Return to Rio - Sort Of!

I've been known to return to a city that I've visited simply to eat at a restaurant I've enjoyed...well, I have to say that the restaurant that the husband and I discovered recently in Portland is that kind of place. This pathetic, out-of-focus picture of the sign of said restaurant doesn't begin to do justice to the amazing food served within. This wonderful establishment is a traditional Brazilian churrascaria. I think the reason that we loved this place so much wasn't just because the food was amazing (it was!), but also because the atmosphere put us right back in Rio. I had that same itchy feeling that deep down I am or at least should have been born a Brazilian. My favorites from the night were the blackbeans (I really need to learn to make those Brazilian style black beans), also the lamb was a major hit for me. They also serve pinapple grilled with cinnamon - so good you don't even need to order dessert - not that I would have had room for dessert anyways! When our travels take us back to Portland, we will definitely be heading to the Brazil Grill again...yum!

Being Nesty

This past Sunday morning I had a strong desire to nest...so I drove to this farm stand about 5 minutes from my house and picked up a load of corn stalks and pumpkins - neither having been a huge success in my own garden this year. Just the picture of the farm stand makes me smile, I love living where I do, there are lots of little stops like this all over our county, always very reasonably priced. For very little money I came home with a nice collection to decorate with. It was actually pretty fun, I rarely set out on little trips just to pick up supplies for a decorating project. I felt like my inner Martha Stewart was glowing.Both Figaro and Bambino hung out while I decorated...I had to do a little cleaning at first, I think they liked watching me dodge the spider webs that I knocked down. With just a little bit of effort, I think it turned out nice. Now it feels like the season has officially shifted. It's been blustery outside lately, lots of wind and grey skies, so the bright orange pumpkins and colorful bird houses made by the husband give a nice cheerful warmth.

Bambino seemed to take an unusual amount of pleasure out of posing for some pictures...it was actually kind of odd, typically he's moving around too quickly to be very photogenic. I think because he watched me set everything up, he felt special being able to sit there, very cute.

No, I Haven't Forgotton How To Sew...

...I've just been busy with life. Adjusting to new responsibilities, schedules, and seasons. I did however get back into the swing of things a little bit last week, finishing the two aprons. They are now at Bungalow Bay, waiting for their owners to come and buy them. This one was especially hard not to keep, it looks very cute on and I could picture myself making pumpkin pies while wearing it...these two projects were actually great to finish, neither one was too difficult for me, I felt like they showed how far my ability to sew things has come.

Sorry the photo below is out of focus, I am still so proud of those labels, I love to show them on things I make.

Before and After: A Delicious Snack

Two of my favorite things: Creme Brule and Orangina. Enjoyed while on our mini vacay to Portland a week ago. The husband adopted both as new favorites when we started dating, so he was happy to share with me - enjoying his own bottle of Orangina of course! Honestly, these photos make my mouth water!

Dressed To The Nines

Last weekend when we took a short trip down to Portland it was mostly because we had a free night to use within the SPG hotel system that was going to expire at the end of this month. We actually had originally had two free nights, but we used one when we went up to Whistler this summer. Back to what I was saying though, we had a free night to use. So we decided to try a hotel there that we'd never stayed at before, The Nines. It's been open for almost a year. I loved it, obviously so since I've shown 12 pictures of the room we stayed which was just fabulous...

I've stayed in some fantastic hotels while visiting some amazing places over the past several years, but as things have tightened up around here, our trips have slowed down quite a bit. Obviously this is kind of a bummer in many ways, but at the same time, I think the fact that we aren't constantly on-the-go has allowed me to appreciate things more. The husband and I will always be travelers, it's just part of the fabric of our relationship, but I don't want to become numb to the great things that we see or even to the fantastic places that we stay. I am glad that this whole thought process has been going on in my head recently, when I meet up with the husband in Cairo next month I want to be able to appreciate and absorb every detail of the trip. I'm fabulously excited to say the least. I don't know what to expect completely, but I've done a bit of reading up and friends have offered some great tips, including a market to go to where the oldest coffee shop in the world is still in business! Can't wait, less than three weeks until I go and the husband leaves in about a week and a half.

Fresh Cut Flower Friday, Welcome to Fall!

In honor of the seasonal change this week I have two fresh cut flowers photos to share...the top photo is three bud vases filled with crimson dahlias on my autumn themed runner in the dining room. The second is more dahlias, this time rose and crimson mixed, in a ceramic pitcher on a crocheted cloth I inherited from my Oma, set in the breakfast nook of the kitchen. I guess I have been in a nesting kind of mood this week, even with a busy schedule, I can't seem to help it...changing colors on the trees outside, made from scratch meals, and of course fall flowers have been making the transition to fall very cozy.

It's crazy to think, but in exactly three weeks I'll be heading down to the airport to catch the first of two flights that will eventually land me in Cairo. This will be the first time that I've flown anything but coach overseas, thank you frequent flyer miles for the upgrade! I'm traveling the first leg of my trip by myself because the husband will have already been there for ten days for his Habitat for Humanity build. His departure date is less than two weeks away...it will be weird to be away from each other for that time, we dated long distance for the first couple of years of our relationship, so it's not like we've never been apart, but since we've been married we've never been apart for more than a couple of days. Another odd piece to this situation is that his birthday happens while he is in Egypt. He will be traveling with his oldest buddy then, so at least he won't be alone, the two of them are planning on doing some diving in the Red Sea. As for me, my friend and neighbor has assured me that she will be around for lots of girl hang out time. I think it will also be a good time for me to focus on getting my routine of work, housework, exercise, sewing, etc. all established. The past few weeks I've been pretty productive, but I haven't settled into a predictable schedule yet. It's been more like that game at Chuck E. Cheese where when the little furry animals pop out of their holes the goal is to bonk them on the head. Tasks kind of have been popping up in front of me and I've been able to stay on top of the head bonking, okay that sounds weird, enough of that analogy. The point is that I want to take the time to evaluate what it is that I accomplish each week and come up with some kind of predictability to it all.

Okay, enough said for a Friday! I'll be around here a bit this weekend, probably doing a bit of "power blogging" - it's not my favorite way to manage this fun part of my life, but at least that way I can still share what I want to, even if it isn't in real time! Hope you have a great weekend!

Welcome to Fall

We returned from a very quick, last minute, one-night trip to Portland yesterday. It was the perfect chance to get away in the Jeepster and get a bit of a break from normal responsibilities. I like it that my job allows for a bit of spontenaity. We actually packed lots of good stuff into a trip that ended up being only about 32 hours away from home. I'll try to get around to sharing bits and pieces in the next few days.

Until then, I thought that because it is now officially fall (even though it's more of an unusual sunny than a typical fall rainy here), I'd share what I put into the slow-cooker for dinner tonight.We have an overabundance of tomatoes and other random garden yumminess that has needed to be used before it's too late. So this morning, I chopped and chopped vegetables galore, ground in some pepper, threw in some course kosher salt (my favorite), half a bottle of Syrah that I didn't finish last week, a couple of all-natural free range chicken breasts, fresh basil and rosemary, and set the cooker to 10 hours. As I type, the delicious aroma of fresh vegetable chicken catetori is filling the air, even all the way upstairs at the other end of the house, the effect giving my senses the cozy and crisp feeling of fall.

Now I've got to get back to work...things have picked up considerably in the last few days. I'm stoked to be getting into the rhythm of this job.

The Jeepster

Here she is, the Jeepster. It took several frustrating attempts over the past few weeks to finally find the right vehicle with the right features at the right price. Thankfully, the search ended last Monday. She made the cut because she was a fantastic deal (the dealer made an error when advertising her online and posted her for about 3K less than normal - the manager was shaking his head on the price!), she has low milage - only about 21K - so we'll be able to keep her for a long time, she also is 4x4 - a plus because I plan to take her to the mountains to snowboard and also the roads around our house here can be a bit dicey in the winter, she has a V6 engine - not so big that she'll guzzle gas and not so small that I'll have trouble getting up to speed quickly on highways and have to ride in the low lane when driving through the mountains, she's also silver - my 3rd silver vehicle in a row - hides dust and dirt well. She's not the most fancy vehicle out there, and I have to say that I was sad to see my former car go (we traded her in), I even got a little teary eyed at one point. BUT...the Jeepster is the right set of wheels for me, I'm quite happy. We upgraded her roof rack system with some cross bars so she'll be all ready to have the Thule attached to her when we're ready to load up our snowboarding and skiing gear and head to the mountains...wooohooo! It's also no small thing that the search is over, sometimes the car buying process is easy, sometimes not-so-much...this has been a very challenging process. The right car at the right price when you're watching your budget is not an easy order, but the husband and I both feel like we did the right thing. Plus, she's already got a cute nickname, I love talking about the "Jeepster", it makes me happy!

Fresh Cut Flower Friday

This little side table sits between two chairs in our master bedroom. It is one of my favorite places to sit and read or relax...I like it even better when there are fresh flowers there as well. Sooo...doing these little fresh flower show and tell posts has made me consider doing a themed week on my favorite things around my house...I love where I live, we have been blessed with a beautiful home full of wonderful belongings!

Turkeys Come To Visit

Funny thing...As I was finishing up some work in my office upstair this afternoon, I was distracted by the sounds of turkeys and a few chickens calling to each other as they made their way down the driveway and through our front yard...

I guess things like this are pretty normal in the country, but the city girl in me is a die hard and the sight of turkeys strolling through is still funny to me. Pictures were in order...

Figaro came along as I took pictures, he's pretty much done with the idea that he'd like to hunt one and eat it, now he's more interested in following turkeys and chickens around - possibly he wants to be one of them?!

I don't ever look out my windows and people watch like you could do in a busy city, but on the flip side, if I were in a busy city, what are the chances I'd get to see my cat hanging out with turkeys?

Oh! One other thing...check out the new banner, I finally took a little time to learn my way around powerpoint enough to put this together. It was actually pretty easy, I'm kind of suprised that it took me as long as it did to put out the little bit of effort. I guess the part of me that is sometimes a little intimidated by new things was in charge of that... Speaking of which, I am busy with many new things on the job front. I have real courses and students now...teaching online is such a different experience, in many ways I can't believe how much more smooth and relaxed it feels. While on the other hand, there are lots of things for me to learn and remember. I have been enjoying the challenge. I didn't expect to feel so connected to other people while working at home alone...a nice suprise, I was a little worried I'd feel isolated. The flexibility has been a huge relief as well. I have been getting up at about seven each morning and reminding myself that in my former job I'd be walking out the door at that time. The work was a little slow to get going this week, so I have been using the extra time to get things around here done, it's been a nice relief, especially because I was feeling so completely overwhelmed last week! Yesterday I was able to do some thorough house cleaning and Monday we were able to finally end our search for our next car - I plan on sharing a bit about that later this week. The chickens are doing well and have a very tidy coop - I just collected our 6th egg this morning and boiled up a few to go with my lunch today.

It's Wednesday (already?!) I will most likely see you Friday with some more flowers!

Fall Pastels

The shades I typically think of for fall are warm - reds, oranges, yellows - but interestingly though the colors I'm being drawn to right now along with the expected fall shades are these blue and green pastels. The squash above is a hubbard squash that I found at the farmer's market in Yakima. I am going to make a point of preparing it with dinner sometime this week, but right now it's beautiful to look at in my kitchen. The eggs are adding up now...one more since I took this picture. It is still just the one chicken laying, I'm sure the other six are going to begin in the next couple of weeks...I can't wait until I get two eggs (or more!) when I check!

