Organizing - How I Love Thee

I have been on an intense organizing-kick for, oh, about 5 months now. And, it's, awesome.  This is our guest bedroom closet that I finally organized this past weekend.  I have been searching high and low for my before-picture and fear it has been deleted forever :(  Let me just say that it is a huge improvement.  The shelf-system is from Elfa, found at The Container Store  The hanging organizer and orange box are from Ikea.  I was able to fit everything from the tool bag to glitter in this bad-boy and could not be prouder.  Happy organizing to all of you out there that understand how good this feels! haha.

2012, Well HELLO!

Phew, now that the holidays are over I feel like I am getting back into the swing of things and taking 2012 head-on.  The last few months I have been in a strange anti-social funk, passing most of my time crafting.  This has been a wonderful and relaxing time, but my old social-craved self is coming back.  This week has been full of coffee and happy hour dates, all of which reminds me of how much I love relationships and sharing life with people.

Work is getting crazy busy!  There was a period when I wasn't sure how my role at Open Air Design would pan out...but as of 2012 it looks like I have a solid job for as far out as I can see!  Cesar landed a huge camp project at Lake Whitney in Texas that will have us basically designing an entire Christian camp!  I am so excited to be working and learning a lot, every day, all day.  Its also an incredible thing that I get to use architecture in MINISTRY!!  This is such a unique outlet that most days I can't even believe how perfect it is.

Homemade Christmas Wreath...last crafting venture for awhile...

Jesus' birthday cake...BEST chocolate cake ever

Snowshoe trip to a cabin on Berthoud Pass with the Rottners!

Sledding with friends in Grand Junction!

Life is good.

Life is good.  Since we have been back from our Europe trip I have loved having a schedule.  I am back on track at the gym (yes, I love step aerobics, and yes I may be the only non-soccer-mom in there) and work has been busy.  At my firm, Open Air Design  we just finished a Master Plan for Briarwood Lutheran Retreat Center just outside of Dallas.  This project is the reason I was hired back in May and I am glad to see it wrap up.  It was fun to work with the Design Development team and help them with their vision for the growth of Briarwood.  I have also been busy helping my friends Paul and Michelle design a new bedroom to go in above their garage.  A few years ago I would have never imagined I could take on a project such as this on my own.  Its been crazy, but as I truck ahead I figure out that I sort of kind of somewhat know what to do (or at least am figuring it out along the way!).  Last fall I helped with the drawings for a renovation on their porch.  Check it out:

In my free time (yess..without school I finally have free time!!)  I have been busy crafting.  I don't know what has gotten into me, but I have had so much fun exercising creativity in the kitchen, on the sewing machine and with glitter.  My recent theme has been Christmas (clearly).  So far I have made a tree skirt, glittery bird ornaments, Christmas photos and cards, knit and sewed gifts and made a few homemade recipes at Thanksgiving that will be repeated at Christmas.  Some of these adventures include:

Knitting with tea

Homemade pumpkin pie from a real pumpkin..so good!

The beginnings of homemade cranberry sauce

Amazing wheat rolls, recipe here: 

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/light-wheat-rolls/ 

Making glitter ornaments

The final glitter ornaments

My awesome photographer friend Laura took a few photos for our Christmas card

These are a few of my favorite things...

Maybe in the spirit of Judd's and my upcoming Europe trip, including the singing Sound of Music bus tour in Salzburg, I have decided to put into text some of the things that I have eaten lately that make me say "I love you" (to the food that is).

1. Fage greek yogurt with fruit on the side
2. Bagels with cream cheese (Einstein's are pretty awesome)
3. Rasberries (for a limited time, 4 for $5 at King Soopers)
4. Wallabie yogurt - dark chocolate down under (such a splurge)
5. A glass of red wine
6. Toast with plain greek yogurt and apricot jelly spread on top
7. And of course warm just-out-of-the-oven chocolate chip cookies.

Yummmmm

The Second Half of July...and the Relaxation to Follow

A few weekends ago Judd and I celebrated our 2nd year anniversary in Lake Tahoe!  We stayed with my amazing great-aunt who lives a block from the water and was just amazing to us.  My dad and brother also came out, my dad bringing his speed boat up from Sacramento.  We spent an entire day cruising the lake, wake-boarding  tubing and making occasional stops at some of my favorite places - Sunnyside for breakfast, Tahoe City and Sand Harbor.  The trip was absolutely beautiful, relaxing and fun.

 The week after returning from Tahoe I found myself back on the trail, guiding a trip of 14 girls from Lansing, Michigan with RMR.  The weather was incredible (which is absolutely cruicial for a successful week!) and the girls were great.  I had a sweet week of re-connecting with God, remembering how deeply He loves me, and being blessed in his incredible backyard.  The week went practically as smoothly as possible (save for running out of fuel and iodine on the last day!), but I had forgotten how much work guiding is!  I was a zombie for the weekend following!

Now I am back in Boulder for good for awhile.  I also have discovered that the very slow architecture market has caught up to me at my perfect, dream-job contract position.  So I find myself in search for work...again.  Sad.  Although to be perfectly honest, I am slightly excited about the prospect of getting to explore something else right now.  I am searching architecture jobs, but also reaching beyond this into admin, advertising and graphic design.  I guess I'll just have to keep searching, applying, and pray that something sweet comes along just as it did the last time!

I also feel extremely blessed to live in such an incredible place, surrounded by incredible friends.  I love Boulder summers, and am stoked to be around more for the month of August.  This week holds plenty of exciting events - the Boulder Farmers Market, a BBQ with good old friends, Denver First Friday Art Walk, date night with the hubs and a little prom-night dance party.  I definitely cannot complain :)

Everywhere but Boulder

Wow, so much has happened in the last month and a half.  I graduated (phew!), got a job (wow!), and have traveled somewhere almost every weekend.  At the end of June Judd and I went to two out of town weddings, on back-to-back weekends.  The first one, Matt and Callie Bostrom was in Amarillo, TX and was hot beautiful.

The following weekend we were up in Lake George, NY for Jessie and Jeff's wedding.  Unlike Amarillo, NY was not hot, but the day of the wedding was absolutely gorgeous.  We get to spend time with the newlyweds in Boulder for a few more weeks and then they head down to Nicaragua to work with water.

Two weeks after the wedding I was down in Mexico City with iEpathize, hanging out with street kids and girls whom had been rescued from sex trafficking.  It was pretty intense and definitely powerful.  Until shortly before this trip I did not know that human trafficking hardly existed, let alone that it was a worldwide problem.  Going into this trip I had also been recently struggling with feeling overwhelmed by there being so many worthy organizations out there, righting so many worthy causes.  Which one was the most important?  And where was my money really going?  Was it possible that my small financial contribution could every make any sort of difference in the world?  With so many choices and no idea where to start, I found myself giving small amounts to those who asked, but beyond that just feeling pretty stuck.  If I can't save the world, then why even try at all?

This is how I felt, until this past week.  Actually throughout the week we spent time with kids who were living on the streets, addicted to solvent (glue), even an addicted mother of a 5-month old baby, nursing her, herself sniffing all day long.  We spent time with kids who had been driven out of their homes by parents who beat them, lived on the street, addicted to solvent, and found them one-month clean, living in a safe home.  We also met girls who lived in a safe home for girls who have specifically been sexually trafficked.  These girls have horrific stories, its hard to believe looking at them today.   One girl for example, is eleven years old, and barely 4'6."  Her story is so traumatic she doesn't even remember it, not even her name.  She picked her own name when she arrived at the house, not too long ago.  Also living in the house, along the 11-17 year old rescued girls, are 5 babies, ages 1-5, daughters of the girls, fathered by their pimp or client.  Its awful.

I hate to say this, but even when we hung out with the girls, I could not make the emotional connection between who these girls appeared to be today, and where they came from.  They just seemed too normal, and young, and pretty.  And then the last day we were with them they performed a dance for us.  There was something about the music, the dancing, the smiles, the tears, something about the life that radiates out of those girls that hit my like a freight train.  Before I could control myself I was balling like I only had when I was younger.  After the dance the girls gave us hugs and I hugged one of them for probably two minutes, both of us shaking in tears.  It was so intense, overwhelming, sad, beautiful, hopeful and so full of truth.  I knew that in those moments of watching those girls dance, that I had to fight for them, I had to fight for all the girls who were not yet as fortunate as them.

And so now I find myself, an advocate for iEmpathize (that is doing amazing things right now - please ask me, or look them up yourself) and fighting to raise awareness for human trafficking around the globe.

On a lighter note, I grew a sunflower!  Sunflowers always remind me of our wedding... Speaking of our wedding, tomorrow Judd and I fly to Lake Tahoe to celebrate our two year anniversary this weekend!  Judd has never been to Tahoe, and considering it is maybe my favorite place in the world, I cannot wait to show him  how amazing it is.  Until later!

I *Love Cooking (*Sort of Like)

 Now that school is over, I truly feel like I have "free time" for the first time in two years, and it is glorious!  I have not been very good at documenting what I have done with this time yet..but am vowing to be better.  So todays blog is all about what I did on my free Sunday at home.  This morning I went for a quick run (still don't understand how and why people like running), followed by an amazing homemade latte.  I am definitely addicted to coffee and feel completely fine with this.  This afternoon I had Judd help me rearrange the furniture in our guest bedroom.  Since we moved in I have not been too pleased with the feng-shui of this room.  It always has felt too crowded, and our two desk chairs always bump into each other.  After spending two nights this week thoroughly "spring cleaning" and dumping lots of unnecessary junk we have held onto for years, we were ready to move things around today.  All in all I think I really like the new layout.  Pictures to come later...(I still don't feel "Real Simple" worthy  yet.)

Also included in my day was watering and looking after my many pots on the balcony.  I was pretty stoked to find flowers on one of my tomatoe plants today!  Last year I tried an heirloom tomatoe plant, it flowered but no tomatoes ever came.  This year I have 9 cherry tomatoe plants and am hoping we get some fruit.  I also have italian parseley, basil, mint and sunflowers (because they are pretty).

Today I also decided to venture into the kitchen and try my hand at a strawberry- rhubarb pie.  I don't think there is rhubarb in California, because before I worked at Whole Foods in Colorado, I had never heard of this vegetable pie.  Things got a little messy, but from the looks of things it seems to have turned out all right.  I actually made this pie for what would have been a surprise-party for a friend tomorrow night.  Turns out this surprise isn't going to happen, so Judd and I are digging in tonight.  I'll let you know how it tastes???  Not even sure I know what I'm going for.

Since I was in the kitchen, I also decided to try out roasting tomatoes.  The picture in the magazine made this look easy and amazing so I figured, easy-peasy.  Not-so-much.  The nine tomatoes I roasted whittled down to literally half a cup of substance.  This is a bummer because I was planning to use half of them on a grilled pizza we were going to have for dinner, and the other half in a roasted tomatoe salsa.  By the time I had been in the kitchen for 2 hours (between the two projects) I decided that roasting tomatoes was a total failure, there wasn't enough for pizza, and I was done for the night.  So Mod-Market it was where I ordered a BEAUTIFUL "Arrugula Pizza".  It was amazing, and I definitely could not have pulled off such a great dinner for $8.50.  Lesson learned - as beautiful as the pictures are in magazines of food, I think my max prep-time (other than say Thanksgiving or Christmas) is about 30 minutes.  Any longer and I am grumpy.  Judd knows that when I get this way, we're going out.  Sorry babe...I try, but sometimes I learn to never do some of these things again!