good bye Puyallup House, hello cabin?

It's official,

We have accepted an offer on our house on Puyallup house and passed the home inspection, so all we have left to do is wait for the closing date.  It has been rewarding to take something beautiful and make it even more beautiful and functional.

Since we are renting on base next, it leaves me dreaming of ways to invest what we will make on the sale of our home.
Right now I like dreaming of buying some water front property and building up something I've always dreamed of calling "Aunt B's Family Camp"  with so many nieces and nephews near and far and dear friends all over the world that we have moved away from, I've always wanted to create a destination spot that I can take the kids to every summer and let our friends and family come vacation with us.  Then, once it is well established, and we are back home in Washington after Sam retires, we could turn it into a vacation rental.
I've come up with many versions of this dream.  We have spent a lot of time looking at what is available in the current market.  (Both developed and un-developed.)  Right now I am thinking up a property on Lake Cushman or Hood Canal so I can work on it during the day time while the kids are in school for the next 2 or 3 years we are stationed on the peninsula.  These are the plans I've dreamed up today
Build a small "Main house" in the center that has all the conveniences like a kitchen, laundry room & bathroom, and enough room for our family of 6 to sleep in as soon as it is done.

Then, when enough money is saved again, build up bunk houses on either side of the main house with separate rooms for visiting families to bunk in

a dry bunk house

a bunk house with bathroom/shower room

OR...

Instead of building the big house, build a shower/laundry/restroom/kitchen "house" as a support building for tent/trailer camping until we saved enough money to build up as many dry cabins as we would like surrounding it.  The kitchen could have a garage door so it could become an outdoor kitchen, complete with buffet counter, outdoor BBQ, and covered outdoor seating.

Here are some very small dry cabins I like

Plan # 23-2290

• The cabin would have no water or sewer/septic hooked up to it, but electricity could be considered.
• We could put the queen beds on a platform tall enough for suitcases/ duffel bags to fit under neath
• The queen bedrooms would be large enough for a crib and small storage closet.  (Or a large storage closet with night stands.)
• The twin beds would be bunk beds with a storage cabinet between them
• Hooks would line the hallway to keep jackets and things handy yet out of the small bunk rooms
• The patio would be just large enough to fit some seating since there is no seating inside the building.

It's so much fun to dream!

color seasons

My Mom was asking me about what Color Season my girls and I were to help guide her in her Christmas Shopping this year.  I have a few favorite colors that I know look good on me, but I had no idea what my Season was!  So I researched it and I wanted to document it here so I don't have to research it again :)  (when you read all those descriptions, they all start to sound the same)  I used this website


I am a Soft Summer

• Eyes-Hazel, Hair-Med/Mousey Brown, Skin-Beige (A neutral coloring among the seasons)

Here are some tips the website gave

• Celebrity example-Sarah Jessica Parker & Jennifer Aniston
• Combinations to try:
• Try Monochromatic  
• if you want to be colorful, Purples and greens will look great on you.  You can also try some of the Autumn color pallets.
• neutral color combinations.  
• (mix of warm and cool, deep and light) 
• Try colors that are diffused with grey, making them look soft and cool. 
• Soft greens bring out the sparkle in your light eyes.
• here is the color pallet they suggest for soft Summers

Colors From Left: Slate grey, grey, light desert sand, taupe, mauve, deep rose, red-violet, raspberry, baby pink, deep mauve, burgundy, light lemon yellow, light green, turquoise, jade, emerald green, spruce, navy, periwinkle, lavender, dusty purple, blue teal.

Gwendolyn and Maggie both seem to be dominated as Medium & soft summers, but their dark brown eyes allow them to try the Warm Autumn colors also.

• Eyes-Dark Brown, Hair-Med/Mousey Brown, Skin-Beige
• Celebrity examples-Sarah Jessica Parker & Jennifer Aniston or Kate Beckinsale
• Being between a soft summer and a warm autumn they can follow the same color suggestions as Bri, or try some of the warm autumn suggestions below

Here are some tips the website gave

• If you dye your hair dark brown you'll be able to wear tomato red and black. (Gwen has been telling me she wants to dye her hair to be dark like her Aunt Desiree's  :)
• Blue is NOT the best color for you
• great neutrals for you are cream and dark Chocolate
• great colors for you are peach, greens & browns

Warm Autumn color pallet

Colors From Left: Camel, khaki, coffee brown, cream, medium brown, dark brown, light salmon, dark peach, salmon, pumpkin, rust, terracotta, aubergine, light yellow, light moss, evergreen, marigold, emerald turquoise, teal, forest green, light periwinkle, purple.

Maggie is a

Homemade Christmas Ornament 2017

Every Year I like to make homemade ornaments to add to our collection.  We move so much, that I just can't justify buying new decorations to customize every home we find ourselves in each year.  So a tree full of homemade ornaments helps us to add other homemade decorations to the rest of the house and it pulls together very well.

This year my daughter helped me choose a kid friendly ornament.  We found it here

And my Son brought home a gingerbread man cut out for homework that he was to decorate and send back to school for the classroom bulletin board.  I decided that our kitchen would be cute lined with gingerbread men along the top of the bead board.  So I just traced his cut-out on a bunch of paper bags and we had fun decorating them on black Friday after we set up the other decorations in the house.

We have our garden started in the planter and there are a few sprouts coming up!  

Here are our Brussels Sprouts and Corn Stalk

 I'm so excited!

I've always wanted a garden of my own, but I decided to make it small so the weeds don't make me want to cry constantly.

Once we had the first round of seed in the ground, we began installing the permanent fencing to keep Danny and maybe some day a small dog in the back yard without escaping.  We will put it all along the top of the retaining wall to keep people from falling, then along the wetland barrier at the back.

And as I work on the fence, I keep looking around the yard and wonder what fun details we can add to make it an even more awesome space for kids.

We already have a fire pit, playhouse, comfortable sitting area, and sandbox.  I think that is pretty awesome, so we don't need big statement details.  Just small details that will give it a real children's garden vibe that I could incorporate into some of the areas we are still working on finishing off.

 Tick Tack Toe Table or pavers

(woohome.com, thegardenglove.com)

Xylophone 

(sentequ.co.uk, kidspacestuff.com)

 Fairy/Gnome garden

(can't remember site for first fairy garden, but its not mine, anneofgreengardens.com)

ksassets.timeincuk.net V

Match box car race tracks

(princesspinkygirl.com, beafunmum.com)

  totally cool nest!

(tadmontgomery.com)

Whimsical Signs

(thediyfarmer.net, http://chelseasewbee.blogspot.co.nz)

Living Willow structures

urbanarboriculture.tumblr.com

there is a space where the planter and the steps meet.  An in ground slide would be neat there.

preschool playgrounds.com