Wistfully Romantic

I think that my bedroom is sort of blah.  I use all my decorating expertise on my living room (who wouldn't?  It's a decorator's dream), so my bedroom has been put on the back burner.  It gets the leftovers that don't really have much design value.  Plus, the furniture is mismatched and over-sized for the room.  It's just not anything like what I want.

The ceiling in there has driven me insane ever since we moved in.  It's the weird ceiling tiles that remind me of school.  Instead of this room putting me to sleep with boredom, it gives me a headache and keeps me awake, trying to figure out what to do with it.

So, I've decided to take action and try to make it a more peaceful place.  I've seen a lot of ideas on pinterest that I like (mostly for parties and weddings), and have wanted to take that inspiration into my bedroom.

I had this tulle fabric leftover from my brother-in-law's wedding, two years ago (they were going to throw it away after one simple use.  I've always got ideas for things like that, so I took it.  Yes, I'm a pack rat), and decided to pin it up on my bedroom ceiling.  It's not perfect, and I may be doing some readjustments, but it's a start, and it looks much more like the peaceful getaway I want.

Close-up of the ceiling and how I attached the fabric with a paper clip

My new and improved, wistful ceiling

Of course there are ribbons involved to tame the ends of the fabric!

We'll see how long it stays there.  The entire project took about an hour.

There's still a lot of work to do on my bedroom, but this gives me hope that I may one day get it the way I want.

On Top of the World

Lance had the opportunity to hike Ben Lomond Peak this past Saturday.  He is assistant Scout Master, and took some of the boys on the hike.  It took him most of the day, and he definitely got a workout.  I'm proud of him for doing this.  I don't think I'll ever have that much motivation to hike that far, so he is pretty much my hero right now.  Well, he's my hero all the time, but especially now.

 Fall leaves in the canyon

 Looking over the suburbs where Lance and I grew up

 Looking over at Willard Peak and Willard Bay

 Proof Lance went up there

Also this Saturday, I got to go to the General Women's Conference with my mom at her stake center.  I loved the talks and look forward to reading them and studying them further in November's Ensign.  President Uchtdorf's talk especially hit home with me.  He talked about the Forget Me Not flowers, and five things we shouldn't forget.

I also got a little excited last week and put up my Halloween decorations.  I know it's slightly early, but hey, when you have your own house, you can do whatever you want in it, so I do!  I won't post pics of the decorations because I'm sure you're getting sick of seeing pictures of my house . . . especially the living room.  And besides, I posted my Halloween decorations last year, so you've already seen them.

Hey, That's Neat!

I want to show you one of the most awesome rooms in my house, and one of the many reasons why I love my house.  It was a very clever idea put in by previous owners of the house.  It is a bathroom.  I know, most of you may be thinking that a bathroom is so boring.  There's at least one in every house.  Well, this bathroom is unique.  It is in our attic, so the ceiling is slanted.  Even I, a short little woman, have to duck in there.  Since it's up where my play room is, I tell my nieces and nephews, and all kids who come over, that it's a special bathroom for kids (they don't have to duck).  So, here are some pictures of the awesome bathroom.  It is so nice to have a second (finished) bathroom (we have a third bathroom in the basement, but it's unfinished).  Sometimes, when you gotta go, you gotta go.

Here's the door going into the bathroom.  It sort of looks like a closet.  It's fun to show people this bathroom because it's a fun surprise.  They're all really shocked that there is a bathroom in such a little area.

Here's the bathroom.  It's tiny.  See the slanted ceiling?  It's pretty much the coolest idea in an attic ever!

There are no cabinets in this bathroom, so this is where we keep our stuff.  It's more just where we stock our storage, since our regularly used stuff is in the bathroom on the main floor.  I used different containers to organize the items.

I have one more thing I wanted to post.  My brother's family recently got a dog.  She is a cute little poodle mix.  She's a smaller dog.  Her name is Junie B.  She does some cute tricks, and is an absolute sweetheart.  I post about other people's pets because we don't have any of our own, and I love animals!

She's making a cute face, almost like she's smiling for the camera.  Such a ham!

This is her Junie "Bee" costume.  She's doing her glamorous pose for me.

Autumn Accents

This week, since I haven't had any HUGE projects (what a relief), I decided to do some smaller scale projects.  I'm preparing for the upcoming holiday season (best time of the year), and have made a couple of crafts that will be set up in a little while.  They're for the fall holidays, so those of you that love fall . . . here you go!

I've wanted to make this probably since last year.  I got the idea from something I saw while shopping.  It turned out a little different than I was planning, but I still think it's cute.  I just got some Halloween colors from my mom's and my scrap fabric, then shaped them and stitched them on the black background.  I also stitched the words.  I used a stencil and marked the letters with a white colored pencil, then stitched it.  This project took a little over an hour.  I'm thinking of decorating the frame more.  Maybe wrapping some Halloween-colored ribbon around it?  Who knows?

I've wanted to make a fabric pumpkin for a little while.  Pinterest is really giving me ideas.  I found this fabric at my mom's house, already sewn together.  My mom started making a fabric pumpkin years ago at a relief society activity.  She wasn't planning on finishing it any time soon, so she let me have it.  I just sewed the bottom, stuffed it, sewed on the stem, and sewed the threads that make the seams scrunch in.  I can use this for Halloween and Thanksgiving.  The project took me about fifteen minutes, because I didn't have to sew the panels together.

Well, happy crafting!

Marks Off My Checklist

Well, I've been pretty busy this week.  It's been great!  I love having so much to do!  There have been a few things I've been doing this week.

First, I want to tell you about my new obsession.  It's pinterest.com.  Oh my!  I LOVE this site!  I've gotten so many new ideas from it!  It's like a pin board of things you like/want to do online!  And you get tons of ideas from other people!  You need an invite in order to join, so if you want to be invited, send me an email, and I'll invite you!  You'll love it!

I finished my table!  All except for the leaves, it is finished and set up!  I stained it the same color as my floor, so it looks sort of like the table is growing out of the floor.  It's pretty awesome.  I'm super happy with how it turned out!

 This is why I refinished my table.  It was not very attractive with all the scratches and stains on it.

 See the difference in the part that's sanded?  The legs are sanded and the top is not yet.

 Closer look at the legs.  I love the grain in the wood!

 It's all finished and is in my dining room area.

 Here it is all set up.  Isn't it gorgeous!?

Remember that green couch that I needed to redo the cushions?  Well, I found a great alternative to making new ones from scratch.  You know those bean bag beans?  Yep, I used them, and so far so great!  I did this because the cushion foam is super expensive wherever you go!  And then to buy fabric to cover them would be even more expensive (we can't always find $1/yd fabric).  So, I did a little thinking outside the box.  The cushion covers that originally went with the couch were perfectly fine.  They just would have been hard to cover one big piece of foam, because they had the tufts built in.  So, I just filled them with the Styrofoam beans, and viola!  Instant cushion!  They look great!  I found the beans at Shopko on sale for $12.49 a bag.  I got two bags and used all but about half of one bag.  Here's a little filling tip: if you don't have an extra pair of hands, get a cup and pour it in from that.  Otherwise, you'll make a huge mess!  I learned the hard way on the first cushion. 

This is what I filled the cushions with.

One cushion down!

That's what the beans look like when they're in the cushion.

Entirely finished product.  I love the tufts!  It's pretty comfy too!

Well, that's what I've been up to lately, and I have tons more projects coming up.  I'm super excited for them!  Wish me luck, and I wish you luck with any projects you might have!

I promised . . .

So, okay, I promised you pictures of my house all put back together.  Well, technically, it's not entirely put back together, but it's close enough.  At the moment, I'm redoing my dining room table, which is finished.  It's just on the back patio drying for a while.  And I have a new (to me) couch that needs an adjustment, AKA cushions to sit on.  Other than that, and the constant clutter in my computer room (it keeps piling on and never ends!), we're back in business!  Oh!  We also got our snazzy new computer all set up!  Yay!

First off, we got a new fridge . . . well, new to us.  While it was getting all cold inside, we had our old fridge on the back patio, fully stocked.  It was a little inconvenient for the two days we did this, but totally worth it for our new fridge.  Now my food doesn't freeze if it's in the back of the fridge or if there is a lot of food in there!  Hooray!

Here is the new fridge.  Don't you love my array of magnets?  There are tons more on each side, too!

