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

Moose Canyon Wine

It is my lot in life to be surrounded by enormously talented people! One of my coworkers and her husband created a (quite impressive) winery in their garage, and are part-time winemakers for fun. I was lucky enough to be able to come by and help (read: came over and drank tons of amazing wine), and now I was able to help her design a label for her new Cab and Marionberry wines. She just brought me back a gift of finished bottles for the help. I'm so excited to be able to be some actual help! (She has already won a national award for one of her wines, and I get a feeling that more awards are soon to come!)

First day of summer!

It's 'officially' summertime, and in Washington that's only half exciting-- Yes, it may be June, but no, that doesn't always mean sunshine. This year we were lucky however, and got a beautiful kick-off! (Afterwards, not so nice, but you won't hear me complaining!)

I think our Walter is officially living up to his breed of being a water-lover.. first encounter with a sprinkler definitely equaled a good time. (Also, I figure I am trying to keep my well-known puppy obsession to my blog, as to lessen my awkwardness on facebook :) A few pictures came from this, of course!






Here's hoping to more beautiful days like this one!