New Pinterest Board

Some of you may have noticed my obsessive pinning of food photos last night.  Here's my explanation:

1.  I'm a visual person.  I can't tell you how completely frustrated I get when The Dad and I are working on something and he's trying to explain how something is going to work or go together.  Every time I'm like, can't you just lay it out or draw it!?  I need to SEE it.

2.  I have a girlfriend who calls me at least once a week because she can't find a recipe on my blog.  Hi Casey!  Just FYI, there's a little search box on the right hand side.  If you're lookin' for the grilled peach salad you remember seeing, but can't remember the name of it, type in peaches and it will bring up every recipe I've ever posted with peaches in it.

3.  I can't remember what I made for dinner last week, let alone last month.  I certainly can't remember all of the recipes I've done a post for.

4.  If I'm looking through recipes, odds are if there isn't a photo to go with it, I'm skippin' right over it.  It could be the best thing ever invented, but it there isn't a picture to go with it, I won't even notice it.  Who buys those cookbooks with no photos!?!?

This brings me to my crazy pinning.  I've made a new board on Pinterest with all my recipes I've ever posted.  They're not all on there yet, but I'm working on it. 

So for those of you like Casey, who remember seeing something you wanted to try, but can't find it, it will be on the board.

For those of you who are visuals like me, and need a photo for inspiration rather than just a list of recipe names,  all the pictures are in one spot. 

I originally wanted to separate them out into categories, but I didn't think I should be cluttering up my homepage with things that were all mine.  If you find yourself using the new board and it's too many things all mixed together, ie. a cupcake next to an omelet, let me know, and if I get a bunch of feedback about it, I'll divide them up.

I hope this helps when it comes to finding something you're looking for that I've made and posted about.  As I was pinning them last night, even I was like, WOW, that was REALLY good.  I need to make that again!  :o)

Feel free to leave comments under the individual thumbnail if you have questions or have made it.  Just be nice.  :o)  As with all the pins, (in case you're not a Pinterest addict like me), click on the thumbnail and it will take you to the original post with the recipe.

To my Pinterest followers, thanks for bearing with me as I clutter up your homepage with food pics while I work on getting them all on there.

The new board is called My Kitchen Creations.  That will take you directly to it.  If you're ever needing to get to my boards, there's a link to my Pinterest page on my side bar.

I'd love to hear any feedback you've got!  Love it?  Hate it?  You don't cook, so you could care less?

Sidenote:  I also have a board called We Made That.  It also needs to be updated (one thing at a time), but as the title suggests, it has our crafty projects as well as things we've done in the house.

Pinterest

For those of you who follow me on Pinterest and are wondering what in the WORLD I'm doing, I shall explain in a post tomorrow.  Don't hate me for cluttering up your home page with food pics. 

Now, my 'Pin It' finger is about ready to fall off.  So this is me crawling in to bed......

The Oregon Gardens

For our anniversary, my parents offered to take the kids overnight.  I KNOW!  The Girl has never been away from us overnight and the last time The Kid stayed there was when I was in the hospital having The Girl. 

So needless to say, we were pretty excited to have an entire day, plus the evening all to ourselves.  Although, I will say, it was strange.  I had to make a conscious effort not to yell out AIRPLANE every time one flew overhead.  And anytime we'd see something they'd like, we pointed it out to each other.  Yep, still The Mom and The Dad even without the kids around.

Soooooo, since we had all day Saturday to ourselves, I decided I wanted to finally go to the Oregon Gardens in Silverton.  We dropped the kids off in the morning and headed out.  It was only about an hour drive and the weather was perfect.  I took along my borrowed camera and took waaaaay too many pictures.

As you will see, the conifer garden was my favorite.  I could have sat there for hours. I dream of someday owning a big enough piece of property to fill in with trees.

Here's our day at the garden in photos:

The amazing conifer garden:

Look at the size of this piece of basalt!

One of many water features.

I love this boxwood edging.

An enormous arbor tunnel.
It had hops and grapes growing on it.
They called it the wall of beer and wine.

Another water feature.

There was even a children's garden.

This was the hobbit hole.

The Dad had to check out how it was built for future reference.  :o)

Mr. & Mrs. Pots and their offspring.

I thought the window over the sink was so cute.

The miniature train garden was amazing. 
Look at how cute those tiny trees are!!!

There were several fun topiaries in the children's garden as well.

This is my next project for the backyard.  HA.
It was soooo pretty.

The beams on this sucker were HUGE.

We had a lot of fun walking around with no schedule.
After the gardens, we stopped at a yard sale on the way out of town and hit the jackpot in the glass department.
I'll take some pictures of my new treasures when I get my hands on a camera.
(word on the street is, there's one in the mail)

We headed home for a quick pit stop and then went out to eat dinner.

Then it was home for a movie on the couch. 
And we even started it while it was still daylight out!
If you have small kids, you know that's a big deal.
We got to go to bed without doing the kid bedtime routine, which was heaven.
The next morning, it was take-out biscuits & gravy and hashbrowns.
YUM!
Then we pretty much sat around until 1:00, waiting for the phone call to go pick up the kids.
Not a bad way to spend an anniversary weekend.

A Camping We Will Go: A Kid Lunch

Last Friday I mentioned that I was able to borrow the neighbor's camera to take pictures of our Fun Food Friday lunch, but that I couldn't get them onto the computer.  Well, he put them on a disc for me and ran them over last night.  Unfortunately, since it was a new-to-me camera, only one of the 14 pictures I took turned out.  :o(  Boooo.  But I'll share the best ones so you can at least get the gist of the lunch.

I got the idea for this one out of a magazine.  It was just a snack, so I adapted it a bit to make it work for lunch.

The circle is a peanut butter and jelly sammie.  The rocks are almonds.  Cheddar, carrots, and fruit leather for the fire.  Pretzel sticks for the logs.  Mini marshmallows and chocolate chips around the rim.

Here's lunch on the plate:

August 28th

Seven years ago today, I was marrying The Dad, aka, Chachi, Chach, Lon, and his real name, Lonnie.

We had our ceremony at a spot in the gorge called Oneonta.
It has significance to me because it's where my dad's ashes are.
Luckily, The Dad loved the spot too.

The falls are a hike in, so we couldn't see them, but in the summer, the water running from them to the Columbia river is small enough that you can walk on either side of it. 

We got married right next to the water.

We only had a handful of people, immediate family, at the ceremony and The Dad's brother married us. 

The kiss.

It's legit.

Ya think he's wondering if I'd survive the fall?

He may be considering throwing me over already.

Yep, that's what I thought.

We drove home on the scenic highway, stopping for photographs along the way.
The Dad's aunt did our photography as a wedding gift.

We had the reception at our house, with about 100 guests.

Clearly there was more lawn and less house back then.

Aaaaand, the newlyweds show up.

The cake.

The Dad sneakin' off alone.

First dance.

Garter hunt.

And last, but most certainly not least, as a gift, my brother-in-law made a slideshow for us.

A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.

He set it up and played it during the reception.

And guess what?  You can too!  :o)

Turn up your speakers.

I was originally planning on including some pictures of our honeymoon in Victoria, Canada, but I think this is probably long enough as it is.  Maybe I'll save those for another post.

It had been awhile since I'd looked at any of these pictures.

Sorry if they bored you to death, but it was a nice trip down memory lane for The Mom.

I love you Chachi.  Happy anniversary.  Here's to the next seven.