I'm SO good at blogging!

A couple weeks ago Brody and I went to LAS VEGAS! I really love Las Vegas, even though everyone in Utah hates it. It's warm, they have an H&M, among other great stores, and it's warm! Of course we forgot the camera (awesome!) so these pictures were taken on the trusty ole cell phone. This is where we stayed...

We saw this store from the freeway and Brody got SO excited! It's his mother-ship.

It was a pretty rad store. They had all kinds of unique animals all taxidermy-ed up. It was kind of like a really sad zoo.

RARRRRR!

I thought about Melissa the whole time I was standing by Geoffrey the Giraffe. And yes, I'm really that small...or maybe the giraffe is just big...

My mother-ship.

This is Brody. Isn't he cute?
The hotel had a bowling alley in it so we decided to knock down a few pins. Only a few though... Apparently it was pro-bolwing night in the alley though, because everyone around was CRAZY good. They were doing the crazy palm-spinning, leg-kicking-above-head, sliding-four-feet technique. It seemed to be working...

It's hard to see, but yes, those are all X's and the final scores were like 240 something. Ridiculous.

Hey Brother

So this last weekend my brother, Trevor, came to visit me! He very rarely makes it this far north, even though I am in Provo ALL THE TIME. Not bitter...
Anywho, all my cool cousins, namely Andrew and Melissa, go to Utah State, so Trevor brought their younger brother Blake with him. We played a little GHWT...
And had some sink at Angies...
and CLEANED the Sink at Angies...see we got the bumber sticker to prove it
And contrary to what Blake will tell you, he did NOT eat the whole thing himself.

Organization is coo-lll

A trip to IKEA has been made and oh, boy did I have fun! I've had my eye on their super organized storage solutions for awhile now. We made some purchases, obviously, but this is the thing I am the most excited about...

It is a free-standing wardrobe with our personal storage combination. It holds 32 pairs of shoes and 14 pairs of pants AND...
a pull-out jewelry rack! It's so organized! I just love it! It took us a little while to assemble last night, but luckily we have assembled IKEA furniture before :) and Brody is just super handy.

Which do you prefer?

So everything has gone pretty smooth in the housebuilding process, except for...the rock. It's kind of a long story, but this is what I saw one night after work...
Needless to say, I had a little bit of a breakdown. The swatch I picked was definitely not that brown. Anyway, Brody and his wonderful, wonderful friend ripped it all off and put up some pretty gray rock...
We also replace the icky cream dentil molding with white. I am SO SO SO much happier with the result. And now the house is officially done - the rock is fixed, the blinds are installed, and we're moving in!

The house is done!

Master bath

Master bedroom

Kitchen

Upstairs family room

The house is officially done! These are just a few pictures - more are posted on the facebook. We are closing today and will start to move stuff this week!

House Update

Little bit o' sheetrock

Tyvek wrapped and the roof is done

Paint

siding and shutters

So the house is coming along great! I've been told that everything is still on schedule for Sept. 22. I'm finding that I often can't go to sleep at night because I'm arranging furniture in my head. How do I turn that off?

SHVEEDEN

So I just spent the last week getting pictures of our trip up on facebook, so I'm not gonna lie, the blog will suffer. I would like to refer you all to my facebook page for amazing pictures of our 2-week trip to Sweden, Estonia, Russia, and Denmark - captions included! Here are just a few highlights:

Cruising the Baltic
Cruise ship food
Way too many old and overweight Swedes in bikinis (not a highlight)
Being able to say we've been to Estonia
Old Estonian churches
Seeing St. Petersburg via two guided tours (to protect us from the Russian mafia)
Old Russian churches
Driving through beautiful Swedish country-side
Having to sit in the backseat between my long-legged brother and broad-shouldered husband...
Viking ships
Visiting family members and having them feed us
Eating the exact same meal at all four family member's houses
Going to 8 different H&Ms
Finding a really cute owl shirt at the very first H&M and then searching the following 7 trying to find it again...and finding the owl shirt the day before we flew home!
Old Swedish churches
World's largest Dala Horse, World's longest bench, Sweden's oldest Church
Hot dogs with mashed potatoes
Pear-flavored anything
Swedish candy
Going to a Medieval festival and jousting tournament
Riding bikes along the ocean
Getting to visit Jonkoping again and show the fam where I used to hang out
Canal tours
Nutella and banana crepes
Changing of the guards
Climbing to the top of old churches

It was such a fun and exhausting trip. We had a great time, but are also glad to be home. Though I do miss the candy...

