Czech Christmas

It was fun to have the Czech kids around at Christmas time.  

Hugo helped me decorate the tree.

It's a lot more fun buying gifts for kids.

Eric's family

We needed a family pic for the adoption book.  I like how this one turned out.

Christmas candy

This years candy stash

frigid frost

a week of frost on the lawn

 cold!

Tomatillos

So, as the season fades into winter, I've been able to sneak just a few more tomatoes and peppers off the plants, making me reluctant to clean the beds up just yet.  The weather has been crazy wet lately, so yesterday I decided to do a last look though before everything rotted.  Much to my surprise, there was tons of stuff!  Look at all of those tomatoes.  And more importantly, look at the tomatillos!  The plant I put in this year really never looked very good.  Flopped all over the ground and generally was pathetic.  In september I pulled off a few pathetic tomatillos, enough to make a small batch of salsa.  But when I looked yesterday, I found all of these!

This does not include the two fridge drawers of eggplant and the drawer of peppers I picked before the weekend.  The peppers in this pic are actually from Shawna's garden.  

So, I made salsa verde and bread and butter jalapeños.  And I though I was done canning for the season.  Good thing I had gotten lazy and the canner was still sitting at the top of the stairs waiting to be put away in the basement.  

Living room art

We finally found a piece for above the fireplace. It was a big challenge because the space is huge but awkwardly shaped.  We wanted something that would compliment the oddity.  Solo is a moving piece that will hypnotize you. 

Full pantry

Though its not the can pantry I have been promised, we got these shelves from Josh and Shawna and it was just in time because look at the canned goods I have this year.  

No jam, we still have some from 2 years ago.  This year was the year of the pickle and the tomato.  

Spaghetti squash.  I haven't brought in the butternut yet.  

architecture update

Well apparently it was worth it.
Ewing architect won the Peoples Choice Award in their local Pasadena chapter of the AIA.  They are super thrilled and our house is now on Houzz.com.  Yikes!

new project: kid's room mural

As we work toward the adoption process and are hoping to have kids in our life soon, I've been going a little stir crazy at the lack of action.  So, I decided to make my seasonal project prepping the room that will someday hold a child, doing the stuff that I would never find the time for once things get going.  

I found this picture online and decided that would make a fun mural for the bedroom wall.

This turned out to be a much bigger project than I expected, and took 3 solid weeks of work, yikes.

First we projected the animals onto the wall and I sketched them out.  Neatly avoiding my lack of artistic skills

 The trees came next.  Three layers of color to give the sense of perspective

Heres the trees done on the main wall.  You can kind of see the animal outlines

My first animal, not quite done, but the squirrel turned out pretty cute.  

I still have three layers of grass to do but I was impatient.

Fox wall with trees and first layer of grass 

Second layer of grass and the bird.  He was a wood pigeon in the original but we made him raptor like with the orange beak and feet.  

Bear started and the grass is done

Bear finished and deer started 

Pretty cool, huh?

 It wraps around to the fox wall

I love how the fox turned out.  The owl is fun too.  You can't tell in this picture but there is a big full moon behind the owl.

Almost done, but couldn't quit without the badger, so a last minute addition

This was a seriously involved project.  I have tons of paint left because I waaaaay overbought. But man oh man did it turn out cute.

Drying apples

At Dads house we pulled the last of the apples off his trees.  Later Hugo and Lada came over for a fun day of using the apple peeler and drying apples.

Lada, who likes to make her parents peel all fruit for her in eluding apples, loved the ribbons of skin. Here she is teasing the dogs.

Hugo was a ham with his.  

Hiking and firewood with the Czechs

We took Dasa and crew up to Dad's house to go for a hike and help Dad with some of the bigger firewood.  

I've never seen Lada hike so fast, but we hooked the dog leash on our belts and she got a serious kick out of pulling us along.

When she got tired, I didn't know better so I offered a shoulder ride.  She kept trying to stick fingers in my mouth.  ha

firewood was super productive.  Hugo was a great help.

Then of course, Pops cooked us an amazing dinner.  The kids had fun with the dogs.  All in all it was a good day.

cuteness

deck flowers

I really like how the deck flowers turned out this year.  My new phone takes good pictures.  Hence, deck flower pics!

Popcorn