road trip

We decided to hit the road for a little road trip last weekend for Memorial Day.

We haven't done a road trip in a very long time.

We were tickled that our little guy was happy to ride like this most all of the way.  

Do you like to read in the car?  Where was the destination of your last road trip?

Kelly

one woman's trash . . .

is another woman's treasure!

Way back in January 2011 I hosted a swap and I'm just now blogging about it.  


Have you ever participated in a swap?  


I know some people do clothing swaps, some home decor items, etc. but we were pretty eclectic in ours . . . home decor, clothes, kitchen items, craft supplies and the list goes on and on.  

Each guest got a cute little bag to take her loot home in.  


I simply collected paper grocery bags over the course of several shopping trips always answering "paper" to the plastic or paper ma'am question.  


(sidenote:  does your grocery store still even offer paper?  I feel like a lot don't but we happened to live right by the greatest grocery store)


Then I just dug through my paper and ribbon stashes to embellish each one.  

Each person was assigned a number based on the order in which they rsvped.  

We mingled for a while and ate goodies and everyone set out the things they brought to give away in the various labeled sections of our apartment.

the things with tags were leftover from my selling at a craft fair at my school but everything was swapped, not bought (I just didn't want to take the time to take every price tag off!) 

Another component we had was to raise funds for an international adoption.  

It was completely optional to contribute cash but it was an easy way to help a family fundraise.  

It was fun to show each other our picks and see who wanted our treasures!  

I highly recommend it for a fun girls get together and a way to clean out at the same time!  

I got a lot of inspiration for the party here and from Jessica's bags here.  

Enjoy the rest of the pics and do tell if you've ever been part of a swap.  


I'd love to hear.


Kelly

shoes

Once upon a time . . . 

in February of '11 to be exact

I had this great idea to put post-it notes on my shoe boxes.

That way when I wore them I could just pull them off and then after a certain period of time 

(six months?  a year?) 

I could look and see what I hadn't worn and get rid of them.

The only trouble is a little boy beat me to pulling off the post-it notes and then we moved and I haven't done it but I'm thinking it would be a good idea seeing as how the floor of my closet is littered with shoes.  

stationary

This week I had another "mama's play day" where I try to do things that I've pinned on pinterest or saved in the pre-pinterest days inspiration file.  

I had pinned this stationary and decided to do a simplified, non-neon version with washi tape.  It was fun and super quick!

Now I have two new little notecards tucked away in my drawer waiting to be written on.

Do you usually buy or make your stationary?

Kelly

what I wore Wednesday

One of the very first blogs I ever discovered was Charming the Birds from the Trees.  

I was actually looking for some bird clip art for a project for my classroom and stumbled upon her blog.  

I guess she's the one who actually got me hooked on reading blogs and then considering writing my own.

She used to do posts called What I Wore Wednesday and I thought they were a lot of fun.  This is coming from a girl who used to write down her outfits in her younger days.  

The Pleated Poppy also does a weekly link up called What I Wore Wednesdays.  I am linking up there today.


A while ago I saw this polyvore board on pinterest and it just grabbed my attention for some reason so I decided to try out my version yesterday.

jeans rolled up into capris (hand me downs but I think they're from the limited)

a gray shirt from ross

silver and coral accents

coral colored nails are perfect for reading the itsy bitsy spider!

shoes from Target

toe ring from Sam Moon

this is a totally cheesy shot but let's just go with it, okay?

I don't claim to be a fashion blogger.  

bracelets:  James Avery a sweet gift from friends at an important time in my life

rhinestones handed down from my great-grandma

crystal beads a gift from the high school student who helped in my classroom one year 

Necklaces:  glass beads from a street vendor in Venice during my study abroad in college

choker with beads majorly on sale at White House Black Market many years ago

Do you ever pair silver/gray and coral?

What is your favorite thing to wear these days?  

Kelly

luncheon

First off, I don't know if I'm gonna get around to blogging the rest of our trip.  It may happen but I'm gonna stop feeling pressure to do it before just going on with life.  

Today I felt like blogging this.  

I hosted a little luncheon last week for a couple of special ladies who have taken care of David at MOPS this year.    We had a good time and it was fun to set a girly table.  

Remember those free vintage cabinet doors I picked up last year?  

A year later I *finally* used one of them!  

I like how it turned out.  

Menu: 

cold pasta salad (recipe from an Italian cookbook from a castle I got to visit in college!)

spinach with grapefruit, blue cheese, toasted pecans with soy sauce balsamic vinaigrette (salad idea from Texas Co-op magazine we used to get free with our utilities in TX - I had an affinity for that magazine I must admit - dressing recipe found online and made by Adrian) 

cheddar corn cornbread muffins inspired (but not nearly as good as) the cheddar corn biscuit we had at Crema in Portland.  Oh why oh why did I just torture myself by googling them and looking for a photo of that delicacy just now?!

And for dessert, fresh baked chocolate chip cookies served up on a milk glass platter - a gift from my mother-in-law who knows me oh so well and made into a pedestal by placing it atop an upside down milk glass flowerpot from my collection

Kelly

what do you think?

This post is completely unrelated to the photo but what is a blogpost without a picture, right?

So here's my question.

Do you have a microwave?

Ours seems to have bitten the dust and we're contemplating just not replacing it.  

Would I miss it?

This is where I want to hear your thoughts.

Thanks! 

Kelly

I saw this on our trip.

It made me want to reach right for my wallet.

um, actually not.

I'm sure there are probably some deletable dishes you can make with it but it just did not appeal.  

Have you ever bought/cooked with duck fat?

What is the oddest ingredient you have bought/used?

I'm trying to think of mine and drawing a blank.

Maybe that means I need to break out of my shell a bit.

Kelly

day two - transportation and second city

We took Amtrak between San Francisco and our second city to visit, Portland, Oregon.  

It was A LOT of fun!  

We got to see some gorgeous scenery and meet some nice people.  

The couple we sat across from at breakfast live in Oregon and were able to tell us about the "Root Beer Falls" as we went by.  Sure enough, they were brown and foamy.  Apparently some mineral causes it to be that way but it looked exactly like root beer and made you want to sing "Big Rock Candy Mountain" or something. 

Also, sleeping on a train is fantastic!  I love that rocking motion and it was great to get good rest on the train.

My sweet shutterbug husband

We pulled into Union Station in Portland and were blessed with such wonderfully sunny and warm weather while we were there for a place that we half expected to be rainy.   

finding our swanky hotel that we got using airline points - we like a good deal

fancy

(they even gave me slippers)

pretty

                                     
                                     Ready to hit the town!

Crafty Wonderland was really fun, like etsy in person

What's a trip to Portland without hitting Powell's Books?

I really liked it and could have spent more time there for sure. 

That night we met up with a high school friend of Adrian's and her husband for dinner at Ristorante Roma.  It was good and after trying all of the dishes at the table, I would say get the fettuccine bolognese.  It was the best.

Have you ever been to Portland?  

What do you like to do there?  

p.s. Mindy gets points for guessing correctly on Portland!  

Kelly

San Francisco

We actually went to two different places and San Francisco was the first.  That is where we honeymooned (and then we drove down the coast some too) and we thought it would be fun to re-visit.  

After getting off the BART at the Embarcadero we started off with a tour of the Ferry Building.  So many foods, so little time.  

We ended up eating here at the Cowgirl Creamery - this time the creamery really was all about milk unlike here - a cheese plate with honey and almonds, crackers and apples with cranberry chutney was washed down with a caramel milk while sitting at the counter.  

We walked down the waterfront where we saw this "little" fella.

Here's his belly is closer up.  Pretty cool, huh?!

There were gorgeous poppies in bloom which always remind me of my Poppy.  

Then we began to climb up Hyde Street.  You'd think we'd have learned our lesson when we did that on our honeymoon.  

Can you say steep?!  

But there are neat things to see along the way like this door and of course the crookedest street in the world (which I apparently didn't take a photo of).  

Signs along our walk

We went to Chronicle Books which was fun (also no picture) and of course people watched.  One guy was ranting about how those new "plastic" cups made of corn are ruining the world - of course not as fast as plastic he said, but still he seemed quite distraught about it.  

We took the cable car back down the hill and spotted familiar places from our honeymoon. 

We got to end the evening with a fantastic meal at Pinnochio's.  We have been talking about the polenta bolognese appetizer there for over three years.  It was nice to be back.  

Kelly