camping idaho.

We just got back from an amazing camping trip in idaho. We figured it was about time to see the sawtooths....and they were incredible. We stayed two nights...one near Stanley, Idaho and another night near Hailey/ Sun Valley Idaho. And yes, this time I did bring my DSLR camera :) It was well worth it.

The water was miraculously green and clear. I could have sworn we were in the tropics. Well, ok the water was a little cold for the equator.

This is how Colby reacts to seeing a river... notice how matt's river-savvy dogs are very nonchalant about the whole deal. Oh Colby.

Our first night we stayed on a creek that drained from the Pettit Lake... it was super warm water...maybe even 60 degrees?! We were at the distant base of the sawtooths, so we decided to throw our chairs in the middle of the creek, soak our feet, and have ourselves some nice wine in the creek.

**side note**

Did you know you can buy a good plastic-bladder-full of wine, I believe they call it boxed wine?! It was awesome for camping and throwing it in the cooler. It even tasted good! We bought Big House White. Yum. I would highly recommend it.

Emma was the first to jump out of the truck and straight into the river. She knew exactly what to do, no messing around.

Our camp spot...on the second night.

Dear old chewy gazing out into the wilderness, at what....we will never know.

happy spots...

[my favorite view in our house]

I just found a fun blog...smile and wave. I don't know much about the blog yet...but it's cute, vintage cute. Well this weekend she had a photo challenge to capture the spots in your home that just make you happy. I love it. And its funny, sometimes I do just love certain aspects of our home, but I had no idea how to bundle up these photos to enjoy... so here are my happy spots...

 [wood handle on our very loved wood burning stove]

 [jars ready to be vases, and a rock that somehow made it inside]

 [clean, beautiful dishes]

 [a cute match holder, that we don't fill]

[the old window in our bathroom, that looks out onto our back patio with welcoming adirondacks]

[the inspiration- cork board in my office...haphazardly placed splashes of color]

Go on over to smile and wave and join in!!

wedding project done!

Yep, I just now finished a wedding DIY project of mine... only a year and a half late. But it's sooo cute. And it would have really been adorable at the wedding, somewhere. Oh well. Now it's in my office! Little string o' poms! Wouldn't they be cute over a crib?!

The funny thing is I cut out all of the circles in fleece and amy butler fabric at the airport on my bachelorette weekend, assembled them on the 2 hour plane ride. And all I had to do was just string them up. Back then, it seemed like too much work to complete it. Ha. Well I suppose that was an overwhelming time of way too many DIY projects, and no one even knew it was missing except for me.Now it makes me happy just looking at in my office above my etsy-workshop-space.

 ...oh july 2011... how time does fly...

introducing my little etsy shop...

After lots of thinking and planning and more planning and lots of anticipation...I have opened up my own little etsy shop! I am super excited to have finally opened it up, what will happen to it however- I do not know.

...so now I introduce to you my etsy shop: homegrown spud...

It's a tiny shop for little baby adorables with other odds & ends. I like to make things...just little crafty things... so having this creative endeavor has been a blast so far. I have loved coming up with designs and having them come to life in my very own office. And now, putting them out there for the world to see (well that's a touch lofty...maybe just a handful of people to see)...it's a bit nerve wracking. The shop is slowly evolving and expanding, but it's an adventure!!

[the organic gray poppy onesie]

[the organic sprout onesie]

[thank you cards]

Most of these items are gifts that I have made for my friends and family that I thought others might enjoy also. I had started looking for onesies to give as gifts for pregnant friends/coworkers and I couldn't really find anything simple, organic, and natural in the stores. So I drew up some sketches of some sprouts (potentially one of my favorite little kid-esq words)...and there my ideas kept on going. I just needed to experiment sewing them onto onesies, seeing how I do love sewing. I found gerber organic onesies and they were soo soft and lush they were perfect. After lots of prototypes, I came up with my designs. I bought the fun camera to take nice photos and voila! An etsy shop was born, my very own etsy shop.

[the hand-stitched sprout onesie]

[the organic yellow rosebud onesie with matching clips]

So, take a look around...if you have any feedback I would love to hear it! I promise not to cry. I am totally honored to have all of your support here on this blog, and I am thrilled to now share this etsy world with you too...

