AAAAAND...WE'RE BACK!

Hi, there. It's been awhile. Andrew and I decided it was time to start blogging again--for reasons we will explain later. But in the meantime, here is a speedy update on the last four months via cell phone pics. I apologize if you are already an Instagram follower. 

A new school year began. I have fifteen third graders, and I love them. I'm excited to show off my entire camping theme classroom in a future post. 

The kids made class "camp shirts" with tie-dye. 

Andrew and I enjoyed a lovely Idaho autumn. This was our view from our hike up to Cress Creek.

Our garden was a success. 

Sort of. 

We have pumpkins, squash, and zucchini coming out our ears! But honestly, who actually wants very many squash and zucchini? 

The goal next year is to harvest a single onion, carrot, spinach, lettuce, or bean plant from the backyard. Apparently, the soil around is here is super heavy in clay. It takes a few years of rich fertilizer before you can have much of a reward with gardening. 

Andrew now officially runs his own business! It has been fun and a blessing that he's stayed busy. Here, he shows me the progress on a lovely house he's building in town. Andrew's good at what he does.

Moose is still kicking. This is largely due to the fact that he is no longer allowed to sleep with a blanket...regardless of how cold it is. He now gets wood shavings. Otherwise, there is a 99% chance he will chew it to bits, ingest a vast majority of the fiber, requiring a second expensive surgery to save his life. 

Big, crazy lug.

We've been enjoying a gym membership. 

Well, Andrew has been enjoying a gym membership. I still find little joy in formal exercise. As motivation, we shake it up with an occasional racquetball game. This picture is after a close, tiring battle...that didn't seem to wear Andrew out at all. 

Andrew lives and breathes BYU football. For his birthday, we bought a package deal and got tickets for two home games in Provo. Fun memories.

For Halloween, we dressed as a hiker and a bear. It took us approximately 20 minutes to throw it together, yet we ended up winning the award for "Most Original Costume."

We inherited 800 square feet of free sod from a neighbor. This isn't a lot of grass, but we feel blessed to have a patch of green in our backyard. Moose is strangely squeamish of too much mud and dirt, so he has been especially grateful to have it...rolling around on his back for ten solid minutes for no obvious reason except to revel in its soft glory.

The rest of the sod will have to wait until spring. In the meantime, we have been busy making progress with steel banding to create flower beds on three sides of the house, and a handful of twiggy trees planted along the driveway and deck. 

The sprinklers are also installed and ready to go. 

In somewhat related news, Andrew is still studly in plaid. 

My last blog post (back in July!) was asking for input about a rug for the front room. This is the one I chose. 

Unfortunately, it was not the lovely light blue it appeared to be online. It was more of a hunter green! Thus it did not match, and it was shipped off to be returned. I have yet to replace it with another one.

My current project is a painting for over the fireplace. Here it is in its early stages. My inspiration is our view from the kitchen window. It's been fun to get back into art after so long!

Well, I'll be seeing more of you from now on. I'm going to have to dust off my 'ol Canon, so I can have some real pictures for you next time!

HELP ME CHOOSE AN AREA RUG!

Please give your opinion. I can't decide on an area rug for the front room. Should I go calm and neutral? Or bold and contemporary? I need your input before I spend a bunch of money tomorrow. 

 Black and white with triangles from Urban Outfitters.

 The blue and white version.

 Jute from either IKEA or World Market. 

 Black and white stripes from World Market.

White Moroccan from World Market. 

Thank you!

SPRING MANTEL and DECOR 2013

In keeping with the tradition of posting things late...here is my spring decor. 

Using a lot of what I already had, I just added some more springy flowers and tried to pull in more pinks and pastels. 

The tulips are Mom's annual Easter gift to me. 

The dining room shelves. 

My bedside table.

And because we still have yet to put grass in our yard, I put grass in our kitchen instead. 

Now I need to start thinking summer...!

BOISE STATE GRADUATION 2013

My baby sister--who is not so much a baby anymore--graduated from Boise State last weekend with a master's degree.

I am so proud.

Rebecca Jolley is a master of English, rhetoric, and composition. 

The graduation ceremony was a miserable, three-hour affair. BYU-I ingeniously divides up the majors into different buildings to makes the ceremonies go faster. 

But not Boise State. After the 2,000th student's name was announced, I was ready to sell my LIVER on the black market to make. it. stop.

In my defense, I was sick. And I had forgotten my phone back at Becca's apartment, so I had nothing to do but wallow in misery. But then, as if to make up for what they just put us through, glitter rained down from the ceiling for the last 10 minutes. 

Apparently, falling glitter makes me happy. 

Becca was blessed with some awesome friends during her Boise State experience.

Her best friend Kevin, graduated with the same master's degree.

A Hawaiian friend in their major, had the matching leis made for her and the other 4 master of English, rhetoric, and composition graduates.

We continued to take many, many pictures, but I'll only share the few successes. It's not that Becca isn't pretty to look at. 

She just seems to have an inability to be photographed with her eyes open. 

Lovely lady.

This is my new favorite picture of my family.We had such a wonderfully happy weekend and this picture just seems to illustrate that. 

With the Big D.

I think our parents did alright by us, don't you?

In exchange for the cost of her master's program, Becca accepted an assistanceship and taught 100 level writing classes. Here she is in her classroom. 

And here she is by her desk...looking all professor-like.

Then Becca showed us around Boise. We picnicked, window shopped, admired local art and mocuments, and watched giraffes fight at the local zoo. 

Seriously people, if you have never seen giraffes fighting, you're missing out. Go YouTube it. 

We also oohed and awed over countless geese and their new hatchlings. 

Don't mess with the mamas. They mean business.

Goslings in a row. 

I took more pictures of these guys than I did of Becca. It's embarrassing, really. For your sake, I'll only share 5% of them.

Last one.

I suddenly have the urge to snuggle something. 

And finally, Becca's happy dance. It had to be shared. 

Next time you see her, ask Becca to demonstrate this happy Snoopy dance. It is hilariously accurate.

Bursting with Love and Pride,

Rachel

HOUSE TOUR {master bedroom}

After living in this house for almost a year, I decided it was time to decorate the place! My focus the past two months has been the master bedroom. 

Here is the same room, a long time ago. 

Here, we've added wainscotting and the wood ceiling. You can read how we built the ceiling step-by-step in THIS post. 

And here is the room with paint and stain. Isn't that ceiling awesomely amazing? My husband is a genius. 

And again, here it is today. 

The rug is 20 bucks at IKEA. I haven't seen a better price for the size and contemporary style. 

I made these wall hangings for a pop of fun color. They represent the states where we each grew up and the state we currently call home. More to come on how I made these in a future post. 

This family heirloom hutch was in the dining room before Andrew built me the big, beautiful new dining room table for Christmas. (I think I shared it with my Instagram friends, but I need to post about it here next!) The new table + the hutch made dining room look too crowded. So we moved it in here instead. 

I traded out the displayed dishes for books and picture frames. I thought it seemed more bedroom-y that way. 

Then I tackled this ugly, cheap bookcase. Sometimes you just have to find a way to work with what you have. I would eventually like to fancify this even more with trim and paint, and disguise it as a nice piece of furniture. But in the meantime, to match the hutch, I added wrapping paper to the back with double stick tape and lined it with washi tape. 

This was the ugliest corner of the room, so I tried my hand at (artificial) flower arranging in hopes of livening the space up. I'll talk more about this project in the future. 

The antlers were kind of an accident. They just "appeared" on this wall one day from where they used to hang in the garage. My husband's silliness turned out to be a stroke of brilliance. I LOVE the look of the antlers in this room.

The couch is actually on a piece of our sectional that wouldn't fit in the great room. So we improvised and created a sitting area in here as well. I got the pillows from THIS etsy shop. The owner was so kind and willing to work with me, the pillows were the best price around, and of excellent quality. 

Andrew built the bed and nightstands over three years ago. I'll never get over how amazing they are. Just like Pottery Barn...at a fraction of the cost. 

They tie in with the wood ceiling beautifully. I think the furniture grounds the lightness of the walls and balances out the darkness of the ceiling in a perfect way.

The round mirror was a $4.00 thrift store find! I love it when that happens.

The quilt was a Christmas present to ourselves. It is part of the Threshold collection at Target. It can be difficult sometimes, to find bedding that is a balance between frilly and masculine and pleases both the husband and the wife. This was Andrew's favorite, so I went with it...a decision I have not regretted. The longer we have it, the more I love it. 

I've had a problem with the clutter that always accumulates on the nightstands as a result of...living life. Chapstick, lotion, coins, phone chargers, receipts, books, wallets, pocket knives, measuring tapes, pens and pencils, notepads, glasses of water, etc. 

Rather than fight the inevitable, I decided to be practical and just roll with it. Or hide it better...take your pick. 

I built these trays, to collect and disguise it all. 

My tray hides a book, a notepad, a pencil, and six bottles of essential oils. You wouldn't even know it unless you stood directly over it. It is a beautiful thing. 

These trays will eventually get holes drilled in the ends to add rope handles. I will post more on this project too!

This month, I moved on to the horrifying task of organizing the office/project room (I don't call it a "craft room" for Andrew's sake). But I think I may come back to this room eventually and add some black rods and floor length curtains. Sheer white? Burlap maybe? 

So there you have it! It's fun to share what I've put together. Thanks for stopping by! 

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