26th Street Sentiments

Clams

2012-02-11T13:43:00.000-08:00

Their is a first time for everything, and last week marked our first time cooking clams. Wes and I first ordered clams at Pok Pok a while back and were amazed by how delicious and yummy they were. I had never experienced clams outside of San Francisco's Pier 39 Clam Chowder, so handling shells and teensy-tiny forks was another major first. After such a positive experience we ordered them yet again at a little restaurant we like to call Clyde Common: again, delicious. We both "oo" and "ah" over handling the shells every time. The tactile experience is quite unique. Anyway, all of this is to say that last week we decided to bring clams into our kitchen.
We found a very simple recipe, using only: clams, garlic, olive oil, butter, white wine, and parsley. And is served with crusty bread for dipping. It was very successful and surprisingly easy. Below is the recipe, if you are the slightest bit interested I urge you to try it out! Check out the full recipe here.

First, give them a salt bath so that they release any and all dirt. Clams are sand-dwellers so this stage is necessary. This was also the stage in which it dawned on us- these suckers are alive. It's quite fun to sit and stare. Be patient and you'll watch one jitter a bit or watch the bubbles surface. *bloop, bloop!*

scrub-a-dub

No worries little guys, you're just going into a "sauna," to die a slow steamy death.

(sorry, I make it so appetizing don't I??)

mmmm lots o' garlic

And into the steaming bowl! They cook quickly. This is what it looks like as they just begin to pop open. After all or most of them have popped open the clams are ready. Discard any that do not open, this means the clam was in fact dead prior to cooking and not fresh. :/

Serve up in low-bowls with crusty bread, noodles, or rice.

Enjoy!

And don't forget a bowl to put all of your empty shells into.

Inspiration

2012-01-21T14:25:00.000-08:00

I've always loved flowers. When I think back on our relationship (the one that consists between myself and the flowers) there are moments that stand out amidst our love story. One of which was when I watched You've Got Mail (yes, you read that correctly). Because, you see, in You've Got Mail there is this scene. You know, that one where Meg Ryan is sick and Tom Hanks brings her flowers -- not Roses, but Daisies: simple, understated, ordinary, white Daisies. Meg Ryan shares "I love Daisies. Don't you think that Daisies are the friendliest flower?" Yes Meg, yes I do. Which is why I broke (probably) a thousand flower rules and paired Gerbera Daisies with Roses in my bridesmaids bouquets. gasp! Little did I know most florists hate "Gerbers" -- but how could you hate a Gerber with they're big round faces and so many colors to choose from? But anyway... flowers make me happy and they always have. Whether it be the red Christmas berries that my mom would send us to fetch from the park around the corner, the September Sunflowers in Portland, that one annoying time I had to take biology, or the life long dream I've had of laying down in a field of flowers, with my horse as my pillow and a book to keep us company. Flowers are in my life and they will be forever.

Many of you have heard me brainstorming over the past couple years in regards to my career. My problem has mostly been narrowing my focus and understanding that one person can only provide so many services. I've always had a desire to be a "one-stop-shop" of sorts for a bride & groom.
I've always wanted to be the wedding planner-florist-fold-your-paper-favors-by-hand-and-provide-you-with-linens-too, kind of girl. After getting this internship with the florist my dream has become focused and floral design is my main goal. However this isn't to say that Wes and I don't dream of having a team of people under one roof, working together to provide that one-stop-shop. So, when I happened upon this website this morning I nearly fell out of my chair. Seriously everyone, this website is to a "T" what I would love to be someday. I love the site design, the information could not be articulated better, and the portfolios are phenomenal. Have a look:

{Click here for Super Awesome Crafty-Paper-Flower-Goodness}

So Life, this is what I have to say to you:

College Degree I will fight for you. Even when it doesn't make sense and you are the last thing I want to fight for, I will. And someday I will understand why I did.

God, thank you for creating flowers to provide for "The Circle of Life" and also for the sake of enjoyment.

Dreams, I will fullfill some of you someday.

I think its time to go purchase a couple of single-stems, don't you?

Through the Ringer.

2012-01-20T20:40:00.000-08:00

This week has been one of those weeks. I've decided its probably best to avoid talking about my current problems as often as possible so to not remind myself of how disappointed I am. Therefore, I figured I would update everyone in one foul swoop on our near and dear blog. This doesn't mean you can't ask about it or show sympathy, its just an attempt to prevent myself from moping around in further, self-pity. (Yes, the pity party is rich can you tell?) I recognize that my problems are so (so SO SO) small compared to the real tragedies of life, for example I almost fell to pieces on the bus ride home from receiving my bad news when a blind guy (my age!) sat down on the bus right next to me (no coincidence I assure you, God has been involved in quite obvious ways). So, I digress - on with my bad news:

On Wednesday I met with a different adviser than normal. At the time I was frustrated that my normal advising was sending me some place new. However, I was pleased to meet the nicest, most helpful adviser I have ever crossed at PSU. So we sit, she answers my questions, then says "Let me just do this for you." She takes my DARS report (in normal person terms this means: my everything, my records) and writes up a brand new graduation plan for me. Then she whips out a calculator.

gulp.

And then proceeds to tell me that I have an additional 4 classes I need to take in order to graduate.

She could tell by the blank look on my face I was in utter shock. In shock I tell you! Because well, you see, I meet with an adviser very often. Like, every-two-weeks-often to ensure problems like this don't happen. She explained that this happens a lot and that for some reason or another this requirement often gets overlooked. The requirement I speak of is the one that says 72 credits of your total course work has to be Upper Division. It makes sense... only, in my situation its quite stressful because I have to graduate in the Spring. We have plans, you know?? And its upsetting because no one ever told me. You'd think I'd have figured it out on my own but seriously the aforementioned "DARS report" is like another language. Full of crazy symbols, repeating information, The word: "NEEDS" and "EARNED" and "OK" all over the place. Its a complicated mess.

So, what this means for my life is that my "easy" finish to my college career won't be happening. These next few months will be stressful. I will probably cry a lot and mope around on occasion. Today when I added two extra classes to my load the guy who was processing the information said "You are now enrolled with 20 credits- Have fun!!!" And next quarter I will no longer get to take only two classes, rather, I will be taking four. :(

Oh well, life goes on. Like I said, there are much bigger tragedies in life and who am I to complain??? I keep telling myself that I just have to ride out these next few months and then we will basically be on a 3 month extended vacation. I can do this. I will do this. So that's my news. It's been a tough week but life goes on. And I'm memorizing this:

"Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer." -Romans 12:12

Praying for patience and perseverance. As always, thank you for your unwavering support. It is a relief to know that many of you will meet (and have met) me in my place of disappointment because you know me well enough to understand how this translates into my life. Wes has been brilliantly supportive, and encouraging. Boxed Mac n' cheese for dinner tonight! :)

Portland Bride & Groom Magazine Shoot

2012-01-14T14:28:00.000-08:00

If you saw me over Christmas than you most likely saw the magazine and heard the news already. But if you didn't, the photoshoot I worked on through my flower-internship has been published and can be seen in the Winter/Spring addition of Portland Bride & Groom Magazine. My experience helping out with the shoot was a great one. Talk about inspiring, eye-opening, and such a fun time. The florist (of Petalos Floral Design) was asked to prepare her handmade paper flowers to adorn the table-scape featured. I am so proud to say that I had a part in making the flowers! And then the extra fun part is that while helping set up the table for the shoot I was asked to be in the magazine. No, you don't see my face but I got to change into a dress and fun jewelry and hold a tray of food. You see my arms! ;) I am so thankful for the experience, I can easily say I never thought I'd leave Portland having been a part of a local wedding magazine publication. I owe "my" florist everything for inviting me into her life. Thanks to all for the awesome opportunity!

Heaven on a plate.

2012-01-07T15:37:00.000-08:00

Since I know you all have been sitting by your computers waiting to hear what I had for breakfast this morning, I decided I'd humor you. Mind you, their isn't even a recipe. Just a picture to make your tummies growl.

Last night for dinner Wes and I made Irish brown bread (a mix you buy in a box, really good, the brand is Garvey), with smoked salmon and green olives. So for breakfast, I used up some of the leftovers to make one of the best breakfasts I've made at home. Ever. Not like I really made much but the flavors were so melt-in-your mouth yummy: poached eggs on smoked salmon, and brown bread. (Don't forget a little butter on the bread!) So come on over to our place and I'll fix you up one of the same. :)

Free Bird.

2012-01-07T14:05:00.000-08:00

I am currently sitting in a little cafe' near us called "Little t." You've probably heard us mention it from time to time. It's a shorter walk than Palio's and something about it feels so European (or at least, its what I imagine a cafe' in Europe to be like.) Its like sitting in a land of baguettes, croissants, pastries, black coffee in "for here" cups, and PS: my lap top is the only one in the place. Two people have arrived to pick up large orders of baguettes (which they take away in bread baskets mind you!) to their restaurants nearby. The person next to me is reading the paper and eating a pastry and the family behind me is asking their kids what they think of the painting hanging on the wall. Beautiful. What a pleasant space to be on this fine Saturday morning.

The term "free bird" has been resurfacing in my mind a lot over the past week or so. It seems that now that Christmas has passed we are full steam ahead with plans for moving. In fact, the day after Christmas on our drive back to Portland our conversations were already jam packed full of Europe and what needs to get done. Now that we have been able to put more attention towards our trip I am beginning to realize how necessary this trip really is for me. Their have been several cases of supreme stress through out my college education, and now that I am nearing the end (5 classes left!) these instances have actually been occurring more often due to computer errors, inconsistent advising, and just the general hubbub that has to take place in order to graduate. There is an anxiety that sits within me, that I've become so used to, I don't realize it is there until another annoying mishap happens which sends me to five different advisers just to get one signature and the stress reveals itself. The anxiety comes from a fear of losing things I've worked so hard for, for example: having a class no longer count, or my whole education being erased... I know this fear is irrational but the school system can make you feel so powerless that at times, it does feel possible. All I can say is, it will be the biggest relief I have ever felt in my life to finally have a diploma in hand. So, this Europe trip is necessary for my soul, and my general well-being. I am very thankful that we are essentially giving ourselves a three month vacation, and while it probably sounds indulgent to some, it is essential that I feel what it is like to be a free bird. I haven't known life with out school deadlines. It has taken me so long to graduate not because I took a couple of years off, rather its because of taking bunches of the "wrong" classes (meaning that they didn't fulfill requirements-- my mistake) oh and the transfer to Portland set me back quite a bit too. I have begin to picture myself sitting in a cafe in Paris reading a book and not having a care in the world. It will be bliss.

On another note, I will simply say that Christmas was wonderful. Since most of you have already seen our pictures posted on facebook I feel that it would be (and has been previously) a smidge-bit redundant to devote whole blog posts to the same images. I will however, post a blog in the near future of all the "behind-the-scenes" crafting that went on to put together our homemade-gifts this year, because we had a lot of fun with that.

A HUGE (HUMONGOUS! GINORMOUS!) "Thank You" to our families for all the gifts and love and time put towards us when we were home. We really really enjoyed ourselves. It is surreal to think that next Christmas we will be living in Sacramento. We are so excited for this! We've already talked about how wonderful it will be to get a tree from apple hill and perhaps host a Christmas Party. It will be a dream fulfilled. Anyway- it's a little scary to talk about such things a year in advance, if anything take this as an example of just how excited we are!

Happy New Year to you all!

So Many Blogs...

2011-12-14T19:59:00.000-08:00

... so little time. I have such a growing list of blogs and images to share and just not enough time to punch them out. A wee-little update will just have to suffice for now. As usual, Wes and I have taken on several fun Christmas projects, and extra hours at work, making the week before we leave quite the busy one. Though I am really in no state to be talking about such things because I am very tired. And well folks, I'm sure even you know that I get very illogical when I'm tired. So while we do have a nice sized to-do list, right now I will tell you: its 5 miles long (and that's really not true!!).

When I'm tired and stress is looming, I usually cry, and over-exaggerate, and sometimes throw the occasionally pity party. I also like to dream up even more to-dos, pretend that they are pressingly important and feel even more sorry for myself. But this isn't my pity-party. Really. I promise you. If I was partying in pity right now I don't think I'd be sitting here writing about it... no.... I think I'd be crying. And my eyes are tear-free! (I mean as long as you don't include the two that I shed an hour ago.) I really am completely fine. I'm just in a fog... and a full nights sleep will make me feel as good as new.

So, onto more fun things than me being tired... Winter break has been so lovely!!! We went on a wonderful (seriously-- magical!) date which Wes does a great job recapping on his blog, in this post; some Christmas shopping has ensued as well as some viewing of Christmas movies. We have been enjoying ourselves for sure. And we can hardly wait to come home! 5 days in counting!!!

Countdown

2011-12-05T10:46:00.000-08:00

It's FINALS WEEK everyone!!!

I somehow managed to finish my last paper of the quarter lastnight. You can ask Wes how many times I whined: "ooooohhhh myyy gossh...." or "whaaat am I dooooing???" It was for my art-philosophy class. I was writing about an art critic named Clement Greenberg, then I had to relate him to Modernism, and THEN I had to relate those two topics to Kant. Fabulous. and what do you know? I'm bored again already which means I bet you are too!

Moving on...

Tonight is my Art History final, Thursday is my Critical Theory final, and last week I finished up Meaning and Making.

4 days until I'll be on Christmas break! Now back to studying...

and trying my hardest not to daydream about seeing you all in a couple of weeks. ;)

Can't wait! Thanksgiving blog is soon to come.

-Katie

Can I?

2011-12-01T23:07:00.000-08:00

So if you talk with me on a somewhat regular basis you will know that I *love* the girls I nanny. And I have quite a special bond with the 2 year old, seeing as how I have known her since two months of age. You would know that I love them because I talk about them constantly (thank you for listening! - especially you Wes who hears by far more than everyone else!). But my point here is that the internet hears little of this love. On a rare occasion I will share a story or two, but I am very cautious about respecting their privacy, etc. Anyway! my point here is that today my post is about my work. Rather, it is about Miss 2 year old who is changing faster than ever (seriously, today it felt like she got smarter with every passing hour). She has been putting sentences together for a while now, but only recently has she been asking questions, and building bigger sentences. This week her "favorite" phrase has been "Can I..(fill in the blank)..??" Can I RUN? Can I read-a-book? Can I EAT string CHEESE? and on occasion it will simply just be: "CAN I???"

