currently...

Reading: Her: A memoir by Christa Parravani. Memoirs are by far my favorite and this one has been fantastic. Sad but fantastic! Love summertime reading.

Excited about: The shipping system we got for our online stores. Between the both of us we ship out packages every other day and going to the post office was getting really annoying. Now we have a postal scale and label writer so things can be packaged and shipped within the day, without ever going to the post office again. Hallelujah!

Feeling: hot. It's been pretty toasty here the past week... like 87* in our bedroom, 96* on our top floor/working space. Which is why we had a living room sleepover and pushed the couches together to make a bed. We've since moved our mattress to the basement where it stays a cool 70*... we'll be there the rest of summer.

Eating: these cookie dough bites. I had a pretty intense craving for everything bad for me earlier today and almost talked josh into bringing something home but decided on these instead. Craving satisfied!

Working on: finishing up the pretzel video post. Videos taking me foreveeeeer but they are so fun to make. Also working on adding a sale section to my store, along with a few new items. If only my work space wasn't 96*...


Hope you have a fun holiday! Josh has the day off and we're headed for some water!

16 weeks

A few thoughts on 16 weeks (and pregnancy thus far):

--I'm excited to finally look pregnant... I may take this back when I get as big as a whale but for now i'm loving my growing belly. When it's bare it looks like there is a cantaloupe perfect placed in the center of my abdomen..
--I'm not loving trying to sleep on my sides. I've been a stomach sleeper all my life and everything else is so uncomfortable to me.
--I haven't experienced cravings yet, but I am 100x more thirsty.
--We have a boy name and maybe a girl name...
--Emotional has taken on a whole new meaning the past few weeks... hormones are a funny thing.
--Now that the baby can hear Josh has been talking to my belly everyday (don't tell him I told you, he might be embarrassed) ;)

Feeling pregnant is so surreal. I'm so so thankful for this tiny babe inside of me, and I'm pretty sure I tell Jesus that about 30,000 times a day.

(healthier) chocolate chip cookie dough bites

You might be thinking "not another healthy "raw" cookie dough ball thing" and you're right, there's a million out there but I've been trying my hand at them for years and while most taste decent they just don't cut it for actually satisfying a real cookie dough craving. But these were a game changer! They were super simple to make, they use ingredients I always have and they actually taste like cookie dough, I promise! (You can even ask my husband, he ate plenty of them). I kept mine in the freezer which I would highly recommend, it doesn't get much better than frozen cookie dough. And yes, I guess some might not count these as healthy since they have some chocolate chips in it and use sweeteners (god forbid!) but they are loads healthier than the butter/sugar/brown sugar ones so that's good right? Plus the base is cashews which has protein which is enough to make it a health food in my book ;)


2/3 c raw cashews
1/3 c oats
1 Tbsp shredded coconut
2 Tbsp Agave
1 Tbsp Maple Syrup/Honey 
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1/4 c Chocolate Chips (Mini would look nicer but it all tastes the same...)

Blend the cashews and oats in a Vita-Mix, food processor, or high speed blender until they're a fine powder. Don't overblend or you'll wind up with cashew butter very quickly.

Add the agave, maple, vanilla and blend until incorporated. Be careful to just blend in short bursts and only until combined; don't over-process. You know you have “The Right Consistency” of Dough when the dough starts to ball up like a tennis ball and bangs around from side to side in the canister. 

Stir in the chocolate chips by hand.

Form into balls and store in freezer. If dough is sticky, chilling it in the refrigerator or flash-chilling it in the freezer helps make it easier to form into balls.
(original recipe source)

Please tell me you'll try these! And let me know if you do! 

around the house

The new Sigur ros, kitties all over the freshly clean sheets, homemade pretzels (there's a fun video coming!), and the best healthy chocolate chip cookie dough bites i've tasted (recipe will be posted tomorrow, you'll want to come back... believe me!)

But in reality most of this week was spent catching up on sewing work and last night I had a tension headache to prove it. But now its our weekend and the rest of the emails and piles of fabric will have to wait until Sunday.

Also, happy first day of summer! I'm hoping to do some reading and lounging. I also planned out a little  maternity series to do in my own way, so we'll be shooting the first of those photos today. It probably won't be a weekly thing but I wanted to document at least some of it... we'll see!

