A change of hair...

I think I like this better for my wedding hair. If felt like I could pull it off, I'd buy a couple and where them everyday! Giantdwarf makes it and you can find her stuff on Etsy. I love the color and this gorgeous hair piece will match my shoes! I wonder if this can be made with silk or a cotton sateen.

Inside of color

I thought I'd just share a couple of great color blasts from my apartment.  

I got this rug from my Brother-in-law who served in Afghanistan.  He had few days in Kabul before he left and he bought me this rug as a birthday present.  I love it!  It's so soft and the colors are totally my style.

This reminds me of that great mirror from Habitat.  I actually got the idea from Blueprint (R.I.P).  They did it but didn't put the second frame inside or the image.  The images of boars are from this great Japanese calendar we couldn't bring ourselves to throw away.  We saved our favorite images and framed them.  The frames are a little crooked in this picture for some reason.  

Yum...lemongrass!!

I love Vietnamese Lemongrass chicken. I was on the West Elm website cruising around and the description of lemongrass accessories peaked my interest. Thank goodness it did! I found little bulb vases in a lemongrass color for $3.99 each. I bought 20 of them. Turns out shipping is free and there was no sales tax. Score!




I'm also trying to decide on the grey and clear/white vases to complete my look. So far, I think I like these from CB2.

These are going to go on top of the different fabric table runners. Since I'm doing all the flowers myself, I decided that instead of huge arrangements, I'm going to do the a vase with a single flower on top of the cool fabric. I'll still need about 75 stems, but that's easier to manage than hundreds. Also this way, I can mix and match different varieties of white and yellow flowers. My big problem will be the round tables. I didn't realize that I'd have to decorate 5 round tables. For me, they are harder to design because of all the space in the middle.

Buried in fabric!

So I found out a few days ago that I'm probably going to go a on a few work trips in the next few months which is always exciting. Unfortunately for me, when this happens, I don't really get more than 10 days notice before I go and I usually have plans already in place and have to cancel. With the wedding next year and several weddings we have to attend already scheduled, I know I need to get as much planning done now as I can. This week I've been obsessed with table setting/scapes.

I found some really cute yellowish bulb vases from West Elm on sale and a smoky cooler glass and fun flat stem vases from CB2. My idea is to do table runners with fun fabrics that have black, grey and yellow, and then put a few of the vases on top. I've had to add black to the color palette because it's impossible to avoid.

Looks at the fun fabrics I bought for table runners!

I also bought this but then realize it was to casual for the wedding. It's not a huge piece, so I'm going to keep it.

While I was at it, I got this one to put in M's mom's christmas stocking. She's always complaining about the lack of fun fabric in Myrtle Beach.

I need a few more fabric pieces since some of the ones I bought are fat quarters or about 1/2 yard. Those I can use on the round table and in the booths, but I need longer pieces for the 6 foot long tables. These are the ones I'm thinking about.

I know I'm going to get the geometric grey print since it's pretty cheap (I found it on Ebay) and has a lot of grey. I need some yellow prints. I wish I could find more fabric that just had the yellow and grey combination. I'd buy all these fabrics if the budget allowed for it. I can see how people have huge fabric collections. They have some great stuff out there.

I love organization

Some parts of my apartment are really organized and some are in need of some real help. One of those ares in need of help is the laundry closet. I wish mine looked like this!

Missing in action...

I know I've been M.I.A. but we just got a new computer, a Mac, that I'm still trying to figure out. On top of that, my boss made a surprise visit to the office (he lives in Arizona) and a lot has been going on at work.

So after some discussion, we changed our mind on my sister's dress. Instead we're going with this bold beauty!

She hasn't seen it in person as she just moved to Italy, but she saw the picture and says she loves it. Now the decision is grey or black shoes!

