Thursday, December 30, 2010

House Tour

Since many of our friend & family
have requested photos of our little house,
I thought we would close out the year with
a pictorial house tour.

We'll begin in the kitchen,
since I spend so much time there.













Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Christmas!

My parents flew into a very windy
Bakersfield for a quick, but very fun visit
on Christmas day.

Here are some of the many pictures from their stay.





















We loved having them with us,
and hope to have more visitors soon!

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Rain, rain

Here in Bakersfield
water is precious.
In a place that only gets 6-8 inches
of rain per year,
a day of rain is usually celebrated.

Unfortunately, a town that
never gets much rain is
not equipped to deal with a lot of rain.

It has been raining for 4 days now.

On Sunday, the ping ping ping of water falling
announced a leaky roof.

Cars are stalled in flooded roads as people
unfamiliar with driving in these conditions
attempt to finish their holiday errands.

The damage is daunting,
& I pray for all those affected.
But I also think, in some way,
the rain has forced us all to slow down,
to stop.

With all of the rushing around, the
usual break-neck pace of the holidays,
a moment of pause to reflect on the waters
may be just what we need.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

This & that in LA

This past Saturday we headed over the
mountains to LA.
We started out with a trip to IKEA
for a few items we'd been needing.
This recycling sorter, for example.
Nothing fancy, but it saves spaces
& makes recycling easier,
which is always a good thing.
Plus it came with blank labels,
so I had fun customizing them!


From there we made our way to the Fashion District
to visit Unique LA. All the jewelry, clothing, crafts,
talented designers, and food were awesome.
We had so much fun browsing
& picking out a few special items.




From the Fashion District we made our way
over to Echo Park.

We are big McSweeney's fans
and had been interested in 826LA for all the
awesome work they do.
So when we found out they were having
a writing workshop for adults,
we had to be there.
We were so busy writing & editing
that I didn't take any photos,
but both of us had lots of fun
and met some really great folks.

Finally, we headed home,
grabbing veggie 'burgers' & fries
from the most crowded In-N-Out Burger
ever in Santa Clarita.

I'll leave you with some images of the
'Christmas' light show from our trip back to Bako.


Sunday, December 12, 2010

Yarn wreath


I'd come across some lovely yarn wreaths online
& simply had to create one of my own.

I love this idea because it is so easy.
Use any color of yarn, ribbon, or twine,
add beads, ornaments, berries,
felt, or any number of embellishments
& your wreath becomes completely unique.

Since we are big on Advent around here,
and don't put up the Christmas tree & trimmings
until right before Christmas,
I decided to make my wreath represent Advent
with blue yarn & 4 beads marking
the 4 weeksof the season.

The star reminds us to "Keep Awake!"
It also means that I really like sparkly glitter.

The yarn makes me feel all snuggly &
I love the way it looks against our red door.

What's your favorite holiday decor?