Birthday fun

My birthday was this last Saturday. Mike and I celebrated by driving south down the coast to see places we haven't visited since moving to Oregon.

Our first stop was Shore Acres. It's an amazing coastline, but also has a botanic garden there! It was wonderful! As we wandered through the flowers, we could hear sea lions barking and waves crashing! Amazing! You can see all of my photos at my Flickr. We intended to have lunch at a Mediterranean cafe we knew, but they were closed, so we wound up at a local Mexican place. The food was actually quite good (we don't find decent Mexican food around here much!)

We drove back up to our favorite spot, of course, the 804 Trail and walked a ways. There was one spot where there were rose petals strewn on the path.... Maybe someone got married there! :)

Then we headed toward home and had dinner at our favorite steak spot. It was a great, low-key birthday, which I enjoyed very much... and needed! :)

Mike spoiled me with a bunch of movies. I owned them on video tape, but wanted to replace these with DVD or blu-ray. Yay! :)

It was a good way to celebrate turning 36!

Strawberry shortcake

No, not the cartoon. The real deal!

Oregon strawberries are in season, and we are enjoying them immensely! They are super sweet and tasty! I made homemade strawberry shortcake the other night. YUMMY! Best dessert I've personally ever made I think.

I used a recipe that I found online at Patent and the Pantry (via Tastespotting). The recipe is adapted from Nigella Lawson's "How to be a domestic goddess". I really love the biscuits. They are super creamy tasting and just a hint sweet. I also LOVED the trick in the recipe of grating the butter. I've never been successful at cutting butter into bits, and this was a great (pun intended) way to do it!

Strawberry Shortcakes

Adapted slightly from chef Nigella Lawson’s How to Be a Domestic Goddess.

For the shortcakes:

• 1½ cups (325 ml) flour
• ½ tsp (2 ml) salt
• 1 tbsp (15 ml) baking powder
• 5 tbsp (75 ml) sugar, divided
• 1/2 cup (125 ml) unsalted butter, frozen
• 1 large egg
• ½ cup (125 ml) half-and-half cream
• 2 tbsp (25 ml) whipping cream
• 2 tbsp (15 ml) sugar, divided
• 1 cup (250 ml) whipping cream

for the filling:

• 1 pound (500 g) strawberries, hulled and sliced
• mix the sliced strawberries with 1 tbsp (15 ml) sugar and set aside in the fridge.

Preheat the oven to 425°f (220°c).

Mix together the flour, salt, baking powder and 3 tbsp (50 ml) of the sugar in a bowl. Grate the frozen butter into the dry ingredients and use your fingertips to lightly toss all together. Whisk the egg into the half-and-half cream and pour into the flour mixture a little at a time, using a fork to mix.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, then roll gently to about ¾-inch (2 centimetres) thick. Dip a cutter in flour and cut out as many shortcakes as possible. Work the scraps back together, re-roll and cut more. Place on a baking sheet, brush the tops with the 2 tbsp (25 ml)whipping cream and sprinkle with the remaining sugar. (I forgot to do this last step! Will try it next time, for sure!)

Bake for 8-10 minutes until golden. Remove to wire rack to cool.

The recipe also included whipping cream, but we opted for a small scoop of vanilla ice cream! What a treat this was! I bought more berries and put them in the freezer. I thought about making some jam, but that's a process I've never taken on by myself. (I always assisted my friend Nancy in jelly-making!) I may still decide to give it a try - we'll see. These berries are very tempting!

The local Farmer's Market opens tomorrow. I am way more excited about fresh veggies than I probably should be! I have no idea what the growing season is like here in Oregon, so I don't even know what to expect veggie-wise. Should be fun though!!

Happy long weekend! :)

Taxes

It's Friday and that means time for my happy for the week. (See the Happy Book here.)

Yep. This week taxes actually made me happy.

I have been fretting about our taxes this year. Normally, they have been quite easy and uncomplicated. Enough so, that I've been able to do them on my own. Even the year we got married, I did them with no trouble.

This year, however, we moved to Oregon. I became self-employed, and Mike became unemployed. It got complicated! I hired an accountant, and boy am I glad I did! Living part year in one state, part in another is hard enough, but throw the self-employed bit in there too. Pshew! Too much for me.

I got word earlier in the week that our paperwork was ready for filing. We are getting a refund from Colorado, and we owe Oregon - that pretty much washes each other out. We will also get a decent sized federal refund! YAY! And my estimated returns for the rest of the year are ready too! Pshew!

Talk about a load of worry off of my mind!

Now, we can have a free and clear weekend. Tomorrow, we are heading for Multnomah Falls. It is about three hours away from us. And there is an amazing Mexican restaurant that we know near there, so we're looking forward to that as well!

What are your weekend plans? What made you happy this week?

Sunrises and rainbows!

This week what makes me happy (and has since we moved here to Oregon!) are the amazing views we have surrounding us.

We live in an apartment building which backs up to Devil's Lake State Park. The view from our balcony is astonishing! (There must be people who pay millions for houses with lake views like ours!) We very rarely go a day without saying something about how pretty our view is!

Yesterday morning, there was an amazing sunrise over the lake!

A week or so ago, we had views of an amazing rainbow over the lake late in the afternoon! The rainbow lasted a long time - coming and going in intensity, and even having a double sometimes. We were able to get some pretty good photos of it, too!

I think maybe people get tired of me posting our lovely views! I know I would be jealous of someone else's view like this! :) We will be hard-pressed to find a prettier place to live. I don't dislike our apartment, but I do wish it was bigger (and the appliances leave a lot to be desired!) At some point, when Mike is employed again, we will very likely try to make this a permanent residence by purchasing a home. But... we will forever love our lake view apartment! (See more photos at Flickr!)

Blogging?

I think about writing a blog post often... but, obviously, I don't get it done!

I have lots to share. So, I'm going to see how I do in the new year and try blogging a little bit more regularly!

We love it here in Oregon! The winter weather is interesting - we love that we are not in the icebox like Colorado, and NO snow! I visited Colorado in early December for a week (to catch up with friends, and work in my office there). It was negative zero degrees all week! Yikes! It felt downright balmy in Portland when Mike picked me up!

The rain all the time is wonderful to both of us. We haven't been affected by any problems with being depressed because of the grey (at least not so far). Some of the storms have been quite impressive. The wind is actually pretty scary during a big storm! We've lost power a couple times, but not for any length of time. We really enjoy seeing the waves after a big storm passes through! It's truly stunning how big they get! (Photos below are from a storm in early November - our first big storm - we spent hours watching the ocean! You can see all of my photos at my Flickr page.)

We celebrated our first Christmas in Oregon with Mike's brother, Jeff and his wife, Geeta. They stayed with us for about a week. We drove all over the coast and saw the sights with them. It was a little cramped in our tiny place, but overall a good visit. (I got sick on Christmas day, so they went around without me after that. I missed out on some pretty cool coastline that Mike will bring me back to see soon!) They are vegetarians (Mike and I are not) so I was a bit worried about the food situation. They took over and did quite a bit of cooking while they were here! Geeta made saag paneer for us, which was wonderful!

Mike is still looking for a job - and we're doing OK on just my salary. We're hoping he can find something nearby in the next six months. If not, we'll have to reevaluate before we sign another lease on our apartment. We may have to move into a larger town for him to find something. Our little Lincoln City doesn't have much in the way of jobs to offer, but we sure do love it! I'm hoping something will come through so we can stay here. I don't want to leave our coast if we don't have to. Salem would be the closest big town, and it's about 2 hours away - inland. Blah!

That's what has been happening in our little world! :)

Celebration!

Can you believe it's been one year since we got married? I really can't. This has been quite a year!

We celebrated by going to Yachats to our favorite place - the Overleaf! We got our favorite jacuzzi room, and spent Saturday/Sunday relaxing by the great shore there! Amazing waves!

We of course enjoyed the restaurants in Yachats too - including our favorite, The Drift Inn.

Here are some pictures and a short video!

Return to blogging

Maybe... some days I feel like blogging, and other days I don't. Many days I miss the interaction I have had with you all! (If anyone even stops by here anymore!)

Our transition to Oregon has gone really well. We really love our little town and the Oregon coast. The weather is turning to winter grey, but we still love it - if possible, even more than sun. We're hearing from locals that we'll be running into more grumpiness out and about because a lot of people really hate the constant grey. Both Mike and I really like it so far.

We've LOVED the farmer's market this summer - we went every Saturday morning until this last week. It is over until next spring :( The tomatoes have been amazing - and huge bunches of fresh basil! Yum. I've been experimenting with squash to find ones Mike will eat. He has liked the spaghetti squash and the butternut. Not so much the acorn or the delicata. (I love them all!)

We found an amazing organic farm nearby called Barking Dog. We love the place - the produce is awesome and the owners are super-friendly and fun! Again, we're sad to see them close for the winter...

We LOVED the Kite Festival on the beach near us. It was so fun - we spent about 8 hours down on the sand that day. Took lots of photos and videos. We'll definitely look forward to going to the spring festival as well! We're also discovering some amazing local restaurants! We love trying new places. (Favorites so far include Riptide BBQ, Beach Dog, and J's Fish and Chips. Mike is eating fish! Can you believe it?!)

As always, I have taken tons of ocean pictures. I'll share a few, but you can go to my flickr page and see them all if you're interested.


We love our little apartment and our amazing view. Lots of sunrise pictures too - taken from our balcony looking over the lake.


Our cats have transitioned well too. They like being able to go out on the balcony - almost outside!

I'm starting to work on my own website - Off-Center Studio (http://www.off-centerstudio.com/ - coming soon!) so that I can take on some new clients and build some new websites! It's a bit daunting to design my own, but I'm getting excited to do it! I'm also looking forward to taking a couple classes at the culinary center here in Lincoln City!

Surprise visitor

We discovered a surprise visitor in my basil plant which I bought from a local farm. I had trimmed off the top leaves and made pesto (YUM!). Then I was cleaning out the dead leaves underneath, and saw what I hoped was a rock... NOPE. It was this:


Um... EWWWWW! Mike relocated our visiting slug to the grass outside. Blech.

Exercise never looked so good!

I haven't joined a gym with "buff" guys to look at! :) Nope - I've just moved near enough the ocean to walk along the sand every day!

My new "workout" place:

Adventures in Moving

We made it. A week ago today, we arrived in our new town - Lincoln City, OR.

We moved into our apartment the next morning - August 1. Mike did a great job picking out a place for us. It's small, but we're going to make it work. The views from our windows are spectacular!

It's about a 15 minute walk to the shore. The weather has been great, cool, some sun, some grey, and this morning it's raining.

The cats did amazingly well on the trip, and they are adjusting quickly to their new home too! All in all, it went as well as we could have hoped! Dropping Andrea (my best friend) and Jim (Mike's dad) off at the airport in Portland has been the hardest thing to do! They helped us with the drive, and it was very sad to see them go back to Colorado.


More later! Boxes are calling! (more pictures at Flickr.)

TWO weeks and counting...

The movers come in two weeks (and 1 day) to pack our moving van, and we'll head off for Oregon!! Can you believe it?! I can't yet. Reality probably won't sink in until we've been in our new place for a while! :)

Send us some good vibes for the next two weeks - we have SO much to do!!

Photos of our new home!

We are moving - have I mentioned that?! It's starting to sink in for me, but it probably won't hit home until we're actually in Oregon!

Our new place is an apartment in Lincoln City, Oregon. We look out on Devil's Lake State Park, and the ocean is about 1/2 a mile away! Mike took a few pictures for me, since I didn't get to go with him to find our place. The view from our balcony is spectacular!! And, as we'd hoped - we're within walking distance of the shore!

We can move in on August 1, so our next three weeks are going to be crazy getting ready!! Any good tips on how to move across country?! Especially since we have cats who don't like to travel?! Yikes!! (more of Mike's pictures at Flickr)

And the adventure begins...

We are moving! Mike found a great apartment in Lincoln City, Oregon, and we are moving in on August 1st!!!!

We have been talking about moving to the coast for so long that I can't even believe it's happening for real! Mike will be home tomorrow night from OR, and he has pictures. I'll share them when he's home!

The apartment is on the shores of Devil's Lake State Park. We will have a lake view from our balcony. The beach is about a 15 minute walk away!

Your good vibes worked! We're actually doing this! Mike turned in a resignation letter today (via a friend at work - he wrote it before leaving "just in case"!) His last day at the stressful job is July 17! Yayayayayayayay!!

Send us some good vibes

Mike is in Oregon and on his way to the coast to find our house! He has a list of rentals to check out, and we're really hoping to find a perfect place. In our budget, close enough to walk to the ocean, accepts our cats, and something he can sign a lease on this week so we can move VERY soon!

If you think of it today (or anytime!) send us some good vibes. I'll post info as soon as we know anything more!! Whoo hoo - excitement, nerves, all mixed together.

Quick Update

Boy - trying to get ready to move is time-consuming (actually - all-consuming!)

Mike is flying out to Oregon on the 30th to find a house! Hopefully, if all goes well, he'll go ahead and sign a lease while there (we'll rent for a while - if we do love living on the coast, we'll consider buying at some point). If that does happen, he'll be able to give notice at his job right away and we'll plan to move mid-July or so.

Sorting through my boxes is almost done. We are having a garage sale this coming Saturday. I hope to get rid of a ton of stuff. (Almost literally!) If stuff doesn't sell, we'll be donating it, as I don't want to take it with us!

Once the garage sale is past, we will start packing up what we do plan to keep. Pshew!

I'll update as we know more ... wish for the best as Mike tries to find our house on the coast!

Oregon-ho!

We are moving.

Yes - I said it! We are going to be moving to Oregon in the very near future. Mike and I have made the decision to take a major leap of faith. We don't have our timeline nailed down just yet, but by the end of summer for sure! (I have to stay in CO until the middle of June for sure -I have a ticket to see Rent!!)

We looked at our budget, etc. and Mike is going to be able to quit his hellish job and find something for way less salary, but hopefully happier!

We are currently looking for a rental house on the coast somewhere! (If you have a lead on that, let me know! It's hard to find long-term rentals - a lot are listed as vacation rentals!) We're going to use our long Memorial Day weekend to start sorting and getting rid of "stuff". I have a LOT of "stuff"!! A lot of it has been in the basement since we moved into our house over three years ago! Time to ditch it I think!!

So... our adventure is starting. We are both very excited and it feels like we've made the right decision! Leaving our friends in Colorado will be the hardest part, but they'll come visit!!

Any advice for us as we prepare to pack up and move across the country?! Send us some good vibes if you think about it!

Our House... in 10 years

We saw this house in Yachats, OR last year when we were there. It is just up the coast (about 1/4 mile) from the Overleaf Lodge where we stayed for our honeymoon. I LOVED it last year when we saw it.

During a visioning exercise in Circe's Circle, we were exploring ourselves 10 years from now. Well, my 44 year old self (with Mike, of course!) lived in THIS house! Right on the ocean! I could see myself happily walking the trail along the coast, and I was making art to make my living! Perfect!

Seeing this house again when we were in Oregon a couple weeks ago... confirmed it! Yep, I love this house, love this town, love the coast... I WANT to live here. I hope it will be sooner than 10 years from now, but I will continue to keep this vision in my mind and work towards making it reality!

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?!