Gorgeous!

It is beautiful out here in the PNW (Pacific Northwest for those not from here). 

Look at this view from our living room window!

Yup!  That's Mt. Baker.  Isn't it awesome?

I love living out here.  Especially when it's not raining.

This week (since Friday) has been and is supposed to be super sunny and nice.  Mid 60s most of the days.  I'm very excited.

Anyways, just a brief recap of the last few days since I vanished from the blog world for awhile.  Oops!

Nick and I did a 5k on Saturday with my mom, my friend and her husband.  It was so much fun!  It was even more fun because I had just got some new running shoes for my birthday.  Side note: Have you noticed that birthdays past 21 are all boring and uneventful?  Seriously.  I turned 24 last week and I almost forgot that it was my birthday until someone wished me Happy Birthday.  Getting older isn't that exciting anymore.  Sigh... ha!

Anyways, I got some AWESOME Brooks running shoes.  They weigh about 6 ounces each.  Check them out:

Aren't they cute and fun?!  Yes.

My mom and I walked/jogged the 5k and we actually improved our time by a lot!  Our last 5k we walked it in 45 min. and this race we made it in 37 minutes!  Pretty sweet if I do say so myself.

Mom and I after the race!

Nick and I after the race!

My husband's friend came over Saturday evening and we went to the arboretum in town and they did some rock climbing/bouldering while I finished my Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close novel.  (Great read by the way) 

Just chillin' on top of a rock

Sunday was spent hanging out around the house while my husband and his friend went out rock climbing again.  Then we spent the rest of the evening/afternoon with family.


Monday we went outside to enjoy the 65 degree weather that so wonderfully came out for us.  My husband just got a slackline and so he was trying it out in different places of our yard while I enjoyed the sun and did some catching up on the computer and playing some much needed crosswords (my secret love is puzzles and word games).

We also got some new plants and so I replanted them and now look at our little plant families!

Basil - Aloe - Jade tree

Mint - Chives - Thyme - Parsley - Oregano - Rosemary

 They are my babies.  So cute!

Anyways, I also got a bird feeder this past week with some birthday money.

One of the worst things in the world is waiting for birds to find your bird feeder.  Seriously! I put it up and it's been 3 days.  They still haven't found it (as far as I know), but the squirrels have.  Except the squirrels can't figure out how to access the bird food, ha ha!

Tuesday we played some much needed tennis at the local courts.  It was pretty fun.  My husband is good at tennis and I'm still a newbie, so he tends to cream me at it, but it's all about having fun, right?

This post was much longer than needed, but that's okay.

We're getting our new car rack today and that means more adventures this week!  Until next time...

Heads up!

This week may be a little crazy.  I am phasing out my current job and starting my new job all in one week.  That means that I am working two jobs every day this week (minus the weekend). 

So if I don't post anything this week, that's why.

Just a heads up.

Until my next post, here are some very funny (or at least I think very funny) pictures that I have been collecting on my laptop over time (I don't know where they are credited from and some of them may be a bit nerdy, I apologize!)

String art: DIY!

I finally made my string art after about...oh, a month or so of slowly working on it.  I'm very excited and I want to share it with you.

Do you like it?  It was frustrating and fun to make (that makes no sense, but I'll explain later)

I found this great cabinet door at the reuse store downtown.  Sidenote: that store is insane.  You can buy anything from old paint cans, doors, windows, shelves, tools, etc.  It's awesome!

I also bought some nice gray paint (that was only $2 at the reuse store and was entirely FULL!).

After sanding it down and painting a couple coats on the door I started on the actual project.


The first thing to do is print out whatever name you want.  I stuck with our last name. I tried to find a nice blocky font to use so that way it wouldn't require a million nails and would be pleasing to the eyes.  Arial Black is a great font on most computers that works for this.

I cut out the letters so they were spaced the way I wanted them to be and taped them down.  I used a cheap scotch tape I found (I tested it first to make sure it wouldn't peel off the paint).

Now the real fun begins. Haha!

I found some nice small nails with big enough heads to hold the thread down and outlined each letter with the nails.  I didn't want to have a lot of nails on each letter or around the corners (it would just get annoying) so I used my judgement and just went with it.

Many frustrated words were said and two thumbs were hurt in this part of the creation.  (If you do it, you may see where I'm coming from)

After they're all outlined and straightened out I could either tear off the paper or outline the letters first.  (For some of the letters *like the S* it was easier to keep the paper on and use that as my model to make sure I was outlining it right).

To outline the letters I took the thread I wanted (I chose some cross stitching floss) and wrapped it around the nail heads a few times and just went around the letter.  I went around once the first time and decided that I wanted it to look a little thicker/bolder so I went around again.

The next part wasn't too stressful because I had to improvise and create a zigzag effect with the thread.  It was pretty fun to decide which nail needed to go to which nail.

And that's it!  I'm pretty pleased with it and super excited to hang it up! 

I hope you enjoyed that little tutorial and if you make one - share it with me!