A crazy experiment

We saw this idea on craftgawker.  It was too cool not to try.

I don't know how long this growing process will take, or if it will even work at all, but it was worth a shot!

Moss from trees in the woods down from our house:

 a blender from Goodwill:

 Buttermilk and sugar
(side note: who in their right mind drinks buttermilk????  Gag! The smell of it was enough to make me dry heave)

 driftwood, moss mixture, and a jar full of paintbrushes:

Voila!
If it grows, it will be very cool.
I tried this a couple weeks ago and left the driftwood in a shady location in our backyard, thinking it would get plenty of rain and just enough sunlight...
Apparently, our pug LOVES buttermilk/moss/sugar.  I went out to check on the dogs and he was in the back corner licking all the lettering off the sign!  Bleh!
-but I cant really get mad at this face:

Cape Perpetua

Can you tell the weather has been a bit rainy this week?  The amount of blog posts is directly related to the amount of rain we get, haha.

Skott's birthday is really Dec. 17th, a week before Christmas.  He has always hated it, as it gets "lost" in the holidays.  He said as a child he always got "dual" gifts ("Oh, this is your birthday AND Christmas present....) that he couldn't open until Christmas so his birthday seemed not as special to him.  When I started school, his birthday always fell during finals season.  I was SO stressed and it was hard for me to plan something special on top of trying to manage my classes.  So one year we decided to change the day we celebrated his birthday.  We now celebrate it on May 17th.  This has worked out MUCH better.

This year I decided to plan a little adventure day for him and explore a new part of the coast.
The morning started out with a breakfast of red potato skillets, mushrooms, and maple bacon.  Throughout the day I gave him a series of notes/clues.  He opened his various gifts throughout the day.  It was a lot of fun, my only regret is the wind.  It was soooo windy.  But at least the sun was shining!  And it was definitely warmer than what I planned last year (camping).

Here are some photos from our destination, Cape Perpetua State Park.  We plan to go back and explore more of the trails and beach, it was so pretty there!

Picnic

Driftwood House Numbers

Skott found an amazing piece of driftwood on the beach and being the creative person he is, decided "Hey, this would make a great thing for house numbers!" (How he visualizes these things, I will never know, but I love it.)

Here is the finished product:

Yes, yes, I know the fence desperately needs a fresh coat of paint :)
and I think the sign will stand out even better when I get some flowering vines growing along the fence behind it.

Skott spent a lot of time burning the numbers into the wood.  Here is a closer view of the details:

swirls on the swirls

lined texturing on the numbers

I love it!  And I'm very proud of him!

My Mothers Day

I had a bit of a "rant" status on Facebook on Mothers Day.  It is a difficult day for me to have patience with people.  Miraculously, I survived the night and only had to really bite my tongue once :)  Thanks to all for your nice words and comments on my status, it means a lot.

The day was gorgeous so Skott loaded up the dogs in their "stroller", made a thermos of coffee, and we headed down to the beach.  Luckily, we are about a 10 minute walk from the beach so it is nice and convenient.  It was a little windy, but we found some comfy logs in a somewhat sheltered cove-ish area.

Unfortunately, Izzy was't feeling well AT ALL.  Still trying to regulate her meds so she was running waaayyy low on cortisol that day.  Poor little girl just napped the entire time.

We sat and drank coffee and watched the waves roll in.  It was a wonderful morning!

I love this guy!  Thanks for making my day special!

And also, a shout out "Happy Mothes Day" to my wonderful Mom who is the most kind, loving person I know.  Sooo happy I got to see you and hang out with you.  Love you Mommy

Rachel & Bobby's wedding

Thanks to my wonderful husband for his sacrifice!  He stayed home and held the fort down while I went to Idaho for my sister's wedding.
I enjoyed my time with my family so much! Lots and lots of laughter, relaxing, and more laughter.
I spent a couple days with Josie.

Josie with her giant cat, Gus

I tagged along while Josie and Rach got pedicures:

Josie cooked me dinner

We had a small party for Rachel.  I'm afraid to post too many pictures here, but it was a good time!

Mantle decor

Heidi decorating the snack table

and you can just use your imagination for the cake, the straws, the confetti, and the wonderful costumes we all wore :)

The day before the wedding was busy with last minute errands and spending lots of time in the salon.  I had also forgotten how long it takes to drive anywhere in Boise :(   uggggh!  I don't miss the big city life at all

a very calm and beautiful bride to be

Mom's suprise manicure

Poor Seth.  The youngest brother to 7 sisters doesn't really stand a chance.  Here he is after dashing out to the car during a torrential rain storm to fetch someones purse.  What a good sport! (not that he had a choice in the matter... haha)

"Sllllaaaaavvvee!"

I got to ride to the wedding with Heidi and Ayla.  That Ayla is such a hambone! Thankfully, she rides really well in the car.

She caught me taking a picture.  This is her reaching for my phone
saying "See pictwure? See pictwure?"

It was incredibly windy at the wedding site!  We got there plenty early so we let Ayla stretch her legs and run around.

It was a beautiful ceremony!  It was wonderful to see so many family and friends that I haven't seen in far too long!

The reception was held in downtown Twin Falls.  I loved the music Alyssa had playing!  The food was good and of course, the cake was amazing :)
I didn't get too many pictures of the reception. I was too busy making drinks and visiting and rounding people up for pictures....

Josie, Ayla, and Seth

It was very hard to say good bye!  I'm so grateful for my wonderful family and happy that I had the chance to attend the wedding.

Holy agate!

I apologize, the blog has been on the back burner since nice weather hit... I hope to get caught up tomorrow.

I wanted to share the agate Skott found a couple days ago.
The tide was insanely low and we explored an area we had never been to before.  I heard him make this really funny noise and when I looked up, he was headed toward me with something very yellowy-orange in his hand.  I thought it was some piece of a sea sponge or something until he got closer:

For comparison sake, here is a photo where the agate on the left was the biggest we had found, so you understand our excitement: