2015.
/hey! happy new year to you! here is my recap of 2015. it was an awesome year!! i take so many photos, every day, all the time, which is what makes this post possible :) xo
january
2015 began with a crisp winter's walk in our neighborhood on new year's day. i started getting into photographing the food that i would make. pete's 27th birthday was spent pouring bronze and completing his 2nd bronze casting class. we started finding more art and fun things to hang around our new house and make it more cozy. pete and i went on a winter hike with lauren and levi at lake 22.
february
i insisted on busting out the wooden heart light pete and i had made for tobin and dave's wedding photo booth and having dinner in the backyard on valentine's day. i am so glad i did! because...just look how cute it looked! i started getting more and more into cooking and baking this month, photographing the process, and writing my own recipes. just when i thought i was going to quit using my blog altogether, i found a new use for it.
i must say that i think this podcast had a lot to do with me reviving my blog and continuing to be creative with something that really excites me -- food! my true love!! jess's podcast was super inspiring to me and i couldn't get enough of it once i discovered it early on in the year! i listen to every episode no matter what the topic is. i've actually learned a ton from this podcast. it really opened my eyes to the possibilities that there are for creative ladies (& gents) like myself, and all sorts of topics and issues that i didn't necessarily know about already. the main take away from each episode is that all those people listened to their gut instincts and used the resources around them to continue persevering on their passion projects/goals, working toward their personal version of success & achievement. it's very interesting and inspiring.
it also introduced me to a lot of bloggers that i now follow online, and they continue to inspire me in different ways all the time! i would definitely recommend this podcast if you're into self-motivation! i didn't even know i was into self-motivation, but turns out i am! and this one really inspired me. thanks, jess :) you reached me just in the nick of time and got me out of a little slump. i don't know what i would do with all my free time nowadays if i didn't have my blog to keep me creative.
march
more fun kitchen creations in the works this month. pete and i took our friends up to lopez island for their first time. we also continued to make our house a home, finding good uses for empty corners and updating our furniture situation here and there.
april
baby finn was born one day before his mama's birthday! here's grandma michele with her sweet grandson. i also made some tribute birthday pancakes for baby finn, alex, and the owen family who showed me the ways of chocolate pancakes :) pete and i flipped all the grass in our front yard and planted a bunch of herbs and crawling ground cover plants. its starting to grow in quite nicely now! and hardly any weeds! the mint is growing like crazy and we've got way too much of it, though. also, we took a weekend trip to camano island with some friends, where we saw a grey whale pass by the beach house! it was so cool!
may
may was a busy month of fun things! first up, one of my fav eating/drinking holidays. i made a semi-loco cinco display, just for pete and me! then i jetted off to las vegas with my friends for lauren's bachelorette party. we finished off the month with a 6-day roadtrip down the west coast in pete's volkswagen bus over memorial day weekend. it was so much fun. then, summer came early and we were all hitting the beach before june. in seattle, this is insanity.
june
my friend whitney and i took a stroll down memory lane and i channelled my inner-country girl at the shania twain concert. ooooh yahhh. shania is still a major babe. just watch this. pete and i put our new-to-us canoe (from my parents) to use in lake union. grillin' & chillin' and general summery goodness ensued. we celebrated lauren at her luau bridal shower. my company retreat in the snoqualmie area was another super fun time. the guy with giant brownie tray is supposed to be kevin mccallister - he was on team 1990's for our decades themed retreat. i started making homemade popsicles and everybody freaked out and thought i was a culinary genius. lolz. pete and i experimented with growing garlic, and he stepped up his hop-growing game in our driveway. he got quite a haul this year! summer solstice was completely beautiful spent on the hill by our house. we took a trip to a friend's cabin at hood canal. so much fun!!! summer was in full swing.
july
4th of july spent on lopez island is always the best. our sad little garlic bulbs taught us a lesson in growing garlic. more popsicles. my friend piper's birthday party in portland somehow became pizza-themed. because pizza. lauren and levi got married!!! pete's hops continued to flourish.
august
pete decided he was going to take this table (that we spent 7 months hand-painting each tile and built with our bare hands) to the DUMP! i was so sad. he put two coats of clear varnish over the top, and the second coat didn't adhere properly to the first. anything you'd put on the table would stick and it never fully dried! it was weird. anyway, i was sad/in denial that he wanted to dump our handmade table of love. i took this pic in its memory. home improvements continued with pete bashing a hole in our back porch! how convenient! pete harvested his 6 hop plants. we celebrated ashleigh's birthday at birch bay. i saw the craziest sunset of my life, right up the hill from our house. sometimes i make foods that i think are too weird to share. this was a red beet + goat cheese toast with fried egg. it tasted really good actually; just thought it might freak people out haha.
september
peter and i took a long overnight hike in the alpine lakes. it was beautiful. lauren and levi moved to our hood and we took em bowling and to eat the mysteriously good chinese food and chicken wings they have at the bowling alley. pete and i went to our first volkswagen show, volksfest.
october
ooooh one of my most favorite months. we celebrated peter's dad's birthday at one of our favorite casual food joints, marination ma kai. i got my hair cut. i went to new york city with whitney and had an awesome time eating as much as we possibly could. my friends and i did classic halloween costumes in purple and gold for the halloween husky football game. i wore fake scars on my face and wanted to keep them on forever and look bad ass.
november
november was wonderful and beautiful. I MET/HUGGED/HAD DINNER WITH DREW BARRYMORE. love love love love love love love. sometimes i forget about that, and as soon as i remember this night, i'm like....... HOOOOOLY SHIT! josie grossie for life. seattle is a downright gorgeous place to be in november. peter and i celebrated 7 years together :) i started hunkering down in hibernation mode. pizza socks & homemade pizza. and some healthier things, too. work was cuhraaaaazy busy. pete and i got away to lopez island again for some relaxation and sailing. i spent my first thanksgiving ever with peter's family:) apple cup football game in seattle. i moved my blog from blogger to squarespace. this was actually a pretty big undertaking. i am so happy with the change.
december
a ton of images here since december is fresh in my mind. we got a tall christmas tree. i took some photos of peter's brother's new line of planters he's been working on. we spent 4 days at mt. hood, snowshoeing, skiing, snowboarding, and chilling. and [me] obsessing over the cuteness that is timberline lodge. pete's dad retired after 28 years of working in civil engineering. pete and i threw a christmas party where i was gifted a selfie stick. lololz. many group selfies ensued. marisa and foster got engaged! they visited oodles of friends in seattle. we took this dorky self-timer photo of us holding christmassy props. i got my best friend and her mom pillows printed of their beloved golden retrievers for christmas. christmas happened, and my 28th birthday happened. my friend katy, my neighbor growing up, had her second baby on my birthday! welcome to earth, capri! i wish i had my own photo of you. ashleigh, jun, pete and i trekked out to snoqualmie for the day to bask in the glory of the beautiful snow. the last photo of pizza represents my birthday gift from whitney and ashleigh; we went to a delish pizza dinner and they surprised me with tickets to see amy schumer on new year's eve!
2015, you were a great one! welcome, 2016.
extra! extra!
features on social media
this little photo of our cheddar bus was featured on roadtrippers' instagram account and later featured in the top 10 by seattle met magazine for people's choice award in their fall instagram photo contest.
facebook:
pete and my valentine's day dinner set up featured on nello's sauce facebook page. hehe.
instagram:
my recipe for winter squash red thai curry was featured on feedfeed's website! it now lives in their winter squash recipe feed archives if you're ever looking for inspiration with squash :)
personal instagram photos featured this year:
styling projects/marketing promotions at work, featured on evo.com & evo's instagram page:
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