After spending the weekend in L.A. I have spent my days this week constantly reminded of how much I love where I live. No offense at all to my L.A. dwellers -- but eeeeek I was happy to get home! I think when you grow up in a certain place you start to lose your appreciation for it. Which is only natural I guess. But every time I come back from a long trip or just a weekend away I am refreshed with the beauty around me. I can't imagine a more beautiful place that this -- being nestled in pine trees between stunning rivers and lakes and in all directions mere hours away from the snowy mountains, beach, bay and big city. 

I love sitting on my porch and breathing in fresh air that is so clean! I love this time of year when the hills are all green and literally everything reflects the beauty of our creator. I love that when I went to college I had to learn the hard way that people actually lock their cars since I never had. I love the adorable annual parade my town has that I take my kids too and can remember being in myself as a child. 

I love my town itself and as I drive around I see place after place full of memories. I love taking my daughter to the small library where I remember going as a kid, going shopping and remembering all the times with my girlfriends in Jr. High giggling uncontrollably through the same store, I love the hole in the wall Mongolian place and seeing the table from countless dates with my now hubby and I love the memories I'm making with my family now -- here -- in this amazing place! 

I am so glad it seems to be some kind of secret how great living here is because I know people would flock here and try to open a walmart or something LOL (gasp! there actually is an anti-walmart committee in my town :) 

Even today I got stuck in traffic on our freeway which never happens so I assumed something big and exciting had happened -- when low and behold we were all being funneled into one lane because someones pickup had dumped an entire bed of dirt in the middle of the freeway----I love it. 

Anyways, I am just being thankful and grateful for all my time I've been blessed to live here! I know I am beyond fortunate, we never know what the future holds but I will always love this place and call it home. 

200 followers post! --- Burlap Banner

HUGE shout out to all my readers and followers :) Thank you for following along! I thought I'd share a fun and easy burlap banner to celebrate! 

I am getting a little too obsessed with burlap : ) I love it! Plus it's so cheap! So for this banner I just cut a bunch of squares/rectangles 

Then I folded them in half and cut a V into the corner

Sine my living room is grey and goldenrod I got a bunch of cheap prints from Walmart (if you can stand waiting in for someone to come for 25 minutes to cut your fabric :) 

I printed the bird outlines from google. This is where I would have done it differently. I would have bought some of that amazing iron on paper, THEN cut the birds and then ironed them onto the burlap but oh well!

I pinned, cut and sewed the bird outlines onto the burlap pieces. 

All hung up!!! I love it!!!

My Summer Bucket List

I of course have made a "real" list of things to get done this summer, but making this was way more fun! I hope I get to do these things and keep this summer FUN! So excited for our first summer with 2 kids :)

Life is good

Have you made a summer list?!

Pins Today :)

Here's what I am lovin and Pinnin today! 

This looks so refreshing and COLD and YUMMY :) 

I wish my BFF didn't live in feakin Virginia so we could take this picture! Although she would look like an apple is under her shirt whereas I look like I shoved a watermelon under mine :/ 

Ummm yum? Enough said! 

I could NO joke eat this all day everyday! LOVE it. Can't wait for heirloom tomatoes this summer!

I am loving this because of the rustic numbers and cute chevron "ish" wallpaper behind. 

Love this look. I am becoming obsessed with burlap ! Good thing it's cheap cheap cheap!

I am SO doing this in my bathroom! 

Enjoy your Thursday sweet readers!

28 week update :)

How far along - 28 weeks!

Weight Gain - Why did I put this question in here to begin with? 16 lbs :( 

Morning sickness/nausea -NONE!

Physical changes - Much bigger belly! Not sure why my arms and rear need to get pregnant too but oh well!!!!

Pain - Varicose veins :( ug! And my hernia ouch ! 

Sleep - When Juliana sleeps  all night I sleep WONDERFULLY!

Stretchmarks - Not yet

Maternity clothes - oh yes. Living in skirts and leggings mostly :)

Food cravings/aversions -No real aversions but definitely cravings as you can read above! Anything cold and fresh.


Eating/drinking - Eating constantly! But I am definitely at that point now where I can really only eat half my food at most before it's too tight to breath. So there's lots of little meals:)  

Boy or Girl - My sweet boy :) 

Lowlights of the week - I don't like not being able to do things I usually can do like at the gym or with Jules because of the belly is getting big. After her nap she has always layed on my stomach while we cuddle and we've had to adjust to her leaning on me from the side but it's all temporary!

Highlights of the week - SO MUCH KICKING. Juliana never moved this much. Sometimes I feel literally sick because he never stops!

Anything to add - WONDERFUL news! My placenta moved out of the way already so I will have no complications with a natural delivery. Praise God! I am so happy ! Plus I never got to have an ultrasound this late with Jules it was SO FUN. I could see him sucking,moving  his lips, rubbing his eyes, it was so amazing. I can't wait to hold him!!!!

Pinterest Test!

I conducted another "test" from Pinterest. I secretly like doing these and somehow hope I will discover some secret cleaning or design method that has somehow been hidden all my life lol. With this test I was especially hoping it would turn out! 

Here is the original pin

Cleaning fruit -Use 1 part vinegar to 10 parts water, mix. Add all fruit and soak for 10 minutes. Water will be dirty and fruit will sparkle with no wax or dirty film. Great for Berries too--keeps them from molding...strawberries last for weeks

I was excited about this because my strawberries seriously go bad SO quickly. I have usually followed the rule of keeping them cool and dry until ready to eat --- as water could break them down even faster but I thought this was worth a try.

I did it a few different ways. Since Strawberries were 99 cents a pack at Sprouts (yay!) I bought 3 packs and did 3 separate tests. 

The first I used Apple Cider vinegar and I did the 1 part vinegar to 10 parts water and I simply dumped the strawberries in, swished them around and then let them air dry before putting them away

The Second I used White Vinegar (same ratio) but I let them soak just like it says and then I gave them a quick rinse.

I let them air dry on a towel (don't mind the clean lettuce drying too :) 

The third I just left like I normally do without washing or touching until ready to eat.

SO................I was not thrilled with the results. :( 

I would have taken pictures but just imagine moldy gross berries. I used the berries in no special order, every time we wanted some I would just randomly grab them so I was using them from all 3 packs. The major things I noticed were:

--You can DEFINITELY taste the vinegar on the ones I didn't rinse. Not my favorite.

--The 2 packs that I soaked even though were fully dry when I put them away remained kind of "squishy" and not very appetizing. The outsides of the strawberries remained really soft and soggyish (is that a word?)

--All my strawberries went bad within the week like usual but the ones I kept dry and cool had the most crunch and original flavor

So unfortunately I would advise you to skip this "amazing advice" from Pinterest that promises to save your berries for weeks. Your best bet is to buy as fresh as possible (the ones from a stand always last way longer and hmmmmm actually TASTE like strawberries) and keep them dry and cool and rinse right before use. 

Check out my other Pinterest Tests! 

here