City by the Bay

Before our Bay Area prebuild, Matt and I got to play tourist with Kev and Linds. We had been talking about going to San Francisco for a few years, so it was exciting to see this finally come to fruition. My mom was an amazing tourguide and took us all over the City. I saw a few things I had not seen before (like the Victorian houses aka FULL HOUSE house! woo!). This picture is from that place:

Next stop, Baker Beach. This is the scene of the Beach Party in the Princess Diaries and also of Matt and I's engagement photos. Here's a picture of me and my lovely Mutti.

This sign said 0.7 mi to Land's End. 1.4 mi to the Golden Gate Bridge. and 775 mi. to Mexico. That's where I was headed. Although it looks like I'm pointing up. Oh well.
View of Coit tower from Lombard Street:

My love and I at Lombard Street.

View of the City from Coit Tower...

A drive-by picture of City Hall.

And that is about it for our quick little tour of San Francisco. I have some pictures of us all eating lunch and of Lindsey sleeping. But I thought I would be nice and spare everyone from seeing that! Thanks for visiting today!

Recent Craft Endeavors

Well I'm officially t'ed off with blogger. I can' edit a dang picture once it is uploaded. Grrrr. And that is why this first picture is sideways. It's correct in my file, but 3 times trying to upload and no dice. It is a picture of an apron that I made with this tutorial, and a matching pot holder and dish rags. Part of a wedding favor for Staci.


This is a gift basket that I made as a prize for bingo. The large pink heart is a bath fizzy. the green soaps were made with shavings of some bar soap. And then the white soaps were made with this awesome tutorial from Anne Marie.


A close up of some of the soaps and the stamps that I used. I also made some as favors for stacis shower, and totally forgot to get pictures. But I learned thatI need to use a non-bleeding colorant or the white will slowly fade to the back color!

Oh and an Easter soap with a bunny and eggs inset. Don't you want to buy some?


Fixed a giant rip up the pocket of T-Pains (a girl named Taylor)'s pants. I loved how it turned out so much that I am making my own!

And there you have it, just tast of what I've been crafting lately!

TSL Package

During the month of May, I participated in Bobbi's Simple Life Challenge, called The Simple Life - which reminds me of an amusing old tv show. ha Anyways, we tried to be simple and frugal. This wasn't a stretch for me, I mean, I am a Nadalet now, but I did learn some new things. For instance, I really started using my reusable bags, at all stores, not just for groceries. And I thought 2 or 3 times before eating out (that was -5 points!). I also started using reusable dishes (not just the plastic throwaways) at work. It was a good reminder that we can always be doing more to save money and the environment.

To finish it off, we were given a buddy and instructed to send a package about TSL. I was a bit wary of this at first, but then I "met" my buddy and feel like we've bonded. Leslie is a girl right about my age who lives on the other side of this country. She's much more fitness oriented than I am, but we do share similar interests (Britney, a good beer, the color pink). As I started making her gift, I got more and more excited about sending her something fun, who doesn't love getting a package? I forgot to take pictures, but she posted all about it, so here is the package:



That's her dog Jackson with the frame, isn't he cute? I also added some recipes and coupons. I think she really liked it.

And in return, she sent me this awesome tea-glass. It is called Libre Tea and she did a review of it here. That's how I knew I liked it! I was super excited when I got the package in the mail. However, I was sad because I don't have any loose tea and do not know where to buy it. I thought maybe trader joes, but no. I bet stell has it. I need to check there tomorrow. Anyways, I'm putting up some of her pictures, because my pictures would be boring. This post should be titled "the one where Megan stole all of Leslie's pictures" haha




If any of you have loose leaf tea, please send it my way! I'm totally excited to try this thing out!

Smile in a Picture?

My mom recently pointed out that I have a problem with smiling in pictures. I apparently like to make funny faces. I have NO idea what she is talking about... just kidding. When looking back at my pictures from San Francisco, I see what she means. I have come up with a few theories:

1) If I'm having a bad smile day (it's a real phenomenon) I will just pucker up or make a smirk. Example A:
2) Sometimes it is more fun just to make weird faces to upset the one taking the picture (heh heh) See below:


3) Sometimes I am just so dang cute when I'm making faces or drinking a cream soda...


4) Sometimes it is just plain boredom. This was taken when avoiding a paper that I had to write. Matthew is making a "who-face" in one too (but I can't find it. I also have one of the Nadalet siblings making this face, but no idea where it is)!





And then sometimes I think my face-making is a learned experience. I mean, can you see what Sarah is showing me here? (I love you girl, don't kill me for putting this up!)


In this example, I am just following my man's lead...


Or maybe it just runs in the family... (3 pictures to prove this point)




And I picked someone who encourages it?





