Welcome to Ohio

I've been planning out a little 'Welcome to Ohio' blog post in my head ever since we got here.  It was going to open with a shot of the adorable 'Welcome to Solon' signs along our city's limits, and would definitely include a photo of Doug and me standing in the quaint Solon City Gazebo.  I was going to review the local bagel bakery and maybe say a little something about the amazing house made pickles from our local grocery store.

Ah, yes.  In my head, this transition period was going to go so well.  I mean, people do it.  They get a new job, sell their house, move on to a new place and post about things like fresh made pickles and local bagel shops.  It happens all the time, right?

I kept putting it off until I got a super cute photo gallery all ready to go.  But, you know, between my big post-move crash, trying to maintain and sell our house from the opposite side of the country while moving into an apartment here (anyone want to buy a house in Orem???), and Doug having a 104 fever for an entire week because he got PNEUMONIA (yeah, that's happening.) we just haven't had a ton of time to take all the cute 'We Moved To Ohio' pictures that I'd planned on.

Not a picture of the Solon Gazebo

Such is life, eh?  I do have to say it still feels pretty awesome to live in Ohio.  Fall is in the air, the billions and billions of leaves are turning and the pickles really are amazing.

But still... no fun pictures... at least not yet :)  Maybe in a few weeks?  (if only I could find a quick cure for pneumonia between then and now...)

Cue the Hallelujah Chorus

We (finally) made it out of the Jello Belt.

Happy Birthday Doug!

Doug's birthday was pretty low key this year, but we were pretty excited for our birthday cake idea!  It's basically just a fruit salad- layered pineapple and honey dew held together with a yogurt/pudding mixture.  Yum! (and hooray for not splitting a whole cake between 2 people!) 

Hello Pittsburgh!

Doug and I have been having so much fun running our little business (Sweetbriar Sisters).  Doug keeps the books and takes care of order fulfillment while I make new patterns, keep up the website and take care of customer service.  We'd tried a couple different little side businesses for me to work on during the day before, but all of them required deadlines that ultimately made me too sick.  This one is working out so much better since I can design on days I feel well, and on days when I'm too sick to work, no one is hounding me to finish a project. (woohoo!) It's become like the ultimate hobby for us- I can't even tell you how many nights we sit up talking about new business ideas.

We've had our printed patterns in stores for over a year now.  We've gotten comfortable enough with the wholesaling world that we feel ready to take the next step and try to get our stuff into a larger number of stores.  So, in the middle of May we flew out to Pittsburgh to attend the International Quilt Market (the biggest trade show in the sewing industry- basically everybody in the professional quilting/sewing world gets together to see if you want to work together).  It was fantastic!  We learned so much and were able to meet so many people who will help our business grow.

We had so much fun finding our designs in different booths throughout Market!

I have no idea why someone would put a bunch of bean bags in a networking lounge during a Quilting trade show (aka: an entire industry run by little old ladies who haven't been able to comfortably get in and out of bean bags for decades.) But I was sure glad they were there!  We spent a good amount of time in this corner with me resting between checking out booths.

The first night as we got settled into our hotel room, I just had to laugh.  Neither of us like to travel (I know, I know- you find that statement personally offensive.  Everyone does every time I mention it.  I'm sorry- it's just the truth.) and until this trip the only traveling we'd ever done together was to see family.  (And trust me, if there was a way to see them without traveling, we would have gone that route.)  It made me laugh to think that after 7 years the thing that lured us into our first 'vacation' was a trip to Pittsburgh for a business meeting.  It's a good thing the whole 'lack of travel desire' thing is mutual, otherwise one of us would definitely be pretty disappointed by now.  :)

After the trip we drove up to my parent's house (I guess not even a business trip in the luxurious city of Pittsburgh could get us to travel completely on its own...) which is just a couple hours from where we stayed in PA.  It was so great to see them.  And it was the first time I'd seen Spring in the East for over 12 years- the trees are so magical this time of year!  I can't believe I just grew up thinking that magical landscape was was normal!

Jerusalem Dinner

Our annual Jerusalem Dinner has become my favorite Easter tradition.  This year I'm especially excited that we get to serve it off of some wooden plates I got from my grandparents (I've been slowly collecting wooden serving wear for this exact purpose and was so excited to find these as we cleaned out my grandpa's house!  It makes them double special to know my grandma used them too.)  I love it because it's so meaningful.  I also love it because it's so easy that we actually do it every year.

Now, I know around this time of year a lot of people prepare the real deal when it comes to traditional Jerusalem food.  And that's fantastic. But we go the easy route.

The day we decide to do the dinner (we just do it sometime the week before Easter) I go to the grocery store- whatever grocery store is closest- and pick out our meal.  The rule is everything has to be ready to eat, it has to remind me of biblical times, and I have to find it in the store before I get too tired.  Our meal this year included 

-canned lentil soup

-yummy bread (we usually do flat bread because it seems more bible-y but I missed the flat bread isle and was getting tired, so flat bread didn't pass the cut this year)

-Pecorino Romano cheese (a couple years back Harmon's was the closest store on Jerusalem Dinner day so we went there for stuff.  I asked the cheesemonger which cheese was most authentic and he told me Pecorino Romano has been around since BC times and originated in Rome so it's likely that Christ ate it.  Cool, huh? I wish I could always shop in stores nice enough to provide me with a cheesemonger. Lucky for us, you can buy it in just about any grocery store, so it usually makes the cut)

-Pepperoni (not authentic at all, but I was tired by the time I got to the meat section.  And doesn't it seem like they'd be eating some sort of cured meat? )

-dried figs

- Olives

It's always so fun to see it come together, which literally takes about 5 mins to do. Woot!  

Hope you guys are having a fantastic Holy Week.  In my opinion, it really is the best week of the year.

UVU Student Show

Last week we got to go to the UVU Student Show gallery opening. I love going to gallery openings- the excitement, the new art, meeting the artists. You walk in and the sense of accomplishment fills the air so thick, you can't help but feel it too.  I could probably go to one every week for artists I'd never heard of and they'd never get old.  (though, at this point Doug is still nice enough to pretend he doesn't hate going to them with me... I probably shouldn't push my luck!)

I was lucky enough to get a painting into the show this year (it's a juried show- so your piece has to be accepted by a judge) which made it double fun. Just looking at it made me drool for color. (I've been taking a portrait drawing class this semester- which has been fantastic- but we do everything in black and white and my fingers are itching to work with color again) Just a few more weeks and I'll be on Summer break.  Woot!  I've already got a few art projects planned out in my mind- I'm excited to get started!

The Beginning of 2014

Life has been so crazy it's hard to think of one specific thing to post about, so here are a few mini posts about 2014 so far-

 

1. I have been taking a portrait drawing class at UVU and am loving it!  My only complaint is that we're half way through the semester already and I'm not ready to be half way done.

2. Doug's work has been CRAZY.  We're talking working 6-7 days a week, and I don't even know how many hours a day... but it's a lot. Wednesday seemed to explain the hours he's been putting in pretty well.  He woke up completely excited, spurring this conversation:

me:  Whatcha so excited about?

him (with an enormous grin):  I get to go in to the dentist and get a dental post put in!

me: Wait, doesn't that mean they have to cut open your gum and drill into your bone?! Why in the world are you excited? 

him: ALL I have to do for like 2 HOURS is sit in a chair!!!

Later on Wednesday, Doug came home in the middle of the day.  I was completely surprised to see him.  He explained that he wasn't feeling great, so came home early to rest.  It was no wonder, between the long hours he'd been putting in and the fact that he'd basically had a minor surgery done that morning.  'I'm so glad you got to come home and rest!' I said, 'I mean, you'll have an extra...' I paused to glance at the clock to see how many extra hours of rest he'd get from coming home so early.  It was 5:30.... I guess our definition of the 'middle of the day' has changed a bit in the past couple months.

3.  I turned 30 last month.  Doug was very good at spoiling me.  

My 3 gallon 'Grieving'  ice cream sundae.
Doug made it for me the day before I turned
30.  :)

4.  My pattern business is awesome!  I'll often bring my work with me when I ride Frontrunner (Utah's awesome new train that goes from Springville to Ogden).  I'll be sitting there with my laptop covered in design programs on one side and a catalog of next seasons fabric lines on the other.  People get really curious about what I'm working on.  When I tell them, they look at me like I'm the luckiest person in the whole world.  And, on the work topic at least, I'd have to agree.

4. My annoyingly bad health streak continues.  To give you an idea, I've been wearing a pedometer for years now to monitor my activity.  On a typical Sick Jessica Day I have to make sure to stay under 3,000 steps a day and lie down for the rest of the time. The last year or so, I've been having troubles if I go over 1,500. Sometimes, when I tell people, they look at me like I'm cursed.  And, on the whole health topic at least, I'd have to agree. 

5.  Due to numbers 2 and 4, Doug and I have taken a real liking to eating TV dinners. (Thank you Trader Joes for moving to SLC!!!)  In fact, we've eaten so many that we actually wore out our microwave.  If they sold double microwaves, we'd get one to replace it.  Heating up two frozen dinners at the same time sounds like such a reasonable need right now!

I've been too sick to sew, which is no good when you run a sewing related business.  So we set up this awesome contraption to allow me to sew in bed.  It is completely ridiculous and I love it!

Christmas

I can't even believe we survived December!  Every year is so crazy and I always think it will make me so sick.  And every year I'm right :)  Maybe one of these days I'll learn how to cut back on December the way I've cut back during the rest of the year.  Until then I'll just spend the first 4 months of the year recovering from Christmas. Here's a little glimpse of the craziness:

We started out the Christmas season with the annual Activity Days Christmas party at our house.  This was the 3rd AD Christmas party I've planned.  Every year I make the gingerbread houses easier to make.  Every year the girls simply can not grasp the concept of giving the icing 1 minute to set up before piling candy onto the newly attached walls.  Sigh.  We ended up with a lot of gingerbread piles full of collapsed walls, roofs and LOTS of candy. (I've learned that no 8 year old can be too disappointed with a failed gingerbread house if your suggestion is to cover the flaws with candy) Next year we are decorating sugar cones and calling them Christmas trees. But I'm pretty sure they'll still find a way to get those to collapse!  

The first ever cousin cookie exchange followed with much greater success.  I've always put off doing one of these thinking it would be so much work, but it was really easy and so fun to catch up with every one!  And in the end we had awesome neighbor gifts all packaged and ready to hand out.  I'm not sure how you could get better than that.

 We finally went to the Hale Center Theater's production of A Christmas Carol (their Orem theater is just down the street from our house and every year I want to go but don't think of it until the tickets are sold out)

Christmas Eve Eve (not a typo, just the day before Christmas Eve) we had an ugly sweater party with Doug's family.  I'm pretty sure Doug's t-shirt is my favorite Christmas shirt ever.  

Christmas day brought us to the Grand America Hotel Christmas Day Buffet with Marika.  Let's just say I will never feel a draw to cook my own Christmas dinner again.

We even got to see Andrew and Lauren's family for a live viewing of Charlie Brown's Christmas.  (Live because we were all together in person, rather than watching together via Skype.  Not because Charlie Brown and his crew came and acted out the movie for us in person.  Though that would be pretty awesome)

All in all, December was pretty awesome.  Which is a good thing since I'll be reliving it from my bed for weeks to come :)