Sarah's Summer To Do List!!!

Yep. That's the real name of my summer to do/DIY list...clever I know:) I'm still working on going through our 2000+ pictures from the trip. It took almost a full 48 hours to wirelessly send them from Joe's computer to my computer so that's why its taken me a wee bit longer to show you but I'm making progress. I hope.

In the meantime I've made a list of all the things I'd like to accomplish this summer but I don't necessarily feel like I have to which is good since it is a pretty big list.

Here's what it says...

For the house:

* make curtains for the kitchen

* paint living room/bedroom

* picture collage in living room/upstairs hallway

* find new bedspread for our room

* build coffee table

* build bookshelf

* build shelf & bench for kitchen

* make curtains for living room

* finish Xmas tree skirt

* was bottles from wedding

* corkboard cubboard

* blinds for bathroom

* frame both bathroom mirrors

* XL shower curtain

For the yard:

* plant wine barrel

* add plants/flowers behind garage

* build a deck

* keep growing grass & picking weeds

* border around front/side of house

Can't forget about food:

* can lots of different things

* prepare freezer meals

Now, where to start?

Hopefully Stella will be a good help to me this summer...

We're Back!!

Joe and I are back on Minnesota ground and it feels so good! And better yet, we have Stella back! I know I missed her more than she missed us because it sounds like she had a lot of fun back home:) I can't wait to share our adventure with you but first I need Joe to get the pictures from his computer to mine. Let's face it, we all know a lot of words filled with even more pictures is that much better!

So...stayed tuned for the trip details. As for today, I'm enjoying my last day of no school (starting my summer class tomorrow) by catching up on my tv shows from the past couple weeks, finishing laundry, making a summer "to do" list for the yard/house and making up my lost cuddle time with Stella. Perfect.

California Bound

Today is the day and we are SO excited.

Well I think Joe is super excited because he was acting like Santa Claus was coming last night. He was so funny. I drove and met up with his Mom so she could take Stella (miss the girl already!!) and when I came home Joe was going a million miles a minute.

"So I got all our camping stuff packed. We're at 45.6 pounds for the check in. It has the sleeping bags, tents, two ponchos, a fry pan, I even fit a lantern in there. Oh and what are you bringing to wear. It's only going to be in the low 60's while we're in San Francisco so I'm definitely wearing jeans both days and maybe a sweater or something. It will probably get cold while we're camping so bring a couple sweatshirts and warm socks".

Seriously.

He's been planning, researching and getting everything ready for about a month and a half now and the time is finally here! We leave tonight and come back Memorial Day and will be visiting San Francisco, Sonoma, Yosemite National Park and Sequoia/Kings Canon National Park. I have a few more errands to run today and I have to finish up packing so off I go. See you in a couple weeks! Can't wait to tell you about our adventure!

A long overdue reveal...

I'm not even kidding you. This project has been sitting on our bedroom floor for a least a solid month now, if not a little longer actually. What was the reason for never finishing up the darn thing? Time. We didn't have it before...and now we do. Have I expressed how awesome it is to have TIME to do things we love to do? Doing the happy dance all day long!

Now onto the project...

I've been wanting to hang a few pictures of our wedding for quite some time now and I took the plunge. I went to IKEA to browse their frame collection and I came across these beauts for around $16 a pop! What a steal! Usually frames of this size can cost you around $30. I also liked how they didn't "look" IKEA. You can always tell if a house or room has been furnished with IKEA things.

And here are the photos. I ordered them from Mpix and if I remember right the total came to around $36. Booya! Another steal!!

Of course since the frames were from IKEA, I had to finish putting them together. The clips just went onto the back of the board and then I had to wrap the wire around them. Easy peasy.  

Someone wanted to help me...

All three in the frames...and then they sat on our floor until last night.

The wall of choice.

 

As you can see, we are all about eyeballing where to put the nail. haha. Sometimes it's in our favor, other times it's not. We live on the edge. 

I couldn't stand the way the color of the wall was photographing so I waited until this morning to finishing taking photos. Ta-da!

And they didn't fall on our heads last night so a double fist pump for that!

Some may think our room project is coming to an end now that I've made curtains, we got a new bed and put up pictures and even added color to the walls. Well, I hate to break it to you but you're wrong. When I originally picked the green to match our new bedspread, it was because I didn't want to be afraid of color. I wanted to embrace color and run with it throughout the whole house. It turns out...I'm deathly afraid of color.

A lot of it has to do with the different lighting our room sees at different times of the day I guess. For example, the photos above. The last picture you see...I LOVE it. It looks great and everything is starting to come together. But if you scroll up a few more pictures when we have our bedroom light on at night...it looks gross. When the sun is shining in through our window in the afternoon...it's so bright and ugly it makes me want to hide it from people if they are over. Thankfully we don't hang out in our bedroom when we have friends over.

So this summer, I'm repainting our room. I haven't decided what color yet but it will definitely be lighter. I think the dark color on the walls make our room look smaller and that is something we don't really want because our rooms are already small enough. I use one of my pillows as a side table for my phone at night because there isn't enough room from my side of the bed to the door to actually have a real table. That's how small our room is. Future project of skinny side tables hmmm??

I also have to find different bedding because now that it's getting warmer, Joe is sweating all night long because our comforter is too warm for him. I swear, he could sleep with just a thin sheet and still sweat. I'll have to take it back out when winter comes around again because I do like the stripes!

Oh the never ending list of projects I have for the summer...keep tuned in!

First Hike in Minneapolis

On Sunday Joe, Stella and I took off on our first hike in Minneapolis. During our kayaking adventure on Saturday, we noticed trails running along both sides of the river. Joe had already been down one side of the river but we thought it'd be fun to check them out so here we are! We started the hike on the other side of the river of where we put our kayaks in the previous day. We've apparently come full circle:)

Here's part of the U of M campus...

Under the busiest bridge in Minnesota

View of Minneapolis

Stella was excited to be in the water!

This picture was taken after we jumped a locked gate. You can't really see but I'm covered in some mud from Stella...

She was exhausted after the 7.6 mile hike...

It was such a beautiful day and I think we found a new favorite hike!

From Minneapolis to Saint Paul

On Saturday, Joe and I took advantage of our first Saturday off since the beginning of the year and headed out on the river in our kayaks. We started at the docks of the U of M campus and ended at Harriet Island in Saint Paul. I asked Joe how many miles the trip would be and he told me about 6-8 miles. All I have to say is, "Liar!!" It ended up being 12.7 and he didn't want to tell me because the last time we took the kayaks out we did 13 miles and I almost died from soreness and exhaustion. Sneaky sneaky Joe. Get ready for pictures galore...

Here's the docks we started at in Minneapolis. 

The railroad bridge that we have actually walked across. Shhh....don't tell!

At the Ford River Parkway we had to take the locks through the dam. I did get a little anxious at first because I didn't know what to expect but it was really easy.

Down down down we go.

Heading out of the locks!

An eagle friend...

We made it to Saint Paul! The bridge in the background is the one we take every day.

I'm feeling it...this is the point where I found out how long the trek really was!

It was such a beautiful afternoon out on the river. Thankfully the current was really moving too...it only took us about 3-3 1/2 hours for the whole trip. I'm still pretty sore today even but it was so worth it!

The Cone Days Are Over...

Some of you may remember this picture I put up a bit ago with Stella and her cone. She needed to wear it when we left the house so she didn't lick at her stitches and let's be honest, the cone was not her favorite thing. Although, I can't imagine it would be any one's favorite thing. She had been doing really well with it. I'd put it on her before I left for school and when I'd come home, she couldn't wait to get it off.

Until yesterday.

I came home and she had some how gotten it off and really showed her hatred toward the thing. Here it is in pieces...

There were four loops around the neck part of it. Now, one lonely loop remains.

Today was her lucky day though. We went to the vet this morning and they took out her stitches and gave her the go ahead to run, jump, swim and do whatever her puppy heart desires.