Today I just wanted to jump on here and write a little bit about some of our house progress, and how I've been feeling lately.

It's been eight and a half months since we bought our house and moved into the 5th wheel, and man does it seem like it's been forever! I have gone through different stages throughout the process, where sometimes it feels like things couldn't crawl any slower, and I'm going crazy wanting to be done, and other times where I'm good and excited about the process.

I haven't been able to pin point exactly what does it to make me move from one side to the other, but I've been back and forth a few times now haha. Right now I'm back in my, "I'm going stir crazy and I can't be in this trailer another day," moods.

This time I feel like it's the looming holidays that brought it about. Decorating for fall and Christmas are some of my favorite things to do, and originally I was really hoping we would be in the house by Christmas. Well, remodels rarely go according to plan (and I knew that) so we're looking at being in maybe in February? I'm hoping!

So I sit here in my camper and get discontent because all I want is to be in my house already. I miss having a full kitchen with more than a foot of counter space. I miss having a dishwasher. Heck, I miss having my dishes! I packed most of them away, and only kept the bare essentials, because when we moved we weren't expecting it to take this long. I actually miss being able to really cook and I'm so looking forward to having a full kitchen again.

I miss having a real bathroom, and space to spread out. And a front yard that isn't half trash pile/half construction mess. It seems like we're in that stage where everything is close enough that we can see it coming together and still so far away from being done.

But, I have to remind myself that I wanted this (so badly!) and it will all be worth it. One year of not getting to decorate much for the holidays, the pink camper carpet that I can't keep clean to save my life, and all of the hard work will pay off and it will barely be a blip in the radar years from now.

And I know we're super fortunate to get to do this. I'm sure there are tons of people out there who would love to have this opportunity! Plus, being discontent isn't going to make things go any faster, so I'm going to try to suck it up and be happy in this stage, even though it's hard.

And writing this has helped. Sometimes just getting it out is a relief, and if you have any tips or tricks for being content, send them my way! Maybe I just need to get focused and work harder on the house so we'll be in it that much sooner. Plus, that's less time I'm sitting in my trailer, right? ;)

As far as house progress goes, we have actually been getting quite a bit done lately! We are currently waiting on our roof to be installed, and we're starting to get back to inside projects. Dane worked on and mostly finished our front entry (at least for now) and his dad helped us out a ton by raising the ceilings in the old part of the house!



My priming and painting kind of hit a stand still because I got the flu, and now that I'm better the rains are starting! But this weekend looks like we will get a break, so I'm hoping to keep working on it then. And this week Dane has started working on electrical and we should be installing windows soon too!

So even though it's going to be a winter in a 5th wheel, things are trucking along and I'm really so excited about the way it's coming together :)

Thanks for stopping by and listening to my boo-boos! Now I'm off to work on something productive. Happy Wednesday!

Now I just need to pick the one I'm using!

Alright, I hope you all have a fantastic rest of your day, and I'm off to work on some new cards and prints that will be in the shop soon! Thanks for stopping by!

Last Sunday I got on Facebook (which isn't something I do very often anymore) and the memory at the top of my feed was this photo of my little Lemon Bean on the first night I brought her home! I had been planning on doing a post about her at some point, and since it's been two years since I got her, it seemed like good timing :)

She is such a funny little thing, and she brings so much joy to our lives it's kind of ridiculous. I'm not one of those people who thinks of animals as being equal to a person (I know she's just a dog), but I do make plenty of fur baby jokes and she's very important to us.




I work part time, but there's been times over the past couple of years when I didn't even do that, and having her here is so great. I don't think it's good to always be by yourself, and a pet is such a good companion to have around. Lemon is playful, snuggly, funny, and she gives me something to do and focus on. She follows me everywhere, and she has such a good personality. Having had several pets over the years, it always surprises me just how different animals' personalities can be. And they're so much smarter than we give them credit for sometimes.

We used to have an aussie/heeler mix several years ago, and unfortunately he was not the breed of dog for us. I did a lot of things wrong with him, and he was just too much to handle. Dane could not stand him, and I ended up having to find him a new home. It took so much convincing for Dane to agree to get another one!


I had been begging and begging for months, and Dane finally agreed to some of my terms (small, inside dog, non-shedding) and I thought I had a breed picked out and I was going to start saving my money. I originally wanted a Havanese puppy (look them up, they are the dang cutest!!) but they are super pricey, so I was perusing Craigslist on a regular basis in case something came up that was a good deal.

Well, one afternoon, I got home from work and started browsing online. I saw an ad for some schnoodle puppies (mini schnauzer/poodle mix) that were as cute as all get out! One of my favorite bloggers/card makers Amanda from Wit & Whistle has two adorable schnoodles, so I knew they were little teddy bear dogs. I did some research on the breed, and they make for such a good pet. Plus, when we were first married, we had a mini schnauzer that was stolen from us, so we knew we liked that breed.

I called Dane and commenced to begging again, haha! It took some bargaining, but he agreed to let me go pick one out, and I was over the moon!


I knew I wanted a girl, and they had a few sable colored girls, and one black. I thought I wanted a lighter colored dog, so I was looking at the lightest of the sables and I was planning on picking her out. Well, I got there and my plans changed very quickly! The family handed the one I picked to me but then the littlest of the litter, this tiny black thing, came waddling over. I picked her up and just melted!

That was it for me. I said it within seconds, this was the one I wanted, and it was just too funny that Dane and I had already decided on the name Lemon after Liz Lemon from 30 Rock, haha! Not very fitting for a black dog, but that's what it was and I think it suits her just fine ;) Plus, I started calling her Lemon Bean almost immediately. So now she goes by Lemon, Lemon Bean, Bean, Bean-Bean, and occasionally Yemen or Melon, because apparently it's a hard word for toddlers.

She has been my little shadow for the last two years, and even Dane couldn't help but admit that she was very cute when I got her home. Now he's gotten almost as attached to her as I am, and she loves him too. She practically throws him a ticker tape parade every day when he gets home from work, and she will lay on his lap and stare at him so adoringly, it makes us laugh so hard!



She's such a friendly dog, and she loves people, other dogs, cats, you name it. And I ask Dane all the time, "Aren't you so glad you let me go and get her?" And he is :)

I also thought today that I'd share some of our favorite dog products, as well as some things I have on my wish list.

1. These treats are hands-down Lemon's favorites. She goes absolutely nuts for them, and I love them because they clean her teeth. One downside of the poodle gene is that they have notoriously bad teeth as they get older, so one way I'm trying to prevent that is by giving her these. And I feel like too much wheat is bad for anyone, so I love that they come in a grain-free option!
2. These little bouncy balls are durable, and they have a squeaker that isn't terribly easy to get to make sound, which means it's less annoying. Plus, it has a hole for putting treats and it makes a great puzzle toy she can work on for long periods of time. It usually hangs out in the car for her to have something to do while we're in town.
3. This de-tangler might be the number one must have on the list, especially for poodle mixes, or any dog that has high maintenance hair. Since Lemon is a non-shedding breed, her hair has a tendency to get knots and mats pretty easily. Rubbing a little of this over her fur before I brush her makes it so much easier, and it even gets tough matting out! I just use a little extra on those spots and voila! 
4. Now we're onto my wish list items. While a treat jar is probably a must, this one is so cute that I may have to get it once we move into the new house. How adorable would it look on a shelf?
5. Lemon has had a few different beds since we've gotten her, and I've been able to figure out what works with some trial and error. This bed has a removable cover that will make washing easier than her current bed. Plus, it's super affordable and available on Prime!
6. Lastly is this squeaky pig. Lemon had a little squeaky pig toy when we first brought her home, and she loved it so much! So when I come across squeaky pigs, I gotta have them! This one has the highest durability rating for this brand, and I actually got her a smaller one that was rated a few steps down. Normally she will destroy a stuffed toy in 10 minutes, but that one lasted a couple of weeks. Since this one seems so much tougher, I think she's going to be getting it for Christmas :) (yes, my dog gets Christmas presents, haha!)

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Happy first day of fall!

It's been perfectly fall-ish here this week, with some rain and cool weather, and today it's sunny and cool and a Friday, so win-win-win if you ask me :)

I'm hoping some good progress can be made this weekend on the house. Dane will be working on our front entry and my job for the weekend will be stripping the interior doors for the house. They are vintage five-panel doors from the early 1900s and luckily they only seem to have one layer of paint on them! But in the interest of having a better finished product, I'm going to strip them down and re-paint them.

I'm looking forward to enjoying some more outside time this weekend and soaking in the perfect weather. And maybe finalizing my exterior paint color as well! Now, onto that neat stuff I came across this week.

NEAT STUFF

Yesterday we celebrated our ninth wedding anniversary!

