Happy Anniversary

Yesterday my family celebrated my Grandma Polly's 80th birthday. On the way home (and on the eve of our first anniversary) I couldn't help think that when I'm 80 I hope I can remember my first year of marriage with as much clarity as I can right now.

I can't believe it's been a year. I really can't believe all the things we've done in our first year. I can't wait to see all that we'll do in our second year!
Until then, I want to share the top 12 reasons I love my husband. (12 reasons for 12 months)!

1. He makes me coffee every morning
2. He makes me laugh every day
3. He kills spiders
4. He designs and builds cool things
5. He laughs at my jokes
6. He makes me look at the world differently
7. He is endlessly romantic
8. He has endless patience
9. He fixes things
10. He gives really big hugs
11. He makes me feel pretty
12. From the moment I met him, I knew my life would never be the same.

Pickle Juice

I love pickles. I love pickles so much that I once got a 10 gallon bucket of pickles from my parents as a birthday gift. It took me a summer, but I ate them all myself.

In light of my love for pickles, it's almost shocking that I've never done my own pickling. I think it's probably because for years both my grandmother and great-grandmother kept me very well supplied with their homemade pickles. For probably the first 20 years of my life a jar of pickles was a guaranteed Christmas present.

A few weeks ago I finally made my first batch of pickles. I'm so excited to open them. I think I only have to wait one more week - so I'll post an update of how they came out. I've already given one jar away....I think I'll save at least one jar as a Christmas present for Grandma!

Yard Art

After hauling away over 2 tons of prickly juniper brush that used to engulf our yard and ripping out the roots by hand, we feel like the worst is almost over. We have a long way to go to make the yard a pretty or even cool place to hang out - but when it's done it will be awesome! We've gotten so much advice from friends and family about what to do next - but our best advice came from our natural neighbors at Seattle Tilth. They gave us great advice about how to regenerate our soil and get the PH all balanced out. (Totally sound like I know what I'm talking about right?) Honestly though, Tilth is amazing and if you're in Seattle and need help growing anything they can help you.

These are the last of the Juniper roots. We felt like we needed some sort of trophy of our labor, so we stacked them all on the front lawn (er dirt patch) and tied a ribbon around our yard art. Our neighbors LOVE us!

After removing thousands of pounds of plant life from the front yard, I felt compelled to plant SOMETHING. So when my friend Stacie said she had a tree that needed to be planted, I was super excited. It took us a while to find a spot in the yard that we thought would make a good home, but we finally settled on a place that felt like good Feng Shui (do those rules apply in the yard?)

Digging in the yard is hard work! But we were able to dig a hole big enough for Stacie to fit in!

Welcome to your new home Juneberry!

Everything but the Kitchen Sink

You know what they say...The kitchen has come a long way since our first week of ownership ... but with no dishwasher we definitely needed a little something extra to help us wash dishes by hand (which is oddly satisfying on most nights). Hubby installed it all by himself! And it doesn't leak or anything!

I think it's pretty!