not all those who wander are lost...

Did you know that quote is from Lord of the Rings? I didn't until about a week ago. This is the whole quote, it's from The Fellowship of the Ring:

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken:
The crownless again shall be king.

I'm now a little over halfway through The Two Towers and that quote, in its entirety, is my favorite so far. It's just so, I don't know... powerful. I'm loving the series, even though it takes f.o.r.e.v.e.r. to read. There's so much packed onto one page. I'll be sad when I'm done reading them, it's been nice to be with the same story this long.


I haven't gotten to my schedule goal, but- MY HOUSE IS CLEAN. Due largely to the fact that I had a houseguest, so it needed to be presentable, but still. My sink is empty, and has been all day because I've done dishes TWICE. yeah baby. also my bed is made and laundry is going. This is a big deal guys.
I'm so pathetic.

I may even attempt- gasp- cooking this week. Yeah, I wasn't lying about the whole 'worst housewife' stuff. I'll get it someday. hopefully.

ps. got my hair did. LOVING IT.


by the way, little background on this picture. Greg was supposed to take a picture of my hair only, not my face, but did he listen? no. but, the picture actually had some potential, so here's the result after photoshopping out the dark circles under my eyes and photoshopping in some makeup. photoshop is a wonderful thing.
If only it could take off about 50 lbs. I'm over it.

Oh so random...

I recently told a friend that I have the greatest intentions and the worst follow through. That statement applies to pretty much every area of my life right now. First and foremost, the blog. I was so excited to get into a regular schedule. I kind of love this little blog, even though it's pretty wimpy, and I'd like to turn it into something great, even if I never get above 3 subscribers. (hey, it's more than zero! You readers out there, I heart you. Bigtime.) I love seeing my words on the screen, does that sound bad? Really it's because it makes me feel so accomplished, not because I think it's super great. Goes along with what I said before I guess, when there's actually follow through it's pretty exciting. Part of my lack of follow through is due to being sickity-sick-sick for 2 weeks. Yikes, it sucked. The first few days all I could think is, 'I want my mommy.' seriously. My honey was a pretty good substitute though. Normally he's pretty good at waiting on me hand and foot and responding to my ridiculous requests, ('honey, the remote is 6 inches out of my reach, could you come out of the other room and get it for me?' I wish I was kidding.) but he really kicked it up a notch when I was sick. He's a good honey. He even made me mac and cheese (homemade, oh yum). I'm finally feeling like a normal person again, yay!
That little bump in the road also affected the granny square blanket I was working on, so not much more progress on that front. Maybe she'll get it in time for Christmas. I'm awesome. (-sarcasm.) Sadly, I wish I could say that the state of my house is because of the blip on the health radar, but it's not. It's because I'm the WORST HOUSEWIFE IN THE WORLD. My goal, starting today, is to work out a better housecleaning, etc... schedule. Sometimes I get overwhelmed with what I have to do, and end up doing nothing. Can anyone relate? (hello? Is this thing on? Just me? Awesome.)
I've been reading more and more 'minimalist' type blogs, and although I don't think I can be one of those people who only owns 50 or 100 things (a zebra can't change her stripes, you know?) I would love to get as close as possible. The bloggers talk about how much more peaceful their lives become as things disappear, and it absolutely makes sense. My new favorite blog, Small Notebook has a post entitled 'Holding on to Sentimental Things' that really hit home with me. The author, Rachel, talks about the scene in the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding where Toula's grandmother brings out her box of 'most precious things'. What if her grandmother had taken Toula to her storage unit of 'most precious things'? As Rachel says, 'Not quite the same feeling is it? When it comes to keeping sentimental things:
the fewer things you keep, the more special they are.'
That's so powerful to me. That's what I keep going back to, and will keep going back to as I go through my stuff. Check out her blog, she has great stuff to say about organizing, simplifying and other home- ish stuff.
Why didn't anyone tell me being a grown-up was so hard? I want to go outside and blow bubbles and make a daisy crown, even if it's just as an in-your-face to adulthood.
Who's with me?!

The other day my honey and I went to Trader Joe's (we're trying to eat a little better, you know.) and they had these cute little herb gardens out front. We couldn't resist.
Now I just hope I'll actually be able to keep them alive.

I really want to blog today, but I just don't know about what. I haven't done a whole lot lately, well, at least not as much as I'd like. Went for a drive with my honey on Thursday, got some pics from that. We went and sat at the airport, a couple of small planes and then a 737 came in. We were hoping to see one of the new 787's or the dreamlifter, but no dice. It was fun sitting there though, Greg was taking pictures of the 737 we saw. We used to sit at the airport a lot when we were dating, and although I'm not quite the airplane buff that Greg is, I do love watching them come in and take off. Having to travel on them is a completely different matter... bleh.
After the airport we went to the Mukilteo waterfront. It was cold and grey, but really beautiful. There were so many birds. At one point I sort of felt like I was in Bodega Bay. Check out the photos here.

I've had sort of a crafty dry spell lately. My craft room is pretty much in chaos, overflowing with half or not even started projects. Before I can even think of starting anything new I need to simplify, go through and get rid of the things I'm never going to use. I'm hoping to make that my project this week. There are a few projects that I've been itching to try:


1. 200 Crochet Blocks, 2. Recycled Garland, 3. remains of the day journal backgrounds, 4. cathedral window quilt - 4th set

I love to crochet and have tried my hand at granny squares once or twice, but I'd really like to make a granny square blanket. Some granny squares can be kind of hokey, but they can turn out really gorgeous, too, like the ones above. I love the monochromatic look, but I'd also like to try one with jewel tones.

I am in love with garlands, can you tell? I love this one because it's all recycled paper. I have stacks of magazines and random paper that I saved just cause they're pretty, and this would be a great project for them. Maybe to decorate my soon to be clean and organized craft room?

Another great project for old scraps is this remains of the day journal. I haven't looked into this too much, but I think the point is to use the journal to display all of the interesting scraps that are collected day to day. I would love to do something like this and then use it as a journal to write in.

I've heard the cathedral window quilt blocks are very time-consuming, which usually would turn me off, but they're so pretty I have to try. I'm thinking I'll start out easy, maybe just do four blocks and the rest on a solid color, instead of a whole quilt top full of them.

Well, for not knowing what to say I sure said a lot. Now I have to go get ready, off to see Lovely Bones with Ashley, yay!

2 posts in one day?!

I know, I'm awesome. haha. Even more awesome? my photo a day project, I'm pretty much rocking it. And by rocking it I mean I'm actually keeping up with it, which is a surprise, even though it's only been a few days. I LOVE LOVE LOVE my new camera, it's so fun to play with! I'm pretty sure I took about 50 pictures of my honey today when he was outside installing his new satellite radio. I don't know that he was as excited as I was... :)


So handsome, sigh.

Since tonight is my Friday I think tomorrow we will be doing a mini roadtrip with the camera, although I haven't decided where yet. Yay!

Okay, so, go check out the rest, tell me what you think.

PS. what about my new header? see the little white heart on the right side? total fluke. I didn't see it until I got the picture into photoshop. I love it when that happens.

hurt is inevitable, bitterness is optional.

that was the first point of the pastor's sermon in church today. I'd be lying if I said that isn't something I need to remember. :)

Vacation is exhausting! All I've wanted to do since we got home is sit around, which is why I haven't posted anything. Well, that and the fact that I was a little sick over the fact that I dumped my camera in the river on our fishing trip and I thought it was a goner. Knowing my camera was kaput made me not want to do anything crafty for fear that it would remind me, once again, my poor little camera was soggy. weird? yeah. But good news- I turned it on the other day and it works just like new!! No water spots or anything. I'm so happy, I've had that camera less than a year (a Christmas present from my honey) and was just starting to play around with it. Thanks goes to my mom, she suggested putting it in a bag of rice. Apparently the rice draws out the moisture. That will definitely be my go-to remedy for swimming electronics.

I have about 15 minutes before I go to work so I thought I would post a few pictures from out fishing trip. Luckily (well, relatively) the camera dropped in the water near the end, so I got almost 300 pictures on the river. My favorites were the Macro shots I did, so they're the ones I edited first. Later I want to go through all of the people ones. I'm not great at shooting people, it's something I need to work on. I think it's because I'm not super confidant, I hate it when people know I'm taking their picture. again, weird? anyhoo-

I can't tell which of these net pictures I like better...

My honey's borrowed boots-

And my honey, the fisherman. I think he's found yet another hick-town hobby to love. My city boy is getting pretty countryfied.


And lastly, some roses from my mom's garden. (she's an amazing gardener!) Yet another set of photos where I can't decide which one I like better. I love both filters on this one!