Happy Weekend!

Yes, I know Fall is here but I can't help but think of lounging on the beach in the sun. It's been a looooooong time since we've been on a relaxing vacation in the sun (like since our honeymoon four years ago!) and I could really use one right now. How about you? 

What are you up to this weekend? Zachary is coming home and I'm so happy. Yep, that's right. I'm a single mama again this month while he is back living with his parents and going to rotation in Silverdale for Orthopedic Surgery during the week. Luckily, he's closer than he was in Pendleton so we can see each other every weekend. Have I mentioned that being a single mama is tough? RESPECT!

Have a great weekend you guys!

Photo found via (original photo source unknown)

Our Home: The Kitchen

I want to share with you guys a little tour of our kitchen today. I love the kitchen in our house, except for the fact that it is a little small. It actually has a lot more storage than our Arizona kitchen, but it's still a ways from my dream kitchen. It also works really well with all my aqua kitchenware. In any case, the kitchen works for what we need now and is the next stop on the house tour!

First, I did a quick update to de-clutter the kitchen window sill. Here's what it looked like before. Clutterville. Sure, I like all the pieces separately, but all together they were not working.

And here's the after. Much less stuff. Much more style. I love the cow creamer (from Target) and the vintage salt and pepper shakers Zach got me last Christmas.  The faux plants are from IKEA and the little metal buckets were from the $1 section at Target!

Here's the rest of the place. I really do love the white cabinets. They keep it light and clean. And I'm still diggin' my twelve dollar shelves. Such a great way to use that otherwise wasted space (and add lots of storage!).

One downside is that the laundry is also in the kitchen. But at least we have a washer and dryer and at least they are new and don't take up a lot of space!

Some items on my list that I'd still like to update:

- Make some no sew roman shades for the window
- Get a new rug with some color and pattern

I also painted the kitchen back in December - it used to be yellow ala our bathroom (more on that coming soon). The gray is much much better. Since we are renting, there's not much more I want to or really can do.

Do you like your kitchen? What's one thing you would change about your kitchen? What's your favorite part (I really like having the window to the back yard and the white cabinets!). Do tell!

West Elm Finds

I went to West Elm recently for a little shopping day and thought I'd share some of my favorite finds. It was my first time at the downtown Seattle location and I lurvvved it. I loved everything in the store. Seriously. I want it all. Instead, I settled for a few cute little things (more on those later). There was a whole wall of these aqua bottles and honeycomb vases. Please can someone get me one of those stat. 

They had a ton of great light fixtures, but I especially liked this little geometric guy.

On my wish list is a couple of these bell jars... love the shape and think they'd look great in different sizes in a cluster on the table for display.

Salt n' pepper shakers are the one thing that I collect and I loved these little owl guys!

Loved this minty kitchenware.

I really want a lamp like this! The gourd shape is awesome and I love the clear base with contrasting shade.

I'm obsessed with stripes. Enough said.

This rug would look really good in my kitchen. I'm also obsessed with navy.

Navy + stripes! Whhhhhaaat?! The perfect combo all wrapped up in this little toothbrush cup.

Loved this navy jewelry box with gold detail.

This dresser is fantastic with the detail on the drawers.

You know how I feel about distressed wood. This headboard is awesome. And also $1,300.

This pillow case was calling my name! But, I think I'm going to attempt to knit something very similar this fall. Stay tuned...

So what did I purchase? Ever since this trip, I've wanted some antlers. Kim told me about these at West Elm paper mache type antlers for $19 so I was hoping they'd be everything I wished for and more. Just so happens that while checking the clearance section I found this little guy for only $3! He is slightly damaged, but nothing a little coat of spray paint can't cure. So I snatched him up.

I also got this guy (the turtle on the left). Apparently I was on a mission for animals. And they're all male. He's so cute and white and perfect! He's currently residing on a stack of navy vintage books on the mantle!

Those were my West Elm finds. What have you find lately?

Old Fashioned Peach Pie

I wanted to make my mom her favorite cake for her birthday and I had to ask her what it was (embarrassing, right?) because I couldn't for the life of me remember. Rightfully so, because she said her favorite is not cake, but any kind of fruit pie. That made me feel slightly better. 

We made homemade peach pie because it sounded so good, the peaches were ripe, and I'd never made it before. The recipe is from Smitten Kitchen and it was delicious. 

Ingredients

3 1/2 pounds peaches (I used 7 medium sized peaches)

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1/4 cup white sugar 

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon (I always add more cinnamon though)

Dash of nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons corn starch

Pie crust (instead of homemade, I just used the pre-made pie crust)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

2. Poach (optional) and peel the peaches. I'd never done this before, but it was a simple step that helps to peel the peaches easier. First, boil a pan of water. Second, make an ice bath in a separate bowl. Cut a small X in the bottom of each peach and then put as many peaches as you can in the boiling water for two minutes. Transfer peaches using a slotted spoon into the ice bath for one minute. Remove from ice bath and start peeling. The peach skin should just slip right off, but we had to still peel them slightly.

3. Cut up the peaches into 1/3 inch slices.

4. Toss peaches with lime juice in bowl.

5. In a separate dish stir sugars, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and corn starch until mixed.

6. Combine with peaches and toss until evenly coated.

7. Place the pie crust in the pie dish and fill with peach filling.

8. Put the top crust on - here's were you can get fancy. We went with the lattice top, but you can also just put the whole top crust on and then cut decorative Xs or +s on top. For the lattice top, we spread out the crust and used the pizza cutter to slice even strips and then wove them together on top.

9. Brush pie with melted butter and sprinkle with white sugar.

10. Bake your pie! 20 minutes at 425 degrees. 30-40 minutes at 375 degrees. If the crust starts to brown, you can put tin foil on top and continue to bake.

11. Apparently you are supposed to let the pie cool fully before eating in order to let the filling congeal and thicken. But, if you are anything like my family, we let is sit until it's just cool enough so we can take a bite without burning ourselves. Hot/warm pie is the best!

What's your favorite kind of pie? 

P.S. Apple pie and more yummy baking goodness here.

Weekend in Instagrams & Happy Birthday Mama!

How was your weekend? We had a lot of fun this weekend with our families, first on Friday night we hung out with Zachary's family. His grandma came all the way from Napa, CA to visit for the week. We had a great time at Z'Tejas for dinner - a southwestern/mexican restaurant with yummy cornbread!

Saturday morning we went over to my parents house in Centralia for my mom's birthday. While the boys watched football, my mom and I went to downtown Centralia to hit up the antique shops (Centralia is quickly becoming one of my favorite places for great vintage and antique finds!).

First we went to Chehalis to this AMAZING fabric/quilt shop. Tons and tons of color coordinated fabrics line the walls. I love it so much, but at the same time, it's kind of overwhelming because there are so many choices! I've been trying to find some fabric for Zach's mom to make me a quilt and finally settled on getting a jelly roll in some colorful vintage patterns. I want to do a herringbone style quilt and can't wait to see the result (I'll keep you posted).

From there we went to the main street downtown to hit up some of our favorites (this is the third time we've wandered down there this summer). The first stop we went into I found this vintage Coca Cola crate for $9! I was so excited because 1) I'd seen a very similar one the first time we went antiquing - I didn't get it and had been dreaming thinking about it ever since. 2) Other crates like this I'd seen were upwards of $25-30, so I thought it was kind of a steal.

The second store we went into I found the globe for $15! Seriously, it was my lucky day (of course, when I am on the spending diet... oops! This was my "cheat day" I guess...). I snatched it up just in time for us to hit the next shop where I found an equally awesome globe for only $10. That was the lowest price I'd seen on a globe recently, so naturally I had to buy it. :)

Also, at the first store they had a ton of old Schwinn bicycles out on the street. I was seriously thinking about getting one. The one I wanted was a blue one, with a basket of course, and it was $120. Maybe they'll still be there next time we go...

My favorite find of the day was this amazing pinky mauve tufted wing back chair. It was love at first sight, but I was good and waited on it. By the time I got home, I couldn't stop thinking about it and decided to see if the store was open the next day. It was quarter past five and they closed at six so (with permission from the hubby) we raced back down to the store. The CLOSED sign was up on the door, but I decided to try it anyways since it was only 5:30, and thankfully it was still unlocked! I went in and asked the girl at the counter if we could look at the chair again and she said yes. We went back to look and it was just as I had remembered. Check out those wide curved wings and the tufts. I die. It was $58, which I thought was a good deal for the condition and the uniqueness of it. I decided to try to get them down on price and it worked! I saved $3! Haha. Gotta start somewhere, right? :)

Long, long story blog post short, I got it and it's wonderful and I can't wait to make it my next project!

We also made some homemade peach pie (recipe coming soon) and went out to birthday brunch at Judy's Country Kitchen. I love my family and we have a lot of fun. :) And the pups were happy to see their Uncle Aaron and get spoiled by the grandparents. Happy Birthday Mama!

