Monday, August 31, 2009

Photo Booth Pictures

In June, we attended a wedding in San Diego for a school friend of Greg's. It was a pretty wedding, but my favorite part was that they rented a photo booth for the event. It was sweet.

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I smell a scrapbook page in the works . . .

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Interested in Straw

While on vacation, we passed a sign on Highway 1 in California that said "Straw for Sale." Greg asked me if I wanted to buy straw, but I told him that the only straw I was interested in was the kind that ended in "berry."

We went to the Swanton U-Pick farm and were expecting only strawberries, but it turned out that blackberry U-Pick was open too. Excellent!

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(Collage frame from Shabby Blogs)


We had berry shortcake for breakfast the next morning with Greg's aunt, Kris. Fresh berries are super yummy.

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Washington, DC Layout

Layout from a couple years ago, when Greg and I met up in DC while on respective business trips:

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Matt's Big Breakfast Layout

Layout from earlier in the year, when we went to Matt's Big Breakfast on New Year's Day:

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Blue Frame Blog Header

I heart blue. It's pretty apparent. Also, studying for the CPA exam isn't the most exciting thing to be doing on a Friday night. I was bad. I screwed around for a couple hours, creating a new blog header.


Frame: Flea Market Frame from Shabby Blogs (I found some other neat digital frames there too)
Paper strip: Spontaneous Delight kit from Shabby Princess
Swirls: Happy Go Lucky kit from Shabby Princess
Font: Candara

On the sidebar: Same paper strip from above, plus some tape from Happy Go Lucky.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Grungy Blog Background

I was feeling blasé about my previous blog background. That presents a problem when my web design "skillz" are pretty basic. In any case, I can make some moderate progress just looking at code from free templates online and learn enough to adapt those templates to my tastes.

I liked this Grungy template and tweaked it:

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And by "tweak," I mean got rid of everything except the splattered background. Heh.

[Edit]: I'm fickle. I decided to make the borders blue and also use some digital paper in the background - "Sky Floral" from the Festival kit on Shabby Princess.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Apothecary Chest

So I realize I was purposely vague in my previous blog post about whether or not I had actually purchased the apothecary chest (Chinese? Old-old? Next best thing since sliced bread? Just kidding) I had ogled while in Portland.

The delivery of the apothecary chest a couple weeks ago motivated me to clean up my craft room. Greg's been after me for months to do it, but it's hard to get excited about it without a sweet piece of furniture to go along with it.

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My craft room being as neat and clean as in the picture is a rare occurrence.

The chest covers up part of the message center hanging up behind it (since we put it up before the chest was part of the equation), but we decided not to re-hang it. Makes it look a little ghetto, but that's okay.

[Edit at 8:18 PM]: With my laptop moving to the "main" table, the cable from the monitor/TV now reaches my laptop, which means . . . extended desktop! Multi-tasking? Check. Watching Hulu while crafting? Double check. I'm a fan.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

With It Layout

While my mom was in Taiwan in May, I checked in on my brother while she was gone. While we were having dinner one night (that makes it sound like we cooked a meal, but really I was having ramen and he was having Hot Pockets), my brother and I had a conversation that prompted a blog post, and subsequently, a layout:

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Orange Flower Wedding Card

Wedding card for a colleague of Greg's:

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Three Elephants Baby Card

The other baby card I had alluded to making in my previous post:

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[Edit]: While browsing through my starred items in Google Reader, I noticed that I had previously starred this card. Probably where I got the idea for the three elephants, but I just didn't remember.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Baby Card Exchange

Card for baby-themed exchange:

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Although I've got some extra baby cards, I'm thinking about making a different baby card for a friend who is expecting . . . any excuse to be crafty!

Cashews Have Cashews

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"ALLERGY WARNING: CONTAINS CASHEWS"

Cashews have cashews in them?! Say it ain't so!

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Hambly Open Studio

Greg and I happened to be in the San Jose area when Hambly had an open studio on Friday.

When I saw the blog post, I was like, We have to go! And Greg was like, I'll totally take you because I love you! And I was like, Sweet!

Okay, that's not quite how it went down, but the gist of it is pretty accurate.

From the outside, Hambly is pretty nondescript because the warehouse is in a business/industrial park. We showed up and got a little tour of the warehouse, which was interesting not only because it was scrapbook-related, but also from a business/operations perspective because Greg and I were asking a bunch of questions about their manufacturing process. (Business dorks? Yes, we are).

Shelves of product:

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Paints used in screen printing:

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Close-up of a screen printing machine:

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Shop floor:
They have a machine that packages sheets of stickers with the cardboard backing, shrink wraps the product, punches the little tab at the top for displaying, etc!


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Me with Allison, who is the primary graphic designer for Hambly papers/overlays (and runs the blog):
We were asking her about the design process (also interesting, like the manufacturing process).


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Except for the part where I was buying stuff, Greg said the Hambly tour was pretty interesting for him too. I thought he was going to be bored the whole time, but it was kind of like first-hand How It's Made.

Summer Road Trip - California Coast

On Monday, we decided to pack up camp a day early and leave since we felt we'd seen most of what we wanted to see at Crater Lake. It was kind of a pain packing up our tent and junk after it had rained the night before. We passed through a small town, Central Point, where we spotted a little mom-and-pop restaurant by the side of the road called Patti's Kitchen. We stopped for breakfast and the total bill was about $15, including tip, so we were thinking that was a sweet deal.

We then drove to Grant's Pass, were we checked out the Bentwood factory show room. We were interested because (a) we have furniture from Bentwood and (b) we were planning on picking up a bench for Greg's mom. We ended up not getting much except for a "handled sandwich board" for $9. We're big balla's that way.

Driving down into Northern California, we passed through Redwood forests and some small towns before stopping in Eureka for the night. Eureka has an Old Town with lots of neat historic buildings, which I like looking at.

We hadn't reserved a room in town for the night, so we drove/called around asking about vacancy and prices. We pulled into this one hotel where Greg told me to run in and find out how much. The lady at the front desk was Asian and I also noticed that her name seemed to be Chinese. After we decided to stay the night, I asked her where she was from (answer: China), after which I busted out my Mandarin. Greg came in a few minutes later and asked if he needed to show his AAA card to get the discount, and the hotel lady was like, Oh no, I could tell she was Chinese, so I already gave you a better discount! AAA price is $62.99 and I gave you $59.99! HA! Greg commented in private that he's never gotten a discount for being white. Hilarious!

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Left Eureka Tuesday morning and drove to Half Moon Bay. On the way, we stopped in Napa Valley for a couple hours, where we happened upon Sift Cupcakery and stopped to try out the 50/50, The Sky is Falling, and Ooh La La cupcakes (orange, chocolate, and red velvet):

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While driving through San Francisco, we also stopped at the Marin Headlands so that Greg could get some shots of the Golden Gate Bridge with the city in the background. After crossing the bridge (and paying the toll in all quarters, which probably annoyed the booth attendant), we also stopped at the Presidio (part of Golden Gate Recreational Area) where Greg took some more pictures of the bridge at sunset.

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Finally ended up at the Zaballa House Bed and Breakfast in Half Moon Bay. The bed and breakfast was located right on the main street, but the bed and breakfast itself was meh. From a price perspective, it was probably on par with chain hotels in the area. The room we were in was not part of the main house (so not quaint or unique) and the room left some things to be desired. The walls were thin between rooms (we could hear the guy in the room next to us snoring. He snored loud. Sheesh). There was no AC in the room, which is fine in an area like Half Moon Bay, except that there was no screen on the window, so we couldn't keep the window open to let in the cool air, unless we also liked bugs coming in, which I am not a fan of. As an alternative, we turned the ceiling fan on high, but it squeaked pretty loudly going on high.

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Breakfast the next morning was okay - it was more like a continental breakfast, plus quiche. We drove to Santa Cruz to visit a potter's studio. Stopped in Pescadero on the way back to have lunch at Duarte's Tavern for cream of artichoke soup, olallieberry pie, and blackberry cobbler.

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Checked out of our bed and breakfast Thursday morning intending to hit up U-Pick, but turns out they don't open till 10:00. Darn. Headed over to check out more of the coast and the Big Sur area. Stopped in Carmel and walked around. Nice town, but very crowded and touristy, plus we'd been before.

We decided to head over to our bed and breakfast in Pacific Grove - The Inn at 213 Seventeen Mile Drive. Much nicer than the previous bed and breakfast. Walked around downtown Pacific Grove for a bit before going back to our bed and breakfast for appetizers. You know a bed and breakfast is not too shabby when it serves up appetizers in the afternoon/evening. It was pretty good too - tortellini, potstickers, mango salsa, and crab salad with crackers. We also started chatting with this other guest at the bed and breakfast who works as a cartoon film editor for Warner Brothers. He was interesting to talk to because he's worked on several cartoons that Greg and I watched while we were growing up (Batman, Tiny Toons, and Animaniacs were the ones that stood out in my mind). Interesting people definitely make the bed and breakfast experience better.

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Breakfast Friday morning consisted of a seasoned chicken breast, French toast, and scrambled eggs. Pretty delicious. Greg normally doesn't like French toast and he said he liked this French toast.

After breakfast - U-Pick! We discovered that there was U-Pick blackberries. Bonus! So we got to pick blackberries AND strawberries. $2.50 per pound - sweet price compared to buying it at the grocery store. More on that here.

We also went back to Pescadero so that Greg could get something he'd been eyeing at Made in Pescadero. Turns out the shop owner grew up in Tempe, so we spent some time chatting with him about the Phoenix area.

After that, made our way to Hambly in Santa Clara, where they were having an open studio. More on that here.

Friday, August 7, 2009

Summer Road Trip - Crater Lake

Drove to Crater Lake last Saturday. We observed while driving that there are a lot of mountains in Oregon due to volcanic activity. We also noticed that it quickly goes from forest to high desert in a matter of 15 minutes of driving. Greg was regretting that we didn't get to spend enough time in central Oregon (e.g., Bend) since it was pretty.

We got to the Mazama Village campground at Crater Lake and set up the tent, then spent the rest of the day chillin’ and reading. It was pretty warm when we set up camp, but it quickly clouded over and a thunderstorm rolled through, with lots of lightning and loud cracks of thunder. We also got our first peek at Crater Lake when we stopped a viewpoint before getting to our campground.

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Next day, we explored Rim Village, including the lodge. Had lunch at the lodge, and also saw some great views of the lake and Wizard Island.

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After lunch, we drove around the rim (basically, around the lake), stopping at various viewpoints for pictures. At one viewpoint, there was a pretty blue bird and some chipmunks hanging around. Greg suggested we break out the cashews and man, do those animals like cashews! Greg first threw a cashew at the chipmunk, but the blue bird actually flew down from a nearby tree and snagged it. After that, we fed both the bird and the chipmunk, with the bird flying back and forth between the nearby tree to get cashews, and the chipmunk practically begging for them. Both seemed very used to people and being fed by said people. The chipmunk was way cute. It pretty much would take nuts out of our hands. At one point, the chipmunk even climbed up on Greg's lap (Greg was sitting on a short stone wall), looking for more cashews. Too bad I didn't get any pictures or video of that happening - I was too busy being amazed that the chipmunk was so bold in his quest for more cashews.

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Stormy again that night, but not as much as the night before. It was cooler during the night though - Greg says in the 40s. Chilly! I’m probably kind of a temperature weenie. I get whiny when it's too hot or too cold.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Summer Road Trip - Columbia River Gorge

Last Wednesday, we drove out to the Columbia River Gorge from Portland. First stop was the View Point Inn. Pretty little bed and breakfast with a great view of the gorge, though for many people, it's famous for the Twilight scenes filmed there.

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We had lunch there:

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Ricotta and Pesto Stuffed Tortellini:
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Chicken Pot Pie:
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including this super yummy shortcake with local strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries.

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After that, we drove up Larch Mountain to a short trail that led to a lookout (Sherrard Point) where we could see five different mountains (Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Ranier, Mt. Hood, Mt. Jefferson, and Mt. Adams)

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Finally, we drove to our bed and breakfast in Hood River, Sakura Ridge. The view of Mt. Hood from our room:

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was amazing.

For dinner, we drove around a little bit until we found a fruit stand, Alice's Orchard, where we bought fresh blueberries, peaches, apricots, and nectarines. All we had for dinner was fruit and cheese (Wensleydale with apricot, from Costco) and it was tasty. I've come to realize with all the fresh fruit we have eaten up and down the Pacific coast that it is so much better than what we get in Phoenix.

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On Thursday, we got up to see the sun rise:

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Breakfast of French toast, fresh berries with lemon curd, and homemade sausage:

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Then took a walk around the farm and looked at the cherry trees, which had lots of cherries ripe for picking.

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We drove to Mt. Hood and made a couple of stops along the way (the "fruit loop" is an attraction in Hood River) for a slice of huckleberry pie and fresh apple cider. Saw the Timberline Lodge at Mt. Hood, which was built in 1937. Up on the mountain, there were still people skiing and snowboarding in the middle of summer! On the way back from Mt. Hood, we stopped at a lavender farm where we got to cut our own bunch of lavender.

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We ended up having dinner at this China Gorge restaurant off I-84 in Hood River . . . not the best.

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Woke up in the middle of the night on Friday and couldn't fall back asleep for 3-4 hours. Bummer. Wasn't as tired as I thought I'd be in the morning though. After breakfast, went to Multnomah Falls where we hiked up to the top (1.25 miles and 11 switchbacks), then had lunch at the restaurant:

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After that, went to Bridal Veil Falls, drove by some other falls, and Greg snapped some pictures on the scenic highway:

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