In July we hit our decade mark of being together, and it seems like so long ago, and also like it was just yesterday. That's a long time to get to know somebody!

I'd like to think we've learned a thing or two over nine years, but I don't think I'm one to give marriage advice. We've had our ups and downs, good times and bad, like any marriage. And nine years is enough time to get comfortable and know each other pretty well, but even after all this time, I think we're still learning some things. As your life changes, so do you, and still, on occasion, we learn things about the other one that we didn't know.

Overall though, we know each other's likes and dislikes and I always joke that we are two peas in a pod! We have a tendency to say the same things and read the other's thoughts all the time, and we always get a good laugh out of it when we do.

And that's probably what I'd say my favorite thing is about us, the laughing. We are both kind of dorky, and we love to make each other laugh. We have the same sense of humor, and we enjoy being silly. I would say laughing is the best way we get over arguments. It's hard to stay mad when you're laughing together, haha!

Alright, that's probably enough mushy-gushy about us, and I wanted to share how we celebrated this year! I had a hard time coming up with something fun to do that was a little out of the ordinary. We wanted to go out, but we've tried most of the restaurants in our town, and even though we love to go to our favorite places, I wanted something a little different.

I was up the night before, wracking my brain, and since southern Oregon has some cool hidden spots, I decided to get on google maps and see if anything came up. We both enjoy being outdoors, and the weather this week has been perfectly fall, so it seemed like something would work out! I was scanning around our area and the name Mckee popped out at me.



I looked it up, and it turned out to be the Mckee covered bridge over Applegate River. It's no longer in use for driving, but it's a pedestrian bridge with a day use park next to it. Apparently in the summer, it's a great swimming spot, but I figured (correctly) that 57 degrees and a chance of showers would give us the whole place to ourselves. So, after work, I had Dane pick up pizza and meet me and I drove us out there. He didn't know where we were going until we arrived, and I lucked out and he'd never been there before either ;)


So we had ourselves a romantic little pizza picnic, and checked out the old bridge. There was also a covered gazebo that had a neat vintage piano (that worked!) but I didn't get a picture before it got dark. It was so nice, and we both agreed that we enjoyed it more than if we'd just gone to a nice restaurant. And the setting was so neat, I think we'll definitely be back.

Now, in the interest of transparency, here's some blog/instagram vs. reality for ya! ;)

Here's what I had pictured in my head:


And here's what it actually looked like, haha!!


Still nice, but definitely less pretty!

If you live in the southern Oregon area, I definitely recommend checking this place out, and if not, maybe check and see if there are any cool historical places in your own area!

Happy Thursday, and happy fall eve! Thanks for stopping by :)
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NEAT STUFF

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Well, it's been a few Fridays, but I'm back again with some neat stuff!

I also kept intending to share a house update with you all the last couple of weeks, but life's been busy! If you follow me on instagram you've probably been seeing my updates there, but the house looks so different from the last time I shared anything here on the blog.

Next week for sure I will have an update post for you all, and maybe a video too ;)

Neat Stuff

1. I'm so ready for fall, it's not even funny. I've been wearing this perfect nail polish from the photo above, and it might be my favorite ever!
2. Here's a super pretty screen saver/September calendar from Place of My Taste that is perfect for fall. It's available for your desktop or phone!
3. This crazy huge fire is only about 30 miles away from us in the neighboring county. It's taken out some homes already, and it's creating a massive amount of smoke for southern Oregon and northern California. Just another reason for fall to come soon, for the rain!
4. Simply Grove shared this beautiful bedroom refresh on her blog and I just love how it turned out. So pretty!
5. Lastly, what a great way to mix summer and fall than with a no-churn apple pie ice cream recipe? Check it out over on Boxwood Ave :)

And that's all the neat stuff for this week. Have a safe and happy labor day weekend, and thanks for stopping by!

I posted some of these pictures on Instagram when I finished it, so if you follow me there you've probably already seen them.

This was such a fun project, and definitely the most challenging knitting I've taken on so far. It was a free pattern from Home D-zine that I modified a little bit, and while it took a year all together, I would only work on it for a couple weeks before leaving it untouched for a several months. If I had really buckled down I could have completed it a lot sooner, but I was a bit busy with a remodel and all.

I have to say that the hardest part (besides getting the repetition down) was learning to decode parts of the pattern. I haven't really tried to follow very many patterns to be honest, and there were some abbreviations for things that I had no clue how to do!

