Got the Painting Bug!

One thing that I always hated about renting was my inability to change things.  I LOVE color, and the white/taupe walls of my apartments always drove me crazy.  I knew that when I bought a house, I was going to PAINT. =)

You may remember that first we painted our tv room red.

And then I got bored one weekend and decided to paint the bathroom purple.

This weekend I took the shitty weather as a sign that I should finally paint the master bedroom... something that I have been sitting on for several months.  And, of course, I LOVE it!

Here's the before:

And here's my beautiful, chocolate, "after":

What do you think?  Beige rug?

Several weeks ago I saw a blog posting of a DIY project that I absolutely loved... a framed tribute to travel.

I LOVE travel.  I HATE DIY projects. lol  But, this one I thought that I could do... or, at least, something similar.  So, one day a few weeks ago, armed with Michael's coupons, left over white house paint, and a couple of fresh printer cartridges of ink, I set out to create my own.

Like I said, a few WEEKS ago I started this project (not a DIYer... no time, energy, patience or creativity... for the most part).  And, this weekend, I am FINALLY done.  And, after painting the bedroom, was ready to start my wall of travel (I painted a couple of extra frames so that the project could grow as we continued our adventures):

I decided that, instead of just framing the maps, I wanted to also frame photos of us enjoying the places that we've traveled.  So, for each of our destinations (Hawaii, Vancouver, BC, Las Vegas, New Zealand, Melbourne) I found a map of the area as well as several photos, printed them up in the appropriate sizes, and framed them (excuse the crappy photos... it's hard to take pictures of pictures!):

I'm pretty happy with the way that this turned out... and am SOO looking forward to watching our wall grow! =) 

Friday Favorites.... Yeah, I know

I suck at this whole "blog on a schedule" thing... grr.... So... my "Friday Favorites" for this week are, indeed, falling on Saturday.  Additionally, I don't really have much to share this week either.  Wasn't a very interesting weekend in Cyberland I guess. =)

Zucchini Pizza Boats (these look like a damn good way to eat a vegetable! lol)

Spicing up the relationship  (this made me giggle)

Friday Favorites

I know several bloggers who do weekly favorites in some variety... I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon, but, mine is going to be a little different.

Throughout the course of the week I run across so many websites/postings that grab my attention for a variety of reasons, and I either share them on Facebook (or 'reshare' as the case may be) or I leave them open in my web browser jut I can figure out how I'm going to blog about them!  So, this is my solution to that, and to my desire to share, with a larger audience, the fascinating/funny/thought-provoking things that I discover out there in cyber land!  Disclaimer: This will, no doubt, be a random hodge-podge of a variety of goodness.

• New York-Style Crumb Cake (Club: BAKED)

• Bicycle-powered cart gives Portland's homeless a chance to check out a good book

• 19 brilliantly smart-ass responses to completely well-meaning signs

• Mumford and Sons Homeless Video-"After The Storm"

My Zen Weekend

The moment that I got in the car on Saturday morning to head out of town for our long camping weekend I was more relaxed than I have been in months.  I knew that I had four days of ocean beaches, fresh air, and good friends to look forward to.

The Fourth of July has had significance to me for a couple of years now, and has been celebrated at the Oregon Coast (Waldport and Yachats, to be exact) since then.  The last two years we've camped out at Beachside State Park.  I love that the campsites are just steps from the sand, and that the ocean waves lure me to sleep each night, and greet me in the morning.  I absolutely LOVE the beach.  I feel whole when I am there.. which was a big reason that Jacob and I decided to have our wedding there (though, I wasn't nearly as ocean-loving-crazy as THIS Oregon bride! brrr!).

A few friends joined us for the weekend.  We talked, ate, hiked to Heceta Head Lighthouse and watched fireworks (twice!).   The weather was GORGEOUS (which is evident by the sunburn that I left with). Below are a few of my favorite photos from the weekend.  Going back to work today, I actually still felt relaxed... it was fantastic!  I've already started to plan our next camping weekend! lol

Home Sweet Home

SOO ready for this!

A surprise for us on the beach

Along the trail to Heceta Head Lighthouse

View from the trail

From Heceta Head... could not have asked for better weather!

Bailey:  our entertainment

Put one of our wedding gifts to use!  I LOVE this thing!

The finale! (I love the "runner" in the first few seconds).

Attack of the Killer Tomoatoes!

We are headed out for a much needed camping trip/vacation tomorrow... I am soooo excited!  But, before we take off, I had to show you all pictures of my garden.  I'm so excited that things are actually growing and that I will have fresh veggies to eat very soon (though, have already been cutting lettuce for salads...mmmm!).

I have managed to squish a lot of stuff into my little raised garden bed... I think I'm going to have to double what I have next year!  Right now I have sunflowers, corn, beans, onions, cucumbers, carrots, lettuce and...

Tomatoes!

My single tomato plant is taking over my garden!  I've had to pick up pieces of it off the ground several times so far...it just keeps growing! lol  Thankfully I really love tomatoes! =)

It's amazing how much it's grown in just a month!