revenge is a dish best served warm.

Due to unfortunate circumstances, Patrick and I lost last summer to injury and recovery. What we gained in the process was a better appreciation of life, and a ton of wild berries. (A nuisance, I am told, but I only see the fruit.)
This is the first good-sized batch, baked into what we are calling Revenge Crumble.

"You're gonna take over my yard, Blackberry? Well, I'm going to eat you.

Oh, and Blueberry, you get in there too."

Losely based on this recipe I used half blueberry, half trailing blackberry, with granola on top. I'll let you know how it tastes.
*The tigerlily in the back is another garden surprise, and the coffee is home roasted by my crazy husband.

of Mom.

the traditional gift for the fifth wedding anniversary is wood.

aaaaaaaiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!

Rant : Wii Fit

So I have decided to go ahead and try a rant or two on here. However, seeing as this is a mainly visual blog, I've put this first rant on a separate page so it doesn't interfere with the aesthetic (ha!) Click here.

Let me know what you think of the rant idea in general, and the Wii Fit in particular, and I'll see what I can do about making this a place where you can enjoy yourself.

It's already working for me.

♡

I went foraging.

Look at these babies.

This bowl is the product of my favourite aspect of the Pacific Northwest – things grow.
All of these berries are early risers from the plants/weeds in the yard.

These are some trailing blackberries that have snuck into the yard. The vine is hugging a small evergreen, but they are friends, I can tell.
We will have plenty of Himalayan blackberries (much to the dismay of my resident gardener), but they have not ripened yet. These few trailing blackberries are tastier though, and quite a treat.

The blueberries are bigger and much yummier this year. It must have been blueberry weather. Only a few have ripened, but I'm ready for surprise blueberry pancakes any minute now.

This one is another new discovery for this year, the huckleberry that was previously just known as the "pretty green tree by the window with the red fruit." I'm not sure how I feel about the berry, but it rounds out the fruit offerings in the yard quite nicely.

It is such a treat to be able to pick my afternoon snack.

oh my driveway

When I was out foraging, I took this picture of Patrick, and realized, again, how dang steep our driveway is.
(I usually realize this when we are careening on snow towards the drop at the bottom.)

of stuff

I found this cute photo on My Cozy Little Whimsy Nook which just happens to feature a mug that Cari, Rachel, and I worked on at work.

We're famous!

I made a junkmail coaster

What do you do with that envelope of "Value Savings Coupons That You Will Never Use, But We Will Send You Every Week Till You Die"?
You can't throw it away, that's wasteful!

When I got this week's I opened it up and decided to try this out with no cutting. (Might as well.)
Mom (who was visiting from Texas) and I split up the envelope, and started folding.

We folded each sheet in half, and then folded the edges into the center. (We picked the prettiest side to use on each ad.)

We then wove the pieces together, leaving enough room on the ends to tuck under.

We tucked the ends into the folded side (this takes a little pre-planning) and added the tiniest pieces of tape.

I kind of like the way this looks under my vase. It will also help to catch the dropping petals of flowers I forget to water.

We tried to have Kat participate, but she couldn't figure out the fold method we were using. Her pieces ended up all weird-shaped.

Nonconformist.

of the cute doodles

I really love when talented people doodle on their photos.

via My Cozy Little Whimsy Nook

via Orange You Lucky

Don't be suprised if little bits of this creep up on the blog in the future. It's too fun not to try.