Tag Archives: summer

Project Life: Week 36

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Week 36 (September 2 – September 8)

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First off, I have to apologize for how awful these pictures are. Things (i.e. work for both Greg and me) have been crazy so getting the pages done and getting any pictures of them feels like a win. I’m sorry you can see my feet. Editing isn’t a high priority this afternoon.

Mini vacation week! The week started with Labor Day and a BBQ with Don and Roberta. We made strawberry shortcake cupcakes to celebrate Becky’s 25th birthday. The Maciol family left bright and early Wednesday morning and Greg and I followed them a few hours later. We were off to SeaTac for a mini vacation in SF.

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We were in SF for the primary reason of attending our friends Ryan and Vanessa’s wedding. Our secondary reason was to eat ALL THE FOOD we missed. It was exactly two years and one day since I had last stepped food in that blessed city (yes, I realize I have rose-colored glasses about SF, but the place you spent your twenties is pretty damn fun). I really had not been back since the day Greg and I packed up the Civic (R.I.P.) and headed north. There was a lot of food to eat.

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The wedding was lovely and spending two nights (bachelorette party & wedding) with all my girlfriends was wonderful. We also got in a nice double date with the newly engaged KK and Andrew that was much needed. Kathy and I are coming up on our ten year friendiversary in 2014 and while I’m super happy we both (finally) met great guys, it makes me a little sad that we met them just before I moved. The four of us have so much fun together and it would be awesome to live in the same city and spend more time together.

As much as I miss the girls, given all the life changes everyone has had in the last two years I know it’s not the same. I can look back on our fun few years of running around the city with pretty much no cares in the world as a really good time. In some ways this trip brought closure I didn’t realize I was looking for.

So you might have noticed there are very few pictures of our trip in my weekly spread and definitely not an insert. I only picked a handful that showed what the trip was about (friends + food) and left it simple. There’s no way I could do justice to a full vacation, so I used an idea I saw on Elise’s blog: a photo book with hand written notes. IMG_6794_edited-1

When we got home from the trip I spent about 30 minutes uploading my favorite photos to Blub. (I think about 40, it’s a pretty slim book.) I did a 7×7 book so it would be nice and compact and phone photos wouldn’t look too distorted. Instead of fancy collages and spending any time thinking about it, I uploaded all the pictures as full pages. I just moved them around a bit to get the best part of the picture in the square. IMG_6795_edited-1

I got out my date stamp and my black pen and wrote notes on what we did each day. This part should have been super simple but took a little bit of time because my pen didn’t dry very fast. I’ll have to reread Elise’s post to see what kind of pen she uses. IMG_6796_edited-1

I used any white space I found on a few pictures to write about the day. Maybe six or seven of the photos have writing. Super simple. IMG_6797_edited-1

I had hoped to get an iconic picture of the city to wrap around the front and back cover, but that didn’t happen. Instead I picked two photos of the view from our hotel room, one during the day and one at night. Good enough!

Sadly I forgot to include anything for the spine of the book! I will wait until I make a book of our upcoming Maui trip and then copy the spine of that one as best I can with a Sharpie. IMG_6790_edited-1

So for about an hour of time and $35 (more expensive than I thought it would be, but I’m not a souvenir person, so this is mine), I have a cute little book with our memories of a five day vacation. I’m thinking over time these will look super cute all next to each other on a bookshelf. It’s a great idea for anything – a big party, baby’s first year, anything you have a ton of pictures of and want to get them in front of you instead of living on the computer.

And, as usual, a very big THANK YOU to Roberta and Don who keep the doodle happy and safe so we can galavant around. We appreciate it more than we can say!

Supplies used: Seafoam project life kit; Studio Calico Double Scoop and Mint Chip kits and “San Francisco” wood chip. I also included the tag from new jeans I got at Nordstrom and cut down the wedding invite to 6×4 to fit in two 3×4 pockets.

The Mom Creative

Summe 2013 Bucket List: Recap!

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blog-summer-2013 copyI am so happy I created a bucket list for this summer. Two to three months is my sweet spot for goal planning and making every day count. I think I will keep it going and not try to get back into yearly goals, which never seem to work for me.

This summer was amazing: the weather, what we accomplished, the places and people we were able to visit. I’m sad it’s winding down but I’m thankful I have my PL album to look back on that last few months.

1. Use our ice cream machine to make coconut milk ice cream. Many flavors. // Well, the many flavors didn’t happen, but I did manage to squeeze in vanilla coconut milk ice cream over Labor Day weekend. Greg went au natural, while Becky and I dressed ours up in root beer floats. It was delicious and easy, but I’m glad it requires planning ahead and at least 8 hours to complete. We don’t need ice cream at the ready around here.

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2. Finish the front yard and get it to a point where it’s just maintenance. // We did it! We spent several weekends weeding, trimming, mowing, and laying bark. Then we handed the yard over to our wonderful new gardner who is making it shine.

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3. Stop wasting food (i.e. use all the food I buy & defrost). Keep summer cooking simple. // I definitely improved though there’s still room for more improvement. Food was simple over the summer but I still found myself cleaning out dead vegetables a few times. Work in progress.

4. Try ten new BBQ recipes. // Going into the summer, I thought this would be what I was most excited to work on. Turns out I really like simple BBQ. Meat + seasoning + veggies = awesome dinner. Recipes mean more grocery shopping, prepping, and cooking. We ate some good food, but going forward I’m sticking to the simplest meals possible on the grill. They are our favorite. lili_PC1_photocollage10_6P

5. Get a fun family self picture. // Not everyone (ahem, husband.) is as into this photo as I am, but I LOVE it. We spent our summer walking with the doodle and this captures it so very well.

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6. Make a fire in our front yard fire pit. Potentially make s’mores. // Done and done. Only once, but with friends and it was fun. And tasty.

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7. Walk fifty miles with Alfred (basically, get back in the habit of after work walks). // We did it! By far my favorite bucket list item this summer. We tried new parks, walked with Greg and friends, walked when we were out of town, pretty much walked, walked, walked. The three of us did out fiftieth mile, a lap around “our” park, on Labor Day morning.

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8. Hang art in the office. // We got the map wall and I’m calling that success. Greg’s desk has art hanging above it as well, but I haven’t finished mine yet.

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9. Learn to give myself a decent pedicure. // Nope. Didn’t even think about this after I wrote it on the list.

10. Make pull-up progress. // I did! I moved down a band size (smaller band = less help getting up) for WODs, from purple to black. For volume training, I stopped using a band and started doing negative pull-ups (jumping up, then slowly lowering myself down), which I’ve been told is the last step to *finally* getting that one single pull-up on my own.

{48 hours} southern california: oceanside

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Wrapping up our so cal weekend with Sunday morning. We met up with the family for breakfast in Oceanside, spent time walking along the pier and beach, and then said farewell so we could drive back up towards LAX.

As with most towns we visit, I wanted to pick up and move there. Palm trees, ocean breeze, cute cafes, temperate weather all year round. What more could we want? 48hoursoceanside

{48 hours} southern california: grossie’s party

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After our chicken and waffles on Saturday morning we drove down to San Marcos (north of San Diego). Us, and what seemed like all of California. We got lucky and it only took us a little longer than expected. Many of the party goes were in the car for four hours.

I’m so glad we were able to make it to the party. It had been a few years since I last had seen Grossie and Greg had never had the opportunity to meet her. We helped her out with name tags, Greg’s was quite specific so that she wouldn’t confuse him with her own son Greg.

My favorite picture of the entire weekend is of Grossie and great aunt Francis talking; just two 90+ year old ladies sharing a bit of gossip. We ate Panda Express and had margaritas at the birthday girl’s request. All five of her children and 14 of her 19 grandchildren were able to make it. Two of her great-grandchildren were there, too. She is a special lady and I think she felt the love we all have for her.

48hoursgrossies_edited-1After the party Greg and I spent some time in the hotel hot tub with Becky and Joey and their families. Of course there was also a late night run to In-N-Out for dinner. 

 

Project Life: Week 33

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Week 33 (August 12 – August 18)

IMG_6622_edited-1I had fun during the week decorating and baking with a giant zucchini. Pretty much a normal week with Greg home (sometimes I have to think back about where he was – the weekdays tend to all bleed together). The weekend, however, was a crazy travel bonanza in southern California. We were in Los Angeles to meet Sloane Harper for the first time and in northern San Diego county attending my grandma’s 90th birthday party.