Framing...

Yard Sale!

Everyone come to our Yard Sale this Saturday, July 18th, from 8 am to noon. I will be joining forces with a couple other friends so the selection will be spectacular! Here is a brief list of the awesomeness that this yard sale will have:
-Bar stools
-LOTS of home decor
-Women's clothing that has mostly likely been worn only once
-VHS movies (wahoo!)
-George Foreman grills
-Dutch Oven
-Computer desk(s)
If you don't know where I live, then maybe you shouldn't be reading this blog...kidding, just let me know and I'll hook you up with the address.

This Clock Rocks my Socks

So a couple months ago, I found this clock online...
It is made by Steve Cambronne - a metal sculptor. He has amazing stuff - check it out here.
So instead of paying the $250 for it, Brody and I embraced our inner craftiness and total ripped off his design.
I started by drawing the shapes and tracing them on to a piece of wood.
Brody cut out the shapes with some fancy wood-cutting tools and then I painted all the pieces...
We glued the pieces together using some super-sticky wood glue...
and Voila!
I'm so in love with it! You can't tell from the picture, but it is very 3-D. Coolest. Clock. Ever.

Foundation!

REAL and Archie

A couple weeks ago we went to the Real Salt Lake vs. Colorado Rapids game with my family. It was an event - before the game even started! Some parachuters dropped into the stadium from the sky...Then David Archuleta walked out to sing the national anthem and, no joke, the old woman in front of us ripped open her blouse to reveal an Archuleta t-shirt...

Then because they were dedicating the stadium, they had a member of the seventy say the dedicatory prayer. Before he prayed he said a few words in Spanish (Brody translated), including "we are here to watch this beautiful game of soccer, the king of all sports" or something to that affect. I would just like to formally agree.
Then the actual game was played. It was a pretty good game but ended with a stupid goal by the Rapids resulting in a 1-1 tie. Blurg. Then, the highlight of my evening....
No, not the "mini concert" by David Archuleta, but watching teenage girls try to storm the field to get closer to Archie, only to be chased around by security guards. HILARIOUS!

Crazy Chair

So for some reason, I think I'm crafty and get these crazy ideas to repaint and reupholster stuff. A couple weeks ago I got on a garage sale kick and we found an arm chair for $5 - and I snagged it because it had such a great shape. But clearly it needed some new fabric, see below...
So one evening, Brody and I start to rip all on the fabric off...
And and entire week and one tired husband later, we came up with this... I don't know why I put Brody through this kind of torture, but he was such a trooper! And man is he good with a staple gun! I am so so pleased with the result...but I really don't think we will reupholster something this complex ever again. I should really come to terms with my actual level of craftiness.

Yes we can!

So it's official. We're going to build a house! Not ourselves, but by some people who actually know how to build houses...like this guy
To all my neighbors who love us, don't worry - we're just building across the street. I am looking forward to this because we can literally watch it go up and because moving will consist of throwing things haphazardly into our cars.
This is what our house looks like right now...

but without what appears to be a cliff on the other side of the fence. But in a few months it will look like this - ta da!
Or something similar.
Anyway, I'm thinking about having a yard sale to get rid of stuff and make money to buy new furniture :) If anyone is interested in getting in on the fun and combining forces - let me know!

Back to Normal

So as most of you know, I lost my job back in January, and I feel like I have been really off my groove the last couple months. I have learned valuable lessons about being grateful for what I have and being better about saving money. And though I've complained about it a lot, sorry Brody, I am grateful that I was able to find work in this economy. I've been doing a lot of this...

and working for a man like this....
AND NOW...dun dun dun...I'm back at ICON where I'll be doing a lot of this...
A friend of mine (Hollah Michelle!) is having a baby in May and I was lucky enough to get her job - thanks to some great recommendations from her and my old boss and coworkers. I am so excited to be back working with a lot of the same people and working in an industry I am interested in (no, stream restoration was not it).