The Oregonian Life

On Monday, July 29 we bid farewell to Mark's house in Boise and drove the last leg of the trip to Wilsonville, Oregon (about 20 miles south of Portland). The drive took about eight hours. Surprisingly, eastern Oregon was just like the plains of Wyoming- dry with not much to look at. However once we got to the Columbia River it was beautiful to look down and see Washington state across the water.

My dad ended up driving the whole way and I was so grateful to have him there. Nayeli hates her carseat, is difficult to entertain with movies, and was a little rattled from the move so it was great to get to give her one on one attention.

We pulled into our apartment complex at 3pm, waited for Ben to arrive with the truck, checked into our apartment, then began moving things in.

 Somewhere during the time we were moving in Nayeli face planted off a curb. 

She carried the scabs for a couple days after. It was a rough few days adjusting.

We had already notified the Elder's Quorum of our future ward that we were coming so we crossed our fingers that people would shop up. They did, and even Ben's boss came down to help move boxes. Everything was unpacked within an hour.

I have to mention that I had a huge shock when we first entered the apartment. Everything was nice and in good condition but it was soooooo much smaller than I had anticipated (I'll need to remember that photos online make everything look bigger). The square footage was listed as 881 and for the first time I realized that that actually isn't very big. When I walked into our bedroom I almost cried because I was sure our king sized bed wasn't going to fit.

Luckily, it did fit, and while unpacking I've been purging like crazy. With a kitchen with only 2.5 drawers and a bathroom with none I've had to. I've given a few boxes to Goodwill and it's felt great. I've also invested in about $100 worth of tupperwares, storage containers, and shelves. I've used these as makeshift drawers. In all honesty, I think our house is more organized here than it was in Provo.

And now that everything is unpacked it feels good. It's working. We can't live here forever, but it's a great apartment and we got a great price on it. 

For those who are interested, here's a little tour. Keep in mind that there's still work to be done:

Our front door and entry. On the right is the partition for our porch.

The view from the sliding door. I'm in love with having a porch. We sit out here frequently and Nayeli loves to bring her toys out. It's blocked off on all sides so I don't have to worry about her wandering off.  On the left is a good-sized storage closet that I didn't get a picture of. 

We keep Ben's bike and our camping stuff in there. 

 The dining area. Check out our retro mirrored shelves and gold chandelier. 

If I owned this apartment, the mirrored shelf would be the first thing I would tear out. Then I would spray paint the chandelier silver. Oh well (sigh). There are worse things in life :)

Wood burning fireplace and mantel

The Living Room needs the most work. I'm going to recover a few of my pillows and I still have to figure out what to hang above the couch. I have some ideas but it's a huge wall to deal with.

I'm so glad I sold our entertainment center before we came. There's no way it would have fit (don't mind Ben taking his Sunday nap).

The kitchen is really really small. But it works and I'm grateful to have it. Some things are on display only because there is no room in the cupboards for them (note the platter and pitchers on top of the cabinets).

Another view of the kitchen. It didn't come with a microwave so we had to buy one. Then the problem was that we had no where to put it. So it's home has become the bar. I'm going to make a bulletin board to cover up the back that can be seen in the living room.

Our drawer-less bathroom. On the bright side, we are LOVING having two sinks. Major plus.

Laundry / storage area. We brought the shelf on the left from Provo and it fit perfectly. I keep extra food on the bottom and miscellaneous supplies on top.

Our bedroom with a small walk in closet. We were able to get a dresser to fit along the wall on the left and a bookcase at the end of the bed. It's the tightest room by far but it works.

The nursery / den. I got the desk by the window at my first garage sale here for $10. 

It's in great shape and fit perfectly. A complete tender mercy.

It's a total modge-podge of decor and furniture because anything that doesn't work in other places in the house goes in here. So ignore the color scheme :) It's functional until one day when I can separate the den and nursery.

Well, there you have it. The grand tour. I know I talked a lot about how small the apartment is but there are so many reasons that I'm glad we moved here. But I'll have to cover those in another post. I'll just end by saying it's worth living in a smaller apartment to live in a fantastic neighborhood.

Thanksgiving 2012

Thanksgiving this year was short-lived but sweet. Short-lived because Ben had to work 10 hours on Wednesday and Friday, but sweet because of the family we got to be with. We ate with my family on Wednesday night then spent Thursday with the Petersen's. 

If you've never seen the way my mom decorates for Thanksgiving, it should go on your bucket list. It's always phenomenal. Behold:

The kids table

The dessert table

The appetizer table

The drink table

The adult table

Each place setting had its own turkey name-tag, charger and fabric napkin

The older kids table- she decorated all the way up to the chandelier

My wonderful parents with Nayeli. Isn't she just the cutest?

Thursday was also wonderful. We left early to drive to Ben's mom's house, spent the day eating, playing ping-pong and Settlers of Catan, then drove to Ogden to be with his Dad and grandparent's. It was an exhausting and wonderful day. The holidays always are, but they're always worth it.

Mission Pennant Banner: Complete

Last night I was up until 2:30am finishing the most fun craft project I've ever done. I finished a pennant banner for the nursery and had the greatest time. Here's my own mini-tutorial, although I can't claim to be the expert. Most of my inspiration came from this site. I just added a few ideas from other tutorials I saw.

First I bought adorable fabric at a local quilting store. I got 4 different patterns. Each was $10 a yard, so I just got a 1/4 yard each. That made it affordable.

I then cut a triangle cardboard pattern 7 inches wide and 9 inches long. That made cutting the triangles fast and easy- I could even cut them side by side to minimize waste. To cut I used a mat and my rotary blade.


I wanted my banner to be double sided so I pinned two pieces of each fabric together. As you can see I went with the brown, green, pink scheme again.


I then sewed a 1/2 inch from the edge down each side of the triangle.


I wanted to add a little extra to the edges so I got pinking shears and pinked the edges of the flags. This was the hardest part since my shears weren't super sharp and on some of the flags I had to cut the two pieces of fabric separate.


I then placed my triangles in order and pinned them into the bias tape. I used the Extra Wide Double Fold Bias Tape (in brown) like the above tutorial recommended.


I then sewed the flags to the bias tape.


And... voila!


This is view when you walk in the door. It was Ben's idea to hang the banner from one wall to another like that. I love it.


There you have it! So much fun, and surprisingly simple. Mission pennant banner: complete.

More Nesting: The Crib

Okay, I know a crib isn't really interesting enough to do a whole blog post about, but I wanted to show the progress we've made in getting ready for the baby. Last week we finally got rid of some things in the den, rearranged the furniture, and made room for the new crib.

Ben and the unveiling of the new crib. It was a generous gift from his
grandmother. She let me pick it out at Babies 'R' Us
so I got just what I wanted. Thanks Nyla!


I helped a bit but Ben did most of the work.
He loved stepping into the "dad" role- especially since it involved tools.


Ta-da! All assembled and next to the changing table. I'm still working on the
wall decor- I have some great ideas and am so excited to get them hung up.
I'll be sure to post once the projects are done.

night shift + pregnancy = 3:30 am blogging

It's 3:30 am and here I sit on the couch blogging. After working from 5pm to 5am yesterday I was so excited to fall asleep at a normal hour (11pm) tonight with Ben. However my excitement was short-lived as my internal clock (aka my bladder) woke me up at 1am. Oh the joys of night shift and pregnancy.

But what a great opportunity to surf the internet! And think about decorating the nursery! And blog about all of it! Unnecessary confession: I've spent the last two hours on my computer looking at fun ideas and projects and I'm still not tired at all. In fact, I can't wait to get started.

Here's where my internet surfing has taken me tonight:

- Pennant banners. I'm excited to do one over the crib or changing table. I love the tutorial at this site but etsy also has some great ideas.


-Stuffed elephants. Don't ask me why they call to me, but I think they make the cutest decor. I found these ones on Etsy.com, and although they're adorable, I just can't justify spending $45 on one. I'm content just looking for now.


- Baby pictures of Ben and me. This isn't internet surfing (we're not that famous yet), but I've been perusing my computer of pictures of Ben and I as babies to hang in the nursery.

I like these ones...








but this one has always been my favorite of Ben.
I'll be forever grateful if the baby gets his eyes.

That about sums up the last 2 (now 3) hours of my life. Now to get some sleep. After such fun internet surfing, I'm hoping to dream of colorful pennant banners and stuffed elephants. I can wish, can't I?

October Happenings

Here's a little update on some fun things we've been doing this October:

Ben's Mission Reunion

(L to R: Ben, Me, Landon Larkin, Jessica and Nate Shepard, Tim Wood,
Trevor Atkinson and Ryker. Not pictured: Brian)

On Saturday the 15th Ben invited a bunch of his mission friends over to our apartment for a get together. It was really fun to see many of the people so dear to him and also to get to meet Tim, a member from his mission who was visiting from Texas. We chatted until late and I got to hear some great stories from Ben's mission. He served with some great people and I loved having them come to our home.

Gardner Village

Halloween wouldn't be Halloween without a visit to Gardner Village. It is so fun to see the shops and how they decorate it. My sisters and I have the tradition to go every year.

Just a few beautiful things from the shops (and things I'll only be able to afford when we earn our first million)...

This chair, priced at $929 dollars, stole my heart. The fabric can be purchased for only $179 dollars a yard. What a great sewing project right? For that price I think I'd rather just buy the chair and forget the sewing.






And this amazing rug...












And of course, my beautiful sisters and mom:

Someone made a comment about my pregnant belly

My Secret Obsession: Bedding

This will be the third time I've shown a picture of my bedding on this blog so it must be evident I have a small obsession. That and a huge tupperware in my closet full of extra sheets and bedspreads for every season and color scheme: creme, red, blue, brown, white, spring, summer, winter, twin, king size... you can never have enough!

Having a mother who decorated three homes with six or seven bedrooms in each gave me the bug. When I went home once this summer, I saw two beautiful pillow shams she was going to give away. I had to have them. I brought them home to a puzzled husband asking, "Since when do we need more bedding?" and more importantly, "What's a sham?" After realizing that the shams would only match with my winter bedding, I put them in the tupperware and waited patiently for the first snow. This year I was rewarded early.

However since then it seems to have gotten warm again and Ben and I wake up each morning sweating under the feather comforter. But it's so worth it! The bedding is so beautiful! At least that's what I keep telling Ben and myself, mostly to avoid having to switch back to the summer bedding. We'll see who breaks first: me or the warm weather.

Redecorating

Soon after getting back from DC I did a little redecorating in the house, and now I'm finally getting around to blogging about it.

The winter bedding was this:


But the down-comforter was way too hot so I got something a little more light and springy:



I also finally hung up the tin squares that I got in the Eastern Market in DC:


My mom came over and helped me put them over the entertainment center, although one day I'd like to hang them in a row on a long wall. I think they'd look better that way.