So my wife and I found this interesting… it’s a visual representation of what we already know to be true. I mean, I knew a lot of people were moving to Portland… but come on ;)  We moved out of St. Louis, MO and into Portland, OR just over a year ago and have not regretted it since. So here is a quick overview of what others are doing in regards to each city.

Enjoy :)

NOTE: Red Lines are people moving away & Black lines are people moving into

Well, it’s official. We have survived a full year of Portland. This time last year we had just spent our first day in our temp house after driving 2,000 miles over four straight days across the United States to get here. We came here with one goal in mind… buy a house! Three months later we found just what we wanted and have been here since.

It has been a full 9 months since we bought our first home and we still have unpacking to do ;) In the past few months Janet and I decided we would try to take up gardening and just recently harvested our very first crop of radishes :)

Our garden is doing fantastic, but I think that has a lot to do with our garden gnome who watches over it…

So all in all we are happy with our decision to move here. Ya it rains a lot, this last year more than usual… but this city is just to magical for that to really get to us.

We love you Portland :)

I got a sweet push from Danielle that I should post an update, and I’m happy to oblige.

Portland’s January has brought the rain as promised, but it hasn’t bothered me. The tales of weeks below freezing in St. Louis while it’s rarely cold enough to see our breaths here might help a bit :)

Around the homestead I’ve been focused on self improvement. It wasn’t intended as a new years resolution thing – I don’t believe in those – but I guess the timing matches up.

Fitness

After a month or so of downtime, I’ve started running again. I stayed active on the elliptical during the down time but running requires a different flavor of endurance so I’m behind from my previous progress. I have my sights on the Portland Shamrock Run in mid-March. My goal is to do the 5K. It would be my first race ever and I am exhilarated just thinking about it. More exciting still is that I want to use this race to help decide whether I want to take a really HUGE plunge and join Portland Fit. It’s a 6 month program that starts at the end of March and trains weekly to build you up to… a Marathon.

Right now I feel completely intimidated to even think I could do a Marathon.. Today I couldn’t finish a 5k without a couple of walk breaks. But wow, it would be an accomplishment I’d be proud of forever. So I’m considering it. It’s a big commitment so I will have to re-evaluate where I am in life and work as I get closer to the sign-up deadline.

Healthy Eating

For budget and health reasons I started doing meal planning for Peter and I a few months ago and it’s going fabulously. My favorite source for recipes is Eating Well. We are both feeling better, eating better and losing weight. By planning the week’s meals in advance everyone always knows what’s for dinner and I only have to grocery shop once a week. Unfortunately this means we haven’t gotten to try very many Portland restaurants but I stay on Yelp to plan for our indulgence meals to be well-spent :). Instead of making a huge Christmas Dinner we ate like normal that day and the day after Christmas had an amazing meal at the Screen Door. Highly recommended.

Couponing

The past month I have gotten into couponing! It all started after I saw this video:

I decided it sounded worth looking into. It’s a lot of work at first and a little confusing but once you get the basics it’s downright fun. It has changed the way I shop, though. I affectionately refer to the coupon pros as the “crazy ladies”, and they like to take photos of their awesome hauls. I’ve started doing that too, you can view some photos here with info about how much money I saved. A lot of people are skeptical about couponing and want to know what my “secret” is. The “secret” is using coupons when an item is on sale at its lowest price, which often means you get it for free.

And no, it’s not stealing! Thankfully with the internet you don’t even have to figure out how to match coupons with sales on your own.. there are several blogs that the crazy ladies run where they figure out the deals of the week for you. Anyway the starting point for me and what I recommend to others is The Krazy Coupon Lady blog. Specifically her KCL 101 tutorial.

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In other news, Peter’s friend John has been visiting us from St. Louis for a couple of weeks and will be here for a couple more. I am crossing my fingers for some clear days this week (supposedly we will have them) so we can show him some of the beautiful sights.. maybe a wintery jaunt to the coast, a hike around Mount Tabor, maybe Multnomah Falls or Mount Hood. I hope so, I am starting to get a little cabin fever.

This day last year Portland was covered in snow. We weren’t here but I heard all about it – “The Snowpocolypse”. Christmas this year in Portland is cold but sunny and beautiful – a very clear day. Peter and I went to pick up a fire pit I bought on Craigslist and we gasped as we drove up a hill and the view revealed itself. We have been in Portland just over six months now and the mountains are still quite magical to us.

I have been pretty unmotivated to do Christmasy stuff. Not because I don’t like the holiday but.. I dunno, it just wasn’t in my heart this year. We’re away from family and not exchanging gifts. We did finally get the tree up and as we unpacked decorations found this note:

Last year as we packed away Christmas stuff Peter slipped in this note, knowing the next time we unpacked these things would be in our new home.

Here’s the humongous tree:

I bought it off Craigslist last year in St. Louis. I am seriously considering getting a real tree for the first time next year… because they are SO cheap here! I guess it makes sense – Christmas trees are grown in Oregon and Washington and shipped to the rest of the country. There are so many neighborhood tree lots selling trees from $10 up. No kidding. I love the smell of real trees but they always seemed like a lot of work and I grew up always having a fake tree. But I might take the leap. For that price I might just get a little tabletop tree for our office to make it smell great.

Stockings on the fireplace… I kind of threw all the Christmas stuff up on the mantle, didn’t feel like putting nails in the wall since we are still figuring out the layout of this room.

A really creepy ornament my grandma gave me:

One of my favorite ornaments from one of my best friends Stephen:

(I adore Day of the Dead)

Finally I got a little crafty this year. Inspired by this Eddie Ross Tutorial, I made a wreath with $10 in Ikea ornaments and a coat hanger.

It needs a ribbon but I wrapped a mardi gras necklace around the hook because that was what I had on hand.

I am going to try to comb clearance after Christmas this year for colorful ornaments and make more wreaths on the cheap.

I hope you have a wonderful holiday. Lookout for a belated post about my adventures at Portland’s Anti-con next.

Peter and I celebrated birthdays in November (mine the 23rd, his the 24th!). My gift to him was a custom-stitched house scene by the super talented Melissa of Little Pink House.

He loved it. And so do I.

Compare to a photo:

She even stitched in Lucy peeking out the door!!