DAY TRIP BELIEVER

Sometimes it just takes one day of adventure to spark a little flame inside you.  It doesn't take much money, just a few snacks and a full tank of gas.

This weekend was full of two fun little adventures for my husband, friends and I!

I have to admit, today I feel energized, creative and raring to go!

Its amazing what a little break from the everyday humdrum can do to a girl.

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Check out our photos from our two days of Rubber Tramping through La Conner Washington's annual Tulip Festival, and a day trip adventure through the tiny towns along the North Kitsap Washington Peninsula.

This last Friday I picked up my little friend Liam.  I was Liam's nanny since he was 6 months old till 2 1/2.  He's 3 now, and such a big boy!!  I knew he would love to see La Conner's Tulip Festival.  We met up with some very good friends and headed up north for some tip toeing through the tulips!

It was pretty windy, but the sun was shining and we had a great day!  It was so pretty to see just rows and rows and rows of multi colored flowers.  I definitely recommend checking it out!  It's worth the destination!

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Saturday my husband and I decided to take a day trip to the Northern Kitsap Peninsula.  For those of you who don't know, even through most of the state of Washington rains 9 months of the year, the Northern Kitsap Peninsula actually gets less rain and more sun than Los Angeles.  Its also filled with quaint little small Scandinavian towns like Poulsbo, and tiny beach towns with old general stores and fancy town halls, like Port Gamble.

Poulsbo Washington has great little Scandinavian gift shops along their pier.  Great for walking around, chatting with locals, and spending a few dollars on hand made crafts and jewelery.

We found this great little Mexican restaurant down a fun narrow alley way.

Sulys! A great little bake shop with Scandinavian treats to delight any age.

Port gamble is a tiny little town with an old colonial feel.  Great little downtown by the sea, with a fantastic general store, that sells tons of chotchkees, gifts, ice cream, a candy emporium, its own little coffee and sandwich shop, and a museum of local sea life on the top floor. 

A few other great places to check out in Port Gamble is the local Post Office with its magnificent architecture, also part of the same building, is the local theater, with old bench pews for seating.  Another great sight is the Buena Vista Cemetery, one of the oldest in Washington State.

Just a stones throw from Port Gamble, is another small town called Hansville.  Though there is not much to do in this town except dream of owning a little bungalow here by the sea, there is a really beautiful light house out on Point No Point.

You can actually rent out this light house during certain times of the year as a vacation rental.  You're in charge of turning the light on at night and everything.   You can find locals on the beach just past the light house skimming the beach for sea glass, and building forts out of drift wood.

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Another short distance from here is Suqualimy, where you can visit there town cemetery and pay your regards to Chief Seattle himself.  Another one of Washington's oldest cemeteries, but still in use.  You can find the remains of many original native Indians, as well as ancestors of Chief Seattle. Many pay their respect by leaving a trinket rock, pinecone, dream catcher or Indian flute on the graves.

After a day of tramping through the Kitsap Peninsula, you can catch a cheep ferry ride back to Seattle.

A perfect way to end a trip.  Feels good to spark up the old spirit.

"Beep Beep" from The Little Road!

BIG CHILL APPLIANCES

A girl can dream cant she?

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Right now I'm dreaming of a kitchen full of Big Chill appliances.

I'm particularly fond of this Jadite Green color.

Oooohhh All white kitchen with black counter tops, white subway tiles with gray grout,  and a green fridge!!  YES PLEASE!!!

"Beep Beep" from The Little Road!



A COOK BOOK CLUB

Do any of you readers belong to a book club?

My husband just came up with this awesome idea to start a Cook Book Club.

We put together a group about a month and a half ago and designated a cook book.  We chose "New World Kitchen" by Norman Van Aken.  This book features Latin American and Caribbean recipes.

  We actually didn't designate it to only this book, to make it cost effective for everyone, we also allowed people to find recipe's on line from Norman Van Aken. We also made a point to help people find the book at their local library's as well.  So for the last month and a half our book group has been experimenting with recipe's from the book.  Here are a few of our favorite recipe's from the book.

Vaca Frita (Crispy Beef).  This was basically a flank steak that was cooked twice.  Originally boiled, then marinated over night and then fried in a pan... Really easy and oohh so yummy.  Also from the book, we made Congri (Mixed black beans and rice) and Maduros (Sweet ripened plantains that are fried).  Everything was very easy to do, and delicious!

We also made this dish called Con Mani.  Braised beef shanks in coconut milk, avocado and currents.  We sided it with another recipe Aroz Con Coco.  Coconut rice with bacon. (Homina Homina)

I have to say, this took all day slaving over a hot stove to cook. (Hence the crappy dark photo, I don't think we actually got to eating this till almost 9 in the evening.)  Wasn't the easiest recipe, but it was excellent when all said and done, and the Aroz Con Coco was SOOOOOOOOO good.  The bacon kind of caramelized.... Might I call it candied bacon! 

This wound up being one of our disasters.  Fermented pineapple juice, or should I call it FURRRRMENTED.  You soak a pineapple wrine in water and sugar for 4 days and then strain it.  By the forth day it looked like it could strain its self!  I couldn't bring myself to do anything with this except throw it in the garbage.  I'm elergic to penicillin... I didn't see it going well for me.  On the plus side, I really didn't loose much, just the inedible part of a really tasty pineapple, so no harm no foul!

So after our group experimented with the book for a month and a half, we all got together for a potluck of favorite recipe's from the book!  Great time to get together with friends and eat really great food.  Also, at the potluck we picked another member to choose the next book.  I cant wait to see what book we get to experiment with next!!

Now go out and start your own Cook Book Clubs!!

"Beep Beep" from The Little Road 



EASTER CUTENESS

HAPPY EASTER!!

