Oxbow Outing

Due to the warm 80 degree fall weather lately, we decided to go spend an afternoon at Oxbow Park which is pretty close to our house. Elli really had a blast throwing rocks into the river. And as she was running away from us she suddenly stopped because she saw some deer up close! She loves the outdoors so much we had to drag her away as you can see! :) Good times!!

Our Own "Design on a Dime!"

Lately, Andrew and I have been wanting to put something up in Elli's room that would add some fun and color. Finally we decided that we should do some watercolors! Andrew had some great watercolor paper from school left over and taped out the letters. Then we put down some newspaper paper and got to painting! ......With Elli!   She LOVED it! Sadly she was really tired during it so she was laying down on it a lot and trying to paint everything within her reach, but she had a bunch of fun with her fingers and with the brush. We realize this isn't the decor you see in magazines, but it's the kind you see in HOMES :) We had a great time with our sweet Ellinore and WILL be doing this again soon!

Summer Adventure

Well it took us about a year, but we finally got out to sea the pacific coast and go camping with Elli! :) We stopped by tillamook for cheese and ice cream and then went to the beach! We had to keep Elli from running right into the ocean since she loves the water so much. She stood on the beach with us for a good half hour just letting the 35° water splashed against her legs. . . . . okay maybe it wasn't that cold, but it sure felt like it! :) Then we went to our campsite and enjoyed walking around the campsite and a yummy dinner. Elli was quite scared sleeping in the tent though. She was confused why we weren't going home yet :) After rocking her for a long time she finally fell asleep. Then we were privileged to wake up at 3:30 only to find out our mattress had deflated . . . . that was "fun". Luckily Elli's bed wasn't made out of thin air so she stayed asleep the whole night. We had a yummy breakfast and then packed up our stuff to head home. Needless to say we have much greater respect for our parents taking us camping growing up! We are looking forward to when Elli can enjoy it a little more. All in all we had a great time and had some good laughs! :)

Project Bookmark . . .

This is my latest little creation. One of the young men in the priests quorum will be leaving on his mission in a few weeks so I went ahead and made him this custom laser engraved hardwood bookmark for his scripture study :) If I owned a band saw and a laser engraver I would be one happy guy! I would most definitely start an etsy shop to sell my goods too!!

Artwork!

So I recently installed a foldable sketching desk where I do all of my projects for class and I got bored real quick staring at a blank wall for inspiration and motivation. Therefore I decided to hang up some artwork that I have done for several different classes over the past three quarters. Thought you all might want to see my little "gallery space" :)

Yay organization!!

We wanted to post a before and after photo of our always cluttered "yarn and stuff" storage space. Thanks to refund money and a trip to Ikea we now feel a bit more organized and a bit more space . . . . which is a huge thing in our apartment! :) We got a really neat bike wall mount to keep it out of the way and we also got a small fold away table that is mounted on our bedroom wall so Andrew can work on projects away from curious little helping hands. 

BEFORE:

AFTER: