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:

sewing up a storm

Not only have I been sewing like mad to supply my first etsy shop, but I have also been caught up in a whirlwind of various other projects. This time has been amazing to just do what I love! Even though I have pretty much endless amounts of time to sew to my hearts content, I still have a laundry list of projects and inspirational pictures tucked away that I have yet to get to. Here are some that I have conquered so far...

a nursing cover for my sister in law
some little bunnies for my nieces and nephews for Easter
a bib w/plastic overlay & a pocket at the bottom for easy clean up
two pillow covers: one ruffled, one printed with our initialsome binky clips for my niece & nephew

3 in 1

In the 3 weeks we've been back from Asia, a lot has happened. My parents, sister, nephew, & niece came to visit for a weekend, Jake got a great job (praise the Lord!), and some dear friends from college came to visit as well! All that along with the day to day happenings of settling into a new town (figuring out where to grocery shop, how to get around, setting up health insurance for a new state, finding a church, getting to know people in the community...).

I have been trying to figure out what my days should look like. I haven't found a job and don't think I will. It just doesn't make sense to drive the trooper (talk about a gas hog) a half hour into town for a job that probably wouldn't even cover the gas to get in to it. So I have began to settle into my role during this temporary time in life. I've been learning to enjoy this restful, no commitment season rather than let the expectations of what the world says is a productive day make me feel guilty. My days have been floating by just being able to do what I love - cooking, crafting, sewing, spending time with the Lord & friends. I even decided to open an etsy shop to try to sell some of the items I've been creating. Check it out here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/practicalperspective. Maybe doing what I love can bring in a little side cash!

Anyways, to get to the title of this post... Yesterday I spent the majority of the day cooking. Do you ever buy too many groceries for a week thinking you'll make more meals than you actually do only to have produce and meat products start to go bad before you can use them? I had done this once again, so I decided to make three different meals in one day planning to eat one for dinner that night and freeze the other two. BONUS: this consolidated the prep time (by being able to chop up multiple ingredients just one time during the week), and I dirtied the kitchen in one fell swoop rather than 3 different nights!

Here's what I made: beer cheese soup, ham potato soup, & a cheesy beef & potato pot pie

I froze the two different soups in mason jars (I got two full ones out of each pot) to use at a later date, and shared the pot pie with friends for dinner. How exciting to have homemade meals already prepared for a later use - soup is a great meal to take to new parents, people who are sick, or anyone you just want to bless with a night off from cooking.

talk about spontaneity

Sometimes I feel like I've lost the willingness to be spontaneous. In college I was the one trying to get everyone else to drop current responsibilities for the excitement of a spur of the moment adventure. These days I feel like I'm getting old, slowly sinking into the commitments and rules of adulthood. I began to take more calculated feats that made sense and fit into a logical time frame. That was until about two months ago. I snapped out of the funk! In the past two months Jake and I have had a friend live with us, sold our home by owner, moved to a new state, and taken a month long trip to SE Asia. We had only been living in Tieton for two days when we decided that we wanted to get out and see the world.

After debating whether or not to take the trip at all, we concluded that now was the time if ever to do it- no kids, no jobs, no commitments, & a little money in our savings account. When in the near future would we have this opportunity again? The other option we considered was Europe, but after researching to find that the weather was poor and the expense was great we set our hearts on SE Asia. Very surprising considering that I had never had any interest in going there ever. Jake had studied abroad in Bangkok for 6 months and had places that he wanted to show me as well as places that he wished he would have seen. We booked our tickets on a Tuesday and left the following Monday. Talk about quick planning! We found a local bookstore and spent hours on end researching the cities we wanted to visit. Too cheap to buy the books, we just took notes then compiled them together. We packed one large backpack, and one carry on backpack for the two of us. My birthday was on the Sunday before we left so my parents came up to visit for the weekend. After a last minute Typhoid vaccine (thanks to a friend of my sister who happens to be a doctor), and last minute scrambling to figure out where to park our car in Seattle for a month, we were on our way...

First stop: BANGKOK

During two days in Bangkok we: saw where Jake lived for 6 months, toured the market, ate at "the place", walked around the gigantic shopping malls, walked to the top of a temple, rode a tuk-tuk, toured Ko Sahn Road, got thai massages, rode the water taxi & public bus #48, and ate pineapple fried rice, pork fried omlette, garlic chicken, chicken katsu, mango with sticky rice, birdy coffee, thai iced coffee, & dragonfruit.

Second stop: AO NANG (Krabi, Thailand)

During the 6 days in Ao Nang we: layed on the beautiful beach, went island hopping to five islands, got 3 massages in huts on the beach, went rock climbing, snorkeling and sea kayaking, shopped the markets, rode a moped around the peninsula, ate roti every morning for breakfast, ate pad thai, green curry, massaman curry, cornettos, pineapple, doughnuts, noodle bowl, & cashew chicken.

We bussed to Phuket for one night, flew to Chiang Mai, then bussed directly to Chiang Rai.

Third stop: CHIANG RAI

During the 4 days in Chiang Rai we: met up with our friend Bik, went to a Thai/English church, went to see the white temple, went to the market, cooked an authentic Thai dinner, rented a moped and rode to the Burmese border, went wine tasting, & ate tom yum soup, yellow curry, mangoes, coconut ice cream, fried bananas, & garlic pork.

In one day we rode a moped with three people and all our stuff, hopped a plane to Bangkok, bussed to the border of Cambodia, & rode a taxi to Siem Reap.

Fourth stop: SIEM REAP, CAMBODIA

During four days in Cambodia we: met some lifelong German friends, walked around the town, rode a tuk tuk to a lake, hung in hammocks by the lake, shopped the market, ate cambodian bbq (including frogs), saw corrupt poverty, toured Angkor Wat, ate mangoes, cambodian noodles, chocolate croissants, pastries, & baguettes.

We taxied back to the border, rode a bus to Bangkok, spent the night in the airport, then flew to Bali, Indonesia.

Fifth stop: BALI INDONESIA

During our 13 days in Bali we: rode mopeds around the island (& got a ticket), went to a water park, went surfing, went boogy boarding, stayed in the mountains for a couple days, saw an authentic Indonesian dance, hiked in rice fields, got very annoyed with the people, layed on the beach, hung by pools at various resorts, watched lightening on the beach every night, & ate roast suckling pig, nasty Indonesian food, pizza, snapper, tuna fillet, fish & chips, french fries, tons of popsicles, & Indonesian banana honey pancakes.

We flew from Bali to Bangkok.

Sixth stop: BANGKOK

We had two days in Bangkok before we left for home: we went and ate our favorite food for one last time (pineapple fried rice, thai coffee...), miraculously found Jake's favorite food cart-crepes with oreos, gelatto, chocolate sauce, & whip cream, had a wonderful homemade Thai meal with friends, played nertz, did some last minute shopping, got bumped (including $600, 5 star hotel, incredible buffets for breakfast, lunch & dinner).

Then sadly it was over. We flew home with a three hour layover in Tokyo. Our good friend Joey let us stay the night in Seattle with him, then we drove back to Tieton, WA. What an INCREDIBLE month adventure with my BEST friend!!! Sorry for the length of this post. I tried to keep it short, but really it is only touching the tip of the iceberg.