Hate to break it to you.

but I have to say, that I have the greatest husband.

Allow me to explain.

I had some what of a rough day today. Jason did all the little things that were exactly what I needed. I took a long nap, he kept bringing me my cats to cuddle with, hugs and kisses galore etc.

Jason has a second wife, I call her Coca-Cola. He went to the building that houses perfectly carbonated coke, the gas station. Said gas station has scrumptious Sugar-Doodle cookies, don't believe if you choose, but they do. I asked him to get me one, and of course the sweetie that he is, picked one up for me.

and I was not as nice as I should have been, because the cookie was hard. Not soft. Instead of saying thank you and being appreciative, I selfishly pulled a sad face because of my soft lacking cookie.

To which Jason apologized, and offered to go get me another one.

:( aw how sweet.

I of course, realized the error of my ways and apologized for being such a brat and went to the microwave to warm up my cookie that was picked up from the building that houses perfectly carbonated coke, with love. :)

My husband, is seriously, the best.

I know you think yours is, and I will let you keep thinking that, but just know I respectfully disagree.

:)

pretty please?

I need your opinion and help, so go here and be brutally honest.

Please? :)

Oh how I love fabric.

well here is an update on the re-modelish projects we have going on.

Originally Jason and I were going to have our cabinets restained, but now we are exploring the options of leaving them, getting new countertops and hard wood floor.

This is a sliver of what it would look like.

(We used samples in this picture :D)

We haven't decided one way or the other, and its more involved than that, we would have to re-paint over the yellow blah blah blah.

On to more fun things.

The office!

Today I went to the fabric store, and hit the jackpot :)

It really is the fabrics in a room that can make or break it.

hopefully these make it.

First let me start by explaining the choice of color.

I chose burnt orange as the main color, because my husband served his mission in Texas and loves Texas State. Their colors are burnt orange and white.

So here is a fabric that I am making a pillow out of. Its a jersey mesh, so its got the sports feeling, without the tackiness.

This is another fabric for a pillow, yellow will be a minor accent color. With this fabric I just really liked the texture, and it was on major sale. I think I got 1/2 yard for like 1.50.

This is another pillow fabric, which I am way excited about. I am going to do a tufting finish, that I am trying on my own, with no DIY instructions or anything, we will see how it goes.

Green is the secondary color for the room.

Now this, is my favorite buy. This fabric was on sale for 2.95 a yard, its a white striped silky satin fabric that I am making the curtains out of. :) Oh its so nice and crisp. And next to the burnt orange walls its going to look so pretty.

Fabric jackpot right?

21.32$ for it all.

When I got these beauties home, I realized that they go with these wall hangings I made a long time ago.

I don't know if I will use them, but its a good possibility.

What do ya think?

I love my house.

It is time to decorate another room.

:)

This time it is our office, or what will be our office.

Currently it is a room, with a TV, air mattress, and the old stuff from our bedroom.

It won't be much, a desk with a computer, some shelving, a sitting chair and of course wall decor. maybe a plant.

We'll see.

Here is my color pallate inspiration.

The walls will be a burnt orange, and light lime green with accent with a dark walnut/black for a grounding color. I do want to incoporate white, but we will see how.

:)

Trading Spaces?

Remember that show Trading Spaces?

It was all the rage in home decor do it yourself.

In fact I am convinced that show is alone responsible for the DIY world that we are in today.

and I love it.

Well.

I have decorated most of my house, to my liking. My husband lives here, yes, but do I trust his "eye" for decor or design? No. But do I want him to be happy here and feel like its his home too? Yes.

:) So.

That brings me to MY memorial day weekend.

For those of you who don't know my husband, he works in finance, with wall street, numbers all day.

He can't justify in his mind spending money on home decor.

that, and he is a guy.

I however, justify it up the wazoo. So this task needed to be done without him watching the register as I check out.

so it had to be done, in secret. :) Oh how I love secret surprises.

My style is somewhat vintage, mixed with retro combined with modern contemporary. None of which is Jason's style. Jason is a classic, drastic contrast type of person. He likes clean bright white, with a bold contrasting color and classic decor. Nothing outside the box, nothing new etc.

Well, our bedroom has never been decorated really. before we lived in an apartment where we couldn't paint, nor did I have much room to spread out and paint our stuff if I wanted etc. So there were many reasons our room didn't get done, but it just didn't, and it was time.

