Good Reads!

Thanks for all the great book suggestions! I am so looking forward to this summer and all those wonderful days of sitting on the back patio, enjoying the late sun, and a few pages before dinner!

What does it say about me when I buy more books than clothes?

The Big Read Top 100 Meme

I found this on QuestTwentyEight, and felt the need to post… if only as a reminder of all the great literature I would love to have time to read!

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE (or highlight in pink if you can't underline...)
4) Reprint this list in your own blog.

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible (I have read a good portion… probably more than half, but I would feel really lousy claiming it!)
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres (this was on my list… until I saw the trailers for the movie version and I lost all interest! I will definitely accept recommendations of anyone out there LOVES it and thinks its worth it!)
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The DaVinci Code - Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery (the whole series was/is a favorite of mine!!)
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold (HATED this book!)
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac (I actually have this in iTunes but am waiting for the right road trip or long flight!)
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville (started… but never finished!)
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

51 out of 100 is not at all shabby, especially considering that “The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they’ve printed.”

Any recommendations? I am always looking for a good read!

my little snow angel

T grew up on the east coast, and so for him, snow is a much loved friend. To him, snow means days off from school, mugs of hot cocoa, tromping around, and soup. He gets super excited whenever the forecast predicts freezing temperatures (which is hardly ever here on the west coast!) and he has decided that one day we "have" to live somewhere cold so I can experience a real winter. (uh huh, sure babe, someday we'll do that....)

And so, last week when the weatherman started predicted snow, T spent every spare second chopping firewood, stocking the pantry (with popcorn and hot cocoa) and talking about all the fun things we could do on our "snow day."

This morning, as the flakes started to fall you could actually see T's excitement growing. He would race over to window every few minutes to give us an update on the flake size, consistency, and sticking ratio. And finally, after begging all morning, he finally got me to go outside for a little tromp...

(thanks for letting me wear your new boots honey!)


Of course, since i ventured out in the snow for him, he had to do a little something for me....





T looked like he was having so much fun that the neighbors had to come out and play too!

seeing red

i think i might have a black thumb.

no, seriously.

I somehow managed to kill a rosemary plant. You should have seen the horrified look on the face of the garden guy at our farmers market when I explained to him why I needed to know very specific instructions on caring for the new one. And I am pretty sure I saw him watching me while I browsed the strawberry starts, probably making sure I wasn't harming them by getting to close. Although, I am not too sure how he thought I could hurt those darling little plants. I mean, it's not as though I carry a bottle of weed-be-gone in my purse, whipping it out whenever I am threatened by a stray basil bush.

Thankfully I have an accomplice in T. Together we wage war on the chlorophyll that surrounds us by systematically imposing periods of drought followed by massive floods. I think the technical terms are "forgetting to water,"and "over-watering." Its actually quite sad, seeing as how both of our families have turned out more than one card carrying, green thumbing, garden genius type. Case in point - my brother runs an Organic Farm which manages to not only yield enough produce to feed his family, but then he sells the excess, for profit, at a farmers market! It is truly mind boggling that we share the same genes.

And yet every spring finds me filled with fresh hope that perhaps this is the year my gardening skills will kick in. I make the Saturday morning farmers market pilgrimage carefully choosing the plants that look the healthiest. I get lured in by those Early Girl tomatoes, whose yellow buds whisper promises of summertime salsas and salads. And the handsome heirloom varieties that hint at a scrappy will to live. They all get chosen. And when the garden guy isn't watching, I nonchalantly slip a strawberry start into my tray, hoping that this year it will live.

And so, you can imagine the epic failure we experienced this year when our natural ineptitude combined with an extremely wet and chilly summer. Our entire harvest consisted of about 8 tomatoes, 1 strawberry, 2 jalapeños (that never got hot), and a couple of sprigs each of dill and sage. It was a dismal failure.

So instead of feasting on the glorious fruits of our own hard work, we did what any self-respecting urbanite would do: we hightailed it back to the market, bought 20 dollars worth of organic tomatoes, and proceeded to can them, fully willing to pass them off as "ours" come winter.





My pantry shelf is now stocked and ready.

And there is always next year...

its been three years...

our third anniversary came and went with little fuss. we celebrated in our own favorite way - T brought me flowers, and i cooked him dinner (classic meat and potatoes - very rare treat in our mostly vegetarian house).

it was sweet, low key, and perfect!

i have known T for over ten years now, and while 5 of those years were spent in different states (and even different continents!), it has been the most amazing journey.

we met when i was 17 years old, at summer camp! T was working in the kitchen, and i was a counselor in training. it took us all summer to even start talking, although absolutely everybody else knew about the enormous crushes we had on each other. we spent several months writing letters and emails, which eventually turned into phone calls, which eventually turned into visits. he came to California, i went to Illinois. he came to England, i went to Portland.

eventually we got married...

i am the luckiest girl!

wow!

i hardly even know where to begin....

today was a pretty rough day for me. the kind of day when all you want to do is climb into bed and hibernate for the next week. the kind of day where you really wish it was a Friday, so you don't have to face anything until Monday. the kind of day where you end up being snippy with your husband, after he did absolutely nothing wrong.

but as you can tell from the title of this post, my day has completely turned around!

i received my package from the flirty apron swap, and boy oh boy i lucked out! my partner so completely "got" my dream vacation.

here is what i wrote...
I have a love affair with the ocean, so my absolute dream vacation would be located somewhere sunny, where the water was a clear blue, where there was a hammock hanging under a shady tree but still over the water, and i had a stack of amazing books! I would also get to eat amazing food, spend romantic nights with my husband in a hut that overlooked the water (perhaps it is one of those huts that is on stilts coming out of the water?), and take horseback rides down the beach, and of course i would never get sunburned, and i would have unlimited drinks but never get drunk, and i could swim and play all day and not get wrinkled prune-skin. :)

and here is what she created...

back in august (this girl was on the ball!) she posted about the fabric here. and i immediately fell in love with the darling mermaids, the sea turtles, the schools of fish, the colors... everything about it! i wanted so badly to rush out and buy some of the fabric for myself, but i resisted (i still had to buy the fabric for the apron i made for my partner after all). instead i just kept visiting her post, dreaming of this beautiful fabric and hardly even daring to hope that it would be for me. after all, there were probably a hundred dream vacations all having to do with the beach.

and then a few days ago, i saw this post about the finished apron, and i immediately showed it to T, saying something along the lines of "this is my favorite apron, and i really wish it were mine, but it probably isn't because it is too perfect." (still trying not to get my hopes up *too* high).

thankfully i was wrong, and this apron gets to stay here with me!


she also included many yummy looking recipes for fruity summer drinks, as well as two hurricane glasses - perfect for holding on to the last little bits of summer here in the NW...


and the pocket detail! its so cute....


i think what i love best about this apron is how it ties together all of the different parts of my dream vacation....
- the color scheme is so soothing and relaxing - it reminds me so much of beautiful sunsets, crisp clear water, and sand between my toes. it puts me in the same mood that a hammock and a stack of books does.
- the swimming girls remind me of those glorious summer days of my childhood, when i could literally spend all day in the water pretending i was a mermaid, diving under waves, body surfing, and making sandcastles.
- and the pattern is just "flirty" enough to entice T, who pretty much immediately asked for a fashion show (a la empire records... if you know what i mean).

like i said.... she got all of the parts of my dream vacation!

so a huge thank you to the wonderful creator of this apron... Adrienne - you definitely made my day!

its done!

just a quick note to announce that my flirty apron is finished and mailed!

check out my photos here

i will post more when i receive mine!

flowers and flowers and flowers... oh my!

i love weddings.

i love the big white dresses, i love the flowers, the dancing, the cake, the guests. but i especially love seeing how people work elements of their own style into the little details. over the last two years i have watched two couples plan and execute their amazing celebrations, and both times i have been honored to be involved. with my own third anniversary arriving at the end of this month, i definitely have weddings on the brain. here are some of my favorite details:

the first wedding was a lovely rustic affair inside the octagonal barn at McMennamin's Cornelius Pass Roadhouse in Hilsboro Oregon....



....which we completely draped in lights. it was like dancing in a fairy castle....


the oh so talented bride did her own flowers....



and the favors were a mixed cd of the couple's favorite music and comedy numbers....

(professional photos taken by Adria)


the second wedding took place at gorgeous Bridal Veil Lakes in Corbett, OR. It was unusually rainy this August, however the precipitation only added to the lush ambiance of the lake (which is completely surrounded with trees and flowers)





i was able to help create the floral arrangements....


…and i can now say that i am an expert at providing “first aid” to drooping pomander balls!

the bride kept a vintage feel using old mason jars as vases (and by pairing an anthropologie shrug with her gorgeous handmade dress!)


(photo cropped to maintain privacy)

the couple escaped for a moment directly following the ceremony...



...and later shared a romantic boat ride!


a big thank you to these lovely ladies for letting me share your beautiful celebrations!!!

sewing swaps....

i recieved my apron swap partner information on saturday, and i am so excited to start this project. my partner seems like a very sweet gal, although her dream vacations are polar opposites to mine! however, i was totally inspired, and i think i am up for the challenge. i can't say much more than that, though, as this is supposed to be anonymous.....

in july i participated in the Bend the Rules Sewing Placemat and Napkin Swap, and while it was difficult at times, i had so much fun creating my gift.

my partner did not have a blog at the time, and so there were no visual clues to her style or color preferences. all i had to go on was her description of herself, and i don't know about you, but i have found that so often people don't really know how to describe themselves. they may think they are one way, but are in reality quite different.

and so i felt stuck at the beginning, and i spent such a long time debating over what to do. that is however, until i finally found some inspiration on the Mary Engelbreit website (my partner had said she loved Mary's stuff, and wanted to figure out how to incorporate that style into her own decor) specifically this little paper doll. I instantly fell in love with her sassy little style, and the green and yellow outfits she wears.

i already had some lovely green linen in my stash, and i loved the idea of incorporating something that i already owned into the project, in order to imbibe it with a little bit of me. so armed with images of Georgia and my linen, off to the fabric store i went...

and this is what i came home with....


(turns out i also had the perfect polka dot fabric in my stash and so this gift got a little extra Robinson flavor)



once i had finished the napkins, however, they seemed a little naked. and so i decided to add some matching napkin rings. the buttons were new, but the ribbon was also from my stash (apparently i like green).

the napkins are double sided, which i find make them super absorbent, and it lets you change up the look when you set your table. they have four different fabrics, but are all backed and edged in the same blue floral for some continuity. the place mats are similarly mis-matched.

i really hope she liked them!

a mouse of one's own...

i was voted home from work today, four against one. apparently i am not very good at taking care of myself, however, the lovely ladies i work with did their best mother impressions and sent me on my way. i am supposed to be recuperating, resting, getting better, mending, healing - whatever you want to call it, i am having a hard time doing it.

it is not in my nature to sit still. it usually takes T and i about 3 hours to watch a 90 minute film, what with all the pausing i end up doing. i think that is why i love netflix so much - i don't feel guilty when it takes three nights to watch a movie!

so when i got home today i tried real hard to be good. i sat out back and read a book (stopping only to tie up some straggling tomato branches, and then to trim back the mint, which of course led to some weeding). and then i tried to watch a movie, but i got hungry - so i made lunch (and organized the pantry, and emptied the dishwasher). then i tried to nap, (changed the sheets and brushed the cat), read some more (checked my email, caught up on some blogs), watch a movie (painted my toenails).....

so i finally gave up on trying to take it easy. i ventured into my (very messy) craft/guest room with the hopes of doing some good organizing, and ended up making a mouse pad.



i used some decorative paper, clear plastic, and some sticky backed felt.

now if only i had a mouse....

thats better...

six weeks ago i was offered a less than one year old laptop computer, and i of course jumped at the chance to own something so shiny and new. my old laptop (which i dearly, dearly love - it was my traveling companion the year i spent in England, and was definitely integral in maintaining my sanity) is so close to the end of its life, that if it were a pet i would have had it put down ages ago. unfortunately the previous owner had to first purchase her new laptop. and then she had to transfer all the information over. and then she had to get to the post office and prepare the little machine for its journey up the coast to Portland.

six weeks is a long time to wait - not that i wasted the time mind you. i have spent hours devising all sorts of fun projects (including customized recipe cards and more frequent blogging, among other things), and shopping for the perfect bag in which to carry it.

and guess what? it arrived yesterday!

and while i have added many many things to my list of "to be created," the computer did not arrive with a magical device that would give me more time in which to do these things.

it did arrive, however, with some lovely old photos stored in its belly - photos of my family that i have never seen before. and i can't help but wonder about the stories behind them.

reason number 67,458 why I love my husband...

