Some of my Favorite Things

I was looking around my house the other day and realized I have several prize possessions I shall share with you just for fun.

 

John made this for me years ago when my grandma gave us her glass grinder she didn't use anymore.  I just love it because the light coming through the stained glass makes it even prettier.  Shortly after he made this, John taught me how to do it too.  We'd put the kids to bed and then spend hours together working on our projects we did as Christmas presents for our parents.  It was really a lot of fun.

Speaking of glass, this is a gorgeous blown glass vase that is also one of my favorite pieces in the house.  When John and I went on our honeymoon along the Oregon Coast, we visited this really neat glass shop where they did demonstrations.  We would have loved to buy one of the blown glass items, but we were poor college students, so we refrained.  Ten years later, I happened to be at that same shop while visiting my family, and not being poor college students anymore, I surprised John with this vase for our anniversary. 

What we could afford on out honeymoon, were these two pictures. I love looking at them because it reminds me of our honeymoon. 

 

Also in our bathroom is this orchid we bought on Valentines Day.  It has been a month and a half and it's still going strong!  I really like looking at it because it reminds me of an orchid our aunt bought for us two years ago when things were not going so great for John and I.  We had truly hit a low point in our lives with the birth of Megan, John traveling a ton, and adjusting to life with four kids, which really took its toll on us. 

Sadly, the orchid we were given by our aunt died just a few weeks after we received it.  We were determined to get through our dark time, and as we did, I wanted to celebrate with a new orchid that is now thriving, as are we.  It also helped that we did quite a bit of research on how to properly care for orchids (and how to properly take care of each other). 

This post would not be complete without one of my absolutely, most-favorite things in the house, my beloved chocolate chips.  I buy them in bulk, and still go through them insanely fast because of my love for anything homemade with chocolate chips. 

Another of my favorite things in the house is our travel wall.  When John and I got married, I had a plate from Turkey I had bought on a cruise my Grandma Lynn took me on back in high school that led us up the Danube River.  John had purchased a plate in Japan while serving his mission, so we hung both of them in our teeny apartment up in Logan.

We decided it would be fun to keep collecting plates for all the different places we went, so we've done just that.  It's always fun to hunt through shops while we're out traveling to find just the right plate to put on the wall. 

I have to brag about John again - he spent countless hours working on this for my Christmas present several years ago.  He used his dad's lathe and it's absolutely beautiful, another one of my favorite things in our house. 

Another favorite thing, which just so happens to be a favorite for all of us, are our two game closets - full of games.  We truly do play all of these games.  The ones we didn't ever play got demoted to the basement (not pictured). 

 

 And a blog post about my favorite things in the house wouldn't be complete without pictures of my family, all taken today:

Speaking of games, that is exactly what John and Alicia are doing as I type this posting. 

Kimberly spent part of the evening working on a latch-hook rug she got from Grandma Rimington for her birthday.   

 

 

 Natalie and Megan have spent the last hour playing with the dress-up box. 

 

 
 

  and before playing games, Alicia spent the afternoon working on these crafts.  

 

These are a few of my favorite things.
I am truly a blessed woman.