Now prepare for me to get all cheesy on you but this is where I'm going with this. Today while we are eating lunch together instead of mindlessly spewing "Can I?" out of apparent habit, she appeared to be intensely thinking... She then looks at me and says "Can I?..... I can." With a head nod and then continues eating.

And the cheese in this is that I am sitting here all inspired. As I reflect on my day (which wasn't a great one) I'm exhausted, completely overwhelmed with school and life and my ongoing water-works about moving away (that for another day- though really does it need an explanation?) I am inspired by my little Miss. I mean really, I know I'm not alone in saying this... that's one of the beautiful things about having kids right? You see life through new eyes.... you remember the amazingness that lies in all of those little things....

So, I'll say it:

CAN I???? I can. I can finish up two more quarters of school. I will graduate in June. We will move to Europe for a hunk of time. And.... I'll just be.... crying.... every so often. As I think about saying goodbye to this family that I care about. Our apartment. Our walk to the grocery store. Our church. Portland.
hOKAY! Time for bed! ;) Nighty night. I'll be fine because...I can.

Sometimes I get Overwhelmed...

2011-11-19T14:09:00.000-08:00

... and last week was just such a time. You know that point in time where excitement meets reality and you feel all tangled up inside? That's me, I'm tangled. I guess it all started a couples of weeks ago when I ran into some stress at the peak of quarter papers and signing up for winter classes. I'll confess, 99% of the time, signing up for classes breaks me. It's always a stressful ordeal... but the reality that I'm speaking of is our moving away from this place, graduating, planning our dreams... its a lot to think about. In fact, I have officially reached the stage in which I start to get all choked up anytime I even think about moving (yes, even now as I type). It's true. I'm starting to feel like we are at the top of a very fast slippery slope. While 7 months sounds like I a lot, my adult self knows that it'll go by so fast, especially with this holiday season right in the middle of it. Anyway, just holding myself together, one cup of coffee and a good night's sleep at a time. And as I was crying to Wes all about it, in the midst of all of his wonderful validation, support, and encouragement he sang this:

&lt;p&gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;HHo&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&lt;/p&gt;

How perfectly fitting. Hope the song puts a smile on your face like it did for me! I'm excited to put one foot in front of the other and head on home for Thanksgiving!!! (Sorry that was SUPER-cheese). But seriously, we can't wait to see you all!

Hoping to post one more blog before we make the drive on Tuesday. We shall see. Happy (almost) Turkey week to you!

To Eggnog, Or not to Eggnog. That is the Question.

2011-11-13T22:41:00.000-08:00

Happy Monday to you! This weekend I feel like I officially allowed myself to start thinking about the holiday season. It has just felt too early to be thinking about Christmas trees and all of the other festivities that come with holiday territory. However, now that thanksgiving is (dare I remind you?) ten days away, I figure its about that time. Last year I discovered the yummy-ness that is soy eggnog. I've never truly been a fan of the regular stuff... it's just too sweet. I take one sip and then I'm done. But this... this my friends, is yum. Just plain: YUM.

So, I'll confess, I've been stalking it at the grocery store. Ever time I pass by the dairy items I peek to see if it has arrived, and I am happy to report that it has. Now, I'm determined to wait until after Thanksgiving to purchase it. It just seems too early right??? (Says the girl who just ordered an eggnog latte' at Powell's -- I guess you can forget everything I just said.)

My point here is simply to say: I'm trying my hardest to wait until December to purchase this soy-goodness. If you have a hankering I strongly recommend it.

10 days until Thanksgiving and 8 days until we make the drive home. We can't wait to see you all!!!

Sexy Snotty Nose

2011-11-08T21:07:00.000-08:00

I'm not sick again.
And I definitely don't have a pile of used tissues sitting next to my computer right now.
And I most definitely don't sound like Pheobe in this clip.

Dear Santa,

2011-11-08T13:33:00.000-08:00

Some people have been asking us about what we would like for Christmas this year. I thought maybe you'd want our list too.

Wes's List:
Patagonia Men's Nano Puff Hoody, Medium, Black
REI Venturi Quarter-Zip shirt, Medium, Black
Band of Brothers DVD Series (Whole Set)
Road to Perdition
Whiskey: The Definitive World Guide (hardcover book)
Merrel Trail Glove Cross-Training shoes, size 11, Red
V for Vendetta Graphic Novel
Regions of Scotland Whiskey Tasting Set
Bushmills 16 Year old Irish Whiskey
Amazing Grace (movie)

Katie's List:
Wildfox Couture, Beach Jumper, black, small
Women's half dome hoodie, medium, black, or navy
Madewell braided friendship bracelet, black and white

Hue Travel slippers, size 2, black, red, Red space dye, or planet space dye
Deborah Lippmann Nailpolish, "happy Birthday"
Butter London Nailpolish, "The Black Night"
Onitsuka Tiger "Serrano" Sneaker, Size 8, Grey/Coral
Color by Jane Packer
Flower Design by Judith Blacklock
Stella (Perfume) by Stella McCartney (any size)
Fluxus Nomad Scarf in any grey, olive, or blush toned color

Gift Cards: Nordstroms, Powells, Sephora, REI, VISA

Wes & Katie's List:
Outdoor Dry Ditty Sacks set of 3 (2 please!)
Nalgene Travel Body Kit Medium
Rick Steves':
Florence and Tuscany
Amsterdam, Bruges, and Brussels
Spain
Provence French Riviera

Inception (movie)
Any of the Madmen seasons
I Love Lucy Seasons (any except for season 2)
Friends Seasons (any except for seasons 5 and 8)

much love, milk, and cookies,

Katie & Wes

Chicken Chasseur Recipe

2011-11-06T11:23:00.000-08:00

Listen up friends! I'm about to share with you one of the best chicken dishes you'll ever have. Whoa, that's a bold statement. But really... I think it might be true. It has all the right qualities of a chicken dish. And we got two different meals out of the amazing sauce. It is simple, only has like 5 ingredients (ok more like 10, but! you are guaranteed to already have at least 4 or 5 of the ingredients in your kitchen), and you cook it all in just one pot. Still not convinced? Let me break it down for you:

The word "Chasseur" is a french word which usually means a brown sauce consisting of mushrooms, shallots, white wine, tomatoes, and herbs. The recipe Wes found required red wine and I don't believe we used shallots. Anyway, here is the recipe and seriously TRY IT! Super easy and the flavor is divine.

Curious on how to pronounce it? Have no fear, we'll tell you exactly how: (click the video below. You aren't suppose to be able to see anything. Its just an audio).

The Ingredients Needed:

1 tsp Olive Oil

2tbsp butter

4 chicken legs

1 onion chopped

2 garlic cloves crushed

1 to 2 cups (based on preference) of small Crimini or button mushrooms sliced or quartered

225ml of red wine

2 tbsp tomato paste

2 thyme sprigs
500ml chicken stocks

Directions:

Heat the oil and half the butter in a large lidded casserole. Season the chicken, then fry for about 5 mins on each side until golden brown. Remove and set aside.
Melt the rest of the butter in the pan. Add the onion, then fry for about 5 mins until soft. Add garlic, cook for about 1 min, add the mushrooms, cook for 2 mins, then add the wine. Stir in the tomato purée, let the liquid bubble and reduce for about 5 mins, then stir in the thyme and pour over the stock. Slip the chicken back into the pan, then cover and simmer on a low heat for about 1 hr until the chicken is very tender. And serve! We served it with mashed potatoes and green beans.

Because this recipe serves 4 people it made great leftovers for just the two of us. After we ate the chicken we still had a bit of sauce leftover. So we decided to make a soup out of it. It was delicious!! I don't know about you but we love a recipe that can be so versatile. This is what we did to transform the sauce into a soup:

Ingredients:
1 cup veg stock
2 1/2 cups water
2 carrots
2 parsnips
1/4-1/2 lb of this type of egg noodles
2 stocks of celery

Directions:
1. slice your carrots, parsnips, and celery. Saute your celery in a pan with butter until almost tender.
2. Add the stock and water to your pot of leftover sauce and bring to a boil.
3. Once boiling, add your carrots, parsnips, celery and noodles and cook for 7-8 minutes. Or until noodles and veggies are fork tender.
Enjoy!

Wes Cooking

2011-11-01T14:11:00.000-07:00

So, as most of you know Wes is no longer in school (he graduated a year ago) but this is the first quarter he hasn't been enrolled in classes. Its strange and so much fun all at the same time. It's amazing what relief I feel just knowing that Wes is more available and that we aren't both in dire need of study time or both stuck with a pile of homework. Life has eased up a bit, our life is still busy but in many ways much less pressing.

And because my school schedule has me on campus until 7pm Mondays and Wednesdays, I come home ready for some food. What does this mean? Well, as you know Wes and I pretty much cook meals together. However, I would say that I am the dominant meal preparer. However, now that I am getting home so late on some of the days Wes has come up with this beautiful thing where he cooks for me. Not only has he offered to take care of the meals (shopping, planning, and preparing) he is so excited about it that he has been looking for recipes on his freetime and has them all bookmarked on his computer in categories. The way it works is I get to choose what type of food I want: Italian, Mexican, German, American, etc and he grabs a recipe from his bookmarked "categories" and I come home to a fun meal.

LUCKY ME! :) Although I unexpectedly didn't have class on Monday (canceled, lucky me!) Wes still took the lead with dinner and told me he was planning on making Chicken Chausseur.

Say Whaaat??

Chicken Chausseur.

Come again??

Chicken Chausseur.

That's right. We had the most amazing Chicken and mashed potatoes dinner the other night. Wes did an amazing job. We ate chicken, gave candy to 4 kids, and watched the first Harry Potter on Halloween!! TALK ABOUT FUN! Recipe and pictures to come!

our neighbor did some serious decorating.

Happy Halloween from Us!

2011-10-31T20:19:00.000-07:00

No longer Halloween weekend folks, it is Halloween! Wes decided to dress up as me this year, and I him...
Just kidding! We are passing out candy as ourselves this year and I'm guessing our group-count as far as trick-or-treaters go is going to be about... 4. This is no surprise. But every year we like to buy candy as if we'll get many more. Oh well, more for us! (ooooops!)

Hope you are all having a lovely night, enjoy your candy!! I know we will!

Happy Halloween Weekend

2011-10-30T12:18:00.000-07:00

Have our lives gotten boring? I feel like I used to have such exciting things to post (I mean Harry Potter, and paintings??? You can't get much more exciting than that!!) and these days I feel like I'm talking about ~~pumpkins~~ the same things over and over again.

No, I know we haven't changed a bit... or well, what I mean is, I know we haven't gotten more boring. I think the truth is that we have gotten more busy and in a routine. Three years back my blog posts were different and I was posting every other day because we were moving around a ton, and I was taking exciting brand new art classes, and Portland was brand new.

I feel like I may have neglected to announce our "Portland-anniversary" this year... maybe I didn't, but if I did... September 12th marked our three-happy-years here. And since I'm always posting about new places we've been or new recipes we've tried, I thought I'd tell you a little bit about our tried-and-true Portland Favorites and what our life really looks like right now.

So here we are in year three and:
Our favorite shared activity 1: Watching Madmen together (Year 1 it was: reading Harry Potter, Year 2: watching Heroes)
Our favorite shared activity 2: Going to Powell's to look at travel books.
Our favorite restaurants are: Avignon Bar and Pok Pok (ok.... Clyde Common too!)
Our "go-to" coffeeshop: Palios (though, honestly we don't spend as much time here)
A favorite coffeeshop: Little t Bakery
Classes I'm taking: Contemporary Art History, Critical Theory (Philosophy of Art), Meaning and Making
Katie's Drink of choice: I love me some red wine. How did I ever not like this stuff? I'm trying to remember...
Wes' Drink of choice: still my whiskey-man, through and through.
Our latest food discovery: The Manila Clams at Pok Pok. Amazing, and so fun to eat!

Ok that's all the update I have time for... Oh and of course pictures!

We had a wonderful time carving pumpkins after a trip to the The Pumpkin Patch. More again soon!

The Pumpkin

2011-10-22T20:56:00.000-07:00

It is officially pumpkin season and I am in full support. I know it might be a bit cliche' but I am one of those people. Businesses start pushing the pumpkin, and I will consume. Basically, I have become mildly obsessive about all things pumpkin: Pumpkin lattes, Pumpkin bread, Pumpkin seeds, Pumpkin tea, Pumpkin Ale. And today, I got to deliver some floral arrangements to a wedding venue with (can you guess?) pumpkins for vases! (They were gorgeous!!) Yes Pleeeease! This past week we purchased Buffalo Bill's Brewery Pumpkin Ale and its really yummy, I definitely recommend. Also, tomorrow we will be heading out to Sauvie Island with our cousins and Kristen and Max to pick out "The Perfect Pumpkin," then we'll be coming back to our place for carving and pizza.

Pictures of that to come soon! Hope you are all enjoying this new season. Halloween is almost here and I will be celebrating by studying for midterms and ~~eating~~ passing out candy.
Here is a little video I posted last year of our pumpkin carving fun.

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Now.... I think it might be time to crack open a Pumpkin Ale!

A New Scoville

2011-10-12T21:45:00.000-07:00

...was born! I am a very proud Aunt to a 5-day-old Scoville; Sawyer Scoville that is. We can't stop swooning over the pictures. We are so in love and can't wait to meet the little guy. It will be especially fun to watch our other nieces and nephews interact with him at Christmas time. We love being Aunt Katie and Uncle Wes!

Scott and Rebekah we are so happy for you. We know that right now you are living the dream, what a beautiful thing that is. For any of you who by chance haven't heard the details: Sawyer arrived on his due date, weighing in at 10lbs 10oz. We love you "Sawyer-the- moose!" ;)

A Sick Day

2011-10-01T17:31:00.000-07:00

First week back to school and of course I get a bug. I have slept most of the day but am now enjoying Catch Me If You Can while resting on the couch. Wes just came back from the grocery store with all of my ~~junk food~~ comfort food cravings. Happy October 1st to you all!Dr. Pepper is good for you while you are sick... right??? ;)

Ashland/Brookings Trip

2011-09-28T10:54:00.000-07:00

Now that Fall has arrived in Portland, I figure its about time I get up the pictures of our final days of Summer. A couple of weeks ago we met up with some Scovilles (Sue, Greg, Scott and Bekah) in Ashland to see a Shakespeare play. Then we headed West to Brookings, OR to stay at a beach house for five days. The vacation was lovely, and a wonderful way to end summer. We loved the Shakespeare play, I've always wanted to go and was happy to be able to check it off the list. Walking around Ashland was really nice too. The house we stayed in felt like a Grandma's house with trinkets and very old, cheesy (or should I say "apple-y" there was quite the apple theme) wall paper throughout. These details made it feel cozy though. The deer in Ashland are quite comfortable with people to. At any given point in the day a deer would be in the backyard or walking down the sidewalk. So lovely.

Here is a picture of the Ashland House:

And here are some pictures of our Ashland fun:

And after a very large breakfast...

And a 3 hour drive...

We made it to the beach house in Brookings...

Some beach-combing and clam chowder later and we were picking wild-berries for a berry cobbler...

Yummy food was devoured (including delicious Whiskey-chocolate cake and Lamb Tagine)...

and a good time was had by all...

THEN,

On the drive home to Portland, we spotted Elk on the side of the road. Surprisingly this was our second time on this trip spotting these beauties. The first time it was a group of about 40 elk with a good amount of males present, so the antlers were just gorgeous. Unfortunately we didn't take the time to stop and take pictures. Regretting it the whole trip we were so excited to get the opportunity for a second time. This time there was only one male, but still- gorgeous.

So, that concludes our grand beach-house-adventure. We had a wonderful time! Can't wait to be home for thanksgiving celebrating the wonderful season of crunchy golden leaves, and crisp cool weather.

Pumpkin Lattes, Pumpkins, Turkey Basters, and Rain...

2011-09-18T12:18:00.000-07:00

September is here! September in Portland is very special to me. It marks the anniversary of our big move up from Sacramento (three years this year), Sunflowers are in full bloom gracing every other yard around town, the Swifts (birds) put on a show every night of the month bringing hundreds of Portlanders together, school starts, and the weather begins to change.

Believe it or not this weekend is the first rain I've seen all summer here in Portland. I'm sure it did rain a couple of days this summer but I think I somehow managed to be gone for those days. Anyway, the rain really has gotten me thinking about fall... not only the rain but the presence of Pumpkin Latte's at Palios, and Turkey Equipment at the grocery store has made me realize that summer is coming to a close. School starts for me next Monday and some butterflies in my tummy have started to flutter. I'm not nervous about school starting, rather quite the opposite. I am very excited, and also am slowly becoming more and more emotional about saying goodbye to Portland. I know we still have 8 months left, but I now know how fast 8 months passes by. I feel like school will start and time will be filled with papers, projects and before I know it I'll be graduating and we'll be moving. We are very excited about the moving though! Europe has been in our conversations daily. Our first month will be spent backpacking, and so we have been watching backpacking videos like this one and dreaming up the best route. We will keep you posted as plans firm up. As for now, I hope you are enjoying the last bits of summer as we are.

Memory Lane

2011-08-30T22:04:00.000-07:00

Hi Blog-Family,

I just took a brief trip down Memory Lane (that is, some of our oldest blog posts) and felt like saying I sincerely love our blog and love you! Our blog would be nothing if we didn't have amazing friends and family who genuinely care and support us. Thank you for checking in and reading about our simple lives.

From my computer to yours,

Katie

Adventures in the Scoville Kitchen

2011-08-27T22:46:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago Wes and I actually attempted to make: homemade Tortellini with a slow-roasted homemade tomato sauce (not once, but twice!), Whiskey- Chocolate Mousse, Zucchini bread, and Shashuka all in the same week. (Disclaimer: we didn't consume all of these on our own mind you!) It was a very overwhelming week in the kitchen, and frankly kind of embarrassing to tell you about. Why we attempted to take on so many new recipes in one week, I'm not quite sure of. It was one of those things where we said, "This is what we want to make this week" and so we stuck with it, and never once thought "ehh.... maybe we should pick only one?..." So we set out on a Monday night to make some Pasta dough for Tortellini with our nifty pasta maker that we got for Christmas (thanks Scott and Bekah!). Mind you, this wasn't just our first time making Tortellini, this was our first time making pasta dough. We were inspired to make the tortellini as well as the accompanying homemade sauce because of the recipes we saw on a blog called What Katie Ate. This was dinner... Chocolate mousse was for The Bourbon Intelligencer (Wes' blog), Zucchini bread was made for an event I helped put on in my art class; and the Shashuka was just yummy breakfast on a Wednesday morning.

Unfortunately the tortellini was a complete disaster. I basically translated the wrong amount of pasta flour into our dough mixture, which made for very tough thick dough. :/ So because we failed miserably the first night (seriously, inedible!!), and because we had a lot of leftover ingredients we attempted to make the tortellini again the following night, only this time - the right way! .... aaaaaaand... failed again. :( After our second go around, we felt that either the dough recipe we used wasn't great or we aren't making the dough thin enough. Everything else turned out pretty good though!!

More kitchen adventures to come!

We have been enjoying summer and hope you have been too.

My Trip Home 2011

2011-08-14T22:29:00.000-07:00

Hello all! Long time no see! I'm backtracking to catch you up on it all. It's been a busy, fun and productive summer thus far. So where did I last leave off? Oh! With my trip home...

Annie!

One of the main things I must do when going home is go to my favorite restaurants. Tres Harmanos (I know I likely spelled that wrong.) is one of them!

Delicious Margaritas!

And then of course there is In-N-out!!!

Pedicures with Mom

I got to see my Cousin's new baby Taylor - She is adorable!!!

My other cousin's baby Peyton - this was her first beater! Licking the beater from the homemade whipped cream.

Then there was the Farmer's Market. Since I was missing class back in Portland (a Art and Farm class) I was given an extra assignment to do while in CA. The assignment? To visit a farmer's market, make a meal with my purchases, and take pictures of it. Really??? I do that weekly anyways!! Ha ha I was thrilled to have an excuse to do this while at home. So..... on the menu: blackened cat fish, a saute' of tomatoes, corn and spinach as well as some roasted potatoes/beets. It was quite lovely....

Here is me picking out some heirloom tomatoes.

an onion

Corn

And why, there's a familiar name! It was such a pleasant surprise to see my neighbor's and best friend's ranch there.

This is me preparing the catfish.

And here is the cooked up meal. It was delicious! Thanks Mom and Dad for enjoying this meal with me and letting me invade your kitchen!

Also to happen this weekend was Rebekah's baby shower. I was so happy to be home for this!!!

The decorations were adorable! Can't wait to meet little Sawyer!

Rebekah, you looked amazing! So great to see you and feel your cute belly! :)

Rebekah cried when she opened our gift. Sorry Bekah, this is the only picture I have!

And then this happened, but I'll spare you from hearing that story again. ;)

In addition to little "just-like-my-uncle-Wes"Converse shoes, we got them a little "just-like-my-daddy" onesie that had tattoo sleeves sewn into it.

Oh and I definitely cannot forget the games! We had a great time playing "Stop."

My time home was very enjoyable and so great to catch up with family and friends. Wes are coming home for thanksgiving this year so we can't wait to see you again soon!

Cake-in-a-jar

2011-07-25T21:16:00.000-07:00

Rummed Cherries (recipe to come on Wes' blog!)

My work schedule has changed on Fridays and although it has me waking at 6 a.m. it has me getting off at 3! (hip-hip--Hooray!) Wes wakes up at 3 on Fridays after working the graveyard shift the night before. What does this mean? This means a couple more hours of good-ol'-fashioned, us time. So on Friday, I arrived home to Wes in his jammies, pitting cherries.

Wait, what? Come again?

Yes, pitting cherries. Not with a machine but by hand, with a paperclip method he learned somewhere. "Why?" you ask. Well my friends, Wes has become a gen-u-ine baker in the name of blogging. Wes has always been involved in our kitchen projects, and we usually cook dinner together. However, rarely (if ever) has Wes sought out a cake recipe, initiated its production, found the ingredients, poured the batter, and retrieved the final product from the oven. And this is exactly what happened on Friday when Wes decided we should bake a cake recipe for his blog. The recipe? A Bourbon-Cake-in-a-Jar recipe. Click here to view the recipe on his blog. We had a blast cooking up these lovelies, side-by-side with that new camera I told you about.

Clean jars for baking

Pouring the batter

Yum Yum

All Done!

Bourbon Butter Sauce

Poking holes in the cakes for the sauce to seep into

Topped them with homemade whipped- cream

Which I made, thankyouverymuch.

And we enjoyed every bite

Then shared some with our neighbors.

Our New Camera

2011-07-23T18:22:00.000-07:00

Uh oh... such a mischievous look!

And there is the camera
(plus some other cute things that Wes drew in dry-erase-marker).

How could I not document such cute things?

And when we got home from seeing Harry Potter, a family of five was playing nearby:

Wes and I had been talking about getting a DSLR camera for quite a while. Then, when we went camping and we got to play with my Dad's we just couldn't resist any longer. After doing some research we decided on one and couldn't be happier. We've been having fun!!

Camping at Crater Lake

2011-07-17T13:27:00.000-07:00

I thought our pictures would do the best job at summing up our camping trip. However, to sum it up in words I would say this:

Beautiful Blue Lake. Lots of yummy food. Lots of fun games. Lots of Mosquitoes. Great campfires. Great company. A little chilly. And snow.

To elaborate: My dad called the Crater Lake campground and warned us that the snow was very slow to melt this year. Because of this slow snow melt, the campsites were left wet, and therefore the Mosquitoe population was thriving. We were optimistic and packed extra bug-spray. Because of the snow they allowed guests to choose whichever site they wanted, so basically it was first come first serve. Some of the sites were so covered in snow that the table and fire-pit weren't even visible. Fortunately since Wes and I only had a 5 hour drive (as opposed to the 7 hour drive my family had) we got there just in time to nab a good spot. We found a nice big dry site with table and fire-pit! Yay! The bugs were a bit annoying, but we managed and it was totally worth it. All of Crater Lake was completely breathtaking. The walks and hikes we went on were gorgeous. The pictures I have are nothing compared to the great pictures we got on my Dad's nice camera. I will post those pictures to Facebook or the blog once I get my hands on them. We had such a great time.

Thank you to my family for driving all that way to camp with us in Oregon. Thank you for the great laughs, we loved it!

Quinoa Cakes

2011-07-10T13:09:00.000-07:00

You must try this recipe. You have all heard me rave about quinoa before, so I won't bore you with all of it's nutritional benefits. However I will say that, nutritional benefits aside, quinoa is also amazing because it is a blank canvas. You can do anything to it, sort of like rice (though I feel it might be even more versatile). This is a great way to use up leftover quinoa. You can find the full recipe here at Seven Spoons blog. I followed the basic directions and then through in whatever we had on hand. At the time, the only leafy green I had on hand was cilantro so I sliced up some avocado and cilantro. I hope you do try this one out, you won't regret it!!

What have we been up to?

2011-07-10T12:48:00.000-07:00

Homemade tequitos (sp?)

Modest Mouse Concert

Hosting bluebirds and fending off the neighbor's cats

Sondre Lerche Concert

Picking berries and attending my art class on a local farm

We celebrated my birthday by going out to eat at a nice french restaurant and then seeing the movie Bridesmaids. Had to get my redvines for the movie!

Le Pigeon house made chocolate truffles

Lamb & risotto

bread with butter

bowling with family

Starting my internship: this was the back of my car on my way to a wedding.
Read more details on My Paper Airplane.

and most recently, made jam.

Our next adventure: camping at Crater Lake with my family. I hope you all have a great week! We'll be gone Monday through Friday.

Be Fruitful, Not Busy

2011-07-08T16:43:00.001-07:00

(no pun intended)

Fruitful (adj): Producing good, or helpful results; productive.

Today is one of those days... Busy? most definitely. Productive? almost. I have the jitters now as I type this because as I look around our house I see a thousand unfinished projects. I have taken on quite a bit today. All projects that I have been wanting to do, however I have started them all at once and now am left with many unfinished projects that now need to be finished.

Jam made and cooling.
Monstrous pile of laundry needing to be folded.
Jam dishes needing to be washed.
And a craft project at my fingertips.

I am reminded of my tendency to start things and not finish them. 5 pm you do not intimidate me. I will finish these projects. I will sit at the end of this day with a clean house and know that I was productive. Be fruitful Katie! Not just busy.

Ashley's Visit

2011-07-07T19:30:00.001-07:00

It has been one of those weeks where Monday actually feels like it was a month ago. That is what happens I suppose when you successfully pack your days full of ultra-fun, out-of-the-ordinary activities. One of my best friends Ashley Whipple has been touring the North West for the past week and a half. What I mean by "touring" is just that our other friend Rachelle lives in Seattle, so Ashley made the most of her travels and visited us both. I made the 3 hour drive North to pick Ashley up and spent the day enjoying cupcakes, coffee and burgers with the girls. The 3 hour drive home gave Ashley and I much needed time to catch up and well, I'll let the pictures tell the rest:

Meet Ashley and Rachelle:

Meet our cupcakes in honor of my birthday: Salted Caramel, Strawberry Shortcake, and Chocolate Coconut.

First breakfast and one of the only places open on the 4th of July:

Our 4th of July plans consisted of shopping, picnic, bocce ball and fireworks.
This is the vegan apricot pie with coconut whip cream that Nina made. So delicious!

Some familiar faces.

Ashley and I one the Bocce Game

For firework-watching we drove to the waterfront. After wandering around to find the perfect spot we happened upon these big window ledges a little ways away from the river. It was a perfect spot. We brought out the blanket and the beers and laughed a lot.

The gang on the window ledge:

The next day we decided to pick strawberries for a second picnic that would take place at the Rose Garden.

Ashley and I attempted to have a picnic last summer when she visited; however, two weddings were taking place on the day we went and we couldn't find parking. We were actually successful this time around. So after taking a trip to Pastaworks to get yummy cheeses, salami, olives, drinks and a baguette, we staked out a spot at the rose garden

And for dinner: Nuestra Cocina

Chocolate pound cake with Cinnamon ice cream

And for Ashley's last night in Portland we went to Sushi. And boy oh boy was it amazing!

Our last dessert together: Gelatto!

I promise you we did more than eat dinners and desserts. Though we do love good food!!! (But surely I don't have to tell you that?) I think one of my favorite parts of the trip was being the only two people out in the strawberry fields on a beautiful morning. Thank you Ashley for visiting. I am so thankful for the good weather and the good times we had.

Cake

2011-07-02T23:18:00.001-07:00

This was my birthday cake! At some point in time I got it into my head that this year I would bake a birthday cake from scratch. It may have started long ago when I saw a 6 page spread in Real Simple all about cakes. Cake, cake frosting, cake toppings, cake filling, you name it- it all looked amazing. We started dreaming up the perfect birthday cake and before almost settling on a german chocolate cake (my favorite) we found this beauty and decided to go crazy. To view the website and the recipe click here.

This is a picture of the cake we were copying.

We decided that we liked the way this cake looked but that it wasn't chocolatey enough (or well, in any way at all). So we decided to go with a chocolate orange theme (you know like the yummy chocolate oranges you break open at Christmas time?) We made a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting in the middle and then orange citrus frosting on the outside. I'll tell you right now, yes it is as rich as it sounds. So rich that I don't think we will make it again but all in all it was a fun time. I had some difficulties with the cake due to not buttering the pan enough and having it stick a little bit. This resulted in, ummmmm, well... like 6 "layers" of cake rather than 2. I very creatively had to "paste" the pieces back together with chocolate frosting. This is why the cake is not perfectly round and sort of blob-ish looking. The orange citrus recipe we took straight from that website and it had way too much butter. I know that cake has a lot of butter, and frosting does too, but this was just too much. Too rich, it practically tasted like butter. So anyway, all in all it tasted good but not amazing. Next time, German chocolate it is! :)

We enjoyed the cake with a couple of friends last night! A good time was had by all. Thank you to everyone for the birthday wishes, cards, phone calls, and text messages. I had a great birthday! I will be spending my first week of being 24 with one of my best friends Ashley Whipple. We have been busy and I can't wait to share all of our pictures and stories with you. More again soon! Have a great 4th of July on Monday everyone!

Birthday

2011-07-01T00:00:00.000-07:00

You'd think I was making a cake from scratch or something...

(oh just you wait!!!!!!!!!!)

An Introduction

2011-06-25T17:22:00.000-07:00

I'd like to introduce you to something Wes and I have been very excited about.

--------------drumroll--------------

Our very own, individual, blogs. Before I say anything else about them I want to assure you that these blogs will not be replacing this blog. This blog is my baby and I will be forever thankful for having our marriage documented in such a way. With that said, these new blogs are strictly for hobby/interest related purposes. It just so happened that as I was thinking of starting a blog, Wes was too; and so together we have been dreaming, designing, and writing our own separate little projects... and here they are:

Katie's Blog:
My blog is affectionately titled "My Paper Airplane." You can view it by clicking on the link or by going to katiespaperairplane.blogspot.com
The decision to start this blog stemmed from my decision to take my wedding/career dreams seriously. For quite a while I was in the pattern of getting excited about weddings and then forgetting about them (out of sight, out of mind). After having some conversations with Wes about what my goals are, I've been extremely motivated, hopeful and... well... lets be honest, sort of obsessive about wedding/design blogs, my wedding magazines, and my sketchbook. I feel inspired, and it feels good, real good. This blog is really about documenting my journey into the wedding industry- hence the title "My Paper Airplane." Get it? you know-- airplane... journey....
Then just add in my love of paper and it all makes sense! Please visit the blog to learn more about it.

Wes' Blog:
Wes' blog is hobby related. Our WesandKatie blog clearly turned into my project; and although Wes does contribute to and reads this blog, I think he has only published three posts. So, with that said I was quite excited about the idea of him producing his very own. Wes' blog is called "The Whiskey Intelligencer." Click the link or go to: thewhiskeyintelligencer.blogspot.com
On his blog, Wes will feature: reviews of cocktails, whiskey tastings, or "anything else that suits his fancy." As previously mentioned, Wes' interest in whiskey is comparable to one's interest in any lovely, handcrafted thing. Whiskey goes through a process just like wine, beer or coffee does. Its quite interesting, so go have a look if you ever find yourself wondering what an Old Fashioned is suppose to look like (and taste like).

So without further ado...

Friends, meet our new blogs.

New blogs, meet our friends.

Thank you for your infallible support, we appreciate you!!

Our 3 Year Anniversary

2011-06-17T16:01:00.000-07:00

We have been very busy up here in the NW. School ended for us last thursday and we hit the ground running:

Friday- celebratory dinner at Avignon Bar
Saturday- shopping, dinner at Cha Cha Cha, and Movie: Super 8
Sunday- 3 year anniversary celebration began with breakfast
Monday- Come home from our celebration and have a friend over for dinner
Tuesday- work, dinner & bowling with Caleb, Nina, Aunt Tracy and friends
Wednesday- errands, Birthday dinner for Caleb
Thursday- finally a home cooked meal.
Friday- Here we are at coffee. For the fun of it!!! Imagine that??!?!?

We've been enjoying every minute to its fullest potential and our camera, fortunately, accompanied us. So, on to the good stuff!

June 14th marked our three year anniversary. On year one we surprised each other: I planned half the day and Wes planned half the day. On year two we took a trip to Seattle. And this year we spent one night at Mcmenamin's Edgefield. Overall we had a really nice relaxing time. We both felt though that the service was at times disappointing but that wouldn't be a first for Mcmenamins. Aside from that we really enjoyed our stay and were happy to celebrate there.

We started off our anniversary celebration with breakfast at Slappy Cakes. I've shown slappy cakes on the blog several times before. This is the restaurant where you can make your own pancakes at your table. Wes had never been so we thought it would be something fun and different to do. Then we arrived to an hour long wait and instead decided to sit at the bar and order "grown-up" food. We'll have to try making our own pancakes next time I guess. Our food was DELICIOUS. I was actually quite surprised. We had a blast sitting at the bar:
I got an O.J. mimosa, and eggs benedict. Wes got a Grapefruit mimosa with eggs, and biscuits/ veg. gravy. Starting the weekend off right! ha ha

We arrived to Edgefield and had a bit of time before we could check in so we walked around through the gardens and peeked at the winery and distillery.

This is me being obsessed with the ivy covered wall.
After walking for a bit we found our selves relaxing in one of the many bars Edgefield has to offer.
We checked into our room, changed into our suits and headed straight for the soaking pool. The soaking pool is a heated, salt water, paradise. I know this might sound dramatic but for a split second I felt like I was in a pool in Hawaii- minus the palm trees and ocean view. And I guess we should all take into consideration that we haven't been swimming pretty much since we lived in California. But still, it was amazing and so relaxing. Add in the poolside "Tea Bar" which serves up handcrafted tea-cocktails -- good times.

Wes being the "whiskey-man" he is these days, knows what a good Old Fashioned should look like, taste like and smell like. Heck, even I know all of those things now. So when I went to pick our drinks up at the bar and saw that is was pink/orange I knew we'd have a good, we-know-how-to-make-a-better-old-fashioned-than-you-do, laugh.
My black tea mojito was quite tasty though!

Just a small section of the soaking pool and that building is the Ruby Spa where I had my massage the next morning. Its a full-blown salon in there, and they have what looks to be the cutest (and comfiest) mani/pedi area.
That night we saw the movie Source Code which Wes had been wanting to see. It was entertaining. This is the movie screen (definitely not as impressive as the Kennedy School theater).

The ceiling was painted like the night sky.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Mcmenamins loves details. I would argue that that is one of the things that Mcmenamins does best; their attention to detail really makes their venues special. Here are a couple of examples:

This was painted on the door in our room:

And this was in a random crack out in the hallway:

Breakfast the next morning- can you tell we look a smidge tired? We had a rough night sleep. The people above us partied until 3 a.m. and some small kids next door woke up at 6. Then after this I went and had a massage while Wes relaxed for a bit. We met up at the soaking pool afterward for a little bit.

Then randomly as we were roaming Edgefield one last time before departing we asked if we could have a tour of their distillery. If you haven't heard already (or you couldn't tell from the looks of Wes' Christmas loot), Wes has a healthy love of whiskey. Much like the way his father loves wine (well, we love wine too) Wes loves whiskey. He reads about whiskey for fun. So, because of this hobby I've learned quite a bit about the distilling process as well and therefore we were both quite delighted to get our own spur of the moment little private tour.

It smelt incredible in there and the guy showing us around was really nice. I think Wes and I both find the physics of the whole process fascinating. There is something to be loved about all things handcrafted, and so... add whiskey to the list! It's quite interesting really to learn about the way a Still works and the chemical reactions and such that occur.

After our tour we went to the gift store to take home a bottle of the whiskey we had just learned so much about.

It was great seeing you Edgefield! Another year of marriage down, boy how time flies. Thank you all for joining in on the ride. This blog has really given back to us in so many ways. I'm so thankful to be able to look back at posts written just after we got married until now. Thanks for tuning in and we are really looking forward to this next year!

Enough Said...

2011-06-08T13:12:00.000-07:00

Sweet little Flora, our complex's only eight-year-old loves chalk. Most days out of the year we come home to welcome notes, flowers, arrows, and smiley faces. Most recently their have been some very funny blurbs written on the sidewalk entailing a complaint note from "Ms. worm." ... or something like that.

Anyway after a late night walk home from Palios we arrived to this little gem:

"YOU CAN DO ANYTHING"

"Open-hearted
Radiant
Extraordinary
Great
Optamistic
Nicest Place
EVER
OREGON"

We agree Flora, we agree.

Blue Birds

2011-06-08T11:58:00.001-07:00

If you're friends with me on facebook you may have heard me mention a couple times now the bluebird nest we have sitting directly outside of our kitchen window? If not, I'll explain. Last month sometime the neighbor who lives directly across from us (his window/front door faces ours), knocked on our door to let us know of "the unique opportunity we have" and that a nest was being built right-up-there-yonder- (no-he doesn't talk like that). For the following weeks we saw the proud bluebird parents in our complex quite often, collecting twigs and other quality nest making materials. We were surprised by how quiet they were. We would walk by the tree, take a peek at the nest and be surprised to see mama bird patiently sitting and waiting. We the number of cats that frequent our complex we were worried this wouldn't last, but so far- it has! A couple of weeks ago I was coming in from doing the laundry and heard the tiniest of chirps. BABIES!! And now we only hear them come feeding time. The other morning I was just lucky and happened to be pouring myself a cup of coffee as I saw mom and dad land in the tree. I kept watching and all of a sudden it looked like this:

Breakfast! I just couldn't believe the scrawny little necks and how wide they can open their mouths. Quite exciting don't you think? And now, mom and dad just fly around the complex keeping a watchful eye over all who enter. This was them yesteday:

And this was taken through our kitchen window so I don't know if you can see it very well. But see that mess of twigs?

Lamb Tagine with Couscous

2011-06-08T11:30:00.000-07:00

You are looking at a girl who is officially on summer break! I have been on summer break now for about 20 minutes and oh boy does the freedom feel good. Though, I'll be honest-- this quarter was about the easiest I've ever had in my life. So, this past 20 minutes hasn't felt too much different from this past week. Wes on the other hand has had a difficult quarter (as usual), with library books stacked to the ceiling and 20 page papers to boot. So, with finals week upon us he has been having study sessions, one of which being on Monday night. Monday night I was alone and had that strong desire around 3 in the afternoon to plan something delicious for dinner. Somehow I decided I wanted to fix lamb with couscous. I've only fixed lamb once before and that was of the lamb-meatball variety (which turned out very yummy if you're curious). So I searched through some lamb recipes and came across this perfect marriage of said ingredients. Lamb Tagine with Couscous, and boy-oh-boy is it a winner. If you don't like lamb I suggest substituting your favorite meat of choice because it really is a great recipe. If you are open to lamb I urge you to try it. So so flavorful and so easy to cook! You can view the recipe below or here at REAL SIMPLE.

Ingredients

2 teaspoons paprika
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon kosher salt
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 1/2 pounds lamb loin, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
1 medium yellow onion, thickly sliced
4 carrots, peeled into thin strips
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
zest of 1/2 lemon, grated
1 32-ounce container low-sodium chicken broth
1 10-ounce box couscous
1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves, roughly chopped
1/4 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves, roughly chopped
3/4 cup kalamata olives, pitted and halved

Directions

In a large resealable plastic bag, combine the paprika, turmeric, cumin, cayenne, cinnamon, salt, and 2 tablespoons of the oil. Add the lamb, seal, and shake to coat. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour and up to 12 hours.
Heat the remaining oil in a Dutch oven or large pot over medium heat. Add the onion and carrots and cook for 15 minutes. Transfer to a plate.
Add some of the lamb to the pot and brown on all sides. Transfer to a plate. Repeat with the remaining lamb. Return the lamb to the pot along with the onion and carrots. Add the garlic, ginger, and zest and stir.
Add the broth and bring to a boil. Stir in the couscous. Remove from heat, cover, and set aside for 10 minutes. Stir in the cilantro, parsley, and olives. Divide among individual plates.

June Birthdays

2011-06-05T13:12:00.000-07:00

SO MANY June Birthdays, so little time...

I know of at least one birthday happening on every week of this month. Crazy! Happy Birthday month to all of you who will be celebrating! I know of two people (including myself) who will be turning 24. (Shout out to my twin!)

And now, for a video that is strangely addicting, and will surely get stuck in your head... enjoy!

We Love...

2011-06-05T12:48:00.000-07:00

FAGE

(Pronounced "Fa-yeh")

What is it? Plain, Greek Yogurt

We dip carrots, crackers, pita bread, and tomatoes in it. We use it in place of sour cream on our baked potatoes, chili and Mexican food. Did I mention we love the stuff? If you're still not convinced here is what it says on the container:

" FAGE Total 0% Greek Strained Yogurt is fat free. However, it provides that distinctive creamy taste and thick texture unique to authentic Greek Strained yogurt. Being fat-free is also perfect for your waistline. It is totally natural... it can be used in cooking pasta dishes or preparing spreads, sauces, smoothies, and desserts as an alternative to cream and mayonnaise. Mix it with fruit or honey for a delicious breakfast or dessert."

And don't think for a second that all Greek Yogurts are the same, FAGE is far better than the other greek yogurts you'll find at your super market. We get ours at Trader Joes. Try it! You won't regret it, I promise you!

This Little Piggy

2011-05-29T23:05:00.001-07:00

Wes once said to me:

"This little piggy went to the market,
This little piggy stayed home,
This little piggy had tofu,
This little piggy had none..."

Well, I thought it was funny. This is basically all that I have to show for being an art student this past quarter. I am in a ridiculously easy online course called "Art in Elementary School," and this past week my assignment was to make a puppet from a nursery rhyme. I chose little piggy. And here she is:

My other classes have been very abstract theory and history based stuff. They've been interesting but I'm definitely ready for something new. Spring quarter ends in two weeks, and we'll be celebrating our three year anniversary. Can't wait!
Hope you all are having a lovely Memorial Day Weekend!

Something to Watch...

2011-05-25T17:45:00.000-07:00

A Toast to Summer!

2011-05-19T20:41:00.000-07:00

The weather has been nice. The sun is up early and stays out late. Summer plans have been made and our list of "must-do's" has been taking shape. I just can't help but share with you some of the things we are most excited for as well as my latest summer-inspired cocktail of choice. We have 2-3 weeks left of spring quarter and then our summer will begin to unfold......

- a trip to Mcmenamins Edgefield hotel to pamper ourselves and celebrate our 3 year anniversary.

- Sondre Lerche show with Caleb and Nina.

-Ashley Whipple visits!

-We meet up with my family to go camping.

-I get to visit home to spend time with my family and also to attend Rebekah's baby shower.

-And then lastly, we get to finish off our summer with Sue, Greg, Scott, and Bekah. We will be attending a Shakespeare play in Ashland and then kicking it at a beach house in Brookings.

To say we are excited for all this fun is an understatement. We can't wait for another awesome summer in Portland: picnics at Jameson Square, camping trips, food carts, and making fun drinks like this one:

My new discovery is, gingerale with bourbon and an orange peel. Try it! It's quite tasty! :) What are your summer plans I wonder?

Fish with Orzo Pasta

2011-05-19T19:52:00.000-07:00

Most nights, around 5ish (after school and work) Wes and I (let me rephrase, I ) will start a conversation of "What should we have for dinner tonight?" We both love food. We both enjoy dreaming up a delicious menu, however, its that little planner in me that umm, well, has actually been thinking about dinner all day and just wants the husband to catch up to speed come actual dinner planning time. So, the conversation usually proceeds like this:

W: "I don't know, what do you feel like having?"
K: "I'm up for anything, what do you feel like having?"

-assessment of evening plans takes place- are we going to coffee? how much homework do we have? what do we have time for?

Answering these questions will usually cut our options into one of two categories: recipe cooking, or packaged cooking. By "recipe cooking" I mean, if we have the time we will usually bust open our favorite cookbook and try something new that we are in the mood for. By "packaged cooking" I mean the: rice in a box, fake meat, frozen foods type-o-stuff.

Last night the above conversation happened and we realized:
a. we don't have much homework
b. we have a very clean kitchen (perfect for cooking up fresh ingredients)

I confessed to having orzo pasta on my brain ever since eating it for the second time in my life at this amazing restaurant last weekend. So, we started with orzo pasta. My only hesitation was "what do we have with it?" Coming up with vegetarian proteins are usually easy for me, but sometimes I feel completely uninspired and just want meat. Good ol' animaaaal protein. Wes some how sensed this (or perhaps it was completely coincidental) and said we could eat fish with our Orzo. And from that point on, the menu just kept getting better. Wes found us two amazing recipes: one for our orzo and for our fish. (click the words to view the recipes) Then, as I was leaving for the grocery store Wes says "Get a Pinot too." I didn't think this night could get any better when I receive a phone call while at the grocery store. It was Wes, "Please get some tea cookies so we can have tea and cookies with a movie tonight." COOKIES? MOVIE?? I was wrong. The night apparently could get better. :)

If its not apparent to you by this point: I love cooking, I love wine, and I love cookies. Nights like these are such a treat. With how busy and school heavy our lives are, a night like this is usually planned ahead of time, so a spur of the moment movie night is bliss.

Our dinner turned out amazing. I would highly suggest this orzo pasta recipe. For fish we just got trout because we liked the idea of cooking whole fish (and this was the only whole fish offered).

Dinner was huge success and for the movie we watched 3:10 to Yuma. Wes' favorite western and a movie I had been wanting to see for quite a while. It was all quite good. Happy almost friday to you all!

Our Life Lately...

2011-05-15T17:49:00.000-07:00

This past week was quite eventful for us Northwestern Scoville's. We had our friend Rachelle visit us from Seattle while at the same time our car broke down (again). For some reason or another it is always I who(whom?) happens to be with the car when something bad happens to it. Fortunately, the situation could have been much worse and to make a long story short, our car battery needed to be replaced. We made due while Rachelle was here, but it was very bad timing. I'm thankful Rachelle is used to walking and busing all over Seattle or I would've felt much worse than I already did. At one point Rachelle and I were caught in a downpour in which neither of us had hoods, umbrellas or proper rain shoes. By the time we arrived back to the house our shoes were slushy and hair quite a mess. Also, yet again I managed to not take a single picture while hanging out with Rachelle. Anyway, we all had a really great time together. She visited primarily because a band she loves was in town (The Shook Twins) so after watching them perform on Tuesday, we spent Wednesday eating breakfast at Jam, visiting Powell's, shopping at Anthropologie, and watching a movie at the Kennedy School. Of course no trip to Portland would be complete with out a trip to voodoo donuts! For the first time ever I got something interesting rather than a tradition chocolate. This time I got a chocolate donut with rice krispies (the cereal) on top with a drizzle of peanut butter. Happy to branch out a bit but I think next time I'll still stick with the classics. Rachelle got something called "the Grape Ape" which was a grape and lavender donut. She liked it, and Wes liked his "Old Dirty Bastard" as well.

(I didn't take these pictures, just found them on google.)

To finish off our week we went out to a spur of the moment dinner lastnight. Wish I had a picture of that to share with you but I don't. I will say that we had such a fun time. We went to a newly discovered restaurant called Clyde Common which was about as perfect as could be. Hope you all have had an amazing weekend. Wishing you crazy donuts and yummy wine (not together of course)!!!

I miss...

2011-05-09T22:24:00.000-07:00

MY BESTFRIENDS!

It has been 17 months since these pictures of all 4 of us were taken. That was the last time we all sat around the same table together. I have known Cory since she was born basically. Marisa and I were inseparable ever since freshman year of high school; and Ashley entered the picture about 8 years ago.

Cory is off in Paris, and Marisa and Ashley are in San Diego. We have all changed so much since our days of high school and somehow we still manage to stay connected. We have the world's longest thread of messages on Facebook (seriously, this October we will hit 3 years of one continuous thread). We've been through the thick, and the thin and I trust that we will be this way forever.

Skyping with Cory

I love you ladies and miss you. I would give anything to have all of us sit down together over a cup of coffee... someday.
Proud of you girls!

Sun!

2011-05-04T19:33:00.000-07:00

Today was the closest thing to summer we've had this year. I don't know what the temperature was but I wasn't cold and I was in a tshirt, sporting the sunglasses. The weather was so nice that my art class actually moved to the roof of the art building where it was definitely hot, and quite sunny. The trees are turning green, the bugs are out, and blue birds are nesting directly next to our kitchen window (or well, they were, we are wondering if they abandoned it due to a stalking cat). I am counting down! One month until spring quarter is over. One month until Wes and I spend a much needed weekend at Edgefield pampering ourselves in honor of our 3 year anniversary.

An old picture of us at Rachel & Anthony's wedding

We are excited for all the summer vacations we have planned. I am also especially excited for:
-tank tops
-visitors
-camping trips
-and checking things off our growing list of "Things to do during our last full summer in Portland!" We do in fact have a list hanging on our fridge. :)
Love and happy weather to you all!

Our Easter

2011-04-25T18:45:00.000-07:00

Happy Monday! I hope you all had an awesome Easter. Ours was yummy to say the least. Even now I am enjoying the leftovers of the very successful risotto we made for dinner. I will be posting the recipe at the bottom of this post because seriously, it is just about one of the yummiest things we have ever made. Tastes like something I would order in a restaurant- the flavors are just so good!! Anyway, you know me and food, I could go on forever about a good recipe and how much I think you should try it. So on with the other good things that our Easter consisted of.

We started the day off bright and early at 6 a.m. Wes got off of his night shift at that time and headed home to pick me up for some early morning breakfast before early morning church. We had breakfast at 7 at good ol' Cup and Saucer. It was quite fun to be out in the world at such an early hour for me and in a rather empty restaurant. Church at 8 a.m. was so awesome and emotional with a baptism and some very touching testimonies of faith.

After church we headed home for some sleep. Wes settled in for a good "night's" worth of sleep while I just took a much needed nap after getting less than 6 hours of sleep the night before. While Wes slept I made the dinner table pretty, went to the grocery store, and prepped for dinner (and dessert!)

On the Menu:

Grenache Wine
Roaster Asparagus bundles
Leek, Mushroom, and Lemon Risotto
Honeydew (way out of season I know, but surprisingly quite good)

and Tiramisu for dessert

We made Tiramisu for dessert last year and have decided to make it an Easter Tradition.

Bring on the Pictures:

Putting our Easter Bunny to good use:

Warm olives with wine before dinner:

Making the Tiramisu:

1 1/2 cups espresso, 1/2 cup rum, 30 ladyfingers, 6 egg yolks, 1/2 cup sugar, 16 oz Mascarpone and you have yourself Tiramisu:

The easter bunny (AKA 8 yr old neighbor Flora) knows our address. We found this in our mailbox!

mom-look-alike

Just a little chai while I decorate and prep for dinner

Our Fanciful water jug and wine

The meal = Superb
Oh and that's a roasted Scallion wrapped around the asparagus.

mm dessert mm

Thanks Sue and Greg for the wine!

Here is the risotto recipe:

Description: A delicious risotto, packed full of flavor, this is a great recipe for an informal supper with friends.

Ingredients:
8 oz trimmed leeks
3 cups brown-cap mushrooms (the mushrooms shrink up with the heat!)
2 tbsp olive oil
3 garlic cloves crushed
5 tbsp butter
1 large onion
1 3/4 cup arborio rice
5 cups HOT veg stock
grated rind and juice of 1 lemon (if its a big lemon only do 1/2 the juice don't go overboard!)
2/3 cup fresh grated parm cheese
4 tbsp mixed chopped fresh chives and flat leaf parsley
salt and pepper

Directions:
1. Wash the Leeks well, slice in half lengthways and roughly chop. Wipe the mushrooms with paper towel and roughly chop.

2. Heat the oil in a large saucepan and cook the garlic for 1 minute. Add the leeks, mushroooms and plenty of seasoning and cook over a medium heat for about 10 minutes or until softened and cooked through. Remove the ingredients from the pan and set aside.

3. Add 2 tbsp butter to the pan and cook the onion over medium heat for about 5 minutes. Do not let it brown. Once onions are in the pan start heating your broth in a separate pot.

4. Stir in the rice and cook for 1 minute. Add a ladleful of stock to the pan and cook gently, stirring occasionally, until all the liquid is absorbed.

5. Stir in more liquid as each ladleful is absorbed 20-25 minutes. Keep the stock over a gentle heat; it should be hot when you add it to the rice. The risotto will turn thick and creamy and the rice should be tender. (Katie note: after stirring the broth in by ladleful I let the last ladleful sit in there for a couple of minutes to help cook the rice the last bit it needed. Just keep an eye on your rice to ensure it doesn't burn and that its almost tender.)

6. Just before serving, stir in the leeks, mushrooms, remaining butter, grated lemon rind and the lemon juice, half the parm cheese and herbs. Adjust salt and pepper to taste and serve. Sprinkle some parm cheese and left over herbs on top, garnish with flat leaf parsley.

The End! Enjoy!

Easter Eggs

2011-04-23T21:13:00.001-07:00

We've been having fun up here in the NW! :)

We miss you all and hope you have been having some Easter Egg fun too! Have a great Easter tomorrow and we'll be posting again soon. We love you!!

Katie & Wes

A Dream Come True

2011-04-16T19:50:00.000-07:00

Oh boy, how do I put all of the thoughts that just passed through my brain into the correct order and with out babbling on....?

I guess I will start by saying, I recently committed my Mondays to all things Weddings. Most of you know that since planning my own wedding, I discovered I wanted to go into the wedding industry and most likely to do wedding planning. In my stocking at Christmas this year, Santa gave me a subscription to BRIDES magazine, and then we went out to get me a journal to start recording all of my ideas and clippings from said magazines that were worth keeping. Then a couple months went by during which it all just sat there. I didn't have time to look through the magazines especially when being delivered alongside 3 other magazine subscriptions I got for Christmas. After thinking about it for a while I realized that I just wasn't making this a priority in my life. When work, school, a husband, and chores fill 89% of your time, its hard not to just spend the 11% in front of the computer, watching movies and staring at Facebook. I realized that Mondays I didn't have to worry about homework. It was one day where I didn't have homework due the next day and that I could easily carve out some time to consistently make my career plans a priority. The first Monday I did this, I spent 4 hours at Palios looking at my favorite wedding sites (each word has a different site attached- check 'em out). I searched Theknot.com for wedding planners, florists, and printmakers in my area and emailed them all asking if they were looking for summer interns. Lucky me, I got several replies. One photographer was so nice, she didn't have anything available but offered to meet with me just to talk weddings! Two other vendors suggested I get in touch with a specific event planner, and now, I have an interview with that event planner on Monday. I also just had an interview with a florist last Wednesday that went very well. All this is just to say, I am excited for what my "wedding-mondays" will continue to provide me with. In just one Monday I was able to get two interviews. I feel encouraged, and excited for the career path I've chosen. Whether its just flipping through my wedding magazines or finding an internship I know that the more I familiarize myself with the industry the better off I'll be. Exciting!

Well, I guess I am doing a bit of babbling because that wasn't even the "dream come true" I was talking about, though that is exciting news, it is only the preface. :) While preparing for my Wednesday interview, I was asked to send some pictures of our wedding to the florist. Doing so required me to dig up three CDs of wedding pictures that we haven't looked at since purchasing some of them nearly three years ago. What a great reminder it was:

Prior to getting married Wes and I always talked about how excited we would be when we could just live life together. Specifically, we always talked about this picture we had in our heads of Wes reading on the couch while I was working on some art project, each doing our own things, while being together. And here we are! Almost 3 years later living the life we once dreamed of for so long. Wes is reading on the couch and I'm typing this blog, classical music playing in the background, and warm coffee filling our mugs. That is our dream come true. Thanks for listening. :)

Some songs that always remind me of our wedding...

Congratulations!

2011-04-16T19:36:00.000-07:00

Finally, I feel comfortable to make a very happy announcement. Though most of you already know, Wes and I are going to be an Aunt and an Uncle all over again.

Congratulations to Scott and Bekah,
who have a little Cupcake in the Oven!

I didn't want to say anything until they had sort of announced it themselves. They are due in October and we couldn't be more excited. Seeing pictures of Rebekah's now visible "baby-bump" is such an amazing thing. For as long as I've known Rebekah, she has always always always been so excited to be a mom. It is a beautiful thing to see her dream come true with Mr. Scooter-Scoot-Scotty-Scott. We love you so much and can't wait to meet Baby girl (or boy). ;)

Long Time No Talk

2011-04-16T17:42:00.000-07:00

10 days have passed since my last blog post, life has been pretty consistent almost to the point of not knowing what to blog about. But alas' I have dug up some things to talk about - I mean there's always something isn't there?

:) So let's get started! First up- we are into our 4th week of Spring Quarter. It has flown by, once again. It is going well, I am taking: American Family History (agg required, it seems that every time I think I'm in the clear I go to the counselor and am told otherwise. But REALLY this is last senior requirement I will have to take, from here on out- art classes!!), Art in Elementary School, and Art and Social Practice. Wes is continuing on with History, which produces an abundance of new literature 'round here........

<------------------- --->
(Wes' required books for school this quarter and my required books)

ha ha ha a little different huh?

In fact, we've had such an influx of books that we needed another bookshelf - and fast. We thought that a short, long one would fit ok in our "sitting/couch area" Though we are cramped as is, it works. So we found ourselves one in a local vintage store. As well as a funky little side table we are using for our printer and more books:

new bookshelf

New Side table
(please ignore ugly black cord)

Gotta love organizing!! :)

Portland, OR

2011-04-06T19:39:00.000-07:00

I just recently ventured on to good ol' Myspace for the first time in over a year. I was curious to see what pictures I had on there that I don't have on my computer now. Not only did I come across some great pictures, I found a blog I wrote documenting our first week in Portland. It's weird to read about things as ordinary as Powells Books, or Voodoo Donuts, or the Swifts and how I describe them. I would describe them totally differently now that I have become familiar with them. Quite entertaining to read, and so thankful for things like blogs to remind me of what I was thinking at that time. If you're curious, read on...

"We made it! We have now been in Portland for one whole week and have loved every minute of it. I will now attempt to try and document all the things worth documenting... First night- arrived at 8:30pm and were relieved to see that we could not only stand up in our basement- apartment but also that our place is actually pretty spacious. Went to dinner at the Avignon Bar down the street and I tried Gazpacho for the first time. Saturday- unpacked all day and ate dinner at the horse brass pub with cousin Caleb. I believe it was this night that Greg had a craving for donuts so of course we went to VooDoo donuts downtown, oh but this was after we stopped to watch bazillions of swifts fly into a chimney of a high school (not just any high school but the high school that the Simpsons is based after). Back to the donuts- VooDoo donuts was the farthest thing from your ordinary donut shop. It is already dark out and we park some place downtown and venture off to try and find this mysterious donut shop. After crossing the busy streets and passing the interesting people we arrive to a janky-whole-in-the-wall place jam packed full of people and blaring music. In the corner is a spinning display of just some of the crazy concoctions they offer. For example Greg ordered a "old dirty bastard" which really meant " a chocolate and peanut butter covered donut with oreo cookies on top." As you can see this night was definitly worth documenting. Sunday- went to church together at Omago Dei and loved it. (Hope I spelt it right) I cannot wait to meet people here and get involved in some of the things they have to offer. Also, went to Powell's books the biggest hugest bookstore in the US (I think thats right) ... Monday- highlight of the day was going to the kennedy school theater- get this! it's a 21 and over movie theater they serve beer and wine as well as your ordinary theater foods but also!! They serve pizza by the slice and deliver it to you at your seat once it is prepared and guess what else!! The chairs are couches.. it's like sitting in your living room with end tables and comfy couches and a glass of your favorite beverage but your in a theater. The best part of the whole thing is that your movie ticket is only three dollars. amaaaazing. tuesday- My parents left and reality began to sank in that we were not going back to California. Wednesday- Wes' parents left and again we realized we were here to stay. Exciting! Also, I had a job interview with a nanny agency here. thursday- Wes and I woke up to our first day "alone" in Portland. Highlights of the day: going to Ben and Jerry's, picking out herbs for our herb garden, picking classes for school (finally), and going to Caleb's show at the Laurelthirst Pub. (Scott and Bekah we are definitly taking you there!!!! Scott you would absolutely love it.) A couple other things: The weather has been amazing. No rain yet but it's starting to feel like any day now it might let loose. We have amazing neighbors. We live on a court, that has annual block parties and little kids running about. There is a really cute black lab that lives across the street named Cooper and 3 cats that live next store. The couple with the 3 cats next door is really nice. The guys name is David and he is an allergist his wife is the 2nd to the top at a big art school here (foget what it's called) so I will definitly be talking to her about art stuff. We have two great grocery stores with-in walking distance as well as coffee shops on every corner."
I guess you could say we are loving every bit of Portland. The more we discover the more we love it here. We will keep you posted as to how things go once school starts and jobs come our way.

I left in the many typos to maintain it's "character," though they drive me crazy. If only we knew that just a couple months later we'd be forced to move out of the basement.

The first night we got to Portland. Wes wants to make it clear how tired we were hence his "crazy eyes." First night in Portland, First night at Avignon. :)

Date Night

2011-04-06T18:57:00.000-07:00

On Friday Wes and I went on a date night. It was supposed to happen over spring break but due to me being sick that didn't end up happening. The rain-check resulted in our favor though, because Friday ended up being one of the most gorgeous days we've seen this year. The sun was out, the sky was clear, and the trees were pink with blossoms. We chose a Mediterranean restaurant that we like down town and driving the bridge to get there was a reminder of why we love Portland. There is just nothing like it. Looking out over the big river lined with pink blossomed trees, all other 11 bridges in clear view... gorgeous. A night filled with delicious food, wine, and gelato!

Sick sick and more sick

2011-03-28T20:45:00.001-07:00

Could I please have an order of "get-better-pancakes" with a side of cough syrup and Kleenex?

Thanks.

Yummiest PIzza Recipe

2011-03-27T17:20:00.000-07:00

Hi again from the couch! Still sick and feeling worse than yesterday. :(

Last week sometime we discovered a pizza recipe in one of our cookbooks that looked delectable. Mind you, its a little bit more Fall themed than Spring themed but if you're in the mood it really is the best pizza we have ever made. It is a Butternut Squash, Sage, and Goat cheese Pizza. Butternut Squash is definitely a winter squash, I was still able to find it at our grocery store but I ended up opting for the frozen stuff anyways just to save time which I never do. It worked out fine. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of it, but here is the recipe anyway. I guarantee you'll love it if you pick good ingredients like we did. I really think the recipe turned out so well because of the brands and things I chose. Here it is:

Butternut Squash, Sage, and Goat Cheese Pizza
Serves 4-6
Recipe makes 2 pizzas

Ingredients:
2 Pizza crusts (either a homemade recipe, or store bought already made, we like Trader Joes' Pizza dough)
2 Cups cubed butternut squash
2 shallots
1 14 oz can pizza sauce of choice (we used Fire Roasted (brand) diced petite tomatoes with garlic)
4 oz mozzarella
4 oz soft goat cheese (I chose one with herbs and garlic mixed in)
16 sage leaves
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil

Directions:

1. prepare you pizza dough
2. preheat oven to 400
3. in a roasting pan add chopped shallots, butter and olive oil. Roast in oven for 3 minutes. Then add the squash and half the sage leaves. Roast for 15 -20 minutes.

4. When pizza dough is ready for toppings: spoon on your tomato sauce, the roasted mixture, slices of mozzarella cheese and dollops of soft goat cheese. Finish each pizza with the rest of the sage.

5. Bake in oven for 10-15 minutes at 400. Until crust is done and toppings are golden. Enjoy!!!

Picture I just took on photobooth of the recipe book, so you can kind of see.

Sping Break

2011-03-26T17:02:00.000-07:00

Just stopping by to say Hello. I can't type too long because I am - yet again - sick on the couch, which makes it difficult to type. I had that cold two weeks ago, then gave the cold to Wes, and now I have a sore throat and pretty much no voice.

We go back to school on Monday, and even though Wes was sick for the first half of break and I am now sick for the second half, that hasn't stopped us from having fun! In a way it sort of forced us to relax. We have seen tons of movies, eaten at several great restaurants, done some things we don't normally do, and tried some new recipes too. It's been fun but we are also excited to start school up again.

Here are the movies we've watched:
Schindler's List (first time for both of us!)
Unstoppable
Next 3 Days
300
The Family Stone
The Machinist
The GodFather
Stranger Than Fiction
Hook
And today we are going to watch CoCo Before Chanel

We also: Did a little shopping, went out to breakfast at Tasty and Sons, went to an Auction with Kristen and Max (will definitely be bringing my camera to share with you next time, it was QUITE fun!), bowling with Caleb and Nina (always a good time), Avignon Bar (twice), Voodoo doughnuts, and much more fun. It's been a nice break, one day left!

Next post, I will share the most delicious homemade pizza recipe we've ever made. mm so yummy!

The Loaded Bowl

2011-03-12T16:47:00.001-08:00

I have recently had quite an obsession with Sweet potatoes. After a work out, what do I crave? Sweet potatoes. So when I came across this recipe in a magazine it was a match made in heaven. And if you don't like sweet potatoes this recipe can easily be altered to your liking. The beautiful thing about it is that it is loaded with good stuff for you (hence "loaded bowl"). The base of this meal is Quinoa, which, did you know is a complete protein? Food always tastes better to me when I understand what my body is taking from it. Quinoa shines in the world of grains. Moving on, this recipe also has black beans, cilantro, tomato, avocado, onions, lime juice, olive oil and did I mention the sweet potatoes? I think this recipe stands great on its own but you could also serve it as a salad or paired with a meat of choice. The recipe came with a homemade sauce that I have yet to try, so you might want to add a favorite Cuban-esque sauce of choice. I just drizzle with olive oil and extra lime juice and call it good. Tempeh with a sauce would also be yummy with this. On to the pictures and the recipe.

My Gin and Tonic - in Honor of Ashley's Dad getting a Job! (Congrats and Hi to the Whipples!)

Cheers!

The Bowl!

The Recipe:

The Loaded Bowl

3 cups Quinoa
1 can blackbeans, rinsed and drained
1 cup fresh cilantro
2 avacados
fresh lemonjuice
sea salt and pepper to taste
juice of 2 limes
2 Sweet potatoes peeled and cubed
1/2 yellow onion chopped
some cherry tomatoes cute in half

Dressing (optional, I didn't try it with dressing)

1/4 c white vinegar
1/4 c olive oil
2 cloves garlic
sea salt and pepper to taste

1. Prepare Quinoa according to package directions
2. in a bowl mix beans with cilantro, salt and pepper
3. saute sweet potatoes and onions in a pan with some olive oil until tender. (I added a couple of tbsp of water just to sort of steam the potatoes, drain any water left in pan after they are tender)
4. dice avocados, drizzle with lemon juice to prevent them from browning and put in the fridge.
5. To prepare the dressing: combine dressing ingredients in a food processor until garlic is gone and appears creamy. Set aside in fridge.
6. Add the potatoes, onions, and Quinoa to the bowl of black beans and stir to combine. Stir in a little bit of lime juice (about two limes or to taste) Serve and garnish with the dressing (or lime juice and olive oil) and avocados.

Enjoy!

Sometime after the loaded bowl..........

oops. :)

My Head is Stuck in...

2011-03-12T16:00:00.000-08:00

Summer!

Or, in the words of my 3 year old friend, "My mind is stuck on the Pool." Yesterday, as we were trying to decide what our outing for the day should be she kept telling me. "I just can't take my mind off the simming pool." Or, "My mind is with my swim suit." Quite a funny way to say it, which makes it that much cuter. My mind is stuck on summer plans. For some reason I can't stop thinking about how badly I want to see Carmel, and San Francisco, and San Diego. These places are all places with memories and I miss them. I want to see my friends in SD (and the SUN in SD); I want to eat breakfast at First Awakenings and go to the Aquarium in Monterey; I want to see Pier 39, eat clam chowder, and shop in San Francisco. A girl can dream... I have to remember that someday not long from now I will be living in CA once again. Someday I will be living in CA dreaming of our days in Portland, which is why I must live in the moment and appreciate where we are now. I am excited for our last summer in Portland. Wow, our last summer in Portland. Its a strange, but exciting reality to face. We have talked about doing a lot of camping this summer since last summer we didn't get the chance. I'm sure a list of "must-do" things will begin to form quickly.

Anyway, I'm feeling much better today, which is good news. We are on the count down for Spring Break.

Days left until we are on break! We are excited. Our plans thus far consist of: going out to breakfast at Tasty n Sons first day of break, Dinner date with Kristen and Max, Possible date to see a movie, and getting a lot of sleep. :) Hope your weekends are all off to a great start. Don't forget, tonight is Daylight Savings!!! Exciting!!

In the spirit of summer-talk, here are some pictures from 2 summers ago....

sick

2011-03-10T20:35:00.000-08:00

Hi-lo friends,

Sick with a cold and don't have much energy but it just kills me to sit here on the couch so much and not be productive in some way. It's quite annoying actually to have so much time sitting on a couch and to not even feel up to typing a couple words together in an email or on a blog. This is the most up-to-it I've felt all day and so I thought I'd take advantage. Just wanted to say "hi" and let you know the movies I've been watching the past couple of days...

I have watched:
- The Social Network. Highly recommend, and already feel like watching it again.
- The Kids Will Be Alright. Ehh, it wasn't bad but wasn't amazing. I'm neutral.
- Survivor. This season is quite entertaining!!
- The first part of The Great Mouse Detective on youtube for old times sake. Then they started singing "Sir Ratigan" (or however you spell it) and I moved on.

And that's about it so far... I suppose its about time for me to go back to bed but it just seems so early. Anyway, I'm so thankful that tomorrow is friday. I hope you guys have had a great week! Hopefully my next post will be much more fun and uplifting. :)

Have a good Friday!
Katie
-

All 5 Zines and the Zine Fair

2011-03-07T21:04:00.000-08:00

The zines are complete!!!

