Tshirts

Motorcycle tshirts for the whole family. This was the graphic I orginally made for uber.

But I've also used it on tshirts for other motorcycle loving families.

I am loving it on the little boy shirts

And of course little girls like butterflies better.

I'm thinking about offering the tshirts in the shop just haven't figured out the best way to do it...

Corner Cabinet

There is an empty useless corner in our upstairs hallway that is big and yet small at the same time, it sits right outside of Micahs room which has french doors. I have been diligently searching craigslist for corner cabinet possiblities for MONTHS and finally succeded the weekend before we left for California this popped up- it looked terrible on the post but I figured hey why not go check it out.

I'm so glad I did!  It ended up being exactly what I have been looking for (minus the beach scene). It is solid wood and the lady was more then happy to sell it to me for $100 - What!? Ridiculous! She could have easily got double from what I have seen (I found it online, unfortunately they don't list a price).

I finally found time to sand it down, repaint it and add some pretty crystal knobs. Uber also anchored it to the wall and redid the quarter round so it fits into the corner snuggly.

I am so beyond thrilled about this I have more plans for finishing off this upstairs area - it's going to be the  'travel' themed section of our house...

Garden Tuesday

A couple of Saturdays ago while having dinner with my guy and his parents, I looked out the window and saw this. He/she? was on the fence out by my garden. I say this to excuse the not so hot photos..... window, rain, distance, moo. 

 I was trying not to squee (I am a bird nerd, I love them.... ) because when I looked again, I saw there were two.

 I have no idea of the exact type that they are. Hawks of some sort, I'm not knowledgeable, I just like them.

They are rather intimidating and I realized they were trying to intimidate the squirrels in our yard.

 They were either practicing their hunting skills or trying to have one for dinner, though I never saw them get close. There are three squirrels that hang out in our yard and they're pretty fast.

Now that I think about it, lately I've only seen two. 

Hmmm.....

Garden Tuesday is over at Sidewalk Shoes.

Go check it out!

Triangle Pillow

Does it ever feel like things are just flying by faster than you care for?

It's how I'm feeling right now. 

I never mean to let so much time go by before sharing what I am up to but I do. 

Then it seems hard to share it all.

~

So I was wasting time  doing research one day out in blog land and came across this and this. I thought it was so cute and decided to try and see if it was as easy as it looked. 

It was. 

I decided to make a bigger one..... someday. 

Jess had given me this gorgeous fabric and I made two pillows. I was thinking about making two more when she suggested that it would be great for the larger triangle pillow project.

So I did.

It was fun!

It's funky!

It's for him! 

He's only smiling because he didn't want to hurt my feelings. He doesn't quite get it.

Grampa tried tempting him with the "fishing" pole. 

It didn't really work.

Mom tossed him on top. 

He rolled off. 

I realize that I stuffed it too much and so I will have to take some of those silly pellets out. Jess helped me the first time around and it wasn't so bad, maybe I'll wait for her help again.

My Dirty Secret Revealed

AKA- The closet makeover

For the first time ever, in our long married life, You Know Who and I have a lovely amount of closet space. In fact, we each have our own closet space. Each closet came with a basic wire shelf around two walls.

 It was inefficient. 

We meant to change them right away but life has a way of changing your plans sometimes. I've tried to be flexible but it had come down to this......

The storage boxes were a recent addition. The sweaters had been stacked on the shelf and were daily threatening to fall and suffocate me.

Even though I have purged, I am still unable to let go of the nice winter clothes I have from our years in Germany.

Jessica made a plan for each of the closets. She helped her dad do his a couple of months ago. I didn't get any before pictures, so the after would have no impact now...

On Wednesday I emptied the closet.

On Thursday You Know Who painted.

On Friday Jess and I went shopping at a store that I know far more intimately than I am comfortable with. I have no desire to add up all of the receipts I have from Lowe's, it would make me cry. In fact, they should know me by name and roll out a red carpet when I arrive. It's one of the sad parts about buying from such a large place, you're just one of many....

These guys were helpful and cut our shelving perfectly  per Jessica's instructions. 

They were funny too. The big guy did say he recognized us. That's nice since between Jess and I we have bought 4 major appliances from him personally! 

I didn't take a picture of all of the supplies because I am forgetful and we were in the moment. About three hours later thanks to Jess and You Know Who, I had this loveliness to look at.

 One of the weird things about this house is they didn't plan closets for linens so I needed space in my closet for things like that. I am still needing to put up some hooks for my extra purses, belts and such. If I come up with something cute and clever, I'll post it.

Don't hold your breath.

Before - unbearable mess

After- bliss.

Book of Numbers - now in the shop!

Surprise! 

 I had my book of numbers printed so it is now available for purchase in my etsy shop. 

 I am very happy with the way it turned out! Now if I can just get my act together on the color book (yes there is one of those coming too!)

 And some new garland is up -- yeah!

Alright back to life... it's been a LONG week already... hope yours is better than mine!

Napa

So for the last little bit of our mini trip we drove through Napa on our way back to Sacramento. It was a lot to pack in but I am glad we did it and really want to go back to this area again... I wish I realized how close all of this was to me when I lived there... hmmm...  

 First we stopped at the Oakville Grocery for brunch- this place is a must it's right on the St Helena Highway, the food is fast and ridiculously delicious. They have picnic tables in the back next to a vineyard or you can have picnic baskets packed and take them with you.... to where ever... Plus they have a coffee bar which was very very necessary to keep our energy up!!

 I really wanted to tour a winery while we were there- but not a kitschy tourist trap kind- so on a recommendation from my aunt we went to Domaine Carneros which was seriously beautiful. And I would totally recommend. It's owned by the Taittinger's (a French wine family famous for their champagne) and is a certified organic winery specializing in sparkling wine and Pinot Noir.

 It was really neat to learn about the process of making sparkling wine. Next trip I will need recommendations for a traditional winery. The only bummer is I didn't get to bring home a wine barrel... yes I was really planning on it...

 Here's the monkey looking all cute. We found a grassy area for him to run around in before the tour.

 This picture KILLS me what is up with that face?

Micah thoroughly enjoyed the vacation. He's been a bit bummed about not having someone play with him constantly since we've been home.

Fort Bragg and Mendocino

We drug Ubers parents on a quick 3 day mini vacation out to the coast. I really wanted to get Micah to the water... not that he will remember or anything but we took a ton of pictures... I tried to narrow it down but this is a picture heavy post. 

 The first day we headed out to Fort Bragg it was a gorgeous clear warm day- totally not what we packed for it should have been cold.

 We went to two beaches the first was Glass Beach - it used to be a dump but it has been cleaned out and now there is massive quantities of super small glass pebbles. I spent at little time searching out blues and even found a red one- I could spend hours doing this, I try to get glass at every beach I go to ... it's Ubers favorite thing! If you ever get the chance this beach though small was a lot of fun.

 I loved this plant it was growing everywhere, it's vivid colors are beautiful. my dad informed me it's ice plant.

 Mum says it looks like I Photoshoped us into this picture...

 You really can't beat the beauty of Northern California's Coast

 Can anyone tell me what is wrong with this picture?? (Hint: one of these things is not like the others)

 Why didn't I climb up there? Oh that's right I was to busy looking for glass...

The following pictures are at MacKerricher's State Park where we went to play in the tide pools... because everyone knows I love to pet small defenseless animals...

 Here's Micah dipping his feet in the chilly (ridiculously cold) water... he didn't seem to mind a bit (of course he didn't try to lunge into the water like normal either)

 This is the tide in the first day we were there

 The next morning we were out at 10am for low tide Uber and I took Micah out to see what we could find

 We saw quite a few star fish but this was the only one I was fast enough to get

 Sea Anemone

 Almost got this guy he managed to get two fingers stuck at the tips...

 My favorite find was this anemone shell. It's so weird how they dry out! It's currently on the back porch ... I can't wait until it stops smelling!

 SEA SLUG! Seriously how gross is this?

 This is how Micah traveled through the tide pools

 It was only a little nerve racking...

 What's up with this face?!

 This is the Point Cabrillo Lighthouse, absolutely gorgeous. You can even rent the light keepers cottage as a vacation home.

 Micah enjoyed popping all of the daisy heads off the flowers.

 Well I guess this is the only Mendocino picture we really took. It looks gorgeous (and it was) but there was dense fog so if you looked out to the headlands and ocean you could see nothing but directly across the street from the bluff was beautiful... I guess we will just have to go back again because the area is beautiful and I would love to see it on a clear day!

One more post and I will wrap up the trip... then crafting I promise!