of the way cats nap.

Seriously, how can he sleep like this? How is it possible? I am jealous.

and speaking of Hawaii

I put a bunch of photos up from our wonderful visit to sunshine.

Check 'em out here....

(We've been other places too.)

of my shabby phone case

I drank the kool-aid. The iPhone flavored kind. So of course I had to put together a case so that it doesn't get destroyed in the hurricane I call my purse.

This one's made out of jean scraps, a cute cotton print, and reinforced with chipboard inside the front and back. It may be a little shabby chic for me, but I'll deal with it for a while at least.

and so am I.

JUST LOOK AT THIS. HOW IS IT SO AMAZING!?!?!

via Ultra Creative

PS- If you didn't know already, the French Paper blog is an amazing source of eye candy.

I'm so updated.

I just added a bunch of new gallery images, and a feature on the Delicious Recipe sets.

Hope you enjoy!

even though it's way after Thanksgiving.

For the past few years we've invited other transplants over to share a non-traditional Thanksgiving with us. Each of us makes and brings the food we miss most from eating with family. (We usually have multiple varieties of bread and potatoes. It's GREAT!)

I decided to pair my Sharpie and my Drinking Jar* collections to make glasses that each person could personalize.

It was tons of fun to do, and see. Almost all the colors came off easily in the wash- the blue was the most permanent. (Now you know!)

Here's a few more photos of awesome people, and awesome things they made.

*Drinking Jars are common in my family. I resisted at first, but my love for salsa was providing me with too many opportunities! I have plans for their futures, but I thought I would share my jar harvesting tips. After many hits and misses I found out if I fill the jar with hot water, it will soften the glue and the label falls right off! (Basically.) Yay!

sneak peak.

Here's a sneak peak at what I've been pouring over (no pun intended.)

I live in a beautiful place.

This is your reward for reading my rant; photos from Crystal Mountain and Mt. Ranier (both within an hour or so of my house.) This place is gorgeous, yo.

Trip on August 21, 2011 with Seri and Marty.

there's a new bathroom.

So, I've been pretty absent this summer... as I said, I've been busy dealing with this an that, and this is one of the good thats.

or something...

Our house has a daylight basement that we've turned into our bedroom. It all needs work, but the bathoom was the worst.

A narrow little room, made narrower by the smallest shower cubby that exists. Throw in a low suspended ceiling, leaking fixtures, and bubbled vinyl, and voila! You have a bathroom experience that darkens your every morning.

So we ripped it all apart...

moved the wall to cut into the (massive) utility room, and plopped in some new fixtures.

Fixtures that include a massively long tub.







Now I am actually excited to get up and take a shower in the morning. Yay!

of our summer

So I've been slacking this summer because over here it's as busy as can be; some things are good, some things aren't.

It's what we like to call life, I guess.

We just got back from our anniversary trip to Glacier National Park (an amazing place.) I rushed to put some images up to share at my picture site.

Hope you enjoy!

of cat naps. I know I am.

The key to getting your cats to do something you want (for example, sleeping adorably in wooden boxes) is not telling them about it.

Success!

of the new gallery at (so, there.)

we were there for 3 days.

Day 3 found us at a very overpriced attraction- the Biltmore.

60 dollars does not buy you any pictures of the inside (although you can buy a photo of yourself in there for another tidy sum) so I only have this photo of the front...
and these (illegal) photos of us on the back porch.
There are plans at work behind those smiling eyes. While the Biltmore is a bit overgrown, I have found aspects of the house I would like to work into my future abode.

• A library for instance, could be filled easily. (I would redecorate.)

• A billiard room would be home to games and merry times.

• An indoor pool is a necessity.

• A personal bowling alley might be nice.

• Of course, lets not forget the view. If I even move out of this house, the view is going to have to be spectacular.
(That's what's behind us in the other pictures.) As we were leaving, a thunderstorm moved in, making a fun day even better.
We hid out in the winery (most of the Biltmore grapes are from California, Oregon, and Washington) till the storm passed. When we got back to the hotel room we realized that something had made our hands very large, and we spent a while picking cars off the highway.
Asheville in summary - If I didn't get the point across before, the food was delicious, and vegetarian friendly. The shops were modern and trendy. There are street markets (I bought a neato shirt from circles&squares after spending several minutes trying to pick just one.) The town square was full of electronic music, dreadlocks, and hula hoops. Best of all, it was warm and had proper thunderstorms.

Thumbs up Asheville!

we went to Asheville.

We got to spend our 6th anniversary at a beautiful wedding in North Carolina. Afterwards, we took a road trip to Asheville.

The trip was gorgeous- like driving through the pass gorgeous. We got sun and rain and everything in between (it was just a couple of hours.)

We checked into our hotel which was right next to the highway, but had great views.

We walked downtown- which unfortunately I don't have any pictures of. There were shops set up along the street, and lots of delicious restaurants. Asheville was like Austin with more trees and older architecture.

On the second day we drove out to the Nantahala to go rafting. I have never done it before, but now I'm hooked.


There are a few pictures of our trip below. You might notice that over the series I *ahem* move into the boat. You can also tell how much we hated the whole thing. (Look at our faces.)

It was a GREAT day.

(another installment tomorrow... and by tomorrow I mean Monday)