new goal: make time for sunset, even when i’m not on vacation.
sunset
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Tag Archives: travel
aloha
Our first few days of vacation have been amazing.
sunset our first night in Kihei (no, that’s not us but i’m going to pretend it is)
eating breakfast + drinking our coffee outside
mini hike through the rain forest at Ioa Valley
enjoying the view from the pool for a few hours every morning
watching the (less than ideal outcome) sounders playoff game at Fred’s
Project Life: Week 39
Week 39 (Sept 23 – Sept 29)
Fall majorly arrived this week. The nights are cool and we’ve had some rain. Soup sounds good after a day of work. I forget every year that there is nothing quite like a fall evening. I did a bit of decorating and since we have decided to do a ‘no spend October’ I’m pretty much done for the season. I had wanted to get a wreath up on the front door but it just didn’t happen. Gives me something to look forward to next year. We started using our fire place in hopes of not having to turn the heater on for a little while longer. Heating a house built in 1926 with two floors is not cheap.
We had a quick one-night trip up to Semiamhoo in Blaine (just south of the Canadian border) for Greg’s team’s inaugural retreat. His ten year anniversary was celebrated at the event, but I didn’t manage to get any pictures of him. It was a fun event and several of our good friends were there. The scenery behind me in the picture is Canada (to this Californian, that’s pretty cool).
I saw these two pictures in my camera roll one after another and had to laugh. My perfect Friday nights these days involve a glass of wine, a bubble bath, and a library book. And most Saturday mornings are spent in the office playing with the dog and drinking coffee. Gone are the Friday night bar nights followed by Saturday brunch. And I’m pretty good with that.
Supplies used: Seafoam project life kit; flower card from Studio Calico Mint Chip kit; tree card (my favorite) from Kelly Purkey August + September kit.
Project Life: Week 38
Week 38 (Sept 16 – Sept 22)
When I look at these pictures I feel like I’m regressing in my photography skills. Sigh. Right now getting the album updated weekly and taking crappy pictures of it is about all I have the energy for, so I guess I should just be happy I’m getting it done.
On to the fun. Week 38, or the week of our first anniversary! How fun is that? The week seemed to have two themes: finishing a few projects around the house and a very low key anniversary celebration.
We finally got a new rug for the office. Out with the old blue rug that was impossible to vacuum. The rug was one of my first purchases when I moved into my Marina apartment in 2008 and I love it fiercely. But after five years, a dog, and residing in a very high traffic area it was time to let go. Our nightstands finally went on sale at West Elm and I snapped them up after a four month wait. And in perfect timing, the headboard I ordered from Target several weeks ago was back in stock and shipped. Once we get a few items up on the wall our master bedroom will be complete. 
On Saturday we drove up to Bellingham to use a wedding gift from Jon and Amanda. We stayed at the Chrysalis Inn, had a fun dinner with a gorgeous view at the Oyster House, and were super lazy on Sunday morning with mimosas and cable TV. We couldn’t freeze the pie from our wedding so we saved the bottle of champagne that was in our room post reception. We topped the trip off with Mexican food for lunch, of course. (We had sushi for dinner Friday and Indian for dinner Sunday, ensuring we got in all of our favorite food groups during the anniversary weekend.)
We decided not to do gifts and instead got each other cards. I cut out a 3×4 section of each card to add to the album. And then I mostly missed the 22nd when trying to stamp a heart on a calendar card. Perfection is overrated.
I started a second album for 2013 because the first was full and very heavy (it weighs over 20 lbs!). I quickly created a title page for the album using pictures from our anniversary trip (enjoying a drink on the terrace while we waiting for our room to be ready) and a few cards I had from other kits. I still need to create a last page for the first album. We’ll see if that happens before the year is over.
Supplies used: Seafoam project life kit; Studio Calico Double Scoop & Steinbeck kits; Kelly Purkey August + September kit; stamps and free quote cards from EliseJoy.
Project Life: Week 36
Week 36 (September 2 – September 8)
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.
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.
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. 
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. 
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.
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.
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.
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.
{48 hours} southern california: oceanside
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? 
{48 hours} southern california: grossie’s party
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.
After 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
Week 33 (August 12 – August 18)
I 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
{48 hours} southern california: los angeles
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.
Project Life: Week 32
Week 32 (August 5 – August 11)
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.
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.
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.
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.
West Coast Martins 