to make a long story short...

  

  

...a lot has happened in the past 3 months. now there's an outrageous understatement, here are the highlights. on august 28th jake's dad was offered a job in eugene, oregon and by the end of september they had moved away and we had moved to their farm. which is not in portland, but it is just outside of portland so my heart/sanity is still in tact. that was an awful lot of moving and major life changes crammed into 30 days. we spent the bulk of october and november recovering, getting settled in to our new lives and visiting eugene a lot. halloween and thanksgiving fit in there somewhere, they were both fun and good. that didn't sound very convincing, they were i promise! very fun and good. i suppose that catches you up, more or less.

how about a few extra photographic details? ok, let's!

(1) we packed up all of our things (2) and traded our sweet little antique apartment in the city for a sweet little farmhouse in the country with this enormous and beautiful backyard. (3&4) i've found that there's a pretty clear difference between what i wear in the city vs the farm (5&6) and now i bake. a lot. (7) in this kitchen that is too cute to be a kitchen.  

consider yourself sufficiently-ish up to date.

a photo

it takes five keys to live at our new place; one for the building front door, one for the mailbox, one for our front door, one for the gate to the backyard and one for the storage room. that is a lot of keys, but i don't mind.

i'm still here...

... and still unpacking. the length of time it is taking us to get settled in has officially become ridiculous. but in our defense it is summertime and there's fun to be had, plus life and busy-ness keeps getting in the way. we'll be settled in someday. here are a few things we have done at our new place this past week:

  

  

{1} i claimed a space in the cupboard for our tea cups & coffee mugs. the hooks are for my most favorite ones. {2&3} the squirrels took a bath in the new claw-foot tub, and they loved it! {4} we built some drawer units for extra storage under my desk. storage is something that our new place is lacking, we're really having to exercise our creativity to find a place for everything. {5&6} we finally graduated from the "ordering pizza every night during the move because there's no possible way to cook and there's no time to leave the house" stage of moving to the "cooking meals in our new tiny but awesome kitchen" stage. 


and here are a few things we've done not at our new place this past week:

  

{1} we ventured down the street to the belmont food carts and ate the world's best french fries (i mean it) at lardo. {2} i rested my exhausted and aching self on a very pretty blanket while the kiddos played at a nearby park. {3&4} we took the squirrels out on a boat for the very first time! they had so much fun, can't wait to do it again.

oh, we also went to movie madness the other day and stayed practically all afternoon. what an amazing place and right down the street from our apartment. not only does it have every single film, television series, music video, documentary, etc. ever made, it's a film history museum full of costumes and props from the movie (not replicas). so awesome.

it's been a pretty good week. i sure do hope the sun comes out to play this weekend!

unpacking.

there is no way around it. everything that was packed up has to be unpacked now that it's here in our new place. moving has really brought to our attention how much stuff we have. too much. as i'm unpacking i keep having these little daydreams of selling nearly everything, moving into an airstream trailer and taking this show on the road. sounds exciting, no?! though i have to admit, unpacking all of these boxes is a little exciting too. getting all settled in to this new place that we are loving the crap out of so far, it's pretty fun. a lot of work, but fun. we've hardly made a dent in the mess that is unpacking yet, but the silverware drawer is done! and this afternoon my sweet friend erin and her two kiddos came over to visit and brought us our very first housewarming gift. isn't it pretty?!! i know just where to put it.

the yard sale was a success, we were able to find new homes for everything we were offering and the best news, i kept my pretty sofa! turns out i had room for it after all. we loaded up the last few things from the old house, cleaned it up good and left the keys last night. that was a little hard. walking through it for the last time i became pretty emotional, i found myself touching every countertop, window sill and railing one last time. i stood in the empty living room and had a good cry, remembering all the fun and roommates and changes that we've had there. driving away was hard, it was my favorite house and i will miss it. good thing i'm so in love with this new place and looking forward to all the fun and goodness to come.

better get back to it, these boxes aren't gonna unpack themselves.

we're having a yard sale tomorrow!

      

here's a look at some of what will be available. {i am feeling a little sad that my sofa doesn't fit in my new living room. it's such a pretty and super comfy sofa}. come by and say hello if you live close. i can chat and yard sale at the same time, to be honest i'm not well if i'm not multi-tasking! better get back to the packing and cleaning and organizing and pricing and and and... 

packing & distractions.

      

{1} i started the packing (progress!) but then i realized the tape i had was rubbish (not progress!) so i made a trip to the nearby hardware store (working toward progress) {2} where i made a new friend (distracted) {3} good tape vs bad tape, visual proof (distracted) back to packing and cleaning up as i go (progress!) wanna know something about packing and cleaning? it's kind of boring or at least monotonous... which is really just a fancy way of saying boring. {4} but labeling my cabinets with talking sticky notes makes it just a little more fun! (distracted again) {5} back to packing; this is one of my favorite things, a bunny wall-mount bottle opener. (progress) the kitchen packing is coming along quite nicely. hope i don't pack up anything we need in the next 3 days! {6} and lastly, what's packing without a mimosa or two?! this also makes it just a little more fun :)

i'm a little all over the place... i'm pretty sure this is how i always am. let's hope it makes me more, um... interesting!

the 4 little photos at the bottom there are sneak peeks of the new place. {1} the kitchen counter tops {2} this is what all the doorknobs look like!! {3} so much pretty tile in the upstairs bathroom {4} one of two built-in cabinets in the dining room. there is a lot of pretty in this place and i cannot wait to get settled in! just a few more days... and in the mean time, more packing & distractions.

pretty things from the past few days.

{1} flower growing out at the farm. {2} sweet d in her new thrifted cardigan. {3} freshly polished nails on the prettiest day so far this year. {4) new green dress from katie's reloved clothing shop, i've already worn it twice, i love it. {5} tiny vintage infant bathing suit. i couldn't resist... gotta find a baby to wear it!


the weather has been extraordinary the past few days and things are looking up. we found a place to move yesterday, found out it's ours today and it's a pretty great place. we are super excited. tomorrow i'm going to try and get some photos and this sunday we move, whew that was a close one! guess i better get packing.

a dilemma.

  

  

  

i have owls. so many owls, everywhere. i have been collecting them for years and i love them. this is not my dilemma. the trouble i'm having is deciding whether or not to pack them today. i'm having a little trouble getting going on the packing because of the general stress of moving and the fact that i'm extremely easily distractable/distracted... this afternoon i realized that there are little owls everywhere and they would be so simple to pack away and upon completion i would feel like i'd really accomplished something because there would be so many empty spaces in the house... but then i realized how much i would miss them for the next few weeks, between now and getting moved and un-packed. maybe i should pack something i don't love or look at as much, like extra linens or the junk drawer.