01
Jan
Sayonara, 2011; Hello, 2012!
Kim

First, can I just brag about the fact that it was 75° today in Pasadena?! I love that. :) Robby and I started our New Year’s Day at church, and then we spent the afternoon kicking around Manhattan Beach. Tomorrow morning, we’re planning on walking 3 blocks down to Colorado Blvd. to catch the Rose Parade before heading back to work on Tuesday…sigh.

New Year’s always makes me reflective, and 2011 gave me a lot to reflect on. In a lot of ways, it was a hard year. I had some medical struggles (including surgery); we learned that it will be extremely difficult (if not impossible) for us to have biological children; we lost a dear friend much too young; Robby and I had far too many stressful work projects; and I took on the burden of returning to school while working full-time. When I think about those things, I’m tempted to say “good riddance” to a bad year!

We did have quite a few good times mixed in there, though. Highlights from 2011 include our epic kitchen remodel; the birth of our adorable new nephew Hudson; two great trips to the Hollywood Bowl; a birthday weekend at Disneyland; getting an article published in a journal; surviving an epic windstorm in Pasadena; receiving a new iPhone 4S for Christmas; getting to preview a Rose Parade float; and taking several great trips:

  • Our anniversary trip to Santa Barbara
  • My work trip to Philadelphia and Washington, DC (Robby came with me)
  • Our trip to Orlando and Miami (in an attempt to witness the penultimate shuttle launch, which was unfortunately scrubbed 2 hours beforehand)
  • My work trip to Dayton, Ohio (Robby wasn’t able to come with me)
  • Robby’s trip to Orlando, where he was able to fulfill his lifelong dream by watching the last-ever shuttle launch!
  • A trip to Atlanta for Robby’s cousin’s wedding and then on to Panama City Beach for a week with Robby’s family
  • Our Thanksgiving trip to Knoxville, Gatlinburg, and Birmingham

I have mixed feelings about 2011. Mostly, I’m just happy to have reached the end of it with a wonderful husband by my side, and I’m hopeful that 2012 will be a good year for us. Heck, 2012 already has two things going for it–we’re planning a trip to Italy and England in the spring, and I’ll finish my MBA in June! I’m already counting down the days (literally–see the sidebar over there on the right??) until I have more time to knit, bake, decorate, and plan our next remodeling project–maybe overhauling our 80s-style bathrooms? :)

I hope that 2012 is filled with blessings for you (and us)! I’ll leave you with this huge photo-retrospective of some of our 2011 highlights:

Category: Crafts, Family, Home, Marriage, Photos, Stories, Travel  Leave a Comment
01
Jan
Rose Parade Float Decorating
Kim

This past week, I had one of the coolest Southern California experiences ever. My sweet husband was watching PBS a few weeks back, and during the pledge drive they announced that if you donated a certain amount, you would get behind-the-scenes tickets to see the Natural Balance Rose Parade float as it was being built and decorated. Without me knowing, he donated the money and got us tickets!

This was exciting both because I’ve always wanted to see the Rose Parade floats up close, and because we are big fans of Natural Balance. Lucy loves Natural Balance food (especially the sweet potato and fish flavor), and we’ve gotten a kick out of the floats that Natural Balance has sponsored in the last few years. So far, the past floats have included skateboarding, snowboarding, and skimboarding bulldogs. We had heard that this year’s float would include surfing bulldogs and was supposed to set world records for being the longest and heaviest float ever, so I definitely wanted to see it!

Natural Balance float, in progress.

Tuesday was the big day. We drove out to Irwindale, CA, where we got to tour the Fiesta float-building facility:

Fishy face!

We even got the chance to put strawflowers on some palm fronds for the Natural Balance float:

Float decorating is painstaking work--all the flowers are applied by hand!

The lovely Natural Balance people also fed us lunch, and gave us a huge gift bag full of great dog food swag! Lucy was very excited, and so were we:

Lucy eyeing her haul!

We really enjoyed our behind-the-scenes look at this year’s float, and can’t wait to see it in action tomorrow. :) We also got special VIP tickets for the post-parade float viewing party, where we might get to meet the surfboarding bulldogs in person, yay!

Category: Family, Photos, Stories  One Comment
22
Dec
Christmas decor 2011
Kim

Since we traveled for Thanksgiving, we’re spending Christmas in Southern California this year. That gave me an excuse to pull out all the stops with Christmas decor! It took me a while to get everything up because I’ve been so busy with school (I actually just finished decorating today), but I love the final result. It’s so nice to be surrounded by cozy Christmas sights and smells. :)

Decorating our tree!

