Sonoma Thanksgiving

I am SO Thankful for our Thanksgiving trip with Michelle & Jesse to Sonoma, CA. On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, the four of us loaded into the car for a 10 hour drive to wine country. We spent the long weekend there and headed back on Sunday. It was beyond amazing to be able to get away for a mini-vacation and we had a fantastic time. Jesse & Michelle were married in September and as a wedding gift from a friend, we were able to stay in a "guest home" in Sonoma for FREE!!! Seriously this place was amazing - when we got to town we were nervous to go into the house because it in no way looked like a "guest home". We thought for sure we must be in the wrong place!

We wine tasted every day - and thanks to Michelle's frugality and smart research we tasted for free most places. Of course we did arrive home after 3 days of tasting with a dozen (!!) bottles of amazing wine.

The weather was beautiful, the company great and we hope to make this an annual tradition!

Our "guest house"




Out tasting





the scenery

Visit to WI September 09

Steve and I headed back to Appleton last week to visit family and go to his cousin, Andrea's, wedding. It was a beautiful day for an outdoor wedding and we had a great time visiting with Steve's family and dancing the night away!


We were also lucky enough to spend quite a bit of time with Steve's grandmother. As many of you know she had a stroke last spring and slowly but surely she's making some great improvements. She's finally back home and living on her own again - Yay!! She is a truly special lady and I feel lucky to know her. We continue to pray for her to regain the skills she had prior to the stroke and for her to keep her spirits high.

I was also able to stay for a long weekend and see my dear friends Jamie and Jessica and got to spend a little time with Jessica's kids, Drew and baby Aubrey. As always it was amazing to see them and difficult to say goodbye.

Mammaw's 80th B-Day

This week, my grandmother (Mammaw) turns 80 year old. I can hardly believe it - she's as feisty and full of spunk as ever - it's really hard to believe she's 80. To celebrate the big day and honor her, my mother and aunt (her daughters) flew her all the way from Arkansas out to the pacific NW. This was only the second time she's ever flown and it's the first time she's ever been to my home. They were here for 5 days and we all had an amazing time - in fact I think we all had one of the best times of our lives. Truly special memories were made and I will never as long as I live forget her visit.
Here is a list of some of the awesome things we got to do together: they watched me teach (which seems to be a pretty cool thing!), we made meals together, visited Multnomah Falls, spent a day at the Oregon coast/Cannon Beach, toured the Rose Garden, and had all sorts of birthday treats.
Mammaw I love you more than any words can ever say. You are an amazing woman and I thank you for all that you have taught me about life, love, and the importance of family and God. You are a treasure! I LOVE YOU - HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Family Trip to Seattle & Victoria Island

Towards the end of August my mom, dad and sister came out and joined Steve and I on a vacation to explore Seattle & Victoria Island. We spent about 3 days in Seattle and 2 days in Victoria. It was an awesome time and the first time Steve has been on vacation with my family. We spent a day exploring Mt. Rainier, walked through Pike's Place Market, toured Victoria via mopeds, whale watched and more! It was an awesome time and flew by.
Here is a link to the photos from the trip!

San Francisco, Sonoma & Happy 1 year Anniversary!

Steve and I just returned from a great anniversary trip to Sonoma and San Francisco. It's so hard to believe a year has gone by! We had a great time reflecting on our wedding activities and events and reminiscing about our memories from the last year. I love you Steve and feel so lucky to be your wife. Thanks for being such a great partner in crime!
We saw and did so many things on our trip it's hard to believe we were only there 3 full days (& 2 half days). We went to Alcatraz, visited 5 wineries, took a winery tour with a walk through the vineyard and barrel tasting, took a drive down the coast line, visited Muir Woods (Redwood forest), had dinner with Steve's cousin Mark, rode on the cable car to the Wharf, walked to Ghiradelli square (and had a fabulous hot fudge sundae!), walked through Haight Ashbury, visited Golden Gate Park's Japanese Tea Gardens & Flower Conservatory, & went to the Ferry Building Market. WHEW!!! I was pretty tired when we got home. But an amazing time was had. Here are some photos.

Sonoma

Gundlach Bundschu Winery

On the way to Alcatraz

At the Wharf

My Favorite Visit!!

Happy Anni!

Steve's cousin Mark met us for dinner

Amazing coffee at the Ferry Bldg Market...mmm

Steven & the Cable car

School's Out for SUMMER!!

Yay!

