I'm sure you've already noticed

I've decided to take a little blog break. I just don't have anything I feel like talking about right now. We have been visiting with family both in and out of town, working on the houses and gearing up for fall (yay!). So, things are good. I just am not feeling the blog thing lately. I'll be back soon though!

Going to go enjoy the last few days of summer. See you soon!
Love.

It's all eights

Happy Birthday, Annie! I know I say it every year, but I CAN'T BELIEVE HOW OLD WE ARE GETTING. I hope it's a good one.

Take me out to the ballgame...

go Mariners!, originally uploaded by eklektic*photos.

We spent Wednesday afternoon at a Mariner's game. It was a nice break from work in the middle of the week! We had a good time and went out to dinner after. It was a great game too. It was tied until the 12th inning when Boston scored 3 runs for the win. But it was close!

We are off and running this weekend - lots to do. We are starting on the clean-up and gathering of items for our garage sale. It will be so great to unload a ton of stuff that's just been sitting. Combining two households into a thousand square foot house has proved to be a little complicated. But I'll tell you what, it makes you take a hard look at a lot of the crap you hang on to. And for what reason! I mean, really, DO WE NEED 3 COFFEE POTS? I don't think so.

new curtains + a gift

I wanted to have some pretty curtains for our new workroom since we'll be spending a lot of time in there. Once I saw this Amy Butler fabric, I knew it was the one! The blue almost matches our walls, and this is my current color combination obsession. Here's the first set - I still have one window to go.



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My father-in-law sent me the sweetest gift this week (along with the sweetest note). It's a child's place setting! I think it must have been David's or one of his siblings. He sent it for our future (hopefully not too distant) children. He has been so kind to me, I am blessed to have in-laws that I truly adore. Lucky girl.

color

look at that color!, originally uploaded by eklektic*photos.

Look what my sweet husband sent me for our 8 month anniversary. He's a keeper! :)

Can you believe that orange? They are beautiful and they smell so lovely. Thanks, honey!

Our weekend...

was filled with family time, friends, relaxing, fireworks and good weather. We had a visitor (my father-in-law). It was really nice to get to hang out for a few days. We fell right into a morning routine of showers, chatting over coffee at Starbucks (decaf for us, of course), and running errands. It was lovely.

We spent the 4th with the Watts at their house for dinner. The boys played with fireworks (which turns my husband into a 12 year old - so cute) and the drum set. Then we came back to our house for cupcakes and the local fireworks display. It was a good time.

Sara (Dave's neice) joined us on Sunday, which we spent at the Farmer's Market, taking walks and enjoying a nice lunch.

I could really get used to that kind of schedule! Love long weekends and family visitors. :)

travel journal

When we went to New York, I wanted to have something to document our trip and a place to store photos and goodies after we got back. But I didn't want to take a bunch of supplies to make it on the spot - who has time for that? So, I made this little book ahead of time and only took a few things: pen, date stamp/ink pad, hole punch and adhesive. It worked really well for us.

The cover (above) was made with a cut-up transparency, chipboard cover, pencil crayons and a few stickers. Then I took a bunch of paper scraps I had laying around and cut them to the same height - I didn't mind if they were different sizes, or if they stuck out the side.

I created a photo collage in Photoshop and printed it on photo paper before adhering to the journal pages.





My husband documented most of the trip in writing and I took photos that were added later.





This vellum envelope fit perfectly with the journal size (recycled from a card a friend gave us). We used it to hold tickets, business cards for stores we liked, the place holder from my brother's wedding, etc.




An easy project that made it our most well documented trip yet!