. for months i had been waiting to feel tired, or sick anything that would remotely indicate i was pregnant. then it happened... the day that i was to start my next cycle came and went, and the next day, and the next... before i knew it a whole week had gone by. to say the very least JD and i were over the moon. after months of waiting we decided to wait another week to head to the doctors for the verification. as the appointment got closer and closer we got more and more excited, that was until i woke up bleeding. something had gone wrong during the 5th week and my body decided that this wasn't the time. we weren't yet going to have a baby.

it's hard to explain how devastating it is to loose a pregnancy. JD and i were crushed. he stood strong and basically carried me though the next few weeks even though, i know, he was as disappointed as i was. it is an emotionally draining time because how do share your loss with others? how do you let them know what has happened? i felt like this was something that wasn't talked about even though talking could help heal the wounds. so slowly i began to tell my friends. i first shared our loss with a friend of ours that went through the same thing and then my sister. with each person who learned of our loss i felt a bit better.

i tired to write this blog post a hundred times so that if you knew someone out there who had gone through the same thing could read it... maybe it would help them too. but i didn't have enough distance from it to be strong enough to hit the publish button. slowly, very slowly JD and i started making our way through it. during one post about backyard party we had last August, i made the conscious decision to try and move on.

there were tons of other hard times in the upcoming months that hit me unexpectedly... finding out one of my friends and my sister were expecting, a friend's baby shower, the christening of another friend's child all brought with them mixed emotions. but JD and i pushed through and he held my hand and let me cry on his shoulder when needed.

August - what can i say after that. we had a lot on our minds but kept ourselves busy too. we thought for a very brief moment that Baker might get to try freedom from his crate while we were at work. that was a short lived experiment one with very costly repercussions. i finally posted about our bedroom redo and shared my new above the bed photo college. then we went to the beach with my family and oh... yeah the whole blog redo but i will save that for September.

2009 yearly round up: May - June

2010-02-17T07:01:00.000-08:00

2009 May - June:

May was another blockbuster of a month. looking back, i really don't know when we slept. we were all over the place doing all kinds of stuff. we officially started our gardening with the seattle tilth plant sale and had one weekend with 6 animals here all at once in our little 900 sf house. we continued our work on the kitchen and i even had the time to finish a quilt for our nephew's first birthday. JD also celebrated his birthday in May with a fiasco and some great handmade presents. in the midst of all of this we found the time to go sailing one evening and little Baker had to undergo his big boy snip surgery.
reading about last May makes me tired... seriously. now i am thinking about what we got done this month... not so impressive.

June began the push to wrap up some finishing elements of the house... all that little stuff that really matters like painting floor grills, organizing the cabinets, and installing long awaited shelving. a lot happened this month to make this house, our house, really feel like home. JD's welding project found a spot in front of the house and helped some little peas climb to the sunshine.

one thing i didn't include in my posting for April, May, or June of last year was that JD and i had decided to try and have a baby. this was a decision that we didn't move into lightly and i decided not to post about it because there are some things that are just too personal to share as your going through them. i really didn't think trying to have a baby would be so emotionally draining. before we started trying i thought, if it didn't work out one month there would always be another month. however true, i really under estimated the roller coaster of emotions. those emotions sometimes played out in post last year, like this one, or this one from June with little to no explanation. since i am taking the time to recap the year i thought i would share with you the ups and downs that were hidden just below the surface.

2009 yearly round up: March - April

2010-02-16T07:07:00.000-08:00

2009 March - April:

Kauai in the morning from our balcony.

March was a wonderous month. i really think it was my favorite out of the whole year.... there was tons going on and lots of new beginnings. the month started with us planting trays of new seeds which would hopefully one day become a garden. during the early part of the month as the construction and planning kept moving forward inside, we took time to go for walks with the pups and stretch our legs. we raced to finish the hallway before heading off to Kauai for our delayed 10 day honeymoon trip. while we were away you were in great hands with the ravenna girls who did tons of cooking including pizza and zuni chicken and tons of crafts as well. our trip to Kauai was the best trip of my life (and that is saying something...). the trip was relaxing. there was sun, a huge pool, cocktails, and some of the most gorgeous places i have ever seen. i so badly want to go back there. if someone offered me a trip today, i would pack my bags this very second and go. ahhhh if only we could honeymoon every year.