Wow. That was kind of a lot. I don't blame you if you skipped all the words. I hope you all had a great weekend! 

Happy Weekend!

Hello and Happy Friday! What are you up to this weekend? We are having a family-filled weekend - dinner with Zach's family tonight (his grandmother is in town) and the rest of the weekend with my family to celebrate my Mama's birthday! Happy (early) Birthday Mama (it's on Sunday)!

Whatever you do this weekend, I hope it's filled with football, colorful leaves, and pumpkin spice lattes! Bring on fall!

Photo found here (original source unknown).

P.S. Check out some more sweet fall photos on Pinterest!

Outdoor Movie Night

A couple weeks ago we went down to Redmond to the Movies @ Marymoor. Every summer on Wednesday nights they show movies on a blow up big screen at the park for $5. It certainly didn't look like the above (wouldn't that be a sweet set up in the backyard though?) but it was too dark by the time I thought about taking any pictures. We caught the last movie of the summer and lucked out because they happened to be showing one of both Zach and my favorite movies of all time - The Princess Bride. If you haven't seen it, shame on you. It's a classic (from the 80s) and is a chick-flick-comedy/satire-action movie all wrapped into one. Trust me. Watch it. My favorite scene is the sword fight.

We didn't bring any food, hoping that we'd get food there. Turns out they had one food truck (with delicious organic burgers), kettle corn, and a candy truck. Not much selection. If we go next summer, we are definitely bringing our own food and drinks! I ended up standing in line for 45 minutes (and half hour into the movie) waiting for those delicious burgers while Zach held our spot on the lawn (we brought blankets, but you could bring lawn chairs too!). Not ideal, but it worked out. At least I had already seen the movie. 

We tried bringing the pups, but Buster has been having trouble lately around other dogs. He barks quite ferociously. Probably because he is in the back yard all day (guilty mama right here...)? And Brody just follows suit. So, we left them in the car and they took a nice nap.

Best part of the night - Inigo Montoya: "I want my father back, you son of a bitch!" And the crowd goes wild... Awesome. 

Have you ever been to an outdoor movie? I hear the one at Redhook is pretty good too. I just love the experience and would definitely do it again!

Photo found here.

Junior Junior

The big guy on the left is Junior and of course, that handsome little devil on the right is Brody. Junior belongs to the instructor of our puppy class and is also from the Seattle Humane Society (also claimed to be a "lab mix" like Brody). Don't they look like twinsies?! The ears, the tuxedo coat, the tail. So similar it's crazy. In class, we've all started calling Brody "Junior Junior" since they look so much alike. Get it? Like Junior Jr. :)

Puppy class is going well. Brody is an expert at "Sit". Still working on perfecting "Watch Me." Just learned "leash manners" last night. Took him on a walk today and he was pulling so bad! He can't be worse than Buster though right? Maybe he is... I think we'll have to get the easy walk harness like we have for Buster. It worked like a charm for him! 

Have you gone through the whole puppy training before (this is our second time)? What was the hardest part for you? We always seem to have trouble with leash manners and "leaving it" (those treats are just so tasty...).

The Fair (and Li'l Sebastian!)

Make no mistake, this could very well be Li'l Sebastian's clone. Well, I guess he doesn't quite have the mane that Lil' Sebastian does (or the bangs) but he's pretty darn close. You know Li'l Sebastian right? From Parks & Rec (One of my favorite shows. You should watch it.)? He's only AMAZING! If you haven't, here's a little taste.

Kim and I went to the Puyallup Fair on Sunday (it's called "The Fair" by the way. Like THE Fair. I guess it's kind of a big deal :) . It's always fun going to the fair and wandering around to see all the different booths, rides, food and people. People watching is like one of my favorite hobbies. 

We went straight for the food, naturally, and settled on corn dogs and curly fries. Excuse me, they were actually Krusty Pups. And they were delicious.

We were planning on going on some rides, but decided against it since the lines were so long and the rides were all 9 tickets each (about $4.50 per ride). Kim heard a guy in line saying he was going to buy 500 tickets!!! At 50 cents each that's around $250! So one thing we learned - the fair is expensive! 

We're twinsies!

We liked all the animals too! Lots of cute bunnies and goats and chicks. And then there was this guy. He must have been British - check out those teeth.

And these little baby piggies!

