July Birthday Extravaganza!

Since Eric and I have birthdays that are 4 days apart we always get to have a big, long drawn out birthday week. It's awesome! This we we got some amazing gifts from my parents to spruce up our back deck. It was much needed and very much appreciated! Thanks Mom and Dad!

Snazzy new back deck stuff!

For Eric we got a gorgeous new gas grill. We had a charcoal grill before which was great except that it took forever to get going making grilling a huge production. The result was that we never used it. This grill is so easy, we can just turn it on and we're good to go! We made our first meal on it the other night which turned out amazing but I'll blog about that later.

For me we got an amazing new patio set from World Market. We moved all our old, junky metal stuff off and cleaned things up a bit and it looks so much more organized and pleasant! I love the natural wood of the tables and chairs and they are much more sturdy than what we had before. Willow likes them too :-)

I also got some cute citronella candles to help keep the bugs away :-)

What birthday would be complete without birthday waffles and some lovely flowers? I seriously had one of the best birthdays ever, everyone went out of their way to make my day special and amazing :-)

One more shot of Willow enjoying the new patio furniture,  just because she's cute. 

We can't wait to entertain on our new and improved back deck! it is seriously so lovely now! If only it would get a little less buggy and hot it would be perfect :-)

Christmas in August

We had a surprise visit from Eric's mom Jody yesterday and boy did she shower us with goodies! Whenever Jody comes for a visit I feel like she is santa and her mini van is the sleigh, she always brings us such amazing stuff! This time around she brought us our much anticipated wedding present! Back at the time of our wedding Jody and Don (Eric's dad) told us that they had commissioned a custom made bookshelf for us as our wedding present. The bookshelf was going to be made by Jody's brother who makes the most beautiful custom cabinetry and furniture and is the owner of Arizona Wood, check out their website arizonawood.net to see some of his other amazing work. The bookshelf is replacing our old particle board one that held our kitchen stuff and cookbooks. Check out the pictures below:

Our beautiful custom bookshelf!

close up of the gorgeous mesquite wood

we put some of the spices (in their new jars) on top of the shelf until our corner pantry gets done.

Side view, gorgeous wood grain. 

It is awesome! We are so happy and thankful to have it, what a special gift! It's so exciting to have real furniture, it's like we're real grownups or something ;-P

The other exciting piece of furniture Jody brought us is an incredible family heirloom from Eric's grandpa Jim. It's a steamer trunk, the kind that people used to pack all their possessions in while they traveled by boat. I believe this particular one is from the depression era. Oh my gosh it's gorgeous. We are using it to store out of season clothing and blankets in the bedroom, what a welcome addition!

so beautiful! And huge!

  Last but not least, having heard about our spice storage issues Jody picked up some magnetic spice jars for us. What a great idea! It doesn't come close to housing all of our spices but it is a great start and having the spices we use most right next to the stove is awesome! Here are some pics.

Lots of great additions to home this week, we are so happy about them! Thanks Don and Jody!