Wow....I could do this

I saw this quilt this morning and fell in L-O-V-E.

I think I'm going to try to make something similar, but in shades of either blue or green. Which should I do?

Labor Day

So the reason there has been an uncommonly long break here is because the ear doctor and I took off for a long weekend over Labor Day. His b-day is Sept 4, so every year we get to take an awesome trip to celebrate.

This year we decided to go to Mt. Rushmore. I was a little nervous about going to somewhere called the black hills and the badlands. Judging from the titles, I wasn't really expecting much natural beauty. Boy was I wrong.

Friday we took off after work and stayed the night in the glorious Express Inn in Cheyenne, WY. Turns out, when you book a room at a 2 star hotel to save money you get pretty much what you pay for. I knew we were in trouble when we got to our room at we weren't allowed to reverse the pull of gravity and make our cigarette smoke go down.

On the plus side the phone specifically positioned to be used while going to the bathroom was sure a convenience.

And the huge mold colony growing on the shower curtain wet the ear doctor's appetite.

We woke up early Saturday morning and high tailed it out of Wyoming. The first stop on our trip...jewel cave. This cave is the second longest set of caves in the world. The ear doctor and I love a cave tour, and this one was no different. The cool thing about this tour is that we decided to take the lantern tour. The cave was an unfinished path and only lit by the small paraffin oil lanterns.

The ear doctor was brave because he had the power of the ThunderCats with him. I was a little more nervous.

After going through the caves we found our lovely campsite at the Big Pine Campground and set up camp.....it was a beautiful campground. Luckily the tent sites and the RV sites were separated by a big hill. Not that I don't love RVers, but the glare from their TVs at night can be a little distracting when you're trying to get your s'more on.

That night we had the most difficult time lighting a fire. We tried and tried until we had to throw up our hands in defeat. The ear doctor took this defeat to heart and the next morning took out his frustration on the stupid fire "pit".

In case you can't tell what you're looking at, it is a cement slab with a welded metal box on top. Guess what sucks? Trying to build a fire that requires a lot of oxygen in a 3 sided closed box. We figured out what the problem was in the light of the next day....the paper was coated in a flame retardant wax and the wood we thought was nice and dry had really been sitting in a dark, wet box for 3 weeks....go figure.

Sunday morning we went to see the crazyhorse monument. This is a pretty cool undertaking that I had no knowledge of before heading out there. This guy was commissioned by the Lakota elders to carve the likeness of Crazy Horse into a cliff. He started in the 50's, all alone, and started working. He spent the first 2 years just getting his equipment up the mountain. Since then his family has worked on the mountain without any funding from the government, despite being offered it. They didn't want anything to do with a handout. This monument has been built solely on private funds. I love that. When I'm a millionaire this is the kind of thing that I will support.

We needed a break from sight-seeing so we found a place for milk shakes. Butter pecan....soooo good!

Then, we headed off to the main event...Mt. Rushmore. We decided to pay the $5 and get the hand held guided tour. So worth the investment. I love learning all I can about the building of monuments and stuff like that.

Before heading back to the Big Pine Campground, we stopped off at the "cosmos mystery area" which was pretty much a cool little house built at a strange angle on the side of a hill. The whole experience plays with the inner conflict between what you see and what you feel. The ear doctor was all about it, being really into balance and the workings of the inner ear. I was really excited because a lot of the same sensations we experienced are experienced by astronauts in space. Yes, we are both big dorks.

Monday morning we pack up camp and drove to yet another set of caves (see, I told we loved caves), Wind Cave. This tour was a lot like the other tours we've been on with electric lighting and cement paths. Wind cave is the 4th longest cave at 125 miles long. The crazy thing is that all 125 miles are under 1 square mile of ground on the surface. That means a very dense, curvy, vertical set of caves. After entering the cave we went down about 150 stairs to get to the tour. Also, Wind Cave has 95% if the world's "box work" formations. Everywhere inside of the cave seemed to be covered in thin webbing. It kind of looked like the cross sections of bone marrow, or a sea sponge. Very cool. I wish my old roommie Nikita had been there to explain it to me (she's a geologist now).

