Come on in...

...to our home.

We've been living in Redlands for almost two months, but I'm just getting to this post because decorating takes time and well, money.  While I have loads of the first, the latter is typically lacking. 

However, Josh and I were blessed with so many wonderful wedding gifts that had been un-used and in storage for 2 years and family who gave us "IOU" gifts in the form of money once we got back to the states that I have been able to (for the most part) completely furnish our apartment.

I really enjoy home decorating and I could spend hours in stores like Target, Home Goods, World Market, Pier 1, Marshalls, Pottery Barn, and Crate and Barrel.  Most if not all of our home furnishings came from these stores. So without further ado, here is our Home Sweet Home.

When you walk in, you have the dining area/kitchen to the right and the living room to the left.  The washer and dryer (an absolute must for me) are straight ahead down the hallway with the bathroom to the right of the hallway and the bedroom to the left.

 I'm STILL trying to organize this etagere but I keep playing with different things in different spots.  Any ideas for what I could put on the top shelf are welcome!



Mom made me these curtains to match my chairs.  Find out about bottle flower vases HERE

An Anthropologie splurge

Here's the living room.

My Grenada wall; not there in person but always in my heart.

Our patio that you can enter by either the living room or bedroom.

DIY twine "S" post HERE



My plants that are coming back to life!

Next up is our bedroom.

This adorable table was a Home Goods purchase on a whim.

Walmart dresser put together by Mom and yours truly.



I'm not kidding, the closet is bursting at the seams.  Our My biggest worry about getting a one bedroom apartment was closet space, but thankfully, it DID all fit.



One year anniversary (paper) gift; all the places we've been cut out of maps.  Learn how HERE

Pottery Barn Hurricane with Grenada fillings.

 And, here's what Doyle was doing while I was taking pictures and writing this post.


We are crate training to help with separation anxiety and so far it is going well.
 

So, that's our apartment.  I will post more about it as I continue to fill up wall space and stuff, specifically in our bedroom.  But for now, I am very pleased with how it has all come together.  We don't have a second bedroom, but we do have a couch and floor space and we always love visitors.  :)  I hope you enjoyed our home tour!

Sea Glass Hunting

Josh and I see eye to eye on most things in life.  We have the same religious beliefs, political affiliations, ideas about parenting, morals, etc.  But when it comes to sea glass, we differ.  He thinks it's trash, but I know it's treasure.

What's sea glass you might ask?  Well it's glass that gets tossed and turned around in the salty ocean water and sand.  The sharp edges get tumbled away, and the glass becomes cloudy and smooth creating "sea glass."  Many pieces eventually make their way on shore and can then be picked up by beach combers like myself and others.  The pieces of sea glass can range in color from more common ones like greens, browns, and clear to less common like cobalt and turquoise blue and then to the rarest of rare, red, orange, yellow, and pink.

There is even a National Sea Glass Association that has a competition every year where you can submit pieces of sea glass found.  The best piece receives a $1,000 prize.  If that's not incentive to become a sea glass collector, I don't know what is.  Something worth $1,000 dollars CANNOT be considered trash.

Anyway, there are lots of beaches in Grenada where you can find sea glass.  A couple of weeks ago, a few of the SO's went to Flamingo Bay in Happy Hill (don't you wish you lived somewhere named Happy Hill?) just outside of St. George's.  We went there because we had heard there was some great snorkeling.  There most definitely was.  But we also hit the jackpot of all jackpots of sea glass.  This beach had tons!  We all came home with bags full of it.

Flamingo Bay

When the glass dries, it has a cloudy look to it because of all the salt.

But my friend Kelsey discovered that if you use the tiniest bit of vegetable oil and an old rag, you can get rid of some of the cloudy appearance.  As I worked on polishing my sea glass last night, Josh walked in and said "Are you polishing your trash?"  To which I quickly replied, "It's not trash, it's treasure and it's beautiful!"

Isn't my collection looking pretty?  I especially love the blues, which are a little harder to find.  One of my SO friends found a pink piece last week.  Lucky girl!  I want to put some of it in a jar to use as a display in my home, or perhaps make some jewelry, or create a mosaic?  Who knows.  The sky is the limit!  I'm going to keep hunting for sea glass, maybe I'll win a $1,000 prize.  Because only then will I be able to get Josh to stop calling it trash!

DIY Craft on a "Medical School" Budget

My crafting juices were flowing this week.  Probably because I've been hanging around Kelsey too much. :)  That girl is not only Miss Grenada, she is also the Crafting Queen.  Anyway, I was inspired by a project she did a month or so ago that you can check out HERE on here fabulous crafty blog "Kelsey Inspired."  However, if you don't want to be inspired to head to your nearest Michael's, Hobby Lobby, or the Grenada craft store above the dentist's office (I'm not kidding, it's really abovet the dentist office -TIG), then don't look.  Her ideas ARE inspiring and it's hard not to resist trying out some of her fabulous projects.

I also saw a similar project done on this second fabulously-addicting-could-spend-my-entire-day-looking-at-things site.  Pinterest. I'm sure you've heard of it.  Anyway, after being inspired by both projects, I decided I had to take a crack at it myself.

Supplies Needed:

Cardboard: I used an old cardboard box.  $0.00
Twine:  Got a whole roll at Creative Do It Best Hardware (seriously, what's with that name?) $9.00EC
       Side note:  I may or may not have used the entire roll.  Apparently I'm a little frivolous with my twine usage.
Glue Gun/Gluesticks:  It was super easy to use the glue gun, but I think this could be done by tucking and tying the twin on the back if you don't have a glue gun at your disposal.  $0.00 I brought my glue gun from home so this part cost me nothing at all.
Ribbons/Buttons/Paper Flowers:  Purchased at the craft store in Grenada for under $20.00EC.  However, I over bought the ribbon and buttons because I wasn't sure exactly how I wanted to decorate so it really cost me more like $10.00EC.

Overall, this entire project cost me about $10.00USD.  Pretty cheap huh? 

So...Do you want to see how it turned out?!?!

I love how it turned out.  I wanted to hang it on the front door of our apartment, but I don't think that my landlord would appreciate a nail hole in the front door.  So I found a spot for it above my kitchen table.  However, the wall looked a little bare with only my "S" on it, so I spruced up some of my matte board pictures to match the "S."  Looks pretty good if I do say so myself!

So there ya go!  A craft on a medical school budget. Anybody else been doing any other DIY crafts I should know about?

He is Risen

He is Risen. He is Risen Indeed! 

Yesterday, Josh and I celebrated our first Easter together away from our families.  I was a little sad at first, thinking about the fact that we were missing Easter church service with our family, dinner at our Gramma's house, and Easter baskets from Mom and Dad.  But then I realized that because we are here in the UK, we are also missing having to drive from one family's house to another family's house.  Practically missing dinner at every place.  Spending almost as much time in the car as we were at each house.  And being so busy that there is hardly even a chance to focus on the real reason for the day, Jesus' death on the cross in order to save us all from our sins and His resurrection three days later. 

So yesterday, Josh and I enjoyed a very pleasant Easter Sunday in Newcastle upon Tyne, where the weather was so perfect it could only have been planned by God and where there was only one stop for Easter dinner....our flat, with our good friends here that have truly become our family.

Growing up in the Fairman household, Easter baskets were a must.  Even last year (with four kids over the age of 18), Mom and Dad littered the Fairman floors with candy and goodies for us to collect on Easter morning.  I didn't make Josh hunt for candy and Easter eggs (though that would have been much more fun), but I did make us some Easter baskets, because honestly, Easter's not really complete without them.  And also, I have LOADS of time on my hands for fun crafts.

My little Easter Bunny Hubby

On Easter morning, Josh and I ventured down to St. George's Church (coincidence...I think not.) in Jesmond.  St. George's Church is Anglican, which is from what I can tell, some type of reformed Catholicism.  Josh and I aren't Catholic or Anglican for that matter.  At home, we regularly attend a Southern Baptist church, but here in the UK, Baptist churches are nearly impossible to find and in my opinion, whether you are Catholic or Anglican, Baptist or Mennonite, we are all worshiping the same God and so on Easter Sunday, Josh and I worshiped with the Anglicans, in what was probably the oldest and most beautiful church I have ever attended.  I really wanted to take pictures inside, but I figured that might be a little inappropriate.

St. George's Church

After the service, we headed back to our flat to finish the last minute preparations for our Easter lunch.  I finished cleaning up the house and preparing my additions to our potluck. 

My Easter table

Our friends Kevin, Julie, Kris, Tarrah, Ryan, Allison, and Austin came over to enjoy Easter lunch with us.  The afternoon began with an Easter egg hunt in our front yard for Austin.  He is just over one and a half and this was his first real Easter egg hunt.  He picked up the point of it surprisingly fast and after only a couple of minutes, he was running all over the yard collecting candy filled eggs.  It was soooo cute.

Josh and I

After stuffing our faces with lots of good food, including some amazing ham that Allison made and the best macaroni and cheese ever by Julie, we decided that before we could eat Kris's homemade lemon meringue pie, we needed to go for a stroll through Jesmond Dene.  It was such a perfect day for walking in the park.  We took a couple blankets out there, some drinks, and the football and spent an hour or so basking in the sunshine and enjoying the day.

When we returned to the flat, we indulged in pie, brownies, cupcakes, ice cream, and candy.  Not my best diet day by any means, but it was a great Easter Sunday with our friends.  We are so thankful for each and every one of them.



Our Newcastle Family