• Lose 15-20 pounds — currently at 14!!  woot woot!!
• Read more — sad to say I’m still at roughly one book per month.
• Scrap more — it seems sewing has taken over this craft for the time being, unless you can count our wedding invitations as scrapping, in which case I’ve been scrapping like a mad lady.
• Unite my family better — well, we’re getting married in a few weeks, and everyone’s coming, so hopefully that counts?
• Cook more (real food – not a meal involving a boxed pasta) — with my changed diet, we are eating much better.  I plan meals at the beginning of the week and cook enough for leftovers for lunch so we don’t have to buy food for that meal either.  Lots of fresh ingredients, vegetables abound.
• Join the new co-op and shop there regularly — until the co-op stops selling me expired food, I am boycotting it.  Get it together co-op – unacceptable.
• Pay off my credit card debt before we’re married — done!!  As of two weeks ago, I am credit card debt free.
• Walk the dogs daily, even if it’s raining — sorry dogs

In other news this girl of ours…

is blowing her coat and turning our yard into this…

and making our pugs look like this…

Isn’t she beautiful?

In other news, I’ve discovered a new joy for antiquing.  The shelf and chair in the bathroom came from a local antique shop – I’m digging them.  And I found a couple of little Matt-approved guys to decorate the new bathroom shelf with.

We have been enjoying fresh herbs since I potted our little herb garden.  But now our peppers are getting ready too!

I couldn’t really resist in partaking in some of the bounty.  Delish.

Matt and I have been digging salmon on the grill recently.  Last weekend, we made a delicious feast of pancetta wrapped salmon kebabs and orzo/spinach/tomato pasta salad.  Delish.

Angus has been digging the patio time too.

I planted a container garden of herbs and peppers.

All of my crafty time has been taken up by making wedding invitations and wedding decorations.  Leigh and I checked out the Farm Chicks show a couple of weeks ago, where I scored a nice little pile of vintage fabric, which I am busy cutting out and sewing into a fabric flag banner thing for the wedding.

And I made myself a little wallet.

Anything and everything from emersonmade, especially these little clutches.

Succulents.  All of them.

The coffee/book/novelty/tea shop next to my work in downtown Spokane called Atticus.  It’s pretty hip.

My beautiful Sophs.

We decided to make a nice little weekend of the trip, and stayed Friday night in McCall.  We stopped in Whitebird so Matt could do a nice little climb up the old highway 95.  A sweet road complete with cows.

The dogs and I tagged along behind him in the car, barking at the cows (not me, the dogs), and I posed for a picture with Nik at the top.

McCall was a place Matt and I were considering as a possible place for us to live someday.  While it’s a cool town, I think we’ve now crossed it off the list – it’s definitely touristy and therefore not really our vibe.  Beautiful setting though.

Saturday Matt and I took a detour on our way to Boise to stop and see the cabin my grandma and grandpa built.  It was sold soon after my grandma died 10 years ago, and I haven’t seen it since then.  Seeing it brought back so many wonderful memories and made me miss my grandmother so terribly.  I never appreciated the cabin as a kid, and now as an adult I feel so proud that my family built it for themselves and shared it with the rest of us.

This trip kind of turned in to the opportunity to show Matt where I come from, and I took him to the restaurant in Lowman where we always ate when we stayed at the cabin.  I made him take a picture of me in front of it (where I lost my glasses, because I was too vain to wear them for the picture, but whatevs).

People can say what they want about Idaho – yes it’s full of backwoods conservatives and some crazy laws and political stuff – but it’s my heart, it’s my home.  Idaho is so beautiful – so full of open spaces – and overflowing with wonderful people.  I miss Idaho a lot, and hope one day Matt and I can make a home there – somewhere.

Saturday night out photographer took us to a book store and an open meadow for our photos – I can’t wait to see them.  Also while in Boise I got to visit Anthro, Matt got to ride up Bogus Basin, and we got to eat some excellent meals together.  Boise is way hipper than I remember it – it has all sorts of artsy things and lots of young people and wholesome LDS folk and all sorts of outdoorsy stuff at its fingertips.  Plus it has jobs and beautiful old craftsman homes!  Maybe that’s where we should end up?

One last self portrait of us by the road, and the view that caused us to stop on the side of the road and take a self portrait.  Until next time, Idaho.  <3

Oh and one more.  A pug in the Element.

