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Everyday Life: 04.13.12 – 04.20.12

Happy Monday! The start to a full week has begun at the Dykast household. We had get up early this morning to drive to Chattanooga to take our car in to get a new transmission. Not so fun. But then I came home and immediately took a little nap. Lots of fun :) I know, I know, a nap before noon? I couldn’t help myself. And now I feel so much better, ready to tackle the rest of the day! In fact, I already have dinner ready. I made something that has to simmer for a long time so I got it ready early. How’s that for productive?!

I was gone all day on Friday and so I didn’t get my Everyday Life post done. But don’t worry, I have it ready for you today :) Last week already feels like a long time ago. It was good to look back and document it!

13. Something you found. I found a magazine in my mailbox! O happy day!! I love getting magazines. I felt like I hadn’t gotten any for so long and then I got a whole bunch last week. They just kept coming and coming. Now I have a pile that I get to look through. Usually I subscribe to mags when Amazon runs their $5 deals. It’s the best. $5 for a year subscription? Sign me up!

14. How you feel today. Lazy was how I felt at the moment of this photo. It was a Saturday and I was in my pj’s relaxing with my cat, reading a book. It was a great evening!

Sunday’s outfit. Hot pink skirt + stripe shirt + belt + wedge sandals. I love getting dressed up for church. I never used to do it but I started to a few years back because it was the only time of the week that it made sense to wear a dress consistently. So now I dress up every Sunday and it’s so fun. And by dressing up I mean I wear a skirt or dress and usually heels. That’s pretty much as far as it goes for me :)

15. Sunset. Okay, so this happens to me every time. Whenever there is a photo that is to be taken at a specific time, I forget. I remembered all evening that I was to take a photo of the sunset and then I missed my 5 minute window of opportunity because I forgot. So I ran outside just before it got really dark and took this. Shame. Even if I had remembered the photo wouldn’t have been much better because we have too many trees blocking our sky. But at least there would have been some streaks of color behind those trees. Oh well, maybe next time!

16. Flower. A confession. I had actually taken all of these photos of this bouquet of flowers gathered from my backyard and posted it before realizing that the subject for the day was flower. How lucky! It sure made it easy for me :) These flowers are now dying but they were so beautiful, weren’t they? And they smelled so good! I think I might have to go back out today and pick some more. There is nothing like fresh flowers brightening up the kitchen.

I can’t remember if I have ever talked about this before or not but there is a fudge shop in Newport, Oregon that Jason and I are crazy for. Not just any old fudge, the tiger butter kind. Tiger butter is peanut butter, caramel, and fudge. It’s amazing. And the tiger butter from this particular fudge shop is the best we have ever had. So what a joy it was to open the mailbox this week and find two blocks of fudge sent to us from Jason’s parents from the Newport Candy Shoppe. They had made a day trip to the coast and remembered how much we like it and mailed it to us. They are the best. And this is not the first time either :) We are so blessed!! And for those of you wondering, yes, we still have some left. A whole block in fact. We are savoring it :)

17. Something you don’t like. I spent Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday painting. I did not spend all four days on the same project but I still spent 3 full days painting and part of the fourth. Not my favorite task. It definitely qualifies as something I don’t like to do. What I do love though, is the results. And I’m super duper excited about that part. Especially since now I am done :) Later this week I will show you the completed room. Anyone care to take a guess which room?

Jason and I were invited to go see a Chattanooga Lookouts game on Tuesday. We had never been before and we had so much fun. The couple we went with had tickets for a skybox so not only did we get to see the game but we got to see it in style :) Although they lost, we had a great time.

This photo cracks me up. Of course we made Jason try on the big wonky hat in the gift shop! But sadly, we didn’t take it home with us. Ha!

This is a photo of me and one of the mascots, Blooie. He came around to visit our skybox and so I had to have a photo with him. Isn’t he cute?! Thanks for the photo babe ;)

18. Hair. It’s kind of funny that the word for this day was hair. It was actually perfect really because the next day I cut it off. That’s how I roll. I let it grow for a while and then I get tired of it and chop it off. The last time I cut it short was just before we moved to Tennessee 6 years ago. If you want to see a photo of the new do, I posted one on Instagram here.

19. Orange. When searching for a subject for this photo I realized I don’t have very much orange in my house. I don’t really decorate with it and I don’t really wear it much. While I was fixing dinner I realized the roasted sweet potatoes would be perfect. Have I mentioned how much I love sweet potatoes? Because I really do :)

20. Something you drew. Okay, so I don’t really draw. But I do doodle. This is what I was doodling during church on Wednesday night. I find that if I doodle or take note during the teaching I can pay attention better. Otherwise, if I just sit there and try to listen, my mind starts wandering. So now, I doodle :)

What a full week! Fudge, the Lookouts, doodling, hair, painting, magazines, sweet potatoes, and flowers. It was a productive week and I’m thankful for it! Now, I ready to tackle this one!

