2016.

january

we went on a beautiful wintry hike to heather lake.

we went to cabo san lucas!

i went night skiing for the first time.

i made some "fancy" citrus & herb ice cubes ;)  these were featured on the feedfeed's community cooking site in the herbs & spices feed. 

 

february

barely caught a couple of gorgeous sunsets at the end of the workday near our house. i live for the days when it is not dark out at 5pm.

i baked up a lot of bready goods. 

pete and i went on a fun valentine's day bus camping trip on whidbey island.

 

march

spring came early and it was freaking beautiful.

i discovered the most delicious fluffy chocolate marshmallow filled donut at general porpoise donuts in capitol hill.

i attempted my very first lemon meringue pie from scratch for my dad's birthday. the pie turned out tasty & scrumptious, but looked hideous and you won't find it on this blog. i'm always bummed when recipes don't work out on my first try (especially when i take all the process photos expecting the food to turn out just right)...but it's all just part of the learning process. i'm getting better at accepting that and attempting recipes again instead of turning my back on them forever. anyhow, i'm excited to create some successful meringue magic. 

my company spent several days shooting at snoqualmie pass in the remaining winter's snow for our winter 2017 print piece. these shoots are really fun and a lot of work with a lot of moving parts. its definitely cool to see the images from this project out in the wild, and in print!

during our big shoot, i took this photo on my moment macro lens and it is now featured on the product page for this arc'teryx jacket. 

 

april

we visited pete's fam on lopez island. love that fairy tale house.

spring was GORGEOUS!!! and this photo above was reposted by DESIGN SPONGE on instagram. i about lost my damn mind! that was reallyyyy something.

i carried on my merry ice cube making way and came up with these coffee & coconut cream ice cubes. this recipe was also featured on the feedfeed's cooking site in the caffeinated beverages feed. 

may

i tried my hand at various fruit-as-roses.

pete and i went backpacking in the rain at goat lake.

fun summertimes began to commence. pete and i set out on our volkswagen road trip to utah!

this photo below of our happy cheddar bus in moab was shot with my moment wide lens for iphone, and was reposted on moment's instagram account.

made delicious homemade tzatziki. this image above was reposted by food should taste good on instagram.

june

evening bike rides and picnics are what life is all about :)

evo's annual employee retreat was one to remember. the theme was high school cliques and my marketing team was the marching band. so many laughs and hilarious videos taken that i still laugh wildly at today. 

we had oodles of back porch barbecues and gatherings and rode bikes to our beloved marination ma kai. pete bought a ukulele and we started learning lots from cynthia lin on youtube. she's amaaazing. and cool. pete got another uke for christmas and is still really into it. i think my uke talents peaked at 'three little birds.'

^^^ neighborhood summer solstice partay on the hill. except that durn cloud covered the sunset. we still had a fun picnic. so crazy that this is at like 9:40pm.... ah! can't wait!

lopez island again for the 4th of july! always a grand ol' time!

oregon kriekfest & camping near hood river! 

lake union boat party for piper's birthday!

ADELE!!!!!!!!!! she is just amazing. 

 

august

ohhhh summer night grillin' at its best. i LOVEEEE this time of year.

more fun summer nights!! above is a crazy nicoise salad made by our friend jeff. what a delight!

pete and i spent a lazy summer afternoon on the patio of the bar on lopez island just drinking beer and chatting it up with all the yocals that came and went. such a fun day.

our obsession with locals flip flops is still v strong. we re-upped on our supply on our trip to hawaii this fall :)

pizza & pals. ❤️

^^^ ashleigh's birthday/crab made of bread bash at birch bay!

more grillin' and chillin' and dining al fresco.

lake days.

sounders game!

pete demolished the last 15 feet or so of our very long driveway and we are expanding our backyard! it's not done yet, but the yard is twice the width now. 👍

september

i concocted this mess of chocolate and mallows and s'mores ice cream in a skillet. this image was also shared on instagram by lodge cast iron.

september = sportzball.

so much sports ball..

pete and i went to his friend julie's amazing hindi wedding at the four seasons.

outdoor hall & oates concert with friends!

 

october

pete & i took a fun day trip to vashon island.

halloweener!

 

november

we visited friends in the bay area for the UW vs. Cal game. such a fun weekend!!!

in n' out treat before we headed back to seattle.

fall four square games at work. just like the good ol days.

pete and i celebrated 8 years together! 😘

then we went to HAWAII!

^^^ my cutie uncle transported his wine to thanksgiving dinner in a laundry basket. 😂

rainy thanksgiving cocktails with my bestie!

pete & i got the perfect tree from our local produce stand before i left for nyc.

 

december

snow in seattle! only an inch or so. but we still went sledding and made a snowman, haha.

my friend whitney and i went back to new york city! i just love that place! seeing it during the holidays was a dream come true.

^^^at pete's company holiday party.

^^^ i spent my first christmas ever with peter and his family, which is kinda crazy! we'd just never been in the same place on christmas day before this one...so it was pretty fantastic to be with him. i loved it.

saw a cool harry potter themed gingerbread exhibit at the sheraton hotel in seattle.

celebrated my 29th birthday and rung (rang? ruhuuung?) in the new year with friends at a beautiful airbnb on vashon island! i loved pete's adorable surprise birthday waffle breakfast he made for me.❤️

2016 was pretty good to me and i'm so grateful & thankful to lead this privileged life with amazing people around me. it was a rough, at times horrifying, year in this country and around the world.  i will continue to be positive and appreciate every good thing in my life, which i'm fortunate enough to do every single day.

in this online space, i can only hope that any little thing i've shared on this blog may encourage or teach or inspire somebody in some small way, and make their day just a little bit brighter. 

 

xoxo

qp

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:

qp