Update

HELLOOOOOOOOO out there!

Wow, it sure has been a long time since I've written a post. So many things have happened! Chickadee is going really well! We released our first game, Notorious Inc, this past summer. You can play it for free at our site, Chickadee Games, or various places around the web, or if you're feeling generous you can buy it for a whopping 99 cents for iOS and Android. 

We gave a lightening talk called Maker/Player as part of Pecha Kucha Portland, back in July, about our creative process, Notorious Inc. dev and the importance of collaboration. I was incredibly apprehensive about doing the talk when Adam first suggested it. I am not a public speaker and it's about the last thing I want to be doing, ever. BUT, I did it, with lots of encouragement from Adam, and practice, I was able to get through it! I think I even did pretty well! You can watch it and let me know!

Maker/Player by Adam and Sarah deGrandis from PechaKucha Portland on Vimeo.

AND! Some of our absolute bestest friends from the Oregon moved here over the summer. HERE! TO MAINE! It's been kinda dreamy knowing that they are all within walking distance of our apartment!

Alright, I think that's probably enough of an update for the moment. I'm going to share some stuff I've been making next!

LATER DUDES!

Vacations

Ocean, mountains and forests. I can think of few places I'd rather be at any given time. Adam and I have been fairly lucky the past month or so. We got to spend a week, almost two at a beautiful house in Harpswell with some of my family. We got to wake up every morning to views of the Cribstone Bridge, Orr's and Bailey Islands. It was hard to leave but luckily we only live about and hour away.

And then last week we spent 3 days in North Conway, NH with some of Adam's family. We left early on Sunday so we could take a drive up and down the Kancamagus Highway. If you live anywhere near either Conway or Lincoln, NH (where the highway runs between) then I can't recommend the drive enough. It's only 26 miles with lots and lots scenic overlooks, trails and recreation areas nestled in the White Mountain National Forest. I've been on it dozens of times and it never looses any of it's beauty.

We also made a point to check out a trail nearby where we were staying in North Conway. We went to Diana's Bath in Bartlett. It's a series of waterfalls which I didn't take many pictures of because it would have mostly just been of people in the water. It was beautiful though and you could climb up giant rocks to the top of the falls. We kept going a little bit farther along a trail that runs alongside the falls.

I've been feeling so lucky lately in regards to where we live. Both of these places are easy day/afternoon trips and despite the fact that we've been to them plenty of times there is still so much for us to explore. 

Jumble

I have really been terrible at this blogging thing lately. It's been a bit of a whirlwind end of April and beginning of May. We hosted a little end-of-semester get together for Adam's students, Monaco (the game Adam did art for) was released ,we had two of our best friends from Oregon visit us for a week, cooked a belated mother's day dinner, went to a baby shower and I think some other things that I'm probably forgetting. Point is, for people who don't usually have much on their schedules, it's been a busy jumble of weeks for us. In fact, I don't think we have any other scheduled plans until July, when my dad comes to visit from Seattle.

But oh, our friends visiting was so perfect. I think I'm still feeling a little bit (ok, maybe a lot bit) of the sting of them not being here. It was so wonderful to see their faces, and joke around with them and show them all the places and things we love about Maine and our little city of Portland. I think that, at the very least they liked it enough here to visit again.

It can be so hard to have some much distance between friends that you love so much and I'm so, so, so grateful that they wanted to come out and visit us.

Oh and I'm also grateful that Ashley gave me the idea to draw on my new business cards. I'm not sure I would have thought of it!

3rd Annual Fry-A-Thon

Finally! Finally Adam and I were able to make it to a Labor Day fry-a-thon! Granted, there have only been two others but I cannot even tell you how disappointed I was to not be able to make it to those. (Still in Oregon for the first and working on a movie during last year's)

The Labor Day Fry-A-Thon is put on by the family of DeAnne, one of  my best friends and man was it great and super unhealthy, but in that really great it's a holiday, who cares! kind of way. 

Basically everyone just brings things that they think might taste good deep fried. (Which is everything, by the way) Adam and I brought apples, which you can see in the top left of the pic and chorizo. The apples were dipped in pancake batter and then sprinkled with powdered sugar and cinnamon. They were like tiny little pies! We'll definitely be doing them again next year, maybe with some kind of spiced batter and a flavored whipped cream? 

Oh and I wish I had gotten a  pic of it to share, but there was a very serious potato gun there. I don't know if I've ever seen Adam as happy as he was after shooting it, very very far, into the pond. He was just glowing!

And just like that...

I'm home! Not 100% yet, but now only gone 2 days a week. We finished principal photography on Anatomy of the Tide on Friday - a chilly day up on a cliff at Owl's Head State Park.

I'm really grateful to have had this experience. It was really like nothing I've done before and I feel like I learned so much. I got to make some new friends, really get to know Kate, see some beautiful Maine spots I'd never seen and had lots of fun and laughs.

It feels good to be able to finally settle into Adam and I's new apartment. I've started to slowly unpack and set things up. There are still boxes everywhere but I'm trying to not let it get to me too much and take some time to really think about where I want things to go.

I guess that's it for right now. Just a little Hello! I am home! Let's hang out! OH, also this is my 300th post! That's pretty bananas. I kind of can't believe I've even had that much to say over the past few years!

East coast dreamin'

Adam and I are planning on heading back to the east coast later this year and I can't stop thinking about it. I'll be sad to leave what we have here but excited to get back to the familiar places and faces that we love so. It was a grey, dreary day here today, after lots of unexpected sunlight, so my brain was especially focused on all those special places.

1. Scarborough Marsh, 2. Untitled, 3. Lower Falls, Kangamangus Highway, NH., 4. Summer Skyline, 5. cribstone, 6. Sebago Lake - 7 March 2010, 7. Congress Street, 8. www.flickr.com/photos/nhoulihan/4517301435/, 9. Last light at Reid State Park

Now, don't you all want to move to Maine with us? I thought so!