Our kitchen before the remodel.

April brought us reluctantly back to reality and the shocking reality of a house mid-remodel. no matter what is going on in April i can't help but want to be out in the yard. because we were stuck inside committed to the kitchen remodel we dreamed of changes we would make to the yard like new lighting and bird feeders and how to do our part in honor of earth day. there was plenty to dream about on the inside too... we picked out new kitchen faucet and ceasar stone counter tops. and just when we thought things couldn't get messier, we demolished the kitchen.

it is amazing to me that we started this house / kitchen remodel a year ago and it still isn't complete. thankfully we are getting close.

2009 yearly round up: Jan - Feb

2010-02-15T12:50:00.000-08:00

2009 Jan - Feb:

i thought i would go back and review last year and all it's ups and downs over the next week or so. in the mean time i have been going back and trying to reinsert all the photos that we lost as part of the new look and upgrade. i had really planned to have these all taken care of shortly after the mitigation but like many projects in my life the photos somehow fell by the way side. in a way the process of rebuilding the blog has made me go back and really read each post and remember a lot of the details i might have forgotten, but back to the topic at hand.

January of last year was all about a new little white puppy that came to be part of our family and planning and dreaming about the months ahead. Bake came to live with us on New Years Day. Baker was my 30th birthday present from my sweet JD. boy has he become an integral part of our family. i posted puppy updates and we planned for warmer months ahead. there is something about the rainy January of the NW that makes me long for the garden, sunshine, and change and last January was no exception. we made garden plans, ordered seeds, booked our postponed honeymoon to Kauai, and made big decisions about the fate of our stalled remodel.

February was all about doing... the month started off with a bang for me as the Steelers became 6th time super-bowl champs. i was on a high and that rolled into the remodeling process. with a plan in mind we started in the hall way with demo; removing trim, doors, and flooring. then we moved onto ducts, ceiling, and eventually a bearing wall. the major remodel payoff was when the new beams were in place and we could see the shape and layout of our house changing. it took an entire month but by the end of February we were finally putting the hallway back together and lights were being installed.

it was really amazing to look back at all the change that happened only one year ago... wonder what i'll be doing next year at this time?

a new year, some new shoes

2010-02-10T09:31:00.000-08:00

this year, after christmas, i needed to buy some essentials. priority number #1 new shoes that i can wear on a daily basis.

i have quite the high heel collection but i only wear them to go out, not to go to work. the work horse of my shoe collection has been a pair of trusty campers that i bought when i lived in rome. seriously these shoes are the best shoes i have ever owned. and six years later i am still wearing them. i originally started with 3 pairs of campers when living in rome and walking everywhere. i needed shoes that were going to be comfortable after an entire day of walking and would be fashionable as well.
two of the pairs met their demise when Rainier decided they would be a tasty leather snack. i have to tell you that i cried when i found my black pair of lace ups. i was devastated. those shoes were like a good friend and over the many walks we had taken they had molded so perfectly to my foot that i was heart broken.

now over a year later i am over it...and ready to move on to a new pair. thus the hunt for new shoes begins. (don't misunderstand, it isn't like i only have one pair of shoes - that would be FAR from the truth.) i was now on the hunt for some new shoes to become the staple of my collection.

after quite a bit of hunting i stumbled onto this cute little, mary jane like pair of tsubos.

i fell in love with them immediately. they are super comfy and the asymmetrical strap makes them a bit more interesting then just a regular pair of black mary janes. i have now worn them twice and i am still convinced these little babies are a permanent part of my shoe repertoire. now the hunt continues for a pair of black lace up leather shoes. i am going to start with campers cause i know that they will last me quite a long time.

new rugs...

2010-02-09T07:00:00.000-08:00

i have been on the hunt for an area rug for the longest time.

the hunt has taken me FOREVER and for many reasons.

1. area rugs are expensive and i wanted to make sure i found a rug i loved

2. i'm not a fan of pattern. i don't know why i shy away from pattern... but in looking for an area rug i wanted something that i was going to love this year and in five years when my taste changed.

3. in lieu of pattern i wanted texture and something that would feel good under my feet and something i would want to lay on.

until last week i couldn't find a rug i liked that was less than a grand, and who wants to pay that for a rug. then last week while getting my daily blog fix reading remodelista i saw a post about the sweater rug and a sale west elm was running on them. i was sold... 15 minutes later i had ordered an 8' x 10' rug for our living area and a 2' x 7' runner for in front of the sink.

the 8 x 10 was delivered last week and the runner got here last night... i will have pictures soon, but in the words of "the dude" the rug really pulls the room together.

fur ball friday - the cat and the keyboard

2010-02-08T09:58:00.000-08:00

yeah, i'm not completely crazy.

i know it's monday, however i want to talk about friday morning. you see friday morning we awoke to a hacking cat (bamboo) and the eventual sound of kitty vomit. JD did a quick sweep of the house at 5 a.m. to see if he could find it and then returned to bed. at 6.30 when the rest of the house awoke i got my cup of tea and headed over to the computer to check email when i found the pile of regurgitated kitty food on the keyboard of our mac.

crap... so i clean up the keyboard, disinfected it and went on with checking my email. everything worked fine. if you have been reading this blog for a while you will know that a little kitty puke doesn't slow us down. bamboo has had a sensitive stomach since he was a little kitty and even though we have special food for him... this happens on a regular basis.

friday night JD sat down for his internet surfing time, after i went to bed, only to find that the left side of the keyboard didn't work. he tried restarting and cleaning the keyboard but, no luck the keyboard was fried. JD was ticked to say the least. this is the second keyboard we have lost to the cats... (Ginkgo peed on the first one). so i am off to the mac store today at lunch or tonight to get yet another keyboard.

i had so many computer related items to take care of this weekend that didn't happen... so this week i will work on blogs and my taxes and hopefully the kitties will stay away from the new keyboard.

the weekend

2010-02-02T12:20:00.000-08:00

well that weekend flew by in a blur.

i had such aspirations.... ahh and then they slowly went down the tube.
remember the kitchen? well JD and i went two weekends ago to purchase the wood trim for the window and the wood for the kitchen shelving. since then, the wood has been in a pile in the basement waiting to get finished. this weekend was to be the finishing weekend. (warning: no wood was finished.)

instead, i did a much needed bit of shopping for essentials; jeans, spring jacket, and flashy necklaces. the when we got home we were too tired to work on the wood so we watched "sunshine cleaning". (such a cute movie, i would highly recommend it.)

sunday we awoke with renewed aspirations only to find that the dogs were not in line with our work plan and seriously needed some outdoor time. so JD, Rainier, Baker, and i headed to the dog park (along with the rest of seattle) for some puppy play time. i kid you not, there was at least one of every breed of dog at the park. i guess everyone figured a morning without rain was the perfect time to get out. even though there was no rain there was plenty of mud and post park time was filled with puppy baths and lunch with friends.

before we knew it we did our weekly shopping and settled in for some fun with the Grammy awards.

no work was done but it was a good weekend. maybe this weekend we will get to some of that wood?

AWOL

2010-01-29T09:58:00.000-08:00

hey everyone... (if anyone is still out there).

i sort of fell off the face of the earth for a while and for that, sorry. i really needed the past month to try and refresh and get things in order. the past month has been a bit crazy and i have just felt worn down like an old rug. so instead of trying to burn the candle at both ends and keep the blog up to date, work, and do etsy stuff on the side i decided to just go to work and come home and really minimize everything else.

December all seems a blur to me now - looking back that is. things always start to go a bit crazy at thanksgiving and this year was no exception. after thanksgiving started the holiday parties, my birthday celebrations, and holiday preparations. throw in there a baby shower (that i made a quit for), a custom design apron order, a large graphic design package, and the quilt i was working on as a gift for christmas and poof... December was more than full.

but i'm back now (if you'll take me) and i have tons of stuff to share with you. sewing projects, graphic design stuff, and new stuff for 2010. also super soon i want to recap 2009 and all it's ups and downs.

ps... D, your intervention worked - I'm back.

holiday vaca.

2009-12-22T15:10:00.000-08:00

since i have been oh so bad about blogging this month i have decided to throw in the towel.

i will be back (hopefully refreshed) in the new year with tons of fun and exciting new stuff to share. have a wonderful holiday everyone and a bright new year!

where does the time go?

2009-12-15T12:52:00.000-08:00

wow it has been a week since my last post... how is that possible?

last week was so jammed packed i hardly had time to breath.

1. last friday was my birthday... (we won't discuss numbers)

2. JD took me for dinner at Dahlia Lounge where the owner and great chef Tom Douglas was milling about visiting with guests.

3. After dinner we went to the Seattle Symphony where we saw the Holiday Pops with Cirque de la Symphonie. it was amazing... a truly wonderful birthday.

4. Friday was more eating out. We had authentic Italian at La Rustica, which reminded me of our living in rome.

5. Sat was chalk full of shopping, birthday lunch, and holiday party.

6. Sunday was more eating with a holiday brunch and more shopping with friends.

i'm tired from even thinking about it. the next week is going to be spotty again with blogging. i have so many projects that need to go out the door before the holiday really kicks off. so i apologize, but i bet you're all too busy to read too!

(great little vintage clock via bright wall vintage)

i so want this...

2009-12-08T15:05:00.000-08:00

check out this megadoily by Ladies and Gentlemen that i spotted on design*sponge.

i so, so LOVE it.

it would be perfect in our house. it makes me nervous that there isn't a price listed, but if you have an itch to send me a rather thoughtful gift i would like one of these. (remember my birthday is on friday!) ha.

oh how time flys

2009-12-08T13:02:00.000-08:00

(a holiday tree decorated with glittered pine cones i made last weekend)

where did the weekend go?

seriously one minute your planning all that free time you have and the next, poof, it is monday morning. as i am sitting here i am slowly dissecting our weekend.

thursday night was JD's holiday party.

friday the pups and i went to the dog park, i got my hair done, then we went to dinner with friends.

saturday was house work, getting the tree, sewing and a nap (cause i was sleepy)

sunday i went to a baby shower (i will share my gifts soon), decorated the tree, then did more sewing.

it was a whirl wind weekend.

i haven't even begun my shopping for the holidays. i am having a hard time getting into the spirit. i need to calm my mind and just slow down a bit... sometimes at this time of year i get stuck on overdrive and don't take time to breath. today i think i will try breathing.

what have you guys been up to? running about i'm sure.

a christmas dessert

2009-12-04T09:20:00.000-08:00

this was my plate tuesday night.

this is where i was. (click to read more and see the table scapes)

thanks ravenna girls for the invite it was a lovely evening.

fur ball friday - baker's sweet face.

2009-12-04T08:56:00.000-08:00

it is truly hard to resist a face this cute. in fact, as i type this he is sitting at my side staring at me just like this... creepy.

picture page, a picture page

2009-12-03T08:35:00.000-08:00

finally we've had the opportunity to start taking on some of our envisioned finish projects. even though we still have some major renovation work to do in the mud room and bath we have started to put a few of the finishing touches together in the living area and it makes such a difference.

a while back, while perusing a design magazine, i came upon a entire wall filled with picture rails. the rails were white with all black framed photos. i loved it. i wanted to interpret that look but for our aesthetic. we used the shelving we designed for the kitchen (i showed you it here) as our inspiration.

we wanted to join rough cut steel with fir again for a similar yet new look. each of these picture rails weighed like 50 lbs. no joke. ok.. maybe 30 but they were quite heavy. we made sure they were anchored into studs to support the weight.

sorry for the night time pictures but sometimes that is when the most work gets done! we bought offset steel angles so that they would be wider to allow for the photos to be placed on the rails.

here you can see the finished look. i am not yet sure of the types of frames i have on the rails. i think i will need to simplify the the material palette to pull it together a bit more. i love having my pictures up again. i missed seeing them during the renovation. i have tons of photos, which JD would attest to, and still have more to hang once we finish the remodeling of the fireplace wall in the living room! yippie...

