Just Make Stuff

I have no business...

I think I'm going to start a new blog post series titled "I should be ____, but instead I'm ____." to describe all the times that I have no business doing something besides schoolwork.

For instance the time I took tonight looking for a new little storage pouch for my purse...here are some of the cute ones I found... 

 

1. lireca 2. fantella 3. sweetsugarbeet 4. JensBags 5. seaoats 6. schtuff

After a shameful hour of scrutiny I decided on this one...

 

Okay back to (hopefully) being responsible.

Ten on Tuesday...

1. We had this for Sean's birthday chicken dinner and it's officially a new favorite meal.

2. Except I didn't use lemon, capers or parsley and I added finely chopped onion, a touch of sugar and chicken Better than Bouillon.

3. I think with this recipe though I can officially say I eat mushrooms...it only took me 33 years to like them.

4. Oh and in case you don't know Better than Bouillon is really magic in a jar.

5. I am super excited about the Taste of Newport tickets I just bought as a Groupon...I will be happily strategizing with the list of menus.

6. I'm already planning on trying a lobster quesadilla and a sizzling bacon chocolate bar.

7. I promise this whole post won't be about food.

8. How about where we eat? We have a new kitchen table...and we painted some of our chairs red...

 

9. Okay really moving on from food...other fun stuff going on the calendar will hopefully be a trip to the Rose Bowl for the UCLA v. Oregon State game in early November...I'm calling tomorrow to try to get tickets.

10. Of course part of the fun of going to the game is packing a picnic to tailgate with...but then I'd be back talking about food again.

33 reasons...

On August 30th Sean Griffin turns 33 and I just have to list some of the reasons why I love him...

1. I had to wash dishes continuously on Saturday before his little birthday BBQ in order to keep him from jumping in at the sink and it still didn't work.

2. He also washes dishes far more methodically than I do...just ask him and he'll tell you all about my soaking wet dish towel situation.

3. He also cooked really good hamburgers on the new grill he got for his birthday.

4. He didn't want Mac to miss a moment of a trip to Disneyland with his Dad's family so he made sure Mac knew it was okay to miss his birthday BBQ.

5. His vacation beard. (that got shaved off tonight since tomorrow's the first day of school)

 

6.  I love that he came in to show me each increment of hair removal...the goatee...the mustache...he was awfully proud of himself.

7. I love that his eyes change color depending on what he's wearing.

8. That he doesn't mind that his birthday falls on the first day of school.

9. That he actually always looks forward to each new week of work.

10. He humors his wife with a trip to Old Navy because he just has to have a new polo shirt for the first day. (he could care less)

11. In addition to getting a new polo he let me convince him that he actually needed to wear a new argyle sweater vest on the first day...after all it had his school's colors.

12. He comes home from shopping and cleans out his closet

13. Then he asked me to help put his clothes in rainbow order...music to my ears

14. And he uses the hot pink hangers I had in my closet growing up.

15. I love that he has wandered around the Container Store 457 times. (we went today since it's next to Old Navy and I needed that new file box for school)

16. And he actually thinks things like a half an onion box are a good idea.

17. He drinks tea every morning. (since we had high tea and he decided he really likes it)

18. I love that I get to surprise him with a travel mug for tea tomorrow morning when he gets up.

19. He wants to learn to play the guitar. 

20. That way he can play folksy music so he can get laid. (I cannot believe I just typed that, but it's what we were joking about earlier today)

21. He is very good about taking care of you when you're hurt. (this certainly was tested a few weeks ago)

22. He is an amazing house painter.

23. I love that he called risotto cakes "rice thingies" when we were at a nice restaurant on our vacation.

24. I love even more when I sited my knowledge about the sports he loves suggesting he might want to learn a little more about food for me that he came right back with, "Um, how much do I know about scrapbooking?"

25. He knows a surprising amount about scrapbooking.

26. And that he sews and stamps a lot better than I do.

27. When I asked what he wanted for his birthday dinner tomorrow that he just said, "chicken".

28. I love how happy he was for me when my college diploma arrived in the mail over the weekend.

29. He always surprises me with a note on the first day of school.

30. He loves basketball so much that he didn't even mind that he had a league game at 9:30pm the night before school starts.

31. I love that he is a good basketball player.

32. And he's good at making inappropriate jokes to help me forget that two young guys at the basketball game thought I was his mom.

33.I love that he's waiting up for me right now so we can go to bed.

