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A Girl Should Be Two Things: Classy & Fabulous. - Coco Chanel

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Monday, November 30, 2009

Fashionable

Sometimes when I go over to my sisters house, my niece, Sierra compliments me on something I am wearing... a shirt, my shoes or a dress. Although she is only 4, this makes me feel good. I mean... kids are nothing but honest right? I try and do the same back to my nieces. My sister informed me that Sierra is very picky about clothes and shoes when they go out shopping... she has been since she could talk. I guess some kids care about fashion more than others. I think it is adorable. One time I complimented Sierra on her cute new shoes or something. Reanne (6 years old) turns to me and says "I know they are cute huh? Sierra is so fashionable AND popular". I thought it was so cute. My nieces are adorable and they make me laugh.

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Doll House

When I was a kid, we had this amazing doll house that my parents got at a ward service auction. We loved it and played with it for years. When we all lost interest in dolls, my parents offered the doll house to another family in our ward that had younger girls. Well.... now all of those girls have grown up and before that family gave it away to someone else, they offered it back to my parents first. My parents then offered it to my oldest sister who has two cute little daughters of her own that love to play with dolls. My parents brought the doll house to Utah from California and my sister decided it would be a great Christmas present this year for the girls. Before she could give it as a gift... it needed some work. Updated to 2009 if you will. Also the family that we had given it to decided to have fun with red paint and arrows and moons and added ugly curtains and so on. Seeing as I love projects... my sister asked me if I wanted to help update our old doll house. So on Friday, me, my sister, my mom and my dad made that doll house look like new!

Here is what it looked like before













We ripped out the old carpet and put in new, took off the old wall paper and added new wallpaper AND we repainted the whole house. I think it looks great. And it was great family bonding time too.



Here is what it looks like now


Now all it needs is a few little finishing touches with decorating and furniture and it is going to be a great gift for my nieces that they will LOVE. I can't wait to see them playing with it.

Friday, November 27, 2009

The Feast

Yesterday was a great day with some of my family and of course we had a feast. I ate way too much... of course. I am supposed to be losing weight this holiday season and so far I am not trying very hard. It is just so hard to resist so much great food. It was so nice to have a break from work yesterday and today and just spend time with family. It has been wonderful. Here are some pictures of the family and the feast.



This is usually what you will find my dad doing at family gatherings. :o)

This is the first year that I have tried Turducken. It is actually funny that my brother in law ordered one... because while watching the food network recently.. I just learned what that is. I was watching "Cake Boss" and they were making a cake that looked like a Turducken.
If you don't know what I am talking about..... A turducken is a dish consisting of a partially de-boned turkey stuffed with a de-boned duck, which itself is stuffed with a small de-boned chicken. The word turducken is a portmanteau of turkey, duck, and chicken. The thoracic cavity of the chicken and the rest of the gaps are stuffed, sometimes with a highly seasoned breadcrumb mixture or sausage meat, although some versions have a different stuffing for each bird.... anyway. I liked it. It was interesting to try.


I made a salad and the Chocolate Haupia Pie. besides that... all the credit goes to Kristy, Jess and my Mom. They made an amazing meal.

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Happy Thanksgiving!

I want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. Although life can be ruff sometimes.... I know that I am truly blessed. I have so much to be Thankful for. I have an amazing family that I love very much, wonderful and loving and supportive friends, I have great health, many talents, and a great job and the list goes on and on. There are so many things to be happy about in this life, and I hope we all stop to appreciate them.

My friend Holly in my ward has a blog that I think is awesome. She is a funny gal. Like when she wrote about the opening of In and Out here in Utah County.... she said exactly what I was thinking. This month she was asking her friends to guest post on her blog about Thanksgiving. Here is my guest appearance on her blog. Keep in mind that I was just trying to be funny... but sometimes I am not. I think I am ok with that.

A tradition that my sister Kristy has started with her kids is "The Thanksgiving Tree". I love this. My sister is so great with teaching her kids good principles and has great and creative ways of doing it. Everyday in the month of November... each kid thinks of something they are thankful for and it is written on a leaf and they get to tape it on the tree. Here is there Thanksgiving Tree this year. I love it and want to do this when I have kids one day.



Here is a video that the church put out for Thanksgiving. I love it. It is very touching. And I love Elder Oaks! If you have not seen this video yet, please watch and enjoy!



Here is a picture of a couple of friends and I when we dressed up for ward Thanksgiving dinner! This was my idea. I love to dress up and everyone got a kick out of it. ha ha. I'm weird.


Happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone has a wonderful day! Sending my love!

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Lauren's Wedding


Yesterday my cousin Lauren got married. I was able to take a half day at work and go to the reception which was a nice lunch with close friends and family of the Watson and Westover family. She looked beautiful and I am so happy for them both. She has not had it so easy the last couple of years before she met Chris. He is a good guy and I know they will be happy. Lauren is my cousin on my mom's side of the family. My mother's brother's daughter to be exact and one of the only cousins my age which meant we were pretty close growing up. It has been fun to live close to her the last couple of years because I have been able to see her a lot more. Congrats Lauren. I am so happy for you and love you very much.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Family Room

This room needs a few more details... but I am posting it anyway. In our last place I did a black and white theme... but I decided to do different colors this time. Number 1 priority for me was getting couch covers. I was tired of the ugly plaid. I love brown. Anyone that knows me knows that. I wear a lot of brown, I love to decorate with brown.... so I got dark brown slip covers and then the rest of the room is pretty simple, but just covering the couches made a big difference. For this room I wanted to go for simple but classy. I love the big mirror, which was a $30 Ross find. I also love our roommate pictures that I blew up and put on box lids (that I spray painted black) and hung on the wall. It is a fun way to hang pictures without a frame that looks cool and adds texture to the wall.