School is out for the summer. I'll still be working a bit of course - teaching classes which are becoming much more popular and certainly keeping me on my toes. I just wrapped up a Series C class (the most advanced) and was pretty emotional about it. All of the families in that class have taken classes with me for on average once a week for the last 10 months or so. It's been beyond incredible watching their children grow and develop such unique little personalities. They are also signing a ton which is really cool. There are so many moments from that class that I could write about...maybe I just will! (on my new biz blog which you can see HERE)

Anyway, summer for the Schabow's is looking like it's going to be a blast! We're hoping to camp some, we'll be taking a anniversary trip to San Fran, Steve has friends coming out from Wisconsin in early August and a week later my parents and sister are coming out for a trip up to Seattle. Then we finish off the summer with a couple of September weddings. This summer promises to be busy and full of family, friends and fun.

Of course I'll be sewing ;) Here are pictures of the latest projects - both of which are FAR from perfect, but I'm learning every time I make something that's for sure!

This is a cover for my calendar with a pocket inside. I didn't get fancy and had to do a bit of tweaking to get it to fit in the end, but for the first time I'm pleased! Next time I'll adjust a number of things.

Then there are these which I LOVE! My ric rac doesn't poke out evenly at all and my stitching isn't as straight as it could be, but I'm learning (and a bit too impatient to go slow and not make the needle go faster!). These are a gift for Steve's grandma Jean who just had a stroke =(
I hope she likes them and they feel a bit like sunshine napkins or hankies!

Here are the four different fronts (you can see one isn't finished - I've apparently bought Jo Ann out of red ric rac and they are ordering more! once I get more ric rac I'll finish). I love the vintagey look.

they are reversible and this is what the backs look like

Well that's all the excitement for now! Ciao!

Say it ain't SEW...

Yes, it is SO! I have started sewing!! I'm so excited about this new endeavor much to the surprise of many of you (mammaw exclaimed "wow! I guess you're just a late bloomer!"). I had been talking with Steve about buying a machine for awhile, but finally caved and bought a brand new Brother machine from Costco when they put out a mega coupon. So far it's a good little machine!


I wanted to start sewing for lots of reasons. 1) fun 2) to make beautiful things! 3) to make more responsible choices about buying "new" 4) to give handmade, one of a kind, from the heart gifts. So far so good! It's not to say that sewing has been without frustration. I've ripped out more seams than I care to think about but I have made a few cute things and that's been really satisfying! And I never knew how many fabulously beautiful fabrics were out there - I can hardly bear to cut into them! Here are a few of the things I've made so far. I plan to post pictures as I create. Hope you like!

Tag Baby Blanket

Wrap Skirt

Apron

yes I know the pic is crooked - Steve was being "artistic" =)

cute little basket for notions
(I took the picture outside for better light)

And this is the fabulous set of fabric I got yesterday - I've got something fun planned for this!

Weekend at the Coast

This past weekend we got a much needed mini vacation and headed to Angie & Case's family vacation house at the beach. Case & Steve have been working together for several years now and the Farnands have become dear friends to us here in Portland!

We had a lovely time visiting with them, their daughter Morgan - the cutest almost 2 year old ever - (she is now saying my name which thrills me ;) "is tee na" could be heard throughout the house all weekend!) and our friends Jesse and Michelle. We cracked fresh crab, walked through town, played games and just had a relaxing time together.

We also all brought our dogs which was an adventure. We woke up to a beautiful day Sunday so we walked the dogs down to the beach. It was so wonderful to see Parker sprint across the sand uninhibited! He ran, and ran, and ran with no target in sight! Just running to run. (he also stopped to smell everything and greet everyone on the beach with a sandy jump of course!)

Thanks so much friends for a fabulous weekend!

Morgan, Me, Angie

Me & Steve

Jesse, Michelle, Kuma

Morgan!

Mom & Dad's Visit March 09

Today wraps up my 2009 Spring Break. All in all it has been an amazingly relaxing week. My mom and dad came out from Texas for about 5 days and we shopped, relaxed, & ate at our favorite spots, but the highlight of their visit had to be our hike on the Oregon Coast at Cape Lookout. It has been pretty cold here so we all started the day out a bit hesitant to say the least. We layered up with our long underwear, turtlenecks, hats and gloves and headed out. During the 1.5 hour drive we only became more nervous as the temperature dropped to 39 degrees and rain and hail periodically assailed us! But despite the low temperatures (especially noticeable to my Texan folks) and weather excitement, the hike was fabulous. We all got a good workout during our 3.5 hour mud-trek(!) but the views were amazing. We hiked through the lush green and alongside an almost sheer drop off to a point two miles out into the Pacific Ocean. It was breathtaking. To top it off we even saw a whale. It was a great adventure!