Getting his (water)wings.

A year old, and finally Walter has conquered the water. To say our puppy was a bit timid to take to the water would be an understatement; however this turned out to be quite entertaining. Instead of jumping in the water (say, like most puppies do) ours would bury his nose in it, then face, then reach as far as his little front legs would take him into the pool before slithering in. It was all rather funny.



After a few dips he had decided that the floatie was more his style. I can't complain, I've always loved water-puppies; and ours is no exception. +2 retriever points, my dear Walter. Now if he could only conquer the car...

Yes you, Naan bread.

Apologies for the title, the Mighty Boosh have warped me in the ways of naan bread. After years of buying frozen naan from Trader Joes, I decided to give it a try myself (after a powerful craving for Indian food this afternoon!) Also, I've been moderately obsessed with the website Budget Bytes, as it has encouraged me to try English Muffins, and now this!





It turned out alright; next time I will cut those pieces in half and make them thinner-- a few of them turned out a bit like flatbread (which I happily saved for breakfast Saturday morning to make breakfast pizzas out of).

I'm quickly discovering that making bread doesn't often end badly. Flat bread? Good. Thick bread? Good. Carbtastic deliciousness no matter what? GOOD.*

*Note to self: Seriously. Start running tomorrow.

Let there be light-- OFFICIALLY.

Seriously though. Our light situation in the house has substantially changed for the better now that our solar tubes are finished! It's hard to express in photos how much brighter the center of our little casa is (Especially in the afternoon when all of the sun officially leaves our 4.5 windows). Overall, I can't imagine our hallway without them now.






Alright, so the pictures are a bit anticlimactic-- you'll just have to take our word for it. (Thanks again dad for coming over and being amazing, we really don't know what we'd do without you!)

Just one more time. Just because:
Before:


And after:


Take that, creepy fluorescent lighting in the bathroom! We hardly need you anymore. Mission accomplished.

Let there be-- wait-- light?

Alas, as July is almost ending, we've started (finally!) tackling our giant home-to-do list. Last weeks task? Starting our solar tubes! We had the fam over (thanks again handy father!) and Bryan and my Dad tackled the only thing the weather would allow, which was installing the inside portion of of our solar tubes.

Oh! Notice the dark hole we call a hallway? That's half our house. Eep!



Oh, also week two of my breadmaking adventures included this no-knead loaf, which turned out to be tasty! As it was my first it wasn't the prettiest... but that just means more breadmaking, right?




My dad has been sweet once again and was teaching Bryan more homeownery-type things, +2 more points for the husband :)






Step one, done! More pics to come soon of the after!

Bigger pup, bigger treats.

Walter turned one this week! To celebrate we took him to the pet store to pick out a present (like all normal over-crazed pet owners do) and this is what he liked.



Giant frickin' mammoth bone. He was in love.

This pretty much sums up his day. And the next few following! Go big or go home, right? Well played, puppy.

Walter and Me... and a path of destruction.

Just a quick post today, again featuring the Pupster. Yesterday we finally got around to watching Marley and Me (against the warnings of coworkers knowing how puppy squishy and sappy I truly am) and turns out Walter is quite a fan as well. Actually watched most of the movie with us, too (rather adorably):



Two things I learned from yesterday: 1) Marley and Me will make you cry. Especially if you're a newlywed with no children and a one year old retriever. 2) Do not EVER let your dog watch Marley and Me. I came home from work today to find my loveable puppy had learned a bit from the movie; found my stash of clothes I was going to sell at our upcoming garage sale, and proceeded to shred ever sweater and shoe that I had in our guest bedroom. Fail.

Luckily he's cute... and the clothes were in our 'get rid of' pile. I shudder to think what we would do if he developed an affinity for furniture or hockey jerseys.

If you can't do, dream.

It seems like the longer your to-do list is, the quicker time flies by. For instance, I feel like it's cursed me actually getting on the net and writing down our home 'to-do' list... because we've gotten hardly anything done!

One of the things that can't be ignored is our rickety old fence. That poor thing survived one too many windstorms in my opinion, and one puppy escape (one was all it took... scared the pants off me and the boy!) to ignore it much longer. So hopefully, fence is first! And hopefully while fence is being built, I may also be able to tack on another project that would make me very happy...



Okay, so the kitchen is beautiful (And in my dreams, yes) but it's what's outside the kitchen that I'm lookin' at... Our house is separated from our neighbors by a small brick fence and about 15 feet; which was fine when our adorable neighbor lived there (she was in her 90's and never complained!) But now she has moved into a home and has left us open to the fact that soon we may receive some perhaps not as neat neighbors.. (And the fact that her house is our entire view-- aka nothing says GOOD MORNING like sleepy mostly naked Sara and Bryan running around the house... yikes.) I loved the plants growing in the window view... I'm thinking some simple woodwork with plants running through it?? Leaves a bit of privacy if we need it, but not putting up a fence... anyways, it's on my dream list for sure!

Also, I know not much blogging has been going on lately, but I feel the need to share my new love: Pinterest. It's addicting, for sure. Check out my boards if you're up for it!

My Pinterest Boards