Candles

 I love burning candles in my apartment. I love the smell of them and I love the look of them in various places in my small living space. Sometimes I'll just turn on my candle warmer, but more often I'll light a variety of candles while I'm at home. One time last year I had to drive home during my lunch break to make sure I hadn't left a candle burning. I don't light candles in the morning anymore. :o)

I've had a few candles from Bath and Body Works that I like, but they haven't burned that well. There was never enough wick for all of the wax. Just recently I've discovered my two favorite candles. I bought the Pumpkin Harvest Febreze candle at Target not too long ago and I've loved it! I burned it everyday since I bought it. It had a great fragrance and it burned totally down to the bottom. Now I can reuse the glass jar it was in. (I like to recycle those kinds of things.) The only problem with that candle is that it is seasonal. It isn't even November and the candle is off the shelves. Now they have the Christmas candles out. And I'm not ready for Christmas yet.

Now that I've used up that candle I looked in my cabinet for something else to burn while I'm at home. I pulled out this Yankee Candle that a family gave to me at the end of last school year. It isn't Field of Dreams like the picture, it is Over the Moon. I LOVE IT! It has a nice fresh smell, and because my place is so small the whole apartment smells great. I'm hoping it will last a while and that it burns down nicely.

California

You know you live in California when...
There is a little bit of frost on the playground slide and a kid yells "Look! Its snow!!"

Grandma's Cooking

First of all I'm pretty sure Julie must have been wearing shoes in this picture and I wasn't, because she is NOT taller than me. I'm pretty sure this picture was from 2002 or 2003. Not sure. I think that was the last time my Grandparents came out for a visit. 

Ok, now that I've gotten that straight. Over the summer my family took a trip to Wisconsin to visit my Grandparents (my mom's parents). As much as I love going to visit my friends I wish I could visit my Grandparents the most often. I love going to see them. On this last trip I decided that I wanted to copy down my Grandma's recipes. Grandma is a great cook. She is known for her cinnamon rolls, which she makes from scratch. So for a good portion of the week that we were there I sat with my dad's laptop and the recipe book which my Grandma has been adding to for years. It took a long time to type all of the recipes out, and I still have more to type. I ended up taking pictures of the pages so I could continue typing out the recipes. My goal is to have all of them typed and then make a cookbook. I've been looking around for ideas of how to make a cookbook that looks nice, but doesn't cost a ton of money. I thought about going the Shutterfly route, but I didn't really like the layouts that much and I knew that I was going to put a lot of recipes in it so it didn't really go along the amount of money I wanted to spend. I thought about just printing it at Kinkos and having them bind it. And I was probably going to do that until my friend Stephanie told me about Lulu. Lulu is an online publishing company, which Steph's husband Jeremy used for some Bible curriculum he wrote. I looked at the website and loved the idea instantly.
So the plan is to...

1. Finish typing all of Grandma's recipes (I think I am getting close to finishing). 
2. Try out a good chunk of the recipes and take pictures of them. 
3. Create a format for the pages of the cookbook.
4. Collect pictures from my relatives of them and Grandma.
5. Upload the entire project & publish it. 

Lulu is the kind of thing where I wouldn't have to try to sell huge quantities of the book, but they would make them as they are purchased. And honestly I'm not looking to sell that many, other than to my family members. I know that a lot of the recipes will taste amazing, but really for me it is special because it is the recipes that my Grandma cooks. 

I love my Grandma, and I am sad that I have lived so far away from her and my Grandpa for my entire life. Every visit is a wonderful time. 

Reading list

So after I made my list of things to do by the time I turn 30 I looked through the books on my shelves to see how many I had to read... And then I almost passed out. It is a very long list! Yikes! I am ashamed to say that I have a lot of books that I have started and never finished. I'm going to  work really hard at marking the books off my list in the next couple of years. I can do this!

I was going to share the list, but I'm embarrassed with how many books I have to read. So I'm skipping out on showing the list until I have a few more checked off. :o/ Yes, I'm a chicken.

30 by 30

I've been feeling inspired by seeing my friend's lists of thing they want to do by a certain time. In 2 1/2 years I will be 30 so I'd say that is a good amount of time to get through a list of things I want to get done.

Italicized items are ones I am working on right now.

So here is my list in no particular order.

1. Read through the entire Bible
2. Donate my hair to Locks of Love (I'm growing it out at the moment)
3. Publish a cookbook of my Grandma's recipes
4. Read through the books on my bookshelf that I have not read
5. Draw one sketch each day for 30 days in a row
6. Make a quilt for my bed
7. Walk in a half-marathon
8. Take a cooking class
9. Loose 20 pounds and keep if off for 6 months
10. Make a Christmas quilt (I started cutting out the pieces a while ago and haven't picked it up in a while) 
11. Visit Yosemite
12. Eat at the Melting Pot
13. Cook through an entire cookbook
14. Visit another country (other than the ones I've been to)
15. Sew something I can wear
16. Publish a children's book
17. Stick to my budget for two months in a row (I hope after 2 months it will be easy to stick with it for a long time)
18. Go on a hot air balloon ride
19. Visit the Grand Canyon
20. Write my Grandma 2 letters per month
21. Clean out my Gmail inbox to zero
22. Have a picture taken of me that I really like
23. Visit a winery in Sonoma County
24. Sing with someone famous (not sure if that is realistic or not)
25. Go to the middle of nowhere at look at the stars
26. Get a massage (I have the gift card, just need to make the appointment) 
27. Learn to play the piano so I can sing while I play
28. Make a pie from scratch
29. Take a flower arranging class
30. Host a tea party at my apartment. 

I'll be posting things as I cross them off of my list. 

Some aren't extremely realistic, but they are fun anyway. 

So far this fall!

1st day of school!

Dani's 1st day of school!

Happy Birthday Allie!

Silly!

Driven to walk by faith - Teachers racing!

Soccer Under the Lights! Ethan all bundled up!

Sonoma County Fair

Top 5 Reasons why I love going to the fair with my family:

5. The Flower Show - I don't know how other fairs are in different areas, but the Sonoma County Fair has an amazing flower show. There is an entire pavilion dedicated to it. Landscaping groups take up sections of it and fill the entire area with plants of all colors and sizes. Every year there is a theme. This year the theme was wine. Which makes sense for Sonoma County. Walking into this area was like walking into

Fountain made of wine bottles! Very cool idea!

4. Free Clover Ice Cream - Every day during the fair there is a booth that passes out free ice cream cones. The ice cream tastes great and best part of all...it is free. :o) It is nice to not have to spend a ton of money at the fair.

3. Kids Rides - Normally I don't go on rides at the fair, but my niece Danika is at the age where she loves going on rides. We tried to do other things, but all she talked about was the Carousel. It was fun going on rides with her. Most of the time she had a very serious face, but we all knew she had a great time.

She looks terrified, but this ride was all she talked about for the first 20 minutes at the fair. 

2. The Food - Raise your hand if you like fair food! (mine hand is high in the sky!) Food at the fair is so much fun. I love trying new things. Now I'm not talking about a greasy hot dog. My usual at the fair is pesto pasta from The Pasta King. I know exactly where to find them at the fair. This year I had pork sliders from Johnny Garlic's. Wow they were amazing! Another favorite is the kettle corn.

1. Photo-booth Pictures - This is my favorite thing to do at the fair! It is the main reason I go. People laugh at me and tell me to just go to the mall, but it isn't the same. I LOVE the tradition Julie and I made the first time we took Dani to the fair. It is fun to see how she has grown in one year. She still doesn't quite get the idea, but we are getting there. I played around a little on Picnik with the picture.

And there you have it!