Those are just some of the reasons I love him as he turns 33...

Happy Birthday Sean!

Starred...

 

1. Bunting, 2. Heart Mobile, 3. Happy Birthday, Sebastian, 4. mornings, 5. studio paper scraps, 6. pink set 3, 7. home is where you are - yarn wreath in teal, red, yellow, and white, 8. Millies Tree ...

I'm just realizing now that I barely starred anything in my Google Reader this past week...but I'll think of it as quality over quantity...

• Loved this step-by-step
• These photos had me wanting to buy film again
• Inspired by this post about reading nooks since I'll be settling into mine a lot more nowadays
• Mexican food usually isn't a favorite of mine, but I'm tempted to try these

Good & Random...

Just some stuff to share...

--School was promising and terrifying. That whole "no self-doubt" plan almost went out the window tonight, but I'm trying to pull myself back together.

--And speaking of school, my sister made a bunch of new snack bags just in time for school lunches...

 

The fabrics are so super cute that we may need a couple more.

--Last weekend I made the Griffin Family video that was one of my goals for when we got home. The report back seemed to indicate that everyone was teary-eyed. Here it is in case you'd like to take a peek...

--One last thing...a Cartwheels article from this week...with a fall wreath...

 

That's all the random stuff from tonight...I'll be back with a Starred post on Saturday morning...

Well Wishes...

Ten on Tuesday...

1. The theme of this post is "Holey moley I start graduate school tomorrow"

2. It is not to be confused with the "I did not get into graduate school" post from last spring.

3. I think whenever I get overwhelmed I should go back and read that post to remind myself to be extremely grateful for this chance to get overwhelmed.

4. That will probably be happening weekly since one class syllabus lists that I have a paper due every week.

5. And let's not forget that I must become a producer of knowledge like I mentioned last week.

6. My books arrived yesterday...thankfully they don't look too intimidating.

 

7. I'm sure the endless journal articles I'll be assigned will more than accomplish the intimidation factor.

8. Regardless of how daunting the workload might seem I'm trying something new. I am not going waste time with self-doubt. No matter what I'm doing this so I might as well keep my energy for that.

9. I still have to organize my binder for school...and I need a new storage box for those aforementioned scary articles. And I need to organize my bag too...I'm just realizing now I have nothing ready. Good thing class doesn't start until 7pm.

10. Is it bad though that I'm already looking forward to the "Yea, I'm all done!" post in two years?

I will always know what day it is...

I usually have some kind of calendar hanging on the wall next to my desk so I can figure out what and when things are happening. For awhile I'd been printing out these cute illustrations.

Then as I was organizing our seventeen days of missed mail from our trip...I saw this in a new catalog. And even though I had already made a recent addition to the wall next to my desk, I knew a little more rearranging needed to take place for this huge piece of organization.

 

It makes me unreasonably happy.

Sundays...

This has been the very last weekend free from responsibility...by this time next week I will have to be reading something Sociological and Sean will be packing up for his first days of school. 

I wish I could bottle up time like we've had these past few weeks so we can crack some open as needed when we're buried under obligations this fall.

Like this afternoon when I had time to put together the random bits I have sitting in a orange bowl on my desk...

 

And turn it into a sappy layout...

 

Okay speaking of time, it's time to have some friends over for dinner. I made this for dessert and am dying to dig into it. 

Starred...

 1. Spring Babette blanket to be, 2. pretty clip, 3. patriotic porch, 4. Vintage Vignette, 5. Spring is in the air, 6. Home office, 7. ABC's, 8. desk1

Here are the favorites from the few weeks since I did my last Starred post...

• Scrapbooking...loved these and these and all the layers here
• Great gift wrapping ideas here and here.
• Loved this idea...and this house.
• This struck a chord.
• This is an amazing resource for a new school year of lunches.
• Oh and food...I must makes these and these...try to do this...and bake these and these.

The first day gift...

My back to school teacher gifts aren't original...actually I mentioned before we left on our trip that I was going to use this idea.

I ended up finding some smaller boxes that allowed me to mix up the size of the compartments...I made sure to include the extra dividers so Mac's teachers can customize them as they want.

Pens...clips...glue sticks...post-its...and lots of wishes for a great school year.

Winner and Answers...

The office supplies go to comment #10

Amy Coose said...

Glad you had a great trip, and I love the album. Can't wait to see your BTS teacher gifts. I am so doing that this year for my kids' teachers. Thanks for the chance to win some goodies!

August 18, 2010 at 07:27 AM

Amy please e-mail me your address since a trip to the post office is on my to-do list. :)

In the comments there were a couple of questions so I thought I'd just answer them here...

shelley e said...

Love your red chairs- where did you get them??

We snagged them on sale last month at Cost Plus

Terri Emmons said...

Nora,

Glad you had a great Vacation. I love the book gave me the perfect thing to do for our vacation to Japan in 2 months.. So Thank you so much.. If you could or have time can you please post how you save or add to the book ticket stubs or things you get from places you might go that day..I would really just love to see how those things are in the book..

I took along a hole punch and just put the day's collected stuff right in front of the "Today" journaling page...several people mentioned about seeing more of the book...

 

It's actually very simple and repetitive. Write the journaling, include various memorabilia and slap two photos on the back of the page. I decided it didn't need to be a ton of scrapping stuff to make good memories and that really worked. 

The other thing mentioned with the back to school teacher gifts...I will work on sharing that tomorrow.

Well Wishes...

Ten on Tuesday...

1. Really enjoying being home again...and speaking of home I don't think I ever shared the final house color

 

2. Black...I went simple and classic...with new red Adirondack chairs on the front porch. I would have totally been the person to do the red front door thing, but we have screen doors that we use most nights to let in a cool breeze and red never seemed to be the right option with them so the chairs helped me feel like we got the fun pop of color. 

 

 

3. That officially brings the great color debate of 2010 to a close...thank goodness.

4. The other outdoor project was to remove our neighbor's bougainvillea monster (you can see it on the side of the house here) and paint the wall in between our houses. Now we just need to get some more grass growing and go plant shopping...I am always way too happy to plant shop.

 

5. I'm still tackling the trip photos today and one aspect is the travel album. Almost every night I wrote a summary and included the bits from the day...things like ticket stubs, restaurant menus or various maps & brochures. I have started adding a couple photos to the back of each "Today" page and it is almost complete...

 

 

6. And speaking of Cartwheels projects I had an article about Back to School cards go up while I was gone.

7. I will share the little first day of school gifts I made for Mac's teachers sometime soon...lucky guy doesn't go back to class until September 8th.

8. I have another little school card to share for Well Wishes tomorrow.

9. Speaking of school I saw the syllabus for one of my classes today. Yikes. It calls for us to transition from being a consumer of knowledge to a producer of knowledge. Please wish me luck with that. 

10. During my Salem outing with Amber I once again raided the best office supply store ever and just have to share some of my loot...if you'd like this mailed to you please leave a comment and I'll draw a name on Thursday.

 

Back home...

We walked in the door around 2:12pm today...after driving a total of 3,374.9 miles.

Within minutes of arrival (and dog greetings) I was scrubbing the sink and doing a dozen other neurotic things to freshen up the house. 

Tonight I'm loading the 1,564 photos we came home with onto the computer and making goals for the rest of the week.

Things like making panzanella salad or putting together a video worthy of making my mother-in-law and sister-in-law cry.

I'm also eager to get back to crafting especially since the countdown to grad school is on...I start in eight days.

Need to make the most of the last days of summer.

Days 15, 16 & 17...

Today was bocce ball day...boys versus girls. 

The boys won. (but only by two points at the very end)

 

Losing was okay though because there were meatballs, cheese bread and an antipasto tray.

Day 16 is french toast, a pajamas & Wii games afternoon and hanging out by the pool later.

Day 17 will be the drive home.

Just enjoying these last bits of road trip 2010.

Days 12, 13, & 14...

We spent every last minute we could with Sean's family before we all had to say goodbye. It included our rescheduled trip to the zoo and then a day of hanging out at home...washing cars and laundry so we would be ready to drive off in different directions. Oh and taking lots of grandkid photos for Sean's mom.

We left the one yellow blinking light this morning and got all the way down into the Bay Area to stay with good friends that we haven't seen in a couple of years...it will be the perfect ending to our long trip.

Here are some favorite photos from the last few days...

 

 

 

 

 

Now it's time for a weekend of bocce ball, good food and lots of jokes. 

Day 11...

Our plan for today was to go to the zoo until we saw the looong lines to get in and decided to switch to tomorrow's plans...so we headed towards Multnomah Falls.