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Tagged: Everyday Life, Personal, Photography

Everyday Life: 04.06.12 – 04.12.12

It’s almost the weekend everybody!! It’s another gorgeous day here in Tennessee, just the right temperature at 70 degrees, my favorite kind of weather. I just finished sipping on my coffee and now, all is good :)

I’ve done a bunch of painting projects this week and I can’t wait to share them all. Now I just have to take photos and write posts. Because the weather is so great I am in the middle of sprainting stuff too. There is always something to be sprainted at my house!

And now for another round of Everyday Life:

6. Lunch. Okay, so I didn’t actually eat only an apple for my whole lunch. But I forgot to take a photo of my lunch that day and I usually do have an apple with my lunch so I thought it would work :) I love apples. Braeburn is my favorite and I have pretty much tried every variety I could get my hands on before I settled on a favorite. But everyone once in a while, I like to mix it up :) How about you, do you have a fav?

7. Shadow. I meant to take a shadow photo outside and completely forgot (this seems to be a regular occurrence for me) and so I took one inside when it was already dark. If you can’t tell what’s going on, that is my hand pointing to my other hand which is holding my phone while taking the photo. How cool am I?! That’s talent right there folks!

8. Inside your wallet. I am such a dork and I posted this on Instagram with my license number showing. Thankfully, someone pointed it out to me and I deleted it. I never even thought of it. Duh! So I have blurred it here and I don’t think there is any other pertinent info you can read :) Except that now you all know my birth date and my middle name. Sheesh!

9. Younger you. I’m not sure how old I am in this photo, maybe a year old? I don’t think I look that happy though :) Looks like they had a hard time getting me to smile. Haha! Sorry Mom :)

10. Cold. So, this is what I am totally into right now. Making smoothies and freezing them into popsicles. Seriously good. This particular smoothie pop has spinach, red bell pepper, carrots, non fat plain yogurt, almond milk, applesauce, orange juice, strawberries, blackberries, mango, and pineapple. I’m all about the more the merrier. It’s so good. Every time I make them I change it up a bit and they always turn out awesome. Mmmmm….

11. Where you ate breakfast. This is our breakfast nook. I have showed it many times. This is where I always eat breakfast. Seems appropriate, right? The photo is not really in focus but it makes it feel a bit dreamy. Or at least that’s what I tell myself. I’m sort of in denial.

See that vent on the floor under the table? Well, in the winter it blows warm air so I sit on that side to warm me up. In the summer, it blows cold air, so I sit on the opposite side so I don’t get frozen. Hey, whatever works!

My outfit the other day was very colorful. I found these pants at Goodwill for $4. I have been wanting some colored springtime pants and I was super excited to find some for so cheap. They actually were flare pants but I wanted skinnies so I remade them. They turned out so good you can’t even tell. Maybe someday I will post another photo so you can see them from a different angle. The shoes were thrifted too (last year), $2. And the shirt is from Old Navy for $5 so my whole outfit was only $11. Not bad :)

My husband loves me, he really does :) He came home with these roses earlier in the week. So sweet. I love him too :)

12. Stairs. Right before I took this photo I had just scrubbed our floors and the stairs on my hands and knees. It’s a job but sometimes it needs to be done. And scrubbing it gets it cleaner than if I just use a mop. It’s not one of my favorite chores but I love it when it’s done!

Any super duper plans this weekend? I am hanging out with some friends but other than that, nada. We finally finished our taxes this week, we like to put it off for as long as possible, so now I don’t have anything pressing. It feels good. Now I’m ready for a carefree weekend! I hope you are too!!

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Tagged: Everyday Life, Personal, Photography

Everyday Life: 03.31.12 – 04.05.12

How can it possibly be the fourth month already?! How did that happen? Time certainly has flown by for me. I feel so blessed with the life I have. I’m especially thinking about it this weekend in light of today being Good Friday and Sunday being Easter. To know what Jesus did for us just blows me away. How can I not be thankful?!

I’m glad this past week has somewhat been captured by Instagram. When I don’t have time to even think about taking photos, Photo A Day helps me :) And now, we’ve moved into April with a whole new set of words. Here we go :)

Day 31. Where you relax. The living room couch is where I unwind and relax now. Come summer (which will be soon with the weather we are having!), Jason and I move to the couch in the family room which is in the basement where it’s cooler and we relax down there. For the same reason we spend our time in the living room in the winter… it’s warmer. This photo show my side of the couch. Jason is usually perched on the other side with the cat somewhere snuggled in between :) What can I say? We are creatures of habit!

