DIY: Dog Bowl Stand.

The year of create kicked off with a little something for Sadie.  She has this habit of nosing her food and water bowls all over the living room, leaving little puddles of water and moistened dog food all over the floor.   I had seen a raised wooden dog bowl stand on Pinterest and asked Matt if he could make one for her.  He said yes and so the project began.  It actually only took a couple of hours to make the stand and then I was in charge of painting it.  I worked with someone on base that has the necessary materials (sent from the States) and she helped me paint, stencil, and distress the stand.  I’m so excited about how it turned out and, even though it took Sadie a few days to get used to it, she now has figured out a way to fling her food from the bowl to the carpet and seems pretty happy with it.  It never ends with that one.   

Here is the final result.

Here is how we built it.  I actually took a bunch of pictures of the process of painting it – but I accidentally erased them from my iPhone before backing it up (ahhh, technology!)  For the paint job we used Annie Sloan chalk paint and started with a layer of white.  We then put on the stencils and applied two layers of red paint.  We distressed it with sand paper and finished up with a wax to protect it from the water that Sadie will inevitably slobber all over it.

Our kitchen butcher block doubled as a work bench.

Before cutting the holes for the bowl, Matt did a few practice runs on a spare piece of wood.

Our helper.

Making sure all those measurements were correct.

Hammertime.

Looking a little apprehensive about this new creation. 

Discovering Bangkok (Day 2).

We only had a couple of hours to explore on our last day, but we made the most of it squeezing in visits to the Grand Palace and Wat Arun, along with one more round of delicious Thai food and coconut drinks.  Simply put, Thailand was just the best.

Here is our last day in Thailand.

We climbed to the top of Wat Arun.
It was an intensely steep climb up the stairs, but worth it for the beautiful view of the city.

Our mode of transportation.

Time for one more quick food stop!

Discovering Bangkok (Day 1).

We spent the last part of our trip in Bangkok – a full 24 hours.  We figured it was just enough time to see Thailand’s capital, right?!  But really, it was the perfect amount of time for us.  We were beyond exhausted, but wanted to take advantage of the short amount of time we had there.  Luckily, there was a street festival happening right in front of our hotel so we just had to walk outside to experience local foods, music, and performances. 

At one point, we were sitting at a restaurant off the side of a back street sipping our ice cold beers and eating our crunchy spring rolls (I am not lying when I said that I ate them at every meal) and I looked around and had so much appreciation for the opportunity to see this crazy beautiful world.   Being in the city reminded me (not that I really needed a reminder) why I love to travel so much.  It had so much energy - from the pushy vendors selling food on the sides of the street to the music drifting out from some tucked away bar; from the vibrant colors that everyone wore showing off their Thai pride to the rowdy conversations of drunken backpackers; from the tuk tuks zooming by in every direction to the mixed aromas of every street food you can imagine.  Being in Bangkok was quite the experience and I’m happy to say that it was a good one!     

Here is our first 12 hours in Bangkok.  

We were told to avoid the protests, which inevitably meant that we accidentally ended up right in the middle of one.  This one was captured from our hotel.

At one point they had a toddler on top.  I was terrified (and judging by the tears, so was the toddler).

My favorite travel partner (and not just because he usually carries everything).

Just puttin' it out there.

The street food that he regretted buying after his first bite.

Discovering Koh Samui.

After Chiang Mai, we flew to Koh Samui, an island off of Thailand.  There is not much to say about it, except for the pure and simple fact that it is paradise.  I tend to build vacations up in my head and have such high expectations that nothing can ever meet them and I was so worried that would happen with Samui.  It didn’t; it was perfect in every way.  

We slept in; we ocean kayaked; we rented bikes and cycled around the island; we went on a snorkeling trip where no one spoke English; we sat by the beach with our mindless books, fluffy towels, and strong tropical drinks; we ate our weight’s worth of Thai food; we visited shrines by the beach; we saw the island from the back of a rusty pick-up truck bouncing along the streets; we popped champagne and told everyone we just got married; we met people from all around the world; we had sunsets that brought tears to my eyes  – it was everything that we ever wanted in a honeymoon.        

    

If you are traveling to Koh Samui, do yourself a favor and stay at Tongsai Bay Cottages (Matt and I can’t give them a high enough recommendation!)  Sometimes I go back to the website just to see their pictures because I miss it so much!

Unfortunately, I didn’t take too many pictures because I was too busy drinking margaritas and stuffing my face with spring rolls (true story), but here is what I captured.