Bahama Sunshine

Before I tell you about our vacation, I have to give you a little back story about how we ended up on our cruise.

Both of us wanted to go to Europe for our honeymoon, but didn't want to put a lot of energy into planning a European vacation while also planning a wedding. We also only had a week or so, and wanted to see as much as possible. So we decided to take a cruise, which was best for that particular situation. Looking back, it was definitely right for us. We didn't have to make hotel or car reservations and went to five places in seven days. I don't think we got to fully experience Europe, in terms of the food and the adventuring, but it was a good start and gave us enough of a taste to want to go back.

We played BINGO on our nights on the boat, but didn't win anything except a T-shirt. But we played enough that we had some raffle tickets for a free cruise. So we went to the drawing. They pulled out the first ticket, and it wasn't ours. But the person who had the ticket wasn't there, so they drew again. They read off the numbers slowly, and by the time they got to the second to last number, we had nine of the next 10 possible numbers. And so, as it turns out, we won the free cruise!

So, that's how we ended up taking a second cruise for our spring break vacation last week. It was initally for a seven-day Carribean, but we traded it in for a four-day Bahamas cruise and upgraded to a balcony stateroom on the back of the boat. And let me tell you, that's the way to travel!

We loooved the balcony. Our first night, we waved good-bye to Miami and drank champagne on it before dinner, and during the week, we snuck breakfast out of the buffet and ate there instead. We ordered room service and ate outside, waiting for the sunset, and opened the door for some fresh air.

Our room with a view

Our first day, we were in Freeport, Grand Bahama Island, and we went snorkeling. I had been snorkeling before, but Nathan hadn't. We headed out to the reef on a boat, and jumped in. The reef wasn't very big, but there were a LOT of fish. We saw my favorite, parrotfish, and Nathan's new favorite, black angel fish with a blue strip, and a fish that blended into the sand. What I was most surprised about was how close the fish got to you. They just swam right up around you, and I think I was more freaked out by them than they were of us!

Our second day, we were in Nassau, and we got off the boat and went through the little shops in the morning, then headed back to the boat to hang out by the pool when it wasn't as busy. I became quite the expert on choosing the best deck/beach chair location, based on proximity to the pool, optimal sun and shade time, and lacking other people. We read and swam, which we repeated the next day at Great Stirrup Cay, Norwegian's private beach island. We swam in the ocean, read on the beach, and Nathan went jet skiing.

I love this photo because it shows the 'different colors of water.'

At night, we would watch the sunset, drink martinis, and eat dinners that neither one of us had to cook. One night, Nathan played in the poker tournament (and won, I must add. He's the lucky one of the two of us), and we also learned how to salsa.

Sunsets over the ocean are my favorite kind.

And now we're back to real life, and I have some books to return to the library and reviews to write. But our time in the sun was glorious, indeed.

Living A Beach Boys Song

When we got back from Europe, I was talking to my friend Lisa about how freeing it is to not be able to use your phone or the Internet. It was honestly the most relaxed I'd been in a long time. She told me that it would be essentially the same thing if I just tried to give up both for a weekend. But I know that I couldn't do it. Even when I try to just leave my phone at home on an errand, or turn my computer off for a weekend, I feel like something is missing.

This past week, I told you all I was unplugged. And I was, because I had to be: My phone didn't work in the Bahamas. And let me tell you, the Bahamas are relaxing, but to have a vacation from my phone was just amazing. Even though I missed being able to talk to friends and family members I'm constantly in contact with, it was nice to truly be able to get away from everything for a little while.

And of course, the 80-degree sunny weather was a little taste of heaven for me after a long, cold winter. We laid by the pool, went snorkeling, and went to the beach. There was delicious food, 2-for-1 martinis, and champagne. And lots and lots of time to read.

So, come back and visit me this week now that I'm back, and you'll find out all about our trip and get some (lots!) of book recommendations.

Book Review: The Book Of Tomorrow

Do you have any authors that make you feel like you've watched them "grow up?" You know, the ones where you come across their first book in hardcover, love it, find their second book, buy it, stalk Barnes and Noble for the third one, and so on. And then, pretty soon, you have a full collection of  hardcover books, because you hate to have some in hardcover and some in paperback, so of course, you spend the extra $10. It's only logical, of course.

One of those authors for me is Cecelia Ahern. I read P.S. I Love You (not this linked version though. Apparently when you make a movie from a book, the publicity photo replaces all artwork.) on an airplane out to Thousand Oaks, CA, when I was a senior in high school. I was headed out for an interview for a scholarship and to check out the college, and lugged the book out with me on the plane to read rather than do my make-up work. And I loved it, despite the fact I was 18, not married, and never experienced that kind of grief. It moved me, which I think says a lot about Ahern's talent as a writer.

