new adventures...all the time.

So, my life changes from day to day. I was in Switzerland for the Holidays with Nathan and it was soooo nice. Now I am back in Mesa with Anne and fam until Nathan graduates in May. Yes, May! I am sooo excited. Finally, we will be able to live together permanently and not just for 3 month stints at a time (due to Swiss immigration law). Nathan is already beginning the process of looking for a job. It is kind of exciting. He is really excited to be done with school, he's been in some kind of college or internship for the last 10 years and he is really ready to be done with it all and just work doing what he loves...architecture. We have no idea where we'll be living by the end of this year. We are kind of hoping Nathan gets a job in Switzerland. It's a nice place to live and there are some great architecture offices. Plus the earning potential here is at least double what is in the US. So, Switzerland is our #1 choice. Then there are some offices in Paris or London that he is looking at as well and then maybe even stateside in New York, Boston or Seattle. It's pretty certain we'll be living in some big city somewhere.

In the meantime, I am hanging out with my sister Anne and her family, failing at finding temporary employment and having a lot of fun. Anne and I started a new blog called Wearing Walmart. We decided that we wanted to share with the world the hilarity of Walmart fashion and other odds and ends. Now, not everything at Walmart is all that bad, but sometimes it is really bad and funny. So, if you want to see some really embarrasing pictures of Anne and I, check it out. We've also been maintaing our vintage clothing store on Etsy called Fashion Redemption. My teenage nieces are the models and they do a fantastic job.

Anyway, here is a sweet little pic of Anne and I from our new website. Enjoy!

my husband and future father of my children

My Nathan is going to make an amazing father someday. Not only is he the cutest guy EVER, he is smart, talented, kind, patient and just a good hearted person. I love this guy. You can just see the goodness beaming out of that kind face!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY (& Future Father's Day)!

Hey ya'll

Been busy. Nate is in his final stretch of grad school and I am here in Mesa with my sister and her family. Sadly, try as I did, Switzerland would not let my student husband have me, his wife there. So, since I can't have a visa to live in Switzerland I am making the best of it and earning some money in the meantime.

My sister and I have started a vintage clothing store on Etsy. She has been wanting to do this for a long time, and since I am only working part time, we'd figure we'd give it a go. We have TONS and TONS of amazing things. My teenage nieces are acting as our models and we're having a blast.

I got a few items posted on our store tonight and we started a blog.

check it out:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/fashionredemption

and our blog here:

http://fashionredemptionvintage.blogspot.com/

Church Groundbreaking and a Snow Storm

This past Saturday was the groundbreaking for our new Chapel in Wettswil, Switzerland. Our ward currently meets in an office building that houses a business school here in Zürich. It has actually been really convenient for us since we are about a 10 minute walk from our apartment. Anyway, back to the groundbreaking. We woke up on Saturday morning, opened our apartment curtains and were shocked at the snow storm. Just the week earlier, things had started warming up and blossoms had started to appear on bushes and trees. So, needless to say we were shocked at the sea of white before us. The new chapel groundbreaking was at 10 that morning and we were not sure if it would still happen considering the abysmal weather. There was at least five inches of fresh snow on the ground that hadn't been cleared and we thought the chances of things going as planned were small. Even still, we got no email or phone call confirming a cancellation, and we were up for the adventure, so we headed out. Besides, Nathan was in charge of the cleanup after the ceremony, so just in case we thought we better go.

One nice thing about the amazing trains here in Switzerland is that they run in any weather. So, we boarded our train for the twenty minute ride to Wettswil. The snow was so heavy and continued to get worse as we headed for our destination. There was a total whiteout. We could barely see 30 feet out our passenger train windows and thought for sure that no one would dare drive outside in this weather. And, indeed we saw very few cars on the road.

When we got off the train at our destination in Wettswil it was another 5 minute walk to the future building site. We laughed almost the entire way as we were getting pummeled with snow (despite our umbrella) and the level of it had risen to what appeared to be about a foot. We thought there was no way anyone would have show up.

But of course, we were wrong. As you can see from the pictures below. The event still happened. They had a microphone, chairs, and a table set up. The talks were given, the groundbreaking happened and refreshments were eaten in a parking garage nearby.

We all agreed that perhaps the Lord made this a day that none of us would forget.

Yeah, well the ground was pretty hard that day and the digging did not go very deep!

Nathan's on the Internet!

Oh My Goodness Gracious TOMATO SAUCE!

Some of you may already be privy to the fact that Nathan and I eat a mostly plant based vegan diet. We aren't crazy strict about it, so we don't limit ourselves by saying that "I'll never eat cheese again" or "a burger will never again grace my lips". We just don't take it to extremes. On a day to day basis we only buy and eat vegan, but when we are invited to a friend's for dinner or go out to a restaurant, we allow ourselves to splurge a bit. And once in a while we will make something decadent.

I recently made something very decadent. You may not think of tomato sauce as decadent, but believe me, five tablespoons of butter later - it's way decadent for Nathan and I. I love cooking and trying new recipes. I have several food blogs that I follow regularly and pick out something new to try from them once in a while.

I was reading the Smitten Kitchen blog recently when I came across Deb's recipe for tomato sauce with butter and onions. Her description of this tomato sauce was too enticing, I had to try it. Note the following from her blog:

I could no longer resist this sauce, and frankly, I don’t know why I even tried to: food bloggers obsess over it, and they’re not a bad lot to base a recipe selection upon. Adam of Amateur Gourmet fell for it five years ago. Molly at Orangette raved about it over two years ago, with a bonus approval marking from Luisa at Wednesday Chef. Then Rachel Eats fawned over it too, and Rachel, you see, she lives in Rome right now — I want to be in Rome right now — Rome, where you can get authentic, perfect tomato sauce a zillion places every single day. And yet she stayed in and made this one. That sealed the deal.

The crazy thing about this sauce is the simplicity of the ingredients. Canned tomatoes, one onion, and 70 grams of butter. How simple, right? It's perfection. The flavor was amazing. You don't need cheese on it, or herbs and spices - nada. Nathan and I finished the whole pot. We even used the cool spiraly pasta noodles in her photograph. Get those, they're great.

Read her whole post here to get the recipe. Make this tonight. You will not regret it.

I am going to try this with vegan butter just to see how it is. I'm not sure about how it'll go, but if it's great I will let you know, then I will be eating this a lot more often.

En guete!

Must Read!

Wow, I am on a roll, huh? Posting again, I know, I just can't be stopped.

Well, I just finished reading a FANTASTIC book and I wanted to recommend it. It is the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.

The story takes place immediately following WWII on the British Island of Guernsey. The book concentrates on events that happened during the German occupation of the Island during the war and after. This book is historical fiction, so you learn a lot about actual events that took place and the characters in the book are funny, witty and the writing is just completely delightful. You will want to curl up next to a warm fire with hot cocoa and not stop reading.

Anyway, so that is my book recommend.

Anyone have one for me?

Just a note - I don't recommend books too lightly. This one is really quality, and there is nothing in here you would uncomfortable reading out loud to your mother. :).