Fresh Cut Flower Friday

This is one of those "two birds with one stone" type of posts. I am continuing with my current Friday theme and also using this post as a show and tell for my recent resolution. By the way, I think September is an excellent time to make "new year's" resolution. Obviously it's not January yet, but in my teacher-trained brain, new beginnings happen in the fall...hence the perfect time for resolutions. My resolution - I may have shared this here before, I can't remember right now - but my new resolution is to have fresh flowers on my desk and my bed side stand at all times. It is a simple thing that brings joy to my day. So far I'm keeping up on my resolution very nicely. I've heard it takes anywhere from 4-6 weeks to establish a new habit, I'm pretty sure I'm heading into week 4!The picture above is a shot of my desk earlier this week, the working from home thing is soemthing I'm still loving and still getting the hang of.

Have a fantastic weekend! We're heading to a Def Leopard concert tomorrow - should be interesting!

Winner! Winner! Chicken Dinner! Well not dinner...

...unless you want an omlette for dinner! That's right folks, the waiting is over! Last night I received my first bundle of joy. The husband and I had gone out for a little pre-dinner stroll around our property. We heard some loud chicken squacking out in the garden and went to check it out. I think it was Berkeley having his way with one of the ladies, but I am not completely sure. While out there I checked the nesting boxes as has become my habit to see if there were any deliveries...I honestly didn't expect to see anything. I have never been more happy to not have my expectations met! This is what I saw...I literally jumped for joy and whooped my heart out! The husband and Bambino were with me when I made this fantastic discovery...Bam jumped around with me, always one to enjoy joining in on someone else's happiness, and the husband grinned, gave me a high five and congratulated me on my chickens not being duds. I have checked those nesting boxes so many times without any success, I guess I was beginning to believe that I'd never see an egg. Well, I can proudly say that I have at least one chicken that is neither a dud when it comes to laying nor a rooster that stayed in disguise for nearly 5 months. Actually shortly after I discovered the egg, after I'd snapped a few pictures, and after I'd calmed down a bit, Berkeley started crowing...I think he wants to remind us that his presence there will help to keep those eggs a'comin'. This first egg is a pastel green, a beautiful shade if I do say so...this picture was taken outside at dusk, so it really doesn't do the color of the egg justice. Below is a picture of our egg-cellent little treasure next to a store-bought egg. Our egg is much cuter and prettier don't you think? I am told that in about two weeks or so the eggs will be a more normal size, these first ones are going to be little.

What a fantastic end to my waiting and beginning to my days of collecting eggs! I honestly couldn't be prouder if I'd laid the egg myself! Actually, if I'd laid the egg myself I probably wouldn't be this proud. I'm just sayin'!

On that note I'm proud to announce that the winner of the contest is none other than my lovely friend, Tami...her guess of September 8th and blue was in fact the closest guess. It will be my pleasure to award the prize to you, Tami!

Overwhelmed

I'm overwhelmed today...lots to do and it seems there's never enough time to do it all. I need to take a deep breath...to be honest I know I can finish everything, just not in the amount of time I want to finish it in.

I walked into our pantry this morning and inhaled the delicously sweet scent of ripe pears...nice right? Well to show you how stressed I feel today, my first thought when I smelled those lovely pears was "Crap, now I've got to figure out when to do the canning, I thought I could hold off until Saturday, guess not"...again, deep breath!

I'm working on finishing up the training for my new job, I still have some nursing covers to finish up, the garden could use some attention, the chicken coop needs to be cleaned out by tomorrow - Friday at the latest, I still need to come up with some aprons to show to a gal who owns a local wine shop, and I need to go by Bungalow Bay and give Michelle some new stuff (and pick up the $$ I've made - yay!). To top it off I've watched a few of the episodes of the A&E show "Hoarders", which brings up some of the horrible habits that my maternal grandmother had when she was alive (definitely a long story there). The show gives me these OCD impulses to clean our house, organize things and purge things. In the end probably not a bad thing, but still, it doesn't help with the stressed out feeling I'm having.

