My new favorite B&B!

Cozy!

Romantic!

Amazingly affordable!

Best of all...


...it is my very own bedroom!


There's much more updating to be done in the rest of the house, but I really wanted to pay proper tribute to James' and my Divine love affair by starting with our boudoir.

I surprised him with all the accessories, but we painted the room as a family weekend project and got it all done in a day! Go team!




Before: Like, yuck, man.



During: For your next home improvement project, I highly recommend child labor! They have a ball, work for potato chips and soda, and have no idea your totally exploiting them! Now that's what I call a "win/win!"



Ahhhhh... it's just so nice to have an actual grown-up's bedroom and not a storage room with a bed in it.

These little beads dangling off the burgundy *velvet* valance are so sweet,
they just make me tingly all over...

So TRUE!! The picture really doesn't do it justice. Rats.

I absolutely adore walking into our bedroom to the aroma of freshly cut roses and herbs! So rejuvenating and inspiring, I think.

For a couple hundred dollars and a little effort, I'm so pleased with the way it turned out. No, it'll never make it into Portland Spaces Magazine, but I could afford it and it just feels so much better. I absolutely love the way this room looks at night... especially from the outside.

I once walked up the path that runs in front of our house and peeked in the window to see this inviting nest aglow in soft candle light. I thought to myself, "Wow, that looks like a really lovely place to stay... I would love to spend the night here with my Honey... Hey! I can and will every single night of my life. Sweet!"

Slowly but surely, I'm living my dream. I am so blessed!

Folks, it's like the tag line on this blog says... "There is no place *but* home."

Make yours beautiful and inviting to you.


Up next: Operation Master Bath!!

For the men in my life... and my mom.

Although they were kinda makin' fun of him on the New York Times humor page, I can think of at least six men in my family who will think this guy and his contraption are super cool! I know I do. Who does this remind you of, Gentlemen?




Here's to old guys who will find a way to stay productive and follow their passion no matter how many years have accumulated under their belt.

Rock on, Del!

Sharing with the locals

The girls and I got a beautiful surprise this morning when a fawn hopped the fence and began voraciously chowing down on our radishes!



Normally, this is not the sort of behavior I would encourage in the local wildlife, but she was so lovely and bold... looking us straight in the eye as we ogled her from my office window... I couldn't bring myself to shoo her off.

Our radishes far outnumber our opportunities to interact so closely with one of my favorites of all God's creatures. Deer also seem to mark special times in our family.

The last time I saw a deer on our property was my most recent birthday.

The previous sighting in our yard was four years ago on the morning of Anna's sixth birthday when a family of THREE, including a two-point buck (!), waltzed across our grass to our muffled squeals of approval and delight.

Something very cool just may happen today... and if all that turns out to be is the exceedingly rare glimpse of a fawn in our very own garden... that's more than enough for me!

Happy Tuesday, Deer Readers! :)

This could be me!

Well, except for the receding hair line and the fancy downtown office, but otherwise...

Enjoy this momentary glimpse into what my job can feel like sometimes. This is sheer brilliance!

Dude.

"The One?"

Sounds like an awful lot of responsibility to me...

How about "The Really Enthusiastic Alternate" instead?

Can I still have the cool trench coat, shades and mad bullet evasion skills, though? OOO! and The Jiu Jitsu! I want that too!

Which Action Hero Would You Be? v. 2.0 created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Neo, the "One" Neo is the computer hacker-turned-Messiah of the Matrix. He leads a small group of human rebels against the technology that controls them. Neo doubts his ability to lead but doesn't want to disappoint his friends. His goal is for a world where all men know the Truth and are free from the bonds of the Matrix. Neo, the "One" 71% Maximus 67% William Wallace 67% The Terminator 63% James Bond, Agent 007 58% Captain Jack Sparrow 54% El Zorro 50% Indiana Jones 46% Lara Croft 42% Batman, the Dark Knight 33% The Amazing Spider-Man 33%

Orange water and Triskaphobia

We got our water back one week ago... however, it still runs orange. It's the rusty minerals in that good ol' Dundee Appellation soil that make the Pinot Noir so gosh darned good, don' cha know!

I'm still twitchy about washing anything white lest I end up with a lovely array of quasi-tie-died garments in varying shades of burnt umber.


Amid all the water woes came the dishwasher debacle. Dishes in the front half of the machine retain a revolting residue of co-mingled food particles and oily remnants.... mmmm... YUMMY!

The issue was, of course not, as we had hoped, the replacement of the twirly thingy that shoots water around in the top of the machine which we found resting conspicuously out of place on the heating element... that leaves the motor as the culprit.

Interpretation: motors are so spendy, we may as well buy a whole new dishwasher.


As unexpected breakdowns of major appliances/utilities/vehicles tend to arrive in packs of three... I am rapidly developing a paranoia of unusual noises, smells and/or vibrations from any and all major moving and/or vitally important machines in my service.

So, now that you have the most recent update from L7CR, I am off to back up the Macs and stare suspiciously at my truck.