Christmas and Fall decorations at our apartment

I am grateful for the dollar tree - where you can get craft supplies for a dollar :)

I made this wreath for fall.

The day after Thanksgiving, Greg and I went to Christmas tree lots in town to find the perfect Christmas tree - and we found it! A mountain tree - much better than those overfed perfectly conically trimmed plantation trees (those are Greg's exact words). We like it quite a bit. Merry Christmas!

A tour of our apartment

Here is finally a tour of our apartment!

This is our dining room sort of... These are the chairs Greg and I made this summer, and the table from DI that we refinished.

This is our living room/study - Greg is so handsome, even when he is doing his homework :) We really like our brown steamer trunk and our bookshelf in this area - and Greg built the display shelves you see above the couch.

This is the other wall of our little living room.

And here we go to the rest of the house...

oops! Before we do that, here is our galley kitchen - I am really grateful for the counter space and all of the cabinets! We do not even use them all, there are so many!

Here is a close-up of our little wonder washer - our laundry system! It is cheaper than the laundromat and more convenient as well. It only takes about 2 minutes to wash a load (and it can fit 3-4 pairs of jeans, or 6- 7 shirts plus rags, etc.)

Our back porch - a good storage area... he he he....

The bathroom

Our bedroom

And a lopsided picture of our second bedroom (destined to be our little boy's bedroom soon!)

Playing catch-up on a couple of trips this year...

Hi! This is Greg again. We thought we'd post a few pictures from our trips to Portugal (in May) and Washington, D.C. (August).

This is the lighthouse in Leça da Palmeira...

And a delicious bola de Berlim!!!

The beautiful Michelle at the beautiful beach of Espinho...

 And the beautiful Michelle trying to get into the castle at Santa Maria da Feira.

I had an engineering conference in D.C. in August. Michelle came along to visit her family.

Happy travels!

Our Genuine Spinning Wheel (in progress)

Hello! Due to popular request, we're putting up a couple pictures of the progress of our spinning wheel. The smaller thing in the bottom left of this first picture is the flyer, with the bobbin on. 

And here is the wheel, nice and round now, with the axle.

Why are we making a spinning wheel? Well, we just think it's fun. And Michelle got me some "mohair" (that's Angora goat wool) for my birthday to spin into yarn. Someday we'll make a loom too, and maybe raise some goats or sheep or Angora rabbits ourselves (or grow flax). It gives us something creative to do, too, while we're watching a movie.

finished projects and some of our summer adventures

Would you like a tour of our new apartment and a look at some finished projects? Here you go! Greg and I have had a wonderful summer, and have enjoyed the start to the new school year. Greg and I look forward to the crisp days of autumn - which means apples and fall leaves and apple pie for Greg and lots of good memories for both of us. We look forward to doing some canning of apples. We have already had some adventures with canning this year. In July, we canned cherry pie filling.

And, about 2 weeks later, we had just one jar unopened - we make really good pie filling  :)

 I finished backing and tying a quilt top I was given - it made a very pretty quilt, which made for a very happy niece.

I tried my hand at making a baby blanket - this is gender neutral, don't you think?

Greg helped me figure out how to make covers for pillows that are removable and thus washable :) I enjoyed picking the colors and buttons - I really like the way they look on our couch.

I made some seat cushions for our dining room chairs with Greg's help - 

I made some more cushion covers for decorative pillows for our bed as well...

Greg and I finished our dining room chairs! We made a set of four chairs for less than $50.

Greg made a new slat for the back of this rocking chair (which we got for $5 at a yard sale), and then we cleaned it up and doesn't it look nice! We like it a lot.

Greg and I got to visit the John R. Moyle farm on Pioneer Day - he is the stonecutter who walked over 20 miles each way from Alpine to Salt Lake to work on the Salt lake temple, and he did this for over 20 years with a wooden leg he designed himself. He carved "Holiness to the Lord" on the face of the temple - what an amazing man!

And we have hiked Bridal Veil falls this summer - it was really beautiful when we went in mid-July. 

And there is a bit of what we have been up to - I hope you enjoyed it!

Oh and Bytheway...

Some books I have been reading off and on recently and been enjoying are the following:

-A biography about George C. Marshall, written by Mark Stoler.
- "Paradise Beneath her feet" a book about Islamic women and their role in reshaping Islamic society as it changes.
- "Democracy - An American Novel" by Henry Adams. Entertaining and thought provoking - I enjoyed it.

Greg and I have been listening to "Little Women" (which Greg had not read before) on Librivox.org - a great website where you can listen to books online for free. It is a project linked to the Gutenberg project I think.

Greg and I are also reading the "Little House on the Prairie" series together (which is also a new experience for Greg) when we drive in the car - and we really enjoy it. It is fun to share some of my favorite books and childhood favorites with Greg.

This post is really just as a record for myself I think - but also to let you know what we are up to these days...

Updates

Yes! We are still alive, and we are doing well.

What has happened since April 18?

Well, we graduated together!
We went to Portugal!
We finished sanding and staining an oak table we got at Deseret Industries!
We went to a symposium where our cousin presented.
We got to have my brother D. stay with us before he went to Texas, which was really fun.
We decided to build our own kitchen chairs instead of buying them, and they are coming along nicely!
We are excited that we are saving a bundle of money by building them - I think that they will be cheaper than buying them at D.I., and better because we have the satisfaction of making them ourselves. Greg is so clever!
We finished our mandolin, and have enjoyed playing it often.
We are excited to go to a Teichert family reunion next week.
We went camping!
We have been enjoying several BBC miniseries - namely "Wives and Daughters" and "Cranford" and "Return to Cranford" - and Greg likes them!
We have been blessed in many ways....
We tried to help rescue a baby duck stuck at the bottom of a storm drain.
We are dog-sitting for some friends.



If you couldn't tell, I don't have all the pictures to go with these developments, but they will come soon! In the meantime, I hope that you are all well (if anyone still reads this blog) and that you are having a great summer!