Traveling North

This weekend Michael and I traveled up to northern California for a wedding. Two very good friends of ours were getting married in the Redwood National Forest. It was a gorgeous and really heartwarming wedding. I was definitely in tears at one point!

In the days leading up to the ceremony, we did a bit of exploring around the forest and the surrounding area. I don't have many pictures of our time in the forest since I really wanted to enjoy the scenery, and just take it all in.

When I have my camera I tend to constantly be scanning my surroundings trying to see what my next shot will be. Not to mention, my current camera bag isn't the most comfortable--it tends to pull my hair--so it gets a bit annoying to carry around. I really want to save up for something like this. I would prefer something that looks more like a purse, and not a backpack. Gotta save up for that one, though!

It was such a beautiful trip with just amazing views. The last few photos are from our day trip to Shelter Cove. This is a magnificent area that remains fairly undisturbed. If you're familiar with California beaches, you know that it is pretty difficult to find a beach that is empty, not full of shops, restaurants, or other businesses.

Shelter Cove is actually known as the Lost Coast. Instead of running along the edge of the coast, the Pacific Coast Highway came inland at this point since the terrain along this beach was so difficult to build on.

It was really peaceful and breathtaking. We had a blast on our trip, but it's definitely nice to be home.

Weekend Adventures

We had a nice weekend of running a few errands and visiting with friends and family.

Saturday morning we got up early to take Michael's car in for some scheduled maintenance.  A bit of a stressful day, that ended well. :) Sunday afternoon we made a trip to the beach with two friends. It was a lot of fun, and such a gorgeous day. To be honest, I am actually looking forward to going for walks on the beach, sitting and reading in the sand, people-watching while I tan... All things that normally wouldn't be so easy to do if we lived farther away from the beach (traffic would be nightmare if I left the beach too late).

While we were apartment hunting, I kept repeating to Michael how if we were going to live smack dab in the city I wanted to live somewhere that was "walkable". My word for describing an area that had a lot shops, grocery stores, etc., within walking/biking distance. Even though I consider myself a fairly introverted person, I do enjoy walking to nearby stores, crossing paths with strangers and such. I guess its the residue from my this dream I had when I was about 14. I had daydreams of moving to New York City and just living this fabulous life, where I had a fantastic apartment, walked to my awesome job as an artist of some sort, and took the subway everywhere. And I was the beautiful and mysterious girl on the subway...

Needless to say, that is no longer my dream. My dreams involve much more rural scenery. Maybe some pigs, horses, cows, and a huge garden with little babies running through it with dirty feet and chubby faces. And my handsome husband off chopping some wood without a shirt on(TMI?? :P)

Although, now that I'm learning my way around our area, I'm starting to see the bright side of living here (I'm done complaining, I promise!). I see a lot of people walking to and from work in our neighborhood, or just out exercising. That gets me excited to walk to the store, ride my bike (when we buy one) to get a cup of coffee, or just walk around the city. Things that were really difficult to do at our last place, since everything was pretty far away.

I also dropped off our old apartment keys to our manager. It was sort of bittersweet. Even though most of our neighbors weren't really on the friendly side, our manager was really nice and worked really hard to make living in the building comfortable. Not to mention, that will be the apartment we'll always remember as our first home together. I imagine us looking back with smiles on our faces and thinking, "Remember that teeny apartment we lived in right after we got married???" It was a small but comfy and clean home for us newlyweds.

So it is the end of a chapter in our lives, and the beginning of a whole new adventure. I'm excited to be side-by-side with the one I love.

I'll be back soon with the photos of our home tour, so come back soon!

The Potato Eaters

Meeting around the table

I want to do a quick post before the week is over. :D

Lately the weeks have just been flying by for us! Since I'm trying to steadily increase the amount of posts per week that I do, I wanted to squeeze this one in just in case I don't get the one I've been planning to put up, before Friday.

I absolutely love this picture. Before I explain what's going on here, or what was happening, I just wanted to post this photo on its own. 

When I took this picture, I had been staring at what was going on around this table, for a while. It immediately reminded me of something, but I wasn't sure what. Later, when I was reviewing the pictures on my camera, I realized it reminded me of a painting. I couldn't quite remember which painting it was or who exactly it was by, but I knew it reminded me of a painting I had seen before. I kept thinking about it for a few days afterward, and I still couldn't put my finger on it.

Then, a couple days ago it hit me! 

When I was about 7 years old, my aunt gave me a bunch of books about different artists. She gave me one on Rembrandt, Monet, Van Gogh, and a few others. You know, those big coffee table books that no one really looks at all that closely. Well, I LOOOVED these books. They were so big and heavy and fancy looking that I poured over them for days and days. 

I realized, THAT'S where I had seen the painting that this picture I took, reminded me of. It was this painting: 

via

The Potato Eaters, (1885) by Vincent Van Gogh. 

Both scenes showing people gathered around a table, with a single light. :)

I love how similar the two scenes are! The photograph should actually be named The Pizza Eaters, because that's what Michael, his dad, uncle, coworker and friend were all doing last weekend when we went camping by the beach. 

Now, THAT was an adventure in itself, which I will be sharing another day. 

Thanks for coming by!

Summer In March

My first time making pico de gallo! 

I love how it looks like the lemon is glowing!

We've been having some very funny weather here, lately. One day, it'll be in the 80s, the very next day, in the low 60s! The other day it was just too hot to turn on our oven and even boiling water made me cringe. We don't have central A/C in our apartment--just a small wall unit--and it gets so hot in the late afternoon as the sun sets. Because of the heat, I wanted to make a "cool" dinner. I decided to make taco salad for myself and Michael, with some fresh pico de gallo. It was sooo easy and the pico de gallo was delicious!!

Michael helping me finish up the creme brûlée. 

One of the Christmas presents I got from my in-laws this year, was a creme brûlée set (I have great in-laws!).  I fell in love with the stuff the first time I ever had it, at Thanksgiving dinner while in D.C. with family, a few years ago (yes, I remember the exact day I had my first taste :P). 

So, when I unwrapped this set, I was SO excited to finally be able to make my own! It's incredibly easy. The hardest part is using the torch to caramelize the sugar on top. Which is why Michael was doing it for me! Lol My thumb got tired.

I love watching pelicans at the beach. 

Michael and I made a trip to Marina Del Rey a couple days ago, just to have a look around and enjoy the sights. It's a lot of fun to walk around and just be amazed by the sheer size of some of the yachts and boats people own. I saw a bunch that were bigger than our apartment! 

I wasn't able to get very many pictures while we were there because the wind was just too much, eventually. It was probably only in the mid 70s, but the wind was fah-reeeezing! Eventually my ears were hurting a lot and we had to leave!

Iced tea on a hot day.

This was one of those unbearably hot afternoons. I'm pretty sure I'm standing by our air conditioner here, trying to cool down. I really liked the light coming through our blinds. 

This glass is one of my favorite cups to drink sweet iced tea out of. It's a vintage glass I picked up for 50 cents, I think. It just makes the sweet tea taste better! Not to mention, I used a blend of different black teas to make the tea, which is SUPER tasty!

***

The pictures I took at the beach definitely aren't my favorite. I decided to put them up anyway because I'm keeping this blog to keep our friends and family updated on our life, especially those we don't get to see very often! 

Also, I want to be able to look back on my photos and see my abilities progress and improve. Even though I almost didn't put up any of the photos I took at the marina, I thought I should at least put up for the sake of remembering that day, and sharing it with those that we care about, and who care about us!

I have to keep reminding myself that it's all right if not every single photo is my best. :D

The Past Few Weeks

A few photos of a lazy Sunday morning, a day trip to the beach, our visit to the family cabin in southern Utah, and a beautiful sunset one rainy afternoon. 

The picture of the knotted fishing line was a picture I got when Michael saw the giant knot I had made on his pole. Haha! He was letting me use his pole for a moment, when I stepped on some soft snow on the edge of the lake. The line kind of got twisted when I reached out to catch my balance. He quickly forgave me. ;)

Thanks for stopping by! I'll have more up, soon!