glamor shots

Hi Guys!  It's me, Gesso.  I just thought I'd pop in and share these glamor shots my mom took of me.  She's a little obsessed with my good looks!  I mean, everytime I turn around, *snap* there's another picture being taken of me.  Geez mom, get a life!

Since everything is still packed (oh we've already mentioned that?  in about every post?), we've been a little bored.  I mean, no books, no colored pencils, no fabric, and would you believe it, they even left my basket of chewing shoes packed in a box!  YOU GUYS!!  What the heck am I supposed to chew on?

 

Last night my mom gave me some leftover pasta after dinner and guess what?  I threw it up!  All over the carpet!  And then I tried to eat it all over again.  My parents wouldn't let me finish though--they can be such a drag!
Anyway, it was really nice of you guys to drop by.

Handsomely yours,
Gesso

spatulas are for homeowners

We thought it was the biggest treat to have someone come and pack up all of our junk when we moved.  I shamelessly sat outside and read a book while eating pretzels all day as the packers delicately disassembled our house.  I know!  Princess!

But.

The only downside is that they didn't really get too specific in the labeling department.  So we have a billion boxes marked 'kitchen'.  And rather then unpack and unwrap every bit of kitchen equipment just to get to the bare necessities, we've just tried to make things work (lazy? maybe.).

And you know what?  A cheese slicer is the PERFECT spatula!  And who needs a can opener anyway?  And while we're on the subject, I haven't lost a single hair elastic or bobby pin while we've lived here because I only have three of each. 

These are my new favorite chocolate chip cookies.  They are so good!   And while I am missing my cookie scoop something fierce, I do appreciate the rustic look of spooning out my cookie dough by hand.

 

 Chocolate Chip Cookies

from 71toes

3 cubes butter

1 1/4c. sugar

1 1/4c. brown sugar

2 eggs

1 Tbs. vanilla

4 c. flour

2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

lots of chocolate chips

Bake at 375 for 11-13 minutes.  Do it!

wedding weekend

My baby brother got married over the weekend.  It was such a sweet day and would you believe it, I didn't take a SINGLE photo.  Also, I forgot to pack Evan's suit pants (oops).  I'm not sure where my brain was hiding, but thanks to Camilla's handy camera and some early morning suit shopping, both of those problems were taken care of.

I am so excited for my brother and his new wife, because shoot, being married is the best.

millions of m's

I got recruited to be in charge of the Father's Day treat at church.  Which turned out to be rad because I finally got to fulfill my dream of filling a grocery basket to the brim with chocolate.  I could tell that my fellow shoppers were super jealous (or maybe they were just concerned?).

 

 Gesso and I spent the morning practicing self-control, and taping little tags to 110 bags of m&m's.

I got the free printable here, just in case you ever happen to find yourself in a similar situation :)

another day another donut

I really like going on walks with my puppy.  Especially when they lead us right to a donut shop.  Did you know that if you actually walk to a donut shop, the donuts have zero calories?  I know!  What a sweet deal.

I had kind of forgotten about how moving feels.  Once the moving truck dumps all of your stuff off and drives away and you're kind of like, well shoot, I guess I live here now.  And you end up getting lost every time you drive to the store.  And then you think about calling so-and-so to do such-and-such, but then you remember that you left your friends in Montana and you live in Washington now.  It's lonely and exciting all at once.  Which makes no sense at all.

My life these days consists of calling our realtor every five seconds and scrolling through the home-for-sale sites, looking for anything new.  This house hunting business is not at all like I imagined it would be.  Where usually I am super awesome at making decisions, and knowing right away what I want, committing to a house seems SUPER DUPER scary.  Also, I am afraid I have very expensive taste.

The best best part of all is that Evan loves his new job.  I can't even explain how happy that makes me after two years of the worst job ever.

I should probably mention that both of those donuts were for me (ZERO CALORIES!!!).

*hiccup

Palouse Falls

 

 

 

Over the long weekend we went out with our new friends to visit Palouse Falls.  It was so misty and wonderful!  It was perfect timing because we had just started to mourn the loss of our Montana mountains--turns out Washington is pretty cool too!  Thank goodness :)

p.s. Gesso is kind of looking like a giant in that picture up there.

stairs are super

More then just sometimes I wonder to myself,
  who's dumb idea was it to bring a wild animal into our house?  
And why does he eat all our stuff?  And require so much brushing/vacuuming? 
 (side note: it was my idea)

But then the rest of the time he is just so silly and adorable that I forget about all that stuff and how I can't wear dark colors anymore.

