June photos

In an effort to update more often, I figure I can post some photos to break up all the long entries. It's much more convenient to take photos with my iPod, so my poor camera has been neglected lately. I'm hoping to take my camera out more often this summer. I miss photography.

These photos were taken on Father's Day at my mom's house. I didn't get many portraits this time, just nature-y stuff mostly. We had a steak & lobster dinner with my mom/step-dad, grandparents and little sis. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday :)

A little update

I had every intention of posting this weekend, but you saw how well that worked out. Lol. My weekend was mainly spent outdoors pulling weeds, mowing the lawn, cleaning our deck chairs & other fun projects. I also spent a good portion of my time clearing out the guest bedroom and getting it ready for next week.

Why next week? My older sister and her dog are coming to live with us for a while starting Tuesday. She's leaving California and wanted to be near family, so since we have extra room at our house, we invited her to stay with us. I think it will be fun and I'm sure our dog Maggie will live having another dog to play with 24/7 :)

So that should explain why I've been so absent on this blog lately. When I'm not cleaning/organizing/clearing out closets, I'm watching Roswell or playing Angry Birds to relax a little. Haha. We're just about done with the guest room. We got some blinds up yesterday & the closet is completely empty. We need to get the ceiling painted & the cable box hooked up in there & we should be good to go.

I still need to clean out/organize the kitchen cupboards & fridge and the cupboards in our laundry area, but we've gotten quite a bit done so far. I've tried to take some before & after photos of these projects along the way, so expect those someday soon :)

Until next time! (hopefully not 3 weeks from now, as my 1 faithful reader wouldn't appreciate that too much)

6/19 body update

I'm terrible at this blogging stuff, I apologize :) Life has been crazy lately, but then again, it seems to always be like that. I just need to make more time to post updates here.

So let's check in with my measurements from Sunday. It's been 2 1/2 weeks since I last updated them, but I want to compare from the beginning (aka May 22nd).

• A little over 5'3"
• Weight: 113.5 --> 113
• Chest: 33.5" --> 34"
• Waist: 26.5" --> 25.5"
• Between waist & hips: 33.5" --> 32"
• Hips: 35.5" --> 35.5"

Not much of an improvement, but honestly, I haven't been working out as much as I had intended. Still only a few times a week, when I was hoping it would become a daily thing. I have to remind myself that starting small is better than nothing at all. I'm not an athlete in any sense of the word, so thinking I could go all out, every single day from the very beginning was pretty unrealistic.

With the weather finally getting nicer here in Oregon, I'm looking forward to going for more walks with our dog and more long bike rides with my husband. Those activities don't feel like exercise to me, so it's easy to burn calories without even realizing it.

I really will try to update again in the next few days with all that's going on around here, mainly the fact that my older sister is coming to live with us in 2 weeks. That would help explain a lot of the craziness in my life right now :) So much to do, so little time.

Planning for our dream house

My husband & I were talking about the future today and the fact that our 10 year wedding anniversary is coming up in 3 years. I really want to have a big (but casual) vow renewal/anniversary party with all our close friends & family. We got married so young that we really had no clue what we wanted, nor did we have much money to spend. I'd love to have a "re-do" so to speak, but much less formal and much more fun :)

The more I thought about it, the more I'm convinced we should hold off until our 15 year anniversary. Why? That would give our current house time to increase in value and give us a chance to save up for our dream house. Then we could have an amazing party right at our own house. We would love to buy a piece of land and design a house the exact way we want it. We've talked about this for years and only intended to stay in this house for 5 or so years, but our house value tanked and there's no way we can sell anytime soon. So instead we wait and save money and get ideas for our future house.

Enter my newest obsession: Pinterest

Please tell me I'm not the only one that spends hours each week browsing and lusting after the gorgeous ideas/photos/inspiration! I can't get enough of that site and have already gotten some great ideas to incorporate in our future house. Below are some of my favorites that may not be feasible for us, but it's still fun to dream, right? :)

A huge deck is a must!

Love this bold door.

How cute is this front entrance??

I'm digging all the white for this living room.

Or maybe something fun & colorful like this?

Gorgeous dining room.

AMAZING pantry!

Nice & bright (& huge!) kitchen.

I've always wanted a little reading nook. This is adorable!

I want our office to be bold & fun like this one. Perfect for meeting photography clients.

If we ever have kids, I would LOVE to have their book displayed like that.

Cute nursery idea.

ADORE this guest bathroom!!

I kind of like this clean, simple master bedroom. It would need to be bigger though :)

Master bathroom: yes, please!!

Or this one.

Best closet ever, am I right?! :)

Gorgeous loft space.

Lots of space for gardening :) Or...

I freaking wish!!

Now we only need to win the lottery within the next 8 years and we'll be all set ;) It's always good to have lofty goals, isn't it?

6/5 body update

It's been 2 weeks since I posted my measurements & vowed to exercise like crazy in order to tone up and lose some inches. So how did I do the past 2 weeks? Eh. I did exercise a few times each week, but wasn't as consistent as I'd like to be. I haven't worked up the courage to go running yet since I'm dreading the 3 days soreness that is sure to follow. lol.

I'm thinking I might go for some long bike rides instead since they are easier on my knees and are a lot funner (for me) than running. So we'll see. Let's compare measurements, shall we? (5/22 numbers are first, followed by 6/5 numbers)

• A little over 5'3"
• Weight: 113.5 -->113
• Chest: 33.5" --> 34"
• Waist: 26.5" --> 26"
• Between waist & hips: 33.5" --> 32.5"
• Hips: 35.5" --> 35.5"

My main goal was to get that area between my waist & hips down by an inch and I accomplished that! So I'm happy. My goal for the next 2 weeks is get my waist down half an inch and continue working on that dreaded mid-section that I hate so much. I don't have a photo this time, but I'll have one in 2 weeks to compare to the before photo. I'm hoping for a noticeable change, but who knows :)