Categories
oceania places to go

The in-betweens, NZ ’10

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one of our favorite things about travel is finding things that are otherwise unnoticed. of course there are travel books and things you MUST VISIT when you go somewhere, but some of our favorite memories have been during the in-betweens, the times we have just pulled over because we had to see what was down this little alleyway or take a photo of a ridiculous sign. that’s why our recommended mode of travel is rental car!

here are our favorites from our NZ trip.

here’s our little vehicle!

this was the coolest calmest body of water ever, so incredible!

honey tastings?? are you kidding me? we saw this sign and had to check it out. then shortly after we found a blueberry wine sign and HAD to stop there. i guess we didn’t take any photos but oh my what an experience! we were the only ones there and this lady let us try all these different wines and liquors she’d made. we’d never tried so many different types of tasty drinks before, and also some not so tasty! some were so sweet! we chatted with the lady for a while and she told us that she just loved experimenting with wines. so she’s made wine out of every fruit imaginable. she said some she couldn’t sell because after tasting them she would wake up on the floor the next day. it was hilarious! and yet another fun random find only because we were wandering off the beaten path.

mt. doom from lord of the rings…wow this scene was breathtaking!

ok this was freaking random. we stopped in this field and all these cows just started mooing and coming toward us. really freaky!

and this may not have been the first time i’ve trespassed…don’t judge me!

worth it, see!

don really aimed high in life…

couldn’t understand this sign!

and i guess the only down side of renting a car is the potential of getting a ticket. whoops! this is the only time we’ve ever gotten a ticket while traveling, not our first run in with a cop though. ah well, adventures adventures…

Categories
eat things to do

you are what you eat – costco run

 

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remember when i used to blog about healthy eating? well as i said in one of the posts, where i shop changes all the time because of prices and selection. so here’s my latest costco stash! they are getting more and more organic and all natural products and that’s exciting!

organic apple chips

organic fruit snacks (seriously like candy these are so amazing!)

organic sugar

chocolate chips (ethically sourced)

organic squeeze pouches (i try to use these more for when we’re out and i really need something on the go, otherwise i think it’s better for kids to eat whole fruits and veggies)

organic chickens (the best deal around! 25 for 2!! see my chicken post on how to cook a whole chicken – put one in the fridge and freeze the other)

organic string cheese

organic uncooked tortillas (2 pack which is great because you can freeze one)

kerrygold butter and cheese – see below

organic eggs (not pictured, they didn’t have any this time wah)

organic mac and cheese (annie’s brand)

ok so this brand is amazing! super affordable and grass fed cheese and butter!!! no need to be organic if it’s grass fed 🙂

obvi this is the best thing to get at costco though…you really can’t tell how big these are with this angle, i think you really need to go check them out for yourself. and then buy a u-haul to bring the thing home and then snuggle forever and forget all your responsibilities like making whole chickens and eating healthy…

Categories
california places to go

Paso Robles, CA – ’11

 

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we have a little [not so little] camera collection that we’ve been adding to over the years. some were passed down to us by family, some were given as gifts and some we found in random antique shops. we’ve been playing around with some of these old cameras and seeing what they can do!

we love going to paso robles and have been there a few times. this time in particular we ditched the digital cameras and hunted around our brains for how to shoot film again. it was fun to just be in practice of thinking of every photo before taking it, and then the thrill of seeing what turned out later!

the color film is is from a camera from the 40’s or 50’s and the black and white film is from a camera from the 70’s

enjoy, i’ll let the photos speak for themselves!

Categories
nest things to do

project simplify

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a few months ago a friend was encouraging other people to join in their spring cleaning event of getting rid of 40 bags in 40 days.

the first thing i said was, i don’t have 40 bags of stuff to get rid of but…

they give you a .pdf with 40 spaces to write down areas in your house that you can go through. then you print a blank one and write down what you actually went through that day and how many bags you actually got rid of. you know because you might have written down an area you just don’t feel like getting to yet and need to go out of order 🙂

it was certainly a challenge but i did it! it really made me question everything i have an ask myself if i really need it. it is so easy to get bombarded with STUFF and feel overwhelmed by it. we have so much here and yet we feel our houses are small because we have no room for it all. i was especially motivated to get rid of stuff because living in our home for 4 years before having kids really allowed us to overflow into the future kid rooms. but we don’t want our poor kids to have to deal with our stuff in their closets.

it got really addicting when i got going and i just wanted to purge everything! what is this, a shirt i’ve had since i lived overseas ten years ago? cans of food that expired in 2008 which means we moved them to our new house in 09?!?! lotions as gifts from students that i don’t even like the smell but felt bad throwing away, decorations i don’t really love, outdated paperwork, the list goes on. i think just going through my closet i got through seven bags and to be completely honest with you i was in shock because i don’t buy a lot of clothes and don’t care about fashion as much as i probably should. so it was a little embarrassing to think how long i hold on to stuff.

i did it this year and i plan to do it again!

join in next time! it’s fun!

Categories
craft things to do

Project Height Chart

well i’m well on my way to finishing 33 blog posts by the time i turn 33…ok not so much, i’m going to have to step up my game…

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so i really don’t like wasting and that goes for a lot of things, food, money, stuff…i also don’t want to ever have hoarder status though so if i can’t upcycle something, pass it along, or sell it, i donate it. of course i always try to figure out if there is something i can do with an item before just getting rid of it because i would hate to have to buy something else in the future and kick myself because i could have just used x.

of course this drives the husband crazy because he wants to get rid of stuff faster than a zit on your nose. i am learning though and along with not being wasteful i do want to keep life simple as well and sometimes that means getting rid of stuff. more on that in the next post!

anyway, here’s an upcycle that i did in about an hour! simple, cheap and awesome!

i had this sign that we used to use when we would go to bridal bazaars. it wasn’t cheap but we used it for years and got our money’s worth out of it. then we changed our business name and just like that this sign became garbage.

it sat around in the closet for a few years and jared said i had to get rid of it. so thanks to pinterest and having a child, i finally thought of what i should do with this cumbersome item!

yellow/goldenrod is one of my favorite upcycle colors right now! we actually blew through a whole can with projects so i did need to buy a new can for this, but i’m sure i’ll use it all eventually 🙂

i have terrible handwriting so i used my dad’s stencils to paint the numbers and…

voila! done. just like that. i did this whole project after the baby went down for the night and hung it up in the play room. i used it on her first birthday and we’ll have this for years! from garbage to a keepsake!

do you have anything you’ve wanted to do something with but can’t think of an idea?

Categories
reminisce stories to tell

33 by 33

i am just terrible about keeping up with this blog, but i’m also trying to find a place in this blog world. this used to be our photo blog, but we decided to only focus on our cinematography business. then we turned into our travel blog but now that we have a young family we probably won’t be doing as much travel for a while. so i feel like my blog posts have been mostly potpourri lately…

so, i was thinking in order to find out what my ‘thing’ will be, i’m just going to start blogging. my goal is 33 posts by my 33rd birthday. i’m hoping that i will have some sort of inspiration about what my blogging purpose will be. my thought is right now that i would like to focus on posts that help keep people’s lives simple and happy. there’s so much negativity online so i think that might be a place to start anyway as an overall theme. thoughts? if anyone is actually out there reading this anyway??

… … …

i’ll leave you with a photo to begin my blogging journey!

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my little one in my dad’s truck at cruisin’ grand. all my dad’s cronies were freaking out that he let a baby walk around in his precious truck but i guess she has him wrapped around her finger just a little 😉