Our Kitchen and Blogging

Alternate title: Our Kitchen Tile Progress and Why I’ll Never Be a Big Blogger

You may want to sit down for this one.  Seriously.  We started a house project.  Our kitchen backsplash to be exact.  This may be our first major project in almost a year. 

We started yesterday and didn’t get as far as we would have liked.  Tile saw issues, measuring issues.  Most of you know how that goes.  But so far.  We are loving it. We hope to have it done by next week. If you tell me you hate it, I’ll sucker punch you.

Which brings me to my next topic…..why I’ll never be a big blogger.

1. I want to apologize to those that we offended with the YouTube video link that we posted last week.  I’m not sorry that we posted it but I am sorry that I didn’t put a warning.  I honestly forget the number of people that read this blog.  I don’t really care so much about pleasing others with this blog..as in, what kind of content I post but I don’t want to offend others…unless it’s with paint colors or fabric swatches.  I’ve been offended by some paint colors out there.  I get it.  We don’t think suicide is funny. I lost two classmates in high school from suicide.  I didn’t watch the video all of the way through and Nate isn’t easily offended.  We just thought the original principle was funny.  We will warn you about potential poor choices in the sense of humor department in the future.  The end.

2.  I haven’t completed a larger house project in almost a year.  The shame.  And lack of motivation.

3. I posted an in-progress photo of my kitchen.  The horror.  I did add a fun filter.  I get hipster blogger points for that though, right?

4. I threatened to sucker punch my readers.

5.  There are no bottles of Pellegrino on my kitchen…even in the progress shot.  What kind of blogger am I?

Have you been suffering from project lulls?  What’s holding your back from big blogger fame?  You always have Pellegrino out on your counters, right?

Diggin’ It

It’s Friday.  Beautiful, beautiful Friday.  Don’t you just love Friday?  Me too.

Here’s what we are diggin’ this week.

1. World Market's Yarrow Curtains:  It’s a really stinking good thing that we don’t have a World Market in our town.  Seriously.  I am, however, headed to the land of World Market this week-end and these beauties may be coming home with me.  If I don’t hate them in person.  Which is always a good possibility.

2. BB Daily Deals:  Rachel's mom has opened an on-line boutique called BB Daily Deals.  Sign up and you will receive e-mails regarding two deals per week.  I hear the selection is going to be great… cute boutique clothing and accessories to seasonal home décor to adorable kitchen items.  This week’s deals were the cute key fobs above and adorable seasonal garland.  Be sure to sign up here!

3. The Color Run:  I am running The Color Run tomorrow with some friends from back home and Nate’s sister.  The Color Run’s slogan is that it’s the “Happiest 5K on the Planet”.  The only rule is that you start with a white shirt.  You can walk, run, or dance your way to the finish.  At each kilometer, you are blitzed with color.  I. Can’t. Wait.

1.  Baby by Summer of Tears: **Warning:  This video has some sensitive material. If you’re easily offended, please skip!**   Nate showed this YouTube video to me last week-end. Mascara was running.  We both about peed our pants.  It’s about how these new parents feel more prepared to have children because of their dog.  Good stuff.

2. Photo Editor by Aviary: Nate thinks this app has better options to get you better photos on your phone.  There are more fine tuning options.  (That’s all I could get out of him.  Seriously, this series is liking pulling teeth.)

1. Self Portraits. Ike’s loving photos of himself this week.  There are no issues with self esteem and our furry friend.  I think this high level of self love comes from hearing “I love your dog”, “That’s the cutest dog ever”, “I’m going to steal your dog” on our nightly walks.  Oh, Ike.

What are you diggin’ this week?  Have you ran The Color Run? What’s your favorite phone photo app? Does your dog like looking at himself in the mirror too?

Hiking in Sedona

Alternate title:  I shouldn’t post some of these photos on the interweb.

On Tuesday I mentioned that most of our time in Sedona was spent hiking.  We’re wild and crazy kids.

Our first stop was the Boynton Canyon trail.  We were greeted with a bear warning.  My brother and I were fully prepared to take on any wild animals that we might encounter.

No, we didn’t encounter any wild animals.  Yes, I wore lots of sunscreen.  Yes, my nickname was bear meat. No Mom, we will never grow up.

This hike was a 6 mile round trip hike through the canyon.  It was a fairly easy hike.  Most of it was shaded which was an added benefit.

This hike was pretty uneventful.  Some nice Austrian man took our photo at the end of the trail.  We gave my brother lessons in composition while on this trip.  Looks like we should have also offered them to our new friend.

Nate took pretty photos.  My brother and I were obnoxious. The usual. The following pose is still in, right?

My brother wants everyone to know that he took the following photo. Not Nate.  Just to clear that up.

Our next trail was Devil’s Bridge. A 3 mile round trip trail. My brother and Nate enjoyed this trail.  I did not.  This is the time that I tell you all about my fear of heights.  I like to hike flat trails.  Not trails where I can fall to my death…like this trail.  Here is the bridge.  My brother and Nate walked out on that thing.  I did not.  No way.  No how.

The views on the way up were quite awesome.

The trail itself.  Eh.   This was a good part.

The following photo sums up this hike.  Me baby stepping up the trail.  Nate taking photos of my rear (which I cropped out to save us all).  My brother resting and taunting me.  I hate my brother.  And my husband.

We eventually made it to the top.  Where I sat firmly planted in a safe location. 

My brother and Nate walked on out on that thing.  Dumb. Some doctor kept trying to get me to go out there.  I forgave him after he saved us a 1.5 mile hike back from the trailhead to our car.

Our last hike was the West Fork Oak Creek trail.  This hike was 6 miles round trip.  This trail had 12 creek crossings which was kind of fun.

The only thing we disliked about this trail was that the end was pretty uneventful.  We were hoping for some big pool or awesome view. This was it.  Still pretty but eh.

This concludes our hiking tour of Sedona.  Are you still awake?  Anyone?

Do you like to hike?  Anyone else with a major fear of heights?  (Just wait for the Grand Canyon post!)