Monday, December 29, 2008

The missing cutest pics

My "pics of the week" for Bean have pretty much been suspended because...well, over Thanksgiving she became not as cute. She developed cherry eye!

It's pretty gross. Surgery is semi-optional, meaning, it's not hurting her or anything but there's the chance she'd develop long term eye complications (dry eye). So we decided to do the damn thing and take her to a doggie eye specialist.

Anyway, here's a recent iPhone snapshot of her yawning. Gross eye is hidden!



She's really growing up -- definitely starting to look more like a dog and less like a puppy. She continues to be a holy terror and a sweet love bug, all wrapped into one. We love her!

Sunday, December 21, 2008

This weather is nuts

Today a man skied by our house!



Last night, as the snow was accumulating, I really began to think that the dinner party that my college girlfriends and I had planned weeks ago wasn't really going to happen, but everyone with the exception of Nicole (who lives way out near Bothell) rallied and managed to get here. We had a nice time catching up, and I'm so glad because Seta, from Chicago, is only here once or twice a year.





They all stayed the night, we freaked Brian out by talking about periods, and then borrowed shovels to dig Seta's car out from a pile of snow.

It's still snowing here, and apparently the weather guys predict another 5 inches tonight. I know most people are stir crazy but I'm actually enjoying this, as it has provided me my first days off during the middle of the week in at least a year.

Monday, November 24, 2008

This week's cutest pic



Bean actually fell asleep like this. Aaahhhh.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

I woke up to this.

We're up in Bellingham right now for my friend Joey's wedding reception today. We came up early to spend time with my mom, and have the most AMAZING SOUP EVER -- Chanterelle Mushroom Chowder-- at Nimbus last night.

Anyway, I woke up to a dog jumping on my head, and to this:







It was beautiful watching the fog lift:





Something makes me think that if this was the first thing that saw everyday, life would be just a little bit easier.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

This week's cutest pic

What started out as playing and being ridiculously adorable...






Turned into this...



Oh my.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Happy Election Day

It's certainly been a wild ride. From watching hilarious Tina Fey Palin sketches, to receiving emails declaring Obama is the anti-Christ, to watching my longtime Republican mother (and many of her friends) become die-hard Obama fans, this election has been the most interesting and entertaining for me, to date. I'm sure many of you feel the same.

I hope the outcome is exactly how I want it to be.

Cheers!

UPDATE:

And it did!

We happened upon an amazing street party on Capitol Hill on our way back to our car. Check it out:

Monday, October 27, 2008

This week's cutest pic

Welcome to the lamest blog ever! Where I only post photos of my puppy!



She loves to sit in the sun in our kitchen. Wheee!

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Weekly Bean Update

I'm getting asked to do a weekly Bean update. This is not a difficult request for a proud new "mom" to fulfill.

Below are my two favorite videos from this past week. The first showcases Bean experiencing some pretty vivid dreams. The second is her first experience with new iPhone ringtones. Both are priceless.




I think I did it

I think I made the best meal of my life. This past Monday night my mom was in town so I made us a nicer-than-average dinner: Cumin rubbed halibut with an heirloom tomato vinaigrette, and a black lentil and roasted chanterelle ragout.

These pictures don't do it justice. But these lentils were amazing.



Monday, October 13, 2008

Finley + Bean = unprecedented levels of cuteness

Yesterday Justyn stopped by to meet our puppy, Bean, with 9 month old Finley. We had a major cute session - I thought you'd all want to partake. Hope it brightens your day!

Friday, September 19, 2008

Meet Bean!

In some ways, I've been purposely avoiding my blog. I kind of got sick of it. But also, I've been incredibly busy with work. Which is good. When you're self-employed, you need to relish the times when you have too much work.

Because I've been so busy though, I've really had nothing interesting or blog-worthy to talk about. This all changed this week when we flew to North Carolina to pick up our new puppy!



Bean is a Redbone Coonound from the south. We've secretly promised to only talk to her in a southern drawl.

There were many cute puppies, but we knew exactly which one to pick when she curled up - literally - and fell asleep in my arms.



The North Carolina countryside was beautiful, and her breeder, Sam and his wife, Kim, from Rebel Red Kennels couldn't have been better hosts. His farm and the surrounding area in Lincolton, N.C. is absolutely idyllic -- straight out of a movie, or a Norman Rockwell painting.









So far, so good. Bean slept through 10 hours and two flights back to the west coast, and she even sleeps through the nights in her crate next to our bed. She loves crawling in the fireplace, and sleeping with her nose tucked in between your head and your neck -- no matter what position you are in.



We are in love.

Monday, August 4, 2008

Veggies

Everybody (meaning my mom & Lindsay) is freaking out about my veggie tray that I made on Friday night. It was actually really fun to put together.




Thursday, July 3, 2008

On Losing the Sonics

One of the more challenging but honest-to-God rewarding parts that I've experienced in my relationship and marriage is developing an appreciation for what the other person is deeply interested and involved in. This is not easy for me. I am admittedly tunnel vision, and tend to be fairly selfish. But over the past few years, I've come to a fairly significant new understanding of sports --- primarily, basketball.

In the past two years, I've even actually, for the first time in my life, enjoyed myself at basketball games. We've gone to a handful of Sonics games together, and I've been standing and cheering at close games, and Brian has tried to impart his encyclopedic knowledge of every player across the NBA. I fade in and out, and in all honesty, most of the time I really don't know what is going on. I couldn't point out a foul if my life depended on it. But that's not even the point. I have seen what an impact something as "silly" as an NBA team can have on the lives of people. I used to think sports was just (oh, I hate to admit this in a public forum) a silly meathead Sunday afternoon activity, but I have come to realize -- only through marriage and a lifetime commitment -- that I was wrong. Sports is ultimately very central to the lives of many people -- and like music, or jewelry making, or a dog, they can be very life/soul enriching.

I went to dinner last night to celebrate my good friend Amber's wedding coming up this weekend, and five of us girlfriends from freshmen year of college were sitting around drinking wine, having a gaggingly airbrushed moment of reminiscing. And I'm fairly sure that I interrupted the scene, when, just hours after the Mayor Nickels' sellout announcement, I found my blood rising as I explained to them my feelings on the subject. They looked at me like I was batshit crazy... like I was a Brian trapped in Krista's body...a terribly frightening thought.

I'm not even sure what to be more mad about. The fact that we just personally lived through a dime store crime novel with a heavy handed punch line that money is the only thing that talks? Or by the fact that our governor wouldn't even glance at perfectly viable attempt to keep our team here, making her, by all accounts, a lazy bitch? Or by the fact that if I have a little boy someday, he'll be jipped out of sharing a special experience (many, really) with his dad because of arrogance, deceit, and greed. I don't know who to hate more... Howard Schultz, Clay Bennett, or David Stern. They are all ill-intentioned creepsters who should all be worrying about burning in hell...or at least about reincarnating as blind cave salamanders.

And Mayor Nickels? He is a buffoon - a total dumb dumb. I can't even wrap my head around the logic to agree to this settlement. The economic impact alone of not having an NBA team will undoubtedly wipe out whatever minuscule profit he thought his city was making in this 45 million dollar deal. I highly doubt our city will see an NBA team again, at least anytime soon. But at least we have the Fun Forest, Celine Dion, and a bloated, couperose-inflicted city leader in which to rest our city's economic hopes!

If this announcement would have been made two years ago, I would have watched my soon-to-be-fiance's face drop -- I would have seen the disappointment on his face as he wonders what he will replace this interest in his life with, and I wouldn't have even understood it for two seconds. But today, after a wild ride of engagement and almost a year of marriage, I feel his disappointment and anger. It'll still be easier for me (than him) to chalk this one up to another adventure in post-nuptial life, but at least I now have a glimpse into the magnitude of some fans' emotions, and of this city's latest historical event.

Monday, June 30, 2008

Somebody buy this

I saw this necklace today on the homepage of Etsy and was inspired to post it. It's so interesting - reminds me of my wedding necklace a bit. It would be awesome for a dressy occasion. I want somebody I know to buy it!!







Here's my wedding necklace (made by Carolyn Attal in Scottsdale, AZ) that I loved so much.



