...on pink shoes and lots of balloons

It's the friday before the first day of balloon fiesta and I kind of feel like a little kid waiting for Christmas. I'm sure I have mentioned before but...Adam proposed at balloon fiesta so it is very special to us.  Plus, it's just so much fun!  When I opened the blinds this morning I saw about six balloons across the street and shouted, "Adam-balloons!  Lots of balloons!".  Adam threw on some clothes and we walked across the street to watch the balloons take off!  Jack just kind of took it all in looking everywhere.

Next, Jack and I went for a jog and we saw this...

and this...

I love it!  

Also, today was my first jog in these little babies...

My new "I finally drank the inov-8 kool aid" shoes..and they are pink-obviously.  These here are minimalist shoes so I have worn them around a little this week in order to get them a little broken in.  They are quite a departure from my old UT colored man shoes that were free, by the way.  Ok, so I've just made the turn on my jog to come back home and I'm thinking, "man, I must look so legit in my pink minimalist shoes..."  People don't need to know i've only run 1 mile so far, right?  Ok, so right after I finish thinking this some guy runs by me wearing...wait for it...no shoes.  Yup....totally barefoot.  My first thought was...well, quite honestly my first thought was, "ouch" but then I thought "man, that guy is way more hardcore than I am."  I guess he is taking the whole minimalist movement to the extreme!  Good for you, buddy!  I feel like he deserves a pedicure after that run!  

To sum it all up:  Balloon fiesta starts tomorrow AND I love my pink shoes.  

...on our little get away

Every year, usually around May, Adam and I drive up to Jackson Hole for a week of vacation.  We spend the week eating, sleeping, photographing, hiking, talking, and relaxing.  This year, we decided to be responsible adults and save some money by not making the trip up to JH.  Adam has been working so hard (CPA by day and master photographer by night) at his job(s) that we decided it was time to take a little getaway.  We wanted to do something quick, close by, and low key so we decided to head up to Taos for the weekend.  We wanted to go for a short-ish hike on Saturday so we headed off on a trail from the ski valley to William's Lake.  Once we got there we decided that we weren't quite ready to be finished so we just kept on going.  We kept on going all the way to the top of a little mountain called Wheeler Peak-the highest peak in New Mexico.  Our short-ish hiked turned into a 5 1/2 hour, 15 mile hike up a mountain.  Good, good times.  Needless to say we were both completely exhausted by the time we got home and also fairly sore.  Here are some photos from the day.

This weekend getaway was so nice.  It was nothing fancy but It was great to have some time to getaway just the two of us.  Did I mention Jack stayed with his Hammy and Papa?  Seriously, if you have babies and you haven't gotten away just the two of you in a while, I would highly recommend it.  Adam and I really don't want to be those people who only talk about their kids and then once the kids are gone they have nothing to talk about.  I am convinced that making time for each other plays a huge role in not becoming those people.

Ok-enough of that...let's move on to this...

This is Jack in Chloe's bed with a lot of shoes, right?  I'm not sure what he was after but that's really not the point here.  Ever since Chloe was a little puppy she has had something you might call a shoe fetish.  It's not that she eats shoes-nope, she's never eaten a shoe.  Once Adam and I leave the house, she picks up one shoe (from somewhere in the house) and drags it to her bed.  On this day, we happened to have a lot of shoes out because we were packing for our trip.  I mean, does anyone else's dog do this?

...on thursday threads

This week I made these....

...and that's all.  I love them.  

Here's a question...has anyone else ever gotten random magazines in the mail?  Over the last year I have started getting monthly issues of SELF magazine and...wait for it....Latina magazine.  I have no idea why.  I mean, Latina...really?  I never even knew such a magazine existed!    

...on cookies

Today I felt the urge to bake but I wanted to bake something different than my traditional chocolate chip cookies.  I found a Martha Stewart recipe for chocolate chunk cookies and decided to give them a try.  These were super simple and a fun little project for my sunday afternoon.  They were very tasty, too!

Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 8 ounces semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 package (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chunks

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Heat chopped chocolate and butter in a microwave-safe bowl in 20-second increments, stirring between each, until almost melted; do not overheat. In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
2. In a mixing bowl, beat eggs, brown sugar, and vanilla on high speed until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to low; beat in melted chocolate. Mix in flour mixture until just combined. Stir in chocolate chunks.
3. Drop heaping tablespoons of dough 2 to 3 inches apart onto baking sheets. Bake, rotating sheets halfway through, until cookies are shiny and crackly yet soft in centers, 12 to 15 minutes. Cool on baking sheets 10 minutes; transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

...on diy fabulousness

About a month or so ago I got a phone call from a friend letting me know that Lowe's had some mirrors on sale for $20 from $80.  I ran down there to check it out and ended up buying both of them.  They were both a little beat up so I decided that these would be a DIY project for me.  I had been wanting a mirror to go over the dresser in our bedroom so I figured that these mirrors would be perfect.  I ended up only using one over the dresser and the other one is still just hangin' out in our room-on the floor.  

As I said before, the mirrors were kind of beat up so I went out and bought me some spray paint in order to give these little ladies new life!  Here is the mirror before all taped up and ready to be primed and painted.

As usual, I don't have a lot of pictures of the process.  Next time I'll try to do better.  Here are a few pictures of the final product.  The newly painted mirror and some frames that we had sitting around the house.  

I LOVE the way this turned out.  After Adam hung everything last night, I just wanted to sit in our room and stare at it.  I have to give a lot of the credit for this idea (the way things are hung) to pinterest.  I didn't get it at all the first time I visited the site but now I'm kind of hooked!

...on thursday threads

Today's "thursday threads" consists of one project and a whole bunch of fabric.  I'll start with my project-another skirt.  It happened again-I went to throw something away and the packrat in me said "NO!  You can totally make something with that!".  Needless to say, the packrat won.  The item that was in line for goodwill was a red skirt.  A cute skirt, one I have had for years but rarely worn.  It hit me just so at the waist that it made me have serious love handles so really, it probably should have gone a long time ago.  With the tight waist and the longer skirt (below the knee) I decided to shorten this baby up a little and get rid of the restrictive waistband.  I did not take a before picture-oops!  I'm still new at this.  I'll learn eventually.  All I did was chop a few inches off the top and create a new waistband.  Here's how she turned out.

I think it turned out pretty well considering I had to rip out a few stitches here and there.  In the middle of it, I thought it was going to be a huge disaster so I was pleasantly surprised by the end result!  I haven't worn it yet and now that it's getting cooler here, I wonder if it might have to wait in my closet until the spring.  

On to the next!  Fabric!  One of the new loves of my life.  Seriously, who knew fabric could be so fun and addicting?  These fabrics are from my last trip to SAS and, as you can see, I have done nothing with them yet.  It's probably because i'm still working on the batch of fabric from before!  

A little argyle, some mushrooms (LOVE those mushrooms!), and and rootin' tootin' fabric for my texas friends, topped off by a fun floral girlie fabric.  I have big dreams for these little guys and I'm hoping to get some things started this weekend!  

...on dirt and nesting

The mornings here have been so nice lately that I have been leaving the back door open.  Every morning, Jack crawls on over to the door and tries his hardest to get down the step but usually ends up sitting at the doorway staring longingly at the backyard.  This morning I put a blanket outside and Jack's fire truck thinking that he might like to play with his toys outside instead of inside.  Well, I was right about the outside thing but he was not to happy to simply sit on the blanket and play with his toys.  He decided to go straight for the rocks.  At first I kind of cringed and tried to keep him on the blanket but then I just gave up. He LOVED playing with the rocks and crawling around outside.  Now he is completely filthy which I'm finding is kind of a trend with our little guy.  I can not wait until we can landscape our backyard and get rid of all the rocks!  I do NOT miss our old house but it sure would be nice to have some grass!

Has anyone else continued nesting well after their pregnancy was over?  Because I'm pretty sure I still am.  I know I have said it before but I just can't stop rearranging things in the house and wanting to decorate everything!  The problem with that is a lot of times "nesting" translates into shopping which requires money-which is fine except that when you stay home and no longer have an income, it's not as easy to just go out and spend money.  I suppose that is where the new DIY trend comes from, right?  My latest "nesting" project is decorating over our dresser.  Right now we have nothing over it, no mirror or anything.  Not to worry-there is a plan in the works!!  Pictures to come soon!