another project down.. 1 zillion more to go!

let there be new lights

2009-12-02T12:56:00.000-08:00

over the past couple of weeks we have been working on replacing all the lighting in the house. we looked for lights FOREVER and finally decided and moved on them all at once.

i must say it is looking a lot brighter in the house with all the new fixtures.

first we started with mudroom/studio and the two bedrooms. we have pretty low ceiling heights so we couldn't use pendants in the rooms. we wanted a fixture that would attach directly to the ceiling and be clean and modern. for the 3 rooms we selected the Kulla light from Ikea.

the Kulla works out perfectly. it has a bit of relief from the ceiling which allows for light to be cast up and down in each room.

mudroom / studio - i know it doesn't look much like a studio yet but it is getting there... one step at a time.

guest bedroom - which is in the process of a bit of make over in that we ordered additional black on black fir tree wall paper for the one wall. isn't the halo it casts nice?

(boo relaxing in the make shift cat hospital)

master bedroom - (if you could call it that) with the new fixture. it is amazing how much these fixtures transformed the feel of each room and the house.

(sorry for the dark photos - we don't get much light here in the winter!)

we also added additional fixtures in the kitchen, over the island, and in the dining area, over the table to create "spaces" within the space. because our living area is one larger area we used the drop in the pendent fixtures to create intimate areas for interaction in the larger living space.

for the living areas we purchased fixtures from Resolute which is a small lighting manufacture here in seattle.

kitchen island lighting - the lights over the island are clear, hand blown glass.

i LOVE them. each of the pendant is made of a clear, thick glass filled with tiny bubbles. we are going to switch out the bulbs with edison bulbs but haven't yet gotten the chance.

dinning area - over the table we dropped an Anon Incalmo Pendant, also from Resolute. this pendant is also made of three pieces of glass, 2 clear and one yellow that were fused together during the fixtures creation.

i am also in love with this fixture. the POP of yellow, in an other wise white and wood room is great. i just love the way the new fixtures look in the house. they have done a lot to bring our vision together, which sometimes during the remodeling process can seem so far away.

holiday rush

2009-12-01T13:03:00.000-08:00

man oh man... i just don't know where the days are going. at this rate it is going to be the new year before you know it. thanksgiving vacation went quickly didn't it.

i have been filling my hours with projects. projects that aren't so easy to talk about here because they are christmas gifts and i don't want to spoil the surprise, but i have become one with my sewing machine as of late. if i didn't appreciate her before, i sure do now. i can't wait to share all the exciting projects i have been working on after the holidays.

this weekend we visited my brother-in-law and one day sister-in-law for a work party at their house. there were lots of little tasks we helped them with from installing dimmer switches to fixing some existing fixtures around the house. in exchange Rainier and Baker will be spending their holiday vacation with S&B. isn't the barter system wonderful?

tonight i am headed to a holiday meal with a bunch of amazing women... tomorrow back to sewing. the next couple of weeks are my favorite of the year... this weekend christmas will explode in my house. i can't wait.

Happy Turkey Day!

2009-11-26T09:06:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

today we will be joining some friends for some turkey goodness. i am thankful to have such a loving and supportive family, a house full of fur babies, and a loving husband.

oh i am also thankful that Boo gets his stitches removed tomorrow and we can go back to a somewhat normal routine. he misses going outside so much... it will be great. i hope everyone has fun plans and remember try and be patient if you are headed out shopping on friday... better yet doing your shopping from home on etsy.

cheers.
xoxo
wren.

fall yard maintenance

2009-11-24T13:53:00.000-08:00

each fall JD and i try to get out side and do as much yard maintenance as possible and each year we are amazed at how much there is to do.

the week my parents were out they gave us a jump start on the yard clean up by helping to prune and cut back much of the vegetation in our yard. they worked the entire day and there was still tons to be done.

JD and i got back at it the following weekend and i spent at least two hours inside our large hydrangea which was a serious mess inside with branches chris-crossing each other all over the place.

a few weekends ago it really nice and we took the opportunity to continue the yard clean up. one of our neighbors moved out recently and had left several trees along our property covered in english ivy. in the NW english ivy is invasive and will eventually kill the trees. JD and i took the opportunity to climb the trees and remove the invasive plant while we had the chance.

the ivy extended high into the tree and the only way to remove it was to climb the tree... so JD went up. i stayed below and handed the saw up when needed.

i'm really happy how much removing these unwanted plants has tidied up the front area and allowed much needed sunlight into the front yard. i was so happy i forgot to take a "project complete" photo. next time... next time.

i went, i saw, i loved it - new moon

2009-11-23T12:10:00.000-08:00

among the screaming teenagers we sat, saturday night, at an 8 pm screening of new moon. since i wasn't a big fan of the first movie, i was prepared for it to suck. i loved the books and i wanted this movie to better reflect just how good the books are.

and guess what? this movie, not only didn't suck.... it was awesome. i loved it. it was entertaining and there wasn't that awkward silence thing they had going on in the first one. jacob was a huge part of the movie which helped tremendously in the feelings acting category. it was just good. i would go see it again. any takers?

so if you were on the fence about going or waiting for DVD.... GO.

chicpea studio - fat quarter aprons; a shop update

2009-11-21T10:21:00.000-08:00

morning all. i know i have been working on updating you all with the progress here at the house, but i want to take a quick break this morning to show you some new items for the shop. i have been working on a new line of what i am calling fat quarter aprons. i have three of them complete and so many more in the hopper.

i am approaching each apron individually to figure out what would work best with the fabric and have fun in designing these one of a kind aprons.

i've listed two of them in the shop, the third will be listed tomorrow.

here is the first apron listed: The Hungry Bird

don't you just love the little bird and the spoon and fork fabric?

The second apron, just listed this morning is: In The Woods

i really love how this apron worked out. the pocket is made from a Japanese print I can't get enough of and the orange ruffle at the bottom turned out perfectly.

the third apron that is complete is: Paint Me Blue

this is a retro inspired cafe apron with a hand painted tree pocket. the buttons on the apron are vintage celluloid buttons that complete the retro feel.

i really am happy with how these aprons are turning out. in fact i would love to add them to my apron collection!

8506 - The mud room 3

2009-11-20T12:10:00.000-08:00

the cabinets were in and now it was time to fill them up and put the cork flooring down.

we went with a Lisbon Cork floor, the name of this particular blend was Dali Cork. check out the swatch below.

we wanted the cork to have rich tones and be similar in shade to our hard wood floors and this does the trick beautifully.

we also began stocking the cabinets and taking advantage of all our new storage space.
this is my crafting cabinet. it is a bit out of control in this photo but only because it is seeing a great deal of use. when the rest of the room is complete (probably in the spring) some of this will come out of the closet and find a home on shelving.

the next cabinet is a life saver. i now call it my butlers pantry. ahhh i am in love. it hold everything from linens, to canning supplies, to cat and dog food.

this is the top of the cabinet

and here is the bottom

the last large cabinet has room for all my cleaning supplies and our office supplies above.

the last spot in the cabinets will one day house my washer and dryer. until that time we have Baker's crate there.

i have to keep reminding myself that it will come together, all in time.

so until then i am happy with my new storage space... one day i will have a studio space, one day.

fur ball friday - a tail of two vets

2009-11-20T11:54:00.000-08:00

picture it seattle 2009. it was a dreary saturday and our household was up early to take miss Rainier for her yearly vet check up. Rainier was super happy to be getting out of the house especially without Baker. we got to the vet, everything looked good except Rainier was having some sort of allergic reaction and she had a rash so we got some antibiotics to treat that. we also got flea medication for all the animals which was recommended since the cat boys are now indoor outdoor kitties.

so let's review:

1 dog, 1 vet appointment

1 giant bottle of antibiotic pills (4 per day)

4 packs of flea medication

$300.00

we headed home to have a puppy / kitty spa session (more on that in another installment).
it was Bamboo's turn for spa time and JD spotted something on his back left leg. we took a closer look to find out that Boo had a huge cut. he must of cut it on something very sharp because the cut was clean and pretty gross. i ran inside the house and called the vet, they told me they could see him in an hour. we found the cat crate, packed up Bam and JD ran back to the vet. several hours later we picked him up at the vet after 1 kitty surgery and 8-10 stitches.

