House Building

I just wanted to give you a quick update on the house building, which is the reason why I haven't been around much and probably won't be until next week. We've had a few mishaps while working on the house so far, from burring the wrong electrical pipes to the track on the bobcat coming off. But even with all of these mistakes we are still pushing through and getting a lot done, which is all kinds of exciting! 

Our excitement as shown on Will's face when getting to drive the bobcat around.

More pictures are coming for sure. Hope everyone is having a great Tuesday!

x's and o's

Work, Work Work!

Between working on the house and video work things have been all sorts of crazy this week. I have several emails I've been needing to respond to, but just haven't had a spare second, so if you are someone I haven't replied too please forgive me. I'm trying to reply to everyone by the end of the weekend, hopefully! Just to show you how crazy things have been this post has pretty much been written a sentence at a time in between taring our cisterns and rendering videos, so hopefully it still makes sense. And speaking of video work, one little kitten named Wigs has been making it super hard to get it done. 

I knew having a kitty in our 150 sq ft cabin was not going to be the easiest thing in the world, but we have been pretty darn lucky that little Wigs has been good for the most part. That is minus her insane running around moments every morning and evening. You can seriously set a clock by it, hehe. 

The only real little issue is her choice of sleeping areas, as you probably guessed by the above photos. I got her a very nice little bed which she absolutely refuses to sleep on (I mean she is terrified of it like it's a monster or something haha), I'm sure all you cat owners out there know the feeling. So instead her favorite napping spots are right in front of both Will's and my computers, but of course only when we are trying to get work done. 

Thankfully when she is sleeping I can move her little legs off my keyboard.  When she is awake it is a completely different story, which includes my fingers being the newest and coolest play toys hehe. Luckily she doesn't ever really bite them, just kind of mouths them like a little silly nut.  

Well I had best get back to everything before it gets too late. Hope everyone has a great weekend full of lots of fun things.

PS I am sorry about the abundance of Wigs photos, I just couldn't help myself, hehe.

Oatmeal Cookies

Can we talk about my love of all things cookies, especially if those cookies are either snicker doodles or  oatmeal! I am seriously a sucker when it comes to either of them and my "Oh I will just have one," because me stuffing my face with at least three or four, it's not a pretty sight haha! So the other day when I decided I wanted some oatmeal cookies, I ended up making more than anyone one person should ever make. Thankfully this week is a week of working on the house and the property so I should be able to burn off those extra calories (or at least that is what I tell myself while stuffing my face). 

 

I used recipe with a few modifications. I omitted about 1/2 cup of sugar so these we far less sweet and were very delightful!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of butter (1 stick, soft)

1/2 cup of brown sugar (firmly packed)

1/4 cup white sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

3 cups oats (I used Quaker quick oats) 

Preheat oven to 350. In a bowl mix together butter and suger (we don't have a mixer currently so I just used a good old fork) Add eggs and vanilla. Once mixed well add flour, cinnamon, salt and oats. Mix well.

Place on cookie sheet at bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool slightly and then enjoy with milk. 

 

Let me know if you try out this recipe or have a favorite oatmeal cookie recipe of your own! 

Hope everyone is having a nice Thursday.

x's and o's

PS Thank you for all your wonderfully kind comments on yesterdays post. You all are all just too wonderful.

Mom

Yesterday marked the seventh anniversary of my mom's death. I wasn't sure if I was going to write anything about it here, but then thought it would be a nice to put into writing some of the wonderful memories I have of her from before she got sick and passed away. 

I think one of my favorite memories of her is one that shows just how cool my mom was. Almost as far back as I can remember my mom would bake orange bread every October and cut the slices into jack-o-lanters to use in our school lunches. And because I always had pb&j she would make it so the red jelly would kind of ooze out of it's smile. That might be creepy to some people but I was a weird kid and just loved stuff like that. It was one of the coolest things ever. If I ever have kids I know this is going to be a tradition I carry on. 

I miss her terribly, but I am so happy to have a memory like this one because just thinking about it makes me feel just how much she loved me. 

x's and o's

Grab Your Popcorn

After a really long and stressful day of dealing with house building things and work related things we decided to turn our living room into a movie theater! We recently got a projector and we put it to some good use watching some fun movies and tv shows on a big screen. 

We built our little screen out of a white bed sheet and some 2x4s we had lying around (as you can see behind the screen we have a lot just waiting to be used haha). Granted we had some wrinkles in the sheet but once it got dark you couldn't make them anymore so it worked out wonderfully. 

A while back we brought up our two favorite lounge chairs, but they don't fit in tiny cabin so I was excited to get to use them once again.  Will has had his green one for pretty much as long as he can remember and I got my yellow one the first year I moved back east with Will, so they are pretty dear to our hearts. 

We have some friends coming up for a visit to lend a hand on some house/wedding work so hopefully the weather will be in our favor and we can set up our little theater outside! I'm really excited about the idea of getting to do an outdoor movie, there is just something so fun about them. And of course we will be able to enjoy some wonderful BBQ and treats during the movie. Oh my goodness just thinking about all the yummy goodies we will have is getting me all kinds of hungry! 

What are some of your favorite treats to eat during movies?

Hope everyone is having a nice Tuesday.

x's and o's

Sunday Snapshot #22

Around Christmas 2008

I love this photo for so many reasons, the main one being this was the beginning of a yearly tradition of silly Christmas cards! I had a promotion at the Target Portrait Center so we pretty much just had to use it. We decided it would absolutely wonderful to take some ridiculous Christmas photos. It took a little bit for our photographer to get on board with our plan, but once she was I think she had a lot of fun with them too. We sent this photo out to all of our friends and family, and half of them thought it was hilarious while the other half just thought we were crazy. However, after receiving so many goofy ones over the past five years I think they are starting to enjoy them too. It seems a little early but we've already started thinking about what we are going to do this year! 

Do you guys have any goofy traditions that you do with friends or family?

x's and o's

Little Thing I Love

I absolutely love when I wake up to mornings like this. It's such a weird experience being higher than a group of clouds and being able to look down at them. When I was little I thought clouds had the consistency of cotton candy, and of course that was where all the Care Bears and My Little Ponys lived, haha. It is so easy to get numb to the beauty of where we live but it's days like this that you just kind of have to pinch yourself and say I get to live here! 

I hope everyone has a great Saturday.

x's and o's

Week in Instagram v8

1. Back to the Future II and pizza always make for a nice evening. 
2. It was so miserably hot the other day and Will and I were both working on large projects making our computer work in overdrive so we could hardly keep our little cabin cool! 89 degrees inside is never fun! Thankfully a rain storm swooped in and cooled everything off. 
3. I'm so excited that a Chinese Restaurant has opened up near us! I love my veggie chow mein and cannot wait to try theirs out. Fingers crossed it's super yummy.
4. Wig-wog does not much care for going on walks with us, haha.
5. Wig-wog most certainly not thrilled about going to the vet. Thankfully a clean bill of health was given! 
6. Watching the Rifftrax of Alien was too funny! I'm so excited to be able to do lots of outdoor movie nights with our new projector. 

Goodness gracious, this week was all over the place, from being so frustrated and just crying to laughing hysterically. Either way I am pretty happy to have this week over that is for sure, hopefully we can make a trip down the the movie theater to catch a showing of The Dark Knight Rises! 

What are your plans for the weekend? 

Hope everyone has a great Friday! 

x's and o's

Sandwich Time

Today I thought I would share one of my favorite simple sandwiches, Tofu Buffalo Ranch. It is super filling and yummy if you ask me. And this version of the recipe I'm sharing turned out even better because I used some zucchini and yellow squash from our garden! I told you guys pretty much everything for awhile is going to include zucchini and squash, hehe. 

Ingredients

1 package extra firm tofu

4 pieces of bread

4-6 pieces of zucchini

2-3 pieces of yellow squash

1-2 Tbs buffalo sauce

1/2 - 1 Tbs ranch dressing

Put a little oil or butter in a skillet and start to heat. Cut tofu into 1/4 inch slices and place between paper towels to help remove the excess water. Then put tofu on the skillet to fry. You want to get each side nice and brown so it's a more crispy then mushy. When the tofu is almost done throw on your sliced pieces of zucchini and squash until they are tender. 

While everything is cooking put your buffalo sauce and ranch dressing on your bread. Put tofu and veggies on the sandwich and enjoy.

Today I'm taking Wig-wog to his first vet appointment. I am super curious with how he is going to do. Hopefully he burns off all his crazy morning energy before we have to drive down there, haha! 

Hope everyone has a wonderful Thursday. 

x's and o's

Guest Post

I am so incredibly excited to have a guest post over at Nicole's absolutely amazing blog, Gypsy in Jasper. I do a little talking about the house building so make sure you go and check it out!

Today is full of work, but I am hoping to have a real post for you guys come tomorrow. How has your week been going?

Hopefully everyone is having a great middle of the week!

x's and o's

Apples!

I am so incredibly excited that our apples are doing so well! They are the size of a small child's fist as of now, which I believe is right on schedule for them being ripe by the wedding! I can hardly wait for them so I can start making so many apple related yummies like apple pie, apple cinnamon pancakes, and apple cider to name a few. Oh and I am beyond excited to finally be able to try my hand at Apple Pie Moonshine! Don't worry it's not real moonshine so I won't be making it in my bathtub or have to worry about going blind, hehe. I've come across a couple different recipes for this drink and the reviews are always extremely positive, so I have a feeling if all goes well it's going to come out quite delicious. If that is the cause I have a feeling it is going to become our signature drink at the wedding. I hope my bride's ladies don't mind spending a day or two making it with me, I'm sure no one will notice if we steal a glass or two in the process hehe.  

I also wanted to thank these wonderful ladies, Nicole, Melissa, Aarika, and Kim (go and check them out because they are awesome!) who all name me as one of their recipients for the Liebster Award! You guys are all too sweet. I am hoping to be able to actually have some time to participate, but we are making another push on the house for the next two weeks so it probably won't be for a little while. Either way I wanted to make sure I thanked and linked to all the wonderful ladies who tagged me just in case!

Hope everyone is having a great Monday!

x's and o's

Sunday Snapshot #21 (video edition)

So this Sunday Snapshot I am super excited about! For quite sometime Will and I have been wanting to make some little videos about our experiences with house building and the house itself, so after some trial and error I think we found a format that we absolutely love! And as an added bonus you get to hear what we sound like when we talk, well more Will on this one than me, but I talk plenty in some of the other videos. I always love getting to hear what bloggers actually sounds like, because half the time it is nothing like how I imagined. So I hope you guys get a kick out of it too, and don't just hate our voices too much haha! 

Link to the video just incase it doesn't embed for some people.x's and o's

Wedding Inspiration

The last couple Saturdays have been absent of Wedding Inspiration posts mainly because we either had too much work or we were working on the house and I just didn't have much time to scour my favorite wedding sites for inspiration. But it is back in action, at least for this week, so I thought reception decoration would be a fun one. 

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I am absolutely in love with both these paper straws, and the antique dresser for the pitchers. I am really hoping I can find a nice dresser like that for our wedding and then to use in our bedroom afterwards.

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I love the crate paper like scales with the thin wood heart accents. I think it would look absolutely adorable with all different vintage/faded colors! 

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I don't care if they are over played I absolutely love little flag banners! It reminds me of my childhood for some reason, and they just make me so incredibly happy. 

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I love when people repurpose old wood crates into a stand of some kind. I have this love for old wood. I love the texture and the look of it. I think Will's mom has a whole bunch of these kind of crates up in her attic, and if she does I am sure she will let us use them no problem. 

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This is just such a simple little idea and I really like it. I actually have a whole bunch of vintage cloth napkins  so I am definitely going to make this and see how it looks with the styles and colors that I have. 

I swear I have a list a million ideas long of things I want to do for the wedding, haha! I know I'm going to have to go through the list multiple times trying to eliminate the ones I am not completely head over heels in love with until I have a far more manageable list. Thankfully my lovely Maid of Honor Alesha will be coming out a week before the wedding so we can get down to the business of decorations, and then all my other wonderful bride's ladies will be up the day before the wedding baking up a storm with me! Eeee! I can hardly wait, I know it will probably be a little stressful but I have a feeling all the fun and laughs we will be having will make the stress go away! 

Hope everyone is having a great Saturday! It's all cloudy and rainy here and with my arm still heeling I have a feeling it is going to be a lazy day. Thank you so much for all your well wishes about my elbow. It is feeling much better so yay! 

x's and o's

Week in Instagram v 7

1. We hang Wig-wog's toys from the ceiling and he absolutely loves it! I have a feeling that if we aren't careful our entire cabin will be filled with hanging kitty toys, haha! 
2. Summer Reading Program for Grown-ups?! Heck ya! I was beyond excited when I found out our library was doing this! 
3. The largest egg I have ever seen! I found out it had two yolks in it, which I have never seen before. It was all kinds of crazy. 
4. My poor swollen/bruised elbow from a fall. 

Ok so I'm going to talk about the fourth picture a little more because the fact I didn't break any bones was a miracle of some kind. As most of your know we currently live in a 150 sq ft tiny cabin home while we finish working on the mountain house. We have our bed upstairs in a loft and our work area down stairs. Well yesterday morning I was coming down our stairs/ladder/shelves and I completely missed a step, or so I think, the memory of what happened is kind of blurry. I fell about 7 feet down straight onto my back/butt and my elbow! It was one of the most terrifying thing that has ever happened to me. Everything went all slow motion as I fell and I saw a least part of my life flash before my eyes. My only saving grace that kept me from breaking anything was I landed on Wig-wog's cat scratching hut. I flatted it when I hit it, but I think it gave just enough of a cushion so I didn't kill myself in the fall. My poor elbow is really the only thing that got messed up (besides a couple other little bruises and cuts). It's kind of hard to see in that picture but it seriously looked like I had three other elbow bones sticking out because it was so crazy swollen!

My elbow is feeling a lot better today, still a little sore when I bend it, but it is getting better. I just have to take it easy the next couple of days and keep icing it and it should be as good as new. 

Hope everyone is having a great and fall free Friday!

x's and o's

Spicy Zucchini/Squash Tortellini

I mentioned in this post that we have quite a few yellow squash in need of some yummy recipes. Well I originally found a very yummy sounding ravioli recipe but had no luck of getting my hands on any pre-made/frozen ravioli at the store, and as you know our kitchen is in no shape for making homemade ravioli. However, I did end up finding some tortellini so I changed up the recipe a little bit. It was pretty darn good, and it was a super big hit with Will. 

I once again used a variation of a recipe. I absolutely love trying new recipes and making them a little more my own.

Ingredients:

1/2 yellow squash
1/2 zucchini
2 cups frozen tortellini
1 tsp vegetable oil
1 1/2 Tbs flour
1 cup skim milk
2 Tbs parmesan cheese
1/2 oz cream cheese (I originally used 1 oz and thought it was a little too rich, so add to taste)
1 tsp garlic salt
1+ Tbs red pepper flakes (Will and I like things spicy so add slowly and to taste)

Prepare tortellini according to the package. In a saucepan combine oil and 1/2 Tbs of the flour and mix. Once mixed add milk, parmesan cheese, cream cheese and the remaining flour. When it starts to thicken remove from heat.

Cut yellow squash and zucchini into thin slices, steam or cook in a frying pan until tender.

Once tortellini is cooked put into bowl with veggies and cover in sauce, and enjoy!

Let me know if you guys try this out, I would love to hear what you think! 

Anyone have any other yummy recipes I could try out with our squash and zucchini?

x's and o's

Blackberries Galore!

Can I just say I love going on walks with Will that include stuffing our bellies full of blackberries?! We are pretty darn lucky that our road is littered with blackberries, which seems to constantly have ripe berries every time we check them out. 

We are surprised at how big some of the berries get, I mean look at that guy he's supermarket sized!

Of course you get the occasional super crazy tart one. I mean I love me some tart berries, but sometimes they are too tart for me, hence that glorious face I am making right there, haha!

A mouth full of blackberries is one of the greatest things ever! 

Sorry for my lack of posts as of late, with the house building I get so tired by the end of the day that I am just out like a light the second I sit down, haha! I will have some photos of the work we did this time around later in the week. 

Hope everyone is having a great Wednesday! 

x's and o's

Zucchini Bread

So our little garden is in harvest mode right now and I am loving it! We had a little aphid attack and lost couple of our pea plants, but thankfully Will saw that happening and planted 40 new ones a couple months ago, hehe. But now that our little plants are giving us all these wonderful veggies I am trying to find fun and yummy ways to use them.

Of course I made some zucchini bread, I mean talk about yummy! 

I used a variation of this recipe, I made it so it came out a little drier than most zucchini bread, which I  tend to like more. It also came out a lot lighter than normal, but I'm not sure why that happened.

Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp baking powder
3 tbsp cinnamon
3 eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups white sugar
3 tbsp vanilla extract
3 cups chopped zucchini (I didn't have a grater so I just chopped it so there were much larger chunks in it which we kind of like better).

Combine flour, salt, baking powder, and cinnamon. In another bowl mix eggs, sugar, vegetable oil, and vanilla extract together, until well blended. Add zucchini to the wet mixture and then add in dry ingredients. Once mixed well pour into well greased and floured pans. 

Bake at 325 for 40-50 minutes. Serve with a cup of tea for a delightful treat :)

It is another hot day here, which doesn't make working on the house much fun, but it's gotta get done. So I had best get back to it. I should have a couple pictures of all the things we got done for you guys in the next couple of days.


What are you guys doing to keep cool?

x's and o's 

Week in Instagram v 6

I'm not going to lie this week was pretty awesome mainly because of little Wig-wog, but also because we are making some good process on the house, which is always very exciting! 

1. That huge storm coming our way that we didn't realize was going to be quite as big as it was.
2. The aftermath of the storm. Not pictured is our outhouse flipped over on its side, haha! 
3. Slappi Wig-wog!! This was on the drive up the mountain. He had been in his little carrying case for almost 5 hours not making one little peep so we let him stretch out on the dash as we headed up to our mountain home.
4. I randomly started getting Teen Vogue in the mail. I guess someone thinks I'm a lot younger than I am and that I need to work on my fashion, haha! 
5. One of Wig-wog's favorite places to slumber. I guess it's a good thing I don't have much computer work this week :)
6. I have no clue what kind of bug this is that we found in our greenhouse, but he kind of really freaks me out. 

I also wanted to share this article I found over at The Huffington Post. I don't think a lot of people realize that there are millions of people in rural areas that have no access to broadband interent. Laws are also being passed (thanks to the influence of large internet companies) so the communities cannot create their own broadband co-ops, even though those large companies have no plans of ever bringing the internet to those areas because they won't make enough profit. Rural areas get the short end of the stick on a lot of things, and in this case it's particularly unsettling because it very directly prohibits people like us from being able to live and do business in so many of the beautiful places in this country. We're lucky to have the access we do, but compared to most urban settings out internt is pitiful. 

x's and o's

I Takes What I Can Gets

I hope everyone had a great Fourth yesterday! Ours was pretty nice, we worked on the house during the day and then had a little cook out in the evening, which was pretty darn yummy. Can I just say that Tofurky brand sun-dried tomato and basil "sausage dogs" are kind the most amazing thing in the world! Seriously if you haven't tried them before do yourself a little favor. So delicious with some potato salad. 

This was the frist time we actually were up on the mountain for the Fourth so we were curious if we would be able to see any fireworks from up here, but mother nature decided to give us another kind of show. Just as it started to get dark enough to see some fireworks a huge thunderstorm came rolling in! Luckily Will thought about grabbing the camera because he ended up getting some absolutely amazing shots of the lightning!

It was quite the show, and little Wig-wog didn't seem to be scared by the thunder at all, so that was another plus. I guess we will have to wait till next year to see if we can enjoy some of our towns fireworks from our little mountain home. 

What did you guys do for the Fourth? 

x's and o's

I'm Too Excited For My Own Good

So if you've been reading my blog for a little while then you have most likely have come across the story of a four year old me asking/begging Santa for a cat for Christmas, and it never happening. Well Santa finally made everything right. I would like to introduce you all to Slappi Wigs (Wigs for short), and yes I know how ridiculous that name is, Will said it as a joke and I kind of fell in love, haha!  What can I say, I love silly names.

Will inspecting him :)

Our friend Shaye has an aunt who is always rescuing stray cats and one of them had a litter a couple of months ago and she was trying to find some good homes for them so of course I swooped in. When I called my dad to tell him I was getting a kitten he said "Congratulations I know it took too long," haha! We brought this little guy home last night and he has been pretty great so far, minus some crying last night but I think he was just missing his mom and siblings. Hopefully he will be feeling better tonight,  and I can get a little more sleep :) 

I am seriously probably way more excited than I should be, but I can't help it! I finally got myself a kitty and I'm ecstatic! 

x's and o's

Lightning Boom Crash

So did anyone else get hit hard by that storm on Friday? We were pretty lucky that we didn't lose power, but we did get some trees knocked over and our greenhouse roof ripped to shreds! It was crazy! We had no clue the storm was going to be that bad so we went up to our cupola to watch the lighting. However, when the wind came rushing by and started to shake us we thought it was best to not be up there anymore. We headed down to the kitchen only to notice the wind had completely shredded our greenhouse roof. Thankfully we caught it in time and got all our little plants inside out of the crazy wind. Oh, and I also learned that my phone warns me of any severe weather alerts which is pretty nifty.  

Our poor roof, thankfully we had a lot of plastic left over from when we built it.

But aside from our currently missing roof, our plants are doing wonderfully! I'm actually planning on picking one of our yellow squash and zucchini and using them for dinner! I was wanting to do a squash ravioli but couldn't find any pre-made cheese ravioli at the store, so I am thinking about doing a baked macaroni with them. I think it will come out pretty darn tasty, and of course I will share the recipe. 

Our watermelon! 

Will and I had such a fun weekend with Shaye and we have some exciting (well I sure think it's exciting) news to share with you guys soon (but if you follow me on twitter/instagram then you already know, hehe).

Hope everyone is have a nice Monday. I must admit I am pretty darn sleepy, hehe.

x's and o's