T has this really amazing knack for picking out the most perfect flowers - as witnessed by the "happy no-day" bouquet he surprised me with when he came to pick me up tonight.





Unfortunately I work six days a week (thankfully at two jobs that i absolutely love!) but that doesn't leave T and I much alone time, so when he sauntered into my work this evening an hour before I was supposed to get off, carrying this bouquet, my heart did somersault's. Not only did this incredibly handsome man bring me flowers, but my coworkers were so touched that they insisted I leave early!

I suppose it all began ten years ago when I was a senior in high school (T was a junior in college!!) and I was attending a very preppy all girls school where I barely fit in. Up until we met, I had not been on a "real" date with a boy (group attendance at dances does not count) and my good grades had excluded me from the so-called "cool" group. T and I had met the previous summer while working at a camp in Michigan, and our relationship had quickly progressed from letters to emails to phone calls, and so when my 18th birthday rolled around in February, T arranged to have a dozen red roses delivered to me while at school! He knew the commotion such a romantic gesture would cause, and that it would put me at the center of attention, even if only for a little while. The flowers were beautiful and they definitely earned many envious remarks from my classmates, especially when they learned that I was dating a college boy!


The following year, as a freshman at UCSD, my birthday present from T was two dozen roses! He likes to joke that by then he loved me twice as much, therefore I deserved twice as many flowers! They caused less of a commotion in college, but I still felt like one very lucky girl!


Over the years, roses have definitely been a recurring theme, but T has also started to really branch out. (I think I owe the girls at his favorite flower shop - Sammy's for all you local folk- a really big thank you!) He loves to find new and unique flowers, as well as interesting foliage because he knows how much I dislike generic baby's breath. I really think that not many men buy their women flowers, especially of the "no-day" variety, judging from the comments he receives while picking them up. Someone inevitably asks what is the occasion, and there is always surprise when he answers "because she deserves it." (I know - can you believe him!!)

Thank you T - you are an amazing husband!

I humbly beg your forgiveness...

Here is an oh so pretty spring peony offered up as an apology for my negligence...



...and as further proof that I am not good at being timely (it is no longer spring, and I took this photo last year)

I have so many things to share, but I feel as though the forces of the universe are keeping me from blogging. Well, at least that sounds better than the excuse that my computer is dying and can only be used when it is in the half closed position (which is very true by the way); or that my precious few hours every day are better spent with my husband than the internet (which is also very true); or that sometimes I sit down to write and the words just simply go away.

So there you are.

Look here and here for some of the crafty goodness I have managed to fit into my life.

And perhaps one day I will finish telling you about all the lovelies I received for graduation! (a sneak peek here and here)

phew...

Boy am I tired! I don't remember feeling this way after my first degree. But then again, studying history is a lot different than designing 40,000 square feet of housing for the deaf and blind. I remember when I came up with this project nine months ago, and how excited I was to begin the journey. Little did I know how glad I would be to be done!


I was so tired the night of my presentation that I forgot to take pictures. Luckily T remembered to at least get a few shots.



And there are the other T's in my life... Tait and Taryn... who are two amazing designers and even better friends! They helped me get through the last few days of pulling the project together. I also have to mention Monica and Rachel... who although did not end up hamming for any photos, were also a huge part of my project. What did i do to deserve these friends? Thanks guys! I owe you!!


T feels like a newlywed all over again - we got married just a few months after I started school, and so he has never known me as "just" a wife. I keep telling him that he deserves a graduation too. After all, he was right by my side for every all-nighter, midnight trip to Kinko's, and every single break down where I cried for hours over a computer malfunction that made me lose entire projects, or when I felt as though I had no talent and was wasting my time (and money) going to school. I could not have done it without him! He is not only my best friend and champion, but also the most amazing husband. I am so lucky! (isn't he cute with our babies Eek and Moo?)