I wasn't going to really hike since I've been dealing with a badly scraped knee after last week's tumble, but I couldn't resist heading all the way to the top with the rest of the family...all was fine until it was time to come all the way back down...I was pretty timid on the steep paths.

It was really worth it though...just endlessly beautiful...

 
 
Now tomorrow we'll try the zoo again.
 

Day 10...

Today started and ended with wonderful carb overloads.

It was really amazing to get to see bread manufactured...it was worth having to wear those bright red hairnets...

 

Can you even imagine how good 1,000s of fresh baked loaves smell?

Then we spent the afternoon with Amber & Tuesday...we got to see all the updates to their house and then wandered the favorite shops in downtown.

Amber has impecable taste and that includes food too...she took us to a restaurant that had so many dessert choices that Sean, Mac and I each had one after dinner and then took five more home...who takes home five more desserts?

Tomorrow...the Oregon Zoo.

Days 7, 8 & 9...

We're in a town with one yellow blinking lightso wifi really isn't happening...and Mac's "hotel room" is an air mattress in my in-law's office parked in front of the computer so I've finally gotten in here to share about our last few days.

But most importantly an eye update, right? Here's each day's progression...getting steadily worse looking, but it feels fine...

Want to see prettier photos now?

Well I don't really have too many, but here are Sean and Mac in front of the first Nordstroms in downtown Seattle on Friday morning. After that we made our way back down through Washington to arrive at Sean's parents house. We hung around outside...catching up and taking lots of photos.

d

Thankfully my sister-in-law Steph always has her camera in hand too so I'm not the lone crazy photo taker.

The next day we had a family party...I tease my mother-in-law that it's her "show-off" party...her boys are home so the whole extended family is invited over for a barbecue. And they certainly had a heck of a lot to show off this year with my black eye situation.

Although to be able to tell one of Sean's uncles that I did it just so he would have something really good to make fun of me for was almost worth falling...almost.

Thankfully my face was quickly overshadowed by my niece Bella's major cuteness in her new ladybug dress-up outfit...

Got lots of other family photos too...

 

 

Finally today was the eat-a-thon. Biscuits and gravy for breakfast...prime rib for dinner...and a trip into Portland for a Voodoo donut lunch...

We were all taking photos of our donuts...

Tomorrow we get to go to my mother-in-law's work for a bread tour and then I get to get a tour at this house too (which means I get to shop here in person).

Oh and before I forget...I grabbed one more photo of the yellow-blinking light on our way back tonight...

I guess I shouldn't make fun of it too much since it's my home for the next several days.
 

Day 6...

Okay let's get it over with. I walked around looking like this today...

 

At least it's worth a million jokes...but please keep your fingers crossed for expedited healing.

My crazy appearance didn't stop us from having fun though...we headed down to Seattle, stopped for doughnuts, went around Pikes Place Market as I marveled at the endless bouquets being practically given away for $5, got past the long line for a quick photo at the original Starbucks and had another amazing dinner...I will dream about the goat cheese ravioli appetizer and the scallop entrée for years to come.

 

 

 

 

 

And now we're settled into our last night of hotels...love being up high with all the buildings.

 

Tomorrow we head to Sean's parent's house in Oregon...I told my father-in-law to get all his jokes about my face ready. Looking forward to being with family for the next week.

Day 5...

So today will likely be in the running for the most memorable of the trip...and not exactly in a good way, but I can certainly laugh about it and will share in a minute.

First the good stuff...another lazy morning and then a little shopping on Robston Street and a really good lunch.

 

Then a drive around Stanley Park before returning to the home country.

 

 

Shortly after seeing this sign we all were happy to turn on our cell phones.

Then we arrived at our hotel and I went to get a luggage cart in the lobby, but ended up tripping and falling down onto it instead...smacking my head and cutting open my eyebrow.

Just picture the beautiful hotel lobby and everyone is gasping and helping me as blood ran down my face.

I have continually passed all of Sean's cognitive tests and drove to the local fire department to make sure they agreed that I didn't need stitches. On the bright side my glasses caused the cut and the curved rim just lines up beautifully with the arch of my eyebrow. On the other hand my right eye is half swollen shut and I have a huge bruise on my forehead.

We had to wait awhile at the fire station since they had just pulled away on a call as we were driving up...but that gave us time to get a family portrait.

 

Definitely Christmas card material.

We got back to the hotel to finally settle into our room overlooking the water and went downstairs to eat another amazing meal.

 

So vacation is back on track...just a little black and blue.

Day 4...

 

Today felt like the first real day of vacation. We simply had time...we got to wander...stress was no where in sight. 

We went out to Butchart Gardens...where I took 100's of flowers of photos...otherwise known as enough computer desktop backgrounds to last me a lifetime. We had an amazing lunch there and then we drove back to downtown Victoria to walk around the streets. I found a new store to love and also discovered some chocolate and tea to take home with us.

Except I'll probably have all the chocolate eaten by tomorrow.

We had 5:15pm reservations for tea...something I have wanted to go to since a friend first told me about the hotel over a dozen years ago. The thought of having tea there helped me get on the darn ferry in the first place. I told Sean that I felt like I'd crossed something off my bucket list. He totally got into it too...he is now thinking about drinking some tea on the way to work in the mornings and was happy to help me brainstorm how to copy their egg salad.

Mac meanwhile worked the "my parents will go for just about anything on vacation" system and we ended up on a carriage ride before heading back to take the ferry. 

Here are some photos from the day...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's a late night here in Vancouver...see you tomorrow with Day 5.

The beginning of day 4...

 

We're off to a good start around here...Sean went for a run...Mac and I had croissants wake us up.

And we don't have to drive hundreds upon hundreds of miles today.

So far I like day 4 a lot.

Day 3...

I'm the king of the world.

And that's not just the Dramamine talking.

I am really afraid of water...unreasonably terrified.

So to get on any watercraft is a major deal...let alone a 90 minute ferry ride in the dark.

But I did it...so we could stay here...and have high tea tomorrow.

Before all of this much earlier today we stopped at the University of Oregon and purchased as much green and gold as we could before getting out of town.

 

Then we drove the entire state of Washington...pretty much under the speed limit because that seems to be a non-negotiable trait among the drivers here...whereas in California the speed limit is merely a suggestion of what to drive about 10-15 mph over.

During our law-abiding drive I got in trouble at the border crossing. Did you know that you're not supposed to take photos? The guy asked for our passports and then my camera...he very carefully and respectfully deleted every contraband photo.

Thankfully after that he let us in.

Then it was ferry time. My original idea of a ferry is this. Now I knew this one would be larger...you know hold a couple dozen of cars or so. You can imagine my surprise when we saw an electronic tally show almost 200 cars loaded. 

 

Can you see the nervousness in my eyes as we prepare for departure?

Turns out it wasn't so bad.

There was free WiFi inside, but there was less nauseousness outside so I sat out organizing photos. 

 

Now it's well after midnight and Sean and Mac just got back from the pool (we're trying to be extra cool vacation parents)...off to bed so I'm all rested for a day of Victoria and another ferry ride back late tomorrow night.

Day 2.5...

I have a couple of minutes before we eat some breakfast and get on the road so here is Mount Shasta...

 

The first sight of real trees...always a favorite when coming from the land of palm trees.

 

The first sight of Mount Shasta.

This would be a good time to tell you that just over 12 years ago was the last time I saw Shasta. Sean and I (and a toddler Mac) drove all the way from Sean's parents house back home in a day...about 17 hours.

I was the driver when we hit Mount Shasta and was awestruck. That didn't help my driving too much so Sean insisted he take the wheel this time as I gawked at the mountain for an hour.

 

Okay time for Day 3 to start...can't wait to use our passports today!

Day 1 & 2

Hello from the road...we're up late having just arrived in Eugene, Oregon for the night. Mac and I are settling into our room (we got super lucky that it's a suite with a fireplace) and Sean ran down to a local pizza place to save the day since we're all starving.

So here's the trip so far.

Day one was kind a bust due to the migraine that tortured me, but there were highlights...

 

Like McIntosh finding a cherished ChocoTaco out in the middle of California.

Okay moving onto Day 2...much, much better.

There was a trip to the Alameda Flea Market...

 

 

 

 

 

After filling a couple of bags with various treasures we headed into the city for a late breakfast at our favorite place.

 

Apparently my expert photography caught Sean sneezing and Mac dumbfounded. 

We waited well over an hour but it's always worth it. 

 

 

After eating we drove over 500 miles to Eugene...and I took way too many photos of Mount Shasta but they're still sitting in the camera.

So goodbye until tomorrow...

 

Well tomorrow as long as we can get some free wireless in Canada (we head to Victoria in the morning) if not we'll see you Wednesday.