Washington Day 3

This is our first night in the Olympic National Forest. There is no road that goes through the forest, so we planned to camp around the entire peninsula. We stopped in Port Angeles to get our feet wet in the Sound.



We skipped Hurricane Ridge. We heard that they had a bear problem out there. So, our first night is in Sol Duc. Sol Duc is known of its hot springs. We couldn't visit the hot springs because the National Forest Service has a very strict policy about dogs. We got a great camp spot along a little creek.



Ah... Now this looks like what I pictured the Olympic Pennisula would look like:



The place was very beautiful. Jena was allowed on the trails that ran between the campgrounds and the hot springs resort.





Jena loves the hiking, but what she loves even more... swimming!!!





She's just daring someone to take the stick from her, haha!



That's it for today... stay tuned for tomorrow!

Washington - day1 & day2

Here is the start of out trip recap... like I said, Jim and Jena left over a week before me. They camped up 395 into Oregon and Washington. Jim found an RV park not too far from SEATAC (Seattle-Tacoma airport). Chris took me to John Wayne after I got off work on Friday, and Jim picked me up on Friday night. He drove me back to the RV park where he had already setup camp. The following morning was bright, warm and sunny.



An RV Park is a large parking lot with RV and trailers all pulled in side by side. This is a very pretty park, even with a lake... hence the name Pleasant Lake, in Bothell, WA.



The following morning we met my long time online friend, BethieJ, and her lovely family. They found us a great little restaurant, Jantee Bistro and Bottle, with an outside patio so Jena could sit out with us. The food the great, as was the company :oD

After breakfast, we set out for Whidbey Island. I don't have any pictures of our first day on Whidbey Island... :o(
Anyway after that we headed for the Coupville-Port Townsend (Beth's son helped us make reservations on his smart phone).



Jena wasn't so sure about the Ferry. She preferred to stay in the car...
Tomorrow I''ll start sharing photos of the Olympic Penninsula!

But for today... Cheryl is going stir crazy, so look what we got into:



The rest might have to wait until next weekend... it's back to work tomorrow!

Long time no blog...

I just got back from a week long vacation. Jim and Jena left a few weeks ago pulling the trailer up the coast. I flew to Seattle last week and he picked me up at SEATAC. We spent the week touring the Olympic National Park. It was wonderful! I'll post some pics of our trip in a while.

Look what Cheryl got into when we were away:



She also has a small cut on the bridge of her nose where she got hit by another surfboard. The cut isn't bad it was more of a result of the impact. She has a little bruising below her eyes, but it's very slight. She wouldn't let me take a picture.

So Cheryl is fine... watch for trip pictures coming soon!!!

Bulldog 25K

Cheryl ran her first 25K race this weekend! We headed out to Malibu Creek State Park at 4am, to meet the Run with Soul team doing the 50K. I hope the sun rises before race start!

We found the rest of the team! I LOVE our team shirts!!!

The 50K-ers are gone... time to get suited up for the 25K!

Heading for the starting line:

I started the race with Cheryl as her pacer ;oD What a beautiful place to run! I ran 3 miles in with her (up until the base of Bulldog hill)

Then I ran back to the car, hung out for about and hour, and started on the trail backwards.. looking for Cheryl. There she is!!! The RWS shirt makes her easy to spot, haha!

I found her about 2 miles in. She offloaded her vest and water bottle on me and we set off for the finish line...

Congrats to Cheryl on her first 25K! 3:09!

August Card Kit Reveal

Welcome to the Club Mojo August card kit reveal! We have 10 ladies in the club this year!!! These are all wonderful ladies who I've had the good fortune to meet at Scrappin' Mojo.

It's time for our Club reveal, and this month's card kit was put together by Mary!

This month I used the card kit for a little collage for the Art of Wild Abandonment class. The instructor's collage had her laundry flying away... that's not my style. I don't let my laundry fly away, I CONQUER it!



My second project is a gift bag. Beth turned us on to these super embellished bags. I decided to try it and decided that it's not my style.



That's it for me! I can't believe that summer is over already!
Have a great week, all!

Adventures in Decorating - week 10

Jim has been painting for the last couple of weeks, and we are having issues with colors. We finally figured out that the paint samples that we got from the store are not the same colors as the actual paint. As a result, we have an aqua color that's brighter than I thought it would be, and a tan that's yellower than I thought it would be.

Jim and I made an appointment with the paint designer at Dunn-Edwards on Thursday. We decided to keep the aqua. I think it won't be so bad once we get some pics up on the walls. The tan has got to go. It is waaay off from the color we thought it should be. Dunn-Edwards gave us store credit for the tan, and we picked out a new color... but Jim is still going to have to repaint the living room.

On Friday, he repainted the window wall because the window treatments were being installed on Saturday. Here is the kitchen before and after:

BEFORE:


AFTER:


I've wanted grass shades in the kitchen since we had the kitchen redone almost 4 years ago. I think it's looks FABULOUS!

I'm going to wait until the curtains come before sharing pics of the living room. We actually thought that the shades and curtains were being installed, but alas it was only the shades. This is exciting though, because it's our first Ethan Allen purchase to arrive in our home!

After Jim finishes painting this week, he's going to arrange for the dining room table and chairs to be delivered! ... Maybe by this weekend!!!

Camping - Heart Bar, Barton Flats

We got a slow start Saturday to Barton Flats for an overnight campout. We got there at 9:30am... way too early, since we couldn't checkin until 2pm.

We drove around looking at the Yellow Posts in the area. Yellow Post is a FREE first-come-first-served campsite.



We pulled into Yellow Post #18 for lunch.



What's for lunch?



Cheeto sandwiches, lol (uh, oh... who forgot the ham?)



Here we are finally in our campsite:



Just relaxin'





Happy Campers :oD



A preview of the Super Moon:



Jena wants to play!





It was a fast weekend, but nice and relaxing:



I hope you all had a great weekend!

Adventures in Decorating - week 8

Jim and I went camping this weekend. The only decorating thing that went on is that Jim's mom's painting came back from framing...

Here is the before shot:



And here is the after:



The goal here was to make the painting larger by adding a wider frame and mat. Also, to update the frame to give it a more contemporary look. I think we accomplished both!

We also added UV glass to keep the painting from fading and to keep it clean from dust build up.
I think it looks GREAT!

Adventures in Decorating - week 7.5

There is paint going up on the walls this week. So far, Jim has the large accent wall painted. It's a whole lot BRIGHTER!

Here is our dusty blue from before:



And here is the color we have now (from a slightly different angle):



I'll post some more before and after photos when it's done. I like it so far :oD

Adventures in Decorating - week 7

Nothing went on during the week in the decorating department. Jim was gone camping, and it felt good to take a bit of a break. This past weekend Jim took the rail down. I've wanted this down for a long time!





I'm surprised how open the living room feels now! With the rail down, Jim is ready to paint!

Oh, and speaking of paint: My family thinks that I'm so crazy for find this interesting...



Can you see that the post has two colors of paint added to it? A darker one on the bottom called "Thatched Roof" and a lighter one on the top called "Antique Lace"? The "Antique Lace" is very hard to see on the wall because it's so close to the current wall color. Notice the hall wall that's about 4 feet back from the post... what color does that swatch of paint look like? If you said the darker "Thatched Roof," you would be wrong. The color on the hall wall is the lighter "Antique Lace"! The "Thatched Roof" color in the hall is way too dark. So our walls will be two colors of Beige.

That's all for now! I'll post pics when the walls are painted :oD

August 3rd, 2014

Happy Anniversary to the man I married 29 years ago!