Sunday is the big day!

A couple of weeks ago (literally two) our landlord gave us a buzz to let us know that he is selling the house we rent from him, and we had 60 days to move....YIKES!  Although our lease was signed through July of this year, we were aware of a clause in our contract warning us that this might happen.  It was very scary at first, but now that we are boxed up we can hardly wait to pick up the U-Haul!  This house has been kind to us, but to be honest the backyard was it's prize feature.  Our new place is reminiscent of a Portland version of our old home in Vegas, with vaulted ceilings, updated appliances, a kitchen island and hard wood floors and granite tile.  It even has a fireplace and a bathroom in the Master Bath...yay!! "his" and "hers" bathrooms again :)

Cam and I first met on Hudson Ave. in Albany NY (Go Danes!) and our new rental is on Hudson Street in a quirky little area of Portland called St. Johns.  It's a block away from beautiful Pier Park with a pedestrian bridge to a dog park, and close enough to walk to the main street but far enough from all of the hustle and bustle and traffic.  We'll have a nice yard that allows us to bring our lovely hens, and although they didn't allow dogs initially, after the met Slim and Stan we were given the green light!  Oh.  And they also allow CATS!  I've been needing a little feline furball in my life, and I'm curious to see who will take the place of Hailie after all these years.

Move in day is Superbowl Sunday, but tomorrow we start transporting our things to store in the 2 car garage (total upgrade from our dinky carport!).  We'll do some light moving on Sunday (well I'll be working but Cam and Poppa Bert will), watch the Hawks beat the Patriots and then head back to the house to spend our first night in our new home!  I took an extra day off work so have a 3 day weekend so we can unpack and do some "nesting" before Cameron heads out of town on a business trip to Vegas.  Busy busy days ahead....I better get some zzzzzz's!!

Clean in 2015

Handmade Soaps

Since moving to the great NorthWest, the hubs and I have pretty dramatically changed our lifestyle and it feels great!  We're constantly learning new things, and getting more in touch with nature and ourselves.  It was nice having a big house and new cars, but now that we've scaled back we find ourselves much happier.  Owning our own home again is one of our main goals but the new pad is going to be much different than the ones we've had in the past!  Our number one priority is lots of land to garden on and live off of.  We love knowing exactly where our food is coming from, and feel better physically from watching what we've been putting in our bodies.  
Over the past year we've also started watching what we've been putting ON our bodies .  I  learned how to make our own cleaning products such as laundry detergent, soap, floor cleaners, etc.  Vinegar, lemon, baking soda and essential oils are my new best friend.  It's amazing how simple stuff is and how beneficial things found in nature can be for us.  
To ring in the New Year I decided to take it a step further by "naturalizing" some daily beauty products.  My favorite new blog is Live Simply I learned so much!  I'm a wanna be hippie and started cleaning my hair with baking soda and conditioning with apple cider vinegar.  What is all the stuff found in my old products anyway? I've started cleansing my face with avocado oil, made a homemade astringent (apple cider vinegar, essential oil and water) and moisturize with a mixture of coconut oil, vitamin E, and lavender essential oil.  I even made my own "acne mask" using oatmeal, honey, tea tree oil and lemon.  My favorite part?  Having all the ingredients that I need already on hand!  Didn't even have to leave the house (which if you know me well makes me very happy!).  Why have I been using products with all these unnatural ingredients when I can just use 1 or 2 things that work great?  Since moving to Portland my face has been breaking out a lot, but my new regime has improved my skin greatly.  For the holidays I made some homemade body scrubs and they were a hit!  I'm super excited to ring in 2015 and see what other new "discoveries" the year has in store!

 

Warm Vanilla Sugar & Rosemary Grapefruit Salt Scrubs