Tuesday, June 29, 2010

One Weekend - Two Shots (Challenge)

My friend and co-worker, Dedra, has challenged me to take more pictures :)

You would think... being a scrapbooker, that I would take photos ALL THE TIME - not the case. I carry my camera everywhere and FORGET to use it - constantly.

So, I've ponied-up and Dedra is keeping tabs on me! Here is a link to her blog where you can learn more about this challenge and the book that inspired her:

WEEK 1... here are my two photos:

Creative Chaos
I've started an art installation for the new house. A mix of vintage and ephemera pieces... I'm excited to share the final product with you soon!


My babies! I often forget to photograph the dogs... this photo is indicative of a regular weekend at the house. Tyler loves the pups and he hangs out with them on the floor for hours! They are loving the new house and have adjusted so well. I think they are truly happy :)


Thursday, June 24, 2010

ONE YEAR!

I can't believe Tyler and I have been married ONE YEAR (on June 20th)...

We took a quick weekend trip to Puerto Penasco (Rocky Point) Mexico - just four hours from the house and we were at the ocean. The Sea of Cortez is beautiful this time of year! Super aqua and deep blue hues... and MAN, it's a desert out there! White sand everywhere, and HOT... a different kind of hot than Phoenix. At 7:30am each morning when we woke up, the sun was just searing our skin... thank goodness for SPF 100 :)

We really didn't take many photos at all - but here are a few - we had a great time just relaxing (not something we do often...)

You can click on the picture to enlarge it... this is a true sandy desert!

I loved the wild life! We say Cranes, Seagulls, Crabs and Jellyfish.

A quick photo before the waves nearly knocked us over.

Trying to escape Tyler who would have loved to push me under :)
Do I look like a serious white gringa or what?!?

In the spirit of making friends everywhere we go - Tyler and our new friend Trae took a wild ride on a banana boat - it smacked them silly a few too many times to count! LOL!

Thank you babe for the trip - It's one I'll never forget!
Happy First Anniversary...
Love you.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

4 Things Right Now...

Grabbed this from a friend's blog:

Four shows I watch:
1.Pawn Stars
2.It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
3.Forensic Files
4.American Pickers

Four things I'm passionate about:
1.My husband and our amazing communication
2.My home... and cleaning it
3.Scrapbooking and decorating (aka spending money!)
4.Spending time with family and friends and trying not to lose touch...

Four phrases I say a lot:
1.Grrrrrrrr.
2.Hun, can you get that down for me?
3.STOP BARKING
4.Thank you

Four things I've learned from the past:
1.Stop. Make time for me and the things and people I love.
2.Things are things and every"thing" is replaceable.
3.Moderation... eating, drinking, spending money... everything is better in small doses and is more appreciated.
4.People remember the good things.

Four places I would like to go:
1.Paris France
2.Dubai India
3.Australia and New Zealand
4.Back to Puerto Vallarta (where Tyler and I honeymooned)

Four things I did yesterday:
1.I worked... and had a very productive day! Wrote a newsletter, made some advertising connections, and caught up on search engine marketing.
2.I bought myself two t-shirts and a pair of crop pants at Tilly's for our trip to Rocky Point (Puerto Penasco, Mexico) this weekend.
3.I filed all the paperwork in the entire house... and crossed that project off my "to-do" list.
4.I watched Tropic Thunder with Tyler and the dogs.

Four things I'm looking forward to:
1.New window coverings by the end of July - yikes - it's getting HOT.
2.A second wedding reception we're planning in Seattle for extended family and friends
3.Going home tonight and crossing several other items off the "to-do" list (can you tell I make lots of lists?!?)
4.Fresh paint in the house... I can hardly stand living in a white box :( But I'm grateful for all the we DO have!

Four things I love about winter:
1.Decorating the house and wrapping Christmas presents.
2.Seeing family I often only see once a year...
3.Earmuffs.
4.Traveling to Denver for Bronco's games.

Four things on my wish list:
1.More time in a day.
2.A clean garage.
3.A call from a long-lost friend.
4.A happy life for my dogs - oh how I wish they could talk!

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

House & Yard Updates!

Well, well, well.... it's been too long! I can hardly believe that 3 months have passed since we took possession of the house and MOVED IN :) We're nowhere near done (and don't plan to be for many years) but we're unpacked and getting pretty settled. We've even tackled some BIG projects - like the yard!

Here are some updated pictures and descriptions:

SOLD! The house is officially ours on February 25, 2010 :)

Here is the finished house with front landscaping... in this photo we're still missing our "HOA" grass between the street and the sidewalk, but it's been installed since then.

A closer view of the front.

This is a view of the front side yard... you'll see concrete here later :)

Now it's time for TREES! We planted 18 by ourselves!

These are the two BIG trees we got - still babies - but happy and healthy!
A Fantex Ash and a Purple Leaf Plum

This tree should grow to be 40 feet tall with a 20 foot canopy... SHADE!!
Grow baby grow... it can't happen fast enough.

It took us almost 4 weeks to get the sprinkler system in after we planted the trees... but we managed to take really good care of them - deep soaking them in the Arizona clay for about an hour at a time, twice a day... I still haven't seen the water bill.

Next up - 16 Italian Cypress trees! These guys will grow in tight columns up to 30 feet high if we let them. Some very nice privacy indeed.

Tyler dug all the holes!

I dropped in all the trees and backfilled with clay and mulch :)
We accomplished 18 trees in about 4 hours on Easter Sunday... YAHOO!

Time for Rock and Sod!
6 Tons of Rock and 2100 SF of Sod look like this :)
If you click on and blow up the picture, you'll also see the cement walkway we had poured on the left side of the house.

Beginning to lay the weed barrier...
Here you can see the corner cement slab we had poured. When the tree gets larger we should have some shade. This will be a perfect place to put a bench and some potted shade plants.

Here's another good shot of the curbing barrier we put in around the perimeter to contain the pea gravel we put down in the tree/flower beds. You can also see where we extended the concrete around part of the house - another great place for a sitting group, some art, and some potted plants :) I'm seriously honing my "green thumb" - so far, so good...

Before we could begin laying the sod, we had to level the yard and removed about 4 tons of dirt!

And here we go!

We discovered early in the process that it was rather difficult to cut the sod pieces, especially around the sprinkler heads and trees... so we got creative!
(observe the electric turkey knife - genius!)

This really was no small task.
We started laying weed barrier and leveling dirt about 7am. All the rock was in by about 11am. Sod started going down just after that... but by 3pm in the blazing sun, we began to lose steam and had to call in reinforcements to finish the job before dark!

Enter Todd...

...and Lillie!
They SERIOUSLY saved the day!

And I was actually helping - not just taking pictures :)

VOILA!

We finished - just before the sun went down!

Here you can see the huge 10x13 slab of concrete we had poured to extend the patio (to the right).... and the 2 foot border we extended from underneath the patio, adding a lot more usable square footage to the yard.

And the sprinkers work :) The sod is flourishing and we're enjoying the finished yard so much! There are a few more photos to come... including the dogs basking in their new space :)
Stay tuned!