Return from North Carolina

I've finally returned from the land of waterfalls to the land of home improvement.  I traveled with my parents to visit with many members of my extended family in the mountains of North Carolina.

We spent plenty of time visiting, swimming and walking through the woods.

It took less than a day after I returned for us to tuck back into work.  Richard got plenty done while I was absent, but there's always more to do.  I can honestly say that I am getting more and more excited as the progress is more apparent.

Found while Flea Marketing

I finally got around to snapping a couple photos of my haul from Maxwell Street Days.

 A rosy hankie, rhinestone necklace (that needs a new chain to fit) and a tiny majorette for a future project.

Just a small gathering of a few of the many letterpress blocks.  Yes, there are more, and yes, I'm a bit ashamed to admit how many more,

Tiniest Guest

Richard and I went to a family cook out at his parents' house last night and we had the tiniest attendee.  She tumbled down off the little garden wall and we herded her back to the safety of her nest so Wicket wouldn't get ahold of her, but that didn't stop her from peeking out!

And the roses on our arbor are just out of control!  We'll need to do so much more pruning next year.  And some major cleaning of the arbor.

Flea Market 2012 Season Opener

In my book it is now officially summer.  The flowers are blooming like crazy, it's a long memorial day weekend, and today was the very first Maxwell Street Days flea market of the year!

I journeyed solo, but met up with old friends Beth and Ben for some scourging and discovering.

I missed seeing some of my favorite booth operators, the letterpress and scrap guy as well as the couple that always have bags of used postage stamps were both absent, but there were so many new booths open that it was wonderful to see some new wares.

Had a couple of finds, but as usual only have photos of the things I left behind.  I can't wait for the next flea market, and hopefully I'll have Tia to take along with me!

Smelling the flowers

Life has been super busy at our house lately.  If we're not running in one direction, we're running in five.

After I picked up my brother-in-law Chris from the airport I was meant to drop him off and head back out to run errands... but I decided to push the errands to tomorrow and just stay home for the day.

Wicket and I spent some time in the back garden, soaking in the sunshine and enjoying the scent of lilacs and watching the peonies bloom.

Now I'm unpacking a few boxes, deciding once and for all what things stay (and putting them in their rightful places!) and what goes in the yard sale pile for June 8.  It's certainly a process, but I know I'll be happy when the stack of boxes in the office diminishes and I can get some decorating done.

One Year Home-versary

It is difficult to believe that it has already been a year since we bought this house and moved right in.

It took a very long time to get to that point but now we're here and loving (nearly) every minute of making our home.  There's so much left to do to this home of ours, but its been a wonderful process and simply amazing to watch the transformation.  We've made a lot of steps not only to make the house more our own but to improve the house itself and to improve our own lives.

One of the biggest changes is that we're truly settling into a place instead of always waiting for the next change or the next move.  I suppose this is what they refer to as nesting.

As much as I am happy always to be on the move and traveling constantly, there's something comforting about know that there's always a home base to return to, and now I've found it.

Birthdays

Not only did May 10th bring my 26th birthday, but also Wicket's first birthday!

At the first vet visit when we saw that the Humane Society had listed May 10 as Wicket's birthday I decided that finding her was kismet.

Richard took me away for a little overnight trip to Green Lake, Wisconsin, where we enjoyed not just a wonderful night out but a lovely morning on the lake.

I received some ridiculously nerdy artwork from Richard.  Battlestar Galactica propaganda posters!  I'm sure most of them will be put up in the basement room once its finished, but I may try to sneak one up in the back hallway.

Chris and Tia brought over something I have forced myself to put back on the shelf every time I came across it in the store - a duck tea infuser.

Third Annual 100-mile Yard Sale

Tia and I had such a whirlwind adventure last weekend, and it was simply amazing.

It begun early Thursday morning as we set off from Milwaukee and drove straight through (with a pitstop for breakfast in Madison) to Red Wing where we met Becca for lunch.  With the majority of drive behind us we made that final push to the Twin Cities where we had a few hours to explore before meeting up with more friends.

 

We stopped first at Ikea, both for some immediate shopping gratification and to get out of the sun for a while.  It was Tia's first trip and I'm a little amazed that we both managed to stay within our small budgets!

We made a stop at the Walker Art Center (first Thursdays are free after 5 pm!) and wandered through the sculpture garden for a while.  After enjoying art for a while my college friend Joey and his wife Sarah invited us over to their place for cookies and visiting until it was time for us to get to Jeff and Jennie's home.  And that was just day one.

Friday was filled playing with Violet, and Jennie took Tia to one of my favorite twin city stops - AxMan - and brought home some amazing Pad Thai for lunch.

We officially covered more ground on that Saturday than any other previous year on the 100 mile yard sale.  It was amazing!

Jennie and I were able to introduce Tia to a few of our traditions, like ice cream at Flat Pennies and searching for beach glass at our super secret Mississippi River spot.  And we introduced a new aspect - stopping for the night at a hotel on the route so we could hit more on the way back to the city on the second day.

Next year we're doing it again - but we're using a bigger car!

return from the great yardsale weekend

We've returned from the great trip west and there is so much to say and share.  But today is for recovering from those long drives, unloading the car, and getting back to work.  I'm just going to settle in for a snuggle with Wicket and let the experiences sink in - I'll be back with thoughts and photographs later.

Just one day and change... Minnesota here we come!

I'm taking a quick break from packing to jot a little note about how excited I am about the trip Tia and I are taking out to Minnesota on Thursday.

The next few days are sure to be a whirlwind.  This trip has been a long time coming and I can't believe that it seems to have crept up on me all of a sudden.  But here I am writing a note to remember the excitement when I really should finish packing and getting the puppies ready to go to my parents' house while I'm at work tomorrow.

Tia and I are leaving bright and early on Thursday morning and we're planning to squeeze in a couple visits with friends and maybe even a couple of sights before getting to Jennie's home Thursday night.  There is lots of visiting to be had on Friday before the real chaos of the 100-Mile Yard Sale begins.  This will be the third year in a row that Jennie and I have gone out on this little excursion and I'm so glad that Tia is coming along this year!

Now, back to preparations!

Building a Garden

One of the big projects we tackled recently was building a raised garden bed for vegetables.

We drafted and redrafted plans for it, figuring out how tall and how wide and how deep, and we wound up with a very tall planter - out of the reach of the little bunnies and just high enough to make gardening very easy on my back.

It was the work of a very long day, but we built, installed, filled with dirt, and planted our seedlings last Sunday.

That poor red-stemed dogwood never stood a chance.  The plan next year is to build an identical planter that will nestle directly to the right of this one, and sooner or later bean trellises along the back to give a bit more (green) privacy to the fence.

Progress isn't always Pretty

As promised we've really knuckled down for the last few days of spring break and here we are at the weekend already.  After demolishing the large cabinet (sledgehammers are fun, but boy do my shoulders ache) Richard popped up all the terrible tiles and I came along after scooping them up.  The glue removal promises to take a couple days so we'll hopefully have the floor fully prepped for painting by next weekend.

Before:

Currently:

One section of basement tile down, three more to go!

Because the weather promises to turn stormy later today and tomorrow we're going to spend as much time  today outside.  We're taking a break from the basement and garage work to run to the building supply store to pick up lumber and dirt for my raised vegetable garden.  Here's hoping we get the bed built and filled before the rains come