sharing.

When we first got married, we jumped on the bandwagon of sharing.  We started joint banking accounts, even to the dismay of the lady at the bank.  She vowed her and her husband have totally separate accounts and just about everyone else should too.  

So, we're pretty good at this sharing business, except for in one area....Laundry.  Perhaps this is due to my amount of clothes outweighing Kalin's amounts.  Perhaps it's because I always wait until the last minute to do my laundry.  We just do our own laundry on our own time.  With our house being a bit tiny and storage at a premium, I may need to reconsider my procrastinate-y means of cleaning clothes and I may need to combine my clothes with Kalin's.  He suggested that since he does all the cooking that I may need to be in charge of the laundry.  hmmm.  I totally understand.  And maybe this is just the "kick in the pants" I need to own up to a more adult, structured way of doing laundry.  Also, I'd rather I do the his laundry than Kalin do my laundry.  So, now we'll start sharing the laundry pile.  And just maybe our clothes will be cleaner more often.

I say this now, as I wait for the dryer to finish at 11:30pm tonight as I have yet again waited until the last minute and have nothing to wear tomorrow.  

we just wanted to ski

and we did, for a bit.  But the majority of our Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was spent inside the little Golf.   Something's terribly wrong with the radiator/coolant level.  But, after a five hour journey home from the slopes, we're safe and the car didn't explode, so that's good.

but, after all this, we'll learn something new about cars.  and german engineering.

we're almost homeowners!

This past week has been quite the adventure.  We've been looking at a place for quite some time (well, at least since I've been gainfully employed).  We've seen about 22 properties throughout different Denver neighborhoods and finally decided that The Highlands / Sloans Lake area was right where we want to be.  The nearness of the lake and the downtown Highlands area reminded us of what we loved about being so close to everything when we lived in Seattle.  

We saw this one place 3 blocks away from Sloan's Lake right before we left for Christmas in San Jose.  I'd have to say I definitely wasn't sold on it due to it's size (888 sq. ft) but the floor plan was very well utilized, the kitchen was brand new, the bedrooms were a nice size, it has a small backyard and it was affordable.  Kalin was sold on the place but didn't tell me as to influence my decision.  I had a few weeks to mill it over and then I just couldn't stop thinking about the place - how I'd arrange the furniture, what I'd do to increase storage with creative decorating, thinking about how charming it was, how easy it is to clean just one bathroom and a petastal sink.  So, eventually, I was already living in the place.  Just in my mind.

We went back last Saturday with my parents and decided this was it.  Wrote an offer sunday night, countered and by Tuesday, our earnest money was in Escrow.  And today, we had inspections.  It did quite well for being built in 1956.  We've got a few fix-it projects ahead of us that will just teach us how to be good homeowners.  We're on our way.  And we move in on Feb 14 (super-cute, huh?  Our realtor just thinks that's the best day ever to move in...I agree!)

Instead of me trying to describe our home-to-be, here are some pics:

Front door, our quad-plex neighbors are next to us and across the courtyard.  Also, they are all in our age-range!!!  Sweet!

View of the living room/dining area.  Original hardwoods!

Super-awesome kitchen.  I've got plans for glass subway tile in here.  Perhaps in a sea-foam green color to go with our Red appliances.

more kitchen

Bathroom - paint color to be changed.  mirror too.  think I'll go for a more spa feel.

Master - hmmm still trying to mentally decorate, but will need some more planning.

Backyard.  Can you picture our future little puppy (I'm thinking yorkie...) running around here?

More pictures to come once it's decorated more with my style and our furniture.  This is high school Kara's dream come true to decorate/design my house!  I've even gone so far to create story boards for each room.  This would actually be a good idea to help Kalin realize what the heck I'm thinking about.  If only I could transport my mind pictures into his mind.  HAH.  

I'm sure there will be more blogging on the goings-on of the adventures in homeownership of Kalin and Kara.

Also.  3 miles to my work, 5 miles to Kalins.  Hello biking/busing to work!

ringing in the new year

New Years Day was way over a week ago, but I have a bit of blog catch-up to do.  Kalin and I had an awkward Wednesday and Thursday off in the middle of the week for New Years, so didn't have big plans for an extended weekend.  My great, amazing friend from Westmont, Caley, lives in the area, so we set off on a one-day quick adventure with her for New Years Day.

We decided that snowshoeing was going to be the cheapest, most exciting idea.  Caley knew of this trail outside of Copper Mountain Ski Resort.  We strapped on our snowshoes and headed up the trail.  For the most part, the trail was all uphill.  Because it was such a nice day, we started shedding our layers on the way up.  It was such a beautiful hike and it was nice to see that so many people were out as well.  And there were tons of dogs!  Oh man.  It made me want a dog desperately.  Our hike ended (well, for us, at least) at an old abandoned Cabin that was probably at one point housing for mine workers way back when.  People had carved their names into the logs and possibly spent a few nights in one unfortunate looking cabin with carpet remains.  But it was a pretty cool little ghost town.

After lunch, we headed back down towards Denver.  There is an exit off I-70 for the Mother Cabrini Shrine.  I've seen this sign my whole life but never ventured any further.  With a sleeping Kalin in the back seat, Caley and I decided it was about time we figured out what the deal was with this place.  After driving up a windy road that has it's own fund to "fix our road" we arrived at a full parking lot and a TON OF PEOPLE everywhere.  The shrine is under a huge sculpture of Christ at the top of the hill.  So, after we climbed the 370-odd steps, we made it to the Shrine.  The views were amazing:

Mother Cabrini came to the US and was cannonized into the Patron Saint of Immigrants.  She started an orphanage on top of the hill and also created a stone symbol of the Heart of Christ.  And from the amount of people there, she has quite a few followers.  It was a very beautiful place that I would have never known existed.  A ghost town and a shrine in one day?  Perfect.

its been awhile.

Hello Blogosphere.  We're back, full of updates of all sorts and ideas for blogs that should make up for our time away.  It was the holidays, I started a new job, we went to California, we've been house hunters.  So, we've been relatively busy, I'd say.  But more on all that later.

Back in September, I started collecting fabric that would be the inspiration for a quilt that I decided to make for my sister Kayla for Christmas.  I thought I could dare to match other fabrics to the inspirational Amy Butler's Midwest Modern line, but I failed.  So, luckily there are quite a few colorways and patterns in this line, that I just chose about 12 different fabrics to go with.  I used the Lotus quilt pattern (free online from Amy's website: www.amybutlerdesign.com).  This required 198 - 7.5" x 4.5" pieces.  After cutting those out, I had the task of arranging them, trying my darndest not to have too many repeats in a particular area of the quilt.  Here is that process (half the quilt):
Then to sew all the 11 pieces of each column together:Then to sew all the columns together, basting the quilt top to the batting to the backing.  And then some hand quilting around 58 squares (this part took me the longest and got me closer to the deadline than I had hoped...).  Then the easy and most satisfying part - puting the binding on and getting it done 2 days before Kayla came home from Canada.

This is her reaction:

I'm pretty sure those are tears welling up or something?!?! Hah, just kidding.  The poor girl was probably thankful to just have another blanket to keep her warm in the cold winters of Canada.  But really, she loved it!  I was slightly worried by the pinks that I put in there.  I backed it with some mustard yellow fabric that is more in line with her color palette tastes.  Here are some more pics of the final piece:

This was the ONLY handmade Christmas item I made.  Next year there will be more.  It sure is a good feeling to finish something like this and then be able to give it to someone you love.