Memorial Weekend

 My beloved Brittney came to visit this weekend! We've had a lot of visitors this month (Oregonians need a bit of sun this time of year) but Britt was our last one. We have been counting down the days until we got to see each other for months and then of course, when she finally gets here, the weekend flew by. Britt is one of my best, sweetest, most thoughtful and loyal friends. The fours years I spent in Eugene, Oregon are filled with memories of us together. She is one of my favorite human beings. That girl has style, class and a seriously adorable laugh!

We spent our weekend enjoying delicious food, the warm sunshine and sweet wine. It was NOT enough time, but it will hold me over until the next time I get to see her. 

Another weekend highlight was celebrating this beautiful lady's birthday! Happy birthday to my lovely friend Bean!

Three-day weekends are the best. It was very sad to take Brittney to the airport and watch her leave, I can't wait for her to come back! 

P.S. If you didn't catch our wedding video on greenweddingshoes.com, it's being featured on oncewed.com today! We're so excited for Caravan as they continue to get noticed for how ridiculously talented they are!

Family in Texas

This is Matt & me on the night of our rehearsal dinner, smack dab in the middle of one of the most wonderful (and photogenic, by the way) families we know. Jenn & Justin are two of Matt's best friends that I had the extreme privilege of marrying into. Justin married us after his two darling daughters sauntered down the aisle as flower girls. We consider them family and are miserably missing out on those beautiful girls growing up!

I think it's time to plan another visit to Austin, we miss you guys!

Camping

After a long a week, we threw together a last minute camping trip with Bethany. We grabbed a cooler full of snacks & drinks and our tent and headed for the beach. As I mentioned before, I've never camped on the beach and usually prefer sleeping under the stars near a quiet lake nestled in the woods. The site was off the Pacific Coast Highway (Oregonians: the PCH is the winding road outlining the ocean that you see on all the car commercials) right on the beach. It was the perfect weekend. We spent most of our time watching the ocean, listening to the waves and spectating on the birds hunting for fish. Hot dogs, plaid flannels, marshmallows and card games made it the perfect summer night. It was hard to pull myself away from the sand and head home today. We ended our trip well, drinking coffee (coffee made over the fire that Bethany and I started by ourselves while Matt was sleeping, by the way) and watching the dolphins ride the waves near shore. I'm officially a fan of beach camping.

We found the perfect time to open the wine Kat & Luke thoughtfully picked out and gave to us! Enjoying some delicious PCH wine while playing cards in our tent. 

Toasted coconut marshmallows in my coffee? Yes.

A weekend highlight for me was discovering that I married a marshmallow connoisseur. Since I have a pretty serious addiction to s'mores and a long history of camp counseling, I greatly value a perfectly golden 'mallow.

Let's go back! 

Summer

Whilst making these delicious, crunchy, roasted coconut & chocolate smothered strawberry treats, I couldn't help but day dream about summer time. Yes, I live in California now and so almost every day feels like summer. But since I spent the previous 22 summers in Oregon, it still feels magical to me. Long awaited, daydreamed, enchanting summer time. Oregon gets rain about 10 months out of the year collectively, so that precious few weeks where the sun comes out and Portlandia comes alive is treasured. I plan on roping Matt into all my summer past times this year since we aren't busying ourselves with wedding planning.

Berry picking followed by jam making, camping in the woods (Matt loves camping on the beach which I'm looking forward to trying!), iced coffee, star gazing, sun tea, playing cards on picnic tables, feather earrings, watching movies in the park and wearing lots of sandals.

These little midweek treats were the perfect taste of summer for the last couple weeks of spring.

Visible Grace

If you're interested in supporting Visible Grace and wearing one of these stylish tee shirts, you can order them here. They are American Apparel shirts so they are soft, comfortable and well-made. No, the print isn't backwards and yes, wearing them will make attractive men kiss you.

Yum.

We had a lovely weekend full of delicious desserts, yard games, carrot cake muffins (stuffed with cream cheese, thank you Pinterest), Mother's Day picnics and friends. And cuddling up to other people's dogs.

Ah, yes, it is definitely summer time.

Green Wedding Shoes

Matt and I were extremely blessed to have his friend Jacob film our wedding day. The video he made for us is featured on the adorable wedding blog gone viral, Green Wedding Shoes today!

Jacob is ridiculously gifted in editing and filming, I am blown away. And the cherry on top, the man has impeccable music taste. The song he chose not only captures the style of our wedding day, but the lyrics "the first day I met you, I said 'I'll marry him' " ring very true to us. I wanted to marry Matt about three minutes after meeting him.

Thanks again Jacob for an amazing glimpse into my favorite few hours of life so far.

                                       You can watch it here!

Ashby's Here!

A look into my sister's visit so far: 

Trying to give this Oregonian lots of time outdoors in the beautiful sun. This is one of the last times I'll see her until she moves to Kenya at the end of June!

The Bonhams

I got to be reunited with my beloved Kat & her husband Luke this weekend. Definitely a best friend, having Kat around also feels like having family around. I was delighted to host them and I'm so glad they got to soak up some California sunshine in all my favorite spots. We spent lots of time outside, lounging, playing and walking. Matt and I got to prepare a Cinco De Mayo feast for them and they blessed us with a delicious breakfast the next morning. Lots of great meals and great conversations, could it get any better? 

(Gluten-free apple crisp with cinnamon ice cream! Thank you, Matt!)

Look at these two! I just love the sight of them in my kitchen, laughing and bantering back and forth in Spanish. We love you guys so much! Thank you for visiting us, dear friends. 

Pecan Pie

 

Look who came to visit us! My sweet friend Zoe, who just got home from Australia, was in town this week for her sister's wedding. We are rarely ever on the same continent, so I was delighted when I got to borrow her for a bit. We spent most of the day catching up, browsing the shops on Main street and of course, eating delicious food. Zoe's vegan diet allows me to touch down on my inner hippy, so we went to dinner at Mary's Secret Garden, a vegan and raw restaurant. Look at that delicious dessert! Pecan pie. Mmm mm. We may or may not have gone there two nights in a row...

I love you Zo! Thank you for visiting us & please come back soon!