Happy Halloween!

We love homemade Halloween costumes. We've both had sweet costumes on our own, but the last couple years together were our best. Proof:

Halloween 2009 / Vlasic Stork & Vlasic Pickle

(We came in 3rd place in a contest.)

Halloween 2010 / Pacman & Inky

Sadly, this year was spent moving into our new house, so we didn't have time to create our costumes. Next year, watch out! We're already itching to come up with something creative! I can't wait!

Sunny flower

My newest pillow creation:

It sits with the other pillows I made and the afghan my grandmother crocheted for me.

It shouldn't be a shock...

...but when he got home, I tried to figure out what special day I had forgotten. Only for a second. Promise.

Turns out, I hadn't forgotten anything. They were "just because"... xoxo.

Repeat.

I wore this last Thursday and I thought it seemed familiar. I checked back here and lo-and-behold, I wore a similar outfit last year.

Ten months + new husband + new house + new haircut (it's shorter than it's been since high school!) = new outlook on an old outfit.

We're moving into our house next weekend. Christopher is a little stressed, as it's not as done as he'd hoped. Surprisingly, I'm not stressed. Yet. I have a feeling once it sets in that we haven't packed a thing, I don't have any days off from work, and we only have a moving van reserved for one day, I'm going to be freaking out.

Here's a taste of what we've been up to with our house:

Entryway before:

Entryway during:

Entryway (almost) after (we still have a lot more to do, but this gives a good sense of what it'll look like):

Hello again!

The last month has been so very busy for two main reasons:

1. School started. I now teach first and second grade instead of fifth and sixth. I'm love, love, LOVING it! I've been working hard to figure out my new grade levels, so there's been many 12+ hour days at school.

2. We are officially homeowners and have started working on our house.

The outside is beautiful, but the inside is (was) incredibly outdated. In the month and a half since we've owned it, we (and our families and our neighbors!) have put in long hours and tons of hard work to start the updates. I will post more pictures of the progress! Other than our wedding, this is our biggest project yet! :o)

A holiday on the lake(s)

Remember that holiday (over) a month ago? It was beautiful. We celebrated twice, on two lakes. The day was spent relaxing in the hot sun, watching cardboard boat races. It was hilarious and so much fun. Christopher and his brother made a tiny boat for our Goddaughter/niece. Next year, I want to join in the adult's division and make a boat.

I helped by making the signs.

Kids battled each other around the course.

 

Later, we wandered around a food festival and watched fireworks lit from beautiful old ore docks on the other lake.

There was a boat parade as the sun set.

Right before the fireworks began, it poured. We didn't mind...too much. After a heavy downfall, it cleared up and the fireworks were lit.

A wedding present

Remember my wedding bike? It's finally finished! We had to wait for all of the new parts to arrive, and then Christopher worked with a friend to fix it all up for me.

Christopher had special love bird stickers made from our wedding invitations. There is one in the back and in the front under the basket.

We thought about removing the 1971 license, but I think it adds character.

New basket and grips

New adorable seat

New whitewall tires

Christopher also cleaned up and buffed out the old parts of the bike, as well as raised up the seat. I can't get over how pretty my new (to me) bike is! I love it!

Newspaper packages tied up with string...

This is what I woke up to this weekend:

The paper bag is filled with chocolate bread... yum!

We love wild flowers from the farmer's market!

Not pictured:

- our toasted marshmallow lattes (we're addicted...unbelievably good!)

- my thoughtful Christopher that snuck out to gather the goods

- sleepyhead Angela (nobody wants to see that!)

It's a celebration

This photo was actually taken in July. I wanted to wait a bit before announcing our big news:

We're buying our first house!

We found out on July 15th that our offer was accepted. Since then, we've been waiting on paperwork, inspections, appraisals, insurance, etc. The sale will close this week and we're beyond excited!

The house is adorable. There's a wraparound porch - my dream! We'll have raspberry bushes, plum trees, and rose bushes in the back yard. The inside has a lot of possibility. It's cute, but needs a lot of updates. There is old 60s-style wood paneling throughout the main floor. There are wood floors throughout the main floor (score!) that need to be refinished. We're hoping once we pull all the old, icky carpet from the stairs and upstairs, we'll find wood floors there as well. It'll be a lot of hard work, but we're ready for it!

I'll be blogging about the updates as we go. I plan on creating a scrapbook (er, photo album? I don't really scrapbook) of all the stuff we do! Stay tuned!

To market, to market

Christopher and I like to shop our town's farmers market every Saturday. This week I went solo, while Christopher and Telula went for a run and cooled down at the lake. This week's treasures include (pictured) wild flowers, raspberries, kale, cucumbers, and... gooseberries! I have read about gooseberries, but I always thought they were pretend like snozzberries in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. Wait... are snozzberries real too?! Ahh!

I also bought (not pictured) jalapeno cheddar bread, two toasted marshmallow lattes, and an apple fritter. I made sandwiches with the bread and cucumbers for lunch and will make crispy kale this afternoon. Apparently you can make gooseberry pies, so I might make one, though I've been enjoying them as is. They remind me of grapes in texture and (kind of) taste.

farmers market style

What I wore...

Shirt - Target

Skirt - Old Navy

Leggings - Target

Shoes - Payless

<a href="http://www.everybodyeverywear.com/challenges/view/pattern-mixing"><img src="http://www.everybodyeverywear.com/photos/iSgoAAA.png" width="200" height="50" alt="Pattern Mixing | Everybody, Everywear" /></a>

Where's your heart at?

Even though the last month has been mostly crummy weather, the fact is that my heart remains here:

It's my latest project, made from wedding fabric leftovers. 

Project inspired by: this and this

Beach bums (finally!)

It was the first nice weekend in about a month. Rain and chilly days have taken over most of June. Needless to say, we were excited to spend some time at the beach.

Telula was the only brave one of the family to jump into Superior. I've been swimming there for years, but it's still too early in the season for me to dare going any further than my ankles in the lake of ice cubes.

Saturday:

"Thanks, Dad!"

Sunday:

dodging the spray 

We love the beach.

"Why yes, I'd love a chin scratch!" Silly puppy...

Ore Docks / Lower Harbor