A handmade wedding - some decor

As a lot of you know, Adam and I got married six months ago. We received a disc of the wedding photos from our lovely photographer, Erin, on Friday. Since then I have been anxious to make a post about the handmade elements of our wedding and a few tips for those of you doing the same. So! Let's do this!

Like I already mentioned, all photos were taken by Erin of a love supreme. If you need photos for your special day, engagement, portraits, whatever - I super mega totally recommend her! I'm lucky to be currently working with her on a project and she is just the greatest! She is based in Maine but is looking to travel.

The first thing I have to say about having a lot of handmade things in your wedding is: enlist as much help as possible. It's really easy to think that you can do it all yourself, but trust me, you probably can't without losing your mind. Plus your friends and family will most likely be excited that you've asked them to help with such a special day.



The little birds in the glasses were all sewn by me using this pattern from Spool. I designed the fabric and had it printed on a cotton/linen blend through Spoonflower . The patterns matched the patterns used on our save the dates and invites. The birds were wedding favors and had little tags around their necks to let people know where to sit.



The napkins, oooh the napkins! My mom sewed all of them! After months of sending me swatches of fabrics she was collecting I picked three that I really liked and she got to work. I'm not sure how many she ended up making, but I think she is going to make Adam and I a quilt with them.

We spent months collecting pieces of milk glass and other glass pieces in the wedding colors for the tables. Big discovery - milk glass vases cost about $2-$3 less at Goodwill/Salvation Army per vase here in Eugene than they did in Maine. Weird, huh?

The lanterns were purchased from Luna Bazaar. Some of the colors were kind of off from what they were supposed to be, but in the end, it really didn't matter at all. My brothers hung all of them and they did such an amazing and creative job. I think I suggested how they hang one set of them and the rest was all them and perfect! Thing I have to say #2: you don't need to be in control of everything. Trust your helpers and remember, if something doesn't get done - your guests totally aren't going to notice unless you tell them!



Remember all those crochet pieces I was making in the spring? I crocheted about 100 pieces in different shapes and sizes. That is, and isn't a lot of pieces. This brings me to the third thing I have to say: be flexible with your design ideas. You'll more than likely have to change or completely throw out some of your ideas. And I promise you, it won't ruin your day! My initial idea for the crochet pieces was completely different than what we used them for but in the end, I think they looked great and some people even took some home with them.




These garlands were my mom's idea and what a great one! She sneakily started collecting paint swatches in the wedding colors, which is really not hard for her. The woman L-O-V-E-S paint chips. We sat my dad down with a glass of wine and some paper punches and set him to work punching out shapes. Then my mom, dad and brothers took turns sewing the pieces together and creating the garlands.



My brothers also made these tissue paper garlands. (I can't remember the site we got the pattern from right now!) They hung them from the trees outside of the hall where we had the reception. They looked so pretty! They also made flowers for the tables and my friend and bridesmaid DeAnne and I made some fabric ones.



The last thing I am going to share in this post is the drink stirrers that we enlisted my dad to put together. I don't think he hated this project, but I'm also not sure he loved it. We made them from crepe streamers, bamboo skewers and floral tape. Oh, and we also made the delicious sangria!

I'm going to do another post after the holiday about a few more wedding things. I hope that for those of you planning your own wedding my little suggestions are helpful. I know it can be stressful! And if anyone needs any ideas, I still have SO many!

Oh, and I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

Crazy weeks

Wow, what a nutty couple of weeks it's been. I know I already mentioned it but Adam and I got married on May 15th. The pic below is from the preview pics our photographer, Erin Wallace, posted on her blog a few weeks ago. You should totally check out her photography blog as well as her personal one.

Adam looked oh so handsome! It really was such a perfect day and everything went so smoothly. Everyone was so happy and I think they all had lots of fun. I didn't get to take as many pics of the decor as I would have liked but luckily other people did! My pal Casie, who was one of my bridesmaids, has some great posts over at her blog about the wedding weekend and set up and hang outs and all that good stuff  here, here and here! (It's a three-parter!) When I have more pictures of decor collected I'll make a post about all the stuff my family and I made. As it turns out, big brothers are excellent at making paper flowers and putting up decorations.

Oh and here is one pic from honeymoonin'. We drove all over the place but here is a pic from the top of Cadillac Mountian looking down on Bar Harbor.

Ok, I'll be back with another post about a new project I started a little later!

Perfect!

Most perfect weekend ever. The wedding was perfect, the weather was perfect. Everyone was so happy and we got to see so many of the faces that we miss. Here we are with some of our friends who came/ were in the wedding when we walked to the beach yesterday.



I'll post some wedding pics when I get some!

I heart Bailey Island

I'll be heading back to Maine next week and I'm so excited. I know I've probably said it a bunch of times already but I can't believe it's almost wedding time! For those of you that don't know, the wedding will be taking place on Bailey Island. It's a special place for us and sometimes Adam and I daydream about living there someday and Adam taking a boat to work in Portland every day. (Even though you drive to the island, whateves!) So I wanted to take a moment to share, with those who have never been there, some beautiful photos around the island from Flickr.

1. Fishing Shack, 2. Granite Cribbing, 3. Untitled, 4. cribstone, 5. Mackerel Cove, 6. boat fog 2, 7. Maine harbor, 8. Winter Sunrise, Lands End, Bailey Island, Harpswell, Maine, 9. maine

I'm so excited that Adam and I have some friends coming to the wedding from Oregon. I think maybe only one of them has been to Maine (maybe Tim?) so it's going to be awesome showing them around!  37 days til I'm a Mrs!