Summer reading

 I pretty much love the library more than I think it is right to love a government building. I know many of you (Gina, Mom B.) will agree. I love that I can pick up books that I would never buy and browse through them at my leisure and I love that I can request books and have them delievered within a mile of my house. If the library system could get together with Amazon and just send books to my house, that would be the best. But then they would probably charge me for that service and I wouldn't like that. In fact, we would probably drop them as quick as we dropped Netflix when they raised their prices. After all, the library has movies for free too. =)

Sitting on our coffee table ...

That's pretty much sums what I've been thinking about recently: re-doing furniture, creativity, yummy Thai food (ahem, Christopher <3), budgeting, and organization.

I've also been reading Storm of Swords, the third book in George R. R. Martin's series "Song of Ice and Fire." It's only about 1,000 pages long and I have been getting it from the library, reading it for 21 days, writing down which chapter I am on and then returning it since there are other holds on it in the library system. After doing that twice, I bought it on Amazon. So Amazon will be sending that book to my house. =)

Back to the library system ... the Milwaukee library lets me (and everyone else) request 15 books at a time and the library website is not blocked at work. So this past weekend during some slow time at work I requested my 15 books and stored some away in the handy on-line list on my library page.

So I have some books on decorating, frugality, sustainable living and baking bread coming my way. I am also excited to read Kisses from Kate and something by Madeleine L'Engle this summer too.

And I'm wondering, since apparently my list isn't long enough, are you reading anything good this summer?

A nice start to summer

Our dear friends got married over Memorial Day weekend on the groom's parent's farm in Indiana. We road tripped it out to Warsaw, camped on their front lawn, ate food that they grew just for us and witnessed our friends say their marriage vows. There were lots of friends from Marquette there; we chatted by the fire, played lawn games and worshiped together. And when the conversation got too theology-heavy, my friend (a non-theology wife) and I ditched the theology shop talk to play bean bag toss.

My favorite part of the weekend was when we attempted to light wish lanterns. It windy and one of our friends name the lanterns "flaming orbs of death" as they caught fire and tumbled through the field towards whoever and whatever was in it's path. After our first failed attempt, Christopher and I deliberately and carefully lite our lantern under the protection of a big tree and watched it sail into the sky.

Our friend, Anne, wrote about it on her blog here.
You know when she says "two of my favorite people"?
She's talking about us.
I'm just saying.
(The feeling is mutual.)

I had many DTR's at this wedding ... conversations that basically boiled down to "You are important to me and I want to invest in our relationship."

From the fireworks as our friends danced their first dance to the family dog that delivered a dead rabbit during breakfast the morning after the wedding, the whole weekend was perfect. 

We also made a neat gift for our friends. We wanted a project that we could both work on and we were both really happy with the result. Our niece even helped when she was visiting in May. I am really happy of how it turned out and the the groom said it was one of his favorite wedding gifts.
I'm just saying.

Inspired by pinterest

We have enjoyed the warm weather, hot walks with Loki, watching our little plants grow on the patio and occasionally enjoying raspberry lemonade outside.
Of course my husband would make homemade raspberry lemonade; he's just that great!
I'm just saying.

Loki's summer haircut -- suuuppper cute!!

Rabbit trails

At first I named this post: "housing, furniture and craigslist" but really, it's about rabbit trails. In other words, if you are really busy right now, this may not be worth your time to read.

Christopher and I have been looking at several housing options; our lease is up in August and we want to move closer to Marquette. We've looked at a few older duplexes and I've found myself inspired by crown molding, high ceilings and tall windows. We haven't quite settled on a place but we hope to soon. I am super excited because we will be moving closer to all of our friends and we want to be much more intentional about these relationships. I am finally getting the sense that we have a strong community and it makes me really happy.

Anyway, so in our search, I have been inspired and have begun to look for some vintage furniture. It's not very realistic that I'd actually buy anything considering the last piece of furniture that I bought and was not given to me was a cute little chair that I bought in ... hmmm ... maybe 2007. It's been a long time.

But I've been looking at this:

from Trash Can Annies. $250. I'd SOOO buy it if I could.

 And this:

from Leisure Living. Beautiful!!

 So then I wondered if I could re-paint my dresser. I have, after all, had it since college when I got it for $25 at a garage sale. I think I could re-paint it and put new handles on it and it would/could look really neat. I have had a tutorial bookmarked for awhile about how to paint wooden furniture.

So, then I looked on Craigslist for some furniture because I'm sure I'll be great at painting furniture, right?!? And I e-mailed someone about a free dresser and another person about a nightstand.

see ...

I think it has potential

Anyway, I'm sure Christopher would LOVE to go with me on a 30 minute drive when I pick up a free dresser that I intend to paint even though I've never painted a piece of furniture before in my life. Don't you? Actually, the only thing I'm sure about in regards to that sentence is that he loves me. And that the dresser probably wont fit in our car.

So, then I knew that I needed a sander if I am serious about this painting thing. And I found a sander on Craigslist and e-mailed that guy.

And then reason kicked in and I had to stop. Mostly ... I am looking for books on painting furniture at the library but that is at least free. =)

How's that for rabbit trails?

G'night!