Classroom Makeover

Now that we’ve been in school for a few months I figured I should finally post pictures of my big summer project, my classroom makeover.  Even though I loved my bright turquoise and yellow theme, after three years I was ready for a change.  The only problem was that when I committed to the makeover I didn’t realize how many things would need to be changed in order to match my new theme.  The good news was that I was on campus twice a week for tutoring sessions anyways so I worked on it a little at a time and it came together perfectly.  I even put my mom to work when she visited making the tassels for my desk and whiteboard.  Here are all my before and after photos.  I love how calming the new color scheme is, and don’t worry even the boys like it!

I’m so happy with how the new location of my classroom library turned out.  It is constantly growing and I already don’t have enough space but I love this reading corner.

Yes I even changed all of my binder covers and spray painted my frame and lamp in order to match my new theme.

One of the hardest parts about changing my classroom to pink and grey is that every teaching store only carries supplies in primary colors.  I couldn’t find any charts that weren’t in blue, red, or yellow so I needed to make my own job chart and clip chart.  I used burlap bulletin board paper as the base for both of them and I am so glad I didn’t settle for anything less because I love them both.  I also covered the black file cabinet in contact paper because it stuck out like a sore thumb among all the light colors.  Isn’t it so cute?!  (And yes, Teddy Roosevelt and the class pet are best friends)

I also did lots and lots of spray painting because these blue lids were killing me.  I love how these turned out.  So far they have been holding up really well and only showing a little bit of wear and tear from the kids.  I used a darker color on the teal plastic supply tubs and everyone thinks they are real metal!

Here are a few more of my favorite details.  As you can tell, I was serious when I meant I changed a lot so it would all match my color theme.  I ordered a PDF from Schoolgirl Style for all the alphabet and calendar cards and found the perfect bulletin board paper at Lakeshore Learning that looks like real wood.

I hope you enjoyed my tour!

5th Grade Rocks!!!!

Guest Room

Our guest room is now complete!

I don’t have any good before photos because it was just an empty room but I started the makeover by painting the tan walls the same color as our bedroom, Silver Marlin.  I love how subtle of a grey it is.  Then my mom and I drove a Uhaul from Sacramento with the furniture for the room.  We didn’t have room for my hope chest or daybed in our apartment, but now we do!  I’m sure our guests won’t miss the air mattress one bit.  My mom and I also changed out the knobs for the dresser to help pull the look together.  I spent the majority of my time (other than painting) on the gallery wall.  I’m such a perfectionist that it takes me awhile to commit.  After two gallery walls that put a lot of holes in the wall at our first two apartments, I learned a trick that is a lifesaver.  As you can see in the picture below I trace all of the items I’m going to hang up, poke holes through the paper where the nail will go, and tape them on the wall.  I can then move them around as much as I want until it’s perfect before putting in any nails.  It takes more time to prep but makes the final result so much better.  This time I left it up for a few days just to make sure it was exactly how I wanted it before committing.

 All of the pictures on the gallery wall were free downloads from Pinterest, including the one on the dresser which will have our Wifi network and password for our guests.  I’m really happy with how it turned out.  I might just go in there to read a book every now and then since it’s so relaxing.

If you want to explore Portland come and stay with us!  We’ll give you a great tour!

Master Bedroom

Well it’s taken me awhile to get our bedroom ready to post.  I’ve actually never decorated any of the bedrooms in our apartments so this was a first for me.  I wanted a nice grey for the walls so I used a lighter shade than in the living room because unless we have the blinds open for the sliding glass door it can be pretty dark.  I’m in love with the Silver Merlin we chose from Behr.  It’s really light but contrasts well with the white baseboards and trim around the doors.  We bought our dressers from Ikea and even though they ended up being a lot bigger than we originally thought (and took HOURS to put together) they fit perfectly!  I ordered the personalized sign from Etsy and found the mirror 50% off at Fred Meyer.  What a steal!  The part I’m not done with yet is staging the dressers.  It’s just so big that I don’t want it to look empty but I also don’t like clutter so I haven’t decided the best option yet.  We might eventually get nightstands but this time I will measure to make sure they aren’t way bigger than planned!

Unfortunately I don’t have the best before photos because it was too dark when i took them on our walk through (there isn’t a light in the room other than the bathroom and closet) so these are from the Zillow posting when it was listed.

And now that wall looks like this…

Here’s the view as you walk in the room.  I love our walk in closet but our master bath needs some updating.  We aren’t ready to tackle that project yet though.

And I loooove this sign I found on Etsy, it was worth the wait that’s for sure!

Well that’s all for now!  We’ve been doing a lot in the yard so hopefully I’ll be able to post some good before and after photos of those projects soon.  And wow we are already sick of weeds and we’ve only had a yard for four months hahaha.

Iceland Days 6 and 7: Snaefellsnesvegur Peninsula

On Friday we ate breakfast with Erin and Greg at Snorri’s Guesthouse and then headed out on our own at 9 am for the Snaefellsnesvegur Peninsula.  We hadn’t explored that part of Iceland yet and wanted to take advantage of the fact that our flight didn’t leave until Saturday evening.  It took about three hours to get there from Reykjavik and the drive was beautiful.  We even went in a very long underwater tunnel.  The most exciting part of the drive was the fact that we were finally able to get pictures with Icelandic horses!  The entire trip we had been looking for ways to stop near them but Tyler found the perfect place to get out of the car right by where the horses were eating.  They were so much smaller than I expected!

I had seen so many blog posts about the horses that seeing them up close was high on my wish list for Iceland.  I am so thankful we were blessed with the opportunity to pet them.  I loved their shaggy bangs!

Once we reached the peninsula I had a long list of places I wanted to visit.  I wasn’t sure how easy they would be to find because most of them were places I had seen on Pinterest and didn’t know the actual location.  Luckily the church I wanted to find was easily seen from the road.  It was in the town of Budir and is one of the oldest wooden churches in Iceland.  I was thrilled to find it so easily.  Isn’t it amazing?!?

We stopped at the Visitor Center in Hellnar to find out where to buy tickets for a cave tour and found Primas Cafe.  I was really excited to eat lunch because we rarely ate lunch on our trip.  Anyone that knows me realizes how much of a tragedy that is… I normally eat every few hours! Needless to say it was the best seafood soup I’ve ever had, mostly because I was excited to eat something other than a Cliff Bar for lunch 🙂

We found the location for the Cave Vatnshellir tour on the side of the road in the Snaefellsjoekull National Park.  There was a little hut to buy tickets in and a flag for a sign.  It wasn’t what we were expecting but it was so much fun!  The biggest difference in this cave from ones I’ve visited before was it was made from lava and there were no lights inside.  The caves I’ve visited in America always have lights and at a certain part of the tour they turn them all off so you can see how dark it would be.  For this tour we all carried flashlights in order to see where we were going so it was pretty dark the entire time.  We entered through a hole in the snow and had a very long spiral staircase halfway through the tour to get the rest of the way down.

After the tour we drove to the Dritvik black sand beach.  It was only a few minutes away and we were blessed with great weather.  The beach is known for it’s lifting stones where you can test your strength.  Of course Tyler wanted to try but I didn’t get a good picture of him lifting them.  We didn’t see anyone lift the heaviest one but Tyler and a few other guys were each able to get the third stone off the ground.

After driving around we checked in at Gueshouse Hof and decided to figure out what to do for dinner.  The problem was the owner only gave us two locations that serve dinner and they were both other guesthouses that happened to be closed.  One of the owners didn’t speak very good English but told us if we went back to Budir (where the church was) we could eat at the Budir Hotel.  Thankfully this solution worked and ended up being really good food.  It was so fancy and was a great way to end our trip.  The butter even came on a cold lava stone!

When we woke up the next morning there was snow covering the ground so we decided to skip the morning hike we had planned and pack up.  We had about a three and a half hour drive to the airport and didn’t know what the road conditions would be like.  Since we both like to be early for flights we decided it would be best to hit the road and enjoy the scenery on the way back instead of stressing about being late.  We had done everything we wanted to so we didn’t feel like we were missing out getting there early.  Since the length of the flight was about the same amount of time as the time difference we actually took off at 5 pm on Saturday and landed in Seattle at 5:40 pm on Saturday which we thought was funny.   The puppies were happy to see us after our first time leaving them with a pet sitter.  I am so happy we went and if I didn’t have such a long list of places I’d like to visit I would go back again in a heart beat.

Thank you for reading about our trip.  I hope I inspired you to travel to Iceland on your next vacation, you won’t regret it!

Iceland Day 5: Folk Museum and Blue Lagoon

Morning came quickly on our fifth day after the Northern Lights excitement the night before.  We woke up early and had the continental breakfast at Hotel Skaftafell and headed back to the national park for one last hike before leaving the area.  This picture shows the beautiful location of the hotel.

We didn’t choose as long of a hike as the day before because we had a long drive ahead of us, but we were still able to see the black waterfall again and get a great view of the Skaftafellsjokull glacier.  It was also really nice to have the trails to ourselves since it was early and most tourists hadn’t arrived yet. We had a great time!

Here’s a picture of the route we drove to get back from the Skaftafell National Park (our farthest destination).

We stopped in Skogar on the way back to visit the Folk Museum and the Samgongusafn Museum of Transportation and Communication.  It was a great way to break up the drive and I had been seeing pictures of the houses at the Folk Museum on post cards but didn’t know where they were.  They were so cute!

Most of the pictures of the folk museum are when the grass on top of the houses is lush and green but I thought they were just as cute with snow on them.  I’m so glad we took the time to stop, we all really enjoyed the different museums and they were right next to each other so one ticket covered all of them.  You could go inside the houses as well!

Then we hit the road again to go to the Blue Lagoon geothermal spa in Grindavik on the Reykjanes Peninsula.  I’ve included some of the pictures I took on the drive because the scenery is so pretty.  I was constantly looking for churches, sheep, and horses.  And it did snow on us which made me nervous a few times but we were blessed with clear roads the entire trip.

And then we arrived!  I had been looking forward to the Blue Lagoon the entire trip and I wasn’t disappointed. It’s one of those things that you only get to do once and so even though you know it’s a tourist attraction and the tickets are overpriced you just have to do it.  We went during the very last time slot of the day so we heard it wasn’t as crowded as it is around noon. Since it is so close to the airport a lot of people go right after landing or right before leaving Iceland.  I’m glad we didn’t do it at the beginning of the trip because it wouldn’t be as relaxing.  It was great near the end of the trip after we had done most of the hiking and sightseeing that we wanted to and our muscles enjoyed the warm water.  You are supposed to shower before and after swimming so it might be cold to go straight to the airport afterwards unless you brought a hair dryer.  It’s also a good idea to not get your hair wet in the spa or to swim with conditioner in your hair because of the minerals in the water.  Since my hair is so long I opted to coat it with conditioner and keep it in a bun just to be safe.  It snowed on us while we were in the spa which was really fun and we found an area that was warmer and not as crowded to hang out in until the lagoon closed.  Getting out was miserable because it was so cold outside but it was worth it!  I didn’t get any pictures of us in the water because we locked our cameras up in the locker room and getting out twice didn’t sound appealing, but we did get some pictures of the lagoon before getting in.  The water was so blue I wish it turned out better in the pictures but you’ll just have to visit for yourself to see how pretty it is 🙂

We drove to Reykjavik to spend the night at Snorri’s Guesthouse which was a lot nicer than our first night in the city.  It was by far the biggest room we had, and we had a view of the Lutheran church we visited on our first day.  It was our first experience with a shared bathroom but it was very clean and wasn’t a problem at all.  This picture is from the next morning because it was too dark when we arrived but I wanted to share how cute it was.

It was too bright in the city to see the Northern Lights any better than we already had so we went to bed content with a full day of adventures under our belt.

Iceland Day 4: Skaftafell National Park and Glacier Lagoon

On Wednesday Erin and Greg left really early to drive to Skaftafell for a tour so we enjoyed sleeping in a little bit and enjoying the continental breakfast at our hotel.  Like always there was yogurt,fruit, cereal, bread, lunch meat, cheese, tomatoes, and cucumbers. We realized they like eating sandwiches for breakfast but it was helpful because we could make one to go since we didn’t get to eat lunch very often.  We continued on Route 1 along the south end of the island for almost two hours to the Skaftafell National Park.  I had seen a lot of pictures on Pinterest of a black waterfall so we did the hike to Svartifoss first.  It didn’t take very long so Tyler got to pick the next trail and of course picked the longest and hardest one available.  We went past the point where most hikers turn around so there wasn’t even a trail anymore.  There was also snow covering the ground so many of the trail markers were buried or knocked over.  Needless to say it was very challenging and we didn’t have the right equipment to finish the entire loop.  We had to turn around once the incline of the mountain required better gear and we also wanted to make sure we we’re late to meet up with Erin and Greg.  While my legs felt like they were going to fall off during the hike I am glad we did it because it offered some of the best views of our trip.

Can’t see a path in that photo?  Ya… neither could we.

After we survived the mountain without dying we met up with Erin and Greg, checked into our new hotel called Hotel Skaftafell, and drove to the Glacier Lagoon.  It wasn’t on the itinerary but the hotel clerk told Erin about it when they checked to see if our rooms were ready so since we had extra time we decided we better check it out!  The rain came back but it was still really pretty.

The only place to eat dinner was at our hotel so even though the buffet was really overpriced we were starving so it was worth it.  We asked for the Northern Lights wake up call and it came through at 11:30 pm so we quickly put on our coats and ran outside to a nearby hill.  It took us a while to notice them because there was cloud cover so the green light was very faint.  We were a little disappointed that it didn’t look like the pictures and went back to bed.  About thirty minutes later I heard people running in the hall so Tyler went out to check and said they were better so we bundled up again and ran outside.  It was a little bit better but the sky was still cloudy.  I tried to take a picture but then I noticed everyone else was using a tripod with a much fancier camera. Someone let us look at his camera and the interesting thing was the pictures made it look way brighter than we could see.  It was a little deceiving.  We finally went to bed around 1 am happy that we saw them but bummed that it was so cloudy.

Iceland Day 3: Geothermal Exhibition, Skagafoss Waterfall, and the Black Sand Beach

We started out our third day by eating breakfast at the Frost and Fire hotel and cooking our own eggs outside in the geothermal hot spring.  Here’s Erin and Tyler proud of their cooked eggs.

We then took advantage of the great location and hiked around our hotel before starting our drive for the day.  We even got to see an Icelandic sheep next to the trail!

We then drove 15 minutes to the Geothermal Energy Exhibition which was really interesting.  Tyler was our tour guide as he was able to explain everything to us about the power plant.

Then it was time to start driving to South Beach.  We heard about an area to stop before making it all the way to Skogafoss waterfall (an hour and a half away) so we got out and enjoyed the three waterfalls that were there.  I didn’t get the name of them but one was large enough to walk behind (and get completely soaked) but at least the sun came out for a little bit!

And then there was Skogafoss… with a million and one steps to the top… I thought I was going to die.  You can see the steps in the picture below, as well as the lookout point at the top of the hill/mountain.

We continued our drive on Route 1 (which I think goes around the entire island) and arrived at our hotel in Vik.  We booked one night at the Welcome Hotel in Vik but it apparently changed it’s name to the Puffin Hotel since that time and we didn’t know.  Thankfully we were able to find it because I had printed the street view from Google maps.  Otherwise we would have been looking for the Welcome Hotel for a very long time. We drove to the beach to see the black sand and the basalt columns but it was pouring rain at this point so we didn’t stay very long.  We went back and ate near our hotel and called it a night after a very eventful day.

I loved taking pictures of the all beautiful churches in Iceland.  Each town had one in the center or on one of the highest peaks and it was exciting to look for in each new location.  This was the church in the small coastal town of Vik.

Up next will be the Skaftafell National Park!

Iceland Day 2: Golden Circle and Snorkeling

We had to modify the plan a bit on our second day in Iceland once we received an email that the time of our snorkeling tour was changed.  So instead of driving the entire Golden Circle Tour we decided to just do half of it but still cover the main three stops which are the Thingvellir National Park, Gullfoss waterfall, and the geothermal geysers.  There are a lot of tour busses that do the trip from Reykjavik but we liked the option of driving it ourselves and taking as much time as we wanted at each stop.  It took about 45 minutes to get to the Thingvellir visitor center and viewpoint and it started snowing as soon as we left the city.  Here are some of the pictures I took at the viewpoint, I wish it was clearer so we had better visibility but it was still beautiful!

We then continued along the Golden Circle Tour to the Gullfoss waterfall.  I have never been to Niagara Falls but that is what it is compared to.  The pictures really do not do it justice.  We started at the higher lot but you are able to walk to a lower viewpoint as well.  There was a lower path that was closed due to the weather but in the first picture you can see the people that are still walking along it on the left.  (Sorry for all the water spots, it was impossible to keep my camera dry.)

Next up on the Golden Circle is the geothermal geysers.  We didn’t get to stay for very long because we needed to meet up with our snorkeling tour but we did get to see it erupt twice.  As you can tell from the first photo I was not prepared for it to be as large so I had my camera zoomed in too far and the second one wasn’t as good.

And then it was time for our snorkeling tour with Arctic Adventures.  Yes, it was freezing, and yes I was very nervous.  It seemed crazy that we were getting ready to snorkel in Iceland when it had been snowing on us earlier in the day.  It took forever to get suited up because we first had to put on a puffy thermal layer that reminded me of a sleeping bag with arms and legs and then we put a dry suit on over the top that had boots attached.  Unfortunately the wrists and necks of the suits Erin and I had weren’t tight enough to keep out the water so we had to have very uncomfortable elastic bands put on our wrists and a collar put around our necks.  We called it our dog collar because it was so uncomfortable and was as tight as it could be without choking us.  We walked to the Silfra Fissure that we would be floating in and put on our gloves, fins, and goggles.  The tectonic plates are separating at a rate of 2 cm a year and Iceland is right on top of them.  The fissure we snorkeled in is between the plates and the water is so clear you can see for 100 meters.  It’s even pure enough to drink because it takes the glacier water at least 30 years to filter through the lava pores before reaching the Sillfra Fissure.  I completely forgot to drink it because by the end of the tour I was ready to get my dog collar off as fast as possible but Tyler drank it and said it tasted great!  We took disposable under water cameras which is what took me so long to post (Walgreens is the only place I could find to develop them and it takes about a week).  They aren’t the best quality but I’m glad we got a few photos out of them that we wouldn’t have gotten otherwise.  While the water was really cold (about 35 degrees Fahrenheit) only my hands and face were cold and I would have enjoyed it more if I didn’t need the collar on my suit.  The boys had a great time and even explored once the tour was over.  There’s a picture of them walking back and you could tell they had the time of their lives (they didn’t realize the entire van was already full of everyone ready to leave haha).  Thankfully none of us had any leaks in our suit and we were perfectly dry afterwards (except our hair).

After snorkeling we were ready to drive to our hotel which was my favorite place we stayed out of the entire trip called Frost and Fire in Hveragerdi.  Located right next to a river there were great views, a fabulous restaurant, and outdoor hot tubs for viewing the Northern Lights (but it was too cloudy for us to see them).

I took more pictures of the outside of the hotel the next day on our walk so since this post is already really long I’ll save those for Day 3.

Thanks for reading!

Iceland Day 1: Reykjavik

When I told people that we were going to Iceland for Spring Break the reaction was always the same, “Why Iceland???”. Well it all started when Tyler came from work after talking on the phone with his sister.  He was really excited about a Groupon she found for a trip to Iceland.  He wanted to buy it right away before it sold out but I am not known to make spontaneous purchases (I tried on over 50 wedding dresses for this very reason haha).  We looked into the details of the Groupon and while it would work for Erin and Greg flying from Florida, it wasn’t cost effective for us to fly to the East Coast and then to Iceland when Seattle offers a direct flight that only takes seven hours.  Needless to say we ended up not buying the Groupon, but we loved the idea of meeting Erin and Greg in Iceland so we bought the flights within a week.  It was still very spontaneous for me but after we looked up photos of the area we were hooked.  We really wanted to see the Northern Lights so we decided to go during my Spring Break instead of waiting until summer.  We had a great time and I took 899 photos to prove it.  I’m going to do a separate blog post for each day we were there because we did so many things!  Hopefully I inspire you to add Iceland to your bucket list!

We started our trip on Saturday and drove three hours to Seattle before our 4:30 pm flight.  Because of the time difference we landed at 6:30 am Sunday and had the difficult task of staying up all day so we could adjust to the time difference.  We did pretty good until the afternoon and then we were all struggling but we made it until 7 pm which we decided was a reasonable time to fall asleep.

We spent the entire day in the capital city of Reykjavik walking around and exploring.  My favorite part was the Hallgrimskirkja Luthern Church because you can take an elevator to the top and see the entire city.  There’s also a large statue of Leif Erickson and I can’t wait to show my students since we learn about him during our exploration unit.  We visited the Settlement Exhibition Museum but it was very overpriced since it ended up only being one room.  We stayed at the Pavi Apartments and even though we had difficulty getting in (you were supposed to call when you arrived so he could unlock the door but we didn’t have cell phones) it ended up working out.  The tap water smelled like sulfur in the entire city so we were glad Iceland Air gave us free water bottles.  (We thought the water would be like that the entire trip but it was only in Reykjavik).

Here are a bunch of photos from our first day in Iceland.

As you can tell from the photos it was pretty rainy and overcast but coming from Oregon we were used to it!  We had just the right amount of time in the city but I do regret not finding the hot dog stands.  From all the blogs I read I thought we would find them everywhere but apparently we didn’t go to the correct shore to get our Icelandic lamb hot dogs .  Maybe next time!

Living Room Reveal

We’ve been in our house for a month now and even though our to do list continues to grow I am happy to have finished decorating and painting our first room.  I started with the living room because it is where we spend most of our time and it is the first thing you see when you walk in the door.  It will also make painting the other rooms of the house seem easy because vaulted ceilings are no joke!  We didn’t want to buy a ladder so we borrowed our neighbors but it wasn’t quite tall enough for me to reach the peak without being dangerous.  (Thankfully Tyler was there to steady the ladder for me.)

There were a few things I knew from the beginning that I wanted: grey walls, a couch with a chaise, a white rug, and a gallery wall.  Thankfully everything came together and I’m happy with the result.  After I picked up seven sample cans of paint our walls looked like this for a few days (our bedroom still has the samples on it)…

I’m glad I did it because the colors look so different than the paint chip and even from room to room.  We settled on the darkest color (Behr Dark Ash) for our accent wall and the third from the left on the top row (Behr Sparrow) for the rest of the living room/entry.  We will eventually paint the bedroom the lightest one because that room doesn’t get nearly as much light as our living room. (I have to keep reminding myself to do one room at a time even though watching Fixer Upper makes me want to have the whole house painted, decorated, and furnished at once like Joanna Gaines.)

Here are the before photos…

And this was the wall that almost took my life…

And now for the after photos!  I love how it fits us so much better.  It is starting to feel like our home and I smile every time I walk in this room now.  (Sorry that the first picture came out so dark.)

Don’t pay attention to the ugly light fixtures, that is on the to do list 🙂

And since our thermostat was right where I wanted my gallery wall to be I just stole an idea from Pinterest and put a frame around it so it would fit in!

Let me know what you think about how it all turned out!  I’m having so much fun decorating and I’m sure I’ll be making adjustments as we go.  Eventually we want to build our own custom entertainment center, install a floating mantle, and add recessed lighting and skylights.  We love home ownership so far!