On a bright note, I'm wearing my DMB Toms shoes which make me happy, and I am going to meet up for coffee with the friend whose baby I made the quilt for, even better, I get to meet the baby too.

One thing at a time, one thing at a time!

A Weekend Away In Review

On our getaway this past weekend we...

Had a weird situation where part of the dash by the cigarette lighter on my current car popped out when I was trying to take the unit that charges our iPod out as we were heading into a restaurant for lunch. We ended up stopping by the service department at a nearby dealer and they fixed it for free, but the delay made us miss our chance to check our another vehicle at a dealership on the way to the concert by 25 minutes. Random strange things like this have happened several times over the last week as we've been going through a vehicle transition, at this point, we both feel like there's some kind of reason that we haven't been able to find the right next car yet. It's been frustrating, but it's one of those times where you have to believe that there is more than coincidence going on.

Visited my favorite place to buy fruit. They had 25 lb. boxes of nectarines for $7.50, so we bought two along with a box of peaches and a box of pears. None of the fruit is quite ready for canning yet, a few more days are needed for ripening. It is more than I'd planned on, but it was all a fantastic deal. A hundred pounds of fruit for about $35. I also bought my first hubbard squash, a beautiful specimen in the most gorgeous shade of blue, I will definately share pictures sometime soon.

Went to the DMB concert, with more of an intent to see G-Love and Special Sauce. It was raining pretty hard at first, though eventually the clouds did part some and we had a beautiful rainbow and a fantastic sunset to enjoy. I also bought my first pair of TOMS shoes at the concert, a little souvenier. They are a very comfortable pair of red canvas shoes, the design on them came from the creative mind of Dave Matthews himself, kind of cool! I love wearing them and I'm convinced that they will be my first but not my last pair of TOMS. By the way, TOMS is a very cool company, check it out if you've never heard of them!

Visited the farmer's market in Yakima on Sunday morning, there was an abundance of beautiful produce, we picked up a few things there to make dinners this week. It was also nice to be on the other side and be a "shopper" at the market. I've enjoyed being a vendor, but I'm glad that I decided to wind down my season early. I've appreciated my time to myself on the weekends much more.

Went to four wineries along the "Rattlesnake Trail"...it was my first time there and I enjoyed it. The wine country reminded me a little of the wine country in Livermore Valley near where I used to live. For about two years I worked part-time there in the tasting room of Murrieta's Well. I miss the atmosphere of wineries and the fun of being around other people that enjoy wine. Even though it's not really the husband's interest, he does make a point of suggesting we take a wine tasting trip about two or three times a year. So the wineries were beautiful, the wines we tasted were mostly really good. Most of the wineries specialize in late harvest sweet wines, I'm assuming because of the temperature there in the late fall and early winter. It was fun be able to try several sweet wines in a flight, I'm used to there typically being just one. It makes it easier to compare and decide what you like best when you can have them one after another or side by side.

So I'm back to the grind now. In the last day I've finished up 5 more nursing covers which fills 3 more orders. I have two more to make later in the week. That will bring my total since I started making them to 10. They get easier and easier to put together. They are not the most exciting thing to make, but because I've been making them for friends, it has felt special. I've found that when I know who it is that I am making something for, I end up thinking of that person as I do the sewing. A little bit of my heart goes into it every time I make something for a particular person...

One last thought, I wanted to thank those who have posted ideas and advice about my chicken situation...I read every comment, learn new things, and appreciate the feedback very much. It is all very new stuff to me, I've been learning as I go and gleaning information from folks who've had chickens longer than me...the waiting is frustrating, but I do like being able to share what is going on here.