A Happy Man

James enjoying his new ride. Can you tell he's having a good time? Let's hope his enthusiasm for mowing the lawn stays like this because we have a lot of lawn to mow. Here's to many, many years of happy mowing!

Room Reveal: Master Bedroom

I'm so excited to share our master bedroom with you. Our bedroom is one of my favorite places in the whole house. It is bright, warm and cozy. Attached to the bedroom is our bathroom and walk in closet. The slider leads out to a covered porch perfect for lazy Sunday breakfasts, stunning sunsets and stargazing. Check out our floorplan for a refresher. The sink area is separated from the actual bathroom which is nice when we are both getting ready for work together in the morning. There's nothing worse than foggy mirrors! Our closet is huge and allows us to stuff all of our junk in it without the need for dressers or extra furniture in cluttering up the bedroom.

The bed frame is made from reclaimed wood and was originally $2500. We found it on Craigslist for $400. Never used. Bingo! Summit's bed is pretty sweet too.

I fought long and hard for the chandelier above our bed instead of a traditional fan. James needed to be convinced but I love it. I think it looks great with the deep tray ceiling and compliments the soft color of the walls, area rug and drapes. I also love the fact that our fireplace is double-sided so we can enjoy it from our bedroom as well as the living room. We spent many cozy nights enjoying it last winter. The chair in the corner is just a stand in for now because we haven't found just the right fit yet.

The sink area and closet is off the bedroom. We choose to do double vessel sinks over quartz counter tops. It came together for a nice modern, clean look. I still need to add a bit of artwork here but I haven't found anything that feels right yet. Opposite the sink area is the walk in closet. Lots of space in there. Yay!

From there we head into the master bath. The layout of the room made it ideal for a big corner soaking tub. Ahhh. So nice. We still need to buy and install our glass shower door so for now we have a temporary shower curtain up. The best part of the shower is the double shower head. No more huddling in the corner when we're (ahem) "doubling up" if you catch my drift. So worth it.

Coming up next on our house tour is the dining room reveal! Stay tuned. =)

My DIY Terrarium

Have you noticed that terrariums are making a come back? Flip through the pages of some trendy home decor magazines and you'll see (here and here to name just a few). And the prices at those trendy places seem to be just trending upward - that second example is a "mini" terrarium and it's on sale for $98! But I liked these things so much that I had to have one. So instead of breaking the bank, I made a few myself.

First I went out and bought three glass containers at Home Goods. They ranged in price from $2.99 for the smallest to $7.99 for the big one. On one of our recent Home Depot outings I stopped by the household plant section and found a few good houseplants (and few small outdoor perennials) on sale. I choose plants that like part sun since they won't be getting full sun all of the time indoors. I also picked up some dried moss, pebbles and used some potting soil we already had. The total for all of my materials came to about $35, including the glass containers.

First I put the rocks in on the bottom followed by a layer of moss.

Topped it with potting soil, stuffed in as many plants as possible and covered the soil with another light layer of moss.

I had several extra plants so I filled the left over pots with them.

Turns out $35 goes a long way on house plants if you spend it right!

The Vegas Strip

After enjoying some time in the desert, we made our way to the Strip. Let's face it, you can't really visit Vegas without taking a stroll down Las Vegas Boulevard. Vegas is a strange place. I can't make up my mind about this place. Some see it as an adult fantasyland and perhaps it is, but to me, it's not without some seriously sad undertones.

We found time to see Jersey Boys while we were in town. It is a musical about the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. I didn't know if I'd really like it because I'm a little too young to have been a big fan of the music, but it was really, really good. And I was surprised how many songs I actually knew. If you're in Vegas or NY, I give this show a big seal of approval. Go see!

Cary and the Jumping Cactus

I spent last week in Nevada for a family wedding. We had a few days to explore Las Vegas and the surrounding area before the weekend events. One of the places we visited was Eldorado Canyon and the Techatticup Gold Mine. This place was literally a ghost town. A family purchased the land and then discovered the old abandoned mine. They reopened the mine to tourists several years ago. It was nice to get away from the bright lights and busyness of the city and there was no shortage of interesting things to look at out in the desert.

It's too bad James wasn't able to come with us because he would have really liked this place. There were tons of old vehicles and "junk" to snap pictures of. It was a pickers paradise. My favorite was this teal Chevy truck. I keep trying to get James to buy and restore one for me. Maybe some day.

The tour took us through the abandoned mine and explained how they mined for gold in the late 1800's. It sounded like hard work. It was creepy and cool.

By now you might be wondering about that jumping cactus I mentioned in the title of this post. This part of the desert was literally covered with Cholla cactus. These cactus are also know as "jumping cactus" because of the ease at which the stems, which are covered with double sided barbs, detach when a person or animal gets close enough to them. Perhaps you can see where this story is going...I found this out the hard way. I got a little too close (ok a LOT too close!) while trying to take a photograph of the cactus and in no time found myself literally covered in cactus. The spines of this plant are barbed like fish hooks on both ends making it extremely painful to remove. I had to have someone help me remove them one by one with pliers. The sweater I was wearing was completely destroyed and had to be thrown away. One of the stems actually went through my shoe and into my foot. I was able to snap a quick picture of that one, see below. So, I learned my lesson. But at least I got a few nice pictures of the cactus out of it, right?

It was bad, but thankfully not as bad as this guy. Ouch!