Happy Thanksgiving!

Zach, Lucy, and I are in Reno spending time with family and looking forward to a day of relaxation, good food, and great conversations. We will miss our family in Idaho and in the Bay Area but know we will see them soon. I wanted to share a list of things I am very Thank-full for this year:

• my loving and adoring husband
• our little house in Idaho
• a new ski season
  
• a great job and potentially great small business
• Lucy, the lucky lab
• chocolate chip cookies
• running
• good books
• awesome girlfriends
  
• health
• all my loving family!!!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone :) xoxo

Guest Blog on Rickshaw Design

I had the wonderful opportunity to guest blog for Rickshaw Designs this week with five gift suggestions for the holidays. The owner, Catherine, specializes in beautiful hand block printed bedding for children out of the San Francisco Bay area. She is truly a creative and savvy girl! You can visit her blog here Rickshaw Design Blog or website at Rickshaw Design.

Here is my blog for her site:
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I love Rickshaw's fabrics and am so happy to share some other items I love for sustainable interiors.



* Cub Childrens Cork Chair by Daniel Michalik, Brooklyn, New York, $238
* Tin Roof Switchplate Covers from Anthropologie, $18-$24
* Oil Drum Angel from VivaTerra, $65-$139
*Work Lamp by Form Us With Love for Design House Stockholm, $100
*Solid Bronze Dinner Bell, Rocky Mountain Hardware, $358


And something not for the house but would help me bring things home to the house would be this bike basket
* Design House Carrie Bicycle Basket, $70


Happy Holidays to all! xoxo White Canvas Designs
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Thanks Sarah! Sarah lives in the best little town of Hailey Idaho, having that beautiful outdoors at her fingertips she can't help but be inspired by green living. Her design firm specializes in green design for residential or commercial projects. Plus she would be so fun to work with!

Gondola Go-nan-Za

This past Saturday Sun Valley unveiled it's new gondola from the base of River Run to the Roundhouse Lodge. Not exactly the most spectacular distance by means of any gondola or tram but huge in the effect that it is making on our little town. 3,200 people waited in line at the base of the mountain to get a chance for a free ride up the brand new Dopplemeyer cars. Free hot chocolate and cookies helped the wait along with a little jib park to entertain people in line. Ruscitto/Latham/Blanton has been working on this in conjunction with Sun Valley Co., for over a year now so it's always great to see a project come to completion. And the views from the Roundhouse were spectacular! Some people participated in a snow shoe race from the base to Roundhouse Lodge and then enjoyed a ride down. We had one of Zach's cousin's visiting for the weekend so we took the easy way up and down. Our little town is thrilled to have the new feature on our ski mountain. Hope everyone gets to share in our excitement with a little Sun Valley skiing this winter :)

New Moon Review

The "girls" (all eight of us in our 30's) had a great time at the New Moon showing last Friday night. Filled with all sorts of teenage admirers we stood in line for twenty minutes before getting in to one of the two sold out theaters showing the movie in little Hailey. It was all the romance you could ask for with slightly less cheese then the first Twilight film. The special effects were a LOT better in this film, thank goodness because I was worried they were going to
dress sheep up in wolf clothing after watching the first film.
Overall it was enjoyable but truly nothing can compare to the books :) Still looking forward to the next movie...Eclipse!

Twilight Tonight!

Yes, I'm a groupie and so excited to stand in line with a hundred other girls of all ages to swoon over Edward and Jacob. Never even heard of Twilight this time last year. Amazing what a book can get you into! This must be like what women felt like when the Beatles were around in the 50's.

Winter Cold

Zach and I had a wonderful Sunday skate ski for our first time this winter near Galena Lodge. Beautiful blue bird skies and a few trails to play on before the season officially starts. Everyone we passed had an ear to ear smile with excitement for the early ski conditions. The trails still needed some extra snow in places to cover over rocks or limbs but for the most part it was great start.

Earlier that morning we had Skyp'd with my sister, Addie, and her family in Tucson, AZ. From my laptop I was showing them the new snow in our yard, our firewood stack, and our wood stove keeping us warm. Cameron, my brother-in-law commented about how we must get tired of the cold. Yes, that happens as you can get tired of the heat I imagine. But in our hearts we love the cold and that's why we live here. I have never been more active in the winter time until I moved to Idaho. Nordic skiing, backcountry skiing, broom hockey, and skating are just some of the things that people are occupied with for fun during the winter. People are always on the move here and resting just means sitting around a fire somewhere with friends/family to share your cold adventures.

Cold is a funny thing. In some people's minds it can be the worst thing ever. Being cold can sound horrible. But as I've grown to learn and appreciate, cold also has a beauty and freshness that can only be enjoyed when you relax and open up to it. There is nothing like the feeling of fresh crisp air after a new snow outside. The quiet that surrounds is a moment to take a depth breath and feel warm and calm inside.

Not to say if anyone was offering me a free trip to say... Hawaii I would pass it up though :)

Sick

Last Tuesday Zach and I came down with what we can only think was the 24hr flu! Terrible, is all I can say for a day of utter misery. We were paranoid that it might be the dreaded swine flu at first but were relived when we woke up the next day to relative normalness. We were so lucky to have my sister, Erin, on hand as our nurse for the day and mom, Jean, nearby to bring us chicken soup and fluids. Thank you! We were a wreck! I don't think there has ever been a time where I haven't wished for my mother to be near when I have been sick. And luckily we had a mom and a sister at our mercy. It's been almost a week now and I still feel like I'm recovering from that day. It slows you down and really makes you appreciate little things again. All of a sudden I am so grateful for every bite of food that wants to stick with me, being outside never felt better, and I am obsessed with cleanliness. Not that I wasn't before but now I look at everything and see germs. Erin has been a trooper and managed to put up with me despite my consistent fussing and organizing while she visits. Hopefully we won't be getting sick again for a LONG time....! For all those sick people out there, hang in there, and the best medicine of all is sleep.

Happy Birthday Regina!

Happy Birthday to my fabulous friend Regina!

Lucky her, her birthday is on Halloween

and she get's to be the Birthday Princess every year.
29 and looking fine :)

Luv ya!

Halloween Hoop-La

Well, if I haven't posted about it enough you'll never guess what Zach and I did for most of Halloween day...of course cut wood! We only felt it appropriate to continue on the theme for our Halloween costumes later that night and pose as Forest Service officials. Zach nicknamed himself "Joe Jackass" after the officer that gave us the ticket and took our wood on our first cutting day this year. Kat, the cowboy, and the two Forest Service posers headed over to the Stevenson's for a Halloween party. In true Stevenson (Nickum) fashion they threw a Halloween party at their new home perfectly nicknamed "the purple people eater" because of it's purple exterior. Unbeknown to us, we were greeted by our host, Justin, dressed as none other then Forest Service officer "Joe Griffin" , and another good friend, Paris, was dressed as a wood cutting permit. We had a good laugh and realized our rendezvous with the Fed's was becoming quite the inside joke. Jessie, the parrot, won the costume contest but she was fiercely challenged by the four adult Tele-Tubbies with extremely large rear ends. We adore giving out candy to the kiddies but it seems this holiday gets more ridiculous for adults every year :)

Halloween Song

Every time I think of a Halloween song I have this one stuck in my head from childhood. It happens to be the only piano tune I remember as well.

"Halloween the wind is blowing,

spooks and goblins all about.

Halloween and out we're going,

now to play the game shout out.

Knock, Knock, Knock,

and then we'll shout!

Knock, Knock, Knock,

shout out shout out!

Then a gust of wind

comes blowing,

blows my jack-o-lantern out"

I can't believe I know that by heart :)