Wall Art Idea

An idea for the new house. Saw these framed photos as Starbucks today. They look 3D and like they are real objects but they are actually just a photo. However I thought we COULD make real 3D ones with real objects and put them in shadowbox frames. I'm thinking, one for each big trip we have taken? With souvenirs and photos and things attached? What a cool way that would be to showcase it.

Awesome Sunset

From a walk with Jessica tonight. Apparently when I posted this on Facebook everyone thought it was a fire. It's just the sun, I swear! But the smoke in the air from the fires HAS been creating very interesting sunsets lately.

An Amberous Evening

Met up with Amber at Starbucks for some knitting today! She was LOVELY and finished off my mitten for me, it had just a few rows left and it had been SO LONG I forgot how to finish it off at the top. They are now FINALLY complete (it took me forever to order the yarn I needed). They still need to be blocked but I just HAD to try them on. Better pics later :)

Amber just started making a poncho/sombrero combo for a chihuahua. I wonder how it'll turn out. She has to make up the pattern because there's nothing out there!

After our hands got tired, we went to Chili's for dinner. Apparently it was happy hour. She ordered a beer which is rare for her and somehow got two. And two waters even though she was just trying to get one for me. I was in the bathroom for two minutes and I returned to a very thirsty Amber!

LOL! I love the face! She only drank half of one beer and I barely touched one water. But we had fun!

Roasted Phoebes

When Phoebe crawls into my lap and is scorching hot, this is usually why:

There she is roasting herself in the sun, wedged between the blinds and the sliding glass door. She loves it :) The more sun the better!

Big Blue Blanket Finished

Finally finished this massive thing!! :) Compliments of Amber & Erin, a photo to show you just how big it is...

And some more photos of the finished blanket...

House News

If you remember last week, I was really bummed about losing out on a house that Ian and I love.

A week later, we found another house.... but it was like apples and oranges. This other house was more of an intermediate step. Smaller, more of a temporary house... but very nice. It is also in walking distance to my dad's. We had to decide VERY quickly what to do because once again, despite being on the market just one day, it already had another offer on it. So we were told when we saw it that we had ONE hour to make an offer if we wanted it. Because we keep getting bested... we went for it.

A few hours passed while we waited for an answer. We discussed at great length all the pros to this place.... but it felt a little lackluster. While it may be more "responsible" and a better "starter home" I think Ian and I feel like we are past a starter home. Even though we don't have kids yet, Ian is turning 35 this year, I turn 30 next year, and we have owned a home before. We had to step back from that home, rent for a while, and now we've been living with my dad since my mom passed away almost 10 months ago. Basically we feel ready to settle in for a change. We have moved SO much. I've moved 8 times in the last 6 years since moving to Colorado. Ian has moved several of those times with me... and as a kid he had to move every year 10 years in a row.... we are ready to settle down in the place where we are going to have our family and just stay put for a while.

But the cheap price and nice finishes swayed us and we made an offer on this smaller home and convinced ourselves that it was a good idea and we would be happy there for a few years and then be ready to move again.

After a few hours of waiting, we got the call..... and we got the house. We should have been thrilled but we really felt in our hearts like we were compromising. We didn't feel excited. Relieved yes, that finally we got one. But our hearts weren't in it.

Just FIVE MINUTES later... my realtor called me back again with news we NEVER saw coming. The house we really wanted that we lost last week.... the deal fell through. The people putting 40% down BACKED OUT. And we were in official back up offer position.... so we had first dibs. It was a huge shock.... and was wonderful news... but at the same time, we had just gone under contract on a different house!! AHHHH!!! Yet another FAST decision to make because they said if we didn't sign with them that night they would be putting it back on the market the next morning.

Well of course we knew what we wanted... the house from last week. That's where our hearts are!!!

Luckily we were able to get out of the new contract. They weren't happy with us (and I do feel REALLY terrible about that part)... but we had to do what we had to do. It's not like we could have ever known this was coming!

I am happy to report we are now UNDER CONTRACT ON OUR DREAM HOUSE!!!!!!!!!

