A few of my favorite things

Maybe it is due to my lack of employment or perhaps due to my need for change and creativity I find myself looking for homes for sale. I love to look at the older homes (the ones that need a ton of renovating) and i find myself always thinking about what I could do to these homes. It has become a favorite past time, my husband indulges me and on his day off we drive to see these homes and he listens to me talk about them the whole way (what amazing patience). Currently I am in love with a 4400 square foot, 130 years old home in Mariah Hill Indiana. Half and hour South of here it would be a perfect family home! It is really amazing and full of rustic detail. I just love it.

Last night I laid awake deep in prayer when it suddenly dawned on me... This home where we live now is perfect. My three bedroom two bathroom home is perfect for us! My husband and I have worked sooo hard to make this home comfortable and an expression of our personal style. So I decided that good therapy for me was to go through and pick out some of my favorite things about this house! I picked my top ten favorite things about this home that we have built!

First is our dog Chipper. He is a Wheaton Terrier and he brings so
much joy and playfulness to our lives. Also he does not shed!

Second is this lamp that my mom designed and my dad made years ago. I love how it looks at night when the whole kitchen is dark!

Next is our Patio! Patrick and I spent so much time tiling this patio. The slate tiles were my birthday present this year and I just loved how they turned out!

This is my great Grandmothers mahogany table. Patrick and I spent so much time refinishing it and it makes my so happy every time I see it. (Sorry about the picture)

This lovely piece is an antique dresser my mother and I pulled out of the trash. After several days of hard work and some new old porcelain knobs from the Architectural Salvage Yard I think it is so beautiful and looks great!

This is absolutely one of my favorites, these are the towels i had made before my wedding with our new monogram. I just love that every time I look of them it brings me back to the time before the wedding when I was so excited about being Mrs. Rice! Also the picture above is of my great great grandparents John Swartz and Anna Coffman Swartz. My grandfather gave me this picture and I will forever treasure it!

This lovely room is Patrick's man office. Yes ladies that is a real (dead) mounted fish. Some battles are not worth the fight. I set out to make this a masculine formal space and Patrick loves it, so its fine with me. I love the molding we added to the walls, the silk curtains with the tassels I added all by hand, but mostly i love the way the panels puddle onto the floor. Which not only looks opulent but provides a wonderful resting place for a certain pooch!

These photos are my favorite part of the office. I found them pouring through bins of old photos at the Louisville Peddler's Mall. Their vintage photos of Rail Road stuff. They were absolutely perfect for his office and if you look closely you can see that one of the pictures was taken on the Indiana 62 line where my husbands still works today!

Another corner of my living room is filled with two more favorite pieces. My leopard chair and my toile lamp. Well I find the chair absolutely beautiful and whimsical and it looks great where it is! I love the lamp because I made the shade. I had to tea-stain the fabric and sew it together, but i think it turned out really cute!

My last favorite thing is my flower bed. Besides my avocado growing project i have always had a bit of a black thumb, well not here. My purple petunias have taken off and exploded into a web of beautiful strong flowers and the bunny sitting in the mulch was an Easter gift from my wonderful husband!

This house has been a wonderful house for Patrick and I to learn in. We have grown in so many ways since we bought our first home! We became responsible home owners, gardeners, tile installers, decorators, and we have learned so much about each other along the way. For all of that I will be eternally grateful to this little home!

A house is built by wisdom and becomes strong through good sense. Through knowledge its rooms are filled with all sorts of precious riches and valuables.

Proverbs 24:3-4

When life hands you avacados...

A few months back I noticed my husband's eating habits took a strange turn. Whenever we were at the grocery store he was always buying chips and salsa and then he started buying this pre-packaged green goop. I had no idea what it was and he informed me its guacamole. Well I knew what guacamole was i had just never tried it. It took me a while still to try it because it came in a plastic package that he had to un-roll and squeeze it all into a Tupperware container. The whole thing really just made my stomach turn, but i like the guacamole! So of course i run to the computer and google how to make it. I was pretty intimidated at the thought of making guacamole but it turns out it is sooo unbelievably easy and it tastes wonderful! So after tinkering around i came up with my own recipe I thought I'd share.

Guacamole

1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped

3 green onions, finely chopped

1/4 cup red onion finely chopped

3 cloves of garlic, minced

3 tablespoons freshly diced cilantro

2 tablespoons lime juice

2 teaspoons kosher salt

3 ripe avocados (ripe when smushy)

Mix all the top ingredients together, I use a large glass bowl. Then seed the avocados (save the pits) and spoon out the rest into the bowl. I use my hand mash potato masher to mix it all together. Cover and refrigerate and its wonderful! Oh and use the pits, place them into the guacamole to prevent it from turning darker in color!

You can also you the pits to grow your own avocado tree. My husband thinks I'm nuts but I have started to try and grow my own avocado tree. We eat guacamole all the time and i think it would be neat to have our own tree. Anyways here is the progress, I'll keep you updated!

Wedded Bliss

Everyone knows that the first year of marriage is suppose to be hard, but it has been my opinion that it is an absolutely wonderful time filled with new beginnings, new adventures, and new lessons. I have been so fortunate that my husband and I have not yet had a huge bump in the road that we cannot handle. In part because my wonderful handsome husband is such an amazing man, strong, powerful, understanding, and more importantly patient. Patrick and I have learned to lean on Christ before others and each other secondly. This was an incredibly hard thing for me to grasp, but taking time in reflection and prayer is the most awesome of gifts I have received.

Before the big day it is standard protocol in the Louisville Arch-Dioses that engaged couples complete a pre-marriage work shop and counseling. At the time I truthfully was annoyed by the thought of spending an entire day with couples I didn't know, learning about things I didn't care about, but thankfully my arrogance slipped away an I was able to listen and learn to the messages these wise people we trying to instill upon me. There were lessons about money, family life, intimacy, approved methods of birth control (yes the Catholic church ), but most importantly they shared with me and all my fellow betrothed friends the secret to a lasting marriage.

Although, I had been shown this secret by two very special people in my life I had never quite understood the power or truth behind it. The secret to a successful marriage is everlasting love! There it is in all its truth, but its not quite what every little girl thinks about when she thinks of her prince charming. The everlasting love that holds you together is first your love for god. Knowing Christ you and your partner truly know love, then are free to love each other in a such a unbelievable wonderful way. If i would have only payed attention sooner I would have seen it my whole life! My grandparents, Roger and Jan Swartz have been such a wonderful and shining example of humbleness and godliness and for them i will be eternally grateful. They have taught me "You've got to have love, and you've got to know god." It's quite simple really.

I think it has been through this message I have been able to experience such an amazing first year of marriage. Sure we have had some challenges, being relocated, buying our first home, living away from all of our family and friends, and figuring out that god's plan for our family might not be drawn yet. Through it all we've had love for each other, but most importantly for Christ and we've found our way through.

Let us love one another, for love comes from God.

Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

1 John 4:7

My wonderful and amazing Grandparents. My inspiration for a perfect Marriage!