The one with paint and food

Few things in life make me happier than a) risotto and b) painting. And both happened yesterday, so I shall blog about both! AH! We'll go in chronological order, so let's start with the painting...

Thank goodness for Craigslist... It not only helped us furnish a lot of our apartment, but from it I acquired this sweet old window. $20. What a steal. It's pretty big, too-- like 4 ft x 2 ft or something like that. One of my best friends has a sweet old window in her apartment that is painted, so that was my inspiration here. The hardest thing about painting windows (just in case you decide to embark on this adventure) is that you have to think backwards... You want to paint on the back side of the panes so that it appears that you are looking through the window to the painting and it has a really sweet, smooth surface of glass instead of layer-y thick paint (which can be cool, too, but it has its place. And that's on canvas not glass windows). So when you paint on the back side, you have to start with the details and finish with the background. When you normally paint a picture you might start with a background layer and slowly get more detailed, painting in foreground and stuff. But for this you switch it. No more deciding you want to put something else on it and adding to it. Once you put another layer on the glass, you're done. The good news is that acrylic paint is fairly easy to scratch off, so if you mess up, it is technically re-do-able. I was a chicken with my decision-making so I put some cling-wrap over that sucker and tried a few different things before I settled on my final design. Anyway, I'll quit blabbing and show you some pictures...

The window originally... Do you see the awesome potential hiding in there?!

Paint: check.

Brushes: check.

Experimentin'... and being indecisive

I went with the polka-dot theme... I was inspired after the awesome fabric I re-covered our chairs in. And blue and green is kind of the theme in our apartment. Not too girly, not too manly...

Layer 1. Dots. I couldn't help taking a billion artsy pics of the paint globs in the sunlight. I'm such a dork.

Layer 2. I was originally just going to paint the entire background a solid color and keep it simple, then with the first pane, my strokes were super uneven and created this very brush-like effect. I liked it. Sooo....

I added layer 3: which was green behind the purple brush strokes. Brian says they remind him of "paths through a swamp." To me, some of them look like tornadoes, or a sunset on water, or the color scheme of Monsters, Inc. I can't decide.

And here's the final piece. It looks cooler in person.

So the plan for this is to hang it in our entry-way area. I'm thinking I'm gonna buy some hooks or just hammer some nails in the bottom and we'll use it as a coat-rack. AND, since it's glass, we also might buy a dry-erase marker and use it as a message board! Cute? Yes. Practical? Yes. Cheery? Definitely. Hoorah. Project complete. Well, almost.

Alright, on to part 2 of this blog... food. I love it. My favorite food happens to be risotto, and I made some killer risotto last night. Seriously, your mouth will be watering by the time you're done reading about it. You can do pretty much anything with risotto-- add veggies, meats, whatever. I even have a risotto cook book that has a recipe for risotto with squid ink. I kind of gag every time I see it, so I'm not sure I'm ready to get that crazy with it. Last night was risotto with butternut squash, broccoli, onions, and chicken, and boy oh boy, was it delightful... I just ate some leftovers for lunch and it was still completely wonderful and tasty. If you like carbs and chicken and feel a little guilty indulging in those without getting any veggies in, then this is the recipe for you. Brian (who historically does not eat veggies or anything besides chicken or pasta) even loved it. He didn't pick out the veggies! It was glorious! If you want the recipe, hit me up. Your life will be better for it.

If you recall a few weeks ago Brian and I blogged about our new interest in food and the benefits of eating local food. So, that's what we are going to do. We're going to eat local foods, foods with little to no preservatives, and cook from scratch whenever we can. We're lucky that we are where we are, with a farmers market down the street and lots of options available. We shop at Trader Joe's a lot, which is super fresh and free of gross-ness. For instance, I just had some applesauce from there and the ingredients were simple: peeled and cored apples and well water. Seriously, that was it. None of the ingredients that you can't pronounce or know where they came from. As far as meats go, that's where it gets more difficult and expensive, but it's worth it. No, we're not becoming vegetarians, but we are watching what we eat. For instance, no grain-fed beef, farmed salmon, or regular questionable chicken. For now, we're rolling with free-range chicken, and there are free-range organic whole chickens available at our farmers market (but there weren't any last week), and that venture may have to wait until I start getting a pay check. They are a bit more pricey.
Anyway, we watched "Super-size Me" last night. It was on the list of things we knew we should watch. It was fascinating. I recommend it.

Whew, that was a super long blog. Congrats if you read it all. :) Have a good one, kids!

Why we love Sundays

Sundays are wonderful here. I love them. Why, you ask? Good question. Really the biggest reason I love them is because Sunday means Farmer's Market, just a hop skip and a jump away from our apartment. I will explain through photos...

Dogs are everywhere at the market. All shapes and sizes. These were two HUGE Newfoundlands who were playing with each other. The one on the right had an owner who probably weighed just as much as he did. She was struggling to keep the leash.

Check out this ice cream bar. The first week we discovered this little stand at the end that sells home-made ice cream hand-dipped in delicious chocolate. We've been hooked, and it has become our Sunday treat (after, of course, buying and devouring some pesto pasta from some very nice Italian men). Brian really enjoys the chocolate mint. Last week I had mine with raspberry ice cream, but went with the espresso this week, and boy, oh boy, I'm not sure I'm going to be able to branch out from that. Deeeeeelicious.

And another reason... I'm a sucker for flowers. This beautiful bunch cost me $5, people. Amazing. I split them up into 3 different vases and they cheer up our apartment quite a bit.

Walking home... this is the little park next to our building (which is the building in the picture). It's a cute park. On sunny days it's filled with little children and parents playing in the water fountains. We also frequently see tons of cute dogs there.

And this is when Brian became my paparazzi for the day. Walking up to our 5th floor apartment... figured we'd try to work off that pasta and ice cream.

 That was our Sunday so far. Now to skype with some friends, call home, start a painting, and read a book. Maybe even catch some 24. If you've never seen that show, we're on season 5 and it's fantastic. OH, P.S., this is totally random, but last night we were sitting here after watching 24 (see the train of thought?), we started hearing a guy singing in our courtyard. We were like, what on earth? We look down to see tons of people dressed in formal wear listening to this guy on the keyboard. I stood there and watched/listened for a minute, and then saw a very white dress! It was a wedding. In our apartment courtyard. It was hilarious, because you could see the silhouettes of all the people in our building and the building across the street who were being nosy like me. I sure hope I made it into the background of some of their photos ;) Hope ya'll have a lovely Sunday.

TA DA!

Yesterday we went to the Ballard Locks in search for some sea lions and seals (we heard they hang out there)... but to no avail. We saw none. But we did see some salmon jumping the fish ladders. And we also watched some pretty cool boats go through. 'Twas a beautiful day...

Then something SUPER exciting happened! We got back and checked the mail and I had supplies for my first project! Hooray! So check it out...
We bought 4 of these pretty nasty chairs at a garage sale... Kind of gross, but they have potential. 4 chairs for $10. Not bad. Not bad at all.

Then I got this fabric... See my vision?

I know you're dying of suspense, so I'll get to it... I recovered the chairs, threw together some pillows, and voila! Lovely new cheery chairs to brighten up our space during the dreary Northwest winter. I'm so excited.

Pretty sweet, eh? This place is coming together. And I'm much happier now that I have created something. Hope ya'll are having a good one!

Long time no chat

Hey there, people.
Sorry we've been on the outs for a bit. Sad day, I know. You've probably been checking the blog hourly for updates, but to no avail. My deepest apologies. :)
Even though we don't have exciting travel news to update you on, as this blog was originally intended to do, we will be keeping up with it, letting you in on what we are up to in the far away Northwest. So we're just changing directions a bit, but we find that this is a really good way to keep all of our distant good friends updated on the goings-on of the Strickland-Swift household.

We've got our last few days of nothing-ness this week-- Brian starts doing school stuff on Thursday, meaning I am going to have to find ways to entertain myself! AH! But really, since we finished getting stuff for the apartment and doing other random tasks, we do actually need things to do with our lives. So this will be a good change. Yesterday we acquired some (really cheap) bar stools, so our home is looking even more "home-y" than it did before, which is just lovely.

We went exploring downtown last week, which was fun. We've found some good places to take you people when you visit (hint hint). Much to my little brother's pleasure, we found out that one of the fishing boats from "Deadliest Catch" gives tours during the summer time... Enticing, right? I know.

We also spent time with some new friends this weekend! Yay! We watched a Sounders soccer game with them, which was great because we won 4-0 and saw some Sounders history being made. PS, if you didn't know, I've become a pretty big fan of soccer since the World Cup. A sport I like to watch! Hooray!

Yesterday we trudged out in the rain (it's rained A LOT the past few days but it is sunny as I write this!) and went to our first church service here. Ladies and gentlemen, we are definitely not in the Bible belt anymore! It was an interesting time, but we enjoyed it. The most attractive thing about this church is that they are big into homeless ministry (which we have a lot of in our neighborhood). They run a weekly soup kitchen and have apartments built into their actual church building as part of a program to get people off the streets and into a home of their own, where they can be a part of a community and get their lives on a better track. How many churches do you know who would, instead of just giving money or food, actually give the homeless a home within their church doors? Awesome. We love it. I also just finished a book called "Irresistible Revolution" by Shane Claiborne, where he talks a lot about what the church should be. He focuses a lot on how we spend money on buildings and shiny things to attract people, but forget that God has called us to use that money for the poor far before the attractive things. It got me re-thinking the way we worship and simply live our lives, so this is a really cool thing that we will hopefully be a part of. I suggest you pick up the book and expect to change your thinking.

Speaking of changing our thinking, we have also discovered that Brian and I are such students. In our time of travel and moving and rest, etc. we have started a netflix account and used it (besides to rent seasons of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia) to watch documentaries. We've gotten really into the ones about food, which has been fascinating and inspiring. Some that I recommend are "Food, Inc." "King Corn" and "No Impact Man." If you have netflix, they are conveniently ones that you can instantly stream to your computer or tv. They've really gotten us thinking about what we put in our bodies, what it's made of, and where it comes from. Did you know that the average food item travels 1500 miles before it gets to your table?! Talk about dependency on oil. Did you also know that most of what we eat in some way has corn in it? Talk about disgusting. Anyway, in a world where diabetes is thriving and our generation is predicted to not live past our parents, we are seriously re-thinking what we eat. Not only for our personal nutrition, but for the environment. This might result in a little experiment that Brian and I are currently scheming up... So stay tuned. It could be interesting...

Oh boy Oh boy

Lots and lots has been happening! Ok, nothing like super duper exciting, but it's been a good few days since we posted last. Well, I guess getting a couch was super duper exciting, actually. We really needed that. So, yes, good news, we have furniture now! We could still use a couple more things, but we have all the essentials, and life is quite comfortable now that we have someplace to sit our rears besides the floor. Which is concrete. So big improvement! We also have had our first go at the neighborhood weekly farmer's market, where we can buy our weekly groceries, I think. You can find everything there: milk, eggs, chickens, salmon, veggies galore, berries, ice cream, flowers... Happiness. It was wonderful. And it runs all year, and is literally 3 blocks from our house. So bingo bango, that's exciting. And we saw every kind of dog imaginable, which was fun, too. We even met a "golden doodle" who was awesome, and we want one. But don't worry, parents, won't be getting one any time soon. Sadly.
Today we made the trek over to the University so Brian could get his "Husky card." Let's all note the glory in the fact that Brian continually made fun of the fact that I had a "Phoenix card" at Elon and they couldn't just call it a student I.D. Ha. He had it coming. Sidenote, UW is a pretty big school, and I realize what a tiny school I went to! Oh my. Elon was small. It was wonderful, though. I just feel like I missed out on the big university feel. Anyway, UW was very nice. We liked it a lot.
Anyway, here's what many of you have been on me about: apartment photos. Just go to this link. Enjoy.

New House

Time out.

Hey, guys. Guess what?? Now we have 2 pieces of furniture! A bed and a tv stand! Hoorah! Today was a day filled with big trips to Target and Bed Bath and Beyond. And big thanks to everyone who gave us gift cards for graduation-- we bought $500 worth of stuff for $150! Thanks, all!

Anyway, let's get down to the reason for this post... I want to take a time out in the "we're moving listen to all our changes and goings-on" to get a little real. Today was the first day I really wished I was home. Why would you want to be in the gross sweaty South instead of lovely, cool, Seattle? One of my very best friends is having open heart surgery tomorrow. And I can't be there. My reason for sharing this with all our internet followers is to ask for your thoughts, prayers, positive vibes, whatever to be with my friend tomorrow and during her following weeks and months of recovery. She's strong, she can do it, but I know any positive feelings supporting her will help a whole lot. Thanks guys, have a good one.

Home Sweet Home...

Hello, all! I'm very pleased to tell you that we officially have a home! Hooray! We moved in this morning, and it is just lovely. Granted, we have only one piece of furniture and almost no belongings, but that will soon be fixed! We are in a very cute 681 sq. foot apartment in a very lovely neighborhood. We are right on a park, a block from a library, and two blocks from the main strip that has tons of tasty restaurants, coffee shops, cute stores, etc. We think this will be a very happy place to live.
It was pretty funny as Brian was unpacking his electronics and I was unpacking my Africa stuff... we are quite different in some ways. Alas.
Also, I learned some thing else today... I never want to go back to Wal mart again. No, sir. We braved one today just to spend a gift card, and it's just not going to happen again for me. What a stressful, unorganized experience.
Fun fact: in Seattle it is apparently illegal to not recycle. And that means all paper, plastics, etc. We are hoping to produce very little trash this year and be more green. Here's hoping.
And finally, in our hotel boredom the past few days, we watched the documentary "No Impact Man." If you haven't watched it, you should. It's a very thought-provoking story about a man who decided he and his family would live making no impact on the planet for one year. It made me really think about what I consume and what I carelessly toss into the trash, which in turn affects a lot of people and communities down the road. You should go watch it. That is all!