See that? Sale pending!!

The best part.... my hubby is excited. He loves this house. The other one he just had no excitement over and it was hard to go that route. I can't wait to decorate this front porch for him with some comfy furniture because he is really excited about the front porch.

Now I can share the entire photo album with happiness :) So click here to see all the house pics on Flickr!

Next step: home inspection! We have it scheduled for 8:30 Friday morning. Hopefully everything goes smoothly.

Father's Day

We took my dad out to dinner last night after a trip up to Estes Park. Today we gave him his card & gift, which I have to say I just LOVE the card we found this year!!

It was rather appropriate with the gift we enclosed :)

He loves his iPad and iPhone... and he needs more music now since his new car automatically starts playing music off his iPhone every time he gets in it! We are all a little tired of hearing NOTHING BUT Beatles and Glee. LOL Hopefully he will enjoy this :)

Caribou Coffee had a buy one get one today, so I took him out for a little Father's Day treat this evening...

Ian is doing okay, but we sure do miss his dad and are thinking of him a lot today. Love you and miss you, Neil....

Parents are so special. It has been a hard year... my first motherless Mother's Day and Ian's first fatherless Father's Day. We are just trying to remember them fondly and enjoy the time we have with the parents we do still have!!!!

Ambventures

Adventures with Amber = Ambventures! Lately Amber and I have gotten to do some really fun things. (For those who don't know, Ambs and I have been friends since middle school. We lost touch after high school but reconnected a few years ago right before my wedding and she moved out here a few months later). She is usually my partner in crime when it comes to knitting & crocheting... but we love to do lots of other things, too!

A couple weekends ago I slept over in "Amberland" and we went on a really nice hike. It may have hailed on us for a little while, but the rest was quite pleasant :)

We saw a black fox on the hike which was really awesome! I guess it's actually called a silver fox, but they range in color from light to dark and this one was all black except a white tip to its tail. Too fast to get a picture of it though. It was cool to see!

The following weekend Amber slept over for a couple of nights to hang out and knit, go to my pot luck dinner, and go to Wool Fest. The night before the pot luck we attempted to make some jam using Stevia. That was a mistake. But we had fun and then we made some REAL jam lol.

 

Then we went to Wool Fest last Saturday up in Estes Park. It is this big event having to do with yarn and knitting/crochet. There are alpacas, llamas, goats, rabbits, and other yarn-producing animals there... some to see, some to pet, even some to buy. There are tons of yarn vendors and other fun things too!

Amber was mostly excited to pet the animals. I suppose I didn't mind either :)

Tents were full of the wool straight from all these cool animals, for people who like to spin it themselves. They also sold skeins already made, and even finished projects for those who don't knit/crochet themselves, just so everyone had a way to enjoy the fine fibers.

These animals, called Paco Vicunas, are about the cutest things I have ever seen:

The super-fluffy Angora Rabbits were pretty cute too:

There was a HUGE shopping/vendor tent full of everything a knitter/crocheter could ever want...

I did end up with a few goodies. An adorable new project bag with sheep on it and some gorgeous hand made glass knitting needles:

We wandered into the Bijou Basin booth...

And found quite a surprise there...... ME! Hanging on the wall! Well, the pattern I modeled for :)

You can see the pattern page online with the rest of the photos, if you're interested. :)

Anyway, the owners were in the booth and they were SO NICE! I got inspired and decided to buy some yarn and try to MAKE the shawl I modeled for. I thought about getting the yellow since I like how it looked on me... but I went for this multicolor one that has the same yellow plus green, pink and orange.

Now I'm using the yarn, the bag and the needles all to work on this project. I've just barely started it. It's full of new things for me - I've never done lace and I've never done short rows. But I'm doing my best!

A couple more fun wool fest pics...

And finally.... I've been helping her get caught up on uploading her photos and I came across 2 pics of us from last year, the Maroon 5 concert at Red Rocks.... that I have never seen!!! Finding photos I've never seen is like finding treasure! :-D