happy holidays!...

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas!  We had a nice chill Christmas eve eating our favorite stew and playing Pictionary with my parents.  This morning the kiddos slept in until 8 (yay!) and then we opened presents, ate our traditional Christmas morning breakfast, and then waited until Jeremiah's parents got here before we took our Christmas nap and Jeremiah is out right now picking up some dinner.  Perfect day.

My last day at work was yesterday, and although my stomach is full of butterflies I am feeling really grateful and excited about my new adventure.

Also, since I have a birthday on January 1st and lots of goals for the new year, we have decided to actually write out a list of the things we want to get done in 2015.

• We are re-doing our kitchen!  We are going to paint our existing cabinets and update the countertops, hardware, backsplash, etc.  We have made all the choices and now we just need to take the plunge.
• I am getting my hair chopped!  Can't wait to show off my new look.
• I am traveling to Alaska and Europe in the new year (dates TBD).  I love to travel and since J isn't a big traveler, I have found pals to go with and we are pumped!
• I know it sounds funny, but I don't know anything about makeup.  :(  I have always relied on friends to help me with big parties or family pictures, but I think its about time to learn it myself.  I mean I am 36 years old.  Seriously.  But don't worry, I have a plan :)
• More Oregon adventures!  We have lots of plans for adventures in the new year:  kayaking, whale watching, and more. We are excited!!! 

So, we are signing off for the rest of the year!  Raise your glass to 2014 and raise it up even higher for 2015!

holiday party...

 

We had our party on Saturday and it was a great excuse to get together with friends!  As I mentioned before, my pal Hannah lent us the tables, chairs, plates, silverware, and glasses from her stock at Commonwealth.  When she came over, we thought a simple garland from Trader Joes (8 feet for $6.99) would be great and simple.  We mixed in a great bead garland my mom gave to us a few years ago along with brass candles and antlers.  I got the gray cardstock from 'Paper Source' and got the cute linen napkins from Acme ($25 for a roll of 25...cute, right?).  Hannah cut off sprigs of the garland to stick through the name cards for a simple and cute table setting.  It looked really nice with all the candles lit up at night to light up the room.

Jeremiah made pulled-pork sliders, lil' smokies, and we had some wine, milk & cookies, sparkling cider, and snacks for everyone.  All the guests brought a dish to share which included a chocolate Bundt cake, strawberry cheesecake, cream cheese shrimp cocktail dip, veggie trays, champagne, spinach dip, a green bean dish, etc.  It was all fantastic.  We have food for days over here!

Saturday morning, we had another party to go to which we were all very excited about:  A Santa breakfast!  It.Was.Awesome. 

All in all, it was a great weekend spent with great friends (and eating lots of great food).  By the way, Jeremiah got a little drunk at the party.  It was hilarious.  :)

holiday party prep...

 

 

We have our little holiday party on Saturday and we are pretty pumped.  I have found that having a "project" each year is good for my soul.  And although its a small task, especially when you have great friends to help, its still a good distraction from the chaos of the season to re-connect with friends.  We have only about 20 people coming (which is perfect) and all their kiddos.  Here is some inspiration to get anyone through the crazy holiday party season:

If you are interested in any links or info, they can found here.

map re-do...

So, quite a few years ago I found this beautifully framed vintage map.  It lived in several different rooms and it looked like this:

I always thought it was unique and charming, but I wanted to make it a little more 'dramatic' and bold.  I have a friend, Rosa, who is great at scripts so I asked her to help me.  We picked a font and a quote (I wanted to have a quote that was both somewhat travel-themed, and a good lesson for the kids to see everyday) and Rosa used a projector to put the script in a large font on the map itself.  This is how it looked before I painted it:

The kiddos and I hit Michael's Crafts a few weekends ago and picked up a large bottle of regular black paint (I didn't want a shiny finish or any sheen) and a few detail brushes.  It only took a few hours of painting (I had to do several coats) to turn it into this:

I am really happy with the way it turned out and love the way the map looks as the text.  Thanks so much to Rosa for helping me!!!  If you want her contact info for any script projects in the Portland area, email me. 

We hung it on the wall in the white family room above the comfy chair to the side of the sliding glass door.  It makes a big impact and hopefully sends a good message to all who see it:  "Climb mountains not so the world can see you, but so you can see the world."