Holidays at the Ranch

"Oh there's no place like home for the holidays..."

Since moving to Washington over a year ago, I've only seen my family twice since last Christmas.  

Being a wandering soul and adventurer comes at a bit of a cost.

But I have NEVER missed a Christmas.  

After I worked Christmas Eve I jumped in my truck and turned my wheels southward for 6 hours and East for about 45 minutes until I was rolling into the 160 year old driveway I grew up on.

My parents are so cute, even though I had told them to go to sleep and I'd just sneak in really late and see them in the morning, there they were...half asleep on the couch when I walked in.  Parents of adult children or not they still wait up! :) 

I won't drag on about how great it was to see everyone and do things...so here's the highlights...

• Spending Christmas day up in the snow as is tradition.  The sun was blazing and beautiful and we had an amazing time
• Frosting cookies with my 2 year old nephew.  He sat on my lap for 30 minutes patiently decorating.  The bells are his favorite! :)
• Watching my parents with my nephew.  Mom reading him stories on the couch (he adores her as he should) and Dad sneaking him cookies from the adult table (two mischievous boys)
• Cooking a birthday dinner for my Big Brother with the help of the talented and marvelously 39 weeks pregnant Sweet Sister-in-Law who is the most amazing impromptu winging it cook I have ever known!

I love my family dearly. We have differences and have distance but I am so proud to say I belong to them :) 

I Moved!

...and not to Canada, silly. 

Nope I now live in Seattle proper!  Or I will by tonight.  

Today is moving day!

For the last year I've been in the burbs living with a family member and enjoying cheap rent.

But there is a time when one needs ones own space and one must also stand on one's own feet entirely.

I'm one.

Actually I'm 26.  

But you get the idea.

Pictures to follow soon of the mayhem that is my wee apartment and my challenge to truly live that minimalist lifestyle I find so wildly attractive!  

Ok enough of this sitting in Starbucks, I have to go pay for my rental insurance and pick up my keys and start creating...

MY OWN HOME!

Fall is a sneaky snake

Why is it mid October?  What happened?

Pretty sure I was knocked in the head and am suddenly have a Jason Bourne experience except much less violent. 

What did I do in the two months I didn't post?

Well I mostly worked my little tuchus off(Yiddish slang for butt) this summer.  Much, much, much, more work than I'd anticipated due to other people at my job taking off large portions of time.  I'm not mad about it because now that fall is here...

(my favorite time of year)

( yes I'm that basic)

...I am taking MY time off!

Conclusion is... I'm going to be posting more adventurey things here in the future as well as my studies in medicinal herbs paired with my continued education in essential oils!  Also the DIY things I so love to do! (Can we say home made SPF makeup?)

I've done several outdoor excursions this summer on my wee days off so thats coming up soon!

Also did a teensy bit of traveling here in the states. Mainly one road trip across the top of the US to the MidWest and some mountain biking/hiking/outdoorsying in Colorado!  

If you don't already follow me on instagram, that's the best way to keep up with me when I'm not posting here as much!

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Oh boy have I missed writing here and I'm so excited to get back into the swing of things!

I'm Still Here!

Sorry I've been gone from the blog for a minute or two there! We all know how life can sometimes just envelope and make a kabosh out of well set plans!  Like right now I'd love to be editing photos to post but I'm studying for a beer certification class for work. I didn't know it was that complicated or diverse of a beverage. *college flashbacks to miserable study-cramming*

Anyway I want to let you know that I'm working on a few things that will be coming soon to these pages...er....screens?  

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Coming soon...

•  recipes of the paleo variety. I'm trying to get more serious about actually cooking recipes instead of eating raw products...which is totally healthy but I was recently inspired by the Netflix original series COOKED and I am back in my kitchen with my recipe book in hand!
• DIY beauty products. We see this all the time on Pinterest I always think "well what a god idea!" And then never do it. So now I'm doing it and will share results and recipes! 
• travel tips. My travel section has been a bit dry lately so I'm going to be adding some stories from my backpacking and travel days...which aren't over...they are just on hold :) 

so stick with me and there will be some great (or simi ok) things for you to enjoy here!