Happy New Year!

Happy 2013!

 

2012 was a great year and as I try to think back and remember all the wonderful things that happened...

 

I can't remember! Because I
NEVER took pictures and I NEVER wrote anything down.

 

...What a serious bummer...

 

So one of my biggest NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS is to:

*Take more photos

*Record events (big or small)

 

So I thought I would start the New Year off right by doing a mid-January blog post. (how is it already mid-Jan??!!)


We started off the New Year will a New Years Eve party at our house with all of our friends.  Jess is so lucky to have a GREAT group of guy friends that have all stayed really close since they graduated high school.  We spent the night playing games, eating junk food, and making s'mores by our fire pit that we had just bought that day.  Jess LOVES sitting by a fire when it is cold outside so we knew this would be a necessary purchase.

I'm so glad we have such fun friends to hang out with

 

 

 On January 3rd I got my 300th Etsy Sale!
I feel so blessed that my business venture has been so successful in these few shorts months since I opened. I truly LOVE creating and designing and it feels so great to know I will be able to provide some good income when I eventually have kiddos at home.

I can't believe my stuff has been viewed over 5,000 times this month! Another one of my resolutions is to hit 1,000 Etsy sales by the end of the year... yikes! I better start cracking down and working hard!


Last weekend we went on a short weekend SNOW trip with our friends Dave & Elyse.  I only remember seeing snow about 3 times in my life so I was pretty excited to go up.  The drive up was beautiful and I loved seeing the snow all over the mountains.  After we arrived, we had fun taking pictures with the giant icicles... we are slightly violent :)

Gorgeous white snow everywhere!

That night we went out to dinner & icecream and then saw the movie "Jack Reacher" which I thought was SUCH a good movie.

The next morning we ate breakfast at a yummy little restaurant and bought ourselves some snow gear to go tubing down the snow hills.  2 hours later after driving in a blizzard and treking through knee deep snow, we decided tubing might be out of the question.

That night after dinner, we decided we NEEDED to do something stupid, like run outside across the street and jump in the snow barefoot.

Then Jess and Dave decided to see who could stand in the snow barefoot the longest.  Jess cracks me up. Sorry the videos are sideways, iphones are awesome (not)



It was such a fun trip and we will FOREVER remember it because this is what the cold weather did to Jess's car stereo display... and it hasn't gone away :)

 

We have a SUPER EXCITING event coming up this next week so I'll be posting about that soon!

New Designs and Etsy Shop Opening

Hello Everyone! Does anyone even look at this blog anymore?!?!

I have kept myself way too busy posting recipes on my

EATING CLEANER BLOG

and completely neglected this blog!

Well I just wanted to post quickly about the other things in my life that are keeping me busy!

I have always wanted to use my graphic design skills from school and open up an Etsy shop.  Each time I attempt I find an excuse NOT to do it or I freak myself out because it is intimidating and time consuming! Well no more excuses, designing is what I LOVE to do, and the reason I decided to major in art and design is so I can make money from home when I am a mommy :)

Well I am hoping to be a mommy someday in the near future so I figured I better get this business thing going!

Here are my latest designs and the link to my design blog and Etsy shop! Please check it out and let me know how you like it!

ETSY SHOP

DESIGN BLOG



What's New in the Past 4 Months?!

 Wow... it's been 4 months

I actually FORGOT I have a blog :)

Well I will try to sum up the past 4 months will few words and lots of pictures!

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER

In August/September Jess was busy playing with his new tools and doing lots of house projects!
The first thing he did was replace ALL the door in our home
...UGLY doors...

 PRETTY doors!

Jess found THIS saw on craigslist for a great price and it started our obsession with home improvement projects

He decided to tackle the task of framing our family room windows 

...This is what the windows look like BEFORE...

After figuring out all the measurements and purchasing all the wood, Jess went to work cutting the 

flat stock and routering the edges to make the shelf part of the frame  

Then he nailed the shelf into place, as well as the casing on both sides of the window

More flat stock on top plus the cute decorative piece that HE picked out, Great choice.
(also please excuse the terrible pictures. Photos at night in the house never turn out great. And i'm too lazy to photoshop them all)

and finally the hardest part was adding the crown on the top

The crown returns were hard to figure out at first but now he is a pro

Don't forget the cute apron at the bottom made from casing

The project was finished off by filling in the sides with joint compound, since we have rounded corners we had to fill in the huge space to make it look square

TADA!

After picture! Not great because it was night time but in person these things look awesome. So amazed that Jess just FIGURES this stuff out

Jess and I also re-did our guest bathroom over the summer. Here are some pictures from that.

...This is the BEFORE of our bathroom...

AND AFTER!

Jess added beadboard to the main wall and also redid the baseboards

 My FAVORITE addition was this mirror frame that he built. It added SO much to the bathroom

We painted the room a blueish green color and the ceiling a grayish white

We also painted the cabinets white and added black hardware

And remember this gift Jess made me for Christmas last year???

