Portland Mini Vacation

Last week my husband was on vacation from work so he talked me into taking Friday and Monday off and having a long weekend down in Portland. It was fantastic, I didn't want to come back to reality! We drove down Friday morning and hit up the Woodburn Factory Outlet before checking into our hotel in downtown Portland. It was nice to have a leisurely day shopping with him.

Unfortunately for J, seasonal allergies took over due to driving down with the top down on our new to us convertible. Once we got checked in and settled in our room, he took some allergy medicine and passed out. I stayed up reading my book. Currently, I'm reading The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I'm almost halfway through it and still trying to get used to the narrative, but so far it's pretty good.

Day 2 (Saturday) consisted of heading down to the Portland Saturday market. I found a birthday present for my dad, and bought at growlette of local cider from a booth for Atlas Hard Cider Company. I haven't opened it yet, but I'm thinking it'll be perfect for when I get home tonight from work! :) Since we stayed at the Vintage Plaza downtown, it was an easy walk to all the shopping, literally a block or so away from Nordstrom. Hubby had to go because it was the men's sale going on, and he surprised me with dinner at a nice restaurant that night, but didn't bring a thing to wear for it. So I got to pick out his outfit for the night, which was kind of fun.  We had dinner at the Portland City Grill, which boasts a great view of the city. My food was excellent too, I wish my stomach did shrink lately because I just wanted to keep eating, but couldn't.

Day 3 (Sunday) we went and had breakfast at an English soccer pub, The Thirsty Lion, down by the farmer's market. Got to enjoy a mimosa and french toast. Afterwards we back to the farmer's market and just walked around the city. We also went to Peninsula Park where a friend of mine from college was working an event. She does marketing for Kaiser Permanente. We chatted with her for awhile, took a walk through the rose bushes and then left to go find smoothies. When it got closer to the afternoon, we started to find a place to watch the Portugal v. USA match. Seemed like everywhere was packed! We finally found a spot at Buffalo Wild Wings and I'm so glad we did, because before the match even started, there were people lining up along the wall waiting for someone to either leave, or just stand there for the game! My old roommate from college met up with us and we watched the game together, caught up and ate some food. After the game, J and I went back to the hotel where I fell asleep for a nap. I needed to get more steps logged for my fitbit (I'm in a constant competition with my mom who always kills me), so when he woke me up from my nap, I went down to the gym in the hotel basement and watched an episode of Pretty Little Liars while on the elliptical. When I was done and after showering off, Jason needed to get out of the hotel room (there's only so much Big Bang Theory he could watch), we walked to Voodoo Doughnut and stood in line. I wasn't feeling very well, my stomach was upset (probably due to all the food I ate) and I couldn't stand in the line once we made it inside due to the heat, so I sat outside at a nearby picnic table waiting while he bought two dozen doughnuts. We walked back to our hotel and were in for the night.

We left Monday morning after I made him search for a Dutch Brothers coffee stand. While on this trip, I decided I didn't want to go to places I could go back home, and with the exception of Nordstrom and BWW (even though that was the first time I've ever been there) we were pretty successful. I wanted to experience more of Portland and it was nice.

Pretty Little Liars is my newest Netflix marathon. I'm almost caught up the the current season. I'm hoping to be caught up to the newest episode by the end of this weekend. Should be done by Saturday which is perfect because the weather isn't supposed to be nice.

Uh-Oh. I'm in trouble.

I just discovered this. My husband is going to kill me, but I need a new project! I can only watch so much Netflix people!!

Lazy weekend

It was a glorious weekend! Some highlights are:

• Friday night after work I met my mom at the local mall and searched for a bridesmaid's dress for my sister's wedding this fall. We'll be in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico for it, so needed something weather appropriate. As we were walking in, I saw a dress in a photo plastered in the window and thought, "Wow, that's a super cute dress...if they have it in the right color I'm definitely trying it on." Lo and behold, as soon as we walked in, we spotted said dress in the correct color. Looked at the size (score!), tried it on...and the rest was history! Tried on only one dress, loved it, and bought it. That's the great thing about being my sister's one and only bridesmaid - I got to choose what I would wear. Luckily, we sent a pic to Christy and she loved the dress. I guess we'll be sharing a neckline ;)

• One step closer to Mexico thanks to finally getting around to renewing my passport. Technically, my passport doesn't expire until next year, but I needed to change my name since I've gotten married since previously getting a passport, so it's not valid anymore since I don't have any identification with my maiden name on it...and the plane tickets we purchased for said trip have my married name on it..So something I learned while taking my passport photo - you don't smile anymore!? How come!? I look like I'm being booked into prison. I managed a teeny tiny smile in my new photo because I suffer what is known as "Resting Bitch Face"..It's a real thing, people!
  

• Thanks to Netflix, I got to revisit a favorite movie of mine I've forgotten about. Penelope. It came out while I was in college and hit quite close to home for me..No, I wasn't born with a pig face...but during that time in my life, I didn't really like myself. I always found too many "imperfections" in me - I was too skinny, too pale, big nose, etc. Later in my college career I started to actually embrace everything I formerly hated about myself...And thanks to on demand and DVR, I've caught up with Scandal, Reign (new guilty pleasure), finally seen what's so great about this gem...and got an Emma Stone/Ryan Gosling fix with Gangster Squad. I personally love those two together. They need to make more movies I say!

• I busted out my Silhouette Portrait yesterday and started working on spring crafts. Nothing gets you into a holiday mood like crafts! Haven't finished yet because after cutting everything out, I realized I had nothing to mount it on. Oops. Had no desire to leave my house yesterday, so saving the finishing product for later in the week when I can stop by a store on my way home to grab the necessary materials. 

• 

  Spring banner, anyone?
  
  
  

  Got really excited to see progress with my raspberry plant I purchased in February at the Seattle Garden Expo. So far my quest to no longer be a black thumb is proving to be successful..I've managed to keep an orchid alive since September, my raspberry plant is budding, AND as I was leaving home to head to work, I saw that the hydrangea plant in my front yard is budding too!

  

Hope everyone had a great weekend! I know I enjoyed mine!

My newest project

Over the weekend my mother-in-law and I went to thrift stores looking for a good deal on furniture because she was going to teach me how to refinish it. She's been finding these old school sewing cabinets with machines still inside and fixing them up. They look awesome.

Less than 5 minutes in our first store we find a sewing cabinet with a machine in it. Priced at $19.99. I was sold. Walked out of the store spending $30 because she also got a cutting table for me. She has one that she got at Joann Fabrics for over $100 and found the exact same one at Value Village for ten bucks. Couldn't leave it!

I have one more coat of polyurethane to put on it and then this bad boy is coming home. I was so excited about it last night I moved the current computer desk my sewing machine was sitting on in my craft room into the office. So it is now holding my Silhouette Portrait which will get used tonight when my sister in law comes over to work with vinyl for a home decor project for her dining room. I'm excited to see it work with vinyl, I haven't used anything other than paper in it yet, AND I'm getting paid for it with wine and Girl Scout Thin Mints :)

Here are photos:

I was so excited when we plugged in the machine and it actually worked! All that was missing was a bobbin case. We're guessing the machine is from the '40s. It's a New Home (which is now Genome). My mother in law knows a guy that has expertise in old machines in the area so she took the machine to him to see if he could find a bobbin case for it. Just got word that he did, yay!

So here's the process of how we refinished this piece. We put Citrustrip stripping gel on it to take the varnish off. Used a palm sander to sand it down (there were cigarette burns and watermarks from drinking glasses on it so we got those off as much as we could..What we couldn't get off will be "character"), wiped it down with both a towel and this tacky cloth stuff to get all the dust. For the legs because there is so much detail into it, we thought it best to hand rub the polyurethane on it instead of using a brush, and we also did the hand rub on the front with the two toned wood just because we didn't want to have drips. The rest we brushed poly onto it. Last night I did my second coat of poly, and on the legs towards the bottom I brushed poly onto it in case I ever steam clean our carpets or anything just to protect it. In between the coats of poly we let it dry 24 hours and I rubbed it down with steel wool to get bumps out. Wiped it down with a towel and the tacky thing again, then did the next coat of poly. 

I'm already itching for my next project. It'll either be experimenting with Annie Sloan's chalk paint, or learning how to reupholster..We shall see!

Update on savings plan

Week 5 done! Woot Woot!!

I haven't really been following my exactly on this day of the week I will deposit this much amount into my savings. I've been basically doing 2 weeks at a time when I get paid. Hey, do what works for you. This works for me.

Tour of our new home!

