Mitchell to Morgan: Friends, food and "fashion"

This past weekend I headed down to the States. The purpose for my visit was twofold - friends and shopping!

Not only was I going to be visiting friends but friends I hadn't seen since my last visit in April, and one of the friends is pregnant! So it was great to see her all glowy and beautiful.

I left work early on Friday and made it to the border in an hour and a half. Considering it was friday on a pro day with work traffic I was pleased with that! What was more pleasing was getting through the border in 15 minutes! I joined the three way line and after a brief moment they opened up a new line right in front of me! So there were only three cars between me and the guards. Rad.

Then I hauled but down the I5 with smooth sailings and "some nights" by fun. as my driving jam. It was a good trip. A classic stop for Taco Bell (crunchwrap surpreme! crunchwrap surpreme! crunchwrap surpreme!) and I made it to the Foster's in 4 and a half hours. Considering I stopped at Famous Footwear at Seattle Premium Outlets to look for boots (no luck) and had to battle Vancouver and Seattle after work traffic I'd consider that a win.

Heather and Mark now live in Puyallup. I met Heather 11 years ago at Lake Retreat Camp. We were both counselors and immediately hit it off. We have remained friends despite the distance (near and far - she's lived in the USA or Australia the whole time I've known her). I was in her wedding 5 years ago this past Saturday and her and her husband came up to join us for ours - such a blessing! Her and Mark have a son that was born the same month as my sister's first, Connor. It's been fun to watch Jonah grow up alongside Connor. In my head they'd be friends, despite having never met.

Thankfully Mark and Paul get along famously, and Heather finds Paul amusing, so it makes for great hangouts. We've often gone to spend a weekend with them and we always enjoy it. And of course Jonah loves to give Paul smack-downs.

Since I was alone this time we did a bit more girl talk than normal though I tried to throw in some American politics to keep Mark partially entertained at least.

We stayed up late talking and then I had a lovely sleep on the couch. I was awoken to Jonah watching Pengu on the TV. He's a fun kid. I really enjoy him.

After a morning of hanging out, breakfast and more conversation I headed off to the mall nearby. I put on my new black boots from Zellers, my awesome $30 "leather" jacket from Burlington Coat Factory 2 years ago and headed out. I used Jennifer Aniston as my muse for the outfit.

Which segway's nicely to the new thing I'm doing.

The Pinterest Challenge.

I was already using Pinterest as an idea spot for how to wear clothes but then I started following "Pinterest made me do it" and I was hooked. I'm so going to start actually showing you where I get my ideas from. Rad. My outfits won't be as perfectly matching as hers, more inspiration but it will be fun! You can see them if you want to follow me. I'm Tara Morgan on Pinterest, maybe this link works.

Based off the outfits on my list of things to complete outfits I'll wear regularly, I have a list of things I am allowed to buy. Generally the pieces need to be in more than one outfit and be easy and awesome to wear.

So I was armed with a list - here is what I was looking for and where I ended up finding it:

Chambray Blouse (casual – for life) @ Target

Grey Blouse (casual – for life) @ Old Navy

White Blouse (more formal – for work and church) @ Old Navy

Silk Blouse (formal – for work and church) @ Target

Brown Boots, Steve Madden @ Famous Footwear

Did I see lots of other awesome things that I totally wanted? Yes. And I did not buy them. This is growth. I am an adult.

You'll be able to see the Chambray blouse, White Blouse and brown boots below. I wore the silk blouse on Sunday but forgot to post it.

Saturday after a successful shopping trip and a great visit with Heather I headed to Costco to stock up. Phew. $500 later I was set. I got everything on my list and few sale items that I hadn't planned on but was stoked to get.

This was a particularly big shopping weekend for me since we didn't want to come down again until between Christmas and New Years, which means I had to get everything for all the holidays in between and the many parties that come with holidays. Plus feeding lifegroup each week. There was much to buy.

Oh and the Costco in Tukwila is amazing. It's built specifically for restaurants as well as "civilians" and so there are bulk containers for cooking...like applicances and cooking utensils. I bought some stuff and will buy more once we have a home. It was beautiful and amazing.

