Oh Yeah, We Went to Cabo!

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I can’t even begin to explain how crazy the past month has been. But by far the best part was our anniversarymoon trip to Cabo! On April 10th we celebrated our 2nd anniversary in the warm Baja sunshine. It was a great trip and I am so glad we finally got to celebrate our marriage!

We spent the first 4 nights at Hacienda Encantada thanks to a great deal we scored on Groupon. Tastefully decorated rooms, well maintained grounds and a view that couldn’t be beat. We had a large room with a kitchenette which is a must for us when we travel. Although I had lots on the agenda for us in Cabo, we pretty much crashed by the pool the entire time. Hacienda Encantada had two pools that were really quiet with nice cushy chairs, so it was hard to justify doing much else.

Next, we drove about four hours north to La Paz, an authentic fishing village which is also the capital of the southern Baja state. We stayed at the small, but quaint, Casa Verde Inn which was a complete steal for only $80 a night!  It was nice to get a real taste of life in southern Baja and we were so happy for some time away from tourists. Most people spoke English, but Alex enjoying the opportunity to practice his Spanish. Can’t say I mind traveling with my own personal interpreter either! The highlights of La Paz were great seafood and Telecote Beach. We practically had the place to ourselves and felt like we are on a desert island!

We spent our last night at the Hotel Casa Natalia which was truly a treat. This boutique hotel in the heart of San Juan del Cabo was one of the nicest places either of us have ever stayed. Although I would highly recommend every place we stayed, Casa Natalia is a can’t miss if you are ever visiting the area. We are hoping for a chance to return there soon!

Below is a sampling of our pictures. If you click on one of the images a gallery will pop up making for much easier viewing. Hope you enjoy the slideshow!

Finding Portland

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Little known fact about me… I LOVE time-lapse videos. I think they are amazing uses of photography, music and technology. This week John Waller, who owns Uncage the Soul Productions in Southeast Portland, released an extremely well made video featuring all the beauty Portland has to offer. You can read more about it here.

Sometimes I can’t believe how lucky I am to live in such an amazing place. Hope you enjoy the video and have a great weekend wherever you are!

Finding Portland from Uncage the Soul Productions on Vimeo.

{Crafting} Dr. Seuss Baby Shower Invitations

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Let me start this post out by saying, no, I’m not pregnant. My best friend Rachel is. And by the way, my name is Rachael which is SO different from Rachel. And no, we are not sisters. And yes, someone actually asked us that once. Seriously??

Anyway, Rachel has pretty much been a member of the family since we met back in 1994. We bonded over Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Sim City and glasses of milk filled with mini Snackwell’s cookies which were eaten with a spoon. Don’t knock it till you try it. Rachel has her first mini-me due July 3rd and my Mom and I jumped on the opportunity to throw her a shower. As per usual, we took something simple and are spending countless hours on the Internet finding ways to make it as complicated as possible. Damn you Pinterest, you truly are a time warp. It didn’t take us long to settle on a Dr. Seuss theme and of course I had to channel my inner Martha Stewart and create my own invitations.

First, I borrowed many ideas of Seuss themed invites I found on the Internet and combined them using GIMP. This is a totally  free, open source Photoshop-like program. I used Photoshop for years until I switched to a Mac and was too cheap to get new software.  GIMP is almost as good as the real thing, and did I mention it is free??  Many thanks for whoever was creative enough to come up with the wording of the poem. No one in my immediate family was blessed with original creativity. The fonts are Sketch Block Bold and Lauren Script. These were then printed two up on nice heavy card stock. Paper slicers truly are one of the world’s great inventions and allowed me to achieve straight lines when cutting these babies down.

Next, I used a paper punch from the Martha Stewart craft collection to add some decorative holes on the top and bottom edge of the card. Sorry for the ugly blur on the photo but I didn’t want the entire world knowing our addresses!

I attached these to slightly large pre-cut blue cards which came with matching envelopes. Not wanting to mess around with liquid glue I gave Elmer’s Glue Dots a whirl and they truly are a miracle dot. You attach them just like white out and press them down and voila! Instant, non-messy, non-wrinkly glue!

Don’t worry, I didn’t stop there. I decided I had to cut tissue paper to line the inside flap of the envelope. Again, I attached this with the miracle dots.

Here is what the finished product looks like. I have to admit, I am pretty damn impressed with myself. Can’t say we really saved any money over buying invites off the Internet. These averaged about $1 each including all supplies and envelopes. I already had the paper slicer, but the hole punch was new. Everything was purchased from Michaels.

Have no fear. There are many  more Seuss themed posts to come!

{Photo Journal} Tulip Festival

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Despite living in Portland for almost six years I had never been to the Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival till this past weekend. Even with the traffic and crowds it was worth it. The beauty of Oregon never ceases to amaze me!! I have been pretty obsessed with Instagram recently and the beautiful scenery gave me a chance to play around with all the different filters. Some of them I edited with Camera+ as well. Who ever thought your cellphone would be the best camera you owned?!

 

{Ramble} What photo app do you use?? Have any tricks to share??

Friday Ramblings

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Wow. Can’t believe it has been almost a month since I’ve posted. Things have been crazy with work here for both Alex and I. Which means we are exhausted and have barely seen each other in three weeks. But some fun things have happened as well.

Somehow we found time to spend a lot of money. Our new couch and new chair, which I am officially calling “my throne” have arrived. Best. Purchase. Ever. Thanks Macy’s for good deals and interest free credit cards. The couch is the Matthew and we are loving the color, fabric and of course the fact it is wide enough for the two of us to lay side by side and watch tv. Here is a picture of Alex enjoying the store model. The chair is from my good friend Martha, Stewart that is, and like everything she puts forth in this world is fabulous. I love that the fabrics aren’t super matchy matchy, but have a similar feel.

    

We have also been acquiring some new art. As soon as I found these prints from Mandipity I knew we had to have them. They are so simple and I love that we can show-off where we are from (Virginia for me and Kansas for Alex) as well as where are are loving life now in good ‘ole Oregon. I couldn’t fit the Kansas one into the picture but you can see it here. They are printed on a nice textured paper with a little sheen and give our hallway some personality. We also found this great Mucha print on Overstock.com. We LOVE Mucha and couldn’t say no to this screaming deal. It is keeping this West Elm star-burst mirror company above our TV.

    

I have gone a bit crazy with eggs recently. We have recently become spoiled with backyard eggs. One of Alex’s co-workers gave us a dozen from her chickens and we could not believe the difference in color, texture and flavor. The geek in me then put together and “eggsperiment” (yes, I did just make that joke). I bought the most expensive local, free-range eggs I could find from New Seasons and Trader Joe’s and cracked them into a pan with a regular egg from Safeway. You could tell the difference of the good vs. cheap eggs, but they still didn’t couldn’t touch the backyard ones.

Upper L is New Seasons, Upper R is Trader Joe's, Lower R is cheapo.

Love all the colors. Some are green!!

In other food news, we FINALLY found good Chinese food in Portland (It only took 6 years). This town has amazing, sushi,  and Thai on every corner but somehow lacks in the classic Americanized staple. A patient recommended Powell’s Seafood, which doesn’t sound like Chinese food at all. We did take out, which was the right way to go since the inside was lacking in the atmosphere department. Check out this whole steamed tilapia, Asian greens, seaweed soup and chow mein. I ordered the chow mein by mistake (I always confuse chow mein and chop suey) but it was really tasty. Everything had tons of flavor, was super fresh and not loaded down with grease. Although I can’t vouch for the soup. It was a little too ocean-like for me, but Alex said it was fantastic. Plus this mountain of food was only $45. Not too shabby.

          

Happy Friday everyone! Think of me while I’m cracking backs tomorrow :-)