I just realized that I hadn't taken any photos of our house post-construction. I would like to say that this is real life and my house isn't pristine. Please take note and no judging! Shall we begin: 

Here is our entry way. 

Dining room

Living room

Here's where the no judging part comes in. Kitchen. 

Other half of the kitchen. 

1/2 bath at the bottom of the stairs 

Laundry room at the top of the stairs

Master bedroom

Master bathroom

Other side of master bathroom. 

Bedroom #2. This will eventually get organized into my sewing/craft room. It will also be the nursery when the time comes. 

Bedroom #3. We use it as the office. 

Bedroom #4. The guest room. 

Media room. 

Media room. Hubs used my scarf for the USA v. Panama MLS soccer game we went to this summer as decoration. This is his sports themed room. 

Media room

Media room. Everything hanging has been signed. 

And that's our home! We still have some decorating and organizing to do, but we have the rest of our lives to do it. 

My favorite parts are the media room and the master bathroom. I love using that bath tub!

Movin' On Up!

Summer has been in full swing in the Seattle area. Weather has been sunny and gorgeous, and of course I haven't had a free minute to relax. My sister in law's wedding is this Saturday, so we've been full on wedding mode since early May. Bachelorette/Bridal Shower/Bridal party mani-pedi day. I'm exhausted! The Favors family is ready for Saturday to come and go, let me tell you!

On another note - shortly after returning from NYC we put our condo on the market - July 3rd to be exact. By July 10th, we were in mutual acceptance with a buyer and decided that if we're to close at the end of August, we should probably figure out where WE are going to live...After a day of house hunting together, Hubs and I had narrowed it down to 2 - both in Puyallup. One in the valley area and one in South Hill (if you aren't familiar with the area, South Hill is more towards downtown and the main street in Puyallup, Meridian. This area is constantly growing and several developments are in the area with neighborhoods. It's starting to get a little crowded..The valley has that undeveloped look, it has more greenbelts so you don't feel like the houses are building on top of each other, and just has a serene/peaceful feel to it). We LOVED the location of the house in the valley, but for the price, the South Hill home just made more sense. Both are brand new (the house we chose is still being built - construction is supposed to be completed the end of August). After a weekend of going to each house with different people, we finally decided on the South Hill home. It's 4 bedroom, 3 car garage, 2 story Craftsman. There was a buyer's bonus when we made an offer and they agreed, so all appliance are coming with the house (refridgerator, washer and dryer you usually have to buy separately), and we asked that the yard be landscaped and a fence be installed with our purchase price. At first the developer said no to the landscaping and fence, but because my husband is a master negotiator and they finally agreed.

Here are some of my favorite things:
1. The outside looks nice. This is the model home, so our house is going to be brown, and the 3rd car garage and porch are flipped.

Source of photos: D.R. Horton Homes. Images found on Redfin.com

 2. The floorplan. At first I didn't like that all the bedrooms were on the same side of the house, I would have liked for the master to be on the opposite side as the others, but after walking through I decided that was such a stupid thing to be picky about. And it's great that the laundry room is upstairs!



 3. The kitchen is so much more functional than our condo with the pantry actually IN the kitchen and not in the dining area. I know it sounds silly, but after having our teeny tiny pantry in the opposite corner, it gets really inconvenient. And this way, I have a wall I can create a coffee bar area {:)} The island bar is also oversized and so that will be nice. I like that our house will have a nice gas range which is what we have in our current home. I've gotten used to it so it will be nice to keep. Our cabinets had already been upgraded to the espresso color so we won't have to pay for that. The floors will match as well.

 4. The master bathroom. We will have two sinks, and they'll be far enough away from each other that we both can get ready in the morning in the same bathroom! I get shunned to the guest bathroom now, which is a drag. I also love that the tub and shower are separate. And it's a soaking tub, hallelujah! What you cannot see in this photo is the toilet is in it's own little room so someone can be using it and the other person can still be doing whatever it is they want to with the rest of the bathroom. The cabinet color from downstairs is carried in here, so it will be the dark wood. The mosaic tiling in the shower and by the tub is standard, but the tiling beind the sinks is an upgrade. They already made the decision to do the mosaic stones as the sink backsplash so another upgrade that we don't have to do. Yay!

 5. Along with 4 bedrooms, this house has a large media/bonus room. I think we will be putting the video game console systems, blu ray player, surround sound in here. I love the fact that we can grow into this home and still have plenty of room.

