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.

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.

happy national donut day!

          

we made donuts for breakfast. mini cinnamon donuts with coconut sprinkled on the tops and they are gooooood. everyone should have at least one donut today, it would be a disservice to the day if you didn't.

it's one of those impossibly beautiful, magical sunny portland days today and we have no intention (once again) of accomplishing any of the things we're supposed to accomplish because we wanna play outside all day! if this house doesn't pack itself we're in big trouble.

master procrastinator.

it's a mess around here. big time. we've got packing and new house finding and grocery shopping and laundry to do... but instead we're playing dress up and the squirrels are making me up worthy of a rupaul's drag race runway challenge. we'll get to that other stuff... later.

speaking of messes, i'd bet these kiddos of mine could out mess just about anyone, they're like tiny blonde haired tornados every day, all the time. good thing they're cute and funny.

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.

the de-sarah-fication process has commenced.

the fella and i were sans kiddos last night and after eating our most favorite dinner

at our most favorite place, we decided it might be a good idea to start getting

organized/prepared for our upcoming move (even though we don't know when it is).

we started by deconstructing the living room wall: 

first we took everything down, then removed tons of nails and screws,

then patched tons of holes and finally re-painted the wall.

before:

after:

it looks sad to me now.

when i sent a few photos to my mom she said, "you de-sarah-fied it!"

here are a few close-ups of what used to hang on the wall.

it was all pretty wonderful.

{click on images for a closer look}

it's outta control!!

with a little grit and spit and stick-to-it-ive-ness, I'll get a hold on the catastrophe that is my bedroom/office, hopefully in less than 6 to 9 months.

I'll send a little treasure to the first person who can tell me what movie inspired what's written above!