After the cave we drove into Custer State Park. What a beautiful place! I kept singing "home, home on the range" and wishing that we had a log cabin on the property. We took the long wildlife loop in the south-east corner of the park, and guess what? We found ourselves in the middle of a wild herd of buffalo! The ear doctor was ecstatic!

After seeing the Buffalo, we drove up through the needles highway in the Northwest corner of the park. In this area of the park there are sharp towers of granite that pushed their way up out of the ground all over the place. On the freeway they've blasted really narrow tunnels through the rock. One of the tunnels is only 9 ft wide, so driving through was a little nerve racking.

The eye of the needle:

That night we stayed at the State Game Lodge in the park, which is where Pres. Calvin Coolidge spent his summer months while he was president. It was a really breathtaking area and we had our own little cabin that reminded me of being at summer camp.

Tuesday morning we packed up and drove home...with one important stop. In Hot Springs, SD there is an in situ archaeological dig of a sink hole. In this dig they've already found the remains of 56 mammoths! The ear doctor LOVES dinosaurs, so we just had to stop there. It was really cool. The whole building is build around a current, live dig where you can see the bones of Colombian and Woolly mammoths!


(mammoth femur)


(mammoth mandible...jaw bone)


Between the caves, the monuments, the animals, the scenery and visiting the town of Lusk, WY twice, we had a totally awesome time!

Dear dragon-slayer,

Thanks for the dance this morning.

I low you

Back to my roots

Every Monday night the ear doctor and I try to plan a small activity to do together after work instead of collapsing onto the couch and watching TV.

Last night it was my turn to plan.

I decided that I would show him how to re-pot plants into larger pots. My little herb starters that I got in July have really started to outgrow their pots.

The first step was to go to Home Depot. I love going to Home Depot with him. We walk around for a couple of hours just thinking about all the cool projects we can do. He spent 20 minutes picking out his favorite riding lawn mower...a John Deere of course (keep in mind we have no yard) and I wandered around the garden center.

The second step was to come home and set everything out on our patio. In order to set the mood I popped in my favorite bluegrass CD.

After soaking the new terra cotta pots in water (a must for all pots) we transplanted the little herbs into their new homes.

With the quite happy picking of a banjo in the background I felt such a sense of secure joy. I felt so centered to be out with my babe in the cool blue light of dusk, hands covered in fresh fragrant dirt.

Finally

So I've sort of been dragging my feet through the wallpaper trend. I just can't see myself ever wanting to go to all the trouble to put it up only to want to rip it down in 3 years. However, I've found a piece that I would REALLY like to buy.

Check it out.

Instead of actually putting the paper up in my rental, I think it would look cool to get a piece and hang it in our bedroom over our bed like this:

The only thing is I'm not sure how to do this and not have it look ghetto. Any ideas?

Totally cute

Yesterday the ear doctor and I marked a significant milestone.

It was our 2 month wedding anniversary.

I made him cookies...

and he got me a box of saftey pins. (I can never find any and ask him almost daily if he knows where any are)

That's pretty much true love in my book.

As was heard in our car this weekend:

KT: Hey, those shoes are looking a little worn out, it might be time to find you a new pair of white shoes.

EarD: Yeah, they are looking a little bad.

KT: It's too bad we didn't buy two pairs of those shoes when we found them.

(Aside: They really are cool because they were off-white to start with instead of rip-you-eyes-out-of-the-socket blinding white)

EarD: My feet do weird things to shoes.

KT: Huh.

EarD: They do.

KT: Yeah, I guess they kind of get really flat.

EarD: My feet are really wide so they end up spreading out.

KT: My grandpa's feet do that to his shoes because he had bunions.

EarD: Bunions seem really painful.

KT: I know. I'm a little worried about getting them when I'm older.

EarD: Don't worry, I'll rub your bunions when we're old.

(Pause for a moment while I get a little overwhelmed by how much I love this guy)

KT: Really?

EarD: Sure.

(A minute of silence goes by)

EarD: How do you spell Bunion? B-U-N-Y-U-N?

KT: Like Funyons?

EarD: I love Funyuns. I ate them all the time in middle school. Lets get some.

KT: Gross.

The End

Yeah, but she cheats

Hands down, my little sister gave my mom a better birthday card this year...

But using your adorable baby girl isn't really that fair...

Props to me

I just showed up to work today and my boss informed me that they were giving me a raise.

I love this company.

The ear doctor is an only child

The other day the ear doctor and I were out on our morning walk around the neighborhood. We found a new path that runs between a small, beautiful creek and the back yards of rich people. Cool. This way we could enjoy nature (I love Colorado) and snoop a little (my favorite pastime).

We walked up to one back yard and noticed that they had your garden variety swing set in their back yard.

We both paused for a minute and pointed to the teeter-totter type swing and said in unison, "I like that kind of swing."

Then the ear doctor looked at me sheepishly and said, "It's nice because you can do it all alone"

What a cute, sweet, amazing, fun, rad only child.

Life long goals

After getting married the ear doctor and I switched churches. The one we were going to before was geared toward single, college aged people. We both decided that it was time to grow up a little a join a congregation with families and older people.

Last night we had an appointment with our new bishop (that's what we call the pastor/preacher/leader of our congregation). He wanted to meet both of us and get to know a little more about us. I thought that was pretty nice.

Anyway, he asked the ear doctor what he likes to do in his spare time.

The ear doctor paused, looked off into space in his characteristic, "I'm really thinking hard" face and then said:

"I really want to become a grill master"

I just bust up laughing. The bishop just kind of laughed in surprise at the comment from left field. It was a pretty classic moment.

The thing about him is that he doesn't really have that far to go.

Last night he made us dinner. (BTW, doesn't dinner just seem so much more awesome when you aren't the one who made it?!?) Anyway, he decided to make beer can chicken in his new grill.

It was awesome. Juicy, perfect meat just dripping from the bone. Absolutely amazing.

Then only thing is we now have 5 cans of Bud in our fridge and not a clue what to do with them. Is it weird to come into work and offer your co-workers your leftover alcohol?

Be still my beating heart

Surely, I will never do anything good enough to warrant a gift like this desk set from Elum Stationary.



Yet I still yearn for it.

(This set actaully made me gasp in awe this morning!)

Cute jacket?

Should I get this coat? It's only $80...

Smile from ear to ear

This afternoon as I drove around doing errands on my lunch hour I saw a really cute couple slow dancing without music at a bus stop.

It made me really happy.

Walter

The ear doctor and I are considering getting a pet.

We want to catch a prairie dog from the vacant field just down the street from our house. Then we are going to build him a tall, clear plexi-glass terrarium, fill it with dirt from the vacant lot, and place in out on our small balcony by my tomato plant. Then we are going to enjoy watching him dig tunnels in the terrarium...like a really cool big ant farm.

It will be great.

And we're calling him Walter.

Now I just have to go hone my prairie dog catching skillz....

Happy B-day Mom!

Today is my mom's birthday, and since she's pretty much the coolest mom a girl could hope to have, I thought I'd send her a nice little blogger, birthday wish.

Cool or Tacky?

I saw these on Etsy and thought they were really cool.

The second one would be really perfect for the colors in our front room!From what I gather, the artists paints, collages and woodburns onto/into a piece of .5" wood. My question is this:

Would it be dorky if I had a "C" one hanging on my wall?

(our last name starts with a C)

My 5 lives

Today Rachel Jones was the quest blogger over at Design Mom and she wrote a post that really interested me, and it's been something I've been thinking about for quite a while.

So often I've heard that you should always strive to achieve your dreams. That you should always be working toward your ultimate goal, to fulfill your dreams.

This has always made me a little uncomfortable. Why? Because I've never had an ultimate "dream" to achieve. I've never been the kind of person who has one ultimate dream that is so definable and focused that they can say in one sentence what they dream of being. If you do, you're lucky.

I have lots of dreams and lots of things I love, but because I don't have a single aim the charge to "live my dream" has always made me feel...kind of...well...bad.

Which is where Rachel's' post comes to play. She suggests that you write down what you would do if you had 5 different lives. Then you should look at the list and make sure that you are actively pursing elements of the 5 lives in the 1 life that you have to live. This idea appeals to me like you wouldn't believe. It seems so simple, clear and totally do-able....but then most good ideas are that way.

So here, in no particular order are my 5 different lives and how I'm living them all at the same time.

1 chef I love cooking. I love it so much I surprise myself sometimes. My favorite part of every week is sitting down and making out a weekly menu for the ear doctor and I. I sit in the middle of our living room surrounded by my favorite cook books and think of a weeks worth of meals. I like to vary the protein, the style, the origin and the ingredients all week long. I find a thrill in the challenge of creating variety, trying new foods and cooking techniques while also using similar ingredients so that we don't waste things or throw any excess away.

2 landscaper Sometimes as I'm coming into work I see the grounds maintenance people at our office and I get jealous of their job. There are very few things in life that bring as me as much pleasure as a well designed garden. Seriously, just walking around an old established garden is sheer delight. Whenever the ear doctor and I go on walks through neighborhoods we critique the houses and I critique the landscaping. I love getting up early and weeding a garden. Going to a nursery and picking out the perfect plant for a spot in a garden is a personal treat. Right now, since we don't have a yard I have plants inside. I grow my own herbs (a must for someone who really loves cooking) and I have a little cherry tomato plant.

3 Interior Designer Every year the ear doctor and I go to the parade of homes. And when I say we "go" to the show, I mean we set aside hours so that we can slowly, methodically take in each space. I love to notice the details of each house, which hardwood the designer chose to go with, which shade of paint looks better at which time of the day. I love it. Sometimes I think the ear doctor gets a little bored by my molasses pace of walking through these houses. Right now this is probably the area that I am the least active in. It's hard (for me) to design my apartment space. I want to paint walls, change out flooring, get a freakin backsplash of little square tiles in my kitchen but I can't because it isn't mine. As a stand in for the time being we watch a lot of HGTV.

4 Book Store Owner The smell of a new book is intoxicating. I've always loved books. When I was in elementary school and we'd get the book order form I'd excitedly go page by page through it and circle about 20 books that I wanted my parents to order for me. I've always loved reading. I'm lucky to have a mom who is as much a book lover as myself. I don't think we ever left a Waldenbook without a heavy sack of new books tangling from our arms. Now I go book stores and just wander around for fun. I read whenever I have the chance. Almost every night I'll leave the ear doctor alone on the couch so I can curl up with a book. Some of my best friends are my friends because of our shared literary love.

5 Talk Show Host Except, I'd love to be a little different than your average talk show host. I'd love to interview "normal" people. I love meeting people and getting to know them. I love finding out their stories. I'm not really good at talking about myself, but I love to hear about other people. I mean, sure, probably no one would watch my show if I didn't have George Clooney as a guest, but I think it's a neat idea. In my current life I love to get to know people. That's a major reason that I read blogs...to meet new people and get to see a little picture of their life. I figure that as a talk show host I could potentially get paid to do it.

So there are my 5 different lives.

What would yours be?

My lasting shame

In the fourth grade I got out of a spelling bee on the word "robin" as in the little cute bird with a red belly. I spelled it R-O-B-B-I-N. I figured it would have two B's like ribbon, a word I was very good at spelling.

Wrong.

Since that day I've never been sure of how to spell robin correctly.

There are a bunch of words like this that are seemingly easy words to spell but I cannot for the life feel confident in their spelling. Here is a list of my nemesis words:

awkward
completely
conscious
conscience
abrade
sentence
message
and many more...

It's so bad that I actually reword phrases just so that I avoid using these words. In fact, I just reworded the preceding sentence so that I could avoid using the word sentence. UGH!

Is there anyone else afflicted with my malady?

A new goal

I've been living in my new apartment with the ear doctor for a month now, and there are STILL boxes stacked up to the ceiling in my bedroom!!! That is UNACCEPTABLE! Seriously, why am I such a lazy bum.

It's actually getting so distracting that it is bothering me while I am in my cubical at work...that's pretty bad.

So, my new goal is this:

While the ear doctor is feverishly studying for the second part of this comps exam tomorrow I am going to go whirling dervish on that stack.

It must be defeated. It will not take over my thoughts and invade my solitude for one more day. It will not best me at my own devices.

I will be master of my own domain!!!

Plus the majority of the boxes are stacked in a corner that is just begging to be filled with this chair:

Wish him good luck

Right now my ear doctor is taking the first half of his clinical comps test for his AuD. Be sure to send him some good vibes.

I hope his hand doesn't cramp up with all that writing!

Ear Doctor Q&A

Guess what, I write about the ear doctor an awful lot. (understatement of the century)

Those of who have been reading for a while probably wonder what he is really like. You probably stay up at night pondering things about his him. You've probably said to yourself, "if I could only meet the ear doctor I'm sure we would be instant friends." You've probably become so intrigued by him that you can hardly stand it.

Well, lucky for you Jef suggested that we do a Q&A with the ear doctor! Just leave a question for the ear doctor in the comments to this post and he will answer.

His answers will make all of your dreams come true, so you should probably do it.

A sleeping problem

Our new apartment has the loudest air conditioner on the planet. It wouldn't bother me if it was a constant sound all night long. Unfortunately, it clicks on and off and wakes me up all night.

After a month of trying to live like that I've turned into a sleep-deprived raving beast.

The ear doctor came up with a solution to use the A/C less and get a fan that we could run all night. That way the low level white noise could hummmmm me to sleep and he could stay cool. Sounds like a great idea, right?

Well, I'm a little bit picky about what we use in our house. The thought of getting a big, plastic oscillating fan makes my skin crawl. So, I've been looking for cool, vintage/antique looking fans.

We found one at restoration hardware that looked great, but it cost over $100 and the salesgirl went on and on about how quiet it was. Well, guess what, we are looking for something that makes some sound! Quiet is not what we want.

This morning I've been looking around and I found Darryl Hudson's S. Carolina website. He masterfully restores old fans and his work makes me drool! What he does with them is BEAUTIFUL! Just look:

Now those are worth paying money for!

A little update

I thought I'd update the ole blog template this afternoon. These are the same colors we're using in our front room. I really like the light blue/almost teal color with shots of bright red. We don't have any pink anywhere, but the red and teal looked way too intense for a blog, so I toned it down a bit.

I think the ear doctor would drop dead if I tried to bring some pink decor into our house...and rightly so.

Recent thing I learned about the ear doctor

He loves fruit.

I know, I know. You are probably thinking, "well, Katie, who doesn't?"

He really loves fruit. Last week we went grocery shopping and I was pretty much SHOCKED by the shear volume of produce in our cart. Here is a list of everything we got (be prepared to be amazed):

15 peaches
4 lbs of blueberries
3 lbs of strawberries
2 cantaloupes
1 honeydew melon
3 lbs cherries

And that was only for 1 week!

Does anyone else find this staggering?

I love live music

Last night the ear doctor and I went to a really awesome show. My old fiddling teacher just moved back to Colorado from Paris and put on a concert. First of all, she is an amazing musician. It is really rare to hear someone who can play the jazz violin. Jazz is all about laying back on the beat and for some reason it's just hard for violins to do that.

Not for her.

As we sat in the corner of the dark coffee shop and took in the amazing tunes created by 5 very talented musicians I once again was amazed. I'm always so shocked that there are SO many people who are truly talented in this world who never end up as famous musicians.

It kind of makes me annoyed that people who have no talent and get so much attention.

Grrrr

Last night they played an amazing rendition of a song I'd never heard before. It is called Goodbye Pork Pie Hat. The way they played it last night, it is one of the saddest, most beautiful songs I've ever heard. I found some versions of it on youtube, but they really sucked in comparison to the arrangement that my old teacher, Katie Glassman, wrote and performed.

I love music that can make me really feel.

Really awesome

My brother-in-law is starting medical school in St. Louis this fall. We are so proud of him and very excited that he's going to use all those brains he's got to help people feel better! To get out there he, my sister and their ADORABLE little sister had to move from Logan, UT out to Missouri. Last night they stayed with the ear doctor and I on their trip out east. Also, my dad and his best friend are driving one of their two cars out and a golfing-across-America adventure.

That means we had 6 people and a 4 month old baby staying in our apartment last night. I was very excited to have them all there!!!

When the ear doctor got home, he surprised me with a beautiful set of sky blue iris and little yellow circular flowers (I don't know what they are called, but they are really cool and modern looking). He said to me, "I just thought my wifey might like some flowers"...yeah....pretty awesome.

