Craftiness meets nostalgia

Back at it again. I forget to update this (as you can tell by the six-odd month gap), sorry.
My apartment is finally *just about* where I want it. One of my newest additions is the following:



Another blog I follow had a tutorial a while back about these wreaths made from book pages. I wanted to make one for sometime, but never got around to it. Recently I just sat down with an old hardback (apologies to the author of The Witch of Cologne) and my staple gun and went to it. When I finished I added an old record to the middle to finish it off. I love how it looks over the fireplace.

My Favorite Summer Salad is BACK!

When I lived in SLC, we would go to MacCool's to get a Su Tallin salad. Today, being the most Irish of all days, I decided to make it myself.

This is how I make it:
1 c. Lettuce (your choice, I use romaine, but mixed greens is good too)
1.25 c. strawberries whole (then cut them up after you measure)
4 pecan halves broken up
2 tsp ff raspberry vinaigrette



A TRUE Su Tallin has bleu cheese (bleck) so, if you're so inclined, add it.

Either way, it's YUMMY!

Tell her what she's won, Roddy! A New Car!

Well, it wasn't free, but the Monty was finally retired at the beginning of August. Laurel was gracious enough to go up to Seattle with me and after 5 hours we headed home in my new (to me) 2008 Jeep Compass.

Neither of us ate before heading up, so of course by 3pm we could have eaten a horse. Instead we had some Jimmy Johns delivered. Yummm.


RIP Montgomery Montero. 1998-2010. You were truly a sport.


Hello Compy! Welcome to the family!

Today's Show is Brought to You by the Letter F

F is for FANS!

If you were not aware, renting in Washington means that you live an air conditionless existance. After three "record setting" days of high temps (91, 93, 90)I broke down and bougth two fans as seen below.

It was back to a brisk 63 this morning and shouldn't see much more than 70 today. Thank goodness!

This weekend I got to spend time with two of my favorite people; Susan and William Forester. Suz and I went to dinner with one of her friends, Sarah, on Saturday night and then we shopped around on Sunday afternoon for a few things. I'm so glad that they are out here. Not only does it make my transition to a new place easier, but getting to spend time with Suz after being "apart" for ten years is a blessing! Besides, who could resist this face?

On the Road....Again.

Today was my first day commuting to work in 5 years. That's right, half of a decade of walking to/living at work. Just thought I'd let you in on that little tidbit. Happy Thursday!

Welcome to the Ridge!!!

Well, thanks to one of my new neighbors, I'm coming to you live from my new apartment! Getting my own cable and internet set up is high on my list, but not on week one.

Here are a lot of "before" pictures. I will post "afters" as I finish a room. I'm hoping to have it all done by Christmas, so bear with me! I can tell you that even though I took a one bedroom instead of a two, there are three things that I LOVE about this place. 1. Dishwasher. 2. Ice maker. 3. FIREPLACE! I'm so glad to be here.


Area 51...lots of secrets lie behind that door. Well, not really.


Entry way. Notice the cut out.


Living room through the cut out.


Living room from a little farther inside the door.


Living room straight on from the dining area.


Angled view from dining area into living room.


The accent wall. I'm probably paying an extra $25 a month for that "feature."


Dining area from living room.


Looking from the dining area to the kitchen.


The kitchen. Probably the first room that will be finished.


Kitchen and part of the hallway from living room.


The hallway. Coat closet and bathroom on the right, laundry on the left.


Hallway again.


Bathroom view 1.


Bathroom view 2.


Bathroom view 3.


Laundry.


Bedroom door from the hall.


Bedroom view 1.


Bedroom view 2.


Bedroom view 3.


A nice little welcome basket from Ellie and the management at The Ridge.

Stay tuned!!! :o)

The Long Haul..alright, the two-day haul

June 19th, at roughly 1pm (and roughly 4 hours after I would have liked to leave--I underestimated the volume and number of my belongings) Richel, Murphy and I packed up the car, got some Sonic for the road and headed out of the SLC.


The car was packed. I don't know if the picture below fully explains how PACKED it was!


We hit traffic right away. Of course.


And then we were in Idaho.


I had great co-pilots.


We made it into Oregon...even though Oregon didn't really play along with our "take pictures of the state signs" game.


We stopped for day one in Ontario, Oregon at the Sleep Inn. We headed down into town to Romio's (I spelled it like they did!) Pizza to get some delicious dinner! The little downtown was cute, but rundown.


However they did have a tuxedo/coffee shop. How could they go wrong?


Murphy relaxed in the pet-friendly hotel.


The next day we drove across Oregon and up to Lacey. We drove through rain most of the day. The highlight was the car show that we landed in the middle of!


We drove through lots of turbines, and I can understand why! The winds were very high so we proceeded with caution. Luckily, the sun came out when the winds came up.


When the winds died down, the evergreen trees started to spring up and the rain began to fall again.


We hit the Washington state line about 3:30pm.


I wanted to arrive by five. Guess what? We made it at 5:05!


We unloaded most of the car. Richel found a great new way to carry my collection of soccer/futbol scarves from the car to the apartment.


We grabbed some dinner in Olympia. My first PNW meal as a local. Great burgers!


Two great days with a great friend and now I'm a Pacific North Westerner!