happy 2011

hope you had a wonderful New Year's! we saw the most excellent display of fireworks on the best harbour in the world! *

*in my biased opinion :)

hello!

from Sydney!love and kisses

Bryce and I and our little bump :)

I'll be back soon to fill you in on what's been happening over the last couple of months, but wanted to say hi, hope you had a wonderful Christmas and holiday season and let you know that I haven't forgotten you all.

we did it!

today I married the man of my dreams at city hall in San Francisco. I am one happy lady!

love you Bryce

They're Growing!

We take the chicks outside to play everyday. They mostly stay in one spot

and like to huddle under the roses. They're getting hard to catch so we have

to wait until they fall asleep to bring them back inside.

Nancy is my bold and curious girl.

She is alway the first to come check things out.

As you can see the girls are growing and will soon be feathered out enough to live outside in their coop. As for the coop, I have been looking high and low for one that's affordable and large, but haven't had much luck. Did you know a new coop costs about $600, and the ones on Craigslist that are used aren't much cheaper? I was getting desperate because the chicks need to live outside soon, but sorting out their coop situation was problematic until I realized we have a perfectly sized garden shed that we never use out back that would be perfect for them. So this weekend we're hauling all the rusty, crusty tools out (the ones that are still useful will get moved into the garage) and then overhauling the shed into a new coop. All we have to do is weather and predator proof it, build the nesting boxes and roosting bar, and build a pen for them to play in and viola! new coop for around $200. I'm really happy because not only am I saving money and recycling the shed, but it's a great size for my flock. I will try to remember to take pictures of the project.

During

A view across the cluttered floor toward the soon to be walk-in closet

Dungeonous corner - the bed centered on this wall

Closet (the next project is to push this out about

4 feet so we can have a walk-in closet)

The bathroom wall where the vanity will live

View into hallway

Here are some pictures of the "during" stages of the master bedroom and bath remodel. We started this projects months ago, but for some reason we have lacked the energy for this project that we had for the living room/kitchen. Maybe because we have a bathroom and another bedroom to camp out in. It's by no means comfortable. but with the kitchen stuff washing dishes in the bathtub and having no walls was a huge motivator. Anyway, we are moving again on this major project and we turned a corner this week - we're actually hanging drywall and should have the bathroom tiled within two weeks!! Cody actually tried to put off hanging the drywall until "next weekend" which is how we have ended up taking so long to even get this far, but one massive temper tantrum by me is all it took and miraculously the ceiling will be finished tonight! I wasn't thinking clearly and forgot all about taking "before" photos which is why there will only be "during" and "after" pics to share, but trust me, the room was hideous. It's the home stretch, people!

Rainy Days

It starting to feel like Fall now! This weekend was stormy and grey and it's definitely getting colder. I love this time of year because I like to bundle up and the holidays are almost here. We're almost done with re-doing our master bath and bedroom (photos to come shortly) and I can't wait until the room is all finished and cozy. I want to stick a fireplace in the room so we can stay under a pile of blankets and be toasty. My girlfriend Gloria made stew this weekend and I think I'm going to swing by the store on my way home and pick up some ingredients to make my own pot tonight. I love to eat toasted sandwiches, comfort food, and hot soup like tomato or navy bean when the weather is like this. In fact, yesterday when it was rainy I made C get out of bed and take my to Harry's Hofbrau to enjoy a gravy drenched turkey lunch with extra cranberry. I had to be helped out of the booth after lunch and I wasn't able to finish everything (the chickens LOVED the leftover macaroni and cheese). We actually let the girls play in the rain yesterday since I'm hoping to encourage their feathers to fill in faster. I love them, but they are still in the house and they smell to high heaven no matter what I do, so they're going outside into their new coop by next weekend. I just looked outside and it's still gloomy - yay! I'm heading home to hot tea, a fire, a pot of bubbling stew and my stretch pants in a bit.

up the garden path...

at some point, this tired concrete path has to go...

and I must say I am digging these ideas of having grasses and succulents creep into the design to give it a softer yet still modern look while still being water conscious.

photo here

photo here

3000 Miles up!

you've got to love modern technology don't you? I am here on my flight to Dallas and online. the plane has wifi - what better way to eat up 3 hours of flight time than work and surf the web...

too bad for the nosy guy looking over my shoulder reading this right now (he just asked me if my name was flufflefritz...) I knew I should have brought that privacy screen for my mac - sigh...

the launch of our product went so well yesterday in san francisco. it really was like introducing your baby to the world, and I am not even in the product development team. I am in the marketing team.

so world, I'd like you to meet ūmi. I was a little hesitant to mix work and this blog, but I am really excited about this - and if you're like me with friends and family far from you this might be just the thing you need!

so now I am Dallas bound, which should be fun.

hope you're all having a great week!

Finally Got Them!

Last Saturday I went to Love Apple Farm in Ben Lomond and took a chicken raising class. There were two big boxes filled with tiny fluffy chicks
This is one of the breeds we got - a Cuckoo Marans (ours is named Doug)
who will lay beautiful chcolate colored eggs

Cody and Doug hanging out. Doug is our favorite!
I had no idea chickens were so friendly and curious.

Here are all four chicks sleeping in a pile.

From left to right: Doug, Nancy, Willow and Buffy.

Kate and Bryce came by to check the chicks out. Here is Kate and Willow.

Nancy is always climbing on top of the food container

to see what's going on in the world. Here are Cody and Nancy.

The class was very interesting and along with the four chicks I was sent home with instructions on how to brood them, a heat lamp and some chick starter. I ended up with four different breeds who will all lay different colored eggs sometime in the spring.

Bento Cuteness

We had dinner with Kate and Bryce this weekend and I admired their vast collection of food storage options. I've been looking at different food storage stuff for awhile now that we have the kitchen basically completed (the cabinets are in anyway) and I've wanted to get some nice Tupperware or something to store food. Then today I came across this site that has the most adorable bento boxes I've ever seen! They also give 365 lunch combination ideas that all look super healthy and fun to eat - and they're all in the perfectly portion controlled bentos. Not only are these cute and perfect for toting healthy lunches, but they're also eco-friendly and contain no phthalates, BPA, or lead.

sunset

I took these photos while driving home the other night (well while stopped at a traffic light), I was driving with the top down in my car, the air was warm the sky was beautiful and I was sad to have spent the majority of the evening at the office... only another week of all this working crazy hours and then I am off to Dallas (for work). I have never been to Dallas, but I do love those Texan accents. I am only there for the day but that should be fun anyway :)

hope you're having a great week!

happy weekend

even thought bryce and I both worked this weekend, we got to hang out with our two favourite furry folk, and that made for a happy weekend.

what fun did you get up to?

hello!

I haven't been here much lately as work has been pretty crazy right now, with a really big product launch we are working on and nothing much else too exciting is happening right now that's worth talking about...

but I'm still here and wanted to say hi, and that I miss you all and that I hope you had a wonderful weekend!

I spent Saturday morning at the spa, which was just what I needed. Saw The Town, The Road, and continued digging in the dirt. our berm is coming along nicely! I slept a lot, which was wonderful. :)

we also went to visit Melita and Cody's new chickens - so cute!

photo here

yosemite - day 1

I've been trying to share these photos with you for a few days now, but blogger has been giving me a hard time - has anyone else been experiencing blogger gremlins???

anyway, as I mentioned before my cousin Deb came to visit us the other week and we took a couple of days off to take her and her friend Adam to Yosemite. We packed up the campervan and headed out

it didn't take long for these guys to fall asleep
Coop decided Bryce's lap was the place to be
Deb proving just how asleep Adam was...
I kept myself entertained by taking lots of photos (as usual)
You might remember this place from photos I took here but there were no clouds this time
this one inspired a painting, which I'll get around to eventually - love the lines of the shoreYosemite is a pet friendly park, but you have to keep pets on paved roads, and since we had some hiking planned we checked Cooper and McKenzie into the doggy spa, which was kind of along the way - but we got a little lost... I was kinda glad, as it gave me an opportunity to take a better photo of this great little shed painted as the US Flag :)
and on we drove...
our campervan is a 1982 vintage and a diesel, so goes about 60 miles (96 kms) per hour at the absolute maximum. so with a full load and many hills to climb she's a slow ride...
but all the better to enjoy the views! :)
and finally we were there
this lady was awesome, when I asked for a photo - I'm sure she gets it all the time, the poor thing... but those hats are just too good to resist!
arriving on a Thursday was a really smart idea, as there were not that many people around (even approaching a long weekend)these rocks never cease to amaze me

I think we'll definitely take bikes with us next time we go - it's the perfect way to get around Yosemite Village, but if you don't want to bring yours, you can always rent them there.

Deb taking in the sites

me taking in the sites :P
we took the canoe with us, and this would have been the place to put her in I think, but we just ran out of time...
last time we were there everything was white and icy, but now at the end of summer the water levels were pretty lowhandsome man :)
handsome van!
there are a few places to camp in the village, upper pines, lower pines, and north pines, but they book out months in advance (apparently), and then there's camp 4 which is on a first come first in basis. people start lining up there at 8:30am. this is tent camping only so wasn't for us.

we camped at Tamarack Flat which is about 30mins out of the valley, so off we went
up some more hillsthrough some mountains of rock
and past some more amazing scenery...

when we arrived we found this guy/girl? hanging out at the bathrooms
so pretty
and made ourselves a home for the night
our campsite was awesome! sheltered by our neighbours by these massive rocks. (that brown box in the foreground is a bear box, where you had to store all your food so the bears didn't come into your car looking for it)
which of course the boys had to climb

doesn't this rock look like a whale coming out of the water?
adam on the nose of the whalebut someone forgot his beer... nice action shot of Deb throwing Adam a beer because that's what good friends do :)
but oops, someone forgot to bring said beer bottle down with them... (we made him go get it later, don't worry)
Adam decided his talent was pyromaniac - he liked to light fires!
after dinner, and drinks we made smores by the fire
and some fire art

with a big day ahead it was time to call it a night. this was the first time we'd slept 4 people in the campervan (Deb and Adam slept up in the annex) and I thought it would be a bit cozy, but it wasn't too bad at all!