Then I headed to Mali Thai in Tukwila to meet up with Rebekah and Tony. I met Rebekah 5 years ago in Vancouver through our mutual friend Prakash. He'd invited her to church. She also attended Langara and we became instant friends. While she lived in Vancouver we met up regularly, and once she moved down to Seattle she was someone I saw regularly on my trips down. I love getting to hang out with her, and now that Tony is in her life I love hanging out with them. Paul still hasn't met Tony because they only started dating in the spring and so the only other time I've met Tony Paul was away in Kaslo.

Anyways the food was amazing....

And hanging out with such a rad couple was awesome.

We talked non-stop

And they introduced me to Thai Iced Tea.

Oh my word. Amazing.

Then it was girl time, Rebekah and I headed off to Starbucks to grab a drink and chat for another hours. And THEN it was time to head towards Canada again. I still needed to stop at Walmart and Winco and a giant buggy full of food and a crazy packed car I was on my way to the border.

Again my trip was fueled by the album "some nights" by fun. and again I had amazing border blessings! I again went to get into one of the three lanes available and again a fourth opened up right in front of me. I was through in 5 minutes, start to finish. Praise the Lord.

I headed to Surrey to pick Paul up, he'd been out hunting with his Dad, and then as Paul slept in the front seat, I continued my epic jam music and singing.

We got home at midnight but still had to unload and unpack. We had lots of meat and dairy in coolers that had to stay cold and we can't leave things out in our house due to mice. So it all needed to be dealt with. We were a crazy awesome team and had it resolved by 1am. Then we watched some SNL because really, at 1am, you might as well stay up until 2am.

I have to say I enjoyed Bruno Mars as both musical guest and host, though some of the skits fell flat for me. I'm not a giant fan yet of the new cast members.

Sunday morning we slept in. It was beautiful. Then Paul made us breakfast! French Toast and Sausage. Yum.

And I began to tackle our back room...

I'm still not done so you don't get to see a picture.

Then I decided to try out my new Chambray (or Denim) shirt. Boy was I excited.

I looked on Pinterest to see what inspiration was speaking most to me and the rest jeans won out.

Since I didn't have or want to have a animal print belt I went with a funky necklace instead.

I thoroughly enjoyed the outfit.

I may have worn it again Tuesday except with Brown pants. Yup.

I already shared yesterday about church on Sunday so I'll just mention that I was going to be needing to bring treats for a dinner Sunday night. I couldn't decide what to make so I went to Pinterest to see if my food boards could direct me. I had pinned Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars with Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Icing a while back and realized it would be easy to make.

It was easy and it was also amazing.

I haven't gotten that many compliments on a dessert in a while!

Top Middle: Plated with 3 ingredient, 3 minute fudge.

Bottom Left: Up close and personal

Bottom Right: Spread, just before baking.

After church we grabbed our treats and headed over for Dinner at the Lim's. We were also hanging out with another couple, Lindsay and John, who we'd had over on Thursday night. We were greatly looking forward to it.

The view on the way over was awesome.

I was excited because the Lim's are known as being awesome fun godly people, as well as being phenomenal cooks and throwing rad parties. I knew that Nate would have an AMAZING dinner up his sleeve and he did not disappoint.

It was so great.

Since we all got to the Lim's by 6pm I thought it would be a decently early night and then the next thing I knew it was almost 11pm and we were all still chatting and hanging out. It was a wonderful, wonderful night. With great people and great food.

Monday morning felt early after the late night. Here are my Monday and Tuesday outfits.

Monday night I stayed in. It was a weird, hard, and then beautiful and wonderful night. I'll tell you about it later. But it has to do with a surprise bill from the government.

Always fun right?

Tuesday I had lunch with a friend downtown at Elephant & Castle

And then I headed home after work to make dinner. On my way home I ran into my cousin Jonathan, since we were both on our bikes we biked about 20 blocks together. It was a lot of fun. Good conversation.

Then I got home to start cooking. It was Toquito Night at Lifegroup and it was excellent.

Also I wore the outfit I mentioned above, Chambray with brown pants. And look! A chambray friend!