24 Olive Street

newport, oregon // documented

This summer we took a trip over to Newport, OR. We love the Oregon coast and there are literally tons of towns you can visit. We had gone to Seaside, OR a couple years ago, with little side trips to Multnomah Falls, Astoria, & Cannon Beach. This year I wanted our trip to focus on relaxing and just enjoying the coast but still wanted it to be within a day's drive. I also wanted an ocean view which meant staying away from the more touristy towns like Cannon Beach because they're more pricey. After some research I settled on Newport which is a small little town and not too touristy - perfect! We stayed at Hallmark Resort which I can't recommend enough. The staff was super nice and the rooms were just right for our needs.

Hello ocean view!!! Waking up to this view every day was heaven.

During our trip we went to the Oregon Coast Aquarium, whale watching in Depoe Bay, Yaquina Head Lighthouse, and hung out on the beach (including smores on the beach which was totally cool!). It was such a nice trip and a much needed trip away from the every day 'stuff'.

I have tons of pictures from our trip (of course!) and after much thought I decided I'm going to do a 6x8 mini-album. However, I didn't want the trip to be absent from our family scrapbooks, so I did a couple pocket pages of my favorite photos. All pages created using the Noel Mignon Summer Lovin' Daily Diary Kit.

I didn't quite have enough photos for 2 full spreads so I cut down one of the pocket pages to fit my needs. The top 4x6 slot is a 3x4 card and photo taped together on the back.

And now I need to get to editing and printing the photos for my mini-album!

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summer mini // the beginning

Hey all! I just posted this project over on the Noel Mignon blog. I thought it would be fun to do a summer mini on all things we do from our summer list over our summer vacation. Last week I was anxiously awaiting the mail to arrive with the new South Shore kit because I knew it would be perfect for this project!!

Seriously, this kit is so fun!!!

I started with a We R Memory Keepers 4x4 D-ring album. I was itchin' for an excuse to buy one of these cause they're so stinkin' cute!!

For the cover page I started with the divided page protector, added some of those Jenni Bowlin flowers (stitching the sleeve closed so they don't fall out!) & adding in some of the chipboard accents.

I love being able to see through to the next page in mini books like this!

To keep the sun brad in place I actually cut up one of the page protectors & attached my embellishments to that & then slipped inside the sleeve (learned that trick from Ali Edwards). That way I don't have the brad sticking out on the backside of my page. I added a chipboard sticker on the backside to help cover up the brad but I don't stress out about things like that showing through in my books.

On the next page I simply added a photo of our summer list that we put on our big chalkboard at home. At the end of the album I'll probably do a wrap up page of all the items we were able to accomplish this summer. So far we're just past halfway through summer vacation and we've done about 20 out of 37. Not too shabby!

Throughout the album I kept things pretty simple, adding a few embellishments here & there & most of the photos are from my iPhone. I didn't worry about doing much journaling because anything that's important enough will be in my Project Life or get put into a layout. This album is merely meant to be a fun little snapshot of our summer :)

And other than a couple sticker sheets from previous kits (alphas & labels), a date stamp (Project Life) & a roll of washi from my stash everything is from the South Shore kit. It's super easy to create a mini like this when you stick with one kit!

I'll probably tweak a few things as I go along. I'm thinking of adding the white felt flower from the kit to the spine. But after realizing I wouldn't be able to lay the album flat I decided to wait til I'm done working on it.

Looks cute there, doesn't it??!

The journaling on a few of the photos was done through A Beautiful Mess app. I didn't do a lot of photo editing for this album. I simply took photos from my phone/Instagram & printed them off. Easy peasy!

Supplies list: South Shore kit / We R Memory Keepers album / Scotch ATG / Crop-a-dile / Sweet & Simple kit (OA alphas) / 4x6 photo collages / BH date stamp / clean slate ink pad /

summer art

Lately it's been so hot that the only thing most of us feel like doing is hanging out and trying to keep cool.

I saw this idea over at Eighteen25 and thought it would be the perfect summer art project. These days it's sometimes hard to find stuff that all of my kids will like given the age differences (toddler, 10 yr old, pre-teen).

This project was perfect for all 3 of them.

I opted for masking tape because the only painter's tape I had was really wide & we didn't think that would look as good.

I let the older 2 pretty much tape however they wanted (with a little direction).

My daughter opted to pretty much stay with similar 3 colors.

My son went with bolder colors.

Originally we started this when my little one had fallen asleep. But then she woke up, saw what we were doing and wanted to paint.

At first I thought this was going to be super messy but she ended up doing a really great job with minimal mess.

I also waited til everyone was done before letting her paint so that she could mix paint colors and it wouldn't matter.

Hers turned out pretty good!!

And here's mine...I was going for a sun-looking painting :)

Such a fun - and easy - project for all of us to do!! In fact, my son wanted to do another one with the last canvas.

The only thing I would suggest is to make sure that all the tape is adhered to the canvas. I thought all of my son's was on but when we took off the tape we saw this smudge.

No biggie. His canvas still looks great. Just something to keep in mind.

Cost wise this wasn't too bad as well. I bought a 5 pack of canvases at Michaels on sale for $14.99 and also some paints that were on clearance to add to the paints I already had. I also used a 25% off entire purchase so this project was super affordable.

You could also get these canvas packs at Hobby Lobby and use a 40% off coupon.

And that's one more thing to check off our summer list!

summer fun

It's hard to believe that we're barely finishing up the first month of summer vacation. Seems like it's been longer! Our weather lately has been really hot. And every day that we're in the 90s I thank God for low humidity!!!

We've been able to check some things off our summer list. And a few will get checked off next month...just booked a 3 day quick vacation to the Oregon coast as a quick little "before school season starts" getaway. Can't wait for that since we've never been there!

I made some popsicles out of homemade lemonade (I always use this recipe...so worth it to make homemade!). Boy were they good! Next I need to make some slushies :)

The best thing about these? There are literally only 3 ingredients and you know exactly what's in it!

Another yummy way we like homemade lemonade is to mix it with lemon-lime seltzer water (instead of regular water). Makes it all bubbly :)

We've spent lots of time at the pool. By "pool" I mean the little inflatable in our backyard. And by "we" I mean Addie played and I watched :)

Unfortunately that pool had to be replaced after one use because it popped a hole right on the seam. I sure wish they would make these pools better. For the money they should hold up a bit better. I hate to buy a hard sided pool because then you have to store the dang thing over the winter.

Of course, we get a new one and a certain furry creature that lives here seemed to think it was for him!

Laying in the water while drinking it...what a dork! haha Man I love this dog!

Dogs in a blow up pool are a sure fire way to pop a hole!

We have yet to make it to an actual pool. We tried one day but I should have known that we wouldn't be able to get in. At the pools here you have to show up before it opens if you have any hope of getting in before it hits max capacity.

At least Addie has gotten a chance to play with her new birthday toys we got on our Disneyland trip.

Speaking of Disneyland, it's so hard for me to believe that's it's been a month since we got back!!! I so need to put a post together and honestly I've been procrastinating on that a little because there's so much I want to share!! It's definitely going to be a multi-post post :)

S'mores...always yummy!

And there's always pups nearby to catch any falling marshmallows!

Froyo...mmmmm.....

I had to stop myself from going back the next day to get more. But no one said we can't go back next week, right?!!

This was our consolation prize for not getting into the pool. Although we did end up hitting one of the splash pads for a bit because I had one very sad 3 yr old who would not stop crying when she realized we weren't going swimming.

She had just as much fun there. And my big kids always say they don't want to go to the splash pad...but then end up running around with their baby sister :)

It's so fun to watch how much she's changed in the last year. Last summer she wouldn't run through the sprinklers at the splash pad, she barely went near the water. This year she was pretty fearless!

I'm pretty happy with the fact that we've managed to be a bit active in the first month of summer vacation and yet still remain laid back (cause I don't like every minute of our summer planned!).

Bring on month 2!!!

summer list // 2014 edition

The summer list is up!

We've been doing this for the last 4 or 5 yrs.

We don't always get to every item on the list.

Just a fun list of things to do during the summer.

So far we've only checked off one item...make root beer floats. Well, technically we've also done yard sales, too. So I guess we need to check that one off as well.

Some items appear on our list every single year...probably at least half the list. But we try to come up with at least 4 or 5 things that weren't on the list before.

The kids enjoy marking items off the list. As soon as we finish it up they start saying "can I mark it off the list??!" and they may or may not argue about who gets to do it. Sigh... :)

We'll see how long the bottom items will actually stay on the board with a 3 yr old that can easily wipe those off with her cute little fingers!

So do you do a summer list? Do you get to everything on the list or are you like me and it's ok if you don't get to them all??

Here's a couple of our previous year's lists:

2013 Summer List

2012 Summer List

back to school // summer list recap

It's back to school week here. Always bittersweet. I hate to see summer end but it's also nice to have the kids back in school with a routine. And truth be told a few less hours of listening to certain kids bicker ;)

They both had a great 1st day of school (which I was so thankful for) and they both really liked their teachers.

I'll be honest here...my daughter was a little worried because she had heard her teacher is a bit strict. But I had met her a few times & honestly thought that may be the case but that she was also really nice. So we had a talk about not going into school with preconcieved notions of how a teacher (or anyone) would be based on other kid's opinions (cause we all know how kids can talk...esp about stuff that isn't always necessarily based in fact or truth).

And you know what? She really liked her teacher.

Lesson learned :)

I have a feeling this is going to be a great year!

I always take pics of their backpacks :) I usually try & either buy new backpacks or lunchboxes, but not both. Seriously, that's just too much money (hey, I'm a junker. I'm cheap! haha)

This year my daughter reluctantly used her backpack from last year since she only started using it halfway through the year & it was still in great shape.

I get that they want new stuff but I'm trying to stick to a strict budget here :)

Bigger picture...

I did get her a new lunchbox from Thirty-One gifts which she loves. She's starting to venture into having more healthy (non-sandwich) lunches (which I will do a separate post about) so she needed a bag that would be able to hold her new lunch containers. Ben got both because his backpack and lunchbox were so worn. I think he used his lunchbox for 2 yrs so he was ready for a new one.

Side note - I usually try & check the stores a week or 2 after school starts after they start putting school stuff on clearance. That's when I stock up on a few extra backpacks or lunchboxes along with school supplies. There's certain things that I know we'll end up buying every year.

Soccer & baseball have also started up again so our schedules went from nothing to jam packed...like, overnight.

That's how it always goes, isn't it?!

So now that summer's 'officially' over it's time to take down the summer list :(

We managed to check several things off our list this year. And we also changed things around a bit.

Movies at Riverfront Park - we only got to do this once. We had planned to go back to see Avengers but didn't make it. This will definitely be on our future summer lists.

Silverwood - we have season passes so we get to go through this month. Hoping to make it at least a couple more times before the season is over.

Make smores - that's pretty much an every year kind of thing on our list!

Make a rainbow cake - fun, not too hard, I want to try one for Halloween or Christmas!

Make hobo stew, camp out in the backyard, movie night outside - we combined these all into one night. We'll definitely do this again next year.

Go to a Disney store, Panera, Oregon Zoo - these were all part of our trip to Portland last week. We replaced Point Defiance Zoo with Oregon zoo since we ended up going to Portland instead of Seattle.

splash pad - this was more for Addie. And even though my big kids didn't really want to go, they ended up playing in it, too :)

Monsters University & Despicable Me 2 - both really cute movies!

water sponge fight, play a board game, read a book, ride bikes - good old fashioned play time. The water sponge fight was definitely much easier than water balloons. Next time I definitely need to make more!

Farmer's Market - this was for me & I loved it. We have several in and around town & further out. Love that!

Cheney rodeo - we've had this on our list every summer we've lived here & finally got out to see it. My kids loved it.

There's a couple things on our list that we haven't done but will probably do sometime this month. Make stepping stones - I really want to do this with the kids & I think this will be a great thing to do when the weather starts cooling off. Glow in the dark bowling - I've already purchased the glow sticks but it's taking me a bit of time to save up the bottles (because we don't typically buy drinks in 2 liters).

So that's it! Now I'm ready for fall!!

mini day trip

Yesterday we took a little trip to visit Forget Me Not up in Colville which is about an hour north of us. I've been wanting to check out that shop ever since I was a vendor at Junk Drunk up there back in April (they were the ones that hosted the show).

I also wanted to sign up for the Scrapbook Retreat they're hosting in October. It's been over 3yrs since I did a crop...back when I lived in GA and I was 6 mos preggo wtih Addie!

Guys....seriously, if you're local to the area you need to check out this shop. So stinkin' cute. Vintage goodies, scrapbook goodies and everything in between. And since we don't have a local scrapbook shop anymore it was so nice to be able to browse all of the scrappy goodness :)

After that we stopped in a Cafe 103 for some lunch. Super yummy sandwiches!!

On the way back we had to stop to see the beautiful sunflowers we spotted on the way up...all 80 acres of them!!!

I seriously need to go back with my good camera. I can't even begin to tell you how pretty they were!!!

Back at home, I'm still waiting for my sunflowers to bloom. They're now taller than me & I can see the blooms emerging. Any day now!!!

rainbow cake

Well, we did it!

We made a rainbow cake. And to be honest, it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.

I enlisted my helpers to help mix all of the colors.

I used disposable pans but didn't realize til they were baked that they had a scalloped edge which made it a little more difficult to frost. No biggie. This wasn't for a party or special occasion...just for fun :)

I went easy & used two white cake mixes. For the frosting I went with my favorite from the best chocolate cake ever recipe.

Couple tips:

Make sure the cake is cooled completely before trying to frost it. My yellow layer started to fall apart because I didn't realize that layer wasn't totally cooled. We may have been a wee bit impatient. Didn't matter though...two pieces fell off & I still managed to piece it back together & it stayed in there under the other layers just fine (even when cutting it).

Chill the cake for a few hours before cutting if you want the layers to look all pretty when you cut it. And be sure to clean the knife between each cut. We were dying to cut into it so we only held out for an hour :) Again, we didn't make this for a party so it didn't matter.

I think it'd be really fun to do this in Halloween or Christmas colors!

I have a few ideas pinned on my Cakes & Cupcakes, Halloween & Christmas boards. You can head over to Pinterest to check it out!

Although, I will confess that as pretty as it looks it's still not as good as the best ever chocolate cake. Then again, is anything better than chocolate??

the summer list - 5 weeks to go

We have about 5 weeks of summer vacation left. We've managed to check several things off our summer list but I'm still feeling a bit guilty that we haven't done more. Isn't that always the case with us moms??

Summer is hard (in a way) because it's the busy season so to speak for what I do (junkin', yard sales, shows, etc). So a lot of my time is spent doing that. So it's a tough balance between getting my stuff done & also making sure the kids don't just sit around every day & watch tv or play video games.

Don't get me wrong, I don't feel it's my job to be their entertainment coordinator 24/7, but I also like to do fun things with them while they're home.

Summer vacation always goes by so quick!

But we have managed to check a few more things off our list...

We made it to the pool. The kids had a blast, as always. Addie loved the kiddie area & went down the slides a gazillion times (no pics of that cause there was water spraying everywhere!)

Camp out in the backyard, movie night outside & hobo stew were all checked off in one night. I bought a pretty inexpensive tent for this since we didn't have one.

We made hobo stew which is just essentially some meat & veggies wrapped up in foil & cooked on the grill. I just used some meat I had in the freezer for asian beef skewers & then added potatoes cut small so they would cook faster...kept it pretty simple.

We had smores (also on our summer list but was already checked off...we do this many times every summer). Then I ran an extension cord from the house to the tent & we watched a movie in the tent on the laptop.

My daughter wimped out after about an hour in the tent...something about bugs or it being too hot or whatever...

So it ended up just being me & Ben...and one of the dogs :)

Last night we went out to the outdoor movies they have downtown once a week. This week they played Ghostbusters. So fun!!

Addie managed to do well through most of it...always the hardest part of doing stuff like this. But it's hard to be fussy when you're munching on freshly made kettle corn!

The only downside to this was that the grass had a lot of goose poop on it. Ick. And even ickier?? Some people were letting their kids run around in bare feet. Ewww!!

They're playing Avengers in a couple weeks so hopefully we'll go to that one, too.

We're hoping to make a rainbow cake today or tomorrow & I have the glow sticks & almost have enough bottles saved up to do glow in the dark bowling!

********************

There were a few things on our summer list that we missed & now it's just too late. I didn't manage to get the kids signed up for their sports camps in time. Mommy fail. But it's ok, the regular seasons are starting up in a few weeks anyway.

We also had Panera, Disney store, & Point Defiance Zoo on our list (all in/near Seattle) but we're probably going to scratch those in lieu of maybe doing a staycation at a local hotel with a pool. Honestly, I just don't want to spend the money going over to Seattle. In addition to gas, hotel & anywhere we go or eat there's also the cost of the kennel for the dogs which runs me about $40/day. That all adds up quick!

August is going to be another busy one. In addition to getting my space filled & looking all cute over at Paint in my Hair, I also am participating in Pickin' on the Prairie again this year...which is in 2 weeks!

Then toward the end of the month we'll start having school stuff like the open house & meet the teacher days for the kids. Thankfully we already got a lot of the school supplies & book bags so there's only a few little things left.

Whew!

happening around here...

So much happening around here & keeping me busy...and apparently away from my blog! Has it been over a week since I posted???

We've had company in town the last week. Exciting stuff for '24 Olive Street' that I'll share later this week. Garage sale (so glad to be rid of that stuff!) Checking a few things off the summer list. Lots of stuff happening locally which is keeping my hubby very busy with work. Lots of yard sales, junkin', hunting down good used stuff!

I finally became an iphone owner. I needed to get another phone because my current one was not compatible with the square (which I need for shows). So it was either try an iphone or try another droid...and I decided to try the iphone. I will admit...I did not expect to like it a whole lot. I never got what all the hype was about. But I will also admit...I really do like this phone. So Apple...you got me :)

Anyway, I've been playing around with a few new photo apps. I normally don't buy apps but I really like these. My fave is Rhonna designs app & another one is A beautiful Mess app. I always hated missing out on cool apps because they were only made for iphones.

A desk redo for my son from a thrift store desk. I'll have more pics to share of this soon :) Needless to say he loves it!

We finally got to check out the Cheney Rodeo. I have to say, it was fun til it was time to leave. Seriously, over 45 minutes sitting in the van waiting to get out?? And no one directing traffic out onto the highway?? You guys need to get it together!! Whew...

My very own Doc McStuffins :)

Side note: I've decided that's who she's going to be for Halloween. It's her absolute favorite show next to Mickey Mouse.

Photoseed for Minecraft app & Stitchbooth app...my kids love this one!

And now I'm going to head outside & hopefully paint one of the several pieces of furniture that's waiting for me!