It's weird how now that I make jewelry, I am attracted to different things. A year ago, this necklace (Etsy necklace) probably would have been "too much" for me to handle, but now I have a big appreciation for intricate details.

I took a clois0nne enameling class a couple weeks ago and had a great time. Basically it involves bending thin wire to whatever design you wish (with as few separate pieces of wire as possible), and filling the design with tiny chards of glass, and then firing it in a kiln. Over and over again. It took ALL weekend to make this:



It's not without it's imperfections (the last firing made it turn yellow for some reason!) but I ended up oxidizing it to give the branches more contrast.



Enameling is fun, and it's this particular class at Danaca Design is the type of class that total beginners can take. I highly recommend it.










Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Painting projects

Poor Brian, he is upstairs painting our hopelessly tacky upstairs bathroom. It's a project that I started actually, about 2 months ago or maybe even more... but it's so detail oriented and ANNOYING with lots of painted cabinets, and trim work, and windows - and there's toilets in the way and the whole project just stinks. My dad is coming this Friday to stay the night, so the pressure is on.

I also started this painting project last week. I'm repainting these vintage chairs that I essentially got for free. HIGH GLOSS WHITE! If I can fix the inset caning part okay, I think they'll turn out pretty well. I need to find a nice green fabric - something that will go with our lovely drapes (that we have yet to hang)....cuz those cushions are pretty pretty nasty.







Paint paint paint. I went to a meeting this week with white paint in my hair - realized it when I got there. That was cute.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

The Danish Modern Couple

I'm very skeptical of people who design their homes with only one type of style. For instance, there's The Pottery Barn Couple who only decorates in dark masculine woods and poufy couches, or the Hollywood Regency Girl who obsesses over faux bamboo, or the French Country Lady who primarily displays roosters and slightly irregular glazed bowls (oh wait, that's my mom, tee hee).

Well you guys, I am afraid that we're becoming the Newly Married Danish Modern Couple. Noooo!

Yes, we are.

We recently purchased this beautiful table from Craigslist for only $300 so I couldn't pass it up.



But seriously - we already have a Danish modern credenza and two recently recovered Danish modern arm chairs.





Then we also installed this mid century light fixture above our stairway landing.



HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH?

I am kind of liking these chairs that are currently on eBay..... mostly because they are simple, would match the table, and the upholstery would match the 1958 EAMES ERA dining room window panels (sheesh). But seriously, tell me to stop!




I gravitate towards more feminine pieces, whereas Brian is more modern - but we have found a safe haven, if you will, in Danish Modern. I like it because it has clean lines without sacrificing warmth.

But enough is enough! Somebody needs to put a moratorium on this!

Monday, June 9, 2008

Etsy vintage shoe finds

Oh my many subscribing readers, is this your dream day? 3 posts in a day - why yes it is!

I was online tonight and found these two pairs of amazing vintage shoes, and I had to post them in case my friends have the right size of feet!

First... I wish they were in a different color but... I just love the side. "Lincoln log" cut outs Italian wedges! That's too much for me to handle.



Second... whoa, amazing...you can't get better than vintage tapestry flats. GET IT!

Manipulating the search engines

One of the projects that I recently completed was a goodie. Good meaning, the outcome surpassed even my own expectations.

I've been working with a really nice orthopedic group, Orthopedic Specialists of Seattle, for the past year. When I met them, one of their priorities was to "optimize" their site. Essentially what they wanted was more traffic, because theoretically more traffic equals more patients, right?

As it turned out, their old site was not only outdated looking, but it was built in a way that wasn't search engine friendly. It was all Flash and image-based, unreadable by The Spiders. They were absolutely invisible to the search engines - I think the only way to find the site was to type in the company's exact name into Google. So I had to tell them that they needed a completely new website.

Then I partnered with some nice, smart people to actually build the new site. I wrote some original content with search engine optimization in mind (trying as hard as possible not to make it too noticeable) and recently launched the site.




And voila! Within one month of launch, their site was located on the first page of organic search results for almost every keyword that I identified.

It felt really great to see those kind of results. And even though I feel like I only scratched the surface, I still feel like I learned a lot about online marketing over the past year.

Thank you to Adam, a Claremont alum who I recently met and who helped this project work!