It took quite a bit of sleuthing to find out, but once I got that done it wasn't too bad. I noticed now though, the pattern explains a little better how to do the things I was confused about. Either it's been updated since I started this project, or I was blind as a bat!

I would recommend anyone try this, because once you get the basics down it's all about repeating pattern. If you can do basic knitting, I think you could knit this blanket. And it will really make you think about all of those cheap knitted throws you can buy in stores. It cost me around $80 in yarn (I think?) and that doesn't even include my time. Don't try this if you're trying to make a cheap diy, yarn is expensive! (Also, this blanket is huge, much bigger than a throw. It covers our bed, which is a queen.)


If you do decide to try it, I should mention that I changed one thing from the pattern. It has you knitting the blanket into three panels and then using yarn to sew them together. I didn't trust myself to knit them all so evenly that they would line up perfectly, so I knitted them all across at the same time. I just bought an extra long set of round needles and it all fit.

I'm so happy that I tried this, and that I was able to complete it! It feels nice to make something this big, and hopefully it will last me the rest of my life. Now I just need to figure out what my next major knitting project will be.

Maybe a beanie, because I haven't made one of those yet, and you can never have too many beanies ;)

Have you ever tried knitting? Do you think you would ever try something as ambitious as cabled blanket? Let me know!

Thanks for stopping by :)

P.S.- If any of you are feeling brave and want to take this on, feel free to ask me any questions that I didn't address here. Hopefully I can be of some help!

Is it just me, or does it seem like November has just flown by??

It seems like Christmas is around the corner, but it's nice to take a minute and think about all of the things I'm thankful for as we come up to this holiday weekend.

I'm thankful for my sweet, caring husband, a roof over our heads, family (and vehicles to take us to visit!), friends, and that most of those close to us have good health and happiness! I know that we are very, very blessed.

And thank you to each and every one of you who take the time to read my little ol' blog and support my little business. I really and truly appreciate it!

I hope you all have a very wonderful Thanksgiving, and a great weekend to follow! Eat tons of food, take long naps, and have a safe and happy time shopping too, if that's what you end up doing :)

We will be spending time with all of our family this weekend, and so I won't be around too much. If you want to, you can catch me over on Instagram for the next week. There's a pretty big chance I'll be sharing some sweet deals for stuff in the shop ;)

And don't forget, if you want to order anything, use the code THANKFUL15 from Friday through Monday to get free shipping on everything in the shop.

Again, I hope everyone has a great weekend, and thanks for stopping by!

You guys! This is a very exciting week :) (even though I've been down with a nasty cold!)

So, I realized today that I haven't shared some exciting news that happened a few weeks ago...


Meet little Lemon, the newest little member of the family!

She's a miniature schnoodle, and as sweet as can be. I have been on the look out for a puppy for a while now, and she was a bit of an early Christmas present for me! When I went to look at her litter, I had a different puppy picked out, but when I saw her, my heart literally just melted!


She has been such a fun little addition to the family, and she pretty much steals the heart of everyone she meets!


I named her Lemon, after Liz Lemon from 30 Rock, but mostly I call her Little Lemon, Baby Lemon, Little Bean, or Little Lemon Bean. She seems to tolerate the ridiculous nick-names pretty well I think ;)

Another exciting thing around here lately is that the shop getting a huge boost! I registered my business name with the state, got a P.O. box, got accepted to sell at a very cool local Christmas market (more on that later) and I have a ton of new products that will be launching in the near future! :) :) :)

I will have Christmas cards, updated versions of some of my old favorite greeting cards, and some brand new products that I can't wait to share with you all! Christmas cards should be up by the end of the month, with the rest to follow soon!


Here's some of the other things my afternoons (and mornings, and evenings) have consisted of.

Reading- Lots of articles on puppy care tips and grooming tips! I don't think I've ever done so much research on an animal before!

Drinking- Coffee, coffee, coffee. But also, I've been doing better with drinking water :) I also had my first peppermint mocha of the season! I'm definitely more of a peppermint mocha kinda girl, than a psl one ;)

Listening- To the Ultimate Christmas Playlist on Spotify! It really helps get the juices flowing for Christmas card designs!

Loving- Cinnamon-Vanilla popcorn, my own recipe! Also, this China Glaze nail polish in Ravishing Darling that I bought at Sally Beauty Supply, and this perfect fall sweater from Maurices!