Things I'm Looking Forward to

Mr. and Mrs. Favors are planning on being very busy in 2013! Some things we're looking forward to:

1. May: My 27th birthday! My girlfriend Dee and I are planning on having dinner with friends at a local Indian restuarant. I've never had authentic Indian food before so I've been looking forward to it. Afterwards, my favorite 80s coverband, the Spazmatics, are playing at a bar close to my house. I plan on attending that and I can walk home!
2. Girls day trip to Canada: My girlfriends and I were tossing around the idea of taking a day trip to Canada. I've been joking I need to go up there because I'm almost out of Royal Wedding tea that I purchased during a trip up there the day after the Royal Wedding. Now that I think about it, I need to get my passport updated. Yikes!
3. NYC in June: Jason and I were lucky enough to stay in a super great two bedroom apartment on 5th and Park. Jason's dad has a client who owns it and offered it up to us. Some things we have discussed doing/seeing: Chicago on Broadway, Shakespeare in the Park, maybe taking in a Mets game. One of my good girlfriends from college recently moved to New York, so we plan on meeting up with her. We google chatted last night and were talking about maybe going on this food tour in the West Village. I'd like to rent bicycles and ride around Central Park as well. So excited!
4. Weddings: Jason's sister is getting married in July in Seattle. My cousin is getting married in October in Charleston, SC. So excited to be a part of one and attend another!
5. DisneyWorld: After my cousin's wedding in SC, my parents have reserved their timeshare at DisneyWorld and invited us all to spend the week with them there. I'm so excited, I've never been. And it would be great to see the boys (my brother's sons - Luke, 3, and Warren, 2). Luke has Autism, so I'm not sure how he'll do with crowds!

Crock-Pot Apricot Chicken

I have a love/hate relationship with my crock-pot. Whenever I try to cook something on the high setting, it burns. When I try low, it's not fully cooked. I think it just hates me. Yesterday after grocery shopping, I decided to give my slow cooker another change and tried Apricot Chicken from Six Sister's Stuff. I found the recipe on Pinterest. I made a couple substitutions, so I'm not sure if it would taste the same as the original recipe. First off, instead of a packet of dry onion soup mix, I used a can of Cream of Celery soup. I substituted this because I thought I had a packet of the soup mix left over from a previous recipe that I've tried, but alas, I did not and since I had just gotten back home from grocery shopping, I refused to leave again. My second substitution isn't really a substitution at all...instead of chicken breasts, I used chicken tenders because again, I didn't have chicken breasts, but I have a huge Costco-sized back of chicken tenderloins. My third and final substitution again really isn't a substitution. It called for apricot preserves..I used apricot and pineapple because, again, that is what I had in stock from another previous recipe I've tried.

Substitutions/alterations aside, it was good! Had barely enough left over for my lunch today. I didn't put enough chicken in the pot because while they were frozen, I put as much as my crock-pot could fit, but shrunk down when they thawed/cooked. So there was WAY more sauce than chicken, but that's alright, I made mashed potatoes too so I used it as a gravy. Pretty much licked my plate clean. Hubs didn't complain about it either, so I chalk that up for the win category!!

Hope everyone had a great weekend, I know I did. (Anyone see the 58-0 shut out of the Cardinals from Seattle?! Crazy!!)

Dec. 8, 2012

Work has been extremely hectic lately with training for a new position and prepping for our HR files to be audited next month. I haven't been very diligent with my 5k training..I might have to put that on the back burner until after the holidays, I'm not sure yet.

Yesterday I took a much needed day off from work. Thank the Lord for PTO! Friend Jamie and I drove down to Woodburn Company Stores outside of Portland to do some tax-free Christmas shopping. I scored as usual at the Gap Outlet for gifts for my second cousins and hubs' nephew. We high-tailed it outta there to get back home in time for my work Christmas party. We had fun, and I was starving so the turkey and ham with all the fixin's hit the spot!

Today has been a very lazy day. I did some cleaning, but not as much as I should have. Paid a few bills, balanced the checkbooks, took the dogs for a few walks..the usual. Tomorrow will consist of more cleaning, laundry folding, more dog walks, and maybe a little shopping if there's time. Who am I kidding? The shopping with most likely happen first. Sundays are my grocery shopping days.