weekending

We had a really good weekend, so good I thought it was necessary to blog about it with only iphone photos (which i rarely do). We didn't do anything extravagant, in fact we didn't do much of anything but it was exactly what we both needed.

On friday we were both craving chinese food so we drove to our favorite place 20 minutes north and chowed down. Their portions are ginormous and its always fresh and not greasy tasting (chinese food can be so scary). I could probably eat their fried rice everyday.

Later friday I remembered one of the frozen yogurt places nearby starting serving pineapple dole whip (the kind you can usually only find at disney parks or hawaii). Just one little google search will show you that people go CRAZY for this stuff! Me and josh were so fascinated by the cult following it has plus it sounded really good so we got some! It was my first time trying it and i have to say: It definitely lives up to the hype. It's SO refreshing (and dairy free!). We even got some to-go to keep in our freezer. When we got home I was already looking up where I could buy the concentrate so I could make it all the time. Have you ever had it?? If not and there's a Menchies frozen yogurt chain in your area, chances are they have it. You HAVE to try it!



Saturday I somehow convinced Josh to go grocery shopping with  me (love when that happens), we walked to get some coffee and then took a long nap. We also made these buffalo baked pickle chips and they were really good!



And today (which is technically the start of our work week) we picked up a donut from the cutest little shop, Coco donuts. It's a coffee shop also and I have a feeling we'll be frequenting this place quite a bit. Lavender latte anyone?? And also rose water latte?? Excited to have found you Coco donuts!



And that was our weekend! I guess it all revolved around food but most good weekends do right?? ;)

Only a couple days left in april! Hope they treat you well!

currently

Watching: Downton Abbey. I finally gave this a shot after hearing nothing but good things about it. I have to say the first season was a little hard to get into, there are SO many characters and I found myself looking at wikipedia after every episode to figure it out. I'm loving it now though, I just finished season 2 and now i'm trying to figure out where I can watch season 3. I  also got caught up with parenthood about a month ago and I tried finishing the second season of American horror story but it got creepy/weird and was giving me nightmares so I stopped.

Hating: taking my vitamins. after years i am still such a baby about this! i start to feel gaggy even just thinking about it.  i've found taking them with juice is WAY better but i still avoid it all day. Am i the only one? any tricks that make it easier?

Feeling: Thankful! April has been full of all kinds of emotions, but mostly the good sappy kind. And it's been a busy month. Hence why the blog has been ignored. Also, super thankful to have a new (to us) car. Our previous one bit the dust a few weeks ago and we spent two weeks relying on other people or public transportion (the worst!). Despite the inconvenience i am so grateful for friends who took me grocery shopping during that time (you're the best sarah!!) and now we're stoked to have a prius (typical portlanders...)

Eating: a really amazing piece of hazelnut chocolate. I've been off sugar again, but I get one day a week to enjoy something sweet (which happens to be today!). It's really doable for me and it feels good to not be eating sugar every day. You should try this method if you need to cut back on sugar, it doesn't feel too limiting.

Excited about: putting some new items in my store soon! I have quite a few new accessories, as well as some new dresses/prints for ladies and babies! Look for those in May! I'm hoping by announcing that it'll give me the motivation to actually work long days and not just take naps ;)


Thats all for now! Play along in the comments if you'd like! Hope you all have an amazing week

WEARS 01 // easter

We had such an amazing easter, there wasn't much to it but it was special. For some reason we woke up at 7:30am (which does NOT happen on the weekends), but i'll chalk that up to the sun shining bright in our room. We traded some small gifts, not sure why we still do this but its a fun excuse to spoil each other a little. Then we ate breakfast and lounged around. I dropped him off at work then spent some time with family, celebrating easter and birthdays. We ended the day at our church, with a beautiful service.

Before we ran out the door josh took some photos of me... this is me trying to document more daily stuff and not just flowers ;). I bought this dress recently with a gift card and I'm excited its finally nice enough outside to wear it. i haven't owned a white dress in a long time but i love it. Confession: I wasn't ready to go tightless just yet but i felt insecure about wearing black tights with a white dress, so i searched for that combo on pinterest and million things came up which gave me the confidence i needed. (thank you pinterest!)

Hope your easter was lovely too!


P.s. i cut a few inches off my hair. it feels SO much better but also so short, i almost feel bald. Crazy that a few inches can feel so different! Glad to have the crunchy ends gone though

spring blooms

I've said it before and I'll say it again.. Spring is the prettiest time of the year in Portland. It may still be pretty drizzly but every street is decked out with blooming white, pink or yellow trees.. I seriously gasp in awe all the time (ask my husband, it freaks him out). The other day we went out for a walk and I brought some scissors so i could steal a few blooming branches to put in a vase. Added to my ever changing collection of fresh flowers... who have i become?


On a totally different note, March was kind of a weird month... I was pretty unmotivated in my work, which wasn't my favorite. I think it was the remnants of feeling burnt out from too much work in jan/feb. I'm not a very good boss for myself but i'm learning! I could probably write a never ending post on what to do/don't do when you run a business (or two)...oh the mistakes i've made! (I'm still the WORST at email correspondence, its tragic). Today I sat down and wrote out a new schedule for myself so i guess its safe to say i'm back to my motivated self.



P.S. the other day I came up to our room and saw these two babies hugging while sleeping... is that not the most precious thing you've ever seen? i can't even handle it!

the second week of march

so far it's looked a little like this..

1. pretty flowers from my husband on a bad day
2. wearing a favorite dress
3. new magazines
4. and a new succulent to add to the collection








5. washing sheets and bedding (i looove clean sheets)

6. sewing a mountain pillow, because everyone needs one of those right??

7. cleaning the bathroom

8. new paints to play around with 

Other than that, i've been catching up on work, organizing closets and avoiding returning emails (i'm so good at that). It's an exhilarating life I live.... ha!
Just kidding.. i'm actually loving this season of life i'm in, trying to work hard but also take time for myself to do fun things like paint or sew something for myself or even read a book. It keeps the creativity alive.


p.s. did you see that google reader will be retiring July 1st? i'm bummed! i've been an avid google reader user for many years. I need to look for the next best thing... what blog reader will you use when it's gone? (or maybe you already use something else...?)

vitamin D changed my life

That title sounds a little bit dramatic but seriously...

For the past couple months i've been so tired all day.. like falling asleep at the computer tired even after getting 8 hours of sleep at night. Fatigue all day, everyday... it felt like a truck hit me. (I was sometimes napping twice in one day!) Not to mention, i was getting a headache like clockwork around 3 or 4pm.
I went to my doctor a couple weeks ago to get some blood work done to make sure i wasn't dying of cancer or something, and it turns out I was extremely deficient in vitamin D (which is pretty common in portland)

I bought a little bottle of the vitamins at whole foods and guess what... i haven't felt tired since. I've seriously had more energy than i've had in a long time and my mind feels crystal clear. I don't know how this is possible but i'm just glad it is. This tiny little vitamin is a life saver.

Thank you vitamin D!

p.s. seriously, if you have some of these symptoms it's worth a shot. Start with a lower dosage or get your blood levels checked to know exactly what to take. I take 5,000 IUs but its more common that people only need 250. i'm not a doctor so maybe you should talk to yours first... but a small amount probably wouldn't hurt.

23 goals // add a mile each month

At the beginning of the year I jotted down some goals for 2013. They range from "Make cheese at least once" to "go to NYC" to "get a new tattoo". I'll share about them here as I accomplish them... something to keep me accountable.
One on-going one that'll run throughout the year is "Add a mile each month". So I started with running one mile 5-6 days a week in January, upped it to 2 in february, and come friday it'll be 3. These are the easy months, talk to me in july or august... yikes! I think this will be a really good plan for me. I've been a runner since I was a teenager but mostly just 3-5 miles a day so i'm looking forward to getting a little more accomplished in my running.

To be honest, I haven't been working out super consistently since this time last year.. i was running and doing workout dvds here and there but over the summer and through fall and winter i was having some health issues (extremely nauseous 24/7, super fatigue, bad stomach pain) and working out worsened it so i just gave it up completely until i got things sorted out. It's mostly gone now except for the occasional nauseous days but overall, i'm feeling a MILLION times better.

Running again has been great, i'm pretty out of shape as far as my lungs are concerned but 7 months off will do that to you. I've also been doing ballet beautiful 3 times a week (which is AMAZING by the way) and stretching 20 minutes a day (trying to get my flexibility back but my ballet days... we'll see how that goes!).

Hooray for getting to be active again! Does anyone else want to do this "add a mile each month" with me??

to the mountain...pt.1

On monday we headed 60 miles east to play in some snow. We drank some overpriced nasty coffee at timberline lodge. Punched the powdery snow (its really satisfying, you should try it). Trudged through tons of deep snow until my toes almost froze off... tip: rain boots keep your feet dry but not warm. 

We had originally planned to go sledding or renting some snow shoes but we weren't dressed appropriately... we were so cold! (next time!)

So instead we just walked around and admired how beautiful everything looked. That sounds lame.. but when you aren't used to seeing that much snow you do some serious admiring.  

It's amazing how often i forget how close we live to such beautiful places... I like these reminders.