Our new place has stairs.  Which are kind of a new thing for Gesso.  He likes to perch on the middle landing and keep track of his humans.  That's also where he eats his treats.  And he likes to attack us when we try to go past him (kind of the troll-under-the-bridge thing).  Wall-climber-Evan scared the pants off of Gesso the other day and you are so lucky I just happened to have my camera!

 

 

 

Oh puppy.  You are cute.  Evan too.

around here -- may edition

catching up: Lolo, Montana

We spent a few nights in Lolo (you know, Lolo?  The town where in A River Runs Through It, Brad Pitt goes to disappoint his family) while we waited for the moving truck to catch up to us.  It was super cozy (queen bunk beds!) and there was a natural hot springs across the street.  We spent a day in Missoula and ate at a cafe where I had the best tomato soup of my life.    I can't stop thinking about it actually.

catching up: fern's nipple

 

 

We met up with my big brother Nick and his wife Camilla to do some hiking in Capitol Reef National Park.  Evan had his heart set on hiking Fern's Nipple, and so we did just that.  It was a really terrific hike and man alive I miss the desert already!

catching up: river rats

Our brother-in-law Brandt is a ranger on the San Juan River and we were lucky enough to tag along on a three day trip with him.  It was kind of amazing.  Not only did we get to pretend we were rangers (hey mister, where's your permit?), but we got the insiders tour of this crazy cool place.  There were wildflowers everywhere, which made my soul sing and my fingers itch (maybe once I get unpacked there will be time for drawing? please?).

Oh hi!  We made it to Walla Walla and are slowly getting settled in.  We found a month-to-month rental that we plan on staying in for just a little bit while we look for a home to buy (what? when did I become an adult?).  We moved most of our stuff into the garage and are living quite simply/sparsely.   It's been kind of hard for me actually because I am a compulsive nester.  I'm not kidding when I tell you that the only bit of 'decorating' I've done is to unroll a rug in the living room.  Evan was so proud of me.  Oh, and then I dug out some throw pillows.  Because I couldn't help myself.  Oops.

We had a delicious salad picnic last night.   I am so happy to be making dinner again.

I have about a million photos to go through and hopefully I'll be getting to some 'catch up' posts soon.

bye bye blue bungalow

Moving day is here!

I guess I'll see you guys around.  Hopefully soon.

Have a happy May!

and one more for the road

 

Nothing like a deadline to hurry along the creative process.  Oh boy I hate deadlines.
We are leaving tomorrow for a little trip, because things aren't crazy enough around here.
Okay, enough chit-chat -- time to pack!

it's the most wonderful time of the year!

and I'm not that good at sharing.  so we've developed a system.

Oh me oh my.  Thank you so much for all of the enthusiastic congratulations.
We are so excited. 

It's been a pretty emotional week for me.  Which totally caught me by surprise.   I mean, we've been kind of ready to get the heck out of here for like a year.
It's been a year of practicing patience and trying to make the best of things.  It's been hard.

But it's also been good!   And I am sad to leave this little life we have made for ourselves here.  We've been fitting all of our 'lasts' in, and being the sentimental gal that I am, I find myself getting teary eyed doing ordinary things like, washing out the salad spinner and wondering if it's the last time I'll do so in this sink.  We've made so many great friends and even though we're no stranger to the moving game (in our five years of marriage we've moved five times), it seems much harder this time.

I've been stocking up on art supplies, attending good-bye breakfasts and barbecues, homemade ice-cream parties (our ice-cream maker overheated while making some heath-bar-crunch!  So it was more like a heath-bar milkshake), and fitting in last-minute antiquing with my sweet neighbor.  You know, all the necessary before-moving activities.   Oh, and our landlords that moved to Hawaii sent us this lovely lei.  Pretty!  (But honestly, where am I supposed to wear a lei?)

We're still working out moving details and are waiting to hear back on the house we want to rent (keep your fingers crossed!), so it's starting to feel like this is really happening.

We've got a nice chunk of time before the move, and so we've been brainstorming some fun trip ideas.
I like trips.

oh by the way,

we're totally moving.

to Walla Walla, Washington.

These are a few snapshots from our trip there a few weekends back.  And since I'm not very good at keeping my camera handy when I'm out in the 'real world', these are some of the only photos I took.   Here is a view of our hotel (fancy!), an enthusiastic family photo, the blossom lined streets, and some other views of the town.

Walla Walla was adorable and everything was blooming.  The little mountains were mossy and apparently they grow a lot of onions there.  Evan got the job we had been waiting (not so) patiently for, and we are feeling so blessed.

We are moving later this month, and boy oh boy are we excited.

strawberry tart

 

 who wants a slice?

yum.

nap time

You should know that I have about five thousand pictures of Gesso taking a nap.
Which is only okay because he is so adorable.