Spring in February

This past weekend Spring decided to arrive in the PNW. With temps in the 60's and sunny skies we decided to take advantage of the warm weather and headed out to the dog park with Odin. While we enjoyed being able to be outside in the sunshine, Odin was able to find the mud puddles to play in and got completely covered.

Lessons in Life…

Sometimes we tend to forget that small things always makes a difference. Have a look at some lessons in life…

1. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
2. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and parents will. Stay in touch.
3. You don’t have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
4. Make peace with your past so it won’t screw up the present.
5. Don’t compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
6. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don’t worry; God never blinks.
7. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
8. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don’t take no for an answer.
9. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.
10. Forgive everyone everything.
11. Time heals almost everything. Give time, time.
12. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s, we’d grab ours back.

Always Changing

A recent discussion with another advertising/marketing friend got me thinking about the changes in our industry. In the wake of a new decade, the advertising/marketing industry like many others has been shaken up and sifted through by the tumultuous economy and in some ways emerging better than ever. Like all others, the advertising/marketing industry has many spokes to it's wheels that keep it churning with it's own set of influencers, customers, clients, suppliers, manufacturers, etc. Advertisers/Marketers are almost in the center of it all - often playing several roles at the same time - as product designers, dealers, writers - all the while influencing product decisions starting from the manufacturing units right down to the consumer. Another important spoke in the wheel are editors and writers of magazines, news papers, blogs and other online content. They exert a huge influence on product design choices, designers' careers, and in many ways are trend setters. Advertisers/Marketers, Designers and Editors/Writers are mutually connected for obvious reasons.

We are right in the middle of it, watching it, many times being a part of it. I for one, feel blessed that I'm witnessing this great new evolution and not just as a spectator but in the very thick of it

When life gives you lemons...

Make lemon pasta. obviously.

I came across this great pasta receipe so I thought I would share it.

Lemon & Garlic Pasta Recipe

Ingredients
1/2 lb spaghetti or angel hair pasta
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup olive oil
1 Tbsp butter

1/4 cup fresh Italian parsley, chopped
1 tsp lemon zest, grated
2 tsp lemon juice
Salt & pepper
Parmesan cheese

Directions
Cook pasta as directed, and drain. Meanwhile, mince the garlic. In a small pan, heat the oil and butter. Add the garlic and cook until tender. Toss the garlic, oil, parsley, lemon zest and juice, salt and pepper (to taste) with the pasta. Add parmesan cheese as desired, and serve immediately. Yes, it’s that easy.

Makes 4 servings.

This is an excellent dish with chicken, fish or shrimp. I have a fabulous shrimp recipe that I’ll post that goes great with this dish.

For all you health nerds (like me) I recommend adding steamed veggies to make this a more fiber rich meal. I add broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, &/or yellow squash.

Odin Goes Back To School

Saturday we headed down to Onalaska to the trainers so that Odin could head back to "school" per say as we've decided that were going to compete in the Hunt Tests that start in May so that Odin can earn his Senior Hunter title.

Over the next few months he'll continue working on his retrieving skills along with learning new skills and getting ready for competition while having fun playing with Pheasants, Chuckars and other birds. As you can see Odin and Ben enjoy his being in school.

Change

If you search for images under the word "change" you get everything from Obama, to pocket change, to weird graphs, to Beck, to .... but what does change mean to me? Change isn't a bad thing, it's just different. It means that it's time to think about something different, with a different way of looking at it. Change means progress in whatever is happening. Does progress necessarily mean good? Nah, but it means it's progressing and we learn from progress. Here's to all the changes quickly approaching.

Master Bathroom Remodel

When we bought our house almost five years ago one of the things that I was not a fan of was our master bathroom since it had carpet in front of the vanity and tub, had a single huge 7' x 3.5' mirror and a single light bar with ball lights. Also the bathroom was completely white including the tiles around the tub..

After looking at various different tiles and debating how to update the bathroom we finally proceeded with the remodel. Ben was optimistic that this could be done over the holiday break since were both off of work but after starting and making a few changes along the way a month later were finished.

We replaced all of the original flooring (carpet and linoleum) with a brown Italian tile, replaced the white tiles around the tub with a small light brown Italian tile, Swapped out the single big mirror and light bar for two smaller mirrors and lights and gave the room a fresh coat of brown in a mocha/latte shade.

Here is a before and after photo and the rest can be found on our flickr site.

Bathroom before- carpet, white tiles around the tub, single mirror and light

Bathroom after- tile floor, new tile around tub, two mirrors and lights