Monthly Archives: February 2015

2 Day Road Trip to Vancouver

Posted in Travel by

Vancouver Skyline

Rachel and I decided to take a last minute road trip over President’s Day to Vancouver, Canada.  We have been talking about going for probably the last 6 years or so and just never managed to get around to it.  But Rachel has been on a huge kick lately to do a bunch of the things she has always been planning to do in the area, but hasn’t gotten around to yet.  We left Sunday morning and came back Monday night.  Vu had to work on Monday, so once again he didn’t come.  We will both be so happy when he is done with his MBA!  (only 15 more weeks to go!)  Not that school had anything to do with him having to work.  School+work=very little free time to go with me when I travel for Vu :(.  Not that that bothers him…

We left early (and by early I actually mean early for me, as in I left my house at 8:30) on Sunday morning and headed up to Vancouver.  It was a perfect day!  We have had some really great weekend weather lately.  And what is with the cherry blossoms and daffodils blooming already? (Please don’t be another really hot summer…)

We really liked Vancouver.  The whole downtown area is very walkable.  Sunday afternoon we spent walking along the seawall at Stanley Park (after we figured out how to drive into the park with a minor detour into North Vancouver).  We got there right after a race had finished, so there were runners everywhere.  Since it was a beautiful warm Sunday afternoon in February there really weren’t very many people at the park… or not.  It was pretty busy.

Stanley Park LighthouseStanley Park Totem PolesLion's Gate BridgeLion's Gate Bridge Lion

We spent the afternoon wandering around the park.  We both loved the Lion’s Gate Bridge (Rachel shares my obsession with bridges). Continue reading →

12 Month’s of Holiday Décor: February

Posted in Decorations, DIY, Valentine's by

Valentine Decor (7)

Yay it’s February!  So excited that I am still 2 for 2 for the holiday decorations.  I am really happy with how February’s decorations have turned out.  I hardly had any Valentine’s decorations before, but I spent very little money on this, plus almost everything that I did buy was on sale or on clearance.  That always makes me (and Vu) happy.

Valentine Decor (6)

I made the 4 heart blocks a couple of weeks ago.  I was planning on making my own “Love” sign but then I saw this one at Joann’s that I really liked and it was 80% off… so I just bought it instead.  (Also I forgot to add that the letter blocks that were also in January’s décor I made a few years ago using this tutorial.)

Valentine Decor (3)

I have really gotten into embroidery the last year and wanted to make something for Valentine’s day too.  I love tree’s and I have seen so many variations of the initials carved into a tree so decided that is what I wanted to do.  I have to be honest, I don’t love how it turned out.  There are a number of things I would like to change about it, so maybe another year I will redo it.  But I like it well enough for now.  I kept the branches from the January décor and added some sequin “branches” to them.  I took pieces of wire and twisted pink 20 mm round sequins onto them and then twisted them around the tree branches.

Heart Banner (1)

The heart garland is one of my favorite things, I love how it turned out.  I had some scraps of beige muslin left from another project so I cut them into 4.5″ x 5.5″ rectangles, then sewed a zig zag stitch around the edges to prevent fraying and to give it a little bit of a rough edge.  Then I printed out a paper heart to use as a template and pinned it to the different pink fabrics (fat quarters from Joann’s that I got 50% off) and cut out around it then sewed the fabric hearts onto the muslin.  I found some matching ric rac in a huge stash of craft supplies I “inherited” from my Grandma when she died (craft supply hoarding may be a family trait…my mom has a lot too…), and I used that to sew along the top to make the garland.  I love it with the ric rac.  It was a really easy project. Continue reading →