Parties, baby showers and puppies

Things have been busy, as usual. I've been working too much. Not eating exceptionally well. Our house is messy and dirty. Our yard is starting to grow. And the cycle continues...

One highlight over the last couple of weeks was a great party at the new Engine Room at Georgetown Studios, newly acquired by our favorite neighbor (and talented photographer), Kathryn Barnard. Listen up Seattle -- this is the place to host your next party. It's amazing. Huge. Fun. And relatively inexpensive.



Also, Lindsay turned 30!



She and her husband joined us in Georgetown on the 14th, and the night somehow ended at Gainsbourg bar (great snacks, cocktails and music) in Greenwood with us chanting "Lynden for Life". Horrifying.

Another happy moment was the new addition of Shae to our extended family. Brian's parents picked up the 6-week (young!) shepadoodle mix a little over a week ago.



We also had a fun PUPPY PLAY DATE with Lacy's new baby, Roscoe. He is the sweeeeeeeetest thing ever. A little cattle dog lab mix. Oh he's darling.





I also went to a 30th birthday party of a very pregnant Nicole, where all of the guests were also pregnant -- followed by two baby showers. The last shower was this past Friday night, hosted by my beautiful mom, who created a lovely spread (including homemade coconut cupcakes) as per usual.





This was in honor of the soon-to-arrive baby Russell, who belongs to Gina, friend and accomplished caterer. (They're opening a restaurant a month after the baby arrives. Crazy? Ummm, yes.)

I also made this convertible necklace/bracelet, which is currently selling at Revival. Get it!



Next up is a long weekend in Scottsdale. Can't wait to meet Shae in person!

This week's cutest pic

Such a lazy hound dog!

This week's cutest pic

Like a little angel that she is... here is Bean post-surgery.



Metaphysical!

My grandma's furry friends

I love my grandma. I've known for a long time that she is a smart, interesting and crafty woman (see the amazing beach house she made here).

My grandma is a dog-lover extraordinaire. She has owned dogs for the majority of her 89 years. From boxers to poodles to more poodles, she has owned and loved the pooch. But, I never really realized the depth of her love until recently. Until her hat collection came up in conversation this holiday season.

You see, I have come to find out that each time one of her dogs passes, my grandma actually KNITS A HAT USING THEIR FUR. I asked her to model these for me this past weekend.







Apparently they don't even smell like wet dog in the rain! Amazing!

This week's cutest pic

Bean actually fell asleep like this. Aaahhhh.

This week's cutest pic

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






Turned into this...



Oh my.

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!

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.

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!

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.

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!

The decision to get a dog

Sometimes decision making is an interesting process.

A few weeks ago, Brian and I started talking about getting a dog. This idea has always been in the back of our minds but hasn't really been even a feasible scenario until the home purchase a few months ago.

OK, slight topic transition. So, I'm not really sure why the government feels it needs to get its nose in the business of the market, but it sure does. From slashing interest rates to printing more money, the Feds are really trying to stave off a recession aren't they. We kind of know it's coming though. It's just a matter of when. I'm sorry I'm so DOOM AND GLOOM... but who was it?...One of my friends recently mentioned that our generation is the first generation who won't do as well as our parents did. Why is this? I don't really know, I don't have a macro-enough perspective, but my scary Republican background slash Claremont McKenna ridiculously difficult (for my week left brain) Econ 101 class sort of makes me think that it's mostly the government's fault. I still believe that if free markets took precedence, our country would do better, and therefore more people would benefit. Now before you go calling me an uncompassionate right-wing lunatic.... well, just know that I really care deeply about issues facing low-income people. But having worked in/for essentially a city-backed nonprofit venture for 4 years, I'm just not sure that our government - at least not alone - is the best way to solve those issues either.

ANYWAY, back to decision-making. Brian and I have been on the fence about adding a dog to our burgeoning family (that's not really burgeoning). But all this doom and gloom is really making a case for it. Call it escapism if you want, but for some reason, I just feel like if we had the opportunity to do THIS with our dog, somehow I might forget about the bleak future of America and the fact that if we were truly selfless people, we wouldn't even think about pro-creation.




So, when Brian sent me this video this morning, after WEEKS OF DELIBERATION (I know), it was decided, welcome home future Shiloh Shepherd!

Happy Birthday Lindsay!

My friend Lindsay, one of my best friends since junior high school, is celebrating her birthday today!

Here's to being young and hot, Linds!

Jagerbombs!

A big week

This week has been so insanely busy; I've been working till midnight almost every night. I can't believe I'm even finding time to post today, as the big fundraising event at Seattle Design Center that I've been planning is tonight, but I guess I've been so organized up till now that it's sort of like a "show up and execute" situation.

I've been supremely stressed out but something beautiful has emerged out of the quagmire of never ending work. I've received a lot of support from my two favorite men in my life, Brian and Puli.

First, Brian decided that he would worry about all of our dinners this week. I thought, "Cool, pizza. I don't have to cook." But on Monday night I was pleasantly surprised with a restaurant quality Curried chicken and sweat potatoes over Basmati rice - and on Tuesday I was surprised with Chicken with roasted lemons, artichoke hearts, and capers, over angel hair pasta.





Both dinners were really delightful! I didn't even know he could cook! Up till now, he's cooked a real "from scratch" dinner once, and I've been begging for that same dinner ever since (Greek Spaghetti). Two dinners in a row is unbelievable, and he was going for a third until I suggested going out for drinks and appetizers last night at this new bar in Ballard.

What got into him? It's so adorable. I feel that having someone cook for me is one of the biggest treats of all time. I just love it.

Back to Puli. Last night I was creating guest file folders and he decided to really jump in and help.





The particularly funny thing is that he didn't fit in that box, at all. His rear end crushed and hung out the back of the box.

Less than 24 hours to go before I get my life back!

Peter Jennings (the cat)

It's official. Peter Jennings needs a new home.

Many of you know this funny cat. He is a real weirdo.

My friend Carrie rescued him from a homeless girl as a 7 week old kitten - the rest of his litter were tortured and killed. He's had a hard life. And now he is making my life hard.

Ok here's the situation. He HATES living with other cats. And one day I found myself living with 3 cats. This is not only too many for one house, but it's too many for Peter Jennings. He is begging for a one-cat owner - someone with a yard. Someone who will let him run free, feed him daily, and give him high-fives. He is a hard hitting journalist. He doesn't have time for emotional moments. He loves to catch rodents and be crazy.

Anyone have any ideas?

Krista

Lovely surprises upon our return from vacation...

We got back late last night from Scottsdale where we were visiting Brian's parents. The weather was disappointing (never really got above 55 degrees) but the company was great. I especially loved reconnecting with Brian's grandma, and the lovely Lodis pets, Zoey and Weber.

Weber, the 13-year old cat, only has two teeth:



And Zoey, in her old age, doesn't move around all that much:




When we returned, my mom, who had been staying at our house and watching our cats, had left me this note, which fully encapsulates my mom -- a go-getter, never-sits-down person (even though her energy is severely compromised) who shows her love through amazing acts of service.

"Welcome Home!
Call me with any questions - you might want to check your vacuum bag. I vacuumed quite a bit so it might be full. Vacuumed the sofa, rug (twice), all main floors except office - got started down the stairs (first 5 or so). The basement could use it for sure. I ran the crystal votive holder through the dishwasher so it's nice and clean. I mopped the main floors (dining room, living room, kitchen). I made you a pot of soup -- potato corn chowder. I brought you some cabinet hardware catalogs to look through. Washed the sofa pillow covers and cozy blanket - wasn't sure when it was last done. I tried to fix the silverware drawer front - it needs screws for the handle to be countersunk - that is part of the problem. It also needs new screws. Your drapery panels are at Sparkle Cleaners in downtown Ballard."

Brian's comment? "We really hit the jackpot with our collective sets of parents." So, so true.

Not only did she make a homemade potato corn chowder which was still warm on our stove, but she assembled our table -- literally put it together -- and set it all up so we could have a dinner when we got home:





Aaaaaahhh SHE IS SO CUTE!

She also bought us this plant (apparently $5.98 at Home Depot!) and potted it in the cute pot that Joan and Brian got us for our wedding:




In addition, perhaps the best news of all. While we were gone, our next door neighbor decided to give us an overt new neighbor housewarming gift and cut down this huge tree in his yard, so we now have a view of the ocean from our bedroom and top deck!!!! It kind of feels like somebody just handed us $20,000 (edit: my dad says $50,000!). It's really really unreal and something that I never ever expected. I am just astounded that we now have a water view; I feel like the luckiest person in the world. I guess schmoozing at a neighborhood holiday party (in the midst of unpacking) really paid off!

Fashion kitty

I don't mean to turn my blog into a kitty station, but, I love it when I catch beautiful moments like this: