Yup

A week ago today, L and I were in Puerto Vallarta - the third and final port day on our week-long cruise. I have lots of stories to tell and photos to share from our day in PV ... beach-side artwork, eating lunch in a riverfront gazebo, feeding wild iguanas, and me wearing a hat ... but I thought it seemed fitting to post just one photo today. This picture was snapped from the balcony of our cabin, just after we returned from dinner. It was the perfect end to an awesome day spent exploring a seriously gorgeous city.

If you had bumped into either L or I during the past few days, you would have noticed two things - one, that we swayed slightly from side to side whenever we try to stand still, and two, that our usual pale skin tone (achieved by many, many, many hours of working in front of computer screens) has been replaced by a more human-like, bronzy tone. Why, you ask? Because we've just returned from our first vacation in a very, very long time - a week-long cruise along the Mexican Riviera!

What was particularly noteworthy about this vacation was that being in international waters meant that we had to be entirely disconnected from our regular lives for seven whole days - no phone calls, no texting, no emails, no internet. It was a total cold-turkey detox from all things tech, and it was utterly fantastic. We spent our time doing lots of things that we want to do, but don't normally have the time to do - things like reading ...

Painting ...

And taking in the sights in Cabo San Lucas ...

And Puerto Vallarta ...

We did lots and lots of walking, and didn't take the elevator once during our entire trip (which meant that my thighs were extra toned from all of those stairs on the ship by the time we returned ... bonus!). We splurged a bit here and there - a day at the spa for me (while L slept in), a brief visit to the Chocolate Buffet, and a couple of mojitos while overlooking the beach - but we figured that we had to in order to have a true pirate experience. That's totally what they meant by "adventure on the high seas," right? I have lots more to share from our trip (and will have even more once we take our real-live film cameras to get developed), so I'll be posting more vacation goodies soon.

Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me.

So much has been going on at Chez Yup lately that my poor little blog has gotten left behind. I'm sorry, my darling blog. It's nothing personal ... things have just been so busy and I haven't been able to give you the attention you deserve. You know I love you.

I have, however, not neglected my bloggy duties entirely, as you will find two new buttons on the top right of my header. See them? Right over there. You'll now find links to my Twitter and Pinterest accounts, which didn't exist until very recently. I've managed to resist the draw to most social networks up until now - pretty ironic, considering that I'm in the marketing/web industry, and that's pretty much the first thing I recommend for marketing oneself online.

It's not that I haven't been interested in the assorted social networks, it's just that my tendency is to be quite private. Shy, even. But that doesn't mean that I can't give myself a slight nudge into (what is for me) uncharted territory ... that's how I'll grow, right? And if I'm entirely honest, the whole experience has actually been really great so far. I'm enjoying making connections with both new and existing friends in a digital sort of way. I'm enjoying sharing small glimpses into my day. I'm enjoying being less guarded.

I do promise to be better about blogging in the coming days and weeks, but when the occasional downtime does occur, I hope you'll join me on Twitter or Pinterest.  :)

Ever since my recent experience as a test audience for Jenny Doh's awesome crochet workshop at The Makerie, I've been itching to crochet. Though I don't have much experience, I'm generally pretty good at following instructions, so I've getting my feet wet through online tutorials. I've made a few small things like flowers and doily shapes, but I decided that I was ready for something a little more detailed as soon as I spotted this crocheted skull tutorial by Shara Lambeth Designs.

Well, as it turns out, I grossly overestimated my ability to follow instructions. It's not like I didn't ready them ... I saw that she was using finger-weight yarn and I knew her hook size. But I figured that I could just make a test version with my thicker yarn and use a slightly larger hook to get the same effect. And I also figured that her note about crocheting more tightly than usual didn't apply to me, since I tend to crochet on the tight side anyway. I used to be so good at following directions, but I have apparently become some kind of crochet scofflaw.

Shara's super cute pattern makes a necklace-sized skull, which she also adapted to create a skull garland. My skull, however, is much, much larger. As I was working my way through the rows, I started wondering how large it was going to be. When I was about half-way through, I showed it to L and he echoed my curiosity about just how big it would become. By the time I finished my row of double crochets around the outside, my dainty, necklace-sized project had become about 8" tall. I still have some fine-tuning to do on my end, clearly, although the pattern was easy and the result was pretty darn cute. With my scaling issues, I think I could stitch a few finished skulls together to make a fun scarf. Or, if I happen to wake up one morning and find that I have tripled in size, I think I may be able to wear it as a necklace. An oversized necklace, but a necklace nonetheless.

Last week marked my parents' 30th wedding anniversary, and that meant it was time for me to dust off my card-making supplies and put together something really special for them. With the help of my new favorite crafting tool (yes, my dear Cricut, I'm talking to you), I created these fun and easy cards that are absolutely perfect for sharing just about any message, and are pretty much guaranteed to get a smile out of the recipient.

Card on a String

Supplies

• Beige cardstock or blank pre-folded card
• Neutral-colored string
• Patterned paper (for die-cuts and envelope listed below)
• Die-cut letters and small tag (I used my oh-so-awesome Cricut to cut mine, but you can use whatever you have handy)
• Mini decorative envelope (another job for my Cricut, but you can use any small envelope you have)
• Scissors
• Glue

Start by gluing your letters onto the string, leaving a 6"-8" tail on each end. Allow to dry thoroughly.

Tie a small knot on the end of your string (approximately 3" from the end of the last letter). Poke a small hole into the center of your envelope (about an 1/2" from where the top flap begins), and thread your string through the hole so that the knot rests against the inside of the envelope.

Glue the string into place on the back of the envelope. Let dry completely.

Thread tag onto the front tail so that it falls approximately 3" from the first letter. Glue the side and bottom flaps of your envelope together and allow to dry.

Fold your letter banner in a zig-zag pattern. For this card, the "M" and the "I" are face-to-face, the "I" and the "S" are back-to-back, the "S" and the "S" are face-to-face, and so on.

Insert your folded stack into the envelope. Try to leave them as close to the top of the envelope as possible to make them easier to pull out, and to avoid accidental damage to the letters.

Glue the envelope to the front center of your card. Position the tag so that it sits as desired, then tie a knot to secure and trim any excess string. Glue the front flap down (using a very small dot of glue). Add any helpful hints, such as "Open" and/or "Pull Me" to the tag and envelope as desired. Now, wasn't that simple?

While I was making the "30 Years" card for my parents, I also created a few other variations - including "Love You," "Missing You," and "Happy Birthday." The beauty of this project is that you can tailor it to any occasion by changing up the message on the banner (and by using different paper to create your letters). Just one word of caution: the longer the message, the bulkier the card, and the more likely it may get tangled or ripped on the way out of the envelope. I recommend keeping it short and sweet for the best result ... save your "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" cards for another day.

I suppose it was only a matter of time, but I wasn't expecting it to happen so soon. Despite my recent realization about my tendency to over-buy strawberries, L and I came home from our most recent grocery trip with FOUR POUNDS OF STRAWBERRIES. I don't even know how it happened, really ... I knew it was a bigger container than usual, but how could I have not noticed that it was four times bigger? I think I was on some kind of a fruit rampage, because we walked away with a pineapple, a half-dozen bananas, two pounds of tangerines, and a pound of grapes. Clearly, no one in Chez Yup is at risk for scurvy any time soon.

I decided to make strawberry-centric breakfasts this weekend to help alleviate some of the stress in our produce drawer. Yesterday, L had strawberry pancakes. More specifically, he had my failed attempt at Easter-themed pancakes covered in strawberries. I had my usual steel-cut oatmeal with honey and skim milk along with a piece of whole wheat toast and a BIG, heaping bowl of strawberries. Today, I decided to throw caution to the wind and made something a bit more decadent - strawberry shortcakes.

The shortcakes themselves were lightly sweet and kissed with cinnamon and vanilla, along with an healthy sprinkle of turbinado sugar on each of their tops. And the strawberries ... oh, the strawberries. So sweet, so juicy, so dang tasty. I could have eaten about a hundred of them. The little dollop of fresh whipped cream didn't hurt either. ;-)

I know I've been a bit behind on my bloggy duties, but I have all sorts of exciting goodies in the works for the next couple of weeks - starting with a very cool card tutorial that L has said is his favorite yet. Stay tuned!

My family is tiny (there are more cats than people ... seriously), but I get to live vicariously through L, who has a big, friendly, welcoming, and just generally awesome family. A large portion of his relatives live a few counties away, which means that they are just a short road trip away at any given moment (but are just far enough away that we don't get out there to see them as often as we'd like to). Earlier this week, L's sister called him to invite us to a surprise party in honor of his cousin's 30th birthday. It was the perfect excuse for us to load up the car and hit the road.

We got an early start - or at least, early for L, who tends to be a bit of a late riser on the weekend - and miraculously managed to miss pretty much all of the traffic. The happiest surprise on the drive out there was the misty, foggy, slightly rainy morning that accompanied our trip, despite the "0% chance" of rain that was listed when we checked the weather online. L and I share a special love for stormy days, and getting to drive through some little pockets of rain as we cut through the mountains made the trip extra special.

The party itself was a blast ... great food, lots of hugs and laughter, and one very surprised birthday girl. We brought a very cool gift for her - a very cool handmade gift, of course - which I'll be dedicating a full post to in the future.

We stayed at the party late into the evening, and loaded up on coffee before hopping in the car to head back home. On the trip back, we hit even more rain (but still encountered next to no traffic). And since L did all of the driving, I got to sit back and take it all in. So cool.

By the time we made it back into town, L and I were starving. Sadly, our area is notorious for shutting down as soon as the street lights come on, so our options were limited. Some quick thinking by L lead us to a place that was not only open, but also super yummy. We filled our bellies and returned home ... with nearly six hours of driving and eight hours of celebrating under our belts. What a day. :)

Last night, I had the pleasure of being a guinea pig for my friend (and crocheter extraordinaire) Jenny Doh, as she is putting the finishing touches on a workshop that she is teaching at The Makerie next month. After a few weeks of being nearly inseparable, my crochet hooks and I had become more like distant acquaintances, so it was really nice to get back into the rhythm.

Not only did I get a much-needed refresher in the basics, but I also had the chance to try out some new (to me) concepts and unfamiliar materials. I was able to get some experience crocheting with multiple strands at once, using strips of recycled sheets as yarn, and adding buttons into my work as I crochet. Very cool stuff.

Just a few hours spent crocheting, and I've caught the bug all over again. If I had a crystal ball to look into, I think I'd see a whole lot of crocheting in my immediate future. That, and a winning Mega Millions ticket. :)

My kitchen and I were like this this weekend. If you could see me right now, you would see my middle finger crossed over my pointer. Yup, like that. That's exactly how we were.

Saturday morning was devoted to crossing a few things off of my culinary to-do list ... I had a batch of homemade Greek yogurt to make, a breakfast recipe to adapt and test, and a dessert to whip up. Yogurt was a breeze, and then I set about tinkering with my test recipe - Caramelized Pear Baked French Toast. In my head (and in L's), this was a total winner. I mean, really ... pears, walnuts, caramel-y goodness ... that just had to work. Well, it didn't. To make a long story short, I way underestimated the amount of liquid that my pears would create, resulting in some big-time bubbling over of my pan. The bubbling over quickly turned to lots and lots of smoke in my kitchen, which billowed toward the nearest smoke alarm at a record pace. Poor L woke up to the awful screeching of the alarm and had to immediately go into smoke-clearing mode. It was certainly not the lovely, relaxing breakfast I had envisioned. And to make things even worse, my french toast experiment resulted in a very unattractive (though reasonably tasty) finished product. Below is how it looked at its prettiest.

After some pretty major, post-smoke oven cleaning, I put together a pretty fabulous chocolate mousse cake for dessert. This was probably my most successful goodie from this weekend.

From there, I went savory with a healthy, post-pilates snack - a homemade veggie patty made from grated veggies, black beans, and rolled oats. It was super satisfying, and resulted in no smoke or screeching alarms whatsoever.

My weekend cooking ended with big, steamy bowls of ramen with lots and lots of veggies for L and I. L has historically not been a soup-lover (though he has been much more accepting of it lately), so I felt a certain sense of triumph when he went for seconds and said that we should make sure to keep some ramen noodles around the house from now on.

I also succeeded in making lots and lots of dirty dishes. I must have been doing something right.

Remember how I mentioned that I was able to sneak in a little bit of crafty time a couple of weekends ago? Well, it's time for a sneak peek at one of the projects I made!

These cute spool dolls were made using some too-awesome-for-words Alice in Wonderland stamps that I have been drooling over for ages. I've been in the midst of a full-blown Alice obsession lately, so finally getting my hands on these stamps was all of the encouragement I needed to get into my craft room and start getting inky. Want to see more pictures and learn how I made them? Head on over to CRESCENDOh.com for the scoop!