Lastly, it could have started as a childhood game, that I never stopped playing. Or maybe my parents were just so mean and took away all my toys, that this is a learned response.


But what do I really think? I think my dad has been doing this for years and I am just a Daddy's girl following his footsteps... unfortunately all of the good pictures of him being a weirdo are on my other computer. Maybe this one will suffice:

Kevin and Lindsey

I bet everyone is confused as to how there are suddenly somewhat regular posts, after a long period of no posting. There is no real reason, except I have been trying really hard to get back into the habit of blogging. There is a new blogging adventure that will keep me really focused, so I'm getting back into the swing of things on here. Plus, we have had a lot of really great things to do lately, and I know where my camera cord is!

Back to the reason for this post. Kevin and Lindsey are a couple of great friends of ours. We are actually both going to be in their wedding, as Matron of Honor and Best Man. We are quite honored to be in those positions and really excited to share this special day with them. We recently took them to my parents house for a prebuild. We have been talking about doing a SF trip for about 2 years now, so it was about time that we went! Here are some really cute pictures that I took of them at Baker Beach (where our engagement pics were) and the last one is from Lombard Street, that was Kevin's one request of our trip! Enjoy!









Just in case you forgot... this is one of our engagement photos. At the same beach as above (Joel is a much better photographer than I!)

Squash & Zucchini!

It is squash and zucchini season in Redlands. At least it is in Loma Linda (Nadalet Sr. House). My Redlands plants aren't blossoming quite yet!

Here is just one thing that I made:


Mmmm Stuffed not-sure-what-kind-it-is Squash! There is a mixure of ground beef and bread crumbs (cut up hamburger bun) and zucchini inside. Matt gave it a thumbs up, probably because I added Cajon Seasoning and told him about it! haha

Photoshop

I'm scheduling this post for Saturday. When you read this, I will be in Nor Cal (woo!) pre-building a Lofthouse with my family and friends. We are leaving Thursday night and staying until Sunday. Hopefully I will have some more pictures from this weekend!

I have been trying to play with photoshop (actually I have the free paint.net. I would say it's in between Paint! and Photoshop). Let me know which one of these you think is better...

This is the original, cropped a bit, so that it's not all out of proportion (too much sidewalk in the original pic).

Sepia toned. Gives it that old-fashioned retro look...

And "soft." It's like the original but softened up. I think I like this one the best.

What do you all think? Weigh in (Mom, Krista, & Em) in the comments! haha

Balboa Island

Or park. I can't remember if it's considered an Island or Park. Anywho, the Nadalets and Koenigs ventured over there on Sunday after Church. We had lunch at the Prado, where they have delicious hummus and bread sticks. Well flat bread thingies! mmm mm and the Sangria is also delightful. as are the chocolate martinis.

We had some problems taking pictures with the self timer, but here are a few! In this one, the camera got a lot of sidewalk (I cropped it) and our faces were hard to see)

In this picture, the white balance was so off that we looked like angels. This was my attempt to tone it down. I believe my dad is going to edit this one.

Me and the hubby, for some reason we look dumb. I think it is because Davis did not count to 3!

Royce & Alison are married!

The families (Koenig, Nadalet, Atwood, West) met up in San Diego to celebrate Royce and Alison's wedding (they aren't techinicallyfamily, but our family was invited). It was a wonderful excuse for a mini-vacation! we had dinner at a Portuguese restaurant on Friday and then spent Saturday wandering around Point Loma and then relaxing at the pool. The wedding was at this cute restaurant on the water. Emily took some great pictures, but here are a few of mine. I felt like paparazzi during the ceremony because all that I could see was Alison's face!

I tried my hand at photoshop. I'm not too happy with the results:

We happened to run outside for sunset pictures right before them. Can't you just see how radiant they are??

This cracks me up, it's when my mom was dancing with Joey (a high school friend) and aunt Katie cut in! Emily said it's the mai-tai's... they are miracle workers!

And the winner is...

UPDATE 6/5/09:
Bethany never responded to my email. So I have chosen another winner.
#56, Ali.

I am too tired to take a picture of the name slip, but it is orange! haha Hopefully Ali will get back to me! Thanks everyone for wanting to win my soaps!


I wrote out all 60 names on slips of paper and drew one, that lucky person is...

Bethany said...

Thanks for the great giveaway! I love the soaps. My favorite vacation spot is Hilton Head Island. I have not travelled much for pleasure, and Hilton Head is a great beach with quiet beaches and great bike trails. I just love the calm of the ocean and nature.

May 28, 2009 2:36 PM

She just started a blog if you want to check it out! Even if you didn't win, please keep coming back, as I hope to do more giveaways and tutorials!

She has until midnight PST on June 3 to respond, if she does not get back to me, I will draw another winner!