Towards the end of the day we found these guys. Since both our guys were at home watching the Seahawks game, it was pretty funny that we happened to find these big horsies (Kim's husband is Jake). Cracked us up.

Have you been to the fair lately? What's your favorite part? The rides? The food (we also had to split an elephant ear before we left)? Do you ever get a little claustrophobic with all the people (so many people)? Hope you had a great weekend!

Happy Weekend!

I'm in love with this series of photographs by Eric Cahan called Sky Series (found via Design Love Fest). Amazing. I've always had a thing for sunsets. Growing up on Camano Island, our house had a view of the Puget Sound. One of my favorite memories from that house was when we had "Sunset Alerts!" Whoever saw the sunset first would yell out "SUNSET ALERT!!!" and the rest of the family would come running to the living room upstairs (it had the best view through the big front window). We would all grab a kitchen chair and sit in the middle of the living just enjoying the beauty. Sometimes put on our sunglasses it was so bright. I loved those summer nights! Check out more of the series right here. Which one is your favorite?

Life Is Too Short...

Been thinking a lot about this lately... especially with 9/11 this week. Remembering those that we lost eleven years ago. Also looking forward to the future and making sure to take advantage of everything God throws our way. Life is hectic. Life is busy. Life is stressful. Life is crazy. But life is also lovely and beautiful and fun! Make the most of it you possibly can. I know I'm trying to...

Photo via

Golden Gardens + Paseo

On Saturday after an unexpectedly loooooooooong day at work we went out with our friends Mykell (she was my Maid of Honor) and her bf John. We had such a great time! First, we stopped by Paseo - this amazing walk-up Caribbean restaurant in Ballard. Mykell claimed that they had the BEST sandwiches ever. I was a little skeptical until she said it was cash only. If I've learned anything, cash only restaurants are usually pretty tasty. And she was pretty spot on. Both Zach and I got the #2, which we highly recommend (apparently #1 is the other really good choice). 

We took our sandwiches to go and went on down to Golden Gardens. I had never been before, but heard a lot from Mykell about how much fun it was (and how pretty). It's a really sandy beach and has a lot of fire pits where you can bring your own wood to have a bonfire! We brought stuff for s'mores but didn't get there early enough to grab a spot. Instead, we just laid out our blanket, popped open some brew-skis and ate our glorious sandwiches. They were so messy, but that's how you know they are so good!

We watched the sunset and then it got chilly so we went back to Ballard to Cupcake Royale! We each got something different and they were - you guessed it - delish. 

Clockwise from top left: "The Kate" - Chocolate with Vanilla (Pink) frosting; Chocolate with Mint frosting; Tiramisu; Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel. 

I can't wait to go back to Golden Gardens! I love the beach. Especially when there are bonfires involved. And s'mores. 

Have you been to the beach lately? Had any cupcakes? What's your favorite cash-only restaurant that you just know is the best place to eat?

In Yelp We Trust - Date Night at Spice King

I'm back with another Date Night post today! We are finally getting back in to the swing of our Friday date nights after Zach was gone for a whole month in Pendleton. Last week, we were feeling the Indian food and decided to try a new place. Our usual Indian food place in Renton is Naan n' Curry and it is really good, but in the spirit of date night we hit up good old Yelp. 

Yelp is awesome, by the way. Whenever we need a new place to try out, the first place we check is Yelp. And we trust it whole hearted-ly. Especially with the Indian restaurant we found on Friday night - Spice King. It was rated higher than Naan n' Curry, so we wanted to give it a try. However, all the comments had fair warning of the location - and they were spot on. The restaurant is located in a big warehouse that also houses a huge wholesale eastern European grocery store. It was pretty weird and not your usual swanky restaurant, but we wanted to give it a chance since the reviews were so good.

I'm so glad we trusted Yelp! The food was delicious! Probably some of the best Indian food we've had. Besides the location, the only thing that was sub par was the Mango Lassis. They were a neon yellow color and stronger on the yogurt than the mango. Still not bad though.

We got the Butter Chicken and the Chicken Tikka Misala (our favorites). It was seriously good. The chicken was so tender and juicy and the sauce was so flavorful.

Mmmmmhmmmm. Delish. Oh, and you can't forget the Garlic Naan! 

After dinner we went right on over to DQ for some blizzards. It was buy one get one for $1! Woot! I got Oreo and Z got Snickers (Mr. and Mrs. Predictable over here). 

I love date nights. Mostly because my handsome husband is so much fun. 

What did you so this weekend? Any fun events/activities/trips?