Re-purposed

I have enjoyed this little vignette all fall and winter. I hate to take it down, so I thought I'd immortalize it here.

I originally assembled it for our anniversary dinner (pictured above). And then re-purposed it for Thanksgiving dinner. And re-purposed it again for Christmas (with santa figures and mini pinecones).

It's been quiet lovely and versatile. I need to find something as fun and flexible for the spring/summer.

In case you're interested, the birch cylinders are from Small Stump. (Sorry to say, they've gotten more popular and pricey than when I found them.) The olive dish was from Pottery Barn, but I don't see it on their website. Everything else was thrifted or found.

Run With It

While on my run last night, this song came up on my ipod shuffle, so I had to add a few twirls and fancy steps into my run (see video).

Moral of the story-- I am bored out of my mind on my runs these days! I'm looking forward to running with my sister-in-law April this weekend.

New Year 2010

Three more posts and I'll be caught up!

We had a fantastic New Year at the cabin with my family. I should really take more vacations with nothing scheduled to do or see!

Kelly and I drove up a day early and stayed overnight in Manti. (Sorry, no pictures of this part-- the camera was burried in the car and it was cold outside!) We enjoyed a session at the Manti temple and the opportunity to see amazing pioneer craftmanship and appreciate the ship/roof that was described in this talk.

The next morning we had a REAL small-town breakfast at the Satisfied Ewe Cafe in Ephriam. Seriously. The owner was a true, salt of the earth, Utah rancher. After chatting it up with the locals in the booth across the room, he came over to take our order with his pencil and notepad in hand and just looked at Kelly. No sense wasting words! (By the way, breakfast was delicious.)

At the cabin we are voluntarily snowed in. We have to snowmobile the last 2-3 miles from the main road. The boys spend the whole trip on snowmobile (mis)adventures and the girls spend the whole trip cooking. That's not a stereotype; that's just the way we like it! I always go out for one good ride, but I really prefer the fire and something to read.

This is your typical afternoon at the cabin. Bryan and Craig have recruited folks to play a game. Dad is coming upstairs from checking on pumps or the generator in the basement and Nathan is playing the Wii. (Notice the New Years party decorations in the background.)

Suzzie was our fire queen. The kids were quick to call her everytime they noticed that the fire as no longer blazing.

Kylee and Caleb helping make popcorn.

The boys loading up to head home.

A few highlights of the cabin weekend:

-Arriving to a warm cabin since another family had just left that morning

-Trying out the solar panels

-Running out of solar power since the panels were covered with snow! (We were back in the early days when our cabin only had a few propane lights.)

- My brothers and their board games

- New Years decorations created by Madelyn, Kylee and Caleb (with help from Grandma)

- Cafe Rio salads for dinner

- Entertainment from Enzo and Paublo (the dogs)

- Peterson caramel popcorn

- Sharing plans for 2010

What Type are You?

Typophile? Even if you aren't, this is a delightful quiz to take: What Type are You? (The password is "character")

I am Marina Script.

I am also going back to hear the 'type' descriptions for other typefaces. Very clever.

Swoon

I have a hopeless love affair with coats. Sometimes they are so beautiful I can hardly stand it!

These are my latest coat crushes, both from Boden.

(first seen here)

Christmas II

On Christmas afternoon, we loaded up and drove up to Washington to meet the rest of the family at Amber (Kelly's sister) and Rob's. It was great to be all together and enjoy the chance to visit.

That evening we exchanged gifts between the families. Kelly and I had Amber and Rob, which was significant this year because Rob is being deployed to Afganistan on January 23. I really struggled to figure out what we could give them that they would enjoy, but would also be meaningful to the family while he is away.

At Mom Peterson's suggestion, I finally decided to make a countdown to Rob's homecoming. I enjoyed designing the calendar and especially the chance to do something (however small) to let them know we are thinking of them.

Here's how it turned out--

A special thanks to April who helped me figure out what to put at the top. (We were limited by only 1 of each letter of the alphabet!)

After a lot of great food and visiting, we drove back down to Eugene on Saturday night. Our flight home wasn't until early Sunday evening, so we enjoyed a quiet day at Mom and Dad's. I especially enjoyed attending church and running stake errands with Kelly's Dad. We would walk down the hall 5-10 feet at a time, stopping to talk with almost everyone! It's easy to see that Kelly's parents are genuinely interested in everyone and loved by everyone in return. Their love for and focus on their family was also evident as so many of the people we met knew Kelly by name and that we are living in Las Vegas (even though he didn't grow-up in Eugene).

I am certainly grateful for the wonderful family I married into and for the blessing of being all together at Christmas.

Catching Up from Christmas

We had a wonderful and busy Christmas season this year. I am making this my week to catch-up and document events from the end of 2009.

We spent the first few days of the Christmas break in Eugene, OR at Mom and Dad Peterson's house with Scott (Kelly's brother) and Tessa, April (Kelly's sister) and Mitch and Zander (the only grandchild between the three of us).

I'm not sure what Kelly did on Christmas Eve, but I enjoyed 'girl time' with April, Tessa and Mom finishing presents, making a last-minute trip to Michaels, wrapping gifts and helping with Christmas Eve dinner (the Peterson family tradition).

On Christmas morning, Zander was the man of the hour and didn't know what to do with the attention of 6 aunts and uncles and grandma and grandpa all at the same time! He didn't even notice his little tent filled with presents, but was more than happy to dive in to check it out once April pointed it out.

Kelly and I should have discussed the specifics of the "small" Christmas we planned to ensure we were on the same page! His small Christmas included:
- slippers, a fun book, a church book, a fully supplied/decorated guest bathroom (this was more of a gesture than a gift because he had requested that I get around to it several times) and fancy swiss hot chocolate and english toffee.

My "small" Christmas included:
- a creme brulee torch, a cute corduroy jacket, two layering tank tops, a necklace with matching earings and a garmin. Wow!

Maybe we'll just call the new mountain bike he wants to get part of Christmas!

Part II of the holiday posts to follow soon.