bookmarks

I did a lot of bookmarks this week for silhouette.

These are my favorites.





If you have any ideas, let me know!

cuteable!

So I have been working on my etsy shop lately - getting things going and prepped for Halloween. And I was featured on Cuteable.com. Pretty cool. Thought I'd share!

Summertime

I haven't been doing much blogging, but it's not because I haven't done anything blog-able. I've just been busy with my new girl and my garden, camping with family, building the new fence and gate... I found some great books I just had to read, and I've been learning to do a lot of cooking from scratch. One of my favorite things I've made instead of buying lately is granola. So easy and so much better, I think.



So this morning I had blackberries from my garden with homemade granola and yogurt (store bought - I'm not that skilled yet).

I want to get some photos up of my garden. This is my 4th year having a garden and it's turned out really great this year. It's taken a few years to get things going the way I want, and I still have some things to figure out, but at least I'm sticking to it! So, photos to come!

Fence

Has anyone seen the before pics of the neighbor's fence? Here are the after pics. We still have trim to add to the edges but having this much done makes me so happy! My dad suggested doing a corrugated metal fence and I thought he was nuts. But I saw pictures on the internet and actually liked them a lot - and I like how it turned out! Kinda modern, but I think when we get our trellis on the side of our house, they will tie the fence in well.

We are going to get the porch railings done this summer, also.

uh... here's the before...

Better than leftovers

Chris and I had an excellent dinner a few days ago. I had been working in the garden all day and realized her was coming home and I hadn't even planned anything for dinner yet. So I rummaged around and threw some things together and made a pretty amazing meal if I do say so myself. :)

I recently discovered the beauty of the broiler in my oven and I had some chicken so I spiced it up and threw it in there and got some pasta cooking. I found artichoke hearts, pesto, mozzarella cheese and sundried tomatoes and threw them together. It turned out so good! I had to take a pic to show my mom. :) and now I share with you! Sorry about the photo quality... I already ate half of it.

Oh and I made a salad with strawberries, croutons, almonds, craisens and a creamy balsamic vinaigrette. Mmmm. I told Chris it was better eating than Italian restaurant leftovers. And better than paying restaurant prices! :)

rolling her rrrrrrs

trying, anyway!
she runs out of steam at the end.

A new phase...

So our little girl is officially in the drooling stage. If you see her anytime soon, she'll likely be wearing a bib to catch all that drool that would otherwise be soaking her adorable onesies (that you now won't see because of the bib!)
She fell asleep with one on a few minutes ago, but just woke up because she moved and the bib scared the [slobber] out of her.
Must go tend to her... but here's the last pic I took of her before her bib-wearing phase. Again, no guarantees on how long she'll be wearing them. Two years? Three maybe??

Spreading the word

So I have a friend I used to work with at the Church who is doing a give away on her website. One way I can enter is to link to it. So I am chancing telling you all about it so I can have one more chance to win.
Here's the link to the give away.
No offense, but I hope I win. :)

Favorite Uncle

Uncle Ty came home from Italy about a month ago. All the nieces and nephews looooove uncle Ty. And look at my baby girl with him. You can tell he's her favorite already.

one month

Happy Valentine's Day!

My sister-in-law took pics of baby and me for Chris today for Valentine's. Thanks, Shanny!
Here's my favorite. I love her smile!

I promised pics

Here are a few pics of our little one.







Thanks to Aubrey from www.framebyframeportraits.com for a job very well done.

The end of productivity as I know it

So we had our baby.
We are head over heels for this little girl.
I can't take my eyes off of her. Needless to say I don't get much done.
Born last Friday, 7lbs 10oz and healthy as can be. I'm feeling pretty blessed.
And she looks just like her daddy. :)

I will update this post with pics of her when I get the chance.

After

Remember my post a super long time ago about the desk I wanted to refinish? Well, I did it a long time ago, but only now have pictures and am posting about it. We painted it one of those colors that some people would look at and say "Ooh that's a cool desk - are you going to refinish it?" But we love it, so here you go!



(Here's the before if you really don't want to click on the link to the old post)

Great Idea

For Christmas this year, my sister-in-law came up with a great idea and called my sister for help.

Go to Loni's blog - she just finished a set of nesting dolls I'm pretty sure you've never seen before.

I love it - I'ma need me a set!


Also, check out the baby pants she made.

Embarrassing Moment and an Apology

I've had my share of embarrassing moments here at the Church Office Building. The most embarrassing of all would have to be when my friends dared me to try to fit through the "tours on 26th floor" sign in the lobby. I had done it before, so they dared me to do it again, so I did, but my purse got stuck sideways through it, which made me get stuck, and I had to back out of it. The security guard yelled from across the lobby for me to stay where I was!!... so he could get his camera. Nice.

And yet that doesn't come close to the embarrassing moment of one of our interns here whose skirt fell off in the elevator. Haha. I still laugh out loud about that one. That takes the cake.

So my embarrassing moment yesterday doesn't quite beat me getting stuck in the lobby sign, or the intern losing her skirt, but it was pretty bad, nonetheless. I was walking to the parking elevators on the lower level when I turned the corner and heard the *ding* for one going down. I wanted to catch it, so I cruised past the people talking in the lobby area and got in, ready to go. One of the guys talking in the lobby got on after me and was laughing. I didn't say anything, but wondered what was so funny.

Then he said to me, "That was Elder Perry."

Me: "Oh, yeah? I didn't notice."

Him: "Yeah, I didn't think so. He was talking to you and asked you how you were doing."

Me: "What? Really!? I thought he was just talking to you!"

"Haha..."

Then the guy gets off, still laughing.

"...hahaha..."

Blast. I hate that. I really have to pay more attention. I told Chris and he said Elder Perry probably just figured it was pregnant brain. That's what Chris chants whenever I do something dumb, and it happens a lot lately.

So I decided to blog about it, because if Elder Perry follows my blog (haha!), he will know it was an accident and then he won't feel bad. So my apologies to you, Elder Perry.

So that's my story of how I snubbed one of the 12 apostles. Not the most embarrassing moment, but I hope I don't make it a habit.

(That was my second embarrassing moment involving Elder Perry and an elevator, by the way, just for the record)

Before and after

I was looking at our old blog we had while we were building our house.
I thought I would post the before and after of the lot.
I must say, I like the after better.
(You don't really need me to tell you which is before and which is after, do you?)

Oh boy! It's a girl!

So cute!!! Look at her little hands...



Snug as a bug in a rug...



Chris thinks she has his nose...



I spared you all the gender shot. :)
I'm pretty sure I could have sat there all day and watched her on the screen.
She'll make her appearance february first-ish. :)

My Latest Project

Last year our neighbors across the street moved out. The landlord was cleaning out the place and I saw this great desk and asked if I could have it. It's been in my garage ever since, holding my extra bike tires and tools, vegetable seeds, and other junk I don't have a place for. And currently my canning stuff.


I've decided it would look great in our second bedroom - so I'm going to strip it down and paint it a great green color. I went to Lowe's last night and asked the lady there showed me what to use, which I can't use (but Chris can... sorry, Chris!) and when I told her I was going to strip it and paint it green she practically threw a fit. She begged me to keep it natural. I told her I'll have to see what it looks like when I get all the paint and graffiti off of it. (I sure hope that's not a bad word on there... I can never tell what they're trying to write)


So this is what it's like now... I'll post pictures after Chris strips it, and when we decide whether to keep it natural or paint it.

Garden Views

This year I tried a few things in my garden I've never tried before. Chris and I love artichokes, so we decided to plant some and see how they did. Has anyone seen baby artichokes when they are the size of an egg? Very cute.

We've pulled a few from the garden, but I decided it would be cool to see them bloom...





I also planted a lot of eggplant this year. I've planted it before, but it's never done well for me. This year has been great, though. We went on vacation to San Diego last week and when we got back, I had monster eggplant - pulled four from the backyard and had eggplant parmesana for dinner last night. I also planted cauliflower and cabbage later in the season... I hope I can harvest it before the snow and frost get here.



I've done peppers each year, too, but I've never had them grow as tall as they have this year. Chris and I built a new box along the south side of our house and put some peppers, zucchini, eggplant and a tomato plant in there. Some of the pepper plants are nearly four feet tall - they may pass me up any day now! :) The only problem is they haven't given many peppers. Now that it's cooler, I might see more...



It's been a lot of fun getting new things from the garden. Next year I might skip out entirely on the squash (except I looove spaghetti squash and will always plant that) and grow pumpkins. I just finished my first batch of salsa this year and am excited, because it turned out great and it's something that will actually get used and won't just sit on the shelf like the tomatoes I bottled last year!

The one challenge I have had with canning is that I have a glass top stove. Everyone says you can't can on it, so I've always had to borrow someone else's camp stove or go to their house... it's been pretty inconvenient. So the other night while Chris and I were out shopping for a crib, we stopped by and bought a propane stove so I can process all my canning without bugging anyone else for theirs! This is what we settled on: A fold up double burner - propane powered - we thought it would be good for canning, camping, and emergencies. (haha... ignore the toilet paper box in the photo)



Other things I planted this year that was new: onion, beets, sunflowers, grapes, garlic, and corn. And wildflowers! But most of them died, so I'm not sure I should count those... :(