These pictures are from a few weeks ago when we went out to Carnation to a you-cut Christmas tree farm. We picked this particular farm because it is salmon safe meaning the farm protects wetlands, controls soil erosion and encourages plant and wildlife diversity. Awesome! We went early because we were working around a Seahawks game, which is why everything is covered in a blanket of frost. We're pretty happy with our little tree.
I followed Jedidiah Jenkins on instagram as he biked all the way from Oregon, through South America to the Patagonia. He finished the trip and is now writing a book about his experience, but his friend made this little 5 minute documentary about the journey. Check it out. I loved it so much! Anyone want to go on an adventure...soon?
Thanks for giving us a break today and blessing us with a sunny, clear, high of 59, lovely day. I know it's still technically February, but we will happily take more!
When Anders and I were in New Orleans, we visited Jackson Square and admired all the artist who had their work displayed for sale around the square. Something about Troy Guilbeaux's work really spoke to us. His simple silhouettes were just so cool, and we decided to pick one out and take it home. This one is called Swamp Blues, which we thought summed up our southern road trip perfectly, and it is now hanging in our new kitchen. I love it. I'm also obsessed with second lines, and his paintings representing them are just so awesome (especially the ones that include the umbrellas). I might have to buy one eventually.
I spent my lunch hour on Wednesday
walking all the way to Winston Wachter Fine Art, so I could check out Dirk
Staschke's Sated exhibit. I don't know a thing about art, but with pieces
called "Let them Eat Cake" and "Confectional Facade" I
didn't see how I could skip it. I mean, I'm all about the dessert! The only
downside is that it made me want actual dessert. Anyway, it was delicious in
every sense. All I had on me was my iphone, so please excuse the poor quality photos, but you can also see the professional
pictures here.
Anders and I had such a good time at last year's garden show that we decided to go again this year. If you are even remotely into gardens and landscaping, you should check this show out. Beware, though, it does make you a bit itchy for springtime.
Playoff game #2 was yesterday, but I don't really want to talk about the outcome. Instead of focusing on our heartbreaking loss and then end of our season, I would like to give a salute to our team and our amazing running back Marshawn "beast mode" Lynch.
He is SO talented.
And what better way to tell someone they are awesome than to have a cupcake named after him. Trophy Cupcakes designed the Beast Mode Cupcake, and our friends brought some over for the game. The cake was the Seahawks colors...blue, green and white with a "skittles orange" buttercream frosting and topped with skittles (Marshawn's favorite candy and what he eats before every game) and a football. They were so good they almost made losing okay....almost.
Words can not begin to explain the epic dining experience Anders and I had last night. Let's start at the beginning, though. A few months ago, Anders and I watched the neatest documentary called Jiro Dreams of Sushi about an 85 year old sushi maker in Tokyo. Jiro is the oldest person ever to win 3 Michelin Stars even though his restaurant only has 10 seats in it and is located in a subway station. You learn all sorts of fascinating things about Jiro in this documentary including the fact that he has never taken a day off in his life except for national holidays and funerals. We also discovered that Jiro's restaurant is one of the top ten hardest reservations to get in the world. Phew! Anders and I loved this documentary and immediately put Tokyo on our MUST travel list.
In a perfect world, Anders and I would leave for Tokyo tomorrow, but, unfortunately, that can't happen just yet. However, to our delight, we found the next best thing. His name is Shiro, and he is one of the greatest sushi chefs in the city of Seattle. Turns out, he studied under Jiro for eleven years. He has been making sushi for 50 years and is literally the person who brought sushi to Seattle. We arrived at his restaurant 15 minutes before opening and put a request in to sit at the sushi bar. Shiro only works three days a week, and he only makes sushi for 7 seats at the sushi bar. If you want Shiro to make your sushi, I recommend getting there early!
Anders and I tried almost every nigiri roll available...salmon, tuna, squid, mackerel ..you name it, and it put every single piece of sushi I have ever eaten before this moment to shame. His sushi made me smile every time I took a bite. I highly recommend this restaurant! I'm already planning our next trip back! And not only was the sushi good, but I learned a lot of valuable things as well. For instance:
1. You can eat sushi with your hands. It is 100% polite and much easier than trying to coordinate those chopsticks.
2. When Shiro is making sushi, you don't dip it in soy sauce. In fact, he begs you not to, and he's right. It does not need it at all.
3. Put the entire piece of sushi in your mouth. No biting it in half.
4. Even if you've eaten a salmon skin roll or octopus or squid and hated it at other places, try Shiro's. I thought I hated all those things, but when Shiro makes them it takes your breath away. He is the best.
Here is the trailer for Jiro Dreams of Sushi. Anders and I highly recommend it along with Shiro's!
Last year, around this same time, my good friend Dina started
a gratitude project where she made homemade soup and delivered it to a new recipient
every night for the ENTIRE month of November. The idea behind it was simple…be
grateful for what you have and give back to others. Anders and I were lucky
enough to be one of those recipients of her delicious soup. Remember this post
about it? Well, Dina has decided to start up her project again this year. I
know she is trying to not repeat the same people, so you can imagine my
surprise when pea soup with bacon showed up in our mailbox overnight! We were
thrilled to be included in her sweet project again. It not only feels so good
that she considers us worthy enough friends to be on her soup drop list again,
but we also get to eat her amazing soup! She makes the BEST soup. If you haven’t
heard about her project, you can read her first post here, and you can read
about our specific soup drop here. She is already seven days into her project,
but it’s definitely not too late to start following along. It’s not only
inspirational, but you’ll snag some killer soup recipes as well.
Dina, thanks again for thinking of us and good luck with the rest of your soup drops!
In case you were wondering...this carrot is actually not the largest in the history of the world. That record is held by a 18.985 pound carrot from 1998. However it is the largest I have ever seen. And that's pretty cool too.
One of the best things about living in Seattle is that you can go run errands on your lunch hour and stumble across an art gallery in a park. These statues have been hanging out at Westlake Center minding their own business for a month now. I couldn't find any information about the artist or how long these statues will hang out here, but I was glad I got to witness them before they left (Full disclosure: I thought they were those humans that pretend to be statues for the longest time. I stared for at least 5 minutes before working up the courage to touch one. They aren't actually real people.) Also, I don't know if the blue trees are part of the exhibit, but they add a nice touch don't you think?
I went to a garden party today that featured an amazing artist and her garden art, and I wanted to share it with all of you too.The artist is named Debi Johnson, and she owns Misty Meadows Gardens. She creates garden sculptures that look like flowers, however, they are all made out of reclaimed dishes! How cool is that! I bought one of the tiny green flowers,which was made out of a candy dish, a candle holder and a napkin ring. I love discovering new artists, and I have a lot of respect for people who have such interesting, creative visions. I really could see my yard filled with these beauties!
I think as I find new artists that I like I'm going to start posting them here as I did with Cosmic Garden Design. I like sharing the knowledge!
Ah Monday. It comes around all too soon, doesn't it? No worries, though. I've got a whole list of reasons why this week is going to be seriously awesome-town.
I'm trying two new recipes this week. I'm making this shrimp curry for dinner and this green quinoa for our lunches. Both look delicious.
We're anticipating the Wednesday sunshine and going to Trago for dinner to sit on their roof top patio for dinner. Can't wait.
I just started this book, which I'm excited about. Ironically, this summer has felt a bit like the arctic, so it seems fitting. I'll let you know how it is.
Anders and I are going to check out Exofficio, which sells wrinkle resistant, fast drying, SPF and bug repellent clothing. How cool would that be for our many travels? I love this skirt and this dress. I can't wait to visit the store!
I also have plans to get together with the wives of these boys (like her!). Hooray for girl-time.
Guess who decided to show her pretty face last weekend? Most of the time this beauty is hiding and you sort of forget about her, and then, all of a sudden, we get a clear day and BAM she comes out and everyone stops and stares.
Oh and just in case you were wondering, the space needle is orange to celebrate its 50 year anniversary!
I keep a fashion board on Pinterest, and I use it to save pictures of outfits that I like. However, I have to say that I do run into a lot of problems with the board. Usually when I pin an outfit one of three things happens...
1. The outfit is out of my price range. 2. The piece of clothing in question is no longer available or in my size or 3. The picture is simply of a pretty girl in a pretty outfit with no information about what she is wearing!
Earlier in the year, I had pinned this dress that I absolutely loved and, sure enough, there was no buying information that went along with it.
Every time I opened Pinterest, I had to look at this dress I couldn't have. So, I decided there was only one thing to do. MAKE IT!
I looked and looked for black and white fabric similar to the dress and had no luck, so I had to settle for this textured black stripe, but overall I'm pretty happy with the end result.
Here's a side by side!
Hmmm...maybe the side by side was a bad idea. Why is this girl so tan!
Have you guys heard about Maddie on Things? The website is exactly what it says...Maddie the dog standing on things...but Maddie is the craziest dog I have ever seen. She has unbelievable balance! You must check out the website and look at all the pictures, but here are three of my favorites.
Now, I don't know if you realized this, but Maddie is a coon hound. Our little pup is also a coon hound and "Maggie" just happens to sound a lot like "Maddie." So, it got me thinking...maybe our dog has this incredible talent too. Who knows, right? So, Anders and I set out on a mission to put Maggie on things.
Well, we ended up with Maggie half on things...
...and Maggie jumping off things...
...and Maggie falling off things...
But finally! Finally! She got the hang of it.
Alright...maybe it's best we leave these things to the master. Maddie, we salute you!
Apparently surprise balls have been floating around the web for a few years now, but I just heard about them last month from the Cakies blog. The concept is simple. You buy 10-12 small gifts and then wrap them up one at a time in crepe paper until you have one big giant ball of wrapped gifts! The receiver has to start at the beginning and slowly unwrap the ball. Gifts start falling out the closer you get to the end. It's a bit time consuming to unwrap, so it makes the gift last a long time! I think it's the cutest idea, so I made one for Anders for his birthday. I also think it's a waste of crepe paper, so I did save all of it and plan to reuse it for my next surprise ball. I think my nieces and nephews would get a kick out of this, so I might be making surprise balls for their birthdays all year long. I can't wait.