Finley update

Last night we saw Ian and Justyn and their baby (cutest baby ever?), Finley. She's 5 months old now.

I'm majorly obsessed with this baby, it's kind of ridiculous.



For more toe sucking shots (it's her new thing), check out her blog. She's so cute!!!

Monday, June 2, 2008

What a few small interior changes can do...

This weekend we took the ugly brass fireplace doors off of our fireplace. Why we hadn't done it earlier, don't ask me. It made such a difference. Lindsay was so obsessed with the difference that she inspired me to go look at the old real estate pictures -- the ones off the real estate site when we were looking to buy our house.

WOW. What a difference moving some granny furniture out, painting the walls, and taking off some ugly brass fireplace doors, can make in the feel of a room!

Before:



After:



Aahh, much better. This is why people should look past the interiors of a home when buying. :)

Lindsay -- go for the tacky hacienda!

Monday, May 26, 2008

A few highlights

I had to take a mini hiatus from The Blog. During my weeks, I've been busy trying to build the jewelry empire, and on the weekends we've been consumed with homeownership. Here are some highlights from the past few weeks. (Let me warn you, this might be the longest post ever.)

A few weeks ago I had a trunk show at hands down my new favorite home decor store, Revival Home & Garden. It was fun, and I met the lovely designer of Sabrina Love handbags. Brian, Katie, and Lindsay & David showed up to support - thank you!



And, I totally have a crush on this store:






Next highlight. Angela, the lovely designer of Flora & Fawn, has helped me navigate the jewelry scene a bit over the past month, and I hooked up with a company that can manufacture my line. It's too early to announce anything official, but things are moving well in this arena and I'm super excited. My head is spinning but since this is how I generally operate, it's all good. Here is me enjoying celebratory margaritas with my favorite biz ladies, Cori & Aviva of The Adventure School.







Moving on! Over the past few days, we made major leaps and bounds in terms of the shape of our yard. Our yard is totally insane. It's gigantic, for one -- there's a lot of space. And two, the people who lived here before us lived here for 32 years, and the woman was a gardner. And by gardner I mean she filled the entire yard with every color of flowering plant possible. So slowly but surely, we are (appropriately) ripping certain plants out, trimming back, and just generally just trying to dejungle-ize.

Yesterday I ripped a bunch of plants out of our backyard. There are so many pointless old lady plants back there. So that was good. And today Brian and Steve tackled the front of our house. We have lots of gigantic evergreen bushes out front. I don't know, walking up to our house, I kind of feel like an old republican, with so many gigantic sculptured evergreen bushes. Here is our progress. (And by our, I mean their.)











It looks a little bare now, but here is where we're going. This is a picture of a house in Magnolia that we looked at during our home buying process. It was suuuper wonky inside but the yard was so thoughtful.



Just give us a few years (and a couple thousand dollars?).

Last but not least, our weekend commenced with a fun evening with our lovely neighbors, Tim and Kathryn. Tim owns a delicious smoothie catering business called Pulp, and Kathryn is a wonderful photographer. (High fives for dual self employment.) I think our search for a dog breed might be over after meeting their dog, Bella.

We have been researching and discussing certain breeds, including the Shiloh Shepherd, but I've sort of been holding out. The Shiloh Shepherd is a cross between a German Shepherd and a Malumute, and they are insanely smart and mega people pleasers (read: easy to train) but their crazy amounts of shedable hair freaks me out to a paralyzing degree. I am the one who does most of the vacumming and laundry, and apparently I don't do enough of it because our house is often times resembles one giant hairball. As much as I loved the idea of this perfect canine companion, I kind of can't imagine adding a shepherd to the mix. Anyway back to Bella! She is a Redbone Coonhound -- a breed that has minimal shedding, and no dander, making them as hypoallergenic as any big dog can be - PLUS, she is my ideal dog in terms of aesthetics (this isn't her but it's her type):



Long floppy ears, beautiful red coat, rather svelte. In terms of their build/lines, Redbone coonhounds somewhat resemble Weimaraners, which I love (but apparenly weimaraners can be smelly, and somewhat difficult to train). We're not in a hurry but we're super jazzed!