September Birthdays

Before the month is over, I want to wish happy birthday to several beloveds. My sister Kate celebrated her day on September 4. Her son, Nicholas, turned 5 (!) on 9/14. Dad Campbell reached another year of wisdom on 9/16. Our nephew, Daniel, is now a whopping 6!! God bless you all. We are so blessed to have you in our lives!

Bathroom Transformation Part 1

For the past 4.5 years, we've been working on home projects and making changes as we could afford them. The biggest projects have been painting all the rooms, taking down the popcorn ceilings, and putting in wood flooring all through the house. Next up is the main bathroom. It is a small room and is in need of a facelift. The wallpaper is old and not our style. I call it "Menopausal Mauve" as was the living room carpet.

BEFORE:




The wallpaper came down with relative ease and a little elbow grease. Last night, John moved the toilet to finish up the last wall. He got the walls washed and prepped for texturizing before we paint and put up wainscoting. A new, simpler and classy sink will be purchased soon, as will some shelving and flooring.

Punches of color will come from the towels and Hawaiian decor. Don't worry--by Hawaiian decor, I don't mean the little Aloha girls that you stick on your dashboard. We have some vintage postcards we got in Honolulu that will be framed on the walls. Hints of the tropics will be on the shelves and shown through color and not through a full bathroom set of matchy-matchy stuff.

While visiting Mary and Caleb a couple of years ago when they lived on Oahu, we loved how the bathroom in their little house felt tropical without screaming HAWAIIAN PUNCH! Ocean breezes continually flowed through the room, and it was simple and beachy. While we cannot duplicate that in our bathroom which has no windows, we want to utilize the small space as best we can and take advantage of the skylight and light paint to make it seem bigger. Hopefully, it will turn out how we envision. Stay tuned!


DURING:

Craigslist Finds

Craigslist has been good to me, both as a buyer and a seller. Most recently, I have been a buyer and purchased some lovely baby boy clothes, shoes and some books, toys and sheets. Along with the booty, I scored a Pack and Play for $5. The young mom sold it for such a low price because the little bassinet was broken and removed. Total: $20. All of the furniture in the room are Craigslist purchases as well. I'll post some more of the room when I finish it up.

Peanut Blossom Giveaway!

A cool internet location was brought to my attention by my good friend, Colet. Colet made these beautiful market bags for her friend Tiffany. As soon as I save up some spening money, I will buy one from her. They are both fashionable and functional and made with love by Coco.

But--take a look at Tiffany's site. She is a talented seamstress, and I'm trying to catch up on her blog and see her work. If you visit her website and leave a comment, you are in the running to win a very lovely collection of fabric, pin cushion, strawberry pins and quilting thread. Needless to say, I am a sewing moron, but I hope to take some sewing lessons from my mom-in-law or sister-in-law (who graciously offered to teach me years ago) or patronize the local JoAnn's or Michael's. The image I have of myself in my first sewing class is me getting caught in a serger or accidentally sewing myself to the table. Everyone has to start somewhere, so I will start at the bottom. Are there sewing machines with training wheels? :)

A River Runs Through It

A couple of weeks ago, John took a trip to Colorado to do some fly-fishing with three of his good college friends, Kevin, Bill and Joe. They've been friends for about 15 years now and try to get together every couple of years. This year they met at Bill's house and then headed to Almont, CO for some fishing on the Gunnison and Taylor rivers. I am so glad that John was able to go have some down time with good friends before school starts up for him. It is really neat to see how these guys have remained close across the miles and years and to see them grow in maturity, develop their careers and grow their families.

Choosing Thomas

TK and Deidrea Laux were planning for their first child's birth when they got the very difficult news that their son, Thomas, had Trisomy 13 and would not live long after birth if he survived it at all. This is a beautiful, sad and heroic love story about a little baby boy and the parents who fell in love with him before he was born. Life is so precious----why don't we love each other like it were the last day of our lives? Thomas Laux and his parents taught me that today.

Mayim Bialik

Anyone remember "Blossom," an early 90s sitcom about a teenager played by Mayim Bialik? She was a young actress and practicing Jew who is now married with children and holds a doctorate degree. What I found interesting was that her parenting methods were called 'controversial.' However, they are pretty normal among a lot of family and friends of mine. Hearing her talk about the importance of her faith and raising her kids in an atmosphere where their faith is lived was very edifying. Check it out here.