Catch-all Office - Where you Live Fridays!

For the past several weeks, Kelly Stamps from Kelly's Korner has been hosting Show Us Where You Live Fridays!

This week is offices. The Iron Chef and I have contemplated turning our downstairs living room into an office so I'm excited to look at everyone's "offices" to get great ideas!

This is kind of our catch-all room, our 4th bedroom, our exercise room, our TV room, and most importantly, our office. It's a little light on the "office" aspect, but this is definitely the room that stores our printer and laptop and all the supplies that usually come with an office.

Welcome ... I've open to ideas and suggestions on how to make this room more cohesive!



Most of the furniture is pretty hodge-podgey, but the Iron Chef just took on a project to make everything black. At least it would all coordinate. The coffee table is from Goodwill (can we say thank you for bargains) and the little table next to the office was made in 8th grade woodshop class. And if you're thinking woodshop class, yes, I took "woods" for 2 semesters. That class was definitely one of the classes to take at Mona Shores Middle School and I have a solid wood piece of furniture as a reminder of my 8th grade talents.





I have two favorites in this room - our elliptical and our bookshelves in our closet. The elliptical is great to workout while Little A is sleeping or napping and I can't leave the house and our closet holds our sense of organization of paperwork in this house.





My husband recently built these shelves in our closet and they hold all of our office supplies. Two organizational tips I have (that quite frankly help me keep my paperwork organized in an efficient way) include accordion file folders and 3-ring binders full of sheet protectors. By dedicating one accordion file for each year, it makes filing paperwork and storing paperwork easy year after year. When the year is complete, I simply purchase a new accordion file and start the process over. In regards to the sheet protectors and 3-ring binders - this is the best possibly way to keep track and manage all of the paperwork that comes along with a house. From manuals from appliances to warranty information and paint samples, by simply placing everything into sheet protectors and into a binder, it's a great way to store and organize simple paperwork.





The Chicago Cubs are a baseball team favorite in this house and we simply couldn't go without a picture of Wrigley Field.

Multnomah Falls

The Iron Chef's college roommate was in town this week visiting, and what a better way to enjoy the scenery of the Pacific Northwest than a trip to Multnomah Falls (the nation's second largest year-round waterfall). A quick trip after work and before the sunset, but well worth it. And yes, this is already our 2nd trip to the falls this year and will soon be our 3rd when my parents are in town this week.





If you take a closer look you can see the beautiful rainbow in the middle of the falls. The light and the water were just perfect!



Littlest 'A' has a cute rocking chair but decided that a bin was much better for reading. Apparently sitting high on books in a small bin not usually used for books was a bit more comfortable. I'm not sure how, it just must have been. And, her book recommendation of the week is just an author - Sandra Boynton. We love her cute, children's books and have read almost all of them.



I know I've already posted a picture of the flowers from my backyard, but I decided to cut a few and put them in vases. First of all, if anyone has any tips on arranging flowers, please let me know. I'm horrible! But, I was able to make 3 lovely arrangements, including one for our guest bedroom so all our guests can sleep soundly with the scent of fresh flowers on their bedside.

Blast from the Past

This picture truly puts life into perspective. Life in regards to how fast your love ones grow up. This was just over a year ago. Ava has changed so much. She has changed our lives so much, but all for the better. The Iron Chef and I have so much love to give. Life without children was definitely the past and we cannot imagine our lives any different than what it is today. We love her more and more everyday.

Pink Peony

Pink peonies are pretty. Very pretty. It wasn't until I started to see a few buds in my own backyard that I realized, "I have peonies in my yard!" How wonderful. I already picked a bouquet of 6 and am watching them fully open. They are fragrant and I absolutely love fresh flowers in the house, yet hate to pay for fresh flower prices. So, why not pick the flowers that are in your backyard and enjoy them for free! :)

I was so excited at the thought of my own fresh flowers in my backyard - and then peonies - that this picture deserved its own post.

Maybe you could grow your own ... or buy a house with large peony plants already planted in your backyard like I did. ;) What a surprise!



Yes, that flower is from my own backyard. Pretty, pink peonies. I can't wait to see what else I have in bloom next. I already have miniature roses, roses along our arch, some kind of orange flower and hydrangeas in the making.

Fun flowers. Free flowers. Backyard bliss.

Farmers Market & Backyard Fun

The sunshine was in full effect this weekend - 87 degrees and sunny, sunny, sunny. This is Portland, right? Don't they say it always rains? Well, not this weekend.

We went on a little day adventure to the Vancouver Farmer's Market, which I highly recommend. In my opinion, it's much better than the Portland Downtown Market and much more kid friendly as well. It was our first time to Esther Park and we were impressed. The vendors had delicious fruits, vegetables, baked cookies and homemade items. Also, the food vendors served delicious mini-doughnuts. Yum-O! I managed to snag a bite of one of them. Thanks, Iron Chef!

Esther Park had a wonderful water feature/park area for the kids to play. 'A' was incredibly scared of the water and hated the fact that there were kids everywhere. But, we had fun nonetheless.

Our afternoon was spent next to the pool, hehe. Our new 2-ring blow-up pool from Walmart. However, we think our cupcake had more fun in the pool when it was empty and full of balls. She's more of a hose and bucket kind of girl right now. But, she did manage to dip her toes in and splash around for a bit.







Before the pool ...



After the pool ...



And with that, it was time to get out.