Here is the living room back to normal . . . well, as you can see, we have a new (once again, new to us) couch on the right.  It came from Lance's grandpa's house.  I thought about reupholstering it, but I liked the look, and there is only one scratch on it that I can easily stitch up.  I just have to make cushions for it.  The cushions it had died.  The foam crumbled.  So, I'm on a quest for new foam and possibly new fabric for the cushions.

Here is the couch in all its glory!  The back cushions are great!  I just febrezed the smell out of them and washed the covers!  The striped throw pillows match the ones on the blue couch.  I got them a few years ago.  Who knew they'd come in so handy with my newer furniture?  There must have been divine inspiration.  Ha ha!

This is part of the couch.  Don't you love the tufting?  It is just along the side, but I think it's stylish!

Here is a dresser I received from Lance's sister.  I repurposed as a credenza in the dining area.  Won't it be perfect for dinner parties?  I'll just put the food on the credenza (take away the decorations, of course), and make it a buffet.  Inside the "credenza," I have cook books, magazines, place mats, table cloths, mail, and at the moment, cereal that wouldn't fit in my other cupboards.  So useful and pretty!

This is on my "credenza."  Well, the china isn't there any more, because when you would walk by, it would shake.  Super annoying!  I'm sad to have put it somewhere else, because it was in my grandpa's house.  It is a tiny bit smoke damaged (there was a house fire, and that is how my grandpa passed away), but it is still a very pretty heirloom.  The tall cake stand was a Christmas present, and I bought the cake dome.  It was too big for the tall stand, but it fits perfectly on the short, super fancy cake plate from Lance's grandpa's house!  Yay for pretty heirlooms!

I hope you liked the pictures!  Here's a little fun fact: yesterday marks the day that we have lived in our house for two years!  And guess what!!  I still LOVE my house!!!!

Happy Four Years!

Lance and I have been married for four years!  We celebrated by staying over night in Salt Lake, then venturing out to Park City for the day.  We had a blast!

We went in the late afternoon/evening time frame.  We just stayed at the hotel that evening.  We got a complimentary dinner (hamburgers and hot dogs), watched some TV (they had HGTV, which Lance and I love to watch together . . . I know, we're nerds), and we swam in the pool and lounged in the hot tub.  It was such a nice, relaxing getaway. 

 Here is our room!  It's a suite, so the open door on the left leads to the living room/kitchen area.

 Here is Lance's dinner.  It's nice to have it be free!

In the morning, we got a complimentary breakfast, then left for Park City.  We saw where the Olympics were held, and witnessed some kids going off some of the sweet ski jumps.  Some did Aerials into a pool, and some did the long jump, which wasn't in the pool.  It was fun to watch for a little while.  We saw the bobsled/luge/skeleton course, which was super cool!  We also saw some people go down the zip line.  We would like to try it one day, but it is pretty costly for us right now.  We also ran into my niece, Audrey while we were there.  She went up there with a friend.  It was kind of surreal, but we were happy to see her!

Here is the bobsled/luge/skeleton track.  Fun to see in person!

This was etched in all of the flag poles.  Awesome!

After that, we went to downtown Park City, or Deer Valley, whichever you prefer.  We loved the architecture there!  The buildings/houses are so cute, colorful, and historic.  It almost feels like you go back in time there.  The only thing we didn't like was how squished the houses were.  They're practically on top of one another!  It is fun to visit, though.  I would never be able to buy one of the houses because they're so stinking expensive!  We saw a house that was probably older than ours and about half the size, and you know how much it was?  Almost $800,000!  Wow!  It's more for the location, because it was right on main street, but still, I'd never be able to pay that much for a tiny little house!  But people that own property there are pretty much loaded, so I guess it works for them.

 Here we are!  Facing the hillside where there is a lift and a bunch of houses.

Gorgeous hillside of houses!

 

This bear was on Main Street.  His name is Franz.  And we love the plum colored building in the back.  I love plum right now! 

Lance is on a fun little trail just off of Main Street.  It was cozy and adventurous!

It was a fun excursion!  We were home in the afternoon, because we started out so early.  We looked in some of the shops at Park City, but only to get a magnet souvenir, so it didn't take long.  Lance isn't much of a shopper, but I was able to return to Park City to the outlet mall with my parents, brother, Paul, sister, Andrea, and two nieces, Ashlyn and Brielle this past weekend (which was a ton of fun!), so I still got my shopping fix in Park City for this year.

So, four years of marital bliss down, and eternity to go!  I love being married to my best friend!