so let's review again:

1 cat, 1 big cut, 1 vet appointment

8-10 stitches

2 bottles of antibiotic (banana flavored which i don't understand - he is a cat not a monkey)

1 blue safety collar

3 days of pain medication

$500.00

needles to say saturday was interesting. to top it off we were puppy sitting for our niece and nephew dogs Boomer and Murphy. since Murphy is not at all good with cats we set the guest bedroom up as the cat hospital and kept them separate. to let Ginkgo out i would distract the dogs with cookies while JD would get the cat out as quickly as possible. it was like that riddle... if you have a fox and a cow and a bail of hay and you have to get them across the river. you know that one? oh well.

boo is doing pretty well this week. Ginkgo has been spending a lot of time indoors to take care of his brother which i appreciate. Boo has been throwing fits about trying to get out, but then i drug him with cat nip and he seems to forget about it for a while.

JD has been sick as well this week so i have been a bit busy handing out medication to JD, Boo, and Rainier... thank god JD is feeling better today.

here is another shot of my little boy in his stunning blue collar.

8506 - the mud room 2

2009-11-17T05:01:00.000-08:00

we had a plan.

by noon we were unloading the new boxes of cork floor into the mudroom.

before we could begin laying the cork we had to fix the threshold from the kitchen. we had intentionally stepped the wood coming into the doorway so that there wouldn't be a seam at the threshold.

the flooring had to be straightened out and JD did an awesome job making the floor look intended.

it was time to make progress on the room so we decided not to install the cork floor. (i know, i know, you are all like? what the heck? you just ran and bought new cork flooring only hours ago)

we decided to install the cabinets first so that we couldn't damage the cork floor while constructing the ikea cabinets.

the big boxes were put together first then installed onto the wall.

in the days that followed, we worked on installing the doors, shelving, and hardware.

at the end of the week we had shinny new cabinets just waiting to be filled with all of the contents of the guest room. the cork wasn't yet down but we were working on it... we had a plan.

the washer and dryer will fit in perfectly at the end of the cabinets, just as soon as we install new plumbing and electrical. like i said it is all a work in progress.

(stay tuned for a sneak peak into the cabinets later this week!)

8506 - the mud room 1

2009-11-16T12:56:00.000-08:00

yeah so where where we... you guys saw (t his post) about how our kitchen remodel was shaping up. i also outlined a list of the zillion other things we needed to do. (thus is life in a remodel) we have been making our way down that list knocking off one part of the project at a time.

before my parents arrival we focused our energies on trying to wrap up several loose ends around the house. first on the list was clearing out the guest room which had become the catch all for all things that were misplaced during the remodel. the room was a mess full of gifts from the wedding that we hadn't yet accommodated, the uninstalled back door, and piles and piles of photos that had been taken off the wall.

to even begin thinking about moving this stuff meant we needed some where to put it - enter the mud room renovation. as part of our mud room remodel we would be installing an entire wall of cabinetry that we desperately needed.

JD worked hard to clear out the room on his week off from work. there were a lot of little things to be done before the big work could begin.

1. the drywall on the mud room side of the pocket door needed hung and taped.

2. the attic access hatch needed moved. its original location put it above where the new cabinetry would go and that wouldn't work.

3. the room needed painted.

4. the flooring needed laid - and this is where the work got interesting.
it was labor day weekend and JD got up early on this holiday Monday to go rent the wood flooring nailer and compressor. JD got back and we got to work... but for some reason the nailer wasn't working. the nails wouldn't go into the floor... that's when we looked.

yep that is when we realized that somewhere under some old linoleum, for one room in the entire house there was concrete poured on top of the wood supports. (wtf?) seriously what the???

we needed to change our plan and fast. this was one of the first times in our long relationship that i had to the be the voice of reason.

JD was fuming. (his thoughts below - profanities removed for all age audience reading)

what were we to do with all the extra wood flooring? - (baker had eaten the boxes and it couldn't' be returned)
what the hell were the last owners thinking?
what kind of floor could we put down?
what the hell were the last owners thinking?

a decision needed to be made and it needed to be made quickly to insure we wouldn't loose the whole day of work. i stepped up and made the executive decisions.

we would use the wood flooring in the bedrooms. yes we would have to buy more but we could do it at another time.
we would put down cork flooring in the mudroom / studio / office. we talked about cork in this room early in the process but decided on the wood to make the house feel larger
we would go find the cork today and put it down so we could press on with the cabinets.

the decisions were made... now we just had to follow through.

fur ball friday - what ginkgo would look like with blonde hair

2009-11-13T16:01:00.000-08:00

now just picture that wig on his head cause you know cats don't let you mess around with them like dogs do.

Lincoln Park

2009-11-12T06:38:00.000-08:00

i love lincoln park.

no... um not the band but the actual park. you see, lincoln park is a park by my house, in seattle, that a band named themselves after. the park is so much better. it has a trail along the sound and has trails through the woods. JD proposed to me there almost two years ago... ahhh how time flies.

when my parents arrived in town a few weeks ago we wanted to get out of the house and get some fresh air but didn't want to do anything too crazy since they had been up for hours and hours... enter lincoln park stage right.

so we went... we took the pups we walked. i wanted to share some fall photos of the stroll and this park i love so much.

this is my ridiculously handsome husband.

this is my dad who is so cute. he wore steelers gear everyday just to mess with seahawk fans.

this is my mom who is cute as a button

our family portrait in the leaves

one amazing tree in the distance

along the waterfront

two cute parents.

i was so happy that they were able to come and see our remodeled home. it made me so proud to show them all the hard work and design that has gone into the house.

mom and dad, if you are reading thanks for visiting.

annual review

2009-11-11T12:21:00.000-08:00

hey everyone no big post for me today.
i have my big annual review at work today, in about a half hour and i am nervous. i don't know why but these things make me so crazy nervous... so i have been worrying about it for the past two days.

so, everyone cross your fingers out there ok.

i have been working on these vintage inspired aprons and they are so, SO cute i can't wait to share them with you. i will, i promise as soon as i can get some natural light around here, geez.

later everyone.

xoxo
wren

sheet mulching

2009-11-09T12:37:00.000-08:00

our soil here is quite sandy and each year JD and i have added compost and soil builder to help the gardens grow. this year we are starting our garden building in the fall and have decided to sheet mulch our gardens.

sheet mulching is essentially composting in place to help build your gardens soil and add nutrients.
we got the first steps accomplished today.

first you chop down all of your remaining plant life and let it in place. this is our vegetable garden so we didn't have to accommodate existing plants that will winter over.

next lay down cardboard or newspaper then cover with mulch. we are using the leaves we raked from our yard the previous couple of weeks.

doesn't this look like glamors work?

next we will be covering the leaves with dirt and compost. we have an existing dirt pile, from when we dug a patio two summers ago, and then will be adding compost from our bin. both of these will help the worms and insects start to process the leaves and clean cardboard into dirt.

hopefully this spring our garden will be one step closer to great soil and a successful garden.

fur ball friday - bake rockin a turtleneck sweater

2009-11-06T05:50:00.000-08:00

this sweater has a skull on it - yeah he is bad ass.

out and about - hiking the twin falls

2009-11-05T05:14:00.000-08:00

seattle has so many great hikes within an hours drive.

last week while my parents were in town we decided to head into the Cascades for a hike on a lovely fall day. Just off I-90 we pulled down into the woods near the town of North Bend. within a few minutes of leaving the highway we were lucky enough to see elk nibbling at apples just off the road.

Baker, i can say, was not as happy as we were to see the big beauties.

twin falls hike is about 3 miles long and is wonderful way to wind your way from the river bed up into the hill side and stand on top of a beautiful waterfall.

Rainier and Baker came with us; everyone was happy to be out.

we took our time and made our way along the trail, taking the time to smell the damp ferns and appreciate our majestic setting.

i think my parents liked the hike and the views.

these are my awesome and totally cute parents.

more of them to come this week.
i wondered why JD and i don't get out more often to enjoy this beautiful place in which we live?