I am quite excited! In case if you didn't see the first blog where I talk about what a zine is and show you the first zine I made click here. Just as a reminder, this quarter my class worked alongside a local elementary school teaching them how to make their own mini-publications in an after-school art program. There was a group of about 5 of us who couldn't attend the program due to schedule issues and so the 5 of us were to plan a Zine fair (like a book fair) and build a display for their library. The display to go in there library would house all of the zines we made this quarter. So, today was the last day of class and the long awaited Zine fair. The event planning aspect was right up my ally of course, but umm, the group work, not so much. It's always hard to work in a group, needless to say I'm happy it is over with. Also, happy to report that the event was quite successful. I'll let the pictures tell the story.

First, the zines I made:
The themes were assigned:

Excellence Theme:

(accordion style zine)

History Theme:

(looks FUN doesn't it? ha ha I didn't try too hard on this one obviously)

(I didn't take a picture of each page for you but they all looked like this)

Community Theme:

(no that is NOT a tattoo on my finger, its this new trend called "finger bands")

Diversity Theme:

again, didn't spend too much time on this one. My teacher told me I could take my idea to use handprints and make a poster...

Language Theme:

This is the other zine I showed you already.

THE ZINE FAIR that we planned:

Welcome pamphlets I made

"How to Make a Zine" zine I made:

The bags we designed that were passed out:
The display we made out of cardboard:

Front

Back

We had a "Make your own Zine" Table which I worked:

Face Painting:

The event and kids hard at work:

Activity table: fold origami, play cats cradle, etc...

The cutest zine one of the kids made:

Katie was here...

That was it! Very successful and happy it is over with. Only two classes left and then spring break!!! :)

A Reminder

2011-03-05T00:26:00.000-08:00

I know I posted this not too long ago... but really, does it ever get old?

How Great Thou Art

Stanza 1:

O Lord my God,

When I in awesome wonder

Consider all

The works Thy Hand hath made,

I see the stars,

I hear the mighty thunder,

Thy pow'r throughout

The universe displayed;

Stanza 2:

When through the woods

And forest glades I wander

I hear the birds

Sing sweetly in the trees;

When I look down

From lofty mountain grandeur

And hear the brook

And feel the gentle breeze;

Refrain:

Then sings my soul,

My Saviour God, to Thee,

How great Thou art!

Then sings my soul,

My Saviour God, to Thee,

How great Thou art!

Stanza 3:

When Christ shall come,

With shouts of acclamation,

And take me home,

What joy shall fill my heart!

Then I shall bow

In humble adoration

And there proclaim,

"My God, how great Thou art!"

Refrain:

Then sings my soul,

My Saviour God, to Thee,

How great Thou art!

Then sings my soul,

My Saviour God, to Thee,

How great Thou art!

"I Am" and Pictures You've Never Seen

2011-03-02T15:19:00.001-08:00

I am... coming off of my work-out high. Nothing better than exercising really hard for an hour and then eating a yummy lunch.

I want... to stand in front of an 8 x 8 foot canvas and go crazy with some paint, while at the beach. :)

I have... a soy latte in hand. mm mmm

I keep... dreaming of graduation.

I wish... I was going to Europe wish Ashley and Rachelle in 4 days to visit Cory.

I hate... waking up before 8a.m.

I fear... spiders, change, the unknown.

I hear... the many noises of Palios.

I don't think... I will see the sun this week.

I love... my husband.

I cried when... I signed up for classes this quarter. Which has basically become tradition. Picking out classes is quite an emotional event, didn't you know?

I ache for... cookies.
I dance... to Matisyahu
I sing... adele in the car.
I never... drink black coffee.
I rarely... watch TV.
I need... a vacation in the sun.

I thought it would be fun to try and find pictures in my photo library that I haven't shown you before. So here are some random ones for you...

ok, I take that back. It was actually quite difficult to find pictures that you haven't already seen, that are WORTH seeing. Turns out there is a reason I only show you the ones that I do: the rest of them are bad or pictures of food. :) Here are the four that I found. ha ha

Train ride in Sacramento

Bowling shoes in Colorado

Wes taking pictures of me after just getting home from school.

Our packed lunches for school.

Happy Wednesday to you all!

Music To My Ears

2011-02-20T13:28:00.000-08:00

The other exciting news in our life is that we got a stereo in our car again for the 1st time since it was stolen 5 years ago. And I also got a new ipod. I haven't had an ipod since the very first ipod came out. I can't believe how far they've come! ha ha check out these pictures and look at the size difference:

So now, I have music back in my life again. Now I can listen to music: in the car, at the gym, on the bus, in the library. It's extremely exciting to be able to listen to kid music in the car while I'm driving the girls around.

Here are some of the latest tunes I listen to on repeat:

My Wedding Ring's Big Adventure

2011-02-20T12:34:00.000-08:00

As you can tell from the title, this story will be a little scary, and a little sad, but I promise you it ends on a funny note! On Friday I didn't know where my wedding ring was for 5 hours. 5 hours of panic, hopelessness, and praying. My thoughts went all over the place: That diamond is from my mother-in-law! It's irreplaceable! - to - It's just an object Katie, keep yourself together - to - what if I have to get a new ring? Will I ever see my wedding ring again???

The story starts Thursday night really, as this is when I last remembered taking my wedding ring off. I pretty much never take my ring off. I take it off for showers, and doing dishes and the application of lotion. Otherwise, I sleep with it on. So on Thursday night I put lotion on my hands and took the ring off and placed it on the nightstand. I was looking through a magazine and so forgot to put it back on. I turned the light off and only while laying there in the dark did I realize "oh, my ring isn't on." So, I simply thought, I'll put it on in the morning. Well, 6:30 a.m. roles around and Wes gets home from work. All I remember is hearing things fall and him saying "I need to turn on the light." Then when I woke up at 7, I remember stumbling to the night stand looking for bobby pins but can't remember what I grabbed up off of the nightstand.

Fast forward to 2p.m. I am at work and have just put both girls down for a nap. I go downstairs and begin to write in my nanny journal and take a double look at my ring finger. No ring. Before I freak out I am in disbelief and look all around me. I back track but can't seem to remember what I had been doing the last hour. I start to wonder: How long has it been missing? Did I put it on this morning? Maybe its at home? I thought I saw it on my finger.

Wes is sleeping so I don't want to call him. I search the trash can, the laundry, I go into the baby's room, and open up the last diaper, I search the baby, I go back downstairs and panic really starts to set in. I call my mom because I have absolutely no idea what to do or how to calm myself. I just kept thinking, "could this really be happening??" At this point I'm a complete mess and don't know what to think. I cry my eyes out to my mom. Finally I call Wes and leave him a message. I call Wes again at 3, he has just woken up and so is laying there in the dark. I say "I can't find my wedding ring is it there?" He says he saw it this a.m. and that it had fallen. I am unsure and I say "You are positive it is there?" He says, he's positive. I feel a little better but not completely satisfied because he isn't actually holding it in his hands. I go on with my day and tell my boss about what had happened. We are both happy that it has been found and I leave work.

I call Wes and he says "I still haven't found it." I actually stopped the car. WHAT?

My first thought is, I'm sure it's there, He just isn't looking hard enough. I go home and Wes has done everything there is to do except take apart our bed. I begin to feel hopeless. We take apart our bed, we look under the rugs, under the furniture, I unpack my backpack, and finally I decide to text my boss and tell her that we actually HAVEN'T found it and to please keep an eye open. I'm sobbing and a couple of minutes later my boss calls me laughing.

"We found it!!" She says.

"What?"

"Yeah, Ummm... I think it was in Baby's buttcrack...."

"WHAT???" out of sheer disbelief and shock I say "You don't mean she pooped it out???" ha ha ha (as if it were possible for her to swallow this thing with out me knowing)

"Noooo," She passes the phone to Mr. Dad to tell me how he found it.

Apparently he went to check to see if baby had a poopy diaper and as he went to take a peek it fell into his hand. Tada! Ring was in baby's diaper!! :)

After thinking about it for a while, what I suspect happened was after changing her diaper for her nap I was putting her pants back on which were a little too small for her. I was readjusting them and think that maybe the ring got pulled off as I was adjusting her diaper. So bazaar. But Alas!

The ring and I have been reunited, and it feels so good...
I am so so thankful! :)

And Just for fun.. this is what our life looks like right now...

A Day In Seattle

2011-02-12T22:17:00.001-08:00

Today we took a day trip to Seattle, and I'm so glad we did. A couple of months ago I heard about a Harry Potter exhibit taking place up there. I did some research and discovered that this exhibit had been touring the states and that this would be there last stop in the US. So, we decided it would be worth the trip and we purchased tickets. We also got to have lunch with John Herman and Rachelle LaRose and a couple of Rachelle's friends which was really nice.

Pictures weren't allowed, these are just images I found through google...

This was one of my favorite displays I think. This is from the Prisoner of Azkaban and their clothes were dirtied and you could see how tiny they were at this time.

They had an "herbology" section where you could pull up mandrakes from the pot and they would scream like in the movie

This was really awesome too- harry and ron's beds, Ron's is on the right and I guess that patchwork blanket is in most of the films.

Now on to what we thought of the exhibit. We both really enjoyed it. We both would have loved to hear more back story as to how the props and costumes were made and WHO made them (I'm sort of shocked that artists were never mentioned). However, the exhibit wasn't really suppose to be about backstory, or I mean it wasn't presented that way. It was more about recreating the experience for you. For example: everyone that worked there had English accents; upon entering you are first corralled around the sorting hat where they take volunteers to come up and be sorted into a house. The kids who did this were cute. The most unfortunate part was that pictures weren't allowed. The whole time I was just itching to break the rules. They didn't even have a poster at the end or anything for you to pose with as proof that you had been. The one lonely sign we found was the one by the bathrooms. Anyway, aside from those little issues the experience was pretty cool. To be able to see so many (MANY MANY) props up close was amazing. You certainly don't get to see so much detail through the TV. I think one of the things I found most interesting was to see all the different wands. Each wand is gorgeous, so ornate and so different- and they all suit the characters perfectly...

Some of the random things that we saw today off the top of my head (For those of you harry potter lovers out there who will know what these are):

Bellatrix Lestrange's dagger that she kills Dobby with in the latest movie, the Quibbler, the monster book of monsters, the pen, chair and desk that harry uses during detention in Umbridge's office, harry's glasses, the murader's map (WHICH WAS AWESOME), Nimbus 2000, Nimbus 2001, Harry's wand, Bellatrix's wand, Voldemort's wand, (well, pretty much everyone's wand), Buckbeak, Life size chess pieces from I think the first movie, Rita Skeeter's books and quill, all sorts of treats from the hogwarts express trolly, a display board from the common room, Hagrid's umbrella, the boggart wardrobe, The dresses and dress robes worn to the Yule Ball (gorgeous!), and much much more. Quite a fun day! Below is a video of the exhibit by the TVGuide channel.

Now, I'm off to bed, dream sweet harry potter dreams everyone. :)

Zine 1 of 5.

2011-02-08T20:16:00.000-08:00

For my "Art and Social Change" class we are working alongside a local elementary school. We are volunteering in an after school art program where we teach them how to make their own "zines" (I'll get to what a "zine" is in a moment) as well as we are building a permanent display case to go into their school's library. This display case will house all of the zines that we will also be making and donating to their library. Each of us are assigned to make 5 themed zines which will stay in their library for the kids to check out.

Now for what a "zine" is. A zine is: a cheaply-made, cheaply-priced publication, often in black and white, which is mass-produced via photocopier and bound with staples. However, zines come in many shapes and sizes! Its really just a fun, cheap way to make your own books. It is common for zines to be silly or informal and have a very handmade quality to them. SO! On to the project... my first zine had to be on language. It could be about anything we wanted as long as two languages were present. Seeing as how I only know english I used a free translator online to translate my story into ITALIAN, my 2nd language of choice. Here is my first zine that will be passed along to the library. Click on the images to make them bigger if you can't see the text.

Hope you liked it! I'll post the others as I make them. :)

Yes, I'm still making art.

2011-02-08T19:55:00.000-08:00

So, for the past several quarters my classes haven't been as studio intensive. Meaning that, they are less about making art and more about art theory OR art history. This is why I don't have as many fun art projects to show on the blog like I used to. However, I have finally produced a couple of things worth sharing. Or, well, things I'd like to share. This quarter I am taking:

- Art History of 14th century Siena.
-Art and Social Change
-and Digital Media Design.

The last on that list is basically a computer class teaching me the basics of 3 programs: Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. This class has far exceeded my expectations. I am loving learning about these programs and feel like I can finally use them as resources. Anyway, this first project I'm going to show you is not about the final product at all. It is definitely not a thing of beauty, however, it does show the types of things I'm learning and how cool these programs are. So here is the assignment: It is called "Line Drawing."

We had to choose a black and white image that we found on the internet, too which we would then recreate by building up lines to create value, etc. Did that sentence make sense??? Look and see what I mean....

I chose Audrey Hepburn. So using Illustrator I was able to make a couple of layers. Meaning that you can actually view the image of Audrey with out touching the image while you work over it. So I had one layer that had Audrey's picture. A layer on top of that I could "draw" on. And then a layer on top of that that I could "paint" on. So while looking at the image I would go through and shade in the dark parts and bring out the light parts by erasing color and layering color. etc... This is my work with the image still underneath.

And then this is what I drew with out the image underneath. Make sense? It's on the right track... It could definitely use some more work. But, fun huh?

I've done a couple of other projects in the class but those really aren't interesting to see. However, I have an even better project to show you next from a different class. So, on to the next blog post. :)

woopsy daisy.

2011-02-05T16:43:00.000-08:00

I'm suppose to be squeezing in a bit of homework before our date night tonight but some how the blog called to me and here I am... I have a couple of blogs coming up. One that will include my latest art projects done on photoshop and illustrator, and one blog titled "ephemera" that I've been meaning to write about for a quite awhile. Hopefully those will be up tomorrow. As for now, I just wanted to send a quick "hello!" Wes and I are having a date night tonight just the two of us. Can't remember when our last date night was which means that we are long over due. I am looking forward to eating some delicious food at Beaker & Flask. Hope you all are doing something equally exciting with your Saturday.
Talk to you again soon,

My Morning...

2011-01-28T20:36:00.000-08:00

Happy Friday to All!

I am quite tired as I type this but I can't complain because this is the start to my weekend. I am sipping tea on the couch with a blanket. Saturdays and Sundays are officially the only days in the week that I get to sleep past 7, and so... my weekends really are glorious.