It is officially hung and is definitely a statement piece on our wall

My favorite part: The twisted edge detail

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 

October was a challenging month to say the least. On October 2nd Jess woke up with shooting pain in his abdomen. LOOOONNNGG story short he ended up in the hospital getting surgery to REMOVE his

MECKEL'S DIVERTICULUM

click on the link if you wanna know what that is :)

While they were in there they took out his appendix as well. 

We went home the next day and because of AWESOME/NOT SO AWESOME instructions from the hospital, we ended up BACK in the hospital the same night.

Three days later we FINALLY came home. 

Craziest ... Week ... Ever

In OCTOBER I decided to treat myself to a personal trainer.  I hate exercising but I hate feeling out of shape even more.  My sister Kristen met this awesome trainer named Krista Estrada who does personal training at her home and said she was so great!
I went on her WEBSITE one day and saw she was doing a special for new clients!
So i decided to go for it!
I saw her once a week for 8 weeks and loved every second of it.  She is so nice and her workouts were awesome.  Aside from seeing her once a week I usually did one, MAYBE two other workouts on my own during the week.
On Thanksgiving I accomplished something I never thought I would be able to do after having my foot surgery. Also never thought I would have the DESIRE to run... But my trainer inspired me.
So I ran the TURKEY TROT 10K!
Granted it took my 1 hr 9 min... but hey I still did it.
Thanks clinton for shooting this awesome action picture of me running!

Also after 8 weeks I lost:
2.4 lbs
5.75 total inches
7% body fat

WOOT WOOT!

****P.S. JESS GRADUATED WITH HIS BACHELORS IN BUSINESS MANAGEMENT IN OCTOBER AS WELL!!!!

Wow this is turning out to be a LONG POST... almost done
Remember our cute little garden from last year

Well this year we decided to expand
Jess started by killing the grass on the side of the yard, then dug it all up by hand. Next he leveled all the dirt, dug out a tree trunk, had curbing put in, built 2 boxes out of redwood, laid down landscaping cloth, and shoveled in 1 and a 1/2 TONS of rock! 

It was a pain in the neck (literally) but we are so pumped now that it is all done.

We only had enough $$ to fill ONE box with soil this year but take a look at the progress!!!
We planted it all from seed: From back to front we planted:
Cauliflower, Broccoli, Cilantro, Peas, Green Onions, Carrots, Spinach, Romaine, and Iceberg lettuce.

So fun!

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST!!!!
Please welcome Mr. Peanut! We are bunny sitting for a month until Christmas.
My boss, Tom Farnsworth, decided to give their adorable dwarf bunny away. I immediately thought of my niece Olivia and how she LONGS for a pet. All she has ever had for a pet is a potato bug, a lady bug, and a goldfish.
She even asked Kristen if they make real pets at the North Pole :)
So get ready Olivia... because he is pretty cute.
Here he is sniffing our carrot we had just pulled out of the garden!

Well that's the update! I'll try to NEVER wait that long in between posts again!
Happy Holidays!

Bountiful Baskets!

Monday: Order your produce at http://www3.bountifulbaskets.org/

Saturday: 7:30 am, drive 3 minutes and pick up ALL THIS!

Read my post HERE about it,

and about WHY I need to eat more of this!

One Month Of Summer GONE!

Happy 4th of July!

Today I am dreaming of 4th of July desserts such as

Martha Stewarts Flag Sheet Cake that Kristen made this weekend for our annual 4th of July cabin trip

 

and FRUIT PIZZA which might be my favorite dessert EVER

June went by so fast and I think I got to check maybe 2 things off of my SUMMER TO DO LIST

Pretty sure i took a nap, and I have started teaching group piano lessons with my sister Kristen.

Jess's parents came home last month from their year and a half mission in Norway! It has seriously been so great having them home. They left for Norway before Jess and I even got engaged and they were not able to come back for our wedding! So I feel like I barely know them and I love having them home so I feel like I have another set of parents :)

Last month I also started teaching private dance lessons to an adorable 5 yr old named Ava. We meet twice a week and she is so fun to work with. I also started choreographing a Jazz trio for 3 girls in my "HOT SHOTS" company I teach at Higher Ground.

I must say I am most excited to start teaching piano lessons in the fall. Kristen and I will be teaching large group classes on Wednesdays and I will be taking on as many private students as I can fit in my schedule! 

 ::: Soon I will be purchasing this beauty :::

and will be teaching at my house and also my mom's house

 

 I have a few spots still open for fall so please let me know if anyone is interested. 

Also, just posted on our food blog...

*New eating goals

*Healthy Foods on SALE this week

*Dinner Menu 

* & MUST WATCH videos

CHECK IT OUT