I, personally, don't think any of her books are as good as her first (and that the movie really doesn't do the book justice, but again, just my opinion). That doesn't mean I don't like them, no; it just means that P.S. I Love You was that good. With the exception of her second book, the rest of her books have some kind of magical elements to them, so really, comparing them would be like comparing apples to oranges (which is not my favorite expression, but it'll do in this particular instance). And her most recent book (which I didn't buy, but found at the library instead), The Book Of Tomorrow is no different.

Basically, the story goes like this: Tamara Goodwin and her mother move to the country to live with her aunt and uncle after her father dies. Her mother is in mourning and never talks with anyone or leaves her room. Bored, Tamara comes across a book that appears to be a diary, but really, it's a book that tells her exactly what's going to happen the next day, and it's up to her to decide what she does with the information. Which, in the process, leads to a mysterious twist that I'm not even going to hint at, because I imagine most of you are not like me and would mind the spoiler.

I think it's one of her best "magic" books, and while it can be predictable in the end, it's not predictable as a whole. And it makes you think about what you would do if you were in the same instance: Would you try and change what happens or just go along with what the book tells you?

I think as a character, Tamara also grows a lot, and the other active characters are well-developed, as well. There's a lot to be said about human nature in all of them, and how their decisions made them who they are, and how certain instances in your life really affect your future.

And with that, I leave you with this small passage I marked, because while it seems very high school girl, I think it's important to remember as we go about our lives:

I learned something important that night. You shouldn't try to stop everything from happening. Sometimes you're supposed to feel awkward. Sometimes you're supposed to be vulnerable in front of people. Sometimes it's necessary because it's all part of you getting to the next part of yourself, the next day. -Cecelia Ahern's The Book Of Tomorrow

DIY: Living Room Artwork

As I posted yesterday, we're getting a lot checked off of our list! If you hadn't noticed, pretty much every room has "hang photos" as a task. Nathan loves photography, and he is quite good at it, so we have lots of choices for our home. He likes pictures of scenes, while I like pictures of people, so we compromise, mix and match, for a look that is perfectly us.

I had found an idea on a blog (though I am not sure which one) for a butterfly specimen shadowbox using punched out paper. I thought I could make it using some of the paper remaining from the wedding to hang up in our living room, among the photos. I thought it was originally a Martha Stewart project, but couldn't find a tutorial on her site; however, I did find lots of other projects I wanted to try out. There are also several versions available on etsy, but I like to think this is uniquely us because I used the same punch used for our aisle decorations and the paper leftover from those as well as the book covers and centerpieces.

Here's my version of how I put everything together, though it seems like the other tutorials out there are much easier.

My supplies were all ones that I already had. The four kinds of paper were from the wedding, and I also already had the punch. Then I just needed a pencil, glue, and a ruler.

I originally planned on using the white paper for the backdrop, but with the other white paper, I thought the punches wouldn't pop as much. So I chose blue as the backdrop, which actually goes with our curtains better and will pop more on a grayish wall once we paint.

I used my ruler to draw out a grid. It took a few tries to get it just right, but eventually I ended up with 2 inches between each dot. I had to take the punch size into account when figuring all of this out.

Then, I just glued each punch onto the paper where the lines matched up, making sure they were straight, and let it dry. I chose to alternate the whites and use the orange punches to make an L, though I wanted it to be subtle.

Once the glue was dry, I erased the lines and put it in a 12x12 frame we had already bought. And here it is, the final product. I'll show it again when it's hung up, because it's going to be part of something bigger.

P.S. Yes, that is the stair ledge I meant to paint white today. Someday, it will be checked off the list.

House Projects

Remember when I posted our house list a while ago? Well, we've made some great process on it, so I wanted to give you an update.

Basement (which includes storage room, home theater, and laundry room/bathroom)
*Paint trim DONE
*Fix mess ups from paint job DONE
*Fix windows [These are really old and outdated and are actually letting air in. Bad.]
*Paint stairs [We want to paint them to match the rest of the room, kind of a khaki-green color.]
*Paint stair ledge and trim
*Hang photos [These got taken down when we moved the furniture down.]
*Put lights in sconces [The sconces cover up the rear speakers.] DONE, and they look awesome
*Make bar/organize bar [Turning my old craft desk into a bar. It's going to be cool!] Functional, just not pretty
*Organize the pile of nails and screws in the tool drawer [Nathan's addition to the list.] DONE
*Replace tile [Shelby chewed a hole in the floor when she was a puppy. We then moved her up to the kitchen.] DONE
*Add baseboard [Shelby also chewed up a wall that didn't have a baseboard on it. It needs to be fixed.]
*Paint laundry room [There are some holes that need filled.]
*Fix shower [There are some tiling issues currently.]

Living Room
*Paint [While most people love the color in there now, we aren't the biggest fans, so this is one of the last rooms we need to work on. We're thinking a purple accent wall leading into the kitchen, and then a gray/tan/cream on the rest of the walls.]
*Paint trim [This is one of the worst rooms in terms of not clean trim...]
*Stain loveseat/recover [We bought a love seat off of craigslist that just needs to match our existing furniture.]
*Hang curtains DONE
*Hang photos [I have some fun ideas for the room, but until we paint . . . ]
*Organize shelves [The big bookcases in here are starting to have random piles on them, kind of a throwall if you will.]
*Get pillows for loveseat [We'll have to see how the rooms turn out first.]

Kitchen
*Re-organize cabinets and bakers rack [The way we have it now still just doesn't feel right to me.] DONE, and it's just right now
*PAINT!!!! [This is how it appears on the list. The kitchen paint is my least favorite in all of the house. Four colors of gray/silver and a bright blue, with wood cabinet doors only.]
*Clean oven and microwave [I'd be really embarrassed if anyone ever saw these. I just always forget about them when cleaning!.] DONE
*Set up recycling system. ATTEMPTED
*Add door that goes out to the backyard [This is a future project.]
*Remove molding [One wall has molding that will need to be taken out to add cabinets.]
*Hang photos

And, because the rooms that we were mostly done with never made it onto the list:

Bathroom/Hallway
*Clean out/Rearrange cupboard WILL BE DONE TODAY
*Repaint cupboard
*Paint Hallway
*Paint trim

My Room
*Paint trim DONE
*Paint desk
*Hang up photos

Nathan's Room
*Paint trim DONE
*Hang up photos

Master Bedroom
*Hang up photos
*Paint trim DONE
*Paint desk and recover chair
*Make lamps

See? We're doing well! And with the spring weather on the way in, it will be even easier to check some things off. Of course, you'll be updated as we go, too.

Quotebook

There's no better way for me to be creatively motivated than to open up a new notebook or journal with a pretty cover. And because I tend to compartmentalize everything in my way of thinking, I have a lot of them hanging around the house for specific uses. On our trip to Europe, I took a journal that my mom and dad had given us as a shower present to record our trip as well as a small spiral notebook to jot down whatever I needed to during the crazy long flights and the week off of work. I didn't want them to mix purposes. The journal got updated daily, with summaries of our adventures, written by the pool. Unfortunately, the small spiral notebook was used only once, and its purpose was to stall us at security right before we literally ran through the Frankfurt airport trying to catch our last-hope flight to Barcelona to get on the boat.

I have one journal in particular that means the most to me, if there were a hierarchy.  I have had it since high school and I brought it with me to Nebraska. It's thick, with bright white pages, and its cover is made from a beautiful pink and purple paisley silk scarf. I got it for Christmas in 2002 from my aunt and uncle, as the very first opening page states so clearly. I remember deciding that it was too pretty to be used as just a journal; no, it must have a special purpose. So it became my Quotebook.

I have always loved quotes. (Or quotations? I can never remember the rule, but my personal preference is quotes, so that's what I'm going with.) I had pages and pages of them saved on my computer, and I would always go searching for them whenever I was feeling a certain way. So looking back, they really are a way of remembering who I was as a high schooler, and what I must have felt; I just did so using the words of other people.

The first quote in the book: "If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it." Toni Morrison

The last? "Love is not complicated; it comes directly from the heart. It only becomes complicated when the mind tries to translate it."

And some from the middle:
"When one door closes, another door opens; but so often we look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the ones that open for us." -Alexander Graham Bell
"If you can dream it, you can do it." -Walt Disney
"Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, so most people don't recognize them." -Ann Landers

I imagine this sequence was a result from some boy issue I was having:
"You can't make someone love you. All you can do is be someone who can be loved. The rest is up to them."
"Some things are worth waiting for, even if they keep you waiting forever."
"Sometimes the thing you want most in life is the hardest to get; stop trying so hard and just maybe it will be easier to receive."
"Maybe God wants us to meet a few wrong people before meeting the right one, so that when we finally meet the right person, we will know how to be grateful for that gift."

And my senior quote, which was perhaps not my favorite, but one that reflected how I was feeling at that time, though I think a different version was printed:
"Beginnings are scary, endings are usually sad; it's what you do in the middle that counts the most." -Hope Floats

I pulled this book out today for a project I'm starting to work on, but while flipping through it, I couldn't find just the right one that I wanted to use. While all of these words meant a lot to me as a teenager, I'm no longer angsty about love and my future. So, I'll have to update it with some quotes as I search for "the one" I want to use for my project. And of course, I'll share that update with you.

Friday Fancies

*Last night, Shelby and I watched The September Issue, which is a documentary about putting together the September issue of Vogue. Very interesting, from a journalism standpoint and a fashion standpoint and also lets you get to know some of the people behind the publication. It makes you think about the role fashion plays in our culture, how celebrities fit into the fashion world, and how influential Vogue is on this world. And, I love watching them put the magazine together--I think every newsroom should be like Vogue!

*Speaking of celebrities, The New York Times had some great articles about Natalie Portman and James Franco this week, but not necessarily related to the Oscars or even acting; instead, it looks at their successes in education. I think it's so encouraging to young girls out there to have such a prominent woman in Hollywood also be so prominent in science. And even better, there are other actresses, too.

*An interesting development in regard to borrowing ebooks. I imagine there will be lots of discussion surrounding this topic as eReaders become more and more popular.

*Today is National Grammar Day! Check out Grammar Girl's Web site for some ideas on how to have fun with Grammar today.

*One of my favorite shows comes to an end Monday: Greek. I wish ABC Family shows were like football games, so I could go to a bar and watch it since we don't have cable. But instead, I'm going to have to stay off facebook and just watch it bright and early on Monday.

*Leah and I are going to book club tomorrow, thanks to my favorite blog, A Practical Wedding. I think it will be a great opportunity to get to know some women in Lincoln and talk about marriage and relationships and drink and eat.

*I'm currently working on a few new projects for the etsy store. I'm finishing up a baby calendar and looking for blocks of wood for my doorknob bookends. I'll let you know when those are in the shop.

Have a great weekend!

Book Review: Water For Elephants

It's a gorgeous day here, and after my drive to Omaha for a meeting, Shelby and I walked down to the library to drop off some books. I actually felt quite sad about returning one of them: Water For Elephants.

I've had numerous people tell me over the years that I needed to read it, and I'm not sure why I put it off. I was planning on buying it and reading it on my nook, because it was only $5, but then I saw it at the library for even cheaper: free!  And once I started reading it, I couldn't put it down: I'm officially onboard the Water For Elephants train.

Not only is the story engrossing and unique, but the writing is beautiful and her characters are so well developed. What I'm most impressed about is the fact that she is writing from a man's perspective, which you don't find very often. I'm not of the opinion that an author is necessarily the same as a character, that if you're a woman, you have to write female characters and vice versa. But I think that she does an amazing job all the same, because I don't think it's easy to get to level of detail that she does, and it makes Jacob all the more real to me. I can't wait to see how Robert Pattinson makes the part come alive in the movie.

I found the history to be fascinating, and the dynamics between the different levels of circus workers as well as the dynamics between these workers and the animals. There are parts where these relationships seemed to come out of the pages, and I felt such saddness and then such happiness and almost attachment to the elephants and horses.

And, here's a final fun fact for you: Sara Gruen wrote the novel as part of National Novel Writing Month. Just one more reason to check it out.

Celebrate Reading

Today is Dr. Suess' birthday, and Read Across America Day, which is a particularly special day to read. While specifically it involves specific programming in schools about the wonderful world of Suess (have you seen the Dr. Suess fabric? Love.), I think any day should be an opportunity to crack open any book. Or, maybe you could consider green eggs and ham for dinner. I remember doing this as a kid, and it was really fun--and probably pretty easy to make. Here's a recipe in case you need it, as pulled from my memory/improvised a bit.

Green Eggs & Ham
Eggs (number depends on how many people you're feeding: 1-2 eggs per person)
Milk
Cubed ham (I would buy the pre-cubed kind from the grocery store)
Cheese (to add extra deliciousness)
Green food coloring

Crack the eggs into a bowl and mix with a little bit of milk and green food coloring. Set aside. In a hot pan, cook the ham, then add eggs and scramble. Mix in cheese. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Also, because you know I love a good digital reading vs. traditional reading debate: When I was searching for information on this special day to share with you, I came across this from the LA Times. What I find most interesting, and perhaps telling of what direction reading has taken, is the fact that the picture that is shown is not a book--it's an iPhone. And they also talk about the Dr. Suess app, because of course there's an app for it. Personally, I prefer the feel of a real book, but what about you? Will you be reading on your smartphone today?