So a little update... cycle 4 is now over for me. I am not pregnant... and I would be onto cycle #5, but quite frankly I have decided that I don't really want to "try" getting pregnant anymore. Part of me feels like I am giving up, while the the other part feels like I am gaining back my sanity. No more temperature charting or ovulation strips or counting days. It's emotionally exhausting. I know letting this go will also be difficult for me (can we say...control issues?! ha.). But I realized that even if we don't get pregnant within a year- then we technically have "fertility" issues, and I really don't want to go down that road yet. I am still in school, so is matt...so I really don't think we can claim to have issues until we are both out of school, with comfortable incomes. Those stressors are huge in our life right now, and may be playing a bigger role than I had hoped. I will be focusing on opening up my etsy shop, enjoying summer, and then putting all of my efforts into finishing up my last year of nursing school and ultimately passing the NCLEX to become an RN. How sweet is that?! I can't wait. We are both healthy, happy, and young (is 27 still young?! I think so)... so we will enjoy that right now...for I feel soo incredibly lucky to be able to have all that. And to celebrate our summer matt and i went out to sushi last night, complete with kirin and sapporo. It was delicious.Thanks mom and dad- for our anniversary gift for a night out! It was utterly decadent!

pinterest.

Oh boy... I have just started browsing pinterest. I am late on most things, so it was only right to have a delay in finding the most beautiful site. You have to be a member/be invited to be able to access this site and start pinning items. I just requested an invite about 4 months ago, and just now got around to accepting it. So if I am not here, chances are I am sucked into pinterest world. So maybe I'll see you there...

Do you have a pinterest account?! I have no idea where to start...

gender reveal parties- part II

[lovely morning's baby shower party]

Back on the gender reveal parties topic...I hate to beat a dead horse... but seriously, I saw this party over on lovely morning, and it's beautiful. It wasn't really a gender reveal party but it was a baby shower- that wasn't over the top baby-fied. Adorable. I think it could double as a gender reveal...or conceal party.

I love the chalkboards...backyard...slight mexican/kraft paper theme...ample amounts of peonies. Nicely done Kristina!

[happy 4th of july friends]

Happy 4th of July!!

[picture of boise, on top of camel's back park- courtesy of our friend-Tony]

It feels as though almost everyone in our little-o-boise is gone. It's really almost like a ghost town. I think we must be missing out on some big camping....river time...lake fun...something. But regardless, we are enjoying some time at home. Just BBQ ribs, salad, double chocolate brownies, wine, and a movie. Perfect.
We had two great sets of friends out to visit us this week... Andrea and Steve from California & Tony and Christina from Washington. It was fantastic. Some biking to the park, disc golf, frisbee, TONS of games, trivia night, farmer's market, biking around town, out to scrumptious meals, and of course great beers and wines. It was almost like having a vacation at home. Thanks for coming to stay with us! You're welcome back any time! What a great week!

our trip to colorado...

We went to colorado...and we had a wonderful time. It was full of seeing lots of family, friends (consisting of a brand new little family of three and an almost newly wed couple), and colorful colorado.

The land was vast, beautiful, and pure. It was great to just get away. The family reunion is called "Land." How great it was to be a part of this family tradition.

Some kiddos and big not-so-kid-kiddos whizzing by.

 "Golf: It's not about perfect swings and impeccable fairways, it's about being outdoors with friends talking and laughing, it's about walking with the sun above you and the land beneath your feet, it's about feeling the wind on your face and the sun on your cheek, it's about having fun and here at land it's about failing repeatedly and not caring. Welcome to Land!!"

There were new sports to me... golf... archery... and even though I had wished I was pregnant, I did still look pregnant, thanks to my billowing shirt...in every photo that day.

And here is the sweet little family of three... with a brand new babe, Townes. Matt held a babe for the very first time. It was incredible to see him learning how to be a dad, from one of his best friends. It was awesome to see our first set of friends being parents. They were so great, so natural, so confident... it was beautiful.

...wait...someone had a baby?!