for the love of...

I was sitting here eating my leftover chipotle burrito for lunch thinking about how much I'm enjoying my new favorite food.  For the longest time, I didn't give Chipotle the time of day.  I'm a self-confessed picky eater and mixing all that "stuff" up in a burrito defies my "keep food in their separate corner" motto.  In the past when I have followed my fanatic friends to Chipotle, I have whimped out and got either tacos or an ultra-whimppy quesadilla.  But my food-i-ness took a turn for the better back in July.

Kalin and I were working for our family friends and we all met up for lunch at ...Chipotle.  Oh great, I thought to myself.  I was so over a bland quesadilla.  So, I scoured the menu and picked out a barbacoa burrito, black beans, and the red sauce.   The first bite...DELICIOUS.  Then my mouth was on fire.  The red sauce was the hottest option.  Whoops--and I forgot to get some sour cream to calm it down.  But it was so delicious--I loved every bite, so worth the heart burn later.  

Now I can't wait until my next trip to Chipotle even though we were there last friday with some Westmont friends.  I have mastered my burrito preferences and life is good at Chipotle, even a few days later for lunch.  This picky eater is slowly but surely experimenting with good food and liking it quite a bit.  In large part, this change is due to a fabulous husband that always offers me the food he knows I might not agree too, hoping that one day I'll give it a try.

fall is arriving.

Here are some pictures from a brief trip up to Grand Lake where the aspen trees are turning a lovely shade of gold, pinks and reds.  

howdy folks, welcome to golden

That's the motto that graces the downtown strip in my hometown of Golden, CO.  This past weekend, Kalin and I spent some time there and I realized how great of a little town it is.

Fall has definitely arrived in the metro area and it feels so nice outside, you can't stay inside.  To kick off our day in Golden, we started with a hike up South Table Mountain (which is more of a plateau).  We hiked up what felt like a drainage trail up the face of the castlerock which was a bit steep at times, but the pay off was amazing once we got to the top:

This is the view of the town of Golden, very quaint and slightly lazy-feeling.  The top of the mountain has a large staircase from when there used to a beer garden up at the top that people took an old cog rail to get there.  After our descent, we headed to the town for some delicious sandwiches at D'Deli and a sweet treat at the Sweet Shoppe.  We poked around the farmer's market and decided it was a pretty good day.  We're hoping to keep up our weekend hikes to ultimately attempt a 14er (hopefully before the snow comes).

family fun.

This past week, all of my mom's siblings were in town and being that I am still unemployed, I got to hang out with all of them.  As a sidenote, Kalin is EMPLOYED!  Hooray, we are really excited and he's liking his new job.

It's always fun to hang around all my aunts and uncles and my little cousin Lane.  He provided a LOT of energy and luckily there were enough of us to appease his wanting to be entertained.  Thankfully, there is a lot of educational programming on TV that teaches him about feelings, chinese and spanish. (Thanks, Nickelodeon).

My Aunt Ginger, Uncle Mitch, Aunt Gina, Mom and I took Lane to the Denver Zoo for a day filled with monkeys, elephants, bears, birds, giraffes, lions and lots of senior citizens (they came by the bus load that day...)

Lane with the black bears.

Mom and Lane with the Mountain Goats

After a few days in Denver we all headed up to Grand Lake to spend some time relaxing, eating, wondering and in general enjoying each other's company.  Unfortunately Kalin and my Dad stayed back because of work but met us up there for the weekend.  Some went off fishing, some played games, some went into town and I did a lot of stitching.  Here's some pics from our time in Grand Lake:

if you give a moose a muffin...

my dad's newest "project" and some weekend work for kalin and i.

kalin soakin up some sun on the Lake

us!

sisters: my mom and aunt ginger

look who caught a fish!

So, it was an excellent mini break and I think I've met my quota of three-year-old time for awhile, but I'll be ready for the little guy once he's back.  But now it's back to the job hunt...

SNI-A-GRAB

Sniagrab is bargains spelled backwards.  I have ALWAYS wanted to go to this infamous ski and snow sale at the Sports Castle in Denver, formerly of the Gart Sports fame.  After weighing multiple opportunity costs of which location to go to, how early, etc., I decided to wake up at 4am this morning  (along with the slightly willing and slightly sleepy Kalin), drive downtown, wait on the sidewalk behind 232 people.  Some had been camping for a week.  By getting there between person 200 and person 300, guaranteed us at least a $25 coupon.  By 8am we were heading into the store and it was slightly crazy but a pretty quick process.   I had studied the ad the day before and figured out the cheapest skis, bindings, poles and boots combo that I believe would be a good price for both Kalin and I.  As soon as you were in the door, there was a salesperson quickly leading you around to everything you needed and as soon as you know it, we were done! (well, about 4.5 hours after we actually got there)....

BUT IT WAS A BARGAIN.  We got $75 off, plus received a 2 day lift ticket to A-Basin.  Can the snow come now?

I truly love deals, and today was a deal I am quite proud of.  I was notorious for buying cheap-o deals in the clothing world a few years back, but most of those deals were only worn two or three times and now reside in the Ballard Good Will.  After Stacy and Clinton, I realized that I needed to make more "investment purchases" despite a bit higher / no sale price tag.  So my deal-ings have subsided quite a bit lately, but today I got that familiar feeling so good not to share.

So, if it's snigrab, you know it's an "investment deal". 

ONE WHOLE YEAR!

On Monday, Kalin and I marked one year since we got all dressed up, said our vows and shared our love with family and friends.  It was a fabulous day, one year ago.  We had our wedding up at Byington Winery and Vineyard in the Santa Cruz mountains and it was such a perfect view and beautiful location.  Here are some shots from our wedding or you can check out the slideshow.

Then we were off to Napa Valley!

It's been a truly wonderful year full of moving, spending holidays with our new families, trying to get out in the Seattle rain, deciding to move cross-country, leaving jobs, finding new ones, but loving each other all the while.  

plentiful pillows

Late Tuesday night I got the create-something bug and pulled out my free Amy Butler pattern for the Cozy Kitten Pillow.  I used some flannel-like fabric which pulled once I turned the pillow inside but ended up working with some final mending, but here's how this little guy turned out...  But he's kind of funky:

The very next day I decided to work on displaying my Sashiko samplers in the pillow form.  With the help of a new cutting board and rotary cutter, I experimented with sizing and created these three throw pillows.  My new machine, Bernette, did quite the fabulous job and we're becoming great friends.   I used fabrics from the same color story LOFT 1800 by Erin Michaels which I had plenty of Fat Quarters and a few half yards which went well with the stitching and each other.  Here are the finished products, fronts and backs. 

These were super-easy to make once i got the measurements right for the 18" pillow form and to figure out how to make my scraps of fabrics fill a back-side.  Now, if this could be my job.

Sidenote: Kalin has an interview tomorrow!!  Hooray!