New Blog: Leona Lane

Hey guys! Jenn and I have finally launched our new blog "Leona Lane"! It has been a fun little joint effort we started at the beginning of November. I'll be posting over there from now on. See you over there!

Instagram + Project Life

I have a self confessed instagram obsession - absolutely love it! When I'm rounding up my pictures of the week for Project Life, I always look back over my instagrams too. I love incorporating them into my album because they are so representative of the day-by-day for me. Sometimes, I re-size them to fit in the usual pockets. This week I had so many photos in addition to my "grams" that I decided to print them as mini pics and make a special insert for them.  

To make something similar, you will want to print your pictures out as 2x2s. I do this in Picasa, first select six photos, then click "create" in the toolbar at the top and select "picture collage". For the collage settings, use 4x6 for the canvas size and grid layout. This should place all six of your photos side by side. Save the image and print as a 4x6. Next is the fun part! Cut them up and play with your paper until you make something fabulous! For journaling, I just wrote the the original captions underneath. Happy crafting! 

Winter Weekend

I love snow! In my opinion it is one of the best things about winter. If the weather is going to be cold, it might as well be pretty and sparkly too! Snow transforms all the dull grays and browns into a winter wonderland, its magic. It started snowing here on Thursday evening, snowed through the night and stuck around for most of the weekend. Then it snowed again last night! I love waking up and seeing a fresh coating of snow everywhere, so untouched and quiet. I love being outside early, before all the boot prints and tire tracks muck things up, just a few cute kitty footprints around. I love not having to scrape your windshield - brushing snow off is so much easier! 

We had a lovely wintery weekend. Pete & Hannah came to visit from Seattle. We hung out, drank awesome coffee, visited a bookstore, I cleaned the house (which felt great!), had more friends over for dinner, drank lots of warm beverages, made a fire and kept the house toasty, baked some pecan pies, wore thick sweaters and I busted out my down slippers, read books, played quirkle and listened to oldies on Pandora. Such a nice, relaxing weekend!  (until the part where an uninsured drunk driver smashed into Pete's parked car, which then smashed into our car... just another chance to remember to turn to the Lord!)

Hope everyone else had a wonderful weekend too!

Local Spots: Mexican Food

Mexican food is the best! If I had to pick my favorite type of food, I'm pretty sure this would be it. Today, I thought I would share some of my favorite spots here in town with you locals! Or if you are ever passing through Spokane, stop and check one out. However, if you are craving fish tacos, you will have to come over to our place, cause Joe makes the best in town ;)

El Que is a fun little hole-in-the-wall in Brown's Addition (behind the Elk). This is a fun place to go if you are looking for something unique with a cool atmosphere  I love their outdoor seating in the summer! They have terrific sangria (pictured below) and margarita's. My cousin says it reminds her of Mexico! They have the best tamales in town and their tacos are pretty great too! Probably not the most kid friendly though (half of the seating is in the bar).

Atilanos is my favorite place for fast food and/or drive through. They are downtown on 3rd, and I've heard they are also opening a new place up north. Quick service, cheap food, but man is it delicious!! Their carne asada tacos (pictured below) and carne asada tortas are my favorite! They also serve horchata and have a salsa bar inside. We love this place, don't be surprised if you see our car at the drive through window...

Pueblo Amigo is our favorite family style restaurant. They are located on West Francis, in between Wall and Monroe. The staff is always friendly and welcoming and are able to accommodate larger parties than El Que. The steak fajitas here are to die for - they are absolutely incredible! I have trouble ordering anything else when we go here. The tacos al carbon are another favorite though (pictured below). And if you're in the mood for a drink, the margaritas are tasty and very reasonably priced.

Things I'm Loving

Fall around here has been a little on the gloomy side. These are all little pick-me-ups that are making fall a little more cheerful at our house. Some are birthday presents and a few are old favorites. 

Sources: 1. Desert Bloom Mug from Anthropologie (now discontinued).  2. Serving Set from Anthropologie. 3. Mulling Spices from Williams & Sonoma.  4. Amy Tangerine Date Stamp from Impress.  5. Attack Cat Rug from Urban Outfitters. 6. Teal Polka Dot Washi Tape from Freckled Fawn.  7. Faux Foil Pie Plate from Crate & Barrel (unfortunately has been discontinued, different yellow pie plate here).  8. His & Hers Stamps made by Elise Blaha Cripe.  9. Le Creuset Classic Teakettle in Dune from Casa.com. Other. Rag Rug in the background is also from Urban Outfitters.

And of coarse, not everything nice comes in a brown box from the UPS guy. I'm also loving...

... spending time with family & friends

... soup, particularly posole

... surprisingly, the color orange - its a new favorite

... listening to my "Jack Johnson" pandora station

... drinking red wine in the evening with Joe

... baking & eating pumpkin pie, and really, any other kind of pie

... getting into the Word at our Bible study

... catching up with project life. I'm so stinkin close!

... thick wool socks & warm sweatshirts

... laughing at the cat's antics & giving him lots of hugs

... drinking hot beverages of all varieties

... the smell of my "leaves" candle. seriously, its the best.

Hope everyone had a lovely weekend! 

Photo Walk: Gray

The weather has been gray and rainy around here. I've still been going on walks, less often than I'd like though. Taking my camera with me is one way to keep it a little more interesting! I already have so many colorful pictures of the park that I decided to go with a gray theme this time. Definitely fit the mood. 

Hope everyone is enjoying the weekend!

P.S. The idea for photo walks came from Elise from Enjoy It. You can find her blog here. 

Monogrammed Mini Pumpkins

I love pumpkins, especially at this time of year. I found some little mini pumpkins at the grocery store last week. Not the weird little flat ones that I usually see. These ones look like regular pumpkins, but tiny. I've seen all sorts of ideas on pinterest and blogs, but decided carved monograms would be more up my alley than the glittered variety. Quick and easy little project, took less than an hour. Now they are living on my fireplace mantle. And as a bonus, these ones have seeds inside that you can bake for a quick snack!

Project Life - Playing Catch Up

The end of summer and our trip to Europe turned into a giant whirlwind. I've been trying to get caught up with Project Life and I'm getting a little closer. I've got more pictures to pick up at Costco. I haven't posted any pictures of my weeks for a while so I thought I'd share today. I've been trying to keep it pretty simple but occasionally having been throwing some new things in to keep it interesting. I haven't been doing any traditional scrapbooking for last few months, I'm hoping to have time to make some regular layouts this winter. But for now, getting caught up is the name of the game.

Week: July 29th - Aug 4th

Week: August 5th - 11th

Close up of this week's insert. The photo grid from the blog post is on the front and the text is on the back.

Second page of this week's spread. 

Week: August 12th - 18th. First page

Second page. Still need to pick up the photo booth pics.

Week: August 19th - 25th. Insert this week is Joe's birthday card.

Week: August 26th - Sept 1st

Well, that's it for now. Getting closer! I'm planning on combining the two weeks that we were in Europe together, since I already have a *Smash book with all my journaling and I'm planning to make a photo book with all our pictures too.

Recently.

I finished working a five day stretch. The good news is I think they are finally going to change my schedule. Which means only two more long stretches and I can kiss working five twelves in a row good-bye! That is super exciting for me! 

Also I've been

... trying to squeeze in as much fall stuff as I can before winter gets here.

... drinking hot tea, hot coffee, and fresh apple cider from Greenbluff.

... to Walter's to pick out a pumpkin.

... taking walks in the park.

... watching all the poor kids running their cross country races accross the street at the park.

... putting Cholula Chili Lime on everything.

... to visit Joe at work and hung out in the shop.

... making lots of chocolate chip cookies for the college kids.

... dreaming about finishing some projects.

... hanging out my cat, he's been around more since it's getting cold outside.

... excited about my "Mister Malcolm" book that finally showed up!

Fall is here, I love this season! (Well, I love most seasons actually). The leaves haven't quite turned yet but they are well on their way. This year I'm ready to say good-bye to summer and embrace fall with all its cozy loveliness. I've spent my last few days off doing "fall" stuff. Hoping to go up to Greenbluff tomorrow. Yesterday, I went for a walk (and side note, ending finding a lovely green trunk at a garage sale). Anyways, this time of year is fun at the park, seeing all the squirrels scurrying around, finding acorns and what not.

Ever since I was little, my mom would take us on walks in the fall to look for bright leaves. We would take our favorites home and press them between wax paper. 

Today, my sis and cousin invited me over to make fall wreaths with them. It was so much fun. I had seen this fun fall wreath on Elise Blaha Cripe's blog earlier in the week, tutorial here. It got tucked into that "Wow, That's Cool, Maybe I'll Get Around To Making One Some Day" folder in the back of my brain. This was perfect timing, now I have my own hanging up by my front door instead. Some times you just need someone else to help kick start your crafty side into gear.

Here's mine all finished. (Of coarse I couldn't wait for decent lighting to take pics, so impatient.) I love how it's so not a typical wreath. Today brought back fun memories of making wreaths with my grandma when I was a kid, still remember my first hot glue gun burn.

This cornucopia has been at every Thanksgiving I can remember, after being moved, removed, box to bigger box to garage sale to my trunk, it had lost most of it's innards and was pretty pathetic looking. It deserved better than that, so when the new Hobby Lobby opened up, I got it some sprigs to spruce it up a bit. ... much better. Also busted out my favorite "Leaves" candle, smells perfectly of fall. And one of Gram's electric candles to finish it off. I still miss her so much. Thanksgiving this year is going to be hard...


And it wouldn't feel like fall with out a good piece of pie! Kicking off pie season with some pumpkin pies! There is something really therapeutic about making pie crust. Also made a batch of spiced cider to finish off the first weekend of fall! Off to enjoy the last glass!

Oh Paris

So, more pictures as promised! I just finished up a long work stretch and finally had a chance to sit down and start sorting through the 1000+ pictures from our trip. Here are a few of my favorites. 

Outside our Bed & Breakfast

Ornate scroll work on the door at the Notre Dam

Succulents at a Flower Shop

There were locks all over some of the bridges

Latin Quarter

Inside the Louvre

Ancient Stone Tablets

Stone Tablet with Hieroglyphics

The Mona Lisa - it's not a small as people would have you think

Streets of Paris

Blue Doors. Love all the wrought iron balconies.

Cheers to Paris at the top of the Eiffle Tower

View of the City

From the top!

Sun setting over Paris

And from the bottom.

What a wonderful city. I would so go back...