Weekend fun

This weekend M and I completed the last steps in the Limoncello making process. A friend gave us 20lbs (no joke) of lemons over the summer and we needed to come up with a project that would use most of them. It was all a blur between the zesting and the zesting. I hope this turns out well. We want to make and bottle more (yikes) to give away as wedding favors. We also have limecello (with limes) that we made. We got pounds of those too.

Here's the recipe

Ingredients:

15 lemons, 2 bottles (750 ml) 100-proof vodka, 4 cups sugar 5 cups water

Prep:

Wash the lemons with a vegetable brush and hot water to remove any reside of pesticides or wax; pat the lemons dry. Carefully zest the lemons with a zester or vegetable peeler so there is no white pith on the peel. NOTE: Use only the outer part of the rind. The pith, the white part underneath the rind, is too bitter and would spoil your limoncello.

Step One: In a large glass jar (1-gallon jar), add one bottle of vodka; add the lemon zest as it is zested. Cover the jar and let sit at room temperature for at least (10) ten days and up to (40) days in a cool dark place. The longer it rests, the better the taste will be. No stirring!

Step Two: In a large saucepan, combine the sugar and water; cook until thickened, approximately 5 to 7 minutes. Let the syrup cool before adding it to the Limoncello mixture. Add to the Limoncello mixture from Step One. Add the additional bottle of vodka. Allow to rest for another 10 to 40 days.

Step Three: After the rest period, strain and bottle: discarding the lemon zest. Keep in the freezer until ready to serve.

Yay pink!

I LOVE this mirror from Habitat.

I love this shirt and it goes to a great cause.

More of Zambia

Here's another picture I found. I know I have more saved somewhere! I spent a weekend at Mosi-oa-Tunya (the smoke that thunders) a.k.a Victoria Falls and got happily very wet. Pictures of elephants and my cool hut on the Zambezi river are coming soon.

The other dress

We just got my sister's bridesmaid dress. We're trying to make things really simple and as handmade as possible. We found this dress on ebay after seeing it at Dillard's but we're going to accent it ourselves with a ribbon in place of the belt and maybe a brooch or flower to dress it up. The colors of the wedding are yellow, grey and cream/off-white.

Working girl

So on the side I make posters for M's band. I'm no artist or graphic designer but I have fun and they usually come out ok. We decided that I should be able to come up with a few ideas for wedding invitations, save the dates and such. I'm excited and nervous about it. I've been sharing my ideas with a few friends and one suggested that I post some of my drafts on Zazzle to sell. I thought it might be a good way to make some money for the wedding. I just set up a PapayaDog gallery of items. Here goes nothing...and everything!

The first poster I ever made for the boys

Beads, beads and more beads

I was in Ethiopia over the summer for work and one weekend I stopped in this little bead shop off Churchill road in Addis Ababa. Oh my the beads! I took more than I needed home though I would have been quite happy to take everything home.

The Reception Venue

After a lot of searching, disappointment and whining (by M), we finally found a reception space that everyone loves. It was the last place we looked at and we knew we wanted to have our reception there as soon as we walked in. Yay! for the Lake Union Cafe! The site is beautiful and the staff is super nice. The best part is that we can bring are own booze. I can't wait to taste all the food!

Time for a shot of color

I want these! M is in need of shot glasses for our home bar setup and these would be perfect. Generate is selling them on their site. I also really want this really lovely Timeless Clock which would go with all the green in my apartment. Alas, it's a little out of my price range but I can dream can't I?

I heart color

It's true. I love color. It's my favorite part of changing seasons and the subject of one of my favorite books, "Color: A Natural History of the Palette." When I saw this image on by Polly Apfelbaum on Apartment Therapy, I just knew I had to share it. Hoorah for color!!

Wedding hair or winter wear?

I bought this beautiful brooch (circa 1920) to use as a hairpiece (maybe as a clip or as part of a veil) for my wedding but now I really want to wear it on my winter coat. I won't really see my dress in person until April so I won't know if it will work with the dress until then. What's a girl to do?

Zambia

I'm really, really lucky that I get to travel with my work. Last year I went to Zambia a few times and I wanted to share 2 pictures. I have some amazing ones from Victoria Falls that I will share later.

She had the sweetest smile!

On the road...as usual

Please Vote!

No matter who you like or don't like, please vote. I admit that the elections are long and sometimes overwhelming, and that we are asked to vote way too much (depending on your state), but we should all vote. If you're not registered, now is the time. Here's a little help.

Oh please say it will be so!

M and I were talking about the sad state Husky football is in this year and I told how much I'd love it if Mike Holmgren (current coach of the Seattle Seahawks) would take over for Tyrone Willingham (current coach of the U of W huskies) if they let Tyrone go. M sent me a link to a Husky blog but I've pasted my favorite part of it below.

--- Mike Holmgren, Seahawks. Another popular rumor has Holmgren simply moving across the lake once this season is done. Stranger things have happened.

My fingers are crossed!

Welcome to PapayaDog Land!

Think of this as FAQs that haven't actually been asked yet!

PapayaDog?

I know you are all wondering what is PapayaDog or why PapayaDog, so I'm going to put you out of your misery right off the bat. When my fiance were in our second year of dating, he lived in Brooklyn and I lived in Washington DC. Every two weeks, one of us would visit the other in our respected city (oh Chinatown bus, how I sort of miss thee!) for a weekend. I don't know how he felt about coming down to DC, but I loved going up to Brooklyn. Great places to hang out, awesome shopping and delicious food -- what more could I ask for. It was like living in New York without paying to live in New York. So one of my favorite things to eat was Grays Papaya hot dogs (mmm...I'm hungry just thinking about it!). One day I wanted a Grays Papaya hot dog so bad that almost considered going to have a Papaya Dog hotdog (not as good knock-off). My fiance, M (he's a secret agent and I have to protect his identity), decided that since I loved the hot dogs so much, he'd nickname me PapayaDog. Well, the name stuck and that's that. Actually M has a gift for coming up with nicknames. He gave a friend of his the nickname Sugarbowl 7 or 8 years ago and it's stuck. Actually, for the first year I knew Sugarbowl, I had no idea what his real name was!


Why PapayaDog the blog?

The dirty truth? I'm using this blog to help me with my New Years Resolution. I know it's October and this probably should have been done in January, but I wasn't having problems with my resolution until last month. What is the resolution? To try something new every month. Some new things have been more exciting (visited Ethiopia) than others (stay on budget for the whole month), but they were new things none the less. Now I've gone a whole month without doing anything new and am on the verge of extending my streak to a second month. I thought a blog would keep hold me accountable. That's it. This blog is my new thing for October and I hope to post regularly for a year.


About me

I'm a 28 year old Jane of all trades. My Mom used to call me a Jack of all trades when I was a kid. I'm not sure if that was a compliment or a way to get me to focus on one thing but either way, it's true and I'm OK with that.

During the day I work for a public health non-profit where I am the resident Jill of all trades (literally) and in the evenings I do what ever needs to be done followed by anything I have time for.

I love colors, traveling, cooking, crafting (sewing, pottery, any DIY), the Seahawks, U-dub (that's the University of Washington for any of you outside Washington state) sports, March Madness, Spin and Aqua (yes, the one where old ladies jump around in the pool) classes, design of all kinds, making and checking things off my list and of course my family and M.

Just so you know, I'm a procrastinator and am a horrible speller. I blame part of my misspelling affiction on living in England for a while and part of it on my Dad who is the world's worst speller. I will say in his defense that American English isn't his first language but he speaks it wonderfully and at times funnily (is that a word?). I also make up words -- just FYI.


This Blog

I'm going to try my best to not have this be a diary even though this first post sounds like one. I hope this blog will motivate me to try new things and share them with all of you. I also will post things I think are cool, projects I want to try (and probably won't), wedding planning (this won't be a wedding blog) and other things I think I should share.

All that being said, WELCOME!