Anyway, this blog really isn't about anything too special or out of the ordinary but I couldn't help myself. Today I did one of my absolute favorite things: go to the zoo! The weather this week has been in the high 50's with no rain, this means- beautiful and perfect for this time of year. The family I nanny for has a zoo pass so we get to go whenever we want with out the pressure of feeling like we have to make it a day long ordeal. I packed up the girls and huge double stroller and we were off. Baby girl is now 1 and so is at the perfect age for staring and pointing and taking it all in. We had fun. However, what made me want to write this post in the first place was to simply state that:

Don't you think kids are about the only people on the planet who can make singing off-key sound beautiful? For the entirety of our 30 minute drive to the zoo I listened to 3 year old sing:

Doe. a deer. a female deer.
RAY, a drop of golden sUUUUn
MEEE, a name I call mYself
Far, a long long wAAAAy to rUUUUn
Sew (SOOOOO), a needle pulling thread (!!!!)
La, a note to follow seeeeeeewwwwwwwww
Tea, I drink with jam and brEAd (!!!!!)
That will bring us back to doe...oh oh oh

and again!

I try to sing along with her but she insists that I can't sing it unless if I do the hand motions. Being the driver I guess that rules me out right away. The whole is quite precious really and now you see why I just had to write about it. :) Another post coming soon...

love from

Yours Truly

Dinner for One

2011-01-16T11:41:00.000-08:00

For those of you who didn't know, Wes went back to Sacramento this weekend for a wedding. What wedding? One of his best friends, Leon Smith got married yesterday and coincidentally their reception was held at The Newman Center (the place where our reception was). So anyway, with Wes gone, I was left with a weekend to myself so I decided to make the best of it and make myself a "fancy-shmancy" dinner with pork chops, wine and a movie (oh, and after a day of spending some Christmas $ at the mall). I pick Wes up from the airport tonight. Lesson learned this weekend: I'm quite happy I'm not single. Best friend I'm ready for you to come home now! I hope you are all enjoying a 3-day weekend like I am! :)

What's On My Mind?

2011-01-10T20:41:00.000-08:00

Voodoo Donuts
Coffee Cake
German Chocolate Cake
Cupcakes
Chocolate Drinks with Whipped Cream
Brownies
Chocolate Frosted Brownies
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups
Chocolate Ice cream

... luckily I am capable of practicing self control and will consume none of these. But I can talk about them. Can't I?

The Year of Last's...

2011-01-08T12:33:00.000-08:00

Now that I have posted our "What we did on New Years Eve" blog, I need to post a blog on "What we talked about on New Years Eve."

A term we have sort of coined over this past month is "The Year of Lasts." 2011 holds in store for us many "lasts" here in Portland. Obviously, if you haven't heard the news you will be quite confused upon reading this. Our news is that this will be our last year in Portland for we are on to the next chapter. In Spring of 2012 I will be finishing up my undergrad and Wes would like to continue on to Grad school in Scotland. Scotland isn't for sure yet since Wes has not yet applied but we know that the goal is to go abroad for a year and then move back to Sacramento (If this is brand new information to you, please email me for more details, we'd love to tell you the full story).

As I write and think about all that it entails to move away from Portland I fight to hold back tears. A year goes by so fast. And although, I can hardly contain my excitement for what lies ahead for us, we will miss Portland forever. I could not have planned a better place to kick off our first few years of marriage. I am so thankful that Wes and I did move away when we got married. This time has been tremendously important in growing us, and teaching us. Well anyway, no need to get too far ahead of myself here... we do still have over a year left to enjoy what we have here. But this will be, the year of last's in Portland: our last Summer, our last Christmas, our last September to see the Swifts, and our last year to have visitors. (ha ha hint-hint). We are excited for what the future holds and will certainly be holding on to our dear blog to keep you all posted each step of the way. You can bet for darn sure that the blog will be coming to Europe with us. :) We love you all, thank you for your unfailing support.

One of our first date nights in Portland

Happy New Year!

2011-01-08T11:53:00.000-08:00

Hello Again and happy Saturday! Today I am feeling quite tired and I finally realized that its because I'm sick. I have been battling with a sore throat the past couple of days and slept in until 10 today. I have showered and eaten and still feel a little foggy in the head. Foggy-tired = sick. You know when you feel like your immune system is down and there is a war taking place inside your body? That's what I feel like. (you might be thinking "Gosh Katie sure has been sick a lot." Yes. Yes, I have. It's because the girls at work have been sick with various illnesses for the entirety of fall/winter. And no matter how hard you try to avoid there breathing/snotty noses/germs there is always the instance of direct-face-to-face contact in which you know you just got sick.) So, I am going to try and just relax today. I do have some reading for school to do and so will probably accompany Wes to coffee for some studying, but still that sounds relaxing to me.

Anyway, It is now January 8, 2011! This blog is 7 Days overdue... my apologies. In the past 7 days we started school, finally unpacked every last bag from Christmas, went back to work, had dinner with cousin Caleb and Nina, oh and, celebrated The New Year! On the day of New Year's Eve I missed friends and family badly. This usually happens when Wes works on a holiday. I know this because I felt this exact same "poor-me" feeling on the 4th of July this past year. And yes, I was invited to go out on the town and party-it-up with some girls... but really? a show of hands as to how many of you think I would enjoy that? With the right group of girls (oh girls you know who you are!) and safety precautions (a car to use perhaps?) I could be game for a drink at the right place but this invitation was not such an invitation and so, I politely declined and Wes and I decided to pretend that 9pm was the New midnight. We played games and enjoyed yummy food and Champagne. Then Wes went off to work at 9:30 and I was beat anyways. :)

First, we went to Palios for some free Mochas and a couple games of Rummikub

Then, it was back to the house for some bread and olive oil, cheese and crackers, and oven-warmed olives

Don't forget the Champagne, wish we had Champagne Flutes though...

And more games!

So, that was our New Years Eve. Very low-key and just the way we like it. Hope you all had a great first week of 2011!

Our Christmas...

2011-01-05T22:12:00.000-08:00

Our Christmas in Pictures...

We Loaded the car up with Santa's Presents:

Quite a few presents (our car was filled top to bottom)

Those animals on the bags were tags I made myself by cutting and backing images out of a childrens book. Really fun project!

We saw our animals:

[Insert picture of Bella-Boo! Oops! ;) ]

Had the traditional Creamed Eggs on Toast made by Greg on Christmas Eve morning

[Saw a lot of good friends]

Saw all of the family

Gave each other stockings

Opened fun presents

Played games!

We had so much fun. It was a very successful trip home: smooth drive, relaxing- not stressful. Most of all it was so good to be able to see everyone and catch up. Thank you all so much for the great time. We enjoyed every minute. Soon to come: "Our New Years and The Year of Lasts." Keep your eye on the blog. Love you guys,
Katie

A Couple of New Additions

2011-01-03T12:35:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, in the last hours of our winter break we had some pictures printed at Walgreen's and purchased some frames at Fred Meyer so that we could finally add to our photo wall in our apartment. We intend to add just a couple more in the near future but for now, check out the new additions:

And the other New Addition to the house was a gift given to me by my Father-in-law for Christmas. It is a little ceramic-tiki-face made by a student attending the Leonardo Da Vinci School in Sacramento. The proceeds benefit the School and so Greg donated money in my name and purchased me this little gift. Very sweet, and very thoughtful and it makes me smile. We hung it over our light switch in this perfectly sized little strip of wall when you enter our apartment:

The little Tiki face almost looks like its smiling, and its definitely contagious. As I left the house today it made me smile. Thanks again Greg! :)

Winter Quarter and a Thank You

2011-01-03T12:22:00.000-08:00

Winter Quarter has begun! I am currently enjoying my two and a half hour break before its time for me to head to my next class. I played a game with myself this morning as I woke up at 7 a.m. in which I told myself that I would get coffee as a first-day-of-the-quarter treat on my way to the bus this morning; but then, I ran too late for the coffee and instead headed straight for the bus. This resulted in huge disappointment and now, achy eyes. Thank goodness, I am now sipping my coffee and hopefully the aching will go away soon. Never have I wished to live in the dorms on campus, though in this moment I do wish I had a place nearby where I could take a nap.

Anyways, enough of that. Today is not a bad day at all. I am excited for this new quarter. This quarter I am taking all art classes. (yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!) The classes are:

- Digital Media Design
- Social Change: Art in the Community
- Thirteenth Century Siena: Art history

So, today marks the end of my winter vacation. Thank you all for an amazing Christmas/visit home. It was definitely the highlight of our winter break. The weather here has been fuhreeezing, and is suppose to snow today. Who knows! But it's kind of fun! Well, that's all for now... just a little update I guess. :) Happy Monday to all!

New Years Eve

2010-12-31T09:58:00.000-08:00

Happy -almost- New Year everybody!

This is going to be short and sweet because I have some errands to tend to. I just wanted to hop on and say that we made it back from Sacramento safe and sound. We had SO. MUCH. FUN!!! Thanks for the amazing time and a Christmas blog will be coming shortly. What are all of your plans for New Years? Wes has to work tonight but we decided yesterday while at the grocery store that we would still celebrate before he had to leave. We purchased some Champagne, cheese, crackers, olives, and a baguette. We might give our brand new Pasta Maker a whirl. We shall see! Have a fabulous time celebrating, whatever your plans may be.
Talk to you again soon,

Sue and Greg Visit

2010-12-20T09:15:00.000-08:00

Last week Sue and Greg came up to celebrate Wes' graduation! The fabulous time included: visiting some wineries (one of which was mine and Wes' favorite: Owen Roe), walked around downtown Mcmenville, went to several restaurants, saw A Christmas Story play, saw a movie at the Kennedy School, walked on Peacock lane full of Christmas lights. It was such a great time and we can't thank you guys enough for coming and celebrating with us. Here are some pictures:

We are headed home TOMORROW!!! We can't wait to celebrate Christmas with you all. See you this week.

Katie

Wes' "Trap"

2010-12-11T11:33:00.001-08:00

I arrived home from work the other night to mistletoe. Where did Wes get it? From Rand at Palios of course! ha ha I guess Rand came to his table with a box of mistletoe, gave him a little clipping, and told him to "bring it home for the wife." ha ha

Christmas time is here! Sue and Greg arrive tomorrow! Let the festivities begin!

Wes' Birthday!

2010-12-08T21:07:00.000-08:00

This year Wes' bday landed on Thanksgiving, so, while that was awesome... it did mean that we would have to put off his Triple Berry Pie and special birthday dinner of choice off to another night. However, we did celebrate it on Thanksgiving day, and we did so by getting donuts!!! Wooo woo wooo!

(lots of donuts, its just so hard to choose!)

(and then he opened his gift from me)

And the gift was.... a sweater he wanted from Jcrew.
Begin the "sexy-sweater" modeling...

work it, work it
(no hes not actually smoking in the house and at 9 am!)

Then we carried on with Thanksgiving day to-dos.

A couple weeks later though, I made Wes a Triple Berry Pie as requested by the bday boy himself.

Happy birthday to you my 24 year old! A great time was had by all...

Our Thanksgiving...

2010-12-08T20:40:00.000-08:00

Though most of you have seen pictures on Facebook, I tried to include some new ones in when this batch...

Our thanksgiving was a hit. We made our first ever turkey, invited my childhood friend and her boyfriend over (Kristen and Max), cooked ourselves a feast, and played games.

On the Menu:

-Turkey
-Grandma Fay's creamed onions, only we added peas into the mix as well
-stuffing
-mashed potatoes
-gravy
-rolls
-cranberry sauce

Our baby

Prepping the turkey

workin' the slippers and apron

and there she is...

Tadaaa!

and we ended the night with "Apples to Apples" and Apple Pie...

We had a great time and the food turned out perfect. The only thing that could have made it better was if you all could have sat at the table with us.

(awwwwwwwwwww)

We are thankful for our family traditions. We love you guys!!

Where to Begin?

2010-12-08T19:44:00.000-08:00

Ok, the crickets have been chirping long enough... time to break the blog-silence with a series of posts that have been lining up since Thanksgiving. However before I get on to those, a blog needed to be written regarding Finals. This past week or two has been devoted to the finish line and I can officially say "I crossed it!" I am done with Fall Quarter 2010. Wes will finish tomorrow. (and I can't waaaaaait!)

Anyway, the purpose of this blog is to help me reflect on this quarter because it went by ridiculously fast. And like every quarter, its a trip to spend every waking moment of finals week pouring over projects, flashcards to being a free bird the minute its all over. All of a sudden, it doesn't matter if you remember any of it. Your classes pass through your mind and you realize that they are now in the past. They are over. It's strange.

This quarter I took my first ever business class. I wrote a 40 page business plan with a group of 6 people. We opened a tea shop called "House of Tea." We served loose leaf teas and drip coffee. Our coffee beans were to be imported from Peru. We met every sunday to work on that thing... now its over. Somehow, I was left with the graded final draft of it (we got a "B" on it by the way. *smiles*). So what does one do with it? Do I file it away? Do I trash it? A whole 11 weeks worth of hard work? Its hard for me to transition out of the quarter now that I am able to.

Don't worry to much though folks! Ha ha celebrating is happening and I wouldn't change my newfound freedom for another final any day. But it was a good quarter. Today, I submitted my final art project for my art class (the one I needed stories of lost items for). Here are some pictures of the final project:

It would take a whole other blog to really explain what you are seeing here. But basically, the message of the project was about creating new uses for old things. Things that can no longer serve for their original purpose. I posted stories of how objects were lost, etc...

It ended up being a success. Though simple it was, people gave good feedback during the critique today and the teacher even said that she would pass along some pictures of the project to a group of grad-students who are working on something similar. That was a huge compliment.

So there it is... the quarter is over... I now know how to sound all "businessey" and use words like: break-even analysis, variable costs, fixed costs, sole proprietorship, liquidity management, etc. etc.

What is next for us Portland-Sco's? Well, in honor of Wes taking his last final tomorrow, we thought we might finally go see Harry POTTER! when I get off work tomorrow.

Can you believe we haven't seen it yet? I can't! The last movie that came out we saw opening day, and I waited 5 hours in line reading the book.

Then this Saturday: Wes and I go on our annual Christmas Date which poses as our gift to eachother. Each year instead of getting eachother presents we go on one nice big date: out to dinner and to a Christmas Ballet.

-Sunday: Sue and Greg come up to celebrate Wes' graduation. Can't wait!

Looking forward to this holiday season with all you family and friends out there. We will be arriving into Elk Grove on the 21st!