Lavender Kay

I bought this cute card with the letter P on it at a charming thrift store in Portland. Jonathan’s apartment in Portland is in one of the cutest neighborhoods in Portland and it is filled with lovely shops and restaurants. This card is a little bigger than a 5×7 card and also has a neat illustration on the back. I want to use it as decor. in our home but I can’t quite decide how. Or maybe I want to make a DIY project with it. I can’t decided! Any ideas?!

Happy Friday everyone!  What are your plans for the weekend?  Jonathan and I plan to have a very fun but relaxing weekend because he starts one of his hardest rotations on Monday.  He will actually have to spend the entire month out of town at another hospital.  Since I can’t go with him, we want to have as much fun as we can before he has to leave.  While he is away I have made some travel plans to visit friends.  One of the places I am going to is Austin, TX to visit my friend Leah, and I am SO excited.  It is such a bummer that Jonathan has to be away for a month but I am trying to make the most of it.

The above pictures are from when Jonathan and I went blueberry picking last weekend.  We had heard from a lot of people in Corvallis that it is a MUST-DO thing in the area.  And I agree with the locals, it was wonderful!  And the blueberries were oh-so-tasty!  One of the things I used them for was the toppings on my cupcakes which you can see here.

While we were out picking blueberries, we decided to go to some other farms and pick up some fresh vegetables while we were out.  We picked some yummy tomatoes and Jalapeño peppers and made an amazing salsa fresca along with a couple other tasty things.  I am sharing this because it turned out to be a really fun date that I want to suggest to you if you are looking for something to do on one of your last summer Saturdays.  We spent the morning picking fruits and vegetables and then took them home to cook up a fun summer picnic.  Then we packed up all our stuff and went to the park with all our fresh foods and had an al fresco picnic.  It was fantastic and I highly recommend it.

Happy Friday!

I found my goal list I wrote for our year in Corvallis today.  I wrote this a few weeks before we moved.  This list has been on my mind throughout our time here but I kind of lost track of it over the last month.  But I had been giving a lot to my goals this morning and decided to go looking for my goal list.  It felt so good to go through this and update all the things I have accomplished.  Before I went through my list I had been feeling like I hadn’t done much to attain these goals but after going through it I realized I had actually accomplished 8 out of the 13 things!

I think goals are very important.  Sometimes I don’t like to write down goals for myself because I am worried I won’t follow through with them and then it will just make me feel bad!  Have you ever felt that way?  But that is exactly why we need to write them (well not the feeling bad part).  But I believe it is so important to make goals for ourselves and write them down because they are a constant reminder of the direction we would like to take in our lives.  Also, if you are anything like me, you know it also feels good to be able to check things off your list.  Have you ever wrote something on your list you have already done just so you can check it off?  I definitely have!

Another important thing to do when working through your goals is take time to re-evaluate your goals.  Sometimes as we start working through out goals we realize some of them aren’t important to us anymore or maybe they just aren’t applicable.  That is ok!  When I started going through my list, I realized there were a few things I didn’t want to do anymore but there were also a couple things I wanted to add to my list.  It felt good to re-evaluate and focus on where I want to go in the next couple of months.

Well, thank you for listening to my thoughts.  I hope you all have a fabulous Thursday!  It is almost the weekend!!

(Photo Source: my iPhone)

Today I wanted to share with you a cool restaurant Jonathan and I went to in Corvallis.  The restaurant is called American Dream Pizza and by almost all accounts it looks like just a normal pizza place.  But what is so cool and different about this place is that in the summer time they have rooftop dining!  And it is fabulous!  We went there just as the sun was setting (which was a perfect time because it wasn’t so hot!) and it was bustling with people.  We got to sit at a cute picnic table with a view of downtown.  They also have fantastic drinks and a great happy hour menu.  Jonathan and I had a wonderful time and would love to take you there if you visit Corvallis anytime soon!

Happy Monday!  I have another color palette for you today.  I think I was channeling fall when I did this.  All this heat is making me excited for Autumn.  Have a wonderful day!

(anthropologie.com)

Here is a fun recipe from Martha Stewart that I tweeked a bit.  We made it the other night and it was super yummy.  It is perfect for a hot summer day.  Enjoy!

Ingredients:

2 cups of strawberries, rinsed and hulled
1/3 cup light rum
1/4 cup water
3 Tbsp of sugar
1 fresh lime, juiced
Pinch of coarse salt
Garnish: strawberries

Puree strawberries, rum, water, sugar, lime juice, and salt in a blender until smooth. Divide among 14 3-ounce paper cups. Freeze on a rimmed baking sheet for at least 5 hours. Garnish with strawberries.

Good morning!  Today I have some exciting news to share with you.  I posted the above picture because it makes me feel so cheerful and happy – just like the news I am about to share!

This has been in the works for awhile now but yesterday I signed up for my first graphic design classes!  I am so excited and can hardly contain my joy!  I am never one to get very excited about school (actually I REALLY don’t like school) but this time around I think it will be different.  After talking with the director of the program and reading through all the classes, I think it is a great fit for me.  I have been considering going back to school for awhile but it was never been the right time or the right program.  But now is the time and I can’t wait!

Jonathan and I decided this year would be a perfect year for me to go back to school since we are in a very random transition in our lives and will only be living in Oregon for a year before we move again.  Also, Jonathan is doing his intern year of Residency this year and traditionally, this is the hardest year in all his training.  Because we know this year will be so busy for him, I thought this would be a good time to be in school since I will spend a lot of time at campus and on homework.

I am a little nervous too.  I haven’t been a student for a long time and I think it will be weird being back in the classroom.  But I believe this is exactly where I need to be right now and I think this is the right challenge for me to take this year.  Have you ever been afraid of doing something but feel it is exactly what you need to do?

So cheers to art and new beginnings!  I hope you have a wonderful day friends.

*Photo source: Pinned by Lis Stanley and originally from The Sweetest Occasion

Happy Friday!  I have a few fun pictures to share from our Colorado trip earlier this week.  We had SO much fun spending time in Colorado and visiting with friends.  The weather was really hot and we got to experience a lot of thunder/lighting/rain storms while we were there – which I love!  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Happy August!  Can you believe it is already August?!  Do you have any big plans for this month?  Jonathan and I just got back from Colorado and we had the most fabulous time!  One of Jonathan’s best friends from college lives near Denver so we flew in to visit him and his family.  It was so fun to explore a new place and have some quality time with friends.

Have a great day!

Welcome to color palette Monday! It looks like Mondays are turning into color palette days. I don’t know if I will keep it this way but I am going to keep this Monday column for now. Today I chose a color palette that has many beautiful neutral tones with just a pop of color. I love how these colors interact with one another. And they are colors I wouldn’t necessarily choose otherwise but together they are perfect.

*Photo Source: The Jew in J.Crew