Surf & Snow

First of all: Want every phone picture you take to look EPICAL? There's an app for that.
Should I feel bad that this Hipstamatic app was 50% of why I replaced my old dead phone with an iPhone? Meh. Bygones.

Anyhoo, welcome to Hipstamatic-opolis (AKA the first post after I've become totally addicted to taking pictures with my phone).

{click to zooooom}

The little sister & I road-tripped ourselves to the coast on a last minute whim. Luckily, all the hotels we tried calling (minutes before we left) were booked, and I say "luckily" because we ended up finding this awesome little bed & breakfast!

Not only was it slightly cheaper than the hotels we'd been looking at, but the owner Eileen offered that we could come downstairs into the kitchen and eat the ice cream in the freezer whenever we felt like it.

Never again, Best Western. Never again.



There were plenty of classy books in our room, but we found the juicy stuff:

I stayed up to 3AM reading that entire damn Elvis book.

The next morning, our homegirl Eileen cooked us this DAAANK breakfast. And by daaank I mean poached eggs, bacon, extra-crunchy hashbrowns, coffee, juice, and two pieces of french toast each. Can I just say:

We made it fit.

And, as promised:
HIPSTAMATICOPOLIS!
(You may have previously heard it called Newport, Oregon.)

To make this day even better, we randomly ran into Jason's sister, Sammie! What a happy coincidence. (At first I tried to write koinky-dink coweenky-deenk cowinky-dink but as you can see, there's just no way to spell that correctly. I'll keep working on it and get back to you.)

And where was Jason this whole time, might you ask? Happily skiing with our pal Kody, with whom he has a flourishing bromance. Seriously, they have a history. Our wedding photographer snapped this shot of Kody trying to steal him away before the ceremony.

Sure enough, at about 3PM Kelsey got a text from Kody saying,

"By the way, I'm taking a nap with Jason right now.

Tell April." 

Apparently they laid down in a corner of the ski lodge, on the floor, and used their boots as pillows. Those two and their curly-haired camaraderie... it's pretty cute.

HURRICANE MARTHA: Part Two

Please read HURRICANE MARTHA: Part One, if you don't want to be confused while reading this post. And if you want extra credit points, go read about what our apartment looked like when we first moved in. 

I've already gloomily acknowledged that we can't have any IKEA sprees while living here in Sweden, since we can't take stuff back home with us. But for the love of Pete, the Hubster was decorating the apartment with t-shirts. I set out to see what I could do with our glamorous zero-million-dollar budget.

Bundled up and cheerfully roaming the streets, I soon accumulated an armful of daisies, colorful (but thorny) branches, and snowberries. I was then delighted to come across a giant 4-foot-long willow tree limb, torn off by the wind. I added it to the collection and dragged it behind me caveman-style as I headed home.

Looking back, I now realize I looked like a giant, deranged bird in a human body, manically collecting nesting material. A few passersby switched to the other side of the street as I approached. But at this point, nothing could stop the Martha in me. Especially after seeing my sweet husband's desperate attempts to "add a little color" to our apartment.

I had almost made it home when an acorn dropped to the ground in front of me. With my jacket smeared in dirt, hands bleeding from thorns, random foliage in my arms (and hair), and a frantic glint in my eye, I surveyed the ground for more "Festive Fall Adornments."

It also probably didn't help that I was humming "Santa Claus is Coming to Town." Don't ask.

Having stuffed my pockets with nuts (no, I didn't stuff my cheeks. I have to draw the line somewhere), I accepted that I couldn't carry anything else, and should probably head home before I had to explain myself to Swedish law-enforcement.

As a reminder, this is what I had to work with when I got home (minus Mr. Matthews-er, who was working hard at school and had no idea about any of this):

First, I faced that damn bookcase. The one that looks sad and hungry, for lack of possessions to display. Well guess what, Bookcase? You're the one with a problem, not us.

I did my own little version of Gastric Bypass surgery and took out half his shelves. HA!

This still left one large, open space which just screamed, "Cheesy Seasonal Display!!" So, by the power vested in me from years of watching Martha Stewart Living as a child... one Cheesy Seasonal Display coming right UP, Mr. Sad & Hungry Bookcase.


Materials:
    •    pumpkins & candles
    •    scavenged leaves & twigs
    •    appropriately color-themed book
    •    string and clothespins I found out on the patio
    •    Jason's old research papers
    •    every last drop of ink in the only pen I could find 

Time:
    •    I wasted FOUR freaking hours tearing all those pieces of paper (because I lost
         the scissors again) and tracing the words/dates onto them from my computer screen.

Cost-Benefit Analysis:
    •    NOT worth your time.

Yes, the calendar's in Sveeedish.
YES, I said "LUMOS!!" as I lit Harry's candle.
NO, they don't really celebrate Halloween here, and this probably looks insane to our neighbors.

Part Three coming tomorrow: the rest of the bookcase, & the rest of the apartment.