9/28/11

Wesley is 3 months!

Wow, I cant believe he is so big already.  What does Wesley do?  He smiles and laughs, eats his hands constantly, likes to kick and play with some toys, and will tolerate tummy time.  He has a strong neck but not interested in rolling over.  He's looking cuter and cuter every day.  Its not just me right?

I mean look at those cheeks!
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It's time.

...Time to address the decor in our living room.  What we have was haphazardly done as we rushed to "finish" our house in time for our house warming party way back in June..2010.  I never meant for the decor to be permanent, I just never got the energy to make it what I envisioned, partly because I'm not sure what I envision. 
Here is our living room now...
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Well actually, this is our living room pre-baby. Now it's sprinkled with baby paraphrenillia, but the walls and shelves are still the same.
One of my biggest dislikes is the "art work" behind the couch.  It was great for a quick solution to a big blank wall (some yardage wrapped around a thin pice of wood), but again, it wasnt suppose to be permanent.  I'm also not a fan of the built-ins in the corner.  I like the built-ins themselves, just not how they are decorated. 
Oh, and that empty white frame back there? Yeah, its still empty.
I also need to address the book case underneath our tv.  I am not the most skilled at arranging details. 

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One of the main reasons why I haven't changed anything is a lack of inspiration.

In peeking around the net today I think I found some, at least for what to do behind the couch.

I bet I could get Jeff to make me some graphic shelves like these!
I like the idea of brining more texture into the livingroom.
And I'm loving this wallpaper.
Living Room
Or should we try stenciling the wall?

Decisions, decisions.

9/20/11

Jeff Works

www.amor.org/lionchase
Not only has Jeff been busy being a super dad...he's been super busy at work planning a 5k run to raise money for his organization, Amor Ministries.  Amor strives to show God's love through simple, tangible acts of service...mainly building homes for the poor in Mexico, South Africa, and the San Carlos Apache reservation in Arizona.  Jeff has been working for Amor for about 10 years and started going on house building trips with them when he was a little boy.  Amor is a wonderful organization that like many non-profits has struggled over the last few years to keep its head above water financially.  If you like to run or just want to have a fun time supporting a great cause, then come out Saturday for their first annual 5k run!  This is also Jeff's baby (the run) and he would really appreciate your support.  He has worked really hard to make sure this event is awesome.  He even got an 80s cover band to supply the entertainment...an 80s cover band!  you dont want to miss that!

Sign up at www.amor.org/lionchase or just show up at Coronado Tidelands Park Saturday morning at 7am!

9/19/11

A Super Dad

I went back to work last week after being off for 3 months with our little man.  Now, Jeff gets to take his paternity leave and is spending two days a week at home with Wesley.  I love to hear about their day and am always surprised to find out how much Jeff accomplishes while being a super dad.  So far, he's managed to meet me for lunch each day so that the transition back is a little easier for me.  He's also completed some other projects that I'll show you another day.  But for now, just enjoy these pictures of Wesley's super dad.
 "Watching" football:
And a quick video of Jeff making Wesley laugh:

9/15/11

Bringing Macrame Back?

What do you guys think of Jeff's attempt to bring Macrame back? IMG_9852 IMG_9851 IMG_9854 IMG_9853

 I think it looks pretty dang cool. Jeff did not make the macrame (but thats on his project list), he convinced his gramma lucy to give us some of her unused stash of macrame. Jeff did make the cement planters though. Find out how he did that here.

9/13/11

A Yellow Table

Jeff made this yellow table a while back, and I wanted to share it with you. IMG_9842 IMG_9843 IMG_9844 IMG_9846 He made this table using scrap pieces of wood from the fence we built in our front yard.  He used a can of yellow spray paint (that was running out) to paint it.  He gave it just a light coat so you ca still see the grain of the wood.  Pretty nifty huh?  Shout out to my Aunt Christy for the beautiful succulents.

9/12/11

Wesley does a little dance

A Vertical Garden

About a year ago, Jeff and I stayed at the Pearl Hotel in Point Loma, CA.  Its a boutique hotel decorated in a vintage fashion.


We love the mid-century modern decor and were inspired by a lovely and impressive vertical garden in their pool area.


Pretty cool, huh.  Well this inspired Jeff to make his own vertical garden.  After spending quite a bit of time researching how to make one online, Jeff found that the only good help out their involved buying a kit and waiting a long time for the plants to take root before you could hang it up.  Being the frugal and impatient man that he is, Jeff discovered another solution.

He made this vertical garden using plywood and rain gutters, that's right, rain gutters. IMG_9848Although its not as impressive as the one at the Pearl and others we have seen online, we still like it. The hope is that the plants will continue to grow full and hang over the gutters so that all you see is a wall of plants.  We're not sure if that will work, but we think it looks good as is too. IMG_9847 We found the perfect spot along the big blank wall in the front of our house. IMG_9849 IMG_9850 Pic 1, Pic 2

9/8/11

Look what nukie did 1.1

We were gone for an hour and a half. He also managed to eat about 3 pounds of chicken and an entire package of tortillas that were accidently left out in the blackout.


Power outage in SD

We decided to hang out in the backyard this evening since there is no power and it is HOT here. While we were trying to relax, Jeff decided it was time to paint over the pink and purple shed in the back.
But this was not what I had in mind :)



Eating off the Land..Someday

So, you already know that Jeff was obsessed with the urban garden.  Well that obsession carried over into other parts of our backyard as well.  We are hoping to have some good crops in the future.

Jeff has put our tomato growing Topsy Turvy back to work, cant wait for those babies to ripen up!

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He also planted an Orange Tree and Lemon Tree in our backyard. Only the lemon tree is showing us any promise of future fruit...we are going to have to wait a long time for these guys to get to their full potential. Patience is a virtue. IMG_9836 IMG_9837 IMG_9838

9/7/11

Have you Met Nukie?

I failed to introduce you to our dog, Nukie.  A white Alaskan Malamute weighing in at over a hundred pounds. He is quite a beauty and over all a good dog, but every now and then, he throws us for a loop.  Its pretty amazing the stuff he gets in to while we are gone.  Sometimes we are so impressed we don't even get mad.  Like the one time he ate an entire package of King's Hawaiian Rolls and didn't get sick. Or when he managed to eat a stick of butter and didn't break the butter dish when he so gingerly took it off the counter.  Yep, he's crazy.

So I'm adding a section to this blog called "Look what Nukie did" so I can share his craziness with you all.



9/6/11

"Sub"Urban Garden

Jeff has long been in like with the urban garden trend. We first spotted them at the county fair a few years ago and ever since Jeff has wanted to make some of his own. Welp, he finally did it. He reused lumber from one of our many sheds (I'll discuss that another day)...the one he tore down by himself on a whim. And this is the beautiful result.. IMG_9822 IMG_9821 IMG_9825 Nothing fancy, he didn't even paint or stain the wood, he's much too impatient for that, but I think they look great. The best part is that they are totally functional. He went to Home Depot and picked up whatever plants were the cheapest and available: Bell Peppers, Basil, IMG_9830 and a few kinds of Summer Squash. IMG_9827 We were so surprised at how well the crops actually grew! Who knew squash plants grew so big! He definitely planted too many in there, but we still enjoyed the splendor. IMG_9819 When we came home from vacation, we were surprised to see that we already had some zucchini ready to eat.
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 I dubbed this our suburban garden because we definitely live in the suburbs and have plenty of room to to grow vegetables directly in the ground, but this concept looks so much better and keeps dog poop out of our future eats. They taste so much better that way :)