i love the NW

some trip highlights:
(some things are accompanied by pictures, some are not..oops)

-watched my little brother shoot big guns at targets.
i was just looking through the "eye thing".. i'm too big of a weanie to actually shoot it.


-had a delicious potluck with friends and family on the fourth. with a bon fire and tons of cool fireworks that night.


-went through some old photo albums with my grandma.
the stories that went along with some of the pictures were the best part.
first picture is of my grandma, what a babe. i love her dearly!
and the second is of her parents, i would've loved to have known them
at the time the picture was taken.



-had dinner at my aunt and uncles. but just us girls made it in the picture.

-watched a spider spin a web. (its a miracle i got this close)

-photographed a few friends' adorable babies




-made a french macaron video tutorial (which i'll be showing in the near future)


-played soccer in the sand with my brother-in-law. (more pictures coming soon, action shots are always funny)


-made silly faces at the beach


unphotographed:
-went to trader joes three times. i miss that place too much.
-went on a (late fathers day) starbucks date. just dad and i.
-saw eclipse with my sisters (guilty pleasure)
-satisfied my froyo craving at yocream
-enjoyed every second of the amazing weather.

its always a blast when i get to visit. :)

colorful and pretty

photos from my parents front porch.



the beautiful sky on the fourth.


and the farmers market in downtown vancouver.

strawberry freezer jam (honey-sweetened)

*This was supposed to be posted the day I left. Somehow that didn't happen. Oops!
I'll be back soon with a little blog about my trip*

I'm off to Washington for the next ten days. I'm looking forward to the non-humid, and somewhat cool weather they have been having there. Hopefully i'll find the time to pop in here and show you what i've been up to. But for now here is an awesome sugar free freezer jam recipe.

It sets up like regular jam, tastes amazing and is much healthier than the sugar alternative. And it takes a whopping 5 minutes to make (give or take?)

Strawberry freezer jam (honey-sweetened)

4 cups strawberries
1 T lemon juice
1/2 cup honey
(this can vary, depending on how sweet your berries are. Start at 1/3 and go up to 1 cup if needed)
1 package of No sugar needed pectin
3/4 cup water


Clean and stem berries. Blend with honey in food processor/blender until pureed.

Pour pureed berries into a bowl and add lemon juice and water. Sprinkle on the pectin and stir until well incorporated.

Ladle into clean jars/containers, leaving plenty of room for expansion. Let sit in the refrigerator for a few hours to set up and then transfer to the freezer to store

boredom = productivity

We're having a slow week here at the Porter household. But I'm trying to make the best of it by being extra productive.

I finished sewing up the new large dress/nightgown/shirt thing, started and (almost) finished another dress that just might be my new favorite dress, and finished sewing up a romper that I successfully knocked off from one I saw at target. All of which I'll be showing here soon, no doubt.


I've made two loaves of the master recipe in Healthy bread in five minutes a day. Those books are amazing.


Then I was craving something sweet, and since i'm still avoiding sugar I came up with this sugar free chocolate chip cookie dough (surprise surprise) . I took an eggless cookie dough, added agave in place of sugar and lowered the fat a bit. These little frozen dough balls are now my favorite sugar-free dessert. I don't remember the measurements I used but I'll be making them again very soon and I'll post the recipe as soon as I do so you may enjoy them too. (It looks like there is dirt on them, but really I was just out of vanilla extract so I scraped a teeny tiny bit of vanilla bean in there.)



Another breakfast smoothie.. This time with frozen bananas and strawberries, chunks of mango, blueberries and yogurt. Mango = such a good smoothie.


Other than that we've been relaxing like this. Watching the world cup, of all things. Just a few weeks ago I had never seen a soccer game. Now i'm sort of hooked, they are so intense!

Back in the day bakery

..is delicious.







And its the cutest thing ever.

Breakfast and winner!

Before I get to the winner I wanted to show you my favorite breakfast smoothie.

Strawberries, frozen banana, frozen blueberries, frozen peaches and a few dollops of plain yogurt.

Yum! It's filling but not heavy and it helps me start the day with something cool. Which is exactly what I need in these awful summer months. (I have mixed feelings about summertime. I love the long days, but I am not cut out for the heat/humidity here. Let's just say I am SOO ready for my trip to the northwest)



And the winner of the chocomize gift card is Sheena!! Her blog just so happens to be one of my favorites. She's a photographer and a mama, and also just ran in a ragnar relay race so I think she deserves a few good chocolate bars. (I swear she was chosen randomly via random.org. My husband even counted and recounted the comments to make sure! ha)
Sheena, let us know what you get.

As for the rest of us, chocomize is still offering 10% off. Just enter coupon code 'vanilla&lace' when you check out. Thank you all for entering!! I loved reading everyone's crazy customized chocolate ideas.


P.s. I got this very large shirt/dress?/nightgown? for $1 at the thrift store the other day. This is what it looks like now, but i'm hoping to bring it down to my size and shorten it sometime next week. I'll post the "after" as soon as I do.

Chocomize

I love chocolate. Dark is my favorite, but milk is definitely close second. Plain chocolate, like this, is great.

But a custom chocolate bar? This was even better!!



Chocomize lets you design, create, customize and go crazy on a chocolate bar. You pick your chocolate, select your toppings, then you get it in your mailbox after a couple days. It's amazing!

The chocolate is high quality. Josh kept going on and on about how amazing the chocolate itself was. As for the toppings, the possibilities are endless.

It'd be great for birthdays/holidays/baby showers/wedding party gifts/ect. I REALLY wish I would have known about Chocomize when we were getting married. How fun would it be to pick out a personalized chocolate bar for each person in the wedding party.

This is what I got on mine. (Look at the fun names they gave)



They were SOOOO good!

Want to customize your own??

Chocomize is giving a $25 gift card to one of my readers!

To enter:
Take a peek at chocomize then leave a comment telling me what you'd want on your personalized chocolate bar. (And also an email address so i can contact you if you win)

You'll get another entry (one for each) if you tweet, facebook, blog, ect a link to the giveaway.

A winner will be chosen via random.org on Tuesday (June 22) at 11pm EST

And since there can only be one gift card winner, they set up a discount code for everyone else to use. To get 10% off your order, just enter the coupon code vanilla&lace when you check out.

Thank you chocomize for spreading the chocolate love!

drafting

This is me working on a new dress pattern. I'm drafting it from one on burdastyle.. And I hope I don't run into any snags.. Easier said than done I suppose. (I also successfully made my own romper pattern, Now i just have to take it apart and trace the pattern onto paper. Then show you. Yay!)




I've also been working my way through season 2 of Mad men. I'm obsessed. The clothes! The hair! And of course, the drama. It is definitely the best looking show on TV. I wish i was a 20-something in the 60's.

I'll be back soon with a delicious giveaway.