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There were so very many pictures from all the festivities that I finally settled on making sure each member of my immediate family made it into one good photo, along with the baby and the birthday girls (it was also Lauren’s 32nd on Friday). I only failed with Mia, who is constantly on the go. I was sad to realize after the fact I didn’t get a single picture of her.

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I used the ‘big girl’ camera tons this weekend. Overall the spread is a mix between iPhone and DSLR, but this was a definite improvement to recent travel weekends when I haven’t even removed the big camera from my bag. My sister took the photo of Greg and I while we were watching a body surfing competition in Oceanside on Sunday morning.

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I used an insert to fit more pictures from southern California. I honestly could have done three or four inserts with all the pictures, and started to go down that route. But then I decided to just keep it simple and get the highlights in. You don’t have to tell every detail of a story to tell the story.

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This week is very photo heavy, which I don’t find as aesthetically pleasing as when it’s more of a mix. But, it’s not every week you meet your BFF’s first child and your grandma turns 90. Pictures are more important than embellishments this week.

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I should mention that I totally stole the idea of adding an arrow to the split blue card from this post.

Supplies used: Seafoam project life kit; Studio Calico August kit; Studio Calico July kit; Kelly Purkey August + September kit; free quote card & stamps from Elise Joy.

The Mom Creative

{48 hours} southern california: los angeles

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It turns out there is a limit to how large you can make a file in PSE: 100 inches. I have so many pictures from our weekend in southern California that I wasn’t able to put them all in one template.

So here’s Friday, and breakfast Saturday, in bullet format followed by pictures.

  • We landed in the afternoon and waiting forever at Thrifty rental car for the world’s crappiest Nissan Versa. We have not had southern California rental car luck lately.
  • Once we got on the road (just in time for Friday traffic, thanks Thrifty!), we arrived at the Smithskis and met Sloane Harper.
  • Oh yeah, it was Lauren’s birthday as well, but she doesn’t matter anymore now that Sloane is around.
  • I was the baby whisperer.
  • By BFF is a mama. That should probably be a post of it’s own but we all know I am not a good writer.
  • Alexis was there and it was nice to visit with her. It was not nice of her to leave a big bowl of homemade peanut butter and chocolate treats.
  • The guys went to Lemonade to get dinner. Greg was overwhelmed as one usually is the first time there and ordered, for the two of us: two four-item salads, a brisket dinner, a side of truffle mac & cheese, and two lemonades.
  • Lourdes is such a cute grandma.
  • By 8:30 we were all so exhausted we called it a night. Hello, thirties.
  • Our hotel was quite nice on the inside and totally in the ghetto.
  • Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles was so not what I had built it up to be in my head.

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Project Life: Week 32

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Week 32 (August 5 – August 11)

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What happened this week: We went out to Wenatchee for the family golf tournament. I was finally able to attend – yay! It was extremely hot, but fun was had by all.

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Photography: Every photo is from an iPhone. It it what it is, I guess. I’ll have lots of time to play with my real camera in a month or two when the days start getting shorter. Greg took the panorama shot of the family (that spans two pockets in the bottom right). It’s not an anti-social family by any means, but the backyard we BBQ’d in recently lost old pine trees during a wind storm. There was very little shade so we spent most of the party lined up against the fence trying to stay out of the sun.

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Out of the norm: Nothing really. Other than I still love my date stamp but can’t quite stamp straight with it. Please excuse my floor grate. I finally found a location that lets light in without glare.

Greg beat his dad for the first time ever and is also proving to be completely vulnerable to any malady one can think of while golfing.

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Supplies used: Seafoam project life kit; Midnight project life kit; multi-colored square card and letter stickers from the Studio Calico July kit; calendar, yellow/orange, and this is summer cards, button, stamps, arrow sticker, and label stickers from the Kelly Purkey August + September kit.

The Mom Creative

holy zucchini

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Besides time with family and hot weather, one of my favorite things about a weekend in eastern Washington is coming home with produce from the orchard. This weekend it was nectarines and a massive zucchini. Sadly I forgot to pick a bag of peaches on our way out.

As we walked back up to the farmhouse from taking Alfred down to the river, Cathy and I decided to check out Carlos’ garden. He has some of the most unusual looking squash growing – is there such thing as a watermelon squash? He also had several plants with tomatillos, but I didn’t want to take anything that was still on the vine and growing.

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Enter my luck: I found a huge zucchini sitting on the ground, no longer on the vine. I made Cathy pose with it. Side note: how beautiful is the scenery out there? I could sit at the orchard for hours just looking around. Actually, that is what I do when everyone else works at harvest time.
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It weighed in at two pounds, ten ounces. IMG_6508_edited-1I didn’t really want to eat zucchini every night this week, so I cut up enough for dinner on Monday then hit Pinterest for an idea to use up the rest. It ended up turning into 8 spears plus four cups of food processed zucchini.

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The winning recipe was chosen mostly because I had all the ingredients on hand and it only required baking for 18 minutes, a plus on an 80 degree day with no AC. Definitely recommended for using up large stashes of zucchini or if you just want to pretend to make a healthy muffin. I would like to be eating a muffin in London right now.
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And just for fun, a picture of the doodle since he was hanging around my photo shoot. This is his most common expression. He takes life very seriously. So strange he got partnered with footloose, fancy-free humans like us, huh?

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map wall

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Orange & Park / Drywell / Wrenmade / Ork Posters / Ork Posters

Even before we had picked a house I was scheming about creating a wall collage of the various city maps we’ve collected. When we found our home I knew the perfect wall was above the couch in the office. We spend the vast majority of our time at home in the office and these prints are our favorites, so why wouldn’t we combine.

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I saw a genius idea on Pinterest a while ago to map out a photo collage using brown packing paper before committing to nails in the wall. It makes the project so much easier and there are only a few extra nail holes in our wall. I traced each frame onto paper, cut them out, then wrote the print title. Using painters tape, I put them up and rearranged, measured, and tweaked until we were happy.

IMG_6471_edited-1 I love how our office is coming along. Hopefully soon I’ll post our desks. Greg’s is done but mine is still waiting for a few finishing touches. I probably have more finishing touches left than Greg has touches in total on his, but we are both quite happy with our little spaces.

IMG_6485My view from the couch as I plan what we can add next. Most of the fun is finding prints that we both love and mean something to us. I hope by the time we move someday the wall is a crazy mess of cities we love. And with this I get to check one more item off the summer bucket list.

Project Life: Week 31

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Week 31 (July 29 – August 4)

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What happened this week: We had a pretty normal work week with Greg home. I think we were both home three evenings in a row, which might be a 2013 record. Over the weekend Greg headed to Suncadia for Guys Golf Weekend. I stayed in Seattle and enjoyed lots of time with girl friends and got some more house decorating tackled. My MIL had Alfred all weekend – on Saturday I left the house at 11:30 am and wasn’t home until 11pm. I don’t know the last time that happened.

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Photography: With the exception of the house photo and the pizza photo, everything is from our iPhones. Greg took about half the photos in the insert.

Proof that there is no such thing as perfection in PL. I got a new date stamp and clearly it is above my intelligence level.

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Out of the norm: I’ve been wanting to do a ‘day in the life’ spread for a while. I think it will be fun to do them every once in a while and see how life changes over time. Greg was totally on board and sent my six or seven pictures throughout his day on Tuesday. I picked from the 20ish pictures we ended up with and created the insert.

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Because we were taking so many photos on Tuesday, I decided to go with one large photo for the right hand side. (Credit for this idea goes to Elise, I believe I first saw this when she did it to bookend a week in the life spread.) Our house seemed like the perfect subject. I haven’t taken any photos of it from the outside and it’s definitely been central to our lives the last eight months. I love larger photos split across multiple pockets. And I love our house.

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Supplies used: Seafoam project life kit; Midnight project life kit; the ampersand card is from the Studio Calico July kit; his and hers stamps from Elise Joy; Happiness Right Here frame stamp is from the Kelly Purkey August + September kit; a day in the life card is free from Ali Edwards; we were here card is from Paislee Press; quote card free from Elise Joy.