Quick Catch Up: Part 3

In the midst of all the fun summer activities and getaways, we've also been busting out tons of projects at our new home. New light fixtures, trim, painting kitchen cabinets/walls/fireplace, flooring, toilets, vanities, light sockets/plates, cleaning gutters, trimming trees, building shelves, sewing curtains, making curtain rods, getting doors for closets- just about all the basic changes you can make we've done. Most of it has fallen on Jake since I'm not able to do much these days. Here are some before and afters:

kitchen:

 living room:

 

dining room:

bathroom:

 

Quick Catch Up: Part 2

In an attempt to try not to overload you on the first catch up, here's what else we've been up to in our absence on here: 

celebrated our 5 year anniversary at the coast- eating whenever we wanted, napping in the sun, renting funcycles, enjoying just being together:

 we found a hidden spot on the river that we enjoyed the last few hot days of summer lounging and swimming and reading at:

 I had a couple of lovely showers:

Quick Catch Up: Part 1

Holy smokes, it's been way to long since I've updated this thing. I think I'll do a couple quick posts to hopefully get caught up to date. Time is flying by-don't know if I should blame it on the pregnancy, or just life being busy. Here are some things we've been up to in the last couple months:

went to the beach with friends for the day:

 went fishing with friends:

 been picking produce every week for the CSA baskets at Jake's farm:

 went to Bend for a weekend to visit Jake's grandparents. Ate a delicious restaurants, went paddle boarding, and celebrated Jake's birthday:

 celebrated Jake's birthday- just the two of us in Portland. Had cinnamon rolls together for breakfast, hiked Oneonta trail in the gorge (a hike that you have to wade through water down an Indiana Jones ish gully to get to a hidden waterfall), ate at some of the places that are free on your birthday (Mongolian Grill, Dutch Bros), and had gifts and cake at home.

went to our church's family camp for a weekend:

Yard Sale Friday

My usual partner in crime- Hanna- wasn't able to join me this week, but I had an excellent substitute. My friend Melinda braved the early morning to scour Tualatin for some hidden treasures, and hidden treasures we found.

lampshade: .50 cents
nail gun: $2.00
level: .50 cents
chop saw (with brand new blade: $20
spray texture: .50 cents
pantry shelf organizer: .50 cents
The Busy World of Richard Scarey- Cars & Trucks/ Where's Waldo: .75 cents
crocheted baby blanket: .25 cents
aqua bumbo seat (the exact one I registered for!!): $1.00
bumbo tray attatchment: $2.00
vintage, dovetailed drawer, library card holder (I am SO in love with this and have plans to redo it): $6.00

Total: $34

We got a house

After months and months of looking, breaking ties with one realtor who wasn't really working for us, seeing the market slow down and less and less houses becoming available for more and more money, and putting offers in on 3 other houses, we finally found a home for us. It's not our dream style of house, but we are so thankful to have found a place in a great location, on a cul de sac, with great neighbors, with no major problems, that's got a great layout, with enough space to bring our sweet little baby girl home to! We're hoping to close on June 13th.

Yard Sale Friday

A decent day of yard saling with my friend Hanna. No big purchases, but with moving to a new house looming I found quite a few project materials for super cheap, as well as a few baby items...

Classic children's books ("Goodnight Moon", a couple Dr. Seuss books, and "Richard Scarey's Best Word Book Ever"): .25 cents each = $1

BBQ cover: $1.50

Polyurethane: Free

Paint Rollers, Paint Guide, Wood Putty, Sanding Belt, Grey Paint, Screws: $1.25

Chevy Chase Christmas Vacation: .50 cents

Cabinet Child Locks: .50 cents

Brand New Yankee Candle: .50 cents

Picture Frame/Gutter Guard (to make jewelry holders): $1.25

Leap Pad & 4 books/cartridges: $2

Total: $8.50

Yard Sale Friday

Well I finally had a yard sale buddy go with me this week. My sweet friend Hanna was available to join me on my search for cheap treasures, and it was so nice to have some company. We hit up a neighborhood yard sale in Wilsonville and crossed some items off my "to find at a yard sale" list, got a few items for simple updating at our new house, plus a couple of fun finds. 

brand new schwinn bike pump: $3.00

brand new agricola (german strategy game usually $50-$70): $3.00

soap pump: .50 cents

2 strands of Christmas lights: free

scentsy plug in: .50 cents

white organizer box: .25 cents

Sandra Boynton book-"One, Two, Three": .25 cents

*not pictured: 

shop vac: $5.00

10 lb box of tile grout: $2.00

166 -12x12 ceramic tiles (to be used to tile our new houses bathrooms): $25

TOTAL: $39.50

It's a...

Healthy baby! We had our big 19 week ultrasound to find out what we're having and more importantly measure the heart, brain, and body of our little baby. How fun it was to see our little baby now with distinguishable parts (as opposed to our 10 week ultrasound where it looked like a little bean), flipping all around inside my tummy. What an absolute miracle. Lying on the table I remember just thanking the Lord every time our ultrasound tech said "there's the ________, it looks normal." Another overwhelming sense of thankfulness came after she went over it with a doctor and came back in the room and announced it was a "perfect baby". What a blessing! Our ultrasound tech was a little grumpy, and didn't take or give us the best pictures of our little one, but the news we received was the best. Oh, and we found out we're having a little girl!!! Not what either of us had pictured, but so incredibly excited!

Yard Sale Friday

One of my favorite seasons is upon us. Summer. Not only for the heat, outdoor activities, and time off, but also for the yard sales! Although I terribly miss the weekly tradition I had going with my dear friends in Yakima, I have began to venture out a few Friday's on my own down here in Wilsonville and hope to recruit a few friends to join me eventually. Despite despising yard sales, Jake so patiently went with me to a few last Saturday and I was stoked on our finds.

large wood frame (will probably be used to make a chalkboard), 5 strands of Christmas lights, 2 timers, an excessive amount of replacement bulbs: $2.00 

elastic, zippers, velcro, 8 drawer pulls, 3 knobs: .50 cents

soap dish, metal measuring spoon set, lazy susan (for organizing kitchen cupboards): .50 cents

24 Bernstein bear books (pretty much the entire collection): $4.00

4 small garage hooks, 2 large garage hooks, 1 badminton birdie: $1.00

total: $8.00

FOOD show

My dad works in the food business. What a fun industry to be a part of! Lucky for me he was invited to a food show here in Portland, and (knowing how incredibly fun they are) he got extra tickets for my mom, my sister, and I. What is a food show you might ask? It's basically Costco sampling on crack. Rows and rows and rows of vendors line up their tables and give out free samples of their product. However unlike Costco giving you small little tastes, you are given full on sliders, ribs, lattes, ice cream bars, pulled pork sandwiches, shrimp, beer, wine, cakes, cookies, teas, smoothies, yogurts, chips, fries, soups... you get the picture. There is literally offered everything under the sun, and you just get to walk around and eat whatever you want for free. Being 18 weeks pregnant and just coming out of the nauseousness phase, it is not exaggerating to say this was a dream. Jake got to join us on his lunch break for an hour, which was great! Oh and on top of walking around and gorging yourself, they also give you a bag upon arrival that you fill up with packaged samples to take home. We were there from 9-4. It was a lovely day.

the booty

Feather Your Nest

I know I've written before about a shabby chic home boutique that my sister in law and a couple of friends put on in Yakima, WA. It was time for this years spring edition (the boutique is held twice a year during the spring and the fall). Even though we've moved south 3 1/2 hours, I still was eager to participate. I'm slowly and constantly creating items in prior months with Feather Your Nest in the back of my head the whole time. But it isn't until a couple weeks before the event that I kick it in to high gear trying to bust out multiples of all the crafts I have stock piled on Pinterest. Luckily, it all got done in time and I sent up quite the inventory of handmade dolls, diaper clutches, crinkle toys, pup tents, wreathes, knit scarves, hair clips, bow ties, and zippered pouches. Thankfully it was a super successful event for me. Not only is it a blessing to make a little extra income, but even more so to realize that people actually like the stuff that I create enough to purchase it.

Easter Weekend

We had a lovely weekend celebrating our Savior's resurrection! Friday night we got to play tennis with our friends Chris and Katie. Saturday we had our usual cinnamon rolls while watching survivor. Then we headed out to the farm and worked on tilling the rows and planting some of the starts from the greenhouse into the ground. Later that evening we headed to Jake's parents house and helped them begin to pack (they have to be out of their house by April 25th), baked and prepared food for Easter dinner, and hung out a little. Sunday morning we went to church at Athey Creek and it was so encouraging to hear a bunch of people give their life to Christ! Jake and stopped by home to pick up our desserts to take and give each other Easter baskets, then headed out to the Antis's for Easter dinner. It ended up being so lovely and sunny that most of the day was spent lounging on the patio and playing lawn games. We ate to our hearts content and also played a few strategy games as well. We ended our day by stopping by the farm to quickly spread a little slug bate. It was a productive, fruitful, and festive weekend.

It's Been Awhile

Reality is that no one really reads this blog on a regular basis. It is more a form to document life happenings for our family then to blow up into a megablog at this point. That being said, I haven't posted in quite some time due to some big changes going on that I finally needed to document. We are currently pregnant with our first little one! I am 13 weeks along, and due in mid October. We are stoked. Other then constant nauseousness, tiredness, increased peeing (I used to sleep completely through the night, solid as a rock!), and a sore chest everything is going super well. We had our first ultrasound at 9 weeks and saw our little one's heartbeat for the first time. We opted not to do any genetic testing (as it would never change our mind on wanting to keep the little one), but our doctor did recommend that we get tested for being cystic fibrosis carriers as it would change our prenatal care if our baby was found to have it. Unfortunately, I tested positive for being a carrier. Thankfully though, Jake is not a carrier meaning there is no possible chance our baby could have it. It is a constant miracle to have the Lord fashioning a life inside of my womb. With all the worries that can easily creep in about your child's well being, He has given us a perfect peace in knowing that everything is in His hands. We are excited to learn from the Lord as we trust Him to fashion us into parents who train up our child to love and fear Him. So thankful for this little blessing, and my sweet husband!

Some New Items In My Etsy Shop

As far as crafting goes, I have a lot of mood swings. Some weeks it's all I can think about to constantly be busting out new projects, or producing multiples of one to put in my etsy shop. Then other weeks I'm just busy with working and day to day upkeep of life and don't touch a single piece of fabric or my sewing machine. Lately  it's been the former. Here are a few of my recent projects that have recently been posted in my shop.
fox doll:

 raccoon doll:

 little zippered pouch

 kid's bowtie