We went with a Noble Fir (real, of course!). I've really been enjoying the pine scent.

View from the front door. That lamp is new, and such a fun color!

View across the living room. I added (faux) wreaths to the doors, some pillows from Crate and Barrel, a snowman decoration from Robby's mom, and a hand-carved Nativity scene that Robby got in Europe. Also, now that we have a pantry, we moved our old dish storage cabinets out into the dining area.

Our dining room table, all decked out in fancy Christmas linens from my sweet mother-in-law (who also painted that waterfall picture!). The tablecloth is the perfect size for our little table--thanks, Carol! We moved the dresser from upstairs, and it's perfect for holding extra tablecloths and knickknacks.

Since we don't have a mantel, I hung our (homely) hand-knit stockings from the bookcase (which we moved to the upstairs landing). We have an odd number of stockings (one each for Robby, me, and Lucy), so I added a fun jingle bell wreath to balance things out.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, everyone!

Category: Home, Photos  Leave a Comment
22
Dec
Thanksgiving 2011
Kim

We traveled for Thanksgiving this year, and as usual, it was a whirlwind (I don’t think we’ve ever been on a trip that involved just one city, ha).

We flew into Knoxville for two reasons: first, to visit my sister Cassie (a veterinary student at UT), and second, to watch the Volunteers play at Neyland Stadium!

Tailgating at UT.

Cassie, me, and Robby in our orange gear!

Watching the game. So nice to watch the Vols actually win one!

After a few days in Knoxville, we drove up to Gatlinburg for some sightseeing and to celebrate our anniversary a bit early. We had fun browsing the shops and taking the tram up to Ober Gatlinburg (a small amusement park in the Smoky Mountains with great views of Tennessee).

Ole Smoky moonshine distillery, haha!

"Once two strangers climbed on rocky top..."

After our time in Gatlinburg, it was time to head to Chelsea, Alabama for Thanksgiving with Robby’s family. My sister Cassie came with us and we had a great time! We weren’t very good about taking pictures, but we did manage to catch this one of our sweet nephew Hudson in his jumper. He loves that thing, and once he’s in, he can’t stop jumping (hence the blurriness!):

Hudson, the jumping bean.

All in all, we had a great time enjoying some Southern hospitality this Thanksgiving. I’m so glad I married into the Stephenson family, in all their wonderful, bleeding-orange glory!

Category: Family, Photos, Travel  Leave a Comment
22
Dec
Kitchen is finally finished!
Kim

Um, hi. Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve updated the blog! I decided to go back to school to finish my MBA (which I started back before Robby and I got married), and I sort of fell into a black hole of working, working, working, and studying, studying, studying. Now that I have a week off from work for Christmas, I figured I’d update you on the kitchen, which is finally finished!

The biggest project left to complete was tiling the backsplash, and we decided to do it ourselves.

We went with a pretty blue and grey glass mosaic tile:

Mosaic tile, ready for installation.

In our DIY tile installation, we were helped immeasurably by the invention of this handy product:

The SimpleMat tile-setting mat: no mastic needed!

This tile-setting mat allowed us to mount our tile without having to mix or spread mastic–hooray! Basically, you just peel off the backing, stick it to the wall, peel off the front, and press the tile in place:

Tile-setting mat, ready for tiles.

Here we are pressing the tile into place:

Installing tile under the microwave was the most difficult part.

My favorite handyman. :)

Once we got to a corner, we had to cut the tiles, which was a bit of a challenge. We ordered our very own tile scorer, which helped a lot:

Cutting tiles.

Here are the tiles mounted to the wall, before grout:

All finished with the mounting!

After letting the tiles set for 24 hours, we followed up with grout:

Excuse the exercise clothes!

Once the grout cured, our backsplash was finished!

Tile and grout.

So here’s the finished product, with all the pieces in place:

My fabulous kitchen!

Another view. I think the glass doors are my favorite part of the kitchen (along with our beloved Keurig!).

We installed a pantry cabinet. Such a luxury to have all my baking supplies and canned goods in one place!

I love my Caesarstone counters, stainless-steel sink and high-arched faucet. Oh, and my Christmas tree in the background. :P

If it’s not obvious by now, I LOVE MY KITCHEN! I feel very blessed that we were able to update our retro 1980s kitchen into such a beautiful, functional space.

Category: Home, Photos  4 Comments
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