Scandinavian Adventure!

Okay, this year is going to be amazing. That's it. We get a house AND a trip to Scandinavia! We are pumped. My dad travels a lot for work and racks up the frequent flier miles and very generously donated them to our pouty faces as we told him that roundtrip tickets were going for over a thousand dollars per person. Awesome!! We depart from LA on August 23rd for Oslo, Norway where we'll tour around for 5 days or so before taking the train down to Copenhagen for a few days, and then we'll wrap up the trip for a week in Sweden. Our friends Brendan Monroe and Evah Fan live in Stockholm and are artists so we'll tour around all their favorite places with them I hope and check out the Swedish art scene. My aunt and uncle, Britt and Rui, and my cousins Jonatan and Johanna all live in Stockholm also so we will of course see and spend quality time with them (the picture above is the view from their balcony! It overlooks the harbor, amazing. It's snowed over there now, my dad took this picture on his trip last week, but it will be gorgeous when we're there in the summer). 

My aunt and uncle, Dagfinn and Bjorg, and cousins Eivind and Jon, live in and around Oslo so we're looking forward to seeing them as well. We'll be backpacking and hosteling and traveling by foot and train and we'll try to cram as much adventuring in as possible. Jeff is beside himself with excitement, as he's wanted to go to Scandinavia badly for a long time. I can't wait to share with him the places we went on our family vacations, show him Lillestrom where my dad is from, the Viking ships museum, the harbor, and all the good eats that the countries have to offer. I think Jeff is expecting all reindeer and moose burgers, but I'm all about the paprika chips from the grocery store. I will live off of those, shrimp, and Kinder eggs for the two weeks. No problem.

Here's another picture from Britt and Rui's home, isn't it gorgeous? The Danish furniture I mean, not the view. The view isn't too shabby either I guess. :) It's a good thing I can't fit furniture in my suitcase...

Britt and Rui and the very typical Norwegian/Swedish breakfast. I'll pass on the meat but I love the thick cut bread with yummy jam. Mmmm... Jan would be all over that baconost. It's this (in my opinion) gross white cheese spread infused with bacon essence. You squirt it out of a tube, which is just one reason why it's gross. Ligonberry jam I'll take though! My aunt looks so much like my dad, it's pretty hilarious. I wonder if Jan and I are going to be like that when we're older... he should be so lucky!

We can't wait!! Many more blog posts about what we want to see while we're there so stay tuned. :)

Yay USPS!

I've been waiting for the USPS to get more Humane Society stamps, and these ones are perfect! Well, all Siamese cats would have been more perfect, but I'll still buy these. They're called Stamps to the Rescue. Adorable.

From Dog Milk: "The US Postal Service has unveiled its newest batch of stamps, Adopt a Shelter Pet commemorative postage stamps. The Stamps to the Rescue promotional campaign featuring spokesperson Ellen DeGeneres aims to donate 1 million meals to animal shelters across the country. DeGeneres co-owns Halo, Purely for Pets, a holistic pet care company. The stamps feature five cats and five dogs who were adopted from a shelter in New Milford, CT. The portraits were taken by stamp photographer Sally Andersen-Bruce. You can order them at the online USPS Postal Store now, or wait and get them at your local post office starting on April 30th."

Liberty of London!

I was so excited for this collection to come to Target this month and couldn't wait to see the pieces in person. It debuted on the 14th which is when Jeff and I were in Fallbrook visiting our friends Matt and Joie, but with Joie's help, we convinced the boys that it was a perfect Target shopping day and we got to go. I bought the dress that I saw online and had been crossing my fingers it was as pretty in person, and I'm so happy with it. It's perfect for Kelsey and Jake's garden wedding in May in San Diego and was only $34.99!! The length is perfect for my turquoise heels that I'll be wearing with it, and I love the one shoulder look. Score!

Fuuuudgesilcles.

This week (8 months?) has been an emotional roller coaster I tell you. We got great news yesterday morning when we heard that Jeff's 'Lost' pieces sold (AWESOME! Cha-ching!) which was promptly followed by a phone call from our BofA mortgage loan underwriters asking us to submit our 2009 tax return ASAP. Um... don't we have until April 15th? NO! We were waiting to submit them because we were going to use a CPA this year AND we wanted to cash in on our $8,000 tax credit for buying a home. Well no. Since Jeff is self-employed, they need hard proof of what he's raking in so we needed to get on it right then. It was painful. We did it together on H&R Block online (which was really easy to use actually and I'm glad we did that instead of shelling out $500 for a CPA) but it took awhile and we were hit hard. Hard enough to pretty much wipe out that $8,000 coming back to us. I guess it's a good thing that we owed that much, it meant that Jeff brought in a good chunk last year, but I need to get used to forking over a check like that every April. I was pretty grumpy last night. We saved accordingly during the year though so we're going to be okay, it just sucked.

Plus, because we submitted our taxes one week before we're actually buying the house, we couldn't claim it just yet so our tax credit couldn't pay our taxes, our poor savings account had to. I thought that meant we couldn't get the 8K until we filed 2010 taxes and I almost cried. A little internet research told me we can file an amendment after we get the house and so we'll get that money back pretty quickly. Phew.

Jeff keeps saying "Nothing is ever easy!! ARGH!!" and it's kind of true when it comes to being self-employed and buying a house. There are so many steps to this process and so many highs and lows. To have ridden this roller coaster for 9 months has made us both want to puke and we can't even fathom what it's going to feel like on March 26th when we sign that last signature and become members of the landed aristocracy...

Fundraiser for Lucy

Poor Jill Bliss' dog Lucy has had some health problems recently and Jill is having a fundraiser sale on her website to help pay for Lucy's vet bill. That's a cause I'm happy to support, so I bought a print, a couple of notecards, and a notepad. I wanted the little fabric bags she had but those got snapped up. She has a bunch of original art pieces up for sale (at a big discount), but I have to save my pennies for the house repairs. Check out the sale and help out if you can! Click here to see the items.

I bought the Sasquatch print for Jeffy. I think he'll like it. :)

I'm torn between being embarrassed about this and proud of it...

These are my inspiration slides for the house! I just can't wait. I'm chomping at the bit to start painting and decorating and designing and since I don't have the keys yet, I have to do it on the computer. It's pretty nerdy, I realize, but I don't care. Jeff and my parents already make fun of me for it so I'm used to the taunts. 

We want a big old schoolhouse chalkboard for the kitchen. Sue, get all of your teacher friends to start looking out for us. We'll buy the school a new one in exchange for an old wood one. :) We're going to use Mythic paint in the house I think, it's gotten the best reviews that I've seen. I love this dove gray color for the kitchen walls. 

We took measurements at the home inspection. The blue boxes indicate windows. 

I want a danish teak bed so badly it hurts. My parents have one and it's still stylish. 

We think we like this purple Geoff McFetridge wallpaper a little more than the dinosaurs for the dining room. The dinosaur wallpaper can go in the bambino's room. 

Here's that yeti paper, in all the colors. We still  need to see how the red looks against our pink fixtures (cool?? Hideous?) so we might go with the gray. Once we have money again that is. The toilet is a dual flush from American Standard. Eco-friendly!

And this is my amateurish layout of our living room furniture. That's my sexy chocolate sofa, the yellow side tables behind it, our coffee table that Brendan made in front of it, Scott's navy blue leather chair by the two windows and next to the fireplace, and our huge flat screen TV that my parents are buying us on my teak console.

Squeal!!

Crazy cat lady, and one baboon pic