tough guys

 TOUGH MUDDER 2013 :: PHILADELPHIA, PA

uncorked

do you know how many wine bottles it took to get all these corks?!? we love wine, but not THAT much, so thanks to the friends and family who have consistently donated to my stash. the K is finally complete - although i'm still taking donations for future cork projects :)

the origins of chalkboard love

you may have noticed by now that i love chalkboard paint. if you haven't, check out this and this and this to get the idea. i thought i'd tell you about the origins of my chalkboard craze. two summers ago, josh and i were in the midst of crazy wedding planning (we had just under four months to pull off a wedding). it seemed like every waking moment was fixated on planning, working through the details, shopping, making phone calls, and taking on (a few too many) projects. i had lofty aspirations of a complete d.i.y. wedding and incorporated quite a few homemade projects into my plans...without much thought to our condensed time frame. 

one of these projects included converting an old window into the menu for our reception. we made a trip to todd farm early one sunday morning in search of some key wedding decoration items (friends on the north shore, if you've never been to todd farm, you must go! it's a giant antique/flea market with great deals). i wish now that i had taken pictures of the whole event, but the short of it is that i found a rustic old red window in a pile of junk antiques for $5 and decided to make some good use out of it. josh took a hammer and smashed the life out of all the glass. then we coated a thick piece of wood with chalkboard paint and fastened it to the backside of the window. we wrote out all of the items on our (awesome) menu like this...

[photo credit: scot huber, give & take pictures]

and then we decided that the piece needed a home after the wedding too, so we mounted it in the entrance to our old apartment.

now used it for to-do lists,

love notes,

 

and important reminders.

and thus concludes round FOUR of chalkboard posts...or maybe this should be round zero since this is where it all began. enjoy, and get painting.

pour vous, le chocolat, c'est quand?

for you, when is it time for chocolate? this lovely question was painted on the wall of a chocolate factory in switzerland. here are a few other lovely sightings from such a lovely country (oh, and when in switzerland, chocolate time is DEFINITELY any time. cheese time is, too.):

[view from our chalet in beatenburg]

[this plaque was at the top of jung frau, one of the highest alps]

[tunnel through a glacier]

[luzern at night]

god made plows

disappointingly, the real nemo is no where near as cute or friendly as the little disney fish. no. the nemo i just met came with school cancellations, travel bans, massive winds, and two feet of snow. this nemo was a beast.

despite growing up with nemo-like storms most winters, i'm still a california girl at heart. i get knots in my stomach EVERY time i get into the car when there is even the slightest hint of bad weather. (rain included.) but every once in a while, i do love a good snow storm. the kind that forces everyone to head home and hunker down. the kind that wipes out the bread and milk aisles in the grocery store. the kind that gives you nothing to do but build a fire, make some soup, and just watch in awe as the heavens dump. the kind that, when it passes, brings all of the neighbors, who you haven't seen since october, out in the dead of winter to shovel and snowblow. (thanks, nemo, for introducing me to two neighbors who had thus far been strangers.)

[building a channel through the banks.]

[yes, that snow is UP TO THE ROOF of the shed.]

[view from inside.]

[opening the gate to the backyard.]

my favorite part about this storm, though, was watching god's power in action. he dumped multiple feet of snow all across the region. he blew gusts of wind powerful enough to topple trees and power lines. and then, he cleared it...

during a break in the heavy snow, josh and i walked down to the beach to see what damage nemo had done there (since it is, afterall, nemo's home turf). we sunk to our knees in the parking lot snow, and awed quietly at the deep grey sky and the crashing waves in the distance. as we trudged closer, we marveled at how little snow had stuck on the beach. how could there be feet of snow at home and only the tiniest dusting less than a mile away? god's creation has a built-in plow system. moving water + salt = instant melting action. even with heavy snow at home--not to mention the parking lot--the massive flakes hardly touched the ocean's shore. his ocean and his wind kept his beach from being affected by the storm. what an incredible design.
 

change is good.

really good. and hard, too. 2012 was a big transition year for us, and while many of those transitions are still in process, i'm finally feeling like i can come up for air [gulp]. since last year at this time, we celebrated a job change for me, kissed our first apartment good-bye and moved into a [temporary] new living situation, made the bittersweet decision to leave our church and begin searching for one closer to home, and celebrated one year of marriage.

through each of these experiences, i've been riding the wave of tension between excitement over new possibilities and remorse over losing what has been our 'norm.' there's a part of me that thrives in the midst of change and a part of me that dives into worried panic over it--especially with big changes like these. give me a room to rearrange or a closet to reorganize and i will be PUMPED about those small changes. it might even launch me into an unstoppable mission of rearranging every room and reorganizing every closet in the house. and i will love it. but give me big life changes and i will most certainly oscillate between thrill and fear. and in the end, i will be more grateful to have gone through those big changes--no matter how hard and scary and exciting they may have been--than i will be to have a fresh new spin on my room or closet.

so, i'm entering 2013 grateful for the transitions that we went through this past year, and hopeful that this new year will be one of resolution. don't worry--we toasted to it.

packing up our cozy little apartment

our new home for now

happy anniversary!