Highlights from our trip to the USA

Be warned that this post is composed of a million pics! haha


We went with my family on a picnic to Lucky Peak. My Mom and I had fun floating on an air mattress, but no one took a photo. ha
As you can see, Nathanael was having a good time.
Some people got worn out, though. hehe

My cousin, Andrew, got married while were in Idaho. It was special to be able to attend the wedding. :-)

Teddy's first ride in a swing!

Nathanael's 4th Birthday!

We gave him an 1/8 size violin. Hopefully he will follow in his Uncle Seth's footsteps. ;-)

Nathanael and his cousins had fun running around in the sprinkler park.

Ben and I celebrated our 7th anniversary a little early, since Mom was there to watch the kids for us. We ate at a romantic fondue restaurant.

For Teddy's 1st birthday, we had a "Teddy Bears' Picnic"! :-)

I can't believe Teddy is one year old already! It seems like he was just born...
He loved his party at the Boise River greenbelt. :-)

Cousins Laban and Nathanael loved playing together.

The partyers. haha

A teddy bear made out of cupcakes. :-)

Teddy loved the birthday song.

He required a little encouragement from Aunty Melody to dig in. haha

A rare shot with me in it. haha

My brother, Seth, with his lovely girlfriend, Rachel. ;-)

I was so excited to meet her. The birthday boy! :-)

We took a day trip to McCall-I love the mountains in Idaho!

Teddy in the woods. :-)

Our last morning in Idaho, Mom, Melody and I went to breakfast and tea with Rachel. It was so nice to have some girl time together. :-) We took a short trip to an antique shop, too.

Uncle Seth gave Nathanael a quick fiddle lesson right before we left, too. Nathanael doesn't last very long just yet. Haha

Well, that's all for now. Hope you enjoyed the pics of our month away. :-)

Pink Handles--done! :-)

Before This is our kitchen when we first moved in. (above)I added a lot of decorative touches since then.
I love pink glass handles, or any glass handles for that matter. Haha So, about a year ago, Ben started replacing the boring stainless steel handles with some pink glass ones I brought back from America last time we visited. He intended to finish them sooner, but we ended up living with them half done since then. Just the other day the job was completed! I'm so happy with the result. :-)

We do have one of the old handles left. Ha I paid for and didn't receive an

extra, in case of breakages, and of course one of the handles broke during the

installation. We are going to the USA this Saturday(excitement), so I

will find a replacement while I am there. :-)

The finished effect!

I am linking to Sarah's "Before and After Party" http://thriftydecorchick.blogspot.com/2010/08/before-and-after-party-clock-turned.html

And to Debbie's "Before and After Party, too. :-) http://debbie-debbiedoos.blogspot.com/2010/08/ok-we-need-shrink-before-and-afer-party.html

Hope Chest ~before and after~

I was almost 18 when my parents bought this hope chest for me as a graduation gift. At that time, I liked unstained, unpainted wood (not sure why)so I never did anything to the wood except add a very light coat of clear sealer. I've been wanting to paint or stain the hope chest for a while now. I decided to paint it- white, of course. ;-) Actually, I would have preferred a more off white color, but I can always add another coat of paint easily. This is nice for now.

We had some pure white paint left from other projects, so I just did 2 coats of that over 2 days during Teddy's afternoon naps. Each coat only took me about 15 minutes, so it wasn't bad at all.

I plan to add some handles to the front later on, since it is made to look like there are 2 big drawers.

I am linking to a "before and after party" with Sarah, the Thrifty Decor Chick. :-)http://thriftydecorchick.blogspot.com/2010/07/before-and-after-party-craigslist-love.html

A Few Christmas/Winter Touches In Our House :-)

As the weather gets colder in June/July, I start to feel "Christmasy". Haha Last year, we had Christmas in June, but when December came around, we ended up going all out again. This year I don't feel having Christmas twice. But I just couldn't help myself. I had to at least put on some Christmas CDs and I put out just a few Christmas decor items that mostly seem more Wintry. Nothing too extreme. ;-) I added last year's Christmas wreath to our TV cabinet. It looks like chunks of ice or snow, all glittery.

A tiny white tree

Snowflake tea light and white berry candle wreath.

This quilt will help keep Teddy and I warm in the evenings. Leather chairs get cold!

Winter gets boring if you don't do something to break up the monotony, I think. This should help. ;-)

Modern Apartment Tour

Earlier this week, we went up to Brisbane, Queensland for a church conference. I thought you might like to see our apartment in the apartment complex/motel we stayed in for 2 nights. It is a very modern style that is popular here in Australia, which I thought might interest my American readers. ;-) It's not at all my style, but it was a nice, new, clean place to stay. Teddy loved the cushy rug. :-)

Open plan kitchen, living and dining.

Closeup of the kitchen.

Outdoor dining on the huge balcony.

Another outdoor living space.

The bathroom.

Master Bedroom- the bed was very comfy. :-)

The boys' bedroom

So, what do you think? Could you live somewhere like this? Although it is far too stark for my liking, I think I could make it livable with the addition of some pretty rugs, pillows, pictures, quilts, etc. And of course a good dose of pink. Haha


I will leave you with some cuteness- our friend Sarah, and the cutest little Teddy bear ever. ;-)

Chandelier Installation

About 6 years ago, we bought a very special chandelier at my favorite shop (which has since moved out of town). We bought it for the kitchen in our old house, and paid much more for it than I would ever pay for a chandelier of it's size now. Haha Anyway, we ended up selling that house before the chandelier was ever installed, and then we rented a house (now referred to by Ben as The Bat Cave, because it was so dark and moldy. ha) for over a year while we searched for a new house to buy. We have lived in our current home for 3 years, and still hadn't put the chandelier up! Finally, I decided that I would like it be in our master bedroom, since the existing center light fitting would make the installation much easier than in the living areas of the house, which only have down lights. So, for my birthday a couple weeks ago, Ben installed our lovely chandelier and a ceiling rose I brought back from our last trip to Idaho. As you can see, Ben came up with an ingenious contraption for holding the ceiling rose in place while the "liquid nails" was drying. I have to admit, I was a little frightened the books would end up falling on our heads. Haha

I love having something beautiful hanging above our bed now. :-)