3rd love of my life - loon lake

Behind my Lord and my husband of course. I hesitate to even post the name of this lake in fear that it will result in an overcrowding of my getaway locale. However, based on the fact that in reality no one reads this, I did. Loon Lake is my happy place. Not that I'm not happy in other spots too (especially when I'm with my husband), but this is just the creme de la creme for me. My entire family goes for at least one week every summer and my relatives have been going since before my dad was born. It's in our blood. You just can't beat the sandy beach, sunshine, special snacks, horseshoes, games, campfires, family time, and traditions that have been repeated summer after summer after summer. Here's a few snapshots from our time this year....

late night board games:
sandcastles with our niece and nephew:
a loon lake tradtion- lil smokies roasted over the fire:
kickin it at the beach:

love at the beach:

the whole gang:

lunch time:

fellowship . friendship . feasting . & fireworks

We rounded out our two weeks of housesitting by having our dear german friends come and stay with us our last two nights. For the story of how we first met go here. It is incredible that we have spent less than a total of a week with them, and yet the likemindedness is so apparent. The fellowship that we have with other believers is deep and true and intimate. We are so thankful that the Lord has blessed us with these special friends who we met under very special circumstances.

We spent our two days at the mansion hanging by the pool, taking them fishing for the first time (where Pete caught his first fish), cooking delicious meals together, talking, laughing, hot tubbing, and chasing the beefalo. And of course we had to show them a decent small town fourth of July celebration, so we took them to the Naches firework display on the 3rd of July. Apparently Naches has so much americana running through it's blood that they celebrate our independence on the third and fourth of July!

Early Sunday morning we packed up, said goodbye to the mansion and drove to Seattle. Pete and Olga had been listening to Mark Driscoll's sermons online throughout their 7 month trip around the world so we went to church at Mars Hill so they could experience the real deal. Lucky for us our dear friend Joey lives in Seattle and is the best host/tour guide around. We spent the rest of that day and the next touring Seattles hot spots, chocolate shops, markets, parks, skyline views, trolls under the bridge, and a few little restaurants (delicious doughnut shop, gyros, southern bbq). There was also a little 4th of July bbq, a board game, and some rock band thrown in for good measure. The things we did were special and fun, but the relationships were our favorite part. I think it's safe to say we all ended the weekend encouraged by the friendships and the time spent in deep, meaningful conversations. To have this kind of love for our friends and brothers is overwhelming and made us walk away from the weekend with our hearts filled with praise for our God.

house sitting in paradise

We are currently house sitting for Jake's boss. They asked us to come watch their beautiful home for two weeks while they took their family on vacation. When I say beautiful, I mean large gigantic new construction mansion. Some of the perks are two hot tubs (one private one off the master bedroom complete with fire torches and a waterfall, and one built into the pool), a theater/game room (complete with ginormous movie screen, a pool table, arcade games, air hockey, and a large comfy couch to lounge on), an outdoor area to die for (imagine pool, outdoor shower, humongous bbq, propane fire pit, outdoor fireplace, two hot tubs, basketball court, fire torches, narnia lamps...), a library, and a state of the art kitchen. Oh and did I mention at least one flat screen tv in every room, including our guestroom suite? It is such a fun treat for us!

We've been soaking in the pool time, cable tv, and cooking great food in the gourmet kitchen. Bonus to this house sitting job is that they only have one outdoor cat to feed daily, and some plants to water. They also have a 20 head Beefalo (mix of cow and buffalo) ranch, that we have to run irrigation for and mow. But any time that Jake spends working on those projects, he gets to knock off his work week. It really is like a two week vacation at a resort somewhere and I am loving and appreciating every moment.

from the front:

the bbq got a lot of use while we were there:beautiful dining room/kitchen area:
taking care of the beefalo:
the private, fully stocked fishing pond:
from the back of the house:

homemade knockoffs

Recently, while perusing crafty homemaker blogs I have run across multiple recipes imitating delicious store bought treats. Lately, I've had time to give a few of them a go...

Example numero uno: homemade oreos. Recipe here.
Delightful rendition of the classic. The filling was spot on, the cookie was a little off, but still rather delicious. Refrigerate for a hard cookie to dip, store on the counter for a softer chewy version.
Example numero dos: homemade samoas. Recipe here.
Excellent resemblance to the household favorite. Punching the holes got a little messy and time consuming. Would be easier to make in bar form.
Example numero tres: homemade cinnabons. Recipe here.
One of my favorites! A dead ringer in our books. Will be making again and again.
It's hard to replicate these products to the T, but I was highly satisfied with the outcome of each of these recipes. Definitely will be making them all again.

the longer the time between postings...

...the more projects I have to share in one post. That's the only excuse I could come up with for such an atrocious length of time since I've been on here. Not that anyone really reads these anyways. Anywho, here a couple projects I've been working on in the time that's past.

This wrist pin cushion, inspired by this tutorial. Because I was just getting tired of my boring old red one.

This wet sack, inspired by this tutorial. It was my first attempt at a zipper - successful. It's regular fabric on the outside, but lined with plastic on the inside. I'm so excited to try it out! I thought it would be perfect for throwing wet swimsuits into this summer.

These two tank top refashions. My wardrobe was starting to feel drab and redundant, so I decided to spice things up a little. Playing around with various concepts is not only a fun creative outlet, but also good sewing practice.

Before: just a plain old ribbed tank

After:

Before: free camisole hand me down from my mom

After:

commissioned

Since I've gotten into sewing, I have been commissioned to do various projects for family members/friends. Here is yet another project, accomplished with no pattern or idea of how to construct it. I would say I'm a fly by the seat of my pants kind of sewer. Leave the perfect tailoring and finishing to someone who actually knows what they're doing. This is a bouncy seat that my sister in law wanted recovered. She requested that the pink, girly flowers be replaced by something fitting for their new little man (so he wouldn't be called a sissy). An old grey corduroy shirt did the trick.

Before:

After:

you've got to be joking me

Let me start by saying I HATE car problems. They're right up there with having to go to the doctor and pay a gazillion dollars to have them tell you to drink some water. That being said, let me recap the last month of our lives. In April we planned to go to Eugene for Easter to celebrate with my family, only to find that our trusty old corolla wouldn't start. The trip was cancelled and we found out it was a fuse blowing that kept the car from shifting into gear. Easy fix until two days later we blew a head on it (resulting in an estimated $2000 fix).

Here she is: The "Trusty" Corolla

Current status: We're still driving it even though it only gets up to 50mph and the break lights don't work, and are trying to figure out the best solution for fixing it or selling it

So we started driving our old trooper more. Jake drove it into work a couple weeks ago and couldn't get it started again to come home. We found out later that the timing belt had snapped (luckily it didn't happen on the road, keeping it from damaging more parts of the car).

Here it is: The "Pooper" Trooper

Current Status: Just payed to have it towed up to where we're living, and are hoping to have a friend come help us fix it this weekend

Then we found an old subaru on craigslist with lowish miles on it. It checked out at the mechanic (other than needing new brakes) so we bought it, thinking we got a good deal on it. The first day we had it we strapped our 8' aluminum boat to the top to go fishing. 5 minutes into our drive, the boat flew off and majorly scratched and dinged up the passenger side. Yesterday as Jake was driving it into work he blew a flat tire. He took it in after work and we had to replace all the tires ($190). Yikes!

Here it is: The "New" Addition

Current Status: Still needs brakes replaced, and figuring out if we can buff out the scratches from our little mishap.

Moral of the story: Car troubles suck. They have hit us all at once on every car we have! BUT God is good and we are thankful to be provided for.

P.S. - If you see us stranded on the side of the road in one of these vehicles, please don't hesitate to 1)laugh & 2) stop to help. Thank you.

a couple of little dresses

I love my little niece! She is such a sweet little joy, and she gives me an excuse to try new sewing projects. Recently I made a couple of dresses, one from a man's dress shirt, and one from some scrap fabric. I had no patterns and am not the best at finishing yet, so they are a little rough in places. However, it is so cool to me to be able to take a piece of fabric and an idea in your mind and turn it into something functional! Here they are:

oh man, terrible photo, but the only one I got before I gave it to her...
Loving ruffles these days!

getting organized

It is such a dream to have all this free time in my life right now to craft, sew, clean, cook, and create! Recently, I was inspired to create something that will help me get organized in the kitchen. It seems like every other week when grocery shopping time rolls around that I have to pull out all my recipe books and random recipe cards that I have on file, flip through them and pick out which meals I want to make for the next couple weeks. It kind of ends up taking forever and I end up forgetting a lot of our go to meals simply because I don't have them written down.

Not anymore (hopefully). I decided to sew a piece of fabric with clear pockets on it - 28 pockets which equals 4 weeks worth of pockets. Then I went through all my recipes once and for all and threw out the ones we didn't care too much for, and kept the ones that were our favorites or go to's. Next I typed them all up onto little business size cards with the ingredients on the front and the directions on the back. My wonderful husband laminated them at work for me. Now I have this little recipe pocket with 40 or so recipes on cards that I can fill it with for a months worth of meal planning all rolled into one. It makes it so easy to go grocery shopping as I can just scan the cards for those weeks. During the week it helps to not have to dig out the recipe, and to know ahead of time what will be for dinner on that night. Some of the cards say "leftovers", "new recipe", or "frozen pre-made meal" on them cause let's be realistic - who cooks every single night?

another little nephew!

My sister in law had a sweet little baby on April 9th! Her and my brother now have two little ones - Eden and Lucas, and my sister and her husband have two little ones as well - Joshua and Madelyn. That brings us to a grand total of 4 nieces and nephews so far. They are so sweet and we love being their uncle and aunt!

pillow redesign

I have recently been into sewing pillow cases. I don't have a pattern, but they are so easy (and very forgiving if they are a little off). We got this pillow when we were first married and to be honest, I never really liked the fabric. So finally, two and a half years later, I decided to recover it. The cost is so cheap in comparison to buying a pillow cover- we're talking about .50 cents!

Here is the (boring!) before:

and the after:

easter extravaganza

This easter we were planning on driving down to Eugene to celebrate with my family with a pit stop in Portland along the way to say hello to my in-laws. We were so excited, Jake had even taken a half day off so we could start our trek early.. Friday morning came, we were all packed and ready to go and not only was it snowing, but our car wouldn't shift into any gears. Bummer! After trying to figure out an alternative mode of transportation, or how to fix our car, or if the passes were clear enough to get down to where we needed to go, we were forced to stay in Yakima for easter. Not the worst case scenario considering my brother and sister-in-law and niece live up here, but still sad to miss celebrating with the rest of our families. Good thing the main reason for celebrating is that our Lord has risen from the grave! That was one thing that wasn't going to change!

We ended up going to see baby chicks with our sweet little niece, going to church, and having a lovely meal of honey ham, garlic mashed potatoes, lemon-almond green beans, thyme bread, peach jello salad (a family tradition), and raspberry lemon bars for dessert. Our niece had a fun little egg hunt and opened her easter basket, and we had a lovely time playing games and relaxing with the family we did have in town!

us:
our delicious meal:
eden, so excited to find an egg!
Jake & Eden petting baby chicks: