nature: my fave

other current faves include:
thomas and his nature photography (see above)
ambrose
asher
birthday weekend extravaganza
ward camp week at the beach
oh yeah, beach
filling my house with tree images (yes, like the one above)
the new bike i'm getting belatedly from my parents and thomas. all i had to do was turn 26.
trying to get organized about teaching my sons (see side bar: mama school)
my friends
essential oils ("balance" and "wild orange" to be exact. makes me feel like a revitalized mother nature. i told you i'm psycho.)
planning our up-coming mainland take over! i mean trip.
a resurgence of mates of state love
a tall glass of cold water with 1/2 a fresh squeezed lemon in the morning
love wherever it is found
sneaking little moments on the computer to keep in touch
the book of mormon
seizing creative moments
lists. obviously.

dear diary,

A couple Thursday thoughts here.

Why does poor Asher have more fevers than anyone I've ever met. Fevers and other yucky stuff since Saturday night. That's right, even on his first birthday. Tragic. We have a urine test being processed right now and hope they can figure it out so we don't have to go back in for the blood one.

Don't get me wrong, I love the extra cuddles this misfortune affords me, but all the day-long lethargy, tears, and all-nighters of keeping nervous, sleepy vigil over my feverish boy are starting to take a toll on the family. And I just want my feisty, happy boy back!

Get better little one.

Ambrose is going stir-crazy too. But! We are going to Disneyland this summer and so I've been piling on the Disney movies via Netflix. How is he supposed to know just how magical Disneyland is if he doesn't know all the characters??? I'm just trying to get my money's worth here.

Have you watched Lady and the Tramp in a while?

Aside from the Siamese cat part making me feel embarrassed for Disney and like apologizing to Asians everywhere, the stylings of the house are AMAZING! I want all the large graphic "arts and crafts movement" (thank you Mel P) wallpaper, tile, and rugs rugs galore. I am well aware that it's just animation. But wow.

I feel the same way about Snow White though. That whole Eastern European vintage cottage in the woods look makes my heart sing. I think I got this from my mom.

I can't really find a good picture example, but you know what I mean right? Quilts, and carved wooden beds, and lots of forest creatures roaming around... and like, this kind of ribbon everywhere:

Anyway, this morning was Bambi and boy is that movie precious. I want the whole soundtrack. Nothing cuter than seeing Asher boy perk up for a few minutes and dance with a silly grin on his face to "drip drip drop little April showers..."

Oh! And society soul mates! Have you started your apron yet? I've gotten as far as realizing that I want to attempt my first made-up-by-myself pattern and improve an existing apron that I have. I love this one:

for it's almost full-body coverage, but want to improve upon it by making sure I can tie it at the waist like I have in the picture AND go to above my chest. When it's tied up now the apron strings go up much higher than my waist, which was cute when I was pregnant, but makes me look awkwardly pregnant now. Not so cute.

So, I searched through my scraps and came up with this:

An old curtain from Ambrose's room in the old house, a tiny scrap of some Japanese fabric I have saved every last shred of that may be just BARELY big enough for the torso part of the apron, some pinstripe denim that I cut out for a baby bag that never was for the waist band, and some olive solid scraps from a backpack I made for the straps around the neck. Oh, and some hippo IKEA fabric scraps from Ambrose's party favors when he turned two for a pocket.

All cut out.

Waiting for me to get the guts to execute my made-up pattern.

I really don't want to mess up so I am just letting them sit there.

Maybe until the night before we all get together at the end of the month.

But hopefully before.

Welp, I think this concludes this long diary post. I don't want to waste all of Asher's nap, but it sure feels good to dwell on something silly for a couple of minutes. I'm gonna go watch those gosh-awful Siamese cats with Ambrose and maybe even eat some more bread from our brand new bread maker!

Shout out to Thomas Robertson for doing some research and buying an affordable, yet awesome one. Did you know this thing can make bread (duh), all kinds of dough, including pasta dough, and jam! Let's hope I don't gain 100lbs. exploring all the options, but I'm excited to get all homemade up in here.

Aloha!

our slice of paradise

My mom has been asking for these pictures since the first day we brought some boxes up and I never felt like I could post pictures of the new place, because even with all the sewing, sanding, painting, hammering, cleanning, organizing, designing...etc. we have been doing to get the place ready.... there is still so much we want to do!! I don't really think it will ever be "DONE" so here it is for now. I'll post more finished products or hung pictures as they are created and completed. Trust me, we still have more to do, but for all intents and purposes our beautiful, long wished for piece of paradise is ready to show off and WE LOVE LIVING HERE!!!!!

We LOVE it.

It feels like a dream. Or like we are playing house or something.

My poor boys. We hardly get out and do outdoorsy things anymore because I am having WAY TOO MUCH FUN living in my little dream home. It's all so fresh and just so so great.

Did I mention that we love it?

OK. Now it is time for WAY too many pictures. You'll be sorry you asked for them mom. ;)
















And now... I present for your viewing pleasure... way too many photos of my recently organized sewing stuff. I feel very accomplished. HAHA! I do though. I have never had it all OCD fancy like this before and it is AWESOME! Sometimes I go and open it all up and just stare and sigh..... love.


You sure you want me to open that cool clock knob? Once I do, we can never go back to time when you didn't know just how psycho I am.......

AHHHHHH!

PRINTS!

SOLIDS!

AN UNSATISFYINGLY DARK PHOTO OF FELTS, LEATHERS, NETTING, AND UNFINISHED PROJECTS!!!

And here she is:

The sewing cabinet all opened up and lovely. She is still missing cork boards on the inside of the top doors for hanging things on one side, and inspirational whosits and whatsits on the other. Oh, and a cool board with nails to hang my thread on in the back. Right now all my thread is tangled up in a huge bag. That just won't do. But here is what I do have done. Liko, can you spot something awesome that belongs to you in here?










Hey you mongrels. Get outta there.

Yes you. I can still see you. Even with that camo shirt.

Let's move on to the bathroom. Might be my favorite room in the house. I mean, look at it:

Sorry, I'm not very good at this indoor/flash thing. Sure wish Thomas was home to take all of these. Anyway, here's way more than you ever wanted to see of my bathroom:









And now for the little fishes in their life aquatic room. I feel like I want to do a couple more things in here, but here it is so far:

Swim on in friends.




We plan on living here for a while and growing up a little in this house. I like imagining what kind of friendship these two will have over the years. Someday this bed will be bunk beds. Or a trundle. Maybe it'll house three rowdy boys (!?) someday. It's fun when they play nice and I feel like this new space has already made us feel closer as a little family unit.










Ok boys


what else do we need to show them?

the tea cup tray on the little bookshelf?

the new and improved whiteboard... a HUGE upgrade from our old one we had for years that was so small and fell off the fridge sometimes?

Ambrose's second home: aka- the timeout chair? ;)

Asher's just upset that he can't do the dishes by hand. I, on the other hand, am not.














WHEW! If you made it to the end then congrats! I guess I wanted a post that represented the loooong journey it took to actually live in this happy place. Did I sound totally braggy in this post? I really can't help it. I can't. I am so unbelievably excited to live here. We love it! Thanks to my in-laws for helping us live our dreams and letting us design pretty much everything in the house. We love you guys and love being your tenants! We are lucky and I feel so grateful. Big smile on my face. All day. YAHOO!



It's so so good to be home.