Pictures from my Pinterest Boards

"Beep Beep" from The Little Road!

DIY PANTRY LABELS

I believe in food storage.  Not only for its economical use, but also for times of emergency.... Or even if your pocket book is thin.  My husband and I have a pretty handsome pantry that we've acquired over time.  We love to buy products from our local farmers market that will keep in our pantry or that we can use for canning. We love to buy pastas and grains from Pappardelle's.  Fanciful fruit blend is one of our favorites! Pasta is always good in a pinch.

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I started scouring Etsy for some cute labels that I could use to organize our pantry.  There are lots of cute ones out there but nothing that really catered to what we have at home, and for the amount of food storage we have, it could easily get up there in cost.

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So I decided to fiddle around on my paint program on my computer, and see what I could come up with on my own.  Check it out!

I made 2 different sizes to work with my different storage jars.

It was super easy to do, and every computer comes with some sort of paint program.  I just used the basic shapes button to create the borders, and  I always find fun free fonts to download off Pinterest.  Free!  Now all I have to do is print them out on sticker back paper and start organizing!

"Beep Beep" from The Little Road!

A TALE OF TWO ROOMS

Hi friends. Sorry I've been absent for a week or so, I've been working like crazy on our new closet office in our bedroom.  It's almost finished, but still needs a little more work.  I can't wait to show it off to you once it's done!

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On another note, my kitchen and dining room is seriously baffling me... Sure, I consider myself design savvy, but I hope I'm not the only one that can say that sometimes I design by error.... (meaning, I just keep making mistakes and changing it till it is right.) I'm sure it happens to a lot of people, but for me, sometimes I need to be cautious of what I buy and how it will look because were not the kind of people that can afford to fix every mistake.

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Anywho, you need a little history before I tell you my real dilemma.

This is my kitchen...... Which I hate.

From the cheep cupboards that should only belong in a garage, to the exorcist pea soup vinyl counter tops and floor!!  I HATE IT!!  It's probably the narrowest nonfunctional kitchen I've ever seen in my life. No romantic cooking with your husband in this kitchen!!! Unless you consider being wedged like a sandwich in between two nasty appliances from the 70's romantic.   I've done my best to make it look a little better.... Changed out the stupid plastic drawer pulls for nicer ones.... I even took the doors off the cupboards a while back to try an insinuate open shelving..... But lets be honest no one is fooling anyone hear.... This kitchen sucks!

This is my dining room........ Which I don't hate quite as much.

The table is wonky and takes up too much space... but I LOVE the chairs!  We recently ripped out a section of carpet because it was damaged.... But were planning to put wood looking laminate throughout the house hopefully within the next year.   I built my wall of shelves not to long ago.... and I LOVE them too!

The two rooms stand side by side and smack dab in the middle of our little condo by the sea.  You have to walk right in between the kitchen and the dining room to get to the other side of the house.

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Here is my little dream.....

 Rip out the horrible kitchen and extend it trough the dining room. It would wrap around the dining room and then pop out into the open area with a small island and a few stools.  We rarely ever eat at the dinner table unless we have company over.  It's mostly just a catch all for our filing papers and mail.  With a wrap around kitchen there will be more room for cooking and entertaining as well.  Maybe not for any fancy sit down dinners, but were potluck kind of people anyway.

Here is an idea of what I'm thinking.  The current kitchen is on the left.  Id leave the stove, sink and dishwasher over there, since the hookups are there.  On the right side, the fridge, a ton more counter space, my wall of shelves, and a little island with 2 or 3 bar stools.

The Grand Vision!

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The Dilemma......

The dining room is hardly functional at this point.  A design error on my part. For one, everything is so stark!  Prior to installing the shelving, the huge dandelion chandelier was a treat.  Now its just enormous and in the way. This really makes me so sad, because I really love it, but to get to my spices these days means I'm getting poked in the eye by an enormous paper flower!  Also after installing the wall of shelves, it made the room very vertical, and strait lined, so my round table is like a force against nature.  There isn't enough space to comfortably sit around it and its sticking out like a soar thumb.  *Sigh*

I love the wall shelving... so functional for us and lovely, it is for sure the keeper in this anomaly.

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What to do?....

Do I buy a new table that is rectangular to compliment the shelving on the wall?  It doesn't have to be a huge financial ordeal... Maybe even a picnic table that is old and rustic... or painted dark gray?

Or do I anticipate the dream and simply buy a small kitchen island and a few stools?

Thus leaving lots of space for the inevitable (or should I say hopeful) dream of wraping kitchen around the dining room.

What would you do?

I need some advice!!

"Beep Beep" from The Little Road!



A SENTIMENTAL SALVAGE

We used to have this pretty little tree just outside our door, down the path.

Every spring it would sprout dainty little pink flowers.  It was a wonderful tree.  A few years back, one of the tenants here put 2 little bird houses up in the tree. I have no idea who made them, but they are very sweet, and they were so cute up in that tree.

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Well, I recently took a trip to California, and when I came home my tree was gone!!!

I guess it had died this winter.  I never noticed.

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The other day I noticed the two little bird houses just laying on the ground under a bush.

I had to rescue them!

(Sorry, that isn't the best picture of them)

They are so cute though.  Cute little primitive wood with an old wire hanger to hang it.  They don't look that great, but they are adorable! They just need a little work.

They just needed a coat of paint and some love!  Don't we all?

I sided on a dark charcoal paint and I had some fun with some moss ribbon and lots of hot glue!

I think it would be so cute if I could find a little metal star to put above the opening.

I just love that rusty hanger top!

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I'm going to keep one of these for myself, and put the other one in my shop, so someone else can give it a proper home in a new tree.

"BEEP BEEP" from The Little Road!