WEEKENDS

A few snapshots from the weekend (via Instagram)... this one seemed to fly by, as they usually do. A short week is ahead though! We're off to Hawaii for my cousin's wedding on Wednesday, so no complains here.

Below:
1 - New babies for the back deck! The big one is a lime tree, here's hoping we'll be sipping home made margaritas in no time (or squeezing one little tiny wedge over a taco, more realistically)

2 - Our house really needs to be painted...

3 - The water taxi between downtown and W Seattle is the most awesome thing ever.. even in the rain.

WANTED : CAMERA BAG

I've been on the hunt for a new camera bag for quite some time and I think I might have finally found a winner. The bag is by Kelly Moore, in collaboration with A Beautiful Mess. It would be so nice to be able to carry more than two lenses, which is what I'm restricted to at the moment. Aside from functionality, it's actually quite beautiful, and I could see using it for other things than just a camera bag. Early birthday present to me perhaps?

INSPIRED BY : THE WORK OF ZACHARY SMITH

I've always been so drawn to hand drawn type. It's a skill I have yet to master, but have been working on more and more lately. Zachary Smith's entire portfolio is very inspirational, and make me want to grab some pens and pencils and get to work.

SPRING CATCH UP

With the warm weather finally creeping in, the giant project that is the back yard has slowly started. First up is tree removal, which as it turns out is actually quite fun for the first 10% (chopping down the tree) quickly followed by the remaining 90% (removing the stump) which is a giant pain the ass. We've managed to remove two so far, but the cherry tree still remains, as that might require a few more sets of hands. The cherry tree is a tough one, I wanted to keep it at first, and am still a little sad to see it go, but after drafting some rough plans, I soon realized just how in the way it is. Maybe 2 feet further East and I think I could have fought for it, but alas, it's going to soon be a giant pile of firewood.

I do have actual backyard plans to share, but they are in crappy sketch form, and so I'm going to wait until Will beautifies them. In the mean time, here is the short list of upcoming projects:

• Remove the 3 main trees (two down one to go)
• Rip up the brick patio / pressure wash bricks
• Build planter boxes on East side, and fill with bamboo
• Remove old greenhouse
• Rip out old chain link fence
• Lay new patio

This list is actually quite humorous as it's just scratching the surface, and there are about 20 more things to add, but I've realized we need to start with small goals and not overwhelm ourselves with giant lists.

The other tree we removed was more of a shrub, which was right next to the cherry tree. Again, nothing that exciting, just a home depot plant randomly placed in the grass. Of course my before picture is from the house listing, so it manages to make the yard look sort of nice, but trust me, it's only getting better. They even managed to make that arbor we removed look good, which was falling down and rotting...


Before:

During:

After:

Next:

So that's it for now! I will have more updates once we get the plan hammered out a little better, which I'm very excited to share (chicken coop!). I also plan to be better at documenting the process along the way, which seeing as how it's been a month since I've last shared anything, can't get much worse. 

KTICHEN UPDATE... KINDA. SORTA. NOT REALLY.

Alright we haven't actually done anything, but we've made decisions, and that in my book is progress. The great countertop debate has settled on butcher block (previously stainless steel), which I chalk up as a win in my book, as Will took convincing. Of course, being a miniature Ron Swanson he's going to build them, which is amazing, because who the hell does that? I was ready to run to Ikea and slap them on but if there's one thing (there are more than one, don't worry) I admire about Will, he wants to do things the quality, correct way, even if that's much more time consuming. Myself on the other hand would have the entire house flipped upside down by now and be walking around in constant fear of things unhinging and crashing to the floor. In fact, there are a few of those things around the house regardless, as the moment Will turns his head I find something to hang, organize, or suspend from the ceiling. He appropriately has dubbed these my booby traps. For this reason he's never let me hang a shelf above the bed, which is fair. It would probably fall in the middle of the night and I would not only have a concussion but a seriously pissed off boyfriend.

ANYWAY.

Back to the kitchen, this is really just a bunch of inspiration, as now that butcherblock is in the mix, it changes everything. For instance, the wood cabinets have got to go, there is already quite a bit of wood going on in the kitchen with the beam and the shelves, and I don't want our lovely house to look like a cabin. Not that there's anything wrong with cabins, I love cabins, they just don't belong in the city. So with wood floors, wood countertops, wood beam, and wood shelves, we've got to get some other materials in the mix. Now the debate is dark vs. light. We've painted just about every surface bright white, with exception to a dark grey accent wall, so there's fear that even more white will be a bit overkill. BUT just look at these beautiful pieces of inspiration I've found:

See what I'm saying? Lots of wood, and lots of white, but looks totally great and not overwhelming. The other option is to go super dark with the cabinets, which could also look awesome, but I'm having a hard time visualizing it. I sort of want to just paint everything white, and then if we don't like it go dark, but that sounds like a silly amount of extra work. You would think visualizing all this would be easy for two creative people, but it turns out we change our minds every 6 seconds. Or at least I do... ho hum. I'll just go reorganize the book shelves in the mean time. Oh wait I did that on Tuesday, they're color coordinated now, don't worry.

Ps- sorry this post didn't actually include any photos of our kitchen and was essentially just me rambling.

photos above :  1, 2, 3, 4

MEXICO : PART 2

If you find yourself in Sayulita I would recommend trekking to Play de Los Muertos, it's a bit off the beaten path, the beach is much smaller and it's way more laid back. Luckily for us there was a path right behind our house that led us to the main road, so it quickly became our 'secret beach' and we spent quite a lot of time there. You could buy kabobs, tamales, oysters and beer just as you can on the main beach, and it clears out by late afternoon, so you have it about to yourselves.

7 YEARS

Happy anniversary my love, here's to many many more :)