1. Reflection. I walked into the church bathroom on Sunday and snapped a photo for the word of the day. I happened to be wearing my new sweater that I got on major clearance at Banana Republic for $4! I love good deals :)

2. Color. I love this color combination. It’s obvious too because I’m using it all over my house right now. This is a photo of one of my living room pillows.

3. Mail. It was a boring mail day. All junk mail. Do you know that I love to get the mail? It’s like opening a present. I just can’t wait to see what’s inside and I’m always hoping for a magazine. Or a check for $1,000,000. I would take either :)

4. Someone who makes you happy. Yes he does. He really does. He’s my best friend and I love him so much. As we always say to each other, I couldn’t do life without him.

The flowers are in full bloom at our house right now. We have moved from flowering trees to flowering bushes. They are gorgeous. I might have to go pick some soon.

More flowers. Roses specifically. Some of the pinks are practically neon. I love them!!

5. Tiny. For some reason I had a hard time with this one. I couldn’t think of anything tiny. And then I remembered this little fawn that I have and decided he would do.

A friend asked me to make a card for her husband for their anniversary. This is what I came up with. He plays the guitar so I used that as my inspiration. I got the saying from this poster I saw and have always loved. I’ve always wanted to buy the post but they don’t carry one in a color that I want. Maybe I will have to plan a room around one of the colors they offer just so I can buy the poster :)

I hope you all have a wonderful Easter weekend! We are going to be celebrating Resurrection Day with some good friends and the food theme is Mexican. I can hardly wait!

He is risen indeed!!

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Tagged: Everyday Life, Personal, Photography

Everyday Life: 03.23.12 – 03.30.12

Did everyone have a good weekend? I hope so :) We had such a great weekend and it actually started with Friday. Jason had the week off and so we decided to have a date day on Friday. We drove north and did two of my favorite things: shopping and eating. Doesn’t get much better than that! Because of our date day, I completely forgot to post on Friday! Oops :) So I will now attempt to bring this little blog up to date!

We will start off with a pretty flowering trees photo :) I love dogwoods. They are one of my favorite trees. I was out running and I had to stop and take a shot of these blossoms. They are so beautiful!!

Outfit for the day. It was such a nice day and I was wearing such a neutral outfit that I had to add a bright pink belt. I needed some color somewhere :)

Day 24 was Animal. The only animal that I am regularly around is my cat so naturally I took a shot of her. She wasn’t being very cooperative though. She kept moving every time I went to take the shot. Oh well, I guess it shows the motion that was going on.

Since I was so neutral the day before, I decided to spice it up with a hot pink skirt. After all, sometimes a girl’s just gotta wear pink! The pencil skirt, by the way, was a thrift store find that I got last year. I think it was a whopping $2.

25. Breakfast. Okay, so when I posted this on Instagram, everyone thought I was weird. So now I want your opinion… For breakfast I eat cottage cheese with applesauce and cinnamon and an english muffin (on the side). I know some people have an aversion to cottage cheese because of the texture but lots of people put fruit in it. I just choose applesauce during the winter when I can’t get ripe strawberries. Is that so weird?! Even if it is, I don’t care because I love it!!

26. Key. I chose to shoot my house key. It’s the only one on my ring that stands out because it is a snakeskin print. I think it’s cool :)

I have been busy at the church this past week. I finally got a gallery wall up there too. Now I just have to order photos for it. I had to wait until the frames were up first before ordering photos so I would know which orientation to pick. I can’t wait until it’s done hopefully this week or next. It’s going to look awesome! I went the easy route for these frames and bought them all at Ikea. Much easier (and faster) than collecting and spray painting like I did for my own gallery wall :)

Since I hung these at church, I wanted to make sure they wouldn’t fall down. I used double-sided sticky velcro. It works wonders. Now I’m thinking I should always hang every picture like this. They won’t get bumped and they won’t fall down. Genius.

27. Your name. I chose a card that my Mom had written me for this day’s photo. I have always loved my Mom’s handwriting. I especially love how she writes my name :)

I’m not sure if I have mentioned this before but every year Jason’s Grandma sends us an Easter basket in the mail. It’s always full of yummy goodies and we look forward to it every year. One of the fun parts is that in some of the eggs there is money in them :) And this year there was a bonus of a Starbucks card too. Yay for grandmas, they are the best!

28. Trash. I didn’t really like this one. I mean, who wants to take a photo of trash?! So I sort of did my own thing and took a photo of the recycling. Hey, it’s still trash, right?

29. Your Feet. This one was easy. I take photos of my feet all the time. Here I am wearing my 75 cent thrift store moccasins that I found brand new. One of my best clothing finds ever!