Then, as we were cooking for everyone he took the reigns on the grill and made us up some perfect steaks. He really is the master of his new wedding-grill.

After dinner he helped me with the mountain of dishes.

After the dishes we all sat around and laughed and I realized how awesome it is that he gets along with my family so well.

As we were getting ready for bed I was setting up all of the sleeping arrangements for everyone. He saw me putting a fitted sheet on our big air mattress and jumped up to help me put it on.

My dad's friend made a comment to him. He said, "Wow, ear doctor. If I'd learned earlier to help my wife like you do I could have been a lot happier sooner."

And then I started to think about how much the ear doctor does for me. It started to make me nervous that I take so many of the thoughtful things he does for granted.

I mean, this was the man who came home one day last week and the first thing he did was apologize for not taking the garbage out that morning. He'd been thinking about it all morning and was concerned about it.

I'm a pretty lucky woman.

A curtain solution?

I found this beautiful cotton tea towel on Etsy.






What if I bought a couple of them and use them to lengthen my drapes. What do you think?

Heres the thing

Art.

I've tried to understand it. I love going to art museums to check out different works. I love flipping through books or clicking through prints on Etsy. However, when it comes to buying art and putting it up in my own house I'm at a loss. I've just never found a piece of art that I looked at and thought, "I love that and would like to see it every day of my life". I just haven't.

The problem is that a lot of the walls in my new house are very large and very blank. Add to that the suggestion that I've recently read that family photos shouldn't really be displayed in main common rooms.

So here is the question.

How do I find art that I really like? What do you like? How do you go about picking what you really love?

New Hair do?

I've been wearing my hair essentially the same way for the past 5 years, and it might be time for a change.

This picture at Anthropologie made me stop short and ask myself...

Could I rock this look?

What do you think?

Design Dilemma

So, I just moved into a new apartment. I love the apartment, it's pretty fun to live there with my husband.

Yesterday I finally got around to installing my restoration hardware curtain rod and curtains. The hitch is that the ceilings and windows in the new apartment are about 2 feet higher than anything I had in the old house.

Enter my design dilemma:

The walls in my room are painted a nice, neutral khaki/taupe color (this picture is much pinker than our actual walls). The off white, heavy canvas-type (twill) material curtains fall about 18 inches short of the floor and look AWFUL being that short...like the room is waiting for a flood or something. I read in my Domino black book that curtains should puddle about 1 inch on the floor.

My current situation must be corrected, and quick. However, we're on a bit of a budget and I'd rather not just go out and buy new drapes.

The colors in my room are (going to be) deep chocolate brown with blue and green accents. I saw this picture on the restoration hardware site and thought I could just add some fabric to the bottom:

But what kind of fabric should I use? It looks like this picture is some kind of dupioni silk, but do you think that silk would look too...fancy next to the plain canvas fabric?

Or maybe I should add some kind of cool pattern to spice it up a bit?

Any stellar ideas?

This is me...still stalling

We still haven't found the computer cord. Instead, I'm going to share something with you that the ear doctor does that has made me smile every single morning.

He has to get up and go to work before I do. His commute is 45 minutes and mine is 10, so I get to sleep in longer than he does.

When he leaves the house, he locks the door behind him. I'm still in the house and probably will leave only 30 minutes behind him, but I'm locked in. We don't live in a crime riddled neighborhood...quite the opposite. Our complex is part of a gated, golf course community.

I'm not sure if this locking-the-house-even-though-someone-is-still-in-it is a habit of his or what, but I like to think that he does it so that I am protected from any crazy people coming in the apartment while he isn't there to look after me.

And I think that is pretty cute.

Stay tuned

The ear doctor and I have to search through a mountain of boxes to find the camera cord before I can upload any of our glorious Alaskan honeymoon pictures. Gimme a couple of days to get that put together m'kay?

Happy Birthday...to me

I have to take a break from the wedding/honeymoon recap to let you know how awesome my new husband is.

Today I got breakfast in bed for my 26th birthday! He made me a heaping pile of delicious french toast with rainbow sprinkles. How lucky am I?

Plus, I'm only working a half day today.

I'm spending the other half of the day sipping a jamba juice and reading my beloved Harry Potter.

I could not think of a better day.