the daily X

Vote For The Sky Scratcher!

My brother has entered his Sky Scratcher into the Martha Stewart American Made contest and needs your votes to win. You can vote up to 6 times a day! Please, please, please go to the page below and vote for him. We greatly appreciate your support!

Martha Stewart American Made Nominee: The Sky Scratcher

Portland

I was in Portland, Oregon over the weekend with my mom for the very last installment of Trek in the Park. It was an amazing final show and I'm pretty sad to see it come to an end. My mom and I have ventured out the past few years to see the show, enjoy the city and visit with my brother and his girlfriend who is the producer of Trek. Her brother plays Captain Kirk and my bro does set construction. Needless to say we have connections to get back stage and get invited to the wrap party which was awesome. 

We also get to enjoy fabulous food while visiting. One of my favorite things to do is eat and the city never disappoints. Here's where we chowed down:

Breakside Brewery  Great Happy Hour selection. Went here late on our way from the airport to the hotel and had a tasty soft pretzel that came with spicy mustard and what I thought was a fancy cream cheese spread and after looking at the menu closer is called Obatzda. (Learned something new today.) Whatever it's called, it's fantastic.
Hedge House  Stopped here for drinks and appetizers before dinner on Friday. Super good.
Produce Rowe Cafe  One of my favorites that we go to every time we visit. 
Liberty Glass  Ate here for breakfast Saturday morning and they bring you a plate of hot homemade donuts while you wait for your food. They were delicious and next time I'm going to order a dozen. The place is cozy and rustic and I love the style. 
Good Neighbor Pizzeria  Another place we go to a lot. All you need to know is garlic knots, mozz knots and bacon blue cheese knots. 
Cup & Saucer  Delicious sandwich although I wish I had the pancakes my brother was eating.

As always, a great trip. 

Project Life ~ Week 30 + 31

Hello Project Life! A little behind so a 2 in 1 it is.

Welcome to weeks 30 and 31.

Here is a look at week 30. All I remember from this week is work, work and more work. Oh, and I went to the Gap on my lunch break and bought a pair of neon green shorts. So sad...but that's the way it goes sometimes. At least we picked an awesome heirloom tomato.

Week 31 was dedicated to our one and only sunflower and our weekend trip to the fair. The 'hello' and 'you are here' stamps are from Studio Calico's Marks & Company Project Life kit and they are pretty much my favorite stamps ever. EVER.

I had taken several Instagram photos at the fair and made a 4x6 collage in Photoshop. I left one area blank and included a stamped 'you are here' piece of cardstock. I love a good photo collage. 

Around Here

A bouquet of parsley from our garden. I don't even know what to do with this much parsley. So for now, it's a beautiful centerpiece.

I'm packing up for a long weekend in Portland. Yes, I'm re-reading Bittersweet on the way there.

Eating pesto every chance we get. Our favorite is on spaghetti.

Still catching up on Project Life. Still in love with this project. Wishing I had so much more time to play.

Mr. X is making bottle lanterns. Hoping to have some up on Etsy next week!

Eating this Chex mix like there's no tomorrow. Our friend's husband introduced us to this combo on our canoe trip. Chex Bold mix, extra Chex cereal and Cheez-It's Zingz Chipotle Cheddar. We are making big bags and eating it all day, every day.

Today I am on vacation. I am on vacation for the next 12 days. TWELVE DAYS PEOPLE. Beyond excited. We have been enjoying summer to the fullest and have fun plans for the next couple of weeks. But secretly, I'm looking forward to fall. 

Project Life ~ Week 29

Welcome to week 29 of Project Life! 

This week my brother was in town and I dedicated the entire week to things we did with him. I love the overall look of this week. 

The left side starts with our Chicago visit and the Pearl Jam concert. So love that heart card from the Augut Studio Calico kit Marks & Co. The #PJWRIGLEY was done in Photoshop Elements before printing the photo. All photos were taken with my iPhone.

I added a 12x6 insert to include 3 more 4x6 photos.

I also included this postcard my brother gave me. 

Here is a look at the right side. The backside of the 12x6 insert is empty for now. I'm still deciding which photos I want to use. I went pretty simple on the embellishments this week because I wanted the focus to be on the photos. 

Every year we go on our canoe trip, one thing goes wrong. Four or five years ago we fell out of the canoe. The next year lighting struck the water the minute we got there so we decided not to go. Last year the river was extremely low from the drought and I had horrible anxiety the entire time about falling out AGAIN. This year, on the last day, we had to pack up and canoe out in the rain. However, while canoeing in the rain we did see two bald eagles sitting next to each other in a tree. It was awesome. 

The rest of our canoe trip was pretty fantastic. We headed out early Friday morning with 4 other friends into calm waters and cool air. It warmed up and we had sun all day Friday and Saturday. We ate well, played fun games (Cards Against Humanity and the washer toss game), watched the meteor shower, and sat around the campfire telling stories and listening to music.

The water level this year was perfect which made for very little paddling and lots of floating down the river. My favorite thing to do. The length of our trip is 12 miles so we canoed about 9-10 miles the first day so we wouldn't have to do much on the last day.

Here's Mr. X getting ready to cut up some wood for our fires.

Saturday morning breakfast. 

Saturday night dinner - cheese panini's with homemade pesto in the pudgy pie maker and baked potatoes.

The morning sun over our camp.

Evening fishing.

And the most beautiful sunsets.

This trip was perfect and I'm already looking forward to next year.

Project Life ~ Week 28

Welcome to week 28 of Project Life! 

This week Mr. X received his motorcycle license in the mail. Obviously he was excited. It was a stressful work week for me so pizza and wine happened mid-week and we finally figured out how to order pizza at our favorite restaurant. It only took us about 10 years.

The 'You Are Here' stamp is one of my faves from Elise. And the 'Happy Mail' stamp is from Studio Calico's Valley High Project Life Kit.

Also this week, Mr. X finally got the Hi-Fi up and working perfectly. More tomatoes and more evening fires with our neighbors. 

I got a little carried away with letter stickers this week. I think it's because I have so many and in order to feel not guilty about buying new ones, I need to use up what I have. Plus I love them on top of photos.

Today

Today I finished Bittersweet....and it was so bittersweet. I put it down, almost cried, and wanted to start all over again with Cold Tangerines. These are books I would have never read, never would have looked for, never would have thought they could help me with what we're going through right now. I don't read books like this. But these books were exactly what I needed at this moment in my life. They were both a collection of beautiful, real, raw stories and I could relate to so much of what she wrote. They gave me a new perspective and I feel hopeful. Very hopeful.

Today I also received this invitation in the mail. Feeling special. And excited!

If you're in Portland...check it out here.

Project Life ~ Week 27

Hello Project Life! This is still, by far, my most favorite project. Ever.

Week 27 we were just coming back from our trip up north and looking forward to the 4th of July holiday. 

The left side was done with the Design D photo pockets because this is what I used on the cover page. I've only ever used Design A so this was a big change for me. I liked it. The beginning part of the week we were getting back in the routine of being at home and welcoming the month of July.

I was off from work most of the week and spent a lot of time in the kitchen and eating outside. We spent the 4th watching fireworks with friends from our front yard with a bonfire. And the rest of the weekend relaxing with friends, eating good food and enjoying the summer.

Lately in Instagrams

It's August and summer and time is flying by. 

Lately we've been enjoying our garden and the heirloom tomatoes that just ripened this week. Such an amazing thing to grow. The color, the shape...truly amazing.

Lately we've been raising caterpillars. Yeah, it's crazy. My friend from work gave me caterpillar eggs and they've hatched and started growing like crazy. Talk about obsession. We're checking them like 10 times a day and those suckers escape every chance they get. BUT I know in the end when we have a bunch of butterflies to release into the world, it will be totally worth it.

Lately we enjoyed National IPA Day while discussing our canoe trip that's coming up next weekend. Very excited. 

Lately we enjoyed an afternoon of people watching at the Renaissance Faire and enjoyed eating my favorite deep fried cheese balls.

Lately the one and only sunflower growing in our front yard opened into this beautiful yellow sunburst. I was totally against just one being planted but Mr. X insisted. And now it's my favorite.

And lately we've been talking about football season. It's almost here and the thought of fall weather and watching games Sunday afternoon makes me so happy.

Hello August!