30. Toy. We don’t have that many toys floating around our house but we happened to get a frog in our Easter basket and so I snapped a photo of him. I think he’s kinda cute. Maybe I should spraint him. Hmmm…

Whew! All caught up! I have a few other projects that I have finished that I need to share with you too. Hopefully there will be some more posts coming your way soon. Stay tuned!

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Tagged: Everyday Life, Personal, Photography

Everyday Life: 03.16.12 – 03.22.12

As I’m sitting here this morning, I can hear the birds singing. I went for a run earlier and although it was overcast, it was a beautiful morning and perfect for a run. The weather was warm and the trees are all in bloom. Poor Jason can’t run with me right now because the pollen count is so high that his allergies go crazy. So I had to settle for a run on my own :)

This month we celebrate our 6th year of being here in Tennessee. You would think after six years I would be used to the weather patterns but spring here always catches me off guard. In Oregon we wouldn’t get this kind of weather until June or July so to have it in March, well, it feels early to me! This whole week it has been in the 80’s and it’s supposed to be the same next week. I can’t complain though, it’s so nice. The only reason I don’t like spring coming so early is that I know summer is just around the corner… Me and summer do not get along. It’s way too hot and humid for my liking :) Last year I was really working on not complaining about the heat. I’m going to have to continue working on it since complaining about it is my natural response. Besides, it doesn’t really help to complain about something you can’t control. It just draws even more attention to it. Anyone else struggle with wanting to complain about the weather but knowing you shouldn’t and that it’s pointless?! Ha!

Moving onto photos for this week. I will show you what I have up my sleeve…

Day 16. Sunglasses. I have had these sunglasses for 4 years. I got them from Fossil and I love them. I actually have lots of pairs of sunglasses but these are definitely my go to pair. I’m not the kind of person that lovingly takes care of my sunglasses and I never will be so I don’t invest a lot in them. It’s actually amazing that these have lasted so long. They get tossed into my purse on a daily basis and thrown on the seat of the car. I have yet to sit on them but that has definitely happened in the past with previous pairs. And the Starbucks… Jason and I went on a date that morning. It was magical :)

17. Green. The name of the game was green for St. Patty’s day and without even realizing it, I wore green. I got dressed for work and threw on a green shirt. Yay for me! I don’t wear too much green so it was lucky that I had it on :)

This one I totally forgot to Instagram. I took a photo when I was in a hurry and simply forgot. Sequin skirt + cardigan buttoned up + boots. I saw on outfit on Pinterest that was similar and copied it :)

PS Look at my whitey white legs!! I need a tan or something!

18. Corner of my home. This is a corner in our family room, the fireplace hearth. I have had this plant for many years now, I think about 10 years or so and it has traveled a lot for a plant. Originally, I got it while I was in Idaho visiting my aunt. She gave me a clipping from her plant because I said how much I liked it. This clipping rode home with us back to Oregon. Amazingly enough, the clipping grew into a plant (at least that’s amazing for my black thumbs)! Then, I brought it with us when we moved from Oregon to Tennessee. Somewhere along the way, I re-potted it and it got a lot bigger. I still love this plant and it is the most successful plant in my house. Thank you Joni, for the start :)

19. Funny. From time to time I have to post photos of my cat. I mean, look at that face! She is so cute :) I chose her as my subject for this day’s word because she makes us laugh all the time. She is somewhat psycho as I’m sure most cats are. She might not be doing anything funny at this particular moment, but believe me, she is funny!!

20. Before & After. You know me, I love a good before and after. This one was an easy no brainer because I forgot to take a photo of something that was actually interesting. So, my water glass filled in for my lack of creativity.

21. Delicious. Seriously? These are some of my favorite candies all year. Jason and I look forward to Easter candy more than any other holiday candy because these are so good. Cadbury mini eggs. That’s where it’s at :)

Side note: we had a friend that knew we liked them and she brought us a huge bag from Sam’s Club a couple of weeks ago. We have been making our way through it and enjoying every single one. On Wednesday she asked if we needed a new bag yet. We don’t, but isn’t she the sweetest?!!!

22. Kitchen Sink. Haha, I grabbed a shot when it was a full kitchen sink. Mostly because this rarely happens. Normally is looks like this. I’m sort of married to the cleanest guy on the block and he does not like his kitchen sink to be messy. As soon as there is a spare dish about, he sets to cleaning it up. Me? Not so much :) Right after I took this shot I could hear him cleaning it up. Thank you sweetheart, for cleaning up after us :)

I love the Instagram challenge. I causes me to take photos of random things that I never would have thought of before. It’s helping me to document our life right now. If you haven’t tried it, you should. It’s fun :)

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Tagged: Everyday Life, Personal, Photography