A Couple of Homemade details that complete the room....

#1 - I wanted to add some color to the wall without painting. So I went to the craft store and bought some cute scrapbook paper and hot glued it to canvas and hung it on the wall above the TV. I thought it turned out cute.


#2 - I bought a few different purple fabrics and sewed pillow cases for the pillows. I did not want ANY plaid remaining in this room. I love how they turned out.


#3 - I also did a flower and candle center piece for the coffee table.... but it is not quite done yet, so I didn't get a close up picture (sorry). But you get the point. I am happy with how everything turned out.

Saturday, November 21, 2009

The Kitchen

Next stop on the tour is the kitchen. It pretty much looks the same as it did before. I loved it so much I didn't want to change anything. I love the European Cafe' feel to it. I like the colors Red, Green and Yellow. Please take note of some of the things in the kitchen you may recognize if you have been following my blog for a while. For example the Flower Pens and the Bowl.


Notice the painting on the wall. My good friend Monica painted that. She is amazing. She has such a gift for painting. The curtains I sewed... I was not finding any curtains that had stripes with the colors that matched the kitchen. So I had no choice but to make my own.


These are a few of my favorite things about the kitchen.

#1 - The cafe mood lights (I guess I love mood lights)


#2 - The Curtain I sewed to go over the window above the sink. I think this was my first sewing project with a pattern. It is harder than it looks... but I am also not good at sewing.

#3 - My color theme. I love that I found a crockpot that matches my kitchen. My friend Lolly made this super cute Recipe Card holder that also matches my kitchen so she gave it to me. It's the little things that make everything tie together.


#4 -My cookbooks... the start of my love of cooking.

Friday, November 20, 2009

In My Room

There's a place where I can go and tell my secrets to. In my room, In my room.

So maybe my last couple of posts have been inspired by songs. My brain is constantly thinking about music. Deal with it.

Really though. I was thinking, since my roommates and I recently moved, I would give a tour (by pictures) of our new place. A lot is the same. I mean... I wasn't about to go out and buy ALL new decorations. However, I did decide to do different colors in the living room. Stay tuned for that post. I thought I would start with my room, since that is one of the only rooms that is completely done. My room has a lot of the same decorations, but my new room is a lot smaller than my old one, so I had to switch things up. I have the basement to myself. Since the room is smaller, I decided to make the living room area of the basement the study/craft room (post soon to come). Thank you Lolly for helping me discover the fun and my love for decorating. She truly inspired me with her decorating skills. Speaking of Lolly, she is the one that got me the bamboo that I have in my room. I love it and I always receive so many compliments on it. So here are the pictures of my new room.

Things I adore about my room....

#1 The Chandelier


#2 IKEA mood lights


#3 My new Anthropology Duvet that I fell in love with at the store last Christmas


#4 Accessory Corner



Thursday, November 19, 2009

These Boots were Made for Walking


And that's just what they'll do. One of these days these boots are gonna walk all over you!

I don't love the cold, but I do admit, fall/winter is a great time for fashion. I love to wear boots. My Ugg boots are what help me survive the winter. I wear them everyday. My first pair of Ugg Boots I received as a gift for Christmas from my parents when I was a Sophomore in High School. Not that I needed them in Santa Barbara, but they were in style, and I thought they were cute. I wore those boots for 11 years. I still have them, but I decided to get a new pair in a different color last year. They are worth every penny because I wear them everyday in the winter and they are comfortable and warm. But what about on Sunday? I just don't feel like Ugg boots are dressy enough to be appropriate to wear to church. Not going to lie, I have done it before on cold snowy days... but I was on the look for a cute new pair of dressy boots for church. I found them online and I love them.

Monday, November 16, 2009

That's What Friends are For

This last weekend I went to Ogden to visit some good friends of mine that I know from Dinkey Creek . I had not seen them in two years, so it was nice to spend the weekend with them. I came home last night and nobody was home. I went down to my room to find this.


My roommates are honestly so amazing. I cried when I saw this. I am a pretty emotional person, but it really meant a lot to me that my roommates cared about me and missed me so much for just being gone for a little weekend. I am so thankful for them and the people they are and all they do for me. I am truly blessed to have such amazing girls in my life. It is nice to come home to such love. Now I need to pay it forward. I have not been doing enough for others lately. That needs to change.

Friday, November 13, 2009

Facebook Pirate Style

I have known about this for quite some time... but I don't know why I have never tried it out. On facebook, you can change the language down at the bottom left of the screen. You click on English and then you can pick from many languages, one of which is English (Pirate). I decided to give it a shot this afternoon and I think I will leave it this way for a little while. It has brought a bit of joy to my Friday afternoon. It is quite funny. I only wish it would translate what people wrote to pirate as well... but that would be difficult to program I am sure. Here are some screen shots of my facebook so you can see what it looks like in "Pirate" if you have not tried already.
(P.S. for those who don't know... you can click on the picture to see it full size on your computer. I know you can't read anything on this little image)