toy camera

(photo taken with double exposure setting with PictureShow app; using toy camera + sepia on Camera+ app)

 

Just be.

These were encouraging words from the Daily Truths of the Brave Girls Club (daily emails), and the Lord knew I needed to hear those words today. 

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.  Romans 12:12

story time

aren't they cute?

Capture the Cruze

In February we went to the Portland Auto Show and Nate signed us up for the Capture the Cruze event to try and win a Chevy Cruze. The event took place yesterday in downtown Portland. We thought the odds were pretty decent (1 in 500) so we decided to participate. 

We arrived at Pioneer Square at 10am, signed in, got some free t-shirts, and froze our booties off until 11am. Luckily no rain! At 11am the SCVNGR trek began, and we embarked on a 2 hour hunt for locations on the trek. There was a total of 50 locations and at each location we had to answer some sort of question or solve a riddle. It kind of felt like a mini Amazing Race. So much fun! After 2 hours we had found 36 out of the 50 locations. 

We made our way back to Pioneer Square where they announced the winners but unfortunately we didn't win a new car. We had a lot of fun though and got in a great work out running around downtown!

Exhausted after a 2 hour adrenaline rush!

Friday

pizza. shopping for travel gear. amazing Blazer game (buzzer beater by Batum!). brownie sundae. movie with the hubs. and snuggles with my snuggle-bug. Perfect Friday night!

Euro Itinerary

Since we have just 2 weeks in Europe we decided to keep it simple and focus on just France and Italy. We know we will be back again someday to explore other parts of Europe.

This is our plan so far...

Paris: 2 days

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Venice: 1 day

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Florence: 2 days

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Rome: 3 days

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Cinque Terre: 2 days

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Pisa: half day

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France: 2 days

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travels

This past year has been a whirlwind of travels and we are getting ready to do some more exploring...

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Nate has been busy the last couple of months learning about airline miles and how to accumulate them quickly. Long story short... we opened up a credit card that allotted 75,000 American Airline miles after spending $1500 on it. Nate already had some miles with AA and found round trip tickets to Paris for 40,000 miles/per person. Score! Which means we will be exploring Europe in just a few short weeks! Ahhh! The planner in me is feeling a little bit overwhelmed, but I am trying to let that go. Neither of us have been to Europe and we know this will be the first of many trips there. Can't wait!

rosette blanket

A few months ago I found this flower rug on pinterest and was instantly inspired...

... and by inspired I mean ask my mother-in-law if she could make a blanket like this. She is quite talented at crocheting and she's been wanting me to pick out a design for a blanket for a while now. She said she would give it a try... I picked out some yarn... and she spent many many many hours creating this awesome hand-crocheted rosette blanket.

 

It's a great throw blanket for our family room and super warm & cozy. 

I love it! 

Thanks again Sharon!

magazine storage

Because we still get a gazillion magazines in the mail (we find free subscription deals) I was thinking I should try and find some other storage for them besides piling up on the ottoman. 

Today I found these rustic/shabby boxes at Marshalls.

I love the distressed wood (I think it might be cedar, because it sure smells like it), and the little chalkboards on the ends. I think I'll write His & Hers on them. 

I love new storage!

pray for Japan

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Praying for Japan and the thousands of people unaccounted for after the massive 8.9 earthquake and giant tsunami that crashed into their coastline on Friday. My heart aches for them.

fedora ♥

I've been admiring straw fedoras lately...

(via pinterest)

While making a quick stop at Target the other night I walked passed the accessories and spotted this cute fedora...

for only $12.99 I couldn't pass it up. So it came home with me.

 I decided to dress it up a little and pinned on a fabric rosette that I had made a while back for a headband. The little rosette is just attached by a hairpin so it can easily be changed out. 

Modeling my new hat. I love it! It will be the perfect hat for our summer cruisin' in the convertible.

healthy bread store

Last month we discovered Dave's Killer Bread at Winco and I was instantly hooked. This whole grain organic bread makes the best toast! I especially love the Blues bread. Then we randomly discovered the bakery in Milwaukie when we were out at Bob's Redmill. Right across the street! Of course we had to go check it out and found ourselves a great deal on some fresh bread. I think this may be a must-stop whenever we are in town visiting the 'rents. 

"just say no to bread on drugs!".

www.daveskillerbread.com

(photo edited using camera+ and PhotoStudio iPhone apps)

wish I was here...

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P.S. I would really love to have one of these Christian Chaize prints in my living room... and in this size would be just fabulous. 

elle decor

longing for summer

I've been dreaming of summer and warm weather lately. I told Nate this morning I'm ready to move to Texas or somewhere warm...

I'm a little bit obsessed with Anthropologie's swimwear right now. (I just wish it wasn't so expensive).

I may just have to give in and buy a new suit... especially that first one. It's just hard to splurge on something when I know I won't be able to wear it for 4+ more months. 

Maybe it's time for another trip to somewhere tropical...

pair of pears

I bought these fake pears/apples a few years ago to fill up this cute leaf wire basket. I've never really loved these faux pears and I've been really wanting to replace them lately with something else. 

While wasting time on Pinterest I came across this bookpage fruit. What a great idea! So I took this idea and ran with it. 

 Instead of using bookpages I used a few different pages of scrapbook paper. I will say that it would have been much easier to use book pages instead because of the thickness of the scrapbook paper. Each pear probably took at least an hour to decoupage with strips of the scrapbook paper. I would just turn on a Netflix movie and didn't seem so cumbersome.

Much better if I do say so.

They might also look nice on a tray, the mantel, or my shoe cabinet. Hmm...