My Home

As promised, here is finally some pictures of my home (apartment. Haha) in Beaverton, OR.

Here is our entryway.

My bedroom… notice a color theme?!? Clearly I have been drawn to the blue/greens!! Love.

My bathroom…

All in which was inspired by this little Goodwill Piece which was one dollar. (the color is a bit off in photos but it is an orangish/red/deep coral).

Laundry room: loveeeee having this space and not having to walk down to the basement to do laundry, thank you Olivet. Not to mention all the shelving for storage: life saver. Favorite new product that is on the shelf: RugDoctor He works miracles before my eyes and I could swear by this stuff!

Living room. FYI: all curtains in the BrittKris Home were purchased at Worldmarket. Yet again another LOVE.

Our patio: has a good size storage space (can you tell I just LOVEEE all our storage?!?!), a beautiful view on the park/ courtyard, and Bentley… my baby plant!

Dining Room: moment of silence in mourning of the table we lost with our dear roommate Sandra Lee… Oregon misses you and is quite jealous that California got you and the table. Okay now, our redone room with all new items (or at least new to us). I love how the quote, frames, and plates ended up all coming together so nicely.

Kitchen: pretty much all the “mustard” items were mine and green were Kristy’s. I love the way it all ended up blending together.

Our built-in shelf unit that needs some TLC. An ongoing project we’d rather not think about.

This is the “hallway” from dining room into Kris’ room straight ahead and the guest room on the left.

Guest/ Craft/ Office room: this is our saving grace. We don’t know what we would do without the 3^rd room. So pack a bag and come stay with us for the weekend! The closet in this room is the biggest in the apt and is our “dress” closet. Also the closet has become newest home for my nursing books… BLAH!

Missing pictures: our panty, hall closet, Kristy’s beautifully put together room, Bosco: my other plant out our front door!

I’m enjoying living in a new area (not so new anymore) and definitely blessed that the Lord provided such a great home for us here!

Pacific Northwest Weekend

Come Friday night after just having a low key evening I decide it would be fun to do something different for Saturday but due to being on the job hunt and on a budget I need to be creative. So I set out to search the great World Wide Web: the findings were quite funny and entertaining. I found a site www.frugallivingnw.com which turned out to be a very easy to navigate, useful site. From there the options multiplied and I just have to share what I stumbled upon for events happening just this weekend.

A: Portland Highland Games

B: Portland International Beerfest

C: West Linn Old Time Fair

D: Sherwood Robin Hood Festival…. Knighting ceremony and sword fighting! Haha

E: Bastille Day Block Party… the most interesting event of them all! Which included a wide variety of Live Music by local artist, a Mini-Medoc Marathon Fun Run, bicycle scavenger hunt, grape stomp, and a dance party. BY FAR THE FUNNIEST EVENT!!!

Through the researching I was intrigues by the “Medoc Marathon” and found out it is an actual marathon that started in 1985. The 26 2 mile race takes place in wine region of Bordeaux and stops at over 50 chateau in which there are wine tastings! Talk about getting dehydrated. Oh and each year it is a different theme to dress to. This year it is animals. And apparently there is quite the turn out and the event is very successful! Definitely sounds like an event of the year!

Anyways after all the searching we decided to not even do anything off the ever-growing unique list. We drove to Hood River, OR about 1 hour away depending on traffic that is. It was such a fun little town that we walked around for a few hours… I’m learning to master the art of window shopping. We also went down along the river and walked the waterfront. It was perfect weather and the river was completely packed with people windsurfing and Kiteboarding. Kiteboarding is something I would so love to try sometime so I picked up a brochure and read about the lessons. Sounds do-able and I just might have to splurge one weekend and sign-up and go try it out!

Oh and on our way there we ran into a baby black bear, well didn’t literally run into it but you know we saw one and it was too cute! Tried to get a picture but it hid and we didn’t hang around to long cause where baby bear is mama bear isn’t too far away!!!

Here are a few pictures of the river and the windsurfers and kiteboarders.

Here is a pretty picture of the drive to Hood River.

All Business, No Play

I truly enjoyed my day today. All business over here… no play! And by business I mean stumbling upon this years greatest sale, getting some Vitamin D treatment (w/ sunscreen of course), and tackling two projects. Business, right?!?

First here Is a picture of the MOON last nite! It was absolutely gorgeous and bright. This picture does it NO justice. I would love a nice camera someday to capture those moments! Ah, to dream.

Second, the complete overview on this sale. I went out in need of some felt for a project idea. I decided to go to Hillsboro’s Michaels and not Beaverton’s. SO as I was going I pass a Craft Warehouse and decide to check it out. Turns out the store is closing so EVERYTHING was on sale. GLORIOUS! 70 to 80 percent off that is. So of course there happens to be Princess Parking (a spot right in the front) and I hop out! It was hectic and people were everywhere so I took a deep breath and grabbed a basket. They had a deal going on where you could fill a bag for 10 dollars. I was sold right there due to already finding some items that tugged at my shoppers heart.

All of this… 46 items in all was originally 151...88 and I got it for only TEN! Amazing, right? I know. I got glass beads, 10 ribbons, 8 different harvest things, 3 sets of little cards, Lots of PINECONES for winter season, chalk board, and a few frames!

Okay now for my little felt project! I saw a tutorial of a felt rose and thought it’d be fun to do!

1) Buy some felt from a craft store (29cents each at micheals), get scrissors, needle and thread, and headband, clip, or pin.

2) Cut felt in long strips by making the “petals” each petal can be a different height and width.

3) Roll felt up sewing along the way to secure the pieces firmly. This is what it will look like at the end.

4) Then cut out some leaves if you want. Here are examples of some of the colors I chose.

5) Here is one of the end products: a headband with 2 different purple flowers! Now I’m excited for my new, cheap, and easy.to.make hair pieces!

And now I am off to finish painting the rest of my Goodwill end table for the guest room! Enjoy this beautiful Friday night!

Craftiness

Really, it’s already mid-July?!? Where is summer going? At least I’m able to tackle some projects and such. This past week I went to town with quilting and made a dear friend a quilt (will post more on it later). Then I started another sewing project: a purse/ shoulder bag. Hopefully it turns out decent enough to be used. Haha. We have a Goodwill Outlet Store near us, which let me tell you is an experience. You really have to have an eye out for the right things… Apparently they are known for the furniture. I went in looking for an end table for the lamp next to our guest bed and a chair for my desk. I left with the bargain of all bargains in my opinion: a 2-drawer mini-dresser thingy for only three dollars, a broken end table for one dollar in which I am still fixing up, and a huge mirror that we don’t have room for but it was only five dollars so I had to purchase it. Kristy though says that the top of the mirror looks like the armoire from Beauty and the Beast!!! I disagree completely. Pictures: the first two are of my "Beauty and the Beast" find, then my THREE dollar find before and after, then my receipt and I w/ a bit of excitement displayed on this girls face!!!

Also this week was our first “Sew cool” class (we missed lasts weeks) at church. It was like I had never touched a sewing machine in my life along with having ridiculous laughing spells. All in all it went well and we met some other church ladies and a cute way to make little dresses! Again pictures of the orphan dresses will come later once I complete it! Haha. Hopefully whoever gets my lovely dress will be happy to get it because it may be deformed a bit.

I have been organizing all my craft items continuously and rearranging this and that. I promise to be posting apartment pictures soon! I know I’ve been saying it for a while but this time it will be happening because all is pretty complete in the “BrittKris” Home (we often refer to our apartment as that). Last week I was indulging in some delicious salads made with my fresh lettuce. Yum! I’m hoping to get some more this Saturday!

Pictures: farmers market cherries (sooo good!), then my lettuce... haha, and one of my salads from the week!