This appliance you see here, my friends, is our brand new Bosch dishwasher.  Normally this wouldn’t be a big deal, but it is to us.  You see, Matt and I have been living with no dishwasher for three years.  Our old little house had no room for one.  However, Matt decided to undertake a little construction project that would create some space for this magnificent machine.  We removed a door to the bathroom off the kitchen, replace the door with some wall, moved our fridge in front of said new wall, extended and added new counters and granite… and voila, space for the dishwasher.  This means Matt has learned plumbing, electrical, drywall, and cabinetry all in one project.  We probably won’t be done for another few weeks, but we’ve already been using our new appliance and man alive, there is no going back.  Thanks to my Mateo.  Such a keeper.

Also in the beginning of May we got to get dressed up and see one of our favorite authors, David Sedaris, do a reading at The Fox in downtown Spokane.  On our way there we ran in to some of my favorite Spokane liberals and had some drinks beforehand at the Davenport.  Mr. Sedaris never gets old, never.

Crafting output has been low recently due to us being out of town so much and my concentration on one project.  Unfortunately, this one project will probably end up in the trash.  You see, I decided to be ambitious and make a really complicated clutch with zippers and pockets and ruffles.  When I added the zipper, everything got majorly crooked and thus not even worth continuing.  Can’t be salvaged.  Irritatingly, I had spent many hours on this thing before ending up on the step that caused me to ruin it.  Le sigh.  Back the drawing board.

Also in May, Matt and I as well as the rest of our family ventured to Scotland for my dad and Mhairi’s wedding.  Scotland is beautiful – what they lack in tasty food they make up for in scenery.  Never have I seen so many baby lambs in one place in my life.  We got our share of castles, pubs, countryside, and people that have neat accents.  And the wedding was fun too.  See photos below.

Ancient cathedral ruins and graveyard near our hostel in Melrose.

Andrew, Greg, and I eating scones and delicious pastries called yum-yums.  Breakfast is by far the best meal.

The boys checking out one of many castles.  Greg’s great grandmother lived here for a brief time.

Matt, Sam, and Nora in front of the Tillmouth Park Hotel, where we stayed a couple of nights and where the wedding reception was held.

On the double decker bus that took us to the marriage room.

All dressed up.  Holy potatoes this is a lot of pictures.

The fam in the marriage room.

Couldn’t resist this photo op.  Losing patience for uploading this many pictures.

Bill, Mindy, and dad at Alfred’s wedding lunch.  We had bacon wrapped asparagus.  It was delish.

Our bonus day in Edinboro.  Thank you ash cloud.

Matt admiring the architecture.

Me, also admiring the architecture.

It really was a fabulous trip.

That’s all the blogging I can do for tonight.  Will be back this weekend.  Toodles.

So here’s the thing.  They serve all organic food, utilizing local products whenever possible.  They have a limited menu that changes daily, and you pick what you want from the items they have, tell them exactly how much you want (to limit waste), you pay how much you want (they have no set prices, you are to pay what you can afford and what you think is fair – or you volunteer), and they compost any remaining waste.  The food was absolutely delicious and healthy, and the staff/volunteers are friendly.  They tweet their daily menu.  They have a mission to make organic food available to all.  They’re non-profit.  They use their own food grown from their own community garden.  Anything leftover is donated to our neighborhood’s food pantry.  This place is a major win.

Shitty neighborhood is still shitty.  But… there’s a Mac store right next door, and our other cool local nonprofit called Pedals2People, which helps people get on bikes for low cost.  Not sure how to describe said neighborhood.  But Matt and I will be going back.

I’ve been meaning to read Roberto Bolaño’s epic novel 2666 for the last year and a half.  I’ve started it a couple of times, but kept getting distracted by other novels.  Pure laziness has also halted me, as this book is a hard one to read (this paperback you see here is just one of three that complete the novel).  I’m determined though.  Tonight’s the night.  Take that 2666 – I will conquer you.

Also thinking about gardening.  I planted a bunch of beautiful plants in our bare yard last year.  Many did not make it.  My flower beds look like this.

Why did they not survive you ask?  Well, let me show you.

This little guy used our flower beds and any other new plant area as his own personal toilet.  Next step, buy new plants, re-plant, and surround them with pug-proof gates.  Our utilize Matt’s method – utilizing pokey pinecones as ground cover (it works, check out our thriving clematis).

I scrapped a little this weekend.  I must say, scrapping has lost it’s fun recently.  Sewing is much more interesting as of late.  I think my crafty pages are showing my loss of enthusiasm.

I will end by sharing Matt’s unique culinary creation.  Humalsa.

I’m not quite sold, myself, but Mateo loves it.  And you all must try this salsa.  Especially you, Jennie.  It is quite delish.