Subscribe to get free printables, tutorials and more...

Jones Design Company

Weekend Update | It’s finally sunny in Seattle!

20 Comments

Well, friends, I’m happy to report that we finally have sunny weather here in the Pacific Northwest.

This may not be a big deal to you if you live in some gloriously sunny place like California or Georgia, but I will just say that this winter and early spring has been the absolute rainiest/grayest that Seattle has seen in over 100 years. Think 145 days of rain from October through May with only 5 dry days in the entire month of April. It sounds like I’m whining, and I sort of am. It was no fun.

But now – hooray! – we have had a gorgeous sunny weekend with no rain in the foreseeable future.

Seattleites are pretty funny. When the first spring sun comes out (even if it’s only 72*), we’re putting on our shorts and summer dresses and letting our pale, winter skin absorb as much vitamin d as possible.

Also, it makes everyone want to garden.

I finally planted our front pots with my favorites: sweet potato vine, black mondo grass, white bacopa. I planted in these tall concrete pots.

The kids gave me ferns for the front porch for Mother’s Day, which feel so southern and pretty.

Speaking of the front porch … on Friday we celebrated my mother-in-law’s birthday with a family dinner at our house. After dinner, while the boys played some crazy game on the trampoline with their super fun uncle, we had girl time on the porch swing.

That’s me holding my adorable niece. I can’t get enough of that sweet thing.

On Saturday, I basically had my best day ever. It started with sleeping in, naturally. Then my friend came over and we did a barre workout together in my studio. I ate apple pie for breakfast (oops), then we left all the kids with Ryan and pampered ourselves with a fresh pedicure (because it’s sunny!).

Later, we ventured out on their boat for tubing, anchored in a bay to let the kids swim (ps. do you know how cold the Puget Sound is right now? I don’t know how those kids do it), then stopped for dinner at the funkiest/most charming marina.

While we waited for our dinner, the kids poked around at the sea-creature covered pilings.

There were muscles, barnacles, spider crabs, so many anemones, giant sea stars. It was like our own aquarium field trip.

On our way home from the marina, we stopped in the middle of the water, with no other boat in sight, and watched the sun set. One of the most wonderful parts of summer in the Pacific Northwest is that the sun sets so late (this weekend was 8:45, by mid summer, it will be after 9!).

For the first time in my life, I saw a dolphin in these waters. Actually, we saw many, many dolphins (see that little black back to the right of the sunset reflection? That’s one of them). Fun fact: marine porpuses left the area in the 1970’s and only since 2007 have they been spotted again in the Puget Sound.

Have I ever told you that I’m a total marine mammal lover? I have always loved seals and dolphins and whales. When I was a teenager, I wanted to get a line of jumping dolphins tattooed around my ankle. Thank the Lord that did not happen. But I still do love them and seeing them in our waters was so cool. Our friends were out whale watching two weekends ago and found our local pod of Orcas (her instagram account might be private, but if not, watch this video).

On a night like this, I was so overwhelmed with the beauty of this area. Sure, we have to deal with massive amounts of rain and day after day of gray skies, but when the sun is shining and the mountains are out, it is just breathtaking.

Sunday we did church, enjoyed more sun, the kids played in hose water (again, do they realize how cold that is?!), I cleaned and puttered around the house, Ryan tackled our wooded property with his chainsaw and Atlas and the chickens spent half the day running around the yard and half sunning themselves on the patio.

I finally finished up answering all the Q + A questions. That was so much fun! Thank you to all who asked and for the many, many kind words. You all are so nice to me. Thanks for that. It’s pretty fun to read through the questions and answers, so if you have a few minutes to fill, click over here to browse.

Coming up this week:

The Fireplace Tile DIY, details about my go-to exercise routine and (hopefully!) a new Coffee Chat.

Cheers to a great week!

Reader Interactions

Comments

      • Candice

        Yay! I’ve been planting in pots for the last 9-10 years and I’m still trying to find the perfect combo of plants! It’s always fun to see other people’s creations! Thanks!

        Reply

  3. Sara

    Thank you for sharing these beautiful pictures! As a lifelong Pacific Northwest girl (Seattle), we moved to Greenville, SC almost 3 years ago. I miss Washington so much (even though we love it here too), so it is a nice treat to see the water that we love there!

    Reply

  5. Amy J.

    We live in windy Western Oklahoma (we are wheat farmers) and we quiet often have hazy/grayish skies from all the dirt that the wind blows up from the plowed fields. As I was looking at the pictures of your lovely Seattle I was thinking how clear your beautiful skies are. My husband always says he loves how our Oklahoma skies look clean and clear after a good rain (which doesn’t happen very often) washes our skies!

    Reply

  6. Jody Collins

    Emily, I am waving over here in Renton–yay for sun! It almost makes up for all that record rain–no place prettier when it’s a nice day.
    I found your blog via the story you wrote in The Magnolia Journal. My daughter shared a copy with me; and mentioned you live in Gig Harbor. What a small world. From one blogger to another I will say your site is beautiful and I love your photos.
    Here’s to more lovely weather!

    Reply

  7. Renae

    No wonder I’ve been homesick for Seattle. You had better weather than down here in the Willamette Valley!Turned nice today though, and still warm at 12:18 a.m.

    Reply

  8. Jaymie Derden

    So, I’m curious about Atlas and your chickens. We have a four year old chocolate labradoodle — Robi — we got him at age 6 months from a family whose circumstances had changed. He’s a sweetie, but still a bit wild with other dogs, people at the door and cats…. and he sheds too. (we were hoping for the non-shedder as well!) We are moving to a farm and really want chickens… I think they will be a snack for Robi… Any advice for helping them all co-exist peacefully?

    Reply

    • emily

      We were not really sure how Atlas would do with the chickens. He is not a hunter or vicious, but he can get a little rambunctious and that is what we were mostly afraid of. I think it really helped that the chickens lived in the garage for the first 8 weeks and Atlas was exposed to them regularly. We didn’t let him get too close, but he saw us holding them and I think that allowed him to get comfortable with them before they roamed free. Now that they wander the yard, he will chase them a little, but mostly leaves them alone.

      Reply

  9. Claudia

    Oh, Emily, you and I share a love of dolphins and other marine mammals. I have never seen a whale in the wild — it’s on my bucket list. For dolphin sighting, you would love a visit to Edisto Beach, SC, our favorite vacation spot. We stay on the sound side of the island and the dolphin activity is incredible. At low tide, you can walk along the water’s edge and they’re just feet away, feeding and frolicking. Such an amazing sight. My husband and I take our canoe out in the water and have had very close encounters, even been surrounded by dolphins! It’s an awesome experience. We’re heading soon for a week’s vacation and I can’t wait. Check out this post on my blog (and others) to see pics of Edisto: http://mylittlebungalow.blogspot.com/2014/10/edisto-beach-trip.html

    Reply

  13. Christy

    So beautiful! I miss Pacific Northwest weather. It might sound weird but as SoCal native and lived in Seattle for 4 years back in the early 90’s. I fell in love with Washington after one year of living there. Last summer we came to Seattle for our Alaska Cruise. We saw lot of whales out in the Pacific and Gulf of Alaska oceans. It was amazing. I love to watch them diving. Some days was beautiful sunny and somedays was gray and rain. I dont mind when it is rain. We barely had any rain here until late last year we had lot of storms which is much needed after many years of drought. Thank you for sharing beautiful Puget Sound with sunset that one is my favorite!

    Reply

  15. Sandy Ross

    Hi Emily! Would you share what marina you stopped at? I don’t live too far from you, over in Puyallup, and would love to try anew to me out of the way spot.

    Reply

    • emily

      It is called Lakebay Marina. Do not go looking for excellent food or fast service :) But it’s pretty charming in its odd northwesty way.

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *