Jenna's Visit

My little sister came to visit us last week.  It was so much fun having her around!  She just turned 16 and is the only one at the house, so I know she enjoyed being around me & Zak.  She got into Spokane a little behind schedule, but that didn't deter us one bit. We stayed up playing games and watching Arrested Development. For the most part, we spent the day together (I switched shifts w/people at work in order to spend time with her, Zak worked a few days), watching AD or doing some project or eating.  Or a combination of all three.  My favorite project was something I had gotten months before from work and was dying to share them with her: piggy banks to decorate (we are 'piggy sissas', which started with our shared love of the Beatles' song 'Piggies' and then evolved from there)!  The piggies turned out very cute, as you can see.

 one side of mine

Jenna showing off her pig's glittery bum

oink oink

piggy sissas

One day we decided to have an impromptu picnic in the park.  I made delicious sub sandwiches and had grapes, chips and cookies in the park.  My favorite part culminated with Zak rolling up Jenna in our picnic blanket.

about to enjoy the food

a pretty good story through pictures

Jenna and I also made some necklaces with some fun charms I had found on etsy.  We also spent some time at Michael's picking out a few extras.  It was a fun activity, and they turned out pretty well.

                            one of the necklaces I did                                           Jenna's

we also did children's clearanced mosaics

and Jenna colored these wooden animals that represent her in our family

We also went shopping at the mall when Zak was there working one night.  We hit up Old Navy and of course, Macy's and ended up with some great buys.

We also ate a lot of delicious food.  We had chicken skewers one night, yummy homemade burgers the other night, pasta with spaghetti and cream sauce, coconut curry chicken, blueberry coffee cake, among others.  I love cooking and enjoyed having another person around to feed (less leftovers, haha).

burger night, yum!

color foods  (char sui, blue rice, zucchini & green beans)

Zak and Jenna enjoyed fighting/antagonizing/playing together.  It was definitely nice to have a break from all of that.  They are so funny together and just make me laugh.  Zak also gave Jenna a sweet (his word) tattoo on her arm the night before we took her to the airport.  All three of us used some temporary tattoos Jenna had (dinosaurs and butterflies), which were awesome.  It was nice to just be goofy and carefree, which is how I feel when I'm with Jenna.

 left-handed wrasslin'

comparing our hamster to a chicken nugget

Jenna's

mine - I like to pretend they're yelling at each other

Zak's are fighting vertically

giving her a tattoo

yes, he spelled it wrong (he didn't think to ask me)

It was a very fun week and it was sad to see her go, but we loved having the time we did have with her.  She is a very smart, adorable and fun young lady and it's crazy to me that she is already 16 and a junior in high school.  I'm not fond of that, but if anyone can handle the drama of high school, it's my sister.  Mom and Dad, thank you for giving up your baby for a week (& trusting her with us, ahaha) and Jenna, thanks for coming to visit.  It was so nice to have you here, you are such a person and I love being your older sister and perhaps smothering you sometimes. :)

 she is putting ketchup from a packet on her fries. this is why we are sisters.

(It's times like these that I really miss my family and being home in CA.  Boo.) 

Crafty

I have been rather crafty lately.  Aside from my current project of turning our huge number of wedding cards into scrapbooking material, I took on this little project for our kitchen.  Last month, Zak bought me a basil plant as a surprise gift (say it with me: awhhh).  At the time, the weather was lovely and we decided to put it in one of the planter boxes in the 'backyard'.  Then that huge storm from Alaska hit and we brought it inside.  Then it started to die, despite us watering it. 

Well the other day we were at the Co-Op, lusting after organic apples for $4.99/lb and overpriced pastries, we noticed a basil plant that was calling to us emotionally and financially.  We decided to give basil another try, but this time keep it inside, so we could control it easier and we'd always have basil.  Last week I was at Michael's getting deeply involved with scrapbook paper and whatnot (I am not a very good scrapbook person, and I try to not get interested in it because there is TOO MUCH stuff & I have bills to pay, but I splurged on an item or two) and bought a pot to put our plant it.  But the craft part of my brain wasn't sated with just A pot, and I soon found myself buying (in my defense, everything was on clearance/way on sale, so I am a smart shopper) paint and ribbon.

Sunday I painted the pot and the lid that goes on the bottom.  I originally painted the body of the pot white, but once I did the lip of it pink, the color started to get more and more intermixed with the white as I tried to make a line around the body in pink.  I called upon my (limited) artistic skills and just straight up mixed the colors so it has a sort of feathery look to the paint.  I don't know if you can see it in the pictures, but I actually really like it!  I had gotten this cute teal ribbon and my original plan was to put it around a white lip of the pot, but ah, I made it work. 

I think it turned out really cute & hopefully our plant will live long in its new, cute home!

all cute & ready to be a home

all ready!

happy basil in its new (& slightly dirty because I'm clumsy) home