Category Archives: Cooking

My first seattle 4th of july

July 8, 2013

We started off our day picking raspberries and strawberries at the same place I recently went strawberry picking. So now I can also check raspberries off my must pick list. Woo! They were a little picked over since we arrived later in the afternoon but if you worked for it (getting up and under the bushes) you could still find a lot of larger and super ripe berries. Mmm…

Walker and I had been invited to a party a few miles north but we weren’t really in the mood to bike. Instead we packed a few bags with snacks and games and walked down to the highway overlook. It sounds like a funny place to watch the fireworks but we basically had front row seats. They weren’t super close but there was no one in front of us and we had a full view of the harbor and the surrounding neighborhoods.

After hours of waiting a lot more people showed up and a little while after 10 the fireworks finally got going. It was a good show and afterwards we headed home through the crowds and quickly found our way to bed. We were exhausted. Overall a pretty good first 4th of July in Seattle.

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^this one is kind of crazy because you can see the smoke from a fire that started a little while before the fireworks started. yikes!

Walker’s 28th birthday!

July 3, 2013

Walker turned 28 last Wednesday. We didn’t really make any plans (that he knew of) since it was during the week so when he left for work I just said that we’d figure something out when he got home. Then I got to work because I had a lot to do!

I hung a curtain from the entry way into the living room so he couldn’t see that I had set up the tent where his birthday evening would take place. I got all the groceries I needed and baked and did a lot of prep work. I made his birthday surprise book and wrote all the clues and hid things around the house. I set up appetizers and cocktails in the tent and waited for Walker to get home.

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^curtain for Walker to see when he walked in the door
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^birthday surprise book. I got this “book” from atly because they are sponsoring Alt Summit in San Francisco (and I’m going!) with information about their company but I reused it as a clue book for Walker. It was perfect!
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^inside the book. An overall explanation and 6 clues to start. I also had extra clues with some of the initial surprises that comprised round 2 of the clues. Some of them were to go to a certain place (the tent), some were little gifts, some were parts of the meal (beer).
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^Walker finding the tent. ha!
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^appetizers in the tent.
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^clue reading. I had such a hard time not blurting out the answers. It’s possible I enjoyed it even more than he did.
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^I hung little stars in the tent, you know since we were “camping”.
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^course 1: arugula and spinach salad with beets, walnuts, balsamic soaked strawberries, with a grapefruit vinaigrette. course 2 was pizza with pesto and toppings.
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^course 3 or the dessert course. strawberry shortcake, coconut chocolate ice cream, cupcake, homemade vegan peanut butter cup, and a chocolate bar. It might have been overkill but it was all really good! also the entire meal and all desserts were vegan.
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^after all the food, games, and watching the sunset we ended in the tent listening to night sounds I captured last time I was home (featuring a whippoorwill, spring peepers-frogs, and various bugs).

I think it turned out pretty great!

June project complete

July 2, 2013

For the month of June my project was to take a picture of something every day that made me smile. If you’re just joining, this project is a part of a year long project (12 monthly projects) to do something every month and document it in some way. For the most part that’s been taking pictures but for the month of May it was blogging every day! Phew!

June was a bit easier since I knew I would be traveling a lot. So here are some things that made me smile in June.

june 1
^-Walker at the beach
-farmer’s market strawberries
-reading in the sun
-my friend wearing his shirt all funny
june 2
^-Walker making fun of one of my many weird faces
-Walker drinking beer from Bell’s (a really great brewery in my college town)
-friends at a wedding playing guitar
-at the sand dunes with Walker
-at grocer’s daughter chocolates with Walker
-my mom’s dog Molly B.
june 3
^-a duck with her babies
-iris farm
-rhubarbade in the hammock
-first 2 wild strawberries of the season
-making pierogies for the family
-taking a shipwreck tour
-family on father’s day
-lots of wild strawberries
june 4
^-Walker working from home my first day back from Michigan
-Seattle gum wall!
-butterfly cupcakes
-picking strawberries in Washington
-Walker and a sunset
-strawberry pancakes
june 5
-farmer’s market cherries
-Walker’s birthday in a tent
-pacific tower building in Seattle
-I get to be part of this blogger exchange!
-sorbet on a hot day
-pitch and putting with Walker

What do I have up my sleeve for July? It should be interesting…

I’ve chosen to take a photo of a stranger a day. At the very least it will get me out of the house every day.