B is for Big City Times for a Small Town Dude

Andrew and I had the pleasure of showing our 2nd guest ever around Seattle. His parents visited during the summer and then, in cold, dreary January, my dad came to see us! Having guests always gives you the opportunity to do the "touristy" things that you don't normally think of doing after you become accustomed to living here. Here is a pictureful post to show everyone what fun we had!

On one of the first days we walked all the way from the stadiums to Olympic Sculpture Park, which is a few blocks from the Space Needle. Round trip, its about 6 miles of walking, yee haw!

We took the infamous Seattle Underground Tour! Andrew and I had wanted to go, but he was at work. Luckily it was so fun, that I would love to go again. Andrew would love all the historic stories involved. The story basically is, that when Seattle was settled the first time around, they messed up, and ended up having to build new Seattle, on top of old, flooded, shitty (literally) Seattle. Pictured below are the skylights from the underground looking up to the current "1st floor" level Seattle.

Here's what the skylights look like from above. I always thought they were some artsy purple amethyst thing that Seattle just did because. Which is often the case. For art's sake of course. 

Old storefronts in underground Seattle. Super creepyish.



Underground Seattle's famed "sewing circle." The most lucrative business in Seattle's early days. I won't give it away but these seamstresses weren't exactly making quilts. Can you find anything odd about the picture below?



 We took an inexpensive ride on the ferry to Bainbridge Island. Walked around for the day, had a great lunch, and saw some great scenery. Here's the skyline as seen from the ferry. Gorgeous.

And a view of the Needle and Mt. Rainier from Bainbridge. Aren't the houses SO CUTE!? Right on the water. Those people are such luckies!

All smiles for father-daughter time, and an artsy sunset :)



We induldged in great sea food, and many trips to Starbucks during Dad's visit. Also, I had to work for a couple of days, so Andrew and Dad also had their man time to go see strippers and talk about sports, or whatever men do. Just kidding, they went to the Museum of Flight.....as far as I know. Ah shucks I missed it! Thanks for taking the time to visit Dad, it was a memorable time!

U is for Up All Night Crafting

Crafts > Laundry

Back in the good ole days when I had cable, I would have a show to watch almost every day of the week. It helps to pass the time during deployments, and gave me little things to look forward to. Thats a roundabout way tellling you, I was watching a hillarious show, Up All Night, and they had an AMAZING wreath on their door. I couldn't find a still shot of it, but its basically a peace sign with metal studs all over it.

So here is my Up All Night inspired wreath that now gracefully adorns our front door. We're so trendy ;)



Instead of purchasing the usual wreath frame from a craft store, I went to the hardware store for almost all the materials for this wreath. A Pinterest tip prompted me to buy pipe insulation for the frame, which costs about $1, compared to $4 or $5 at the craft store. I simply made a circle, then guestimated the 3 inner sections after that. If you measure correctly, they should fit in place like a puzzle without any glue.

I chose to wrap the pieces individually with ribbon, and then assemble them inside of the larger circle. Because of the angles involved, ribbon wrapping the peace sign as a whole might've been a little too complicated.

Finally, for the studs, I used, get this, upholstery nails!

They're like thumbtacks with little domes on top, which was perfect! Costs about $1 per package of 25. And here's the finished product! A great everyday wreath for those times in between holidays.

Until next time....

Cheers,

KLM



A is for Appetizing AND Healthy? No way.

I try to dabble in healthy food, and I would like to think of myself as a pretty healthy eater (besides the recent sugar cravings, that is). A while back, I subscribed to Women's Health Magazine Online, and recently, probably as some kind of subliminal messaging about not getting lazy, Mom got me a Fitness Magazing subscription. Just kidding Mommmmm!

My fellow coworkers at the aquarium are also eat really healthy. They eat things like chia seeds, hemp seeds, bran, seaweed, quinoa, and everything organic and/or vegan and/or gluten-free. Being surrounded by that kind of stuff makes you think about what you eat. So here's a recipie from an old Women's Health, that I tweaked a little, but its still healthy and yummy!

• Roughly 1 cup of crumbled cooked tilapia. Cook however you like, I just used lemon juice, salt and pepper on the George Foreman grill.
• 1/4 cup chopped red onion
• 1/2 cup thinly sliced kale
• 1/4 diced tomatoes, drained
• 3 Tbsp crumbled feta
• 3 tsp lime juice
• 2 tsp olive oil
• A couple sprinkles of cumin
• Wheat tortillas, warmed

Mix it all together and wah-lah! This is great for leftover fish or chicken. And did you know kale has been found to protect againt breast and ovarian cancer? Red onions contain chromium, which can help protect against diabetes. And tilapia is a great source of phosporous, which keeps your digestive systme and skin healthy!

Now go try this recipie and tell me what you think!

Cheers,

KLM