Sun Worshiper

My little guy is a sun worshiper. 

Just like his Mama.

He tends to follow me from room to room.  But no matter what room I'm in, he finds that little bit of sunshine to lay in. 

A dog after my own heart.

I think there's a chance we both suffer from seasonal affective disorder.

** And on another doggie note, obedience classes start tonight.  Wish us luck!

Pumpkin Patch

I really look forward to October every year.  For some reason sweatshirt weather, pumpkin spice lattes, the leaves changing color, pumpkin carving, Halloween costumes, my birthday, and Hocus Pocus just warm my heart.  For the last two years, we've kinda had to make due without the fall festivities and I've been okay with that because, well, we've been living in foreign countries.  And that's pretty fun too.  But it is sure nice to be able to celebrate fall with all my regular traditions this year. 

We finally had some cooler weather this past week and so Josh and I kicked off fall with a trip to the local pumpkin patch today.  The pumpkin patch, conveniently named, The Pumpkin Patch at Live Oak Canyon is by far the most decked out patch I've ever been too.  It was complete with a tractor, corn maze, gift shop, bounce house, petting zoo, band, food, and every kind of pumpkin available.  You could literally spend all day there.  Our friends Nick and Amy joined us as well as our doggie child Doyle.  We had a really fun time!  It was a much needed day date for Josh and I.

They had some beautiful sunflower fields!

Running away with his "pumpkins."

Amy, Nick, and the Scurlock family

Look closely, Doyle's in the middle.

My handsome little pup.

Josh even suggested we get a bale of hay to properly display our pumpkins!  A man after my own heart. :)

We plan to carve them once it gets a little closer to Halloween.  As for now, they are displayed proudly on our front porch for all our apartment complex to see.

Are you planning to carve pumpkins this year?

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!

We've got...

...a noodler.

Doyle is quickly finding his way into our heart.  And our bed.

I could explain, but I think the pictures do a better job.

I promise he's in this picture. 

He's right....

...there.

He "noodles" his way down under the sheets to the very bottom of the bed, right between your legs.  That's where he prefers to sleep.

We are currently making him sleep in his crate most of the night and just letting him in the bed in the morning for a little while.  But once on the bed, he goes straight under the sheets.  It's really quite funny.  We really love this little guy!

New Baby

No, not that kind of baby.

A doggie baby!

Josh and I have been wanting to have a dog of our own since before we were married.  But living out of the country for the last two years has made that less than ideal.  Taking a dog to England was practically out of the question unless you wanted to put it in quarantine for a mandatory six months.  No thanks.  And I thought long and hard about taking one to Grenada, but wanted to check out the island first and once I was there, I got so busy with volunteer stuff that I didn't feel like I would be home enough to have a dog.

But, once we got to Redlands, we decided that this would be the perfect space and place for us to have our first dog.  The question was what kind of dog?

While I would prefer to have something like this...

Source

Josh's ideal dog looks a little more like this.

source

Can you see a difference in opinion here? Ha!

We discussed getting a puppy, but Josh isn't home much and I don't know that I'm necessarily ready for that much work.  In the end, we brought Doyle home to Redlands.  He's a 3 year old mutt that I found on the side of the road in the mountains only a week before we left for England.  He's been living with my parents and their three other dogs for the past two years.  But my Mom and I have always felt like he was my dog.

He's pretty timid, a definite scaredy-dog, and he suffers from a little bit of separation anxiety but I'm home a lot and I can give him the love and attention that he needs.  And he's my snuggler and is helping to fill the void that leaving my Limes kids left in my heart.

He's already making himself at home and both Josh and I love having him here.  Even if it means I have a constant shadow at my feet. :)