Friday, February 25, 2011

Home Improvement Projects!

This past week Jess and I have had fun doing some home improvement projects. I really hate the fact that my house isn't decorated...I wish I was an interior designer and could see a vision for every room but nay I am not. So I do things VERY slowly and just hope it will all come together in the end :)
My project this week was to make a kitchen sign using some vinyl I bought 50% off at Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago.
So we went to home depot and bought a wood slab 11.5 x 33.5 inches. It was way too expensive I should have found cheaper wood. Oh well lesson learned! Then I ran to Michaels and got my red paint and crackle medium.

 First I painted the board with 2 coats of white paint, after that dried I placed the vinyl lettering on and also made a thin black border around the lettering.
 Once the black border dried I taped off my outside border and painted it with a thin layer of crackle medium. Once that dried almost all the way, I painted on my red border.
 ALL DONE!

Jess spent the weekend working on our baseboards. We really wanted white baseboards but didn't want to pay big bucks for them. So, Jess had the brilliant idea of just painting them ourselves!
It's been a learning experience but I absolutely love how they turned out! 
Here is the beginning stages
Lots and lots of taping
 Lots and lots of priming then painting
 Lots and lots of caulking and carefully pulling off tape
  ...And this horrible mess was my project today...
The dreaded spare room aka junk room
Full of tools, art supplies, scrapbook crap, decorations, boxes, unused wedding gifts, wrapping paper, etc.
 This post is for my dad... who was always disgusted by the tornado that was my bedroom.  He would always say, "If you can't learn to clean your room you will never be able to keep your own house clean"
Well he forgot I have TREMENDOUS organizing skills
After 3 large bags of garbage...

here is the result!







 HURRAY! Now I'm tired and ready for bed.
Adios

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Sun's Game

On Thursday Jess and I went to the Suns Game. My dad was nice enough to give us tickets for Christmas and Jess hadn't been to a game in like 15 years! It was so fun to sit so close and see the players live. Even though I could care less about sports... still cool :)
Oh and the chicken caesar pizzans you can get at the arena
....Soooo Gooooood....


Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Valentine's Day and Freebies

 Valentine's Day makes me happy...
Especially when I receive flowers. I L-O-V-E Flowers.
Thank you Jess!
 Our Valentine's Day consisted of us both working 10 hours, then exchanging "i love you" cards, spaghetti dinner combined with Olive Garden Salad and breadsticks, and 2 hours of "The Bachelor"
How romantic :)
I am so thankful for Jess and I am so excited that our 1 year anniversary is coming up less than 3 weeks!

* CHANGE OF TOPIC *
Everyone knows these days that coupons are the way to go. I've been lazy lately but when i can remember I always try to go grab the FREEBIES of the week at the grocery store. 
...Here is what I got today...
3 FREE softsoap handsoaps
 18 FREE airheads (not for us, but to bribe our primary children with!)
 4 FREE packs of Mentos Gum
 And 6 FREE packs of Colgate Toothpaste
See Jess, all those annoying newspapers laying around do benefit us in some way :)

Sunday, January 30, 2011

The Big 22

This past Tuesday I turned 22! Weird I feel like I should atleast be 25 by now. Since Jess works late every weekday we decided to celebrate my birthday the Saturday before. He made me breakfast and helped me clean our house and then my wonderful family came over for dinner and dessert that night. Jess bought me this fantastic camera for my birthday!
 of course we would love to have a $3500 Digital SLR camera but who can afford one of those?? Actually apparently a lot of people can because it seems like everyone has amazing cameras these days! But on our budget this camera ROCKS! 

Me and my sisters on my birthday
 On tuesday my mom, Kourt, Kristen, Olivia, and I enjoyed a birthday lunch at Nielsens.
 Love her. She is growing up too fast!

 And we couldn't leave without enjoying a strawberry banana concrete.
To...Die...For!
My birthday ended with a fantastic massage from Jess. Massages are all I EVER want. So thanks Jess for sacrificing your time and energy on me :) 

Ok on a side note. One of my New Year Resolutions is to finally be brave enough to start up my Etsy Shop. Don't know what Etsy is? Well that's very unfortunate for you.
Etsy is a website where all things handmade or vintage can be sold. 
You can buy just about ANYTHING on Etsy and they have some of the most talented sellers on there.
So far this month I've been spending countless hours researching how to start up a successful shop and mostly I end up admiring other peoples work and convincing myself I am going to fail. 
But I read 2 things yesterday that helped me get back on my feet.

Marianne Williamson - Our Deepest Fear is that We Are Powerful Beyond Measure

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

I'm sure you have all heard that quote before but it makes me so happy every time I read it
The other quote isn't really a quote but just a fact that I needed to realize...
"Not everyone is going to want to buy your product. But that's OKAY. Finding your target market is about finding the people who appreciate you for who you are and what you do. These are the people who need somebody like you to bring a little handmade goodness into their life. These are the people who want to buy everything you have to sell. And these are the people who will go out of their way to tell their friends about you."
So on that note please stay tuned for the opening of my Etsy Shop. My goal is to launch it over spring break!
Until then.. please admire some of the Valentine's Day goodness from Etsy

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

...2010...
..So many wonderful things happened..
 Marriage was definitely the highlight of the year :)
 ..We moved into our first apartment..
 Biggest bummer of 2010
was discovering we weren't alone in our apartment
anyone else get lucky with the bed bug epidemic!
I don't remember anything great about the summer because it mainly consisted of trying to get rid of the stupid bugs

...Moving on...
In August we were so happy to get into our 1st home

 In October we put up all new blinds! Hurray!
 We also planted a garden, hoping to keep it alive
...Overall we did pretty well...
 ..Halloween..
..Thanksgiving..
both were fantastic
But we had the most fun during
CHRISTMAS
blurry picture of our tree, but it was fun decorating!
Jess surprised me with the giant mirror for our house. Obviously the mirror part hasn't come yet but he made the frame and it is beautiful and has amazing detail up close. I love it

 Christmas morning we went to my parents house to open gifts
These girls are the life of every party!
And they L.O.V.E. their grandma
 Love her cheesy-ness
Kate is growing up so fast and couldn't be cuter minus the attitude when you try to take her from grandma

Kristen found these insanely cute pj's and I can't get enough of the reindeer slippers 
Payne and Kelli joined us with their bundle of joy Brielle

Merry Christmas 2010!!!
 December 26th was Jess's 27th birthday
Hope he had a decent birthday since it was one day post christmas and on a Sunday :)
 ...2010...
..great year..
...2011...
..here we come..

Sunday, December 5, 2010

My New Babies

This Christmas Season has brought 2 new babies into my life.
The first is my new niece 
BRIELLE KATELYN ADAMS

 She is already a month old and so precious

The second baby belongs to Jess and I
it will arrive in 4-5 weeks
and we couldn't be happier :)
We ordered it from the great Cortate Furniture 
Its a feather down couch, aka a cloud :)
Merry Christmas to us