So I decided, being the good wife I am, to design the bedroom totally based on Jason's taste, and a room that would be perfect for him to feel comfortable, and like it is his.

I know, I know, I am a good wife. :D

(actually it probably says more to the fact that I am a mean wife that the rest of the house is decorated with my taste and not his, but whatever.)

Unfortunately, I forgot to take a before picture, and that is so unlike me. But for your recap, our room was painted gold, brown, blue, green and orange bed spead, retro circle art stuff on the wall with forest green curtains. none if it made sense. Here is the AFTER:

:)

I think I did pretty well.

and would you like to know how much this cost me?

ready?

238.26$

Trading Spaces was nuts to think you need to spend 1000$ on each room.

Here is how it all started. Saturday I went in search of a bed set, because that is the center of all bedrooms. I went to TJ Maxx and within 5 minutes found it. I knew I wanted Navy blue, and white, I still am amazed at how perfect this set it for what I wanted.

It came with the comforter, pillow cases, and 3 pillows.

Bed Set 85.67$

Don't cheap out on the bed set, it really is the most important part, to me at least.

From there I could choose the paint.

off to lowes I went, matched the color and picked up a bright white.

1 gallon of each, 3 cans of spray paint 2 brushes and 2 roller pads.

Supplies 57.42$

I went next door to Shopko, because I got a coupon in the mail for 15$ off 75$. sweet! There I went to the clearance section, obviously. I found the two lamp bases, which were originally black for 11.99$ a piece, and the shades which were originally red, for 3.49$ a piece. I came across the navy blue placemats on clearance for 1.49$ a piece, grabbed 2. The floating shelves were on sale, for 19.99$. I also originally got sheets here for 14.99 but found some I like more at Ross.

Shopko 62.35$

Ross, I got sheets for 14.79$

Then I went across the street to the Dollar store. Yes, the dollar store. I needed frames, and if you are going to redo some frames, do not go to michaels and spend 5-10$ on each frame thinking its the best deal. I got each frame for obviously 1$ a piece, and they worked perfectly. I also got a glass vase.

Dollar store 7.38$

Then to Michaels(btw in woods cross all of these stores are in the same complex besides lowes. love it). At Michael's I got the mats for the frames, 1.79$ a piece times 3, and the leaves for the pictures, those were pricey at 3.99$.

Michaels 10.65$

I did all this in about an hour.

the work began on Sunday, I know I suck for doing it on Sunday but for me its enjoyment, like going on a family bike ride. :) thats ok right?

Anyway, I told Jason I was working on a surprise and certain places were off limits.

First I started on the leaf pictures. I painted the leaves the burnt orange, they were originally lime green glitter, they were scrapbooking things. Then I painted the frames with tan craft paint, heres why. Because they were from the dollar store, they were plastic, and spray painted doesnt adhere well to plastic, so you prime with paint THEN you can spray paint for a nice even coat.

Then I went outside to begin the real work. I started on the lamps. They were originally black, I spray painted them crome/silver, it went on so perfectly, no issues there. Then I moved to the shades, which were red. I spray painted them with a base coat of navy blue, again went on nice no issues there. Then I started on the floating shelves, there we had some problems. I spray painted them white, but for some strange reason, still unknown, the white spray paint, dried pink. don't ask why, I have no clue, the paint worked everywhere else. So I went to my alternative option and got out the gallon of white paint for the walls, and used that instead. It took a few coats to get in on even and pretty, but it worked out. the shelves got a coat of laquer to prevent paint chips and such. I also spray painted the stars, from our old blue and brown decor, white. Later, I wish I could find the site where I saw this idea, but I can't, anyway the base color of the shade is now blue, I wrapped string around the shade in no particular order, and then spray painted white. Then removed the string. Cool right? I think so. The star mats, I had some old canvas's I wasn't using, and I wanted the mats to stick out of the wall and look like they were floating, so I hot glued the mats to the canvas, then hot glued the spray painted stars on the mats. simple.

The put together. Monday, Jason went golfing with his brother, FREAKING EARLY! So I had to wake up at the same time, and get started. freaking 6 am on my day off. The things I do for my husband. So I woke up, got everything out of the bedroom, covered it all in plastic, taped off the trim and got to work. obviously painted one wall white, and the rest blue. Then when the blue dried I painted the white stripes on the bed wall, to take the place of a headboard. waited for it all to dry and then re-assembled the room.

It took quite a bit of time and work, I painted non stop for about 8 hours on Monday. I would totally do it again, because the look on my hubbys face when I took off the blindfold(duh, of course I blindfolded him) was priceless.

I loooove my new down comforter. It is so plush and comfy I just can't stand to sit anywhere else in the house.

so to keep up, I have finished the front room, living room, hallway bathroom, dining room, and some of the kitchen.

left I have, to finish the kitchen(i.e. stain cabinets and new countertops), laundry room, master bathroom and the office.

Making progress! One day soon, my house will be perfect, to me. :D

He loved it. :) or so he tells me anyway.

and I love it.

I love it when that happens. :)

lately....

This is what my nights consist of when I am sick.

its almost rather perfect, just missing my hubby.

I have a sick guilty pleasure to admit.

I secretly love being sick. I love feeling like my body is broken, because it makes the morning I wake up healthy, so much better. But also, I love being tired and weak, because it makes sleep sooo much better. So, sickly, I love having this sore throat that I curl up in a ball with my apple cider and husband with. I also love being sick because my husband is so good at pampering me and being at my every whim. its so freaking adorable and sweet. So in short, I love being sick. Sick, right?

bring on summer.

Our Saturday was spent making this...

Fun right?

We put a lot in there, its pretty much full to the max.

We have another grow box we could set up, but the soil alone was like 50$. which is fine, because you keep using it. and if we did a garden, we were going to do it right, and not some half attempt.

We will see how it goes, so far so good.

I do however want to add in our backyard, fruit trees. They weren't very expensive and I would just looove a peach tree.

oh I love summer!

la tee da tee do

I have been told I need to update my blog.

so here I am. :)

This week was more crazy than normal, but not too much. I had one of my young women stay the night with me. She moved to Texas and came back for a visit. Oh how I already miss her. She is too funny, let me tell you.

Then on Thursday I went a photography workshop on taking scenic landscape pictures, which is my favorite. My main goal was to learn how to take awesome sunset/sunlight pictures. I learned a lot, but had to leave early to go on our trip. :( So not as much as I would have liked to learn.

Here is my homework from the workshop.

I think this one actually is my favorite.

The instructor talked about it, but I obviously missed it, so I need to re-learn how to get the sun colors, AND the foreground exposed right.

but the foreground really wasn't all that pretty anyway.

Then we left on our weekend getaway trip with my parents to idaho!

This is my parents pointing at the crazy people we watched jump off a bridge. nutso people.

And this is the reason we went. There is this pretty little awesome canyon in Twin Falls, where a golf course sits right in the middle. So we went to play it.

I did pretty OK on my golf game for not even hitting a bucket of balls yet this year. :)

That is us as of late.

I have another photography workshop I am going to this weekend with Glam Photography so hopefully there I will learn more to fine tune my camera skills. and they provide lunch. lol so at least I get that.

Nothing much else going on with us. We are pretty boring. I am working on a re-finishing project for something in our downstairs living room, I will post the before and after pictures when that is finished, hopefully tonight actually. but who knows.

Happy week everyone!

new stuff and pretty colors.

Oh times are fun.

First, here is our new best friend.

Oh how I already love this little guy. At first I didn't understand the big hype about a front loading washer, but now, I love it. It is sooo easy to use, and makes laundry so much nicer. It seriously is just a touch of a button and its all custom set. Also, it gets the clothes soo dry with the spinning, that they seriously only need like 15 mins in the dryer and they are done. I love it.

Here is another thing to add to my project list, though.

The floor.

The floor is the laundry room is unfinished, and I don't approve. It will be a simple fairly inexpensive fix to finish it, its just taking the time, and moving the appliances out etc. So one day soon, it will be finished with hardwood.

Can I just say that I loooove spring with all my heart?

Look at how pretty our front trees are.

and my tulips have already bloomed!

I love the warm weather, the bright colors, oh I love everything about spring, especially that it brings Summer!

May will be fun. I am attending a few photography workshops which should be really helpful and fun. I will let you know how it goes I am sure.

I am hoping with the warmer weather, I will run outside more, although its sort of hard because its not really that fabulous of a scenery in my neighborhood. In sugarhouse I had sugarhouse park which was so awesome for elevation and scenery, so I may have to drive to the legacy parkway trail and run there. We will see. I got new running shoes to motivate me. :)

flowers and laundry.

I had big plans for planting flowers in the front of my house.

Big plans.

Until I discovered, that there are already flowers there.

Of course there are. why wouldn't I think there would be?

silly me.

So I still plan on planting MY flowers, since I bought the seeds and all, but now I have to figure out a work around for the pre-existing flowers.

They are pretty, I just want more colors and variety.

Here we have my red tulips.

ok I lied, I don't think these little purple ones are pretty at all.

And these yellow ones.

oddly enough they are red and yellow, so they match my living room. baha.

So thats that.

We bought a new washer, yeah for that. I am sure it will be loads more exciting when it comes.

loads. haha.

This weekend is going to be epic. just so you know. :)

Re-model

If you will remember from here, our plan is to build a window seat in our front room bayish window.

I have the plans for it, and with the help of my dad and his tools, I feel its quite possible.

There are a few reasons Jason and I bought this house, one of which is that it is less then 10 years old and does not need to be re-modeled.

But that doesn't mean I can't do it anyway, right?

Well my next set of plans for the front room, is to build a mudroom.

Like this one.

For this space.

As you can see, the first thing I do when I get home, is take off my shoes. Usually in the same spot, sometimes about 5 feet over near the kitchen, but regardless, it looks bad. About every other week I will collect all my shoes and move them back to the closet cause it looks so bad.

Now there isn't a ton of room right there for a big mudroom, but there is enough for a little one.

It will be equipped with a seating bench, shoe shelves, coat hooks and storage above for seasonal things, such as hats scarves and gloves.

I don't know how long Jason and I intend to live in this house, but I do think that these projects we will do, will increase the value of the home, or at least increase the interest people have in it when we do try and sell it.

After all, who would't love a mudroom and a window seat?

I made it!

I have started like 3 different posts in an effort to update my blog, and have failed at them all.

I am in a blogging slump. :)

I don't feel like I have much to blog about, but I always get super annoyed when people don't update their blogs. Cause I like to read them. :)

So here is my last attempt.

Jason and I ventured off to the Bountiful Temple today and it was lovely. It was much needed. Although I did get my temple stuff stolen, temporarily. I put it down in the bathroom on the shelf they provide and when I went to get it, it was gone! Someone took it thinking it was theirs, and then after my session got out, the temple workers had found it for me. :)

We also bought seeds to do some gardening. Today we just got flower seeds, but I think thats the prettiest part. We will see how it goes, they need to get planted like right now in order to bloom in time.

I still love my house. It has been almost 2 months and Jason and I have not had one bit of buyers remorse. If there is something we don't like about the house, we change it. Cause we can!

We eat out, a lot. lol its getting ridiculous. We just don't feel like cooking, or one of us is craving something. Its been fun, but it means I need to go to the gym a lot more then I currently do. sigh.

OH! I started my food storage! Food storage in and of itself is not exciting, at all. In fact its kind of annoying spending 20$ on a canister of dried food you have no intentions of consuming anytime soon, but its a really comforting feeling know that you are doing what the prophet has instructed us all to do. I don't have to sit through meetings or conference feeling guilty anytime they talk about food storage. We started out small, of course. There are 2 kinds of food storage. The first kind is the canister dried food that last 15 years kind. But the second is just having a year supply of basic foods that you eat all the time, and rotating them out. Like boxes of hamburger helper. :) I love the stuff, so every time I am at the store, I buy 4 packs, whether I need them or not. So gradually my food storage is getting bigger. Canned foods are good to do that with, banana chips, mmmm those are good and last 2 years.

wow, what I dork I am.

Well, nothing else new here.

Our brother and sister-in-law are adopting their first baby and we are super excited for them! Its a boy, I am sure pictures of him will come when he is born, sometime in May.

Happy Spring everyone!

What a blessing.

What a great day!!!!

Why?

Because our basement completely flooded!!!

No, I am not being sarcastic.

We had Jason's family over for dinner, and after it was done and I was doing the dishes, his mom went to our basement and found that it had flooded!!

Why am I so excited?

Why wouldn't I be?

In relief society they mentioned facing trials head on and looking at obstacles with gratitude for the chance you have to grow stronger.

Here we go. :)

Time for a spiritual work-out.

I even made my hubby take a picture with me so we could officially document this exciting occasion.

after all, it is our first flooded basement, in our first house, during our first family dinner.

This is a day, we will look back on and laugh at, or one we can pin point great strength from.

Stay tuned for further excitement. :)

long update.

Hello again to all my friends.

:)

There is not a whole lot going on with us, yet anyway.

So here we go!

This is the view from our kitchen, dining room, family room and bedroom. :)

The picture obviously doesn't do it justice. You can see the temple so well and I love it. I love being able to eat dinner and look out to see the temple, so clear and so well.

I didn't really appreciate that about our house when we were buying it, but now I cherish it.

It helps to keep my daily life in perspective.

This, is our new table.

Now, we were not going to buy a new table for a while, but thanks to our kitten, we had to.

You see those cute flowers on the table?

Well, in the vase is fake water, you've see fake water, well I did it to those flowers.

well in the middle of the night, before the fake water was dry, Reesie knocked over the vase spilling the fake water on the table. And the fake water, DOES NOT COME OFF ANYTHING!

So fair warning, just don't do fake water.

but anyway, I got a nice new table out of it. :)

We are either going to stain the table to match the chairs, or stain the chairs to match the table.

haven't decided yet.

We love Reesie. :) She is so cute and cuddly. She is just so much fun to play with. We chunked her up real fast lol.

I don't understand why people want dogs.

Reesie is so much fun, doesn't poo and pee on things, doesn't need to be watched every second, isn't this big huge thing running around the house, cuddles at our feet at night and purrs.

eff dogs.

There isn't much new about the house since the last update on it. Not that is terribly exciting or anything.

We love our ward so far.

Its pretty much all young couples with a few kids. The ward has 4 nurseries on sunday! FOUR!

The relief society women are so sweet. I still miss young womens, soooo much, but at least in this ward its not all 80 year women talking about genealogy. I secretly hope they call me to be in Young Women's again. I do feel out of place because their(relief society) topic of conversation is their kids, so I guess I need to get on that. ;-)

oh wait!

I am starting a garden.

:)

I am nervous about this task, cause either I don't do a garden, or I do it awesomely.

no half-A garden here.

So, we bought 2 grow boxes to keep the garden elevated and so it has proper drainage, and I just need to figure out where the best place for them is.

I am going to grow tomatoes, basel, squash, cucumbers, raspberries and maybe corn. pumpkins would be fun.

I really love my front room.

Decor aside, its the room I love being in the most.

Its quiet.

there is no TV in there. I don't know what it is, but I feel like if there is a TV in a room, it has to be on.

The couches are soooo comfy.

get this, I actually read in there!

Granted I was reading the Ensign but thats pretty good.

I just love being in there where its quiet, calm, I can look out our big front window and watch the neighborhood kids run around.

Its nice.

Thats one thing I love about being in a house, WINDOWS!!

In our apartment we had 1 window in the bedroom and the sliding door in the living room. lol.

It seems like a cave to me now!

I love having windows everywhere! and whats best is that there is no one behind us so I don't have to worry about shutting the blinds on the back side of the house.

I colored my hair a few weeks ago. I wanted to go really dark, but just for a bit. So Miss Kourtney came over and we colored my hair with a temporary brown color. It was fun, its pretty much all faded now, I think at least. Which is good because as fun as it is to change your hair color, it just didn't feel like me. I also cut 2 inches from the bottom and thats taking some getting used to.

The more I get done on the house, the more I want to get moving on the baby front, so its getting closer. lol :) I just don't want to have a baby and then not ever feel like I "finished" my house. I know its a lame excuse for not starting a family, but to me its a good one. Everyone keeps saying, do everything and get everything you want, because once you have kids you can't do those things anymore, and all the money goes to them. I think its a good point, I mean its not like I am going to wait 10 years because I want to go on vacations and buy purses, but I think finishing the house is a good goal.

Actually, Jason and I know exactly what our baby plan is, I am just not going to tell. :P

my dad is home!

He has been gone for over a month training with the FAA for his new position.

he golfed EVERY SINGLE day. Except for Sunday of course.

His apartment had a free golf course.

lets just say I am sure it wasn't torture for him to go there lol.

Well I think thats it! I am going to go cuddle and watch a movie with the hubby. :)

simple post.

In our search to obtain relief from the stresses of life, may we earnestly seek ways to simplify our lives.

Elder L. Tom Perry

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Brilliance.