Hope you enjoy some lemonade or something summery today.

weekending

We spent most of this weekend relaxing but managed to squeeze in some fun outings too. It was the last weekend of city fair downtown, so we headed there for an evening. We watched people go on all the crazy rides, ate an elephant ear and spent a great deal of time looking at the tigers and lions and other cats. There was a baby tiger playing with people (!!!) and I have about ten thousand videos to prove it.

Saturday we ate lunch at the park, where we saw a naked cyclist twice (eww) and I tried to get my legs at least a darker shade of translucent. And later in the evening I made one of our favorite dinners and we ate it outside. Felt like summer.

Nothing like a good weekend to recharge you for a busy week ahead right?


p.s. Thanks for all the sweet comments about our baby news!! I'm so excited to share a new part of life on this part of the internet.

i ♥ portland: Coco donuts

Coco donuts is becoming a favorite quick date spot for us. We stopped by on memorial day for a little coffee date while it was pouring down rain outside. It's the cutest little coffee and donut shop and while I'm not the biggest fan of donuts (i'd rather have a cookie or muffin) they have a lavender glazed one that is great, and their lavender latte was amazing! (I'm a big fan of lavender if you can't tell). Plus it's  quiet and cute and the workers are always so sweet!

You gotta try it if you're ever in the area!

there's a baby coming!

So incredibly excited to announce there's a baby growing in there...






A baby was always in our "five year plan" (although it would've been in my 1 year plan had it just been my decision) so as 2013 approached we started to have lots of conversations. Is there anything we want to do first? Do we make enough money? Do we have good health insurance? And more specific things like what kind of schooling our kids will do and how they will be disciplined or will they be vegetarian..... so much to think about! There was also many many talks with a ton of our good friends about what to expect, ect and finally at the beginning of the year we we're like Lets do this!! The first couple months were a tad hard for me, as periods came and went, I did LOTS of praying and even more trusting. Then I realized that maybe the iphone app we were using to know when i ovulate was off, so I got some ovulation tests and went to town. Turns out my body likes to be really different and I ovulated like 10 days before the app predicted... so we had completely missed it! Just a heads up for people who use that app as a means of birth control or conceiving: not a good idea! All that to say, I know a couple months isn't a long time to wait (some people wait years and years) but I was so happy to see those double pink lines... so happy i took 12 pregnancy tests!

The first trimester was a little rough, nauseous 24/7.. no appetite.. and sleeping all day, but it TOTALLY could've been worse so I'm counting my blessings. P.S. why does NO ONE ever talk about first trimester fatigue?? I really could've used some warnings on that one. I've never slept so much and still been so fatigue in my life. Which is why my store was closed for so long, by the way.
Josh came home from work many nights and I was already in bed. Thank goodness he's so gracious and fed himself dinner the past couple months. Luckily I'm slowly getting my appetite back! Woo hoo!

We've seen the little babe on an ultrasound and heard its heart beat... talk about exciting and surreal. There's a human in there! So incredibly thankful and excited for this new journey!


p.s. i did my best to push a little bump out for these photos, but it felt weird because there's really not much to speak of yet... well, depending on what I eat ;)

Currently

Loving: This grey and rainy weather we've been having again. I don't mind the sunshine or the warm air but the rain is so familiar and homey. Although I'll be quite ready for some warmer weather come June, where I feel the need to be outdoors all day through the end of September. For now I'm happy with my hot tea and lazier days.

Watching: (i guess this is currently buttttt..) The Great Gatsby! I'm a huge fan of Baz Luhrmann (Moulin rouge is my all time favorite movie) and I thought this movie was absolutely perfect in every way. I'm kind of bummed it's getting bad reviews... but they've got at least one fan in me. Did you see it yet? The whole movie was beautiful and I kind of want to see 10 more times.

Eating: my staple foods are pretty bland and boring these days, which is perfectly fine with me. Toast with avocado is my favorite meal ever. Plus now that Trader joe's sells a variety pack of french macarons i'm set for life. They are unbelievably good!

Thankful for: Lemon in my water. A talented husband who works really hard. My family and friends. And answered prayers.


Thinking about: My 23 goals list and how I need to mark a few off! The year is nearly half way over, I've got some work to do! I'll share the whole list soon and see how far I have to go!