Since Jonathan and I met, he has told me time and again about a wonderful trip he took to Seattle, then how he took the train to Vancouver, and how beautiful and fun the whole experience was. Well, we’ve been saving up our Southwest miles, and guess what? We recently booked our FREE flights to Seattle for an entire week in March (over his spring break). I have been to Seattle once, but it was a long time ago for my cousin’s wedding, so much of our time was filled with family events. We did visit the space needle and the pike place market, but my memories are hazy. I’m looking forward to re-experiencing it all as a grown up, as well as taking my FIRST trip to Canada.

During the trip, we will stay in a hostel like we did for Boston, see the sights, and meet the people. I can’t wait for another fun adventure with my boy. This is also half of one of my 12 in 2012 items – the other half is a trip with mama, which is ALSO happening in March! March is simply going to be a blast.

Images: Seattle and Vancouver

So, this isn’t rocket science. And really, it’s not even a recipe. But I just have to suggest that if you need an easy, inexpensive meal for 2-10 people, you should go with personal pizzas. For our recent girls’ night (for 7) we did just this. I bought three packages of whole wheat pizza dough from Trader Joe’s, and divided each into thirds. Each of us flattened and garnished our own veggie pizzas…and what did I do with the extra 2/3 dough? Oh, I flattened it, topped it with a little oil and cheese, baked it, and we all pulled at it as we sat around the table, drinking wine and giggling post dinner. Delish.

It is just so easy, and required little prep on my part. So as everyone got there, we stood around the kitchen, drinking wine and eating an appetizer while we each decorated our own little pizza. Then while they baked, we sat in the living room and talked and drank wine. Are you sensing a theme? *hint: the theme is wine.*

So the next time you are planning a little dinner, make pizzas! Your friends can bring a salad, appetizer, dessert…and wine.

I recently made this little project after some inspiration from various other online examples. It was surprisingly easy to make, and only too me about 1 1/2 hours, and cost about $15. I would say that for that time and money, it’s way better than some cheesy heart-laden wreath, don’t you agree?

What you’ll need:

1 flower foam wreath thing (you know, those green rings you find in the fake flower section at Michael’s. I’m sure they have a real name but…this is all I’ve got).
Approximately 150 cupcake wrappers, depending on how full you want your wreath to be.
Wide ribbon to wrap the foam wreath (I bought red for this).
Hot glue (low heat)

What you do:

Wrap the foam with ribbon, hot gluing occasionally to hold it in place.

Start gluing sections of cupcake wrappers. I recommend folding each wrapper into 8ths, and gluing about 10 at a time. I only glued the tips, as close together as I could, and they formed into nice little pom-pom shapes. Let them cool before you try gluing any more in their space.

Once I got all the way around, I was liking how it looked so I only added a few more wrappers to each section. I didn’t feel like it needed to have every inch covered, so I stopped when I liked how it looked. Plus, I suck at hot glue and my fingers were starting to get mad at me…so I called it quits.

What do you think?

This was my first experience with stitch witchery, and I’m now obsessed. I like to sew, but there are some things (like an old pair of brown pants) that would be hard for me to hem without leaving a very visible trail behind. Here’s how it works:

Cut a strip of stitch witchery and place it between the two pieces of fabric you want to repair.

Cover with a damp cloth, and turn your iron to “wool” setting.

Hold your iron on the spot for 10 seconds, but don’t move the iron up and down. Then flip the hem over and do the same on the other side. Let it cool and check how you did. Magical!

I also reorganized a few sections of my closet to make it a little more aesthetically pleasing (really just for me…no one else would even be able to tell). So I count this item as FINISHED!

(sorry for the crummy photo – it was just too dark at home!)

This makes a ton – about 10 cups (though who actually eats one serving of anything these days). I made mine with whole wheat pasta and natural peanut butter, to make myself feel a little better, and it turned out great.

Ingredients
1 pound dry spaghettini or thin spaghetti pasta
1 cup snow pease, sliced vertically
1/2 cup chunky or super-chunky peanut butter
1/3 cup rice-wine vinegar
1/3 cup sugar
3 Tablespoons soy sauce
2 Tablespoons water
1 Tablespoon Asian-style toasted sesame oil
1/4 cup Thai sweet chili sauce*
1 1/2 teaspoons finely minced garlic
1 teaspoon finely minced fresh gingerroot
1 Tablespoon sesame seeds, roasted or toasted in a small pan on stove top
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 large carrot, cut in small matchsticks of julienned (or chopped haphazardly, if you’re me)
2 cups bean sprouts (or more! they add great crunch!)
4 green onions, thinly sliced
1/2 cup salted roasted peanuts, chopped.

Directions

1. Cool spaghetti according to package, until just cooked. Drain and rinse in cold water. Let it drain very well, and set aside.

2. Bring a small pan of water to a boil, add snow peas and count to 5. Drain immediately and rinse in cold water. Drain well.

3. In a large bowl combine peanut butter, vinegar, sugar, soy sauce, water, sesame oil, chili sauce, garlic and ginger. Whisk together until smooth.

4. Add cooked pasta, snow peas, sesame seeds, cilantro, carrots, bean sprouts, green onions, and chopped peanuts to dressing. Toss together, coating everything well with the dressing.

EAT AND LOVE!!

*Thai sweet chili sauce is a sweet and hot sauce that has a translucent quality about it. I found some in the Asian food section at my local Kroger. Just be warned that this is NOT the very spicy, hot chili paste also carried there.

So I got really excited when I discovered that the Spirit of Nashville store has created a few cross stitch kits for their images. You may recognize this one…What I love about this project is that when I’m done, I could actually put it in a frame in my office or house somewhere. So yes, I’m a dork for liking cross stitching, but it’s just a great way to keep your hands busy on the road and at home!

Jonathan asked me on this date. But somewhere in the midst of our several-hours-of-talking, I asked him on our second. It would be the next day and we would meet to watch the Packers play in a play off game, but we would really spend most the time talking. This was probably the first and last time he spent most of a football game talking instead of watching the action. But it was perfect. That night, I knew I was going to love him.

Our third date was two days after that, when he took me to paint a canvas so I could cross it off my list. The next day, I got the flu…but he brought me soup later in the week. Then he met my friends, and I met his. And I met his family, and he met mine. And we traveled, and we adventured, and we had a wonderful year of ups and downs learning about each other and ourselves. Not to mention that I’ve watched a lot more football and he’s helped with a lot more baking than ever. We make a great team and I couldn’t be prouder to call him my man.

So here we are, one year down! Cheers to you, babe, and all the things year #2 might bring us.

For those of you who care…here are just a few photos from our year!

If a man is willing to wear a cheesehead after knowing you only a month…he’s a keeper. {also this is our first photo together}

We have had so many travel adventures, I don’t even know where to begin!

He’s a total goof and constantly makes me laugh.

And I am grateful for every experience we’ve had – good and bad, small and large, and everything in between.